2026.005.017 Eleanor Rawley
BIO INFO: Eleanor Rawley is a life long resident of Middletown, Delaware. She comes from a proud family of farmers. She was educated as a Licensed Practical Nurse at which she worked for 50 years. Her husband David Rawley was a town resident, as well, and they had two daughters. Eleanor is committed to serving her community.
TOPICS AND SUBJECT MATTER KEYWORDS: Farming, Career, Community Service, Religion, Education,
Social Activities
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Recording Inventory Sheet: Eleanor Rawley
Digital Collections Sheet: Eleanor Rawley
Middletown Historical Society
Middletown, Delaware
Oral History Series
Speaking of the Past: Conversations
With Long-Term Residents of
Middletown, Delaware, 1900 – Present
Interview with Eleanor Rawley
May 27, 2026
Middletown Historical Society Oral History Transcript
Eleanor Rawley – Youtube- 05272026
Interviewer: Patricia L Peirson Maichle
Pat: Good morning.
Eleanor: Good morning.
Pat: How are you?
Eleanor: I’m good.
Pat: That’s good. I We’re really excited this morning to do this interview with you. As I’ve said before.
Eleanor: Get it over with, huh?
Pat: I’m Pat Maichle. I’m a volunteer with the Middletown Historical Society and I’m here with Keith Schneider who’s our videographer.
Eleanor: Hi.
Pat: And we’re in the um Appoquinimink Community Library in Middletown, Delaware. The Historical Society is attempting to um describe the history of Middletown through your memories and experiences in this video. So, we really appreciate your being here and um talking to us about your life in Middletown. So, we’ll get started. What is your full name and do you have a nickname?
Eleanor: Um, Eleanor Rawley. Eleanor Mullen Rawley. Um, my nickname is Ellie. Some people call me, but I got that at work. Not too many people around town call me that. Most of them call me Eleanor.
Pat: Okay. When and where were you born?
Eleanor: Um, Delaware Hospital, February 23rd, 1944.
Pat: And you?
Eleanor: That’s in Wilmington.
Pat: And you lived in Middletown?
Eleanor: I lived on a farm in Middletown
Pat: once you were born.
Eleanor: Outside of Middletown.
Pat: Okay.
Eleanor: Yes.
Pat: We’ll talk about that.
Eleanor: Okay.
Pat: How did your family come to live here?
Eleanor: My grandfather came from Ireland and he met my grandmother who lived uh just over the Maryland line over I guess we would call it the Elkton area now. It was just over the Maryland line from if you went out Mount Pleasant, you know, and you went out that way, that’s about where she was born and raised. And so, they met and they were married. And I believe the first place they they rented was the now Emerson Farm up up east of Mount Pleasant. And so, they all it all started there. And then my my two aunts were born before my father and he was the only son. So, he stayed on the farm with his father and worked the farm all the time.
Pat: And did that become then the Mullen farm or?
Eleanor: No, no, no. Because they rented that and then they rented um the old Haas farm. Um, and then we moved to the Messick farm, which was the farm that was across from the VFW down by Townsend. So, my early years were on the farm. And then, oh, and the last place we lived was, um, up by Summit Bridge, um, right there on the highway, the farm just before you got to the town. Um, and then my father, we had a dairy farm and he did a lot of uh picking of grains and corn and all that kind of stuff. And and he also worked uh for the Court in Wilmington. So, he was a busy man and we did have some hired help and uh so this just got a little bit too much and things got they just weren’t making the money you know that they needed to. So, we split up. We all lived together, my grandparents, my aunt and uncle, and my mother and father and four kids. Um, it was a big old farmhouse, so you know, there was room. We all had our, we had our times together. We had our times apart. But anyway, that’s how I lived the first part of my life. And I was 13, I think, when I moved to town. And that was a big adjustment. And we moved to Sharondale.
Pat: That was a big adjustment.
Eleanor: Yes. I I’ll tell I’ll tell you a funny story. When I walked in the bathroom, I was with my mother in the new house and I said, my father was a big man. I said, “Dad, will never fit in that tub.” She said, “You don’t have to worry. He’ll take a shower anyway.” So.
Pat: That’s funny. Okay. Were there other family members in this area before you came? And who were they?
Eleanor: Before I came?
Pat: Um, before your family moved here? Well, my aunt and uncle, um, Clara and Sock Smith, they had the Smith Liquors down in Townsend. And my other aunt and uncle were um Katherine and Duke McDonald who, Duke was known around Middletown as Little League. You know, he took care of the Little League field. As a matter of fact, the the Little League field is named after him, Duke Field. So, they were here. He was actually from Townsend and who else was here? And I had my my grandmother’s two sisters lived close by. One lived on Route 13, what they called McDonogh at the time, and Aunt Sally lived here in town, you know, so they were here. Then I had a lot of other cousins and other relatives up in Wilmington in that area.
