Q: First of all, this is Saturday June 7 and we’re at Sweet Haven Holy Church of God and we’re interviewing Mrs. Iola Pinner, and we’d like to find out what area of Isle of Wight did you grow up in? Does it have a name or specific points you can tell us about?
A: I did not grow up in Isle of Wight County, but I came to Isle of Wight County. My native home is Southampton County. I transferred up from Southampton to Suffolk. We move to the suburb of Suffolk, but we went there awhile but we did not stay there long. When you are like that with your parents, they would get hired and they would move around. They would rent this place--before I knew anything they moved to another place. Not like we are now, we settled to a place. But our parents moved from place to place and it was hard to keep. They were sharecroppers. They would move from that place. They would stay there 1-3 years and they moved to another place.
Q: Did you go to an elementary school here in the county?
A: Yes. Isle of Wight. This was my school in the county.
Q: What was it called?
A: Carrollton Elementary School.
Q: What grade were you when you came to Carrollton?
A: The 3rd grade.
Q: Did you finish at Carrollton?
A: Yes. I finished the 7th grade. You graduated then and you would go to high school. But I did not go to high school. We had our exercise at the church in Smithfield. They would carry us, all the students, to Smithfield. But the rest of them went further; they went to the high school.
Q: Do you remember what church they had the graduation in?
A: Browns A.M.E. Church.
Q: Did you have any sisters or brothers to go to Carrollton?
A: Yes. But they stopped. I had one, but she stopped. She went but she stopped.
Q: When you were at Carrollton, grades 3-7 how many classrooms were there?
A: Two.
Q: Do you remember your teachers?
A: Yes I do. There were two sisters who taught. My teacher was Miss Carrie and Ms. Mattie taught at the other school up the highway at Muddy Cross. At that time I don’t know if she had married. I think she was a Jordan then. After she married a Bowman then, Miss Carrie Jordan (Bowman).
Q: There was a Mrs. Estelle Jordan too. Were they related?
A: That was the lady who was sister-in-law or something.
Q: Do you remember any activities or anything specifically about having your classes with her? What do you remember about Miss Carrie and your classes with her?
A: My classes with her were very nice. She was very strict. And she got mad. What she said she meant it. She carried the classroom beautiful. I did not have any regrets with her. She was very nice. She was on time. She was very strict. When she said sit down, you sat down. And if you didn’t you would get disciplined. See I did what she said. Some of the children, she did not kill them but she meant what she said. If she said “Sit down, we sat down”.
Q: She paddled them in their hand?
A: Yes. In the hand.
Q: Discipline was appropriate and swift?
A: Yes. The parents did not do like the parent now, go at you. I did something wrong at school my parents would come and verified. You did not want your parents to come to school. No! No! You were in for it. We tired to do the things that were right. At least we tired to, now the children are always right.
Q: Do you know anything about when Carrollton started or anything about the building itself as far as the age of the building or when it was opened or closed?
A: When I came there, it was in the old school. There were two schools. I am living right now next to the school. A lady built a house next door to where I am living. My children did not have to walk to school, they just jumped a ditch. But I had to walk 3-5 miles to get to the same school. A lady built an apartment house right there. I am living there right now. I live right by the school where I went to all those years. The old school I went to they tore down; they removed that across the road and sold it to Mr. Brown. Then they built another school. The Brown’s made the other school into a house. But it was still next to me though.
Q: Ok. Now I understand, and that’s on Brewer Neck Road? Across from the Auto Parts store?
A: Yes. That’s right.
Q: Who did you say lived there now?
A: The Browns. Her husband bought the old apartment house but it still was the old school house.
Q: It is an apartment house now?
A: Yes.
Q: You did not have any problems going to and from school because you lived right next to it?
A: I did but my children did not. But I have not been there all my life. I got married down here. I lived way down the road; I had to walk 2-3 miles before we got to school. I was cold and when I got to school and know the fire was going. They have a potbelly heater with a little bit of fire, and you were freezing and by the time you got warmed well or feeling good it was about time to go home.
Q: So you were chilly all day?
A: Right. On the real cold days the teachers did real good to tire to comfort us. But that was all they could do, make us stay there around that potbelly heater. Then when recess time they would ring the bell. We would get on the side of the school and that outside bathroom with 2 stools and a well. The boys had one and the girls had one. The boys better not go towards the girls and the girls better not go towards the boys. It was the good old days.
Q: You said your parents were sharecroppers?
A: Right.
Q: They pretty much were living on farm property?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you have a lot of jobs to do at home before you went to school?
A: We better had. We had to do our chores before we went to school. We had to get them chips up and get them in piles and have they ready. When the evening came we had our chores at home. One washed dishes and the one wiped the dishes before we leave. We had to do it. We better not leave things. When we came back from school Auntie was there. My auntie raised me. She was very nice but she was strict too. Whatever she said do we better do it. We tired to do it. We had chores to do every day: clean our room up and living room. It was not the best like the children have now but we cleaned up what we had. We would sweep around the doors. It was country but it was clean. I tried to teach my children the same thing. But that was old folk. The children today would throw away all the good, important parts. Everything is so convenient, modern convenience. Today they clean up the house with phones in their ears and trying to do their work and they ain’t doing anything.
