Interview with Mr. Roland Spady
November 15, 2003
Interviewed by Sandra M. Lowe
Mr. Spady went to Carrollton School starting in 1929 with grade one through grade three before moving to Smithfield. There was one classroom and it went up to grades 4 or 5, as he recalls.
Today is Saturday, we are at the Rescue Community Center and we are talking with Mr. Roland Spady.
Q. Mr. Spady, did you grow up in the Carrollton area?
A. Yes.
Q. Were you near the school?
A. Walking distance.
Q. About how far do you think that was?
A. I guess it was a good mile, or about a mile and a quarter, something like that.
Q. When were you born?
A. September 3, 1923.
Q. So, did you start at Carrollton in the first grade?
A. Yes.
Q That would have been around 1930 when you started?
A. Yes.
Q. Where was Carrollton School at in 1930?
A. Alright, uh, which way do you go into Carrollton when you go?
Q. Coming from Hampton, from the bridge?
A. OK, you make a right there by the car lot. You’re coming off Route 17.
Q. Where was the building?
A. It was just an old building that had three or four grades there when I was going to school.
Q. So it did not go up to the seventh grade?
A. No, I don’t think so, not for a while. I think I went as far as the third grade there in that school and then I went to Smithfield.
Q. How many rooms were at Carrollton, classrooms?
A. I don’t think but one.
Q. One big room with several grades?
A. Yes.
Q. Remember how many teachers were there?
A. Two or three, I don’t remember exactly how many now.
Q. Do you remember any of the names of the teachers?
A. Mr. Nut (name) was one of them I believe.
Q. Do you know when it was open, how long that school had been open?
A. No I don’t. Probably ten or twelve years before I went to school. It wasn’t a new school at all. It was made of wood.
Q. What do you remember about the building itself?
A. It used to have a horse pen out in the back. A lot of people rode their horses to school and they would put them in the pen back there until they got ready to go home.
Q. Did you ever ride a horse up there?
A. I believe I did a little bit toward the last.
Q. What do you recall about the building and the lot besides the horse pen?
A. Just a yard out there on the side of the school and the horse pen’s in the back of the yard. Then they had an old two-story building there called the Redmond’s House behind the school or beside the school.
Q. And that was used for community…
A. Yes community dances, stuff like that.
Q. Did they tear that building down, the school?
A. It was all torn down.
Q. What is on that lot now?
A. Nothing. It is a Ruritan Club on the side of it there. I don’t remember whether that was, I guess it must have been part of the school grounds years ago.
Q. You said that you walked to school. Do you remember anything about your walking days, any experiences?
A. It was some kind of cold, that’s for sure. Some days my father would take me in a horse and cart when it was real cold. We would wrap up and ride in the horse and cart.
Q. Did you go to school with some other kids? Do you remember their names of any of your classmates?
A. Bill Reed was one of them and William Smith Blackwell was another. He lived right there in Carrollton and Myrtle was his wife.
Q. When you were in the first, second and third, did you have to do some chores at home before you went to school or after school?
A. yes. Sometimes I did. I would have to get the wood in, feed up, feed the team, milk a cow.
Q. What do you remember about your classes, any of your subjects or anything that you did in school?
A. Well, I was always at the bottom of the class it seems like.
Q. Did you have a favorite subject?
A. Not really.
Q. You were anxious for the school day to end or did you enjoy school?
A. Well, I was kind of glad for it to end and I enjoyed it too I guess.
Q. What do you remember about recess?
A. That was something we looked forward to.
Q. What were some of the things you recall about recess period?
A. We would go out and play tag, stuff like that, baseball, volleyball. We didn’t have long to do anything the way the recesses were back in those days.
Q. Was the recess was right after lunch?
A. After lunch was the main one.
Q. But you had a couple of small recesses?
A. We had one little one before lunch.
Q. How would you describe the inside of the building. What do you recall?
A. It was plain. Al the woodwork was plain. It was painted up and clean but it wasn’t fancy.
Q. Furniture?
A. That was all the same a thing, woodwork?
Q. Is there anything else you remember about the students or being there in the room?
A. Student dispensation. That was about it. And the teacher’s desk. That was all that was in the room in those days.
Q. And your heat?
A. Well, there was a big old store, and you had to keep putting wood in that.
Q. Was that one of your jobs?
A. I help with that, yes.
Q. Where did you get water?
A. From an artesian well that ran all the time, it flowed day and night.
Q. Where was it?
A. On the side between the house over there and the school. When you’d go into the driveway, it was on the left hand side. There was a little ravine right there. They had a little house in there with pump on it for the water. That’s where you got all the water from, right in that ravine.
Q.Herb DeGroft: ____ (name) said that you have a story to tell about having to go to the house next door to get water out of the spring.
A. Well, you use to have to go the spring to get your water and would have get those little Spring Keepers to run back up the stream before you could get your water and then as soon as you got your water, they would come back and start playing around. You remember that don’t you ________ (name)? It was called spring water, it came out of the ground out of a spring, it would run down in the ravine and you captured a little place there and got your water from it.
Q. What was a Spring Keeper?
A. A type of lizard, approximately 6 or 7 inches long when grown.
Herb DeGroft: What color were they?
A. Brown in the front.
Q. And they were called Spring Keepers.
A. Yes, that what we called them, Spring Keepers. See all of your ravine comes into your spring, they would go up there and keep it open. They would keep them revenues open and you would have a nice flow of water.
Herb DeGroft: Did you ever catch one of those Spring Keepers and take it back to school and put it down a girl’s blouse did you?