Pat: Okay, that’s good history all about that you just went through. What was the house? Well, it’s an old farmhouse, but what was the house like uh that you grew up in? How many rooms did it have? Electricity, indoor plumbing, telephone.
Eleanor: Absolutely. All those things.
Pat: All those things.
Eleanor: Okay. Yes. Two bathrooms. It was a big old farmhouse that I, well, the last one I was in. Um it had seven bedrooms, um, two bathrooms or bath and a half rather, um, uh, a big living room, dining room, big kitchen, eat-in kitchen, which of course, you know, uh, you had your hired help, too, so, we all had to eat someplace. And so, we all ate in the kitchen. Um,
Pat: But you had all the amenities.
Eleanor: Yes. Yes. We had freezers. We We had a freezer. We had a refrigerator and of course the stove and um, you know, everything you need. Everything.
Pat: That’s nice. You were lucky.
Eleanor: Yeah, I was.
Pat: What is your earliest childhood memory? Good or bad?
Eleanor: I’m trying to think. Um, actually, I think my me the memory that comes back to me all the time is when I wrecked my brand new bike. I was on the farm down by Townsend and I had just gotten the bike for my birthday and this was a maybe a month or so later. But um and my grandfather had made sure I got my bike because he kept saying to my father, “Eleanor needs a bike”, you know, and so I finally got it that way. Um Pop Pop talking about it, you know. And so anyway, he was sitting there watching me and I ran right into the tree.
Pat: Oh dear.
Eleanor: So, you know, and of course he comes off the porch, “Eleanor, are you okay?” You know, but I thought I knew you were thinking about the bike. And it was it was okay. It was scratched up a little bit, but but I hated doing that because, you know, that was something he had made sure I got.
Pat: What kind of games did you play growing up?
Eleanor: Besides hide and seek, um, well, you have to know you lived I lived on a farm and you always had the barns. So, you could really hide any place and hide and seek was the big thing to do. Um, played baseball or softball rather. Um played jacks, played cards, a lot of card games. Um because I had a great uncle who used to come down and stay at the farm and he lived in the city and he he loved to play cards. So, we spent a lot of afternoons playing cards, you know. Those kind of games.
Pat: What was
Eleanor: Tag all that.
Pat: What was your favorite thing to do for fun? Like go to the movies, go to the beach, something else.
Eleanor: Um, I guess once I moved in town, it was probably go to the movies. Um.
Pat: Where to?
Eleanor: The Everett. There was no other, you didn’t go any place else. Um, the Everett and it was pretty neat.
Pat: Okay.
Eleanor: You know, you always had the same seats that you always sat in, you know, ‘cuz that’s where your friends always sat. Yeah.
Pat: So, do you did you have family chores growing up? And if so, what were they? And what was your favorite?
Eleanor: My favorite chore. If you want to know the truth, my favorite chore working as a kid was when I was down in the barn with my father and I was carrying the milk buckets. When I could lift those milk buckets, that was that was a big accomplishment.
Pat: That’s what I was just sitting here thinking. They were pretty heavy.
Eleanor: But if I could carry those buckets, that was one of my favorite things to do was be with him actually. And um once he finished stripping a cow, then I would carry the milk bucket out to the milk house. He would have to lift it up and put it in the milk can. I couldn’t do that. So.
Pat: What was school like for you as a child? What were your best and worst subjects? And where did you go to school?
Eleanor: I went to Middletown, which started in the first grade and went straight through the 12th. And my favorite subject was probably math. I didn’t enjoy reading. I just never got into it and I never really didn’t until I got older. So, um, but I liked math a lot.
Pat: Did you go to college?
Eleanor: Um, I went to I went to um school to be an LPN, a licensed practical nurse. Um, I didn’t apply myself that well in high school to have the really good credits and everything. Uh, I enjoyed high school a whole lot more than anything. I belonged to anything and everything. I was a cheerleader. I was um I played softball, basketball, and hot field hockey. And of course, I was at all the football games because I was a cheerleader and I was always so busy. And I got my homework done in between games and things like that. And I can’t tell you that I was the brightest bulb in the class. I sure wasn’t. But anyway, um once I got out and I did okay in school when I went to nursing and then I, my first job was at state hospital and that was quite a challenge because, and number one it was before integration and so therefore I was put on the building that was all black males, and I had to dispense meds to 90 some men. So, it was quite a challenge. And you learn how to do things real fast. I mean, that’s where you start to learn things. And so, after a few years of that and everything, I did decide after I had my second daughter that I wanted to go back to school. And I did go back to the University of Delaware. I went to the University of Delaware and started taking courses. And then I was working Public Health and I just had to quit because I thought I have to be a mother first. You know, that’s all there is to it. I can’t go out and talk to families about doing this with their children and doing that and being a mother and not being one myself. So, I thought school will wait and I never got back to it. So, uh but I worked for 50 years. So.
Pat: Okay. Do you remember any fads from your youth like popular hairstyles or clothes?
