Q: What area of Isle of Wight did you grow up in?
A: The Zuni area--the Zuni area.
Q: How many sisters and brothers did you have?
A: One sister.
Q: What school did she attend?
A: The same, Fairview Elementary School.
Q: What grades were taught at Fairview?
A: First through the seventh. Seven grades in one room.
Q: Did you stay there from one through grade seven?
A: No, I was there from the first grade through the fourth grade and then I went to Windsor to Georgie Tyler Elementary School.
Q: Can you remember how many classrooms were in Fairview?
A: It was really just one big room. We were grouped according to grades and we had areas that we would go to –Nettie Whitehurst was the teacher, would be teaching. There was one teacher.
Q: There was one teacher?
A: One teacher.
Q: Can you remember what year that was?
A: 1947.
Q: You were there through the fourth grade—then you went to?
A: Georgie Tyler Elementary School
Q: Do you have any information about the history of that school, when it was opened or when it was closed?
A: I don’t remember the opening because that was before my time. It was closed when I went to Tyler Elementary. So that was around ’47, it did not stay open after I went to Georgie Tyler. That was the end. Not all of the students went to Tyler; it just depended on the area.
Q: How did you get to school?
A: Walked. We lived, when my parents moved, on down the road from the school the year I began to go to school, which I was six years old. So I walked from that place to Fairview School with a group of kids from Zuni and on down the sand pit and on down the road. We all got together as we met and we walked to school, same thing in the evening.
Q: Do you know approximately how many miles that was?
A: It was exactly about a mile from my house.
Q: So that was about two miles a day?
A: Right.
Q: What jobs or chores did you have to do before and after school at home?
A: My mother worked out of the home. My father was a farmer and my mother was a midwife. Sometimes during that time she would have to go and stay with the mother for a week or two during the birthing of the baby and afterward. So I had to, with Daddy’s help until I got older, to get up and get myself dressed and get breakfast, whatever. Then in later years I was in charge of the house by being the only one because Ruby, my sister, was away at school most of the time. Living out in the country, we didn’t have buses, so she had to go and stay with relatives in (the sand pit) and also with teachers to be close to a bus. So I more or less until I became a teenager was on my own.
Q: I know you said you left in the fourth grade, but can you remember, you didn’t have any chores to do once you got to school did you?
A: Oh yes, we had a fire to make. If someone else was running late, or whatever, we would help with bringing in the wood. The older boys would start the fire with her assistance, but we had chores to do. We had to do the sweeping of the room, make sure everything was neat, even the outdoor toilet. All of that was considered part of school.
Q: Can you remember how your day started once you got to school?
A: Once you got to school, we had devotions every morning; we had the Pledge of Allegiance every morning and then we went into, she would usually start with little ones first teaching and then move up by grades.
Q: Can you remember what subjects were covered at Fairview?
A: We had reading. To go back to the younger ones, we would be learning the basics, your alphabet and your numbers, and the older kids assisted with helping us. As we moved up into the grades, we would have the regular arithmetic, math or algebra, whatever it is called. As we moved up in grades we had more work or teaching according to your age. We had very little writing, more or less just little alphabet tablets that we would try to copy the alphabet off- to do it on paper.
Q: Can you remember a special textbook that you had while you were at Fairview that maybe was your favorite or something about it that was in that textbook that maybe you remember now?
A: I know “Jill” (laughs). ), I can’t remember the words. I know that was on that book; it was like a little reading book that we had, a little storybook. There were two names on that book, and I know Jill was one of them. That was one of the most popular ones that we had in school. I think everybody had to go through that book.
Q: Usually that is the book that students start.
A: Right.
Q: We used to call it Primer.
A: Right, I keep saying, if I get some time off, it may still be at my mother’s house. I’m going to see if I can find that book because she used to keep everything. I’m going to try my best to find that book.
Q: Can you remember how long the school day was?
A: We were at the school in the morning by nine o’clock to begin; when it was very cold, it was hard to walk. In the wintertime you would all gather around or sit down on the floor or drag a desk up to get warm at the fire. Sometimes, it would be an hour later before you began your class work. In the afternoon at 3:00 or 3:30 we would get ready to go back home.
Q: Can you remember how long the school year was?
A: I think we started school in August and we got out of school in May. August to May, right.
Q: Where did you eat lunch and how long was your lunch period?
A: We carried lunch, on the way we carried our bags or box lunches. During the spring, when the weather was favorable, we could go out to the porch or the steps. There was a porch on the front of the school. As then weather warmed up, you could go outside, wherever, to have your lunch. In later years, you were able to get bottled milk; milk was brought in to us. But before that, it was what you carried. There was a long-handled pump we could get water from. If that was frozen, you just relied on what you had.
