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Serners, Charlotte Clu·istine
Oral His!OIJ' Interview
DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAl. EASTSIDE DOCUMENTATION PROJECT AFFAIRS
Interviewee's Full Name: Charlotte Christine Serners
Interview's Address: 535 Crescent Drive
Savannah, Georgia 31419
Interviewee's Neighborhood: Strathmore Estates
Interviewer: Charles J. Elmore
Date of Interview: November 20, 2008
Length of Interview: 23 minutes, 58 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.
RF: We're rolling.
CE: Alright. Let me do this first. This is Charles J. Elmore interview with Mrs. Charlotte Clu-istine
Serners at 535 Crescent Drive for the Eastside Documentation Project, the City of Savannah.
Okay, Ms. Serners, we gone start out. I simply want you to tell me about, we going to talk
about your family origins, as much as you want to tell me about your mom, your dad, as far as
you want to tell me back. Whether you were married, when you were born, where, and how,
what you did as a child. Where you went to school and what the people did for leisure time as
kids when you were growing up. Religion: where people went to church around here. Where
they worked. Uh, what kind of people lived 'round here. Were there black people and white
fold, white people living 'round here or just black people. I mean just white folk. Just, just
CS: Well, I can't tell you where anybody works 'cause I don't work.
CE: Okay, but I'm just saying
CS: I'm retired.
CE: Alright. Well, I'mjust gone say, I'm gone come to that point.
CS: Yeah. 
Serners, Charlotte Christine
CE: So, we gone start out. First of all, I'm gone ask you about your family origins. Where did your
family come from and how did you get to Savannah?
CS: Well, my family was born and raised in Hartsfield, Georgia. They're from Moultrie I mean, up
from Moultrie, Georgia.
CE: Hart? What's the name, Hart?
CS: Harts. Hartsfield.
CE: H.A.R.T.S.? Okay.
CS: F.I.E.L.D., Hartsfield, Georgia. And how did we get here? My father and my husband came
clown here and worked on these houses, on these, this project.
CE: Wow. What was your father's name?
CS: Huh?
CE: Give me your dad's name.
CS: It was Joseph
CE: Um hum.
CS: L. Thomas. And my mother's name was Ocie, O.C.I.E.
CE: Umhum.
CS: Thomas.
CE: Okay. And your husband and father?
CS: Huh?
CE: What was your husband's name?
CS: Joseph T. Serners. I don't have him no more.
CE: When did he die?
CS: No, he didn' t. I put him out.
CE: Oh. Okay. Okay, your husband and, and uh father, let get that first.
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Serners, Charlotte Christine
CS: And my son.
CE: And, and what's your son's name?
CS: Joseph T. Serners.
CE: Junior? Alright, they came to Savannah.
CS: In 1941.
CE: Umhum.
CS: When my son was a year old. I went with his clad on Crescent Drive then clown at 525.
CE: Um hum. Alright.
CS: And what else you want to know?
CE: Okay. Um, you said, I'm interested in the fact that you said your husband and your son, I mean
his father, came here to help build, they came to Savannah to work?
CS: Yeah. To build on this project right here.
CE: Okay. To help build, what was it called then?
CS: Oh, I had it on the end of my tongue.
CE: Was it Tattnall?
CS: Josiah Tattnall Homes.
CE: Umhum.
CS: Yeah.
CE: And was it a public housing project then?
CS: Yes. It was public housing project but, you had to work in the shipyard, in Southeastern
Shipyard, to get an, an apartment in these apartments. I though you might like to know that.
CE: Yeah. Oh, definitely. Um hum. Now when your, when your, when your father and your
husband when they finished building these apartments, what kind of, did they still worked with
construction?
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Serners, Charlotte Clll'isline
CS: Huh?
CE: Did your husband and your father continue to work in construction after they built these
homes?
CS: No. No.
CE: Okay. What did your husband do after this?
CS: My father worked to the shipyard.
CE: Okay.
CS: See, you had to work in the Southeastern Shipyards to, and bring your badge, you and your
badge, to even apply for an apartment.
CE: Okay. And your husband worked in the shipyard too?
CS: Huh?
CE: Did your husband also work in the shipyard? Did your husband also work in the shipyard?
CS: Yeah.
CE: Okay.
CS: What little, what time he worked, yes. That's how come he got kicked out. I don't believe in a
woman working, bringing home her paycheck, sign it, and giving it to the man and him sitting
on his can at home.
CE: He just couldn't keep a job, huh? Is he still alive?
CS: Huh?
CE: Is your husband still alive. I said is he still living?
