Oral History Interview with Dale Smith Combs

CASSIE MULLINS: Get it rolling. Yeah, there it's on. And I'm going to go ahead and say that today's date is July the thirty-first and just go ahead and state your name.

DALE SMITH COMBS: I'm Dale Smith Combs.

C.M.: Okay. And now I guess let's just start off, tell me. Where did you grow up?

COMBS: I grew up here in Knott County. Just about two miles up from here. My father had, well I guess they were farmers and then he had a store and a post office. And there were nine of us in our family. So, we had a large family. So, I went to 1:00grade school, the first five years there, near my home. And then when I got a little larger, well I had planned to come down to Carr Creek here. We didn't have school buses. But it was too far for me to walk or anything, my brothers did. So, I went to Hindman Settlement School.

C.M.: So, you were about in the what? Sixth grade?

COMBS: I was in the sixth grade.

C.M.: Wow.

COMBS: I stayed over there seven years. And it's been so long, I've forgotten most of it, but just some of the highlights. So, are you going to ask me questions?

C.M.: Oh yeah, I just didn't want to interrupt you.

COMBS: You want me to start with?

C.M.: Yeah, well, let's just start off with, 2:00let's just talk a little bit about, how did you know about the settlement school?

COMBS: Well, I had relatives over there, some cousins, Alta Banks and Lula Stamper and the people that lived around me. Of course, when I went I was very homesick.

C.M.: Oh, were you?

COMBS: And I was a little bit lazy and I hated to wash dishes at home. We didn't have a sink, so we had to wash them in pans. And I hated it. When I went over there, I became very homesick. So, I wrote my mother and daddy a letter and I said, if you'll come and get me, I'll wash dishes. [Laughter] C.M.: Awh. I bet that broke their hearts.

COMBS: So they, you had to travel in a wagon, you know, if you got a trunk. So, they got ready to come and get me, and then my sister, my older sister was staying at home and 3:00she said, no you're not going. So, she made them ....

C.M.: They were coming after you.

COMBS: They were coming after me. So, it soon passed and I became acclimated and made friends and things. I was in sixth grade. I stayed at the Little Girls' House and Miss Knott. Miss or Mrs., Mrs. Knott was the house mother.

C.M.: What was she like? What do you remember about her?

COMBS: Well.... [Laughter] I don't remember much about her. She was sort of old. I guess she really wasn't as old, but at eleven years old.

C.M.: You think that's pretty old.

COMBS: So, she was very, I think she was concerned and helped us in every way she could. I really don't remember so much about that. 4:00I remember we had swings outside.

C.M.: Oh really?

COMBS: Like, we'd two get in a swing. And I've always been just fearful of heights. So, you'd get two, you know, and you'd pump and swing. And oooh, I would just be frightened. I guess I ended up sitting down a lot of times. But I remember we had a little register. I freeze, I fr ---still freeze. I froze over there. I'd sit by that, get as close as I could, if it was wintertime. I stayed there, 5:00the best I remember sixth and seventh grade. And my teacher was a Miss Wilcox, from Boulder, Colorado, very good teacher. I had a good teacher. Then I moved up to Hillside and stayed there during my eighth grade. I might get some of this wrong.

C.M.: Oh, that's all right. [Laughing] Don't need to worry about that.

COMBS: Of course, there were several teachers. Miss Watts stayed there, she lived at, and Miss Cobb, who was my favorite teacher back in my high school days. And there was a Miss Hammit, a young teacher. She was from Massachusetts. 6:00I think now, she had the Maypole every year. We did games and things out on the .... we called it Circle then. I don't know what they call it now.

C.M.: They don't still call it that. It's not as big now, that whole area. What was Miss Watts like? I guess you were around her a lot.

COMBS: I was scared to death of her.

C.M.: Why?

COMBS: Oooh. She was nice though. I think, I don't remember just how many girls were there, stayed there. Not so many, like ten or something. And every Saturday night we would go down in this little room. And she had a toaster. 7:00And we'd have toast and jelly and she'd read us stories. We'd all gather around the table. Well, it was where we had study hall. We had study hall there at night. But she'd read us stories, like the classics, a lot of the classic stories. So, we always looked forward to that. And then of course, on Sunday we had to go to church. We took time about. We'd got to the Methodist one Sunday and the Baptist the other Sunday.

C.M.: So, everybody went to church.

COMBS: Everybody went to church. And then from Hillside, I stayed in there .... Ruby Bollen, have you met her? She and I roomed together.

C.M.: Yeah, I think she told me that.

