Oral History Interview with Lula Stamper Begley

CASSIE MULLINS: Rolling, well, if I can get it, there we go. All righty, now today's date is July the twenty-seventh, nineteen ninety-eight. If you don't care, just go ahead and state your name.

LULA STAMPER BEGLEY: Lula Stamper Begley.

C.M.: And Mrs. Begley, we're in Hyden today. I guess let's just start off, tell me about where you grew up, where you were born and where you grew up.

BEGLEY: Well, I was born in Knott County, Carr Creek, in nineteen twelve, August the twelfth, nineteen twelve, 1:00a long time ago. So, I stayed there and went to school for a little bit. And then in nineteen and twenty, I guess, my mother died. And when she died, in twenty-one, I guess, then that Fall, Dad took me to Hindman to see Miss Stone. She first didn't have room for me, but then when she knew that my mother was gone, she said for me to come that fall. That was nineteen twenty-two, I guess. That fall I did go to the Little Girls' House. There was another family there, Franklin, Myrtle, and Gertrude and 2:00Alice Franklin, and their little brother was there. So we were all in one room, because their mother had just died and the little boy was crying. So the little boy stayed with us that night. But then the next day, Miss Furman took him. Miss Furman had the Little Boys' House, so she had him and kept him. Finally he was adopted by some family later. So at the Little Girls' House, Mrs. Foster was I guess, the house mother then and she'd always read a story to us at night. And she'd sit between two rooms and read the story. She read all these good books we should know, Anne of Green Gables and Girl of Limber Lost and all of those books, you know. And she would read them to us. Later she was librarian and later on I worked in the library with her. But we each had a job to do in the school, even the little girls had to do something, 3:00work before we'd go to breakfast. And then after breakfast, we'd have something to do before we'd go to school. And the larger girls did the dishes and such as that. So later on we stayed in the Little Girls' House until about the sixth grade, I guess it was, and then we went to Hillside and stayed at Hillside. And then from Hillside, we went, in the ninth grade we'd go to the Practice Home. I don't know if the Practice House is there now or not.

C.M.: No, it's not there anymore.

BEGLEY: Anyway, there were six girls that stayed at the Practice House for a year. And we did, we ran, we bought the food and did everything like we were at home for a year. 4:00Then after that we went back to Orchard House, where the grown ups. And I stayed there until I graduated.

C.M.: Okay, that's interesting. Hold on just a second, okay now, go ahead. We were talking about the different places that you were living and things. Now, let me back up just for a minute. You said that your dad brought you to Hindman after your mother passed away. I've heard several other people, that's how they ended up at Hindman also. That's something I found. Or maybe like a father passed away. I guess, what was your all's situation?

BEGLEY: Well, of course there was a little school there, but just all eight grades, you know. But we went there to, the school was much better and all, and then a place to stay. Of course, I had sisters and my dad. My other sister, one sister went to West Virginia and stayed with one of those uncles 5:00and my brother. But then my other sister married, this one ninety-six years old. Now, during the summer I would usually come back there and stay with my sisters, during the summers. Of course, now we didn't pay very much, it seems to me ten dollars we were supposed to pay then. And then we worked, of course and we each had a scholarship from somebody, usually up North would send, I believe it was a hundred and fifty dollars a semester or something. And we would always write to them and thank them for it. So, we knew who it was, and sometimes they would write us or send us something. The one, I was supposed to have, 6:00boasting along that he was going to send me to Wellesley. But he died. [Laughing] C.M.: Oh, no!

BEGLEY: There was a hundred and twenty students stayed in the settlement.

C.M.: When you were there?

BEGLEY: Uh huh.

C.M.: Wow.

BEGLEY: There was Eastover for the big boys. Miss Watts had that then, she wasn't, Miss Stone had charge of the thing. And then later Miss Watts took over for Miss Stone or she was her assistant or something. She didn't do too much then. Then there was the Little Boys' House.

