Transcript of an oral history interview with Daryl L. Blalock

Blalock, Daryl
Oral History Interview
I> E PAil T r.1E NT O F C LILTUil AI. EASTSIDE DOCUMENTATION PROJECT AF FAIItS
Interviewee's Full Name: Daryl L. Blalock
Interview's Address: 20 I Cheny Laurel Lane
Savannah, Georgia 31419
Interviewee's Neighborhood: East Savannah
Interviewer: Charles J. Elmore
Date of Interview: January 18, 2009
Length of Interview: 29 minutes, 35 seconds
Interview Medium: Video (Reginald Franklin - Videographer)
Transcriptionist: Samanthis Q. Smalls
Date of Staff Review: Revised and corrected by Michelle L. Hunter 17 September 2009
CE: This is Charles J. Elmore interview with Daryl L. Blalock, 201 Cherry Laurel Lane, Savannah,
Georgia 31419 January 18, 2009 for the Eastside Documentation Project, City of Savmmah.
Okay. Well Daryl, the first thing I'm going to ask you about is, tell me about your early family
origins: your parents and your grandparents, whatever you know, you want to tell me about it
that you can recollect.
DB: Well, growing up uh, my mother
CE: Give me names.
DB: Uh, Lenora Blalock. She was a, well she is, still is, a good mother to me. Uh, very caring and
very, what can I say, uh, she didn't play no, didn't take no stuff. She was, just looked out for
our interests and wouldn't never let nobody harm us.
CE: Um hum.
DB: She's a, she was a good mother. Very strict. And was very keen to what we do. My father, he
was ...
CE: Wait a minute, let me get your mother. "Very strict." You the only child right?
DB: Yes. Well I have a um, a older brother; a year older than I am.
CE: Okay. Okay you can go ahead, you said "My father ... "
Blalock, Daryl
DB: My father he was uh, very mild marmered and very, you know, very fun, caring. I didn't, you
know, spend as much time with him as I did, you know, with my mother.
CE: Um hum.
DB: In which, in which I wish I could have because he, you know, he was always on the road or,
you know, far away from me. But he kept in touch and we did things together when I did get
the opportunity.
CE: Okay. Now you say "always on the road." You refer to, 'cause I know Danny was a hell of a
trumpeter.
DB: Yes.
CE: As a musician?
DB: As a musician.
CE: Okay. Who's some of the people he played with?
DB: Uh, he had some dealings with uh Sam and Dave, uh James Brown ...
CE: Umhum.
DB: ... uh, he came across with uh, Michael Jackson and Gladys Knight.
CE: Okay, you say you wish you could have spent more time with him?
DB: Yeah.
CE: Is your brother still in Savarmah?
DB: Yes.
CE: Okay. Okay, you want to say anything about your grandparents?
DB: What can I say? Grandparents, they were my role models.
CE: And that's Ms. Virginia and Mr. Dan?
DB: Yeah. Seem like they always did things together.
CE: Wait a minute. Um hum.
2
Blalock, Daryl
DB: They were a loving couple. I liked when they traveled and took me places; that's how I learned
how to get around.
CE: Wait a minute. Okay. Keep talking, I'm listening.
DB: And um, very educated which I looked up to and, they, they inspired me to want to be better in
life, do better things in life. And to have the things that they had by working hard, staying
together ...
CE: Wait a minute. Okay.
DB: And they were very supportive. Coming out to our games and letting my friends come over to,
you know, to sleepovers. They'll take us to practice. They'll fix you, my grandmother, she
would always feed 'em. She'll feed you now.
CE: Alright, they would take you to baseball practice?
DB: Yes, any activity; the band. And she was a big believer in taking us to church.
CE: Okay. I got all that. Great stuff, great stuff, good stuff. Um, what, where did you, what, where
did you grow up in East Savannah? Where street did you live on?
DB: Um, 2125 Mosley Street.
CE: Okay. Uh, where did you first, uh, Jet ask you about your, your education. Where you went to
school and you can tell me about your friends, however you want to. And Jet's talk about where
you went to school and then you can tell 'bout ·what ya'll, what ya'll did for fun and to play and
all that kind of stuff. Okay?
