Ava Floyd and Eloise Floyd

[00:04] ELOISE FLORIDA: My name is Eloise Florida and I'm 88 years old. Today's date is Monday, March 5, 2022. My location is Pensacola Florida The name of the interview apartment is my niece, Ava Florida

[00:27] AVA FLORIDA: Hi, I'm Ava, Ava Florida age 65. Today's date is Monday, March 5, 2022. I'm in Pensacola, Florida, visiting with my aunt Eloise Florida And of course, then that would make me her niece and auntie. I would like for, for you to tell me where you went to high school.

[01:00] ELOISE FLORIDA: I went to high school, Washington High School here in Pensacola, Florida.

[01:06] AVA FLORIDA: Oh, Washington High. So what were some of the highlights of your high school experiences?

[01:17] ELOISE FLORIDA: Well, one highlight that I really have, I got a chance, excuse me, to live in a mansion, Claxon mansion in Tampa, Florida. And I stayed there for five days.

[01:31] AVA FLORIDA: Was that in relationship to something that you did in high school?

[01:37] ELOISE FLORIDA: I did in high school. I was a major at.

[01:39] AVA FLORIDA: Oh, you were a majorette.

[01:40] ELOISE FLORIDA: Travel. You traveled different places? We had a concerte and that's why I was there. Oh, competition concert. I perform two or two platons.

[01:51] AVA FLORIDA: Oh, okay.

[01:52] ELOISE FLORIDA: Very good at that. I was very good at that.

[01:54] AVA FLORIDA: So you were a majorette at Washington high School in Pensacola, Florida.

[02:00] ELOISE FLORIDA: Right.

[02:00] AVA FLORIDA: That gave you an opportunity to experience. Experience and travel with the band and different cities. Different cities. Okay. And what you liked most about where was this Claxon mansion in Tampa?

[02:20] ELOISE FLORIDA: Tampa, Florida.

[02:21] AVA FLORIDA: Tampa, Florida. Well, I have never stayed in a mansion. I think that's wonderful because we're talking about something more than 60 years ago or more, 65 plus.

[02:37] ELOISE FLORIDA: So it was quite a treat. It was a rare treat to live in a mansion.

[02:42] AVA FLORIDA: Yes.

[02:44] ELOISE FLORIDA: When I woke up one morning, he asked me, I got dressed in my room and he came there and asked me, did I want to go outside on the patio.

[02:53] AVA FLORIDA: Oh, okay.

[02:54] ELOISE FLORIDA: So I wasn't expecting him to touch a button on the wall, and the whole wall moved. And there you saw a beautiful patio.

[03:04] AVA FLORIDA: Wonderful. That's tears.

[03:06] ELOISE FLORIDA: And it was a rare treat.

[03:09] AVA FLORIDA: So would you say that's one of the proudest moments in your life?

[03:13] ELOISE FLORIDA: One of the proudest to live in a mansion?

[03:15] AVA FLORIDA: Yes.

[03:16] ELOISE FLORIDA: I couldn't see my feet when I got out of bed, the copper was.

[03:19] AVA FLORIDA: So thick, the carpet.

[03:21] ELOISE FLORIDA: The carpet was really, I couldn't even see my feet.

[03:24] AVA FLORIDA: Wonderful. So what else do you remember about that mansion?

[03:33] ELOISE FLORIDA: Oh, it was a rare tree. We went out, he pushed a button on the wall, and then there was a patio.

[03:40] AVA FLORIDA: Right.

[03:40] ELOISE FLORIDA: And it was, it was just beautiful.

[03:43] AVA FLORIDA: Were these african american people that owned mansion?

[03:48] ELOISE FLORIDA: Yeah, Houston.

[03:49] AVA FLORIDA: Oh, that had to be delightful. So that probably gave you some ideas for your future.

[03:59] ELOISE FLORIDA: Oh, yeah, I never forget that.