The little boys stayed with Miss Furman. And Miss Furman's written a book, "Mothering on Perilous," another one I think she's written. Each dormitory, each house had a house mother. 7:00And of course, the housemother always tried to teach us what to do, how to brush our teeth and what to do before we go to bed. We went through all of that. We were always trained to do right and even at the table. At the table there were, I believe there were ten tables, twelve at each table, I guess. And there was always a teacher at the head and one at the foot. And of course, they'd always ask the blessing and we had to eat everything. We couldn't leave anything on our plates. [Laughing] We were taught how to eat and how to hold our forks and so forth, taught manners. And then at night, we always had, each table would take turns having the devotions. We had devotions, one would read the Bible and have prayer. And that went around the table. And that 8:00was done at night. But during the other times we just had blessing and that was it. And then I remember the dietician, she always sat at her table and watched and carried on. I was always thin when I was little, so she decided I needed cod liver oil. So she always made me come by her place and take a spoon of cod liver oil. Well, I still have my teeth, so maybe that was a good thing. [Laughing] C.M.: Might have been.

BEGLEY: The dentist couldn't believe I still had my teeth. I said, "yes." Of course, she would oversee how the dishes were washed. The girls did that. We all worked, we all had a job. Each year we were assigned a job.

C.M.: What were some of the different jobs that you had when you were working there? Or living there, I guess.

BEGLEY: Well, when I was a little girl, of course there'd always be a big girl and then another one 9:00and then a little girl would do the little, odd things. I guess when I was a little girl, we would fill the pitchers with water in the rooms. And the trash, take out the trash and do things like that. And then when I was older, once I worked in the library. Miss Foster, that was the house mother, was the librarian then. And then there was another librarian, Julia Hammet. I worked in the library when she was there. And so later I stayed with her in Long Meadow, Massachusetts, when I was going to college. Then I, oh in the school we'd clean, I worked at the school, when we'd have the school, we'd have to wash the windows, sweep the rooms and so forth, there'd be several. 10:00There'd be two grown-ups and then two smaller ones and then a small one, one or two, you know, in each place. Some helped in the kitchen. I don't believe I ever worked in the kitchen. Of course, they had cooks, several cooks, but then they had these others help, and to serve the table, serve the food and so forth. And one of the cooks had typhoid and she died. So later ... .I guess, and I worked at Orchard House and the girl there had typhoid. And I thought well gee, I hope I don't get it. And I was a little girl there then. But I did get typhoid.

C.M.: Oh, no.

BEGLEY: And so I stayed, 11:00I guess a month in the hospital, maybe. I remembered all they wanted to do, was give me castor oil and orange juice. And they had to pour it down me, because I couldn't take it.

C.M.: Oh, gosh.

BEGLEY: And they checked and finally found out what was wrong, it was one of the cows. They had all these cows the boys would milk and so forth. Must have had about fourteen cows, I think. So, they had them checked and one of them had T.B., I mean...

C.M.: Typhoid.

BEGLEY: Typhoid, uh huh. It was from the milk. And they had the water checked and all. And they had to destroy the cow, I think it was just one, I've forgotten. Dad came for me after I got able to leave, so I stayed with my sisters then that summer. Then I came back to school the next year. I still was a little crippled from the typhoid.

C.M.: I'd say so. 12:00So, how many years did you live at the settlement school? You came in twenty-two, did you stay there all the way up until you graduated?

BEGLEY: Eight, I guess.

C.M.: Wow, that's a long time.

