Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
Grady Walker
Interviewed at his residence
April 11, 2010
Interviewer: Bagley, Katy
Transcription completed: April 27, 2010
Transcriber: Katy Bagley
Editor: Sara Blanchett
1
Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
Title: Interview with Grady Walker
Keywords:
Description:
Contributor:
Interview Date: April 11, 2010
Format: Marantz
Indentifier:
Transcriber: Katy Bagley
Participatnt description:
Age:
Birth Date:
Birth Location: Charlotte, NC
Residence: Revolution Park
Education: Barber School, High School
Occupation: retired Barber
Setting Description: Living room of Interviewee
KB: Kathryn Anne Bagley
GW: Grady Walker
Begin Transcribing Interview Below.
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Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
KB: Today this is Katy Bagley interviewing Mr. Grady Walker at his residence on April 11, 2010. This
interview is taking place in conjunction with the Revolution Park oral history project under Dr. Karen
Flint for the archives at UNCC. Thank you for meeting with me today.
GW: Nice to meet you.
KB: Ok, Mr. Walker, can you tell me your fondest memory of Revolution Park?
GW: Yes, the fondest memory I would say was the swimming pool.
KB: Swimming pool. Did you go there a lot?
GW: All the time when we first moved here. I was like 11, and that’s where everybody around here
would go. That was the hang out place.
KB: Cool. When did your family move here?
GW: In ‘68 I think June of ‘68.
KB: Why?
GW: Because it was a house, and someone in my family wanted a house.
KB: That’s cool. Was it a safer neighborhood than you moved from? Or was it cheaper? Was it more…
GW: It was, the house was expensive, but safer? The neighborhood now is considered bad, but I, it was
safe to me. Both areas, I’d say.
KB: Did the pool and the golf course, were they both big draws for your family to come here?
GW: Ah, my father loved to play golf, you know, and I loved to swim
KB: [laughter] And where did you move from?
GW: A place called South Side. That’s right over, about 6 blocks, from here.
KB: 6 blocks, cool. Did you go to the same school after you moved?
GW: Well, uh, at the time, there came integration, so I went to the school which used to be called York
Road, they changed it to Kennedy Jr. High, and uh, then, because of the busing, in the 8th grade, I went
to Smith Jr. High. In the 9th grade, I went to Spawling Jr. High. Uh
KB: So how many? 4?
GW: 3 high schools, 3 junior high schools.
KB: Wow. Was that tough?
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Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
GW: No, because everybody who that I was with they were going to the same schools.
KB: So were you with both blacks and white?
GW: Yes, uh-huh
KB: And obviously you were bused. Is that correct?
GW: Yes, uh huh.
KB: So were whites bused as well or just blacks?
GW: Most of the whites lived in the area, lived around the area, and we were bused.
KB: OK, OK, wow. Were the race relations ever tense at school? Or how were they?
GW: Yes, it, only in high school, and that’s when it started to get sort of tense, and that was at Olympic.
KB: Oh, Olympic high school. Did anything ever happen?
GW: Oh yeah, they had a few fights rise, uh, a few dangerous.
KB: Really?
GW: Yes.
KB: Wow. Do you remember any specific examples?
GW: Yeah, I can’t remember the guys that did it, but these two black guys, they threw a white guy off
the 2nd story, and it paralyzed him for life.
KB: Wow.
GW: I remember that.
KB: Did they get in trouble?
GW: You know, I really don’t know what happened. I really can’t remember what happened after that
incident. Yeah.
KB: Wow. Wow. That’s intense. So back to Revolution Park. When you moved here, what was the
community like?
GW: It was still a mixture of blacks and whites, and which it is still a mixture of blacks and whites. Not
as many whites as we have around here now, but still a mixture and everybody gets along.
KB: OK. Who were your neighbors?
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Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
GW: My neighbors if I can remember their name were the Griffins, which stay over here on the left side
of Beech Nut, and the Jeeters next door, and they’ve been there ever since we’ve been there.
KB: Are they still there?
GW: Yeah
KB: So maybe they would want to do an interview
GW: They’re kind of old, so I… [laughter]
KB: You doubt it. Fair enough. So can you give me, were they black or white?
GW: They’re black.
KB: And were the other neighbors black or white?
GW: They were black.
KB: OK, so what do you think the percentage would be of black to white ratio in the neighborhood
when you moved here?
GW: I’m saying a little less than half and half.
KB: Less blacks, or…?
GW: More, yeah, when I got here a little bit more blacks than whites, but -KB: Half?
GW: Yeah, yeah.
Kb: Was the neighborhood full of families?
GW: Yes, it was.
KB: Did you play with a lot of kids then, since you were 11?
GW: Mainly, more of the people that I grew up with moved to Clanton Park, so I had a tendency of
going there, either go in there back or to my old place and hanging out instead. I met some people
around here, but I still stuck with the people that I used to.
KB: Did you play with them at the pool?
GW: Yes, uh huh
KB: So pretty much all the neighborhoods they came to the pool?
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Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
GW: Yes, from Clanton Park, South Side, to and Revolution Park.
KB: So then did you go to school with the Revolution Park kids?
GW: After starting around the 9th grade, I did.
KB: OK. What kind of interactions did you have with your neighbors?
GW: Good. Everybody had always gotten along.
KB: Did you ever notice any racial tension?
GW: No, I didn’t.
KB: So was this then, you said this was seen as a safe neighborhood?
GW: Uh-huh, yes.
KB: Did you lock your doors at night?
GW: Well, not, like I mean, you could keep the doors open and sit on the porch without worrying about
anything, but by this time, people, everybody has started locking their doors at night, [laughter] you
know?
KB: Yes, I do. I understand that. Do you think, was crime ever an issue?
GW: Crime, I mean, like anywhere else, you’re going to have your crime, but crime has never been a big
issue around here, and still isn’t.
KB: Really?
GW: Uh-huh.
KB: Where did you parents work?
GW: My father worked at uh, well at first it was Mary Oats school as a custodian, and my mother
worked as a director over a nursery at South Tryon Presbyterian, which is about 2 miles from here.