Eleanor: Well, I remember wearing wool um, Bermudas most the time in the winter instead of slacks. That was a popular thing to do at that time when I was in high school. Um, and of course wool skirts and sweaters or were always um and the flats the um what did they call them? They had a they made a tea across your foot, you know, and um they were just a very flat shoe that was very popular. And we wore sneakers in sports, but no other place. You wore them for whatever sport you played. You didn’t wear them around like with slacks or any place like like we wear them today, you know.
Pat: Um, how’d you wear your hair?
Eleanor: Um, it was probably a little shorter than it is now and it had curl. I had curls in in the side, you know, around the side and back kind of a I didn’t have bangs. I had it pulled to the right side like I do now. Um, and then after that, I had it cut short, you know, just a short haircut.
Pat: What were your favorite songs and music?
Eleanor: Well, a lot of it was Elvis type stuff or Ricky Nelson. Um, favorite song. Oops. Sorry. Um, I’m blank right now.
Pat: That’s okay. You like you like the early rock and roll?
Eleanor: Yes.
Pat: Okay. Tell me about your pets. You grew up on a farm. So, did you have pets? And what kind? And what did you name them?
Eleanor: We had a dog, but it was always an outside dog. It was never inside the house. And um, Scoopy was his name. And I had a pet calf, but then of course it grew up on me. And then then my father said that was my calf. And then as it grew older and it was one of the cows cows that was sold for for meat, you know. So, um, you know, I had to learn to say goodbye. That’s all there was to it. Um, wasn’t wasn’t nice, but it was my pet calf. One of them was, especially, but I I could go and just pet it and pet it and pet it and it would just always be right there. You know, it’s a loving thing. Um, I think that was it.
Pat: What was your religion growing up and where did you go to church?
Eleanor: A Roman Catholic and I went to St. Joseph’s here in Middletown, the old church.
Pat: Yeah, tell me about that about the progress. Like there’s a lot of um a lot more religious opportunities in Middletown now; a lot more churches, lots more different kinds of churches.
Eleanor: Very much so. Very, very much so. Um, we basically had the Catholics and the Episcopalians and the Methodist and Presbyterian. That was it. There was no no Baptists around. That was usually down south. Um, but then people moved in. Um, and I can’t tell you when that all happened. I don’t remember exactly. But, um, as I grew up, I became more involved in the church and did things in the church, you know, like money raisers, um, that kind of a thing. And especially, um, the Mayfair, I did that for like 20 years. Um Betty Whitlock and I co-chaired the Mayfair for about that time and then I was on the Building Committee for the new church and we decided that the first thing we should do is build a hall and have church in the hall and we also built classrooms so that we could have Sunday school school rooms. Because when I went to Sunday school, we had nuns come down and we all were in different parts of the church itself. Um like there was a group in the front and there was a group in the back. There was one up in the um choir loft. There was one back in where the priest was up upstairs back there. Um so that was all we had you know at that time. Uh and then then they bought the building behind the old church and um so we had had that to use and so that spread things out a little bit better. But then of course we just had too many people and too many kids and and everything. We had to do something. So, we um went into a major fundraising thing and um built the church hall, which a lot of people were upset that we didn’t build a church, but in order to keep your families coming, you’ve got to have something for the children, you know. So, that was their uh reason for doing that. And uh that finally worked for a long long time. We were able to use the church hall as a place to have mass and then have it for other things too. And um of course all the kids had a classroom to go to which was good. And I was not on the Building Committee for the new church. I had given up that because I was also, my father had started was Mayor of Middletown at one time after we moved in town for a while. He was he became Mayor.
Pat: What was his name?
Eleanor: James Mullen. And um he um had been to a meeting in Dover and they were talking about senior centers. So, he listened intently to that. He tell told me he said because “You know Eleanor” there was there was a lot of old people around town even women who lived on a farm who never really got to meet people or see too many people because they were always just there. They never had a place to go socialize. So, he listened to about the senior center. So, in he and Kathy Kathleen Kobus, I don’t know if you know her. Um she um they started working on getting a senior center here. So, they talked to the I think it was the fire company that had the old carnival buildings. We had as a kid I remember there was a carnival in Middletown and the it was close to the baseball field, the Little League field that we first had and one of the big carnival buildings, the bingo building I think. Um they dad talked them into letting them have it, you know, for a couple days a week to start something and it was just uh Mrs. Fillingame was uh the telephone operator. So, she called all these women and told them about it to bring a covered dish, come in and have lunch and socialize. if they were working on a special knitting project or crochet, bring it along so you can sit and talk and you can do your handiwork. And that’s how it started. And you see what it is today.
Pat: Yeah.
Eleanor: And thank God. Um well, my father died when he was 53 and I was working Public Health at the time and I went to the senior center to do blood pressures and all that kind of stuff for them. And um so I was asked to serve on the board to take my father’s place my at that time. So, I did do that and I’ve been on ever since.
Pat: Wow.