BEGLEY: Then after I graduated, I went to Centre [College] for two years, then I went on to Boston and finished. Then I came back to Hyden and I did social work here for a year. It was WPA [Works Progress Administration], it was during the Depression, you know. I finished in thirty-four up there and that was thirty-five. Then that closed, this WPA did I was a home visitor, went around and give out checks and check the homes and all like that. 13:00Then I went back to Hindman, from here I went to Hindman. I did that youth one, I forget what it was called, it was a government thing, some sort of youth. I had charge of other students, of children there. We cleaned up some cemeteries, and we did library and we did books, because James Still was there then. He had come, that was about the time, I guess about the time he came. He hadn't been there, when I went to school. I guess he was there then. He taught typing and then had library. I know we did some books. We would mend the books and so forth. It was just something to give these students work, I guess. And they got a check for it, you know. [Laughing] So then, they needed a first grade teacher and Miss Watts was in charge of the place then. And Miss Stone, I believe she might have been 14:00dead by then. I don't remember whether she was dead or not. Anyway, she asked me if I would teach the first grade. So I said, really I wasn't trained for first grade, I had general high school. Well, she wanted me to go to UK [University of Kentucky] and take some work. So I did go to UK, and I took reading, and first grade stuff So, I came back and taught the first grade, for three years there. And then this year, there was a Margaret Taylor, well anyway, Margaret Taylor saw my picture in the paper, that I had been to Hindman. And she thought, well now that was my teacher. I don't remember her, I had so many of them. 15:00C.M.: Yeah, I'd say you did.

BEGLEY: She wrote me and she said, "I think you were my teacher in the first grade." She said, "I enjoyed it so much, that we did all these games," she'd tell all the things I did. I don't remember any of them. She wrote me and she wanted to come by and see me. So, she came to see me once. And then I saw her, no I guess I didn't see her over there. But I saw her this last year, she was there. And this last year, she brought a basket of apples and she said, you know all the time you were my teacher, I thought so much of you, and didn't ever give you an apple. So she brought me this basket of apples. [Laughter] She said this is a long time, giving the teacher an apple.

C.M.: Well, she must have liked you an awful lot then.

BEGLEY: Well, she said she really did, but you know I can't remember that. I hope I was a good first grade 16:00teacher, but she said I was. She'd tell all the games we did and the songs and the stories and so forth. I don't remember any of that. She seemed to remember it all. Of course, now when I went to Hindman at first, all of our teachers were from up North.

C.M.: What was that like?

BEGLEY: Well they weren't, they didn't talk like we did, of course. And they were from Wellesley and Smith and Vassar, all the teachers. I don't believe there was any then, but later they had the ones around here. But then they got them all from, and I guess they paid them very little. But I remember they were supposed to have long hair. And there was one teacher, we saw her one night and she had short hair. She'd always had it tucked up, you know, because she was supposed to have long hair or something. They had to be so-so, the teachers did. Of course, they were all good teachers and all. I guess they taught us a lot. They didn't know around in the mountains. Of course, they weren't used to the mountains. But they 17:00soon became accustomed to them, I guess. I remember one wanted to ride. This was Carl Perkins' dad, you know they called him, Humpy Jim Perkins. He loaned her his horse. So she went horseback riding and she came back and she said, oh you have the finest horses, he just gallops up the hill. I just made it gallop up the hill. And he said, "well you won't get to ride my horse anymore, if you run it up the hills." She thought that was what she was supposed to do. [Laughter] So, of course, we enjoyed, I guess, being in Hindman. And then on Sunday afternoons, when we were in Orchard House growing up, we'd always take a walk. 18:00And there would be a teacher with us, boys and girls would go together, but there was always a teacher. And we'd go up just around there on the walk. Now every Sunday, we went to Sunday school and church. We didn't ever miss Sunday School and church.

C.M.: Which church did you go to? Did you go to different ones?

BEGLEY: Yes, we would go to different ones. Well, finally I went to[the] Methodist[s]. I joined the church, the Methodist Church while I was there. I guess I was sixteen, so I joined the Methodist[s], and after that I went to the Methodist[s]. We could go to either one we wanted, the Methodist or the Baptist, but the teachers would go along with us. But we'd always go.

C.M.: Let's see, we were talking about your sister earlier. 19:00Did she live on campus, too? Did she live at the settlement with you?

BEGLEY: No.

C.M.: Oh, she didn't okay. So, it was, you were the only one in your family?

BEGLEY: I was the only one there, uh huh.

C.M.: Was that hard for you at first?

BEGLEY: Yes, I guess it was.

C.M.: How did you, I don't know if you remember.

