Oral History Interview with Eltra Roberts

NATHAN MULLINS: All right, I've got it recording now, if you could, just state your name.

ELTRA ROBERTS: My name is Eltra Roberts. It used to be Ritchie. I was a Ritchie before I married.

N.M.: Before you were married? Okay, today is June the nineteenth, nineteen ninety-eight. Alright, are you ready to begin?

ROBERTS: Yep.

N.M.: Where did you grow up?

ROBERTS: On Ball Creek.

N.M.: Is that in Knott County?

ROBERTS: Yeah, Knott County, over on Ball.

N.M.: Did you have a large family?

ROBERTS: Well, you're not recording it now, are you?

N.M.: Yeah.

ROBERTS: Are you?

N.M.: Yeah, I just turned it on 1:00and I'll keep it running. Just like we're talking now.

ROBERTS: Oh. I had two brothers and grandma and grandpa, they're the ones that raised me. And a whole bunch of uncles and aunts.

N.M.: That lived around?

ROBERTS: That lived around, but there was just me and my brother and my grandpa and grandma, my two brothers, were the only ones there.

N.M.: How did you hear about the settlement school? 2:00ROBERTS: Well, I moved over here, to Ogden Creek, after I'd been married for several years. And I was just around Hindman, enough to hear about it.

N.M.: Did you hear people talking about it.

ROBERTS: Heard them talking about needing a cook up there, and so I applied for a job.

N.M.: And you got it.

ROBERTS: And I got it.

N.M.: Around how old were you, when you started working up there? What year would that have been?

ROBERTS: I can't remember what year. It was ....

N.M.: Were you in your thirties by then?

ROBERTS: Yeah, I was way up in my thirties.

N.M.: Way up?

ROBERTS: Yeah.

N.M.: So you heard about the position and you applied and you got the job. 3:00ROBERTS: Yeah.

N.M.: What time would you start work each day?

ROBERTS: I would start work at eight o'clock and quit till when we got done. We didn't have a certain quitting time.

N.M.: Around what time would you end, though? Around what time, usually?

ROBERTS: Well around most of the time, it was about, we'd have...at this time of the year, we'd have supper at six, I believe. And sometimes it would be nine o'clock when I got home. Sometimes eight, just according to how much 4:00we had to do. We had ten big tables, the first year or two I worked there, full of students.

N.M.: Full of students.

ROBERTS: Yeah.

N.M.: Were these boarding students?

ROBERTS: Uh huh. Coming there to board to go to school.

N.M.: You say about ten tables?

ROBERTS: Yeah, we had ten. Wasn't those round tables you've got now. It was those big, old, long homemade tables. [Laughing] They held ten people. I believe that's what they held. We just had gobs of work to do.

N.M.: Tell me....describe a typical day 5:00at work.

ROBERTS: All of them. I can't think of one that was much different. [Laughing] N.M.: Tell me what you would normally do on a work day. Just go through the day for me.

ROBERTS: Well we cooked. I usually just went in time to help cook lunch and supper. When they had the students, some of them stayed all summer to work. To help pay for their tuition or something, I think that is what it was for. But anyhow some of them stayed there in the summer and we would take turns, the cooks would, staying so long cooking. 6:00And I'd cook a month or so in the summertime by myself.

N.M.: By yourself?

ROBERTS: Uh huh. There wouldn't be as many, you know, in the summer.

N.M.: What did the, where did most of the food come from? Did they grow any o fit there?

ROBERTS: Yeah, we had a gardener, the garden. We had greens and beans and corn, everything that could be raised in a garden, he'd raise it.

N.M.: And you all would get your meat from ....

ROBERTS: They raised hogs and butchered them.

N.M.: So most of the food that you all cooked, you all didn't go out and buy the food. You all prepared the food yourself.

ROBERTS: We had a 7:00salesman that would come there, that we would buy ....

N.M.: Some stuff from?

ROBERTS: Yeah. These salesmen would come every week and we'd give them a bill of what we would need for the next week.

N.M.: Do you remember, what were the people that you worked with like?

ROBERTS: They were all, I never, we all got along real good. They were pretty nice I thought. I worked with two women, not at the same time. Two Corries. Corry, 8:00the first one was named Corry and I can't think of her last name, and Corry Sparkman, and then Emily Wright.

N.M.: Now most of these people, were they working before you came there?

ROBERTS: No. One of them was, one of the Corry's was already there. And one woman quit, retired while, before I went to work.

N.M.: Who was the director of the settlement school, when you started working there?

ROBERTS: Mr. McClain.

N.M.: Mr. McClain. 9:00Do you remember anything about him?

ROBERTS: You bet. [Laughing] N.M.: Tell me about Mr. McClain. The more interesting, the better.

ROBERTS: Well, some days he'd come in, and he'd be sweet as sugar. And some days he'd come in and get mad because we had soup beans and he'd jump up and leave. [Laughing] N.M.: He didn't like soup beans?

