VT Stories Oral History with James Boone, June 2, 2017 (Ms2016-015)

Ren Harman: So I'll say good morning, this is Ren Harman, the Project Manager

for VT Stories. Today is June 2nd, 2017 at about 11:15 a.m.. We have a very

special guest with us today, if you could just say your full name, when you were

born, and where you were born.

James Boone: Okay-- James Frederick Boone-- What is it?

Ren: When you were born, your birth date?

James: That was-- July 25--

Woman: 1915.

James: What year?

Woman: [Whispering] 1915.

Ren: [Chuckles] 1915. Where were you 00:01:00 born?

James: I was born in Holland, Virginia. That's in Nansemond County, south of

Suffolk, Virginia.

Ren: Okay, what year did you graduate from Virginia Tech?

James: 1937.

Ren: Okay, thank you. Can you tell me a little bit about growing up and what

your early childhood was like as a young boy?

James: I actually came to [Virginia] Tech as a freshman from I-V-O-R. That's up

the road from where I was born.

Ren: Can you tell me about your mother and father?

James: Oh well, yeah. I can show you a picture of them.

Ren: Oh wow, 00:02:00 okay.

James: And my dad is over yonder behind there. See that red flag, American flag?

He's standing right up there behind it.

Ren: Oh, okay. What did they do for--?

James: He was born in Kentucky or Tennessee. I've forgotten which. But my mama,

she was born in Virginia, in Windsor.

Ren: What did your father do for work? What was his career? Your father.

James: Well, my dad spent thirty-seven years at a bank in I-V-O-R [Ivor],

Virginia. It was the branch of the one in Wakefield.

Ren: What about your mother?

James: She didn't work outside. She had to work in the house.

Ren: Did you have any brothers or 00:03:00 sisters?

James: I had one sister. She passed away several years ago. She was married to a

man named Knight, and that's where she's buried is Boykins, Virginia. That's

back in Virginia. No brother. No other sister, they only had those two.

Ren: What did you do growing up as a boy? Did you play outside?

James: Oh well, yeah, I can play anything. [Laughter] No I'm just kidding you.

This birthplace I'm telling you about is right beside a Norfolk & Western

Railroad going between Norfolk and Petersburg.

Ren: Okay, so you lived close to the railroad?

James: 00:04:00I was trying to imagine it in my mind. I guess it's about a quarter of a

mile or maybe a half a mile on the Main Street USA. Now the Norfolk Southern.

Ren: Okay, yeah yeah.

James: Norfolk & Western.

Ren: Right.

James: If he worked anywhere else, they didn't tell me. He was ninety when he

passed away. He was right here in this house. No, he wasn't in this house. He

was there and they had to take him to the hospital. Anyway, he was with us in

Blacksburg. My mother was--

Woman: Eighty-five. When she died? Eighty-five.

Ren: Was she eighty-five?

James: I got their 00:05:00birth certificates right there, where she last moved, not

this. I've got the birth certificates of both of them.

Ren: Wow.

James: It tells more than I'm telling.

Ren: That's okay.

James: Living beside the railroad because my grandparents lived in Windsor,

Virginia and that's further east, about fourteen miles.

Ren: Okay.

James: And I would go there in the summertime and spend two or three weeks. It

was right beside the railroad, and in order to get up to the railroad from their

house you had to walk over a little bridge that was built up there. They knew a

lot of, since there was a railroad-- Oh well, my uncle also worked for Norfolk & 00:06:00Western. I didn't tell any of that. He was a gateman at Windsor, but they had to

pump it. That's what he did. A little old house big enough for you to get in.

Deaf as a post. How could he work beside a railroad? He could tell you when a

train was coming.

Ren: Wow.

James: That's the uncle.

Ren: That's your uncle.

James: He waited until later life and finally took a wife. Now that's a joke

[laughter]. See the railroad ran in front of our house, the picture around here

that I was talking about, and this house that she lived in was like that on the

other side of the railroad. She had been married, but he had never been married.