BEGLEY: I guess I was homesick. I guess I cried some, you know and so forth. But we always had a house mother that was good to us, you know, especially the smaller ones. And I was one of the smaller ones. And these girls, these Franklin girls were too. Most of them were older than I was, when I went there.

C.M.: But the house mothers took pretty good care of you?

BEGLEY: Oh yes, they did. They would always check on us. Tell us what to do, you know, 20:00see that we dressed right and everything.

C.M.: Were they ever very strict?

BEGLEY: Yes, they were strict, especially when we got to Orchard House. Miss Elkins was the house mother there, the dietician. And she was something else. [Laughing] C.M.: What was she like?

BEGLEY: Well, to start with, of course, she had, she still had, was in charge of the food. She was from Battle Creek, Michigan. We had that kind of food. I guess the food was good, we always had those little biscuits, beaten biscuits, I guess. The food was all health food, it was healthy, all we had. She would always check us when we went to school. She would look at our face to see if we had any powder or anything on. We weren't allowed any powder or anything.

C.M.: No make-up?

BEGLEY: No. [Laughing] So, if we had powder or rouge, we'd have to go back upstairs and wash our face. 21:00We had to dress so-so for her. They finally got rid of her.

C.M.: Oh really?

BEGLEY: I remember it, yes.

C.M.: What happened?

BEGLEY: Well she was, I guess maybe she was too strict and about everything, I don't know. In the kitchen, in the dining room, when we washed the dishes. After we washed the dishes we'd have to take ... now I've done that some, too. Sometimes I worked in the dining room. I worked in every place there.

C.M.: Sounds like it.

BEGLEY: I did. There wasn't one I didn't work in. [Laughing] And we'd have to wash the dishpan and have it shining. And she'd get it and turn it around and look at it. And if there was one little spot or anything that didn't shine, we'd have to do it over.

C.M.: I'd have been there forever.

BEGLEY: So, I remember I did it about three times, and I said 22:00something. I got mad about it. I said, well that's the best I can do. And she said, "well you will go see Miss Watts." [Laughing] And so, I remember I went up there, because she didn't do anything. She just talked to me. She said, "what did she say?" I said, "said something about I didn't do the dishpan right." She was finicky like that, and I don't know. So someone told me later that they made her leave. And she got real mad about it, because she was getting so cranky about everything, you know, and with all the students and the food and all. I don't know what ever happened to her. She went to Lexington and somebody said, I guess Miss Stone was still alive." And she went to see her and she wouldn't let Miss Stone in the room. So anyway, they had someone else instead of her after that. 23:00C.M.: Well, tell me a little bit about Miss Watts. What you thought of her, your years there. She would have been there, I guess, the whole time that you were there.

BEGLEY: Yes, she was there. When I went, she was house mother of the boys, young-like then. And well, we liked her. Then later she came to Hillside, and worked there. And I worked there, when she was there. I always liked her, you know, when we cleaned the room. I've cleaned her room and all. And then later she, she did place the students. She would place us in different places, you know, to work and all. She had a lot of work to do to get all that done for a hundred and twenty students every year. We always liked her. And then after I was a teacher, I'd 24:00always go up to Hillside and we'd go up.. .I don't think we played cards. We did games or something. I can't remember what games we'd do up at the Hillside with her. [Laughing] Maybe we did cards, I don't know now what we did. I always liked Miss Watts. And she wanted the students all to become something and get an education. She was interested in the students and helping them, all of them.

C.M.: I know I've talked to different people and they've 25:00talked about how she was pretty demanding, a demanding woman. A lot of people have said they were afraid of her, just from her, I guess her demeanor.

BEGLEY: Yes, of course she was the head of things. I don't think I was ever afraid of her. I guess I might have been more of Miss Stone, than that, but Miss Stone ... Oh, Miss Stone was a gracious lady, but she was quiet and different from Miss Watts, altogether different. Miss Watts would talk and you know, carry, and Miss Stone was a little bit different than Miss Watts. No, I wasn't afraid of Miss Watts. But now, Miss Stone, I guess I felt a little awed with her. Because when I was down at Danville, she came down there. Haskell Johnson, that other boy, I guess she really had two scholarships for students from 26:00there, I guess. She paid the scholarships too, when you go from there. So, I was one at the women's department in Centre then, and Haskell was there. So, she came down to see us.