Eleanor: And um so then I became president and I knew that we had to do something because the little place uptown was up. At that point we were in, you know, where the senior citizen square was, where all the housing was up on North Broad Street. And we were in that first little building. Well, we had just outgrown that so bad. So, I went to see Mr. Schagrin and he um he was very kind and I said to him, I said, “Mr. Schagrin, I’m here for a reason. You know that, don’t you?” And he said, “Okay, Eleanor, what you need?” And I had I knew him be pretty well before that um because my grandparents had lived in the other side of uh his house, so he knew me as a kid and everything. So anyway, he was “so what you need?” I said, “you know that property back” um I guess I think it’s off of Scott Street. Um he said, “Yeah.” I said, “It’s sitting there. It’s doing nothing. What do you think you’re going to do with it?” “Well, I thought about putting up some apartments or that kind of a thing”. And I said, “Do you really want to put apartments back there? That’s a nice area. Do you want to just have anybody and everybody move right in there?” I was being really mean, you know. So, he said, “Uh, I don’t know, Eleanor. What What are your thoughts?” He said, “I know you’ve got one.” And I said, “Okay, I’m going to ask you a big thing. Would you consider donating the land and then to the senior center?” “Oh,” he says. And I said, “Yeah, if you donate the land, we’ll go into a major campaign and raise the money to build it. “You think you can do that?” I said, ‘N no, I can’t do that, but I know people that can help do that, you know. And he said, “So, you want a senior center? What’s a senior center do?” So, I explained to him all the different things that could be available and especially if we could build one big enough, you know. So, he said, “Well, I’ve got to talk this over with the family.” I said, “Okay. You know, um, even if you just give us a part of the land, you don’t have to give us all that land, you know, just a part big enough for us to build a building on to have a place for seniors to come.” “Okay. Okay, I got you”. So, he called me um about three days later and said, “Eleanor, can you come back and talk to me?” So, I said, “Sure.” So, I went back that night after I got off work and um he said, “Sit down. We got to talk a little bit.” And I thought, “Oh, no.” But anyway, he said, “I talked it over with the family. They think that’s an excellent idea for the land. And so, yes, we will gladly donate that. And I want you to know something else, my son-in-law and my daughter would love to work on the campaign to help you raise the money.” I I was like I wanted to get up and click my heels if you want to know the truth. I was so happy and he said “Thelma is so excited. She doesn’t know what to talk about next.” So anyway, it was wonderful. We all got together. We got committee together and um we did hire a professional fundraiser and they got us going and we raised I forget what we raised.
Pat: But you’ve got a nice senior center now.
Eleanor: Yeah, we do.
Pat: It’s a very nice one. Yeah, that’s good. That’s the way Middletown always has been. Uhhuh. Working together.
Eleanor: Yes.
Pat: Were you ever mentioned in the newspaper or other publication?
Eleanor: I think about different things for the senior center. Yeah.
Pat: That’s what I figured. Did you keep copies of those?
Eleanor: I did, but God knows where they are.
Pat: Good history.
Eleanor: I know.
Pat: Well, um, let’s see. What world events had the most impact on you while you were growing up? And did any of them personally affect your family?
Eleanor: I’m sure there was a lot of things when
Pat: Were any of your family members in the wars?
Eleanor: No. No.
Pat: None.
Eleanor: No.
Pat: How about
Eleanor: Well, my uncle was.
Pat: In World War I.
Eleanor: World War II. Okay. Yeah. And he was over there
Pat: 911.
Eleanor: Thank God he came home. Okay. uh 911. Um, no, nobody was in New York at the time. Um, I think some jobs got lost because of what had happened at 911 and other and the companies and all that kind of stuff, but um not directly to my direct family.
Pat: Okay. How were holidays, birthdays, Christmas, Easter, whatever your family celebrates? How were they celebrated? And did you have special family traditions?
Eleanor: Mely, mainly it was around food to that’s the problem. Um, we always we always had a gathering. I mean, you know, whether it was Christmas Eve and of course Christmas Day when we were on the farm, we ended up with cousins and aunts and uncles and all that that would come over and we’d all eat in droves, you know. My grandmother was the cook and um she always made sure there was plenty of food there for everybody. And as people, we used to have cousins who used to come down from Wilmington um and bring their whole family and just spend Christmas Day with us or Easter or things like that. Big holidays, not just little ones, but but they did that out in weekends, too. So.
Pat: Did you put the Christmas tree up um before Christmas?
Eleanor: Oh, sure. Sure. Yeah, we always put the Christmas tree up. Well, it was usually whenever dad could do it. Um, sometime the week before. We would only decorate the bottom part where my the my brother and sister um we could do it and then my parents and whoever else finished it later.
Pat: Top. Okay.
Eleanor: Yeah.
Pat: Okay. How is the world today different from what it was like when you were a child?
