WILLIAM BERGE: The following is an unrehearsed tape interview with Mr. Medro
Blankenship of West Point California. The interview is conducted on October 5, 1990, at Eleven Fifteen PM, at Cumberland Falls State Park in Corbin Kentucky. The interview is conducted by William Berge, for the Oral History Commission of Kentucky. The topic really is going to be about the CCC, but first I am going to talk with Mr. Blankenship about something—about background. I want to thank you Mr. Blankenship for coming down here to this building and letting me interview you ( ). I will start off by asking your name, and when you were born, and where you were born.MEDRO BLANKENSHIP: My name is Medro Blankenship, I was born July 29,
1:00 1918.BERGE: 1918. Where were you born?
BLANKENSHIP: Marcey Bottom, Kentucky.
BERGE: In Harlan County?
BLANKENSHIP: In Pike County.
BERGE: Pike County. Pike County.
BLANKENSHIP: Which is now Pikeville, Kentucky.
BERGE: Oh, ok.
BLANKENSHIP: ( ) post office.
BERGE: Whereabouts is Marcey Bottom exactly?
BLANKENSHIP: It is about four miles, I’d say due south of Pikeville, or north, I
don’t know which. It’s been forty-three years since I’ve been there.BERGE: Ok. Ok. What were your parent’s names?
BLANKENSHIP: Hiram and Effie Blankenship.
BERGE: What was your mother’s maiden name?
BLANKENSHIP: Davis.
BERGE: Davis. Were they from up in Pike County?
BLANKENSHIP: I think they were from—er a—where is Inez? What county is that?
BERGE: Ah, Martin County.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Lawrence County.
BERGE: No, not Lawrence. Martin.
BLANKENSHIP: Martin—yeah—Martin. That is where it was Martin County.
2:00UNIDENTIFIED VOICES: ( ) BERGE: So they were probably from Martin County then.BLANKENSHIP: Yeah.
BERGE: Ok. Where did you go to school?
BLANKENSHIP: I went to school at Marcey Bottom.
BERGE: How long did you go to school?
BLANKENSHIP: Eight years.
BERGE: At Marcey Bottom? And never went again?
BLANKENSHIP: Never went again.
BERGE: Ok. So after you left school at Marcey Bottom, what did you do for a—what
kind of work did you do?BLANKENSHIP: Nothing till I went in the CCC.
BERGE: Ok. You just stayed around home and ate… BLANKENSHIP: Stayed around home.
BERGE: …fat meat and biscuits and stuff like that? (laughs) BLANKENSHIP: If we
had it to eat.BERGE: You were raised in really a bad time.
BLANKENSHIP: You telling me I was! I was hungry most of the time.
BERGE: Did you have any brothers and sisters?
BLANKENSHIP: I have four brothers and four sisters.
BERGE: Where did you come in that bunch? Where were you… BLANKENSHIP: I was
number three.BERGE: Number three, huh-huh. Do you remember the date of when you went in the
three C’s?BLANKENSHIP: I went in—I think—in
3:00the August of 1935. I don’t remember the day.BERGE: You know I asked you at the time—when I met you there in the parking
lot—if you could remember how you heard about it?BLANKENSHIP: No, I can’t remember.
BERGE: You can’t remember?
BLANKENSHIP: I must have heard about it by ear—I don’t know.
BERGE: Somebody from home… BLANKENSHIP: Somebody from home. Yeah, someone of the neighbors.
BERGE: Were your parents eager for you to go in?
BLANKENSHIP: In a way yes, because they realized that it would help them, but…
BERGE: Be one less to feed there? (laughs) BLANKENSHIP: As mothers go you know, they don’t want you to leave.BERGE: Yeah, I understand.
BLANKENSHIP: Yeah.
BERGE: But they knew it was the best thing for you.
BLANKENSHIP: Yeah.
BERGE: Where did you go when you signed up? Do you remember that?
BLANKENSHIP: We went to—from there, when I signed up—we went to a little town of
Luellen, Kentucky, over in Harlan County.BERGE: Ok. That was your first place.