KB: OK, wow, so then was your father, was that school close by, or was it far?
GW: No, the Mary Oats School is, out of central Avenue and the Plaza, but finally he retired from Carmel
Jr. High, which down by the South Park area.
KB: So then your parents did not necessarily move here because it was close to their jobs?
GW: No.
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Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
KB: It was just a good neighborhood?
GW: Yes.
KB: Can you describe what your house looked like when you moved in?
GW: Almost the same as it does now [laughter] outside.
KB: So it was brick?
GW: Yes, well it was brick, and, well it was brick and wood. Now it has some aluminum siding, you
know.
KB: Um hum.
GW: Yeah, I’ve just had some work done to it.
KB: OK, is the inside the same?
GW: Yes, still the same.
KB: How many rooms are there?
GW: Only two bedrooms
KB: Two bedrooms?
GW: And a bathroom, and this part out here as you notice, I don’t know as you came in, it has always
been, it’s a built on a garage, it was here when we first moved here, but it’s used as a little room
because no cars can fit in
KB: [laughter] OK, so who lived here before you did?
GW: I can’t remember the people’s name. She was a, I think a middle age lady, and was selling.
KB: White or black?
GW: She was white.
KB: OK, so did she add on the garage?
GW: I don’t know. It was added on when we came here
KB: So it was like that?
GW: Uh huh.
KB: OK, so what was your yard like? Did you play in it as a child?
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Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
GW: Yes, I’ve always had a dog, so...
KB: Is it big?
GW: It’s pretty huge, I’m sure we’re sitting maybe a little less than an acre. I know, but, maybe a little
less than half an acre.
KB: That’s pretty good.
GW: I’d say it’s all out there.
KB: OK, cool. Did you go to church in the area?
GW: Yes, I went to South Tryon Presbyterian Church.
KB: Where is that?
GW: About 2 miles.
KB: Where your mom worked?
GW: Uh huh.
KB: And did that church, did many people from this neighborhood go there?
GW: No, no, a lot of people went to Galilee.
KB: Where is Galilee?
GW: It’s over here right off Mint St. West Blvd and Mint.
KB: OK. So that was a community church then? A neighborhood church sort of?
GW: Not a neighborhood, just more people went there that I knew of. More people are Baptist than,
I’m a Presbyterian.
KB: Me too
GW: OK.
KB: Ah yeah, there are definitely a lot of Baptists in the South. When you first moved here, and the,
you said it was half and half, was Galilee a white church or a black church?
GW: This Galilee over here was a white church then, uh but the Galilee that’s sitting off South Tryon St.,
over the years, they’ve moved it into this church over here on Mint St.
KB: Oh, OK. So why did it change from a white one to a black?
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Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
GW: I’m not sure. I’m not sure. I’m not sure if the church advanced and went somewhere else.
KB: So it was probably a move?
GW: Yes, uh huh.
KB: So they just kept the name?
GW: No, they didn’t keep the name. I’ve forgotten the name that it was before then. It was, I’ve
forgotten the name that it was before then.
KB: OK, we’ve heard of a Mt Zion church that was white, is that?
GW: Uh huh, First Mt. Zion over here on Remount. I used to go there too.
KB: OK, so was it black or white when you went there?
GW: At first when I moved here, it was a white church, uh huh, but the guy, he went to school with us. I
won’t forget his name, his name was Jan.
KB: Jan.
GW: Uh huh.
KB: And Jan was the, was he the preacher’s son?
GW: Yeah, the preacher’s son.
KB: OK, the white preacher’s son. Ok, and did you hang out with him?
GW: Yeah.
KB: Did they live in the neighborhood?
GW: Yeah, uh huh the house was beside the church.
KB: Oh, OK. So when it-GW: For the preacher and his family.
KB: So when it, I think we’ve been told that when it was sold, a black church moved in.
GW: Yes, uh huh.
KB: So did they keep the house for their preacher, do you know?
GW: No, if I’m not mistaken, that house has been torn down.
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Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
KB: OK.
GW: Yeah.
KB: Have many of the houses here been torn down?
GW: No, I’ve only known of one, two. Two or three houses have all that’s been torn down over the
years.
KB: How many houses would you say are in this neighborhood?
GW: I can, now that would be hard, for me
KB: I don’t know either.
GW: I think John has the estimate on that.
KB: So most of them then are the original houses then.
GW: Yeah.
KB: Do people renovate them?
GW: What they’re doing, a lot of people are coming in a buying them and trying to buy them, but I’m
like this is not going anywhere, but they’re renovating and renting them out.
KB: [laugh]
GW: Which a lot of people around here, the people that I used to, well there’s still a lot of people
around here that I know. But, it’s a mixture because they’re renting them out now.
KB: Oh, OK. So would you say on your street now, are they mostly renters or owners?
GW: I’m going to say about half and half on our street.
KB: Really? Has that changed the feel of the neighborhood at all?
GW: Sometimes, because the older ones that knew each other, tend to stick together because a lot of
times, the ones that move in don’t stay there long enough for you to get to know them.
KB: Got you. Um, so in 1968 when you moved, where did you go shopping? Grocery shopping?
GW: Um, there used to be a Harris Teeter up here off of Remount Road in the shopping center. It’s a
new shipping center now, but it used to be a Harris Teeter.
KB: And that’s where your family went?
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Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
GW: Yep.
KB: I guess you probably didn’t do too much of that, did you?
GW: No, well there was a drug store up here, Eckerd’s drug store, so that was a little hanging place too.
They had a little old timey soda fountain where you could get hamburgers and milkshakes and stuff like
that.
KB: So would the kids go there much?
GW: Yeah.
KB: Was it expensive?
GW: Not that I can recall. I think maybe then a hot dog was like a quarter.
KB: Oh wow, awesome. So ok, in the summer then, you would go up to the soda fountain and did you
hang out at the pool the whole time?
GW: Yes, the pool was like almost an everyday thing.
KB: Really?
GW: Yeah.
KB: Would you go there all day long?
