>> Hello. We are at
San Sui Women's Club in Adairsville, Georgia.
And I am Lindsey Peterson,
and this is my partner, who is Watson.
And we are here today interviewing Mary Carruthers.
>> It's Tuesday.
>> And it is Tuesday October 11, [OVERLAPPING] 2016.
[LAUGHTER] So Mary if
you could please tell us when you were born.
>> May 8th,1940.
>> So what was Adairsville like growing up?
>> Well, it was a quiet little town.
Everybody got along and I'm talking race.
I guess the only thing that I can say
that was different is we were not
allowed to go to that school.
Blacks we were segregated.
So we did not come this way.
But everybody got along and we had
quite a few black people who owned businesses downtown.
Amar Hall's grandfather owned,
I think it was a shoe store.
There were a lot of people who lived
across as you would say across the railroad tracks,
but we didn't go to school.
My church is located on South Main Street.
It was moved downtown
I think in the early or maybe it was the late 1800s.
And it was over there somewhere.
And then we had it built on South Main where it is now,
but it was a truck that a church
that the district superintendent saw fit to do.
There was an organ in there,
he just demolished it.
And we had a famous,
I'd like to call her a famous person,
because people still say Ms. Roth Church.
But she worked and her family worked very
hard and we used to laugh and say she sold hot dogs,
she sold ice cream to get the church rebuilt.
And the church was reopened in 1958.
Now, I wasn't a member then.
I was a daddy's girl,
so I was a Baptist.
But when I came home from college,
I moved my membership
to UK Chapel United Methodist Church.
Well, it was a United Methodist Church then.
It was a CME church.
And I believe in 1968,
the black congregations and
the White congregations became United Methodist Church.
And I happened to have been a part
of that because I was very active on
the North Georgia conference level.
[NOISE] But again, growing up, my dad,
I think I told you that my dad worked at
the depot and I used to go down and he would wait me.
And I also said that we got to ride
the train to Atlanta and he would
take me shopping at bridges when it was downtown.
And there was crutch store right over there.
My dad had an account.
And I can remember as
a young girl going to that store and said,
I want to charge something on
my dad's bill when
dad didn't give me permission to do that.
But I did it with my friends
and kept getting away with it and we kept doing it,
just getting snacks and things.
And I can remember him
telling the people who were in the store.
He said, That's JD's wife, my mother.
He said, when she comes and
whatever she wants, you give it to her.
And so we did it.
My grandmother worked for Ms. Topsy.
And I'm sure maybe you have heard about Ms. Topsy.
In some of her writing,
she would talk about Mary and I name for.
And Ms. Topsy told me she said, Mary,
would you please remember as
much about Adairsville's history as you can.
Guess what? I didn't write it down.
So I didn't remember a lot of
things that I did because my dad was
very knowledgeable about the city of Adairsville.
And I should have written all of this down
while he was giving it to me, but I didn't do it.
And I regret that now.
>> So what impact did
World War II and
the depression have on the community here?
>> Well, I was born right in 1940.
I can remember my mom saying,
this was a studio area
and I can remember my mom said
she took spreads or whatever,
I think they're beautiful,
but I can't remember her doing it.
Well, we had a little black school that's right across
from my family home and it had three rooms.
We had three teachers.
I'm trying to think first,
second and third grader had one teacher.
Fourth and fifth and sixth, I think.
And then we had the person who was called the principal.
She would have seven and eighth graders.
And we got the hand me down books.
I can remember during
the Christmas season they would give us crates of apples.
And we also had to buy our own chairs
and I can remember now I'd always say,
my mom and dad can buy or they can buy five or six,
mom and dad what are you doing?
I think we got all this money, but guess what?
Whatever I said my mom and dad could get,
my mom and dad would get it.
Growing up, also was
a cotton town and my dad would rent land.
I guess we'd have three or four cotton patches.
But being the baby,
the youngest they'd let me pick in cotton.
Then they always said your dad is staying to
get your way in. I did.
And then after the eighth grade,
we would have a little graduation,
and then we would be bus to
Cartersville to Summer Hill High School,
which was the black High School for the county.
So there were what
Kingston Castle trying to
think of about the little towns
where we had the little schools,
there was Noble Hill.
And we were all bus and it was amazing
because the principal's son who
was the coach would drive the school bus.
And you can imagine what a trip it would
be because we sometimes had to go through
Kingston and pick up the kids
who were going to to high school in Castle.
And in my graduation class from the eighth grade,
there were four of us, just four.
And then we finished and graduated in 1958,
and went on to Dothan State majored in
vocation and economics and got my vocational degree.
I want to go back.
