Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield
Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield
in drugstores and, you know, different things--regular jobs and stuff. (taping stopped for intercom conversation, then resumed) Q: You moved on to a job in a drugstore, you say? A: Yes, I became a porter in the drugstore and delivery boy in it. I had a couple of those jobs and I worked those and I still carried my daily paper route. I had two jobs at: that time, because I was delivering my daily paper route and working at the drugstore as a delivery boy. Q: How large a route did you have? A: About two hundred papers. Q; Was it morning or evening delivery? A: I had both. At one period, I had the morning paper, which was the Commercial Appeal, which came out of Memphis, Tennessee. I would get up at Eive o'clock in the morning and pick those up. I always get a kick out of watching the kids deliver morning papers now. Sometimes my paper comes at eight, nine o'clock in the morning. When I was a kid, we picked them up at Eive and I would have my papers delivered before six-thirty. Because when you said you had a morning paper for somebody, you had a morning paper, it wasn't a mid-day paper. Q: What was the other paper? A: Well, I used to also handle the Memphis Press Scimitar, that was a Hearst paper that came out in the afternoon. 1 had a paper route for them once. I once had the paper route for Hearst for the Memphis Press Scimitar and the Blytheville Courier, which was an afternoon paper at home, at the same time. So, I used to have two, carried two of them. Q: What were the newspaper reading habits in your family? Did your father read extensively in the newspapers? A: Extensively. Cover to cover. And resented any messing up of the paper. In other words, if you read a paper ahead of him, he wanted it in order and he wanted it neat when you got through with it. That's something I can always remember. You know, there have been a lot of arguments in families about I. that. Some people, when they get through reading the paper, it looks like it's been through a paper mill or something, you know. Both my mother and father were omnivorous readers. They read everything. Papers, magazines. There was always family discussion about current events and what was going on in the world, always. Q: In those discussions, you were a little young at the time, but do you recall anything said about prohibition? A: (pause) No, I don't remember any discussion about prohibition. I remember I
when prohibition was over and they had the three-point-two beer and something like that. Not many discussions about liquor, I don't remember much. We never had a lot of liquor in my house. My daddy would make grape wine and blackberry wine. They would have it for ceremonial things, like Christmas when people would have cake and wine or something. But very little drinking was in the home. Q: So, you don't recall your father's position on prohibition, then? A: No, I do not. Q: Living in an agricultural community, did you work much on the farms, out surrounding . . . A: &, yes, there were some summers I spent with farm families when my mother would go away to college for the summer. I would spend the summer with a farm family and worked on the farm with them, sure. Q: Was this the same family more than one summer? A: Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Sebastian, who were a nice family. I stayed with themi couple of summers. Q: Were they black or white? A: They were black, but they owned their own farm. Q: How large a farm was it? A: About a hundred and sixty acres. Q: How old were you at this time? A: You know, I guess maybe . . . eleven, twelve, thirteen, something like that. Q: Did you learn to drive the horses in the field? Or that type work? A: No. No, I wasn't big enough to fool with the horses, they used mules, anyway. I wasn't large enough to handle a horse or mule. Q: What type of work did you do on the farm, then? A: The chores. You know, feed the chickens, slop the hogs, bring in firewood. Various kinds of chores like that which were just peripheral to actual farm life, was just a part of it. I chopped cotton and that kind of thing. Carried water to the field hands and that kind of thing. Q: Did you help with the milking? A: Never helped with the milking, no. I
- Page 1 and 2: University of Illinois at Springfie
- Page 3 and 4: ILLINOIS LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 107 St
- Page 5 and 6: CECIL A. PARTEE Illinois House of R
- Page 7 and 8: Mr. Bartee retired at the end of th
- Page 9 and 10: Volume I SESSION 1, TAPE 1, SIDE 1
- Page 11 and 12: Q: You say she taught there near Bl
- Page 13 and 14: The third grade teacher taught us t
- Page 15 and 16: A: No. None as dramatic as that. Ha
- Page 17 and 18: and said, in one of the contests, L
- Page 19 and 20: I 1 Q: Oh? i '1 A: And then I had a
- Page 21 and 22: So the whole family relationship an
- Page 23 and 24: a tie-in between that and what we c
- Page 25 and 26: A: And my grandmother. My grandmoth
- Page 27 and 28: But I think it was more or less a S
- Page 29 and 30: a debate on , "What is most destruc
- Page 31: somebody or something foul. So, had
- Page 35 and 36: A: Mixed crews, yes. Q: Do you reme
- Page 37 and 38: to her for fear she wouldn't pay me
- Page 39 and 40: lawyer who became a judge there. He
- Page 41 and 42: A: (pause) I don't know. I think pr
- Page 43 and 44: CHARLES CECIL AND BESSIE DUPREE PAR
- Page 45 and 46: COURTESV OF BESSIE D. IVY CECIL PAR
- Page 47 and 48: CORNEAL DAVIS (L) AND CEClL PARTEE.