Eleanor: Oh my goodness. So many ways. You could well, even as a teenager when I moved in town, I could I could be lost all day. My parents wouldn’t see me until dinner. you know, you would go do something, be at somebody’s house or they knew about where I was, but not exactly where I was all the time. And they didn’t have to worry about it. There was not kidnappings and all that kind of stuff that that happens today and all these awful things that happened to girls and young boys and all that with pedophiles and all. Um, you didn’t have to worry about that. And kids always just um we kind of ran in groups to go do different sports and things. Played baseball all the time. Um and I do mean baseball, not softball. I mean because you played with the boys, you got to play hard ball. Um what was the other part of that question?
Pat: How is the world different today than it was when you were a kid? There’s lots of parts to that question.
Eleanor: Yes, there are.
Pat: You can pick and choose what you’d like to talk about. So, just, you know, just to put some thoughts in your head, how is it different culturally? Um, you talked about today being being a little more violent. Um employment uh opportunities, financial opportunities.
Eleanor: That has come and gone both ways um throughout my life. You I remember when things were really hard and people didn’t have jobs and and fortunately my my father always had a job. Um, my mother never worked until after my father died because but he was 53 when he died and she had her hands full with all of us, you know. So, um, let’s see what I think the hard part was. I think employment was a big thing for a lot of people for many years. Not not my family per se fortunately. My both of my young brothers were able to find jobs and Jim Jim went to college and um my other brother was a mechanic so he worked for Shallcross Chevrolet for many a year and then he went and worked for Callaways which Callaways had a um big oil business and so he worked on their trucks and all that and then after that he worked for someone else and I don’t know the name of the company but he was all over, clear down to Virginia they would send him you know. So, um and and my brother Jim graduated from college thought he would be a teacher he and his wife both um he got married right after college and they thought they would be teachers and they and she was a teacher for years. But Jim taught one year of high school. And he was told he had to promote people no matter whether they could do knew the stuff or not. And he said, “No, I’m not doing it.” And so, he quit. So, he went on and he got himself a job with a sales company, um, one of the companies over in Delaware City. Um, and he sold all kinds of things up and down the uh east coast. And the last thing he did was, you know, the shrink wrap that’s put on bottles and on all kinds of things, that was the product that he sold and um to all kinds of places, you know, so he did well for himself. Um, he lives in Virginia now. And then I have an older sister who graduated from college, uh, Goldey Beacom, and she worked for two years, got married, had children, and then he had a he opened up his own electric business um, as electrician rather. Um and so she was she ran the business for him and um so they’ve always worked, you know, and I’ve always had a job. Um.
Pat: So, your family made out pretty well.
Eleanor: Yeah, we we made out okay.
Pat: back then and now.
Eleanor: Yeah.
Pat: What do you know about your family surname? So, the name Mullen?
Eleanor: Oh, it’s from Ireland. That’s all I really know. I don’t know. Oh, well, he was McMullen when he came here and he dropped the Mc when he got to the United States.
Pat: Why did he do that?
Eleanor: He thought it would just make it simpler.
Pat: Oh, I thought maybe he wanted it to sound less Irish.
Eleanor: Well, I maybe that was part of it. You know, it could have been. Um, but I think he just thought, you know, everybody’s Mc this, Mc that, you know, so why can’t I just be Mullen, you know? So.
Pat: Okay. Is there a naming tradition in your family, such as always giving the firstborn son the name of his paternal grandfather?
Eleanor: No.
Pat: No. Considering that we’re celebrating the 250th anniversary of our country this year, what stories have come down to you about your parents, grandparents, more distant ancestors? Do you know any of the your ancestors early on?
Eleanor: Um.
Pat: The Mullens came over here, you said, not too long ago.
Eleanor: But the Spears were already here. Uh, that was my grandmother’s family. Um.
Pat: When did they come?
Eleanor: I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. Um, I know that the my son-in-law has his he’s researched all of this and he always tells me, “You’ll have to come up here and read this.” You know, and I have not done that. But um I don’t know that much about it.
Pat: You should.
Eleanor: It’s very I know I should someday. Yeah.
Pat: Are there any stories about famous or infamous relatives in your family? Anybody do anything exciting?
Eleanor: Not that I’m aware of.
Pat: Okay. It’s too bad.
Eleanor: Yeah.
Pat: We’ve heard some good stories.
Eleanor: I bet.
Pat: Are there any special heirlooms, photos, Bibles, or other memorabilia that have been passed down to your family?
Eleanor: Yeah, I I have the old family Bible. I don’t even remember how old it is. Um I have that. Um my sister and I have collected things from the family from when we were younger and um that we had on the farm and all those kind of things. Um furniture.
Pat: You showed me something when I was at your house.
Eleanor: What did I show you?
Pat: It was a um a an old poster, but I it was.
Eleanor: Oh. Oh. Oh, that was for the sale of the farm when we left the farm. And I found that in my aunt’s attic all rolled up and it was cracked and everything. And so, I straightened it out and I took it to um a place in Wilmington, off Pennsylvania Avenue and they put it all back together and got the creases straightened around and made it back into that po poster. But that was in 1956. I think that’s what it was from.
Pat: That was pretty interesting to see.
