Oral History Interview with Hilda Farris

A. Taylor: Please tell us your full name, including your maiden name.

H. Farris: Ok, I’m Hilda Rothwell Farris, Rothwell 1:00is my maiden name.

J. Blythe: And is that spelled ROTHWELL?

H. Farris: Right. right A. Taylor: So, when, and where were you born in Garrard County?

H. Farris: Ah, a little place called Flatwoods. It’s a little settlement between Lancaster and Paint Lick basically. It’s about eight miles either way; eight miles from Paint Lick and eight miles from Lancaster. We’re in between there.

A. Taylor: And what’s your birthdate?

H. Farris: July 13, 1931. And tomorrow I have a birthday!

J. Blythe: Oh, happy birthday; happy early birthday!

H. Farris: Yeah. My kids had me a little birthday celebration before they left Sunday.

J. Blythe: Very nice, that’s good A. Taylor: Will you tell us about your family, for example your parents, grandparents, and your brothers and sisters? 2:00H. Farris: Uh, I had six sisters, five brothers. And uh, we were a big happy family. We never needed any company to stay overnight because we always played with each other. And you know with so many in the family, too, it was just, uh, we got along pretty good. Pretty good I’d say. But we had our squabbles like sisters and brothers do, but it was fun you know having that many around. And ah, as I say, we never needed to spend the night with anyone or anyone to come over, with uh (she coughs). Because you know it was eleven (11) in the family. It was about, when I big enough to remember, sisters and brothers and stuff like that it was about there were about nine in the family because some of them moved, they moved away and lived other places for a while, 3:00going to work for other people and staying on the place where they worked. So even though there were eleven children, they all wasn’t all at home all of the time.

J. Blythe: Who were your parents and your grandparents?

H. Farris: My mother was Margaret Schooler Rothwell, and my father was Thomas Rothwell. And you know, I would say, one of those people who never experienced grandparents; they were all dead before I was big enough to know anything 4:00about grandparents. There was one, my mother’s father. I remember going there once years ago, but he didn’t last long. We never went to his house and played, you know to do things with a grandfather like other kids do. We never had that. We only had Mama and Daddy, no grandparents, we didn’t get spoiled and have all the goodies that come with having grandparents.

S. Roberts: Mrs. Farris, can you please tell us about your childhood. What was it was like growing for you?

H. Farris: It was great; it was a lot of hard work. But with so many of us we shared a lot of the things around the house we had to do. But as kids we played games. But there was 5:00a family that lived just right up the road a little piece. It was a family that had uh seven children; it was the Gillespie family. And, you know, we played with them. They came to our house, and we went there. We played the normal games like other kids do. But one thing I remember playing, I guess we were about six or seven years old. We used to play “going to church.” I don’t know if you all remember that or not.

J. Blythe: I did.

H. Farris: We’d always choose someone to be the preacher and we all sang songs, and we just had a good time. He’d preach, he’d have his Bible, and he’d be standing up behind a cardboard box or bucket or whatever. He’d be preaching. Oh, we’d just shout and make a lot of noise (she chuckles). It was fun; it was fun. 6:00Then we had other games; we played ball, we’d play hide-and-seek, just the normal games that kids play, you know. We didn’t have a lot of bought toys or things like that. We just used what we had. And that was fun. And we’d even cook, go to the garden, and get corn, peel it off, and put it in a large coffee can. (she coughed and acknowledged that she has allergies and that she coughs a lot). But we’d make fires, boil corn, and we had chickens on the farm, and we would go to the chicken house and get eggs, and we’d boil eggs. 7:00A lot of fun. This time of year, when blackberries was in season, our mom would take us picking blackberries. And she was the kind of person if you took five or six cans with you to pick blackberries in, you had to get them all full before you came back. You could not bring any empty buckets back to the house.

J. Blythe: What time did you go to pick those blackberries?

H. Farris: Early of mornings, before the sun come up, while it was cool. And We did that because everybody (she coughs—“excuse me”) but my Mama was afraid of snakes. She would take a stick with her and whenever we’d see a snake, we’d holler and she would come and kill the snack, you know. But we couldn’t leave; 8:00we couldn’t go home. She’d kill the snake and we had to keep on picking. We all filled them buckets before we left.

S. Roberts: Do you have any special memories like Christmas, Easter, any special things that you did at those times?

H. Farris: Yeah, we did things like that at home and then we did it at church too. We had an Easter egg hunt at church. Everybody had to have new clothes on Easter, so, uh we had something, it may not have been a full outfit, but new shoes or something. It was fun. At Christmas, uh, we had, it was so many in the family and at that time some of my sisters were married and living at home on their own and they would take turns about, maybe one sister would have the dinner in the holiday, and another sister would 9:00do it for Thanksgiving. They would switch it around, do it like that. And everybody would come, and everybody would bring something. We all put it all out on the table and everybody would have fun eating and cooking. They baked a lot of goodies. It was fun. We played a lot of bingo during times like that. We would give out prizes; never any money or anything like that.