4:00Now do you remember whereabouts you signed up?BLANKENSHIP: I think it was in Pikeville.
BERGE: What did they do to you? Did they give you a physical?
BLANKENSHIP: I don’t remember that; they must have.
BERGE: Did you sign up with anyone else?
BLANKENSHIP: Oh, there was a bunch of kids, yeah; but I don’t remember any of them.
BERGE: Let me—I’m going to digress a little here.
BLANKENSHIP: That’s all right.
BERGE: There is another per—man in here with us and I am not going to ask him to
talk on the tape today—but he may—he may keep in mind some of the things that I ask him, Mr. Blankenship, and you probably remember them differently.UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: (mumbles in the background.) BERGE: That’s why I like to do
it this way. Ask a lot of different people the same questions and everybody remembers it a little differently, you know and that way you pretty much get the whole story. Mr. Blankenship, ah, I ask you if you had signed up with anyone, or remember going I with anyone.BLANKENSHIP: I can’t remember it has been too long.
BERGE: Probably you did though.
BLANKENSHIP: Oh, yeah, I am sure I did. Yeah.
BERGE: But you don’t remember who it was though?
BLANKENSHIP: Well, I know he brought me to attention yesterday about some kids
that I haven’t heard of in years. 5:00And I guess they are still in Kentucky as far as I know. I haven’t heard of them.BERGE: Well, their names are not on this list, I guess.
BLANKENSHIP: I haven’t found one.
BERGE: Ok. Ok. Do you—when you went to Lewellen was that camp established there
or were you one of the first ones?BLANKENSHIP: I think we were one of the first ones in there.
BERGE: Like how many? Do you have any idea how many ( ) there were?
BLANKENSHIP: I think it was a hundred and fifty, wasn’t it? Average count. (the
question was directed to someone else in the room) BERGE: Were you in that same company?UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: No.
BERGE: But that was—there was… BLANKENSHIP: That was about average.
BERGE: Yeah, they would get a bunch of them and then send them off at one time.
What did you ( )? Do you remember what is was? When you went to Lewellen were there buildings already there?BLANKENSHIP: The buildings as far as I remember, was already there. Yes.
BERGE: And what else was there at Lewellen? What were you working on there?
BLANKENSHIP: We were building a mountain. I mean a road across a mountain. I
think it was Black Mountain.BERGE: Yeah. What kind of equipment and stuff did you use? Do you remember?
BLANKENSHIP: Well, I remember the first thing I ever did
6:00was use a shovel—a pick and shovel. Then the a—I got on a jack hammer and I worked on that a while. Then I got on a—they had a bull dozer and they put me on assistant on a bulldozer and I was an oiler—yeah, I stayed out at the side camp. Remember those side camps? (directed to someone other than Berge) BERGE: Yeah, little satellite camps—like how many… BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, up in the mountains—about four or five.BERGE: Was that better than being in the big camp?
BLANKENSHIP: Oh, yeah, there was no—we didn’t have no routine.
BERGE: Sorta your own boss?
BLANKENSHP: Yeah. We had one man over us… BERGE: Do you remember who was in
charge of your camp at Lewellen?BLANKENSHIP: I’ve tried to remember and I can’t do it.
BERGE: What do you remember—what do your recall about camp life? Like a the
food, where you slept, 7:00what you and your friends did for relaxation, or any of that stuff?BLANKENSHIP: Well I thought the food was—to me it was excellent.
BERGE: You know I’ve heard that from most people. Not everybody but…
BLANKENSHIP: It was real good. And the guys that cooked it—they were just like us, they were just learning their trade; but it was good. And also as far as enjoying the guys I thought it was wonderful. We got along good together. We played ball, baseball or sports and… BERGE: Did you have any teams that played other places?BLANKENSHIP: Not at Lewellen, no but we did at other camps.
BERGE: You did, huh-huh. The reason that I ask you that is that I had a
brother-in-law who was in a school in Milledgeville Georgia and they used to play the CCC teams.BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, they did that a lot. Yeah.