[04:01] AVA FLORIDA: Never forget that. So what did you want to be when you grew up?

[04:08] ELOISE FLORIDA: Oh, I always wanted to be a teacher.

[04:10] AVA FLORIDA: A teacher?

[04:11] ELOISE FLORIDA: I love children. I just want to be a schoolteacher, deal with children.

[04:17] AVA FLORIDA: Okay.

[04:17] ELOISE FLORIDA: Taught kindergarten for four years.

[04:20] AVA FLORIDA: So you became a teacher?

[04:21] ELOISE FLORIDA: I became a teacher. I graduated from Washington High School and I went to Montgomery, Alabama, worked on my b's degree, and I got my master degree at the University of Michigan in Detroit.

[04:37] AVA FLORIDA: Wonderful. So you left Florida and went north.

[04:41] ELOISE FLORIDA: Went north, okay. That's where I got my master. I went while I was teaching school, working on my mathematic. So you taught school and worked on my masters.

[04:52] AVA FLORIDA: Worked on your masters at the same time.

[04:54] ELOISE FLORIDA: Right.

[04:56] AVA FLORIDA: Well, I think you certainly fulfilled your dreams.

[05:02] ELOISE FLORIDA: Oh, yeah, I endured.

[05:05] AVA FLORIDA: I'm glad to hear that. And, you know, it concerns me that, you know, you've traveled, you love children. I noticed when I visit with you that you have books like you really read a lot and love to read. What are some of the books that you really enjoy reading? What types of books? Because I've learned a lot from you about health and wellness.

[05:41] ELOISE FLORIDA: Well, I remember one book I couldn't put down, and that was the book the Malcolm X wrote.

[05:48] AVA FLORIDA: And what was it called?

[05:50] ELOISE FLORIDA: I can't remember.

[05:52] AVA FLORIDA: Was it the diet?

[05:54] ELOISE FLORIDA: No, but I can't remember the name. But it was a great sell to.

[05:59] AVA FLORIDA: Okay. The book of.

[06:01] ELOISE FLORIDA: He talked about racial experiences that he had encountered, talk about a lot of variants, and I couldn't put it down.

[06:10] AVA FLORIDA: So was it the autobiography of Malcolm?

[06:12] ELOISE FLORIDA: You read the autobiography of Malcolm?

[06:14] AVA FLORIDA: Oh, okay.

[06:15] ELOISE FLORIDA: I thought I said that.

[06:17] AVA FLORIDA: Now, did you say that Malcolm discussed in that book about the racial bias that he experienced?

[06:28] ELOISE FLORIDA: Yeah, I'm trying to remember.

[06:30] AVA FLORIDA: What about you?

[06:31] ELOISE FLORIDA: It was quite a bit. He was killed on stage, you know, in New York. Malcolm was killed on city in New York. And that was hate.

[06:38] AVA FLORIDA: Hate, yeah. What about hate that you experienced in your life growing up in Pensacola, Florida, when you were working as a teenager?

[06:51] ELOISE FLORIDA: Well, you know, what comes to my mind is I had a girlfriend that worked with me. She and her husband, they were.

[07:04] AVA FLORIDA: No, I mean, when you were still here in Pensacola as a teenager, when you worked, do you recall any of that? I know that you're 88 years old and you have lots and lots of memories, but I can remember you sharing one with me that I think is so important. About Lolita the bird.

[07:36] ELOISE FLORIDA: Oh, I taught a parrot to talk.

[07:38] AVA FLORIDA: You taught her a parrot to talk, but where you didn't own a parrot, did you?

[07:43] ELOISE FLORIDA: No, I didn't own a parrot. I worked for the lady who owned. I talked to Parrot to talk. Her name was Lolita.

[07:48] AVA FLORIDA: Lolita, okay, and so what did you do for that lady?

[07:53] ELOISE FLORIDA: What you do, misses McKay was her name.