DB: You want um .. .
CE: Tell me where you went from first grade to whenever, however far you went.
DB: Okay, my first school I went to was at uh, Ramah; it was a private school.
CE: That's R.A.M.A.H. right?
DB: Yes, Ramah.
3
Blalock, Daryl
CE: That's a Seventh Day Adventist School.
DB: Yes. That's where we started. And then from there ...
CE: How many years?
DB: Um, four years.
CE: From grades one to four?
DB: Yes, from kindergarten on.
CE: Okay. Okay. Go ahead, I'm listening.
DB: And then from there I went to Pennsylvania Avenue; from fifth to sixth.
CE: Umhum.
DB: And from seventh to eighth I went to Shuman Junior High.
CE: Okay.
DB: And from nine to twelve I finished my education through Savatmah High School. Graduated in
1983.
CE: The whole time you went to Savannah High? From ninth through twelfth?
DB: Yes.
CE: Okay. Alright.
DB: And then I went to Savannah State for three years of college majoring in Civil Engineering.
CE: Alright. Did you graduate?
DB: No, I hadn't graduated. But I intend to go back and finish.
CE: Yeah, you should do that.
DB: Get that degree.
CE: Um hum.
DB: And I played, I played ball all the way up to that time, all the way up to college.
CE: That's baseball?
4
Blalock, Daryl
DB: Yeah.
CE: Alright, tell me when you started playing, tell me about baseball.
DB: Oh baseball, those were the best years.
CE: When you started playing baseball?
DB: I started playing baseball at 7 years old.
CE: Umhum.
DB: Started out in our neighborhood. We were, my brother and I, we had a lot of talent to come out
of there. And, my brother, he made his team the first year. He went, he was 9 years old.
CE: Wait a minute. That's in East Savannah, ya'll had a lot of talent right?
DB: Yes.
CE: Alright. What's your brother's name?
DB: His name is Keith Moye.
CE: I know your uncle too, Percil, very well. He along with me.
DB: Yeah?
CE: Yeah. He graduated with Juanita, my wife. We all '63.
DB: Yeah.
CE: Old as hell.
DB: He lives out in Pooler.
CE: He played ball with which team?
DB: Uh, Sam Finlay.
CE: And that's, really we talking 'bout Little League baseball, right?
DB: Right.
CE: Man this is good stuff.
DB: And our coach then was, his, his name was Mr. Jimmy Jenkins.
5
Blalock, Daryl
CE: Okay. Okay, okay. You made the team when you were eight?
DB: No, I didn't make it that first year. I made it the next year.
CE: Okay.
DB: 'Cause we uh, we had uh, that first year I was supporting my brother. They had a losing season.
That was the only time we ever lost.
CE: Um hum.
DB: Had a losing season. And then after that all the way up 'til senior league,
CE: Umhum.
DB: we came in first place in everything.
CE: Wait a minute, let me make sure I got it. "And l started the year after my brother with Little
League." You were about what, eight?
DB: Yes.
CE: And you said the Sam Finlay team?
DB: (noels head in the affirmative)
CE: They won the championship?
DB: Hum?
CE: Won championships?
DB: Yeah, the um, thereafter I came on.
CE: How long did you play for 'em?
DB: Uh, let's see. I played, I played with them 'til the time I went, I went to college.
CE: Wow. 'Til 'bout eighteen years old?
DB: Yeah.
CE: And you progressed I guess, progressed from what Little League to Pony League?
DB: Yeah.
6
Blalock, Daryl
CE: From, I used to play Pony League. That's why I know what you're talking about. You stopped,
you were in the Pony League when you stopped?
DB: No, I stopped. Yeah. Pony League? Yeah. That was over in um, Daffin Park then. 'Cause we
had a senior team over there also.
CE: And this, this was open, to anybody right?
DB: Hum?
CE: You also played on the senior team?
DB: Yes.
CE: What ages?
DB: Uh, those were from 15-16.
