Oral History Interview with James Still

JAMES STILL: I'm as tired now, as I will be when I get through.

CASSIE MULLINS: Oh, I guess that's pretty fair then. And I'll just say for the record, this is Mr. James Still. And today's date is Wednesday, May the twentieth, nineteen ninety-eight. And I guess we can just start off with basic questions. What year did you come to Hindman?

STILL: I came here the last day of June, nineteen thirty-one. Although I did not come to teach until the following fall. I mean not that fall, thirty-one, but thirty-two.

C.M.: Uh huh.

STILL: However, I spent the summer here. And 1:00I came with a fellow, Don West. And he and his wife were, he was going to make a preacher. And in fact, I knew him in, he was in the Divinity school down here at Vanderbilt, where I knew him, when I was a student there. And knew him pretty well. I knew him at Vanderbilt, no at Lincoln Memorial too, but not well.

C.M.: Right.

STILL: He was a great friend of Jesse Stuart, incidentally. They were just almost twins for a long time. Although they fell out later in life. And on Jesse's part he never could think of anything worse to say about Don. And well, Don's another story. However, he was one here too. He was here before. He had taught school here. And uh, eighth grade. And his wife taught maybe third, ( ) elementary. And Peggy, I knew her as well at Lincoln Memorial. Well, 2:00I came for the vacation bible school. And he had his brother-in-law, Jack Adams come. And later somebody named, a young man named Fletcher, who was, had, had polio and was rather somewhat crippled. And I don't remember much about him. I don't think he was here all the time. So what we did was to organize Boy Scouts at ( ), Upper Mill Creek and Lower Mill Creek and here. So it was four places.

C.M.: And you came with him? And organized that kind of....

STILL: I didn't come with him. I arrived here.

C.M.: Oh, okay.

STILL: No, I arrived. I had come down. You see, I had just graduated from the University of Illinois. And I had come down to, on the way 3:00home from Urbana-Champaign, I stopped in Nashville, and went up to Vanderbilt, where he was a student. I learned that he worked part-time out at a settlement house in the city. So I went out to the settlement house and he was not there, but he was expected. And he did turn up and he invited me, so I had to come. Now, he knew I had this library degree here. And so the next year when the librarian retired, they asked me to come back and be the librarian.

C.M.: And that was in nineteen thirty-two?

STILL: That was thirty-two, the fall of thirty-two. Well, when I came here, the school was out the week before. They 4:00always retained the girls here. They remained, didn't go home for a week. They spent the week, or whatever time it took, I don't know, maybe two weeks, cleaning these dormitories. Every inch, they scrubbed everything, every chair, everything that could be washed was cleaned up. And of course the library, which was in the old stone building, at that time, every inch. This place was immaculate. That was one of the things, at all times. They had plenty of help, you know. Well it was the depth of the depression, you must remember. Right at it's worst. And there were no jobs. So I don't think they were paid, 5:00their teachers or could pay them. The only person they, people they paid were the local hands, like old Doc Pratt who had the big garden out here where the playground is now, old field. And they paid, paid the principal the magnificent sum of two hundred dollars a month.

C.M.: But did you get paid for being a librarian?

STILL: No, no. They didn't pay me anything. It was understood that you were a volunteer worker. I think maybe we were all volunteer workers, except there was one teacher who lived here, who was paid by the county. And that was kind of the beginning 6:00of the county takeover, which took quite a long time. But that was--oh Smith, can't think of the first name. Well, so we worked. In all those years I can say to begin with, in all those years, well from the beginning to whatever the range was. Miss Stone had been semi-retired and had, would come here about...commencement was always in June. She'd come about the middle of May. And she would stay until about October. And during the school year, a Miss Watts would go home to Massachusetts. But then the rest 7:00of the year Miss Watts was the director. In those years, those six years I stayed here and later time, the seven years I was, let's see about maybe two years I was here with you, we never had a conversation.

C.M.: You and Miss Watts?

