WRITINGS: Biography of Thomas Randolph Jones - 88 years old in 2007.

Randy Jones: This is Randy Jones,  and it's January the 15th, 19... well  it's not 19, it's 2007 at 12:18pm being interviewed by Miss Carrie Loper and my correct legal name is Thomas Randolph, spelled R A N D O L P H, Jones, Sr. but I was not a senior when I was born and I was born on December 13th, 1919. and I thought it was a Friday but actually I don't remember.

Carrie: (Laughter) ok, well my first questions... tell me a little bit about your family, your home life, where were you born?

Randy Jones: I was born in a little town called Quitman Georgia and there were 7 siblings, I was the youngest of 7, my mother and father made 9 in the family. My father was a plantation manager, I guess you could call it.. back in those days, a plantation out from Quitman Georgia called Waverly and my mother taught school and since they didn't have any babysitters, I don't remember how old I was but at that time we had a Ford touring car which is a two seated open car on sides with (curtains?) in bad weather and she would park the car, out at the school that she taught at was about 5 or 6 miles from Quitman called Dixie, it was a small town, and she parked the car out there close to the window so she could see me and I stay in the car all day... and play around... and go home...

Carrie: What were some of your responsibilities as a child growing up with your family and what did you do for fun?

Randy Jones: Well my responsibilities as a child was taking out the garbage and back in those days we didn't have far to take the garbage, we lived out in the country so we'd dig a hole probably 6 feet deep, 6 feet across, 6 feet wide, a square and put the garbage in the hole and maybe pour a little kerosene or gasoline in it occasionally and burn it and then when the hole got pretty full we'd cover it up, fill it up and dig a new hole and that's where we'd dispose the garbage... and for fun I liked to go out to the woods and I don't remember what age but when I was very young my parents would let take my shot gun and go to the woods by myself... and I bought an old old Buick, I don't know what kind of car you'd call it but it was kind of a coupe and I kept it for about a year until the time came to get a tag and I couldn't afford to buy a tag so I had to sell the car but I'd take that car and drive 2 or 3 miles from home out in the woods to go hunting by myself and they allowed me to do that.

Carrie: Next questions... What age did you leave home? What age did you move out on your own? and what school did you go to? did you graduate college?

Randy Jones: Yeah.. I went to first, second and probably third grade in a little town called Crescent City, Florida and then we moved from there to Lake Helen which is 6 miles out from DeLand and I can't remember now but I believe that at that school it went through 8th grade and then I had to go on the bus to DeLand Florida which is 6 miles away for 9, 10, 11 and 12 grades and I graduated from High School in 1937 and I was born in 1919 so 1937 would make me 17 years old I guess, I do my mathematics by I was born in December the 13th so it's almost 1920 so subtract 20 from 37, I was 17 and then I went to college in Lakeland Florida which is a little farther South but still in the Central part of Florida, I guess that was when I was out on my own, from then on.

Carrie: And so after that, after school you went off to war?

Randy Jones: After school I.., first of all during school I worked, in fact I worked in a grocery store in this little town in Lake Helen probably when I was 9 or 10 years old, just you know cleaning up sweeping that type of thing, then when I got a little older even though I didn't have a license they allowed me to drive a truck to deliver groceries to people who would call up on the phone and... except we didn't have but one phone in town so there wasn't much calling on the phone so they'd leave orders and I'd deliver them and then when I was in college, well around high school I worked in a man's habitatery clothing store for men in DeLand Florida and also worked for Table Supply as a bag boy and then when I got to college I worked for the college... back in those days because it was depression days the government came out with what they called an NYA, National Youth Administration and I think I got $15 dollars a month college arranged that for me. I worked for the college hoeing and racking around the orange trees because the college was in an orange grove on Lake Holandsworth in Lakeland and I also worked down town in the habitatery and while I was in college I guess my 2nd year, my sophomore year they built an activity building which we called a "took" (?) and there was soda in the soda fountain and I drank soda behind the soda fountain and it was open in the afternoon and then it was open one hour at night in the evening from like 7 to 9, um 7 to 8... the students were allowed to come over there and visit, have an hour date, that type of thing, have a soda. What other questions?

