Q: What area did you grow up in?
A: The Longview area
Q: How many sisters and brothers did you have?
A: I had one half-sister, one whole sister, and one half-brother.
Q: What schools did they attend?
A: They probably attended maybe Lawnes School in Rushmere, because that’s where they lived; but my whole sister, attended Bridger School.
Q: What school did you attend?
A: Pea Hill or Muddy Cross.
Q: While attending Pea Hill or Muddy Cross, what grades were taught there?
A: As far as I can remember, from the first grade to the seventh grade.
Q: How many rooms did the school consist of?
A: Three.
Q: How many teachers did they have?
A: Two.
Q: Who were some of the teachers at Muddy Cross?
A: While I was there, I remember distinctly Miss Mattie B. Jordan. There was a Mr. Kelly, a Mr. Bullock, and a Mr. Hunter. I don’t remember their first names, but those are the three I can remember.
Q: At that time how did you get to school?
A: Well, walk; sometimes my father carried me in the horse and cart; and during the time that Mr. Kelly was the teacher, I rode to school with him.
Q: Do you remember what year that was?
A: No
Q: What jobs did you have to do before you went to school—something like in the mornings before you went to school?
A: In the morning my job was to feed the chickens and let them out, and I do remember washing dishes, cleaning up the kitchen.
Q: While you were at school, were there any chores that you had to do?
A: No, not particular, unless dust the erasers that we used on the board, that’s all. I never swept the floor, the boys most of the time did that. I do remember that I had to stick back one day because I was sitting between two other girls and they tickled me and I laughed out in school. So, I had to stay back that day, I had to stay after school. I was real upset because I was by myself, but the children that walked with me, they stayed and waited.
Q: How did your day start at school? What was the beginning of the day at school like?
A: Devotions, we always had devotions. We sang, and we had Bible verses and the Lord’s Prayer.
Q: What subjects did you have?
A: I remember reading and arithmetic and probably spelling.
Q: Now, did you have special textbooks for readers and where were they kept, the books?
A: We carried them back and forth home; I’m not sure. The readers I think were Dick and Jane.
Q: So how long was your school day?
A: Probably from 9 to 3, I’m thinking.
Q: Do you have any idea how long the school year was?
A: I think we started in September, the first of September we started; and then school was out I think in June, first of June.
Q: Where did you eat lunch and how long did you have for lunch and what went on during the lunch period time?
A: In the summertime we ate outside. The school was located beside a church, and we used to sit on the steps of the church and eat lunch or either somewhere out in the schoolyard. Rainy days we ate in the middle room. I told you the school had three rooms, and we would eat and play there in that middle room we called it.
Q: Did you have recess or what did you do during recess time?
A: Just played games
Q: How would you describe your classroom, just the interior of it, how was the seating arrangement and what else was in the room?
A: All of the desks faced the teacher. She was at one end of the room or either in the center of the room, and we all faced her. The blackboards were around the wall, we had one or two blackboards.
Q: How was the school heated in the winter?
A: There was a heater. I don’t know whether it was coal—I think it was a wood heater. They made a fire when we got there in the morning, some of the bigger boys or the teacher.
Q: What about your bathrooms or restrooms at the school?
A: They were outside, located somewhere in the yard in the back of the school.
Q: You had to have water so where was your water supply?
A: We had a bucket of water or make it two buckets of water that was brought in by the larger boys and set on a table in that middle room. I think we had a basin and a dipper that we put water in the glass or cup, whatever we drank out of.
Q: At that time how would you describe the teacher’s desk?
A: It was maybe just like a table similar to this, but it wasn’t this long, but she had some books, a calendar, her pens, and things like that on it. It probably had some drawers that she could keep some things because, when she would take something from one of the children, she would put it in the drawer. I remember that. (laughs)
Q: So how was the students’ desks, the seats that they used.
A: Let me see, the desk in front of you was attached to the seat in front of you. The seats folded back; but, when you went to your desk, the child in front their seat was attached to the front of your desk. On that seat I remember that trough for your pens and pencils.
Q: Can you remember whether school supplies were used or was every student responsible for the supplies they needed during the school day?