So you talked a little bit about the Depot?
>> Yeah.
>> And your father weighing you at the Depot.
>> Yeah. But my dad worked at the Depot.
>> Tell me about that.
>> Well, I don't know what he did. He was
the back person here and as I said the other day,
I said it was L&N Railroad
at that time and I said they put me through
college because my dad
got his salary from LD and Railroad,
and that's where I got my college money from.
But dad not only did he work at the Depot,
he used to,
I'm trying to think what you call them
section hands because they
he would work up and down the tracks.
He would sometimes work in Tennessee.
And so they would leave on
a Sunday and then come back on a Friday.
Then he would work sometimes toward the Atlanta area.
And I guess he just
got off the cotton bills and I guess that's what he did.
>> And how did he weigh you?
>> Oh, that scale its over there.
>> How much did you weigh?
>> Probably a little bit of nothing,
I was really skinny,
really, really, really skinny.
I had a family friend to tell me when I was a teenager,
he said, I know what you're going to be when you grow up.
He said, "You're going to be a teacher because you
walk on your pencils all day long,
" because my legs were that skinny.
He said you walk on the pencils. Well, that came true.
I did become a teacher.
I was tall and skinny, skinny, skinny.
>> So you've mentioned your dad a lot?
What was his name and you also
mentioned your siblings so tell us about your family.
>> Back in the days they just gave him initials.
So his initials were JD.
Well, somehow a job
kept him up north and I'm not sure where.
But he had, he said initials would not do.
So that's what he named himself,
James Dewey like the Dewey system.
And one uncle was named
AB and he named himself Alfred Bedford.
And then my brother is JD Junior.
Well, my father's passed.
Well there were four.
Two girls and two boys.
My sister passed in
2008 and then I
have a brother and I think
he is supposed to be interviewed.
Have they said anything about Nelson McComa?
That's my big brother.
So I asked him the day I said,
"Have you been notified?" He said, "No."
I said, "Well, now, they told me
that you were going to be interviewed."
So I guess he will be.
>> All right. So you talked about your father.
What about your mother? What's her name?
>> Her name was Nelly May.
Stay at home mom.
Never worked outside the house.
A very good cook. And one of the things that we did,
my dad raised hogs and we had hog kill at time.
And I just had to be
out there to see when they shot that hog.
But then looking at the meat was awful but we ate it.
But looking at the cutting it up,
they put them up, y'all don't know anything about this.
They would hang them up
some cowboy and then they would skin
them and then cut them all into
pieces and we would have,
I'm trying to think what we would have the night
of, I can't remember.
My mother fried it.
I'm not sure what it was.
But then they would also make
something that I think is just gross.
I guess it was called [inaudible] meat where
they cook the head and all these other nasty
parts of the hog and they would press it into
a container and they
would eat it because I think I would never eat.
I was a picky eater and by now y'all know I was
my dad's favorite daughter because
he would tell me if I said,
"Well, I don't want that," and he said,
"You don't have to eat it."
So if washing dishes was one of mine and if I said,
"I got a whole lot of homework to do," dad said,
"I'll wash the dishes for you."
So my sister and
brothers didn't like me
too much because I always got my way.
So they weren't pleased.
And especially my sister.
We just didn't quite get long.
We really didn't get close
until after I finished college.
>> So speaking of college,
what made you decide
to go to college and then come back to,
was there something about the community that
drew you back after college or?
>> Excuse me. I had said, "Oh,
I wanted to be a nurse," and there was
this hospital was called [inaudible],
Georgia and that's where a lot of women
went to be LPN nurses or assistant.
So this was my thing and I scared to death with blood.
But this is what most black women were doing,
so I thought that's what I'm going to do.
Then when I got in high school, I thought,
no I think I want to
go in the army because my brother was military.
He said, "You are not going in the army,
so you can get that out of your head." So I did.
Well, when I got to high school,
I fell in love with my homemake teacher.
I took homemake as a freshman,
but then I don't think it was offered any other time.
But I somehow I
talked to the principal that he let me take
homemake every year that I was in high school.
And as I said, this homemake teacher was my idol.
She was just my idol.
And she could go to Fort Belly State and I said,
"I'm going to Fort Belly State and I'm going to major in
Homemake just like you did," and I did.
But coming back to the dazzle,
there were no jobs.
I didn't get a job the first year.
My brother was stationed at Fort Benning and he said,
"Sis, come on down, and we'll get a job for you."
So can you imagine me
trying to sell refrigerators on the street?
Didn't sell anything, didn't work out.
So I babysat for a year with children,
and then I decided to come back home.
Well, when I got back home,
there still were no jobs.
