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From YouTube: Tell Arlington's Story Mattie Walker Part 1
Description
Tell Arlington's Story is an initiative to document Arlington's rich heritage through the collection of residents' stories. In this clip, filmed at the Multi-generational African-American Storytelling Workshop at the Arlington Central Library, Mattie Walker talks about Arlington when it was a farm community and her early school days. For more information about this project, go to http://arlingtonstory.us.
A
Good
evening,
Ichabod
Crane
had
fallen
asleep
when
I
was
a
child
growing
up
and
he
awakened
tonight.
He
would
be
so
disoriented.
He
wouldn't
recognize
anything.
I'm
was
no
longer
a
farming
community.
When
I
was
growing
up
but
it
has
evolved.
It
was
a
bedroom
community,
literally
a
bedroom
community,
nothing
there,
but
houses.
Then
of
course
it
became
suburbia
and
now
to
avoid
that
word
city,
you
call
yourself
an
urban
village
whatever.
That
is,
but
my
time
began
when
my
father
migrated
to
Arlington
from
mecklenburg
county
virginia
where
he
lived.
A
He
was
a
merit
teenager
living
on
his
family's
bomb,
and
it
was
the
practice
at
that
time
for
people
to
come
by
and
the
young
man
would
take
jobs
away
from
home
to
gain
to
make
a
little
bit
of
money
that
my
family,
his
family,
raised
our
tobacco
and
cotton.
So
he
has
never
done
it
before,
but
he
because
he
had
not
come
of
age,
but
now
he
was
so
one
day.
Some
recruiters
came
by
and
asked
for
someone
to
come
to
arlington
and
to
take
a
construction
job.
A
A
to
the
job
was
to
build
a
school
for
the
colored
children
and
it
turned
out
to
be
on
land
that
was
donated
by
african-american
families
that
you
were
just
mentioning
about
the
Hoffmans
and
the
bostons.
They
gave
their
land
to
build
a
six-room
school
Hoffman
Boston,
so
my
father
came
and
he
had
wonderful
stories
to
tell
about
three
other
guys
came
and
they're
all
lived
in
one
room
in
a
brunette
bologna
sandwiches
because
they
didn't
know
how
to
cook.
But
anyway
he
were
to
build
that
school
and
he
was
hired
as
a
collar.
A
But
the
Labor
Department
calls
a
common
laborer.
He
was
a
farmer,
he
was
not
a
skilled
labourer,
he
worked
but
the
day,
but
as
the
job
went
on,
he
heard
about
the
Washington
school
system
that
had
a
dual
system.
They
had
schools
in
the
day
and
in
the
night,
and
he
and
my
mother
had
not
had
the
opportunity
to
go
much
further
than
the
8th
grade,
because
there
were
no
for
soldiers,
no
schools
for
the
live
in
Mecklenburg
County.
A
So
when
someone
came
by
from
the
Helms,
concrete
and
pipe
company
and
offered
him
to
come
to
work
with
him,
he
thought
yeah
we'll
see,
and
so
he
brought
my
mother
and
his
grandmother,
whose
house
he
had
moved
into
a
neckline
bird
because
he
had
a
bride
and
he
needed
more
space
and
they
came
to
Arlington.
She
came
to
Arlington
and
my
father.
After
digging
all
day
enrolled
in
Armstrong
technical
school
and
my
mother
Mary
Washington
domestic
school,
there
Washington
it
doesn't
exist
anymore.
A
I'm
son
does
oh,
yes,
I'm,
stronger
Mary
Washington
is
different,
so
they
got
themselves
through
high
school
time
passed
and
he
went
to
work
for
the
Helms
concrete
pipe
company.
He
didn't
know
he'd,
be
there
40
years,
but
he
did
and
he
was
making
more
money.
So
eventually
he
gave
his
he
arranged
for
his
farm,
his
portion
of
the
farm
to
be
taken
over
by
tenant
farmers
and
so
forth,
and
then
the
children
began
to
come.
We
fast
forward
a
little
bit
and
when
I
was
four
years
old,
I
was
one
of
four
children.
A
When
I
was
four
years
old,
my
1
sep
tember
day
my
birthday
is
in
September.
My
mother
took
me
put
on
a
dress
instead
of
the
play
clothes
that
I
wore
to
st.
john
baptist
church
nursery
school.
She
put
on
her
hat
and
gloves
and
her
put
a
book
in
her
in
her
purse,
and
we
went
up
to
Hoffman
Boston
school
and
she
could
told
the
principal
she
wanted
to
enroll
me
in
first
grade.
A
Well,
neither
the
principal
nor
my
mother
knew
anything
about
readiness
or
socialization
that
sort
of
thing
and
I
was
enrolled
in
hoffman
boss
in
school.
They
regretted
it,
but
I
said
my
Bab
eventually
then
fast
forward.
Some
more
I
have
graduated
from
college
and
I
come
I'm
in
arlington,
asking
interviewing
with
mr.
Charlie
Wilson
the
person
in
the
personnel
department
for
job
so
in
in
the
course
of
the
interview.
Mr.
Wilson
said,
aren't
you
a
little
young
to
be
teaching
and
I
thought
to
myself
a
young
mother
between
school
as
a
toddler?
A
You
be
young
too,
but
I
didn't
say
that
what
I
said
was
I
hope
not
too
I
wasn't
too
young
to
certify
and
the
minute
I
said
it.
I
wondered
if
that
was
flipped,
but
he
did
I'm.
He
called
me
back
in
and
he
gave
me
a
10
month,
contract
at
the
Magnificent
sum
of
two
thousand
nine
hundred
dollars
a
year
and
it
was
to
be
paid
over
12
months
period
of
time
and
I
was
a
sign
to
teach
at
Harvard
Boston
school.
A
Well,
I
was
euphoric,
I
was
rich,
and
but
when
school
opened
and
I
went
into
class,
I
reflected
I
thought
the
first
public
school
that
I
ever
attended
and
the
first
school
in
which
I
thought
was
a
school
that
my
father
built
and
I
thought
that
was
very
cool
and
I.
Still
think
it
is,
it
is
very
cool.