CE: Um hum. Okay, now um, did you, did you play baseball at Savannah High School?
DB: Yes.
CE: You played varsity?
DB: Yeah.
CE: What position you play?
DB: Uh, center-field, second-base, and pitch.
CE: Who were some of the guys you played with uh, your friends when you were growing up in
East Savannah?
DB: Um, you mean as far as childhood?
CE: Yeah.
DB: Um, people like uh, Anthony Knight, uh, Stephen Kelly, um what's his name, Burt Taylor,
CE: What were some of the things that ya'll would do in ya'll neighborhood? Besides play
baseball?
7
Blalock, Daryl
DB: Oh, we played activities like kick-ball, jump-rope. Uh, we were, growing up if we hadn't gotten
into those kind of activities, we were, we were bad. So we'd go all down in the swamp and
stuff and play and, played a lot of basketball on the playground. And I, I guess our best thing
we ever had was when we got like a mini-bike.
CE: Now you say a mini bike. What, that's like a? Where was the swamp? End of Mosley Street?
DB: Yeah. All the way to the encl.
CE: You can tell I talked to a lot of people can't you?
DB: Yeah. We' d go all clown in the woods. Try to build a 'Iii, talking 'bout a 'Iii clubhouse. I didn't
care about no snake and all that stuff back then.
CE: Now, when I, when I interviewed Mil Cannon, he said ya'll were very, ya ' ll were very good
friends in the uh, time when ya'll played what, Little League baseball?
DB: Little League.
CE: Can you tell me something about that?
DB: Yeah. He, I guess, now when my brother was uh, older you know he vvas older than I am and
he moved up a level and um, the coaching came up under his father, Mr. Mark Cannon. And
from there, we uh, Mil and I were very close.
CE: Okay, wait a minute. Mil's father, Mark Cannon, coached your Little League team?
DB: Yes. 'Cause my brother had moved up to the next league.
CE: Really, the next level of Little League, okay. Alright and uh, that's where you and Mil came in
contact?
DB: Yeah.
CE: Okay.
8
Blalock, Daryl
DB: We, you know, we shared a lot of interests. We, we just drew real close to each other and um,
started doing a lot of things together. 'Cause he was uh, he was a good hitter. He, J could feel
he didn't have as much speed as I had but we always ...
CE: Wait a minute. "Good hitter." Okay. How long did ya' ll remain friends?
DB: Up until the time that we got to, you know, we went our separate ways when, you know, we
grew up from high school. But we still played together, played against each other.
CE: From childhood to high school.
DB: Umhum.
CE: Now when you were at, at Savannah High ya'll played against, they played against Sol C.
Johnson?
DB: Yes.
CE: Were ya'll as close then?
DB: Oh yeah.
CE: Okay.
DB: Yeah.
CE: "They remained," really close friends to this day right?
DB: Yeah we are.
CE: "Friends to this day. And they played high school baseball against each other, he for Sol C.
Johnson ... " Who usually won the game?
DB: Hmn?
CE: Who usually won the game? Sol C. Jolmson or Savannah High?
DB: That particular time they beat us. 'Cause he um, he pitched and he struck me out. And he
jumped up, he said, after the game, he said "Man, you came up, I was so scared." I said, "Yeah,
you got one by me that time.''
9
Blalock, Daryl
CE: Okay, that's enough. I think that's good. Okay. Okay. Uh, and when you lived in East
Savannah it was all black wasn't it?
DB: Uh, yeah.
CE: Yeah. [inaudible] Ya'JI didn' t have, did ya'll have any, any, any things to do with like
desegregation or Civil Rights that you can remember?
DB: Um, no. We uh, we didn't have too many problems. I mean, I mean it was, it was some out
there but we, I guess that's why my mother kept us so close and kept us in our activity, so we
wouldn't get involved in a lot of foolishness.
CE: And by that time, alright, okay. And you already talked to me about baseball, ya' ll played
baseball, you told me 'bout that. What kind of work did the people perform in your area? What
did the men and women who lived in the neighborhood, what did they do for work?
