This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.
Recorded in conjunction with the Brunswick branch of the Frederick County Public Library in partnership with the Brunswick Heritage Museum.
Jeff Snoots: Current work and businesses in Brunswick today is a lot different than it was in my day, as growing up, as a youth in Brunswick. Potomac Street was bustling with stores and all kinds of stores, grocery stores, a five and dime, a dry cleaners, restaurants. Today it's different, if you look. Our downtown's struggling to make a comeback, but back then, people that lived in Brunswick, pretty much worked on the railroad. Now, that's different. People who live in Brunswick pretty much work in DC and commute on the train. So, it's a lot different today than it was when I was growing up.
Tom Watson: Everybody who lived here, worked here. It wasn't a commuter community.
Christine Spielman: My grandfather worked on the railroad and retired from the railroad, here locally. My grandmother, in the late '30s worked at Schnauffer's Hospital, which was on B Street, originally in Brunswick, as a nurse.
Lester Pearrel: I worked at SuperFresh for about 18 years, as a meat manager. My mom worked there for 10 years in the deli and my dad actually worked on a railroad for 28 years as a foreman on the railroad, as supervised electricians.
Jim Castle: My great-grandfather worked on the railroad, my grandfather and my father, a short period of time. But, I did not work on the railroad as there was no railroad jobs, when I was, became of working age.
Jeff Snoots: My family goes way back in work history in Brunswick. It starts back to my great-great-grandfather. When he was, I think ,om said 14, 15. He would walk down to the canal from Dargan before he moved to Brunswick. He would guide the mules, pulling the canal boats.
Bruce Funk: My grandfather was a carpenter, by trade. He was a building contractor and he built a lot of the buildings here. He built the Red Men's, where the museum is. He built the Kaplon Building. He built the first brick Methodist Church, the Catholic Church, the Baptist Church, the Lutheran Church, the Jewish Synagogue, and a whole lot of homes up on New York Hill.
Jeanette Cincotta: My husband's father came here in probably 1914 or '16, and he was in the wholesale fruit business.
Savanna Moler: My grandfather, Glen Richard Moler, worked at the Baltimore and Ohio YMCA as an Executive Director. He worked at YMCA on Potomac street until 1980, when the YMCA burned, because of electrical short.
Asset ID: 8645
Find a complete transcript at https://www.museumonmainstreet.org
