Oral History with Naomi Davidson, October 27, 2012 (Ms2019-037)

Susannah Loumiet: This is Susannah Loumiet with the Blacksburg Oral History

Project and I am with Naomi Davidson in Pulaski, Virginia. What is your name and age?

Naomi Davidson: Naomi Davidson and I'm seventy-four years old.

Susannah: Where were you born?

Naomi: Montgomery County, Wake Forest, Virginia. It's in Montgomery County.

Susannah: And what were your parents' names?

Naomi: My dad's name was Leroy Mills and my mother, she was a Pulliam. Mary Lee

Pulliam, that's her maiden name, but she married my dad so she was Mary Lee Mills.

Susannah: Were they born 00:01:00in Montgomery County as well?

Naomi: My dad was born in Radford, Virginia and my mother was born in Stony

Creek, Virginia. It's down near Richmond, that area. I think they call it east

Virginia but that's where she was born, Stony Creek, Virginia.

Susannah: So how old were you when you moved to Pulaski?

Naomi: Okay, Michelle was my baby. She was born in June. We moved here in July.

She's forty-two now. So, I guess I was in my forties.

Susannah: In your forties. Did you grow up--

Naomi: No, because I'm seventy-four now.

Susannah: 00:02:00After you went to Christiansburg Institute you moved to Pulaski?

Naomi: No, no. After Christiansburg Institute, I moved away. I went to

Baltimore, Maryland and stayed for maybe two years. Then, from there, I went to

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, stayed about a year, and then from there I came back

home. Then that's when I got married.

Susannah: But when you went to Christiansburg Institute, were you living in

Montgomery County?

Naomi: Right, Wake Forest.

Susannah: Oh, Wake Forest. Can you tell me a little bit about what it was like

to grow up in Wake Forest?

Naomi: Well, it was just a small, I guess you would say, rural, country place

because there were no stores or anything like for--it was--we had to go to

Blacksburg in order to do our trading, like banks and really to get groceries

and everything. There were a few 00:03:00small stores, grocery stores, where you could

get groceries and everything. But, main things like that, getting clothes and

stuff like that, we had to either go to Blacksburg or Radford or Christiansburg.

So, it was a very small place. No traffic lights or anything like that. It's

just a little country place.

Susannah: Do you have siblings?

Naomi: Yes, I had four brothers and I had one sister. I have two brothers that

are deceased.

Susannah: What schools did you go to before Christiansburg Institute?

Naomi: I went to Wake Forest Elementary and that went to the seventh grade. So,

from the seventh 00:04:00grade, we went to the Christiansburg Institute because the

grades there were eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh, and when you were a eighth

grader you were a freshman, ninth grader sophomore, tenth grade junior, eleventh

grade you were a senior. They didn't have the twelfth grade on down.

Susannah: Really?

Naomi: Um-hm.

Susannah: I didn't know that.

Naomi: So I left a record from Wake Forest Elementary to CI.

Susannah: Do you remember what year that was, that you started at CI?

Naomi: Let's see, I graduated in [19]54. So it must have been about, I guess,

1950. When I went to CI first, I was--well, I was real young. Because I

graduated from Christiansburg Institute at fifteen.

Susannah: Um-hm.

Naomi: Because, 00:05:00evidently, I guess I was about maybe twelve, eleven--

Susannah: Wait, you graduated at fifteen?

Naomi: Um-hm.

Susannah: So you started when you were--

Naomi: I was just--I guess I was about twelve years old or something like that.

What happened in the elementary school, they skipped me from the second to the

fourth. I didn't do third grade. So, they skipped me and I went to high school I

was just real young.

Susannah: Were you a lot younger than everyone else?

Naomi: Yeah, yeah, basically, yeah I was. But you know, back then it wasn't bad.

I mean, you just caught on so. Yeah, when I got out of high school. I was really

too young to really do anything even when I got out of high school because I

couldn't afford college. I had an uncle that lived in Baltimore, my mother's

brother, and she allowed me to go up there and start 00:06:00working. I did get a job up there.

Susannah: Where did you start working?

Naomi: I started working at Johns Hopkins hospital as a nur--well you had to

take a test and all that but I got on as a nursing assistant. Well, they called

it a nurse's aid then. Um-hm.

Susannah: So did Christiansburg Institute prepare you, did you take nursing

classes or?