COMBS: Yeah. And we had, I remember I never... 8:00.I'm a very easy going person. I've never fussed with anybody. But I never could stand for anybody to hit me on my behind. [Laughter] That's where she came up one time, and just playing, you know, hit me back there. And oooh, I was so mad. I don't know, she probably doesn't remember that Ask me a question.

C.M.: Okay, that's fine. I just didn't want to interrupt you while you were talking. Let's talk a little bit about.. . .I guess since we are talking about different people that you remember. Were there any other, besides teachers. Let's see, you said Miss Cobb was your favorite teacher. Right? I guess what was so special about Miss Cobb? Everybody has talked about her.

COMBS: Have they?

C.M.: Yeah.

COMBS: Well, she was just so kind and understanding. Anytime that you, she just smiled and tell you hi. It was just 9:00her personality and her demeanor. She was just such a lovable person. You just couldn't get mad at her. I liked about, well I guess I liked all my teachers. In my eighth grade I had a Miss White. She was a very, extremely good teacher. No, not eighth grade, seventh grade. She was from Whittier, California. An attractive person and very thorough in everything. And then I got in the eighth grade and that was the year I was at Hillside. It might have been eighth or seventh, but I had this teacher, Miss Cox. And she was too .... She was from Winchester, I think. She, 10:00well she didn't rate up with the other teachers.

C.M.: Oh really.

COMBS: Then when I became a Freshman, we had .... Have you heard them talk about Practice Home?

C.M.: Yeah, a little bit. What was it like?

COMBS: Well, it was over where that, where I think now, where the gift shop is.

C.M.: Oh, okay.

COMBS: So, we were freshmen, we had to take cooking, home ec., you know, sewing, so forth. I'll tell this little thing. Miss Price, Vandelia Price was our teacher. So, we were making cookies and she told us not to eat any cookies. So, we all had on aprons and I slipped a cookie under my apron and it fell down right under. [Laughter] C.M.: You got caught.

COMBS: I got caught. 11:00We spent a year at Practice Home. The funny thing, the head was from Revana or somewhere down in there, but I can not think of her name. But you know, we were supposed to learn, to help us in our home ec. classes and things. I don't recall that it particularly helped me any. We were just a small bunch and we enjoyed it.

C.M.: Did you all cook like your own food and things, or did you still eat in the cafeteria?

COMBS: No, we cooked our own food. Yeah, she had, I guess, a certain amount of money to spend on food. I remember we had chicken and dumplings one time. 12:00Then of course, after my freshman year, then I went to Orchard House for the last three years. What do they call that? May Stone Building now, don't they.

C.M.: That's the May Stone Building, yeah.

COMBS: Miss Stone, somehow I missed her, mainly. I was there some when she was there. But I never did .... but Miss Watts, I knew quite well. I stayed, as I said, the three years there at Orchard House. Miss Elkins of course, you've heard of her?

C.M.: I've heard a few stories about her. I was going to ask you about her.

COMBS: [Laughing] She was a terror, I tell you. [Tape interruption] C.M.: You were talking about Miss Elkins. 13:00COMBS: So we had jobs. Everybody had to work, you know. The first year when we went, of course we all held our breath, because nobody wanted to work for Miss Elkins. We had to wash dishes. I don't remember how, who was chosen to wash dishes, how they did that. She was so persnickety and you could not bang two dishes together.

C.M.: So, you had to be quiet the whole time.

COMBS: Oh, the whole time.

C.M.: I don't know how you could do that.

COMBS: It was .... We were scared not to. [Laughter] And she'd go....You know, we'd have little tables there in the middle of the dining room with tin all around them and things. There were pans there. If you made a noise, 14:00you'd look and she'd go. I can remember, in other words, you'd better watch.

C.M.: You were going to get in trouble.

COMBS: That was a job I didn't relish.

C.M.: I don't blame you.

COMBS: Then my last year, oh yeah. Well, my last year, my Senior year, I'm jumping around. This won't be any ....

C.M.: Well, it doesn't matter at all.

COMBS: I was, they had like a head girl and then somebody. So, I was head girl at the hospital.

C.M.: Oh, okay.

COMBS: Katherine Bollen worked under me. That was Ruby's younger sister, who you probably don't know. She doesn't live around here now. But anyway, for, if someone was in the hospital, then I'd have to take their food to them. And 15:00do all that type of thing, waiting on them and so forth. During my, I've forgotten how many hours we worked, we had to work a day. Seems like it was three.

C.M.: Yeah, I've asked different people and it kind of varied. But that sounds about right. It was at least three probably, maybe more sometimes.

