There Went The Neighborhood - Audio Interview: Diana McKnight-Morton

Fri, 03/03/2023 - 5:11pm

When: May 21, 2021

Diana McKnight-Morton attended Jones School as an elementary student in the 1950s. She remembers growing up in a multi-racial, industrial neighborhood that resisted urban renewal. Her father, Robert Thompson, ran DeLong’s Bar-B-Q Pit on Detroit Street for 38 years.

More interviews are available in the There Went The Neighborhood Interview Archive.

Transcript

• [00:00:00] HEIDI MORSE: Let's get started. Today is May 26th, 2021. I'm Heidi Morse, an archivist at the Ann Arbor District Library, and I'm speaking with Diana McKnight-Morton about Jones School in Ann Arbor as well as her father's former business, DeLong's Bar-B-Q Pit. Just some brief introductory questions. Could you please say and spell your name for us?
• [00:00:27] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Diana, D-I-A-N-A, McKnight, M-C, capital K, N-I-G-H-T, Morton, capital M, O-R-T-O-N,
• [00:00:43] HEIDI MORSE: When and where did you grow up?
• [00:00:46] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Ann Arbor.
• [00:00:50] HEIDI MORSE: Around what decades were you a child?
• [00:00:55] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: I was born and raised in Ann Arbor. In fact, my mother did a home birth. I was born in the house and raised in the house on West Kingsley. I had been in Ann Arbor virtually all of my life.
• [00:01:20] HEIDI MORSE: What did your parents do for work?
• [00:01:24] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Well, in the early years, my father worked for Argus Camera and my mother worked for University of Michigan.
• [00:01:42] HEIDI MORSE: Did you have siblings?
• [00:01:44] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: No, I do not.
• [00:01:48] HEIDI MORSE: In terms of Jones School, what years and grades did you attend? Do you remember the specific timeframe?
• [00:01:56] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Well, that's interesting. I didn't know that we were talking about Jones School. It had to do with the districting of where we lived, and so every four years, I went to a different school. When I first started, I started at Jones School. I was in kindergarten and first grade. That's about it for me.
• [00:02:25] HEIDI MORSE: Okay.
• [00:02:29] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Well, wait a minute. I'm sorry. Then later on, I went back again because of the lines I was back at Jones School from fourth through sixth grade.
• [00:02:52] HEIDI MORSE: Do you remember how you got there? Did you walk to school?
• [00:02:57] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: I walked. When I was younger, my mother would take me out there. But when I got older, I can walk because it was only about less than three blocks away from me.
• [00:03:17] HEIDI MORSE: Now, this could be about when you were in kindergarten, first grade, or four through six, whichever you remember better. Do you remember what a typical school day was like?
• [00:03:29] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Sure. I do remember more about the fourth to sixth grade. It was a nice school and I met a lot of friends there, and it was just a typical elementary school. But it was a multigenerational school because it went from kindergarten to 12th grade, because it was all together. Then when Ann Arbor High was built, then it went from kindergarten, K through, I think it was nine. Then Ann Arbor High which was on, let me see, I can't even think right now, but it was right there on the campus pretty much so [inaudible 00:04:36] and that stayed there until the new Ann Arbor High was built. The new one was built Pioneer High, but there was Ann Arbor High at that time. When that was built, it had to have been built in 1958, '59 something like that. I think it was 1958. It could be wrong, my year there, but it was around that time. I was by that time in the sixth grade. I left there and went over to Slauson School, a middle school.
• [00:05:34] HEIDI MORSE: At Jones School, what activities did you participate in, or did you have favorite classes or teachers, coaches?
• [00:05:45] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: One of my favorite teachers was Mr. Mial, Harry Mial. He was a young teacher and he really related to the young students. Now, he didn't take any mess from anybody. [LAUGHTER] He was a strict disciplinarian. But yet, he always explained why he was disciplining. You can't do that today, and if you do, you'd be arrested. [LAUGHTER] Parents was like, okay, do what you got to do. If they messing up, then you go ahead and do what you got to do, and he did. He'll explain it though. He'll tell why he's doing what he's doing, and that may seem like it made it worse when you got disciplined, but he was a really good teacher. I really liked him. There wasn't a lot of activities at that time other than just play time, go outside, recess time stuff. I remember there wasn't very much activity and I think it had to do a lot with the location too, because you didn't have a lot space to do a lot of things like playing dodgeball. We could do small games but we couldn't do a lot of games outside. Most of this stuff had been doing it inside.