[07:57] AVA FLORIDA: And what did you do for misses McCabe?

[08:00] ELOISE FLORIDA: I was going to college and I worked for her, you know, cleaning the house. And my basic thing. My basic thing that I really like was ironing. And most people don't like to iron. Oh, I love ironing.

[08:14] AVA FLORIDA: So you were able to iron clothes for them? Okay, and she had a bird and you taught the birds?

[08:23] ELOISE FLORIDA: I was teaching Lolita in the room. While I'm ironing.

[08:27] AVA FLORIDA: While you're ironing.

[08:28] ELOISE FLORIDA: I said, how are you, baby? How are you? I love you, baby. And she'll do like that. And after a while, might not have been that day. I heard talk and seeing the things I had taught her.

[08:42] AVA FLORIDA: Is that right?

[08:43] ELOISE FLORIDA: How are you?

[08:44] AVA FLORIDA: Well, that sounds exciting.

[08:46] ELOISE FLORIDA: Hi, baby.

[08:47] AVA FLORIDA: Yes. So you left Pensacola after being a major red in high school?

[08:55] ELOISE FLORIDA: I came up as, like, a star.

[08:57] AVA FLORIDA: All right.

[08:57] ELOISE FLORIDA: Me and my sister, local would be walking. We want to walk, you know.

[09:01] AVA FLORIDA: Yes.

[09:02] ELOISE FLORIDA: And we were walking to catch the bus. And we look around and there are dozen of kids behind us saying there.

[09:08] AVA FLORIDA: Were the major rats.

[09:10] ELOISE FLORIDA: I was a major rat for four years, okay. Me and my sister.

[09:15] AVA FLORIDA: So when you went to Montgomery, Alabama, did you have any experiences there?

[09:21] ELOISE FLORIDA: Oh, no, not majoring. I was studying.

[09:23] AVA FLORIDA: You were studying?

[09:24] ELOISE FLORIDA: Yeah, I had to study. I didn't participate in anything like that there. No, that was in high school.

[09:30] AVA FLORIDA: Right. But there were some experiences in your past, Rachel?

[09:38] ELOISE FLORIDA: Oh, yeah.

[09:41] AVA FLORIDA: When you were in Montgomery and her.

[09:43] ELOISE FLORIDA: Husband, we traveled together. They took me to Pittsburgh and Barbara would meet me at the turnpike. So we stopped in this restaurant and I noticed that we were there together because he taught at one school and she taught school with me. So he was relating to me things he had experience in his classroom. So we were talking, but we were so engrossed in what we were talking about. We didn't notice that they weren't serving us. And when there wasn't crowded or nothing because of the color of my skin. So we sat there and sat there and said. And after a while, darling fell. Can't think of narrative. He said, what's going on? He looked around. This is what's going on.

[10:32] AVA FLORIDA: Oh. You had to point to your skin color to let him know because they were a caucasian couple.

[10:39] ELOISE FLORIDA: Well, let me finish the risk.

[10:40] AVA FLORIDA: Okay.

[10:41] ELOISE FLORIDA: After a while.

[10:43] AVA FLORIDA: Speak up.

[10:44] ELOISE FLORIDA: After a while that woman came over me, a young white girl, caucasian. And when she came over.

[10:54] AVA FLORIDA: So speak up.

[10:56] ELOISE FLORIDA: When she came over to our. Finally came over to our table, we sitting at the counter there, and nobody's in there, not crying. And she finally came over, she was real sweet. And she said, I'm sorry, but we don't serve. I'm sorry, but we don't serve colored people in here.

[11:14] AVA FLORIDA: Okay, okay.

[11:16] ELOISE FLORIDA: I said, oh, and Dave and Darlene. That was her name. Dave was her husband. So how did that make you feel? Oh, it made me feel real bad. Cause of the color of my skin. Nobody's serving me. I have a b's degree. Working on my degree. We were.