Eleanor: Yeah, it was it was it was just the a big thing that said uh something about cattle and all that and all the equipment and because we had a a milking uh herd and then we my father did so much farming and he did farming on other people’s property too, you know, not just what we had there. But and then of of course, he um I told you he picked corn and did all the other things uh for the different people. So.
Pat: It was interesting to see that poster from back then.
Eleanor: Yeah.
Pat: What was the full name of your spouse and your parents?
Eleanor: My my spouse was Charles David Rawley and his family was from Odessa, his father’s family. Um, and his mother was a Morehead and she had lived here in Middletown. Um, his mother and father were divorced. I think he was two or three, something like that. So, he had very little to do with his father. His father had uh remarried years later and very nice lady. Um she was a school teacher in Odessa and uh I know Dave thought a lot of her, you know, of course he didn’t see her a lot, but when he did see her, he he did think a lot about her. So, he um didn’t have a cohesive family that you know and he had a hard time adjusting to mine. He he truly did because
Pat: it was like a little town.
Eleanor: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, what are you doing that for?
Pat: And the next question is describe your spouse. What was he like more than just uh what color was his hair? Tell us about your husband.
Eleanor: Um, well,
Pat: How did you meet?
Eleanor: I met him first because he dated my sister first, my older sister, and then, uh, of course that didn’t last. Um, then I met Dave when I was like 17 or 18. um you know and then we were hanging around with the same people you know and
Pat: Did he go to school with you?
Eleanor: He was five years older than me. So, u yeah, he went to school with me be I knew he was there. I knew who he was, you know. Um I don’t know if he knew who I was. Um but um I know that when he came to meet my sister, I was much younger and of course an itch, you know, to my sister. So, I went down to talk to him. So So anyway, that’s he remembered me being there. He told me later that I came down and sat there and ran my mouth. And he’s he was very quiet, so he wasn’t one to chat back at me easily, but I kept it up. So anyway, um.
Pat: What did you do on dates?
Eleanor: We went to the movies. What else did we do? Uh, we went to parties together. A lot of people, a lot of us just had parties at our houses or or whatever. And um because there wasn’t anything to do around here. Um,
Pat: How long did you date before you decided you were going to get married?
Eleanor: It was over a year was over a year before decided that.
Pat: Did you have a big wedding?
Eleanor: No, we just I knew he did not want that, you know. So, we just went to Elkton much to my family’s shin. They did not like that. But um you know so no I wasn’t married in the church and you know that was. But anyway that’s what how things happened.
Pat: Did you celebrate it? I mean afterwards did you have a big party or?
Eleanor: Yeah, we had a party at the house. My family was good about it. I mean they didn’t ostracize us or anything but they weren’t happy that we had gone off and gotten married. Um, and I said, “you know, Dad, give it time. You know, just give it time. Give him time. You know, maybe he’ll come around to church eventually”. But that never happened.
Pat: Was he Catholic?
Eleanor: No. No.
Pat: Um, that’s two checks in the boxes.
Eleanor: I know. I know.
Pat: Back then.
Eleanor: Yes. Yes. So anyway, that’s just.
Pat: How long How long were you married? Or are you still You’re not still married?
Eleanor: No. No. Um Dave became an alcoholic and life changed tremendously. Um he had a job that he was at. He’d been on the job for 19 years and uh he finally lost his job. Um but actually we had split just before that because I couldn’t take what was going on and I wasn’t going to raise the kids like that. You know, I said, “No, the kids do not need to be around this.” And uh so he finally left and but he was still here in town. Yeah.
Pat: I’m sorry to bring that up, but I didn’t realize. Um what did your, well, when you were enjoying things, what did your family do together to enjoy yourselves during that time?
Eleanor: My family.
Pat: Your family while you were married?
Eleanor: Oh, okay. Um, a lot of it was interaction with other family members, either their place, our place, or something, you know, like his aunt had a pool, so we would all gather there or um we’d have a picnic at the house. Uh we’d have a crab thing, you know, for everybody in the summer. And um Christmas time we always went from house to house within the family. Um we always made a visitation to them. Um, but things that we did, things that were going on in town, whatever was going on in town, there was always Little League in the summer, you know, and since it was only four blocks away, I the kids and I would walk up there. Dave and the kids and I would walk up there um watch that in the evening. Um, we traveled. We’d we’d go to the beach, went to the mountains. Um, I love the Poconos. It was so neat. Um, I’m trying to think. We went to Washington with the kids. I don’t know, just little things.
Pat: What was your profession? You kind of talked about it. And how did you choose it?
Eleanor: Well, I always wanted to be a nurse. I don’t know why, but I always did. I thought it would be a good thing, but I did say earlier I didn’t apply myself the way I should have. I was too busy being social. And um so therefore I didn’t test well. Testing was a hard thing for me. Um so I had trouble getting into nursing school. So, then I finally was able to get into for uh to become a practical nurse and I did that and and that’s what I did most of my life. And uh I worked at state hospital. I went to work for Public Health. There was a unit right in Middletown and um so and and we had the first in Middletown we had the first um um multi-faceted place. We had social workers, we had dentists, we had TB uh clinic, we had OBGYN, we had Women’s Health.