Q: So the pump was right at the school?
A: Right at the schoolhouse.
Q: Can you remember if you had to go to the pump to get water or did they bring the water in?
A: No, you did your own. Most times you had cups or you had your own. I remember Mamma had a little folding cup for me, a little tin cup, and that was what I used.
Q: So do you think your lunch period lasted—half an hour to hour?
A: Right, sometimes an hour. If, back then, the teacher wanted a little time to rest, we had a longer lunch; but I would say most were an hour.
Q: When lunch was over, how did you know it was time to go back to class?
A: She had a big bell she would ring. If we were outside, she rang that bell; you would stop and go in. In that school some of the older kids would be like parents to a certain extinct and help the younger kids. They were your teacher’s aides.
Q: What about recess? Did you have recess?
A: Yes, we had recess—everybody. If she was working with the older kids and grades, the little ones would probably go out early if the weather was good, and we were able to just play. Sometimes, we would play an hour or two hours outside. If the weather was nice on sunshiny days, we stayed out longer.
Q: Can you remember some of the games you played during recess time?
A: Yes, I do; I was talking to a classmate not too long ago. Where the school Fairview was, there were woods behind it. The younger kids would go back there and we would play playhouse. We made just like a house in the woods, this section would be the kitchen and we go and use our water and buck cakes or whatever, and cook. The other kids would be the parents of these kids, and we would have a good time. We did have balls; we would play ball, baseball. The younger ones played dodge ball. We also played ring around the rosy and games like that.
Q: That was good that you could make your own fun.
A: Like I said, we didn’t have things to play with. I’ve never known us to have any swing or anything like the schools have now. So we had to do. Some of the parents were able to supply balls or bats like that for us.
Q: How would you describe your classroom? You pretty much said your classes were grouped. Then you did say it was one big room.
A: Right. Now if you are talking about the appearance of it, there was nothing on the floor to keep noise down. We had just an old plank wood floor and really nothing at the windows. I remember we had on the sides two long windows and one on the front. And maybe shades ________________. In the summer months those windows went up for air. The older kids would have to do the cleaning in the afternoon before we left. That school—and our teacher, Ms. Nettie, was a very clean person—and it had to be cleaned every day…and that’s the way it was taken care of.
Q: How was your school heated in the winter?
A: When I started, it was wood. Later years, it moved up to coal. I guess the county or whatever would bring in a little coal.
Q: Where was the restroom?
A: There was one outside that was used by both the girls and boys. It was on the edge of the woods, it had a little skirting around it, so when you’d go in; you would have a little privacy.
Q: You did tell me the water supply was a pump.
A: Yes, it was a long, long-handled pump; there was a name for it, but I can’t remember it now.
Q: How would you describe your teacher’s desk?
A: It was just a big, old wooden desk with a straight-up wooden chair. I guess she had a few drawers on the side that she put her personal things and all.
Q: How would you describe your desk?
A: My desk was a wooden desk, of course; the desk itself, the writing part, was on an arm rest that came around you and on the side you had an opening for your books to put underneath where you sit. As far as your coats and wraps, we just had some nails on the wall that you hung your things on.
Q: Did you have a chalkboard at Fairview?
A: Yes, we had a long blackboard on one side of the wall and erasers and chalk.
Q: Your school supplies such as paper and pencils, crayons, whatever you had, who supplied them?
A: I guess the county maybe supplied the chalk and all the erasers and all. But your paper—yourself, you supplied your own. I never remember paper coming in to be given to us from the county.
Q: Were there any teaching aides on the wall, maybe maps or something of that sort on the wall that you can remember?
A: We had a big round globe; over top of the chalkboard was a border with the alphabets on it that was for the younger kids. I don’t recall any pictures on the wall.
Q: So your alphabets were there for the younger ones to look at?
A: And try to remember. Miss Nettie we used to refer -we didn’t call her, Mrs. Whitehurst, it was Miss Nettie. She used to point to it and try to teach us, the little ones, your alphabet, she used to point to it and say, “This is what an A looks like.”
Q: What about the lighting in the school? Was it electric? Was it natural light through the window? Was it lamp light? Can you remember?
A: During the day, you didn’t have much of a lighting need. There were one or two little lamps on the wall, set on a stand. At night I know we would have PTA meetings and they would use electric lamps; before I left there- we did have electric lights.
Q: What about discipline, punishment in school, in the classroom?
A: It was so much less than what there is now. With that many kids, the first thing, the teacher knew the parents; the parents were very supportive of the teacher; and the kids obeyed. We would have fights sometimes. I know going to school sometimes, someone would get in a fight or whatever. But as soon as we got to school, someone would tell Miss Nettie, that so-and-so did that, or so-and-so hit me, or whatever. The first beating I ever got was one morning it was very, very cold. I got to school, there was ice on the steps, and there was one student who would not move so I could go inside and warm myself by that pot-bellied stove. So I just pushed her and she tumbled all the way. Miss Nettie had a long paddle that she used so that’s what I got in my hand, several switches with that.