She 00:07:00had two girls I know. I thought there was a third. There was two boys,

anyway, very late in his life, that's the uncle that's deaf as a post, which

shocked everybody including himself, I think. [Laughter] He didn't live very

long. That was back in his old age. It wasn't too long gone after that. I don't

know why they never married before. I would go there in the summer time to visit

my grandparents and there's a cinder, at that time there was a cinder walkway

across that side for the people on this side to get to town. I 00:08:00walked on

cinders. That's why I suspect I really desired to be connected with the

railroad. One thing I wanted was an electric train. That's alright with me. I

would get about three or four books, put them end by end, push them all around.

That became my train.

Ren: That was your train?

James: That was most of my athletic ability [Chuckles].

Ren: When did you decide to come to Virginia Tech and what was behind that decision?

James: Well, there was a young man that lived right there at Ivor. He was a

senior and I was a junior coming into [Virginia] 00:09:00Tech. We rode the train from

Ivor to Cambria. The only way we could get the train to stop at Ivor we had to

go to the agent right there in town and make arrangements. It was a night train,

Pocahontas I think, so I actually never landed in a train here. I landed in

Cambria. There was a man there with an old model car that had running boards on

each side of it. I and several others along with the young man that was coming

back up here for his senior year, he fixed us in there, in both vehicles, that

man would put out whatever luggage he could 00:10:00on the running board and we had to

get inside the car. I don't know why he did it that way, but anyway, and that's

the way we came. It seemed like by the time we got here it was on Airport Road.

Now there used to be a station downtown and that's where he would drive it up

and drop us off. It's close to the campus, further down Main Street. And we went

up to the campus from the Main Street up here. This Main Street is the same one

that we came in on. I didn't know I would be living here, but things worked that

way. He was a pretty good athlete. He played 00:11:00baseball. And one thing my dad

liked was baseball.

Ren: Who was his favorite team?

James: Mine was New York Yankees and I think that was his. At that time they had

a team in Norfolk, but it wasn't a main team. It was a--

Ren: Minor league?

James: Minor. I think now the agricultural teacher [inaudible] was a graduate of

[Virginia] Tech. I don't think he's still alive because it's been a long time

ago. I don't know, somehow or other between baseball and knowing this young man,

a nice-looking young man, he had a brother, turned out I had to have his 00:12:00 brother

as a best man in my wedding in 1944. The young man I wanted was in Texas and he

couldn't get off, so that's double backtracking.

Ren: That's okay. What do you remember the first time you saw the campus of

Virginia Tech? What do you remember about that day?

James: [19]33.

Ren: 1933?

James: That's when I-- I graduated, yeah, I'm right on that. It had to be if I

graduated in [19]37 because I enrolled in four years. That was the first time.

One thing I remember about Main Street, which was downtown right now, they've

got a whole lot of 00:13:00stuff going up the hill, the entrance to the campus was right

there at the end of that road. It went up like that up on the campus. It was

like that for years. Anyway, there was real tall man, had on a resemblance of a

police uniform, and he's the only one I ever saw back then. But I didn't know

his name. Once we got in the dormitory you didn't get out. You had to sign a

pass or something to get out to go downtown. [Chuckles]

Ren: The police officer that you're talking about, do you remember, did he have

a 00:14:00nickname? Did they call him High Pockets?

James: They called him High Pockets.

Ren: Is that it?

James: That's it.

Ren: Okay.

James: High Pockets. His name was High Pockets and he was a tall man. He didn't

see me because I didn't stay, I didn't get downtown too often. But I do know

they had two theaters in Blacksburg and only one--the Lyric.

Ren: The Lyric, right.

