Interview with Neavy Graves

January 3, 2003
Interviewed by Sandra M. Lowe

 As Neavy Graves and his family moved around the county to improve their circumstances, he also attended three of the schools-Central Hill, Fairview, and Windsor. The information he gathered over the years was invaluable to this project.

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Q: Mr. Graves, if you will, first of all tell us something about Isle of Wight and where you grew up, the area?

A: I grew up in the vicinity of Windsor, the first place that I started to school was an area called Central Hill. Later on we moved to near the Windsor area.

Q: How many sisters and brothers are in your family?

A: I have five sisters and one brother.

Q: And can you tell us something about the schools they attended?

A: Two of my sisters and myself attended Central Hill. Later on three of my sisters and myself attended Fairview, that is near Zuni. The last elementary school I attended with one of my sisters was Windsor.

Q: What schools did, when you attended your schools could you tell us what grades you were in for the different ones?

A: I attended first grade at Central Hill. It was a two-room school with two teachers; Mrs. Grace Davis and Mrs. Kellan were the teachers. I attended Fairview from the second to the fifth grade. The teacher was Mrs. Nettie Whitehurst. I attended Windsor my sixth and seventh grade. That was a three-room school. The teachers were Miss Parker, Mrs. Joyner and Mrs. Marrow.

Q: Since you attended several schools can you give us a general summary of your period at the first school in the first grade, what it looked like - anything you recall as far as school days, how long your day was and so forth, what your day went like?

A: The days were nine to three, first through third grade was in one room, we had tables and chairs. The upper classes had desks. The first thing in the morning we would have devotions and then first through third grade would have reading, writing and arithmetic. The fourth through seventh grades would have history, geography, math and spelling. At Fairview we had one room, first through the seventh grade. Again the first through third grade would have reading, writing and arithmetic. Fourth through seventh would have history, geography, spelling and I believe that was it. It was interesting because you could learn quite a bit. If you really wanted to succeed you would listen to the lessons being taught to the upperclassmen. That way when you got to those classes you already knew what was going on. In the one room school, Fairview, the teacher used the sixth and seventh grade students to help the first through fifth grade students. That took a load off her. It was amazing how she could teach seven grades and really accomplish something. At Windsor, we had three different rooms. First grade was in one room, second through the fourth grade was in one room and fifth through seventh grade was in a room. Since I was in the sixth grade when I started Windsor, I really didn't get too much of a chance to listen to the lessons from the upper class. So, it wasn't like Fairview, there you could learn more because you listened to the upper classes being taught. At Windsor you had to go along with what the teacher was teaching you.

Q: What kind of jobs did you have to do before you went to school or after you came back home?

A: Before I went to school I had to feed the chickens, sometimes the hogs. I had to let the cow out in the pasture. Make sure that your bed was made and I believe that was it, the things I had to do before school.

Q: And after school?

A: After school, it all depended on the seasons of the year, but of course, I had to get my lessons, had to study, had to feed the hogs, get the cow in, feed the cow, water the cow, And if we had small chickens I had to grind corn for the small chickens; had to make sure all the chickens was up in their house before nightfall.

Q: Were there specific chores that had to be done at school before the school day started? Before your classes started, and if so, who did what?

A: In the lower grades I really didn't have any tasks but once you reached, probably the fifth grade, we had to make sure the fire was started and make sure enough coal for the day was brought in. We had to make sure that the floor was swept. These floors gathered a lot of dust and what they did they put coal oil on the floors to keep the dust down, so we could sweep the floors without raising dust, and therefore we wouldn't have to dust the tables, desks and chairs everyday. That was probably a once a week task.

Q: How did the school day start? Once everyone arrived at school and the chores were done, how did you start out the day before class actually started?

A: The day was started with a hymn and The Lord's Prayer.

Q: The school day was how long?

A: The school day was six hours. This included recess and lunch. We had recess in the morning and then lunch. I believe the recess in the morning was thirty minutes and lunch was an hour.

Q: At lunchtime can you tell us what types of activities took place during lunch? Anything you recall about what you may have had or what other students had and whether recess was included in the period?