C.M.: This was Miss Stone?

BEGLEY: Uh hmm.

C.M.: Okay.

BEGLEY: Miss Stone came down to see us, yes. I didn't know she was coming, and she came over in a taxi and had me to go to eat lunch, eat dinner that night. Then when we got ready to leave, I said, "well I'll go back. I walk to town all the time and back and didn't think anything about it." And she said, "oh no, you don't get out at night by yourself do you? I have to take you back." So, she got a taxi and got right in that taxi. She was a large woman, you know, and brought me back. [Laughing] She wasn't going to let me come by myself.

C.M.: She didn't think that was very proper.

BEGLEY: Oh, no. That wasn't the thing for a girl to do, to be out. She was more like that.

C.M.: That's funny.

BEGLEY: Miss Watts, of course, believed in obeying the rules and all like that, but I didn't think of her as being too strict. Of course, she had 27:00to be with that many people. Students, you know. I always felt she was kind to all of them.

C.M.: Yeah, nobody said that she was mean, just strict.

BEGLEY: Just strict.

C.M.: She was very businesslike.

BEGLEY: Well, that is right, she was. Uh hmm. But you see, I was with her too, after I was back, a teacher. So, that made a little bit of difference, when I was a teacher. While I was teaching, I had this government job. They called me, wanted me to take a government job, I forgot, some other place. I said to Miss Watts, see school wasn't out, I said, "I'm thinking about taking that." She 28:00said, "now you shouldn't do that." Said, "now you know, I guess Miss Stone was alive," she said, "now Miss Stone wouldn't approve of that. You should stay on." She didn't want me to go at all. So, I finished, no...Miss Stone was alive. Miss Stone came to my wedding, that's right, so she was still alive. Because Miss Stone came over here when I married here in Hyden. Now, Miss Watts wasn't going for me not finishing school, so I stayed. [Laughing] C.M.: She wanted to keep you, I reckon.

BEGLEY: I finished the year out.

C.M. : Did you ever know Miss Pettit?

BEGLEY: No, that was before my time.

C.M.: Had you heard anything about her?

BEGLEY: Oh, yes, I'd heard a lot about her.

C.M.: What were some of the things you heard about her?

BEGLEY: Oh, she was really some woman, I guess. She came to Pine Mountain and she was the one that was sort of bossy, they always said. She came on to Pine Mountain and started Pine Mountain School 29:00then. Well I don't know, I guess I hadn't asked. They told once here, that she married somebody, but I don't think she did. [Laughing] I don't think that was right.

C.M.: No, I had never heard that either.

BEGLEY: They told that, but I think that was wrong. So, I really didn't know much about her, just what I had heard.

C.M.: Did you know Miss Burns?

BEGLEY: Who?

C.M.: Miss Burns?

BEGLEY: Yes.

C.M.: What was she like?

BEGLEY: Oh I liked her. I think I have a picture of Miss Burns. She was, I liked her very much. She was kind and she was interested in all the students. And she was especially interested in the farms and barns 30:00and everything. That's what she did. She took care of the boys .....

END OF TAPE 20 A 38, LULA STAMPER BEGLEY, SIDE A BEGINNING OF TAPE 20 A 38, LULA STAMPER BEGLEY, SIDE B BEGLEY: ...Fourth, I think I have a picture of some of that. She always taught the ... some sort. And the Maypole, we always had the Maypole. Then Miss Stone would sit up on the porch and watch.

C.M.: So, you all always did that.

BEGLEY: On the first of May. That's my graduation, 31:00when I graduated there. I thought I had that picture.

C.M.: That's okay, if you can't find it.

BEGLEY: Well, it doesn't matter. It was just, we were dressed up in daisies and paper plates, paper things. [Laughing) But now she you know .... She was good at games. [sound goes.] Get hung up in that won't I?

