StoryCorps Griot: Mary Ellen Noone

From: StoryCorps
Series: StoryCorps
Length: 02:16

Mary Ellen Noone (Noon) remembers a story from her great grandmother. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: StoryCorps Griot: Mary Ellen Noone
From: StoryCorps

Noone_small Mary Ellen Noone's great-grandmother, Pinky Powell, was born before the turn of the last century. One night, Mary Ellen was painting her fingernails when her great-grandmother said, "You know, there was a time we couldn't wear no fingernail polish." To explain, Powell told a story from when she was a girl. Around 1910, Powell lived on a plantation in Lowndes County, Ala., where "she would wash and iron for this white woman." "One day the lady had thrown away some of her old perfume and nail polish that had dried up. So [Powell] took it home and added some ingredients to the nail polish that made it pliable," Noone (Noon) says. "Well, when Sunday came, she got all dressed up and painted her nails and put on that perfume and went to church. "On Monday, she went to the general store, and when she was ready to check out, the white owner asked her, 'What are you doing with your nails painted up like a white woman?' He proceeded to pick up a pair of pliers and he pulled out my grandmama's nails out of its bed one by one." Noone, 65, says she often wondered as a child why her great-grandmother's nails were so deformed.

Also in the StoryCorps series

StoryCorps: Herman and Sidney Blake (02:20)
From: StoryCorps

Herman Blake and his brother Sidney remember their childhood during the 1940s

StoryCorps: Jack and Reagan Richmond (02:54)
From: StoryCorps

Jack Richmond tells his daughter, Reagan, about being an amputee.

StoryCorps MVI: Daniel and Evelyn Hodd (02:20)
From: StoryCorps

Staff Sergeant Daniel Hodd and his mother, Evelyn, talk about Daniel's decision to put aside a promising career as a pianist in order to join the Marine Corps.

Caption: Ruben Aguilar (R) and Bill Luna (L)

StoryCorps Historias: Ruben Aguilar and Bill Luna (02:01)
From: StoryCorps

Ruben Aguilar tells his friend Bill Luna about his family's deportation as part of the Mexican Repatriation Program in 1933.

StoryCorps: Dawn Maestas (04:00)
From: StoryCorps

Dawn Maestas, who removes tattoos for survivors of domestic violence, talks to a client about her work.

StoryCorps: Lucinda Marker and John Tull (02:17)
From: StoryCorps

Lucinda Marker and her husband, John Tull, talk about being diagnosed with bubonic plague in 2002.

StoryCorps: John Cruitt and Cecile Doyle (02:41)
From: StoryCorps

John Cruitt speaks with his former third grade teacher, Cecile Doyle, about how she helped him through his mother's death.

StoryCorps: Reginald Mason (01:57)
From: StoryCorps

Reginald Mason remembers growing up in Harlem with his mother during the 1970s.

StoryCorps MVI: Randy and Judy Pilgrim (02:53)
From: StoryCorps

Judy and Randy Pilgrim remember their son and Iraq war veteran, Army Specialist Lance Pilgrim.

StoryCorps: Louis and Harriet Caplan (02:19)
From: StoryCorps

Harriet Caplan talks to her husband, Louis, about how their relationship began.

Piece Description

Mary Ellen Noone's great-grandmother, Pinky Powell, was born before the turn of the last century. One night, Mary Ellen was painting her fingernails when her great-grandmother said, "You know, there was a time we couldn't wear no fingernail polish." To explain, Powell told a story from when she was a girl. Around 1910, Powell lived on a plantation in Lowndes County, Ala., where "she would wash and iron for this white woman." "One day the lady had thrown away some of her old perfume and nail polish that had dried up. So [Powell] took it home and added some ingredients to the nail polish that made it pliable," Noone (Noon) says. "Well, when Sunday came, she got all dressed up and painted her nails and put on that perfume and went to church. "On Monday, she went to the general store, and when she was ready to check out, the white owner asked her, 'What are you doing with your nails painted up like a white woman?' He proceeded to pick up a pair of pliers and he pulled out my grandmama's nails out of its bed one by one." Noone, 65, says she often wondered as a child why her great-grandmother's nails were so deformed.