James: Now, when you come back toward Wells Fargo, between Wells Fargo coming

back this way, I mean that way, there was a building in there that's now another

business. It was called the Little Theater. Well you couldn't smoke in the Lyric

Theater, but you could go over to the Little Theater and smoke. Well I didn't

smoke anyway, so that didn't make a difference to me. I don't smoke. I don't 00:15:00drink. The only drink is a little wine. I've got a whole quart, a half a pint

sitting in yonder under the sink. It hasn't been opened, because at my hundredth

birthday some bright soul, and I'm not sure what his name was, gave that to me

as a gift. [Chuckles]

Woman: It's 100-proof. That's why it was given to him.

Ren: Oh goodness.

James: I might open it if necessary. [Laughter] From there on it was a business

of getting into the dormitory, just where they put myself and my roommate who

was D.R. Chambers. He was from Lynchburg. 00:16:00Our room was down in the basement up

where the tennis courts are, what they call dormitories or barracks. I think

there's a name of it, but anyway it doesn't matter. But it's based downtown, but

we were down in the basement. Half of the room was a window, like that window

over there was down in the ground, see?

Ren: Right.

James: You could see out up, but when you look down here you're looking at whatever.

Ren: Into the room.

James: Alleyway.

Ren: Alleyway, yeah.

James: Of course we didn't go through the front door, and then they had a

regular size doorway might 00:17:00still be there, I don't know about that now. I ride

by it sometimes. I don't think I can find Burruss Hall now. I would rather have

somebody driving for me.

Ren: It's changed a lot, hasn't it?

James: My son came up here last year I think it was for a visit. In the

afternoon he said, come on pop, let's go visit. Go visit what? I want to show

you where your campus is. And that's what we did, we rode all around. Now that's

before all of this stuff you see now, that's all new down there mostly. I went off.

Ren: That's okay.

James: Down in that room and above us was the sophomore class, and the only way

you could get out of that you had to go to the middle of the 00:18:00building and then

go up the steps, then you went outside. But down at the end of our end there was

an open shower. We used to ask, where do you take a bath here? That sink in your

room, basin, like I've got in yonder. And because we were freshmen down there,

there was a trend or whatever you want to call it. Whenever a sophomore, junior,

or senior wanted somebody to help them do something, they get out in the hall

and yell, rats up here! And we knew exactly where--we went to the shower. The

first time they called out we went to the shower, Roy Chambers and I did. They

didn't catch us many times, but that's what it was. Now I 00:19:00remember very plain,

the Sunday that I arrived up here I had to go all the way to the fourth floor. I

don't know how I got caught on it, but I did. I walked in the room up there and

there sat a thing like a card table and four guys they were up there playing

poker. They didn't have to do--they yelled for the rats to come up here

[laughter]. I blame it on them anyway. We heard them many times thereafter.

Another favorite thing they liked to do is to take your mattress and go to the

window and throw it out. Make sure it was out. They never did throw 00:20:00ours. We

were lucky. Certain days, if you went to lunch the juniors or sophomores would

throw the mattresses out. How do you think they got back?

Ren: They had to go pick them?

James: You had to get it and take it yourself.

Ren: Go get it yourself

James: Real fun.

Ren: Yeah. [Laughs] This was your rat year, your freshman year, right?

James: That's what I call it, the rat year. We had rats for a couple more years

I think. A senior before he left the school got up a petition or did something,

but he went to administration to see if he couldn't change it. He said, we don't

like that old name. I don't know what they paid 00:21:00him. [Laughs] That's when they

changed the name somewhere along in that period. I don't know how many years. It

might have been four or five years after that. I never did bother call, one up

from the basement. But that's the basement.

Ren: Do you remember any professors or advisors that played a big part in your life?

