Q: Today is June 19, 2003 and my name is Elsie B. Hall and I am interviewing Mr. Joseph Wellons by the Schoolhouse Museum. Mr. Wellons I’d like to ask you some questions today…and the first one I would like to ask is which area of Isle of Wight County did you grow up?
A: Central Hill and Holly Grove.
Q: In Holly Grove. All right. What about your kids, your sisters and brothers. How many sisters and brothers did you have?
A: Four sisters, and I’m the only boy.
Q: Okay, you’re the only boy…. and you had four sisters. So that’s five. All right. What schools did they attend. What school did you attend?
A: I attended the school right up the road here. Holly Grove Elementary School, two-room school. That’s where I started the school there…and I went from there to Central Hill School.
Q: Do you know how many years you went to this school?
A: I went up there one year.
Q: One year. The rest of the time at the school in Central Hill.
A: Right.
Q: Did your brothers and sisters also attend this school or did some of them come out. Did all of them go to Holly Grove or some went to both schools like you did?
A: Nah, did neither one of them. I didn’t have but one to go to Central Hill. Didn’t neither one go out here to Holly Grove.
Q: All right. Okay. What grades were taught in this Holly Grove School that you went to?
A: From 1st to 7th.
Q: From 1st to 7th. But you only went one year so.
A: The school closed after.
Q: All right.
A: You see, the school was discontinued that year.
Q: Yes.
A: Then after I went from there to Central Hill.
Q: And you went to the 7th there.
A: Right.
Q: Right. Until the rest of your elementary school days there.
A: Right.
Q: All right. What grades were taught in the Central Hill School?
A: From 1st to the 7th.
Q: From 1st to 7th was taught there also. How many classrooms did that school have?
A: It had two.
Q: That had two classrooms and how many teachers?
A: Two teachers per day. You know, in the length of time I was there.
Q: How many teachers, you had two teachers right and while there? But you had different teachers while you were there.
A: Right. In the course of the year that I was there I had several teachers. They would leave and go somewhere else and then they would come in.
Q: Would you like to mention one or two of those teachers?
A: Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Gracie Davis, Mr. Reed, Ms. Chapman, Mrs. Hart, and Miss Howell. That’s all I can remember there now.
Q: All right. And the teacher up here, the year you were at Holly Grove, do you remember her name?
A: Her name was Ms. Riddick.
Q: Okay, Ms. Riddick. All right then. Well, when you went to Holly Grove School, did you ride or walk. How did you get to school?
A: Walk. I went down the road about a mile.
Q: All right. Then when you went to Central Hill.
A: They bussed us.
Q: You rode the bus. All right. Well, do you have any idea of what year that school in Central Hill closed. Do you remember what year?
A: I don’t remember that. I know when this one closed. It closed the last year I went there.
Q: Okay.
A: That’s why they closed it.
Q: It was probably owned by the county. Do you know?
A: I know it was situated but I know it was in Holly Grove School.
Q: I guess when it closed it probably went back to Holly Grove.
A: Yeh. It’s a church school.
Q: Church school.
A: Because they still own it.
Q: All right. Can you remember what mornings the things you got up to go to school? Did you have any work you had to do at home? Or when you came from school, did you have any.
A: Come from school. Farming. That’s what I was on, a farm.
Q: Okay.
A: But they had mostly whatever chores farming had to do at the time. That’s what I did.
Q: Right, and the farm had a lot of work on it.
A: Yeh. Hogs, chickens, and all that stuff to feed and all.
Q: Right. When going to school now, do you remember of the chores that you had to do at school? What things did you have to do, you know, to help out around school?
A: Well, I had up here at first year at Holly Grove; I didn’t have any chores to do. The bigger students, the older students, did all the chores and getting wood in for they start a fire and stuff like that. But I did it after I got to Central Hill.
Q: Right. That school was heated. Central Hill School was heated with what, coal or wood?
A: Coal.
Q: Coal.
A: But you had to have something to start it in the morning.
Q: Okay.
A: So you got through the woods and if you wanted to get a rake to get it up.
Q: Well, that chore was for a share. Can’t get the________.
A: Yeh.
Q: All right. Well, do you remember how your school day got started? What did you all do in the morning when you first got to school?
A: Well, you stand in front of the school. Pledge Allegiance to the Flag, you know…and then you said the Lord’s Prayer and went to school and started your day.
Q: All right. And what about in the afternoons. Did it end similar?
A: Yeh. You had your, I’m trying to think if. I don’t remember, the teacher at the school we were in, get up and say a word and dismiss the school.
Q: All right. What subjects did you cover at the Central Hill School because I guess I hear you?
A: It was just the 1st grade.
Q: At Central Hill. What subjects did you?
A: I took English, Arithmetic, Spelling and Geography.
Q: Did you have a favorite subject?
A: Yeh. It was Arithmetic.
Q: Arithmetic. That was your favorite.
