Oral History Interview with Bertie Smith

CASSIE MULLINS: Okay, I'm going to go ahead and turn it on. If you don't care, just go ahead and state your name. BERTIE SMITH: I'm Bertie Smith. I was Bertie Simpson when I was in the settlement. I married Shelly Smith.

C.M.: Tell me what years you went to school up there.

SMITH: I think I went up there in nineteen twenty-six. But I didn't stay in the settlement in twenty-six. I stayed with friends in Hindman, out in town and went to grade school. And then I graduated from grade school and then Miss Watts. I went over and worked in the kitchen. And Miss Watts thought I shouldn't be in there. She gave me a room and told me to start going to school.

C.M.: So what year did you graduate from high school?

SMITH: Thirty-two, nineteen thirty-two.

C.M.: Okay, I just wanted to get that on there, so we'd know. And I'll just go ahead and say for the record, today's date is May twenty-seventh, nineteen ninety-eight. Other 1:00people are going to be listening to this, just in case they want to know the date. So, you did live there for a little while, right? You lived on campus?

SMITH: Yes, I stayed there. I graduated in thirty-two and I went to Lees College that year. And then I got a certificate, but I didn't get a school. So, I came back and worked in the settlement, in the kitchen. Another a year, I think. Somewhere about that.

C.M.: How did ...oh I'm sorry go ahead.

SMITH: How did what?

C.M.: How did you learn about the settlement school?

SMITH: Well, it was just in the area, I guess. My 2:00mom when she was a little girl, she had glaucoma real bad. And Miss Stone ...I don't know how she got to Miss Stone. Miss Stone got her and took her to Louisville. And had her eyes treated. And that way she was acquainted with Miss Stone enough that, ..through that. I got over there.

C.M.: You heard about it?

SMITH: Uh hmm.

C.M.: Did anybody else in your family go to school there? Or just you?

SMITH: Zelma, my sister Zelma. I don't know if you've interviewed her or not. I forget what year she graduated. She married Woodrow Fugate. And they moved to Ohio and she's taught school up there. She's still up there. And my brother, I don't know. Travis, Travis Simpson. I can't remember. I knew when he first went up there, he stayed like I did with a family in town and worked you know, for them, did things, chores. But I cannot remember if he ever went to settlement or not. But he graduated there, I know, from it was still a settlement 3:00school, high school at the time.

C.M.: Well, when you, when you lived there on campus, what was...Do you remember the name of the building that you lived in?

SMITH: I lived in Orchard House. And I roomed up in the hospital one year. When I got to be a senior, I believe. I was up in the hospital. In a dormitory up there.

C.M.: What were the rooms like? What was it like living in there?

SMITH: Now, I can't tell you hardly. They just box rooms, I guess. I mean, it was, I guess what everybody had back then.

C.M.: So, did you share rooms with people?

SMITH: Uh hmm. One time I shared with Lottie Martin and 4:00Vinnie Amburgey and Monnie Wallens. And I don't remember anyone else right now that I shared with.

C.M.: What were if you remember. What were some of the rules that they had for living in the dorm? Like did you have to, were there certain rules, things you were expected to do?

SMITH: I had a job to do each day, cleaning. Let's see Zelma Banks was my maid that helped me clean. She helped me clean, sprayed for bugs upstairs and made beds and stuff like that. A lot of friends. A lot of those children felt like brothers and sisters. But now I've lost them all about it. I can't remember. Don't know where they are. I 5:00don't know how many of my graduation class is left, Mildred Crayton though, and Dennis Slone. And the rest of them, eleven, do you know?

C.M.: Well, I have a list from about nine or ten. What I'll do is I'll send it to you. I'll see how many of those ...I'll have to check and see how many of those are still alive. But I think all of them are. Because I'm talking to Dennis Slone tomorrow. I'm going to his house tomorrow.

SMITH: Well, say hi to him.

C.M.: I will. And I talked to Mildred Crayton the other day, but she's not feeling well.

SMITH: I know she's not.