• [00:07:27] HEIDI MORSE: Was it just because of the neighborhood? The playground wasn't very big, or the neighborhood didn't have space for more outdoor recreation?
• [00:07:37] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Right, because as you've probably seen it, it's in between a church across the street and there are houses around them, and then towards the Detroit Street side, the backside of it, the playground was really small so we didn't have much to do there. They had the regular activities of the jungle gym and just playing outdoor games that way, but other than swings, there wasn't a lot.
• [00:08:19] HEIDI MORSE: How would you describe the education that you got there? Did you feel that it prepared you for junior high at Slauson?
• [00:08:31] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Yes, I would say it did, all except for one area, and I really struggled. I don't think I really had the support to help me work through this. One subject area, I just struggled all through middle school, and I didn't take any classes because I felt so unprepared to take any more classes in this one subject area. I had to just let it go.
• [00:09:13] HEIDI MORSE: Who were your classmates at Jones School?
• [00:09:19] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: There was one particular person, we became very good friends, and it's odd how that happened. We liked each other and we would go visit each other. She didn't live near me at all, so my mother would have to take me over to where she lived. [NOISE] But one day, she brought a camera to school, and I said, "Oh, can I see your camera?" because my father worked at a camera facility. She said, "Sure," and I dropped it and broke it. [LAUGHTER] I told my mom and dad, so instead of an allowance, they'd take my allowance and saved it so I could give her the money for her to buy a new camera. That was my punishment. But we really became very good friends after that, even through high school, even as an adult now. But she lives in California and has been for quite some time. Years ago, I used to go out and visit her, but times change. My kids and her family, we just drifted apart, but we still are in touch with each other.
• [00:10:44] HEIDI MORSE: What's her name?
• [00:10:45] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Marilyn. Her maiden name was Marilyn [? Irving? ]
• [00:10:55] HEIDI MORSE: Do you remember when Jones School was shut down? When it closed?
• [00:11:00] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Yes, I do.
• [00:11:02] HEIDI MORSE: What do you recall about that time?
• [00:11:05] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: If I remember right, I think it was shut down because the building needed a lot of renovations. School district didn't have the money. Plus if I'm remembering this correctly, the student population had dropped a little. I'm not sure, I think that's what it was, the reason why, but I do know it was very disruptive for the parents because they felt like it could still be opened. It was a challenging time for the school district and the parents to come to an agreement of how they want to try to reopen it, because by that time, that's when Ann Arbor High had opened up and then they dispersed the other lower grades to different schools. I remember going to Mack School for a while and then over to, I'll come back to that in a minute, can't think of the other school. I had dispersed to two other schools in elementary. It was different. Everyone felt, why shut this down, and there's still students can go there, but there wasn't enough students to sustain it to keep it open.
• [00:12:34] HEIDI MORSE: Do you remember any discussions about segregation at Jones School or in the neighborhood around it?
• [00:12:46] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: If I did, I don't remember.
• [00:12:52] HEIDI MORSE: What about the Jones Report in the mid '60s? There was a Citizen's Committee who created a report about the status of the school.
• [00:13:06] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: No, I didn't read it.
• [00:13:08] HEIDI MORSE: Okay. Thinking back on your experience of being a student at Jones School, do you feel that race or race relations played a role in your school experience?
• [00:13:30] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Being young, I wouldn't have felt that.
• [00:13:34] HEIDI MORSE: Okay.
• [00:13:35] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: I didn't start feeling that until later on. I knew that I was a person of color. I knew that because of how my mom and dad would talk about how they were treated at work, but not so much about Jones School. I really don't remember that much.
• [00:14:16] HEIDI MORSE: Does a story from one of your parents stand out from your childhood about how they were treated at work?