GW: I have gone, well, the way they had it set up, well when it was first open, they would have a big,
because it was an Olympic size pool, they would have Olympic meets up there for two weeks
KB: Ah.
GW: And they would have the Winnebago’s you know, just families from everywhere. And then after
that, our swimming season would start, and they had what was, free swimming was from ten to twelve,
and then after twelve, it was a quarter to get in. And a quarter to get in and a dime to rent you a locker
to put your clothes in, and I have gone up there at ten in the morning. The swimming pool didn’t close
until ten at night because they had lights, and staying till ten at night.
KB: Wow.
GW: Yeah, because we had a juke box, we had a place that sold snow balls, hot dogs, and stuff right in
at the pool.
KB: Nice.
GW: Yeah.
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Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
KB: So these Olympic meets, were they actual Olympians?
GW: I guess they were preparing for the Olympics, but they were big meets.
KB: So you had people from all over the country coming?
GW: Yes.
KB: Wow. That’s cool. Did you ever go watch any of the…?
GW: I never did. I was just waiting on the pool
KB: To swim?
GW: yeah to swim.
KB: Ok, I have a question. So free swim, from ten to twelve, if you stayed, like if you went in at ten and
got in for free, would you stay the whole time for free?
GW: No, you would get out.
KB: Oh, you had to?
GW: Yeah, you had to get out, but it was kind of like an honest thing you know. They would tell
everybody to get out, then you’d go get back thru the line and pay your quarter.
KB: Did you have to re-pay for another locker?
GW: No, because you still had, you had a key that you pinned on your trunks.
KB: OK. Could you kind of describe the facilities for me?
GW: Uh like the inside?
KB: The whole thing.
GW: OK, well there was a, as you go to the, in the driveway, at the top of the building, there was a
building downstairs, you paid to go in swimming, and then you went straight through to the shower
room where your lockers were and stuff like that, and you would come out this little door, exit, and go
swimming. Upstairs was the center, and it had like, I don’t know, something young people are familiar
with like foosball and pool-KB: Uh huh.
GW: --and ping pong and stuff like that that was upstairs. Of the building.
KB: Were those free as well?
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Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
GW: Yes, those were free.
KB: Wow. Ok, so it’s an Olympic size pool, did it have a lot of chairs and lounge chairs around there?
GW: It had a place, an area, where you could sit and be under the shade for the meets.
KB: Oh cool.
GW: Yeah
KB: Was that on the upstairs level? or
GW: It, no it was like down on by the pool, but you had, I mean, it was, I know it would hold over I
know, a hundred and fifty, 200, maybe 200 people.
KB: Wow.
GW: I’m sure 100.
KB: At least.
GW: Yeah
KB: Wow. That’s impressive.
GW: Yeah.
KB: So were you pretty upset when they decided to shut it down?
GW: It hurt, because I was so used to seeing it.
KB: Did you still use it?
GW: No, I didn’t use it , as just, just it being there.
KB: Good memories?
GW: Yeah.
KB: So in the summer, you would go from ten to ten sometimes. What all would you eat, just the
hotdogs and?
GW: Most of the time, yeah, yeah, you know. I would eat breakfast before I’d leave and you know.
KB: [ laughter]
GW: Just go down there and enjoy the day.
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Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
KB: Were there a lot of kids there?
GW: Yeah.
KB: Is that what you did with the friends?
GW: Yes because we have Clanton Park right over here in this area, so everybody from Clanton like I
said, a lot of people that I moved from Southside with were from Clanton Park.
KB: OK, got you.
GW: So everybody, Clanton Park would walk there to the pool. Even they have this place called Arbor
Glenn, it used to be called Arbor Village, and they would come, and I mean, it was just a place where
everybody met and had a good time.
KB: That’s pretty cool.
GW: Yep.
KB: So you know the facilities were desegregated in 1960, the pool. Do you remember that?
GW: No, I don’t.
KB: You were probably really little.
GW: Yeah. [Interruption.]
KB: Do you know, was there ever any, did blacks and whites swim peacefully while you were there?
GW: Yes, uh huh.
KB: Was there ever any awkwardness?
GW: Not that I can recall. For being, no, not for being around the pool.
KB: So nobody was ever turned away that you know of?
GW: No.
KB: OK, that’s cool um, so during the day, were there adults as well or was there just kids?
GW: Yes because my father would go down there with me sometimes.
KB: So it was black and white adults too?
GW: Uh huh.
KB: And they never had-14
Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
GW: No, no big confrontation.
KB: Interesting. Was there ever any difference in who was there at different times of the day?
GW: No, outside was when they had, when they would be practicing for the meet, because back then,
a lot of blacks didn’t swim, you know like in the Olympics and stuff, you know there’d be stuff like that,
so outside of that, no.
KB: OK. Well, that was pretty cool. So I have a question. I know you were 11 when you moved here,
but your dad used the golf course.
GW: Right.
KB: Did you ever use it too?
GW: He, he started me trying to teach me, but you know sometimes a parent can be a little bit too
hard, so I got disinterested. But yes, I have played. I am disabled right now, but I still have my father’s
clubs, and I’ve thought about when they open it, maybe getting a cart and just messing around.
KB: That would be fun. Do you know who played at the golf course?
GW: Yes, um there was a well, he became pretty good professional, his name was Charles Sifford.
Charles Sifford’s played over ether at Revolution. Another guy, Jim Black, he’s played over there. And
um, that is the only ones that I can say that I know of whose name has carried on.
KB: Were they black or white?
GW: Um hum, they were black.
KB: Was there ever any racial tensions with the golf course that you know of?
GW: No. No, there wasn’t. Everybody, all the guys, I mean I used to walk around with my father
sometimes when he would play. I mean, everybody gave each other their respect. Tee off, keep going.
If you were a little slow, you could play through, you know, stuff like that. No.
KB: Did you know anyone besides your father personally who golfed within your neighborhood?
GW: Uh yes, I knew , there was a man named Mr. Camps, uh he used to play there. A man, right up the
street on Mayflower, Mr. Robert Williams, he used to play there. Everybody used to play there. Even my
neighbor, they used to play there. And my best friend, he lived up the street in Clanton Park, his father
used to play there.