A: Recess was included in the lunch hour. The morning recess was mainly for exercise. The teacher would actually take us out and we had exercise, jumping jacks and what have you. The lunch hour as soon as we ate our lunch, which was probably about five minutes, we'd go outside and play baseball, softball, dodge ball, jumping rope, hopscotch and games of that sort.

Q: Can you give us a description of the classroom interior? Maybe of the three buildings or if they were all alike just...

A: All of the three buildings had the same type of equipment, chalkboards, which then we called blackboards because they were all black slate. They had crayons and eraser trays at the bottom of the chalkboard. We had some maps on the wall, usually a world map or a state map. In the lower grades, also had different drawings on the walls and any artifacts that they made, they would be displayed. The upper classes normally just had their maps. We had a table with a dictionary or a couple or dictionaries on it. None of the schools had encyclopedias, just dictionaries. And one of the things that we were taught is how to use the dictionaries. The teachers all had desks, they were regular desks with drawers, and usually they had a globe of the world on their desk. That’s usually what was displayed. I can't remember anything else that was displayed on the teacher’s desk. The chairs were all hard wooden chairs, very uncomfortable. The desks were made with the seat attached to the desk itself. The desks usually had a compartment where you could store your books and lunch and so forth. As far as places for coats or hats we really didn't have anyplace, we had to hang them on the back of our desks or put them on the floor beside our desks.

Q: That was all three buildings?

A: All three buildings was the same way. We did not have any closets in any of the buildings.

Q: And how was the building heated?

A: All three buildings was heated with coal…and, of course, when you heat with coal you have to start the fire with wood and get it hot and then you put the coal on top of the wood. That way you could keep adding coal.

Q: Can you tell me who was responsible for collecting the wood and having everything ready for use in the stove?

A: Usually, it was boys in the seventh grade and if you didn't have enough boys in the seventh grade the sixth grade would also have to do it. About an hour to thirty minutes towards the end of the day, the teacher would call certain boys and tell them go into the woods and get kindling to start the fire the next morning…and they would go out, and would look for what we called lightwood. This is the type of wood that would actually burn by itself. You would strike a match to it and it would catch fire…and we would look for that and we would get pieces, small pieces. They always had an ax, so we would use an ax to chop it, if need be. We would bring that in and usually that was all we had to do in the afternoons.

Q: And restroom facilities? Outhouses, did they have those or what?

A: We had outhouses, yes. They had outhouses for the girls and another for the boys.

Q: And what did you do for water during the day?

A: The water came from pumps which was outside…and you had to bring something to school to drink out of. Because we never brought water inside, if you wanted water you had to start the pump and drink it out there.

Q: Discipline, how was discipline handled and punishment, if it was needed?

A: Discipline was handled by the teacher and depending on what you were disciplined for…what method she would use. Sometime you may get five slaps on the hand with a ruler; sometime you might get slapped on the buttocks with the ruler. It was very unusual for them to use a switch. But occasionally, you know for severe penalties, they would use a switch on your legs. I never recalled anyone getting suspended from school. The teacher normally could handle any problem themselves. So I don't remember anyone being suspended. Of course there were certain things that your parents heard about and that was your second punishment.

Q: Are there any additional experiences you would like to tell us about? Anything in particular that stands out?

A: Well, there are a few things that stand out. One, I was in the first grade at Central Hill. My teacher, Mrs. Kellan, became ill. She was out for a while and there was no replacement for her, so since Mrs. Davis was not used to teaching all seven classes, we really didn't get much instruction during that time she was out She finally came back for a few weeks and she took ill again and was out for the rest of the year, and we really didn't learn anything for the rest of the year. That was one of the reasons that the next year I attended Fairview. Fairview actually had two rooms but they only used one room. And I can remember that during lunch hour, especially during the winter time a group of us boys used to go down in the woods, down on what we used to call a skating pond and we used to skate on the ice, without skates of course, and we, we would skate with our shoes, and we couldn't hear the bell at that distance so a lot of times we were late getting back, and Mrs. Whitehurst would stand at the door with her ruler, line us up, and of course, as we went through the door she was supposed to whack us across the shoulder with the ruler. But we wised up and what we did we got a running start and all of us would rush the door and so only two or three of the boys would get hit with the ruler. But another interesting thing at Fairview was when they had spelling. What Mrs. Whitehurst would do, was whichever class was having spelling, she would line them up across the classroom, and she would call a word and you would spell it, but if you missed a word you had to sit down. And so the last person standing she declared the winner of the spelling bee, and that, for the little classes that was really fun to see people miss words and have to sit down, and so when we got in the upper class, we made sure that we knew how to spell. Windsor originally was a two-room school and they had a lunchroom where during lunch hour you went in and ate your lunch, but later on they converted the lunchroom to a classroom because there was an increase in the number of students. So then we had to eat our lunch in the regular classrooms.

