Kendall: Get this going
Diane: Oh I’m gonna be recorded?
Kendall: Mhm
All: Laughter
Andy: Don’t worry about it
Kendall: Okay! We are good to go.
Andy: So, uh, where are you from?
Diane: I’m from Asheville, North Carolina. Born and raised here.
Andy: Oh Really?
Diane: Mhm.
Andy: Mhm. Um. And how long have you lived here? Oh. That- Laughter. My- I’m sorry about that. You answered that question already!Uh. And uh what-what neighborhood are you from?
Diane: I’m from over in this neighborhood. I was, I was –
Andy: Oh, here? Just around here?
Diane: Mhm.
Andy: Alright, And um. How long have you been involved with the YWCA? I know it’s been for a long time – Laughter –
Diane: Well, yeah I started up here, comin’ up here, it was in the sss-sixties? We used to come up here and we have like uh, uh. We’d come up here and get our – help with our homework.
Andy: Yeah.
Diane: And we’d have little dances.
Andy: Oh, okay. So, okay, yeah that’s – Wow. Laughter
Diane: Yeah. And then, in 1975 I got married up here.
Andy: Mhm, so uh –
Diane: And then, after awhile, I came back up here ’cause I got in the diabetic wellness program
Andy: Yeah
Diane: And, I’ve been here ever since. And I work out in the gym, five days a week, and then I go – I’m a foster grandparent. So I’m up here all day.
Andy: So you’re very, very involved
Diane: Mhm!
Andy: Yeah! That’s great, that’s wonderful. Uh… So, what brought you to join the YWCA? Any specific reason you can name off the top of your head?
Diane: Yeah, the diabetic wellness program.
Andy: Ahh! Ah! Okay. Aw, yeah. I just didn’t know if like that – Yeah okay that-that’s. Um. so if-if you, uh, do you have any favorite memories from being involved with the YWCA?
Diane: Well, it, uh, the one I like is when we used to come up here after school, and uh, which was a long time ago, and you know we’d get help with our homework.
Andy: Yeah
Diane: We’d get to dance. Laughter. We’d, you know – inaudible. I don’t know- A lot of us in the neighborhood danced.
Andy: Yeah
Diane: An-and that’s it!And then they’d just have little dances. You know. I came up here, I-I-
Andy: Is there, is there-
Diane: I’m so – I can’t remember the man’s name, but, I came up here and took sewing lessons.
Andy: Oh really?
Diane: Mhm.
Andy: Uh-
Diane: I can’t remember his name, though! I know he’s probably gone long but – It was a man! I think his name was either was Mr. Steele or Steelwell.
Andy: And he-he-he, um, he was the one who taught you guys sewing?
Diane: Yeah, yeah well I joined the class up here. I made a pantsuit.
All: Laughter
Kendall: What color was it?
Diane: It was a plaid!
Kendall: Nice!
All: Laughter
Diane: I ain’t sewed nothin’ ever since!
All: Laughter
Andy: That’s great. Um. D-do you wanna take over or do you want me to keep going?
Kendall: Sure! I can!
Andy: Okay
Kendall: Okay! Um-
Andy: Give me that notebook and I’ll write down for you…
Kendall: So, um. What are your roles here as a Foster Grandmother?
Diane: Well we just love on the babies. You know, make sure they don’t get hurt.
Kendall: Mhm
Diane: And that’s it! Laughter. We don’t have to change diapers or nothin’ like that, thank God.
Kendall: Oh-
Andy: Oh, I agree. Laughter.
Diane: That’s the first thing I asked when I – I say ‘I don’t have to change diapers do I?’
Andy: It’s like, I’ll do this, just no diapers.
Diane: I can’t-I can’t go for diapers. Ugh! But that, you know, and I enjoy being with the kids and it’s something to keep me out the house. That’s why, you know, cause I been out of, I come out of work in 2001 ’cause I have a bad back and stuff
Andy: Oh, yeah
Diane: And just sittin’ at home, doin’ nothing, gainin’ weight. And so since I’ve been exercising I’ve lost, and. For an almost sixty-five year old I can bench press eighty-five to one hundred pounds.
Kendall: You’re stronger than I am, so.
Andy: You’re str – You’re stronger than I am.
Diane: I love working out with my weights. And then, you know, meetin’ people in the gym.
Kendall: Mhm
Diane: You have some that’s good, you’ve got a lot of snobs. Laughter. I just look over and go on. Just laugh and keep going.
Kendall: Haha, absolutely! So-
Andy: It’s good to be busy.
Kendall: So, you said you got married here in 1975.
Diane: Yes
Kendall: What was that like? What was your wedding like here?
Diane: Ugh! I wished I hada brought my picture. I have always wanted to get married in pea green.
Kendall: Hm!