Naomi: Well, no. I didn't. But I always wanted to be a nurse but, no I just took

the regular classes like english and math courses from like sophomore year I

took maybe like, it was algebra and then whatever the grades that math class

was. I never took trigonometry or nothin' like that. I did take algebra, and

then history and we had literature and, of course, we had home ec, we called it.

Home ec, 00:07:00which I guess would be like--

Susannah: Home economics sort of thing?

Naomi: Yeah, yeah. And I took that, then I took also beauty culture. I did that

too. But, I had no idea. Now, you can take classes and things that will prepare

you for whatever you want to do, your career. But then, we just took what was

required of us.

Susannah: So did you have older siblings?

Naomi: Yes, I'm the youngest of my family.

Susannah: Ah, you're the youngest. And did they go to Christiansburg Institute, too?

Naomi: Yes, all of them went but I only had one other to graduate. They dropped

out. My sister, she was a senior, she dropped out. My brother Billy, he dropped

out and he went in the service. My oldest brother 00:08:00Junior, he went in the

service. My brother James was the one that graduated from high school. He was

the only one and myself. Then, I had another brother that he dropped out.

Susannah: Were they there at the same time as you?

Naomi: My brother Roy was, and my brother James, seems like he was maybe a

junior or senior when I was just going. I think I went one year with my brother

James that graduated. Then, of course, after he got out of high school he went

directly into the air force.

Susannah: One second.

[break in recording]

Susannah: Okay, so you were saying your brother was at Christiansburg Institute--

Naomi: Right.

Susannah: --at the same time as you.

Naomi: Right. I think he was like a senior when I was maybe a freshman. My

brother James and my brother Roy, we were there together at the 00:09:00high school.

'Cause he's just a few months older than I am. Well, not months. We're close to

the same age because he's seventy-four right now. He'll be seventy-five in

March, and I just turned seventy-four in October last Saturday.

Susannah: And did you know that you would go to Christiansburg Institute rather

than another high school?

Naomi: Yeah, at that time that was the only high school we could go to. There

were other high schools but they were segregated at the time. Children from all

over the New 00:10:00River Valley area, including Floyd, down in Elliston and

Shawsville, Radford, Pulaski, Montgomery County--we all went to the same, to

that one school. At the time that was the only school that we could go to.

Susannah: Um-hm.

Naomi: Um-hm.

Susannah: So how would you get to school?

Naomi: School bus.

Susannah: School bus?

Naomi: Um-hm. We left around 7:30 each morning, maybe seven--from seven to 7:30

each morning, got back home 4:30 to five o'clock each evening. 'Cause we had to.

Other children rode our bus, we had to stop, pick up children, going--well, we

went to Vicker and our bus did pick up children there. We picked up Blacksburg

children. I think that was all--and the Wake Forest children. So, you know, then

they just get home late after getting everybody back home.

Susannah: How long do you think the commute 00:11:00was, to school and back?

Naomi: Okay, at least--let's see. We leave out no later than 7:30. Well, we had

to get to school 'cause I think school started at maybe 8:30, something to nine

maybe. I would say a couple of hours. An hour and a half maybe. It would take

like going and then coming back.

Susannah: Was it an enjoyable ride? Did you--

Naomi: Yeah, yeah we had fun. We had fun, I tell you. 00:12:00CI was really, as the

young people would say, rockin' at that time.

Susannah: Was it?

Naomi: Yeah, we had--it was great. We had a good football team and we had a nice

band and the cheerleaders. It was just really nice, nice school. I also, I also

forgot. We also had dormitories there. Kids that were from Galax and Wytheville

in that area, they stayed. They came to our school and they stayed all week and

then they would go home. We had a dormitory for them to stay in.

Susannah: Did you know a lot of students there before you started at CI?

Naomi: No, 'cause I didn't get out that much. Maybe a few people from

Blacksburg, 00:13:00just by going there with my mother and all to shop and do things.

Maybe some people from Christiansburg, too, and Radford, but not a whole lot of

people. Yeah, I knew a few people.

Susannah: What about people from Wake Forest?

Naomi: Yeah, yeah. I knew everybody from there.

Susannah: So your friends from there went the same time you did.