James: I was in business administration. Professors back then, I know one of

them was E. P. Ellison, and I forgot what the other guy, there was two of them

that I had classes under. Maybe the most 00:22:00famous, if you want to call him a

professor, he was in charge of the ROTC people. He was left-handed. He had us up

in one, I don't know whether it was Norris Hall, I don't think so, but all the

freshmen had to be in this class. One day he had a piece of chalk in his hand,

left-handed, and he spoke up, he said, so and so is asleep back there on the

last row. Pfffffh [laughter] he threw that piece of chalk and hit him right in

the face. You remember just little old things like that. Now I never saw a real

rat running around in the building. I suppose the first commandant we had was a

stout 00:23:00man. I think his name was Maynard. I know the last two years we had a

long, tall, slender man, his name was Tenny, T-e-n-n-y. I don't think he's

living. Anyway, I didn't have anything but a private the first year. I think

they had me listed as a sophomore and a junior, and the junior year I was the

supply sergeant. They wear a different stripe. And the last year I was one of

the lieutenants. Ferneyhough, he was in the same battery with me. He lives in

Florida 00:24:00now and he calls me about once a month, and they could hear planes. He

had a daughter who was a nurse and incidentally she was a student. Laura

Ferneyhough was here at Radford. And then later after she graduated before he

did, anyway, she married a lawyer named Buck Radford. I don't know a Buck

Radford. I think some kind of buck tore my VT flag off of my post out there.

Martha, that's my wife, we were riding 00:25:00around one Sunday in the car. That

happened the night before, the day before. We decided to ride to Radford and we

rode from street to street. And we found a bungalow up off the Main Street that

had that very same flag hanging right in the middle. I always said whoever he

was, he stole my flag.

Ren: [Laughs]

James: Crazy.

Ren: What are some of your favorite memories from your four years at Virginia Tech?

James: What was that, what?

Ren: Some of your favorite memories that you can 00:26:00remember. You've talked about a

couple of them, but I'm sure you have more stories.

James: [Pause] I don't have--

Woman: Water bucket.

James: Did you hear what she say?

Ren: Water bucket.

James: Oh [laughter]. Yeah. That's a tale. My senior year the Corps had a

procedure of you didn't like a certain guy, so somewhere during the night he

would get a bucket full of water thrown on him. [Laughter] Ahh! Get hit with a

bucket of cold water.

Ren: Yeah.

James: He came roaring out of the dorm floor, and we were hiding behind some

shrubberies on a tennis court. I don't know who the 00:27:00other two or three guys,

there was about four of us. He crossed our path somewhere and we didn't like it,

so we figured we will get you yet old boy. We found out about the time he would

be asleep and the door of course wasn't supposed to be locked and it wasn't. I

don't know how many buckets he got. I know he got one, but he squalled and he

come roaring out of the-- who did that? Who did that? Where are you? Where are

you? Nobody said a word. Never did nobody told him that I know 00:28:00of. I didn't.

These three guys I think that were with me didn't. My last year, senior, my

company commander was A.S. Wright, W-R-I-G-H-T. Chambers was over the skippers I

think, was the first year. He was a long tall guy too, from Texas. He had an

aunt somewhere over in I think it was, that saw to it that he get to college. Of

course he used to get a pass and he would go visit her. I never saw her. 00:29:00 In

fact, he and I never went to anything. He ended up being on his staff see,

Sidney Wright. We found out that, I did I guess, that Sidney Wright went to the

old Slusher Farm down off Main Street down in that territory, and she was in the

registrar's office and he saw her somewhere or another and, ah, I like that

girl. She was just as tall then as he was. He would take off and go down and see

her. I can't think of her name, but that's where he went. This was the Main

Street. When you get down to that stoplight he took a sharp turn like race

tracks have onto Main 00:30:00Street, all the way down. They finally, in fact, one of

our classmates walked her home. He married this gal, but it wasn't the same one.

Clarice Slusher, is a dormitory name, Slusher Hall after that gal.

Ren: Wow.

James: They had a big farm back here. And, senior year my roommate down on the

Drillfield, I will say one night, something went off, boom! We all said, lord

somebody shot off some 00:31:00dynamite. Word came up it was off the Drillfield. My

roommate wasn't in his room. In a little bit he came in and I said, what are you

doing down there shooting dynamite off of that? [Chuckles] He never disowned it.

Ren: Oh goodness.

James: But he was one of them. He's deceased too. I'm outliving all of them.

That's a shame.

Ren: Yeah. Let's talk about these. Can you pick yourself out in this picture here?