CS: I don't, I can't tell you that. I don't even how where he lives.
CE: Where's your son now?
CS: Huh?
CE: Where's your son now?
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Serners, Charlotte Christine
CS: My son lives in California.
CE: You told me he had an operation, you told. A heart operation, didn't you? Didn' t you tell me
that?
CS: No. A, a little, a little growth on his brain.
CE: Right, right. I remember. Okay.
CS: But the doctor promised him that he had got it all.
CE: Okay.
CS: Said he got it all and he would be all right. But he would want him to recuperate.
CE: Is he, is he retired?
CS: Huh?
CE: Is your son retired?
CS: Oh no, he 's sixty-seven years old. He drives a, been driving a limousine in California for years;
forty years I know. More than that really, I don't know how long.
CE: Okay. Um, as a young woman living here on Crescent Drive, right?
CS: Huh?
CE: This is Crescent Drive, right?
CS: Yeah.
CE: Okay. What was the neighborhood like in 1941?
CS: What was the name of what?
CE: 1 said, what was the neighborhood like when you came here?
CS: Oh, when I came here?
CE: Um hum.
CS: Oh well, we enjoyed it because the shipyard people worked, they worked down there and all
they kind of ganged together, you know.
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Serners, Charlotte Cluistine
CE: Um hum.
CS: And uh, everybody was friendly and everybody ... See, when we came here, the streets were
not paved. There were no streetlights, and the streets were not paved. And everyday somebody
would come and ask my mama, "When they gmma pave these streets?" My mama said, "I don't
work for these people. I just live here. I don' t know."
CE: They had, of course they had electricity and indoor plumbing didn' t they?
CS: Yeah.
CE: Okay.
CS: But it was a nice neighborhood. Its always, always been nice until, I would say, the last few
years.
CE: Okay.
CS: When it started changing hands and changing hands.
CE: Umhum.
CS: And I don't know what happened but we don' t have as many white people as we did.
CE: Okay.
CS: I know what happened, the rent went high; the rent went up, I think. But it still, it stays pretty
full.
CE: And less white people live, less white people live out here now?
CS: Huh?
CE: You say less white people live out here now? When you came here originally, nobody black
lived around here, did they?
CS: Nobody what?
CE: Black. When you first came here, there were no black people living 'round here were they?
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Serners, Charlotte CIU'istine
CS: Uh, no. Not right in '41. Uh, uh. They began to come in after it began to change hands, you
know.
CE: Um hum.
CS: They began to get more blacks into work and all. (speaking to her dog) Come here baby; come
on.
CE: When you say, when you think blacks started coming around here? After the '60s?
CS: I think so, yeah. (to dog) Now, they /urn on/hal big old Nghl put mine and your eyes out isn 'I
it? They did, put our eyes out. You can 'I do thai.
CE: Okay. Okay. Where, where'd your son, where did, where did you go to school as a, as a, as a
child. Well, you were grown when you came here right?
CS: No, it was one year old.
CE: No, no. When you came here?
CS: Oh, yeah, uh huh.
CE: Okay. So you were through going to school and all that kind of stuff.
CS: Well, he went to, oh I can't think what name, the Oelschig kindergarten.
CE: Oelschig?
CS: Yeah. You know Ms. Oelschig's dead now.
CE: Yeah, she's the florist?
CS: Yeah.
CE: She ran a private kindergarten?
CS: Yeah. She had a kindergarten over there.
CE: Where was it?
CS: Well, you know where that big school, old avenue school is over there? The big old
schoolhouse? It was on the, that street.
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Serners, Charlotte Christine
CE: On uh, Skidaway Road?
CS: Yeah.
CE: Herty, near, was it near Herty School?
CS: Yeah, yeah.
CE: Okay.
CS: And Joe went to, you want to know what schools he went to here?
CE: Yeah.
CS: Well, first grade he went to Pennsylvania Avenue.
CE: Umhum.
CS: And Moore Avenue 'cause we didn't like Pennsylvania.
CE: And then to what? Moore Avenue School?
CS: Yeah, Moore Avenue. And um, Lord I can't remember all the schools.
CE: Did he go to Savannah High?
CS: He graduated from Savannah High.
CE: Alright.
CS: He went to uh, well
CE: And after that he, when did he go to California? Years ago?
CS: Huh?
CE: He left for California years ago?
CS: Yeah, many years ago. To work with, in, with the limousine company, driving limousines.
CE: Does he have, does he, do you have any grandchildren?
CS: Huh?
CE: Do you have any grandchildren?