J. Blythe: What kind of prizes?

H. Farris: Well, you’d be surprised (she chuckles), maybe a cake of soap or something like that for the house, or a pair of socks, something you know inexpensive 10:00thing you would buy, or something that you could pick up at the store. Maybe some candy, a bar candy, package of chewing gum, something small like that, just for a prize.

S. Roberts: Could you tell us about your life during segregation and then later on during integration?

H. Farris: Well, we didn’t, uh, where we lived, we didn’t have too much bad that I can remember because in the neighbor where I lived , blacks and whites always played together and got along together. That was no issue for us, you know. We kind of grew up together and did things together, and it never was a problem. Uh, the Flatwoods elementary school was for all blacks, and they had their school for all whites and that was fine with me. But, as I say, it never was a problem there in Flatwoods anyway. 11:00S. Roberts: Uh can you remember anything about integration specifically anytime when you went to school, maybe high school or anything?

H. Farris: Well, we knew about or heard about things going on other places, but we never had any problem with it. I was never bothered Even when I went to high school, I can’t remember anything.

J. Blythe: When you left Garrard County, when you actually moved away as an adult, when was that?

H. Farris: As an adult, uh, it was in 1950 after I graduated from eight, ninth, uh, twelfth grade. By that time, I left the elementary school in Flatwoods when I graduated from the eighth grade 12:00and went to Mason High in Lancaster. And it was an all-black school, and you know, I didn’t have any problems. It could have been, but I just didn’t know about it.

S. Roberts: So, you said you left in 1950, did you graduate?

H. Farris: Yes, I graduated and got a job in Danville I guess about four or five months later. I was a nanny to a family that had a big farm, uh, between Danville and Lancaster.

S. Roberts: You said that you went to Flatwoods Elementary School, what can you remember about that school?

H. Farris: Can I remember anything about it? It 13:00was the only school we had in Flatwoods. Everybody went there; it was a one-room school building and we all walked to school. We didn’t have bus service. We walked about a mile I’d say, but there were others that lived further away. It was fun, you know, when school was out everybody leaving at the same time; we’d all be on the same path going home. There were fights and stuff like kids do now, you know, but it was worked out. Nobody got expelled; everybody had to go to school no matter what. We had, uh, a school nurse that would come to school 14:00and give shots and I had two sisters that always managed to slip and go home when the nurse came around. But they forgot that when we were not at school or if we took off, that nurse would come to your home and get you anyway.

J. Blythe: You gotta take them shots!

H. Farris: Yes, you gotta have those shots. The fun things, every now and then we would have chili suppers at the school. We had this big warm-morning stove or whatever you want to call it. It [the school room] was heated with coal and wood and the teacher would make chili or she’d make vegetable soup. And every now and then, I’ll say, about every three months, she’d make a big pot of chili and you know that was something different from what we had at home. We’d always have home-cooked meals, but Mama never made too much soup or chili anything like that. She had the full-course meal, because with a lot of kids, it took a lot to fill us up. So, 15:00it was a lot of fun knowing that we didn’t have to carry lunch to school on those days. Every now and then we would have a dinner at school. It was uh, well we had games at school, we had football, some of the boys at school played football, baseball; we never had basketball I don’t think , but they always played baseball or football.

A. Taylor: Did you play sports?

H. Farris: We were cheerleaders. We would cheer, you know.

J. Blythe: You were a cheerleader?

H. Farris: Yes, we were cheerleaders; they had to have a cheerleader.

S. Roberts: Do you remember 16:00your teacher?

H. Farris: Oh yes, I had a bunch of them wrote down here. My first teacher was Mr. Joseph Williams; I think he was the brother, you know to the blind Williams in Lancaster, Walter ?? (she could not recall his full name).

J. Blythe: His brother was Mr. Walter Williams.

H. Farris: Yes, I think it was his brother. He was my first teacher. And uh, when they got spankings in school, he’d use a ruler and hit ‘em on the hand or a wide strap and he would tap them on the butt, you know. And something that wouldn’t make any marks or bring any blood or anything like that. But you know when the kids got a spanking, they would scream and holler like they were being killed. That always scared me, so I was always good. I didn’t want to get that. Then a lot of time for punishment, when we was bad, we would have to stand in the corner, stand with our nose against the wall or whatever 17:00for about two or three minutes or five minutes. But I never did that either. Some of ‘em had to wash blackboards or dust the erasers, you know.

