Interview with

Remembering The 20th Century: An Oral History of Monmouth County

Date of Interview: September 12, 2000
Name of Interviewer: Ellen Williams
Premises of Interview: Ms. Hall's home, Howell, NJ
Birthdate of Subject: N/A

Ms. Williams: Great to be here, Kay.

Ms. Hall: Thank you. I'm very glad to be here.

Ms. Williams: Thank you so much for agreeing to be interviewed. You have the wealth of knowledge about Howell and certainly have a lot of recollections in your life as a librarian and teacher and historian. Where do we begin? What's the story you want to focus on?

Ms. Hall: Oh, I don't know. For twenty-five years I was the Librarian for Ardena School. That was my whole focus. In the middle of all that came the Bicentennial, so consequently I had to learn to spin, weave, and do all sorts of things that went with the Bicentennial. So I've done a lot of things.

Ms. Williams: I understand you have also written a couple of books about Howell, the museum, and about the life here in Howell in the past. That took a lot of time; can you tell us about that?

Ms. Hall: Well, a number of years ago, some of the schools started teaching all about their townships in third grade. They decided that they wanted to do it for Howell, and I got this phone call, "Will you represent the historic part so that we have it correct?" I said yes and did not know what I was getting into. But four of us, on off hours, and in the summer, wrote this schoolbook; and this is the only school book that the third graders have. What's so unique is that it focuses on Howell, but at the end of the year the students take it home for keeps so that their family also can learn all about Howell Township.

Ms. Williams: Do you go into the schools and introduce yourself as one of the authors?

Ms. Hall: No. But I do have all the third graders that come over to the museum because I'm a docent at the McKenzie Museum, and we have bus loads of children coming in. Sometimes the teacher says, "Do you know Mrs. Hall wrote your school book investigating Howell?" And sometimes I'll just say something like, "I know you know this because I wrote it in your schoolbook." And they all kind of look at me funny, and I say, "Oh, yes, the word barter is in your book, and you should know what that means."

Ms. Williams: How many years has this been used in the third grade?

Ms. Hall: Oh, my, I really don't know. I would say over ten. But it's revised. In other words it's brought up to date, because the way you elect the mayor is different, the bus service is different, and the radio stations are different. All that changes, so it does have to be brought up to date.

Ms. Williams: Tell us about McKenzie Museum.

Ms. Hall: I thought I was going to turn out to be a history teacher, because I loved American history, and I thought to be a fifth grade teacher would be wonderful. I'm one of these late blooming people. I made the decision after I had raised four children. Before that I was a business major in Rider College, but I decided I wanted to be a teacher so I had to start out from scratch because nothing transferred. I was so busy doing that, and all of a sudden they had me go in the Library, and I thought, "I don't want to be a teacher, I want to be a Librarian." So I did. But it took me thirteen years to get my Bachelor's.

Ms. Williams: That took a lot of dedication on your part.

Ms. Hall: So this museum business is something that came up. You know, a docent is an unpaid volunteer. You work just as hard as somebody who is making a salary, maybe a little harder. For instance, this spring we had five hundred third graders come through our museum, and all Howell Township organizations and students are free. So we really work closely with Howell Township. And the schoolhouse was built in 1855; it's a lovely example of an old-fashioned one-room schoolhouse. Children can come; they can bring their class for the whole day there. I have some of them dress and pretend that that's how they're getting their schooling. Part of The McKenzie Museum is two hundred years old, which is very rare. The other part is one hundred and fifty. We've even done research on the color of the parlor, and that's the colors they are painted now. They are just the color that the woman one hundred fifty years agosaid, "This is what I want my rooms painted." We just had an oil painting and a sampler given to us; so very exciting things are happening.

Ms. Williams: What would you say are some of the most distinguishing features about Howell?

Ms. Hall: I want them to respect old buildings, and the history of their Township. And I also want them to respect older people. It ties right in. The museums are in their schoolbook, so they know what they are going to see. McKenzie Museum was a grist miller's home, and there was a very large gristmill right in our parking lot. The Manasquan River runs right there, and we're about right up to Allaire State Park. These children know quite a bit when they come. And with me knowing everything that they should know, we have very interesting talks when they come.

Ms. Williams: You're actually bringing history alive through this.

Ms. Hall: Yes. We have a lot of fun doing that.

Ms. Williams: Is your family from Howell? How long have you lived in this community?