Pat: Um the first in the state to have all of those.
Eleanor: Mhm. It was in the little building where they serve the food now for the people to come.
Pat: Behind the Historical Society.
Eleanor: Yeah. Behind the Historical Society. That’s where it was. That’s where we worked out of. And of course, we did all the home care because VNA never came below the canal. So, we had from the canal to Smyrna to cover for all kinds of home care that had to be done. So, you might be doing home care in the morning, but you might be working the clinic in the afternoon or vice versa or you could be on in the field all day, you know. So, it varied from day to day what you did which I loved. I really loved it. Um, and then they were offering early retirement and I happened to be off because I had to have a surgery. And so, while I was off, I got this letter, you know, offering me early retirement. And I thought, what are you talking about? Um, I was surprised ‘cuz how old was I? Was in my 40s. 46 or seven, something like that. And I thought, “Oh my God.” And then I listened to what was going on within the state. And from what I understand, a lot of things were going to change. Um, Middletown was not going to be the same. They were going to put things other places and move things around. and therefore, I if I have stayed I might have had a job in Georgetown or someplace else, you know, and I didn’t want to do that. So, I decided to take the early retirement. Not that it paid anything because it didn’t uh and I knew I had to get another job. So, I um retired in the end of May and I started working in a doctor’s office up in Christiana, part-time. And then I went to my doctor’s office one day and he said,”Eleanor,” I was at the front desk to get a referral and he said,”Eleanor, can I talk to you?” So, I said, “Sure, just let me finish here.” And I did. And then I went back to his office and he said, “I know you’re retired now.” I said, “Yeah, but I’m working part-time.” And he said, “Oh.” He said, ‘I was wanted to ask you if you’d like to come to work for me because I want to take on another doctor.” And I thought, oh my God. So, I said, “Sure, I’d love it.” I mean, you know, so that was full-time. So.
Pat: In Middletown?
Eleanor: No, that was in Glasgow.
Pat: Okay.
Eleanor: So, I uh
Pat: So, you’ve enjoyed your profession.
Eleanor: I have. I have. Doing all kinds of things. Yeah.
Pat: If you uh if you could have had any other profession, what would it have been? And why wasn’t it your first choice? You loved nursing.
Eleanor: I did.
Pat: Um that was your only
Eleanor: I really never ever thought of anything too much other than that.
Pat: Okay. What accomplishments were you the most proud?
Eleanor: My children.
Pat: Good answer.
Eleanor: They’re two nice girls, have been extremely good to me, and found two good husbands, and they both have two girls. And I said, I wish that on you because of just how bad you were.
Pat: Oh, they weren’t bad.
Eleanor: I know they weren’t bad, but you know. So.
Pat: How how has the recent development affected the area? So, you’ve lived here a long time. You’ve seen the changes.
Eleanor: I have so many changes. Um, well, number one, traffic is is just horrible now because there’s so many people around. Um we um we have um just all this development outside of the small town of itself. Um and of course they all come to town for all the things that are around here. And it has just changed everything. You could go to the grocery store and you knew everybody there and you talked to everybody there. My kids used to hate to go to the grocery store with me and “Mom, you talked to everybody.” I said, “Yeah”, but anyway, um
Pat: But now.
Eleanor: You don’t know anybody. You know nobody. Um and the personnel changes. You don’t even know them, you know. So, and now I ordered from Walmart to be delivered because I don’t drive anymore. Um, I have rheumatoid arthritis, so that really put a kink in my life. Um, so how has things changed? More.
Pat: There’s as far as employment, you talked about employment earlier or or religion, you know, we kind of talked about that a little bit, or the farming.
Eleanor: Farming is not existing anymore almost. Um, kids of farmers don’t want to come back to the farm. They’d rather sell it and have the money and move on in whatever profession they have chosen. But farming is every day and most people don’t want to do that. They want something more exciting. And that’s unfortunate because farming is a good life. I know my father had a hard time whenever he um took vacation from his job. He was working for somebody on the farm. I used to tell him his ass loved the tractor tractor seat, you know. And he he’d say, “Yeah, Eleanor, I know. I know. Yes, it does.” And um so he what do I want to say about this?
Pat: We a se several of the people have talked about the kids used to work on the farms during the summer. That was their employment opportunity.
Eleanor: Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people did that. I mean, we had kids working on the farm. Um, when we were when Patsy and I were teenagers, of course, on the farm. Um, that was um when what was the show in Philly? That was the music Dick Clark, you know. Well, there was always the music from that. And it was on at a time like dinner time and at one point we had twins that worked for my father and they’d come in and we’d jitterbug we could dance you know and you know actually I learned to dance with them you know so um there was some benefits to having other people there on the farm you know.