Naomi: Yeah, the ones that were in my grade. Um-hm, yeah, they went. Once they

leave in the upper grades everybody went. We had a good time, though. It was

just, I don't know. I really think that--I mean, I wouldn't 00:14:00want--I'm glad that

my children got to go to the school where we're from, Pulaski. But, the

experience that we had at CI, I really wish they knew the experience we had and

know what a good school it was and how--it was just all--now they have torn down

most of the buildings and things like that, but it was almost just like a little

college that we had. I mean dormitories and we had a new gym. They had built a

new gym and all of that. The band had a room and it was just really nice. It was

a nice setting with nice trees and at lunchtime, we could go and sit on the lawn

and eat our lunch. We didn't have to go to the cafeteria if we didn't want to.

But, we had hot food in the cafeteria if we 00:15:00wanted to get lunch. But most of the

time, I just carried mine.

Susannah: So do you have a favorite memory from your time at Christiansburg Institute?

Naomi: Yeah, maybe, our junior and senior prom. That was really nice. I went

both years, when I was a junior and when I was a senior. I really liked that.

Yeah, I sang in the choir. Did I say did we have a choir? No. I liked to sing.

I'm sure we should have had a choir, but I just can't remember the choir. 00:16:00 But,

well, but anyway.

Susannah: Who were your closest friends there?

Naomi: That went to school there?

Susannah: Um-hm.

Naomi: Okay. I had a real good friend named Bertha Parker. She was from New

River, Virginia. We hung together a lot. But, basically, just all the girls that

were in my class, we just sorta hang together. It wasn't like, well, we were all

just so scattered from different places you couldn't--the only time you'd see

one another 00:17:00maybe was at school. Back then, I know we had telephones [laughter]

but--I'm not that old that we didn't have, but I do remember when we got our

first telephone, though. I remember when there weren't--not over in Wake

Forest--any telephones. And then, you were on a party line, it was four or five

people, you'd pick up and wanna call, and somebody would be on the line. You had

to hang up. It was somethin'.

Susannah: So, sorry to ask you again, but you said that you graduated

Christiansburg Institute in what year?

Naomi: 1954.

Susannah: So that was right around Brown v. Board of Education. Do you remember

anything about that while you were here? While you were in school?

Naomi: No.

Susannah: No?

Naomi: About what now, ya say?

Susannah: Brown v. Board of Education, desegregation, anything?

Naomi: 00:18:00No, I really don't remember. Because, like I said, when I finished high

school I was still young. I went to Baltimore and stayed up there. Then, because

I came back home from being away, I think I was 20. Because I know back then you

had to get consent from your parents to get married so my mother had to sign for

me to get married. But, so I don't remember anything about that.

Susannah: Was there a high school in Wake 00:19:00 Forest?

Naomi: No, the closest high school that we may could have gone to was

Blacksburg. So and the white children did from our area. See, Long Shop and

McCoy, Wake Forest, they're all little small towns, surrounding towns. McCoy,

Wake Forest, Prices Fork, they're all surrounding towns like Wake Forest, and so

the white children, they went to Blacksburg High school. Of course, we all had

to go to to CI--CII. The only school in Wake Forest was the little elementary

school that I went to. That's the only 00:20:00school. And we only had one teacher and

she taught, but we used to help with the lower grades. We would help her. But

she taught from the first--there was no Kindergarten either--so she taught from

the first grade to the seventh. Her name was Mayo, Ms. Mayo. M-A-Y-O.

Susannah: So do you have fond memories of that school?

Naomi: Yes, yes. Now, that we really had a good time. It was like a country

school. Well, when we got there we had to make the fire because it was cold in

the winter time. And so some of the boys would make the fire and get the school

warm. And it was only a two room school, but we had little adjoining rooms like

a cloak room and a washroom where we washed our hands, and we had the old

timey--like outside--we had a pump that we had to pump our 00:21:00water and we had to

wash our hands before we ate our lunch. Then after lunch, the teacher let us go,

all the children--it was a ball field, a diamond field, right down below the

school, below the church--we all at recess would go down there and play ball and

just had a good time. I think we were out for about an hour, then she would ring

the bell, and when we heard that bell ring then we knew we had to get back to

school. So we all went back to school. And, we had the outside toilets, but they

did have one for boys and had one for girls. And it was nice and during the

month of May we had May Day. That's what we called it. And we 00:22:00wrapped the

maypole, and the girls had on nice little dresses, ruffle dresses, and the

boys--if we wore white dresses then they had on a white shirt and black

pants--and we wrapped the maypole. That was a big day at our school.