But I applied for one.
Where does Jimmy come to live?
>> Plains?
>> Yeah. Well, it was in the county.
I had applied for a job,
went back rode the bus,
applied for the job and was
almost assured that I was going to get the job.
I got a letter telling me that I didn't get it
and I found out some years later.
We became very close,
and we started talking about where we had worked.
And she said, I got this job.
And she told me where, and I said,
I applied for that job,
I almost told I was going to get it.
She said, well, I had children and
my husband had left me,
and they just felt sorry for me, and gave me the job.
And I said, that's
the way life goes because if we had not become friends,
and had not gone to grad school together,
I probably never would have known that she stole my job.
[LAUGHTER] And then I
got a job at Hill High School in the Fifth,
and stayed there almost two years.
And I had done my student teaching at
[inaudible] Appling in Macon, Georgia,
and got a letter
from the home lec teacher
that I done my student teaching,
and she said, I'm retiring,
apply for the job.
So I did and I got it.
And I guess I stayed there over two, three years.
And this was back in the old days
where you did not have a maternity leave.
So they told me that they would
just have to release me because they
couldn't hold a job for the nine months
or however long the pregnancy would be,
so I came home.
The only black elementary school
that was in the county was Bartow Elementary.
And I talked to the principal
because I had known him and his family.
And I said, I'd like to
serve for you. And he said, serve?
I said, yeah. I said, don't have a job.
He said, you got one now.
I want you to be my kindergarten teacher.
I said, I'm going to be there.
So I spent that year being his kindergarten teacher,
but that was the year that
the schools in Bartow County integrated.
Well, I guess they assured every black teacher
that they were going to find a job for us in this county.
So I was moved up here at the Dazzle High School,
it was 1-12 then.
And I taught fourth grade for 10 years because
Judy James who did
the refreshments the other week was a home made teacher.
So I taught fourth grade for 10 years.
Had to go to school and get certified in elementary ed.
And then after the 10 years,
they were going to offer home lec for the middle school.
So then my principal said,
that's what I'm going to put you in.
So I did middle school home ed for a while,
and then Judy got a promotion to be assistant principal,
so then I became the home ed teacher.
And I came 1968
and retired in 2004
for a total of 40 years that I spent in the classroom.
Girl, that's a long time.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So what was the segregation like for
you as a teacher and for your students?
>> Gosh, I haven't heard a question like that.
As I said, I taught fourth grade for 10 years.
And there's one little student, and I like him,
and when I see him now he just loves Mrs. Corellas.
He said one day,
this was after school,
and he came to my room and he said, teacher,
we were upstairs, he said,
look at all those little niggers down there.
And, I thought,
have you not looked at me?
Have you not seen that I'm not White?
But he just thought of me as the teacher,
not as being the black teacher or the nigger teacher.
It was just teacher.
But I got along with the kids.
Now, I can see some of them and they'll say,
that's Ms. Corellas, she taught me
how to make peanut butter cookies.
I know, Ms. Corellas taught me how to cook.
Ms. Corellas, you know I cook all the time.
And then I had one girl, well,
he would say, we made pillows in your classroom.
He said, I used mine as a weapon.
He said, my friend and I would just hit each
other with the pillows.
And I will see folks.
I think I may have told you-all this,
I was in Kroger,
and my great great granddaughter,
she said, grandma, can I have some bubblegum?
I said, I didn't allow anybody to chew gum in my class.
That's something that our principal said to us,
if you chew gum,
it ought to be in your bedroom with you under the bed.
Well, I hate it now. So nobody chewed gum,
but I was in Kroger,
I guess maybe a couple of years ago,
and she was asking,
could she get the bubblegum,
and a person behind me said,
Mrs. Corellas does not allow you to
chew gum in her classroom.
And I looked back, and it was one of
my former students and his mom,
and I just I said,
that's right, I did not allow it.
And I go around in church with
my little paper at Sunday school,
but I just hold it up, kids,
give it up because I don't like it.
>> So I guess
keep going on with the school that you've worked at.
I think we actually covered that question.
So what was desegregation like in
the town of [inaudible] and the school you worked at?
I'm curious, we covered the students,
I was wondering how the staff and
administration maybe was affected by it.
>> For a long time there were only two of us,
and we both were local.
But there never was.
I think maybe the total
might have been a black teachers,
and I'm talking Bartow County,
maybe five or six in a school.
We were just the minority.
But I became active in the local education association,
and became the chair,
I guess, for 10 years or more,
and it was pleasant, we got along.
You could tell there were
some people who had this chip still on their shoulder.
And I could tell you another thing that I did,
that my mother was not very pleased with me.