C.M.: Oh, no it won't hurt it a bit, won't hurt it at all.

BEGLEY: Now, she was special.

C.M.: And that was Miss Foster?

BEGLEY: Miss Foster. She was the first one that, my first housemother.

C.M.: It just clicked off. I'll turn it back on. [Laughing] 32:00Were there other games that you all played a lot, like folk games and things? [Sound back] BEGLEY: Yes, then we had this recreation house, that we'd go up and do folk games. Now there was Miss Marvel taught that. She was especially good. So we would go every, I've forgotten how often we'd go up and do those folk games. She taught them. And then she would come around to the classes and teach games in the classes. When I had first grade, she'd come to the first grade class, once a week, I guess. And teach new games, you know, something different, so they always liked to have another teacher come in. I don't know what ever happened to Miss Marvel. She always planned programs for the different students and for the teachers too.

C.M.: Well, what about 33:00Christmas, was that...

BEGLEY: Oh yes, that was something. We always looked forward to that. We would go to the Hillside on Christmas Eve. Of course, we'd decorate, everything would be decorated and then we would go to the Hillside on Christmas Eve and get our stocking and put our name on the stocking. And then we'd hang it up around, I have a picture of that, too, around somewhere, around the chimney, around the fireplace. And then the next morning of course, I don't know how they managed, but they managed to give everybody something, even the boys. And we'd come back, the girls would have their, the little girls would have their stockings around the chimney 34:00and the dolls would all be standing out in them ...stockings. We couldn't wait Christmas morning to come and get our stocking. And we'd have to wait until it was given to us. One of the teachers would get it down and hand it to us, you know. We always got something in the stocking. And sometimes some clothes and books, maybe and then toys.

C.M.: Where did all those gifts come from?

BEGLEY: Hmm?

C.M.: Where did all that come from, do you know?

BEGLEY: Yes, it was sent in, mostly from the North, from people up North. For a long, long time they'd start sending things in and they'd save them and have them ready for Christmas, you see. And they'd send in clothing, too, from the North. These 35:00wealthy people up North, they just sent money in and sent the gifts in. Of course now, usually everyone had a scholarship, had some person that was paying so much for them. And usually that person would send something in, too.

C.M.: That's really nice.

BEGLEY: So, I guess they still have names of those people, I don't know. They're all by dead now, of course.

C.M.: So, what did you think about that? I mean you had these people that were sending money and support and things from far away. I guess, how did you feel about that?

BEGLEY: Well, we really didn't know that they were doing that. We 36:00didn't know that they did that, you see. I know they sent it in, for each. Only thing we knew, we would, they would tell us to write a thank you letter to somebody. They'd give the address or something, and we'd write a thank you. But we didn't understand that they were sending money to help it go. So of course, now what we worked, we were supposed to work for our tuition, you know. And we each worked so much every day. So, that's what we thought we were paying by working.

C.M.: Well let's talk a little bit about some of the friends you had maybe, growing up. Maybe tell me about a best friend or a close girl friend, either in grade school or high school, that you spent a lot of time with.

BEGLEY: Well of course, I guess Alta Banks was really my best friend. 37:00So she was there with me. She lived not too far from me at the time. She didn't come to the settlement until I guess, a year or two after I did. She first stayed with her uncle, a Smith, then she came. Then my cousins were there, Ida and Bernice and Zella Stamper. So they stayed, I don't believe they graduated there, maybe they did. I don't believe they did. They were good friends. And then I had several good friends out in town. See these were settlement ones, but the town ones came to school, too. But they didn't 38:00do a lot of the games and things that we did, you see. They just came. There was one I liked especially, it was Lois Fugate. She married Hillard Smith. Hillard is dead now, I don't know about her. I haven't heard. Alma is still alive, I always liked Alma. She was a friend, Alma Pigman.

C.M.: I was at her house just the other day.

BEGLEY: You were?

C.M.: Uhhuh.