Q: I understand, I certainly do. When you got to the school most of the time you had to huddle up to warm up?
A: It was chilly then. Yes. She got it pretty livable in the class. She did the best she could.
Q: Did the teachers pretty much start the stove?
A: She did not do that. She had somebody to do that. The boys would go in the woods. Mrs. White would carry one or two boys in the woods to get some lightwood for the next morning to start the fire.
Q: Do you recall any other jobs that the students did around the school?
A: No more than to get the dry wood to help gets the fire going.
Q: Did the county provide any wood or coal for the schools?
A: I think they did later on for the other grades behind us, they brought right many things. My days were rough. As we got older they got even better facilities after my days. They built another school and everything, more things in the school and a traveling teacher would come, Mrs. Georgia Tyler. She checked on us every so often to see if things were going right. The children behind us had better facilities than we did. Things got better. Then they even got the school bus. We walked, walked, and walked all the way through elementary. You did the best you can, rain or shine, snow or blow. Your parents would put you in a cart and wrapped you up in coats. We did not have raincoats so they would put a hold lot of coats over us. The parents would bring us to school on a mule and cart because they knew the weather was so bad.
Q: Do you have any specific memories of good times going to and from school?
A: Yes. It was nice when we had school exercise. The teachers were so nice when school closing. We would have an exercise and we would get to have a recite. We had umbrellas. The teachers and students had to walk from our school through the woods to the old church to practice on the piano. Two classes, one teacher would get in the front of the crowd of children on the road, the main highway, like paths we would cut through the woods to go to that old church back in the woods.
Q: What was the name of that church?
A: Campbell A.M.E. Church. We would cut through those woods for them to practice on the piano for our exercise.
Q: The new Campbell is on the main highway?
A: Yes, the new Campbell is on the main highway and the old Campbell was back in the woods. That is where we practiced on the piano. That was the good times! She had a time with all those children. Two rooms of children with one teacher in the front and one teacher were in the back to keep them from getting hurt. We would cut through the woods and we practice on the piano. We had a good time back there in the woods.
Q: Just like a field trip.
A: We had umbrellas; beautiful plays and the children would study that. The children would perform on the stage. We had Bass __ and Little Boy Blue____. It was just wonderful. It was something to think about.
Q: I enjoyed the programs. They don’t aloud the type of activity because they don’t have time, and the children can’t memorize things like they use to. They don’t seem to be able to hold it.
A: There something they want to take off from the school, the flag or something.
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Q: There has been talk about removing prayers and the Pledge of Allegiance out of the school. I think they dropped it. After the war came up all the people and all the patriotism ideas came about they pretty much dropped it?
Q: One other question. When would you have started the first grade if you count back to when you were born and add six or seven years? You were probable 6 or 7 when you started in the first grade?
A: I think I was about 6 or 7. They did not put you in school when you were supposed to go anyhow. I was with my aunt. I think I was about 6 or 7.
Q: What year do you think that would have been? When were you born?
A: I am 84 now. I was born January 14, 1919.
Q: 1919, so it would have been about 1926 when you started school?
A: You could not study then. If they had something you had to do at the farm, they would take you out of the school to cut some stuff or do something.
Q: Probably around 1929 by the time you got to Carrollton, that you did the 3rd grade. Do you remember any of the subjects or textbooks?
A: We had geography, history and arithmetic. Unlike what they do now the whole class went to the board. We had the two rooms, one behind the other. Mrs. White was sitting at here desk. She had all that math on the board and sees which one got the right answer. All of us had the same math problem. Mrs. White had the higher 3rd grade and she sat there with her crossed legs. I never felt so good in all the days of my life. She was sitting there smiling to see which one had it first. I was not the smartest one in the class but I felt so good, and only one student had it right. Guess who had it right?
Q: You.
A: I shouted and Lord all the children ran to me. We had some smart one in the class and some were dynamite. They could not get it. It blew them off their feet. I’m the only one to have the right answer to that problem. I wasn’t one of those smart ones. The teacher liked me though but I was nice and easy to get along with. I laughed so much that day, I felt so good. I wonder how I could get that. The Lord was with me that day.
Q: Do remember Mrs. White’s first name?
A: Ms. Alease White. She was Alease Brown first, and then she goes married. Then she married a Brown. She was married twice.
Q: And Miss Carrie, do you remember her name?
A: Miss Carrie Jordan.
Q: What was your lunch hour like?
A: We carried our lunch. We had a certain time to eat. I reckon about 12-12:30. We carried our lunch from home.
Q: You had recess at the same time?
A: Yes. We had recess at the same time we had lunch. We would take our lunch and go stand side the out side school. We eat our sandwich. We could not sit at the desk like they do now.
Q: Most of the time you ate outside if the weather permitted?