Ms. Hall: All of my life, except for two years. I was born in Kentucky, and my folks moved to New Jersey. My husband was born here in Howell Township. We actually sleep in the bedroom he was born in. I feel like a native.

Ms. Williams: Having all this history here, you want to share that with people.

Ms. Hall: I love it here.

Ms. Williams: Did you enjoy working with the schools as a Librarian?

Ms. Hall: When I first started I had time to bring in classes for poetry. I had mentors come and do a painting, or I had a sculptor come and show his work, or a classical guitarist come in for the day and invite the whole school down to hear him. I did a lot of crazy things in the library. I would dress in costumes and come in as an Indian one-day and, of course sometimes during the Bicentennial I mentioned, I would dress in Colonial clothes then. Now I dress in 1855 clothes because that's what the building is.

Ms. Williams: Do you act as if you're living in that era?

Ms. Hall: No, I do not interpret; I don't actually become the person. It just doesn't seem like it's conducive there for that. But I do say, "Good day," when you come; I do not say "Hello."

Ms. Williams: What about this book The Jive Talk, which was a dictionary?

Ms. Hall: Oh, I did that while I was doing my masters. I did it over at Trenton State. I've been to thirteen colleges, can you imagine? I picked up credits all over the place. I have to stop and think at which college I did what.

Ms. Williams: In New Jersey, or all over the country?

Ms. Hall:  All over New Jersey. A course here, a course there. You name the college, I went to it. I've been to them all, and enjoyed them all. Up to a lot of computer courses I took at Georgian Court. I began, I might as well tell you, right in Monmouth Junior College, which was in Long Branch High School at the time, so that really dates me. 

Ms. Williams: You said earlier that you planned to become a teacher, but you decided to become a librarian; when did you want to become a teacher? Was that a lifelong interest, or was it later in life?

Ms. Hall: I guess when I had four kids. They were two, four, six and eight. In the United States we did a lot of traveling - except I've never been to Hawaii. Other than that, we have a son living in Alaska right now; we've been to Alaska a number of times, but never Hawaii.

Ms. Williams: How would you say New Jersey rates with the other states? How do you feel about living here?

Ms. Hall: Oh, I'm all for New Jersey. And all for Howell Township.

Ms. Williams: Well, I know that from your work. How about all this storytelling?

Ms. Hall: Well, that started about, I would say, seventeen years ago. I always read stories to children, but I found out that I like to look at their eyes, I like to have interaction with them, and I heard about a storytelling group in Trenton called the Garden State Storytellers. It was kind of far, and when you went there, you had to go at night. But I went. And I went for many, many, many years. They had these meetings where they teach you how to be a storyteller and then you hear all these other stories. And then you go out. I mean, most of it's free; sometimes you get paid, which is nice. I storytell now at Monmouth County Fair, and Longstreet Farm. And I tell at nursing homes. I have a lot of fun with it. Some of it is historic, some of it is teenage storytelling, and some of it is for adults. But, of course, I was a children's librarian in a K through eight school, so most of my stories I love telling to children.

Ms. Williams: Do you have certain themes for your stories, certain subject matters that you tend to focus on?

Ms. Hall: For teenagers I more or less go towards important people, things I know that they'd be interested in. I have an anti-drug story that I tell. And for children, I guess it's animals. You know a storyteller picks out what she likes. And what you like might not be something anybody else likes, and you have to love the story to get into it. So now I belong to Jersey Shore Storytellers which meets in Red Bank, which isn't very far. And we have people from all around Monmouth County over there.

Ms. Williams: I imagine there's quite a variety of storytelling.

Ms. Hall: Yes, some of them are very, very good. Not professional, but almost professional. I think of myself as an amateur. I do it because I love to do it.

Ms. Williams: Do you improvise the stories, or do you pretty much know what -

Ms. Hall: Well, I have made some stories.

Ms. Williams: You obviously have the joy of teaching in the blood there. Is there anything about Monmouth County that you would like to highlight? What are you most proud of, or concerned about, or what comes to mind?

Ms. Hall: The librarians. I've worked with many different librarians, and researched in a lot of libraries. Librarianship is another way of looking at things involving people who are used to delving into things. I'm also a genealogist. We didn't even mention that. But, history just is unbelievable. My husband's folks go all the way back to the Dutch at New Amsterdam. And he has one relative who went across the river with George Washington. Genealogy makes history come to life. So the history of Monmouth County is unbelievable. And we do a lot of research. We actually go places; we just came back from Greenwich, New Jersey, where we were doing research on Governor Richard Howell. The reason we're researching him is that Howell Township is going to be celebrating its two hundredth anniversary, and it was named for Governor Richard Howell, who was a good friend of George Washington. His twin brother died right there at Battle of Monmouth, and Howell Township honored Richard Howell when he retired in 1801.

