Early YearsMy parents always lived right around Arley, Winston County. My dad, his parents migrated from Walker County. They came to Winston County and bought a lot of land and they farmed. I believe my grandparents on my dad’s side, there was about fourteen of them. In my mama’s family there was about eight I guess. We were very, very poor. We were the lowest in our community. I’m in a lot better shape than my parents were.
Course I went to school at Meek. I didn’t get to start until I was seven years old cause it was so far to the bus. They were afraid for me to try it by myself. I was the oldest of eight children. It was so far to the bus and the bus couldn’t get down there. Nothing could get in and of out there but a mule and a wagon. The road was rough and washed away. A car couldn’t get in there course there wasn’t many cars around at that time. That was in ‘29 when I started to school, something like that. I was seven years old and born in ‘22 so it would be right.
Well I got married when I was nineteen years old and got drafted into service in World War II. I was twenty when I went in the army and got married at nineteen. I stayed in the army about three years. In the meantime we had two children. While I was in the service I would come home ………. I came home, the older one was conceived before I left, and then the one after I came from overseas , I came home on furlough and nine months later I had another one.
Well I was in the anti-aircraft and almost to Berlin. I believe it was five days before the war ended in Germany. I was in a motorcycle accident and they sent me back, all the way back to Paris and then on. It was a German motorcycle. Some of the boys got one and I was riding it. A jeep hit me and knocked me up in a German’s yard and the Germans were just a hollering and carrying on. They picked me up and carried me to the hospital and all the way back to the United States. That was five days before Berlin, before we took Berlin.
We had airplane attacks. We would set up ammunition dumps, little old airstrips. I remember one that was a fighter strip and it was just wires put down on the grass for landing and taking off. Something like concrete wire. Something like that. We saw a lot of them all shot up. B-29’s shot all to pieces. One time a B-26 Marauder, it was raining and as they started landing, six of them crashed. Didn’t any of them make it.
Started out at Camp Edwards, Massachusetts. Any way, they sent us up there in January. It was cold up there. That was January of ‘42. Finished basic there and went to Tennessee. No we went to Camp Rooker, Alabama. Stayed there awhile and had maneuvers around there. Then we went to Tennessee and had maneuvers for a month or so, two or three months over in Tennessee, the mountains there. Then we went to Georgia for a while. It was about a year we hopped around, not hardly; and then we left and went overseas.
Landed in Scotland, got on a train and went to Tidworth, England. That was about 80 miles out of London and stayed there until the invasion. A few days after the invasion we landed over at Utah Beach. Oh, that was awful. It wasn’t on us but the people before us. It was a few days after the roughest part when we went over. We just kept following all the way through France, through Paris and on through Belgium. Charleroi, Belgium, we stayed there a few days. We were there at the Battle of the Bulge right at the tail end of that, but we got by.
Then we went on over into Germany, Wessel, across the line there. I don’t remember the name of any more towns between there and Berlin. We were nearly at Berlin when I got hurt. Five days later Germany surrendered. (You were about 22 or 23 years old at that time?) Yes.
(Were you pretty good to ride motorcycles at that time?) I guess I thought I was. Well I was doing all right; I just started to turn left and a jeep started to pass me. One of our jeeps. I hated that so bad. Just broke my foot and they put a walking cast on me and I came home, had fun for two months. I didn’t get out of the army; I didn’t get discharged until three or four months later. Well I went back and I came home, took my 30 days, then I called them and asked for another 30 days. So they granted it. Then I went back and a day or two after I went back Japan surrendered. Then they decided to get rid of me. Then I went back to Atlanta and they discharged me.
I got home and didn’t have anything. Course I kept my uniform. I started out in logging. Skidding logs and farming a little too. I did that for a while and decided I’d go back to school and I went to school. They had a veteran’s continuation class at night and then I went to regular school in the daytime. That way after a year I started at the University of Alabama. I thought I wanted to coach. I got a degree in that and a minor in science and social studies.
After I started coaching I didn’t like coaching. So, I went back and got a master’s degree in school administration. I was principal at a couple of schools, Kelly, stayed there two years and went to Dowling and from there to Crane Hill. The fifth year I was principal. Went to Kelly the first year and stayed two years there. Then went back to Dowling and stayed eleven years or something like that. I coached high school one year, high school football. I didn’t like that. Then I was principal at Kelly. Kelly is right out of Cullman on the Eva road. Then they wanted me to come to Dowling and I stayed there for several years. Ten or eleven years.
She was sixteen when we married. Ten months later we had a child. We didn’t know what was causing all that I don’t reckon. But anyway she is a good person. When I was at the university she worked at the Druid City Hospital for a year or so and then she went to Bryce’s mental hospital. She could get a little more money there. She worked there until I graduated. One of (my brothers) just younger than I am, he was in service too at the same time I was. He did like I did, came back and graduated from high school and then went to the University of Alabama. We were the only two in that community that had a college degree for years. It was hard. I wasn’t all that intelligent anyway but it was hard. I went year round for three years and I graduated.