A: I think we carried our paper and pencils in our book bag. You mean our textbooks?
Q: Right
A: Somebody brought those books there from the bookstore in Windsor if I remember correctly at the beginning of the school year.
Q: The chalkboard on the wall, was there anything else in that particular classroom?
A: Probably a map, there were maps on the wall, a map of the United States, I know that was there.
Q: At time was the lighting of the room from the windows or electricity or lamps?
A: I can’t remember. It must have been from the windows because I don’t remember lights hanging from the ceiling. I’m not sure. But I do remember the window, when it was sunshiny, it was nice and bright. When it was cloudy, it was a little dim.
Q: Was there a special room or special place to hang your coats and things when you got to school?
A: I think we hung ours in that middle room.
Q: At that time, how was the punishment for the children who misbehaved?
A: Switches and a paddle or a switch in your hand, standing in the corner with your back to the classroom, standing on one foot. I do remember one teacher that we had that was a little harsh and he punished a girl there and he told her she could go home and tell her mother if she wanted to. She must have said, “I’m going to tell my mother.” But anyway, I remember the mother coming the next day to see him. So it was switches and having a paddle in your hand.
Q: Is there a particular or is there anything that stands out in your mind, some other experience that you had while in school?
A: Not really, I don’t think, in school. I remember the experiences going to school when we had to cross the swamp to get to school. When the weather was good, the water was all right, we walked across the swamp on a log and then we got to a board and we went off on a board. There was a chance for you to slip in the water, I do remember that.
Q: Are there any other early childhood memories that you can recall while growing up that sticks with you or in your mind?
A: I do remember homework and learning your multiplication tables and things and how to tell time by the clock. I remember Mamma was teaching me how to tell time, and it seems like I just couldn’t get 11:45. So she was in the kitchen, had me in the kitchen teaching me how to tell time. and I couldn’t get this 11:45. So I ran out the front door and met Daddy when he was coming in out of the field and I asked him if the long hand is on 9 and the short hand is on 12 what time is it. He told me it was a quarter to 12. So then I went back and told Mamma I know what time it is. That is how I learned my time, my clock and multiplication tables, you had to learn them. You didn’t learn them at school, you learned them at home. All of those things you learned how to do at home. My mother was a very strict teacher at home; had a strict teacher at home and a strict teacher at school. You had to learn
Q: After attending school, what jobs, changes or experiences that you can recall have happened in the county?
A: When I was small and going to school, most of the people—the men either worked on farms or at the saw mill. I think I remember the saw mill better because it was later years that they had jobs at the meat-packing plant. But you could set your clock by the saw mill. The whistle blew for seven o’clock in the morning, the whistle blew for lunchtime, and the whistle blew when it was time for people to go back to work at the mill, that was twelve o’clock and one o’clock. The whistle blew at the closest mill to us. They got off at 4:30 and then you could hear the whistle at another saw mill, Kirk’s Saw Mill; they got off at five o’clock. I remember so well that when you heard the whistle blow, you knew what time it was. That’s about all the people did.
Q: So, to recall some other changes, things that were different then from now; how many mills are still left in the area?
A: Just one, one of those two. It was Horne’s Saw Mill that was about a mile from us and Kirk’s Saw Mill was further down the road past Christian Home Baptist Church. Kirk’s is still in business.
Q: Is there anything else that you would like to tell us before you quit, that you can think of?
A: So many things, changes in things nowadays from the jobs, the behavior of the children, behavior of the parents. I mean it is just a big change. The children are not as obedient as they used to, and there is not as much respect for the seniors and there is just so much. There is too much to tell. If you live a long time, you see the changes, and you wonder why. But we hope it is getting better, we hope it will. But life then was not bad; we didn’t know any better if it was bad. We enjoyed going to church, and we enjoyed going to Sunday School. We enjoyed school and everything. There was no such thing as children waking up and saying, “No, I don’t feel like going to school today” or “I’m not going to school today.” You just got up and went. If your parents said you had to go, you had to go. So it was not too bad, maybe that is the way the world is supposed to be.
Q: So that’s the end of your comments?
A: Yes, I think so. Like I said, it takes too long to say. There is so much comparison in yesterday and today.