BERGE: How long did you stay at Lewellen?
8:00BLANKENSHIP: Let’s see I joined you guys in thirty-eight, wasn’t it?UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Thirty-nine. First part of—maybe the first part of
thirty-eight—you may be right there… BERGE: How did you do that? Did you quit there and then reenlist somewhere else? Or how did that work?BLANKENSHIP: No, no took us out of there and put us with this outfit, with 1578.
BERGE: Did they ever give you any choice of where you go, or just like in the
army they just transferred?BLANKENSHP: Ah, they just transferred me I never asked them. I would go anywhere
they want me to.BERGE: So where did you go after Lewellen then, here?
BLANKENSHIP: Ah, we came here briefly wasn’t it? Then we moved on to Grayville Illinois.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: You was here probably, not more than a week. You was sent
here for the purpose—for this company, 1578, was also moving from here.BERGE: Ok. So they were also moving 1578 then.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Yeah they were moving 1578 and we was down on our company
people, so we had lost some; their time was up and they sent some here and built our company strength—1578 up to full strength--and 9:00then we went to Illinois, Grayville Illinois.BERGE: How do you spell that? Gray… BLANKENSHIP: G r a y v i l l e, Grayville.
BERGE: Grayville, huh-huh. Where is that in Illinois?
BLANKENSHIP: It is in southern Illinois.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: ( ) BERGE: Near Carbondale?
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE; No it’s ah… BERGE: Cairo?
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: No, it’s close to Paducah.
BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, it is close to Paducah.
BERGE: Ok.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Evansville… BERGE: Ok. Ok. That area, I know where you are
talking about. What did you do there?BLANKENSHIP: We—I put sod down--grass sod.
BERGE: On what?
BLANKENSHIP: On the land—landscaping around.
BERGE: Was it a park or…?
BLANKENSHIP: No, it was farms—we got on the farms and everywhere else. Anywhere
there was erosion.BERGE: Ok. That was what you were working on. You were working on erosion. Near
the river?BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, near the Wabash.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Right on the Wabash.
BLANKENSHIP: Right on the Wabash.
10:00BERGE: Did you like that kind of work?BLANKENSHIP: I didn’t like it because it was so cold and then we didn’t stay
there too long.BERGE: Where did you go then?
BLANKENSHIP: You can tell him. (laughter) UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: (laughing) Go
ahead and tell him.BLANKENSHIP: No, I don’t want to tell him. Ah, we got in a little argument there
with the home team you know… UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Disagreement.BLANKENSHIP: Disagreement and had a big riot one night.
BERGE: Oh, really?
BLANKENSHIP: Oh, yeah… BERGE: How many people were involved in that riot?
BLANKENSHIP: All of us.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: ( ) Halloween—starting with the Halloween ( ).
BERGE: Tell me about that, it would be interesting to know. Med you tell it.
BLANKENSHIP: Well we had a couple of times that happened to us. (laughs)
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: ( ) in their remarks when we moved in there, somebody was talking about Kentucky being tough and one of their—might have been the Chief of Police or one of the policemen—said 11:00Kentucky wasn’t tough they was just dumb. And… BERGE: Do you all remember that?UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: …and that was remembered until Halloween night and
somebody—I guess there was another crack made—I guess there in town and it led into one hell of a good fight.BERGE: There was a fight between CCC and civilians?
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: The cops. The cops.
BERGE: Did a lot of people get hurt?
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Oh no… BLANKENSHIP: I don’t think anyone got bad. They even
got the fire wagon on us.BERGE: Oh, yeah?
BLANKENSHIP: They even tried to wash us into the Wabash.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: They got the jail so full that ever time they would open it
to put one in, why two would run out.BERGE: Yeah. Tell me this how long did you stay there after that.
BLANKENSHIP: Well, we left there right after that. It wasn’t too long. We had
a—we had a… BERGE: Did they send you away because of that, do you think?UNIDENTIFIED VOICE TWO: Absolutely so.