Ms. Williams: What was he like? What was his personality?

Ms. Hall: Well, I tell you, I think there he learned a few things about the Revolution. And he was one of the few men, I should say, in Greenwich, who went into somebody's cellar, and stole the tea that had been stored there because people weren't using it; they were boycotting the tea. So they put it in the middle of town and burned it. So we went to Greenwich to do the research there.

Ms. Williams: You actually went to where he was.

Ms. Hall: Yes, they have a good library there. I'm always thinking of libraries. Perhaps you didn't know that they dumped tea in Sandy Hook, also. So, we do that kind of research.

Ms. Williams: How do you think that libraries have changed over the years in terms of what they offer and how they're viewed by the public?

Ms. Hall: Well, the modern ways of copying work. In other words, you can find out what you need and then make a copy and take it home and really do your research there. That's wonderful. And the Internet, oh, we live with a computer. It's wonderful family-wise because you can talk all over. We have ten grandchildren, and they are all over the United States, and we can talk to them all the time on the Internet. And then the historical and genealogical information you can get from the Internet is amazing. It just takes a little time.

Ms. Williams: How about your family background? Where were your relatives from?

Ms. Hall: Well, they were in Kentucky, but you see all the people that were way over there, they had to come through New York, or Virginia, or Maryland, or Delaware. All these people, when you go back, have roots that go all the way back. The Reverend Gano was the minister at Valley Forge with George Washington, and he was one of the relatives. Another one was a minister who studied at Princeton, and they told me his Bible is still at Princeton. I don't know, all these little things come up when you do genealogy. I really recommend it for everybody, and I'm trying to interest all my grandchildren, because history does come alive.

Ms. Williams: And do you find that your grandchildren like to hear the stories?

Ms. Hall: Oh, yes.

Ms. Williams: Kay, tell us a little more about the genealogy research.

Ms. Hall: Well, I just learned so much about history. You learn which ancestors were killed by Indians. I recently read that one of my ancestors stopped a rebellion.

Ms. Williams: So that's where you get all your spirit.

Ms. Hall: Oh, yes, she was something. Her husband was off to the Revolutionary War so she had to stop the rebellion. Another one fought in the War of 1812. When you start doing genealogy, and you know about your ancestors, it's amazing. History just comes to life. You think, "Oh, my, that's what actually happened."

Ms. Williams: And you're teaching your grandchildren about their past?

Ms. Hall: Yes. One of the grandsons is going to be a history teacher. We really get into this.

Ms. Williams: Have they been keeping scrapbooks, too, of your family history?

Ms. Hall: Well, the one from Alaska called up and said, "Grandmother, school wants me to write something about some of my ancestors." And I said, "Well, I sent you that for Christmas last year." They went away from the phone for a moment and said, "That's exactly what I need!" They didn't even realize they had it in the house.

Ms. Williams: It's wonderful to have a librarian, an historian, for a grandmother. And your performances that you do with your husband, could you explain a little about that?

Ms. Hall: Okay. We work as a team, my husband, Charles and I. He does a lot of the photography, more than I do. Then we write a script and we have our shows on slides. We have never gone to the video though; it's always been slides. It's easier to cut, easier to make the show up. We've been to Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty; that's one show. Another one was when we got all dressed in our 1850 costumes and pretended that we left our museum, and that we went by boat up to Boston and visited Sturbridge, Massachusetts. So we have a whole hour at Sturbridge without any modern people in it. And we pretended all the people were our relatives, and would say, "Hello, Aunt Sue, how are you?" And we went through, "What are you doing today?" "Well, I'm grading corn husks." So that's another hour show. The cutest one was mailboxes. In Florida, there is a road; I don't know how long it is. But they have a lot of varied mailboxes, tractors and alligators, and everything. The whole show is nothing but mailboxes. I want to do one in Howell. We'd like to go around Howell Township and find the different mailboxes.

Ms. Williams: So you take pictures of the different mailboxes and do you talk about it?