Do you remember? My God.
>> I'm really getting a little sick now.
God. We had the match on
a city
in the site camp.
What is the name of that city?
And I had two close friends.
>> Cumming?
>> Was it Cumming, Georgia?
>> Cumming, Georgia?
>> It had this big rally.
And this white couple.
He taught signs, she taught
social studies and we're still good friends now.
And they said, well, we're going.
And they're, come on, because we really were in
this thing about what my mom had told me when I went
to college that I better not be down there.
Trying to start anything
as far race relations were concerned.
But I did do one thing.
I didn't ever tell her I
went to the water fountain and it said,
color only, white only.
And I drank from the white and I spit it, I said,
that's the nastiest water I have ever put in my mouth.
But that's about as much as I did.
I was cool but we did,
we went down, and I said,
here I'm sitting in this car with these two white people.
And as we are going,
there are police cars,
there are people on the sides of
the road and we got there and we parked that car.
And that's when I saw the hate.
I saw it from kids this high to women and men and I
actually saw the hate that they had for black people.
My friend, he caught
a bigger rock that they were throwing,
because they were after us, all of us.
But I was defiant then,
I went, I was determined.
I didn't tell my mom where I was going
but I was determined I was
going to go there then and I did.
And then the only other really bad thing,
I guess it happened to me when I
was on the city council,
and the clan came and wanted to rally in Adairsville
and I know they had
their rights because we were
fighting for our rights to have the First Amendment.
But I didn't vote for it but in that same meeting,
we renamed the street Martin Luther King Jr.
Both of and then I got the hate letter.
Oh, it was a long letter.
Oh, we're talking about me and Martin Luther King,
and it was a hate letter.
And I showed it to the counsel people,
they got a chance to look at it.
But then I had nothing else. As far as.
That I've had some phone calls when I was on
counsel from some people right here in Adairsville.
Talk and Nancy to wait and call
me early like one o'clock,
two o'clock in the morning and tell me,
you're a digger and you, blah, blah,
and you don't have any business being on
counsel and blah, blah, blah.
But I ignored it.
>> So since you mentioned being on the city council,
what made you decide
to step out of just the classroom and into
a more active role
in your community as a community leader?
>> That just my personality.
I want to do things for my city.
I wanted to be a part of the government,
a part of paving to make decisions for the city.
Well, I ran toys and lots.
I had one [inaudible] to call and she said, well,
you ought to know that
you were not going to win your property.
But they fixed the ballot so that you didn't win.
And I said, well and good.
And then the guy that I had run
against moved out of the city and that's
when the mayor called me and asked me if I would be
willing to serve if he appointed me as council member.
And I said, let me talk to my two children.
And they said, I'll do it.
So I did.
And so I was appointed in 1990 to
fulfill his term because it was not over.
And I'm thinking it was August and maybe November.
And I ran against Bob Jameson,
who had been the city manager.
And I think I won by seven votes, maybe.
It upset him so bad.
He stormed out of that court house at night.
[LAUGHTER] It was something.
So as far as today,
I'm the only black female
who has served on city council
in the city of Adairsville.
>> Can you tell me about your campaign to run?
How did you get the word out?
How did you try to get people?
>> Yeah, I walked the streets.
I put an announcement in the paper.
I bought signs and put them in black folks yards.
But I had a lot of whites who said we're behind you.
And they contributed money.
And I guess I had just,
because I was active in the community,
then there were whites who knew me.
And so they say, well, we're for you.
And I think it was two times I ran unopposed.
And I kept trying to think.
I started to go pay and said, Pam,
did you tell me what year
is because one year and I'm trying to think.
Somebody defeated me and I'm not sure who it was.
And I said, just like mango but I will be back.
And I did. I came back.
I came back and was reelected.
So maybe I was on post 1, post 2,
and I believe post 4 because they staggered
the post so if one was because we did not say that.
Selma, what they call the black community,
was in the district.
Everybody could vote wherever
we were not like District 1,
District 2, District 3, District four.
No, whoever voted, you
just voted for whoever was running.
But like now, you've got your districts
that if you live in this area,
you can only vote for the person
who's running for that district.
But this was just an open.
>> So what was
it like that first year
being a member of the city council?
How did they react?
>> It was pleasant.
No, I could say there were a few people
who would call me.
But these were people who would come to the meeting.
They would get there.
Beverages and get a little high and then want to
just call me and just arrest me,
and I usually would just hang up.
But I knew who the people
were because there were
some who would just openly
dislike you because of your color.
But we got along with this one.
>> What initiatives did you bring to
the city as a city council member?