Susannah: Was it?

Naomi: Yeah, and also we would have a lot of programs, plays and things like

that, and invite the parents in the evening to come, especially Halloween, and

anytime it was a holiday. We had a Christmas play, and Thanksgiving, Halloween,

we dressed up and did trick-or-treating, or had some kind of bobbing for apples

like any school. We did a lot of fun things. Then we would go on field 00:23:00trips but

of course, we didn't have cars to go, so we would walk for miles. This place

called Long Shop, we would--this one teacher--well I guess we were pretty good

students, because we walked all the way. I bet you we walked five miles or more

to this place called Love--I think we called it Lover's Leap, and we went up

there and there was the creek, and we carried our lunch, and we had a picnic. It

was an outing for us. And then we swam, we took something to swim in and we

would stay up there all day, and then we would walk back home.

Susannah: That sounds really nice.

Naomi: Yeah, I guess we were a lot healthier then because we walked. [laughter]

Yeah, it was. My elementary school days, it was 00:24:00fun. I really reminisce on that

a lot. High school was good, too, but it was different. There were some things,

we had--. Now I realize--you didn't think about it then because you didn't know

what to call it--but there was some bullying in our school, too.

Susannah: Was there?

Naomi: Yeah, I know a girl did me, yeah, she did. And so, now I know really what

it was. But I guess that's everywhere. By us being young--there's bullying

everywhere you go, but we had it back then too.

Susannah: Not in your elementary school, though?

Naomi: No, no, elementary school was--it was the bomb.

Susannah: Really? [laughter]

Naomi: Yeah, it was nice. Of course kids now, I'm not saying that children

didn't get into scuffles and little fights and things, but it was nothing that

the teacher couldn't even resolve before we even got home. And of course, 00:25:00 we

walked to school. In elementary school there were no buses for us. We walked,

and also, I was telling my grandchildren--I said, there could come the biggest

snow out there, we didn't let our school. We just went on and had school. Then

we had so much fun coming home, because we had to walk in it. I don't remember

too much of them ever closing schools because of snow. We trampled through that

snow and got there, we did.

Susannah: At Christiansburg, would they close it or would it be harder?

Naomi: Yeah, they did close because of the buses and things like that. But, I

can't remember too much bad weather where we did close CI, but they did close if

the weather got real bad because a lot of 00:26:00the school buses were driven by

students that went there, but our school bus wasn't. Yeah, no. We had this man

to drive, but a lot of kids drove school buses, especially if they were a senior

or something like that. I know this guy from Dublin drove the school bus and he

went to school in Pulaski, too. As a matter of fact my friend of mine, Barbara,

her son drove a school bus, but he was in school too. They allowed that, but

now, they wouldn't do that now.

Susannah: So, did you 00:27:00meet a lot of people at Christiansburg Institute that you

wouldn't have met otherwise?, Friends?

Naomi: Yeah, especially the children, students that came from Galax and

Wytheville and even Floyd. I didn't know any of those children from over there

until they came to school. And, Shawsville and Elliston. Definitely those areas,

I didn't know people until I met them at school.

Susannah: How many students do you think there were, roughly?

Naomi: Oh Lord, at CI?

Susannah: Yeah.

Naomi: Oh, I would say, because my graduating 00:28:00class, I think we had fifty-some

that graduated in our class. It wasn't like kids here, like two hundred and all

like that. But, I guess the whole school, maybe two hundred, two [hundred] fifty

maybe. Could be more or less, but sorta in that area. The whole school. Because

I know one of my children graduated from Pulaski. Lord in their class, they had

like two hundred. But, I'd say roughly maybe two hundred, two [hundred] fifty,

more or less.

Susannah: So how was Christiansburg Institute different from your elementary school?

Naomi: 00:29:00Well, one way it was different was, because as I said in the elementary

school we only had the two rooms, and at CI, our classes were in different

rooms, so we were able to change classes. If I had math at eleven--well, say

ten--and then I had to go maybe to my government classes at maybe eleven, or

10:30, something like that. So the changing of classes for one thing was

different than elementary school. And we were able to--the hot lunches, we

didn't have hot lunch. We either carried our lunch to the elementary school or

they did allow us to--we could even go home and eat lunch and get back at a

certain 00:30:00time. So having the cafeteria at the school and hot lunches and riding

the school bus; all of that was different because we didn't do that in elementary.

