Ruth Ballard and Ramonia Lee

Ruth Ballard and Ramonia Lee

Interview transcript

RB: My husband was the physical training officer for the fires.

RL: For the Tuskegee airman

RB: For the Tuskegee airman —yes, he would have these guys out on Tuskegee’s football field going through all their exercises.  And then on Sundays he would have them running and they would be running through the community, you know, the community was so small.   And sometimes my friends would call and say, ‘ The boys have gone by.  You better fix dinner ’cause he’s going to be hungry.’ We bought a piece of property and started to build our home. And the situation was such that when we built our home, we had our driveway made of gravel so that we could hear any car approaching. We had lights on all four corners of our house. Spotlights which we, with a single switch, we could light up the area. So you were always thinking and preparing. And in the South I learned how to adjust, not to expect too much but to expect the worst at any time. One day in Tuskegee, I was driving, and I got to an intersection. And I stopped and then went across and I guy followed me and got out of his car and wanted to know why I didn’t let him go first.

RL: ‘Cause you had the right of way.

RB: I had the right of way and he had opened the door of my car. So I reached down and took of my shoe with the high heel and held it up. That took care of that situation. I’m saying some of this, to say that you never knew what was going to happen, y’know at any day.