BLANKENSHIP: We had a wonderful commanding officer. We didn’t think so then but
we had talked about it and he was a nice guy. Really I think he enjoyed watching the fight.BERGE: He just ( ).
BLANKENSHIP: He was Lieutenant Colwell. Herbert—Herbert—I’ll get
12:00it—but anyway he always told us we was going to drive him crazy. (laughs) BERGE: (to the room) Were all of you from Kentucky? Or just about all of you?UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: We had some from West Virginia and some from Ohio.
BLANKENSHIP: We had some from West Virginia and some from Ohio.
BERGE: But most of you were from Kentucky.
UNIDENTIFED VOICE: We were a primarily a Kentucky Company.
BERGE: Mr. Rowe, how long had you been in this company? I’ll just ask you in a
minute—this is Mr. Elmer Rowe—how long were you in the company before he came?ROWE: Probably two years here. We were here for probably two years. We was at
this location for a long time.BERGE: Well I’ll talk to you about this location later. Actually you didn’t work
here that much.BLANKENSHIP: No the only thing I did, I came down here before we left and I come
down here and took the life guard course.BERGE: Oh, you did? From the CCC?
BLANKENSHIP: Yeah.
13:00BERGE: Did they do a lot of that kind of stuff?BLANKENSHIP: They always had a life guard at their swimming parties. Yeah.
BERGE: Do you know, did they have any other kind of educational experiences?
BLANKENSHIP: You could your ( )—they had an educational advisor—you could get
anything you wanted, yeah.BERGE: Did you take anything else besides life guarding?
BLANKENSHIP: Oh, I went to school some, but I don’t think that I took any main
subjects then.BERGE: Did you—do you remember boxing? Was there that much boxing?
BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, I was on the boxing team. (laughs) BERGE: Here?
BLANKENSHIP: No it was the West coast.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Oregon.
BLANKENSHIP: Oregon.
BERGE: That was a big sport in the CCC wasn’t it?
BLANKENSHIP: Yeah. Huh-hum.
BERGE: Really was a big sport in the CCC.
BLANKENSHIP: Yeah. I had twelve fights and I won that all except the last one.
BERGE: That is when you quit?
BLANKENSHIP: That is when I quit. (laughs) I never knew a man could hit like that.
14:00This kid, I’ll never forget him his name was Lee Angus. He—I think he was a former a—Golden Gloves fighter out of Arizona, but I didn’t know he could substitute and he substituted me—I quit.BERGE: He was really good, huh?
BLANKENSHIP: Oh, he worked me over good.
BERGE: Did anybody teach you how to fight? Were there any instructors?
BLANKENSHIP: Noo, we had an educational advisor he would just take us out…
BERGE: Give you gloves and… BLANKENSHIP: Take us out when we was running—he would drive along in the car, you know, never could… UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: See I had George Taylor, I was his second… BLANKENSHIP: Yeah.UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Coach George… BERGE: You weren’t a fighter you were a second?
BLANKENSHIP: He was a fighter, he—I always called him a street fighter.
BERGE: Oh, but not a boxer.
BLANKENSHIP: He knew how to handle it.
BERGE: Let me just ask you this Mr. Blankenship,
15:00how—after the Halloween fiasco out there—how did your job go then?BLANKENSHIP: They sent us to Tulelake California.
BERGE: Which lake?
BLANKENSHIP: Tulelake.
BERGE: Tulelake.
BLANKENSHIP: That is a big… BERGE: Yeah I know.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: T u l l i e BLANKENSHIP: It is a big--I guess--where a lot—I
have never seen so many birds.BERGE: What did you all do out there?
BLANKENSHIP: We built irrigation ditches.
BERGE: Was it a nice place?
BLANKENSHIP: (hesitates) I didn’t think so.
BERGE: You didn’t huh.
BLANKENSHIP: Ah, how far away… UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: We built a ( ) hospital there too.
BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, we built a—I mean we helped ( ) at Klamath Falls. We…
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: We did that for recreation. Twenty-seven mile I think from Klamath Falls, that would have been—south—just about straight south.BLANKENSHIP: Hum-hum. Yeah the camp that we were in was where they had the
Japanese in World War II.UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Internment camp.