Ms. Hall: Yes. You make it interesting. Some of these slide shows have music with them. This is part of being a media specialist. When you get your degree in New Jersey, you aren't considered a librarian; you're considered a media specialist. So I did a lot of this training, especially at Trenton State, and then when I got my masters at Glassboro. 

Ms. Williams: So what kind of groups are looking at the slides?

Ms. Hall: We're doing cemeteries of Howell. We're doing that for the Farmingdale Historical Society this month. Up in Croyden Hall, which is in Middletown, we are doing it for the Middletown Historical Society; we're doing the one on Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty. We have a speaker come to our museum. We have monthly meetings, the Historical Society, and we trade. They can come in and give us a talk, and we come up and we have these talks we can give to them.

Ms. Williams: You're such a wonderful resource for the County. It's so rich all the teaching you are doing.

Ms. Hall: I have a cute story about that. We got an e-mail, from who I don't know exactly know, but they're in charge of the water in Monmouth County. This e-mail was a question. They were very concerned about Larrabee Crossing. Was there a bridge at Larrabee Crossing? They couldn't find it in any map, and they looked all over Monmouth County. We got a big kick out of it because Larrabee Crossing was a railroad crossing, it wasn't a river crossing. But I have been useful as a resource sometimes. My husband and I know a lot, mostly about Howell. We do a little bit of Monmouth County, but mostly Howell.

Ms. Williams: What would you say would be one of the most significant things that have happened in your lifetime, in terms of historical, either national history, or international?

Ms. Hall: When I was a little girl I remember the Hindenberg blowing up. We lived in Freehold on South Street, and we heard this big explosion. In those days people had great big furnaces in the cellar, and the noise in Freehold which came all the way from Lakehurst, sounded like the furnace had blown up in our cellar. I can remember dashing to the cellar. That night, I can remember I was supposed to be in bed asleep, but I would go over to the window that looked over the road that used to come right into Freehold, and I can remember kneeling by the window and seeing ambulance after ambulance after ambulance, because this was the main road to go New York. The rich people were hurt, and hospitals got filled up around here, and they were transporting the victims up to New York. All night long were these ambulances going by.

Ms. Williams: It must have been quite a moving experience.

Ms. Hall: When our Historical Society brought somebody in who was an expert about the Hindenberg, it was because of my interest. My father always took me to everything. Remember the Morro Castle burning off Asbury Park? I got to see that. And if a whale got beached, we went to see the whale. As a matter of fact, I saw the Hindenberg the last time it left the United States. We must have gotten up at least three, maybe four o'clock in the morning, and we drove to Lakehurst to see it leave. And the next time it came back, it blew up. So I was really interested in history way, way back.

Ms. Williams: What do you think about the times we're living in now, in terms of Howell today compared to Howell when you were growing up? What are the plusses and maybe some of the drawbacks?

Ms. Hall: Well, I think just as exciting things are happening now. The only thing is that they are happening so fast that I think that a lot of kids are missing them. They don't realize what's going on. Maybe we didn't either, but I wonder will these children remember the Bicentennial, which is so big for the United States? Two hundred years! History is moving so fast. And it's funny, but I'm more interested in olden times, so maybe the younger generation is just as interested in Korea or Vietnam, or something closer to them.

Ms. Williams: When this interview is indexed, they need to come up with some key words.

Ms. Hall: Well, I'm glad I don't have to index this!

Ms. Williams: You have such diversity in your life. What would be some of the key words be: Howell, genealogy, library history? What are some of the key words that you would want your story to be indexed as?

Ms. Hall: I'm still a librarian. I mean, once you have an education, and you're a librarian, or teacher, you're still that, no matter what. Your education, even if you retire, which I did about eight years ago, you're still that person. I have a church library in Freehold at the First Baptist Church. We have a nice little library. Then of course I run the library here at the McKenzie Museum, which is a very good research library. And then whenever we go to Florida I help out with the public library down there. So I'm still a librarian.

Ms. Williams: So you live part of the year in Florida?

Ms. Hall: Not long, but we do live part of the year, yes.

Ms. Williams: And you're involved in that library?

Ms. Hall: Oh, yes. I didn't start the genealogy until I retired. But when I got married I put a box under the bed and I said, "Anything anybody knows about genealogy I'm putting it in this box." And I kept this up about my husband's family and my family, and I knew when I retired I was really going to work on it. The other thing I wanted to do was watercolor and oil paint. And I've done both. I enjoy the painting a lot and I do it as much as I can.

Ms. Williams: Do you exhibit it?