COMBS: So, I can recall one incident. Miss Elkins, I'd have to take my tray there, where she sat. She sat at the head of this table and you'd take your tray there and she'd put the food on the tray for you to take to the hospital. So, one time she said hand me that... It was a saucer there. And she said, "Hand me that dish over there." I said, "This sasser?" Because older people I'd heard, they had called them sassers instead of saucers. She said, "You're my little 16:00sasser." [Laughter] C.M.: She thought you were being smart.

COMBS: Of course, I was a senior then and I wasn't quite as scared.

C.M.: Yeah.

COMBS: But she was something else, she kept us .... Oh, we were not allowed to wear sleeveless dresses. And I can remember that I had one on, and it wasn't just real sleeveless, but it was sleeveless. [Laughing] And so she came up behind me and I sort of stooped over and she gave me a whack and told me to go get that dress off. So she...

C.M.: I'm sorry, go ahead.

COMBS: Well, that's it.

C.M.: Were you all expected to dress a certain...? I mean how did you all dress when you went to school? What did you wear?

COMBS: Well, we just wore cotton dresses.

C.M.: So you did wear dresses?

COMBS: Oh yeah. Even in college, I just thought. If in college, 17:00if we could have worn pants or something then, nobody did that. I went to Berea and your daddy did, too. I was a long time before him, but. We had to wear cotton hose, but they were thin and nice, you know. I remember some of us had on some silk hose and we saw President Hutchinson. Somebody said, "he's the president, he won't look at your legs." I don't remember, whether before I got through, I think we got to wear silk hose. After my senior, when I was a senior, 18:00it was a fairly small class. I don't remember just how many were in our class. But we as graduates, the girls all wore white dresses. They carried peonies that grew there. There was a walkway over through there.

C.M.: Yeah. I've seen a picture of those flowers once.

COMBS: And we all carried peonies for graduation. And by the time, graduation, we were ready to leave. Why we just loved everybody, even Miss Elkin. [Laughing] C.M.: Well, I'd say so. You lived there for quite a while.

COMBS: Yeah, seven years.

C.M.: That's a long time.

COMBS: Yeah, it was.

C.M.: Well, oh I'm sorry, I keep feeling like I'm getting ready to interrupt you.

COMBS: No that's about all. I want you to ask me questions.

C.M.: Well, one thing that I think is interesting. Even though you said you can't remember much, you really can. You are doing a awful good job. 19:00I've been trying to find out, I think it is neat to hear stories about what you did with your friends and things. Like you were telling me about that little thing with Ruby. What were some things that you all got into, or things, silly things that you remember that you did from your time there? Or maybe pranks you played on each other, things like that. Or that you heard about anything.

COMBS: Well, I can't remember any pranks much. As far as our recreation a lot of times, a couple of the girls played guitar. And we'd sit out a lot and sing. That was part of our recreation. Seems like 20:00we didn't have that much free time.

C.M.: No, you didn't.

COMBS: The time we worked, and then on Saturday we had to work, you know, I guess until two o'clock, as best as I remember. And some of us, you know, when I was oh, about eleven or twelve, when I first went over there. I worked at Hillside. I had to scrub those steps. Take a brush about that big and a pail of water and put stuff in it and scrub it. I never had to work that much at home, you know. I scrubbed those steps and I thought, what a good job I had done and everything. And then this girl came in that was over us, and it didn't suit her. I had to do it over. [Laughing] 21:00I guess the time we worked and we studied and got together. Oooh, our baths. Has anyone talked about our baths?

C.M.: No COMBS: Well, as best I remember we just took about one tub bath a week. [Laughing] And we would have to sign up, put our name, so we could have this. Then at the Orchard House. There was a lot of us at Orchard House. Rooms all up, I don't remember. And I lived with, roomed with Frankie Smith. Have you heard your Dad talk about Lionel and Frankie?

C.M.: Yeah. I've been trying to get a hold of her. I want to go try and talk to her.

COMBS: Yeah. She's there in Lexington. 22:00C.M.: Yeah.

COMBS: Well, Frankie and I roomed together. There were four in some rooms. Frankie and I were in one room. We had some boyfriends. Like if we went to a ball game, they were allowed to walk us home. [Laughing] I doubt we held hands. I think we just walked along. I don't remember the recreation part of it. Seems to me that we either working or studying.

C.M.: You probably were.

COMBS: And then of course, I've always like music. We would get together and sing and harmonize and do that type of thing. And read 23:00then, I guess was our big ... So that was the main things. We didn't have anything like games or anything like that to play. No cards, no card games.

C.M.: It was probably like you said, you probably didn't have a whole lot of time to do ..

COMBS: No we didn't.

C.M.: But you said you did go to basketball games. Was that a big deal?

COMBS: Yeah, that was a big deal. Because we didn't have many programs, any kind of entertainment. So, we were allowed to go to the basketball games. I don't remember any, you know like now, they have so many programs in high school. But I don't remember that we had any programs, other than basketball, entertainment.

