Q: Miss Knight, tell me a little bit about yourself, your date of birth, how old you are, where you live.
A: I live in Carrsville, Virginia and I was born in June 22, 1936.
Q: Now were you born in Carrsville?
A: No, I was born in North Carolina.
Q: How many sisters and brothers did you have?
A: I had four, four sisters, two brothers, but they passed.
Q: Ok. Now you are here today to share with us something about your memories, your elementary school memories. So what elementary school did you attend?
A: Well, first I attended the one in Carrsville, the two rooms.
Q: What was the name of that school?
A: You know I’ve never known the name of it.
Q: All right.
A: I don’t know the reason why but I didn’t.
Q: Was it located near a church?
A: Uh, not too far from a church. It was mostly around houses. But that’s where I went, but I didn’t stay there that long.
Q: How long were you there?
A: I guess about two or three years or something like that or two years.
Q: So how far did that school go to? How far did it go?
A: You know, I don’t even remember that. I don’t remember that. It was just two rooms. I knew the teachers that taught me.
Q: What was her name?
A: Her name was Miss Moore. I never will forget her because we lived on a dirt road and she lived in Nansemond and she would go right by our house and she would pick me up and bring me to school.
Q: Oh, how nice, good for you. You said you attended other two-room schools.
A: No, the first was, well, I talked about Carrsville because I’ve been in Carrsville longer than I have anywhere else. So, that’s all I know about is just the two rooms and the teachers. I knew some of the teachers too. But they weren’t teaching me; Miss Chapman (Catherine), I remember her. I remember the teachers, but I don’t remember, you know, nothing else. We would go outside and we just play. Then some of them gets in fights and all that stuff, I didn’t take that. We just moved on to Camptown and I went to Camptown School. I went there. Then after I left there, I went to Hayden School in Franklin and that was a, too large a school.
Q: Was that a two-room school too?
A: Uh uh, it was not a two-room. It had many rooms to it in Franklin. But Carrsville just was two.
Q: Just two and the other school you went to?
A: Camptown was a, it was school too. It wasn’t small like it was in Carrsville but they had a great big potbellied stove that they burned coal in. That thing would get really hot.
Q: Ok, who would be responsible for starting the fire?
A: You know, most of the time when I got there, the fire would already be on. So I don’t know who, you know, put the coals in the fire.
Q: Ok. What year did you attend?
A: You know, I can’t exactly; think of that and it’s terrible. No, no, no, I’m 60 some years old, and I get to forget, you know. I told my husband, I said, “Lord have mercy, they should have started doing this the first of the year,” you know, I could just run down look at the thing and just save it, but they didn’t do that, they didn’t. Of course, I didn’t know about it at that time.
Q: So, how many teachers were at the Carrsville School? I know you named some.
A: Well, there was, well, Miss Moore taught me. Miss Chapman, she was the first grade teacher. She used to come on the school bus, Trailways School Bus, I remember that real well. Yeah, they would put her out, you know, on the highway and then she would walk to the school. That was Miss Chapman. Then Mrs. Walden, I knew her, but she was not, I knew all of the teachers at that little school because there was three.
Q: So you went to Carrsville School for three years?
A: Uh huh.
Q: Tell me about a typical day at the school, from the time that you went there on the ground? How did the day start out, with devotions?
A: Well, it would start out with the Pledge, what it is?
Q: The Pledge of Allegiance.
A: Right, they would have that every day. These schools now, I don’t think they do that now. But they did it then. They really did.
Q: After that, then what did you all do now?
A: Well, they would, we would say Bible verses. Well, like I said, the teacher told us what to do. Then after that we’d go into our lessons.
Q: Tell me about the lesson part.
A: Well, you know, I can’t hardly say nothing about the lessons. I don’t remember a thing about it.
Q: Do you remember your reader book, times, dates?
A: I remember the lessons and all that, but I don’t remember over all these years here. Maybe it will come back to me sometime or another. (laughs) I don’t know. But I liked the school and I would eat breakfast before I left home, but they didn’t have cooked food in the building. They had to bring their food or either they’d go home and get it.
Q: How long was your lunch break?
A: It was a good while, but___________________
Q: What time did the school day start?
A: It start something like 8 o’clock, 8:30, 9, something like that and it ended, it end something like 3. That’s when I would eat, when I’d go home.
Q: So how many months out of the year did you all have school?
A: I don’t even remember.
Q: Did you all start maybe in September or August?
A: I don’t remember, so it’s been awhile.
Q: Well, then, was there any special chores that you had to do before you went to school in the morning?
A: Before I went to school?
Q: Yes, at home.