C.M.: So, I'm not going to interview her for a while, until she feels better. But I'll send you that list, because I have your address. So, if you want me to, I'll send you their addresses.

SMITH: Well, my address here has changed from what it used to be. It's my mail they brought up here, it's eleven eight three Cornett Road, Hindman, the rest of it's the same.

C.M.: Okay. I might be able to remember that, 6:00I hope so. [Laughing] Here, I'll write it down on this piece of paper.

SMITH: You've got a box, one twenty-six, I guess if you've got my address, it's just changed.

C.M.: We've got that one down, I think. Let's see, now when you were in school up there, what were some of the classes that you took? Do you remember some of the classes you took, maybe some of the subjects?

SMITH: I took English and Algebra and History, if can remember, just ordinary. I got into French a little bit, I think, the last year or something. Math 7:00was my one I couldn't handle though. I'm not a math person.

C.M.: Well, I'm not either, so don't feel bad. What were your favorite classes? Which ones do you remember enjoying?

SMITH: I think I enjoyed about all of them.

C.M.: You did?

SMITH: Did you ever hear tell of teacher that she taught Geometry? Miss Foot, I think was her name. C.M.: No. What was she like? SMITH: And she had her own way of teaching, and I don't know it was just hard to get used to. I loved her, but I never did get used to it. I don't know. I guess I liked English, most of it, but Math. And I couldn't get it, so it wasn't easy to like it. [Laughter -Mullins] C.M.: And who were some of the.... You just talked about that one teacher you remembered. Who were some of the teachers you remember having? Maybe kind of the ones who left an impression on you. 8:00SMITH: Eva Kay Smith. And when I was in grade school, before I got into high school, Miss Black. It's hard to go back and remember all them. How can you lose them? [Laughter Mullins] I loved them all. I think we had a Home Ee teacher named Miss Price. I just lost them. You waited too long to come by. [Laughter -Mullins] C.M.: Well, I guess maybe some more general questions with your teachers. How were they with the students? Were they .... Because sometimes you have teachers, you know that are just your teachers. You go in and you sit down, and you learn whatever and you get up and leave. How 9:00were they with the students?

SMITH: Well, they were just friendly, all friendly, nice friendly. Some of the students, you know, like they are today, I guess. They don't want to sit down and listen. They want to mess around and bother teachers. But to me they were all good. I didn't have any problems with the teachers.

C.M.: Were there .... You were talking about Miss Smith; I think that Ursula mentioned her too. She must have been ....

SMITH: Who?

C.M.: That Miss Smith, what name was it you just.. ..

SMITH: Eva Kay Smith from down Troublesome Creek. She was the ... knew her real well.

C.M.: What did she teach?

SMITH: Well, she taught different things. I think I had History under her. She was tough, but 10:00if you listened to her, you could learn. I mean, you know, she wanted us to be obedient.

C.M.: What did you think about your classes? Did you remember them as being hard or....

SMITH: Some of them were hard. I guess I didn't get the grade school. See I lived another mile, at least another mile ahead of this hollow. And me and my little brother and he was sickly like. And our school we went to was on, not to the mouth of Big Branch, but almost to the mouth of Big Branch, over on that hill. And it was a rough way of getting out of here. If the creeks were up, there wasn't any road, but the creek. I guess ...Clara Morgan came down here to teach in our grade school, our little country school. And 11:00she decided I should be in the settlement. She was the one. And I couldn't get in the settlement at that time. She got me a place up in Hindman with a lady, who lived there in town. And I worked my way there, until I got a room over in the settlement.

C.M.: How old were you then? When you lived in town. Do you remember?

SMITH: I was older than my average students I was with, because I was so far from getting to school. I was a little later, older than them. But I finally got through high school and one year of college at Lees College.

C.M.: That's pretty good, cause it wasn't easy to get around then.

SMITH: No, I know it wasn't, I know it wasn't.

C.M.: Now I know that at the settlement lots of the students had jobs. You said you worked in the kitchen? 12:00SMITH: I worked in the kitchen. Well, I made biscuits, something like that, when I was going to school. But I worked there when I didn't. I couldn't get into the settlement I thought, and I just went over there and started working in the kitchen.

