Interview with David Ringo, November 8, 2004

Partial Transcript: Dave, we, uh, left off at the beginning of the Depression, 1930-'31, the last time that I was here.

Segment Synopsis: Ringo describes living through the Great Depression. He talks about saving coins, how the process of homemade banks developed, and how the beginning stages of the Depression affected Kentucky’s railway systems.

Keywords: 1930s; Bank problems; Banks; Coins; Counting money; Dimes; Documents; Employees; Friends; Great Depression; Green-line; Impressions; Kentucky; Money counting; Nickels; Payroll; Procedures; Records; Savings; Shoveling coins; Vaults

Subjects: Depressions--1929--Kentucky; Economic conditions; University of Kentucky

Partial Transcript: The, um--I, I know that when we talked before that, at least initially, you didn’t have a real high opinion of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Segment Synopsis: Ringo discusses how Franklin D Roosevelt made congressional changes and how it affected Kentucky society.

Keywords: 1913; Actor agencies; Blue Eagle; Conservative; Construction; Construction jobs; Contracts; Franklin D. Roosevelt; Labor Act; Labor Action Coalition; Labor union democracy; Labor unions; Laborers; Lack of unions; Liberality; Male crews; Managers; National Recovery Administration (NRA); Not traditional; Social Security; Social Security Act (United States); Timekeepers; Union contracts; Young

Subjects: Depressions--1929--Kentucky; Economic conditions; Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945

Partial Transcript: A couple of other things that happened in the early 1930s, and we won't talk much about this, but, you know, there’s always--you know, there’s crime all the time.

Segment Synopsis: Ringo discusses crimes and big events that made breaking news in Kentucky.

Keywords: 1933; American Revolution; End of Prohibition; Extra editions; Flemington (N.J.); Floyd Collins; John Dillinger; Lexington (Ky.); Lindbergh kidnapping; Newspaper archives; Periodicals; Scopes Trial; Sensational; Trial by jury; Trials

Subjects: Crime.; Mammoth Cave (Ky.); Newspapers--Kentucky.; Prohibition.; Radio; Temperance.

Partial Transcript: Well I think, you know, it, it--from what I've read, and correct me if, if--

Segment Synopsis: Ringo talks about the end of Prohibition in Kentucky and how it affected society.

Keywords: Afford; Alcohol content; Bars; Beer; Bootleggers; Bootlegging; Breweries; Careful; Culture; Freedom; Home brewed; Home brewing; Illegal; Police; Productions; Release; Risky; Rum sellers; Rum-running; Saloons; Speakeasies; Swinging doors; Underground cultures

Subjects: Canada; Cincinnati (Ohio); Covington (Ky.); Crime.; Lexington (Ky.); Newport (Ky.); Prohibition.; Temperance.

Partial Transcript: Well, let's switch gears.

Segment Synopsis: Ringo discusses the culture in Northern Kentucky and how it affected transportation systems.

Keywords: 1850; Al Smith; Area development; Baseball; Bridges; Churches; Cincinnati Railway; Consolidation; Distance; Dixie Terminal; Efficiency; Efficient; Farms; Ferry; Flat metal tracks; Franchises; Franklin D. Roosevelt; Friends; Gender discrimination; Government squares; Horse-car lines; Irish immigration; Labor laws; Mills; Motor cars; Mules; Non-practical; Operation; Population density; Practical matters; Problems; Promises; Protestant; Provisions; Religion; Rivers; Roman Catholic Church; Roman Catholic population; Spreading; Stables; Street garbage unions; Street railways; Streetcar lines; Streetcars; Support; Town growth; Traffic problems

Subjects: Covington (Ky.); Dayton (Ohio); Fort Washington (Ky.); Labor unions--Kentucky; Lexington (Ky.); Newport (Ky.); Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945; Transportation--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: How, how was this corporation run?

Segment Synopsis: Ringo discusses the difficulties finding jobs in Kentucky and how many people only hired family members or people who had immigrated from the same place as they did.

Keywords: 12th Street Bridge; 1890s; 1917; Archaic; Conductors; Construction; Electric cars; Electric industry; Employees; Family businesses; German immigrants; Green Line; Hiring; Historians; Large employers; Management; Manual brakes; One-truck cars; Public services; Public transportation; Rebuilt; Replacements; Speed; Streetcars; Sturdy; Transportation rosters; Twelfth Street Bridge; WW1; Wind up; Workforce; World War I

Subjects: Cincinnati (Ohio); Dayton (Ohio); Labor unions--Kentucky; Labor unions--Organizing; Owen County (Ky.); Transportation--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: Now, um, you had a contract, I guess, over three bridges and you owned the bridge over the Licking River.

Segment Synopsis: Ringo describes the beginning stages of building and setting up street car systems.

Keywords: 12th Street Bridge; 1917; 1930s; 40 cents/hour; Aligned and level; Architecture; Cash flow; Chief engineers; Co-op engineering; Co-op programs; Concrete; Construction; Electric industry; Employees; Glass; Green Line; Historians; J. B. Silverman; James C. E.; Laborers; Management; Mileage; Mileage clerks; Mileage records; Odometers; Public services; Rebuilding; Records; Rodman; Scheduled rounds; Sheds; Speed; Streetcars; Supply stations; Timekeepers; Tracks; Transportation rosters; Trenches; Twelfth Street Bridge; University of Cincinnati; WW1; Wages; Work gangs; World War I; truck cars

Subjects: Cincinnati (Ohio); Dayton (Ohio); Labor unions--Kentucky; Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945; Transportation--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: Well, at the beginning of the Depression, um, 1930, the Green Line loses 108,000 dollars.

Segment Synopsis: Ringo explains how the Great Depression affected Kentuckians and how they obtained affordable and effective transportation.

Keywords: 1937 flood; 1972; Accessibility; Agreements; Automobiles; Bus lines; Car ownership; Cincinnati Electricity; Cincinnati Gas; Companies; Competition; Corrosive effect; Dependent on street cars; Engineers; Great Depression; Interstate Commerce Commission; Leadership; Northern Kentucky; Passengers; Politics; Progression; Public relations; Railroads; Scientific; Streetcar lines; Streetcars; Traffic checks; Transit authority

Subjects: Cincinnati (Ohio); Depressions--1929--Kentucky; Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945; Transportation--Kentucky; University of Kentucky

Partial Transcript: Um, when you were doing this survey of the '33 flood and also some of the other work that you did, you worked with a person whose initials were J.B.S.

Segment Synopsis: Ringo explains how after the Great Depression, an increasing number of people could afford cars and stopped using streetcars. Buses also became a new source competition for streetcars.

Keywords: 1936; 500 series cars; 8 wheels; Artists; Automobiles; Blueprints; Buses; Changes; Changing technology; Civil engineers; Conductors; Delicate matters; Difficult roads; Dixie Highway; Employees; Engineering offices; Extra men; Farming areas; Jack Silverman; Main tracks; Measurements; Modernized cars; Non-drivers; Pocket size books; Residential areas; Retirement; Seniority; Southgate Streetcar Line; Steel on steel; Streetcars; Swing of street cars; Traffic; Transition; Underpasses; Wagon bridges; Wooden

Subjects: Automobiles.; Buses; Civil engineering; Fort Mitchell (Ky.); Louisville (Ky.); Newport (Ky.); Technological innovations; Transportation--Kentucky