Interview with Mrs. Thelma Trower
March 22, 2003
Interviewed by Sandra M. Lowe
Mrs. Trower attended Mitchell School from 1940-1944, then on to Camptown Elementary School Before going to high school in Franklin, Virginia.
Q: First of all, Mrs. Trower, could you tell us what area of Isle of Wight you grew up in?
A: I grew up on the Rose Highway in 1934.
Q: Can you give us some more information about where that’s located?
A: At that time it was right, a few miles from Maynard Place called __________ in Collosse.
Q: Did you have any sisters and brothers?
A: Yes, I did.
Q: How many and what schools did they attend?
A: Now my sisters and brothers are quite younger than I am. I had a sister and brother to attend IWT, Isle of Wight Training School. And I had two sisters go to Georgie Tyler High School.
Q: What about elementary school, where did they go to elementary school?
A: They went to Camptown, Camptown Elementary School.
Q: What county schools did you attend?
A: I started out at Mitchell School on Collosse Road in 1940. Then I left there in 1944. I went to Camptown Elementary School. And from there I went to Hayden High. My class of 1947 was the last class that could go across the Blackwater River. The rest of them had to come to Isle of Wight. My parents had to pay for me to go across that bridge.
Q: Dealing with the elementary grades only, what grades were taught at the elementary schools that you went to?
A: Mitchell School we had one room there was the First, Second, and Third grade in the front of the room. And the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh were in the back of that same room. It wasn’t many children in each class. But it was seven classes in one room. Then a few years later they put on another room, so then it ended up two rooms—First, Second, and Third in one room and Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh, in the second room. The teacher’s name was Mrs. Luvenia Mitchell. Her associate teacher was Mrs. Lucille T. Stokes, which was my grandmother.
Q: What about the other school that you went to?
A: I went to Camptown Elementary School. At one time it was two rooms there. Soon they put on two more rooms, which made four rooms. I went there until I was in Seventh grade. I went there in the Fourth Grade and I went to the Seventh Grade and graduated from Camptown Elementary School.
Q: Who were some of your teachers at those two schools?
A: As I said Mrs. Lucille T. Stokes was the First, Second, and Third Grade teacher at Mitchell School. Mrs. Luvenia Mitchell taught the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh, and she was the principal.
Q: Do you know any information about the history of the school that you went to as far as when it opened or when it was closed?
A: No, I can’t give you that information. I can find it, but I can’t tell you now. I can get it.
Q: And you did say that the number of rooms changed over time from one room to two rooms?
A: That’s right. That’s right.
Q: How did you get to and from school?
A: Walked.
Q: About what distance was this?
A: I would say a good two and a half miles.
Q: One way or both ways?
A: One way.
Q: What time did you have to be at school?
A: Nine o’clock. We would leave home a little after 7:30.
Q: Did you have any jobs to do before you went to school and after?
A: Not really because I was small. When you say jobs?
Q: Chores.
A: Okay. I helped wash the dishes and sweep out on the back porch. Different things like that I had to do when I came from school. But I didn’t do too much before.
Q: When you reached school, were there chores that had to be done before school started?
A: Well, the big boys in the wintertime, they had to go out and get wood and bring that in. But the girls, we didn’t do too much. They would get wood and come in and make a fire and they let the little ones get to the stove first and then we would come, the boys the big boys.
Q: How did the school day start?
A: It started with a prayer, a song, and allegiance to the American Flag.
Q: What subjects were covered?
A: The three Rs, reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Q: Do you recall anything about the classes themselves or the textbooks that you had?
A: We had the _________ Gray Reader with Dick and Jane. Then we had the pre-primmer and the primmer.
Q: What time was the school day over?
A: Three-thirty.
Q: And the school year was it nine months?
A: Nine months, yes.
Q: What can you tell us about the lunch period and what you did during the lunch hour?
A: Well, you know, the teacher had us to go out to the pump and wash your hands. We had a towel. We had no paper towels. We had a towel. We had about a half an hour. And I’m sure you know we brought our lunch. The lunch was up on a shelf in the school in the room. We didn’t have but one book and a tablet so you put that book and tablet up there while you were eating. Then you took it down. We didn’t have lunch boxes. We had paper bags. Some kids had a like a lard bucket or something like that, but most of us had paper bags with our lunch in it. Then you would take your cup and go out to the pump and get you some water.
Q: What can you tell us about recess?
A: Recess you had your--you took your exercises. The teacher would give you exercises. And maybe about ten minutes before recess was over—you had two recesses, one before lunch and one after lunch. She would give you your exercises in the first recess. The second one you were free to play at random.
Q: How was the building heated?
A: With the old stove by wood.
Q: How would you describe your classroom? What was in it?
A: Well, you know, we had those old desks where your desk, your seat was somebody else’s desk. The desk was behind on the seat that you were sitting on. We had a hole in the desk to put your inkbottle and your ink that you wrote with. If you turned it over, then you had to clean it up. The school floors were just wood floors—no linoleum, no tile or nothing on them.
Q: Anything else in the room?
A: Want to think we had an old piano. And we had maybe a couple tables called a library table. It was a few books on that table that you could go and read up some time, if you had a chance. Other than that it was the broom stayed in the corner. We didn’t have a closet. The eraser stayed on the blackboard and there were a few flowers on the teacher’s desk. That was about it. You did have some nails to hang your coat on. After the second room was put on we did have what you call a cloakroom. And that’s where they put their wraps.
Q: Do you know about how long it was before that second room was added?
A: Now, I don’t know how long the building had been there before I went there because I started attending or visiting in 1938 because my mother and my grandmother was a teacher. But I think it was about a couple years after I went that they put that other room on, so I would say maybe 1936 or 37 something like that.