A: Well, I had to take a bath and I had to eat breakfast and then I would-- if Miss Moore didn’t come along, you know, for she would pick me up. If a day come that she’s not, you know, going another way, then I would walk to school and walk back.
Q: OK. So once you got back home, did you have any assignment to do, any work to do around the house?
A: Homework, call it homework.
Q: You had homework to do, nothing other than the homework? So you had lessons? I call it lessons, but I call it homework too.
A: Uh huh.
Q: So then you got to be spoiled then.
A: Yeah.
Q: You didn’t have to bring in any wood or water or anything like that?
A: Not at school I didn’t, but I had to do it at home.
Q: At home, ok.
A: I had to do it at home. My parents died when I was real young. I was about ten when she passed.
Q: So she was there to help you then through your elementary school days?
A: Yes, she was, she was a good person.
Q: How many recesses did you all have in school?
A: Well, you know, I didn’t know about the war. That’s all I know about was war. They would go out and play a lot and then you would see some of them out there fighting. I know some of them; they used to fight all the time. That Felton Duncan, you ever know him, Felton, but he is dead now.
Q: No, I know a Felton Brown.
A: He had a brother named Dave, he is still living, but he passed. He used to be terrible in school, used to talk back to the teacher. He sure did.
Q: What sort of discipline did the teacher use?
A: You know what the teacher did?
Q: What?
A: When they had that potbellied stove red hot, she would tell him to stand up there. That’s exactly what she did.
Q: So he ended up getting a little extra heat for his body, to help soothe him and calm him down?
A: Uh huh. Sure did. They used it for ______________ (laughs)
Q: Now what about when you had your one recess, what did you all do when you went outside, besides fighting?
A: It wasn’t a big fight or nothing like that, but they got along fine. At least I did. I didn’t get in no fights or nothing. But I know some of them did. I would go to look at it but that’s all.
Q: Did you all play baseball?
A: No, they never played no baseball.
Q: Dodge ball?
A: They used to play dodge ball, but not baseball.
Q: Marbles?
A: No, I never did. Mostly the boys did that, you know, shooting the marbles, playing ball.
Q: Tell me about the classroom, do you remember anything about the classroom? Were there ABC’s or numbers around the wall, or the chairs, did you all have desks?
A: Yes, we had a kind of desks that were made like this, but then you come in this way, you know, like a, the old timey desks.
Q: They had the desk and the chair made together?
A: Right.
Q: Or was it separate?
A: Uh huh, it was made together.
Q: What kind of lighting system did you all have?
A: They had lights up there, but they weren’t as bright as these, but they were lights.
Q: Oh, electricity when you went to school?
A: Uh huh. They had a nice big-sized room. They had just two rooms, but they had teachers. They had three teachers there.
Q: What did the third teacher do?
A: Well, see, I didn’t know about them, all I know was that they were there. I know one named Mrs. Walden, Mrs. Walden, I remember that.
Q What about the water supply, where did you all get your water from?
A: Well, you know, I don’t even know because I didn’t even drink no water or nothing, and I don’t know. They didn’t have no water on the inside, I know that.
Q: They must have had pump water outside?
A: Uh huh.
Q: Now tell about the teacher’s desk. What did the teacher’s desk look like? Did they have three desks in the classroom?
A: They had two. They had nice desks.
Q: Was it a big desk or small?
A: No, it was big enough for her to work on. Then they had the blackboard too, for, you know, they write on. You know how they write.
Q: So that’s where you took your test from? Did they write the test on the blackboard?
A: Well, they would tell you but then you had to do it yourself. That’s what the teacher did.
Q So what other school supplies did they use in the classroom?
A: I know we, I know we used books; I know we had books. Then, you know, notebooks and stuff like that, and pencils to write with.
Q: What about a cloakroom, did you all have a cloakroom or coatroom?
A: Well, yes they did, they did.
Q: So what did you all, what was the purpose of you all’s cloakroom?
A: Well, you say what kind of room?
Q: Cloakroom, well some people call it the cloakroom; some people call it the coatroom.
A: Oh, yeah, they had something in there; they had room enough to do.
Q: What other things were—anything else that was put inside of the coatroom besides coats?
A: Not to my knowledge.
Q Where did the teacher store her supplies?
A: Well, I think she had a place by herself. She had a little place just by herself.
Q: Now to Carrsville School, was there one entrance door?
A: Uh huh.
Q: Or did you have two?
A: Well, it was one.
Q: One, and was that in the middle of the school or—?
A: It was in the middle. You go in that door, you go in that room, you open the door, there is a little hallway, there was, and you go right and there is one on the side like that.
Q: Tell me about what sort of discipline or punishments and other things that were used, you mentioned about the heater?
