Q: This is August 12, 2003 and I’m at Pulaski Baptist Church, I’m Jean Uzzle and we’re interviewing Mrs. Ivery Knight. Mrs. Knight, what area of Isle of Wight did you grow up in?
A: Carrsville area.
Q: How many sisters and brothers did you have?
A: I have three sisters and one brother.
Q: Where did they go to school?
A: They went to Camptown, Smithfield, and Georgie Tyler.
Q: What school did you attend?
A: I attended Carrsville Elementary, Camptown Elementary, Smithfield High School, Isle of Wight County Training School and Georgie Tyler High School.
Q: What grades were taught at Carrsville?
A: At Carrsville, we had grades one through four.
Q: How many classrooms were there?
A: Two.
Q: So what grades were taught there?
A: Grades one through four.
Q: Can you remember what year that was?
A: I believe I started in 1947.
Q: How many teachers did you have?
A: We had two.
Q: Who were some of your teachers?
A: We had Mrs., Miss Catherine Chapman and Coma P. Walden.
Q: Do you have any information or history on Carrsville Schools? When it opened and when it closed? Whether it was owned by the county or by, or was a private owned school?
A: It was operated by county.
Q: How did you get to school?
A: I walked, unfortunately.
Q: How many miles approximately?
A: Approximately a half.
Q: Did you have any jobs to do before and after school?
A: Always.
Q: Some of them were?
A: Making sure the rooms were clean before we left home, getting in wood for fire, getting in water to drink and wash clothes and if you didn’t complete it in the morning, you completed it in the afternoon.
Q: So once you were at school, did you have any chores to do at school?
A: At school we had to keep the room clean. We had to go out and get coal for heat and those kind of things.
Q: How did your school day start once you got to school?
A: We had devotional period in the morning. I feel, at this time, it’s very much needed.
Q: What subjects did you cover once you got to school? What subjects did you have to learn?
A: I can remember reading, writing, arithmetic, a little social studies; we called it history at that time.
Q: Was there a specific text book or reader that you were kinda fond of?
A: Well, the only thing that strikes my memory at this time is a little reader that dealt with Dick, Jane, Sally, Spot, Tim.
Q: How long was your school day?
A: Approximately 5½ to 6 hours a day, the regular school day.
Q: How long was your school year? When did you go to school and what time did you get out?
A: I believe we started like in August and was out in June. Whatever Isle of Wight required.
Q: Now, about your lunch, how long did you have for lunch and where did you eat lunch?
A: We ate lunch in the classroom and we had approximately a half hour and that was monitored depending on the classroom.
Q: Did you have a recess other than your lunch period?
A: Not often __________ but they did give us a break to go outside and play for a few minutes.
Q: Games like?
A: Dodge ball, anything that you could come up with. We had very little or no equipment at that time.
Q: You had to make your own fun?
A: You had to make your own fun.
Q: How would you describe your classroom?
A: Small, filled with students, well mannered, very well mannered, which was required by our teachers. Well disciplined and that was expected by all.
Q: How was your school heated in the wintertime?
A: We had a potbelly stove, heated with coal; didn’t have coal, out of coal- we’d have wood and students had to bring in the wood for it.
Q: How was your water supply at the school?
A: We had a pump, hand pump.
Q: How would you describe your teacher’s desk?
A: Very cluttered. I think they tried to get everything they needed at that ________.
Q: Was there a chalkboard or a blackboard used?
A: Blackboards, yes. We called them blackboards.
Q: What school supplies were used or did you have to furnish your own school supplies?
A: Basically we had to supply everything that we used. We had pencils, ink pens out of the question at that time. If we could find a pencil, that was remarkable.
Q: What about your books, were they bought or did they give you books?
A: I don’t remember now.
Q: Were there any teacher’s aids on the walls, such as maps?
A: Very few maps, basically, ABC’s; they believed in teaching us to read and write.
Q: Can you recall the lighting system? Were there natural light? Was there electricity, or how did you get, how did you get your light?
A: I can’t recall but during that day, we had a lot of lamp light. I cannot specifically recall the lighting.
Q: Did you have somewhere to hang your coats? Can you recall if there was a little room or something?
A: We had hangers on the wall. We just hung our coats against the wall on little hooks.
Q: Can you describe your discipline or punishment in the classroom at that time?