ROBERTS: No. Mrs. Connelly was working there when I started. On Wednesdays, every Wednesday she'd have soup beans. And he got so when he'd come in and see them, he'd take off. And one day I said, "Mr. McClain." He'd just come through the kitchen and didn't go in the dining room. 10:00I said aren't you going to stay and have dinner, or something or other. And he said, he got off something about the soup beans, is the reason I found out that he got mad over the soup beans. Then when Mrs. Connelly got sick and left. I said, .... he said he didn't know ... .I cooked by myself on Wednesdays. And Mrs. Connelly would tell me before she got sick. Wednesday was her day off and she would tell me to cook soup beans, so that it wouldn't be so hard, you know. And I was talking to Mr. McClain one day and I said .... he 11:00was talking to me about something or another. I don't remember what got us started. About getting somebody to help me or something or another. And I said, "Why I can manage it all right." And he said, "Yeah, you can cook soup beans." [Laughing] N.M.: So he wasn't a big soup bean fan.

ROBERTS: No and I said, "Why I cook, just what Mrs. Connelly tells me to cook. She's the head cook. She tells me what to fix before she leaves every morning. And that's just what I cook." And he said he didn't care about soup beans.

N.M.: Do you remember anything else about him?

ROBERTS: He wasn't around enough to hardly 12:00remember too much.

N.M.: Did he stay gone a lot?

ROBERTS: Yeah, he was gone a lot.

N.M.: What for?

ROBERTS: Some days, well he just wouldn't come. He was there on campus.

N.M.: Oh, you just didn't see him in the dining room is what...

ROBERTS: They lived up there on the hill and had their own house and everything. And some days they'd just stay home and wouldn't be in the dining room.

N.M.: Now Mr. McClain was not the only Director at the settlement school when you were there.

ROBERTS: No, after he left why Mr. Duff came, Lionel Duff.

N.M.: Lionel Duff.

ROBERTS: Yeah.

N.M.: What was he like?

ROBERTS: He was a pretty good fellow to work for. 13:00His wife was the boss though. He was supposed to have been, but it was his wife would tell us what to do, and we didn't care for her too much. [Laughing] N.M.: Okay, tell me about his wife.

ROBERTS: Well she would just come in and tell us what to do. It wasn't her job.

N.M.: Did she make out the menus?

ROBERTS: No, she never did, but after her son got married, her daughter-in-law came and she got to making out the menus. That's when we... .it hit us the roughest. Telling us to make, cook stuff we never heard tell of [Laughing] N.M.: So when Mr. Duff was there, his wife was pretty much in charge?

ROBERTS: Yeah, she was just about 14:00more in charge than him.

N.M.: What would he do?

ROBERTS: That's not recording now is it?

N.M.: Yeah.

ROBERTS: Is it?

N.M.: Oh yeah. This is the good stuff. This is the thing people want to hear, the truth.

ROBERTS: What was it you asked me?

N.M.: I said, tell me a little bit more about Mr. Duff.

ROBERTS: I actually don't remember much about him.

N.M.: Was he not around the kitchen much?

ROBERTS: He didn't come around the kitchen too much.

N.M.: Okay. And was there one more director while you were there, I believe, 15:00before you retired?

ROBERTS: No, Mr. Duff was the last one, until your dad came.

N.M.: My dad?

ROBERTS: Yeah. N.M.: When you say my dad you mean .... talking about Mike Mullins?

ROBERTS: Mike Mullins, yeah. [Laughing] I can't remember what I'm a doing here.

N.M.: That's alright. How long were you working at the settlement, when he was there?

ROBERTS: I was getting just about ready to quit when he came, and he begged me to stay until he got acquainted with the people, so he could get somebody else in my place. I worked less than a year after he came, I think. And then went to babysitting 16:00for him, keeping Cassie. And then you came along. [Laughing] N.M.: Alright. Tell me about the campus. What kind of shape was it in when you were there? The buildings and so forth.

ROBERTS: Oh, they kept the campus looking, I thought pretty. There was a woman there that planted flowers and took care of them. They kept it looking pretty nice. They built that rock wall after I went to work there, around above the kitchen. 17:00N.M.: Was there anyone at the settlement while you were there, who stands out in your mind? Students, faculty, staff, anyone? Someone you knew real well.

ROBERTS: Well, Mrs. Earp, I guess.

N.M.: Mrs. Earp.

ROBERTS: Just about. She was so good. She thought that I was feeling bad. When the other cooks were off, she'd come and help me do things and wash dishes. And just help me all she could. And she and Mr. Duff, she and Mr. Earp were both awful good to me. He'd have to come in the kitchen and sit a while, 18:00when he'd be leaving his house to go to the office in the afternoon. He'd take a rest of the evening. Then he'd come in the kitchen and sit a while. Mr. McClain came in one day and he said, well is this what you call kitchen love? [Laughing] I think he was just a getting off something or another, cause he hadn't gone on to work. But Mr. Duff was, Mrs. Earp, Mr. Earp and Mrs. Earp, both, were real good to me.