J. Blythe: In addition to Mr. Williams, what other teachers can you recall?

H. Farris: Mr. Williams. There was a Mr. Adams from Stanford, he was a brother to an undertaker over there. I think then, there was a Mrs. Anna Black, a Mrs. Burdette, I can’t remember her first name, J. Blythe: (interjection by J. Blythe:) Margaret, 18:00she was married to Mr. Herbert Burdette).

H. Farris: Yes. Uh my last one was Amy Gillespie. I know you [J. Blythe:] know her [Amy Gillespie].

J. Blythe: Yes ma’am.

H. Farris: She was my last teacher, I think, or Mrs. Burdette might have been my last teacher, I can’t remember; it’s been so long ago. But, uh, we all learned from them. . . .And another thing I remember in school, you know. We opened up our school most of the time with devotions. It’s where I learned several things from the Bible, like the Lord’s Prayer, I learned First Psalms 19:00when I was in school. We sang, had prayer. It was a good beginning, you know that carried on for the rest of our lives, mine anyway, being able to know the Lord’s Prayer, to recite it, to sing songs.

S. Roberts: So, you’re saying that church and school was closely related in Flatwoods?

H. Farris: I’d say so, because at that time, there was no restriction of not being able to pray or anything like in church. If it was, we’d probably do it anyway.

J. Blythe: Could you tell us a little bit about what a one-school was like, in terms of teaching ; one teacher taught all different grades?

H. Farris: There were times I’m sure 20:00when it was hard, hard for the teacher and hard for us, you know, to sit and listen while she taught another class on the other side of the building or other side of the room. There were times when there were distractions, you know, but we had to be quiet, not be disruptive, you know for the other class. But if something would happen while she was teaching the other kids, we’d laugh out and it would get us in trouble. I remember one time, ah, she was trying to get this boy to know what an “I” was, in the word, how to spell a word. “You know 21:00you missed a word; you got it all, but you left out a letter.” She was trying hard to get him to remember. She said “ George, what is this ?” Because the letter was an “I” that she was trying hard (the teacher pointed to her own eye). He looked at her. She said, “that letter you could not remember.” She pointed to her eye. What is this?” He looked at her and said, “me don’t know what that shang is.” Everybody just busted out laughing; it was so funny the way he said it. But those were the days, those were the days. We, uh, 22:00I’m trying to see if there were other things that I jotted down that I haven’t talked to you about. (she had made notes for our interview). Oh, in that one-room we always, there was the room that we hung our coats in and there were shelves where everybody would bring their own lunch and put it on those shelves. There were times when some of the lunches came up missing or somebody would sneak in there and . . .

J. Blythe: and eat someone else’s lunch?

H. Farris: Yeah.

S. Roberts: Was the restroom outside?

H. Farris: Huh?

S. Roberts: Was the restroom outside? Did you have indoor plumbing, out-door?

H. Farris: No, it was out; we had out-houses. One for the girls and one for the boys. And, uh, it was, so many of us, lots of time, we had a sign on the door, that when anybody would go to the bathroom, 23:00they had to turn the sign “in” or “out”. And so, there were sometimes, when someone would go out and they never came back in. So, the teacher would say, the sign is “out”, who is out there? She would look around to check the seats to see who was absent that day. There were lots of times my sisters’ names would be missing. They would take off if something was coming up, they didn’t want to do or if it was something they had planned to sneak out of school and do, they would turn it “out” and they would never come back until the next morning. But when they come home, Mama would always be ready for them. She’d want to know “what are you doing out before the rest of ‘em?” They’d always give her some kind of tale, but she finally caught on ‘em. I had two sisters that was always 24:00doing tricks like that. And out of the eleven kids, I’m the only one that graduated from the twelfth grade. But I had made up my mind, you know, after some of the others got so far, I had another sister went to the 11th grade, and, uh she quit school, got a job, went to work. That’s what happened to uh two other sisters of mine that did that. They got so far in school, 11th grade, or some got to the 10th grade, and they quit, got a job. Because you know, with 25:009 or 11 kids in the family [two of the children stayed where they worked], it took a lot to feed, it took a lot to clothe, and uh some of my sisters felt that it was hard on Mom and Dad trying to do it all, so they wanted to quit and go to work, so that’s what they did.

J. Blythe: What kind of work, what kind of jobs did they find?

H. Farris: Ah, like in home, domestic work. Well, there was a time when you know, we all worked in the field and got paid for it; but it was very small sal--, hourly pay, but doing that time, you girls probably don’t remember, uh you could take a dollar, and buy a lot for a dollar, you can’t now. But, you know, we remember, there was a little store, 26:00uh, Roysten’s store, do you remember them? (Question directed to J. Blythe:) J. Blythe: Mrs. Thompson has told me about that store.