I got a job at Meek High School coaching football and basketball. I was “the” coach “the only coach” for the back, line and all. We didn’t do too well and I got all I wanted of coaching football. The most enjoyable teaching was teaching math and I didn’t get much training in math. I was learning along with them, I guess. I had to work on it some but I really enjoyed it. (This was in) junior high. I was thirty when I got out of college. I was 24 when I got out of the army, out of service. Then I fooled around and logged and all that for a year or two. Then I went back to high school and soon as I finished there and graduated from high school, I went to the University of Alabama. The GI Bill, without the GI Bill I could have never made it. I was going to try it but I couldn’t have made it.
Me and a brother had a little old store there and my wife took care of it. This was while I was struggling with logging and farming and going to school. This was a general store around Arley. The building’s still there. (It was called) Key’s Grocery. (Would this have been in the late ‘40’s?) Yes, because I graduated in ‘52 from the university. (When you went off to school, did you sell the store?) Yes, I believe my sister ran it (the store) for a while and we finally closed it up. We sold it to another person and they kept open for a while.
I taught math three or four years. I was at Dowling then. I would teach two or three classes in the morning and then at noon I was principal and teach PE. (How did you come to the Central Office?) Well, I talked to them about high school, transferring to high school.
But I have three wonderful daughters that I appreciate so much.
(Pam says ) The interesting part was before I was born. When he was going to school he was selling his blood to buy books and things. Mother worked at Bryce’s as nurse’s aide.
Once a month I would sell a pint blood, I forgot now, for $20.00 I believe or something like that. Boy we would really have a feast. We would have pork chops for supper. Then we would go to a drive in movie, when I’d sell a pint of blood. (You sold your blood once a month for three years?) Probably, yeah. It finally got where it had to be 65 days you had to wait the last year or so. I was at Dowling when she (Pam) came along. Every time I came home, nine months later there was a baby born. It was about ten years before Pam was born.
Then I got a chance to come to the Central Office and I’ve been there ever since. There I’ve done about everything except being superintendent. I worked with the Federal programs, Title One. One time I had a Title Two. That’s another Federal program for libraries. I’ve been with education for several years. (When I began to work at the central office) Mr. York was superintendent. He was a nice fellow. I worked with text books. We had fifty 16mm films in my library. I kept noticing that nobody ever used them.
So I came up with this idea I would start a media mobile. Put all those things on a van and go around to every school and let them check them out. And they started using them. We went up to about fifteen hundred 16mm films and they checked those things out like mad and of course they changed to videos. We started out with a few videos along with the 16mm. eventually we got all videos now. They used to check those out, I mean a lot of them, but it’s slacked off. Now we are going to have to go to DVDs or something like that.
I started it about three or four or five years ago, something like that. I’ve been responsible for it since then, since I started it. Occasionally I drive it myself, somebody else would take it and then they would quit and I would have to drive it for a while. Wound up when I retired Jim Boyd hired me to do just that, the media mobile, part time. So I did it part time and pretty soon I didn’t like staying at home every two days a week you know. I didn’t like staying at home the other three so I just started working full time and getting paid part time.
I did that for sixteen or seventeen years. Fifteen years. (I’ve been officially retired since) ‘88. I worked full time on part time pay nearly all of that and I’m not complaining. I’m glad I had that opportunity. I started the media mobile a long time before I retired, several years. They would give me some one to help me and to drive it, but they’d quit you know, and we’d have to get someone else and I’d have to drive it ‘til they did. When I retired I started driving it all the time, both days, by myself. They checked out a lot of them but it’s slowed down a lot now. It’s grown a couple of thousand students (since I came to the central office). It might be more than that I don’t know.
I came to the central office in) ’66. Course it wasn’t really for Mr. York, but those positions in there were usually political. People told me “Oh, you won’t get to stay there long. They’ll want to get rid of you”. But I’ve been there ever since. (I started out in) Title One and adult education, at night mostly. I had to get the teachers and organize the classes. We had them at just about every school to begin with. There was quite a few attended. It went down too in later years. Then they finally changed it, let the State Department take it over and take care of everything. I didn’t do any more with it.
(My time with) Adult Education was seven or eight years I’m sure and Title One was probably ten years or more. Title Two was just a part time job I did in my spare time mostly. I believe just a year after he (Mr. York) hired me his time was up. Then it was Martin Campbell. No, wait a minute. I’ll take that back. Mr. Moore was the superintendent when I came to Cullman County, (when I was at) Dowling. Then I went to Kelly and back to Dowling and then to the Central Office and Martin Campbell was in there in between there but Mr. York hired me for the Central Office. His term ended in about a year and Hollis Tucker. You ever know Hollis Tucker? He was superintendent for four years.