BEGLEY: Well, I always liked Alma, of course she was out in town, so we didn't see as much of the ones that were in town. The only time we would see them was at school, see we did things with these others. Then on Friday nights we always had parties too, the settlement children did, you see.

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

BEGLEY: Just playing games. The boys would come 39:00and the girls together. There would always be teachers, you know. And we'd just do games. And sometimes have some sort of treat sometimes, they would have something to give us, candy or something, it would depend on what teacher would do that. We always had some kind of.. Club, sometimes they called them clubs. We'd have clubs on Friday nights. But on Friday nights we always did something, socials, they'd say. I guess now they'd be dancing, but we didn't dance then. [Laughing] We'd do the folk dance sometimes on Friday nights, we'd do folk dance. 40:00And now, Maude and Marie Stewart, they were friends of mine. Marie was a year ahead of me. She graduated the year before I did. And Maude, I don't believe she graduated. Because I asked her uncle, I saw them over at the banquet the other night, and he told me that Maude was in Florida. So I don't know. They were twins, Maude and Marie were twins.

C.M.: Okay, yeah.

BEGLEY: And Marie was always the bright one. She went on and finished, I guess and I don't believe that Maude did. And then Marie, you see, is the one that her daughter wrote this book, that Mike gave me. I have it over there.

C.M.: Her daughter is going to be using this stuff to write a book, too, these interviews and things.

BEGLEY: Yeah. Well, Marie was a good friend, I liked Marie. 41:00I liked her. I don't know remember what happened to Maude, but it seems to me that she stopped coming to school or something. I don't remember what happened. But I remember once I went home with them. I don't know whether they had a home or not, but I went to Bert's, their brother's. Bert Stewart, he lived up on, what did they call that, Leburn, up in there somewhere.

C.M.: Oh yeah.

BEGLEY: So I went home on weekend with them, at Bert's. And I guess these boys that were there the other night, they must have been little boys then. There were two Stewart boys, a men there. They probably were there that night. [Laughing] And they were telling me, Maude, they thought, lived in Florida. So when I'm down there, I'm going to look up. They gave me her address. Barbara has a house in Tampa and we 42:00go down there in the winter. And I'm going down there this winter. We usually stay two or three months down there.

C.M.: Well, after you graduated from high school and you went to Centre for a couple of years, and then you went off to Boston. What was that like? Had you ever been that far away from home?

BEGLEY: No, indeed I hadn't. [Laughing] I went on the train by myself I had been on a train before, but just a little bit. I remember Illa Stamper, that's Oliver's sister, took Alta and me to Cincinnati on the train once, to the zoo. That was about the only time I had been on the train. No, when I went on the train, I had a sleeper and I didn't know how to work it, you know, how to get in there and go to ... .I managed to get there, to Long Meadow. First I went to Judy's. 43:00So, that was something now. Then of course, it was all different up there. They didn't understand me. They'd say, "What did you say?" They couldn't understand my talking. [Laughing] Then I worked. I stayed with a family there that summer, a little boy and girl. The mother was going to have a baby, so I sort of companioned to them, took care of them. And then I went on to Boston. Of course, Judy was always there with me too, showing me what to do, and Julia Hammet. That was one that was at Hindman. And in fact there was another teacher, Katie, she was Mrs. Perry, Katie. When I was a little girl, she was at the end of the table and I sat beside of her. She was a third grade teacher and I first was in her class, 44:00and she said you need to go to the fourth grade. So, I went on to Miss Underwood's class. And this Miss Katie, she married afterwards, her boyfriend came to see, he was in Europe or someplace. So, she left. When I went to Springfield, in fact, she sent the money for me to come on the train, Mrs. Perry did. And she was the one, when I was first in Hindman, she sat there at the end of the table with me. When I went up there she had two little girls, so I visited her some, too. They would take me different places, you know, to musicals and so forth. Then I worked in Stoughton in a village up there. 45:00She got this job for me one summer. Stoughton was a village, a remodeled village. I was a hostess there to show visitors the houses, you know. Then every night they had, every Friday night they had dances. They had these square dances that people in town would come and pay, to them. So, Mrs. Perry, that was Miss Katie, she was married to Perry, she insisted that I teach them how to do the square dance. And I knew how to square dance. So, she got a group of boys, the YMCA thing, and I taught them how to do a square dance. And we had to perform one night. [Laughing] Do that square dance for these others. 46:00And I had to call it and all, so that was something. When I was in Boston, I took speech, too. Miss Black was the teacher and we had to get up and make a speech. I was making one and she said, "we would criticize them," you know. She asked this boy and she said, "well now tell me about Lula's speech." He said, "I didn't know a thing she said. [Laughing] I couldn't understand her." I think he partly just said that, so I'd have to do it over. But I'd go in a store, you know, and they would ask me. They would say, now what did you say?

