Tape number: V21A

Name: Walther Fidler

Location: Sharps, Virginia

Date of Birth: April 18, 1923

Date of Recording:12/15/03

Recorded By: Talking Across The Lines

Log sheet created by: Grayson Mattingly

Item	In Point	Category	Description
01	1/00	F	talks about growing up in Sharps
02	1/50	SW	summertime steamers would come 2 times a week - a real event, about fishing off wharfs as a child, sneaking onto steamers and playing slot machines
03	5/40	SW	activity on the wharf, type of produce, animals, canned goods - tomatoes, string beans, corn, Milden Packing Company products
04	7/51	L	talks about the Milden name, how town got name from Sharp who came after Civil War
05		ST	talks about boats, describes dining rooms, says they were very much like trains, meals were cheap,
06	10/30	ST	Made one trip to Baltimore at age 7, talks about going up to bay, arriving in Baltimore harbor, the quantity of steamboats there
07	11/38	SW	talks about handling the cargo, muscular stevedores, singing/dancing stevedores, the fellow from Piankatank..they would put on an act for the people that would gather there..talks about how they would get calves onto the boat - ringing the door bell -
08	16/29	ST	odors on the boat - combination of cattle, steam, coal, brass fixtures, odors different on different parts of boat, dining room odor etc.
09	18/00	ST,SC	talks about crew, how boat was hard to handle in the wind,
10	18/51	C	Captain Archie Young misses the wharf, had too much to drink that day is what they said
11	20/10	SW	900 feet long wharf 50 to 60 feet across at the end, had railroad tracks and a cart, items were brought to wharf by horse and wagons, no electricity, no lights, cold in the winter time, boats averaged 225 feet, drew about 6 to 8 feet, all painted white, some side wheels, side wheels would go from side to side couldn't go straight, could run about ten to twelve miles per hour, kept on schedule
12	27/00	SW	talks about stops up the river, didn't have any railroads, trucks..this was it. Most people would go to Baltimore, way of life, didn't realize it was and end of an era, remembers the last boat 1937, the celebration.
13	29/45	L	talks about the condition of the roads, 1933 hurricane knocked out wharfs that weren't replaced because of expense and grow compassion from trucks, better roads, bridge at Tappahannock, Hazel took the wharf away
14	32/00	L	talks about the steamboat era that started in 1830 up to 1937
15	33/00	SW	talks about the steamboat coming, blowing whistle, could tell different boats by whistles, talks about how the whistle was blown, didn't sound like a train whistle, loud whistle, how everyone would go to the dock when you heard the whistle.
16	35/15	SW	talks about docking the ss, tieing her up, backing and filling, fun to watch the docking, could smell the coal, a little smut from the coal
17	38/00	SW	childhood activities, swimming around steamboat dock, life saving badges were tested for off the steamboat dock,
18	39/40	ST	1918 river froze up, boats would stop but would run in all weather,
19	41/20	ST	talks about the railroads (Penn RR) involvement on boats particularly the dining room activities, cork type life jackets, expensive looking leather chairs, ,
20	43/30	SW	talks about Adams Floating Theater, describes the floating theater, seated 150 or so, intermission sold candy, colorful stage
21	47/25	L	talks about local mistral shows, dramas that they would have several times a year, making ice cream by hand, being end man, some of the lines
22	50/44	ST	talks about segregation on boats.
23	51/46	L,M, BH	blacks singing in the oyster houses, doesn't remember any crime, any serious crime, degree of poverty, people eating possum, separate schools but would play together with blacks
24	59/30	W	talks a little about his father's oyster house business, sold oysters through the mail, started business in 1918 that ended in 1988