KB: Oh wow. So pretty much that was like what your dad’s did. You‘d play at the pool and they’d play
at the golf course?
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Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
GW: Yeah.
KB: OK, did it have a big impact on the community being a golf course community, was that?
GW: I think it did, because a lot of people that is a 9 hole golf course, but I’ve heard a lot of people say
that is one of the best golf courses to start learning how to play on because it has so many different
types of shots that it really teaches you. It’s one of the best learning golf courses there is.
KB: And that’s where you tried to learn with your dad?
GW: Yeah. [laughter]
KB: So did many kids ever play there, or was it mostly adults?
GW: Well, uh, ok, well the school zone would always bring their students there to play.
KB: Oh really, what schools?
GW: Almost all the some of the schools around, they had a golf team.
KB: And they almost all came here?
GW: All came down to bring their students to-KB: Because it was a good learning-GW: --Yeah.
KB: Oh, that’s cool. Did that impact the community?
GW: Well, everyone liked to see the kids going and coming in groups, and be on there because there
was not a fence around there.
KB: Oh, when did they do the fence?
GW: Oh the fence has been there for years, but when we first moved here, there was no fence. You
could just walk on.
KB: Really, so did you ever play on there when you weren’t supposed to?
GW: Yes, my father did.
KB: That’s nice. So when you were a child, I know you‘ve mentioned before that you all believed the
golf course was haunted?
GW: Yes.
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Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
KB: Can you tell me about that?
GW: Well there was rumors that at night if you ever uh went on the golf course, they said there was a
golf ball, and if you picked it up, it would turn into a ghost, just old tales. And they also had a thing
about this fence that was crooked on the golf course. Which is up here on the number 3, but what it is,
it’s a, it’s a hill up there, and if you look at it at a certain angle, the fence looks crooked. Oh, and there
was also the rumor of a headless horseman running around on the golf course at night.
KB: Do you know how any of these got started?
GW: No.
KB: Were they big rumors by the time you came?
GW: Yes, uh huh.
KB: Did you believe them? Were you scared?
GW: No, I actually at night, I would go on there trying to find them.
KB: Did your golf ball become a hole---- [interruption]
KB: So did you’re um, did you ever pick up the golf ball to see if it was a ghost?
GW: Well every golf, well what we would do, golf balls, where we had to walk to school, l the gold
course was our route to the school, to Kennedy, when I went to Kennedy. So, [coughs] excuse me.
Coming back, if we were on the golf course, and we were buying golf balls, yeah, we would always pick
them up because we could sell them back to the golf.
KB: Ah. Did you do that much?
GW: Yes I did. We used to go right down here to the creek where you had a little, like a little island you
could walk out on, and we would get golf balls. And get bagged those and sell them back to the golf
course.
KB: So did anyone you know, any children, work there? Was that like an after school thing?
GW: Well you could go up there, they had a caddy house that if you thought you wanted to caddy, you
could go there and caddy for somebody.
KB: Did you ever try that?
GW: I tried it, but I didn’t like it.
KB: Interesting. We’ve looked at some newspaper clippings. That said there was a murder on the golf
course in the early 70s.
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UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
GW: Yes, I remember that.
KB: Do you know what happened?
GW: The only thing I know that was, up here on the hill, it was number 7 tee off, it was embedded it
was kind of like in the woods, and um I can remember vaguely, somebody robbed, it was either two or
three golfers. And I think shot them and the way they found out, they were up there in the woods. One
of them, he was shot but he happened to crawl out of the woods and somebody discovered him. And
that was the only murder that ever happened. And it was weird, you know?
KB: That is. How did that affect the community?
GW: When something like that happens, you know, you’re a little bit shaky, but as times goes on it
wears, I, I thought about it recently, you know. Because but it’s something that’s way in the back of my
head that I very seldom think about.
KB: Yep, so were you afraid after that, how did you feel?
GW: I guess it would have to be a little of fear in my heart, but what you would really call terrified, no.
KB: Hmmm.
GW: No, no.
KB: So do you, was it a racial murder?
GW: If I’m not mistaken, I don’t know. I believe it was. They were white golfers, and I believe the
shooter was black, but I can’t remember.
KB: So you don’t think that was it a targeted, like, “we’re going to do this as a violent act against?”
GW: I think just people in the wrong place at the wrong time.
KB: Got you, OK. So that didn’t change any of the black and white relationships in the neighborhood?
GW: No, it didn’t.
KB: At that point, was the neighborhood mostly black? Or was it still-GW: By then, it was mostly black.
KB: When did that happen? When did it change?
GW: I’m saying when we came here in 68, it started changing a little bit more, well by 70, it was more
blacks here than probably whites
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UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
KB: Do you know why that happened?
GW: Back then which it doesn’t’ happen as much now, if blacks moved in, whites moved out. You
know, so that was just the way it was.
KB: Was that like a block busting? Did the realtors try to convince the whites to move out?
GW: I don’t think so.
KB: Or was it literally because-GW: --I think it was literally because it was a black neighborhood would start too turned into a black
neighborhood whites would move. It was just that way. Yeah.
KB: Eww. So besides golfing and the pool, what other activities did you do?
GW: Well, football.
KB: So just regular high school?
GW: No, sand lot mostly.
KB: Oh! So the neighborhood played football?
GW: Yeah.
KB: Who would you play with?
GW: Well some of my buddies on Beach Nut and stuff like that. In fact, on Beech Nut, there’s a now it’s
a soccer field, there’s a walkway down through here, but it was just a big old field that Duke Power
owned, and we would play football from light post to light post, which was like 100 yards between each
other. So we would play there, and then we could, I mentioned Jan the preacher’s son, in the back of
the church then, there was a the church was smaller then, and it was all grass in the back, so sometimes
we would play football in the back part. Uh huh. But then we also had up at the swimming pool ,we had
the basket ball courts. So basketball too.
KB: So you had a lot of different activities?
GW: Different activities, yes.
KB: And would the other children that were your friends in the other neighborhoods come play here?
