Interview with Mrs. Bertha Batten
September 12,2002
Interviewed by Sandra M. Lowe
Mrs. Batten was raised in the Longview area near Christian Home. She went to school in the storage building owned by Kirk Lumber or possibly a private Mason’s Lodge until the new Christian Home School was built in 1924.
Q. First of all, I want to find out what area of Isle of Wight did you grow-up in?
A. Everets Bridge but it was still in Isle of Wight County.
Q. Where is Everets Bridge? Is that over in this area or close to ________
A. No it’s in Nansemond County.
Q. How many sisters and brothers in your family? Did you have?
A. Five (5) brothers and Eight (8) sisters.
Q. Did they all go to Christian Home or other schools?
A. My brother passed that was next to me but six (6) of my sisters went to Christian Home School; All of us went to Christian Home School and she was the only one went to Smithfield/Westside.
Q. What other schools did you go to after Christian Home?
A. Me; None.
Q. Do you recall what grades you attended at Christian Home?
A. The last grade I was in was the fifth grade.
Q. Did you start at the first at Christian Home?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you remember what year that was?
A. No I don’t.
Q. How old were you? You remember when you first started school?
A. No I don’t exactly know how old I was but I know I didn’t go to school until all the cotton and everything was, the _______ and everybody, the peas and everything was done.
Q. You were born in 1912? So by the time you were 6 or 7, I’d say, would be around 1918 or 1919. I don’t believe that school was built until 1924.
A. That’s what I see on the paper because I remember a school right down the road here and it was a lodge and that where we went to school there.
Q. It was a building that was called a Lodge.
A. Yes it was called a Mason or somebody.
Q. So you went there for a while and I assume that when Christian Home was built then you came over to the new Christian Home.
A. It was a little one-room school.
Q. Which one was the one room school, the Lodge?
A. And the school over there too.
Q. When Christian Home was first put up it had how many rooms?
A. One-room.
Q. Do you know when they added the second room? Was it several years later?
A. When they added the building I forget now, but I know when they added another room.
Q. So they started with one room and then they added a second room?
A. That’s right. But Ebenezer had that school before Christian Home had it.
Q. Ebenezer had their school at Ebenezer?
A. Yeah they had a new school because my cousin taught school up there at Ebenezer and it seem like she was the cause of them getting a new school.
Q. Who was she? What was her name?
A. Vivian Moss and she married an Almond.
Q. Do you know if Christian Home Church have any involvement with putting up the school, did
the own the land or did they provide any finance?
A. I don’t know.
Q. You didn’t hear anything?
A. A lot of things you didn’t hear as a child but I knew the Glover’s was around.
Q. The Glover’s were a family that was involved a lot with schools?
A. Yeah The Glover’s, Hawkins’s, and Watkins’s.
Q. Those were families nearby?
A. They were people that belonged to this Church. They had children come here.
Q. When they built the first school building over here do you think they were so many children that they figured they needed to add a second room, do you think that was probably it?
A. I think that was it.
Q. When they finished they covered what grades?
A. Well I never went no higher than fifth grade and after while they went up but I think that was after I was married and they started to come up and I remember they was talking about the people had children and they go sign up there children and they didn’t know the children names so that’s when they added more time and they go to school now in September. They didn’t go to school when I wanted to last until October so that’s the way it went.
Q. What did you say about October?
A. I said it was the last of October.
Q. When you were at Christian Home how many teachers were there? It was still one-room, one teacher?
A. One teacher. I remember Ms. Elizabeth Kenny, and I remember Ms. Lillian Tynes, and I remember Ms. Evans Thomas and I remember Mr. Wood and Mr. Robinson.
Q. Mr. Lucius Robinson?
A. I guess that’s his name.
Q. Some of those were your teachers?
A. Them were my teachers.
Q. How far did you live from the school itself?
A. I lived like the school right here on this road and I lived on the other road called Windsor Road, this was not the mail route road when I was going to school cause they changed the mail route road later years. The people up here had to go to Chuckatuck and they was ______ to get to Mail but where I lived at I was on the Windsor Route like this is on Windsor Route.
