Interview with Mrs. Florence Batten
June 7, 2003
Interviewed by Sandra M. Lowe
Mrs. Batten attended Rising Star School for about three years before going to the new Moonfield School through the elementary grades. She attended the IOWC Training School and Norfolk State University. Eventually, she became a substitute teacher in the county.
Q: Can you tell us about the area of Isle of Wight where you grew up?
A: Isle of Wight was just a small community of people. The school started as Rising Star and they decided they wanted to build another school. That's the school I attended. It was Moonfield School. Mrs. Estelle Jordan was the teacher at that time and she taught me how to write. It went to the seventh grade and in the seventh grade I was the only one in the class. She had all seven classes at one time in that school. We heated by wood and the bathroom at that time was outside and we had to go outside to the bathroom. We had to do everything for ourselves because she just couldn't do it all by herself. The oldest students use to have to help with the smaller ones. That's the only help that she had. Of course, at that time Mrs. Georgie Tyler was our supervisor and she would come down and help us with things.
Q: When you went to Rising Star, how long were you there before going to Moonfield?
A: I've been pondering over that. Evidently I was in the second or third. It would have been somewhere between first and third grade. There was no such thing as kindergarten. So they had to learn from scratch. We use to take our hands and hold them so we could do the little writing.
Q: When you went to Moonfield that was because they tore down Rising Star?
A: They didn't tear it down; they closed it up and built a school in the county, which was Moonfield. It was owned by someone, the Odd Fellows, I believe. Upstairs was used for The Lodge and they use to have entertainment also. After we moved out a lady moved in that building. That building is long gone. Estelle Jordan left here and went to Smithfield Elementary, Westside.
Q: Did you have any sisters or brothers?
A: Yes, I'm the baby of all the family. They are much older than I am. Now, they went to Rising Star.
Q: Okay, do you think any of them would be available to be interviewed?
A: No, they are much older.
Q: You said there were seven grades?
A: Yes, to the seventh grade at both of the schools.
Q: At Rising Star there was one room?
A: One room.
Q: When you went to Moonfield?
A: One room, all the schools had one room.
Q: Do you remember any particular instances of anything going on at school or anything that stands out in your mind?
A: Well, no more than she would always have exercises, school closing and the children would have graduation exercises and recite. That was just admired by the school. We would go to the Rising Star Baptist Church for that. The parents used to get together for league meetings and they used to have entertainment for the children. The children would go out at nighttime but sometime they would have it in the daytime. The school closed and would give them cake and ice cream for their closing exercise and the parents would enjoy it and the children would enjoy it. We'd have Field Day they called it. We would play games and things for school closing.
Q: Do you know what years we would be talking about?
A: I can't recall any of the years.
Q: What was your date of birth?
A: 1926. I know I graduated from high school in 46'.
Q: Well, if you were born in 1926 and you went to school at age 6 or 7 that would be 1932-1933. Do you have any pictures of anything that went on during that time?
A: You know, I don't. You know, last year when they re-done my house I did have some books up in my attic. But, we had to clean my attic out and a lot of them were destroyed and we just threw them all away.
Q: Do you have any pictures of yourself as a child?
A: No pictures, no pictures, I have one picture I think when I was 14.
Q: Do you know anything about the closing of Rising Star and the opening of Moonfield?
A: No, I know when it closed; I can't remember the year that it closed down.
Q: When you went to Moonfield did you walk to Moonfield?
A: No I was living right across the road, I never had to walk to elementary school. I went home for lunch. I wanted to carry a lunch but I went home for a hot lunch.
Q: Did you have any jobs that you had to do around the house before you went to school or after school?
A: I always had to clean, make sure my bedroom was clean.
Q: Were you on a farm?
A: Yeah, my father did have a little small farm. I had to help him on the farm. We had to weed peanuts. We had to harvest. I even plowed with the plow and mule after school.
Q: Do you remember how the school day started once you arrived at school, what was the first thing you did?
A: The first thing we did was we sang patriotic songs and we had the Lord's Prayer. Sometimes we had everybody say a Bible verse and then we had the 23rd Psalm and that was it. Very inspiring!
Q: Did you have any jobs to do at school?
A: No more than helping all the young children.
Q: How did that work out with the older children helping the younger children?
A: Yes, the older children always had to help the younger ones. Go with them to the bathroom, put their coats on them and do things like that, pass out papers.
Q: Do you think your classroom was very well organized?
A: Oh yes, it was really well organized, very well behaved people at that time.
Q: Do you remember any of the subjects that you had and any of the textbooks?
A: Well, I had, I remember the first reading book was Peter and Peggy and we had geography, too, arithmetic, language.
Q: Anything that took place in the classroom that you recall specifically?
A: No, I don't remember anything special that happened.