DB: Um, a lot ofthem worked on construction.
CE: Umhum.
DB: Uh, they were teachers. And uh, a lot of them worked on big plants like Kemira or Siemanen, at
that time. I believe that's what it was called. There were, man, a lot of longshoreman.
CE: How you spell Kemira?
DB: Uh, C.E.M.
CE: I'll figure it out. I can't spell it.
DB: C.A.M.E.R.A.? I.A.?
CE: Okay.
DB: I think it was Siemanen at that time, before they changed it.
CE: Yeah. I remember American Siemanen. Okay. I remember that myself. You remember some of
the teachers in the neighborhood?
DB: Some of the teachers in the neighborhood? Uh, not really.
10
Blalock, Daryl
CE: Okay, that's, that's good enough. You said, you said and, and you said people worked at plants,
DB: Umhum.
CE: in construction, at American Siemanen, teachers in the neighborhood. And you told me
something else didn' t you? Blue collar workers?
RF: Longshoremen.
CE: Oh, and longshoremen.
DB: Longshoremen. Longshoremen.
CE: Good. That'll work. That's good. Okay. Um, and what do you currently do?
DB: Hum?
CE: What do, what, what job do you have? What jobs have you had over your lifetime?
DB: Uh, my first job I was, worked as a student aid at Savatmah State. And from there, I delivered
pizzas. Call that stutJajob ... I started at Domino's and ended up, went to, they opened up a
new one called Pizza Shuttle.
CE: Umhum.
DB: And the last one was at Pizza Hut.
CE: Okay.
DB: Then I went to Georgia-Pacific. And from there I ended up as a longshoreman.
CE: Good job.
DB: And I, I'm now going on eighteen years now.
CE: So you know my friend then, Malcolm Thomas.
DB: Oh yeah.
CE: Miller Fish?
DB: Yeah.
CE: Them all my homeboys.
I I
Blalock, Daryl
DB: Well.
CE: I been around. The last thing I want to ask you is um, religion. Where'd you go to church? And
where do you go to church now? However you want to put it.
DB: Uh, my mom and them, they kept me at Fifth Street Baptist Church.
CE: That's off of Wheaton.
DB: Umhum.
CE: I used to live near, live 'round there. When I married my wife and her grandmother,
[unintelligible].
DB: Man, that's some, I remember man, they, they had some good people in there. They were strict.
'Couldn't bring no toy or nothing up in there. They, them sisters would take that stuff. So I um,
my grandmother would take me with her to church, under her wing at um, Asbury.
CE: Okay.
DB: Then I um, as I got older I fellowship under uh, Savannah Temple under uh, Elder, uh, C.C.
Singleton.
CE: Okay. As you got older?
DB: Um hum. And when I got married, I'm now with um, Redeem Fellowship Clu·istian Center.
CE: Okay and you got older you attended, what's the first place you told me?
DB: Hum?
CE: You said, "As I got older I attended ... ?" The first one.
DB: Uh, Savannah Temple.
CE: Um hum.
DB: And you said Elder somebody.
CE: Um, C.C. Singleton.
DB: Under C.C. Singleton.
12
Blalock, Daryl
CE: Was the minister?
DB: Yeah.
CE: And you said, "After I got married ... ?"you joined your current church?
DB: Yes.
CE: Okay, and
DB: Redeem Fellowship Clll'istian Center. That was a um,
CE: Redeem Fellowship Christian Center?
DB: Yes.
CE: Okay.
DB: And that's under uh, Pastor uh, Delores Thompson.
CE: T.H.O.M.P.S.O.N.?
DB: Yes.
CE: I believe that'll do it. Man, you told me a lot.
DB: Yeah?
CE: Yeah. That's really because I don't know how they' ll treat it, now we ...
END
City of Savannah NOTES
1. Footage is unedited and presented in the form that it was recorded.
2. Designations-- "DB" indicates Daryl Blalock. "RF" indicates Reginald Franklin, the Project
Videographer. "CE" indicates Charles Elmore, the Project Historian.
13