Oral History Interview with Kenneth Slone

NATHAN MULLINS: State your name.

KENNETH SLONE: My name is Kenneth Slone.

N.M.: And today is June the twenty-fourth, nineteen ninety-eight. Okay when you were at Hindman High School, did you stay at the settlement or did you commute?

SLONE: No, I didn't stay at the settlement school. I just lived a mile out of town, up the left forkway.

N.M.: How did you get to school everyday?

SLONE: I had to walk. They only had three school buses. And they claimed anybody living within a mile of the school had to walk, because they just had a school bus going down the road, Jones Fork, toward Carr. N.M.: Had a school bus going to everywhere, where it was too far to walk?

SLONE: All three directions, but if you lived within a mile, you had to walk.

N.M.: So you got your exercise everyday?

SLONE: That's right.

N.M.: Tell 1:00me a little bit about your family.

SLONE: My family?

N.M: Yeah, did you come from a big family?

SLONE: Yes, I came from a big family. There was ten of us, five boys and five girls. My Dad was a school teacher. And back then they only taught school seven months. And he started teaching when he was seventeen. And he taught thirty-three years. And when he started, his pay was twenty-two dollars, I believe he said, a month, when he first started teaching. And when he retired from teaching, I think he got ninety-six dollars a month. So we raised most of our food through the summer. There was a big family of us and 2:00we raised most of our food. And he was a carpenter also. He was a mason, through the times that he wasn't teaching school, he would do those odd jobs to earn enough money to get our clothes and shoes and things.

N.M.: Where did he teach at?

SLONE: Mostly in rural schools. He taught all the way from, he taught there on Big Branch, there was a little one-room school down there, down on lower Ball, most the time, I guess it was up the one up the branch, just out of Hindman here. Those three places I can remember.

N.M.: Did they have a lot of one-room schoolhouses at that time?

SLONE: Mostly everything was one-room. They had a recitation branch up there, and one teacher had to teach all eight grades. And they would call the first, second and third up to the recitation place 3:00to do their lessons, and just go through up to the eighth grade like that. A lot of times the children could learn from the others like that, as they were reciting their thing. So, that's the way it was, a pot-bellied stove in the center of the house, usually.

N.M.: Did any of your brothers or sisters attend Hindman High School before you?

SLONE: Practically all of them and most of them graduated from Hindman High School.

N.M.: So, that's how you knew about it? Why you were sent there?

SLONE: Well, that was the only school, of course, other than Carr Creek, which was too far away. And at that time, when I started at Hindman, the road wasn't even built from Hindman to Carr Creek this way. 4:00You had to go around by Hazard and up through () Over.

N.M.: A little bit out of the way.

SLONE: So this was the only school, high school really that was available.

N.M.: What year did you begin attending Hindman?

SLONE: High school?

N.M.: Or did you go to grade school there, too?

SLONE: I went to grade school four years, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth, and then I went four years to high school. I graduated in forty-two, nineteen forty-two from high school.

N.M.: Are there any classes that you had that stand out in your mind, while you were there? Any favorite teachers?

SLONE: Well, we had some real good teachers then. I remember one that used to be the principal of the school up there. We called him Prof Smith, of course Professor Smith was really his name. I think he was originally from Owensboro. 5:00He was a good school man. I had Geometry, and Chemistry and Algebra under him. He was a good teacher. He was a deep thinker and could really get things across to you.

N.M.: So he taught classes also?

SLONE: He taught classes in there too. And I had a lady teacher, that was named Miss Standish that stayed with the settlement for several years over there. She taught Science. She was a real good teacher.

N.M.: Were you involved in any extra-curricular activities at school?

SLONE: I went out for basketball a little bit, never did make the first team or anything like that. So, I played around for a couple years and 6:00then quit. They didn't have too many things like sports going on, you know. Used to be in different plays and things, they came up and they always called on me, seemed like.

N.M.: You were in some school plays?

SLONE: Yeah.

N.M.: Do you remember the name of any of them?

SLONE: One of them was Little Women, I remember we did that one, one time. And another one was The Courtship of Captain Miles Standish. And I was Miles Standish and I was stuck on the little girl, kind of that Priscilla. And so they sent John Alden to talk in Miles Standish's behalf And she told John, "why don't you 7:00speak for yourself, John?" I never will forget that. So one thing I remember about the play, Little Women, this boy was ,just had a lesson and he just had fuzz on his face, beginning to try to shave. And he came in and he had cut places all over his face, and paper sticking on him like that, you know. He asked his grandpa. He's sitting there in the chair, all slumped down kind of. He said, "Gramps how do you feel when you are in love?" He paused for a little while before he asked him, answered him. He said, "I don't know son, it's been too long. That's about all I remember now."