C.M.: You weren't going to school.

SMITH: And Miss Watts came down one morning and told me, she wanted me to go to school. So, she gave me a room and I started school. Now what was the question you asked?

C.M.: Okay, I'm sorry. I asked two or three probably. Did you have, while you were going to school at the settlement, living there, did you have a certain job that you were expected to do? Or was it just different things?

SMITH: One year I cleaned grade school with some of the help in grade school. And one year Zelma Banks and I cleaned the Orchard House upstairs. I really don't remember. The rest of the time I helped in the kitchen. I made biscuits, those beaten biscuits and all 13:00that stuff. It wasn't my regular job, but I did it. I did do that.

C.M.: What sort of things did you, do you remember that you all did for fun, when you weren't in school.

SMITH: For fun?

C.M.: Yeah, did you all have maybe clubs that you belonged to?

SMITH: I don't remember much clubs. Lot of times we'd go up on what we called the Circle. You know that big green, I don't know what it is like there now. Back of Orchard House, up in there. You know where ...is it still Orchard House? Or what do they call it?

Kitchen?

C.M.: Uh huh, it's the May Stone Building now.

SMITH: May Stone? Okay. Well, there was a big circle there, and we did a lot of playing games and just talking, visiting up there. And on Friday nights, I think we'd go have a, just play games, get together. I don't remember where. At some of the buildings over there.

C.M.: Did you all ever have folk dances?

SMITH: Not really at that time I don't think. We'd 14:00play ...my mind's not working right now. Rather just games, it wasn't folk dancing I don't believe. Is Virginia Reel one of them?

C.M.: Uhhmm.

SMITH: Right now, I don't remember.

C.M.: Did you all have ...! read in old papers and things I was looking at about the May Day Festival? What did you all do for that? What kind of day was that? You know we don't have that anymore.

SMITH: Well, they had a pole there up there on this circle. What we called the Circle, above the May Stone building. And a lot of these little kids would, they'd get them trained and they'd put music on. And they'd go around that 15:00pole and put this red and white crepe paper all around. Make it look like a candy, you know. That was fun. And we'd be out there to watch the children. I don't remember we built anything; we just watched them.

C.M.: Was there any sports or anything that people played?

SMITH: Oh, yeah. There was some basketball going on right back then. Might not have a gym, but they had a pole with a goal on it somewhere.

C.M.: Was that a pretty popular thing? To watch or play?

SMITH: Yeah, not like it is today though. There wasn't that much of it. Carter Creek, Hazard and Hindman, just a few around.

C.M.: I wanted to see what you remembered about people that were there. You knew Miss Watts, of course, like you said. What did you think about her?

SMITH: I loved her, but I think I respected her, kind of made me think, well 16:00she's the boss here. You better do what she wants you to do. But I did respect her and love her. I barely knew Miss Stone. I mean I just knew her when I saw her. But Miss Watts I talked to a few times. And let me see, some of the rest of them. Miss Cobb was a ....

C.M.: What was she like?

SMITH: She was very nice. She was real nice. She taught French. She was just a lovely lady, you know, kind and good. I can picture her in my mind.

C.M.: Did you know ...did you have much contact with James Still?

SMITH: No. My sister did now, Zelma. My sister knew him, and she's thinks 17:00he's a great guy. He just came sort of about the time I left. And my sister graduated after I did, so she knew him real well. She likes to go and see him, when she gets home.

C.M.: Did you know Miss Furman? Lucy Furman?

SMITH: No, she was gone before I got there. I know where, she was over way over across the creek. Wasn't she? The Little Boys' House or something, wasn't that right? I knew where she was, but she wasn't there when I was there.

C.M.: What did people seem to think about, like Miss Watts and people like that, that were here? Because they weren't from here, you know. It was kind of like these foreign people or whatever. What did people say about them or think about them? Do you remember?

