Oral History Interview with Gladys Parrish

“Stories From the Balcony”

Interviews about the Grand Theatre in Frankfort, Kentucky

Interview on Video with Gladys Parrish

On Location at The Grand Theatre

Tape 0011JTH_DV

Conducted by Joanna Hay

November 3rd, 2006

This project has been supported by the Kentucky Oral History Commission

And Save The Grand Theatre, Inc.

Interview with Gladys Parrish begins with her seated, and a blue wall with wooden details behind her.

PARRISH: Hi

HAY: Let me make sure I’ve got your voice working here.

PARRISH: OK It’s pretty screeky sometimes.

HAY: No it’s not. It’s great. So tell me your name.

PARRISH: Gladys Parrish

HAY: What was your maiden name?

PARRISH: Lancaster

HAY: Were you born in Frankfort?

PARRISH: Yes

HAY: What was your birth date?

PARRISH: 8-25-39

HAY: What were your parent’s names?

PARRISH: My mother’s name was AnnaLeigh Browning. And my father was Llewellyn Lancaster.

HAY: How did you spell Llewellyn? That was his first name?

PARRISH: uh hum You spell it L-L-E-W-E-L-L-Y-N

HAY: Sounds Irish…Scottish?

PARRISH: I believe it’s Irish.

HAY: And were your parents from Frankfort?

PARRISH: No, my mother was from Henry County. But my daddy was from Frankfort.

HAY: So what are your first memories of The Grand Theatre?

PARRISH: oooo When I was in my teens, we used to hang around town on weekends. We were weekend goers. We would all congregate out in the front of the theatre and Mr. Whitaker’s daughter was a ticket girl. So, we’d stand out there and we’d talk with her, and then we’d get us a ticket. We’d come on in, and, of course, you know how teenagers are, you’re really not here to look at the movie, you’re here to see all the boys. [Chuckle] And, we’d come in and get us some popcorn and a drink, and go in the ladies restroom. We’d stay in there. There used to be an old lady, she’s passed away now, bless her heart. We called her Indian Rose. Or Indian Mary, I think was what we called her. She had long black hair, and she wore a great big red rose behind her ear. And we lived and breathed every weekend to come to the theatre to aggravate her, because she was here every weekend. [Chuckle]

HAY: And where would she be?

PARRISH: In the ladies restroom primping, as we called it. Putting on her makeup, and fixing her hair, and she’d stay in there for hours and primp. And we’d go in there, you know, of course, to smoke and whatever else we did, and to aggravate her.

HAY: Would she stay in there the whole time or would she come out to the movies?

PARRISH: Well, she would come out, but she would never go into the movies. They would always let her come in to use their washroom. They would let you come in to use the bathroom because it was right there at the door. A lot of times that’s how people snuck into the movies. They’d always figure out how to sneak into the movies, and that’s how they would do it.

HAY: They might say, “I need to just use the restroom.” And then…

PARRISH: Yeah, and they’d be watching, and when the guy had turned his back picking up tickets, they would come on out and come into the theatre. [Chuckle]

HAY: So you think Indian Rose, or Indian Mary, just lived downtown? Or was she…

PARRISH: Well, she wasn’t homeless, but she was just an odd person. And she would go visit every funeral home whether she knew you or not. She always paid her respects to the dead. She was just a woman about town.

HAY: Everybody knew her.

PARRISH: Everybody knew her. Nobody was afraid of her. Nobody ever tried to harm her. She was just…you know, every town has a person like that. And she was ours.

HAY: She was always nice to you?

PARRISH: Always, until we’d tease her. She didn’t take teasing lightly. But, all your farmers would come to town on weekends. They would bring all their children, and they would drop them off at the theatre while they went shopping. Then they would come back when the movie was over, and pick their kids up and go on home. That was the ritual here in Frankfort. Or you would go to the JJ Newberry’s dime store, or Woolworth’s and spend hours in there. It was just a fun time downtown. You had all kinds of shops. You had drugstores with soda fountains. You had restaurants like Red Yancy had a restaurant right across the street from the theatre here. There was a little grocery store over there. You had clothing stores. On up the other block, you had appliance stores. It was just a fun place to be on the weekends. Especially at Christmas time because it was so decorative and so festive.

