Charles LeRoy Lewis - Special Collections - University of Baltimore

LEW9S;099 I1:1:43
don't go together. I went to people's homes and I said I
dian'e want to go there smelling of booze.
But today I think it's much nicer - people are more
friendly in certain ways; of course they're not as close as
it was in the old neighborhood. In the old days people
took care of each other. Somebody got sick, somebody in
the neighborhood there took care of him. Up at night, the
womenfolk . . . same way with food, cooking, looking after
children. You didn't have all this welfare and all this to
go to because they took care of their own: they shared. And
I hated to see that go away because people did know each
other, they were friendly and those days you didn't have
ice boxes to keep stuff like you can keep now. So if you had
a lot: of stuff you gave it to a neighbor. Wasn't because
the neiqhbor couldn't afford to buy it, it was because
you had it. And they done the same with you.
Today if you go to hand something to a neighbor , why
they get insulted. I mean, I laugh . . . I just went
down to visit some friends and brought back 30, 40 fish.
And we don't eat too much fish at home. There's no use
bringing them up here to give away. Could have gave them
to somebody - Oh, there must be something wrong with it or
we wouldn't be giving it to you [laughs]. 1 was going to
buy crabs to bring up, but they were steamed Sunday and
Sunday when they're busy, same boys get careless. If I'd
have stayed until Tuesday, I'd have bught - -
What do you think steamed crabs are worth down there? You