SMITH: I don't remember. I think everybody that I know, respected them, you know. And knew that they were doing a good thing. Of course, I, like I told you, I don't know how my mom got in touch with them. But Miss Stone took her, when 18:00she was a little girl to Louisville to have her eyes treated for that glaucoma that was in her eyes. And that's the way she, I guess a little girl just in the community needed help. And they helped her, I guess. I don't know that. And that's the way we sort of, through that, come to respect the settlement. It was home for me for a long time. I enjoyed it. I'd go to school in the year time, in the school time and then I worked in the summer. Just about lived there. 19:00C.M.: So, you stayed there during the summer too? What kind of work did you do then?

SMITH: Just worked in the kitchen, helped cook and wash dishes. I guess that's where I was most of the time, in the kitchen. I never had time for getting in the laundry room or any of that. Just mostly around the kitchen. And Miss Elkin was the one that...you got to know ... You know about her, don't you?

C.M.: No.

SMITH: She was the dietician, was head of the dining room. She was the one I looked to. She was the one to tell me all what I needed to do. Elizabeth Elkins.

C.M.: What was she like?

SMITH: Well, if it was work time, she wanted you to work, not talk, not fool around, just go do your job and get it done and get out. And then go get daisies or whatever you needed to do.

C.M.: So, she was pretty much business. How 20:00many people do you remember being around in the summer? Did the students ... did quite a few of them just stay there all year?

SMITH: Well, part of the time. I can't remember that I don't guess. I mean there was a few of us that... I didn't have the money. I just stayed to work. And believe it or not, I worked enough time. I had spending money. Ten cents an hour is what they paid. But I got enough hours. I had a lot of dimes. And I bought my clothes, my school paper and stuff like that from working. Mostly for Miss Elkin.

C.M.: Did your brother and sister do the same thing? Or did they ..

SMITH: I think so. My sister worked in the chicken yard. They had a chicken yard. She cleaned up and get rid of little baby chicks. I 21:00don't know if my brother. I just lost my brother next to me about in March.

C.M.: Oh, you did? I'm sorry.

SMITH: And I know he lived with a lady downtown. Well, I did the same thing when I went up there, because there wasn't room for me on the settlement. And I don't remember. I can't remember if he went to the settlement. I know he graduated from high school there. My mind just won't tell me all I want it to.

C.M.: You said your sister worked in the chicken house. What other kinds of, I guess they had cows.

SMITH: They had cows, yeah. The boys had to feed and milk the cows. I 22:00guess that's about all. Flowers. Doc Pratt though did raise a garden. Now that's one thing. We had to get them vegetables. Well, he'd tell those boys over there with him to gather a big basket of vegetables and they'd come to the door. We had to get them ready to be cooked and things. I helped do that.

C.M.: So, were you all, did you pretty much farm and raise all the food right there?

SMITH: They did what they could. They couldn't raise all of it. There was too many of us there to feed.

C.M.: I'd say so. When you graduated from there, I don't know if you remember or not. How many people graduated with you? Do you remember? Maybe kind of an approximate number?

SMITH: Five or six. Let's see there was Mildred Crayton, Dennis Slone and William Tigner and Dallas Franklin, Mattie Sexton, Forrest Johnson.

C.M.: That's how many were 23:00in your graduating class?

SMITH: I think, I think that's all of them. I have it written out. I had a picture and one of my boys took it away with him. Of my graduation class.

C.M.: Oh, I'd like to see that.

SMITH: Probably like the one up in the settlement someplace.

C.M.: I think there is. We have a big stack. We don't have every year though. Every now and then there's a year that will be missing. I think we have that one though.

SMITH: Thirty-two is when I graduated, I think.

C.M.: Yes, that's what we have down.

SMITH: I'm eighty-nine years old. And I've lost a lot. I've got a lot of good memories from the settlement. But still yet, some 24:00of it's fading away, you know. And I lost contact. I keep in contact with Mildred Crayton. That's about the only one. I'm sorry she has to be sick, but I guess when we get up to where we are, that's to be expected, isn't it?