A: Yes.
Q: Do you remember what your classroom looked like? How would you describe it?
A: Just a room with a blackboard on the wall. You would go to the blackboard to get your lesson. The blackboard went around the wall. She would let you go to the board and do your lessons.
Q: Did you call it a blackboard or a chalkboard?
A: I called it a blackboard.
Q: Does anything stand out in your mind about the classroom itself?
A: No, not really.
Q: What if anything was up on the walls? Did you put things up or did the teacher have any kind of displays on the walls?
A: I can’t remember. I can’t think of anything she put up on the wall.
Q: You said in the old Carrollton Elementary the rooms were behind each other? So you had a straight building with the two rooms behind each other and not beside each other or the long way?
A: They were behind each other.
Q: Was there a cloakroom in there or room for picture, or storage.
A: They had a coatroom.
Q: Was there anything else in the building or just the 2 rooms and an area for coats?
A: I think they had a little storage space to put your wood to make a fire.
Q: When you finished the 7th grade about how long was it before they tore that building down and put up the other building?
A: They did not tear it down. They moved it across the highway. I don’t think it was too long before they put a new one up. Her husband bought the old school and made her a, build a house out of it and moved it across the road and then they built a new school out there, that’s a new one out there, I say new, it was new to the neighborhood and moved the old one across the road.
Q: Do you have any other positive memories of those schools days that you have not told us about?
A: I can’t think to save my life. I remember years ago we had an exhibition. We had to do all the sewing at school and everybody had to do some kind of work to carry for May Day. Mrs. Henrietta Brown used to help the teacher with the children with getting the sewing ready. And Mrs. Alease Brown also helped the teachers. Both of the ladies used to help the teachers, Mrs. Alease Brown and Miss Carrie, I keep getting the names mixed up. They would come to carry all the exhibition from this school and take it to the Training School for Exhibition Day. They had a room for each school on display in the Training School to see which one had the best. That was nice. Some girls would have aprons and some girls made dress, different things were made to carry over there. That’s the way they did it then.
Q: Some of you were making those types of items in the 3rd-7th grade?
A: Yes. And that’s how we did to get that grade. And a lady use to come and help us.
Q: Do you have any negative memories of your earlier elementary school days or anything that went on that you did not really care for or like?
A: I did not like to walk that far but I have to do it. At school sometimes the children would get to fighting. But I did not have to fight. Well I had some mixed words with some of the girls but I did not go that far. They were not any big things because the teachers did not have to get in it. Children were bad then and terrible now. One day it was cold and two or three jealous girls. I was ready to go home that evening at least more than one had got together and hide my cap. I don’t know just who, and it was cold; the ground would stay frozen from morning until night, and I had to go home bare headed. There was nothing I could do. The teacher could not do anything either. I got back the next morning my hat was in the desk. I could image who did it but I could not put my hand on who did it. I was freezing cold.
Q: Did your parents notice that you did not have your hat?
A: There was nothing they could do. I told them someone had taken my hat and hid it in the school or did something with it? And the next thing when were out of school we had peanuts in your pockets and you’re outside playing. We were in a line beside the school to keep warm and the boys pushing and shoving. A boy hit me in my eye. I definitely had to go home over some peanuts.
Q: You got hit in the eye with a peanut?
A: No. He hit me with his hand. He was a bad little boy. He did not go to school much longer. His parents took him back to Baltimore. That was the worst thing I had done to me at school. I did not have to worry with any serious things in school. I enjoyed going to school when I was going. Just wish I had went longer. I told my children they have it good now. You have computers and everything convenient. We had to buy our own books. I sold my 3rd grade book for a few pennies, with their own money. I remember it was twins. They dead now, Ruby Brown and Charlie Jr. I’ll never forget it, I had that little money, I was jumping up and down.
Q: Do you recall the parents in your area working in a committee of any type trying, what they were able to do to help buy things for the children or was there an active something like the PTA?
A: Mrs. Gerry Hill used to work after school, cooking and everything.
Q: After attending school can you give us an idea of what kind work you have done, are you married or have children? What do you consider to be the highlights of your lift?
A: I was working in the field and I got tired of that. Then I was working as a housekeeper for Mrs. Tanner until I got married. I married Robert Pinner and did not work anymore then. She helped me get married. I started and raised a family up then I wanted to go back to work. He was working in the navy yard and I worked at the Smithfield Packing Company for 30 years and retired from the Smithfield Packing Company.
Q: Anything else you want us to know about your life or your school days?
A: No. I can’t think of anything else, when I get home I’ll think of something more reckon.
Q: I don’t have any other questions. You have completed our questionnaire. I’ve enjoyed very much talking to you and hearing about Carrollton Elementary and your days there.
A: There were some good days and some sad days but I consider them all good days.
Q: I want to thank you Mrs. Pinner, I really enjoyed it and I hope that we will have a finished product for you to see in not to long from now, we do hope to be up and have our museum open by 2007.
A: Okay, I hope I did a little bit of good.
Q: Quite a bit.