CS: No, he ain't married.
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Serners, Charlotte Christine
CE: He never married?
CS: No, he never married.
CE: Wow.
CS: See, you got a whole book right there and don't know it.
CE: Um.
CS: I worked with the board of education twenty-seven years. No, for the uh, the C&S Bank.
CE: Okay.
CS: For twenty-seven years and when they sold out, when uh, Bank of American bought them over.
CE: Um hum.
CS: They gave all of us who were sixty-years old a choice of retirement.
CE: How old were you when you, when you, you retired from there?
CS: Huh?
CE: How old were you when you retired?
CS: When my daddy passed?
CE: No, I said how old were you when you retired from C&S Bank?
CS: When I retired from the bank?
CE: Umhum.
CS: Sixty.
CE: Umhum.
CS: You were sixty, if you were sixty-years old and you got everything that the regular workers
ago: insurance, every time they sold stock or every time they bought stock,
CE: Umhum.
CS: and oh, we got our checks too just like them. We were treated just like we still worked. Well, I
did; I worked. They called me in for at least a month after I had retired. They called me and
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Serners, Charlotte Christine
said they needed me back and so and so. I said, "You wait a minute. I'm not messing up my
retirement to do this." "So would, would, would you come in once a week." I said, "No, that'll
mess up my program."
CE: Okay. What year was that when you retired?
CS: Huh?
CE: What year was that when you retired?
CS: What year I retired?
CE: Um hum, um hum.
CS: 1960.
CE: Wow. Okay. And uh, what did you do at C&S? What was your job? You were a teller?
CS: I was a teller to start with. No, I worked in installment loans.
CE: Okay.
CS: Then I was a teller and I retired as a teller supervisor. If you don't think that's hard work just
ask anybody that's having money problems.
CE: Oh, I believe it.
CS: Nine o'clock in the morning 'til five o'clock in the afternoon. They say, "Oh, I'd love to have
your job. All you do is sit on that stool all day," I said, "That's right."
CE: Okay. And you stopped until it was taken over by? Okay. Um, and you still get your benefits
from C&S Bank?
CS: Huh?
CE: You still getting your retirement benefits from C&S Bank?
CS: Everything that the regular workers get, I get.
CE: Okay, "I still get my retirement." Now, you get it from Bank of America, right?
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Serners, Charlotte Christine
CS: Yeah. Right now if uh, the C&S buy somebody else's bank then we get our share of that, the
retirees do.
CE: Now ya' II under, ya ' II get your stuff from Bank of America?
CS: Yeah.
CE: Okay. What did ya' l1 do for fun and amusements?
CS: Huh?
CE: What did the people do around here for fun and amusements when you, as you lived here?
CS: Oh, in the evening time?
CE: Um hum. Any time.
CS: Well, I don't know. I keep my doors locked all the time. I don't want anybody walking in here
that knows I Jive alone.
CE: I mean when you were married and when you were younger, that's what 1 mean. When you
first came here, what did people in the neighborhood, what did ya'll do as adults?
CS: Well, now you're testing my memory. I don't remember. We had such a good time I can't tell
you.
CE: How old, how old are you Ms. Serners?
CS: How old am I?
CE: Yes.
CS: I'm eighty-eight.
CE: Okay.
CS: I will be eighty-nine in January. So don't question me too hard.
CE: I won't. You're about right along with my daddy. He would have been ninety if he'd been
alive.
CS: Yeah.
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Serners, Charlotte Clll'istine
CE: Yeah. It's just a privilege just to be able to talk to you really. Um, what about um, where did
people go to church around here? Did you attend a church around here?
CS: Sure. Morningside, when it was Morningside. Yeah. I, now I raised my son in First Baptist
downtown when Dr. Clelldon was there.
CE: That's on Bull Street?
CS: Huh?
CE: First Baptist on Bull Street?
CS: No, it's up there cross from the theater, from the Savannah Theater.
CE: Umhum.
CS: First Baptist is. Yeah.
CE: Okay.
CS: And Joe was raised in that Sunday school. Well now see there, you now got my dog gone to
sleep.
CE: That's what I do to you, I put you to sleep. Um, is there anything that is um, so basically all of
your life you really, you worked. Pretty much went to work and you have, do you have many
friends here in the neighborhood here? Many friends? Over the years, did you have many
friends?
CS: Well yeah. Because uh, the only way you have friends here is for them walking, going to the
store, you know. And every one of them, they go by and say, "Hi. You doing alright today?
How you doing?" And I think that's a friend.
CE: Um hum.