C.M.: But I mean, you seem to remember a lot. To me [Laughter -Mullins] I know it's hard to remember specific questions and things like that. I have more general questions. At the Alumni Supper on Saturday. There was a bunch of people up there.

SMITH: Last Saturday? I didn't feel like going and my daughter-in-law was sick. I told you she had surgery. And I just can't do what I used to.

C.M.: Oh I know. Now some people, I just heard people talking about how much going to school there had meant to them.

SMITH: It did, it did. Those 25:00kids over there, we felt like family. We didn't feel like you go to school, and now you come back. When we were there, we played together. We worked together and we had meals together. It just felt like family, you know, like brothers and sisters.

C.M.: So what kind of. What kind of impact did being there have on you--finished, when you were finished with school?

SMITH: I don't know how to say it or not. It just felt like, just felt like I was leaving home almost. I did go back and work some 26:00after I graduated. Worked in the kitchen some, until I got something else to do. But it was more like going back home, like family.

C.M.: What did you think about once you finished or now thinking back on it. What kind of education do you think you got there?

SMITH: Well, I was handicapped from the beginning. I was older and behind and but, I got enough to get me by on. Didn't know how to do a lot of things, that I wouldn't have known. I taught school one year and then I got married and had a baby and went to babysit. Never did go back anymore. But back then it was hard to get a school. If you didn't know the right people, then you couldn't get a school. That's how come my sister went to Ohio. She could not go to school in Knott County, so she went to Ohio. And she retired 27:00up there.

C.M.: So, you've lived here you whole life, haven't you?

SMITH: What?

C.M.: Have you lived in Knott County your whole life?

SMITH: Yeah, all my life. Except when I went down to Jackson, to Lees College. One year down there, otherwise I've been here.

C.M.: Well from being here and being a graduate of the settlement school, how do you think the settlement affected this area? What kind of impact do you think it had on it?

SMITH: I think it had a great impact on it. Cause we could go there and live. When we lived out up in these hollows, where you couldn't get out to school. You could go there and live like a family, and you'd go to school, and you'd go home every once in a while. You'd get to go home. 28:00I think it was a great thing. A lot of people got an education, that wouldn't have gotten it. Because you could go there and live. They taught you how to work, if you wanted to know how. And do things.

C.M.: When you were there did you learn? I know that Ursula was telling me how she learned so much more than just things that you get out of a book. She learned etiquette things, like how to sew, how to set a table. What kind of things like that do you remember them teaching you?

SMITH: I don't remember any of that in the settlement. I went to, they had, what am I trying to say now. They had sewing classes over in the school. It was on settlement ground though. We'd learn to cut patterns and sew. We learned to do a lot of things. My mind isn't getting together right. [Laughter -Mullins] SMITH: It's been 29:00a long time.

C.M.: That really is a long time.

SMITH: All of the memories that I have about the settlement are good. I felt like I was at home, when I was there, good friends. And now I've lost them all. I can't get out and get about. We got scattered away.

C.M.: That's hard.

SMITH: What?

C.M.: I said that's hard.

SMITH: I know it.

C.M.: Because everybody moves around. I've 30:00asked you just a few kind of general questions. But I'm sure there's other things that you remember about...It's hard to know exactly what to ask each different person, because they remember different things about being there. And I didn't know if there was certain things that kind of stood out in your mind. Maybe when you think about being at school there.

SMITH: I took weaving there and I loved that. Sit at a big loom and start to weave. I like sewing, that's where I started to learn to sew was in Home Ee.

C.M.: Hang on just a ...

END OF TAPE 20 A 3, BERTIE SMITH, SIDE A START OF TAPE 20 A 3, BERTIE SMITH, SIDE B C.M.: You were talking about weaving. You took weaving.

SMITH: I loved that weaving.

C.M.: What did you like about it?

SMITH: I don't know, just something about put those things in there and make blankets and table 31:00runners and cushions. They are all worn out and gone now. I enjoyed them for a long time.