HAY: They decorated the lampposts and the trees?

PARRISH: Yeah, they decorated everything downtown then. But then somebody thought, “Well, we’d look good with a mall.” So then they messed up St. Clair Street, and Frankfort’s never been the same. And I don’t believe they will ever bring it back because they have ruined it. Our town is not…we’re not that kind of people. At that time they were farmers, you know, and homemakers, and small business people. We’re not those big time people like they got the idea for this mall from, you know. Frankfort, even though it’s the capitol city, it’s still just a small, little quaint town. And they should have left it alone.

HAY: So, you’d have two lanes of traffic. People could drive both ways.

PARRISH: Up and down St. Clair.

HAY: And then you had the sidewalks.

PARRISH: You had your sidewalks, and you had your parking meters.

HAY: Would people parallel park or would they…

PARRISH: They parallel parked.

HAY: The sidewalks would be just full of people; packed.

PARRISH: Yes, yes. And the stores would be full of people. You could park anywhere. But, after they put that mall in, downtown went.

HAY: What year was that? Do you remember?

PARRISH: Oh gee, I can’t remember.

HAY: What time…plus or minus…

PARRISH: It was in the early seventies, I believe, because I remember I was pregnant in ’69, 1969, and St. Clair was still like it used to be. Everything was like it used to be. The Grand Theatre was still here, but it wasn’t open. I think Newberry’s and Woolworth’s were still there. I don’t think it caught on fire and burnt until after that. See, Woolworth’s caught on fire and burnt. Uh huh But, it had to be in the early seventies. I remember how everything was, because it was in 1969 I was pregnant with my twins.

HAY: Do you remember hearing that The Grand Theatre was closing down? Do you remember that time? Do you remember having any opinions or feelings about The Grand Theatre, or about downtown just closing down?

PARRISH: No, I don’t think I paid any attention to them closing down because I believe at that time, they were starting to put in that mall.

HAY: That all happened at once?

PARRISH: Yeah, because they put in that stupid mall. Then the businesses started shutting down. They were moving on the other side of town into the big shopping centers. The stores that were left down here, people didn’t shop much in because they couldn’t find a place to park. The employees of downtown took up the parking places, so people couldn’t park close to where they wanted to shop. So rather than put up with parking three or four blocks away and walking, they would just go to the shopping centers.

HAY: Everything changed

PARRISH: When they put the mall in, they ruined Frankfort. That has been Frankfort’s downfall. It was still a thriving little town, plenty of businesses, plenty of people, and when they put that mall in they ruined it. The people that left, they won’t come back. And the people that try to get a foot up down here don’t last that long. They never will. Because people just don’t shop down here.

HAY: It’s all changed. It seems like everything downtown now is moving towards entertainment. Which would be restaurants and…

PARRISH: Right. Well, see, there’s another thing. Your restaurants that you have down here now, there’s no business down here, so they have no reasons to stay open after six o’clock. So, if I’m out and I say, “Hey, I’d like to go to Gibby’s,” or whatever the name of these restaurants are down here, you know, “Let’s go have dinner.” Well, if you don’t eat before six, you don’t because they are not open. So that’s another thing.

HAY: So then you head out to the…

PARRISH: Right. You head out to the ones that are open. And, that’s another thing, see. You don’t have any business downtown, so your restaurants don’t stay open. And if your restaurants don’t stay open, you’re not going to have any business downtown. The one hand washes the other. They are going to have to come up with a solution to get business back downtown, and these food places stay open and give the people a chance to see if they are going to come to their restaurant. And if they don’t, so, they made enough money over the years that they’ve been down here that they ought to be able to take the slack for a month or two to see if people is going to come back.

HAY: Give it a test.

PARRISH: Sure. Just like this theatre, you know. Give it a chance. Maybe it will never look one hundred percent like it used to, but if you could get it back to eighty percent of what it used to be, I’m sure people will come to it because it’s their history. I spent many a weekend in here. Twenty-five cents, you could come see a movie and have a box of popcorn.

HAY: So that would have been when you were a teenager?

