WILLIAM H. BERGE: The following is an unrehearsed interview with Mr. Russ Evans
of Calvert City, Kentucky. The interview is conducted at Cumberland Falls State Park, October 7, 1990, at 9:00 AM. Come on in. ( ) This is the guy I had an appointment with. {much laughter and chatter in the background} The interview is conducted at Cumberland State Falls Park, by William Berge for the Kentucky Oral History Commission.. Mr. Evans, very quickly, we don’t have much time, tell me what is your full name, and when you were born, and were you were born.RUSS EVANS: Ok. my name is Russ Evans and I was born in … BERGE: Let me get this
just a second. {chatter and doors banging in the background} Come on in and sit down a minute I will be finished in about five minutes.EVANS: I was born—I would do better if we were alone.
BERGE: Yeah. Sure. You were born where?
EVANS: Oh, in Pittsburg, Kentucky.
1:00BERGE: And what was your father’s name?EVANS: Walter Evans.
BERGE: And your mother’s name?
EVANS: Nora Evans.
BERGE: Maiden name?
EVANS: Johnson.
BERGE: Were they from around Laurel County? Both of them?
EVANS: Hum-hum. Pittsburg, yeah.
BERGE: And what year were you born again?
EVAN: 1922, September 3.
BERGE: Ok. So you were one of the fairly young ones in … EVANS: Yeah. Matter of
fact is I fudged a little bit on my—become seventeen.BERGE: Yeah. Huh-huh. Whereabouts in the Pittsburg area did you live?
EVANS: East Pittsburg, what used to be the old Pittman Coal Company.
BERGE: Yeah, oh, sure I know what you are talking about. Did you know any of
those Adams boys?EVANS: Yes, I knew them—was raised with them. You talking about Edwin and Matt?
BERGE: Yeah, Edwin and Matt, huh-huh, their youngest brother is a good friend of mine.
EVANS: You talking about Jack?
BERGE: Jack, huh-huh..
EVANS: They live around the Paducah area.
BERGE: No, Jack lives in Richmond.
EVANS: Oh, his brother, Phil
2:00and ( ) they both live down there.BERGE: Let me ask you this, why did—when did you go in the CC’s?
EVANS: That is the question—I think I went in right around—I’ve lost my
records—somewhere around September 19, ’39 I believe.BERGE: Do you remember how you heard about it? Did you all… EVANS: Oh, yes,
that—that’s my story—the only story is—getting out—of course you are familiar with the situation in that area.BERGE: That’s right.
EVANS: My brother is—my oldest brother, he just got in the CC’s and how he heard
about it I don’t know. They sent him to—to the state of Oregon.BERGE: Ok.
EVANS: And that was… BERGE: And you thought you would have a nice trip like that?
EVANS: No, well,
3:00ok, my next brother in line, he decided he wanted to go in the CC’s, and behold they sent him to the West and he landed right in the same camp with my other brother. And they were there about six months. And of course, he was shipped to up in Idaho, and he couldn’t cut that loneliness, and he finally came back to Kentucky. Getting to my point, the fact that, I feel that the CC’s did so much for me in my life that—it has been connected all the way through. And this, my brother going to, he is in Oregon, he is still living there now, he, ‘course he stayed, he married, but when I got old enough, why I am going to go west like they did, and..BERGE: Bald Rock EVANS: ( ). Yeah.
Bald
4:00Rock. But I wasn’t too unhappy, I enjoyed two years, I was a young kid.BERGE: How important was this to you?
EVANS: Oh, very important it was a way out. The little farm we lived on –it
wasn’t large enough to sustain a growing family. My Dad, he was out of work and there was no income.BERGE: Huh-huh.
EVANS: So, huh, after I had served my time with CC’s, of course, I worked around
a little bit, and got out just before the war. Well, when the war came along they drafted me and with—here again—with my experience in the CC’s, within the service they issued blankets and pillows, and the guys were just stacking them up, and I had my bed made up and still ---BERGE: You knew how to do it.
EVANS: Yeah, and this trade of being able to do what you are told to,
5:00and understand the instructions, these are the two points I think, is learning to live with what you are told. And, within thirty weeks I had a rating and I started out in KP … BERGE: Huh-huh. Because of your CC?EVANS: Oh, sure. You knew ( ) ( ) as fast as possible, when out of service—came
out of the service I came back to Laurel County, pardon me, (sneezed) of course I married a ( ) girl.BERGE: Huh-huh. What was her name?
EVANS: Opal Mathews. Course,( )anyway, ( ) and I got one check and I told her,
this is not cutting it, something has got to happen. So we go ( ) ( ). When 6:00he went out there, he got married and stayed, so we went out there and within a week I had a job. I stayed out there and went to work for the Bell System. I got my Ph. D., at the University out there and then eventually I transferred back to this county. And I retired from the telephone company down in Calvert City.BERGE: But it was out in Oregon that you actually got the job.
EVANS: Yeah. I got my training, all my training out there. And I think my
brother being out there… BERGE: There are a world of people who just end up having this connection from there. The CCC experience, what they would never have done, it sort of leads into other things. Do you come back to this country very often and visit relatives and everything?EVANS: Well, I have a sister still lives in Pittsburg.
BERGE: So do you ever come back?
EVANS: Oh, yeah.
BERGE: Well, look it, sometime when you come back would you call me on the phone?
7:00EVANS: Do you ever come down to the … BERGE: Well, I don’t come down to the country much but my phone is listed.EVANS: In East Burnside?
BERGE: Yeah, it is probably listed in East Burnside, but it is listed in you
know that ( ) area.EVANS: Yeah. Yeah.
BERGE: William Berge, B-E-R-G-E . And I would sure like to talk to you at some
length about this. I had that ( ) with Mr. Brown for a couple days, but… EVANS: Yeah. I wanted to get to the fact that if, what I feel is that the CCC, some of the guys were talking the other day, but some of the guys can’t get them to admit that they really were in the CC’s. They kind of put it aside.BERGE: Well, I think, I think it is one of the premier programs that the Federal
Government ever had.EVANS: I do too. It is a shame to ( ) but they didn’t.
BERGE: No, it was run differently.
EVANS: Yeah, It differed. Different generation. I still feel that I, and
8:00as I say, I made and saved some money, I invested in State Bonds, Government Bonds.BERGE: A little ( ) stock.
EVANS: No, I sold it.
BERGE: Boy, some guys made a fortune at that stuff.
EVANS: Yeah, I sold it. Continental, I had a lot of Continental stock and I
think it was good to me.BERGE: I sure hope that when you come back to visit with your sister next time
you call me, and you know I can give you ( ) our house and I live on the lake, on Wooster Lake.EVANS: Well, ( ), yeah, they built that. I left twenty years ago.
BERGE: You know when they started building that?
9:00