Q. So about how far would you say you were from the school? In miles?
A. About three (3) or four (4) miles.
Q. What was it like going to school? How did you get there? What were some things you did on your way?
A. I walked through the woods.
Q. Tell us about it?
A. In the cold and my Daddy was farming and he carried us on the horse and cart and if it was raining that didn’t make no difference but we still got wet right on it didn’t make no difference we wasn’t dry.
Q. What kind of jobs did you have before you went to school? Did you have any jobs around the house that had to be done?
A. Wash dishes, sweep up the floor.
Q. You did all that before you left for school?
A. Yes Ma’am. Make up your bed, and bring in wood. We had plenty of jobs.
Q. When you got to school what were some things that you did leading up to the start of class?
A. School took in and we went on and started class and we got our lesson.
Q. The boys had to get the firewood and get the fire started; the girls didn’t have anything they had to do per say not like going out or getting any preparation?
A. No, not in our family.
Q. So you played until it was time to let in?
A. That’s right.
Q. Did boys and girls go in together or did they separate you and did you line up and go in class, or what was it like?
A. We stood in line together and went in class.
Q. What would you like to tell us about the regular day? What would it have been like going to school itself?
A. It was real nice the only thing you just had to walk I enjoy what part I was in and everything.
Q. What would you have had as a subject, or what was some of the subjects that you had? Do you recall any?
A. Yes, I had spelling, arithmetic, geography, and reading.
Q. How would you have class? You would read certain round robin type or is there anything you would like to tell us about your in class activities?
A. I have forgot all that.
Q. You said that you didn’t go to school until after all of the farming was done? So that would have been around October?
A. That’s right.
Q. You went from October until when?
A. Until May, we always got out of school I think on 9 but over in Oakland they got out of school on the 15th.
Q. The 15th. of May. You pretty much stayed in school until the closing date or did you stop before then if the field or something needed work or did you pretty much go to the last?
A. If you were going like that you would stay at home until all the work was done. In May when they turn out wouldn’t be many days before they turn out before close school before you had to go back in the field and chopping cause you go back in the fields and go to chopping in June because you plant the crop early than they do now.
Q. Which did you prefer going to school or doing the farm work?
A. Come to think of it, I didn’t like either one.
Q. What were some of the activities that you like for recess you know what were some of the games and things you all did for fun?
A. We played ring around the roses, dropping the handkerchief, farmer in the dell and all that stuff.
Q. About how long would you say you had recess? Did you have recess in the morning and afternoon?
A. We had ten (10) minutes recess and then we had 12 o’clock recess.
Q. After your 12 o’clock recess you didn’t have a break in the afternoon?
A. No when you get out in the afternoon you go home. You better go home, you better not go to nobody house cause they ask you what you want. My momma name Mary and they say, “Mary sent you here?” and you say no ma’am you she say you better go home. Don’t hang around here.
Q. They didn’t let you just find a spot they just made you go home because they knew you had chores to do I guess?
A. Chores or no chores they didn’t want you hanging around them.
Q. What about your lunch period at school? What was that like? Any special memories you recall, things that you did that may not have come up everyday?
A. What you talking about lunchtime? At the table at lunch I eat.
Q. Tell me anything you want?
A. Well my lunch, I was raised mostly with my grandmother, my mother and my daddy was in Baltimore and my mother lived with her mother so I was with her my mother and grandmother and where I lived at was my grandmother, and my grandmother’s sister and my grandmother’s brother, so all of us was in one field only thing that was dividing us was the land but you can all of them house and look out there and see the cars. I could eat with my grandmother when she cooked and leave there and eat with my mother when she cooked and I could leave there and go to my grandma’s sister house and eat I was one little child that went from one place to another here and there.
Q. So when you went to school what was lunch like at school? You all took your own lunch?
A. Yes.
Q. What were some of the things you might have done at lunch? Sometimes did the teacher make something special? Did you eat inside or went outside or combine your lunches?
A. No, it was bags on both sides and all the bags stayed inside. Some children were bashful and didn’t want you to see what they were eating. I liked preserves and I liked pear preserves, but Grandma used to always cook me eggs.
Q. That’s what you took to lunch mostly? Eggs?
A. Yeah and my sausage.
Q. What did you carry your lunch in?
A. I had a lunch bucket with a top on it.
Q. Did you have anything to carry your books in or did you? I was told that some of the girls just carried them in there arms and didn’t carry bags.