[11:35] AVA FLORIDA: Yes.

[11:36] ELOISE FLORIDA: And so, well, what were we supposed to do? We just got up and left, and we rolled on up the road until we could go somewhere where we could sit and eat.

[11:45] AVA FLORIDA: Wonderful.

[11:46] ELOISE FLORIDA: They would serve me in spite of the color of my skin.

[11:49] AVA FLORIDA: That's great. So you've been through quite a bit of racial bias in your life. What about your experience when you were in Montgomery? When you told me that doctor Martin.

[12:06] ELOISE FLORIDA: Luther King lived down the street from me?

[12:11] AVA FLORIDA: Down the street?

[12:12] ELOISE FLORIDA: I heard when they brought his house.

[12:14] AVA FLORIDA: You remember? You were there.

[12:17] ELOISE FLORIDA: I was there. I heard that. He didn't. He lived next door to me. Then they moved around, and when they bombed his house, he shook my bed.

[12:26] AVA FLORIDA: And you were on campus in college?

[12:28] ELOISE FLORIDA: I was on campus in college when they shot it.

[12:33] AVA FLORIDA: And that had to be very traumatic.

[12:35] ELOISE FLORIDA: I never forget that. Shook my bed.

[12:38] AVA FLORIDA: Mm hmm.

[12:40] ELOISE FLORIDA: And threw a bomb, didn't it? Weird.

[12:43] AVA FLORIDA: Okay.

[12:44] ELOISE FLORIDA: His wife was there.

[12:45] AVA FLORIDA: Yes.

[12:46] ELOISE FLORIDA: Thank God.

[12:47] AVA FLORIDA: She was, you know, they were safe.

[12:50] ELOISE FLORIDA: She was safe, yeah.

[12:52] AVA FLORIDA: Oh, he wasn't there at that time. Just threw the bomb when he wasn't at home, maybe to frighten him and hurt his family.

[13:03] ELOISE FLORIDA: You're taking me way back. Where was he? They lived down the street, and then they moved around the corner.

[13:10] AVA FLORIDA: Okay.

[13:11] ELOISE FLORIDA: But I was there. Here. I think I was. I know I was there, but I'm trying to figure out. I know. He moved. He lived down the street from me. Then they moved around the corner.

[13:23] AVA FLORIDA: Okay.

[13:24] ELOISE FLORIDA: And Coretta her name. She was there.

[13:29] AVA FLORIDA: Well, tell me this. Thank you for sharing. Do you have any regrets in your life?

[13:45] ELOISE FLORIDA: I'm thinking back. One of my main regrets was that I was going with a man that I should have married, but I wasn't ready. I had to go. I think I had to come back to Pittsburgh. I was in Detroit.

[14:00] AVA FLORIDA: Oh, okay.

[14:01] ELOISE FLORIDA: And I kind of regretted that. But if I had that, you didn't marry. Changed my whole. Okay. Cause I think. I think he told me he didn't want me to work. And you're not gonna keep me from working with the B's degree. And I don't know if I had my master. I think I probably worked. He didn't want me to work.

[14:21] AVA FLORIDA: So would you say then that for your generation of women like youre a friends from college, your friends from high school, would you say that it was important to have a future where you were able to be self sufficient?

[14:48] ELOISE FLORIDA: Oh, yeah.

[14:50] AVA FLORIDA: To work and make your own way in life.

[14:54] ELOISE FLORIDA: Right. I worked. I worked as McKay I taught her to talk. Lolita.

[15:00] AVA FLORIDA: Yes.

[15:01] ELOISE FLORIDA: And I would iron for her. I love ironing.

[15:04] AVA FLORIDA: But that was in high school.

[15:05] ELOISE FLORIDA: Yeah, that was.

[15:06] AVA FLORIDA: I'm talking about once you got to college.

[15:08] ELOISE FLORIDA: Once I got to college. I still work.

[15:11] AVA FLORIDA: Yes. Even to help fund your education.