Then Jim Boyd stayed in for twenty years. I worked for him and I enjoyed working with him, working for him. Well I retired and came back. I never did quit work though he hired me before I retired. We had the agreement and everything. Hollis Tucker, Jim Boyd for twenty years, Felton Easterwood for four, Jan Farley, eight. This one we’ve got now (Dr. Horton), worked for her two or three years now. (You have probably been around the Central Office as long or longer than any one there now). That’s probably right. I have been in education for 53 years I believe it is. It is a good life. When you grew up like I did it is good
(My parents) they were very poor and uneducated but they wanted me to get an education. They didn’t want me to have to do like they did. And I didn’t want to either. When I went in service I saw things that I really enjoyed like showers and bathrooms and stuff like that. When I got back that was my aim. Well I didn’t have it when I got back from service either.
There have been a lot of changes (in education and our country). I think some of them were good. Maybe some I don’t agree with. It’s tougher to teach now because of discipline, you know. Some of the parents don’t want their children disciplined like I used to do it. And I got it done to me too. I think we have just given over too much. We’re paying for it now. You know my part of it is just about over.
She (my wife) came from a poor family too. She was born in Akron, Ohio. Her dad went up there and worked in a tire factory from down here and married a lady from up there. She was born up there and she was the oldest of her family. They moved back to Cordova and he worked at different things you know. Then they moved up to Winston County, up to Arley, where all her family was close. Now it would be a long way to walk. (It was within walking distance back in those days?) About five miles. (Was that how far you had two walk to catch the school bus?) Close to it.
What else did you do to get through college?) I had a little place where I could make me a garden. They had barracks, Army barracks. There was a big general hospital, Arley Hospital, and we lived in those huts or buildings. I would have a few rows of garden. Then we would come home and Mother and Daddy would have a big garden. We couldn’t buy much. It wasn’t easy but I didn’t realize it back then. I just took it as it come. Did the best I could.
Course I grew up the hard way too. Well, I haven’t accomplished a whole lot in the way of finances. I am a poor manager of money. I had some lake property but I gave it to her (Pam) and my oldest grandson. (Is your home now near where you were raised?). About twenty miles due west. (Did the lake get near your old home place?). Oh yeah, got most of it. My daddy didn’t have anything ’til that water backed up. He got a lot of money ahead. (My daddy lived to be) 82 and mama, I had to take care of her and finally had to put her in a nursing home. She lived to be 88, I believe.
The land that they got, they inherited 40 acres. All of the family inherited 40 acres. He bought this particular place down on Sipsey River. He bought part of the others’ 40 acres, so he had 80 acres. The backwater backed up nearly all the way around that. He sold a lot of it. I guess he was about 60. He finally sold the old home place down there and moved out up on the road where the bus could have got to it. Finally they got a road down that way. We didn’t have a car. My dad and mama were good, poor, honest people. I loved them so much.
I really never did retire. I kept driving the media mobile. He hired me for that before I retired.
Spiritual matters, we were raised to go to church and I knew that God, He answered prayers. We believed in that.
Treat people like you want to be treated or better.
Financial situation, it’s not too good but we’re getting by alright.
On raising children in my opinion you have to be firm, let them know you love them and make sure they do what you tell them to do and hope they will remember that later.
My first year at the university they were on the quarter system and then they changed to the semester system. (Fifteen semester hours is a good load?) Well, I took from eighteen to 21 (semester hours).
Well, they found that I have lung cancer but they said it’s the best kind to have if you’ve got to have one. It’s slow and I believe they said it’s curable. I have been taking treatments for a month and a half, one a day, five days a week, and I’ve got three more and I’ll be through. They haven’t bothered me at all. I work and garden and do anything I want to do. (I’ve always enjoyed pretty good health) and I thank the Good Lord for that.
I am 82 and that’s a pretty good life. My great-granddaddy lacked six days living to 111. He was from Randolph county and here and then they moved out to Oklahoma. He was on the Fuller side, my mother’s side. They originated in Randolph County. Mom was twelve years old when they moved to Arley, Winston County. Her daddy lived to be 85 I believe it was. She was 88. That’s a long life. My grandfather (on the Key side) had pneumonia at 51 and died. I never did know him. My grandmother took over the family and worked hard and did a good job of raising them.
They owned several different places. You know, 80 acres here and 80 acres there. I don’t know how they accomplished this. My granddaddy Key was a big mason. Evidently he knew it pretty well and he would go around, ride a horse or a mule, and my grandmother would stay there and work the farm while he was gone. I believe there were fourteen (children).
