Oral history of Selbyville project renewed
A rare gem is held in a quiet area of the Selbyville Public Library's Delaware Room. Oral history interviews of 22 people are kept in the library, with sometimes little-known memories of the town of Selbyville, first known as Sandy Branch as early as 1778. The stories are preserved in written and audio versions and can now be accessed online at the Delaware Heritage Collection in the Digital Collection of the Delaware Library Catalog.
Some of the oral history participants include Fred Stevens, who revealed in 1987 that he and Ralph Grapperhaus had created the Cypress Swamp Monster in the 1960s; and Raymond Moore, the first and only African-American elected to the Indian River School District Board. Other volunteers told of the variety of businesses which flourished in Selbyville in the mid-20th century, such as the movie theater where during high school Edward Mumford worked in all the job positions.
Janet Scott, whose father-in-law founded J. Conn Scott Furniture in 1924, told about all of the car dealerships in town including Pontiac, Ford, Chrysler, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and GMC trucks. The long path that led to the opening of the Cactus Café in Selbyville in 2000 by Manuel Pavon is told by his daughter Jesusa Pavon.
The original project was started in 2001 by Lynn Massey, the library director at that time. A grant from the State of Delaware allowed the library to have a public launching event at Salem Methodist Church and to purchase recording and dictaphone equipment. Most of the histories were collected over the next three years. Massey has volunteered her services in order to head the project once again.
With the continued growth and evolution of Selbyville, the library has decided to renew the oral history project with an accent on representing the different decades and demographics. Kelly Kline, the library's current director, and Massey are soliciting help from the community to get this worthwhile collection going again.
They are seeking volunteer interviewers and people who want to share their stories. For more information, contact Kline at 302-436-8195 or Massey at Lynn.massey@lib.de.us.