Q: When you say Windsor are you talking about the small, two-room building across the street from what became Georgie Tyler School?

A: Yes, a lot of people didn't realize the name of the school was Windsor, because almost everyone called it Sugar Hill, but the correct name was Windsor Elementary School. And most people also didn't realize it was converted to a three room school because it originally was a two room school but it was converted to a three room school. The teachers was Mrs. Marrow, Mrs. Joyner and Miss Parker. We had three teachers. Also, most of the students coming from the south of Windsor, the west of Windsor and the east of Windsor rode the school bus. Those of us that came from the north of Windsor actually walked. So, for my seven years in elementary school, I walked to school everyday.

Q: Did you have any other school experiences that you wanted to add?
A: At Fairview I can remember we used to raise money for certain projects that we wanted to do by having what we called, I guess, a Friday night jamboree or a Saturday night jamboree, and we would sell hot dogs and ice cream and things of this nature. Some of the projects that we did; we would plant flowers, we would whitewash the bottom of all the trees around the school, and also we would buy things that we needed that the county did not give us, such as sometimes the broom handle would break and the county wouldn't give you another one, so we had money to purchase things like that, and sometimes we didn't have crayons and we would purchase crayons.
Q: Are there any other childhood memories that you recall that don't have to be related to school?

A: All of my childhood memories of school or church or the neighborhood was all positive. Growing up I really didn't have any bad experiences or what I thought was bad experiences. Of course, there were little fights here and there but they never amounted to anything. You know you would fight for two minutes and then you were all buddy-buddy. Another thing is unlike today, when I was in school you couldn't get away with anything because anything that you did wrong would get back to your parents. Everyone in the neighborhood raised you. If they saw you do anything, if they didn't chastise you, it got back to your parents. So that made you a better person because you were afraid to do anything wrong because everyone had their eyes one you. You know, all of the grownups treated you like one of theirs.

Q: After attending school what jobs, changes or other experiences do you recall in the county?

A: My father was always a farmer. He was a sharecropper, so myself and my sisters and my brother when we became old enough always worked on the farm. The lesson you learn on the farm is something that followed us up until this time, I'm sure, will follow us the rest of our lives. That experience I wouldn't trade for anything. Most black people in the county at that time, especially southern end of the county were farmers. Of course the northern end they worked in the shipyard and the packing plants, but we did not have many opportunities in the southern end except as farmers…and most of the black farmers in the southern end of the county, did pretty well, because one thing, you always had food on the table and that was a blessing. Most people attended church and you always had a dollar to give to the church…and this is another thing that made you a better person is the church community. You always attended Sunday school and always attended regular church services…and the, I think probably some of the best experiences was listening to older people talk. You learned almost as much listening to them as you did by going to school because they would tell about their experiences, and of course, we realized when they were telling tales. We could distinguish between the truth and tales. But the one thing they would do was gather at someone's house and just talk. Talk and talk for hours, and the kids wouldn't even play when they was doing this, they would sit around and listen. And that's an experience I will always cherish. I'll never forget it.

Q: That concludes my questions. Unless you have something else you would like to add, then we could call this interview to a close. Is there anything else you would like to add?

A: No, I think that's...Well there's one thing I would like to say, is that your father, Mr. Lowe, was involved with all of my sisters and my brother, either as an instructor or a principal, but he never taught me one day. I was never under his tenure of one day, and he used to always tease me about that and I regret that he never taught me.