Susannah: Did you say your teachers name was Ms. Mayo?

Naomi: Yeah, that was elementary.

Susannah: Did you keep in contact with her after you finished elementary school?

Naomi: Yeah. She lived in Wake Forest and then finally, she passed away. Then

they got another teacher that taught, and her name was Ms. Young. She taught the

other, younger--. Now I lived in Wake Forest for just a while before I got

married. When I got 00:31:00married, we lived over here for a while, then we moved to

Wake Forest. Because we stayed in my mother's house. My mother, she stayed with

a family in New York, and also she was in Georgia, so we lived in her house for

a while, then we rented another house until we built this one here. My children,

my oldest son, we were living in Wake Forest, so he went to Price's Fork

Elementary. We didn't have any more school in Wake Forest. That little school

just phased out I guess.

Susannah: Did it?

Naomi: Um-hm. So when my son was born, and other kids, they went to Price's

Fork. That's where he went and he did kindergarten. They started 00:32:00 kindergarten.

But, I don't know why. I guess it's just the way it was, but like I said, there

was no kindergarten, you just went from first grade to seventh, then from eighth

to eleven. That was how, you know.

Susannah: Where did you meet your husband?

Naomi: I met him at church.

Susannah: At church?

Naomi: Um-hm.

Susannah: What church did you go to?

Naomi: We were at a Church in Christiansburg when I met him. We were having some

kind of, I think, we have what we call unions. That's on the fifth Sunday of

each month, we would go, all the churches would get together and just have

service and all. So he's from Pulaski, and I was from Wake Forest, and we were

there in Christiansburg at a church and that's where I met him. But when I met

him, I still wasn't living here. I had just come home from a 00:33:00visit. And then I

went back to Philadephia, and he started writing and we started writing. And

then, really, [laughter] he said, well, why don't we get married? I tell ya:

well, okay [laughter], So I came back home from Philadelphia and got married.

And then I've been here ever since. So we got married in Christiansburg in

[19]60, so we got married in [19]59.

Susannah: In Pulaski?

Naomi: No, in Wake Forest. We had two churches in Wake Forest. That's just how

small it was. It was called the Baptist Church and one was called the Holiness

Church, and I got married at the Baptist Church, but I attended the Holiness

Church because the Baptist Church was larger. We just had a little small 00:34:00 church.

But that was the Holiness Church. But, since then, they have built a bigger

place over there.

Susannah: Did your husband grow up in Pulaski?

Naomi: Um-hm.

Susannah: So did he go to Christiansburg Institute?

Naomi: No, he didn't go to high school. He just had elementary or seventh grade

education. He didn't go to high school at all. He was the oldest of his family

siblings, and he really had to work to help his mother because she had all those

children, and, she--. Well, my husband's dad and her, they separated or divorced

or something when he was just--I think he said he was a year old or something

like that. And then, she, of course she had a lot more children by another man.

I mean they lived together, but they weren't married. But he was the only one

that she had by her 00:35:00husband before they separated. When I met him he was taking

care of his sisters and brothers. He worked to do that.

Susannah: So did you keep in contact with any of your friends from

Christiansburg Institute after you graduated?

Naomi: Well, no, not really. If I would see them in a store or something but

just to write and do like that, no.

Susannah: No?

Naomi: No, because I just knew 'em 00:36:00and everything, but as far as just being

really buddy-buddy, I wasn't--. I had met other people, other friends, when I

went away. So no, I really didn't. But I'll tell you when we did see each other

a lot, when we had the reunions, the CI reunions.

Susannah: How often would you have CI reunions?

Naomi: We would have something every year, but it's like every--we had the big

one not this past year. Last year, 2000, let's see. This is--

Susannah: 00:37:00 2012.

Naomi: Maybe it was 2010 that we had the last big one. But we have a little

something every year. But not everybody comes in. But when we have the big one,

like when we had this big one in 2010, I remember seeing a lot of my

schoolmates, because a lot of them are dead too. A lot of my classmates are

dead. We had this girl from Maryland. As a matter of fact, we sat together at

the table. Then another friend of mine, I mean a classmate, who had moved to

Charlotte, North Carolina. She was in. Some of them would come in and some would

not. But that's where I really got to see 'em, when we would have our CI 00:38:00 reunions.

Susannah: Right after you graduated were there reunions, or did this start

happening later on?