C.M.: Who taught that? Did somebody teach you to do that? Who taught you? Do you remember? SMITH: Let me see, right now I cannot remember. I cannot remember my weaving teacher.

C.M.: Did you do that for several years? Is that something ....

SMITH: No just about, sort of like taking Home Ee. Just for one year. Like one year we did it. Where's my memory? I can't remember the teachers.

C.M.: Well, that's okay. You said you enjoyed sewing, too.

SMITH: Jethro Amburgey's wife might have been my weaving teacher. Seems 32:00like she was. Rainie Amburgey, I think she's the one that taught me weaving. And I don't remember who my Home Ec teacher was, that did sewing. I never did get to be a good seamstress, but I did learn enough of it to sew a few things.

C.M.: Yeah, can you think of other things that kind of stood out in your mind, something that you may have ...You were there for several years, I know that's hard to pinpoint certain things. I know that what I always liked about being at college was living in the dorm, which is kind of probably what you lived in. Being with the girls 33:00and things like that.

SMITH: Well, the girls and boys, we all went to that circle and played together. And we ate around the table, mixed up. We were just more like brothers and sisters. That's just what it felt like. A lot of them I can still remember them. Lot of them have gone on, I imagine, not around anymore.

C.M.: When you all ate together did you ... what was that like? I know Mr. Still was telling me how everybody had to be there at certain times. What was it like having to eat there?

SMITH: Well, I was at a different table. They had two tables that were smaller than the rest of them, just a little bit and I ate at that table. Mason Moore was one that was there. And I don't remember who the teacher was. One of the girls, I 34:00believe her name was Maude Evans Sturgill. But we'd have apples in a basket to pass around. And Mason would sit at the foot, and I'd sit here by him. And they'd always start them around. And when it came back to me, the least little scrubby apple. And he got so he would take one off, when he knew it was about time for it to go, he'd take one off and put it on my plate. Because I was kind of backward or bashful and wouldn't go after it like the rest of them did. I remember him doing that for me.

C.M.: Did you have to be there at a certain time?

SMITH: At the table?

C.M.: Yes.

SMITH: Yes, they rang a bell. Everybody came in at one time and asked the blessing. Some of the teachers would say the blessing and then we'd sit down and eat. Get up and go on their merry way. Those little girls, not very big would get them a little broom and 35:00pull the chairs out and sweep the crumbs up and clean up around the table. Make it look nice for the next meal.

C.M.: From what I've heard from some other people, it was always clean.

SMITH: Yes.

C.M.: So, what was the campus like? Was it, in your opinion, was it real clean?

SMITH: It was clean, real clean, as I remember it. I loved it there. And it was just nice. The boys kept the grass cut. And Gale Pratt, Gail Chivers now, worked in the flower garden. They had flowers here and there and up the right path. You'd always see Gail out there with her scissors and basket, cutting the pretty flowers to bring in and put around the tables. Do these things with. It 36:00was just more like home.

C.M.: That's exactly what it feels like to me. I've been there my whole life, too.

SMITH: Yes, that's just what I'm saying. It's more like a home.

C.M.: Any other questions I need to ask you?

SMITH: Well, I'm too dumb to think.

C.M.: Oh no you're not now. You're being too hard on yourself! think. You remembered quite a bit of this. The main thing we want to do with this, is just to get people's memories and stories. Even things that you might think are silly to tell, wouldn't be, because it helps give an idea of what it was like there. That's what we're trying to figure out. There 37:00are lots of people around who maybe graduated in nineteen fifty or the nineteen sixties. We're trying to get people like you, that were there in the twenties, thirties, and forties. We don't have a lot about that.

SMITH: Well, that was a big important part of my life, I think. I know it is, was. If hadn't gone there, I don't know what. I'd probably wouldn't have gone to school. You know, just any more than what I got going to school down here. It was so far and the road. There wasn't a road, but the creek branch. That's the way we went.

C.M.: Was it hard for you being there at first? Maybe missing your mom and dad and things?

SMITH: Well, I guess it was to start out, but I got used to it. I'd come home as often as they'd let me come home. I'd 38:00come home and stay a weekend and go back.