PARRISH: Yes

HAY: And, so, you’d come with your friends…the girls…

PARRISH: Yeah, all of us girls. There would be a whole slew of us girls, you know. We ran around together.

HAY: What about dating? Did you come here on dates?

PARRISH: Once…once or twice. I came to “Moonlight Madness” one time with a date.

HAY: What was that?

PARRISH: That’s where…they don’t start the…it was on a Halloween, I think…they don’t start the movie until midnight. Then, it’s about two or three o’clock in the morning when it’s over. Then you have to go home. [Chuckle] So, that was spooky stuff. I came to that with a date because I didn’t want to be by myself.

HAY: When do you think that was? How old do you think?

PARRISH: Oh Lord, let’s see. That’s probably when I was sixteen. Fifteen or sixteen. Or I might have been seventeen or eighteen, I don’t remember.

HAY: Somewhere around the late 1950’s.

PARRISH: Yeah

0: 1:00 -0: 2:00HAY: Yeah Did you come here much in the 1960’s?

PARRISH: No, because from 1960 to 1968 I lived in Illinois.

HAY: What did you go there for?

PARRISH: Just went to see what it was like.

HAY: Did you go by yourself?

PARRISH: Yeah…no, I went with my ex sister-in-law to start with. Then I ended up staying up there and getting a job, and meeting my boys’ daddy. And staying up there and having all my children except my twins. I had my twins here in Frankfort. My other three children were born in Illinois.

HAY: What town?

PARRISH: Chicago

HAY: Chicago?

PARRISH: Right in Chicago.

HAY: Yeah? Big city.

PARRISH: Uptown North

HAY: What kind of job did you have up there?

PARRISH: Waitress

HAY: Probably made good money.

PARRISH: oooo, I did. I worked for a Jewish family, downtown on LaSalle Drive. I worked for this Jewish family and made good tips.

HAY: Why did you decide to come back to Frankfort?

PARRISH: My husband wanted to come back, and it didn’t make any difference to me. He wanted to come back, so we came back, and I got a job at HK Porters.

HAY: What did they do there?

PARRISH: They made door frames for automobiles.

HAY: Was that here in Frankfort?

PARRISH: uh huh So that’s where I worked until I got pregnant with my twins.

HAY: What year were they born?

PARRISH: ’69. December of ’69.

HAY: That’s when you remember the mall, and all the changes.

PARRISH: uh hum Yeah

HAY: Tell me about what you remember about what the stage looked like. We were talking about that earlier.

PARRISH: Well, when you take this floor out, and you see the slanted floor, the stage was round. Not totally round-round, but it was sloped. It had a curve to it. And you had steps on each end that you went up on the stage. And your seats would be down and you would be kind of on an angle looking up at the stage if you were in the front row.

HAY: Did you have a very good view?

PARRISH: Yes, yes. You had a good view, and most…when they had live performances, that’s where you tried to get was right in the very front row. You were still down kind of looking up. The stage had a curve to it.

HAY: What live performances do you remember?

PARRISH: I do remember…the only one that sticks out in my mind was when he had Cowboy Copus here with his horse.

HAY: And the horse was on the stage?

PARRISH: Yes, the horse was on the stage. Yes. That’s the only one that really stands out. I’m trying to think if there was any music concerts that they had up there that I remember. I probably can’t think of them now, but I probably will later on because I haven’t given much thought to this, you know. Coming in, you can start putting it back piece by piece where everything was. Like when we came in the front. I knew right away you came right on up, and where that cut is where the hallway is, that’s where the concession stand used to be.

HAY: And you walk up on the place where that wall is.

PARRISH: Yeah That’s where you got your popcorn. Oh! The smell of the popcorn.

HAY: It was good?

PARRISH: Oh, it was delicious.

HAY: Tell me about ( )

PARRISH: It stands out in my mind that it was a red with gold designs in it.

UNIDENTIFIED: ( )

PARRISH: Yeah, burnt orange or…I think you still see it in some old theatres today because that’s what they put in theatres back then.

HAY: They’ve got the little patterns…

PARRISH: Yeah, designs in it and didn’t show dirt very much.

HAY: Just the popcorn.

PARRISH: Right [Chuckle] And chocolate candy.