>> I wish I brought my little list of things.
You've got them somewhere.
That was Dr. [inaudible] who got them.
Well, helped with the industrial park out there.
We got some of those companies that are now there,
those Japanese companies that are out there
in the [inaudible] and help
to get that light out there, that red light.
That was one of the things because I
said, what's going to happen?
Is somebody going to die,
get killed before we can stop all this traffic?
It's out there if you come,
it's there where McDonald's and Burger King and Hardy's.
It's right there. That was a dangerous thing.
And so I have to get that here.
Also, we got some grants
that that was a part of my initiative to
help to get these grants and I could remember.
I can't think of who presented me
with this big check because I was paid.
They are from Tim and the mayor was not there.
So we were in Cartersville
and he presented the check to me.
Also this used to be the library.
And we got the the new library.
And because Adairsville pays,
they're part of it.
And now we have friends of the library.
We got the Cartersville.
Well, the Barto friends of the library.
Then we've got the Adairsville friends in the library.
I let them a couple of three months ago
talk me into being the president.
So we presented them with the between $500 check.
And I had it,
I had the copy of it.
But I don't know what to deal with it because there
we all are holding the big check.
It's all about books.
We had a fun time.
And one of the things that the friends do is that we
have Bingo and we're going to have Bingo next.
We have it four times a year,
we're going to have it next month, November.
And it's open to the public.
We've had some children.
But I guess this was in the summer because
they were not in school because it starts at one o'clock.
So they would not be able to
participate now that school had started.
>> I'm going to ask the question. Mr. Carruthers,
could you tell us, I'm going to backtrack a little bit.
Go back to the '40s and '50s.
Could you tell us what this stretch of stores here looked
like when you would come along and you
remember specific shops and stores?
>> Yes. There was,
like I said, couches.
And I think it may be the trading store then.
That was a drugs store.
That was a 0.5 and $0.10 store
that I guess it was right where the police department is.
What else was down there?
And then on down a little further,
there was another store that was a big store.
It was called Wellington Store.
And they sold a little bit of everything.
I'm trying to think of what
the lady store was that was right there on the corner.
I think she might have sold fabric.
And then we had a lady who had
a store down on 41 and she sold fabric.
And I was to sew. I made outfit for every Sunday,
made clothes for my daughter.
Don't sew anymore. Gave my sewing machine away.
I had a former student.
No, she's not a former student.
Some of her family members were.
Facebook me last week.
She's an RN and she wanted to
know if I still sew them when I make her those,
one of those surgical caps.
And I just got back to tell her,
no, I don't sew anymore.
I don't have a sewing machine.
And during the Easter,
I got so tired of having to heal men's pants.
[LAUGHTER] They were just,
can you heal my pants?
I don't like doing that kind of work, don't like that.
I like the sewing machine.
But I'm still trying to think.
>> Did the stores take black and white customers?
Was there any segregation along these line of stores?
>> No. Just couldn't sit down at the drug store,
and drink soda, we couldn't do that.
And we used to have
a movie place that was right down there on that end.
Blacks and Whites could go,
but Blacks had to sit up and the Whites sat down.
>> Was there a sign that said that or was it just known?
>> You see I'm not even sure.
Probably was a sign.
>> And you mentioned at the beginning
of the interview that you
couldn't go over to this school.
Were these things more unspoken
or were people telling you that?
>> I guess it was just unspoken,
that you just didn't cross
over and think about going to that school.
>> And what about the Depot?
>> See, Dr. Dickey asked me.
Who did I ask? I asked my brother.
He said, I think sis
that black just had to stand outside.
But I'm going to ask because she asked me that question.
I'm going to get back on it.
I'm going to try to see some of
the older people who were
here because we've got a lot
of newcomers who wouldn't know anything about it.
But I'm going to try to ask some of
the older folks if they actually knew because what we do.
See, we worked at the Depot.
And I can remember
when about two weeks ago when I was still
on the folks of that [inaudible] Road when you come
in on the far side, this side.
And I was saying, this is
where the people got their tickets.
And I never thought about to hang there,
you didn't go in there.
Your clan didn't stand up there and get a ticket.
And so when she asked me then I got the thinking.
Where did the black people come?
Because you know we couldn't ride.
We had to ride the back.
When I went to college,
my parents never owned a car.
So my dad would get somebody to drive me to Cartersville,
and I would get on the bus and it
was I had to go straight to the back.
I don't care if there were empty seats in the front.
Blacks went to the back.
Then when I got to Macon because that's as far as
I could go on Greyhound,
then I had to walk from the Greyhound station to
the trailway station and get on
the trailway bus that would take me to Fort Valley.
