Transcript 1: Transcribed on 3/11/2002 from interview on 3/8/3002
Interview with Yulandra
A: Tell me about what you do at Hollins?
Y: Well, I’m a custodian. (P)
A: Job responsibilities
Y: mostly housekeeping work, and mainly sweeping, mopping vacuuming, all the fun stuff.
A: Do you like working here?
Y: It’s not bad. I’ve had worse
A: And how did you come to work here?
Y: Actually I started in food service, working for Man Power, and they had an opening for a custodian, and I applied and I got the job.
A: And you like working here better than as food service?
Y: Yeah I was a dishwasher, (laughter) I was bussing dishes, so oh yeah a lot better.
A: So how did you first hear about Hollins?
Y: I got on by Man Power, which is a temporary employment service.
A: Wait, is Man Power the name of the temp agency?
Y: Yeah
A: And how long have you worked here?
Y: I’d say about four years now.
A: And can you tell me about your family?
Y: What, their names and everything like that?
A: names and experiences…
Y: My mom’s name is Margaret Livingston, and my dad’s name is John V. Livingston Jr.: V stands for Victor.
I am the baby out of the family of five girls. You want their names?
A: Yeah.
Y: My oldest sister’s name is Stephanie, second oldest sister’s name is Jackie, third sister is Melanie, and the one whose in front of me, we call her Neesy, but her name is Denise.
A: Can you tell me about your relationship with your parents and your sisters?
Y: Parents? I didn’t really get along with them too well during the teenage years. Um, my parents like separated for a couple of years, and then they tried to get back together again, and they got back together for a year, and then they separated again. And now they’re back together again, so it’s kinda weird. (laughter)
A: How did it make you feel to have them going back and forth?
Y: Um, I don’t know, I kinda liked it, it didn’t bother me too much. It didn’t really bother me too much.
A: And your relationships with your sisters, are all you guys really close?
Y: I am a lot closer than I was with parents. I pretty much lived with two of my sisters while I was in high school. Well actually I lived with one for about a year, and the other ones I just visited during the summer and things like that, so I am pretty close with them.
A: Why did you choose to live with them?
Y: Well, when I got to, after I got out of jr. high, I didn’t want to go to the high school, the high school I had to go to in my district was too rough. So I went to live with my sister for a year. And then my parents decided to get back together again, and they moved to a different district where I had to go to school.
A: And where did you grow up?
Y: I grew up in Sumter, South Carolina, S-U-M-T-E-R.
A: How long did you live there?
Y: My dad was in the military, so we kinda traveled, but he retired in Sumter South Carolina.
A: So how long did you live there, or how old were you?…
Y: Well I was actually born in Sumter, and then my parents got orders to go to London, England, and then he was there for a year, and then got orders to go to Michigan, and ah, we lived there for about five years. And my dad was ready to retire, and uh we got orders back to Sumter, SC, and I have been there ever since, since fourth grade, I think I was ten or nine or something like that?
A: And when did you leave?
Y: A year after I graduated high school.
A: Um, did you move straight here?
Y: After high school I went to college for year, and then I moved here.
A: Where did you go to college?
Y: to Frances Mary University.
A: and you decided to leave…
Y: well I had no money to stay in school so I had to leave. There wasn’t too many jobs in SC, so I decided to move here, see I had two sisters living here in Virginia at the time. (muffled tape, about 5 seconds).
A: How old are you? Do you mind me asking?
Y: No, I’m 29.
A: Okay. Tell me about your family heritage.
Y: I really don’t remember my family heritage. I really didn’t know my grandparents or my family on my father’s side, but the ones I kinda knew, well the only one I really knew was my grandmother on my mother’s side. And the only think I knew about her was that she was half Indian, and she was half Black. I think her mother, my great-grandmother was full blooded Cherokee, and my grandmother had 21 children.
A: Did she live in SC too?
Y: mmm hmm.
A: Do you have any family traditions, or did you have any family traditions?
Y: mmm, no, no, not really. Ha ha
A: Um, can you tell me about childhood a little bit, just about the community you grew up in, and any stories you might havc?
Y: I grew up on a military base, most it [childhood] until about 8th grade, 8th or 7th grade. We just ran and played around the bases, stuff like that. It was fun.
A: How was it fun?
Y: I guess you all have friends because you know you got kids that are all from the military and we all lived in little housing area things. I don’t know just playing, and hanging around the neighborhood. Nothing really exciting, nothing real stories or anything like that, you know, just, I don’t know. (laughter).
A: And we touched on education, you went to a few different high school, and you went to college for a year before you came here. Do you have anything else you want to say about that right now? Or?
Y: no
A: Okay, can you tell me about the jobs that you’ve had, like your first job?