Ms. Hall: Yes.

Ms. Williams: Where have you put your work?

Ms. Hall: At the Monmouth County Fair, and I've had it in other various places around. Right now I'm in this Manalapan Adult Center, and I will be in the Howell Library this year. They have an exhibit every year and I put my works in that. I'm getting there, but it takes a while to get to be pretty good.

Ms. Williams: If you could write a book about your life and illustrate it, what would be some of the highlights that you would want to include, or would there be one particular one you might - would you fictionalize it, or would it be a straight autobiography?

Ms. Hall: Oh, my word. I guess really, I'd specialize in history. When I first started teaching they brought in historical displays, and I was amazed that they came in and asked me to spend a week - (loud clock) there goes the clock!

Ms. Williams: How old is that clock?

Ms. Hall: That dates to about 1870.

Ms. Williams: It's great. That's perfect.

Ms. Hall: I think I love to watch my husband wind it. I think that's very historic.

Ms. Williams: Absolutely. That was perfect timing. So you would do a more historical book?

Ms. Hall: Yes, and bring in a lot of the history that I have of the Township and of our families.

Ms. Williams: So actually you are a walking history book of Howell and people really just get so much from your stories, more than any book, because you have so much to bring it to life.

Ms. Hall: Well, each year we have a lovely exhibit at Monmouth County Library - Archives Day. And each year I try to do an in depth study of something different. This year we're doing Governor Richard Howell because of Howell's two-hundreth anniversary. Last year we did the Liberty Stage Coach. Did you hear anything about the Liberty Stage Coach? This is interesting. This is a stage coach that ran from New York to Lakewood, and it ran right past our house, right in front of our house, went right through Freehold. There's a painter who painted a series of paintings on it. When we heard about the stagecoach, we heard it was up in Shelburne Museum, so we got in our car and drove to Shelburne Museum, and there's that stagecoach. So this was the whole feature of our table at the Archives. So people who want to know about a lot of history of Monmouth County can go to Archives Day, because all the Historical Societies have tables that I like to study. Each year I study something different. So that stagecoach is really a whole story on its own.

Ms. Williams: That will be one of your stories as a historian.

Ms. Hall: Oh, yes. I do some making up stories, but most of them I read.

Ms. Williams: If you could take something from Howell and put it in a time capsule and save it for someone to find later, what would you want them to have to represent Howell? 

Ms. Hall: I would certainly put in the book, Investigating Howell. It's a year's work, with the four of us, and we really tried to get the essence of Howell, its history, but not just history. We also looked into the now, the government, and the shopping malls, and the fire department. In other words, it's what third graders should know about their own Township. So I think that would be a good thing to put in there. And maybe my little sketchbook. My sketchbook is about the two museums. This is the latest thing I did, and it's all drawings of the two museums; if you went to visit there you'd see all these things there. So maybe those two represent Howell.

Ms. Williams: They represent a lot of work on your part, too.

Ms. Hall: Yes.

Ms. Williams: Is there anything that encapsulates your life that you could put into a few words? What would represent your spirit? 

Ms. Hall: Well, passing things on to students, passing things on to your family; I think this is very important. I feel that I've passed on a lot of my values and my love to kids.

Ms. Williams: And that kind of runs through all you've been doing in your life in terms of genealogy, and library work, and the story telling.

Ms. Hall: But also, perseverance. Some of these kids when they go to college don't realize they're lucky to have four years of college and then have a career.  I had to study for thirteen years for my bachelor's degree. I'm not too sure how long it took to get my masters, I think it was about six on top of that. And then I went on to graduate work, a lot of that in computers. The importance of education is what I'm getting at. I took the courses in the summer instead of having a job because furthering myself by going to school is how you further yourself.

Ms. Williams: You're really a lifelong learner. You're always looking to learn something new.

Ms. Hall: Oh, yes. We just took a college course this year.

Ms. Williams: What was that for?

Ms. Hall: Computer genealogy.

Ms. Williams: That's exciting because as you see a need to learn something, you just delve into it.

Ms. Hall: Oh, yes. Anything I have an interest in I try to get a course in it. We must appreciate education, appreciate history. We must respect those things. Not too far from here, they had pine robbers, and this lady during the Revolution was being robbed by this pine robber. Soldiers came, and the pine robber got scared off and jumped out the back door--but they had dug the cellar, and the pine robber fell into the cellar. All these tales that you read about to bring them to life are unbelievable. If only these houses could talk. In 1817, the house you're in right now had just the two rooms, and they added on. So there's history here. All of Monmouth County is just chock full of history. You have a funny feeling when you go out West, because their history starts so much later then ours, because white people weren't even out there then.