And then you would have to I'm
trying to figure what did I do?
When I got before that with my luggage.
But usually that was holidays because when
it was time for me to go in the fall,
then dad hired somebody to take me by car.
But if about Christmas holidays,
this is what I would have to do.
And I guess maybe I got cabs.
>> So was that I guess after
the train depot had shut down.
I know that it stopped continuing.
What was it like? When was that?
>> [OVERLAPPING] But we used to catch
the bus out there on
41 because we didn't have a bus station in Adair.
So there was a certain place that you
stood and if they saw you standing there
then the bus would stop or there was one in
Calhoun and if you could go to
Calhoun or go to [inaudible],
then there was a station,
but not in Adair, so it was just like a drop off.
>> Do you have any memories of riding the train,
like using the train for other reasons,
I guess, before buses?
>> Well, I just remember dad taking me to
Atlanta to to buy
Christmas gifts and clothes
because that was a time that we would go.
And there was always a friend of his who lived in Dalton,
who had two daughters.
And it seemed like we would go at
the same time and it was during the holidays.
>> I guess speaking like let's go back to I guess family.
I guess moving on to your current family
and like your husband and
your children and about like your son.
>> [OVERLAPPING] You saw the expression on her face,
didn't you, when she said, your husband.
[LAUGHTER] Divorced for a long time.
It's my son's dad.
>> The one that was featured on the show?
>> [inaudible]. That's my baby.
But his dad and I
separated when I was five months pregnant with Ramon
and we just never
got that together until maybe 2010.
He started coming to see my son.
And then when my son
went to the nursing home in Chattanooga and
he tried to get back in in our lives.
And the reason I'm
smiling is because at the nursing home,
when the doctor would say something, I would just say,
this is what it's going to be,
and then he looked at me and he said,
you just don't let me say a thing.
I said, were you hiding when he
was coming up? Growing up.
No, you have no space on any of this, none whatsoever.
But my son and him got really close.
He served in the Vietnam War,
and as a result,
he had Asian orange and had
cancer at the throat and when he
got cancer at the throat and got cancer at the brain.
So I could never understand it.
And because if I wasn't looking right in his face,
I wouldn't know what he was saying and I used to
just say when he would call and ask about Ramon I say,
I understand what you're saying.
And I know that really made him angry.
But he and my son were just like this to the union.
>> So what was it like being featured
on the that's incredible.
Like, what was that like as a as
a parent and how it affected maybe the community,
knowing that their town was also [OVERLAPPING]
>> Everybody was just extended.
It was just something else.
And my niece kept saying Aunt Mary,
that's incredible, just keeps calling your number.
And so I said, well, give me the number.
When she gave me a number and I would call it
and some man would show
us constantly out because it was the wrong number.
She was giving me the wrong tamper.
So I had this friend.
He said, well, Mary, let's just
call that's incredible. So we did it.
And they said, yes,
we've been trying to get in touch with you for months.
And so that's how it started and they said, well,
we're going to send somebody to
see you so this woman came
and we had dinner and we spent a lot of time together.
And then they found out about the doctors at Edison.
And it just went on from there because
we had been going ever since he was,
I guess a little over a year.
Now, at New Year's Eve before his first birthday,
he was born January 11.
And before his first birthday,
we had to rush him to Floyd.
And while we were there,
I think I may have mentioned this in May,
the nurses came in and one
took his signs and she said, you take it.
And so she said you take it so
that they were taken it and then they said,
Ms. Carruthers come on,
we want you to go next door.
Well, I knew something was wrong then.
And then that's when they did alcohol blow,
but they sent to get the doctor and they were sending to
get a nose throat specialist so he could do a trike.
So it was New Year's Eve
and everybody in Rome was part of it.
So he could not get to the hospital.
So my pediatrician had to do his first trike.
He had never done one.
So he did it, and then we were able to get it out.
But then they realized that
something was wrong with his heart.
So they said what we need to do is get him to Grady.
So we got to Grady.
And because my son's had compared to his body was big.
They thought that he had some disease
that was going to be fatal.
So they were going to do a cardiac cat.
Well, somebody was not there to work the machine,
but they had already given him the injections.
Well, he didn't wake up and I kept telling
him that he won't wake up.
They said, put ice on
his face and so I kept doing it and at
seven o'clock LP came in and
she started getting the sign and she flew
out of the room and next thing I know he hot cold blew.
So they came in and got him in they took him to
ICU and he stayed
there and I thought things were getting better.
And I got up to go see and one of the mothers,
she said, I don't go with
you because we just all sat in the waiting room.
