Bobbie Nell Earnhardt was born on Graham St. in Charlotte, North Carolina; she discusses growing up in Charlotte in the 1930s and shares her family's stories. She tells about her mother working at the handkerchief factory, which turned into the Old Duck Clothing Company, and her father's work as a trolley driver and a police officer. Mrs. Earnhardt also recounts how her father's brother was a chain gang superintendent and her father worked for a time at the chain gang camp as well near Nations Ford Road in Charlotte. She describes the ways Charlotte changed over the years including the local department stores, hospitals, sports stadiums, and newspapers. Mrs. Earnhardt recounts how illegal liquor was a big business in her youth and how bootleggers who lived in the neighborhood hid liquor in fruit jars. She explains how she did welding work at a sawmill during World War II to help in the war effort and decided to stay on as a bookkeeper for about thirty years. She illustrates the new inventions developed in her lifetime, such as roller skates and escalators. Mrs. Earnhardt recalls Jake Burroughs, a Black man around her father's age who formed a close relationship with her family. She describes how her relationship with Mr. Burroughs caused her to feel more warmly toward Black people, but also talks about how Mr. Burroughs and other African Americans were treated unequally in society.
