On June 4, we interviewed Milford Murray. He moved from Philadelphia to Chestertown at the age of three and spent the rest of his childhood growing up here. He left Chestertown for about 34 years as he served in the National Guard, and then moved back to Chestertown in 2004.
Mr. Murray has several interesting memories of growing up during WWII, like how the rations on sugar made the cakes and pies that his family enjoyed a little less sweeter; or his grandmother insisting absolute silence as she listened to President Roosevelt on the radio. He also remembers how relieved people were when the war ended, and that there was a parade the following Memorial Day to celebrate.
In addition to sharing memories about WWII, Mr. Murray shared personal stories about being an African American during the 1950s. He explained that race did not matter as much to folks during and directly after the war period, and that race relations divide us a lot more than they did 70 years ago. Mr. Murray went on to talk about how Chestertown has changed from the 40s and 50s to the next millennia, and not necessarily for the better. Now that I've heard his stories, I would love to find out more about how people treated each other in Chestertown in 1941 in comparison to today.
Mr. Murray shared so much personal history with us. There is a lot more that we could have learned from him. His time in the National Guard would have been something interesting to investigate.
To conclude this post, Mr. Murray is also a driver for Washington College. He drives sports teams and international students to the airport, away games, etc. If you're lucky enough to have him as a driver, make sure you say hi!
-Emma Buchman
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