Naomi: No, later on. After they organized and got the different things--clubs,

or whatever, whatever they needed to get the reunions started. No, it was way,

way, way after we graduated from high school. And I'm glad they did, whoever--I

know Jackie Eaves--I don't know whether you know her or not, she lives in Blacksburg.

Susannah: Yeah, I've heard of Jackie.

Naomi: Okay, well she's our president now of the alumni association, after they

got all that together. And it's different--they have different officers and

everything. And in different cities, like in Roanoke, 00:39:00they got the alumni

association, the Roanoke chapter, and up in Maryland I think we got a chapter.

And, of course, down here. But we all get together. When we have the big one, we

all get together. I think they have smaller ones, too. They have little things

on the year that's not the big one in the different cities that they are in.

Susannah: Did you keep in touch with any of your friends from your elementary

school in Wake Forest?

Naomi: Yeah, I think. A lot, yeah. Because a lot of the people I went to school

with in Wake Forest, they moved. See, what happened, there weren't jobs and

things down in this area for us, and we had to go to the city somewhere to get a

job--ya know, a decent job. So a lot of people from Wake Forest moved to

Alexandria, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland. My sister and all of them, my

whole family except my 00:40:00brother--I got a brother who lives in Roanoke--but the

rest of my family moved to Baltimore. They've been there--

Susannah: Oh, really?

Naomi: Right. They've been there for years. Well, their children were born here.

But, they're old. So, my sister and brothers, they moved to Baltimore when their

children were just small and my sister is eighty years old now so she's been

there for years.

Susannah: She's there now?

Naomi: Um-hm. And I got a brother, my brother James lives there. I told you I

had two brothers deceased. Then I got my brother Roy lives in Roanoke.

Susannah: And did your parents stay around here or did they move too?

Naomi: No, well my dad died when mother was six months pregnant with me and I

told you I'm the baby. My dad 00:41:00drowned. So mother, she stayed around. She stayed

around for years until she moved with this family from Blacksburg. She moved

with this family who were a German couple from Germany. They had children, he

was a professor, and he took a job in New York and they had just had--they had

three children. The one was the baby and they was looking for somebody to be a

housekeeper. So, my mother went with them to New York and then she ended up in

Georgia. My mother was here--not in Pulaski but over in Wake Forest--for years

until she moved away with the 00:42:00family. Mother was up in her maybe seventies when

she went with the Bartmans[[41:52]] to New York. Of course, my mother passed.

She was in Baltimore, Maryland with my sister. She was sick, she had developed

Leukemia, and so she was there with her when she passed. But we brought her back

to Wake Forest to bury her.

Susannah: You did?

Naomi: Um-hm. Right beside my dad. My dad's buried there.

Susannah: So do you go back to Wake Forest?

Naomi: Yeah, I go. As a matter of fact, I was over there this past Sunday. I was

over there for church. Yeah, I go over there.

Susannah: So you still go to church over there?

Naomi: No, no, no. I was going to a church here. We decided to start going here

because things happened. Okay, I'm 00:43:00in the church called the United Holy Church

of America. So the church I was in here, they decided they wanted to get out of

that body. That's why I couldn't go there anymore so we go to a church in

Woodlawn, Virginia and it's in our same faith.

Susannah: So do you have a favorite teacher from Christiansburg Institute that

you remember?

Naomi: Yeah, I do. I remember Mr. Holmes, my government teacher. His name was

Zimri Holmes, and he was a good teacher. He was just a nice man, a nice

Christian teacher man. I liked him a whole lot. I think he was my favorite. I

mean, the other teachers, they were 00:44:00okay but I liked him. I mean they were good

teachers, yeah.

Susannah: Why did you like him the best?

Naomi: I liked going to his class because he had such a nice attitude about him

and his voice and tone. He always spoke to you in a nice tone. He was kind. I

mean, I can see him now. He was just a kind man. He was a good teacher, too, and

he knew government. Back then we had nigger history government and--it was

history, but he was the government teacher--and then we had United States

Government, and I remember those two well. 00:45:00He always had a smile on his face and

he was just a nice teacher. A nice, pleasant tone. If he got mad at you, he

didn't really raise his voice, you know? And I think everybody respected him,

too. I did. They respected Mr. Holmes because he showed respect for the students

and we showed respect to him, also. Well, I tried to show respect to all my

teachers. I wouldn't disrespect any of them. But, he was just that type of man.