BLANKENSHIP: It is still there.
BERGE: Was that camp
16:00there when you got there or did you have to build it?BLANKENSHIP: Already there.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Already there.
BERGE: The buildings were there and that sort of thing. How long did you stay there?
BLANKENSHIP: I stayed there until 1940.
BERGE: You stayed in the CCC till 1940? Where did you say then? Oregon?
BLANKENSHIP: Orland California.
BERGE: Oh, Orland, California. Ok. What was there?
BLANKENSHIP: We built a—we went down and built the camp; and then when we got
there, why we built the irrigation ditches down there.BERGE: When you all were in the CCC, and they set up these work programs or work
details or whatever did you—did you get much instruction or did you just go out and start working?BLANKENSHIP: Oh, they told us what to do—what they wanted done. We had foremen
17:00over us. They were foremen; they were civilians and they were over us and they were always with us. They would take one crew and then they had a leader and an assistant leader.BERGE: And they would sort of give you instructions. But were they instructions
or did they just sort of work it—in other words what I am saying is that when the three C started they obviously didn’t have a big cadre or anything so they had to just sort of work ( ). Did some of the fellas that had skills—did they just come to the top and be foremen or how did that work?BLANKENSHIP: Some of them did. This one guy here Speagle did. Speagle went to
foreman. No I think they had plans they had everything on it.BERGE: How much money did you make?
BLANKENSHIP: I made, ah, five dollars—five dollars
18:00a month, which twenty went home to the folks.BERGE: Did that help them?
BLANKENSHIP: That helped, that and then later on I made assistant leader , that
was thirty-six; and then later I made leader that was what?UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Forty-five.
BLANKENSHIP: Forty-five and that was pretty good money in those days.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: You might add that the extra money that you made you got
back, that didn’t go. There was only twenty that… BERGE: Only twenty that… BLANKENSHIP: Only twenty went home… UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: This was your incentive for… BERGE: For doing better and… BLANKENSHIP: Yeah.BERGE: But that was a—that was a really big help for you fellas families, wasn’t it?
BLANKENSHIP: It was a life saver, it really was.
BERGE: Looking back—what kind of an influence do you think that being in the
three C’s has been in your life? Did it train you for anything or… BLANKENSHIP: I think that the CCC’s trained me for anything I have ever done. 19:00I had never saw a piece of equipment hardly until I went in there and I worked as an operating engineer for twenty-five years.BERGE: Huh-huh. And you really learned that in the CCC?
BLANKENSHIP: I learned in the CCC, I learned to operate… BERGE: Did you—did
you—after you got out of the three C’s what did you do?BLANKENSHIP: I went in the service.
BERGE: Did you enlist or… BLANKENSHIP: I enlisted. Yeah. I put four years, seven
months, and twenty-eight days in the service.BERGE: What were you in?
BLANKENSHIP: Air Force—Air Corps, Army Air Corps.
BERGE: Army Air Corps. What kind of work did you do there?
BLANKENSHIP: I ran a motor pool.
BERGE: So you were sort of in the heavy equipment ( ).
BLANKENSHIP: Yeah. Huh-huh. Yeah we had heavy equipment, we had every kind of
equipment that you wanted.BERGE: Where were you stationed?
BLANKENSHIP: I was stationed about two and one-half years in Panama and the rest
of the time in Italy.BERGE: Hum-hum. And then
20:00what did you did when the war was over?BLANKENSHIP: I come out and I worked in construction work in the east there for
two years, then I went back to California… BERGE: Whereabouts in the east?BLANKENSHIP: I worked in—for Dupont over at Charlestown, Indiana, and then I
went from there to Flint, Michigan and I worked construction and then I went back to California.BERGE: Why did you go back there?
BLANKENSHIP: Well, I had met this gal out there you know… BERGE: When you were
in the CCC?BLANKENSHIP: When I was in the CCC, so I thought I would go back.