[15:16] ELOISE FLORIDA: Right, right.

[15:17] AVA FLORIDA: Okay.

[15:18] ELOISE FLORIDA: I love ironing.

[15:19] AVA FLORIDA: Yes.

[15:20] ELOISE FLORIDA: Most people don't like iron. I love ironing.

[15:22] AVA FLORIDA: Okay, that's great. Thank you for sharing. I want to ask you about this most recent emotional highs and lows that many of us as Americans have been experiencing with regard to the pandemic. Can you tell me how the pandemic has affected you? Having to stay home and not travel. And.

[16:03] ELOISE FLORIDA: When I look and see people have lost their homes, they have nowhere to go. Yes, that really affected me.

[16:09] AVA FLORIDA: Yes, I know that. I know you helped open your home to a few people during the pandemic. I remember that. But I mean, emotionally, you know, we are all affected in different ways. So do you want to share, like, about your sadness? Has it, you know, the lives that have been lost in your family due to Covid?

[16:48] ELOISE FLORIDA: I'm trying to think who it was. You're trying to. My sister.

[16:56] AVA FLORIDA: Yeah, but you've lost two sisters during COVID Yeah, your eldest and one of the younger. My mother.

[17:07] ELOISE FLORIDA: Right, right. I was getting to that.

[17:09] AVA FLORIDA: Who else?

[17:10] ELOISE FLORIDA: Arizona. Who live here.

[17:13] AVA FLORIDA: But they were before COVID I'm talking during this time. You've lost. Who else? You're one and only.

[17:23] ELOISE FLORIDA: I lost my brother.

[17:25] AVA FLORIDA: That's right.

[17:26] ELOISE FLORIDA: I lost Olivia.

[17:28] AVA FLORIDA: No, you've lost your brother during COVID And you lost two sisters.

[17:33] ELOISE FLORIDA: Two sisters, yes.

[17:35] AVA FLORIDA: And what have you learned about yourself in isolation and in sadness? What have you learned?

[17:50] ELOISE FLORIDA: I learned that it's healthy to cry.

[17:53] AVA FLORIDA: It's healthy to cry.

[17:54] ELOISE FLORIDA: To release it.

[17:55] AVA FLORIDA: To release.

[17:55] ELOISE FLORIDA: And sometimes I would cry and I would be thinking about the memories that we had together.

[18:05] AVA FLORIDA: Yes.

[18:08] ELOISE FLORIDA: Olivia. I came down here, stayed with her before she died.

[18:14] AVA FLORIDA: Is there anything, any. Who do you feel most connected to since you've had all this loss?

[18:22] ELOISE FLORIDA: You.

[18:25] AVA FLORIDA: Okay?

[18:26] ELOISE FLORIDA: I couldn't have made it without you. You came down, I understand. And saw to her that the house, the termites was eating at the house. I'm getting a little hoard. And Ava came down and took care of all that at a brand new house, which I needed because I didn't want those memories. All right? And she had a brand new house and everything.

[18:50] AVA FLORIDA: So let me ask you this. Thank you. Thank you. If there's anything at all that brings you joy and hope or a message that you would like to share with the world, what would it be? What would you say?

[19:12] ELOISE FLORIDA: Keep love in your heart.

[19:13] AVA FLORIDA: Keep love in your heart.

[19:15] ELOISE FLORIDA: Treat people the way you want to be treated.

[19:18] AVA FLORIDA: Okay.

[19:21] ELOISE FLORIDA: Those are the main two.

[19:23] AVA FLORIDA: That's wonderful.

[19:25] ELOISE FLORIDA: Treat people the way you want and keep loving your heart.

[19:28] AVA FLORIDA: Keep loving your heart. And treat people the way you want.

[19:31] ELOISE FLORIDA: You want the treat.

[19:32] AVA FLORIDA: Well, I thank you. I just thank you so much.