H. Farris: Really?

J. Blythe: Where was it located?

H. Farris: Uh, well , it was kind of in the ah, around, I don’t want to say the center of the area, it’s kindly close related to the Good Hope Church, which is uh it’s kind of like in the center of the area; people lived on each side or end of town of it [the church].

J. Blythe: Was it near where the church [ reference here is to the African American Church, Flatwoods Baptist] is now? Was it kind of close to that church?

H. Farris: Not our church, but close to another church (clarification by J. Blythe: where the Good Hope Baptist Church now stands—a predominantly white church).

J. Blythe: So, what kinds of things did you buy there?

H. Farris: Oh, everything, but most of the stuff was loose. Do you know what I mean when I say “loose?” I mean it [food] wasn’t packaged in a--the way it is today, like flour in a bag. 27:00Uh sugar, they bought it by big quantities, or barrels. The store people bought like it in barrels. And they would sell it by the pounds or just whatever, like rolls of bologna. You could go up there and get a lunch for about twenty-five cents because you would get a slice of bologna and then they would put it on crackers for you. It was good bologna; it wasn’t like this bologna you [are] getting now. It was really good. And you could buy a quarter’s worth of sugar, a quarter’s worth of meal, flour, whatever you wanted. 28:00You know in the store [now], you have to buy it if it’s already in a package, you got to buy that whole thing. But we could buy a quarter’s worth of this, fifty-cents worth of that, because it was bought by them [store owners] in a big container where all they did was to dip in a cup; they had it all figured out, you know, but you’d get a cup of flour for a dime or 15 cents, whatever the prices were then, which was good for the people there because they didn’t make a lot of money; what you needed. They would cut it off for you. So, people with big families now-a-days, they couldn’t live on what we did back then because 29:00they would have to have a 5 # bag of sugar or a 5# bag of flour, where we could get it, what we needed for about 25 or 30 cents. And I can remember this is one of the things during segregation, no, it was the Depression, when people used to buy , the government would issue trading stamps in order to. . ., now, Janice you probably don’t even know about that (she directed that comment to J. Blythe:).

J. Blythe: I’ve heard a little bit about it [trading stamps during the Depression], but not a lot. Can you tell us a little bit about those trading stamps?

H. Farris: They would issue a family, according to its size, they would issue stamps and you could buy like a pair of shoes. I don’t know really a lot about it, but I know a little bit. And uh, they issued a book of stamps where you could buy shoes, so many 30:00stamps; those stamps didn’t pay for ‘em, but you couldn’t buy no more than the stamps you had . And uh the same way with food, you know. You’d buy just what you needed. But you know with so many of us in the family, we didn’t hardly get new shoes. So, there were the Marsees, that lived in Lancaster. They had a lot of money, so what they would do is, they would allow us to give them the stamps that we would have gotten, that we 31:00would have used to buy shoes, they would let us trade it and maybe get food instead of shoes. Trade-off. And back then, nobody had cars. There was this man, his name was Jim Hunt, and he had a wagon pulled by two mules. We would pay him a quarter to ride on that wagon to Lancaster, which is the next town you know. And uh, it was funny, it was probably hilarious to see somebody coming to Lancaster now, with a wagon full of people coming to shop. But you know that was the only way we had to head to Lancaster. Later on in life, there was a few people fortunate enough to have a car, but a lot of people had to go to town to shop, that’s the way we went, on a wagon. 32:00J. Blythe: Mrs. Farris, could we talk a little bit about church? That would allow Allyse to ask some questions about that. You have given Stacey a lot of good information about education, so let’s talk a little bit about church.

A. Taylor: I know you mentioned a little bit earlier about having devotions, so what was your involvement in church? What was the place of religion?

H. Farris: Well, we were all Baptists out there. We went to Sunday School. It was something that we did every Sunday morning. There were kids that, their parents didn’t take them, but they always saw to it to that went to Sunday School with somebody. And as I say, we walked, 33:00we walked everywhere we went. And Sunday School, uh, we had teachers at Sunday school, or the pastor would teach. We went every Sunday morning, and uh, then we had our regular service at 11 o’clock. Then at six o’clock, we went back to school, we had BYPU, it was training for young people to get involved in church service.

A. Taylor: Did that stand for something, BYPU?

H. Farris: Ah, Baptist Unity Training Union, Baptist Youth Training Union. I think that’s the way it is. We went back 34:00for an hour, hour, and a half every Sunday night. We had plays different things like that in church, especially during Christmas. And there was something, uh, we had church socials, stuff like that. And then, I can’t remember, but it’s something like we do now with the New Liberty Sunday School Convention. I can remember going to something like that where they would, ah, 35:00the church would send ‘em as delegates to that, but I can’t remember just what, if it was the same thing that we are doing now the New Liberty Sunday School Convention, or if it was something else. I can’t remember. But it’s something to that.

