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Voices of the Depression, part one

Mar 26, 2011

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Jay and Golden Baldock owned and operated the Maricopa Mercantile for thirty years in Maricopa. During an Oral History Interview with the couple a few years ago, they gave a rare insight into what it was like to travel through the depression years and survive.

They reminisced about growing up dirt poor and sometimes homeless in rural Oklahoma, and how, in 1952, they ended up in the small isolated farming community of Maricopa to become the owners/operators of the Maricopa Mercantile.

Jay talks about having the privilege of serving as president of the Retail Grocers’ Association and Golden’s leadership role in the BPW Club. They reminisce about the good people of Maricopa and how well everyone worked together to solve their problems. The first part of this story takes place during Jay Baldock’s early years and before moving to Maricopa.

According to Jay Baldock, “I was born on October 15, 1916, in Mangrum, Oklahoma. I had a half brother and half sister but never got to see them until my father passed away. He had a son and daughter, but I didn’t get to know them. I saw the daughter just one time before he passed away. I grew up there in a small town on a dirt street. It was a small town, but had the best schools with the finest teachers.

One of my teachers was Mrs. Nina Davis. She taught me second grade. Our son, Bobby, went into that class. She said, “Young man, I’m going seat you up in the front seat because your dad sat in the back seat and I had to move him up to the front seat.”

Jay remembers the teachers with great fondness and respect, “The teachers in my hometown, were wonderful, wonderful people and it had one of the best school systems in the world, and had one of the largest alumni associations in the world. People come back there from all over. We had a big banquet and dance and everything…when you were a freshman you didn’t get eighth grade initiations. When you graduated, they put you through it, though. They closed the town up (for graduation). They were the most wonderful teachers.”

“My brother and I grew up there until my father passed away when I was fourteen. During the depression years, it was the beginning of hard struggles for my brother and I. My brother loved the theater business and was handy with a paintbrush. He did artwork, signs, lettering, made big block letters and I painted them in. When my father passed away…the barbershop business was like everything else, the wages were very little. He got 15 cents for shave and 25 cents for haircut. It was hard in those days because we had little money. We weren’t the only ones.

My dad had this two-chair barbershop where I shined shoes. It was very primitive. This young child came in and said, “My mom wants to know if you will cut her hair?” My dad had pictures of women’s hairstyles on the wall. He was the only one in town to cut a woman’s hair, and I don’t know how many he cut. She would pick out a style and he would look at it and she would walk out looking just like the picture.That’s my growing up years, shining shoes for a nickel!

You know that’s kind of hard for the people to know what we went through growing up because of the depression years. I had a deep inferiority complex. We were poor as cold turkey. They came and got my brother and I out of school and took us down and bought us a set of clothes-knee britches, the first set of clothes we ever had. I wanted long pants, but I didn’t get them. We lived behind the barbershop in two rooms back there in the car garage. It was just tough growing up for a young person. It took me a long time to get over that inferiority complex I had. I just felt I wasn’t equal to all my friends.

Growing up we did boyhood things. We pitched horseshoes, pitched washers…that was a game that we pitched that had three, four holes in the ground and we threw five, fifteen or twenty washers. We couldn’t go to the show. It was a dime.

My favorite food was whatever I could get to eat mostly. I grew up eating beans, pork ‘n beans or navy beans. I had milk! I drunk a lot of milk growing up as a kid. In the restaurant where I worked I drank at least a quart of milk every day. Growing up was a challenge and it was tough on everybody. My brother and I… we worked, sold newspaper, roamed the alleys picking up copper wire or old aluminum pots or anything we could sell to the junk dealer and get a few nickels or dimes.

At Thanksgiving time we picked turkeys and the two of us would pick all the feathers off them and take them over and lay them down on the table. They would check them over and give us a dime a turkey.

The courthouse in my hometown was in a square Texas style and had trees around it and a beautiful lawn where kids could play. During the depression years, it’s hard to believe, but they planted turnips all around this area. You could go out there…everyone, the banker’s wife… everyone. The depression years were tough, tough years. But we survived!

It was nine years before I got to see my mother after Dad and Mother separated. The reason I did was I was out of work and the depression was tough. So, this little old boy got $2, and the undertaker, Gene Greer, had some money that he doled out to me when I needed shoes or something. I got $10.00 and took out with my step-brother hitch-hiking.

We got to Oklahoma City and arrived over in eastern Oklahoma… then we parted company. He went his way and I went to find my mom. I got in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. Then I went into the Salvation Army in Ft. Smith and met a nice-dressed young man who said, “Come on son, you don’t need this.” Stupid me! I went with him not knowing where we were going. We went down and took some stuff out of a warehouse in a sack, and went to colored town and traded that for food. We started walking down the railroad tracks and walked across the Arkansas River on a bridge. Just before we got there, here came a train. We just barely got off.

We got over to a little town, a junction. It was a railroad terminal (that) goes into Kansas. We got over there and slept in a boxcar. The next afternoon, we got on a freight train and rode to Russellville, Arkansas. We went into the depot and slept on a bench. This guy at the Junction said, “You get rid of that guy. He is no good and you don’t need to be with him.” I thanked him, and I did. That night he went on his way.