A. The girl that went with me to school she was much older than I was and she lived near us and I went to school with her because the others around there was not right close and she was close to me. She carried her books in her arms but I had a little bag or something.
Q. Did it have straps on it? You swung it over your shoulder?
A. Yeah, like my pocketbook.
Q. What was the school classroom like? What can you tell us about that?
A. We had a blackboard and crayons.
Q. Student desks?
A. Yes.
Q. Teacher’s desks? Anything else you remember about the classroom?
A. No I don’t. I remember one thing, I never forgot that. The last teacher I had, she told us, won’t nothing coming in there; she was not a large lady, that was Ms. Ellen Thomas, won’t nothing coming in there no larger than she was, she was the only ruler, I remember that.
Q. Did you have a lot of school supplies or what do you remember about what you had to work with?
A. I had a lot of paper tablets and you better not give it away.
Q. Did they provide that in school or did your parents buy it?
A. Parents bought it.
Q. It lasted the whole year?
A. Yes sir you better not tear up and throw away.
Q. Did your teacher have any aids or anything on the wall? Did she put up posters or anything like that?
A. No.
Q. What about your cloakroom or coatroom over there?
A. No not in the first one.
Q. No not in the first part?
A. No.
Q. Was this the first part they built or was the other building the first part?
A. The other part I think was rotted down or was that the first part, I don’t know.
Q. No that’s the one you can see right here. The other piece we don’t have any pictures of that one.
A. That’s rotted down.
Q. What rotten down, the one that was up in the trees?
A. Yes.
Q. Which one you think was put up first?
A. The other part that rotted down.
Q. Oh, OK.
A. That there is the new part.
Q. Do you think that building was put up in 1924 or do you think the date might be off?
A. Well I tell you we got burnt out in 1925 so that building was put up before we got burnt out, I remember that.
Q. So it’s probably pretty close to being right.
A. Yeah.
Q. What can you tell me about the way children acted during that time?
A. Oh, we went out there in the woods and got teaberry leaves, berries, cherries, and huckleberries and everything we just had a good time.
Q. What about your behavior in the classroom? Was that a little problem or was that often a problem and how did the teacher handle it?
A. Well, when you didn’t behave yourself, she would put you over there in the corner and she whipped you, beat you in your hands, and whipped you around your legs and when you go home your mother would give you another one around your legs, and that’s the way it was.
Q. Well it wasn’t a big problem because they solved it real quick?
A. Yeah Sir.
Q. Can you think of any other experiences that you had over at Christian Home that we haven’t covered or something that come you or come to your mind right off?
A. Well, I don’t know. I used to sketch animals things when the children was little. I used to take time and read to them. I do that sometimes, I do that most of the time now on holidays. I have read a scripture and a prayer. Mama always done that, before she would let you eat.
Q. Do you think that you might have jotted down some of your school memories?
A. No, I don’t think I did. It’s been so long.
Q. Did you run across something that you didn’t know you had?
A. I got burnt out before I got grown and since I been grown and married the last time I got burnt out so I don’t have anything.
Q. So you had two (2) or three (3) experiences with fire?
A. Two, yeah I got burnt before I got grown when I was living near Everets Bridge and then I got burnt out since I been living near Benn’s Church.
Q. Can you tell me any other childhood memories whether at Christian Home or anything growing up that stands out right off?
A. Well I don’t know too much about that, all I know is I was brought up going to church and Sunday School at Bethel Church and from Bethel to Jones Grove. They the only churches I know when I was a child. I didn’t experience a whole lot when I was a child.
Q. Bethel Church, Where is that? The one on Route 10 going towards Churchland?
A. No. On Everets Bridge Road.
Q. What kind of work or jobs did you do after you grew up?
A. I still worked in the fields, and I cooked a little bit and I used to do a little house cleaning.
Q. Is there anything else you would like to add?
A. After I got married I sewed and took care of my family that’s all I can tell you. Me and my seven (7) children.
Q. That was quite a job.
A. The best thing around. And teach them what I know. That I didn’t know I couldn’t give it to them.
Thank you for all the information and good points that you’ve told us about. I think that should cover everything. We’re going take some pictures too!!!