N.M.: Where did you all, where did you put the plays on at? 8:00SLONE: It was on the stage in the old, brown building. We had a stage in the seventh and eighth grade part, where the library is today. And then the high school plays were on the stage at the end that used to be used for basketball, the gym there. It seated about three hundred and twenty-five, or something like that and they had a pretty nice stage built up at the end of that.

N.M.: I've seen that stage.

SLONE: Yeah.

N.M.: So, you were in, were you in some plays when you were in high school, also?

SLONE: Yeah, the one. Little Women was in high school. The Miles Standish one was in the eighth grade. Those are the two I remember. 9:00N.M.: Do you remember any of the big people who were associated with the settlement school at the time, Miss Watts, Miss Furman, anyone like that?

SLONE: You mean just the citizens in the community?

N.M.: The people that worked at the settlement school, at Hindman High.

SLONE: No, not really, I don't.

N.M.: Do you remember May Stone?

SLONE: I remember May, but don't remember much about the activities there, during the early part of it, really.

N.M: What do you remember about May Stone?

SLONE: Why, I don't remember too much about it. I just know that she was this real old, gray headed lady that everyone seemed to respect and everything, because 10:00she was doing a good work there, giving the children a chance to get an education, by boarding these children from out in the country, especially where there weren't many roads. They could come in and board real cheap at the Hindman Settlement School. I remember one family especially, in Quicksand, couldn't go like you can go now in Quicksand. You had to go around by Garrit and up Salt Lick and then head to Salt Lick, after you hit Salt Lick, down the hill to Quicksand to get to their home. So, it was just impossible. Really, Lionel Duff, that used to be with the settlement, he lived in that area, over there too, he and his wife. So it was a real help to children that lived out in the country like that.

N.M.: So, May Stone was well-respected?

SLONE: Oh yes. 11:00N.M.: You didn't often hear anybody say anything bad about her?

SLONE: Nothing, never.

N.M: Did you all do any crafts ofany sort, like shop class or anything like that while you were there?

SLONE: It was compulsory that we had to have two years of Manual Training when I was in high school, Manual Training One and Two. And the old building that we trained in was, I think they used to use it for, have some of the classes of high school in there. It was next to the old cabin. I'm sure you have pictures of it up there. It was along, in front of Uncle Sol's cabin before it was moved. This Manual Training Building was right along there. 12:00You went up the walkway and there was the, Morg Slone's shop. And then back behind we used to have a dairy and kept cattle, you know. Do their own milking and everything like that. And the barn was down next to the creek.

N.M.: What was town like at that time?

SLONE: Well, I can remember town before it was, we had any blacktop or paved concrete streets or anything. It was just all dirt. We had trees along the street, like where the sidewalks would be now, we had trees, good, shade trees. That was one thing the people hated to see go, is the good, shade trees when 13:00they did decide to blacktop or concrete the streets and road through Hindman.

N.M.: I guess it got pretty nasty downtown when it rained?

SLONE: Yeah.

N.M.: What sort of things were there to do in town?

SLONE: Well, the people didn't hardly, couldn't get hardly any people to work on Saturday. They liked to come to town and visit with each other on Saturday. That was another time that they looked forward to, seeing their neighbors and so forth, and talking with them on Saturday. So they didn't like to work but five days a week.

N.M.: So, on Saturday it wasn't uncommon to go down to Hindman and run into all kinds of people?

SLONE: All your neighbors and friends.

N.M.: So it was mainly just used like to get together?

SLONE: That's right. 14:00N.M.: How was it, the high school, the settlement school and the area, how was it different during the war?

SLONE: Could you repeat it, please? Repeat that please.

N.M.: How was, what was your school experience like, was it any different or was the town any different during the war?

SLONE: Well, of course the war wasn't going on until I got out of high school. I was about draft age, by the time I got out of high school, and so I didn't ....

N.M.: So, you barely missed it.

SLONE: Yeah, I didn't, it was a few months until I would have been eligible for the draft. I didn't volunteer, so I went to Newport News, Virginia and worked in the shipyard for about eight months, 15:00after high school days, until I was ready to be called into the Army. But in between my junior and senior year of high school, I went to Charleston, Indiana in the summertime and worked for two months and a half in a bag plant over at Charleston, just across the river from Louisville. And that was my first experience of kind of the war effort.

N.M: How did you get that job? Did anybody help you find these jobs? Or did you just go out?

SLONE: Just kept a going, you know and hope you could find something. I don't remember anything about an employment office much. I think they just function in larger cities. 16:00N.M.: If you wouldn't mind, could you tell me about some of your really good friends you had while you were in school?