Ms. Williams: We are in a very historical County.

Ms. Hall: Very.

Ms. Williams: I think a lot of people like yourself are working to keep it preserved to pass it on.

Ms. Hall: And having fun doing it.

Ms. Williams: Is there anything else that you would like to highlight in your story, which is so rich, and so exciting - in terms of your family, your work experiences, that you might want to make sure we include in this?

Ms. Hall: Well, let's see. Oh, one of the interesting experiences I had was teaching the blind and handicapped in Trenton. They have a school where the students live there. They hired me to come over and story tell. It was very interesting because they couldn't see, and you can't make eye contact, so you have to present the stories in a different way. I enjoyed doing that. It was very different.

Ms. Williams: You have a very expressive voice. I can imagine it was very easy to listen to. It brings the story to life.

Ms. Hall: This is only because in Ardena School when they opened two classrooms, they took the wall out, so when I talked, I had to talk across two classrooms. So I got a really good strong voice. But it ruined my singing voice. I have a great talking voice.  I worked with the fifth grade in Ardena School, and we received a Governor's Award. East United States Coast Honor, which includes Puerto Rico even, and it's the Presidential Environmental Youth Award, and they came from Washington, D.C. to present it to the school. We went out and did environmental studies for children, pretending that they were a farmer, pretending that they were a fisherman, and the different occupations, and I did all of the videotaping for it. It was a really good show. That was very nice.

Ms. Williams: Do you still have a copy of that?

Ms. Hall: Some place.

Ms. Williams: I'd love to see it.

Ms. Hall: I don't know, maybe the school has the only copy. I don't remember if they copied it or not. We did Ardena's birthday party, which was when Ardena was fifty years old, and we even had a reunion, believe it or not, of eighth graders. They came from all over; a teacher in Princeton, and one alumni who worked with heartworm medicine. When you teach these people, you don't realize what they're going to go out and do later on. So that was interesting, too.  I also got a grant from New Jersey to do a program on the Battle of Monmouth. This is years ago, when people didn't do a lot of this, with slides and so forth. And they let me go into Monmouth County Historical Society and take pictures. We even put cloths on the bottom of our ladder so we could go up the ladder and take direct pictures of some of their paintings that they have. Somebody said, "Oh, may we take pictures too?" And they were told, "Sorry, there's no photography allowed in the museum." And she said, "Well, they're doing it." The museum person said, "But they're professionals." We did do a show many years ago on the Battle of Monmouth, which was part of the grant. A newspaper reporter who is now one of the head editors at the Asbury Park Press was very much interested in saving the North American Phalanx. That's a community where very important people lived in a community right here in Monmouth County in the nineteenth century. People might not know that. They were the first to sell a boxed cereal. It had NAP, for North American Phalanx, on it. They boxed their cereal and took it up to New York to sell. This reporter was trying to save a surviving building. He did a series of articles in the Asbury Park Press. Well, I was very much interested in it, but the building burned. It just blew my mind to think that this historical site had burned down. I mean people were going in there, and they might have caught fire accidentally. But I went in with my camera and we took slides after the fire: we also had slides from before the fire so it was called the Rape of the Phalanx. I really feel like it was ripped from our history. Once I couldn't find my copy of our publication so I went into Brookdale College and tried to borrow the copy that they had made when I was going to Brookdale, and they said, "Oh, you can't take that out because that's restricted material; it can't ever be taken out of the college." So I thought, "Oh, my." This was our slide presentation on the North American Phalanx. I've done a lot of videotaping and slides.

Ms. Williams: They saw the importance of it, didn't they?

Ms. Hall: We've had a lot of fun doing research and presenting history. We enjoy doing it.

Ms. Williams: Yes, you can tell you enjoy what you do. That comes across in everything. That's another part of your spirit - the joy of giving this history to all of us.

Ms. Hall: I think it's important.

Ms. Williams: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Kay for sharing your time with us. All the future readers and listeners of your story will be able to really benefit from this. Thank you for your time.

Ms. Hall: Oh, you're very welcome.

  Flora T. Higgins, Project Coordinator
  Monmouth County Library System © 2001
  Last Revision  Wednesday, July 11, 2001