Q: This is June 19, 2003. My name is Neavy Graves and I am interviewing Mrs. Lucy Gray for the Schoolhouse Museum. What area of Isle of Wight did you grow up in?
A: Windsor--- Holly Grove, actually.
Q: What school did you attend?
A: I attended Central Hill School.
Q: How many sisters and brothers do you have?
A: I have one sister and one brother.
Q: What grades were taught at Holly Grove, I’m sorry, Central Hill?
A: One through seven. One to three on one side, four to seven on the other, in the other room.
Q: Can you remember the names of your teachers?
A: Miss Lilly Mae Chapman, Miss Gladys Chapman, Miss Howell, and I believe Miss Hart.
Q: Do you have any information about the history of Central Hill?
A: I really don’t have any history. I just went there.
Q: How many rooms did they have?
A: Two rooms.
Q: How did you get to and from school?
A: I walked a mile and a quarter to Roberts Store and then I caught the bus to Central Hill School.
Q: Do you remember having to do any jobs at home before school or after school?
A: Yes, indeed. I was a farmer’s daughter. Okay. I had to milk the cow, sometimes. Then take the cow out in the pasture, way out in the field and pasture. That was my job to do before school.
Q: What about after school?
A: Come home, get a snack of fried meat and bread and go get that same cow and bring her back in for the night and get in wood too. I had to do that.
Q: Did you have any homework to do?
A: I don’t really recall having any to do. I loved to read. I probably read when I got there but I don’t remember them giving us homework.
Q: Did you have any chores to do once you got to school?
A: I didn’t have menial labor but the teacher want me, asked me to correct papers for her and I remember teaching a girl how to say “blue”. I mean I spent days teaching her to say “blue”. And still today, after she couldn’t say blue, I told her b-lue and now she says b-lue today.
Q: How did your school day start?
A: I think we lined up in a line and went to our classes and give the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. I think that’s how school day started.
Q: What subjects did you cover?
A: Reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling. That was the first grade, I think. Then over in the next half, we had history, I think. We had geography and history; I believe, in the second, second part.
Q: Were there any specific textbooks or readers that stand out in your mind?
A: Yes, “We work and play”, “See Jane Run”, “See Dick Play”, See Puff, whatever the cat did and the dog, Spot.
Q: How long was your school day?
A: I think we went from 9 until 3, I believe.
Q: What time did the bus pick you up after school?
A: Must have been about 3:30. Three or 3:30, I think.
Q: How long was the school year?
A: Seems like we got out from September to June, to May, I mean. Seems like it was May. Seems like it was earlier than it is now.
Q: Where did you eat lunch? How long was your lunch period?
A: It was probably-we ate lunch outside. We ate lunch in buckets and cans that we took. Left them eating lunch right into our play area, playtime. I think that was about an hour.
Q: If you didn’t bring your lunch, could you go to the store and purchase something during your lunch period?
A: I think so.
Q: Did you have any recess?
A: You know, I don’t remember about a recess.
Q: Can you recall playing any games?
A: Oh yes. We played dodge ball and if you had a ________________ decorate that. I had the nerve to be on the end one time about threw me to the moon. I remember that.
Q: How would you describe your classroom? What did it look like? What was in it?
A: All I can see is that, you know, it was the teacher’s desk and there was a stove, coal stove there and there was a desk. Student’s desk. I don’t know, I think we had a big batch of tables too that we set at tables, you know…and they had, I should ask that question again, a closet. I really truly remember that. I remember being locked in the closet one day.
Q: Did you have blackboards?
A: Yes.
Q: What about pencil sharpeners?
A: Not too much. We had pencil sharpeners. It used to be on the teacher’s desk ‘cause I used to like to go up and sharpen my pencil and go up to the teacher’s desk. You know we always admired the teacher’s desk.
Q: And you stated that the school was heated by coal in the winter. Who made the fire and who kept the fire going?
A: The oldest there made the fire and kept it going too.
Q: What type water supply did you have?
A: We had a pump.
Q: Well, did you have to go out to the pump to get water or water was brought in from the pump?