GW: Yes. Everybody played in Revolution. Well they said if you could play at Revolution, you could
almost be an NBA star because it was hard playing basketball there.
KB: Wow.
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GW: If you could play up there.
KB: So did anybody from Revolution Park go NBA?
GW: Not that I know of, but I’ve seen some guys that should have.
KB: That’s impressive. Did you ever have any neighborhood rivalries with some of the other
neighborhoods?
GW: Yes, sometimes, like, I guess it was rivalry, but it was like, almost a friendly rivalry, like sometimes I
guess the tension would build up for guys and stuff. So Clanton Park would kind of get mad at
Revolution Park and we would go down here on the golf course, and have little fights [laughter] and it
would be over with.
KB: Did you actually participate in these?
GW: Yeah, I did.
KB: Were they fist fights?
GW: Yes.
KB: Did you ever get any injuries?
GW: No, just beat up. One on one, may the best man win. You know, and you would go on about your
business
KB: So you were still friends after that?
GW: Yes. Yeah.
KB: How old were you when you would do that kind of stuff?
GW: This was around, I’m saying, maybe about eleven to thirteen. Maybe fourteen.
KB: So when you first moved here?
GW: Yes.
KB: Were you more of a Revolution Park person, or were you like because of the neighborhood
rivalries, where did you?
GW: I was, I was a mixture because I knew everybody from every part. From Brooklyn Park to
Revolution Park back to South Side. And I’d still go to South Side. That’s where I get my hair cut. I still
go over there and there’s still people that was there when I was there from there, and I see them and
everything else.
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KB: So I guess then it wasn’t as distinct for you then because you were friends with everybody?
GW: Yeah, yeah like I said, my mother worked over in Southside, so I was over there sometimes,
Southside and Brook Hill, so I was raised with everybody from over there, and then I moved over here,
and these people in Revolution Park, so I’m friends with them, and after the people from South Side
moved to Clanton Park, and I knew them, so…
KB: So you really just?
GW: I was kind of neutral.
KB: OK, were any of your friends that lived here, did they think they were better than maybe some of
the other ones since y’all had a golf course and a pool?
GW: No.
KB: It was not?
GW: It wasn’t really because the people from South Side came to play golf in Revolution Park.
KB: OK so it was pretty much?
GW: They came swimming.
KB: So this was like the center of all of the neighborhoods? Got you.
GW: Uh huh.
KB: Did you ever have a job while you were a kid?
GW: Yes, I had, kind of always worked. I used to work around, even since I can remember since I was
four with my grandfather. He used to train horses for this man. Man's name was Frank Woods, he
owned a car lot, and I used to get up in the mornings and go with my grandfather. You know
KB: Wow. When you were four years old?
GW: Yes uh huh I can remember that, and then me and my grandfather, we would go over here in what
they call Greertown, and I used to go over there with him , and help him cut grass when I was like
eleven, you know. Growing up.
KB: So would you cut grass around here at all?
GW: No, in Greer town. With him.
KB: OK. Only there. Did you ever do any jobs that were in the neighborhood?
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GW: Helped throw papers with the paper boy.
KB: Cool. How did you get that?
GW: Well I was really helping this friend of mine, he was a paperboy, but he would pay us on the side,
so me and him became good friends, and I would help him throw the route around
KB: That’s interesting. Did you ride a bike or?
GW: Yes. We rode bikes and threw papers.
KB: So were there children constantly on bikes and running around when you were growing up?
GW: Yeah, uh huh that was the thing. That was the thing. [Interruption-- phone rings]
KB: OK, so kids rode their bikes all around.
GW: Yes, well that was the big thing. Kids rode bikes. I mean, our see kids riding bikes now, but not
like we did.
KB: Would you go ride your bike to the Eckerd’s and get a hot dog?
GW: Most of the time when we went up that way we would walk.
KB: Oh, OK. Why?
GW: I don’t know, just a group thing I guess.
KB: Did you ever play games on your bikes?
GW: Oh well, it was funny that you ask that. Well on the golf course, well really bicycles weren’t
allowed on the golf course, and up at the top of here were humps that we would jump over. Like I say, I
don’t know if you are familiar with the movie “The Great Escape,” but we would hit the hills and bounce
off. So we could be in the air, and there was this, I think he liked to he started having fun with us. There
was a security guard, and he rode a three wheeled motorcycle, and he would he started chasing us on
the motorcycle. And we could we would start riding. And there’s a bridge, there used to be an old
bridge down there. And his three wheeled motorcycle couldn’t go over the bridge, but we could ride
our bikes on the other side, and we would wave at him.
KB: [laughter]
GW: So you know, that was a little game.
KB: Oh, that’s funny.
GW: Just being young and foolish.
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KB: So why couldn’t he ride his bike, his motorcycle over the bridge?
GW: His three wheeled motorcycle, it was too wide to ride over.
KB: So it was a thin narrow?
GW: Yeah, it was a narrow bridge. It was a walking over bridge. A golf cart could go over it, but the
wideness of his three wheeled motorcycle could not fit through the bridge. Through this one bridge
down here, and that’s the one we would go over, so he couldn’t catch us.
KB: [laughter] That was cruel. I bet he did not-GW: Yeah, and he was an older man too.
KB: Did he get mad every time he saw ya’ll coming?
GW: Yeah, he never caught anybody though.
KB: Did he ever tell your parents?
GW: No, he didn’t really know who was who, so you know…
KB: That’s good, lucky. I know earlier, you mentioned that to go to one of the schools, you went to,
you walked-GW: Yes, that was Kennedy Jr. High.
KB: And how would you get there? How did you walk there?
GW: Well right here at my house, you could leave here, go hit the golf course, go to the same bridge
that I told you we rode on the bicycles , go up the hill, and go through, down through the golf course.
Well 77, which is over here, was not there then. Because one time the golf course extended all the way
across 77, but when they started building 77 and we were going to school, if it would rain, we couldn’t
go on top of 77 because of all the mud, so we had a tunnel that we could go through. Though under the
highway, and come out on the other side and almost be at school. Just be at the back of the school.