HAY: Milk Duds?

PARRISH: Yes

HAY: Do you think the slope floor would have had the carpet runners? Or do you think it would have been hard floor in…

PARRISH: No, it was carpet.

HAY: What about under the seats?

PARRISH: Yes

HAY: Nice and comfortable.

PARRISH: Yes, and the seats had wooden backs. Kind of curved wooden backs.

HAY: What about the arms?

PARRISH: They were padded.

HAY: What about the…

PARRISH: And the seat was padded.

HAY: With a colored cloth of some kind?

PARRISH: Yeah, I believe. I’m trying to think now. I believe it was dark maroon, burgundy or wine colored. But, the backs…I distinctly remember the backs were wood.

HAY: And hard?

PARRISH: Yes. Well, they weren’t really hard, but they would shape to your back. They weren’t padded.

HAY: To find your way in, in the dark, you would have to have an usher and a flashlight. There weren’t any little lights down on the floor…

PARRISH: Yeah, they had lights on the bottom row of the seats. But when you’d come in, you know, of course, you’d be blind. You couldn’t see anyway. That’s why the majority would stand back there.

HAY: And wait until…

PARRISH: Wait until they got their sight back where they could adjust to the dark, and then you could just truck on down and get you a seat anywhere. I remember that wall being back there because I stood back there a lot of times.

HAY: Did you stay back there for the whole show?

PARRISH: No, I’d stay back there and look to see who I’d see in the theatre. [Chuckle] And, there would be a bunch further back standing up against the wall. Just standing up against the wall. And you could smoke in here.

HAY: Is that right?

PARRISH: Yes. They’d be standing back there against the wall, smoking.

HAY: You could smoke anywhere in the theatre?

PARRISH: Yeah, you could smoke in the theatre.

HAY: Times changed.

PARRISH: Yes.

HAY: Who would you be looking for when you came?

PARRISH: Oh, friends, or somebody I’d run around with. Because everybody would be in town on Saturday. If you couldn’t find them in the drugstore, you could find them in the theatre.

HAY: Would you come at the beginning of a show, or would you come during the middle of it, or would you just come in…

PARRISH: Sometimes we’d get here in the middle of it, and we’d sit down and watch and wait for it to start over again.

HAY: Would the same movie just keep running all day long?

PARRISH: Yes, yes. They would show the newsreel. They always had a newsreel. It was always something about the war and airplanes and all that stuff. And then you’d have a cartoon. And then you’d have whatever featured movie was on.

HAY: So really it was a little different in that you’d come to town and do your errands, or your parents would be doing their shopping, and you would just pop into the theatre in the middle.

PARRISH: Yeah Yeah You could be here…they’d drop you off…and you’d come in to watch the movie and whatever else trouble you could get into. [Chuckle] But, you always had to be right back out at the front to meet your mama and daddy.

HAY: At whatever time they told you?

PARRISH: Right

HAY: So they would say, “I’ll meet you at such and such.”

PARRISH: Right. “I’ll pick you up in front of The Grand Theatre.” And the front meant the front. [Chuckle]

HAY: So even if that wasn’t at the end of the performance, you would have to leave and be out there.

PARRISH: Right. But, they usually knew because they’d give the times of the shows. So they usually knew.

HAY: Would they come with their car, or would they be on foot?

PARRISH: They would drive and park out front more than likely. They’d get here early of a morning so they would get a parking place on St. Clair. And they’d leave their car sitting there all day. And just walk everywhere and do their shopping.

HAY: Put their things back into the car and go and do the next thing.

PARRISH: uh huh And you didn’t have to lock it up and all this bull. Nobody didn’t steal from your car. Nobody didn’t break in your car. You’d just put your stuff in the car and went on and did some more shopping and come on back. People back then didn’t steal from you.

HAY: That’s amazing.

PARRISH: Yeah. It really is.

HAY: Now we double check our cars so we don’t forget to lock them.

PARRISH: Oh yeah. If you’ve got CDs in there or anything, you don’t leave it unlocked because they take them too.

HAY: What time might you arrive in the morning, and what time might you head home at the end of a Saturday?

PARRISH: Well, a lot of…not me, but a lot of people from the country would come into town. They’d be in town at eight o’clock and stay all day.