A: I believe they brought their water in most of the time because I remember having, we used to make paper cups out of a piece of paper and they’d take a cup and drink water from a cup like that.
Q: How would you describe your teacher’s desk?
A: I’m sure it was not as huge as I thought it was, but I thought it was a huge desk with good things on it, pencil sharpeners, pencils, apples sometimes. I think it was just a wooden desk. Maybe it was a wooden table.
Q: Describe your desk.
A: That’s where I’m lost. For some reason, I got my mind on this desk that, you know, a little desk with a little thing. But just like somebody was, we had them back then. But I think we were at the table one by one but I can’t get that in my head straight so I’m going to leave that one.
Q: What school supplies did you use?
A: Pencils and paper and crayons. Yes, crayons and glue.
Q: Who purchased those supplies?
A: I guess the kids must have purchased them but I can’t remember. I find that, at one point _________
Q: Who provided your books?
A: Somewhere along the line we had paid half price for books that were left but I don’t know how we got the first books…and then when the second hand books come along, we paid like half price for the books.
Q: Were there any teacher aids on the walls such as maps, ABCs, or multiplication tables?
A: I can’t recall that. I only recall things like holiday things that they put on the wall. I can’t recall the other.
Q: What about your lighting? Did you have electricity or lamps or natural light?
A: Oil lamps. I remember that.
Q: You stated already that there was a cloakroom. Right. Did you use it for anything else besides coats?
A: The teacher used it for something else besides coats. We used it for coats and your boots, goulashes, and this young man went in; the teacher used it for punishment for bad boys…and this bad boy went in and cut my goulashes. I remember that well.
Q: Can you describe what discipline was like?
A: Uh-huh. I never, I thought I would never get disciplined for anything because I was such a good girl, kid I guess too. But there was a look in the man and there was a switch. A tiny, teeny switch. I remember getting switched because my cousin had a baldhead and I thought it was my privilege to pluck it whenever I got ready since it was my cousin, see. So when that teacher switched me across my hand for plucking his head, I was hurt. I thought, I couldn’t believe she was switching me. This was my cousin, you know, and I had a right. They used switches too and rulers.
Q: Do you remember if you had any activities during the school day or school year? During the school day or during the night?
A: We used to have plays. I remember doing plays. I can’t remember. We had activities. I know that we had a lot of plays, every season and then I think we did devotions too, in the morning. Yeah, we did. When we left that school I remember saying “Now the day is over. Now you try that.”
Q: Did you have graduation exercises?
A: Not while I was there anyway. No.
Q: What about May Day activities?
A: Guess what, I can’t recall having May Day activities at that school, at that particular school.
Q: How about, can you ever recall having a consolidated May Day activity at Isle of Wight Training School?
A: Yes, I remember that. I was in the relay races and then I wrapped, opened the May pole.
Q: What was that like?
A: That was so, that was much fun. That was really good. It was so enjoyable.
Q: What are some of your positive memories of school or your teachers or fellow students?
A: Teacher named Miss Lilly Mae Chapman. Well, I used to cry every day to go to school with my brothers and sisters were going…and my Daddy broke down one day and let me go. I don’t know what he did to get me on the bus but anyway, they took me…and when I, when I went to school I could read, write, and then Miss Chapman was helping somebody to read. They couldn’t read and I just told her I could do it, you know…and I read it. That was January…and from that day she let me go to school from that day. I used to correct papers and do all the good stuff like that. I started in the middle of school and I passed right on to the second grade.
Q: So you started when you were five?
A: I was six.
Q: You were six.
A: I was in school good because school had started earlier but I went in the middle. It’s still my life almost, going to school. I loved it.
Q: Any other positive experiences at school?
A: I know there’s some more but I can’t think at the moment. But, you know, doing, correcting papers and things, that was, I liked that, you know. But I did that one, corrected one gentleman’s paper, he was getting me so, it was wrong, you know. Marked it as wrong. Looked at me so hard, I almost fainted. But anyway, I enjoyed school, a lot.
Q: Do you have any negative memories?