- Page 49 and 50: A: Beautiful. I stayed in the dormi
- Page 51 and 52: A: I didn't know any of them until
- Page 53 and 54: A: Well, just like going out for th
- Page 55 and 56: 4 1 SESSION 3, TAPE 3, SIDE 1 Q: I
- Page 57 and 58: yourself and so forth. Whereas, in
- Page 59 and 60: A: Yes, I remember a fellow by the
- Page 61 and 62: six inches, into my leg. And just m
- Page 63 and 64: Q: And you're still in touch with t
- Page 65 and 66: A: But they said, "You can go somew
- Page 67 and 68: Q: How did you get back and forth?
- Page 69 and 70: just on the weekend which was a lot
- Page 71 and 72: A: Well, I was there for about a ye
- Page 73 and 74: old fellow told me that he's from t
- Page 75 and 76: We tried to get a decision between
- Page 77 and 78: 63 Abraham Lincoln Hotel and we wer
- Page 79 and 80: Q: That had already finished? A: No
- Page 81 and 82: legislation, I think one day what I
when prohibition was over and they had the three-point-two beer and something<br />
like that. Not many discussions about liquor, I don't remember much. We<br />
never had a lot <strong>of</strong> liquor in my house. My daddy would make grape wine and<br />
blackberry wine. They would have it for ceremonial things, like Christmas<br />
when people would have cake and wine or something. But very little drinking<br />
was in the home.<br />
Q: So, you don't recall your father's position on prohibition, then?<br />
A: No, I do not.<br />
Q: Living in an agricultural community, did you work much on the farms, out<br />
surrounding . . .<br />
A: &, yes, there were some summers I spent with farm families when my mother<br />
would go away to college for the summer. I would spend the summer with a farm<br />
family and worked on the farm with them, sure.<br />
Q: Was this the same family more than one summer?<br />
A: Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Sebastian, who were a nice family. I stayed with themi<br />
couple <strong>of</strong> summers.<br />
Q: Were they black or white?<br />
A: They were black, but they owned their own farm.<br />
Q: How large a farm was it?<br />
A: About a hundred and sixty acres.<br />
Q: How old were you at this time?<br />
A: You know, I guess maybe . . . eleven, twelve, thirteen, something like that.<br />
Q: Did you learn to drive the horses in the field? Or that type work?<br />
A: No. No, I wasn't big enough to fool with the horses, they used mules,<br />
anyway. I wasn't large enough to handle a horse or mule.<br />
Q: What type <strong>of</strong> work did you do on the farm, then?<br />
A: The chores. You know, feed the chickens, slop the hogs, bring in firewood.<br />
Various kinds <strong>of</strong> chores like that which were just peripheral to actual farm<br />
life, was just a part <strong>of</strong> it. I chopped cotton and that kind <strong>of</strong> thing. Carried<br />
water to the field hands and that kind <strong>of</strong> thing.<br />
Q: Did you help with the milking?<br />
A: Never helped with the milking, no.<br />
I
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