HAY: ( ) at five?

PARRISH: Yeah. They’d stay all day. They’d go to the Home Restaurant and have lunch, and then they were good for the rest of the day until they got home. [Chuckle]

HAY: Where was the Home Restaurant?

0: 3:00 -0: 4:00PARRISH: It was on Broadway, right around the corner from…I think Sarafini’s or one of them restaurants is right there on the corner.

HAY: Sarafini’s is on the corner, and that’s where…

PARRISH: OK then right around the corner from it was the Home Restaurant.

HAY: H-O-M-E?

PARRISH: Run by The Green’s.

HAY: What did they have for lunch there? Did you eat there?

PARRISH: Oh, they had…Yes, a lot of times. They’d have…all their food was home cooked. You could get anything you wanted…hamburgers, meatloaf, pork chops, chicken…just anything you wanted. It was home cooked. They cooked it themselves. And Horn Drug was there on the corner where Sarafini’s is now. I used to go in there to the soda fountain and get the milkshakes and the sodas.

HAY: Would you go with your friends in there and hang out?

PARRISH: Yeah, we always went there. I knew a lady that worked there, Evelyn Morg. She worked there so we’d go in and talk with her.

HAY: A soda fountain/drugstore where you could buy…

PARRISH: Yeah. Buy anything you wanted. Yeah

HAY: And get a milkshake too.

PARRISH: Yeah

HAY: When you came into The Grand to the theatre, were people talking and visiting?

PARRISH: Oh Yeah. Yeah. They’d be standing up in the lobby.

HAY: When they were sitting here, would they be watching or would they be talking?

PARRISH: Oh yeah, they would be watching, but they’d still be talking too, you know. Or they’d be standing up in the back talking. It was always a busy place, but you could still see the movie and hear it.

HAY: Now, the plans…one of the architects that’s been working on the new plans for the theatre said that the original plans that are on file in Lexington said there were about six hundred seats just down here.

PARRISH: uh hum

HAY: Just down on this bottom floor.

PARRISH: Yes

HAY: And, I think, three hundred upstairs…two-fifty…maybe two-fifty upstairs. That’s a lot of seats. They were saying people were smaller. [Chuckle]

PARRISH: They were close together. Really they were, really.

HAY: The renovation plans for the new theatre…that’s with all the fire codes and all the extra…

PARRISH: Yeah

HAY: …you know, things that have to be in a modern theatre…

PARRISH: Right

HAY: There is only room for four hundred and thirty.

PARRISH: Yeah

HAY: So to imagine almost double the number of seats were in here, and everybody was crammed in and everybody was having a good time.

PARRISH: Yeah. They were really seat on top of seat, you’d almost say. Because when you sat down, and whoever sat next to you, sat next to you, you know. Literally. [Chuckle] But, people didn’t mind.

HAY: How big would you say…how wide was that little arm rest would you say?

PARRISH: Just wide enough to lay your arm on. Just one arm. It wouldn’t hold two, just one.

HAY: So the person over here could use that one.

PARRISH: Right, or put his arm up around you, see. [Chuckle]

HAY: If you had a date?

PARRISH: Right. Yeah You do that, and I’ll take the arm rest.

HAY: Do you remember when they first started talking about reopening The Grand Theatre? Did you have any opinions or thoughts about that when they started talking about bringing it back?

PARRISH: Yes. Yes. I really did. I told my husband. I said, “I hope they do bring it back.” Because that was really one of the best selling points downtown, you know. It really was. They should have never done it like this. If they were going to shut it down, just shut it down and let it sit, you know. Don’t come in here and chop it all up like they’ve done. They’ve just made it harder to bring it back to it’s original state. I don’t think they should have ever aloud them to do that. This should have been declared Historical is what should have been done.

HAY: Because everybody has a memory of The Grand Theatre.

PARRISH: The Grand Theatre sat right downtown. The Grand Theatre was what kept Frankfort alive. And then they put in that stupid mall and they killed everything. Killed everything. There isn’t anything original down through here. You’ve got all these insurance companies and all these stupid shops and everything where there used to be clothing stores, you know. And department stores. They just ruined it, that’s all they did.

