CD: I loved it. I sure appreciate you sending it to us. I was so glad to get it because we didn't have a picture of my father when he was a young boy. Everybody is excited over it, even the grandchildren. We're having copies made for all of them.

JM: Did you recognize him right away?

CD: Oh, yes. His looks didn't change at all. He always looked that way. And he was always slim. He was about 5' 6" when I knew him.

JM: Did you have any idea that he was working in a glass factory when he was a boy?

CD: That was the first I heard of it. I don't know much about my father as a young boy. My parents didn't tell us much back then.

JM: When were you born?

CD: 1924. I was born on Duke Street in Alexandria. I had one brother then, Robert Sidney Kidd. He was 11 months and two weeks older than me.

JM: What did your father do for a living when you were growing up?

CD: The only thing I remember is that he worked for the railroad, first for Fruit Growers Express, and then the Southern Railroad. He was what they called a car repairer.

JM: Did your mother work?

CD: Not till we got older, and then she did some waitress work.

JM: Did you know your father's parents?

CD: I didn't know my grandmother. She died before I was born. I vaguely remember my grandfather. I think they had eight children: Earl, Luther, Bradley, my father, Martin and Stanley, who were twins, an older one I can't remember, and a girl who died young.

JM: In the 1920 census, your father was living in Baltimore with his father and some brothers. They were all working in the shipyards.

CD: That's the first time I've heard of that. But I remember that a couple of his brothers worked in a shipyard.

JM: In the 1930 census, you and your parents were living with your father's brother Stanley, and his wife Grace.

CD: Oh, yeah, I remember that we lived with them. That was also on Duke Street.

JM: Did your father live the rest of his life in Alexandria?

CD: Yes, but my mother and father separated when I was about 13. I think he was about nine years older than my mother. They had seven children in 10 years.

JM: How did your mother support her family after the separation?

CD: My two sisters and I went to live with my grandparents (mother's parents) on Franklin Street. That was Rufus and Ethel Mitchell. And the boys went to live with my Aunt Grace and Uncle Stanley. My brother Robert went into the service and died in an accident when he was 28.

JM: After the separation, did you continue to see your father?

CD: Not very much. He was an alcoholic, but I loved my father. He wasn't mean. He was a good father, other than the sickness he had with alcohol. He was always good to us. I remember one time when I was sick, and he brought me some oranges. He loved his children. He was always concerned about us. He really didn't help much financially, though. My mother really had to push him sometimes to get a little help. I got married in 1942. My husband's parents lived in Florida, so we moved down there. So after that, I didn't get to see my family much except when we went back to visit.

JM: When you were in Florida, did you continue to correspond with your father?

CD: Yes, he would write to me. I remember that he had beautiful penmanship. My mother and father never got divorced. She moved to Washington, then to Rockville, Maryland, and then to Florida to be near me. I was living in Jacksonville when my father died of a heart attack. We came up for the funeral.

JM: In the photo, your father looks rather sad.

CD: He always looked that way. He always had that expression. I take after him, because everybody tells me I look the same way, sad all the time.

JM: So maybe he wasn't sad in that photograph; it was just the way he looked.

CD: Well, he might not have liked working there. He probably had to work back then for the family to make ends meet.