C.M.: Now did you ever have Mr. Still as a teacher? Or was he around?

COMBS: He was there, but he was the librarian. 24:00C.M.: He was the librarian.

COMBS: When I was there. I didn't have him as a teacher. I had, have you heard of Mr. Potter, who was there as the principal once?

C.M.: I've heard that name just a few times, but not much about him.

COMBS: I think he was principal a year. And so he taught biology. And I've always been scared of bugs. I just oooh. I just have a phobia about bugs. I think somebody put one down my back or something. [Laughing] C.M.: I don't really like them either.

COMBS: So, we had, we were supposed to dissect this grasshopper. And I just couldn't. I just could not. I don't remember, I thought he was going to fail me. But I didn't get a "C". 25:00I reckon I got a "B'' finally. But I just...

C.M.: You couldn't do it.

COMBS: Yeah, I couldn't do it. I don't know how I got by with it. He found out that I had this phobia, I reckon. Of course, Prof. Smith was there as the principal.

C.M.: What was he like?

COMBS: Most of the time he was.... we were all afraid of him. He'd go through the hall and "Sniff, Sniff', sniff a time or two and we'd all run to our hiding places. [Laughing] He was the kind of principal though, that schools need now. Because he was so, we were afraid of him. But Mr. Potter was principal some. I tell you it's funny how ...that I've forgotten. 26:00I remember my earlier teachers. I can't remember the later ones. As I recall, I think if you have a bad teacher, you remember them.

C.M.: You're probably right, yeah. And plus when you are younger, you have one teacher, the whole year.

COMBS: Yeah. C.M.: Then you get to high school and you switch around, it makes it harder that way.

COMBS: Yeah, I remember I had a Mr. Loudenslager in Math. And he was good. Mrs. Loudenslager taught something. I don't remember what, but I didn't have her. And I had Eda Kay Smith, who died a few years ago. I think one of my English teachers I liked was a Miss Carter from a New England state somewhere. She was a good English teacher. But all in all, I think I had good teachers, most 27:00all of them were.

C.M.: I guess thinking back on it now, how important was the settlement school to you? Education wise, and because you lived there and worked there and everything.

COMBS: It was very important. I have often thought, you know, I went on and went to Berea. Had I not gone to the settlement school, I probably would not have gone to Berea. I wouldn't have known to ... .l didn't think about Alice Lloyd College or anything. I got in at Berea and we didn't have much money, but I did have enough to go. I got enough to go to Berea. And we had to work there, too. 28:00I think it has changed, it has impacted my life, because as I said, if I had not gone to the settlement school, I would not have gone to Berea. I would have been out there, which would have changed my life.

C.M.: How do you feel about the other things you learned there? Were there other things you learned from living on campus and being away from home at that age? I mean other than going to school. Do you think there was other things you learned from that experience?

COMBS: Well, yes. I can't remember right off any specific things.

C.M.: Right. Yeah.

COMBS: I think getting along with people. 29:00Living with other people and seeing other people's views or listening to their views. I think it enables, if you live, it's like sort of a sorority, you know, if you live ... You make friends from different parts .... that was mainly, different parts, well there was several counties around here. In my work, I didn't learn anything in particular, as far as the labor part of it, that would help me any. I'm thankful for what I had. 30:00BEGINNING TAPE 20 A41, DALE SMITH COMBS, SIDE B COMBS: So, a few things come back in my mind as I start talking. But when you first, your brother called and I thought, well I don't know a thing in the world.

C.M.: Well, see, you've done quite well, I think.

COMBS: Don't tell him, did I?

C.M.: It helps half the time if somebody asks you a question.

COMBS: It does, then you can think of things. Just having to sit here and think.

C.M.: No, that's hard to do.

COMBS: It's hard to do.

C.M.: Nobody can do that, I don't think. I know I couldn't.

COMBS: And I'm not, you know some people just have such good memories that they can just remember details. Well, I can't remember details much at all. I can remember a little incident here. But I actually remember, I believe, more there, than almost at Berea. Then I went on to Berea 31:00and my first years at Berea, seems like a dream almost. [Laughing] C.M.: Did you graduate from Berea?

COMBS: Yes. Then I went on to U.K., and got my master's at U.K..

C.M.: Now, what did you get your master's in?

COMBS: English.

C.M.: English?

COMBS: Uh run. I taught English about thirty-six years, thirty-five. And I loved it then. I've always loved English. Susan did not like English at all. I mean to teach it. She had to, about her first year of teaching, she had to teach English. 32:00END OF INTERVIEW