C.M.: And how far ...How long would it take you maybe to get from this hollow out to the settlement? Do you remember? How long a trip would that be?

SMITH: I don't know, and I had to ride a mule, or walk it, one or the other. Most of the time they took me on a mule. We didn't have a horse. We had an old mule, that was faithful enough to get me there. See there wasn't any roads, there wasn't any cars then hardly. I can remember when they made that road. The first road they ran cars up to Hindman. We just had a road around the hillside, where the men would go out and work on it. Throw rocks in the mud holes and have wagons around.

C.M.: Seems like it would probably be about, what, an all-day trip or something?

SMITH: It was pretty good, pretty good. You'd get up in the morning and walk up there, and if you'd do anything, shop around a little while. And you walk back home, you felt like 39:00you'd done a day's work. Whether you did or not.

C.M.: I'd say so. That's a pretty long haul having to walk it.

SMITH: I don't remember how many miles it is, seven or eight miles up there.

C.M.: From here to town, it about is. Now I don't know if you would go the same way, would you? Following the creek? About how often did you get to come home? Do you remember? SMITH: I don't know if we'd come home once a month. Maybe three times a semester or something like that. And we all took our turns. When somebody else got to go, you had to fill the gap for them. Help do their chores.

C.M.: Did you go home for holidays, like Thanksgiving and Christmas? Or did you stay up at the settlement?

SMITH: Went home I think, most of the time. I can remember they'd hang stockings up for all of us at the Hillside. We'd get big stockings full of gifts from Miss Watts 40:00at the Hillside. I guess you had to stay there and not go home to get that. I don't remember that. But it was. And I remember the Little Girls' house. It was out there about where the swimming pool used to be. Somewhere along there. And there were so many little girls there, just little girls, wanting to go to school. Little Sally Duff, she ... these little toy .. .I call them toy brooms. See her moving those chairs out and sweeping the crumbs up and putting them back. She just looked like she was just too little to be away from her mommy. But she was there. And there were other little girls there. Little boys. Most time you go to school, you just see the big kids. But you had the little ones as much as you did the big ones. Like I said, it just made it feel 41:00more like home.

C.M.: So, it was usually pretty full up there? Like you said, you had to wait to get in.

SMITH: Yeah, I had to wait, because I was new.

C.M.: But it was usually pretty full, as far as. They kept the rooms full.

SMITH: Yeah, they did. I don't remember how many there were. There was the Little Girls' House, Little Boys' House over there, about where the library is. And there was the Practice Home across the road. I stayed there one year, one semester. I don't remember how many girls are over there. But one semester, two of us would have to get up and cook breakfast and do the dishes. And the next time, we'd have to make beds and then somebody else would do it. You know they called it Practice Home, just do everything like we'd do at home. I stayed there one year. Most 42:00of the time I was in what they called the Orchard House, I think. I never did have to work in the laundry. That's one everybody dreaded. To get down there and scrub them clothes on those boards.

C.M.: So that was the job that nobody wanted.

SMITH: Yeah, tea towels especially. Tea towel girls ... ooooh.

C.M.: What's that?

SMITH: You know where they dry the dish towels.

C.M.: Oh, okay.

SMITH: The dish towels where they dry the dishes. They'd have to go back in there. The boiler or the heat back in there made it hot. And they had to wash on these wash boards. And boy it was hard. They dreaded it. I guess I was thankful to find something else to do. I never had to get back there.

C.M.: Do you remember the job, I mean I guess any job was going to be hard work. But maybe 43:00what were the jobs that people wanted to get? Like maybe were more tolerable than others?

SMITH: I don't remember that. I don't know. We all had to take our turns working in the dining room. You know, taking up the dirty dishes, taking them out and getting them back, putting them back on the table. But I worked more in the kitchen, helped with the cooking. I can remember when they'd bring the milk. They had cows and they'd bring the milk. I had to get the milk strained and get it in a cooler. Do a lot of that. I guess I was older than some of the rest of them. I was way behind because I lived in this hollow, no road.