STILL: Not one. There was no reason for one. But you would have thought, you know, there would have been a little exchange of some sort. There were opportunities for it, because in the last part, I was called up a time or two. Now the only reason you go to Miss watts, was because something needed to be done. I can remember going and asking her...there 8:00was something I needed or something and the answer was no.

STILL: Well for example, if you want an example. I lived in Eastover, up here, the boy's dormitory. I lived in the corner room. It was a rather large room, pretty dark of course, like all-everything was dark and brown, painted brown outside, and no matter. I lived in there. And there was a big fireplace this way. I was trying to think how it really was heated, but anyway we had a fireplace. I think it was heated by gas, 9:00but no it wasn't, oh well. It was heated by a furnace, burned coal. But this room apparently didn't get the benefit of the furnace. So they had a little boy come in and build a fire for me in the morning. All right, in the corner very close to the fireplace was a big bookshelf, a real great, big bookshelf, about this deep. It was over just in the corner angled toward the mantle this way. Well, when I had a fire and the heat, it was too close to the books and anything that I put in that shelf. So I asked her if I might move that shelf back to the other corner of the room, where it would be away from the fireplace. 10:00And she said, I quote her, "certainly not". (Laughter Mullins) STILL: "When I lived, when I was here at first, I lived in that room. And I want it to stay just like it was."

C .M.: Well. STILL: The next time somebody gave us. She called me and said somebody has given us a set of encyclopedias, World books. Now, we have got a choice of colors, blue, red or green. Well, I knew that the reference works were old, practically worn out old books, you know. And one of them, red is not my favorite color on books, particularly. But I said I think it would liven that shelf up a little bit for them to be red. Said, "Well we've already told them to send green or blue.", whatever it was. So I remember that. No, I well, 11:00of course when I did go, I'd usually tell the secretary something. I know we needed cards, three by five cards, have to buy them, they cost a dime a pack. And we couldn't buy the regular library cards, so I had to punch holes in them you know--to go in--okay. But to get a dime out of them was a federal case.

C.M.: Why was that?

STILL: Well, they [were] not too sure about that. I always felt she was very askance of me for some years. For one thing, I had hardly got here, within a week or two, they had Jockey Day.

C.M.: What's 12:00 that?

C.M.: Court Days.

But anyway what was I going to tell you? Oh yeah. One time, one of these boys, we had a cook over, assistant cook, over in the dining room. And her brother came to see her that day. He was a young man, 13:00maybe--seventeen--eighteen-years-old-. -And so, one-of-the students saw------him and he ran and told Miss Jones, the housemother, that there was a drunk man here on the campus. Well she didn't ask any questions, she just, you know, she didn't know if he was drunk or not. She said run and get the sheriff. So he ran downtown. And the sheriff and the town marshal and ran up here. And the deputy ran up here. And the boy saw them coming and he ran. Well school was out at that time and I was crossing the bridge that was here. Took me away from the schoolhouse and here's the boy going running away up the hill. And they were shooting at him.

STILL: Well they didn't...he was too far. They didn't 14:00hit him. But then the young deputy, who may have been about thirty years old. He was climbing up the hill and he fired. And the boy was trying to climb a fence up there and they shot him in the back. And he fell backwards. So they took him away and he died that night.

C.M.: Nobody else would admit they saw it?

STILL: No. So we went to trial and so naturally they were very disgusted that I was getting him into trouble, you know. I was in the doghouse. That's the way I felt. So I was in the court and all that sort of thing. And 15:00know that fellow's name down there. In fact I was told to stay out of town, there might be, seeing as how I was a witness--and they didn't want--they-might kill me, you know.

C.M.: Let's see. When you first, I guess when you first got, got to the settlement school. When you first got here. What was your first impression of the place?

C.M.: Do you remember like, what the campus looked like?

C.M.: But you said it was real, everything was immaculate and clean.

STILL: Oh, well scrubbed. Definitely, oh yeah, oh yes, goodness. See, if anything they over did it. But they had an explanation for that, we're trying to make a point with these students. And 16:00they used to say, if you were born somewhere in this county. If you passed a house that had flowers in the yard and all swept and everything, a Hindman Settlement student lived there. That's what they used to say. And it was true.

