Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Summer II/Section 12/Norman Blake

Overview
Norman Gordon Blake was born November 8, 1909 in Wake County, North Carolina. Working for his father’s bootlegging business until sixteen, Blake went on to work for the state building highways after his father’s death until securing a job as a city bus driver. In 1939, Mary A Hicks interviewed Blake for the Federal Writers’ Project Life Histories segment; the goal of which was to tell the stories of the average American to other Americans. Blake died September 24, 1987 at the age of 77 from a heart attack.

Early Life
Born to Johnny Metrice Blake and Leila Thomas in 1909, Norman Gordon Blake grew up in Wake County, North Carolina. After the beginning of Prohibition, Blake’s father ran a bootlegging business until his death in December 1925, and he often helped his father run the liquor and manage the still. Blake dropped out of school to support his family due to his father’s death, only completing seventh grade.

Career
After helping his father bootleg, Blake worked as a farmhand on a dairy farm for a few months before beginning his job working for the State of North Carolina building highways. Despite working for the state for about ten years, he quit his job working on the highways due to pressure to vote for a particular candidate. Blake then took a job as a bus driver for the City of Raleigh in 1935. He was interviewed four years later as a part of the Federal Writers’ Project. There’s no mention of the impact of the Great Depression on Blake’s life. He continued to drive buses for the City of Raleigh until his retirement.

Personal Life
Blake had a total of six siblings, and after his father’s death, he assumed the role of head of the household. Sending money back to his family so they could make ends meet, Blake had a hard time starting a family of his own. However, after moving back to Raleigh to work as a city bus driver, he married Jettie Hagwood on October 21, 1939, in Danville, Virginia. Blake continued to support his younger siblings until they had a house of their own, and he also took care of his mother, sending her money monthly. A week after having a heart attack, Blake died September 24, 1987; he is buried at Montlawn Memorial Park in Raleigh, NC.

Prohibition
Prohibition was a ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcohol that lasted from 1920-1933 in the U.S.. The culmination of decades of temperance movements across the U.S., Prohibition was widely supported despite the obvious lawbreakers who continued to produce and sell alcohol. Chronically underfunded and struggling with corruption, the Bureau of Prohibition had issues cracking down on crimes related to alcohol. However, despite the larger than life figures this era produced, Prohibition lowered the national drink consumption to 1.1 gallons per capita below the pre-Prohibition level of 2.6 gallons per capita. Though consumption of alcohol rose throughout the decade, according to data from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), “it did not surpass the pre-Prohibition peak until the early 1970s,” which was likely due to the suppression of drinking among the youth. During Prohibition, since alcohol could not legally be purchased, many people resorted to distilling their own. Using a small still to distill a mash from either corn, beets, or potatoes, moonshiners created their infamous bathtub “gin.” The alcohol proof was so high that they needed to be watered down, often using bathtub water, hence the name.

The US Numbered Highway System
Starting in 1924, the U.S. began working with the states to produce what is known as the U.S. Numbered Highway System. Spearheaded by Thomas MacDonald, the then state of the art highways were designed to connect the rural areas of the nation to the urban areas. Known now by their iconic white shield, the highways started as a conglomeration of new roads and existing state roads that were brought up to standard. However, North Carolina was ahead of the curve, and “by the time the 1921 legislature met… the legislature passed the historic Highway Act, which included a one-cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline to help finance hard-surface, all-weather highways.” This system replaced the independently kept up trails and was then later replaced by the Interstate System built under President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Political Machines
During the early 1900s political machines were a large part of the political landscape. The machines made broad-based appeals to sections of the public, but they found their largest favor with immigrants. The bosses of these machines ran their own welfare state, supporting those who needed help, finding jobs for others, and provided entertainment. However, these bonuses came with a catch, the bosses would require voting loyalty to be able to receive benefits. Employers were also a large part of these political machines, bosses utilized them to keep their voting blocs in check. A study done by Alexander Hertel-Fernandez in 2014 found that employers still hold significant sway over their employee’s political action to this day.