Pat: What do you want people to know the most about yourself, your family, their business? What stands out to you that you want people to remember about your family or about yourself? You’ve done a lot of amazing things in your lifetime.
Eleanor: I’ve tried to stay busy. Um I I don’t do it for notoriety. notoriety, but I I do it because I enjoy it. And, um I was on several committees at the same time, one year. Um they were Building Committees. One was the church, the other was the senior center, and I was also involved with a daycare. Now, they didn’t build a new place or anything, but I was on their board and um, those kind of things always were very gratifying to me. Um to watch the town change and grow in a positive ways was always good. I enjoyed and was happy to see people move here because that meant there was something here, you know, that it was a good area. To me, that’s what it meant. And then it just got out of hand. And it’s and there’s beautiful people that have moved here from all over. Um, and I have enjoyed a lot of them that I’ve met. And um so I I know it’s a very positive thing. Most of my neighbors are now all new people in the last five years. Um really and I couldn’t ask for nicer people. There was a young man who moved in across the street from me. Um, and my the old neighbor that lived there introduced us and he’s very nice young man. He has three kids, but they are only there on weekends and that kind of stuff. So, he’s introduced me to them and, you know, they always ride by, holler, “Hey, Miss Ellie.” You know, so it’s it’s refreshing to have young kids speak to you because most of the time they don’t want to be bothered, you know, or other people. And the new neighbors are from one’s from Wilmington, one’s from Newark area. My next door neighbor is well he lived they lived here and then they moved back up north Wilmington but always wanted to come back and they finally found the house next door to me and uh they’re all great people. As a matter of fact, from when we had the pandemic, we used to meet at one person’s house in the backyard and sit 12 feet away from one another. So, we could just sit and talk, you know, and still see one another. And that still goes on. We don’t sit 12 feet apart anymore, but but you know, like last Saturday night, we had a gathering. So, it it’s it’s good. It’s It’s a good thing.
Pat: What do you want people to know the most about Middletown’s past? What do you want people to remember about
Eleanor: Middletown.
Pat: About our past.
Eleanor: We had a heck of a good football team at one time. Everybody says that.
Pat: No, only one person that we interviewed. You could probably guess who that was.
Eleanor: But yeah. Yeah, we
Pat: That is a big deal. That is a big thing.
Eleanor: Yeah. Yeah. Um the schools have grown, I mean, tremendously. Of course, they had to. Um I remember people complaining about taxes because the school district and everything. I thought, you know, what are you going to do? You got to educate these kids. You don’t want them growing up to be a bunch of numb skulls, you know? So, um I think what you want to think about is the positive things that have happened here um instead of just the problems with the um traffic. I mean, and I know that’s a big deal for a lot of people when they’ve got to get from one place to another and you know, you just got to learn to leave early and um I’ve lost my train of thought.
Pat: Things about Middletown’s past.
Eleanor: I’m trying to think now. Middletown’s past. What was good then and is good now?
Pat: Or what was good then?
Eleanor: Oh, what was good then? Well, you know, you had small stores like soda pop stores and uh next door is a a sports thing or um or it could be a a a place where you could get your uh crocheting and or your wool or whatever, you Um, so it we had a variety of things. We had little stores, candy stores. Buckworth’s had uh all the equipment you could need for anything around the house. Um, Burkeman’s had uh all kinds of clothes. Um, and they had a candy counter there, a penny candy candy counter. Um, McNaughton’s had the drugstore on the corner. Who else was there? And we had realtors and we had um accountants and all that kind of stuff on Main Street and we had little restaurants. Um and so you could go get a sandwich any place you wanted to. Um you know like a steak sandwich or whatever you um I can’t think of their names right now.
Pat: Depends depends on what decade you’re talking about.
Eleanor: Yeah, I know. Uh
Pat: Because they’ve come and gone.
Eleanor: Yeah, they have. They have.
Pat: It was a good little town.
Eleanor: It was a Dairy Queen that was the most popular place in town and I worked there from the time I was 15. I started and then uh early summer and then um I worked there till I went to uh went to school, went away to school and then when I was first divorced, I could have gone and traveled someplace else and probably made a lot more money, but it would take me time to get there and I still had to pay somebody or have somebody take care of my kids. So, I went back to the Dairy Queen and I still had fun there with the kids then. I mean, I really did. Um, that was a fun place to be and you saw everybody. Everybody went to the Dairy Queen. It used to be lined up clear out to the road. I mean, you know, and people would come from down in Maryland and stop and and they’d wait for an hour to get to the front of the place. I remember them doing it, you know. But anyway.
Pat: Well, that’s all the questions that I have. Do you
Eleanor: Oh, that’s good.
Pat: Do you have anything you want to add at the end? Anything?
Eleanor: I think I think the Historical Society is a great thing and I’m glad you’re doing this because I’m sure there’s many many things that other people have talked about that would be very interesting to me, you know, and their perspective because I’m sure some of them lived here a long time, but probably not as long as I have.