C.M.: You talked about Miss Watts, things you remembered about her. I wanted to get, I guess some things that you remembered about …like. I mean I don't know exactly the people that were here when you were here.

STILL: Well, Miss Keyselle. Teachers-sat-at.--.--.We-ate regular meals a day here. Sunday evening it was sandwiches, generally. And the chairs and the tables were pushed back and the chairs were lined up, boys 17:00on one side and girls on the other. And they sang hymns and they had choral reading, a little choral reading. And maybe a prayer, I don't know. And we ate our sandwiches. And had milk to drink. And later times it might be an orange. Then somebody might sing something. But, one of the things about it is...I never have any recollection of being satisfied with the food here.

C.M.: Oh really?

STILL: No, never did. They was, we had things that we don't ever think about cooking now.

STILL: Oh, let's see, we had beaten biscuits here, and with ham, you know. And they had this big garden and the girls canned. Oh 18:00Lord, they canned, Lord knows how much. And they had cows and had plenty of milk. And everything was cooked well. We had a chicken yard out here. That's the reason they call Mrs. Earp's house the chicken pit, chicken house, because it was right over there. (Laughter) That included when she lived there. She never did like that.

STILL: Chicken house. I don't know why not. I kind of like that, don't you?

C.M.: I think it's cute, but...

STILL: Yeah, creekside is too unexpected, you know. Miss Keyselle, well a teacher sat at each table. There was at least one -----~teacher----,-sometimes-there-were-two.

STILL: Yes, three times a day. And 19:00you were there, you were expected to be there. You had your assigned chair. And in those days, of course, no radio, no T.V. and no newspapers. Of course, we had them in the library. But the teachers were for the most part graduates of Wesley, not all together. I remember one from Smith College. And maybe some other colleges, like Holyoke and Bradley and Bryn Mawr, seems Vassar. And maybe some were from Vassar. And the nurses both times were from Pennsylvania. And this was a hospital up here.

C.M. : Where ( ) ?

STILL: Uh hmm. There was a hospital with beds. And in the back was an extension. I don't think it is there anymore, which was the Horne Economics classes 20:00were taught there. It was a kitchen. And it happened that the...after Smith left here, there was a man, Potter that came. And I had been to school with him at Lincoln Memorial. And he was attending Georgia Peabody, when I was at Vanderbilt. So after Jeff Smith left. Jeff Smith was here for many years. And he lived right where the parking lot is. There was a house there. And at that time up in the curve, as you go up to my house, just at the end of the curve, the road stopped up there. There was a house. Jethro Amburgey lived there.

STILL: There was a cabin. We called it a cabin. A log house, which was used to build the office out here, was there. There's a path going on along. He was there. And in the middle of that place out -------here-where-the-barl-court-is, 21:00there was-this-log-house-.-It-had-been moved from down (??) Branch long ago. But the water got up there two or three times a year and it was rotting the logs and they moved it out up here. It was just a later time after Mike went away from here when they made an office out of it.

STILL: It was really a privilege to be here, because I declare I learned so much from these other teachers. They were older generally. I was the youngest person here. And I think I was the only man. No, I wasn't sometimes. After Jethro left, there was a man teacher here, not many, just a few. Devon Pratt, who was here and the Potters. Jethro 22:00didn't eat here. Anyway, not many men.

C.M.: For the most part it was women teachers?

C.M.: So it was like the kids were constantly learning or doing something.

STILL: Oh yeah, or work. They all had jobs. They had to get up before daylight. The girls cooked, under supervision. Some of them had their looms down here, not many. In the log house. Maybe about three girls who worked for me in the library. Each dormitory had girls who looked after it. (?? ) looked over Eastover. It was a girl's dormitory, but with some teacher living downstairs. So 23:00we had breakfast at seven o'clock and you had to be there. Lunch was at twelve noon and you had to be there. Supper was at six and you had to be there.