Y: First job, um, after I graduated high school I job with Dominoes Pizza. And I did that for a few months {muffled tape, 5 seconds} I worked there about 2 months.
A: Alright, and what has been your favorite job?
Y: Favorite job, I haven’t found that yet, (laughter) I haven’t gotten to that point yet.
A: Well what else have you done?
Y: Mostly, I worked at McDonalds, I started out working in fast food, McD’s, Wendy’s, So far I have been working two jobs ever since I got started. First time I worked one full time and one part time workin in fast food, and then I did security like two years.
A: Where did you work as a security officer?
Y:Oh for what company? Pinkerton.
A: What else have you done?
Y: Custodial work, and that’s about it. I started out in food service, did a little security, and then uh, I went to custodian work, and that’s all.
A: So do you work a second job now?
Y: Yeah. I work for Roanoke County School System.
A: And that’s also custodial work?
Y: mm hmmm
A: How is it different working for public schools from working at a university where you see where everybody lives all the time.
Y: the difference, lets see. There’s not too much of a difference. Um, as far as everybody goes home when you work in the school system, so if you wanna play some music or something like that and that’s how we can clean and do all that stuff. You know versus where someone’s always here, and you always you know picking up and doing little things. You get to the point, well, here you never finish, you never get to the point where you finished, you just work until it’s time to go home, and there you get to the point where you finish. And you know you go home finished. So that’s pretty much the difference.
A: How is it working in a dorm, you know, where you see everybody who lives here all the time?
Y: It’s a kinda nice, you know, cuz you get to know everybody, you know. (p) yeah, you just get to know everybody, get to know little things about them. And then time when they graduate, you kind of miss ‘em, you know when they’re leaving and everything. It’s kind of nice, kind of comforting.
A: Do you have students you’re particularly close with now? That you’ve gotten used to talking to?
Y: No, everybody, well I think I just sort of have just a group, mostly the seniors, I kinda got to know them, I guess living in this building, you know some for 2 or three years. So those are the ones I pretty much got to know a little bit, and I talk to them a little bit.
A: So you like your current job then?
Y: Yeah, it’s not bad (laughter)
A: Have you had any problems with it?
Y: Uh, I think the physical part of it is, uh, I guess I’m realizing I’m getting old (laughter) I’m starting to feel it. That’s the only thing that really kinda sucks, the achy bones (laughter).
A: Do you have a good relationship with the people you work with? Management?
Y: Yeah. Um, everybody’s um, fairly nice. I really never had any problems, I really don’t socialize very much. I stay out of things, you know there are a lot of ‘he-said-she-said’ you know a lot of things that go on. When you work a job there’s always a lot of gossip, a lot of you know someone don’t like this person. Got a problem with management, or you know complains, you know and I don’t really get involved, so I don’t really have any problems, (laughter). I stay out of it; I stay neutral.
A: That’s the best way to do it. Alright, when you’re outside of work, what do you enjoy doing?
Y: I look forward to going to the beach every year. I found a, I went to NC two years ago, to the Outer Banks, and I loved it. I look forward to going every year to NC.
A: Do you know Ann Liv, that used to live upstairs? She’s from the Outer Banks.
Y: Yeah I talked to her a couple of times about it. I told her she’s so lucky.
A: And who do you go to the beach with?
Y: I go by myself. I try to get people to go, but I don’t know why, I can’t find anybody to go with me. I’d be willin to pay for things, you know, but people would be like, “eeeeeh,” so I’d have to go by myself.
A: That can be fun though.
Y: Yeah, but I don’t like the drive. (laughter) It takes me like 7 hours drivin by myself, I don’t like to drive. Wish I had someone to go with me, you know to cut the driving in half and stuff. But, uh, it’s nice though, I love to go fishing, deep water fishing so. That’s my retiring dream, is to (laughter) live on a beach or close to it so I can go fishing like every day or you know like every weekend or something.
A: And what do you do um after you get off work here?
Y: I go to my other job after this one. But on the weekends, I just bought a house, earlier this year, so just doing things around the house, and I am kinda excited about it, you know just having a chance to do what I want to do instead of livin in an apartment. So…I got a lot of dreams (laughter). A lot of things like a garden and all these little things that I want to do.
A: Do you have any hobbies? I know you said working around the house.
Y: Fishing, and, I like to go swimming, what else do I like to do? I don’t get to do a lot of things that I want to do. I think if I had my life the way I wanted it to be, I probably would be going swimming every weekend, and I probably would be going somewhere—I like taking pictures, you know just things like that, gardening, and eh, just doing anything that makes me relax.
A: Did you take any photography classes while you were in college?
Y: No, well no, I took them in high school actually.