And she said, I'm going to go with
because they already knew I had been asleep.
They already knew that something was wrong with my child.
So when we got down there,
Dr. Lador and I said,
who I was, he said, can you
wait a few minutes and I said, yes.
And then the next thing I know
they're taking him to surgery and
one of the doctors had tried to put
a trace back in and had messed up his trachea.
So as a result of that,
they had to put the trachea and that's
when the trachea was messed up and
that's when he never he just did
[NOISE] that's how he talked.
It was just a quicken sound because
he had the train and I would
have to remove it would scare me to death.
And they told me if I couldn't do that,
they were going to put him in a special place with
special nurses and doctors could take care of it,
so I became the brave little mom,
but it scared me every time I had to take
it out and put a new one in.
And so he did not go to school.
Then we had home school and I lived with
my mom and dad because mom had to help.
She would tell me, go to bed,
I will be up with him all night
because he had asthma and he
was having asthma attacks
and asthma attacks so she would say,
you go to bed,
I'll stay here with him.
You need to go to work in the morning.
So my mom was my all at all.
And so things went on and on.
Well, something happened and they
would not accept this packet grainy,
I don't know what it was, but there was something.
So then the doctor said,
we're going to tent so that's where we went
and as I like to tell those, I said,
I'm sure I paid for
at least two rounds down there because that's
how long he was just in and out, in and out.
And then we had the doctor who said,
well, I think I know about doctor can have it.
So Dr. McCall, got the linings out of his tongue
and somewhere else and reconstructed his trachea.
And he said, Mama.
And somehow that's incredible I got hold of it.
And it became history.
>> So you don't know how the producers of
that show found out about your son?
>> No.
>> They just reached out to you.
And do you remember about when that was?
>> It had to be September,
October because they went down I
believe in September of '82,
they went to Eton and they taped down
there because you can see the picture
of Ramon calls Bigfoot,
he's a big doctor, big man.
And so they did
the taping down there because we weren't there.
The taping and then they said,
we're going to get to Adairsville.
Well, add on that's incredible on
March 28 of '83 because
he wouldn't know the news got a hold of it and
said they didn't know when
the air time was going to be so.
Then they called and said,
with the crews coming.
So they came to school
first and like I said they just said,
Ms. Carruthers and my people said,
you just take the day off because you can't teach.
You just take the day off.
So I took the day off because I had to
take them all around the school,
and then we went to my house and them there.
And people, it was so fun.
They said, how much did they pay you?
I said, pay off.
I said, I bought him a jacket and a bicycle.
I said, pay off?
Nothing. And then they
made the constitution and then that's when
Wallace Francis came and
gave them the football and then we got to
go to the Hawks game and
all the players would come and say,
well, where is this because they don't shake his hand,
I was in all just like he was.
And I always took
a little friend and this little boy had never been out of
Adairsville his the lines were
like looking at all the tall buildings in Atlanta,
he was just like wow.
Didn't know this was happening.
Didn't know it. But that was it.
And then I had a group of kids come over
and cook spaghetti for for the crew.
But it was something.
And as I told you, we would be
enrolling the little boy who was on.
That's incredible.
Watch you on that's incredible.
He said, yes.
>> So Ms. Carruthers, can you tell us,
are there distinguishing qualities
about Adairsville that you
can name things that make it stand out as a community?
>> Why did you get me some homework?
Well,
we have a friendly time at races,
basically, we've always just got along.
I can remember whites coming out
to our house playing with my brothers.
And it's just like just a peaceful little town
where everybody got along.
And I guess if somebody was having some problems,
then it didn't matter what color you were,
somebody might come and give you a heap and hand.
But it's unique.
>> How do you think the community has
changed since you were a child?
>> Quite a bit of racial stuff going on,
and it started before Hillary and Trump.
So it's been just moving on up.
And it's the younger generation.
But the older people,
black and white just seem to get along.
It's just this younger generation.
>> What do you mean about the younger generation?
>> Well, the Confederate flags
and flooding them around
and loving to drive out the black community,
and the younger Blacks get intimidated, that this.
I don't know whether you talk about that.
I can remember there was
a family that lived up the street from my house and
they had the KKKs to come from Chattanooga and they
got off for 41 and they drove out that.
The persons that I'm talking about
lived right up the street from where we lived.
But all of these KKKs
came and they went up there in
their yard and they burned a cross.
I don't know why, but they did.
But now we have had one instance,
and I was a girl, where there might have
been some hate going on.
There was a black man who was
having an affair with a white woman.
And they killed this white man and put him in the attic.
And I don't know
how they found him,
but the police found him and
the black guy and a few others
went went to prison for it.