J. Blythe: Where several churches came to a meeting like for a week? They would call it some kind of a district. So, if it wasn’t New Liberty, it would be whatever existed before that.

H. Farris: But I can’t remember. Y’all can’t pull that out of my mind. I don’t remember. I must have been kind of young.

A. Taylor: You said church socials, so what would take place at these church socials?

H. Farris: Well, the young women 36:00would make ice cream, sherbet, make cakes, pies, stuff like that and they would sell it to people that came and the money was raised/used for the functions and materials and stuff of the church.

A. Taylor: Do you recall any families at these socials? Common families at the church? Family names?

H. Farris: Yeah, just about all of them. Just about I’ll say. Uh, we had a Pastor, he was Rev. Smith, 37:00can’t think of his first name. We had a pastor named Rev. Smith, then we had a Rev. Baughman, pastor of our church at that time; Rev. Mills, I can remember he was next to our last pastor because he was the pastor for so long, about 41 years. We had a Rev. Hunt; and now we have a Rev. Roberts. Each one of them, you know, they provided spiritual guidance for all the people there, teaching Sunday School and Bible Study, and having prayer services on Wednesday nights.

J. Blythe: Mrs. Farris, what is the official name of the church? Is it Flatwoods Baptist?

H. Farris: Flatwood Baptist. 38:00We are a Missionary Baptist church, but we don’t say Flatwood Missionary, you know. But it’s just Flatwood Baptist Church.

J. Blythe: You mentioned some of the ministers, some of the pastors of the church, what were some of the names of other families actually in the church?

H. Farris: Okay. We had some Roystons, Burnside, Overstreet, uh, Dennys, Leavells, Rothwells, Gillespies. 39:00Did I mention Burnside? (she is reviewing her notes) A. Taylor: Yes Ma’am.

H. Farris: Whites. There were about two or three families of Whites , same thing with Burnsides, Leavells, maybe two or three families that had those names.

J. Blythe: Were there any Hunts?

H. Farris: Hunts, yeah.

J. Blythe: Nice list. 40:00H. Farris: I don’t know if there were any Walkers or not (she was referring to her notes).. . .

A. Taylor: So, your parents they took you to church when you were growing up?

H. Farris: They either took us or we went on our own. But that [church attendance] was a must. 41:00As teenagers growing up, if we went out to any social activities on Saturday night, we had to go to church Sunday morning, no laying in bed.

A. Taylor: So, we talked about church activities. Do you remember any community activities in Flatwoods, growing up as a child that happened regularly? What comes to mind about community gatherings?

H. Farris: Community. We had like uh, reunions, but it was--and we had rallies, rally day, we have it on the first Sunday in August for years. And , you know, it’s just a known fact that the first 42:00Sunday in August is rally day at the church. It’s when everybody that’s ever lived there came back home for that. But, you know, like sports and things, a lot of men and boys would get together on Sunday afternoons and have ball games.

J. Blythe: Did you have special events for . . . Labor Day or the Fourth of July?

H. Farris: No, what would happen on the fourth of July, everybody would save their money and there was a school bus driver that always loaded up, but you had to pay for the trip. And he took a busload of people to Lexington 43:00to a park over there. What was the name of that park over there?

J. Blythe: Douglass Park H. Farris: Douglass Park J. Blythe: Named for Frederick Douglass, it’s on the west end of Lexington. And that was one of the parks that had a swimming pool, a nice baseball diamond. As a kid, we went there.

H. Farris: You did. Yes, we’d save our money to catch that bus and go there. That was fun, I enjoyed that, just to get out of Flatwoods for a while, you know, just to do something different.

S. Roberts: What kind of stuff did you do at the park?

H. Farris: Everybody would go to the swimming pool; it was one of the main things. We would meet new people. We’d flirt with any guys we saw. There were restaurants there. 44:00J. Blythe: Sounds like a nice trip.

S. Roberts: You saved your money. How did you save your money, did you earn a daily allowance?

H. Farris: Well like I said, uh, Mama took us blackberry [picking]. There was always a company that contacted us to pick blackberries for them. And we’d pick like, ah, three or four days of blackberries and sold them like on the fourth day. But this was a wine company that was going to make. . ., so it didn’t matter if the blackberries soured or whatever, because they were going to use it for wine anyway. So, we would pick and pick and pick, 45:00and when we sold them, then our mom would divide the money with us and we saved it for that [ the trip to Douglass Park] and normally in late June and in July, it’s when the blackberries were ripe.

S. Roberts: We were talking about community earlier. Do you remember anything about Lowell, Point Leavell, Spaineytown, or Hackley communities?

