Interview with Mr. Samuel and William Crocker
September 16, 2003
Interviewed by Sandra M. Lowe and Herb DeGroft
The Crocker brothers were interviewed together about their days in attendance at Horne’s Corner School. Sometimes they answered each other or added the other’s ending. It made for an interesting and delightful interview.
Q: We are at Riverside Convalescent Home speaking with Mr. Samuel Riddick Crocker.
A: That’s right.
Q: Mr. Crocker, you said you spent your life in Isle of Wight County?
A: Right, all except when I was in the Army.
Q: And uh, how many sisters and brothers do you have?
A: I had two brothers and five sisters. Now, ah, it’s down to one brother and one sister.
Q: What county school did you go to?
A: Horne’s Corner, Isle of Wight County, then to Smithfield.
Q: Can you give us the location information on the school?
A: Tell you the truth it’s down below Benn’s Church there. I don’t know exactly how to get there, but the road comes through there and Horne’s Corner was down there.
Q: Did all your sisters and brothers go to that school at some point?
A: Well no, no, all right William (his brother) where were you when I needed you? William says, “Louise didn’t go she was dead fifteen years.” Virginia and Edith was the only two.
Q: When you went to Horne’s Corner, what grades were taught there?
A: What grades were taught there? Let’s see other than the First; William was in the higher grade. What grade was you in Bill, at Horne’s Corner? Bill replies, “Third or Fourth Grade or something ‘round there. Don’t remember.”
Q: How many grades did you go to at that school?
A: I went one grade to that school.
Q: Did they have all grades, students in grades one through seven?
A: They had three grades, First and Second was in one group and the other in the other group.
Q: When students left there, in about Third and Fourth Grades, what school did they go to?
A: Smithfield High School.
Q: And Smithfield High School started from Grade Five?
A: Smithfield High School started from Grade One. Went clean on through.
Q: How many classrooms were at Horne’s Corner?
A: Two, three, no TWO.
Q: What time, what years did you go there?
A: I went to the First Grade at that school, and that’s what I said. I got promoted that year to Smithfield School. One, two, three, four, and clean on up through and had a teacher for each class. Straight on through.
Q: When were you born?
A: November 11, 1915.
Q: So when you went in First Grade it was about 1921, and you were about six years?
A: No, seven. In other words, we went down there and tried, the year before, but my birthday being in November I had to wait and start the next year.
Q: So the school was up and running at least around 1922. There were two teachers there?
A: Two teachers or three teachers.
Q: And you had two rooms?
A: Two rooms but one teacher.
Q: Did you go to school for the whole day?
A: For as long as it lasted, that’s all I can tell ya.
Q: I was wondering how one teacher took care of two rooms?
A: She went from one class to another that’s all I can tell ya.
Q: Were both classes inside? How many rooms were there?
A: It was one big room with the wood stove separating it. There were no walls at all.
Q: Do you know anything about the school, what year it opened or when it closed?
A: No ma’am. I know when we went there and that when it closed they moved everything to Smithfield.
Q: When you went to school, how far did you live from Horne’s Corner?
A: About half mile, wasn’t it Bill? (Bill says 2 and a half miles). Well, 2 and a half miles, we walked it.
Q: What kind of school bus came and got you when you started to Smithfield? Was it mechanical or pulled by an animal?
A: I don’t remember.
Q: When you went to Smithfield, did you starting taking the bus right away?
A: When we went to Smithfield it was after Horne’s Corner closed and the next year we started to Smithfield School.
Q: When you went to First Grade did you have any jobs there?
A: No ma’am.
Q: What do you recall about the school day, while you were there? How did the day start?
A: All I can tell ya is we took our lunches and ate ‘em and sat sideways.
Q: Did you start with the pledge or a prayer or something?
A: I don’t remember with Horne’s Corner, but at Smithfield one day a week you walked in and read the Bible and everybody went to their classrooms then.
Q: Do you remember how many rooms were at Smithfield?
A: Smithfield? Eleven or twelve.
Q: Did each grade have a room?
A: Yes, each grade had a teacher. Each grade had a room. On one side there was one through four, all right then the Chapel then upstairs back around more rooms.
Q: Back to Horne’s Corner, do you remember what the inside looked like?
A: I don’t remember that now, no.
Q: What do you remember that was in there--Horne’s Corner?
A: Chairs and that all around the room, that’s all I remember.
Q: What kind of lighting did they have?
A: They had kerosene lamps.
Q: And your heat was what? One stove?
A: One stove, potbelly, burned wood. No coal at Horne’s Corner, Smithfield High did.
Q: Where did you get water from?
A: A well, I think (brother says, “No, a pump.”)
Q: Did it have just one window or a lot of windows?
A: I don’t remember.
Q: Do you remember where you put coats and hats?
A: Put your coat and hat and put your lunch into it, too.
Q: Do you remember lunchtime, what kind of games you played or friends you played with?
A: After we ate, we went outside, for I don’t know exactly what.
Q: Do you remember what kind of physical things you did? Did students play games or was that not necessary?
A: I don’t remember if children had rules or they spanked your hand or what. (Brother: Oh, you had rules. Mama and Daddy told you when you went to school and to behave yourself. If you didn’t, when you got home Daddy took care of ya.)
Q: At Horne’s Corner again, do you have any memories of anything you didn’t like?
A: I don’t remember, I was too small to know much about that.
Q: All right, what about things you did like, same thing?
A: Things I did and didn’t like I don’t remember much about that. What, what.
Q: What are some things you do recall about elementary school at Smithfield, up to about the Seventh Grade?
A: Well, at Smithfield High School, at playtime they’d come out there and have a period for exercise and they’ have lunch then come back inside and finish up the school for closing time.
Q: Now, after you finished at Smithfield High School, can you tell us what you did with the remainder of your working days and afterwards?
A: After I quit Smithfield High School, I was on the farm with my Daddy farming.
Q: After you got older did you say you went into the service?
A: To the Army, Air Force.
Q: How long did you stay in the military?
A: I say I went in there about two to three years.
Q: And then you returned to Smithfield?
A: Went out west for a few years, then I came back to Smithfield.
Q: Were you I the Army Air Corp for WWII?
A: WWII.
Q: Which airplane did you fly in?
A: WWII in the Eighth Air Force, Pearl Harbor, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Guam, Saipan, back to the United States.
Q: You were all over, weren’t you? So were you in an airplane?
A: I was in a mechanic group. There was five of us boys and we had a vehicle and a trailer and stuff like that. We’d keep’em running. If one broke down, we jumped in and we’d fix it. Day or night we got it fixed.
Q: Did you enjoy that mechanical type of work?
A: Well, yes it was pretty good.
Q: When you got out of the military did you go back to farming here in Smithfield until retirement or did you do some other things?
A: When I first got out of the Army I went back to Albuquerque for carpentry work and went there for a year or two and come back to Smithfield. I was working in the shipyard before I was drafted. Then I went to work at the Smithfield plant and I worked there seven days a week and I worked there 23 years and retired from the plant.
Q: Now did you want to tell us anything about your family or did you get married and have children?
A: My first wife left in Albuquerque and then I came back to Smithfield. I got married.
Q: Anything else you’d like to tell us before we close the interview?
A: I also did some grass cutting.
Q: Okay, then I have finished and thank you for talking with us today, Mr. Crocker.