STIL: Everybody--the-only-exception was a fellow named Noah-,-------Noah somebody. And he, he worked at the dairy. He was kind of in charge of the dairy under Mrs. Burns. And he had to do things about the cows, like drive them up the hollow or do something about them. So he had permission to be late. However, they knew he was sometimes late. 24:00And he sat at my table. And Miss Keyselle would always, she knew this. But there was an empty chair. She'd say, "Where's Noah?" She knew very well where he was. And pretty soon he'd come in. That went on week after week. Where's Noah? And one day I said to Miss Keyselle, "I don't Noah." (Laughter) And she never did, she never asked that again. She didn't like that.

C.M.: So what if somebody was late, that was supposed to be there?

C.M.: Nobody was ever late?

STILL: I never heard tell of anybody being late.

C.M.: I guess they just wouldn't get to eat would they?

STILL: No, they'd have to go to the office.

C.M.: So it probably was a lot better to be early. (Laughter) STILL: Well, the girls were already here, you know. Well they lived, some of them lived over in Miss Walker, over on Hillside. 25:00Upstairs was dormitories, downstairs was offices. And they were right here, you know. You know, I don't recall anybody ever being late, except me, anytime.

C.M.: Did you get in trouble?

STILL: No, no they didn't say anything to me. I just, it wasn't-a question-of-being-late-. -I-just took-my-time-. I'd wait for everybody else to settle down and then I'd go in and sit down. And they had baked fish on Christmas and Thanksgiving. You got to go home. A student got to go home twice a year.

C.M.: That's all?

STILL: Whether you got a choice of going home for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

STILL: No. That's because they had all these cows 26:00to milk and furnaces to keep going, so they, you know, wouldn't freeze. There were things to do here, so they anyway.. They'd decide. And I know--in Christmas, I can remember me and the teachers, probably wanting to go home to Alabama, but they wouldn't let us. School was out, let's say on Thursday. And Christmas wouldn't be until Saturday, but I couldn't leave. I had to stay in the East and go through the Christmas program. And I had to take the boys around before daylight Christmas 27:00morning and sing carols at the dormitories.

C.M.: The East dormitory?

STILL: They had all kinds of things we did here.

C.M.: So you lived. Were you kind of like a helper with the boys, when you lived with them?

STILL: And that was taking care of these younguns. They weren't allowed--it was like a fence was around this place. -It-was-a---little bit of an island really. Such things as going to town was unheard of. Even the teachers didn't go to town without reporting or getting permission. It wasn't a place people went, down there. You know, it was considered not any place, somewhere for people, women to be going up and down the street. You didn't see any women 28:00downtown hardly. That changed my second hitch here. I know one time at the table, I early sometime in October...I told Miss Watts about going to the drugstore one night. Where they were having there was--there was a fellow had about eight daughters and one son. And they'd sing old mountain songs and all of them picked the banjo. Some picked the banjo and others would sing. And I went down and heard them perform in the drugstore. And then she said what were you doing there out at night? think I said, "Miss Watts, I'm a writer. I need experience. I need to go places and do things." Something along that whole line, but I was never called down again. I was the one person who went out to all kinds of places.

C.M.: So you were on the staff officially for six years?

STILL: Six, but I was...I didn't have a dime. Of course I was too proud to ask my folks for anything. 29:00They had a laundry here. They did furnish the soap. They fed us. They had boxes of old clothes and things came in and I really was running out. But those clothes weren't thirteen--meant for me. They were meant for students. I want to say about this, these people here. You knew that every penny that came in here, went to the right place. There was never anything frivolous, you know, spending. I know when McClain was made director here, Miss Watts was her. And he bought one of these things where you can dictate letters in, probably cost a hundred 30:00dollars or more. And Miss Watts was very unhappy, that he spent that money on a dictaphone.

C.M.: What did she say?

C.M.: Miss Watts?