Q: Were there restrooms in your building?
A: No-mam. We had outdoor toilets—one on the right of the building for the girls and one on the left of the building outside for the boys.
Q: And what did you do for water?
A: We drank water from our cups. Everybody had a cup with a little handle on it, and we drank the water from the pump.
Q: How would you describe the teacher’s desk?
A: The teacher’s desk was an old table that was rough on the edges, and as I said there was a little bowl of flowers up there. And she did have a couple bookends with a dictionary and teachers guides, something like that. And that was all that was on her desk. She didn’t have no calendar, no mat or nothing like that on her desk.
Q: Do you recall there being any other school supplies for the teacher or for the students?
A: Well, like I say, we had crayon and the erasers. And we had a few pads of paper for someone that didn’t have any. That was that rough paper. It wasn’t white. We had pencils with no erasers on it because the rubber had to go for the Army to put on the jeeps to make the tires during the time of war. We got very few supplies from Smithfield. We didn’t have any kind of medical supplies. The teacher would out of her meager salary she would buy maybe some iodine and some adhesive tape and maybe some kind of little cloth and a bottle of alcohol. She bought that herself.
Q: Did the room have any teaching aides on the walls?
A: Yes, they had what you call a hectograph. It was the kind of thing that you… It was made, it had jelly on it. And they would put the sheet of paper on it. They had stencil for flowers and birds and all that. And they would put it on that thing and smooth it over with their hand and pull it off and give one to each child and they would color it—the chickens and ducks and all that. That was the way they had to pass out their copies. Sometimes they didn’t have paper to put that on and the teacher would take your little sheet that you had. Five-cent package of notebook paper and run it on that hectograph and it would still come out purple.
Q: Chalkboards or blackboards, did you have one or more than one?
A: The one blackboard that was hooked to the wall that was nailed to the wall. That’s what the teacher wrote on with the crayon. She had to break the crayon so she could save a piece for another time. We had one little box of crayon; I think it was about eight white chalk sticks in it. And she had to really stretch it to make it last until some more supplies would come in. The supervisor, Mr. L. T. Hall, and the other supervisor, Mrs. Georgie Tyler, they would come and bring the supplies—what few they brought.
Q: What discipline or punishment was used in the classroom?
A: Well, they did have a paddle. They would paddle you in the hand, if you misbehaved or you didn’t get your lesson. Then there were times when you had to sit in the corner. And you couldn’t go out to recess. You’d have stay in when the other children went out to play. You had to stay in.
Q: Are there any additional school experiences you would like to tell us?
A: (End of tape)
Q: Names of any classmates that you recall?
A: Yes, there were the Picotts, the Ashburns, Turners, Evans, Banks.
Q: Any particular experiences you recall?
A: What do you mean, good or bad or what?
Q: Either.
A: Well, we did have fire drills. We had fire drills and we would go out, you know, for that. We had fire drills and other experiences. We were always on the lookout for snakes and different bugs and all that would come in. Some times they didn’t come in the room but they were out by the step. Everybody would run to the teacher then. And the teacher was a little afraid like we were. But other than that I don’t recall too much. Now, when we got to Camptown we did start having hot lunch. We had a lady to come in and cook hot lunch for us. Some of the mothers would come and help wash up the bowls. We didn’t have paper. They come in and wash up. Some of the fathers would bring wood and we would have a school closing and that would be a nice experience for everybody because we had our little costumes and everything when we had the school-closing program. Now this was at Camptown. That was 1944 through ’47. We had our softball, baseball, and was no football.
Q: Do you recall any other childhood memories or programs, perhaps, that?
A: Yes, we had what we called the Junior League and we would pay two cents each Friday for our dues called the Junior League. Then on the fourth Friday all the classes would meet together and we would pay five cents. To get our little crayons and different other little supplies we had the teachers would buy a can of biscuits and we would make doughnuts out of those biscuits and sell them to get money to get our little school supplies. And we would sell the doughnuts for five cents and put cinnamon on them. We had one teacher she was a home economics. She was a Mrs. Turner. Mrs. Wellons played music and Mrs. Stokes played music and Mrs. E. D. Berry was the principal. She taught the Seventh Grade. Miss Frendessa Baynard had the Sixth Grade. Now this was at Camptown. As I said, we had fire drills. The main thing we all looked forward to was the school-closing program. Because the girls would slips and the teachers would sew the crepe paper on slips to make little uniforms—costumes.
Q: Can you give us a short autobiographical sketch of the highlights of your life?
A: Now, or then?
Q: After you went to elementary school and you finished Hayden High School, then what are some of the other things that happened?
A: Well, beginning at Camptown, I did play the piano and I played for the Junior League Programs that, as I said, was each Fourth Friday. Then when I went on to Hayden, I played for the school choir along with the music teacher. I was in the Student Council and I later joined the NAACP. I had choirs at that time and I just continued with my music after graduating from high school. I go to Hampton University now every summer with the Ministers Conference. I’m there with the Hampton Choir Guild.
Q: Do you have anything else you would like to add that’s not ________?
A: I can’t think of anything else right now. As I said, I do have, did have six choirs and I played for three churches. I’m a member of Piney Grove Baptist Church. That’s over there by that mill. I was in the Share Program a long time. I came here and picked up food. I’ve been quite busy in my community. I was married before and I have four children—four sons. Now that I am married again my husband is from Newport News, VA, so that’s where I reside now, but I still go to Franklin to church. I attend his church. He’s a member of the New Mount Olive Baptist Church in Newport News. He’s a deacon there.
Q: I want to thank you, Mrs. Trower, for coming out today and I appreciate your spending your time with us. Thank you.