Ms. Mumford:Do you remember Mr. Shepperson?
Ms. Nicholas:Yeah, he’s, Jim Shep...they called him. He lived in Roslyn...and he ran a pool hall and, and saloon there for a long time when I was small, but I didn’t...I, I never met him until, never saw him, or met him in...anyway, until I was...around fifteen and I saw him...and he was always in and out a lot of trouble...breaking the law, you know, doing things he had no business in until I was...around fifteen and I saw him...and he was always in and out a lot of trouble...breaking the law, you know, doing things he had no business in, Ms. Mumford
Ms. Mumford:‘Cause there was a business with the gambling perhaps...
Ms. Nicholas:Yeah. Gambling...
Ms. Mumford:Okay, now, my understanding is that he was connected.
Ms. Nicholas:Yeah, he helped to get men out...from the East, out...to Roslyn in the early days to help break the strike there...and...they had a little settlement I call it a settlement, little...area where there was a lot of Negroes, they put'em all together in a group, you know, housing, they didn’t have nice homes like the, the whites, they wouldn't let ‘em live over in this area, or they wouldn't let ‘em live in that area.
Ms. Mumford:This was in Roslyn?
Ms. Nicholas:In Roslyn. And the same thing in Ravensdale, and the same thing in...in Franklin. They were all grouped together. Except my dad now, he moved, he bought his home, and he moved down...in the flats...
Ms. Mumford:Were there problems with him being a "Negro' in those days, moving out of the...designated area...!
Ms. Mumford:Did you have, did he have problems as the result of that? Ms. Nicholas
Now, was this company housing where the blacks were, at, in that...
...area that you were...that was company housing.
Ms. Nicholas:Yes, company housing. And then when we moved to, to Ros, to Raven dale...they were, they wouldn't, there was no place in town that you could live, except up on the slag dump...where the mines had...filled in a Lot of land, and there was just nothing but slag from the mines...
Then they built houses on it.
Ms. Mumford:These were company houses also.
Ms. Nicholas:Yeah, company houses. And...
Ms. Mumford:And that’s the only place...
Ms. Nicholas:That's the only place you could live. But we didn’t live there, we moved to Georgetown...a Little...suburb from...Ravensdale. And we were the only Blacks, only Negroes that wasn't living in...this dump. And they called it the ‘slag dump’. That's what the, that's where the Negroes lived... And we moved...down there, and there's...a man named Mr. Frazier...Jack Frazier, he was the only one down there that would rent us a place to live...
Ms. Mumford:That would rent a place to live.
Ms. Nicholas:Yes... In this place. But after we moved down there...we were able to get some land, about an acre and a half of land, and we built our own
Ms. Mumford:From the mines...
Ms. Nicholas:In Ravensdale.
Ms. Mumford:In Ravensdale. Okay. So you were able to buy. And you didn't have any problems...
Ms. Nicholas:No, we didn't have any problems, once we moved down there, we didn't have any trouble... And people are all nice... We had a little trouble right, the kids there for awhile there, you know, little kids, you know...they...they’d throw rocks at us or something, and we'd throw back, and...they, they quit...The next thing you know, they was all piled up at the door playing... (both laugh). Ms.
Mrs. Mumford:Like kids will do.
Ms. Nicholas:Yes. So, that's the only trouble we ever had...and, in Ravensdale, and we didn’t have any in Roslyn... But everything was pretty quiet and pretty settled…organized you know, when we moved to Roslyn, but...they had...people could live different places, if they bought their homes, but they didn't want, the whites wouldn't rent them a place. But they'd sell them a place... And several of them had...pretty nice homes there. And...and they could live right beside you, and they didn’t bother you, and sometimes they became very good friends. But »when we moved over we lived for about a year, and...and...rented a house, until we got our piece, we bought some land and built our own home...and we lived there until I left home and got married... And I was going to live in Seattle, and...my husband couldn't find the work that he wanted...and so, we moved back to Roslyn and he went in the mines. But...when...my baby was born, Cecil was born...1I moved to...1l said, "I wasn’t gonna raise him in the coal mines..." because I was...apprehensive...every, every day I was worried until...my husband would show wp.
Ms. Mumford:Did you have many...cave-ins, and...
Ms. Nicholas:Always something happening, always something. Somebody getting...hurt or something, you know, and...I...just didn’t want to go through with that, so I told him I was going to move to Seattle... And he said he wasn't going to move...so I packed up Cecil and came to Seattle... And I was over here, I was looking for a job...and I couldn't find one at first, you know...I found a job, but £ couldn't find the...proper baby-sitter like I wanted to put held in. And... this white woman had said she would take care of him, she had a little boy about the same size as mine. And he was about two...years old. And...but before »see went on the job...who should show up but my husband...(both laugh)