HAY: Everything changed.

PARRISH: Yeah

HAY: And of course, think about when television came too. In the forties, nobody had any television.

PARRISH: No

HAY: So you’d want to go out and see movies, and see plays, and see friends and everything. Now everybody just sits at home and they’re not social anymore.

PARRISH: Right. Right.

HAY: And humans are all social animals and people miss out on being with their friends and being in a theatre all together.

PARRISH: Yeah

HAY: Social. So, it will come back, I think, for kids especially. Kids and teenagers growing up to be exposed like you guys were exposed to.

PARRISH: I hope so because it was really just part of our everyday living, you know. You don’t know where to go. You don’t know what to do. Go to The Grand Theatre, you know. You’ll find something to do. And you would. And you weren’t always in trouble. That’s another selling point for this place. A whole lot of kids…ain’t no telling what they would have been doing if they hadn’t been here at the theatre goofing off. They’d be here smoking cigarettes was the worst thing they did, you know.

HAY: Safe goofing off.

PARRISH: Yeah. Now, teenagers…it doesn’t make any difference how many buildings you build for them…they don’t appreciate them. They’ve got their own agenda. Like tear up this other man’s place. Throw a rock through this man’s window. Shoot this guy. Stab this guy. You know.

HAY: Do you remember Frankfort being a very safe place when you were younger?

PARRISH: Oh Lord, yes. I was never afraid to walk the streets at ten, eleven, twelve, one, two o’clock in the morning. Never. And you had some of the best black people watching out after you that you could ever have. They just dared anybody to bother you. You could walk anywhere. Carry anything. And what you left home with, you went back home with. They didn’t knock you in the head and take it away from you. Or they didn’t wait until you started down the street and shoot you.

HAY: That’s hard. When you think about buildings like The Grand Theatre, or any other buildings around Frankfort, or around places where you were a child, are there any particular buildings that bring back strong memories to you or strong emotions to you around Frankfort? We talked about The Grand, and that brings back memories and emotions. Are there other buildings similar, or does the theatre hold that in a special way?

PARRISH: Well, The Grand Theatre will always be the main focal point of anybody’s memories, you know. But, yeah, I think about the building that used to be across the street. I’ve got a picture of my sister standing in front of it. It was Red Yancy’s restaurant. Had a big wagon wheel marquee. I’ve often thought about that because it was just like The Grand Theatre. It grabbed your attention. It had a big round table and a booth in the front window. It was a big glass front window. I never will forget that. [Chuckle]

HAY: Did you spend a lot of time in there?

PARRISH: Well, no. It was just like everything else, you know. You’d visit all of the restaurants and soda fountains and whatever. You never did just stick to one place. You always went somewhere to find something different. And Red Yancy’s was one of them. They had good hamburgers…soup, you know. Just the normal everyday things. Home Restaurant used to have good meals. You’d eat there. There was a little old…we called it the Greasy Spoon. It’s down there next to where Horn Drug was, coming back up St Clair towards the pool hall. Right there in between the drug store and another store was a little old restaurant. It had a counter. Wasn’t any tables. Wouldn’t be enough room for any tables. Just right straight through like an alley, you know, in a building. You’d get some of the best hamburgers that you ever ate there. [Chuckle] And then right next to that was what they called The Fashion Shop, a women’s clothing store.

HAY: What schools did you attend? What were the names of your schools?

0: 5:00 -0: 6:00PARRISH: My first school I ever went to was Bridgeport. Then, I went to Second Street.

HAY: Is that the same Second Street School that is currently there?

PARRISH: Yes. Yeah

HAY: Has it changed?

PARRISH: Oh yeah, it’s changed.

HAY: It’s gotten bigger…

PARRISH: Oh Lord, yes. And they’ve put the flood wall and all that stuff up, but…oh yeah. Its changed tremendously.

HAY: I forgot to ask Eugene what schools he went to. Can you tell us what schools Eugene went to?

EUGENE PARRISH: Same one.

HAY: Same one? Second Street?

EUGENE PARRISH: Yeah

HAY: Yeah. Could you walk from home to school?