A. Laugh. No I don’t think so.
Q. Do you remember anything else being in the room as far as chalkboards?
A. It seems to me like we had two side by side, if I remember correctly. One big one.
Q. Where were the windows?
A. You didn’t have too many windows in buildings back in those days, they were all small.
Q. So you didn’t’ have a wall full of windows like I’ve seen in Christian Home, it had one side and just about the whole side was made of windows? What did you do with your coats and hats, was there a room for that?
A. They were in the corner with the rest of them. You’d have them hanging and a pile up there you would use. You would dig it out when you were ready to get yours.
Q. What did your teachers do when student’s misbehaved?
A. Hit you in the hand across the fingers with a ruler. And sometimes if you were bad enough they would hold it sideways so it would hurt more.
Q. Did that usually solve the problem?
A. It did in those days. Yeah, it was some kind of painful. I know. I was there.
Q. Did you have some occasion to be whacked?
A. Yes, I have had a few occasions with the ruler. Laugh.
Q. What memories do you remember that were pleasant? What did you like about your school days?
A. Well, it was always interesting going to schools. Something was always going on to make it interesting. Recess was the most interesting then anything else.
Q. Did you have any experience that you want to tell us about, something pleasant you remember or something you enjoyed doing?
A. Not particular. I use to enjoy playing in the horse pen as much as anywhere.
Q. Did you help take care of the horses?
A. Sometimes we would help feed them, yes.
Q. Did your teacher ever comes to school in a horse and cart or did they have some other way of getting there?
A. Well, all the teachers back in those days stayed over in Carrollton and walked to school. Some of them rented the place next door and then you come out of the driveway, make a left and come out to an old store. There was a couple of houses there that people rented rooms to some of the teachers.
Q. Did you have any memories of things that you didn’t like during your elementary school days?
A. My uncle had a pony. He had a habit of going to these big sales and would get a little tired along the way, and that would cause him to buy something he didn’t need sometimes. So this particular time that he went, he came back with a beautiful little pony. And I use to go up and ride that pony, take him anywhere I wanted to during the day. But I had to bring him back every night. And I lived on a farm where I could have kept him in the stables but he wouldn’t let me do it. He let me ride him but I had to bring him back every night.
Q. Did you ride him to school any?
A. The pony was at school, next door.
Q. Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your school days?
A. Not really, I didn’t really go long enough… I didn’t finish school.
Q. What did you do after school?
A.I lived on a farm back in those days, a big farm. We had horses and mules.
Q. As you grew up, what did you do? What jobs did you have?
A. Well, when I first grew up and got going, I went to the shipyard and worked nights. I was tending five farms at the time. I was not quite busy enough so I bought a restaurant at the time too. So I was tending five farms, running a restaurant and working night shift at the shipyard. It like to have killed me.
Q. Was the restaurant in Carrollton too?
A. Yes, the one that’s down there now. I sold it to a man in Chuckatuck. Mr. Gwaltney owns it now. He has had it for years.
Herb DeGroft: Is that the one that was a log cabin restaurant that is now a Mexican Restaurant?
A. Yeah. They took the front logs out and left the kitchen area back in the back part with the logs. Then after things got a little better, they threw all the logs away, opened it up and made it a little larger.
Q. What did you do, continue to work at the shipyard until you retire?
A. No, I worked in the shipyard, then I had to go into the service. I was in the Navy on a merchant marine ship in 1944 or 1945. The war was winding down.
Q. After the service?
A. Well, I went back home and went back to the shipyard, started farming again.
Q. From there, did you retire from those positions?
A. No, I never did get well off enough to own any farms. I kept renting them.
Q. Did you retire from the shipyard?
A. No. I didn’t retire from any one thing. I just kept on working.
Q. What about your family. Do you want to tell us about your marriage and children or grandchildren or any highlights that stand out in your history?
A. Well, you know where Benn’s Church is? I happened to be going by Benn’s Church one day and I saw this red head standing out there in front of the store. Well back in those days, I decided to go over and check to see what was going on. And this is what I came up with (his wife).
Laugh, Laugh, Laugh.
Q. Did you have any children or grandchildren?
A. We have three boys, all of them have children.
Q. Anything else you want to tell us about your family?
A. I recon I’d better quite while we’re ahead, because it was a mean bunch that I was involved with. Rough.
Q. Your marriage, since your wife is here with you, how many years have you been together?
A. 61 years we’ve been married.
Q. Is there anything else you would like to tell?
Herb DeGroft: You probably enjoy fishing as much as anything right Roland?
A. Oh yes, I enjoy fishing. I’ll tell you, fishing is something, you can sit there and enjoy yourself. If the fish bites it’s ok, if it don’t bite you don’t worry about it too bad.
Q. Do you go out in boats mostly?
A. Yes, in the service I was on a merchant marine ship. I made three and a half trips out.
Q. When you fish, do you usually fish from a boat?
A. Yes.
Q. This is striper season, have you been out?
A. No, not this year yet. I haven’t had anybody ask me to go yet. I’ve got a boat but is has been retired for two years now. I have a nice boat, 25-foot boat, and twin screw. My son decided to look after my boat. So he takes it to a place that his company owns, a nice place to keep a boat. First thing I know both motors are taken off of it. So it is still sitting there now with both motors out of it. I got after him about a month ago, I want him to get my boat back together. So he said it was but I haven’t heard anything from him since. But I guess I’m going to get it back together this winter. If not I’m going to go over there, put it on a trailer and bring it home.
Q. I want to thank you Mr. Spady for allowing me to ask you a whole lot of questions. You’ve been very pleasant and very helpful.
A. Well, I’ve enjoyed coming up here today with you.
Q. Thank you very much.