CS: You don't know the name, they don't know your name but that's alright.
CE: Um hum. Can you think of anything that you might want to tell me about living here that you,
that, that was special that you will never forget?
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Serners, Charlotte Christine
CS: Living here?
CE: Um hum.
CS: That was special?
CE: Um hum.
CS: That I never would forget?
CE: Umhum.
CS: No. Because I worked twenty-seven years before I retired from the bank. So when you work
like that, you don't know much that's going on, you know.
CE: Um hum. So in other words, you didn't have much time for no social life?
CS: Uh huh.
CE: Okay. So you raised your son and worked? Okay.
CS: That's right. I had to, somebody had to do it. Wasn't, wasn't Mama and Daddy's place, it was
mine. And I worked and raised that child.
CE: Now, did you work anywhere before you went to the bank?
CS: Huh?
CE: Did you work anywhere before you went to the bank?
CS: Yeah, I worked for, in Moultrie, Georgia, I worked with two doctors, Dr. Brarmen, they were
brothers. And I worked for them 'til I got tired
CE: Two brothers? They were doctors?
CS: Yes. But I got tired of seeing all them, that blood flowing in them cut feet and cut arms and
child cuts.
CE: What are the names of the brothers? You said, what were their names? The ... ?
CS: Huh?
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Serners, Charlotte Christine
CE: You said Moultrie, Georgia you worked for two, the brothers that were doctors. Their names
were what?
CS: Dr. Brmmens'.
CE: Okay.
CS: The Brmmens'.
CE: Okay.
CS: B.R.A.N.N.E.N.S.
CE: Okay. You say you got tired of all that blood and guts. Okay, what happened after that?
CS: After what?
CE: After working for the Brannens'?
CS: The Brannens'?
CE: Umhum.
CS: Well, we, that was in Moultrie, Georgia. And we moved from Moultrie, Georgia here.
CE: Um hum. What was your first job here?
CS: My first job here?
CE: Um hum.
CS: Oh Lord, what \Vas it? I think I worked at the dime store behind the candy counter my first job.
CE: Okay. Okay. I'm just trying to figure out all the jobs you had before you went to um, Citizens,
to, to C&S Bank.
CS: Jobs I had before I went to C&S?
CE: Um hum, um hum. So you told me you worked in a clime store behind the candy counter, the
candy counter. What was next?
CS: Didn't have too many 'cause I was with the C&S 'til they sold to
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Serners, Charlotte Christine
CE: When, when did you start with C&S? I think that'll give me a better handle. What year did you
start with C&S?
CS: I don't know that. I'm, I'm sorry now, very. I don't know that.
CE: Okay. Alright. But you say you stopped, you remember when you stopped working that was
when they were bout out by Bank of America? Okay.
CS: Uh huh.
CE: Let's see.
CS: I didn't, I never worked for the Bank of America.
CE: I know. I know.
CS: I retired before they
CE: Uh huh.
CS: got into the picture.
CE: Um, do you still go to Morningside? Well, I know it's not Morningside anymore. I know that,
Mr. Kirk told me. It's called the Christ, the Christian Community Church now. Do you go? Do
you attend there?
CS: Sometimes. Not regular.
CE: Okay.
CS: (to dog) What's the matter with you. Huh? What's the matter? You too quiet. Mama, don 't brag
on that quiet business, no. Don't brag on that quiet business.
CE: Let's see. You told me, anything else about um, what kind of businesses were around here? Did
people
CS: What?
CE: Did people own businesses, any kind of businesses around here? Did people own any kind of
businesses around here?
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Semers, Charlotte Christine
CS: No.
CE: Okay.
CS: Uh, uh. Not that I know of.
CE: Can you think of anything else Reggie?
CS: Just grocery stores is um, the grocery store I use
CE: Um hum.
CS: is the Piggly Wiggly on Victory Drive.
CE: Okay. I think you have told me
CS: Too much.
CE: No, not enough but I have to accept that. Let me see if anything I missed. Um,
RF: I think you,
CE: I think we pretty covered.
RF: I think you covered it all.
CE: Yeah. Now, ifl can get you to do me one more favor. I have to get your permission to use this
interview. And I, I have to get you to please sign a form for me.
END.
City of Savannah NOTES
1. Footage is unedited and presented in the form that it was recorded.
2. Filmed on the date indicated at the home of the resident.
3. Designations -- "CS" indicates Charlotte Serners. "RF" indicates Reginald Franklin, the Project
Videographer. "CE" indicates Charles Elmore, the Project Historian.
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