Interviewer: So, both of you, could please state your names. Doesn’t matter who goes first. Lee: My name is Charles Edward Lee. Proctor: And I’m Toddrick Proctor. Interviewer: And where and when were you born? Lee: I was born here in Conroe, TX, March 3, 1949. Proctor: And I was also born Conroe, TX, June 28, 1982 Interviewer: And parents’ name? Lee: My mother’s name is Tommy Lee Manning and my father’s name is William Lee, Sr. Proctor: And my father’s name is Fred Procter, Jr. Mother Eddy Renee Strong. Interviewer: And what did your parents do for a living? Lee: At the time-my father deceased, but at the time my father worked at a sawmill and my mother did private home work. Proctor: My mother worked at the hospital and my dad was at the sawmill and woodworks. Interviewer: Alright, so both had fathers working at the sawmill, so timber’s been very important to this area? Lee: Yes, primarily, at the beginning. Interviewer: Alright, so, for both of you, what was the neighborhood like that you grew up in? Lee: I grew up in Pal, TX. It was a nice place. It was nice. It was calm. People looked after each other. People knew each other, and people respected each other. It was a well-knitted community of the—Christian community. People basically loved each other. Interviewer: Where is that in relation to here? Lee: What do you mean? Interviewer: Where was it that you grew up? Lee: Over in Pal in Conroe, but they called it Pal the section I was in. Interviewer: Okay. Alright, how about you? Proctor: I grew up in Dugan, the community right there inside of Conroe. When I was coming up, it was kind of rough then. There was a lot of drugs going on. People did look out for each other, but it was rough when I was coming up. Interviewer: So, is Pal an exclusively African-American part of Conroe? Lee: Yes. It was at the time. Interviewer: Were there a lot of African-American businesses? Lee: Very much. Black businesses all over the community. Interviewer: What were some of them? Lee: You had a lot of beer joints and you had a lot of little stores where you could go and get stuff like candy, cookies, and you had stores where you can go get canned goods, something like that. Just the necessities that your mom would need around the house to cook with. Interviewer: What about whenever you were growing up? Proctor: I remember, as a kid, there was one store that we used—well, there was two stores that we used to like to go to. One was black-owned, one wasn’t. It was Mr. Richard Walton’s filling station which was right at the top of the hill of Avenue F. Then, we called it the Jack Cane store, which was on the backside of Avenue F. It was mainly for kid stuff, candy, cookies, bread, lunchmeat, here and there. Interviewer: Who were y’all role models when you were growing up? Lee: My role model when I was coming up was I looked at a lot of preachers and I looked at a lot of teachers and I looked at some of the not-so-well—I wouldn’t call them low-life, but I would call them people of the streets. At looked at some of the people of the streets (inaudible). Proctor: My role models would be me looking up to would be my father Fred Procter and my uncle John Williams who I would turn to for different information for things that I was going through in childhood of different sorts. My Pastor Reverend Booty who has helped me a lot through the years as well.