STILL: She never, I can't recall her ever being in the library, except one time. And that was when we had a meeting there to tell us all that she was going to retire. That's the only time I recall. She might have come in, but I don't have any memory of it. She certainly 31:00never borrowed a book from there. Though we were on polite terms. And I don't think...my impression was the staff did not have much to do with these people up here in the office.

END OF TAPE ONE, JAMES STILL, 20 A 1, SIDE A START OF TAPE ONE, JAMES STILL, 20 A 1, SIDE B C.M.: I do that all the time. Okay we're back on now. It shouldn't matter, but I just thought about that.

STILL: What was I talking about?

C.M.: You were talking about quad hour. Every day, there was a quad hour.

STILL: Yeah and on Sunday when I'd take the boys on hikes. We had to get away from here and by one o'clock. And certainly 32:00not come back until that hour was over.

C.M.: So you all went on hikes?

STILL: Yeah. In the fall, they would meet up here after supper in the big room. And they would read the diaries, that Miss Stone and Miss uh...anyway the diaries of the early days. They would read from them to us. And I remember when in the summer, once when Miss Stone was here. She had a little tea or something, maybe cookies. And I talked to Miss Stone, I remember. There were two. Miss Stone and Miss Watts were two diametrically opposed personalities.

C.M.: How so? 33:00STILL: Miss Stone was gentle and kindly and motherly, and just very sweet natured. And very self-assured though, but a lady. And Miss Watts appeared, you know, rather stern and official. I don't think, those were early days, there was anything much to be worried about for it. Before I left here though, under McClain, that was part of the reason I left. I couldn't put up with (?? ). There was none. He absolutely had everything in the red. I 34:00don't know what this place would have come to if Miss Watts, Mr Hurt hadn't taken a hand.

C.M.: After you were no longer an official part of the staff, you still had another sort of contact with the settlement school. How did you kind of remain in contact, when you were not here anymore? After you left.

S1!-I-LL: You mean after I left?

STILL: When I was here, I didn't earn any money, you know. Well, I'd sold a few poems and got a few bucks for little razor blades and things. And then I began, and I wrote two or three stories, more than that maybe. And they were published in The Atlantic and The Yale Review and places. And then I began to write a novel. And in fact he gave me a contract and wanted me to take a year 35:00off and finish it. Well I didn't need that much time. So I did. And I moved back to Jethro Amburgey's house. At that time there was a wagon road there. And we had to get to...They took me as far as they could to Hazard car. We could go to (?? ) by car. And they moved me. And I never saw them again. I came, Jethro, he was in charge of the boys one time. He and Laine were in charge of...houseman. She 36:00was house mother up here at Eastover and then he got sick. And I came to see him, and it was Thanksgiving Day. And although they were told I was here, they didn't send me anything to eat or invite me down to eat. And they seemed to have taken umbrage at me leaving, you know or something. I never knew about it. So Jethro, he didn't eat anything anyway, so I ate his food. I would have to admit that they were never more than rather official with me. C.M.: When you say they. Who are you talking about?

STILL: The administration. Miss Cobb though was a wonderful human being.

C.M.: Who was? Miss Cobb?

STILL: Well, she was more like Miss Stone. She was very red 37:00headed and fair and darn near everybody, all the girls loved her. Everybody loved Miss Cobb. And she had poems too, and published. She had a book of poems. I didn't mean her. She was--anyway I never. I was never allowed to feel comfortable with this, with them, the secretaries or Miss Watts ever during the time I was here. Maybe they wouldn't want that said, but it's true. It could have been, they...I was very shy though and I would...they'd read the bible. They'd read scripture I believe once a week. Somebody they'd have a scripture 38:00and the teachers would read. And I wouldn't. And Miss Watts said to me one time, said, "I don't know whether you have religion or not." (Laughter -Mullins) Just based on that. Later she was different. I told her one time, we never had a conversation. Oh I know she said. Of course when she was retired, we just talked like magpies, both of us, you know. We just never got acquainted. I think she felt she had to be, that there should be, had to be discipline. And she couldn't show any weakness whatever, you know. I think Miss Stone would always have a tea and this was before she left 39:00in the spring or in the fall. I don't remember.