Q: What time did school begin?
A: 9 o'clock till 3 o'clock.
Q: Did you have a regular school year by that time? Did school start in September?
A: Yeah, school started in September and school closed in May.
Q: What can you tell me about your lunchtime?
A: There might have been something one time that I carried a sandwich and I could sit down and eat with them. We could sit in school and eat lunches.
Q: Was there recess along with lunch?
A: They had extra recess. We played games, ring-around-the-roses, play ball, most of the children did the usual thing and had a good time. I don't even believe the teachers were out there with us. She could trust us to go out and play. She had a bell and when she would ring the bell everybody would go in. We would get turns; everybody wanted to ring the bell. But that was for morning and recess you would ring that bell.
Q: How would you describe your classroom? Did you notice any difference in Rising Star classroom and Moonfield?
A: Not really, no, it was just about the same. See I wasn't at Rising Star that long anyway. There were such large children there I was the baby. At Moonfield we had our little desks, sitting in front of one another. You put your books under the desk.
Q: What did you do for water?
A: They had a pump, if I'm right now; I think we had a pump outside ‘cause the parents would have to watch it to see that it didn't freeze up. We use to have to go out there and pump the water and bring it in. I think they had a dipper that we could dip water out of a pail and put it in a cup. Now, you couldn't get water anytime you wanted to, only at certain times.
Q: Do you recall any school supplies you were provided with?
A: We had to buy most of our school supplies. Everything had to be bought by the parents.
Q: Do you know what the county provided for you?
A: I know they provided those. Maybe they did give us some coloring paper but I can't remember them giving too much.
Q: Did you have a separate room for hanging up your coats and hats?
A: Yes we had a little room for coats. Everybody would hang their coats and you called it a little closet.
Q: What about discipline in the schools? Do you feel that the children were not discipline problems? What was done if the children misbehaved?
A: When they did misbehave she had a ruler and she would sort of put licks in their hand and that was it and they would behave you wouldn't hear no more about that. We were good children, I think. You see they came from Macedonia and as well as Rising Star one time we had to walk from down there.
Q: Macedonia was a much further distance?
A: Walking from Macedonia to Moonfield was about 5 or 6 miles.
Q: What would be some positive memories of your school days, your teachers, your classmates?
A: Well, only thing I can say is that we just got along so good at that time. We just enjoyed playing and getting our lessons together.
Q: Do you have any negative memories of that time period?
A: No, I can't think of any. Isn't that bad? I couldn't be bad in school because I would get it at school and go home and get it and I didn't care that much for it so I had to behave in the classroom. I had a good teacher. Oh she was beautiful.
Q: Are there any other school experiences you want to tell about, anything you haven't told us?
A: No, I can't think of anything right now. Just like I said my memory is so short, so bad.
Q: You mentioned Mrs. Estelle Jordan?
A: Do you know Ms. Mattie? They were sisters-in-law.
Q: She was your teacher at Rising Star; did she move on with the classes?
A: Who, Ms. Estelle, yes, a huh. Yes stayed at Moonfield the whole time until they moved the school until they closed the school. Then she went up to Westside. I think she taught at Rising Star, too. I know Mrs. Blount taught up at Rising Star one time, Mrs. Evangelia Blount. But she wasn't my teacher; she was my sister's teacher.
Q: Are there any other childhood memories, even if they weren't connected with school that you want to tell us about?
A: I remember when were at school, after we graduated, when we had no way to go to High School then. We didn't know what we were going to do. My mother didn't know what she was going to do ‘cause I was too young to stop school. So, I had to walk to the training school. It was Isle of Wight Training School. So I had to walk to school then. I walked awhile until I caught up with Ida Lee Bailey. She would drive while she had a car. Then I started riding with James Johnson, then we had a pastor from Macedonia named Rev. Millitant and he got together and saw fit that the county would give us a bus. After he carried us in his car for so long he saw that the county would give us a bus. That was a flattop school bus and all of the children from Macedonia and all got on that bus and went to school. I was one of the first ones to graduate, around 1941 or 1942 when there were five years in high school, then they added the twelfth grade.
Q: After you finished school at the training school what jobs or experiences did you have in the county?
A: I didn't do any work. I went to Norfolk State for a couple of years. Later, I did housework for some people.
Q: Later on in your life what were some of the highlights of your life?
A: Well, see I played for my Church about forty years, forty some years. Then I ah, I worked for my Church at Head Start maybe three or four years. Then I worked at the plant and from then I substituted. That's when I stopped, when I substituted, I substituted in the County quite awhile.
Q: Is there anything you would like to add as we come to our conclusion of the interview?
A: I can't think of anything right now, I really can't.
Q: I want to thank you Ms Batten for taking the time to talk to us about your early schooldays. We really appreciate it.