James: See that little squat guy right there?

Ren: I do.

James: You go up about, everybody picks 00:32:00up, this picture right here, the row

back of this one bending my knee. I was in that platoon.

Ren: Do you know what year this might be?

James: Now this guy he was not, I think his name was Smith out of Norfolk. I

always said he was the guy that rode the train that night we came. He didn't

know it, but he knew it. Now there's a picture of this one in our Bugle. That's

the only 00:33:00one that's-- When you get to this one now this is the other one. That's

Robertson right there. That's Battery L staff the senior year. See the stripes

up on the shoulder, four stripes there.

Woman: Junior year, senior year.

James: The senior year is--

Ren: Is this you right here?

James: That's Ferneyhough. I'm on this end. That's E.H. Lane. You ever heard of

Lane Cedar Chest?

Ren: Hmm.

James: That's E.H. Lane. This is me. That's me right there, and this is

Ferneyhough over here. That's 00:34:00Lane. That's Brent, and that's Cox. Would you have

picked it?

Ren: I don't think so. [Laughter] Wow.

James: In here, there's a list of them. Sidney Wright. This guy was a captain I

think. This man just died, Brad Charles. I forget what that long-legged guy's

name is. This was Vincent. I think that's some guy named Boone.

Ren: On the end 00:35:00 there.

James: That's it on the end of it. He and I roomed together my last year. See

how tall he is?

Ren: Yes, very tall.

James: I asked, "What are you doing blowing that dynamite?" [Laughs]

Ren: Blowing up dynamite on the Drillfield.

James: On the Drillfield.

Ren: Oh my goodness. I just have a couple more questions for you. Is that okay?

James: Oh yes.

Ren: Then I'll let you go so you can enjoy the rest of this day. Can you talk

about meeting your wife?

James: Oh yeah. She's up there in that picture. You will see pictures around.

Two or three pictures around. That one 00:36:00there. There's one in my pocketbook. Now

there you go.

Ren: Wow.

James: I think I'm a good picker.

Ren: Yeah, I think so too.

James: I'll tell you what happened there. Back home I already graduated, already

married to that gal there. My mother bless her heart, tells her, I thought he

was going to marry somebody else.

Ren: [Laughs] Oh goodness.

James: I said, you're kidding me! Mom did that? I said, 00:37:00I was dating her, but I

didn't have any reason to-- it hadn't gotten that far. But that's the old mug

right there.

Ren: What did you call her?

James: Mike, M-I-K-E. The name back a years, you know from here you've got a

movie house, but from where I lived down home, it's beyond Wakefield. I don't

know whereabouts you live, don't even know where Wakefield is. It's on 460

between Petersburg and Suffolk.

Ren: Okay.

James: So was Ivor. Well stretched between those two towns there's 00:38:00 about,

there's seven more places, towns, and Windsor is the one next to Suffolk. That's

the peanut capital of the world. Coming back this way is Zuni, Ivor, Wakefield,

and Waverly. I thought I had a program here. I will give you a magazine and you

can order, buy a cake or something out of it at the Virginia Diner.

Ren: Okay.

James: 00:39:00You can order it and pay for it of course.

Ren: And have it delivered.

James: Yep, that's senior year. It was an Ipana girl. That's what I called her.

Back then there was a toothpaste, I-P-A-N-A, still is I think. Grinning, smiling

just like that. It wasn't her.

Ren: Where did you meet, the both of you?

James: The back fence.

Ren: [Laughs] The back fence?

James: Actually her parents lived about two miles out of town and they were all

girls. Mr. 00:40:00Jonah had girls. There's one of them still living the last we heard

from them, but she's in Alabama, but all her sisters-- That's when she was

younger, see. Put a little age on her.

Woman: That was her college picture.

James: The one in the college, and the one I have of her in the hospital we

all-- She looks pretty good. Diana. Even the other day when we were over there.

I don't know how she's living.

Ren: Your other daughter?

James: My other daughter, yeah.

