Interview with Mrs. Lillian Hill
March 12,2005
Interviewed by Sandra M. Lowe
Mrs. Hill grew up in the Hardy District and attended Carrollton School for all seven grades.
Q: We are at the Smithfield Isle of Wight Visitor’s Center in Smithfield. Mrs. Lillian Hill is our visitor, here to tell us of her experiences at Carrollton School. First of all Mrs. Hill, what area of Isle of Wight did you grow up in?
A: Carrollton area, the Hardy District.
Q: Did you have any sisters or brothers?
A: Four sisters and one brother. I am the youngest.
Q: Did they attend the Carrollton School as well?
A: Yes, they did.
Q: How many buildings were there?
A: Just one building with two rooms.
Q: What grades were there?
A: Grades one through seven.
Q: What year did you start there?
A: I’m not sure what year I started, but I was eight years when I started.
Q: Did you stay at that school through seventh grade?
A: Yes, I did.
Q: Do you remember what teachers were there at that time?
A: Mrs. Carol Bowman and Mrs. Alise Brown.
Q: They taught you all seven years?
A: Mrs. Bowman taught First through Fourth and Mrs. Brown Fourth through Seventh.
Q: Do you recall the history of the building or idea of when it was built or when students stopped going there?
A: No, I don’t recollect when it was built.
Q: How far did you live from the school?
A: Approximately two miles.
Q: Did you walk back and forth?
A: I rode with one of the teachers.
Q: Did you have jobs you did at home before school?
A: No, I didn’t.
Q: What did you do when you arrived at school?
A: First we had devotion. Classes started from lower grade to higher. She would call them up and teach them one at a time.
Q: And what was going on when you weren’t being taught?
A: We were reading or probably trying to do a project.
Q: So you were quiet enough not to disturb the class that was being taught?
A: Well, sometimes we weren’t being children.
Q: What do you remember about the subjects you had?
A: Books like See Jan Run, Spot, learned the alphabet from the blackboard and we had numbers on top of the blackboard. Pretty much until about the Third Grade.
Q: What was you favorite subject?
A: Math.
Q: Do you remember anything in particular about your subjects?
A: I liked science. I remember that H2O stuck with me more than anything.
Q: Did you learn about constellations and could you pick out any star clusters?
A: Yes, the Big Dipper and the falling stars.
Q: What memories of lunchtime?
A: We didn’t have a cafeteria. We had a cloakroom. There was a lady that got food from the government and she cooked for the school. I believe she cooked it at home and warmed it at school. But most of the time we brought our lunch from home.
Q: Was that when the she wasn’t there, or did you combine the two?
A: We combined the two.
Q: What kind of lunch? Hot or…?
A: I don’t remember. What sticks in my mind was sandwiches.
Q: What type of heat did you have?
A: A pot-bellied stove in the middle of each room.
Q: Did you warm food on that?
A: No, I never did.
Q: Describe the room itself, desk and so forth.
A: Teacher’s desk in front, students’ desks in front of her, stove in the back, there were folding doors that divided the two rooms. You could open the doors and combine the two rooms for exercise or whatever. In front of one room was a shelf with books that we called the library…and the blackboard.
Q: Where did you get water?
A: There was a pump outside and a big well, considered Artesian water in those days.
Q: The schoolbooks, did you have enough for each subject or did you share?
A: We purchased our own books. I never shared mine.
Q: How would you describe discipline and punishment?
A: The teachers were easy going. I remember one little girl got switched around her legs because she was VERY rude to the teachers in about the Second Grade. At times they would take a ruler and give you two or three licks on your hand.
Q: What were some of the policies of your elementary days?
A: Really, I don’t have any memories.
Q: So you enjoyed your elementary days. Do you have any experiences that we might want to hear?
A: Yes, I was hurt when I was five and my leg was amputated, so I used two crutches. So when those mean boys would try to take a crutch from me, I would knock them up side the head with it. So after about two months of school they learned I wasn’t going to be soft about it. So then they called me Meany.
Q: Any negative memories
A: No, I enjoyed it very much.
Q: Any other experience you’d like to share?
A: No, no more.
Q: Any brief highlights of your life after school?
A: I went to college, didn’t do too well. Went to cosmetology school, then married, one child. When she was four I went back to college and got a teaching degree. Worked at that ‘til ’79; taught math at Windsor and Smithfield High. Became diabetic and lost eyesight for three weeks. Came out of hospital and didn’t do anything for two years. Then got a job at Isle of Wight Sheriff’s Department doing civil processes. In meantime I had a boy in 1971. I retired in November from the Sheriff’s Department.