BERGE: Huh-huh. Did you correspond with her during the war and everything?
BLANKENSHIP: Sometimes. We wrote letters now and then. I came in off a fire one
night and I eat a hamburger and she served it to me and she was definitely the most—the best looking’ woman I had ever met.UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: She’s out here in the parking lot.
BERGE: (laughs) BLANKENSHIP: …out here in the parking lot.
21:00Well, as I tell everybody, I was sitting’ on a crane up in Michigan one day and I got thinking about her and I said, “I think I will go back to California and…” BERGE: And get another hamburger. (loud laughter all) Was she glad to see you?BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, she was she didn’t know I was coming out and I called her and
she came down and we talked awhile and we decided we wanted to get married. And then we put it off for two months, and then two weeks, and the next thing you know I got there on Valentine Day and the twenty-fifth of March we got married.BERGE: Hum. So that didn’t take long. Didn’t wait the two months did you?
BLANKENSHIP: Nope. We been married now for forty-three years.
BERGE: Huh-huh. And when you went back there—when you went back to get married I
guess you knew that you would stay in California, is that right?BLANKENSHIP: I always wanted to stay in California. I always wanted to go back.
BERGE: So it must have made a big impression on you then.
BLANKENSHIP: It did.
BERGE: In many ways—in a lot of ways then your CCC experience was a pivotal
experience in your life?BLANKENSHIP: Yes, to me it was. Yes.
22:00BERGE: Did you ah—how long did you stay in construction? All your life?BLANKENSHIP: Practically all my life. I worked at different jobs when I couldn’t
get a job in heavy construction, I would do something else. But I worked for myself quite a bit too. I had my own business. When I retired I had had my own business for fourteen years. I sold my business when I became sixty-two, about the same day and I just retired.BERGE: Ok.
BLANKENSHIP: I been retired now since 1980.
BERGE: Huh-huh. What do you do? Now that you are retired?
BLANKENSHIP: We travel a lot. We been all over the United States, Canada and
part of Mexico.BERGE: Do you camp any or…?
BLANKENSHIP: That’s what we do, we run an RV. We do it the hard way.
BERGE: Yeah.
BLANKENSHIP: RV’n.
BERGE: Yeah, huh-huh.
BLAKENSHIP: But ah… BERGE: What kind of a vehicle
23:00do you have?BLANKENSHIP: I have what they call now a Swinger.
BERGE: What’s that?
BLANKENSHIP It is a twenty-six foot motor home.
BERGE: Oh, ok. Do you stay in it all year?
BLANKENSHIP: Oh, no, no we stayed in one. I had a thirty-three footer and we
lived in that for three years. But we got tired of it, and we built a home, a small home and we live out in the country. We could stay out there and camp all the time. Nobody around us. Our closest neighbor is a half-mile and we live by a wild river.BERGE: Where do you go in the United States when you go? What kind of places do
you go to?BLANKENSHIP: Anywhere we want to, we don’t have a certain place to go.
BERGE: But I mean wild places or… BLANKENSHIP: Yeah. Yeah.
BERGE: Well, so really most of that CCC experience again was a good one for you
because you were generally in the CCC you were in places that weren’t built up. You were in rural areas all the time. Yeah, I know I talked to some of the ones that came here when it first opened, you know they just put them in the field and they built the places, you know.BLANKENSHIP: Well to get back to it
24:00he didn’t tell you about when we got to Orland.BERGE: How do you spell Orland?
BLANKENSHIP: O r l a n d.
BERGE: Huh-huh.
BLANKENSHIP: We almost got run out of that place too.
BERGE: Yeah. What happened. (laughter) BLANKENSHIP: Same thing.
BERGE: Started that Kentucky hillbilly stuff did they?
BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, I met a… UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: …a lot of jealousy… BLANKENSHIP:
I met a… UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: …derisions and when you go into a town and you start fooling’ with the girls then that steps on somebody’s toes.BERGE: Yeah.