H. Farris: There were some people, uh, there were Bufords who lived at Point Leavell that I went to school with. Uh, 46:00but they went to school there at Flatwood and graduated from the eighth grade, then they went to Lancaster. I don’t know anything other than the people that came from there and went to school with us. That was the closest school, I guess.

J. Blythe: There was another name that I recall from listening to other tapes, interviews, someone mentioned that there was a school by the name of John’s Bottoms, do you remember anything about that? I’m not exactly sure, but we were just kind of curious, if the name Spaineytown or Hackley, any of those names do you recall?

H. Farris: No, sure don’t. 47:00There was Lowell. You’ve heard of Lowell I’m sure [question directed to J Blythe]? That was an area near Paint Lick. The Mitchells lived there, like Nora Mitchell and her family. They all attended the church down there at Paint Lick.

J. Blythe: Now was that Paint Lick Baptist Church? [ there is an African American Baptist Church at Paint Lick by this name].

H. Farris: Yes, now, my father was a deacon in that church at Paint Lick. The rest of us went to Flatwoods. My father went to Paint Lick because that was the church he grew up there; so, he remained there.

J. Blythe: And he was a deacon there?

H. Farris: Yes, and he’d walk to church 48:00most of the time unless somebody that had a car would see him walking and pick him up. That’s the way he went to church. He’d come to our church ah, you know, when he couldn’t go to his church. He would always come to our church. He was a deacon.

A. Taylor: Did you ever go to the Paint Lick Baptist Church with your father?

H. Farris: Um hum.

A. Taylor: Could you describe what the service was like there at the Paint Lick Baptist Church?

H. Farris: Huh?

A. Taylor: Could you describe what the service was like at the Paint Lick Baptist Church?

H. Farris: Well, it was about like ours. They had the same type of service, but I don’t really know about other activities that took place there, other than the church service. 49:00A. Taylor: Were any members of your family involved in the military?

H. Farris: Um hum. Three older brothers were in the Army.

A. Taylor: Do you recall where and when they served?

H. Farris: I had one, two, I guess, that went overseas in France, and one was in Korea, I think. There was one that, I think, just served in the United States. He didn’t go over. They all married, you know, while they were in the Army. All three 50:00of them did.

A. Taylor: Did they serve for a while with the Army?

H. Farris: Over two years.

S. Roberts: Did they serve during WWII?

H. Farris: Uh, one of them did, I think, my oldest brother.

S. Roberts: You mentioned before that some of your family members were in the military. We’re just interested in knowing what other kinds of jobs did you family members have?

H. Farris: Say that again, the whole thing. 51:00S. Roberts: Could you just tell me what kind of work your family did? Like Farmers?

H. Farris: Yeah, some worked at tobacco factories, farmers.

J. Blythe: You mentioned that you were a nanny.

H. Farris: I was a nanny, yeah, for about six years.

J. Blythe: Was this right after graduation from high school?

H. Farris: Yes, after high school.

J. Blythe: When did you get married?

H. Farris: I knew you were going to ask that! I was just sitting here thinking, did I get married in ’57 or ’55? {1957 or 1955}. 52:00J. Blythe: Well, I know you’ve been married over 50 years.

H. Farris: Yes, I have been married almost 54 years. I got married in ’57 I think or else it was ’55.

J. Blythe: Where did you all live over the years? I know you have lived places other than Madison County.

H. Farris: We lived in Paris, KY. When we left Berea, we moved to Paris, KY. Then, when we left Paris, we moved to Indianapolis, IN. 53:00Then from Indianapolis, IN, we came back home, back to Berea.

J. Blythe: Could you give us the complete name of your husband? Is it Rev. Kenneth Farris?

H. Farris: Right, Kenneth B. Farris.

J. Blythe:He’s a native of Farristown, right? In Madison County.

H. Farris: But, though, he has lived, I think, in his younger years in Peytontown, but that’s in Madison County.

J. Blythe: I remember him talking about some of the different work that he did growing up, even as he became an adult. Could you talk a little bit about that? 54:00H. Farris: Yeah, when we left Berea, what were we doing? When we moved to Paris, we lived on a farm, and we did farm work; we lived in a tenant house there on a farm. We were there about three years, I think. Then when we left from there, uh, did we come back to Berea, or did we go to Indianapolis? I think we came back to Berea. Then from Berea, we went to Indianapolis. But 55:00here in Berea, he farmed, and then he worked for a filling station. Then when we left Berea and went to Indianapolis, he worked for a dental company in Indianapolis; and for a second job, he worked for a filling station again. He went to a Mechanic School while he was in Indianapolis. And then when we left Indianapolis, his parent, his dad was sick, and needed him on the farm, so we came back here.

