Interview with Mrs. Oretha Eley Allmond
March 22,2003
Interviewed by Sandra Lowe
Mrs. Allmond attended Gay School on Blackwater Road until 1944. It had previously been a school for whites. She and her husband were farmers and also ran a business. They were active in working for school improvement in the 50’s and 60’s.
Q: First of all Mrs. Allmond, can you tell us what area of Isle of Wight you grew up in?
A: The area I grew up in, it was called Eley Town on Blackwater Road, near a place now called Duck Town.
Q: Do you have any other landmarks that might help us?
A: It was on Rural Route 1, Zuni, VA, but closer to Walters on Blackwater Road.
Q: Can you tell us something about your family—how many sisters and brothers you had and the schools they attended?
A: I have three sisters and one brother. Some of my sisters, the ones under me attended John Marshall Elementary School in Newport News in the first to the third grade, and Paul Lawrence Dunbar Elementary School fourth through seventh grade in Newport News. My younger sister and my brother attended Booker T. Washington Elementary School, Newport News. They all grew up in Newport News. My parents left me over here with my grandparents when they moved to Newport News.
Q: What County school did you attend?
A: Gay Elementary School on Blackwater Road.
Q: What grades were taught there?
A: First through seventh grades.
Q: How many rooms were there?
A: There was one room. We all were in one room.
Q: All in one room?
A: With one teacher, yeah.
Q: What grades did you go through there?
A: First through seventh grade.
Q: All seven?
A: All seven.
Q: Do you know what years you attended there?
A: Yeah, 1937 through 1944.
Q: Who were some of your teachers?
A: My teachers were First through third grade Mrs. Cornelia Eley who later remarried and became a Jennings. She was my aunt. Fourth and Fifth grade Miss Ernestine Brown now Johnson; then Sixth through seventh Mrs. Fannie B. Hart--all three of my teachers.
Q: Do you know any information about the history of the Gay School, when it was built or opened or when it closed?
A: I don’t know when it opened, but I know in this book that’s written on Isle of Wight County; I have it written down here somewhere, I’ll get to it. It was written that the school was consolidated before 1920 and I know that it wasn’t because I went to school there until 1944. That book gives the information as when the whites stopped using the school. Then we started using it by Blacks after that until 1947. It was consolidated with Windsor Elementary School because Georgie Tyler was not built at that time.
Q: Do you know if it was always a one-room school or did they ever make it any larger?
A: They didn’t make it any larger. But you know, it could have been, two rooms could have been taught there when the whites were there, but we only used one room. We had one teacher. I had in details what happened, how part of the time we used the back room for a kitchen.
Q: There were two rooms in the building?
A: We had a cook. Yeah, there two rooms in the building but only one was used for teaching. The back room was used for a kitchen, and we had a cook.
Q: Was that also your cloakroom?
A: No, we had a cloakroom. When you entered the school there was a cloakroom. And they had hangers to hang your coats on.
Q: How did you get to and from school?
A: The first three years I rode to school with my teacher, which was my aunt. She taught the first three years. The fourth and fifth grades I walked to and from school. Our teacher walked with us the first year when I was in the fourth grade because she stayed at our house. In the sixth grade I walked to and from school. In the seventh grade I rode to school part of the time with my uncle, but I always walked home.
Q: Did you have any jobs to do at home before you could go to school?
A: I would iron clothes when I got home. Sometimes I would have to wash clothes. My grandmother washed for people in three towns Walters, Windsor, and Zuni. It was a lot of washing and ironing going on. Sometime I would have to, when no one was at home when I got back from school, there was a note for me to put the vegetables on for supper. Sometime I would have to put the vegetables in soak, like you put beans in soak for later. I’d always have to bring in wood for cooking and for heating, and feed the chickens, hogs, cows, pigs, horse. Sometime we had to shell corn for the chickens. I’d draw water for the cows before we got a pump and running water.
Q: What type of chores had to be done at school before the classes started the school day?
A: Before school I didn’t hardly have to do anything. Some of the boys had to go get wood sometime, some light wood to start the fire. But at school we had to do other things like cleaning the board, dusting the erasers, and sweeping floors and take out the trash. As I got older I helped my teachers with teaching the classes, the lower classes. Always assigned me to help anyone that needed help. One day the teacher was away because of death in her family, and she left me in charge. Two other people helped me with the lower classes, but I taught the higher classes—fifth through seventh grade. And we closed on time, not a minute earlier. Because she knew I was going to do that, you know. Some people said later, “Why? Why you didn’t go out early?” No, I thought we should do the right thing.
Q: How did the normal school day start? How did the class begin?
A: Oh, I had this somewhere. The class began with devotions. We sung a song and recited scripture, Bible verses, sometime a whole book of the Bible. We recited in unison and we had prayer, sometimes the Lord’s Prayer, sometimes somebody prayed an original prayer—some of the students. Our teacher taught us to do that. After devotions we had inspection.
Q: Can you tell us something about that inspection?