Carrie: Speaking of dates.. were did you go, what did you do on your first date with your girl friend?

Randy Jones:Well my first date I probably walked to town which was about 2 and a half, 3 miles and in one section which wasn't the best section of town but it was satisfactory to go to back in those days, picture shows were 10 cents and I would have a date on a quarter. I would go to a picture show and it was 10 cents a person so it was 20 cents, on the way home we'd stop at the drug store and get a 5 cent Coca Cola and split it and then we'd walk home and that was the date.

Carrie: Wow.. Can't do that anymore! (Laughter)

Randy: No you can't do that! 

Carrie: So now you did go off to war... what war was it and what were some of your responsibilities and duties and experiences at war?

Randy Jones: Well we're talking about War World 2. Pearl Harbor was bombed on December the 7th, 1941 and of course we immediately got involved in the war after that and I was working at that time in Lakeland Florida where I graduated from college in a JC Penny store and I had got some draft papers, everybody was being drafted and if I was drafted I had to go to Camp Landing and probably wind up in the infantry and I didn't want to do that. I had a brother who was a a West Point graduate and he was in the horse cavalry and then that later became the armor. They converted from horse to tanks, armored cars and so I had to get special permission out of Washington DC to enlist because once you had drafted papers you weren't allowed to enlist but my brother had some friends being a West Point graduate and I got permission so I flew up to Fort Knox Kentucky and enlisted in the armored services ... armored.. in fact they actually turned out to be a fifth army division, is where they put me and I had a second Lieutenant that swore me in and when he swore me in I finally asked him I said "now are you sure Lieutenant that I'm in the army", he said "yes" and I said "are you sure" and he said "yep you just took the oath" I said "alright", I said "what do I do with these draft papers" and I handed them to him and he about had a fit, he said "your not suppose to enlist once you have draft papers" and I said "well I'm sorry here are the papers, what do I do with them...?" So he took them and he wasn't very happy about that but when I  arrived in Fort Knox Kentucky I flew from DeLand Florida, that's where my parents lived, to Louisville Kentucky and it was about 10 degrees below zero and I was in civilian clothes, rayon socks and stuff like that maybe a jacket but not much and rode a bus out to Fort Knox and when I got to Fort Knox fortunately I had a friend there, a friend of my brothers that helped me run the problems being enlisted, I had to go to certain areas on the post, had to get my uniform and all that and they rode me around in an open Jeep with no wind shield at 10 below zero and I was freezing to dead.... in (?).... and I finally got assigned to a unit and put in the barracks with all the draftees that come into the armor and they announced that night that we'd have to be ready to leave (?) at 5:30 in the morning and everybody was going to fall out ready to leave (?) and then we were going to go to the dispensary (?) to get shots, well when i was sworn in as an individual myself they furnished me a driver to take me around the posts, I went and did all my medical, I had my shots and everything so I said no need for me getting up going to take the shots, I'll just stay in bed, so I stayed in bed and that cost me 6 weeks of KP duty... which was probably good because they kept me inside a building otherwise I would have been outside in the cold weather, and I washed dishes and peeled potatoes and sorted garbage and all kinds of things.

Carrie: Did you drive the trucks or were you driving a tank? what kinds of things did you do out in the field?

Randy Jones: Um no the first thing I drove was a Jeep and we called them Peeps back in those days but it's now called a Jeep and I was very fortunate... the fact that I was a college graduate, that did show up on my record and the Captain of the company that I was assigned to after I got my 6 week tour KP duty, he picked me out to be a driver so that was a plus.

Carrie: Ok next questions, when did you get married the first time and tell me a little bit about your children growing up... some of your experiences...