• [00:14:29] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Yeah, primarily with my mom at U of M. She worked in the psych ward and she felt that that's where all the Blacks were at, in the psych ward. There were other positions that she wanted to go into, but she couldn't do that. It was trying. I do remember one time that the psych ward, I'm trying to remember when it was, I must have been about 12 or 13, that they had a strike because they were paid less, they worked long hours, and they weren't being respected. So they had a strike and there was picket lines, and there's one person that crossed the picket line. It was not good. For years, a lot of the Blacks did not really socialize with her because of that. I don't know why she did it. She just said that she needed to work.
• [00:16:13] HEIDI MORSE: What was your mother's name?
• [00:16:15] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Adeline, A-D-E-L-I-N-E.
• [00:16:23] HEIDI MORSE: You said you grew up on West Kingsley?
• [00:16:26] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Yes.
• [00:16:27] HEIDI MORSE: What do you remember of that neighborhood, that area when you were growing up?
• [00:16:31] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Oh, man. It was really vibrant. The house that we were in, my grandmother, my father's mother, bought the house and we don't know how she did it, because back then in the '40s, it was difficult for Blacks to buy houses, but she did. But it was a multi-racial area. We had few Blacks, weren't that many. I think, let's see, one, two, three, four, five, there were six Black families. Seven, excuse me. Five on my street and two down the street. Then there was Germans. Everyone got along. Just about everyone had children or they were older than us, and we would play. The hill of Kingsley at that time, it was very steep. In the winter, we sled down the hill, spring and summer, bicycle rides. Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti was country. It was all farm and it was just rural. Country roads. That was our trip, to bicycle out to Ypsilanti. [LAUGHTER] It was different and I can still visualize the area because it was so unique in how we all were together. Everyone got along with each other. Everyone respected each other. It was no problem.
• [00:18:54] HEIDI MORSE: Those bike rides sound nice.
• [00:18:56] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: It was a lot of fun. I had a Schwinn blue and white bicycle. [LAUGHTER] Those white walls, I would wash it up, keep it clean. It was so pretty. Very, very pretty white.
• [00:19:15] HEIDI MORSE: That's a great memory.
• [00:19:18] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Yeah, you had to use your muscles and strengths to ride. On the hills, it was very difficult, but that was okay. We'd get off and walk it up. [LAUGHTER]
• [00:19:33] HEIDI MORSE: How would you say that neighborhood has changed since the time you were growing up?
• [00:19:39] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: For me, it's difficult to see. I know change has to happen, I know that. But right across the street from where I grew up, they put a condo there. In fact, across when I was growing up, there was a meatpacking company there. The building is still there today. They processed everything. They had the best garlic baloney, oh my God, it was just delicious. For five cents, you get really thick pieces of baloney. But now, that's the condo, then they tore down three houses and built up a condo right across the street. I don't know. From what I understand, people were in and out. They don't socialize. There's no socialization like it used to be. I used to babysit in that area all the time across the street, down the street. It's totally different now, no socialization. We had someone in the house and they said that, not all, but most of the people are rude. It's just different. It's really different. Then some houses that I knew growing up, like I said, they're from my street. Then in the next block, some more houses have been taken down and another condo is down at the other end of the street. So it's different now. When I go there, I only know a few people and that's about it now, and I don't go very often.
• [00:21:58] HEIDI MORSE: When did you move out of that area?
• [00:22:02] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: I left when I got married. But my parents kept the house and they rented it out. They recently passed and they left it to my oldest daughter. She is letting her family members stay in there. He's in construction, so he's been rehabbing the house. I found going through my mother's papers that the house was built in 1858 or something like that, that John Allen was the original homeowner and landowner of that area where that house was built. I have that information.
• [00:23:00] HEIDI MORSE: Yeah, that's great to know.
• [00:23:02] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Yeah. It must have been 1828 or something like that. I have to look at it again. But yeah, it's in the 1800s. Now, did you know who John Allen is? He was one of the founders of Ann Arbor.
• [00:23:23] HEIDI MORSE: Yeah. That's pretty amazing to trace it back to that.
• [00:23:28] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Right.
• [00:23:34] HEIDI MORSE: Do you remember any conversations about urban renewal in Ann Arbor?
• [00:23:40] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Yes.
• [00:23:40] HEIDI MORSE: What do you remember about that?