J. Blythe: I believe that he has done some work with horses, trained horses, and broke horses?

H. Farris: Yes, he worked 56:00for the Bluegrass Ordinance over there, that’s when he was a Police Guard at the Bluegrass Army Depot, and he’s uh, trained horses, as part of farm work, I guess.

A. Taylor: May I ask what are some of the things that your family considered of value?

H. Farris: That we considered of value? I don’t really understand (the question).

A. Taylor: It could be, some people consider 57:00property a value, a certain Bible, something else handed down from a relative. Just anything that you really value in your family.

H. Farris: Well, he [her husband, Rev. Farris] has inherited property from his parents. Just being able to live independently, you know, working, and uh, being able to take care of ourselves and our family, being able to enjoy the freedom of going to church, living our own lives, 58:00to raise our children, to educate them, and teaching them respect and how to treat people has really been, I guess you could say, a value. You know children these days, don’t have too much respect for others. That’s one of the things that we have always stressed in our family is that our children respect older people anyway, you know. We’ve taught them manners and we’ve had feedback from other people about how polite my children speak to others and that means so much to us to know that we raised them well so that other people can see a difference in ‘em, you know.

J. Blythe: How many children do you all have? 59:00H. Farris: We just have the two children. I’ve had three, but I have a daughter that died uh, almost four years ago. But I’ve had five pregnancies, but I miscarried a child that was, I carried for seven months and then lost.

J. Blythe: The daughter who passed away about four years ago worked on our campus at the Child Dev Laboratory. She worked with young children and really did a beautiful job.

H. Farris: Yes, I’m real proud of her.

J. Blythe: What was her complete name?

H. Farris: Hers? She was named Mary Margaret; she was named after both her grandmothers.

H. Farris: Beautiful daughter. When I say beautiful, I don’t mean in looks, but she was a daughter, a friend; she could be a mother to me. 60:00She could be really good to me.

J. Blythe: She was really beautiful with the children, they loved her {at the CDL—Blythe} They really did.

H. Farris: Yes.

J. Blythe: Do you have grandchildren?

H. Farris: I’ve got one that’s blood relative. I’ve got four others , like uh by marriage, you know step-grandchildren I guess you would call them. I‘ve got a grandson that’s 17 years old. They all live in Louisville. Doreen, I don’t know what you ever remember Doreen or not? (Question directed to J. Blythe:) J. Blythe: No ma’am I don’t.

H. Farris: My daughter adopted two kids, Doreen, and Eric; 61:00she never had any [children]. So, she adopted some children. Doreen is a kind of a handicapped child. She had a love in helping handicapped children, you know, anybody less fortunate, needed help. So, I am now the grandparent taking care of that child.

J. Blythe: You mentioned taking the kinds of good strong values that your parents instilled and that you and Rev. Farris have been able to educate your children, where did they attend school (your children) and did they go on to college? 62:00H. Farris: Ah, they attended here in Berea at Berea Community, Southern, and then Central. They went to those schools, and all graduated from those schools. And I had two, they all three went to college, but they didn’t finish. They didn’t finish.

J. Blythe: Now I know you’ve done some really interesting things in your time in Madison County. You were associated with Head Start. Can you talk a little bit about your work here and the kinds of things you’re still doing related to you church in Madison County and Barbourville?

H. Farris: Uh, I worked for, 63:00they called us Social Service Aids. We didn’t have the training of a social worker, like where you would go to school for that, but we had trainings. During the time when Head Start was first set up, they hired mothers that had children, you know, mothers that had the experience of raising children. And ah, they were hired as social service aids. Every county had one. I was hired for here in Berea and we had two centers that I worked out of, in Berea and one in Richmond. We did basically what the regular 64:00trained social service would do. We made home visits, and we saw the needs of the family and tried to do everything we could do to correct the needs and get them where that child about 4 or 5 years old, would attend Head Start and get a good beginning in school. And be sure that it had the things needed to go and provided transportation and that for it to get to school.

J. Blythe: How long did you work with Head Start?

H. Farris: About twelve years. And there were children that were really in need of the program. Because we provided dental work, glasses. 65:00One little child had an artificial eye (we called it something else, but I can’t remember), but anyhow, that wouldn’t have gotten it if it had not been for Head Start. So, it makes you have a good feeling when ah, you see that you have helped somebody. It’s real rewarding. And then another thing that we’ve done, we have kept in our home, it’s kind of like a part-time job, but it wasn’t a permanent job. We’ve helped some people in a crisis situation where they needed a home for about 3 or 4 weeks, until they could find a permanent home for ‘em. We’ve, uh the Bluegrass Mental, uh, (my mind’s not working), Bluegrass Mental Health, I guess, out of Lexington. We’ve had ah, 66:00some people that’s worked for CAP here, not CAP, but the Marc Center in Berea and Richmond. The social workers would refer them to us and uh, we would keep adult handicapped people in cases like that, that needed to have a home until they could find a permanent place for them. So, we’ve kept several to the point, that when they had to leave, they didn’t want to leave.