A: Oh yeh.
Q: All right. Do you remember the name of your primer? That little Dick and Jane book or what book did you have?
A: Never had any.
Q: That was at Holly Grove.
A: That was at Holly Grove.
Q: Okay. All right. Do you remember where the books were kept? Did you have desks. Did you take your books home?
A: We shared a book. At Central Hill there was two sitting on a seat. There was two sitting on a seat with a desk come all the way across. We had a place you could like put the books up under there.
Q: I’m going to ask a real funny question here. Did you ever have a seat with the girls. As long as you are in that grade level you sit with whoever. I’m sure there was good behavior there cause the teacher was always there. All right. Well, what about the teacher’s desk. Do you remember how her desk looked?
A: She may have look. Over there. And she faces the class. And sit behind that. Send you to the blackboard or ask you to come up and read what you had to read or recite something or something like that. It wasn’t big, big. Just a tiny desk, you know. She had different things on it.
Q: Did you all have to learn the multiplication tables and spelling?
A: Oh, yeh.
Q: I know most schools did.
A: I know. You know the ABCs come first and then multiplication tables come. I think by 3rd grade. 3rd grade you could multiply.
Q: All right. Do you remember how long the school day was? How long a typical school day?
A: From 9 to 3.
Q: From 9 to 3. All right and you rode the bus so you didn’t have to walk. You rode the bus and you get out at 3 and then you come home and.
A: Had to walk down there.
Q: From the corner to your house. Well how long was the school year?
A: Same thing. All the schools were both the same thing out here. From 9 to 3 in the afternoon.
Q: Was it about from September to May or October.
A: I think it’s just like it is now. I didn’t see no change in that.
Q: Well, what about lunch. They didn’t have hot lunches like they have now at that school. Did you have to take your own lunch?
A: In a bag. In a bag or bucket.
Q: How long did you have for lunch?
A: An hour.
Q: How long for lunch?
A: An hour.
Q: So you got time to get a little playtime in after lunch.
A: You take a ball and go and play then.
Q: Well recess. How many recesses did you have?
A: You didn’t have no recess but in the afternoon.
Q: Run in the afternoon. What kind of games did you all play?
A: Ball mostly. The boys played ball…and the girls played hopscotch. Boys shot marbles. And the girls they shot, they played jump rope and stuff like that. Chased the truck. Somebody beat the rock and somebody beat the dogs.
Q: Run the fox.
A: Yeh. Run the fox.
Q: All around the school ground or did the fox go in the bushes too. So you playing them to find them in the bushes.
A: Yeh. The dog can’t find the fox.
Q: Well, did anybody you all get to enjoy that sport, huh. I guess everybody had the crazy.
A: Everybody loved it. Everybody. We had to hunt. They had a hunt hill. You see him, he caught. He hollered to the dogs.
Q: In essence of the day, which would you rather have been, the fox or the dog?
A: The fox. The fox.
Q: All right. Well, that must have been a lot of fun.
A: It was.
Q: Getting back to the classroom. You said it was heated in the winter time and then when it started getting warmer, I guess it got a little warm then. You probably raised the windows up.
A: I can’t remember no fan.
Q: But you did have electricity.
A: No. At Central Hill we had electricity.
Q: What about the restrooms?
A: Outside.
Q: The boys and the girls one. What about the water? How did you all.
A: Pump.
Q: Water pump. The pump was on the outside? And you probably had to bring the water inside in a pail or something, or did you? Did you always go to the pump for water.
A: Most of the time you went to the pump.
Q: Oh, you go to the pump.
A: Teacher might bring some water in for. Most of the time the children, they went to the pump.
Q: Okay, well. You said you did have chalkboards in there and erasers.
A: Erase the blackboard and stuff.
Q: What other supplies? I mean did you have teacher aids on the wall, things on the wall. So you could learn how to make your ABCs or your…
A: We had different things on the wall. Had pictures at the sea year to year. Put on the windows like jack o lanterns, Christmas, such as things like that. That’s about the way it was.
Q: Did you all have some place to put your coats like a cloakroom or coatroom?
A: No, no a lot like. You know long. You put them up there all the way down there. It was the same corner there.
Q: All right. So you hung your coats up and you always have to hang them up.
A: Teacher has a box over there.
Q: You told me about the window treatments. I guess everybody had to make something to go on that window.
A: Yeh. There was a window.
Q: You’re good at it. All right. Well, if you did something like running that fox and somebody get hurt and whatever. What kind of punishment was children got fighting or whatever. What punishment did the teachers give you. What kind of discipline?
A: They had hard discipline. They could whip you. Put your hand out, paddle you hard. Out for like, take a privilege away from you for, you know, a length of time. Couldn’t play. You couldn’t got outside for some length of time. You had to stay in there until your time was up. All that kind of stuff. That’s the way the punishment was. Kind of sharp punishment.
Q: Were they allowed to punish you like that? They hit you in your hands.