• [00:23:42] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: I was about 20, somewhere 20, 21. Yeah. It was a big to-do. Urban renewal, what they wanted to do--where Broadway bridge is, they wanted a highway to come through the center of that neighborhood of where Broadway bridge is to down Beakes, down Kingsley. I don't know how they were going to do that and that was a big ruckus about that. The people stood up and said, no, you can't do that. Then they wanted to take the houses that the Blacks had owned, because Ann Arbor was segregated in certain areas that the Blacks could live in. Now, that area, Beakes, Summit, Fifth, Fourth, Fifth Ave, parts of Kingsley, East Kingsley, West Kingsley, especially the Beakes, Summit, Fourth, and Fifth, they wanted those people to move somewhere else, displace them. That was another. We said, no, you can't do that. These are their homes, they paid for them. Then the next thing we know, it was gone. We never heard anymore about it. But this had to be in the early '60s. It was in the middle '60s.
• [00:25:47] HEIDI MORSE: Okay. When I hear about it, it really sounds reminiscent to situations in other parts of the country where highways were built through neighborhoods like yours.
• [00:26:05] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: The ministers spoke up, city council members, commissioners. It just didn't make sense to have a highway come through, and go where? Because the highway would not have really connected to any place at that time. It would have been not an easy route. Then to displace all of these homeowners, that was a lot, and they didn't want us in certain areas, we knew that.
• [00:27:01] HEIDI MORSE: Anything else that stands out about the neighborhood or Jones School that you'd like to share at this time?
• [00:27:10] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Well, there is something about Jones School. Why it's still standing is really creative on some of the school board members at that time. That was to have it as an alternative school for the students who did not feel that they could handle a full day in a regular school or classroom. They turned it to be an alternative. Well, actually, it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened for the school district because a lot of the students are creative. They had their own jazz band, jazz quartets. Students were in that, started making their own music, became artists making records, and artists drawing and painting, so it was really good. It also gave an opportunity for the students who had some difficulty in school so that they can get that one-on-one with them versus in a regular school classroom. They really turned out to be the best thing in hindsight that ever happened for that school, and I'm glad it's still there. I do want to add this. You mentioned about my father and his business. My father went to Jones School.
• [00:28:55] HEIDI MORSE: Really?
• [00:28:56] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Yes. My friend, she makes calendars back in the day of people, who they are, their family history and stuff. Someone gave her a picture of Jones School of the students that were there outside, a picture of them, and my father was in that picture. That was the first time I've seen this. It's really cool to see that.
• [00:29:31] HEIDI MORSE: I'd love to see that picture.
• [00:29:33] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Yes, right. Wow, it's really amazing to see the people. Now, some of them, I didn't know, but our Black community, I did know. But yeah, I said, "Wow, look at that. That's my dad." [LAUGHTER] To make it more interesting, he went to school there and he had a restaurant right across the street from there. That was the real connectedness to that.
• [00:30:08] HEIDI MORSE: Yeah. I'd like to follow up on that and ask you more about his restaurant if you're willing to share more. Can you tell me the story about how this family business got started? What inspired it?
• [00:30:32] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: The business really started, which was not a business, in our backyard of the house on Kingsley. Every holiday, my father would cook ribs, and my mother, she'd make the sauce and all the other stuff, the sides to go with it. It smells so good. The smell would drift everywhere and people would come by and say, hey, I can smell what you're doing. [LAUGHTER] You have anything? Can I have a bone or something? It got where people would always come by. I mean, a lot of people would come by and say, I would like to have some of these ribs, and he would cook them up. I don't think he sold them. If he did, it wasn't much at that time. It got where it was so popular, he and my mom decided why don't they think about getting a restaurant. Well, my dad started inquiring at different businesses and he was turned down and stuff. One of the businesses, it was a gas station and this lady was the owner of the gas station, my dad went by to talk to her and just said, I just wanted to see if there's any way that I could run my business on the side of your gas station. She said sure, that she has some extra space which would be on a depot. He had it fixed up where he would cook the ribs outside, and inside, they've made a little window and people would stand in line around the blocks after the bars closed. [LAUGHTER] That's how he really got started. The woman said, if you want to buy this, I'm going to retire. I'll sell this building to you. It was at cost. He had to do a lot of things environmentally, removing the gas tanks. The banks would not loan him any money, but he had a friend in Detroit who had businesses, so he loaned him the money to get started in what he needed to do. Pretty much after that, it just took off like a rocket. Detroit News would come out, they did articles on us. The major newspapers, people from U of M. I mean, everywhere. When the students who graduated moved out of state, they had his address and had him to send them ribs. Dad would fix them up and how he would freeze them in sauce. The ribs were fantastic, and the sauce, so they would know how to wrap up the sauce so it wouldn't break or anything and ship them out of state. It was really quite an adventure, but they learned a lot, they really did. However, the city always tried to block them because my father owned that land, that was his property, and they wanted to use it for something else. My mom and dad just fought them back and so finally left him alone.