BLANKENSHIP: I met a guy I remember another kid and I was walking down the
street and met four guys and one of them walked up to me and called me by the name of Brownie. And I said, “my name’s not Brownie.” And he hit me, he thought I was Brownie you know and he hit me, he hit at 25:00me and he missed. I happen to know how to box by then so we got into… BERGE: Lucky it wasn’t that guy from Arizona. (very loud laughter) BLANKENSHIP: Yeah. He was a big farmer--rice farmer. Right now I hear about him quite often; I read in the paper he is one of the best rice farmers in California.BERGE: The guy that hit you huh?
BLANKENSHIP: Yeah. He swung at me but he missed and so I worked him over and his
brother knocked me out with a lead pipe. But the whole town come up and I don’t remember too much but he does after that. Boy, they had a ball. They had to call the highway patrol and everybody else in on us that night.BERGE: When you all would go into town would you be in uniform?
BLANKENSHIP: Sometimes, sometimes not.
BERGE: They knew who you were though?
BLANKENSHIP: Oh, they knew who we were.
BERGE: Even if you had civilian clothes on , they knew who you were.
BLANKENSHIP: Well, it was our talk.
BERGE: Yeah, and your age and everything, they had a pretty good idea.
BLANKENSHIP: Well, I’ll tell you… BERGE: These were
26:00small towns, too weren’t they?BLANKENSHIP: We dressed nice in those days, you know. We had gabardine suits and
they looked nice. We could buy one for a dollar down and a dollar a week. We had guys in camp that sold them We dressed nice, if we wanted to.BERGE: What percentage of the people in the camp could have an automobile?
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Oh, they usually… BLANKENSHIP: I remember one guy…
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: ( ) would be astronomical percentage wise, I only know of one or two guys in the three C’s that had an automobile.BLANKENSHIP: I remember Kent, was the only one I ever knew.
BERGE: Did you—( ) I’m going to ask Mr. Blankenship here,
27:00did you keep up with any of the people in the three C’s after you got out?BLANKENSHIP: I didn’t, no. I… BERGE: I think it was the war, more than anything else.
BLANKENSHIP: Yeah. I went in the war… UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: The people got scattered.
BLANKENSHIP: When I come out of the war and I went back to California I did run
into one, two—two fellas that I was in camp with. One of them lives about eight miles from me now.BERGE: Do you ever get together?
BLANKENSHIP: We call each other every now and then, yeah.
BERGE: ( ) in service didn’t you?
BLANKENSHIP: Well, I think most of them did.
BERGE: Do you remember when they gave you the physical for the CCC? Was it much
of a physical or what?BLANKENSHIP: I remember it about like that. The Army—when I went in the Army all
they did was just a fast physical and you were in the Army. Like they say, “if you could see the wall, you went in.” In fact, I had a friend from Pikeville that went in with me with one eye and he become a hero in the service.UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: That Gentry?
BLANKENSHIP: No it was a kid by the name of Mons.
BERGE: And he had one eye when he went in?
BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, he couldn’t see out of one
28:00eye very well and he was in the Fifth Infantry, he fought quite a good bit.BERGE: He probably had a pretty good disability from that bad eye. (laughs)
BLANKENSHIP: I don’t know, I saw him two or three years ago, I happened to run into him and I didn’t ask him any questions, we didn’t talk too much. You know after meeting someone that long you don’t talk too much.BERGE: You don’t have anything to talk to him about.
BLANKENSHIP: No, not really.
BERGE: That is one thing about meeting here at least you can talk about the
experiences You have this stuff together.BLANKENSHIP: Well these guys, you brought up—well see… BERGE: You remind each other.
BLANKENSHIP: You remind each other, that’s when you start thinking of it.
BERGE: He probably forgot about getting beaten up by that guy from Arizona till
you reminded him.BLANKENSHIP: Yeah.
BERGE: He probably thought
29:00he went ( ) (laughter). He ( ) champion of the CCC.BLANKENSHIP: We had ( ) Poke McCoskey, ( ) UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Yeah, John Wade.
BERGE: Where was he from?