A: Well, they looked at your hair, your face, your teeth, your fingernails, your shoes, and you had to have a handkerchief to pass it. If you didn’t, you didn’t pass inspection for that day. But no punishment, I don’t think any punishment was given if you didn’t pass. Seem like you got some kind of star if you passed it.
Q: So she had a little chart?
A: A chart, yes, she’d put stars on. Everybody wanted to pass.
Q: Everybody was anxious to do well. What can you tell us about the subjects that you had, and the classes?
A: We had reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, geography, history, and language. The health and language was taught out of a book that our teacher kept at school. The other books—we had our own personal books.
Q: Do you remember any of the textbooks that you had?
A: I remember my first reader. The name was “Peter and Peggy”. Later the first graders that were in the school had a book named “Dick and Jane”.
Q: How long was the school day?
A: The school day would begin at nine a.m. and we closed at three fifteen.
Q: Did you have a normal nine-month school year, or did you close for any time other than the summer?
A: As I got older like maybe sixth or seventh grade, they would close two weeks in the fall so the farmers could get their crops. Some people didn’t come back. They kept right on working. I guess the parents kept them out so what could they do? So our teacher, one year failed every body in one family.
Q: They weren’t there.
A: All of them failed because they didn’t come back to school. They had no mother so the father kept them out. The mother was dead.
Q: Can you tell us about the lunchtime; what activities went on; what was lunch like?
A: I believe it was an hour for lunch. The first few years, I think we carried a lunch bag and we ate it in the classroom. When they gave us the back room for a kitchen, we had hot lunch. Some us would go and help them cook and serve the lunch.
Q: Did you have recess with lunch, after you ate lunch, or were there recess periods at other times?
A: We had a little recess after we ate lunch. But then we had a recess in the afternoon after lunch. We would exercise.
Q: How would you describe your classroom? What did it look like?
A: The classroom was a long room with windows on two sides—the front and the east side which is towards Windsor. We had chalkboards that were across the back of the room, with alphabets across the top of the chalkboard. A large globe and map were on the wall. A small library was there where we kept extra books. A pencil sharpener was on the wall, sandboxes in the classroom. We had workbooks made of construction paper that were tacked all around the wall after Mrs. Fannie B. Hart became our teacher. Another thing there was a stage like a little elevation at one side. No steps just one elevation. I guess you counted as one step up that we would get on when we were on program. That school had been used by the whites of the county.
Q: Can you tell us anything about the programs that you had?
A: We had May Day. May Day was a big day. It was like the first Friday of May. When we girls would wear paper dresses and we would wrap the Maypole. We would have relays and sometimes Virginia Reel. I don’t see it here, but I wrote that down. Then we had Christmas programs. They were held at night and the parents would come. I remember once I was the first angel in the Christmas play and we held our lighted candles. The second angel stood too close to me and burned my hair. The next thing was school closing. We had school closing and that was held at the end of May. The last year I was there I was the valedictorian of my class and my teacher gave me a speech that same day that I had to give it. I was challenged to do the best that I could because that’s what I strived to do. Nobody in the house that I lived in came because they were working. Only my uncle around the corner came. He was there to see me.
Q: Since you had no family here. How would you describe your school’s classroom? What did it look like?
A: I thought I described it before with all those things that were in it.
Q: I believe you did. (End of tape)
A: We got water from a pump outside. And sometime somebody would have to go; I guess go to the branch and get some water to start the pump with.
Q: Did you have chalkboards in your room or blackboards?
A: Yes.
Q: Any other school supplies that you can recall?
A: We had construction paper, __________ crayon in the room. We had to have our own paper and pencil. A dictionary was there, too. We kept that in the library. We had a small library with a door and a glass. I guess you call it something else now, but we called it a library.
Q: That was like a bookcase with doors.
A: Yes, one door. It was small storybooks there that we could check out.
Q: How was the lighting in the room; what was your lighting source?
A: Well, I think we had electricity, but maybe not. Maybe we had lamps because electricity was not through that area at that time. I don’t know, it must be in my mind that we had lights, but I think it was lamp light that we used at nighttime when we had something there.
Q: Since it had been used by others before you came, it might …
A: It may have had electricity __________.
Q: Was there a need for much discipline or punishment in your building?
A: The teacher punished us by someone stand in the corner and sometimes she would give them a paddling. For more discipline would be the paddle. I guess it meant the first time you stand in the corner, then you get the paddle. If that didn’t do maybe you would get sent home.
Q: Was that in some usual need that when you get to the point where someone was sent home; did that happen often?
A: That didn’t happen often.
Q: Are there any additional school experiences you would like to tell us about?
A: I have right many, but I don’t know. Let me see what else I know that happened. My teacher that I had in the fourth and fifth grades, she’s the one that’s still living. And she tried to change me from left handed to right hand. Each time she would see me using my left hand she would make me change to my right hand. It bothered my nerves. I was glad when she left. But one positive thing about it I can write my name with my right hand because or her. You know, if I have to.
Q: You have some information about the teacher’s desk?