• [00:34:56] HEIDI MORSE: Do you remember the dates when the business starting out of the window opened and then when he purchased the property?
• [00:35:07] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Sure. That was in '63 I think it was. Yeah, I think it was in 1963.
• [00:35:25] HEIDI MORSE: You said your father, his name is Robert. Is that right?
• [00:35:30] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Robert.
• [00:35:31] HEIDI MORSE: Robert.
• [00:35:33] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Robert Thompson.
• [00:35:33] HEIDI MORSE: Robert Thompson. He attended Jones School, so did he grow up in Ann Arbor his whole life?
• [00:35:41] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Not his whole life. His mother was a single parent. I know the picture was a sixth grade picture, that's what I know. But no, he did not live here his whole life. He wasn't born here, let me put it that way. I suspect that they moved here when he must have been like, I'm guessing but I'm suspecting maybe he must have been a youth.
• [00:36:28] HEIDI MORSE: Where did they move from?
• [00:36:32] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Originally from Mississippi, and then my grandmother had relatives in Saginaw. They moved to Saginaw, and then from there, here to Ann Arbor.
• [00:36:45] HEIDI MORSE: Okay. What was it like being the daughter of a Black business owner in Ann Arbor in the '60s, '70s?
• [00:37:01] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: They were in business for 38 years. That's a long time.
• [00:37:05] HEIDI MORSE: That's a very long time.
• [00:37:07] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: It shows their success and people really liked them a lot. In fact, I was talking with somebody yesterday and he was saying, yeah, I sure miss DeLong's. No matter where I go, everyone recognizes me. I was in Kroger's not too long ago and a lady said, "Didn't you work at DeLong's? Aren't you DeLong's daughter?" [LAUGHTER] But to answer your question, it was okay because people knew me and so it was no big deal. They just wanted the sauce and the ribs and the chicken. We had trout sandwiches would just melt your mouth. I miss the trout because I don't eat meat, so I love those trout sandwiches, and the shrimp was great. They just did a wonderful job and perfecting their trade. When my dad, I think it must have been a year after getting into the business, he and my mom designed a pit. We call it the pit but it was a rotisserie type. He had five racks and it was gas powered, and he would season the meat down and there was these rods that he put the meat on and the rods would turn, and as they're turning, the one in the top, then the juices fall to the second, third, fourth, and fifth. I had not seen another pit like that and how it was done, but it turned out really good. Instead of being on a grill, this is at the top. It would just rotate down. It was all rotation.
• [00:39:12] HEIDI MORSE: That part, was that outdoors, that part?
• [00:39:14] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: It was indoors.
• [00:39:15] HEIDI MORSE: Indoors. Sounds delicious.
• [00:39:21] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: I'm telling you, it was, and it was so pretty. Not one rib has ever been burned. Meat would fall off the bone.
• [00:39:34] HEIDI MORSE: Has your family ever shared the barbecue sauce recipe?
• [00:39:38] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: No. They didn't. [LAUGHTER] But I've begged them, my daughter's begged them, "Oh, please give us the recipe so we could do it." But I think by that time, my mom, I think her memory was starting to go because she would say, well, I'd do this and I'd do that. Everything was by memory. Nothing was written down. We started trying to replicate it, and so far, it's been a disaster, but we have to start again. [LAUGHTER] We know some of the ingredients but we don't know it all and how it was so perfect. I mean it was perfect.
• [00:40:21] HEIDI MORSE: What changed over time for the restaurant and maybe leading up to its closure?
• [00:40:27] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Age. My mother started getting sick. This was the end of the '90s. Then my dad was trying to hang on and then he couldn't, so he let somebody else do it and it didn't work out. Then I asked Tim, my husband at that time, if we could do it, and he didn't want to but he let us. We were agreeing that we would go in there, but we couldn't stay in long because then my husband got very sick.