A: Yes. Let me go back to this. I don’t know what you would call this, a positive or what, but anyway, this is a, ___________anyway, I had a negative. Two girls. Teachers left school and went somewhere just to test us I’m sure and told us “Don’t leave the school grounds.” Okay. Some of the, two girls told me, I want you to go to the shop and I’ll give you a strawberry soda, strawberry kits, and some Big E Bits and all that good stuff. You know, I could not resist. I had to disobey the teacher and go to the shop. Come back, they caught me…and I screamed and cried so much that my dad was in, I didn’t even know he was in the community. He was at one of his friend’s homes cleaning fish. He heard the scream. I still don’t know how he knew it was me but he might have recognized my, found I could. But anyway, he heard some shouts and he loved children and that was my bad luck. Purdy come down the road with a knife, you know, still got his fishing bag. People almost fainted when he came in but he was not going, you know, he just had the knife in his hand from fishing…and they were so nice. And now, everything’s fine. She’s going to be okay. We’re not going to do anything to hurt her. Well, they didn’t do anything that day but the next day made me stand before the class and tell what I had done…and you know what? I did not go home and tell my Daddy anything. I was glad that this was over. That was my bad experience…and the funny experience was that this guy, you know his name Roger Brown, great big fat; he was just pulling a buggy. And I accidently stepped on his buggy…and he cried, “Oh, my buggy, my buggy.” And I mean I was really hurt from that and I never forgot it and I told him about it. Since he think that, playing football. That was a funny experience.
Q: Are there any other additional school experiences you would like to tell us about?
A: Let me see. Well, I don’t know why but I used to fight pretty often. I didn’t know why I did that. I’m not a person to fight but I just couldn’t stand nothing, I guess. I guess when somebody bothered me and then I would fight. ___________I remember. When my eyes lowered to my brother, I didn’t know it was him. He said, “Hold it, hold it, it’s me.” Pretty much everything was good. I wanted to go so bad anyway so pretty much being too much bad for me.
Q: Are there any other childhood memories that was not connected to the school that you would like to tell us about?
A: I tell you this memory. At Christmas time, on that eve we left. My brother had to go and that Christmas morning it snowed and we got, found deer tracks in the snow. I always remember that. It was so real to us that it was, you know, we just knew little reindeers had come and brought little toys. Santa Clause and his reindeer. It was only the goat.
Q: After attending school, what jobs, changes, or any other experiences do you recall in the county?
A: I worked my first job; I worked at Starbean in Portsmouth during Christmas. I worked for them five years-and then I went to work for a contractor. I was a secretary for T. E. Associates…and then I went to 78. They went out of business and I went to 78 Insurance. They were called 78 then. ___________Life now. And from there I went to Universal Life Insurance Company. They had an office in Danville, Virginia. They took everything to Memphis. And my last job was at Delks in Smithfield, after that. A lot of changes. I mean the bus. It didn’t use to pick us up. We had to walk a mile to it 'cause it went right by black children. It came right by their door step. I remember when I don’t know whether he got two person probably juice and stuff like that. You know. Somebody from the county used to come by the school and bring us grapefruit juice and grapefruits. Used to bring us two. Different things like. I remember that.
Q: Do you wish to tell us about your family, your education, and anything that happened in your life after school?
A: Wonder should I go there. Until I got married, my high school sweetheart and we separated. I was married to Selester Uzzle for 40 years. He enjoyed, we had one child and me and my second husband had four children. When my second husband passed, I came back again and married my high school sweetheart. And my children are well. What else did you ask me?
Q: Your education and…
A: I’m educated. I started at Central Hill, went to Windsor, graduated and went to Isle of Wight Training. Stopped in the 11th. Went to Suffolk and got my GED diploma. Took typing…and that was my education.
Q: Is there anything else you wish to tell us about your life?
A: No, I just thank the Lord that I’ve lived this long…and I’m able to talk about this and that I’m happy.
Q: Well, we thank you for this interview and we hope that the Schoolhouse Museum opens and that you can tell people that, hey, I am in there…and go see what I had to say and to look at my video. We thank you.
A: You’re welcome. Thank you.