PARRISH: Oh yeah, we had to walk. It didn’t make any difference where you lived. I lived on Clinton Street…no…let’s see…yeah…I lived on Clinton Street, and I’d have to walk to Second Street.

HAY: How long would that take?

PARRISH: oooo gee I don’t know. Never did consider how long it took. We just got up, got ready for school, and took off walking. [Chuckle]

EUGENE PARRISH: ( ) friends…

PARRISH: Oh, you’d always have a crowd by the time you got to school.

HAY: You’d pick people up all along the way.

PARRISH: Oh yeah

HAY: And what about coming home from school?

PARRISH: Same thing.

HAY: You’d leave school with a crowd and…

PARRISH: Yeah, we’d always leave school and come up there to the top to that White Castle. White Signal and get a “freezer cream” ice cream cone. It’s frozen custard is what it was.

HAY: Was it already in a wrapper?

PARRISH: No, it was in a machine and the machine would put it in an ice cream cone.

HAY: It would come out like a soft serve.

PARRISH: Yeah. It was called “frozen custard” is what it was. We always got one of them every day.

HAY: How much did they cost?

EUGENE PARRISH: nickel?

PARRISH: It was either a nickel or a dime.

HAY: It was your treat.

PARRISH: Yeah

HAY: And then you’d walk on back on home?

PARRISH: Yeah

HAY: Would you get your ice cream and go straight home or would be taking your time?

PARRISH: Oh yeah. You’d take your time going home, but you didn’t take an hour or two. You just got your ice cream and then you’d kick rocks and eat ice cream and giggle and talk, you know, how kids are.

HAY: And you’d be expected home at a particular time.

PARRISH: Oh yeah, yeah. Because school let out at 2:15pm is when school let out.

HAY: Tell me about kicking rocks.

PARRISH: Oh, you’d go along and kick rocks and…did you ever kick rocks when you were little?

HAY: Did you make a game? I did. I used to kick rocks. I just wondered if you made a game out of it, or…

PARRISH: We used to kick rocks, and play hopscotch, and everything else on the way home. [Chuckle]

HAY: Yeah, I used to do the same thing. I get one rock and I’d see how long I’d be able to kick it on my walk home. Or hopscotch.

PARRISH: Yeah, or play hopscotch on the way home.

HAY: And would you draw?

PARRISH: Yeah, we always had a piece of chalk. We’d get that at school. [Chuckle]

HAY: From the blackboard?

PARRISH: Right [Chuckle] Right.

HAY: And then you’d throw your rocks and play your hopscotch.

PARRISH: Yeah We did all kinds of things.

HAY: That’s fun. What about during high school? High school age years.

PARRISH: I didn’t go to high school.

HAY: Did you work? Did you get a job?

PARRISH: Yes, I worked. I’ve worked all my life. Yeah, I got a job. I lied about my age and got a job at the country club.

HAY: What did you do there?

PARRISH: I was a waitress, and a good one too.

HAY: Did you make good tips there too?

PARRISH: Yes, I did. Good tips.

EUGENE PARRISH: ( )

PARRISH: I made good money.

HAY: And then your brothers and sister…did you?

PARRISH: Oh, I had a whole slew of them, honey.

HAY: Tell me about all your brothers and sisters.

PARRISH: oooo

HAY: How many?

PARRISH: Well, my father was married twice. With his first wife, he had twelve children.

HAY: That’s a lot.

PARRISH: Yes. And then with my mother, he had five.

HAY: That’s seventeen?

PARRISH: Plus, my mother had two children by her first husband.

HAY: So that adds to nineteen.

PARRISH: uh hum

HAY: So you have nineteen brothers and sisters?

PARRISH: Not now.

HAY: But you did?

PARRISH: I did. All I have left is one brother.

HAY: Out of all of them?

PARRISH: uh hum

HAY: What order were you? You were in that middle.

PARRISH: I was in the last five.

HAY: In the last five?

PARRISH: Yeah

HAY: So they were all much older than you.

PARRISH: Yeah, they were quite a bit older than me.

HAY: Did they all take care of you?

PARRISH: No, but we got to know each other, you know, later on.

HAY: Because the first twelve lived with their mother somewhere else?