Woman: Talk about Todd.

James: I don't even know where her picture 00:41:00 is.

Woman: Talk about Todd.

Ren: So we interviewed Mr. Todd Barnes a couple of years ago for VT Stories.

James: Todd is a rascal.

Ren: And he talked a lot about a Mr. Boone and a Mrs. Boone, so I'm glad I

finally get to meet you and put a face to all these stories. What relationship

with Todd? He was pretty close to you, right?

James: Yep. He slept on not that sofa in there, but he was a cadet. We had a

sofa that was the same length as that and he would come here on Saturdays. He

would have a pass to do that and he had to be in the dormitory at ten o'clock.

Time come to get him up, and he remembers that. How they got here and how he got

here, that 00:42:00barn was close enough that I saw her here before he passed away back

home. Todd Barnes' dad, the mother went first. He has a sister in Pennsylvania.

There's a relative, I don't know who that relative is. That gal was the front

desk supervisor down here at the Donaldson Brown.

Ren: Right.

James: And that's where Todd Barnes had his first look at Martha. That's when we

found out that's the same, that's Sam 00:43:00Vincent. I know his dad, got to be. Turned

out her husband lived--

Woman: Next door.

James: Next to the doctor wasn't it, up there?

Woman: My husband's dad was a doctor and the Punkries lived next door to the

Barnes', and that's how I met Todd and told him to look up my mom and dad when

he came to Blacksburg.

James: It's hard to tell in this town you don't cuss about anybody because you

don't know who you're talking to.

Ren: Right. [Chuckles]

James: You might be talking to the very guy that you don't want to be talking about.

Ren: I believe in his interview Todd talks 00:44:00about your wife Martha cooking some

meals for him and him spending the night quite often.

Woman: Yes.

James: That's right. He came back. The last time he came to y'all engineering, I

think. He didn't tell me, he just said the department, engineering. I don't know

whether you saw him or not.

Ren: Yeah.

Woman: He lost his, his mom passed away when he was in college here in fact. And

then his dad died, his sister came here and his dad passed away not long after

Todd graduated. So mom and dad became his mom and dad. That's what he still

calls them today.

Ren: Yeah. 00:45:00And that's how he referred to them. As soon as he says, "Mr. Boone,"

he goes, "I want to refer to him as dad." And then he says, "Mrs. Boone, I want

to refer to her as mom," when he did the interview with us, and that was a

couple of years ago, still mom and dad. After you graduated you were the

Virginia Tech treasurer from 1952 to 1982.

James: That's exactly right.

Ren: So that's a long time as the Virginia Tech treasurer. During that time and

even today what do you think about these changes and what changes have you seen?

James: What haven't I seen?

Ren: [Laughs] Good answer.

James: I'm sorry. I had a secret hope that when I left, 00:46:00they would give up the

idea of getting more than eighteen thousand students here. That's about the size

of the town. They could handle that many much easier than they can with--

Ren: A lot of students.

James: Well, if it wasn't for all these dormitories that they call academic

research buildings, brand new ones built all around the place, most of them look

like prisons to me. They are exactly like them. I said why in the--? Who in

the--? I stomped my foot and it didn't do any good. Yeah. Well, one of the

presidents 00:47:00was living on the campus at that dormitory on the kitchen. We lived

on the campus. I had no idea I would end up here.

Woman: That's what the house looked like.

Ren: Is this Woolwine?

Woman: I think that's what they called it.

James: There's no house there now.

Ren: Right. Where was this located, near the Duck Pond?

Woman: Yeah. The Wright House is here and faces this way. This house sat right

here beside the small Duck Pond and faced the Wright House. They weren't close.

They were probably as far apart as the Wright House and Solitude, but it was

over here more 00:48:00near the little Duck Pond.

Ren: Okay.

Woman: And the curve of the road is still there, you know, and it actually sat

almost right on the side of the road. We had a U-shaped driveway or a half-moon

shaped driveway.

Ren: When did they tear it down?