When we came out of the tunnel.
KB: Wow. Was it a dangerous ride?
GW: We walked. We walked.
KB: Was it, I guess there weren’t any cars, so it wasn’t that dangerous kind of thing was it?
GW: No, they had just started building 77, so it was all dirt.
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KB: OK, so when 77 was built in the 70s, was it a good thing or a bad thing in the neighborhood? Did
they care?
GW: It was a good thing because it didn’t really take anybody’s land. Only thing it took was the golf
course.
KB: Oh, it took the golf course?
GW: Yeah, it took the golf course.
KB: Was that OK?
GW: I’m sure they hated to lose a little bit of it, but it still, yeah.
KB: Was it still a nine hole course then?
GW: It was a nine hole course then. And it still is a nine hole course
KB: So they just kind a rearranged some of the-GW: --Yeah, they rearranged it.
KB: OK, so did 77 change the neighborhood at all?
GW: No. No.
KB: Did it affect any of the surrounding neighborhoods?
GW: No because they didn’t, it didn’t take anybody’s yard. It didn’t take anybody’s land.
KB: Uh hum. That’s cool did it change the desirability of living in the community?
GW: No.
KB: Wow. So it really had like no effect on y’all.
GW: No effect.
KB: So did it change any of the businesses around here?
GW: I’m sure it probably did, because well even with 77, in the afternoons when 77 would be packed,
you get, you very seldom get, as you can see now, you very seldom have a lot of traffic. Going through
here, and it’s just like this all the time. But in the afternoons sometimes like during the week there’s
more cars because if 77 is crowded, you get a little heavier flow coming through this was shortcut.
KB: Was it like that when it was first built? Did this--
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GW: It really wasn’t like that at first when it was first built. Because I know, I guess there wasn’t as
many cars as today on the road
KB: Oh, OK. Did your family own a car?
GW: Yes, always. Yeah, my father always owned a car.
KB: Did you have many of them?
GW: Yes, many of them. Even me, I’ve had-KB: --Did you get a car at 16?
GW: Yes, I did.
KB: What was it?
GW: A mustang.
KB: Oh. Fun! Go pick up the ladies in your mustang.
GW: Well, I was going with one girl which became my wife which became my kids’ mother now so…
KB: OK. Did you meet her at school then?
GW: Yes, she lives, her mother lives right up the street [laughter] up on Barringer in Clanton Park.
KB: Oh, would she want to be interviewed?
GW: No, I don’t think so. [laughter]
KB: Told you we were trying to get more people…
GW: [Coughs] Excuse me.
KB: So was your family ever involved in any neighborhood organizations?
GW: My mother used to be involved with the neighborhood association, which I am now.
KB: You are? And why was it created, do you know?
GW: I really don’t know because I wasn’t even involved in it when my mother was involved with it,
which was years and years ago. I’m thinking I might not have even been here then, but I’ve been here
with my mother about probably about 8 years now. And um, I just, I just said I was going to get involved
with it. And I did.
KB: Do you like it?
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GW: Yeah.
KB: What kind of activities do you do?
GW: OK, well down here lately, do what, was it the first of this month, where our store used to be
down the street, they built a garden. A neighborhood garden. It’s for Clanton Park and Revolution Park.
So…
KB: OK. Do you know when the neighborhood association was formed?
GW: No, I don’t.
KB: OK, when did you leave here?
GW: When did I leave here?
KB: Because you said it happened when you weren’t here?
GW: OK, when did I leave here, I left, I believe about 74 or 75.
KB: OK.
GW: The first time.
KB: ‘ 74, ’75, and when you came back 8 years ago, it was active?
GW: Yes, uh huh.
KB: So it either happened maybe in the ‘80s or the ‘90s.
GW: I’m saying the the ‘70s.
KB: Really?
GW: Yeah, I’m saying the ‘70s. I might be wrong, but I know the ‘80s.
KB: OK. Definitely. And at that point, then it was a black neighborhood too, correct?
GW: Still like I said, it always has been-KB: --A little bit of mixture?
GW: Yeah.
KB: That’s cool. Did you ever do any holiday celebrations in the neighborhood?
GW: Not outside of Christmas, and everybody else with their decorations.
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KB: Did everybody decorate around here?
GW: Yes, most everybody did.
KB: Lots of lights?
GW: Yeah, uh huh.
KB: Do they still?
GW: Not as much, but Clanton Park, they still have a, I think, they have a thing where the best house
wins a prize after Christmas. And then in Clanton Park, there’s about 4 houses, and I mean, you go there
and they are-KB: --Awesome?
GW: Immaculate, yeah.
KB: Why do you think Revolution Park doesn’t do that?
GW: Well like I said, you have, now you have a lot of more people and less kids around here now.
KB: OK.
GW: So I’m feeling that’s why, but I’m still into Christmas so we decorate every year.
KB: Did you ever go trick or treating door to door?
GW: Always.
KB: And did people participate in that?
GW: Yeah.
KB: So if you had a lot of kids, everyone would too?
GW: Yeah.
KB: So you’ve said now there’s less kids, what else has changed in the neighborhood sine you moved
in?
GW: Well like I said, the people that you know, lot of people have ether passed on. I don’t know if they
left the house to their families and the families just didn’t want to move back in, and they’ve rented
them out or sold, but there’s still a lot of people that have been here too around here-KB: OK.
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GW: Around here so.
KB: So would you stay of the home owners, are most of them like long term homeowners?
GW: Yes.
KB: That have been here?
GW: Yes, for a long time.
KB: And do you think there’s anybody here still that was one of the original like before, original owner
of the house?
GW: No, I’m pretty sure of that.
KB: OK. That could be. Why do you think that is?
GW: The original homeowners?
KB: I mean, how old is the neighborhood?
GW: It’s old.
KB: So they’d probably be dead. [laughter] OK, fair enough. Do you think a lot of the older people that
live here now will pass it on to their children?
GW: I’ve heard a lot of them say they’d like to. But they would just want to make sure, they’re kind of
wanting for them to pass on for them to keep it.
