Interview with Mrs. Olydia Holland
November 8, 2003
Interviewed by Sandra Lowe
Mrs. Holland went to Bridger School on Benn’s Church Road. It reportedly had two rooms, grades 1 through 5, and burned down
Q: I understand that you also grew up in the area of Smithfield for Bridger’s School and we interviewed your sister Miss Elmira Wiggins earlier. Would you like to tell us some of your remembrances of where the school was located and what you did in the first couple of grades?
A: O.K. I did attend Bridger’s School and it was then two rooms. Long porch and there was just a few steps to go up to get on the porch and it had a walkway to the end of the road. It also had a fence out there that how we kept the children back from the traffic and we would go in the building, my first year in school was Ms. Maggie Jordan. She was short and a very nice lady and there were time when we had a substitute, Mrs. Valentine and I remember the pot-belly stove that we heated by coal and the boys loved to go and they had a building in the back of the schools where they kept the coal and the older boys would go and get coal and bring it in. When those stoves got heated up they were ready, heat the whole room. They were tables without desk and front was like a little pillow in front of the table that we kept our books on. Like under the table. __________________
Q: What year would you have started the first grade? When were you born?
A: I was born in 1944.
Q: And you were six when you went to school? That would have been 1950 in the first grade. Bridger’s still were grades one to five?
A: To me somewhere in the back of my mind it seems that it went higher than that. It was like part of the grade was at Bridger and part was at Isle of Wight. That’s the way it seems to me.
Q: Do you remember what grade you were in when you went to the training school?
A: I believe I was in the sixth. But what I’m saying first Bridger’s School went from grade one to maybe about the fifth and then they picked the children up from the sixth. It was like part of the children went to Bridger’s and part went to Smithfield of this particular grade, somewhere in the back of my mind but really can’t get it together.
Q: Where was Bridger’s School? You said that they had a fence up to keep students from going on the highway.
A: It was, as I recall number 10. On Route 10. It was between Benn’s Church and Chuckatuck.
Q: Right on the road?
A: Right on the road.
Q: If you were going to Chuckatuck from Smithfield, what side would it have been on?
A: On the right.
Q: Do you recall, did you ever hear of anything about when the school was built?
A: I can’t remember that, but it had been there for many years.
Q: As far as you know when it was built, the county built it?
A: No I really don’t know.
Q: How far did you have to walk to school?
A: Oh Lord yes, walked to school. I remember when the snow was on the ground and I, it was like the road had a lot of ice on it and I couldn’t walk across that road, I had to cross on the other side. I could not walk on that ice. I got on my knees and I crawled from one side of the road to the other. That was my best way of getting across.
Q: So when you got across you stayed on the other side?
A: Yes I did. I stayed on that side until I got to the end of the road. We stayed at the end of the road called a tan road and that was near the school.
Q: Did you have any chores that you did before or after school?
A: Before school we had chores to do at home before we went to school. Take the wood in the house and get the water.
Q: That was about it? You didn’t have to sweep or
A: Oh Lord yes, make beds, wash dishes, _______
Q: All the housework that needed to be done, each one of you had different things to do?
A: Ehhuh
Q: What do you recall about your school day? When you first got to school what happened from that point?
A: We had devotion. I remember we use to sing this song, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah. It was the first time I really, really sing that song and as I grew older my mind went back to that’s the song we use to sing in school and the kids sing it today.
Q: What else do you remember?
A: I remember Mrs. Mattie saying to me one time (end of tape, could not understand anymore.)
After while it was like the bump would get infected that’s the way it looked to me and after while the scab would dry and it would pop off? But then later they stopped doing that.
Q: What do you recall about your subjects?
A: I use to like reading. Reading and math we use to call it arithmetic and we use to do a match thing in a book, maybe it was a spelling book, it probably was, and it was nice.
Q: Did you have any programs or do you remember participating in any plays or anything of that sort?
A: I can’t remember that. I really can’t.
Q: What do you recall about the lunch period? What did you do?
A: Oh, I remember during lunchtime Miss Mattie used to share those good cookies and Eunice Copeland, she married my brother, and she and I were buddies in school and we used to get our little cookies and go outside, we were told not to go on the other side of the fence, but we had our little hiding place over there and we use to go over there, honeysuckle would grow on the fence and we would go up under the honeysuckle and talk and eat those cookies. We weren’t supposed to be doing that, but we did that and to me that was fun.
Q: In those days you didn’t really have to worry about anything, even if you were in an area like that.
A: It’s the truth, It’s the truth. Now you couldn’t go near honeysuckle (laughter).
Q: What do you remember about the inside of the building? The rooms?
A: There was tables, even though it was one big room the grades was sectioned off. That means when you were in first grade you were in this area _________________________and again I think Ms. Mattie had part of the third grade and Mrs. Parker had part. It’s like they were divided. Like a certain time during the day they had certain classes.
Q: What did you do for water and for heat?
A: O.K. We had the coal, the potbelly coal stove for heat. We had a pump in the back of the school, a hand pump we got our water from and way on the far end, like going toward Tann Road on the school ground and going back in that direction like we would go home, they had the outside toilet and it had a little fence like around it. You know when you were in there couldn’t anybody from the road see you.
Q: Did you have an area for your coats and hats or was that actually in the classroom?
A: No, it was separate. O.K. the classroom had a separation of a closet You would open the door and go into the closet and the closet was rather long because where they meet on that particular classroom. Each class had a closet.
Q: Did you have any negative memories of school?