A: The teacher’s desk was made of wood, as the usual teacher’s desk with a chair behind it. The students’ desks were like made double in two pieces. The desk double with two pieces to sit in and the back was double mostly. We also had the one-piece desks that had the chair made on where one person sit in. We had a few of that kind.
Q: With metal legs or all wood?
A: I know the double desks they were wood. The other one had some metal on it, but I don’t know if it was all metal. I think it was all metal.
Q: Are there other early childhood memories that you recall in growing up?
A: I remember when the doctor came to the school to give us shots. That was one of my bad memories.
Q: Tell us about that.
A: My grandmother would get two people to hold me because I was afraid; I was afraid of the shots and of the doctor. I’ve outgrown that.
Q: Any other childhood memories that you want us to know about?
A: One thing, I had to carry my class all the way through elementary school. The reason I said is because one time we went somewhere and I didn’t get chance to study an assignment and I didn’t know it and the whole class had to stay in. All other times whenever they didn’t know something and I knew it nobody had to stay in. I thought that was not fair. When we had rationing. I guess you’ve heard of it.
Q: Yes. ______________.
A: I stayed after school and helped with the rationing. I was in the seventh grade at that time. When Mrs. Tyler, Georgie D. Tyler would visit our school, our supervisor, when I was younger I would read to her. And as I got older I would explain a problem that had written on the board to her. I was glad to see her come. In the seventh grade there was a countywide essay contest and I won second place. But I never got my paper back. Mrs. Tyler carried it around with her. I was the secretary of my elementary school junior league. When I was in the seventh grade a schoolmate of mine rode to school with my uncle and we got there before school opened. We would go next door and they had a disabled lady and get her niece and her daughter ready for school. Also helped them with the housework. She, her daughter, and my friend are all deceased now. At the close of our day at school we would sing. Sing a song, “Now the Day is Over”. We had spelling matches when those grades like third to fourth grade. I enjoyed spelling words that the older children couldn’t spell and get to the head of the line. It was a challenge for me to do the hardest and the largest recitation and parts of a play.
Q: After you finished elementary and high school, were there any jobs that you had or other experiences that took place in the county?
A: I worked at the school--that was after my husband passed—as a substitute teacher. Other than that we were self-employed and had a business, and I ran the business. And after that I began doing a lot of time doing volunteer work. So that’s what I do now.
Q: What was that, doing what kind of work?
A: Volunteer work.
Q: Are there any other highlights or anything else that you would like add to this?
A: I remember when I went to school, children of the other race rode to school and we were in one-, two-, and three-room schools while they were in larger and better schools. There was only one high school for the blacks in the county while they had four—four ____________ high schools for the white. I’m thankful for the history that I have as a native and growing up in Isle of Wight County, Virginia. Gay School, our elementary school, is beautifully pictured on Page 275 of the book “Historical Notes on Isle of Wight County, Virginia”, but the information under the photo is not correct. I guess I told you that, the correction on that. After attending school in Isle of Wight County and later working in Isle of Wight County, I have seen many changes, mostly for the better. I didn’t mention that my husband--you didn’t ask me anything about my husband—went to Holly Grove Elementary School and Central Hill Elementary School. He and I worked for changes in Isle of Wight County. The consolidations of the schools and therefore better for all of our children can be able to learn all they can. Our schools are equipped to equal the schools of any land because in our schools, as well as anywhere else in life divided we will surely fall, but together we will stand. I forgot something, but I don’t know if that’s any good. Concerning Gay Elementary School. Our Parent-Teachers Organization held fish fries and other sellings on Saturday night to help build the Georgie Tyler School. Our supervisor, the late Mrs. Georgie D. Tyler told us that the County would supplement the funds that we raised. So the school was named after her. As a child I stated that my children, which were not yet born, would probably attend that school and they all did. My four children, I have the names there, but I don’t have to use that.
Q: Put that in there, please.
A: Elgin, he graduated from Georgie Tyler in 1966. Marvin graduated from Windsor High School in 1968. Carolyn graduated from Georgie Tyler in 1969. Ellen graduated from Smithfield 1972. I got her when she deceased and I got my husband when he deceased, I don’t have any of that.
Q: Is there anything else you want to add?
A: I think I have finished, I hope. I hope I covered everything that I have. I have five pages here and that’s enough, I think.
Q: Well, we have certainly enjoyed your interview.
A: Six pages.
Q: I have enjoyed reminiscing and thinking of my association with your family and I appreciate your coming out today to give us your recollections of your school days in Isle of Wight County, Mrs. Allmond.
A: At the beginning I started off saying I was born where I call it the garden spot of the county where the land is rich and the crops and gardens grow in abundance. There I worked in the fields most of the summer about eight years. Mostly with my grand daddy and others. Others helped us during the chopping and harvest time. My grand daddy rented two other farms besides the one on which I was born and grew up. I grew up next door to on the farm was the Eley School, a building that was not being used at the time. Had been used before we started using Gay School. My father, my aunt, and my uncle attended that school, and the school was in use in the early 1900s until in the early 1930s. The teacher was also my aunt Cornelia Eley.
Q: Thank you very much.