A: All over.
Q: Your parents didn’t retaliate against that?
A: At that time, things were totally different.
Q: Okay. What part of the memories do you have of school? What are some of the good things that you remember of school?. Really good days you had. Something you did that you will never forget at school. A really good day or good memory in your life about school. What are some of those things?
A: I had a lot of good days. I liked to go. That was enjoyable to me just to get there and see more. Run and talk and doing. It was a lot of them. Lot of them.
Q: Lot of good memories.
A: Yeh. I was thinking about that today…and they were a few around that I know of.
Q: A lot of the teachers that you knew.
A: I only knew three or four of them that’s passed.
Q: All right. What along with the memories really good things, do you remember a really terrible days you had that you will never forget. Something that happened really bad to you in your school days?
A: Yeh. This pump water, it had a curve in it. Like a square curve. She would lay and have two blocks of cement about that thick…and they were about that wide and there were two of them. And they would fit together like__ Someone took it off. . And he was gonna put it back up there. He dropped his end and my end come down and got my big toe…and I’ll never forget it.
Q: Did it break it?
A: I don’t know whether it broke or not but it sent me hopping along. I didn’t never go to no doctor or nothing. When I got home they just put certain things on it. You just go hopping kid.
Q: Back then they had a home treatment.
A: Yeh. All that kind of stuff. Certain kind of stuff. Put oil on it, that’s all.
Q: But you didn’t get punished for that cause you.
A: No, no. That was just what I was talking about.
Q: Good.
A: It was hurting me.
Q: That is what I was talking about. All right then. Okay. Are there any childhood memories at home that you can remember that as a child, like when you grew up with the four sisters and you the only boy. Did they give you a hard time or did you give them a hard time? Mr. Wellons, we were just talking about your relationship with your sisters and I understand having four sisters and being the only gent in the group, only young man, there must have been some times that you probably, I’m not saying they would gang up on you but can you remember anything in particular that would happen with you being the only boy that you can remember?
A: We were okay, it was like that see. My sister was staying with their mother and I was living with my grandfather. And that made a difference there. I would see them. But we were all so glad to see each other on weekends or something like that. My grandfather raised me.
Q: Okay. Do you think that was a positive thing that you could maybe have your own little corner, you know. Because you know girls always take a lot space in bathrooms and so forth.
A: I was always by myself.
Q: You were always by yourself.
A: With my grandfather and my grandmother and me.
Q: Right. Is there anything else you want to talk about.
A: Well, I enjoyed those days. I really did. All of them. It’s a lot different now. I know. At that time they was all right. Yeh.
Q: Did you, as you grew older, being a younger guy with your grandfather and all, did you, how did you --in growing up, you said you worked on the farm and all and at a certain age I imagine you got a car and got a girlfriend and a job. Can you tell us anything about your growing up a little later and what happened?
A: It was just like everybody else. You just going around had a little fun and driving your own car. That’s the way it was. It was enjoyable. Yeh. But I don’t go home now. I been away. You know I’m still home but I ain’t working there.
Q: Right.
A: I’m at a job. You know. I got my own job now. That’s the way that works. Keep on way up to retirement age and work from then on. Up until then. A few years ago. Yeh.
Q: You didn’t farm at least; you didn’t stay on the farm?
A: No. I farmed and worked for myself. I did some of that.
Q: Okay. All right.
A: It was all right doing all right.
Q: What would you tell the younger children nowadays that’s coming along and know what you went through and, you know, what say was, it was a good life and even though we realize that the white children were probably having it a little better.
A: I’m sure of that.
Q: Life and impressive and so forth. But we endured what we had so. What advice would you give to children nowadays that have essentially everything they need and, in the way we grew up, working in fields and slopping hogs and getting them eggs and so forth. And they don’t know what that means. What would you say to somebody nowadays. These children that have everything.
A: Get an education. Get a good one. If it’s possible to get one. Get a good education and then find a job. Yeh. Or do both. If you had to do both at the same time. Do it. Yeh. Education, though, is real important now. I know that.
Q: Yes it is.
A: Always has been but it’s real important now. Because everything, all the jobs or anything we do, you got to have education. Everything is computerized and everything you got to have an education. I would be so concerned about education. Education. I think that’s one of the first things. Having respect too. For people. Having respect and your education. Then, of course, you know you got to go to work. Somewhere.
Q: Getting back to that respect. You were taught that in your home. You were taught that. That is something.
A: Everybody. I mean, it starts at home but you carry it on through life. Carry it on through life cause it don’t hurt to be respectful. No one. It don’t hurt. Don’t hurt. I did it. I find that it will work. It will work. Yep.
Q: All right, Mr. uh…
A: Wellons.
Q: Wellons. We have to thank you for that interview. You certainly have enlightened us about some of the things that happened in your life and I am sure that we appreciate it. Thank you very much.
A: Okay, then. Thank you.