A: If we misbehaved, we had extra work to do. We were not offered the opportunity to go out and play when the other kids went out.
Q: What childhood memories do you have of your school, your teachers and of the students at that time?
A: The students were very cooperative of each other. The teachers were very positive. They believed in discipline which is very much needed as I compare yesterday with today. The old adage, it takes a village to raise a child; we did not misbehave ‘cause if our parents were not home, the neighbor acted as the parent and then you had a chain of command from school to the neighborhood parent and we did not want to ___________ the parents.
Q: Were there any negative memories, impressions of your school days with your teachers or students?
A: No negative experiences except for the fact we had to walk to school regardless of what the weather was like.
Q: Are there any other experiences that you had that you would like to tell us about in your school days at Carrsville?
A: Well, we didn’t have the up to date books at that time. Whatever was handed down and used books is what we had, but we made the most of what we had.
Q: Are there any early childhood memories that you can recall which was connected to your school?
A: Not really, because everybody knew everybody at the school and we played. Once we started school, same as we saw in the afternoon, after school, we just played; nothing different. It was just an extension of the day.
Q: What was it like when it was very, very cold and you walked to school?
A: You didn’t walk long because you faced that cold weather but once you got there, the classroom was nice and warm. I don’t know who made the fire, more important, but the fact it was nice and warm even though it was cold during the day.
Q: After attending school, what jobs, changes, or other experiences can you recall that happen in the county?
A: Well, my most recollected experiences were having to change schools so many times. Passing schools to get to other schools. Segregation wasn’t ____________ at that time. Which I feel it should not have been, because everybody is supposed to be treated alike, not differently. But as a means of getting an education, we had to do what we had to do.
Q: Now, I’m going to ask you one last question, can you give me a small autobiography of your life in general from your early days in Carrsville up until now?
A: What I can remember, I started to school at Carrsville, which is now a private home. I left fourth grade, we went to Camptown Elementary School to the seventh grade. We left Camptown Elementary School and went to Isle of Wight County Training School. In 1958, we left Isle of Wight County Training School and went to Windsor High School. When I finished high school in 1959, I wanted to go to college. Having grown up as a welfare recipient, I’d asked my Mom if I could go to college and she said, “I don’t, I can’t send you. I don’t have the__________. ” I said, “All I need is your permission.” At that time they’d just started recruiting students from the high school to go to Connecticut to work in the tobacco fields and I was one of the first ones in that group to go to Connecticut. Having gone to Connecticut, I was able to get into Norfolk State, which is now Norfolk State University. At that time, tuition was $314 a year. I was able to make that plus buy my books and my clothing; still having no money from home, I had to work part-time jobs at school during the day. I was living at the _____ which was about eight blocks from the school and I walked to school. When I got out of class, I had a part-time job at a restaurant waiting tables. I did that for three years. I got married my senior year and that’s when I picked up a nice young man that I married in 1962 who was also from Carrsville. His name is Mathew Chapman Knight and from that point on I never looked back. I got my B.S. degree from Norfolk State in education in 1965. I got my Masters from Hampton University in 1972. I did post grad work at the University of Maryland at College Park _____________dissertation from that degree. I did not complete it at that time because it was time for my daughter to go to college in 1981. Then I came home to allow her the opportunity to go to school and I never looked back. ____________ I taught 38 years in health and fitness education. I worked two years in _______________ County __________________. I worked five years in Suffolk City Public Schools. I worked one year at Hampton University health and fitness education. Immediately after my receiving my Masters degree in health and fitness education and the remainder of my time spent in Hampton City Public Schools.
Q: Wonderful biography and I wish to thank you. If you have no more to give us, this is the end of our interview, but if there is something else you’d like to say, you can do so.
A: I’d like to say, also, that my mother was a single parent along with her mother and brother and neighbors. There were five of us children and all of us were college educated except for one who was very sickly and she had to stop. She had to stop school in the third grade because of the stress that was encountered. I am very proud of that, I think, I set the pace for the other sisters and brothers to go to college. I do believe that mother was a little reluctant, not having left home, that was the first time, but the ones coming behind had no choice. I think I did so well that I set the pace for them and built an avenue for _________________?
Q: That was a beautiful interview and I want to thank you so very much for it, for giving us your interview.
A: Thank you, I enjoyed it.