KB: Uh huh, instead of renting it?
GW: Instead of selling. I think a lot of them would even be satisfied if they rented it out instead of
selling and getting rid of it completely.
KB: I guess if you‘ve lived here your whole life, this would be.
GW: Yeah.
KB: Why do you think a lot of the families moved out? Why do you think?
GW: I’m thinking maybe a lot of the people, a majority that I could see, maybe a, either a male or
female, their spouse passed on, or maybe they, as they got older, they had to go into a nursing home or
something like that. Then you know.
KB: OK, so would you say that the people that live there now, are they more older people?
GW: Yes.
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KB: So that’s why there aren’t more children?
GW: Yes.
KB: OK. OK. That makes since. OK, well census data tells us that from the 1960s to the 1980s, that was
when the demographics really changed,
GW: OK.
KB: Do you have any specific memories of any white leaving the neighborhood or anything?
GW: Outside of the preacher’s son, Jan, I really, you know…
KB: When did Jan leave?
GW: I can’t remember. Its, I think, maybe I went to a different school and that’s why-KB: You drifted?
GW: Yeah drifted apart from him. Yeah. I can’t think.
KB: Now why would he have gone to a different school than you, a different high school?
GW: Well really, I wasn’t supposed to go to Olympic, I was supposed to go to Harding. But then you
could cheat a little bit, so I got, I was able to go to Olympic because more the other people I knew went
to Olympic.
KB: OK, so how did you cheat?
GW: My cousin lived over here in Brook Hill, and I gave them his address. I really was supposed to go
to Harding. I think, if I’m not mistaken, I think he went to Harding.
KB: Why did you not want to go there?
GW: I just knew more people.
KB: So that was it?
GW: Yeah.
KB: Were either of the schools a better school academically, have better reputations?
GW: Olympic was.
KB: Oh, so you were doing better for yourself. Got you. [laughter] Well did any of the racial changes in
the neighborhood or just the families moving and people aging, did that ever make you feel
uncomfortable, or how does that make you feel?
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GW: No, because I still like a lot of the elderly around here. I even walk the neighborhood and talk to
everybody. So it didn’t change a thing for me. I stay in touch with the people I know on the street. I still
talk. And everything like that, so mostly, not bragging, a lot of people around here know me because I’ve
been here so long. So…
KB: So are you proud of your neighborhood?
GW: Yeah.
KB: Are you glad this is where you live?
GW: Yeah.
KB: Did your family maybe thinking about maybe wanting-GW: To move? No, not a lot of people when they left from Clanton Park to Revolution Park, Hidden
Valley became a place to move.
KB: Oh, now why would they do that?
GW: I don’t know you know some people some people do it because trying to be like the Jones’s, you
know, and they would do that. But Hidden Valley turned out to be a worse neighborhood than this ever
has that I know of.
KB: What do you think the reputation is now of this neighborhood?
GW: Of this neighborhood. Pretty well safe, pretty well, I mean, you have your West Blvd but a lot of
people think of West Boulevard as a bad area, but I’m so used to it that it doesn’t seem bad to me. You
know? You’re going to have crime everywhere. It’s never bothered me.
KB: When do you think this became a bad neighborhood? Like when do you think the stigma
happened?
GW: Really the West Side always has become…
KB: Oh really?
GW: Yeah.
KB: OK.
GW: Yeah, but I guess because me living here, it never has affected me at all.
KB: Affected you?
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GW: No. I mean, anything can happen at any time. I mean, I can walk the streets and just feel safe, and
it doesn’t bother me.
KB: That’s good. That’s really good. So were you ever involved in any of the NAACP activities in
Charlotte?
GW: No, no, I wasn’t.
KB: Were your parents?
GW: No.
KB: Let’s see. So you said you’re just sad that the pool was shut down, but you weren’t actually using
it?
GW: Not, not anymore.
KB: Was anybody really using it?
GW: It wasn’t as many kids as it used to be. When we were there, and then, really what they did, they
built this Y right up the street.
KB: OK.
GW: But its membership, so you know. And I think they only have a, only on the Sunday can the kids go
there to swim.
KB: At the Y?
GW: Uh huh, for like a dollar without having a membership.
KB: Got you.
GW: So that’s the, that’s the only thing, but the center that they’re getting ready to build, it’s going to
be a more better academic place even without the pool now that I can see of.
KB: And why is that?
GW: Because a lot of associations are coming in like PAAL, and they’re going to have lots of different
activities as far as soccer and stuff for the kids, plus the kids have to make sure they’re keeping up with
their grades.
KB: Oh, that is good.
GW: And I think it’s going to mainly pertain to boxing.
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KB: Boxing? Is that a big sport around here?
GW: I don’t know. I don’t know. You know, but they do have one girl who’s from UNCC, she’s going to
be practicing down there, and she’s-KB: Oh, they have a boxing?
GW: --And she’s practicing for the 2012 summer Olympics.
KB: Oh, well you’ve got another Olympic thing going on there now. That’s pretty cool. Were there
activities that the center sponsored when you were a child for children?
GW: Well they always have had the PAAL football leagues down there.
KB: So they ran that. Did they ever do any afterschool activities that you knew of?
GW: None that I participated in. You know, as far as a center where you could play ping pong.
Academies, like computers, they didn’t, well we wasn’t even into computers back then.
KB: Do they have computers now?
GW: I think them getting ready to have like a computer room. I’m not sure. I’ll know the next meeting.
KB: Oh, when are you meetings, are they?
GW: The meetings are every 2nd Tuesday of the month.
KB: Do many people go from the neighborhood?
GW: No. we’re trying to get more people. Our regular size, a good size that we would have would be
like 12 to 15.
KB: Oh really?
GW: Yes.
KB: And would that be individuals or families?
GW: Mostly individuals, a few husband and wife teams. Clanton Park has more of a stronger
community participation than we do but you know. You got to start small sometimes.
KB: That’s true, well is there anything else that you want to talk about that I haven’t asked?
GW: Well I can tell you about the store down there, if you want.