C.M.: Right, because it was so different.

BEGLEY: Yes.

C.M.: That's crazy, and then you came back to Hindman, where you'd spent 47:00all those years and became a teacher. Was that kind of odd? What did it feel like? You'd been there for so many years, you were a student, you lived there. And then you came back to teach these kids.

BEGLEY: Yeah.

C.M.: What was that like for you?

BEGLEY: Well, I enjoyed it. It was, of course there and Boston was different, everything was different there. And I had a boyfriend there, too, in Boston. But he had been to Centre College. After I came back, he came to Hindman once to see me. But he and his brother drove down there once. When I got back to Hindman, it was fine. I enjoyed it, you see. I had been here at Hyden and I had met Walter in the meantime. And he often came over there to see me. So I would usually go on weekends, I'd go to my sister's and we'd go to places on weekends. I enjoyed 48:00the settlement, because I was used to everything about it. It was good to be back. And I just forgot all about Boston, I guess, after that. [Laughing] C.M.: I think that is just amazing. Well thinking back on it now, what kind of impact has the settlement school had on your life?

BEGLEY: Well, yes, I think it has really taught me what to do, and act and so forth. I got so much from it. I went there when I was young and it helped form my life, I guess, and my ideas and way to live. Because I got it all from the settlement, I guess, or from the teachers there. And I said, "well one thing, 49:00Miss Elkins was so particular about everything," I said, "well I think I got a lot from her." [Laughing] She was so particular about everything clean, everything had to be spotless. You couldn't have a fly anywhere. She sure taught you to not have any germs around, so you did get that from her, if nothing else.

C.M.: Is there anything that I haven't asked you about maybe, that you think would be important to include in this? I've tried to ask you all the different questions about your time there. Is there anything that I've left out, that you've thought about? Or maybe just a story, or something that you would want to tell about your time there? 50:00BEGLEY: Well, we always enjoyed Thanksgiving. We did always have a big Thanksgiving dinner, we always had the turkey and all the fixings. We would usually stay there for Thanksgiving, sometimes some would go home, but you could stay if you wanted to. We had two days vacation or something. And the same way with Christmas, you know, we could go home for Christmas or we could stay there. They always had Christmas dinner, too. It was always a special one, the food special. We always had plays, too at the school. I guess I didn't say that. Usually the seniors would have a play, 51:00you know. The graduating class would usually have a play. Now, Miss Cobb usually did those, sometimes some other teachers helped. I remember they had Pinafore one year. And sometimes they had some good singers, could sing in them. I wasn't one of them. We did learn quite a bit while we were there. That we wouldn't have learned otherwise if we hadn't gone to the settlement. And I certainly learned to eat everything. [Laughter] That was one of the things we were supposed to do, eat everything on our plates. Eat a little 52:00bit of it anyway, if we couldn't eat it all.

C.M.: Well, 53:00I guess that didn't hurt you too bad, did it?

BEGLEY: Oh no, that's right. We thought it did then.

C.M.: I can imagine.

BEGLEY: Oh, we would criticize them. So there were things that we learned that we wouldn't have ever learned if we hadn't gone to the settlement. And especially these teachers from the North, they had different ways. And they knew more than we did about certain things, and they taught us.

END OF INTERVIEW