Susannah: Yeah. Do you remember any teachers that you didn't like and 00:46:00why? You

don't have to say them by name. [laughter]

Naomi: [laughter] Well, yeah, yeah. I do. One teacher that taught the beauty

culture. Something she said one time that I just didn't think was very nice. But

she didn't know that I felt bad. I didn't let her know that I felt bad about it.

But, her, yeah I do remember her. She passed maybe two or three years ago

herself. She was in a nursing home in Floyd and I saw her in Radford at the

hospital. I got over it years ago, my goodness. But, I saw her at Radford

hospital and she was sick and shortly after that they took her to Floyd to a 00:47:00nursing home. I wouldn't change anything from high school if I could--where I

went and everything. We got a good education there plus we had fun. I guess you

could say our school was [laughter] segregated too because we didn't have any

white people there. So everybody just went to their own schools, you know.

Whites went to their school and the blacks went to their school. I often wonder

why 'cause in Roanoke they had--what 00:48:00was the name of the school? It was a black

school. They made it into a middle school. Why the children from Shawsville--oh,

I know why they didn't go--because Shawsville and Elliston are in Montgomery County.

Susannah: Um-hm.

Naomi: And in Roanoke, I was thinking, why didn't they go there 'cause it was

closer. But that was Roanoke, Roanoke County. That's why they had to come all

the way to CI. Like I said, it housed from Elliston to Shawsville, Floyd, Galax,

Wytheville, Wake Forest, Radford, Pulaski, New River, just all of us went to the

same school. But, that's what made it, I think, so nice. I mean, we got to meet

people from other areas. I think that's why, 00:49:00we really did, we had a lot of fun.

I know they don't do that now, we used to have--I guess they would call it field

day or whatever but I know our band and all the majorettes and even the physical

ed classes--children in physical ed[ucation] class. We would go, they would have

a parade in Christiansburg and they would march. It wasn't no kind of holiday. I

think it was a field day. I remember well marching through the town of

Christiansburg. We did things, ya know. We weren't barred from doing things.

They allowed us to bring our bands and things. It was really nice.

Susannah: 00:50:00Was that parade just for students at CI?

Naomi: Yeah. At that particular time, yeah. Our band and everything, yeah. If I

can remember--now I don't want to not--say something that's not true. I know

people were on the sidewalks and things watching the band play but I can't

remember any other bands being there. Now Jessie might would know. I really

can't. I just remember us. But I been out of high school, good lord. [laughter]

I've been out of high school over fifty-some years. I have, I'm seventy-four now

and got out of high school in [19]54. But, I've been out of high school for I

think fifty-four years. Because 00:51:00I--wait a minute--I graduated in [19]54 and I

was fifteen then. Now I'm seventy-four. So it's been a long time.

Susannah: So that's about--I'm trying to do the math in my head. [laughter]

Naomi: It's been a long time.

Susannah: Did you--

Naomi: 'Cause I was married for thirty-eight years.

Susannah: Thirty-eight years

Naomi: Yeah, thirty-eight.

Susannah: Do you remember if you ever went to those parades before you started

at school?

Naomi: No.

Susannah: Had you ever been to CI before you started high school there?

Naomi: Yeah, we would go there. We used to have programs and plays and things

there. And I had been there before I started high school for a program or

something. And we had a nice 00:52:00auditorium. I mean it was really nice. And we had

modern things and the last nice thing they did for us was build us that gym. I

remember that, we had a nice gym.

Susannah: You were at school when they built you the gym?

Naomi: Um-hm, yeah, I was there when they built that nice gym for us. And I

remember, I remember well. The little gym, wherever they had to play basketball,

was just little, small. And I remember when they built that big gym then we

could have basketball games there and everything with other students coming. Of

course then we only played black teams like maybe somebody from Roanoke. When it

was segregated, 00:53:00back then we didn't play white teams and all. Of course, things

are different now. I would not trade my high school for anything because it was

such an experience that I'll never forget, about going there. I was going to

look--I had my class picture, I think it's somewhere in the drawer in there.

Susannah: That'd be great.

Naomi: I was going to show you.

Susannah: I'd love to see it.

Naomi: Well, I didn't--I think it's in there. I didn't--let me see.

Susannah: Okay, I'll stop this while we look for that.