Diane: So I had me, found me a little ole – think that gown that cost me about thirty bucks. And I found – got me a white veil and I sent it got took a piece of my gown and sent it to New York and had my veil dyed that color. But, the uh, people up here was nice and I tried to tell them where, you know where we, that hallway we came down? That was like the door.
Kendall: Mhm
Andy: Oh really?
Diane: You see. Yeah. the gym was not there then.
Kendall: The building was different.
Diane: Yeah, Th-the gym was not there. It was a big ‘ole open room. Had a fire place.
Kendall: Ooh
Diane: And uh, that’s where I got married. That- we had all the reception right here, ’cause look, you know, it was me and him. Plus, he comes up here now too.
Kendall: That’s good!
Diane: Mike. Yeah. We divorced, we’ve been divorced. We got a – I think our daughter is thirty-nine? Thirty-eight, thirty-nine? But you know we still remain friends
Kendall: That’s good, that’s important
Andy: That’s good. My parents aren’t friends
Kendall: So why did you all choose the Y-YW?
Diane: I guess because I used to, you know, come up here
Kendall: Mhm
Diane: And uh I just, you know, like the open, the space.
Kendall: Yeah, it-it’s beautiful here. So, hm. What would you say a motto for the YWCA would be, other than the obvious “Eliminating Racism, Empowering Women?” What would you say, um, they, how do they benefi-how do they better their community?
Diane: I, you know, I don’t know. And that. Ahem, I don’t know. A-and, to my, I hate to say it but I really think they need to change that motto ’cause they, uh it, to me it’s not, it’s not fittin’
Kendall: Mhm
Diane: You know? Because you have people that come. You know, a lot of us sit out there in the hall in the mornings where we mind ourselves. A lot of people come by and talk to ya and laugh and carry on. Usually people know me by my t-shirts. I don’t have on one today, I just got on my inaudible. I always wear t-shirts with different things on them-
Andy: Mhm
Diane: And a lot of people know me by my t-shirts and my hair, which I got my hair cut off. I’ve got hair ’bout like yours, one side hanging. A-and it’s a lot of friendly people come up here and then you have some that’s…not so friendly.
Andy: Oh, yeah.
Kendall: Yeah, I guess it’s hard to uh weed out people as long as-
Diane: Oh, I’ll speak. I don’t care whether they’ll speak or not ‘Hey how ya doin’?’ It don’t matter to me. Laughter.
Kendall: Absolutely! No, you definitely have to be, you know, as friendly as possible. Unfortunately, not everyone understands that.
Diane: Mhm
Kendall: Um, so what high school did you go to?
Diane: I went to Asheville High
Kendall: Okay, okay, that’s not too far from here
Diane: And we used to have to walk to school ’cause back then we didn’t have no buses.
Kendall: I walked to school too, actually. Laughter
Diane: You didn’t mind?
Kendall: Nuh uh, it gave me some exercise that I needed.
Diane: I used to walk to school. Uh. I think they did have buses but I just used to walk. It’s been so long ago. Laughter. I remember walkin’ a lot, or getting a cab. Mm, especially if I was runnin’ late. Laughter.
Kendall: Can’t say I ever took a cab to school
Diane: Roll up in a minute!
All: Laughter
Diane: ‘Course I used to dispatch, uh, back uh, I started dispatching when I was fourteen years old.
Kendall: Dispatching cabs?
Diane: Mhm
Kendall Wow!
Diane: I was, w-well he was a family friend. He had a dispatch and a little store-
Kendall: Mhm
Diane: So I worked there and all through, I started working for him ’bout when I was fourteen, so I stayed with him all those years. Graduated, saved my money, bought my graduation stuff for it.
Kendall: That’s wonderful, do you remember what cab company it was?
Diane: It was, he-he’s dead now. It was Miller’s cab service.
Kendall: Okay
Diane: He got killed, somebody shot him and robbed him.
Kendall: Oh no, that’s awful. I’m so sorry to hear that.
Diane: Had that – you know I had some, I had good times going up to school. 1970, you know, I don’t know if ya’ll remember that – well I know you didn’t remember it or may have a write up about it when they had this big ‘ole, this great big ‘ole riot back then in the seventies.
Kendall: At Asheville High, right?
Diane: Mhm
Kendall: What do you remember from that?
Diane: Runnin’
All: Laughter
Kendall: That would be me, yeah.
Diane: Runnin’. I wasn’t gonna get jumped on, nothin’. I said ‘let’s go’ I got my lil coat and I booked.It- It was uh, it was a terrible time though. It’s trying, everybody was tryin’ to get their point across and we was on the curfew.
Kendall: Mhm
Diane: I think we was on the curfew I think for about a week.
Kendall: What was the curf – what time was it?
Diane: Uh, I think it was ’til, you had to be in the house about ten o’clock. They would have streets blocked off. I knew they had Mcdowell blocked off, barricaded. And uh, I have uh, I’ve had asthma all my life and this particular night I had a real bad asthma attack and we had to go to the hospital that they,