First Monthly Winner of "Share Your Story"
Aug 13th, 2008
Mayor Sam Jones welcomed the first monthly winner of the Share Your Story contest. The Share Your Story contest is part of our new Master Plan activities. The story can be one of holiday shopping in downtown from decades ago, or of a family reunion last month.We’ve gotten some great stories, and our first monthly winner is Mrs. Valena Withers McCants. Her story was chosen by a selection committee led by our Historic Development Department.
Mrs. McCants’ story weaves her unique thread within the fabric of the history of our great city. We were very fortunate to have Mrs. McCants with us for her to share her story. The transcript of her story is below. To submit a story of your own, Click Here.
Share Your Story Submission
Mrs. Valena Withers McCants
Memories are a significant part of my life, for most of them are fond ones of “Down the Bay,” and I do not want to forget my past.
Going downtown on Dauphin Street to Zoghby’s and Reiss Brothers for wearing apparels, to Damrich Shoe Store for school shoes, to Three George’s for the famous chocolate egg for Easter, and to Electric Maid Bakery for a ten-cent dozen of coffee rolls are all indelible in my mind.
For eight cents, the street car furnished excellent transportation downtown, but walking afforded much more fun and healthy exercise, which no doubt contributed to my longevity.
Mardi Gras was a happy time. Watching parades as stubborn mules pulled floats, while torch bearers walked on either side of the floats was magical and awe inspiring. There were no barricades placed for control; the torches along with the famous Excelsiors and Catholic Boys Home Bands were enough to keep the crowds at bay.
Fat Tuesday climaxed with “molly’s” frightening the children; then we journeyed on to the foot of Government Street to tour the “Big Ship.” With night fall nearing, holding a helium balloon from Bonner Novelty and watching the last parade in our spot on Hamilton and Government Streets, our good times of revelry ended until the next year.
In spite of segregated facilities, those were happy days; I looked forward to going to the Saenger Theater and entering on Conti Street, going up a flight of steps that seemed like more than a hundred, sitting in the balcony, and hearing Agnes Griffin play the gigantic organ on Saturday mornings prior to the movie. I admired the ceilings in the Saenger because my father, Mr. James G. Withers, was a Master Plasterer Craftsman, and he had done much of the workmanship around the huge crystal chandelier.
The neighborhood was “checkerboard,” so to speak, and most of the other minorities as well as the Filipinos were Catholic. Thus the schools were St. Vincent on Cedar and Savannah Streets for girls and St. Vincent on Lawrence and Charleston Streets for boys. The Creoles attended St. Peter Claver on Dearborn Street. These schools were taught by nuns whom we watched in awe because of their long blue habits and oversized headdress.
Some children attended Emerson and Council Schools. Upon reaching high school, minority students journeyed across town to Davis Avenue to Dunbar or Heart of Mary. Some others traveled a little further north to Mobile County Training School in Plateau, Alabama, which in 1941 became my Alma Mater.
If I had my “rather’s,” I still would be confined to the area of my youth that was “oh, so” familiar: going downtown to affordable movies and to sneak previews on Saturdays at the Saenger, shopping on Dauphin Street for my needs rather than journeying to West Mobile bring me joy even as I reminisce ole days.
Through the years, I have been to any number of beautiful places, by none exude with the warmth and hospitality that Mobile offers. Mobile is home for me, and as the song goes, “Be ever so humble, there’s no place like home.