But I was a little girl at that time.
I'm trying to get my story together.
I'm trying to think that
maybe after they put him in the attic and
the blood started coming that they
moved him and put him in somebody's well.
I'm thinking that's what happened.
>> Do you remember where that was?
>> Yeah [inaudible] I live on Copper Springs Road,
and it would have
been a little farther than that
because I'm talking about my house but
my daddy's house is
right there and then my house is here.
And then you go up the road that's MLK.
Less than a half a mile where we lived.
>> And so you live next door to your childhood home?
>> You didn't hear me. When I graduated college,
there was a strip of land that's
right next to where where I lived.
And my daddy one day said give me $1. And I gave him $1.
He said this is a deed to your property right up there.
So I'm just the skip hop and
a jump from where I was raised.
>> Do you still live in on that property now?
>> Mm-hmm. And when I got it built, I was teaching.
And every day I'd come home and we'd
make this little path and it was so crooked.
And right now that my brother cuts the grass,
you can no longer see the path because he just cut
the grass like it's one big family.
And I'm so proud of him because he cuts all of
the grass at the big house and at my house.
I just call him a workaholic because he'll be
out in the dark early in the morning.
And I told my sister-in-law,
she said, "Why is he out there?"
Don't even know. He didn't need to be out here.
He can't tell anyone that he's going to be cutting
grass [LAUGHTER] cutting that grass.
>> Do you remember specific community events,
gatherings, maybe a fair
or something when you were young?
>> I'm trying to think. Did we have fairs here?
I don't believe so. I think
we had to go to California or Adairsville.
>> Was there a school bus system when you were young?
>> The principal's son drove just that one bus.
And he would go to all the schools in the area.
He'd pick us up and then would go to Kingston.
And I'm not sure about New Orleans.
I'm not sure they were black folks in New Orleans.
There was no bus system over here either.
>> So this one bus went to pick
up all the black students?
>> And bussed us to Somerville.
>> Do you all have some finishing questions?
>> We had a question about I guess you
were involvement in the church in Adairsville.
I know you're very much involved even today.
>> I'm the lay leader of that church,
I was a lay speaker.
I would go, but now I changed it to lay
servant and I just figured I'm too old to be traveling,
going to these classes.
So we've got a young person
and she has taken over going to the classes.
Our pastor has had a serious illness problem.
There were three of us,
we just rotate,
one of us speaking every third Sunday.
I'm not as active in the district as I used to be.
And I've always been
the late person to go to annual conference.
I haven't been in a couple of years because this age
has gotten to me and you have to part.
So it's always in At and you have to part so far
away to get to where we're having a conference.
So I'm just not going in a couple of years.
I slowed down, but I still active at
the Tallatoona which is community action partnership.
It's a non-profit and we serve eight counties: Bergen,
Gordon, Harrison, Douglas, Floyd.
Did I say Harrison?
Yes, you did.
And we do a bit of weatherization in Cobb County.
And we have the head start
programs in the different counties.
I served as chair for three years, a few years ago.
Now I'm on the finance committee.
I'm on the program committee.
And I said friends of the library.
I did belong here,
but I dropped my membership a few months ago.
First, well, no, there were
two Blacks I think
who joined at the same time, at this club.
The other person died,
but I think now there's
a new comer who has come to town and
she has been appointed to
the Etowah Housing Authorities board.
So I think she joined.
So there's still one black.
>> Why did you drop?
> Do I have to tell you? Because it's a personal thing?
>> You don't have to tell.
>> Because I like and if it's
just the personal thing they came up
and I just said okay.
>> It makes sense.
>> Oh, I used to be very active with the voters.
I used to work for voting precincts till
about three years ago.
I got tired getting up at four o'clock
in the morning [LAUGHTER].
And then you can't leave until after the polls close.
And then you got to do all of that,
making sure everything is equal.
And then you got to transport it to Cartersville.
And we would always bring food and I can't remember
the last time that I was bringing food.
I said, okay, y'all I've got
this big pot of chili that I'm bringing.
And they said, "We're so glad."
I stepped out of the house of
the carport and the crock pot
just dropped right out of my hand,
broke into pieces and
I just left it there for a couple of days [LAUGHTER].
I got in the car went to work. Oh, my God.
And they used to really get their old dumpings.
Don't you love your children, Mr Ruthers?
I just walked out of the door and it just broke.
>> Did we have anything else?
>> Did we spend an hour?
Well, this is miss Tokio over here.
>> Well, thank you very much, Miss Carruthers.
And we'll go ahead and end there.
>> My mom said I was talking at six months.
See, the cow?
So I haven't stopped yet.