BLANKENSHIP: He was from Ohio. There was a bunch of them from up around—where
was that town—the steel town?UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Poke McCoskey was from Indianapolis.
BERGE: Oh, he was?
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: His ( ) second… BERGE: Probably a Youngstown type.
BLANKENSHIP: Yeah Youngstown, that’s right.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE; He was from Cincinnati, Branchwine.
BLANKENSHIP: Oh.
BERGE: I tell you it was a good experience. Travel and meet people and change
your whole life.BLANKENSHIP: I wouldn’t change it.
BERGE: Yeah, it changed your whole life.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: There was one thing that you didn’t find
30:00in the three C boys; if he had been in over six months you could say he wasn’t lazy.BERGE: Huh-huh. Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. Let me turn this over a minute.
END OF SIDE ONE TAPE ONE.
BEGIN SIDE TWO TAPE ONE: BERGE: What percentage of the fellas were pretty good workers?
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: There are bound to be some goldbrickers.
BLANKENSHIP: Oh, there were but I would say that the majority were—I think it
would go ninety per cent.BERGE: Would they kick them out if they didn’t work.
BLANKENSHIP: Oh, yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Oh, yeah. That’s why I say… BERGE: We’re about finished. (to
someone who looked in the door. you could hear it squeak) Did you know any that were kicked out?BLANKENSHIP: I never did know any that was kicked out for not working.
BERGE: But for any other reason?
BLANKENSHIP: I know some that was kicked out because they messed up.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: ( ) BLANKENSHIP: Oh, yeah they messed up in town,
31:00you know and they… BERGE: What would they do with somebody—if they—decided to maybe go AWOL, would they kick them out or would they bring them back?UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: They would give them a dishonorable discharge and a walking
ticket. They didn’t give you transportation back if you got a dishonorable discharge.BERGE: Let me ask you one more thing before we quit. Let’s say you decided that
after six months or a year that you were going to get out, when they discharged you, what did they give you?BLANKENSHIP: They gave you a train ticket home.
BERGE: They did.
BLANKENSHIP: They paid my way from San Francisco, yeah.
BERGE: Back to Kentucky?
BLANKENSHIP: On the Challanger.
BERGE: They give you cash or they give you a ticket?
BLANKENSHIP: They gave me the ticket. They give me no cash. (laughter) BERGE:
Mr. ( ) did you get out of California, was that your last place?UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: No, I transferred—request—my
32:00request—I had only six months left, I had run out of time with the three C’s. I had run out before and it had been changed… BERGE: What do you mean you had run out?UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Well, they had come down—after you had been in so long then
they decided—well they called you a three C bum and I didn’t care being called a bum, I just liked the three C’s. So when it finally got down to where I had the time and the age—so I was going out and I had six months left.BERGE: How old could you be and still be in? What was the age limit on the top?
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: I think between eighteen and twenty-four on the last
33:00and I was twenty-two I believe at that time with four years service.UNIDENTIFIED VOICE TWO: Now they had a special job, like company clerk or, first
sergeant, or something like those two… BERGE: If they really needed you. (laughs) UNIDENTIFIED VOICE TWO: They would hold you over.BERGE: I understand.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: That was one thing that helped me a lot.
BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, that helped me, because I was told I couldn’t stay in five
years, but I did. So somebody helped me out.BERGE: Back in those days the way records were somebody could have gone
somewhere else and signed up and had a couple of years before they… UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Oh, yeah.BERGE: How did you hear about it
34:00Mr. Turrell? How did you hear about the CCC?TURRELL: Oh, I don’t know friends and neighbors kept mentioning the three C’s, I
don’t know.BERGE: How did you hear about it Mr. Murphy?
MURPHY: Same way. There was a camp where I lived. Sterns.
BERGE: Oh, are you from Sterns? Do you still live over there? (silence) Yeah
that camp was down over the hill there. Well, I sure want to thank you Mr. Blankenship, for coming in here and I will be seeing you around some more this week.END OF SIDE TWO TAPE ONE.
END OF INTERVIEW.
35:00