J. Blythe: Like family members!

H. Farris: Yes, you get attached to ‘em, too.

J. Blythe: What are some of the hobbies and things that you do now, have done over the years, because 67:00you are very closely related to people, so do you have any particular things that you enjoy doing as a hobby?

H. Farris: Well, I love fishing. I don’t get to do too much, uh, things, that, you know, because of health reasons, you know, it’s just, I’m helping family members, you know—babysitting, transporting to doctor’s offices, stuff like that. It’s not 68:00a hobby, but it’s a need.

J. Blythe: So, it seems like you do help people a lot.

H. Farris: Yeah, quite a lot. I have a poem that’s in on the wall that I love to refer. It’s one of my special things. I can’t remember all the words, but it says, “Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man.” I want to live like that you know. I’m not perfect. I have my ups and downs , but I’m just a normal person, you know.

J. Blythe: Based on a lot of your good life experiences, what 69:00kind of advice would you offer to younger generations and to even future generations?

H. Farris: Well, go to church. Be saved, get saved. Have a good relationship with God. Treat people like you want to be treated. Have respect. Be a person that will listen. Love. As the Bible says, do unto others as you want them to do unto you. 70:00J. Blythe: Good words of advice!

H. Farris: Stay with God, you can’t go wrong. I think that is the problem with so many of us that are Christians, you know. We give up on God. We think we can do without Him. But we can’t. Yeah.

S. Roberts: Is there anything else that you would like to add about your life in Garrard and Madison Counties? (she repeated the question) 71:00H. Farris: That I would like to add? Well, I’m trying to learn to be thankful for that I am who I am. And to, uh, appreciate what I have because I feel like I have been blessed. I’ve outlived all my sisters but one; out of the eleven children, only two of us is living. I’m blessed. Praise the Lord, I’m Blessed. 72:00That God has smiled on me. I haven’t done everything right, but I thank God that I’m still trying. I’m still trying.

J. Blythe: It sounds as though you are doing some very good things.

H. Farris: Well, I have and if my health stays, you know, like it is, then I’ll do what I can for myself, for others, you know. Stay in church. You young girls 73:00[Allyse and Stacey, student researchers] stay in school.

S. Roberts & A. Taylor: Yes, ma’m.

H. Farris: Don’t be in no hurry to get married.

J. Blythe:Where did your children attend college? I’m just curious.

H. Farris: Uh, one went to the University of Louisville. The other went to another school in Louisville, one went to Reitz Electronics in Louisville. And Mary went to the business college in Lexington or Richmond, Lexington I believe. She went to the business college in Lexington for two years. And then Mary’s has had a lot of training with camp, you know, over here at Eastern 74:00and child development classes. My son, this minister, ah, he works now at UPS in Louisville. Then I’ve got one that works up here at uh, this Paint factory. . .

J. Blythe: Sherwin Williams?

H. Farris: No, I said paint, but PP&G. [PPG Paints] And we are retired. My husband was a minister at a church in Barbourville, but he retired 75:00about two and a-half years ago because of health reasons. But we still attend church when we can.

J. Blythe: When you mention Barbourville, I always think of Rev. H.B. Harris, who grew up in Flatwoods.

H. Farris: Um hum. Yeah, that’s another family you can add, too, the Harris.

J. Blythe: And his father, was he Rev. Willie Harris?

H. Farris: Yes.

J. Blythe: Now Rev. Willie Harris, what were the churches that he pastored? I can’t remember.

H. Farris: He pastored Centerville 76:00[in Bourbon County]. I can’t remember others, but I do know Centerville; I remember going there. Flatwood is the product of about 10 or 11 ministers.

J. Blythe: I’m glad I remembered Barbourville. Thanks for mentioning Barbourville. Thank you.

H. Farris: And then after we got to First Baptist {in Barbourville}, we were told that Rev. Mills had pastored that same church.

J. Blythe: Interesting. Anything else you would like to share with us?

H. Farris: Ah, I can’t think of anything, 77:00but you know, when you come back again for the review or whatever, maybe I would--thought of something you can add to it then.

J. Blythe: All right, I’m looking forward to that.

S. Roberts: Mrs. Farris, we want to thank you sincerely for your time and willingness to help us with our project by giving us this interview. It’s been such a wonderful experience.

H. Farris: I’m so glad to do it. I just feel like if I had done it two or three years ago, I might have been able to remember more.

J. Blythe: You’ve been most helpful, most helpful.

A. Taylor: We appreciate it. Thank you very much.

H. Farris: Well, you’re welcome, you’re welcome.