Going to Market: Shopping in Radford, 1920\'s to 1990\'s

Creator: Tucker, Kathleen Doenges

: Bowden, Elizabeth

: Duncan, Alva

: English, Georgia

: Layne, Dorothy

: Mills, Elizabeth

: Rutherford, John

: Umberger, Worth

In this project, Kathleen Doenges Tucker reports on the shopping experience of people living in and around Radford, Virginia. Some of the informants in this project lived through the Great Depression and so going to a store was a treat and an adventure. For these folks, discussion of modes of travel to the store, and of what they bought and how they bought. Some of the informants were involved in service-oriented business’ and they discussed customer service. Additional topics included in the interviews centered around why general and family owned stores and business’ are disappearing in our lives today. This is among projects created by students enrolled in English 446 (initially English 452), “Appalachian Folklore,” 1981-2019, and in graduate level counterparts English 548 and 648 “Appalachian Folk Culture(s)” offered 17 fall semesters between 1987 and 2009. Minimally contain collector’s introduction and analysis, transcribed informant interviews, and excerpted and labeled examples of oral, customary, and/or material folklore/folklife collected primarily within the Appalachian region. Most include also tables of contents, informant information, indexes (outlines) of interviews, photographs, miscellaneous paper items, and indexes of informants, genres, and geographic locations. Accompanying audio recordings (several minutes to 2+ hours). Transferred to McConnell Library Archives & Special Collections from Appalachian Regional and Rural Studies Center, Fall 2013.