TRANSCRIPT

HH - Harry Harper, interviewee; AS - Ada Summers, interviewee / LR - Lyn Royce, interviewer

HH: And then, course the family was havin' problems before that. They went in during the Depression... I can remember goin', every Thursday, I think it was... We had a... My youngest brother and I, we had to go down to what they called at that time the Harmer Building, that's the other side, uh, Welland Avenue. And then we got um, we had to do down there, get the groceries for the week.

LR: Mhmm...

HH: Well my Dad was there too, but uh, we had to haul it back. Then we got so used to peanut butter and jam; [chuckling] we had strawberry jam, it's a wonder we still eat it! But you see, these are things that you learn to cope. In school, well, we had our problems there and there was uh... See at the time, it's different now, they get uh, what's a family allowance? I think they call it...

AS: Family allowance, yeah.

HH: Now, they get so much money, it's, it's ridiculous. At that time you didn't get no money. The... Our landlord lived across the street, in that corner building, and he would come over and, you know, 'Time to pay the rent.' And he'd come over and get this paper signed. Then he would go up to the city, and collect the money, for the rent. And uh, like I say, we had to go down there and pick up the groceries. And like, I can remember goin' to school one time, I didn't have no shoes. So I went to school barefoot. And of course the kids ridiculed me, and... So that afternoon, I made out like I went to school, turned around 'n sneaked back. Well,my Dad was at the corner here with his, I call them his cronies, his drinkin' buddies, and so I was down here at the Ace, by Ace Alliance, used to be the ice house. So I peeked around the corner to see where he was, his head turned this way and he saw where I was! He never said a word until I got to bed.

LR: Ah...

HH: Then I got... But you can bet your boots I went to school the next day with no shoes on. [laughs]

LR: Aaaha!

HH: So...

LR: How, how many brothers and sisters did you have?

HH: 3 boys; there was, there was 4 boys in the family and 5 girls. Now there's 2 of each left, the rest are all passed away. So...

LR: Oh my gosh; that's a big family.

HH: Yeah, big family. [looking at picture] When I, most, most of 'em died, yeah that's 3...

LR: Okay...

HH: This, this one's passed on, he's the youngest. Jim, he's 86. And he was what, 79 when he passed away,

AS: Yeah...

HH: Then, I'm 83 [in August of 2008], so...

LR: Wow...

HH: You know, in it uh, like I say, it wasn't bad... Oh, in school, uh, we had a bully; a fella was real tough. And 'course, he took advantage of anybody that he thought was below him. So, I got beat up a few times. So 1 day I was in the corner; it was in kindergarten actually, and we was at the corner, just as you go up the steps to go inside, and, I don't know, all of a sudden I just grabbed him by the shirt and I swung him around the corner and I dug my head into his chest, and I just, I just kept pounding him, next thing, and he was goin' down, and 1st I was hittin' his chest, then his shoulders, then his face, that's when the teacher walked out, caught me beatin' him up; beatin' up the bully. So you guess who got in trouble! [laughs] But she knew what was goin' on; so see, I forget, I think I had to stand, in the wastebasket, that's what it was; that's the part that got, really got me. But then she told me after, she was sorry; she said, 'I know what was goin' on, but,' she says, 'we caught you.' So she said, 'We had to do it that way.' But she apologized after about it. But yuh... He never beat nobody else up in school after that.

LR: Good.

HH: So, that was a turning point. So from then on, like I say, I'd only take so much, and then... Even my Dad... I was 16 and I had my last beating. My younger brother used to do things and I would take the blame for it. And he would beat me. And I was sittin' in the chair in the hall 1 day, he come in, said somethin' to me and I said, 'Dad, I didn't do it.' And down come the strap. I just pulled him around like that and I looked him square in the eye: I never blinked, never cried, nothin'. He kept beatin' and beatin' till he was tired. And I said, he started to walk, I said, 'Dad,' 'What?!' I said, 'That's the last beating I'll take for anybody. If it's me to blame, I'll take it. But,' I said, 'I will never take a beating from you or nobody else.' I said, 'Now you've been warned.' And boy, when he disappeared, [starts 'crying'] the tears goin' then, but they were quiet. And that was it. That was it. I never took nothin' from nobody from then on.

LR: From then on...

HH: They had to... Even if they was bigger than me, it didn't make no difference. I said when; like I told everybody, 'When I get mad, I'm 10 feet tall.' So that was it; after that I, I didn't have no more problems!

LR: Ah!

HH: In a sense!