Interview with Mrs. Mary Francis B. Everett
September 12, 2002
Interviewed by Jean Uzzle
Mrs. Everett attended Christian Home School during the years after the second room was added. She is a daughter of Bertha Batten who was also interviewed.
Q: Ms. Everett, Did you grow up in this area? Where?
A: Yes, I did. I grew up on Windsor Road.
Q: How many sisters and brothers did you have? What school did they attend?
A: You see my sisters and my brothers like I say I didn’t know all them. They were passed. I didn’t know them all.
Q: So, you attended Christian Home School?
A: Yes. I have six sisters that I know Mabel, Lillian and Clarice were at school together.
Q: When you attended Christian Home School was it a one room or two-room school at that time?
A: It was a two-room school.
Q: At that time what grades did they teach?
A: They started from the first grade to the seventh grade, because I went to the seventh grade.
Q: How many teachers and do you remember the names of some of your teachers?
A: Yes, Ms. Mattie White was my first teacher. Ms. Wilson was my teacher and Ms. Frances Branch Turner. She was a teacher, and I had Mr. Robert Kelly was a teacher and also Mrs. Brown.
Q: Now some of the teachers that you had were they from this area or were they from somewhere else. Or can you remember?
A: Well, I think Miss White (Mattie) was from Windsor. I know Ms. Turner; she was from Suffolk and also Mr. Robert Kelly and also Mrs. Brown (Eula).
Q: How did the teachers get to school, when you were going? Can you remember?
A: Well, they had someone to bring them from Suffolk.
Q: Now how did you get to school?
A: Walked, Walked.
Q: Approximately how far did you have to walk to get to school?
A: Well around three or four miles.
Q: So, that meant you walked in the rain, cold weather, sunshine or whatever?
A: Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. Like I said Papa didn’t bring us on the cart. Mule and carthorse and cart.
Q: And I guess at that time most of the kids walked.
A: Yeah, everybody walked. We didn’t have no buses or nothing.
Q: Can you tell me when you got to school in the morning exactly what some things that you might have done when you first get to school in the morning?
A: Well, most of the time when we got to school we would, if the teacher wasn’t there we wouldn’t be able to get in. We would just have to stay on the outside until someone come up to open the door.
Q: When you went to school especially in the wintertime. Who did the heat or fires? Started the fires, things like that?
A: Well most of the time the boys you know they get there, they and the teacher would start the fire.
Q: And then after that were school ready to start. Did they have devotion or anything like that?
A: Oh Yes, Yes we always had devotion in the morning.
Q: Can you remember the subjects that you had?
A: We had reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling and they called it language then instead of English, Geography and History.
Q: So you went on after you finished there to Smithfield High School? Well, which was Isle of Wight training school?
A: Isle of Wight training school at that time?
Q: Can you remember what year that was, that you started?
A: No.
Q: Did you have books to cover those subjects that they taught at that time?
A: Your parents had to buy your books. Your parents brought your books.
Q: Do you have any idea how many hours you spent a day in the school or in the classroom?
A: No, I really don’t. But I know we would try to. I really don’t know how long we stayed in the classroom.
Q: If you did any time, say maybe you had to be at school by 9’oclock in the morning and you probably got out about 2 or 3.
A: Yeah, so you could get home in time before dark because everybody was walking.
Q: About your lunch breaks? Can you remember how long you had for lunch? And then you had a break in the morning. Do you remember?
A: For lunch, because we would eat lunch and then we would go out and play and then would go back to class. Then after class we would go home. So maybe 45 minutes or close to an hour for lunch break. 10 minute break in the morning.
Q: At that time they did not have bathroom there. So if you had to use the bathroom during school time what happened?
A: You just ask the teacher can you be excused and you go out to the back.
Q: Tell me how you would describe the classroom? What was in the room? If you can remember what was there. Can you tell me if the classes were sitting together according to a class? Like if you were in first grade, would all first grades be in the row? All second grades? And like that?
A: Yeah, all first grades in one row. Then the second grade, and the third grades and the fourth grades. Because I the other room it was the fifth, sixth, and seventh grade. Yeah, we would be sitting at the desk.
Q: What else was in the classroom?
A: We had the blackboard and you had the coat closet to put your coats in.
Q: Now at that time they didn’t have water in the schools. What did you do for drinking water?
A: We use to come over here to the pump on the church ground and get our water. That’s how we got our water to drink.
Q: Can you remember what they heated the school with?
A: Iron pot bellied stove.
Q: Was it wood or coal at the time that you went? Because I think sometime when I read some of them first started off with wood.
A: Yeah, we had wood but then the gradually go coal. But mostly it was wood.
Q: So is there anything else you can tell me about how it went during the course of a day at school?
A: Well it was enjoyment for me when we have recess we would play ball, dodge ball, ring around roses and different little games like that.
Q: How would you describe your teacher’s desk?
A: Like this desk here. She was always sitting in the front to face us.
Q: You said they had blackboards. Did the kids have to clean the blackboards off for them sometimes?
A: Yeah, sometime you had to wash the blackboard and the boys sometimes had to clean the floors.
Q: Your school supplies?
A: Your parents brought them.
Q: I noticed most of the older schools had a row of windows. So how was the lighting in the school?
A: Lighting was from the windows. We did not have electricity at the time. We didn’t have electricity in our homes.
Q: You had a coatroom to hang your coats?
A: Yes we had a coatroom.
Q: Can you tell me about punishment? If the children misbehaved? How was punishment when you were in school?
A: The teacher would have a switch or paddle you know, give you some licks in your hand or on your legs one.
Q: Do you think they had a lot of discipline problems with children at that time?
A: No, I don’t think they did because most kids they know what the parents was going to do. Most time they would obey the teacher because the teacher would report it to your parent and you know you would get another whipping when you get home.
Q: So that whipping served its purpose, didn’t it?
A: Yes it did.
Q: Is there anything else or any experience that you had while you were in school that In your mind the enjoyment you had while you were going to school? Is there anything? Maybe some affair or something during the year that you always look forward to enjoying.
A: Oh yeah Fridays we would have a little program and we would have to bring our Sunday school book. That was on Friday. In the afternoon we would have a little program. That was enjoyment and sometimes-different ones would say poems and everything we would have that.
Q: AT that time when you spoke a poem did most of the children learn the poem? They didn’t read it nor did they recite it?
A: Most time they recited it.
Q: At the end of school year, did you have anything for school closing? A school-closing program?
A: I don’t think so, I can’t remember.
Q: Is there anything else you like to tell me about growing up at Christian Home School?
A: Yes, Margaret Jordan and I were the first ones to cook, when the government started giving. She and I would go back there our certain time and do a little cooking. Somebody gave a stove. I don’t know who.
Q: What did you all cook?
A: We would cook grits, and she would make biscuits. I can’t remember all of the things. But I remember the first thing they gave us was apples. That was really enjoyment and I remember once they took some pictures and we used to have 4-H. Mr. Odom came out with Virtley Porter. I was the president of the 4-H.
Q: So when you had that did the girls learn to sew and cook and stuff from that?
A: Yes, we did because I remember I made an apron. That was the first thing I made.
Q: One last question I want to ask you. You said once you left there you went to Isle of Wight training school. So when the kids finished Christian Home School in seventh grade I imagine there was no graduation like they have now? Was it? Do you remember?
A: Yeah, we went to Main Street Church in Smithfield at the old church. Other classmates and students, Ida Mae Williams Johnson, Ella Mae Jordan, Thelma Newby, Barbara Jordan and James Fred Dodd.
Thank you Mrs. Everett for giving us some highlights on your years at Christian Home School. Thank you so much.