C.M.: When you say tea, what was that? Sort of like a party? Sort of like a social get-together?

STILL: Ice tea or hot tea with the cookies.

C.M.: Just kind of so people could talk and sit down?

STILL: Yeah, uh huh. And Miss Gunn, Miss Gunn only ran what we called the cabin over there, where they had those looms and things. And they brought--people--brought in baskets and rugs and things. And they sold them out of there. Some people ordered them. They sold them. And the weaving was done there. And she lived there, Miss Gunn did. Now, remember, such a thing as going to Hazard, 40:00maybe I might go once a year.

C.M.: To Hazard?

C.M.: So you did six and then were gone.

STILL: Well, yeah. I was gone for years. And then McClain. Miss Watts was here for about two years and then McClain became. There again, never had a conversation with McClain. 41:00I would just pass the word or two. I told him once, when he was here. You know he'd come back afterwards and we'd talk. I told him one day, did he realize we never talked. He said, "I know. I was afraid of you." What could you possibly be afraid of?

STILL: I wonder if I was ever that stern myself. I wonder if I was. I do know that I kept, I kept a quiet library. And that was something, in the last years when the discipline got very bad over at the high school. Probably not what it is today, but just anything 42:00that...any little thing in those days.

C.M.: So when you ran the library. What kind of library did you, what kind of resources did you all have?

STILL: We had a good library for the time. It was probably the best high school library in the state. It was probably the best school, the best high school in the state. No school I could imagine had such a group of teachers. College graduates that were highly motivated and were not here for the money. That didn't make any difference to them. And the library was good. Now we didn't have the money to buy books, but sometime, eventually we did have four hundred dollars. The county gave us four hundred dollars. And it turned out that, that was, it was illegal.

C.M.: The money was illegal? 43:00C.M.: So could anybody in the county come to your library?

STILL: Sure, anybody that wanted to borrow a book. I don't care what his regional library. But, and they did come the first years, but toward the end they were always packed with students and they just stopped coming. They didn't come anymore. Oh, maybe three or four would, you know, but not generally anymore.

C.M.: How about the students, did they use it a lot? The library.

C.M.: Really?

STILL: It got too small for the student body. So they had to have library passes and only a certain number could come. Therefore, they loved to just come over there and just sit and wait for the buses. And I required that they have duties. They had to be reading something, a magazine or working. This wasn't a place to even, let's say study your textbooks, except 44:00in connection with, you know, library work. Because there wasn't enough, some of the students who needed to come, couldn't come because we didn't have room for them.

C.M.: So you liked for them to be doing--.

STILL: No, I liked them to come for library work or library reading. No, it was small, because all we had was that one room. The other room over here was a children's library. It was a fine little library for children. And the way we got books though, I would get ready to have me make out a list of books. And they'd send them to the DAR or some organization, you know, and they would send the books.

C.M.: That was a good way to get them.

STILL: Oh, I know. 45:00STILL: I was with Jethro Amburgey for some years, well during the first years he was coach. And I was called the manager. And I traveled with them when they went to play, as rarely we'd go any (??). We did go to Benham once. I remember, but what I did here was to sell tickets. That's all I did. And several years ago, first came back here from Morehead. I'd sometimes meet somebody down on the street there and they'd say, "You remember me?" It was a big, tall man. "No, I don't remember you." And they'd say well and they'd give me a name. Yeah, 46:00I remember the name. And not that I know what became of you. He'd say I always wanted to thank you for what you did for me. And I thought maybe I'd put a good book in their hands or something, but fifteen for the ball game. If you were at the ball game and it was Jeff Smith, he wouldn't let you in, even if you had the money. (Laughter -Mullins) All right, as soon as there was a ball game, there was always a little bunch of Baileys and Cowherds in town. Didn't have a dime, you know, any money. (Laughing) Well there they'd hang around and hear them playing in there. And it'd just kill them not to be able to see principal got out of the way, I'd sneak them in, one at a time. That was the only thing going here, was basketball. And 47:00that's what they appreciated. (Laughter) C.M.: You'd sneak them in to watch the ball game?