A: Nothing. They were all good.
Q: What were some of your good memories that perhaps you haven’t mentioned?
A: In the second grade reader, it was I probably wouldn’t pronounce it right because I simply can’t talk. In the second grade reader I remember this story Mother Hubbard or maybe it was A Beautiful Maiden. Anyway she had two daughters, one of them was beautiful and lazy and oh sorry, one of them was beautiful and smart and one was ugly and lazy and the smart one was at the well getting some water and it so disturbed me, she leaned over too far and she fell down the well. ___________________ and she stayed there and worked and worked. After she stayed there a period of time she said she missed her family and because she was so smart they led her to the door and when she got to the door gold just fell down on her and she had a little gold cap on. She had on a long dress, her apron was gold and I think she had on gold shoes. Anyway after awhile she ended up at their house and when the ugly daughter saw her oh she was she decided she wanted to get her some gold, so she didn’t go to the well to get some water, she went to the well and jumped down. She jumped down the well so she could get the Mother out. And she stayed there and she didn’t want to do anything and when it was time for her to come home she thought she was going to get some gold. When she got to the door black tar dripped on her and so the story went it stayed on her until she stopped being lazy. When I read this story and this house was sitting at the edge of the woods and after I finished reading the story I sat there and kind of thought about that. I thought I’d like to stay in the house sitting on the edge of the woods and would you believe in 70, I think it was 72, 1972 we moved to a house with a well at the edge of the woods. It was just like God heard me and he had prepared this house for me and after I got to the part that, I used to be in a two-room trailer and my brother Andrew was staying in a house. So when I got to this house it come back to me, I remembered this story I read____________It really was nice.
Q: Are there any other school experiences that you want to tell us about?
A: I went to Isle of Wight Training. I enjoyed that too because we, when we would go out for recess, we played ball and run and talk and just have a good time. Oh, at Bridger School we use to have a May pole in the month of May.
Q: May Day?
A: We use to wrap the May pole and that was nice. That was at Bridger’s school.
Q: You had the whole day for May Day or half day?
A: I believe, I think we started early. It was like a, like a holiday at school. I don’t remember doing no work that day. ________May day.
Q: Lots of games and activities and class activities?
A: You know what the only thing I can remember was wrapping that pole. And I’m sure something else was going on but that’s what caught my eye was wrapping that pole.
Q: Did you have a May Day queen?
A: You know what I can’t remember. All I remember is wrapping that pole. I don’t remember anything else O.K. all I can remember was it was May Day and we wrapped that pole. And I know there were other things going on but right now I can’t remember.
Q: And that was when you were at Bridger’s?
A: Yes, Bridger’s School.
Q: Did they continue that when you went to the training school?
A: When I went to the training school, I guess they wrapped the pole, I guess but I can’t remember.
Q: Didn’t stand out as much as it did at your earlier age?
A: I think at the high school they had the May Day queen. I think they did, it seemed like they did anything.
Q: I know they did, but I don’t know the years, I know they did have that for some time. Would you give us the highlights of your life after high school?
A: When I come out of school I, the thing that I shouldn’t have done, but now I look at is as a stage of learning. I got pregnant at a young age being disobedient to the parents. It paid for my learning. So I end up getting pregnant, when I come out of school I went in ninth grade homeroom and I was taking a chance______________. I had a little girl and I did a small amount of housework and I went to other places trying to get a job but for some reason they never hired me. Never hired me. Oh, I want to add this to it. In High School we went to Connecticut To work and we used to work on the tobacco farm and thank God I had a trophy second place and that was exciting for me. I got that trophy for courage and ability and that meant so much. Even as amount due to my health and my hands, I’m not able to work; I thank God for being alive. It’s just like right now to me its nice to share __________________ Go back in memories of yesteryears. It’s nice and I really appreciate you giving me the opportunity to share it.
Q: Thank you.
A: Beautiful moment. I often think about those good old school days and Bridger school where it first began and we speak of the may pop. Now to me the maypop was a yellow fruit. It was soft and the color was between a lemon and a lime, maybe it was a lime color. Between yellow and green. __________________________
Q: That’s what I remember the honeysuckle being, but I may have gotten them all mixed up.
A: Like I do most of the time. But this maypop grew up off the ground on a vine. _______ on the inside it had a seed and it was such a light color. The seeds were similar to an orange. __________________. And the little round thing, it was salt and the seed in it but they certainly were good and then too we used to eat huckleberries. Huckleberries used to be down Tan Rd. and the stream of water that used to be deep in the sand and let the water run off and then we would get down and drink it. Oh, that water was sooooooo good. It was cool and after walking in the sunshine that was some good water and then too. O.K. Down Tan Rd was this stream of water and it was a high hill and we used to climb up and jump down across the water. The water used to run down by the hill. We would get on top of the hill and jump down on the road area. That was fun. Now, height bothers me, I ain’t for climbing. I don’t like to even go up steps.
Q: In the days before you learned to be afraid of things.
A: Thank you very much. That’s it, that’s it. Just like ________________on the honeysuckle patch. We used to pull it apart so we could get that juice out. There was another flower that used to grow along the side of the road. We used to call it, I think its name was “touch me not”.
Q: Never heard of that.
A: We could pull them off and if you were real gentle with it , it wouldn’t unfold. The way could pull off and if you were gentle with it would stay fold up like but if you pull it off ___________________it would unfold. It was just , it was stiffen like that and where unfold it would just curl back. It was really amazing. Good old school days.