(Side A):
0-10 min: First flood; morning of flood, got call about his store being flooded; initially thought it was because of a leaking roof; His business; the Still River flowed below his store; water was coming through his store; several people were moving items off the floor to higher elevation; Water presence; level went down quickly after flood; Repairing the store; took about a week to repair; Second flood; water rushed fast between buildings; worse than first flood; more damage; Flood damage; all of White St. effected by the second flood; Role of the military; rescued people who couldn't get out; came in w/ boats/canoes to get people; Role of the firemen; during second flood, firemen from NYC came to help; Role of the Red Cross; distributed coffee and food to people; gave aid to people who needed it;
10-20 min: Other businesses/people; Reconstruction; covered the Still River on Elm St. and left it open on White St. (should have been the reverse); many wanted to go back the way it had been (city said no); many relocated to other places; Businesses in Danbury during 1950s; business center was located on White St. prior to flood; many of the businesses were family owned; Coping w/ the flood; many dealt w/ the aftermath very well; most dealt by moving on and forgetting about it; most in city weren't effected by flood (primarily those on White St.); Urban Renewal Project; Financial losses; personally suffered great loss; had to sell some items at below normal prices; other items were damaged and had to be thrown out; had to move out to Federal Road during redevelopment; President Eisenhower wouldn't allow media to use the words depression or "recession" during the hard times in country;
20-30 min: Federal Road; Life in Danbury then and now; back then it was much slower; happy w/ what they had (people tend to want more today); everybody had their own garden and grew own vegetables; Examples of water damage; new laws about selling cars (showed the interviewees pictures of examples of damage)