C.M.: Really.

STILL: Well I don't meet any of those people anymore. In fact those students, I'm reading their obituaries, one last week, Rayma Calhoun. That last name, I forget what it was. Let me see what the name is. He lived here. Here [her] husband was here, but she was out with her daughter in Colorado when she died. I remember, I think she's W. Calhoun's sister. I think she was.

C.M.: What 48:00were other popular like, I guess like extracurricular fun things.

STILL: There was nothing. All they had was basketball. That's the ball court in the gymnasium. They didn't have a gymnasium. Yeah they did. It was the one, they put in this big gymnasium, that was built after the war. There was another one over there. I don't know what they've done with it now. That's where the fire started two or three years ago. That big gymnasium over there. I'd take them over there and they'd play ball. So Christmas was a big time here. They 49:00had the pageant over there. They'd have the Christmas tree here. Everybody got presents of some sort. And a big dinner. But commencement, no the C.M.: Why was that?

STILL: Nobody, unless you taught in the school building over there, unless you taught, you were not invited. You could not go to the Alumni luncheon. You were not invited. They always sent out some invitations. You had to have an invitation. And Miss Gunn and these people who were house mothers, were not invited. That 50:00was the only big thing. The students who you had dealt with for several years, you wouldn't get, that was the only time they would be here. You were not able to go and meet them, you know, or anything. And every time never--they didn't invite me either for years. And it wasn't until I came back the second time that they finally invited me. And I refused to go. And I did go a time or two and I didn't go anymore. You see for a while here when they needed me, I wouldn't go because I wasn't invited C.M.: I don't either.

STILL: You see well, somebody had to, after 51:00all the students had to eat here and then somebody had to be there. It's true. But they could have taken turns or something or other. I don't understand that.

C.M.: It's kind of strange.

STILL: I'm sorry I didn't mention that to Miss Watts. They were always very, I didn't care myself. But I, deep down I did. I think I did. And eventually I realized that I was over in the school building. And that I was teaching library science. And anyway I began to get a little well known because of my stories and things. I never came back, come back here for about two years, after I left here. I would 52:00have a, go into the high school over there, it was right next to the principal's office, was a room. They called it the discarded book room. Books would come in there that hadn't been sorted or been catalogued or something and they'd put them in there. Well anything, anything that belonged to the school and they didn't have any place to keep it. You know how it is. You have all this junk. It was the junk room is what it was. Well every teacher had one hour off during the day. You taught from eight o'clock in the morning until three, maybe three thirty. But you were allowed off at twelve noon. And the town children would go to- town and go home, some of 53:00them. Eventually though, the second time they didn't let anybody leave. They had a lunch room then. They didn't let anybody leave all day long. Anyway, on my hour off, the library room was a study hall. And some teachers, they would take over for the study hall. I would go in my room in there and write.

C.M.: In a junk room?

STILL: And one time I had a fellowship in the north and I was going to be in time for school. But I wasn't here in time for the first faculty meeting. And the principal wanted to know where I was. And that 54:00room and he locks the door and God only knows what he does in there." (Laughter) C.M.: Oh goodness.

STILL: I remember I was in there one day and you could hear everything that happened in the principal's office. See it was a stone wall, but you could hear everything. And at that time I was publishing things in [The] Atlantic, and we didn't have many visitors, I would admit. But once in a while, there'd be some strangers would come through here. And wanted to come to the settlement, 55:00maybe they'd heard of the settlement. But here's this man and his wife came to the principal's office and knocked. And I heard them ask him, said, "We wonder if it would be possible for us to speak to James Still? We don't want to--we hate to disturb him." Said, "Yeah he's here. You can talk to him. You're disturbing me."

STILL: I don't want to record 56:00 it.

C.M.: Well it's just about twenty after. Do you want to go eat?

STILL: Twenty after what?

C.M.: Twenty after five.

STILL: Yeah, we'd better go. Turn it off.