N.M.: She would come over and help you with the kitchen, wouldn't she, if you needed it?

ROBERTS: Whenever I was hard pressed with nobody to help me, 19:00she'd come and help me.

N.M.: Is there anyone else?

ROBERTS: That would have volunteered to help any?

N.M.: Not that just volunteered, that stood out in your mind, that you remember.

ROBERTS: I can't remember nobody else.

N.M.: Can't really remember anybody else? Not really?

ROBERTS: Not really.

N.M.: That's alright. What did you like best about the Hindman Settlement School?

ROBERTS: Well, I always did kind of enjoy cooking. I enjoyed the 20:00job pretty good. They had folk dancing then and I enjoyed watching that.

N.M.: Folk dancing. When would they folk dance? When did they do this?

ROBERTS: They did it a time or two a week in the Great Hall.

N.M.: After supper?

ROBERTS: After supper, yeah. I don't know how many times a week they did, but they didn't every night.

N.M.: Was it just for the students?

ROBERTS: Yeah. The students, and Mr. McClain would take them on tours, you know, the folk dancing group. And what they did there, was for practice.

N.M.: Oh, so they would go and perform out in the public.

ROBERTS: Yes, oh they went all over. 21:00Even to California one time I think, when Nathan was.... he was about three months old. Him or Cassie, one, I can't remember for sure which one it was, just about three months old. And his wife went with him, Betty, can't hardly think of her name. And left that baby with me and went that far away. Then that's how we got attached to those kids so much. We had to keep them. Nancy Ann 22:00and ...Michael and Raymond.

N.M.: What did you dislike? What was the worst part about working at the settlement? Or just the settlements in general.

ROBERTS: Well, I can't hardly remember now. Of course, there were some dislikes. [Laughing] Miss Beeman was there, she was the nurse. And there wasn't any way to please her. She'd kind of....

N.M.: Please her? You mean with the food? 23:00ROBERTS: With the food, yeah. If she didn't.. . .if she came in and the food that we had wasn't....She had stomach problems though, one thing that caused her to be that way. If there wasn't some food there that she thought she ought to eat, she'd just get mad and take off. And jeez, she would be mad, too. And I got so I would try to fix her whatever she'd eat, but there wasn't hardly any way you could hardly please her. She was the nurse and she knew how to eat right. [Laughing] N.M.: Overall how would you rate your experience with the settlement school, good or bad?

ROBERTS: It's good. I've always been glad that I got to do that. I enjoyed 24:00the students, most of them. I still see them out, in places when I go visiting around different places. They always come up and talk to me. A lot of them I don't know now, when I see them, since that they've gotten older, you know. Most of them, one of the boys that stayed up there, from Quicksand, his daughter comes here now. And every once in a while, I wash for my sister-in-law and do her laundry all the time. And she does this home health work and brings it in. She told me who she was the first time that she came and who was her daddy. And I said 25:00"oh, I remember that guy, he stayed in the settlement and went to school, didn't he." And she said, "Yeah, he sure did."

N.M.: So you talked with the students a lot.

ROBERTS: But she said he had died. Unfortunate, but he had died about four years ago. Yes, there were some of the students, that didn't, you know you couldn't please all of them with that many there. But I got along with them pretty good.

N.M.: Right. Well I believe that's all I have. Do you have anything else? Anything at all?

ROBERTS: Well, the most important part about the settlement to me now is just being there when your dad came. 26:00And getting acquainted with you all. And getting to take care of you and Cassie. If l hadn't been up there when he came, I probably would never have gotten acquainted with you, that much anyway. And I told, Cassie , you know was three months old, when they, when your dad first came. I walked up to Frieda and I said come on. And Frieda said, "She won't go to anybody, except me or Mike, one." And I just held my hands out and here she come. She just pitched right towards me. Miss Pigman was sitting there and she said, "Well I told everybody if they didn't want 27:00their kids took away from them, not to get around Mr. and Mrs. Roberts." [Laughing] She thought that was the most awful thing there ever was, for us, the kids, you know. The McClain kids were the first ones, and they got the same way, all three of them. And then Herschel came that same day, and she did him the very same way. And Herschel was sitting in the dining room with her and your grandpa came. And walked in were Herschel was sitting with her, when the meeting was going on in the Great Hall. He came in the dining room. And Herschel said, "I've got somebody's baby here, but I don't know whose it is. I just know it's awful pretty." 28:00Your grandpa said, "It's my grandbaby, but it won't let me touch it." [Laughter] But that was funny him saying it won't let him touch it. And the way it went right to Herschel.

N.M.: Well, I believe we've got enough.

ROBERTS: Well, I hope it sounds sensible enough to use.

N.M.: Any closing remarks?

ROBERTS: I don't reckon.

N.M.: Alright.