Randy Jones: I got married on January 1st 1942 in Live Oak Florida and sworn into the army on January 13th 1942 so got into the service 13 days after I got married, an the interesting thing about that they paid you cash they didn't put your money in the bank like automatic deposit and back in those days you got $21 dollars a month... well when I went through the line to get all the information and to get the ID number for the military and they asked me if I wanted any lottery tickets and I said sure gotta have some lottery tickets and they said you want any PX, we called it PX, post exchange, now they call it BX, I guess base exchange. I said yes I want some of those and so at the end of the month on payday everybody lined up alphabetically to get paid and when I got to the paymaster he said you red lined and I said what's red lined mean and he said you don't get paid and I said why not and he said you owe the government some $8 dollars and 72 cents or some amount and I said how'd that happen and he said well out of your $21 dollars he said 60% of that goes home to your wife automatically, he said the 40% you got lottery tickets, you got PX tickets, he said you've over extended yourself, he said you've spent more money than you made so I didn't get paid that month.

Carrie: So it was when you came back from the war that you spent some time with your wife and had your kids..?

Randy Jones: Well I had 13 days.. we came to Homestead on our honeymoon, I borrowed my brother's car and had $75 dollars in my pocket and that was it...

Carrie: When was it... what year was it when you returned from war to come back home?

Randy Jones: I came back home in December of 1945 but I stayed in the service until March of 46 because I so much leave time built up, I didn't have any leave time in combat and I got paid up to March of 46 and then I joined the reserves and stayed in reserves I think till 1955 as I recall, I should have (?) checked the papers on that... I hope I'm talking loud enough.. my mouth is dry as a board...

Carrie: How many children did you have?

Randy Jones: I had 3 children, Tina was my oldest daughter and I was able to come home, back in those days they would let you come home 2 or 3 days at a time so I was able to be with my wife some and Tina was born on October the 23rd I believe in 1943 and.. or 44, no.. 43 because I saw her before I went over seas, I went overseas in 44 and then when I came back from the war Tom came along in 1947 and Lewis came along in 1957. Tom was born in Homestead in the James Arthur Smith Hospital which was very small at that time and Lewis was born in the Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables and when Hamilton, um... Hamilton that's my grandson,... um, when Tom was born my wife went into labor sometime in the early part of the evening so we took her over to the Hospital but the doctor and the nurse decided she wasn't ready for delivery yet so he went home for a while and I sat around and waited and waited and waited and finally she came back and then he came back and he said no need my going home anymore, he said let's you and me find any empty room so we found an empty room in the hospital and two beds in it and he got in one bed and I got in the other and we slept, well when she was ready to deliver the nurse came and got him and left me sleeping and she didn't think too much of that (Laughter) and then when Lewis was born we took her to the Hospital, Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables right close the University of Miami, about noon time, and the nurses there said well she's got 4 or 5 hours before she's going to deliver so you might as well go get something to eat and come back, so I went and had lunch, took my time, stayed about an hour an hour and a half and I came back and Lewis was born, he had arrived.

Carrie: Ok, do you want to take a little break now or do you want to continue?

Randy Jones: Well we can, I'm afraid we're not going to get much done on this tape.

Carrie: Well.. a little bit more...

Randy Jones:  When you get to the end of your questions we'll take a little break and do it another day..

Carrie: Um, well... I'll ask you a couple more questions.... What changes have you seen in people now in comparison to people let's say when you were 20 years old, what are some of the changes in people?

Randy Jones: Well when I was 20 years old, uh... naturally I thought I was grown and smart but I discovered I wasn't..

Carrie: (Laughter)

Randy Jones:  Uh, people have changed, back in those days the worse you could do was to maybe steal a cigarette from somebody, you couldn't buy them for sure and you couldn't get anything to drink but Coca Cola's, we didn't know anything about drugs, we have no conception of that and I feel sorry now for the young people, I'm certainly glad that I'm past the stage of being a young parent, I think it would be very difficult to be a young parent today... with all the problems that the kids can get into. We just didn't have an opportunity and also living out in the country there wasn't any... there was no dance halls, there were no... the closest picture show was in DeLand which was 6 miles away...

Carrie: So you think population has a lot to do with it...?