C.M.: What kind of food did you all have?

SMITH: What kind of what?

C.M.: What kind of food did you cook? A lot of vegetables?

SMITH: Yeah, 44:00they'd bring a lot of vegetables in from the garden. We had a lot of vegetables and let me think. I'm slow on it. Macaroni and cheese, like baked beans. I hated to clean those bowls. Baked salmon. My mind doesn't go back to what all food. We had good food though. To cook it in such big. You know if you cook, just for a family, you can cook it any way you want to. But you cook it in those big pots, it's harder to make it. But it was good I thought. We had nice vegetables, like lettuce and radishes, and things from the garden.

C.M.: 45:00I don't know if you remember this or not. I'm just trying to get an idea maybe, how many students were there. Maybe when you were in high school. Do you know, maybe overall, the number of students that were there?

SMITH: In the settlement?

C.M.: Yeah.

SMITH: I have no idea. I don't know how many were in Orchard House, Big Boys' dormitory, and then there were a few at the hospital, some at Hillside, some in the Little Girls' House and some in the Little Boys' House and some up at the Practice Home.

C.M.: That's a pretty big crowd.

SMITH: There was quite a bit of them when you got them all together.

C.M.: I'd say there was maybe, would you think there was more than a hundred?

SMITH: I can't say. There might have been.

C.M.: That's a big crew of kids.

SMITH: Get them all in the dining room at one time. I 46:00forgot how many tables we had. Seven or nine, I don't remember. Some of them had twelve people to a table I think, and at least two like the one I said I ate at. They were I don't remember. They were smaller tables. I don't remember how many were there. But I know they weren't big. I remember Miss Watts at the head of one table and Miss Elkins at the head of one table. I've forgotten the others. They were the ones I was in contact more with, I guess. But I got a lot of memories there, if I could just get them out. It was just like home. Home away from home.

C.M.: That was good. I guess you always felt comfortable there.

SMITH: They 47:00had a hospital there if anybody got sick. They had a nurse. I think her name was Miss Todd. She was real sweet. Anybody get sick, you'd just go up to the hospital. We had rooms that we lived in. Had dorms up there, had rooms up there, that we lived in. And the hospital thing was downstairs. Is that building still there?

C.M.: Yes. It was Dr. Stuckey. Called the Stuckey Building, after Dr. Stuckey, I think. They remodeled it all.

SMITH: My sister Emma had pneumonia, got typhoid fever. Was it typhoid? Yeah, I think it was. She got so sick. We thought she was going to die. They brought her home though. And old Doctor Newton came. And she got over it. They had good. They took good care of us. If we got sick, they just told you where to go. Go to the hospital.

C.M.: Was 48:00the hospital just for you to use? Or was it for the people in the community?

SMITH: It was just for the settlement. And I remember a doctor from Hazard, Brown I think was his name. He came over to do clinics there and to take tonsils out. Several of the kids had their tonsils taken out. I can remember buying some ice cream for some hollow boys from Perry County. And their little sister. When they had these out, they could have ice cream. They couldn't have anything else.

C.M.: So, they did those kind of things at the hospital at the settlement?

SMITH: Yes. And one of the boys, one of the older boys, had appendicitis. And 49:00his family lived way back in Rockport somewhere. And he got real sick. By the time they got his family there, and got a doctor there, why his appendix had ruptured. He died up in the hospital. Bailey from over in B ... Beaver? I don't know where he was from, back over in that direction.

C.M.: I guess I don't have any more questions. I don't know if there's anything.

SMITH: I'm trying to think. Right now, my mind doesn't work right. Too many, too much water under the bridge, since I was there. [Laughter] I've still got good memories of when I was there. And it's more like home, than it is a settlement. Well, I go up there now and it doesn't look like home. But 50:00back then, just like going home.

C.M.: It looks different now, things have changed. That's true.

SMITH: Of course, it's all going to change for you someday too. And it won't be the same.

C.M.: Well, I'll just turn it off then.

END OF INTERVIEW