A: So you’ve always done photography?
Y: I never really get a chance. I always say I want to go out and buy me a nice camera, and ah just go out to Smith Mountain Lake or something like that. Just do it as a hobby or something like that.
A: Tell me about your friends?
Y: Friends (laughter). I don’t have any friends. I work. I work 16 hours a day. I don’t have time to worry about making friends. I guess if I really want to hang out, I take my nieces, my sisters’ kids. They’re always sittin around the house, and got nothing to do, so I just take them out with me. I really just don’t have time for friends, just busy working and stuff.
A: So you aren’t very close to the people that work here?
Y: Mmm, no, just you know just the usual work related, I don’t hang out with nobody that works here.
A: Do you like your neighborhood?
Y: At first I didn’t. (laughter).
A: Why not?
Y: Cuz I live next to like a, like a projects, right across the street. And I didn’t like that too much. But then now, it’s real quiet over there, so I don’t have any problems or anything, so, I’m starting to like it, it’s not really a problem too much.
A: Alright, and let’s see, how long have you lived here again? I think we’ve covered that, but just to double check.
Y: Here in VA? Just about ten years, ten or nine years now.
A: And you’ve been in Roanoke for ten years?
Y: Yeah.
A: And then you moved straight from Sumter.
Y: Yeah.
A: And you moved because your sisters were here.
Y: Yeah. I had two sisters living here. Well first I started off just staying here for the summer, just stay here and work and then go back to school, and then I realized I didn’t have enough money. So I made the decision either I was going to go home and work and maybe go to one of the community schools, or was I going to stay here, and you know just start here and get a job, and I decided to stay here.
A: Do you think you’re ever going to take classes again?
Y: Um, I do, I do. I take classes at VA Western when I have time and I have the money.
A: So you would never go here? (laughter)
Y: No, (laughter). It’s kinda weird, you know, you work here and then you go to school here, I don’t like that. And plus, well, I don’t know if I would make it. I feel like this might be too hard.
A: Nah.
Y: I feel like VA Western might be more, you know more me or something like that.
A: What sorts of classes do you like to take?
Y: Well I first started off, I was going to major in finance, and then I switched it to computers. That was when computers really started to first get big. And then I switched it to accounting, and then I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Um, and then I went to Criminal Justice, and then, now I am doing general studies.
A: General Studies?
Y: Yeah, just cuz I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do, so. I plan on going back in the fall semester. I think I know what I want to do this time.
A: And what’s that?
Y: I wouldn’t mind being a counselor. Working with juveniles and teenagers when they’re in school, something like that.
A: How did you get interested in that?
Y: Um, I don’t know, um, I guess I remember when I was a kid, and what I hard time I had when I was a teenager, so I hate to see you know the kids now adays and how they just throw their life away, and getting in trouble. I look at is as, well you don’t, well trouble don’t last always, when you’re a teenager you go through things, but things change when you get older, when you get on your own. You’ve had a hard time with your parents and all this stuff. You gotta follow rules and regulations, and when you get older, things do change, it’s your life. It’s not your parents’ life, you get to make your own decisions. If you mess up and kinda throw your life away, you just make it so hard for yourself. You know when you really get on your own and you really do something with your life and you make your life where you want it to be. So I would like to uh, work with them, maybe talk to them, you know, see if I can help out. (laughter).
A: That’s really great. And, let’s see, you like Roanoke better than you like Sumter?
Y: Neither. (laughter). Here’s it’s boring, it’s ah, no where to go, you gotta have money to do anything, everything costs so much money. If I hadn’t bought my house, I think I’d be in NC or Georgia somewhere. Somewhere with some life or excitement, something. Somewhere I could go to a concert or something. It’s so boring. SC’s boring too. It’s really dead. I went home to visit last year, and it was like a ghost town, everything was closed down, it was so dead. I’m glad I left. (laughter). The only thing good about here is the, is the scenery. (laughter). Mountains, but that’s really the only thing I can say about VA, it’s really boring. Nothing to do, no where to go, no entertainment. They’re trying to something with the Dazzle basketball games, the uh football games, the whacha call it, the uh, what’s that football team, the Insiders, something like that. It’s not the regular football, it’s the inside, arena football! That’s what it is, they’re trying to do all that stuff. It still sucks (laughter). I mean, if I want to go to the beach, it takes four hours to go to the beach. Why’s it take so long? Why I gotta drive so far? So…(laughter).
A: Yeah I live down in the middle of NC, so, Well I live in Greensboro, so it’s pretty much four hours for me to get to the beach or the mountains.
Y: Greensboro, I went there one time to look around. I thought about moving there one time.
A: It’s a good place, it’s not that exciting either though.