SLONE: Well, I think the class that I graduated in, had about twenty-seven and about six. or eight of those have passed on at this time. And some of my good friends were Kester Ritchie, he's dead, I think. And Victor Ritchie, two boys from down on Clear Creek. Another one was Wilmer Browning, his family, they moved from Clear Creek. Most of them went to Lexington and did real well, got an education. Wilmer ended up being an agricultural professor down at UK. 17:00He's retired now. And he was a good friend. Ralph Breeding was from down on Clear Creek. He's dead now. I forgot what he went into, but he was a real smart fellow. And Carl Swadkins was in my class, John Hicks. By the way, John might be a good one to interview. He lives over on () now, this end of the car lot that belongs to Tonto Combs. And so he might be able to give you some information that I wouldn't know about, because he lived right in town.

N.M.: He lived in town?

SLONE: Right where the auto parts, NAPA, was their old home place, house seat right there. 18:00His Dad was Lodge and Lucinda Hicks. But John could give you some information. As far as the other ones concerned, I remember Imogene Pratt, was one oft he girls, she's dead now. She was a niece, or granddaughter, I guess, of Doc Pratt, who used to be the gardener over at the settlement She lived up the left forkway. And I had a second cousin also, Thelma Gayhart, that lived up just above Imogene. And I can't think of many more boys right now. Really most of them were, I guess two thirds of them were girls that were in the class.

N.M.: Had more girls in the school then ....Was that because 19:00of any particular reason?

SLONE: No, I think it's mostly been like that as far as the ratio between boys and girls in the Hindman School. I think there has always been more girls than boys. I guess the boys quit and go to work, too lazy to stay and go on to school, or what have you. [Laughter] N.M.: What types of things would you do when you and your friends would get together?

SLONE: We just didn't have anything for entertainment.

N.M.: Kind of entertain yourself?

SLONE: Just had to entertain yourself.

N.M.: Did you all ever go to any functions or any type ofthing at the settlement school, maybe folk dances?

SLONE: No, I don't remember ever going myself. They probably had them and it was available for us, but I never did attend any of that. I think probably while I was going to high school, they had certain 20:00nights a week, at least one night of the week, that the community could come in and folk dance for a certain amount of time, you know. An hour or two, what have you.

N.M.: Okay, but you never went to any of those?

SLONE: Never went to any of them. It was a mile out and you had to walk to everything, and when it was over, you still had to walk a mile back.

N.M.: After you got done dancing you'd be too tired to walk back.

SLONE: That's right.

N.M.: How about May Day? Do you remember the May Day celebration?

SLONE: I remember the lawn before it was a triangle there, they used to always have a May Day program. And it was kind of a highlight, especially for the grade school children.

N.M.: Could you tell me what it was like?

SLONE: Well, 21:00the biggest thing I remember about it, ofcourse they had, I'm sure, several things, but they had this big maypole in the center with streamers coming from it. I guess out of crepe paper and what have you. And they'd go through the different folk dances and wind them all up and this and that, you know. It was real colorful, and real nice. Other things on the program too, and a little competition it seemed like in different things. It was real nice and everybody looked forward to it. And a lot ofthe community came in and participated in that too, and enjoyed it.

N.M.: So that was a big celebration not just for the school, but for the ...

SLONE: Community as well. They were invited.

N.M.: Were there any changes that you can think of, 22:00in the school, from when you started until you graduated?

SLONE: No, not really. I remember that like I said before, the county only paid for the teachers to teach school, seven months out of the year. But at Hindman, when I went down there in the fifth grade on, if you wanted to go the other two, the last two months, you had to pay four dollars a month tuition. Well, I didn't have money to pay a lot of times, so you could work. The settlement would allow the boys to work, give us ten cents an hour. We worked seven hours a day and take two weeks to work out 23:00your tuition. So that was the eight dollars for two months. So we got seventy cents a day, ten cents an hour.

N.M.: So you did that?

SLONE: So the settlement was willing to take that over...yes I did that. The settlement was willing to take over when the county wasn't able to pay for the other two months. And they'd say if the boys wanted to work to pay theirs. And the girls could work too. They could clean windows and do housecleaning after school time was over, you know. Go through the house and do housework too, and they got the same thing, ten cents an hour.

N.M.: Would you do this in the school buildings?

SLONE: This was in the campus buildings, I mean the settlement buildings, the Little Girls' House, the Boys' House, and Miss Watts' house up on the hill, 24:00Eastover, they called it. All of them.

N.M.: What was your job? Do you remember? Or did you all ...

SLONE: My job? I worked most of the time for Mrs. Burns. She was the keeper of the grounds there and she kept everything real neat, plenty of flowers going and everything. So it was with a sickle and mattock and everything like that. It was hard work.

N.M.: So she would have you out helping her?

SLONE: Yeah.