Randy Jones: Population has a lot to do with it... My first visit to Homestead was in 1936 and I guess I came down with some of my family and drove, but while I was in college I would come down here to visit my sister and brother in law who were both teaching school in Homestead and I would hitch hike, back in those days you wore what you call a rat cap, a freshman's cap, and...(and hitch..rides?), in fact we use to brag we could out run the bus, (Laughter) we could get there quicker than the bus, but when I got to South Miami if I got put out, and I did once or twice, I would not accept a ride until I knew it was going all the way to Homestead, because back in those days there was a big gap, if you go form Homestead North, you have Modela, Naranja, Princeton, Black Point, Goulds and I don't know what else, Cutler Ridge and so forth and you didn't want to get put off on any of those places because there might not be any more traffic coming so you'd want to get a ride all the way to Homestead...

Carrie: Ok, one more question, what changes have you seen in the environment over your lifetime for instance wildlife, birds, fish, lakes, rivers, what changes have you seen there?

Randy: I've seen tremendous changes and I've seen changes in Homestead and I've seen changes in the Big Cypress swamp and the Everglades National Park and if you haven't read them, there's 2 books written by Glenn Simmons, ones called Galdesmen I think and the other is called To Keep From Starving and he was born in Homestead but he was raised in the swamp and spent a lot of time in Flamingo and he would pole boat, in fact I have the books I can lend you, he would pole boat from Flamingo to what is now called Dade Corner, Krome Avenue and 41, and then get into the canal and pole boat on into Miami, they'd pole boat from Flamingo to Miami, there was enough water and the canals that they've dug, the Corporate Engineers are good at digging canals but they certainly haven't preserved the wildlife, they've got too much water or too little water and the birds use to... in fact alligators lay eggs you know and they'd have nests and they get flooded out and of course the eggs have got to be out in the sun so they can hatch and there were 1000's and 1000's of birds when I first came down there now you see very few, you'd drive down the Tamiami Trail and there were all kinds of birds, there were 1000's of them but the bird hunters and the alligator poachers have certainly taken a toll in their population and in my opinion the canals have ruined it, when I first was hunting and working in the Everglades here, I had a camp out North of Tamiami Trail, if the water was flowing across the ground you would drink it, if it wasn't flowing it wasn't drinkable and we had no water (?), it was fresh water but now you see very little water, sometimes in the wet season you will have some water actually flowing but mostly when you have the water it's enough water there to run the air boat but it's not flowing much, it's stagnant and it makes a big difference in the environment..

Carrie: Sure does...

Randy Jones: And the population in Homestead has really increased

Carrie: A lot, I've seen the increase in the population just in the last 10 years so I can only imagine what it was like long ago...

Randy Jones: In 1942 I guess when I was down here on my honeymoon, I was riding with my brother in law on Krome Avenue South of the Rail Road tracks, the Rail Road tracks went North East, South West just South of Mowry Street and it was probably down... there was a bank down there at the end and the Rotary Club met at the American Legion Hall and my brother in law and I were driving South and a friend of his, Margaret Jacobs who's now dead was driving North and they stopped in the middle of the street and chatted for about 15 minutes and not another car came along... (Laughter)

Carrie: (Laughter), well you can't do that anymore...

Randy Jones: No, you sure can't...

Carrie: Not even for a second..

Randy Jones: No... oh, one more thing, one of the biggest changes I've seen is in the farming, when I first came down here the farmer's market was a fantastic deal for the farmers, they had buyers and the produce companies would come down and the buyers would go out in peoples fields and look at the tomatoes where they were growing and they knew the quality and what they'd want, when the farmer would have his crop picked he would bring it in to the farmers market by truck and these buyers would be there and they would bid on it, actually bid on the produce and when they'd bid on it who the highest bidder was got it and they told them to take it to packing house 6 and packing house 5 or 4 and put it out and got paid instantly, now you don't do that, now you take it to the packing house and they send it off and you get paid later.

Carrie: Lot and lots of changes... alright so we will continue this another time, thank you Randy Jones for your time.

Randy Jones: Your entirely welcome. 


*** Written from recorded audio cassette tape, Biography of Thomas Randolph Jones - 88 years old in 2007.

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