Q: What were some positive memories of your school days, your teachers, and the students at school?
A: It was one big family—that’s the way I remember we were. Really I hated to leave there when we had to go to George Tyler. I knew that was going to be more students; still being young, I didn’t know the teacher I was going to have. I was just used to being one big family. I have no regrets. I know I learned more those four years to get off the ground to start with than I did my first year at Georgie Tyler. It took me a year to adjust and make new friends and everything more or less.
Q: New teachers, new friends, and more students.
A: More students, yes.
Q: Do you have negative memories or impressions of your school days, teachers, and students?
A: I don’t have any against the students or the teacher. I just regret that we were so far out in the country that we didn’t get some of the things from the county that some of the other schools were able to get. I do know that that was a handicap as far as learning. The first thing was that that many students with one teacher, there were a lot of things that you just didn’t get, but I still appreciate what I did get.
Q: Do you think the teachers were more dedicated then than maybe some of them are now?
A: I know they were because I see what’s happening and each year it is getting worse.
Q: Do you think the teachers are not as dedicated now because of the amount of children and the behavior of children? Do you think that makes the teacher maybe not as dedicated?
A: Well, in some instances it could be, but it could go either way. First thing, I feel like it is a job more or less.
Q: It’s their job.
A: It’s a job.
Q: It’s a job.
A: Right, it’s a job not something you’re getting-and the money, and the students are not getting the training or the teaching they should or that they would have gotten.
Q: Are there any additional school experiences that you would like to tell me about?
A: I remember the good old homemade ice cream; nothing tastes like that now. Every PTA meeting the parents would sell hot dogs and homemade ice cream. The parents would come there, and the kids would turn the freezer to freeze the ice cream, and we just had a picnic. But it was sold. That was the way that we got the things that we needed in the classroom by what the parents did or sold.
Another fond memory—it was called May Day. We prepared for that a month ahead of time. We would go out, and parents would have whatever was necessary to wear—skirts if you were going to have a barn dance or whatever. We had special colors or skirts to be worn. Those are fond memories.
Q: After finishing school, what job changes or experience do you recall in the county—the changes that you saw from the time when you were at Fairview to now, the changes that have come up in the county?
A: Quite a few: buses, better schools, teachers, like I said. When I went to Georgie Tyler, I still had to transfer to Isle of Wight Training School; I went there until my junior year. Then I had to find a ride. That’s when we made the high school. I went to three different schools altogether. There have been a lot of changes, some for the better and some maybe not.
Q: Can you give me a short autobiographical sketch of the highlights of your life? You almost did that when you said you went to three different schools—something simple when you started at Fairview and then you went to Tyler.
A: I really went to four. From Fairview to Tyler, and to Isle of Wight Training School and back to Windsor, so it was four.
Q: So you had a lot of adjustment to do.
A: A lot of riding. I changed buses twice before I got to Isle of Wight Training School. I rode the elementary bus to Georgie Tyler and then got on another bus that was coming from Franklin to the fire tower and get off there and wait there until the other bus carried us to the Isle of Wight Training School, and this was daily. We had to sit out there. And there was a store there; we had to sit out there. Whitney, no it wasn’t-- Wells was the owner of the store. We sat out in the cold until the bus, Mrs. Alberta Brown came. So I was tired before I even got to school. The buses out in Zuni, in a rural area like that, even out to Franklin were limited for the kids going to the high school. So you to had to, they don’t fill the bus, so most of the buses were going to the elementary schools. Of course, now you have high school buses and elementary buses going everywhere. It was very inconvenient.
Q: But, you made it.
A: Yes.
Q: Sometimes I think our children have it too easy.
A: They do. That’s what I was getting ready to say. Sometimes I still work with children. I have to tell this to some of them, and they say “I just wouldn’t go to school if I had to do that.” “If I had to get out and change buses, I wouldn’t go to school.” (laughs) But I don’t regret it. It was hard, and there isn’t any use trying to get upset about it. Especially, when you would see the other bus which was geared to the white come right by you and go to their various schools and you sitting out there in the cold waiting to get on another bus.
Q: Is there anything you would like to say before we end our interview? Is there anything that you would like to say to the children of today?
A: Finishing this interview, I hope that it would help the kids of today to see what we went through, that they have it very, very good—and they did to get all the education because it is getting harder and harder out there now.
Q: I have enjoyed the interview with you, Mrs. Duck, and thank you so very much.
A: Thank you.