• [00:41:15] HEIDI MORSE: Sorry to hear that.
• [00:41:18] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: We were only there maybe nine months or so. Then my dad went ahead and sold it.
• [00:41:33] HEIDI MORSE: How would you say Detroit Street has changed since the restaurant closed?
• [00:41:39] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: I think the only thing that's really changed is the restaurant. The last time I was there, Asians were in there, and that was different. But pretty much the farmers market is still there, all the retails in that area, Zingerman's down the street, and Jones School. That's different because there's a parking lot there now instead of the grass. There's a little grass, but mainly, it's a parking lot.
• [00:42:18] HEIDI MORSE: Now Community High School.
• [00:42:20] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Community High, yeah.
• [00:42:26] HEIDI MORSE: Is there anything else you would want folks to know about DeLong's Bar-B-Q Pit especially linked to this mural that AADL has commissioned for their downtown location where the lettering is inspired by local businesses and moments and events in Black history in Washtenaw County?
• [00:42:54] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Where is that located?
• [00:42:56] HEIDI MORSE: It's at the downtown branch of Ann Arbor District Library on 5th Avenue. It just went up a few days ago.
• [00:43:05] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Oh, okay. I have to go and see it. I think my parents, they are true entrepreneurs, and at that time, there were other Black people that were working having to open a fish market, but that didn't last. Then naturally, there was a barbershop. A lot of things were there but then they left. Our business was pretty much the last African-American business that stayed the longest for 38 years. To me, that's a huge accomplishment in this city of Ann Arbor to have that type of a restaurant business owned and run by African Americans. That's a huge accomplishment.
• [00:44:17] HEIDI MORSE: Absolutely.
• [00:44:18] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: I'm very proud of them. If they were still here, I would say, you guys did a wonderful job. They had been recognized before like awards and stuff. One thing I can say, my dad worked during the day because he did all the heavy stuff. My mother at home, she would prepare pies and potato salad and that type of thing for the business. She worked nights. She would come in at five o'clock in the evening and don't get off till 2:30 or three o'clock in the morning. That's hard work and they worked their business. They were tough on employees because everyone is not what you want them to be, but they had some really good workers there. Plus they did delivery all over Ann Arbor. All over. It was a challenge but they worked it out, they figured it out. I'm just really proud of them and what they've done. I miss them a lot but age caught up with them and their health.
• [00:45:51] HEIDI MORSE: Well, that's a wonderful legacy.
• [00:45:55] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Yes.
• [00:45:56] HEIDI MORSE: Thank you so much for sharing that with us.
• [00:45:59] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Yes. Thank you for asking me.
• [00:46:03] HEIDI MORSE: Of course.
• [00:46:04] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: You really had my brain going there. [LAUGHTER] I appreciate it too because I don't talk about it other than to a couple of people that know me very well, but I don't.
• [00:46:21] HEIDI MORSE: It's fantastic for us to be able to record some of these memories and be able to hear what it was like and what that rotisserie looked like.
• [00:46:37] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Yes. There's a picture of my mom and I in the window. A friend of mine who was a photographer for The Ann Arbor News at that time, he had come in to get some lunch, and because I was in the window with her, we were just talking and looking out the window, and he's, I'm going to go get my camera. He came back and took the picture and gave it to me. It's precious now, [OVERLAPPING] in the window.
• [00:47:09] HEIDI MORSE: What photographer was that?
• [00:47:13] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Larry Wright.
• [00:47:13] HEIDI MORSE: Larry Wright.
• [00:47:18] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: But another thing too. My husband and I in the business, this person comes in, and I wasn't there, but he asked my husband if he could take a picture of the building and paint it to look like an actual painting. Would he be willing to do that? He said yeah. He had to pay for it. It looks so good, and so we had another one made for my parents and it's in their house, and we have one here of the building. To actually see the whole building and what it looks like with the skies and trees and stuff, it's really nice.
• [00:48:11] HEIDI MORSE: That's great. Well, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure to talk with you.
• [00:48:22] DIANA MCKNIGHT-MORTON: Oh, gosh, yes. You too.