CH: Ms. Mungin what are your earliest memories of Central Avenue's Business and Entertainment District?

GM: My earliest memories are of Ms. Lucy Joy. Um Palm Dinette. Rodger's Dinning Room.

CH: What years did you spend time on Central Avenue?

GM: Some, let's see from 1975 until about 1958.

CH: Are you the relative of a Central Avenue business owner?

GM: No.

CH: So, I understand that you worked on Central Avenue?

GM: Yes, yes. I worked um with Joe Pullara's Grocery, I started a lady another black and me ah her name was McKenna. She was working there and when she couldn't come to work she would make it possible for me to come after school. And I worked there after school. Her name was Ada McKenna, and I worked there after school in her place. Most of the time we had to bag everything ( ) before you ride somewhere. Sugar and everything you had to measure cause we didn't have, they didn't have anything in bags at that time.

CH: And how old were you during this time?

GM: I – I about thirteen.

CH: So you were thirteen when—

GM: I had to have a permit. I had to go get it from downtown and get a permit to work every year. I had to get a permit to work.

CH: Could you tell us about the grocery store, what did it look like?

GM: On it was big, big bags of a like beans, peas, sugar. Olives and ( ). And we had a, a meat department. And a I did do the ca, I did do the cash register. ( ) and I did the ordering. In the restaurants that we served I would go get their orders everyday. Bring them back to the store. And ah, you know we give credit. Everybody had their credit and I would put, put down what they got everyday and on the weekend they would pay up. And we also delivered groceries on bicycles.

CH: How many cashiers did they have, did they have a lot of cashiers?

GM: Just a his daughter, Larry's daughter and me. And the family, the Pullara family and me. I was the only cashier that wasn't in the family. Now we had delivery boys that were black and we had butchers that were black. ( ) my brother ah, Milton Carlington, Roseanna Calhoun, and Ernest Calhoun they were butchers. At that time.

CH: So this is not a black owned business?

GM: It wasn't a black owned business. Italian owned, Italian.

CH: What other kinds of businesses were on Central Avenue and who owned them?

GM: We had um cleaners, a black cleaners, we had – Oh! Beauty parlors, you can't count ( ) to the other. A lot of beauty parlors. Had insurance company, Central Life. I can't think of any ( ). Central Life Insurance, I know for sure. But shoe shine parlors, barber shops.

CH: They had a little of everything?

GM: Little of everything.

CH: And they were predominantly black owned?

GM: Black owned. They were black owned.

CH: Who were some of the people you remember from Central Avenue? Like Kid Mason – some of the others.

GM: Kid Mason, Buddy, Buddy Ball. Buddy, I don't remember his last name. ( ) Mr. Joiner. Mr. the Harrises, Mr. and Ms. Harris and her sister. And ah Miss Gladys on the other side of the street. And Alice and Thelma at the, at the movie theatre. And we had another grocery store on the other side of the street by another Italian, so we had another Italian family. I can't recall their name.

CH: Did you send us a letter you found there?

GM: Just every celebrity that was came there. Ah Ray Charles, ah James Brown, and the big bands. ( ) they had big bands? I can't ( ) my husband couldn't come he remember all that. Big bands would come into--.

CH: What represented some of the best times on Central Avenue that you can remember?

GM: Well, I guess on the weekends. I was running through the war too. You know, World War II? They would bring ah MacDill would bring bus loads of soldiers in every Friday and pick them up every Sunday. At that time you couldn't walk Central it was so crowded, with these young men from MacDill.

CH: Were they black young men?

GM: They were all black. All black.

CH: So they would bus them from MacDill?

GM: They would bus them from MacDill to Central Avenue.

CH: And they would leave them there for the whole weekend?

GM: For the whole weekend.

CH: They stayed in the hotels?

GM: I guess wherever they could, yeah. And they took them up on Sunday evenings. I remember that.

CH: Do you remember the parades and ?

GM: Yeah, we had the ( ) maroon and gold. Yeah.

CH: They were good times?

GM: Yes, they were real good times. You looked ( ) games. Real good, good times.

CH: What represented some of the worst times that you can remember?

GM: Well, I can't –I wasn't, I wasn't on the, on the ( ) when Mr. Chambers boy got killed and all that riot. I had to get, I was home. So that was after Nuccio. The time I was down there it was, it was ( ), you know.

CH: It was thriving?

GM: It was thriving.

CH: So you weren't there when it started to decline?

GM: Yeah.

CH: So where did the people typically go for business and entertainment after Central was closed?

GM: I really don't—I don't really answer that.

CH: You had left town?

GM: No, I left Central and the only places, you only had the same places to go to the movies and church. Ah, it was a piece of plantation. It's down on, I think it was down on um it's on Central and Cass. It's a big dance hall where people would go. And the other we had ah a show. What was his name now? I can't recall, I can't think of his name I know somebody done already tole about it. They'd come and ( ) they lived here in Tampa, too. Can't think of his name, I'll have to ask my husband.

CH: What kind of a show was it?

GM: Ah, ah, you know like entertainment, like the girls, the jokes, and everything. Maybe he talk a little ( ). And he would come every year. And he had a motel down, he had a motel here. I can't think of his name. I should of wrote down his name.

CH: Where did you live during this time? Did you live --?

GM: I lived on Harrison Street.

CH: You lived in the community?

GM: I lived in the community.

CH: Is there anything further that you would like to tell us about Central Avenue?

GM: Well, what we had ( ). And ah you could play the numbers. And I know you didn't say anything about bolita. Anybody say anything about bolita? We did bolita any where on Central Avenue. People riding up and down the street on bicycles would selling bolita and the different bars and things you could get bolita.

CH: Can you tell me about bolita?

GM: Well, bolita just like you play a number. You play a 12 or 18. All right then it came out and you won. Maybe you get five dollars or ten dollars, something like that. If you triple it, three numbers and the three numbers came out then you got more money.

CH: Is there anything else that you'd lie to tell us before we close out?

GM: No, I can't think of, I probably think of it when I leave here. Let me try to get my husband to come.

CH: O.K. Well, thank you very much for coming and sharing your memories with us. We certainly do appreciate it.

GM: Well, I'll still try to get that other picture to you.