Ruby Johnson
“I grew up in Georgetown, next to Fairlee, about seven miles from Chestertown. In our community, [it seemed] everybody was related, so we had plenty of family and friends watching out for all the children. I am the youngest of eight from our family, but only four of us are alive today.”
“I started school in Worton, in a one-room schoolhouse, and that building is now a historic landmark. As a child, after school, and in the summer, we had little projects, picking tomatoes and beans, for change in our pockets.”
“I remember all our food was home-grown and fresh…we lived from the land. We had pigs, chickens, eggs, fruit, vegetables and flowers. My Mom was famous for her white-potato pie, and now I’m known [for the same recipe].”
“As I think back now, my fondest memories come from my teen years. We’d come to Chestertown for shopping, dancing and movies. There were many more stores back then.”
“My husband and I moved back here after living in New Jersey and New York…it’s peaceful here. But I don’t like the new farming methods. I fear all the chemicals used [today] end up in the food supply, and that could be killing [the people of] America. It’s just not natural.”
Interviewed and photographed by Jeff Weber
Editor Note: The Chestertown Spy and RiverArts have partnered in 2016 to share the art organization’s community arts project “Humans of Kent County,” designed to celebrate the wonderful, unique folks who live and work in Kent County. Citizens are invited to interview and photograph from young to old from all corners of the county and to submit a photograph and brief story to be part of the project. It will be posted on the Spy each week and each quarter the most interesting photos and stories will be enlarged and produced for an exhibition at the RiverArts gallery in Chestertown.
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