A: I will tell you (laughs) Miss Chapman, she was, if you, you know, make her upset and don’t do things right, she would take a paddle and make you hold your hand out just like that and paddle your hand good. (laughs) But I am glad that I was a good child. I didn’t have to get none of that. I got it at home sometimes, you know, but not at school.
Q Is there any happy memories?
A: Well, you know, I think it is all happy memories, you know, to me because I think about it a lot.
Q: Anything specific that you think about?
A: I can’t think of everything, you know, because it’s been so long. Because I have been to more than one school too.
Q: Elementary school.
A: Right. From Carrsville School, we went to Camptown School and Camptown was a what, two-room school? But it was a school, it really was. Uh huh, Camptown School, then after I left there, I tell you we moved every time rent do. That’s the way I look at it. (laughs) I’ll tell you the truth, that’s why we went to so many schools because my Daddy and my Momma, we had to do what they said do, and you know you are going to do what your parents say do or you're going to get a whipping.
Q: Is there anything fond that you remember about one of your teachers, one of the teachers there?
A: Well, you know, I kind of liked all of my teachers. I didn’t have no problem with them whatsoever. I really didn’t, didn’t have no problem at all.
Q: Do you remember anything funny about one of them or an incident or something that might have happened?
A: Well, no, the teacher that I had, she was a good teacher. That’s all I can say about her. She was really good. But Miss Chapman, she taught the lower children, and then she would fuss at them and come up there and hit them in the hand with that paddle. (laughs)
Q: Now, do you have any childhood memories that are not connected with the school that make you laugh when you think about it or make you smile when you think about it or some?
A: When I wasn’t in school?
Q: Yes.
A: Well, that would be before I went to school.
Q: It might have been something that happened at a church program or picnic.
A: Well, my sisters and all them, we played together and then, we was good friends. We would play a while, then run in the house, and eat and come back outside. (laughs)
Q: Are you saying you loved to eat?
A: Yeah, so I mean I had a good, we had a good life, but they just moved so much. Because I even, to tell you the truth, I used to, even went to school in Holland. So I’ve been to right many schools.
Q: Was this an elementary school too in Holland?
A: Uh-huh. That was back then in those years.
Q: What grade were you in?
A: You know, I don’t remember, but I know I went. I know the school, there was a little school too, but it was a little smaller than the one in Carrsville.
Q: Now, how do you feel about your elementary education? Do you think that it helped to prepare you?
A: Yeah, it did.
Q: For jobs?
A: Uh huh. Yeah, it did. Because I had good teachers and, you know, I didn’t have no problem with them, not at all. Some of the boys that were there, they was, oh, talking back to them, but I didn’t do it. I didn’t want no whipping. (laughs)
Q: So that you were able to get a job that you liked?
A: Uh huh.
Q: Well, tell me a little bit about some of the highlights of your life you would like to share with us. If you are married, do you have children, grandchildren, and any special recognition from your church or from any groups of people?
A: Yeah, well, I’m married and then I have two children, they grown, my daughter, she works at Ft. Lee and my son, who is well educated, he sell cars. Then I have a grandson, 17. I just have two children and one grandson.
Q: Is there anything else that’s fun or comical or brings smiles to your face?
A: Yeah, it did.
Q: So where did you meet your husband?
A: Huh?
Q: Where did you meet your husband?
A: Oh, let me see.
Q: Was he in school with you?
A: When I first met him, that’s when we moved to Carrsville. I remember that good. (laughs) Don’t you all think I’m crazy about him? (laughs) (whispers) Are you going to play that?
Q: You don’t have to go into detail, it was just that if you met him while you were in school?
A: Uh huh, yeah, that’s how I met him when I moved to Carrsville. We started dating; he used to come around there to the house. He would come every Wednesday night and bring me a, you know during them years, they had a law, don’t you remember that?
Q: Yes.
A: He would bring me one of those and he would bring me one every Wednesday night. But now when it was time to go home, you heard my Daddy say, “It’s time for you to go, it’s 9 o’clock.” (laughs) After that, my father died and my mother passed, and my oldest brother, he moved us to Virginia Beach. My husband, he used to come on the bus to Virginia Beach and I would meet him at the highway because I know he didn’t know exactly where we live at that particular time. So he used to come there almost every weekend, you know, just to talk and go out.
Q: But you were still able to continue your education?
A: Uh huh, yeah. So then we got married, we got married when I was about 19 or 20.
Q: Well, Ms. Knight, we thank you for sharing some of the highlights of your life and your elementary school days. The Schoolhouse Museum Committee also thanks you for taking the time to participate in this well deserved program.
A: I enjoyed it.
Q: This concludes my interview with Mrs. Mary Knight.