N.M: Planting flowers and planting other things? Could you tell me a little bit more about Mrs. Burns?

SLONE: Mrs. Burns was a fine, hard working lady. Everyone respected her because she, she, I think her dad, I mean her husband was connected pretty much with the Oneida Institute. He died and she came to the settlement and stayed for years and years. I 25:00worked for her several summers even after, a summer or two after the high school days, or after I got my tuition worked out. She began to like me pretty well, because she would pick me to come back and work so many weeks in the summer like that. I remember one time when I was out and in business downtown, dry cleaning business. I was taking some dry cleaning over to the settlement to someone and she had some boys working down around the creek bank, cutting grass and weeds and things. She hollered at them, said "fellows", said, "you see this man right here? We used to turn creeks 26:00around here with mattocks," and said, "you think it will kill you, if you have to do one little thing." So, she was a hard worker. She worked too hard, really.

N.M.: So, she didn't just expect you to work hard. She did also?

SLONE: That's right. She worked as hard, in fact she'd even grab a mattock out ofyour hand and show you how to do it, you know. She'd say, do it this way.

N.M.: She sounds like a...

SLONE: Yeah, she was a hard worker.

N.M.: Do you know where she stayed at, while she was at the settlement?

SLONE: I believe she stayed at the Little Girls' house, which was located by where the swimming pool used to be. And then after that she probably stayed in the Orchard House where the present dining room and everything is, you know. It was an old, brown building too. I believe she stayed there the later part. 27:00N.M: They had a lot of brown buildings, didn't they?

SLONE: Yeah, everything was brown.

N.M.: Can you talk about the impact of the settlement and Hindman High School on your life?

SLONE: Well, of course I can't pinpoint anything in particular, I guess, hut I'm sure it would have been much different if the input of Hindman Settlement School hadn't been there. It certainly, things wouldn't have progressed And it wouldn't have been as nice as they were, you know, if it hadn't been for the Hindman Settlement School. Because they had the interest of the children at heart, and of course, an education 28:00for them. And of course, naturally when we were young like that, we couldn't see all that. But it has definitely made an impact in the community of Hindman.

N.M.: So the impact of the settlement on this area, you would say would be what?

SLONE: Oh, I would say the impact has probably set us forward, just like Mrs. Lloyd at Caney and so forth. It probably advanced those people there fifty years, just like. I don't know if it would have been fifty years in Hindman or not. But it advanced us, I guess in things of the world and in learning and everything as much as twenty-five to forty years, anyway. 29:00By the women coming like they did, Miss Pettit and Miss Stone and so forth.

N.M.: Did you ever meet Miss Pettit?

SLONE: No, I didn't know her personally.

N.M.: How about Miss Furman?

SLONE: Don't remember Miss Furman, I just remember that she used to be the housemother of the girls there at the Orchard House. She was still alive the first time I worked there, I remember. I was helping, going around to all the buildings. They had these old top window weights that was built in the structure of the window like that. And when you raised it up ....

END 30:00OF TAPE 20 A 24, KENNETH SLONE, SIDE A BEGINNING OF TAPE 20 A 24, KENNETH SLONE, SIDE B SLONE: SLONE: ...A skeleton crew to keep, enough to keep the grounds looking nice, and everything, you know, flowerbeds weeded.

N.M.: So, if they picked you to work during the summer, did that show that they believed in you a lot?

SLONE: Evidently, I guess so.

N.M.: It sounds like they didn't just give a job to anybody who wanted one. Well, is there anything that I haven't asked that you feel is important about your experience? Any story or maybe a memory that you would like to share, that we've not talked about? 31:00SLONE: No, not really. I don't remember anything that stands out. I remember the lay of the land, how all the old buildings were and everything. It's changed a lot, to what it is now. For instance, down where the Human Services Building is, that used to be all farming place. They used to put corn and stuff in that field there, down through there. And they had a fellow who helped them work some, Sam Childers or George Childers, who lived up in the end of the old high school building there. He did some work, I guess he was probably under the supervision of Doctor Jasper Pratt there, who was the gardener and everything. But I can just remember 32:00the different lay of the land, and the different buildings and everything that are gone now. It used to be real nice, I thought.

N.M.: So it's changed a lot?

SLONE: Changed a lot as far as building structures and everything. It's been for the better as far as that it, nicer, more modern buildings, you know. But everything was nice, probably nicer than the average homes out in the country back then, you know. Because they were built to specification, even though nearly everything was out of wood, you know.

N.M.: I was told that the settlement and all its buildings and the high school, they were always just immaculate.

SLONE: Yeah, they were nice. 33:00N.M.: Do you have anything else to add?

SLONE: Don't think of anything else.

END OF INTERVIEW