PARRISH: Well, they all lived here, but a lot of them had passed away before I was ever born. And I didn’t socialize with my older half sisters and brothers until I got to be a woman and a mother. Then we got to be close together. By then, the majority of my older half brothers had already passed. I had two half sisters that were still living, and four half brothers, I believe. Three or four half brothers that were still living that I got to communicate with. So we got to know each other, you know, and be family.

HAY: Did you find common things about each other?

PARRISH: Oh yeah, yeah. They always told me that I took after Daddy. After our father, you know. And, my other two sisters took after my mother. I had more of the Landcaster genes than they did. [Chuckle]

HAY: Of your five, there were three girls and two boys?

PARRISH: Right

HAY: What was your first job?

PARRISH: My first job?

HAY: Do you remember your first job?

PARRISH: Yeah, I was a waitress.

HAY: That was the country club job?

PARRISH: Yes

HAY: That was the one where you lied about your age?

PARRISH: Yes

HAY: That was your first job.

PARRISH: Well, really my first job…I didn’t call it a job…I helped this old black lady clean house. Christine and Will Castleman. They lived two doors down from me. From our family. I would go help her clean house. But my public work…no…my first public job was in Chicago at Bell & Hale. They made recorders. You know, Bell & Hale. They make tape recorders all that crap.

HAY: What did you do there?

PARRISH: Worked on an assembly line.

HAY: You’ve had a lot of great experiences.

PARRISH: Well, yeah. And then I worked in a drug store on the food line. You know, all drug stores had food counters where you could get sandwiches and soups and chocolates and all that stuff. And it was Walgreens in Chicago.

HAY: The early first Walgreens.

PARRISH: Yeah. That was in Chicago. That was in ’60. ’62. It was in ’62.

HAY: So when you left Frankfort and went to the big city, that was a big change going from a little small town, country town, Frankfort, really.

PARRISH: Yeah to the big ole mean city.

HAY: How did you feel when you got there?

PARRISH: It just looked big and different, you know. The most scary part was learning how to ride the trains to get where you wanted to go, you know. You didn’t dare try to drive. You ride trains. A’s and B’s. Red’s and green’s. And B train doesn’t stop here, it goes on down and stops someplace else. I mean you really had to be on your toes or you’d wind up way up in Milwaukee. [Chuckle]

HAY: Scary?

PARRISH: Yes, it was. [Chuckle]

HAY: Well, I’m really happy with everything that you’ve told me. Is there anything else that you want for the historical record, or…?

PARRISH: No. I would just like to be able to come back and to see it at least eighty percent like it used to be. Maybe somebody has got some pictures of the inside of it.

HAY: Yeah, that would be neat.

PARRISH: Well, somebody is bound to have taken pictures of the inside of this theatre. [Chuckle]

EUGENE PARRISH: I can’t understand. Now you can see how that comes down over there. And then see how it goes under here? And I can’t ( ) that ceiling. And I’m thinking that maybe that stage was further down this way.

UNIDENTIFIED: ( )�PARRISH: No

EUGENE PARRISH: I can’t imagine what was there.

UNIDENTIFIED: ( )�EUGENE PARRISH: Yeah, on that ceiling.

HAY: See that…here’s a stripe where the color changes right here. Do you think that…wouldn’t that be the end of the stage?

PARRISH: The bowed part of the floor? The stage? Yep

HAY: Is that what you’re thinking maybe? It would come out as far as that line, or further?

UNIDENTIFIED: ( )

PARRISH: Yeah

EUGENE PARRISH: I don’t remember. I’m just going by the way the ceiling is. Where it was shaped. I don’t think the screen was back that far.

HAY: Might have been out…

EUGENE PARRISH: Yeah, out this way. That’s what I’m thinking. And I’m thinking maybe part of the stage is right about where this one is.

PARRISH: Yeah

HAY: uh hum Could be. You could be exactly right.

EUGENE PARRISH: And I think you could go by when you do turn this up…over this wall more or less, and you’d know how far down you’d go.

HAY: uh hum See what it looks like when you get down under there.

EUGENE PARRISH: Yeah

PARRISH: Yeah, because you could find the indentation of where the stage…

END OF INTERVIEW

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