I got up and got on the road. A man stopped and picked me up and we was talking and I told him what had happened. I hadn’t seen my mother in nine years and was hitch-hiking. We stopped at a service station and he said, “You wait here. I am going to pick up my mother and grandmother. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Now, don’t go away.”

Sure enough, here he comes and I got in the back seat and we took off. That night I was in Memphis, Tennessee. They fed me and let me out in a railroad yard. There was a big junction. I was walking through there and asked a guy how to get to Illinois Central Railroad. The guy said, “You’re in Congress, son.” He was working in an office-like thing.

Then I started walking down one of the famous streets in Congress. I think it was Deal Street. It was dark and I started walking down the middle of the street. A big black guy stopped and asked, “Where you headed, son?” I told him and he said, “I’ll show you. I’m going that way. Go up the hill here and you’ll be in the yard of Railroad Central” Sure enough it was! I thanked him. There was an open-faced shed with a bench in it. I lay down and went to sleep.

The next morning I decided that I didn’t want to ride a freight train. I didn’t know nothing about that. I wanted to hitch-hike. I wanted the shortest distance out of there and into Mississippi. I went into the depot and it was an exciting thing because there were a whole bunch of guys in there, too. This was the depression years. One guy went on out and got some coal. There was a lot of arguing and they played a little poker. I was the only kid in there.

The next day, I went over to the boarding house and went to the back door. A colored woman came to the door. I said, “I’m so hungry, and I don’t have any money. Is there anything I can do around it for something to eat?” I looked in and there was a long table with a bunch of men. She said, “Just a minute.” The lady who owned it came and said, “Son, you’re supposed to go to the front door. This back door is for colored.” I said, “I’m sorry ‘ma.” She took me in and fed me.

Then I found my way out and started to hitch hike. A Model A Ford came up and the man said, “Get in son.” I started to get in and saw a 25-caliber pistol sitting in the seat. He said, “Just a minute!” and he moved it and I sat down. He asked, “Where you headed?” I told him. He was just the nicest young man. He pulled off into a little town and I pumped gas into the tank from the front end of the car, but he took off and didn’t pay for it. We left and pulled off into a little town and cruised around for a while. Just as we pulled out, they (police) came after us. We ran up and down the streets and outran them in this little car. Got into another little town and finally lost them. That night we were in Jackson, Mississippi. That was a long ride… and kind of exciting, too!

I went to the Salvation Army and they said, “ We got turnips.” There wasn’t a bench, but there was a table and we sat down on our knees. We had entertaining from the radio station. They took us over to this little mansion with lots of rooms and beds. I had one cigarette left and I lit it. Someone said, “You can’t smoke in here.” I put it out and laid it on the fireplace. Someone stole it in the night.

I got up the next morning and started down the road. Wish I could remember the town’s name. It’s been so long ago. I came to this town and met up with a young lad who said, “Let’s get on that freight over there. My uncle works on the railroad…I know those guys.” I said, “Okay!” This thing (boxcar) was full of old papers and big stuff. I stepped on something…underneath the stuff…it moved.

This kid and I rode that freight for miles. Then the kid said, “I’d better go home. If I get caught down here I’ll be sent to the Farm.” He pushed himself out and hit the ground running. I thought I’d better get off, too. I didn’t have anything except what I had on…my clothes. I waited for a big wide strip and jumped. I hit the ground and my feet burned for three days.

Anyway, my folks lived out of Osaka, Mississippi. I got into Osaka and went into a grocery store and asked if they knew where the Clarks lived. That was my mother’s married name. “Oh, Yes! If you will wait around here, they live just a short distance from where we live.” I sat around in the store. They took me with them and said, “You go up this hill and the house is up the hill there.” It was dark and I don’t know what time it was. I got up there and my step-dad came to the door. I told him, “I’m Jay Baldock and I’ve come to see my mother.” She heard me and here she came! She thought I was my older brother. He had been there a long time ago. They took me in, and that’s how I got back together with my family. My sister was living in San Antonie.

While I was there, I worked with a mule and plough on the farm and got pretty good with that. Then we decided we’d go back to Oklahoma and loaded up the car. My sister had come down and joined us. We had traded the mule and other stuff for a car…a Model T Ford and headed for Oklahoma.

Finally, we got back to my hometown. I worked at several odd jobs. During the depression, if you didn’t take a job there were ten people behind you ready to work. I worked at this restaurant for twelve hours a day for seven days a week for four dollars and board. I worked washing dishes, then graduated to peeling potatoes, then hopping counters and graduated to pastry cook. Next, I worked as a janitor and a fry cook.

Then one day this beautiful young lady came in and needed a cab. We had the only taxi in town- two cabs. My boss had just sat down to eat his breakfast and said, “You take her, Jay.” We went out and got into the taxi. It was a mile down to where she was going. They were having…it was an Easter Sunday….they were having a picnic down by the river. On the way down, I asked her for a date. I got the cab driver who worked at the restaurant to drive us. We picked her up and took her to a show. I asked her to marry me and we got married and been living happily ever after.”

To Be Continued…