KB: Yeah, definitely. There was a store?
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GW: Well the store, it was called at first when we moved up here it was called Busy Bee, it was like a
convenience store. Next door to that was the beauty parlor, next door to that was that barber shop, it
was another place in between there, but on the end was restaurant, and, and then you had a space in
between that, and next door was a service station. It was an old, Amoco service station. And you could
get your gas there and stuff like that.
KB: OK.
GW: Over the years, with the store, it still stayed there, barber shop, beauty shop, and the restaurant.
The filling station kind of died down, and different people started coming in taking it over rand making it
like a little mechanic shop. But then on the weekends, there was a little part right next to the store, right
at it. A creek divides it and a park. And on Fridays and stuff, that’s where everybody form the
neighborhood from Revolution and Clanton Park, we’d meet down there. We had a little grill, we had
horseshoes, and we would just make a weekend party out of it.
KB: Wow. So how old were you when you would do this?
GW: Oh, from, 20, 20, 20s. In my 20s, 30s.
KB: OK, so did you live here your entire life then?
GW: Outside of being married and going in the service, traveling a little bit.
KB: You’ve been. OK, so the barber shop, is that Ideal Barber?
GW: Yes, that’s Ideal Barber now, it was called Barringer Barber shop.
KB: OK, and the beauty parlor. What happened to like the store and the beauty parlor? Why aren’t
they there anymore?
GW: They renovated it. The store was getting old, and at the end, nobody was keeping it up like it
should have. I mean, it could rain, and you would almost have to have an umbrella to go in and get
what you wanted. The building was just deteriorating. I wish they would have built a new place down
there because really if you look in this area, outside of up here on Clanton Road and on West Boulevard.
there’s no convenient store in between. And that was our convenience store.
KB: That’s cool.
GW: That was our convenient place.
KB: Did you use it a lot?
GW: Yes, I did.
KB: What kind of stuff did they have in it?
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GW: Bread, they had little, you know, just little essentials, beer.
KB: Essentials?
GW: Yeah, just it was a close little walk. You know it’s only like 2 blocks down the street.
KB: Oh. So who organized these, or was it just a well known neighborhood activities?
GW: What the cooking out?
KB: Uh huh, the grilling?
GW: Nobody organized it. It became a thing that everybody just hung out there and you’d just bring
your meat and the grill was already hot. Everybody shared.
KB: So who brought the grill?
GW: I can’t remember who bought it, but it stayed down there.
KB: Oh, it stayed there?
GW: Yeah, it was like the neighborhood grill.
KB: That’s cool. So how many years did you do that then?
GW: Oh, I’m saying, maybe for, it was still going on for about 10 years. And then even if I would move,
the first place I would go if I’d stayed out of town, the first place I would go is go down there and see my
old friends again. If it was the weekend, I would join them. You know. And stuff like that.
KB: Why do you think they don’t do that anymore?
GW: Well, it’s changed, and the laws have changed.
KB: [laughter]
GW: You know.
KB: That’s true.
GW: They have a new center down there and stuff like that. And the people my age stop did it, we’re
too old to go down and do it now, but you know, I think it would be fun to go down and do it just for a
little bit. But everything’s gone, the store’s gone and stuff-KB: And that’s now a garden?
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GW: Yeah, that’s a garden now. Yeah. They tore the building down and replanted grass, so it’s like a
flat land, you know, and they built a, they look like troughs, but those are the gardens. Those are,
everybody can buy a plot. Not everybody, but they can buy a garden and have a plot down there.
KB: They can. Are you going to participate in that?
GW: I’m really not a gardener, but my son is, so I told him I’d buy one. If he-KB: -- If he can help you?
GW: He can work it. I’m not doing anything.
KB: [laughter] Did the beauty shop and barber, did they care that people would come hang out down
there on the weekends?
GW: They didn’t care, everybody knew everybody. I mean the guy that owned the barbershop and the
lady that owned the beauty shop, they was from South Side where we moved from, so they just came
over here because the building was available. They came on this side, and they brought most everybody
that had been going to them was still coming to them.
KB: Did they get a lot of recruits from the neighborhood too?
GW: Most everybody.
KB: And when did these close down?
GW: I can’t remember when they tore the building. It’s been some years.
KB: Is, so I know, is this the same building that the barber shop was in, the Ideal Barber, or is it a
different building?
GW: it’s what where they originated from?
KB: Uh huh.
GW: No, they on west.
KB: On West?
GW: West Boulevard.
KB: Ok, so they moved it then?
GW: From Barringer Drive.
KB: How many years ago?
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GW: I can’t remember. I can’t remember when he moved.
KB: So are there any other things we should discuss, you want to make sure of?
GW: Well, you know like I said, the neighborhood. I still like the neighborhood, even though it’s an old
neighborhood. But-KB: So you wouldn’t want to live anywhere else?
GW: If I had the money I would.
KB: Where would you…
GW: Uh.
KB: Or mostly why would you leave?
GW: I don’t think I would get rid of this house.
KB: OK.
GW: I would rent it out. Renovate it and rent it out, but I wouldn’t, I would probably move a little
farther out.
KB: OK. But that wouldn’t be, or would it be because of the neighborhood feel now?
GW: No, you know I say that, but I might just add on to this one here.
KB: Oh, you just want a bigger house.
GW: Yeah.
KB: Oh, ok, so it’s not because you feel?
GW: Oh, no.
KB: You said you feel safe-GW: And really I would probably wind up just staying here and redoing it.
KB: I mean, how old is your house?
GW: I don’t know. Its, I believe it was built in the ‘40s.
KB: Wow. Is that when this neighborhood was really starting to be built was in the 40s?
GW: I guess. I’ve never really checked on that. But-36
Walker Grady
Oral History Program
April 11, 2010
UNC-Charlotte Special Collections
KB: That could be interesting to find out. Is there any historical information that we should include?
GW: Not that I know of.
KB: Ok, well thank you very much. I appreciate it.
GW: Alright, you’re very welcome.
END OF INTERVIEW. “Approx. 61 minutes”
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