0:00 - The Interview begins with Delamot recalling her earliest memories of her childhood in Newark in her family’s Chinese hand laundry shop in the early to mid-1900s. She recalls the laundry interior and exterior spaces and equipment, specifically recalling the eight-pound irons that were heated on stoves. Delamot remembers having to live in the laundry shop, with only a partition separating the living quarters in the back, and sleeping on the floor.
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6:44 - Delamot describes going to kindergarten in 1930. It was the first time she learned about the difference between “Chinese” and “Caucasian” and remembers being made fun of in school for being Chinese and learned that she was partly Caucasian since her father was Irish. She describes three other siblings sharing the same father, and two stepsisters from two Chinese fathers, one of whom was named Gloria Chin Wah. Delamot then talks in greater detail about her stepfather Charles Chin Wah.
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13:46 - relocation to live with her stepfather. Delamot recalls the difficulties of being of mixed race, as her White and Chinese peers called her Black, while the Black children considered her White.
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24:00 - Interviewer inquires about her experiences dealing with racism and whether it has changed over her lifetime. Delamot discusses her Christian religion and reflects on her own life in the context of her religious beliefs. The conversation returns to her living with her stepfather Wah and how he often protected her from school bullies. She also recalls learning how to play the piano at his home.
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32:40 - When inquired about Chinese visitors to her stepfather’s home and her family laundry, Delamot recalled mostly customers unrelated to the family and began to recall her work as a child in the hand laundry. She describes her and her siblings’ work handling the hot iron, cleaning spittoons, and washing feces off clothes at a very young age. Delamot would continue helping in the laundry until she gave birth to her child in 1949.
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39:45 - Delamot talks about going to Newark’s Chinatown on Sundays with her stepfather Charles Chin Wah. She also recalls going into New York’s Chinatown and tells a particular story about how she was taken into custody by the police because she was thought to be a White child kidnapped by her Chinese stepfather.
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49:26 - Delamot talks about her grandfather, who was a Cherokee Native American, and grandmother who was German. She notes that on her birth certificate, it says she has a Chinese father, but in reality, her biological father was Irish.
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