Woman: Actually they moved out in--

James: Well, we built this house in [19]66.

Woman: That's when they moved out and the College owned it, and one of the

departments took it over and they had a couple of years I guess after you moved

out they had an electrical fire and the house 00:49:00 burned.

James: Mike was saying it was going to happen to that, to the house we lived in.

Woman: Yeah, because every once in a while the people that lived there in the

later years--

James: She said, "Something is burning in this house."

Woman: They could smell something but never could find it.

Ren: Wow. I didn't know that. Wow.

James: I did find out the timber was this thick I wonder where they got all that lumber.

Ren: To build the house?

James: There's a basement under it. I fed coal in the furnace down in the basement.

Ren: A coal furnace?

James: A coal furnace, automatic. It had a hopper on it.

Ren: Yeah.

James: Sometimes I had to go 00:50:00down there and get it started.

Ren: That's the house.

James: When we first came back, when we moved in I told Castle I said, all of

them except this one, this one wasn't born, had to rush her down to Roanoke. She

put up a bull-- a bold fight. If you hadn't seen her then and now you wouldn't

know, it wouldn't make any difference to you.

Ren: Right.

James: Just recently she started losing her teeth. Mine did the same darn 00:51:00 way,

started dropping out. Started having a set of teeth made to fit me, which was

$1,500 I believe at that time, the dentist told me. He sent me to three more

doctors that were real teeth people. He says, I can handle the dentist part, he

said, but that's root in there. You're going to have to go see the other guys,

see what they tell you." He told me it was over $4,500 I believe, that and a

pair of 00:52:00teeth was going to be $6,000 when I had-- I didn't have $6,000.

Ren: Right.

James: So I didn't have them done and sometimes I wish I had.

Ren: What does someone who graduated from Virginia Tech and worked at Virginia

Tech for so long, what does Virginia Tech mean to you?

James: It's like home, yeah. I like it. I didn't like what they did. I didn't

like this. I don't like this arrangement at all. I'm sorry Dr. Sands. It was

done before he came.

Ren: Right.

James: 00:53:00Not too long, Steger. Is that his name?

Ren: Yes sir.

James: I can't see it. Being an old business student I had a little sense of

building and the building and structuring department or whatever it's called,

they told us that all three of these towns would someday be together, all joined

together. Christiansburg got more building over there than they've 00:54:00had, and

[graduates are] beginning now.

Ren: Yeah. It's just continuing to grow and grow.

James: Of course I didn't say anything. I just kept it to myself. I know there

was one event, and I don't know whether I ought to tell this one. I don't use

any names you don't know.

Woman: If it's what I think it is, no.

James: What did she say?

Ren: She said 'no'.

James: No names. I wouldn't do that.

Woman: Don't even go there.

James: None of them are living that the story is about. It was a complete shock

to me. A guy came down and said, you and I talk a 00:55:00lot. A certain death had

happened and he said, I will tell you what the death is. [Inaudible] and I'm

going to tell you. That was his opinion. Another man insulted them in the

[inaudible] of people that were equal [inaudible], professors at some kind of

meeting and he said that it broke that man's heart. Now the one he told, but

they're all gone. The second wife, 00:56:00I don't know whether she's living or not, but

that's something you can't answer because you don't know.

Ren: Right. Well, thank you so much for your time. And as the grandfather clock

chimes I just want to say thank you for speaking with us today, and for all

these pictures and these stories.

James: The VT Stories Department or something?

Ren: So, it's kind of a bunch of different departments. It's the English

Department, History. I'm out of the School of Education. We have a big team.

There's a lot of us, so I'm the project manager director guy. So we've done

about 100 or so of these 00:57:00interviews. We got to interview Chris Craft in Houston.

We went to Houston and did some interviews there. We've interviewed some other

alumni, but I was telling your daughter I think you're our oldest VT story that

we've done. So Mr. Boone, class of 1937, thank you so much sir. Nice to meet you

sir. Thank you.

[End of interview]