Emily Tillman interview with Frances Elyea; Philip Perkins; Alan Neely; Tom Branch, III; Hughes Roberts; Caroline Bethea; Lillian Deakins; and Spring Street School students (part one)

The John Burrison Georgia Folklore Archive recordings contains unedited versions of all interviews. Some material may contain descriptions of violence, offensive language, or negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. There are instances of racist language and description, particularly in regards to African Americans. These items are presented as part of the historical record. This project is a repository for the stories, accounts, and memories of those who chose to share their experiences for educational purposes. The viewpoints expressed in this project do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the Atlanta History Center or any of its officers, agents, employees, or volunteers. The Atlanta History Center makes no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in the interviews and expressly disclaims any liability therefore. If you believe you are the copyright holder of any of the content published in this collection and do not want it publicly available, please contact the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center at 404-814-4040 or reference@atlantahistorycenter.com. Please note this recording contains racist language. This is the first of a six part recording about Spring Street School in Atlanta, Georgia. Francis Elyea starts the audio by sharing stories from her time working there as a teacher. The first is about a field trip to Williamsburg, Virginia; the second is about a bubble gum contest held at the school; and the following three stories are about misbehaving students. Elyea explains that she enjoyed teaching at Spring Street School because she felt a sense of community. At minute 22:06, Elyea describes the school demographics; in the 1940s, it was mostly white students; whereas at the time of the recording it had become much more diverse. She also explains that she is patient with misbehaving students, as opposed to the strict rules and punishment she experienced as a student. Next, at minute 42:02, Philip Perkins, a former Spring Street School student, demonstrates how to make an origami football and explains three popular tabletop games; finger football, basketball, and soccer. Then, he tells jokes he learned from school, some of which contain racist language. To conclude this part of the interview, at minute 45:30, Alan Neely, another former Spring Street School student, tells a story about one student cutting another with a toy knife. Francis Elyea (1912-1993) was born in Ellaville, Georgia, to Alonzo Arrington (1866-1959) and Bertha Burnam (1872-1940). She graduated from Valdosta State College and worked as a schoolteacher at Spring Street Elementary School in Atlanta. Later she resided in Roswell, where she served as president of the Roswell Historical Society and belonged to the North Fulton Child Development Association, Roswell Womans Club, and Daughters of the American Revolution. She married George Elyea (1903-1995) in 1956. Hughes Roberts (1919-2005) was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to John Hughes Roberts (1880-1946) and Lillian Mitchell Roberts (1895-1988). He attended Boys High School in Atlanta, then graduated from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He served as a Captain in the Air Force during World War II, and later worked for Ingersoll Rand. Lillian Roberts Deakins (1921-2019), Hughes Robertss sister, graduated from Agnes Scott College in 1943 and worked for Eastern Airlines. In 1945, she married her first husband, David Miller Deakins (1925-1989), with whom she had two daughters: Lillian Clarke (1949-2023) and Dorothy Chandler (1951- ). In 1997, she married her second husband, John Wyant (1915-2010). In 2012, she married Lloyd Timberlake (1917-2017). Caroline Yundt Bethea (1921-2012) was born in Atlanta to George Yundt (1876-1950) and Caroline Perdue (1887-1974). She graduated from Washington Seminary in Atlanta, and later attended Bradford Junior College in Haverhill, Massachusetts. She married Charles Bethea (1908-1974), and they had five children. Tom Branch graduated from Grady High School, and had one son, Tom Branch IV (1965- ). Philip Perkins, Alan Neely, and Tom Branch III (1936- ) resided in Atlanta. Additional biographical information has not been determined. 00;00;31;08 - 00;01;03;20 Speaker 1 Williamsburg. Of course, every year the child or children do. We consider the biggest behavioral problems? Well, they end up having to sleep in the room with the teacher. Only the boys stay in the room. The chaperons, and they don't really seem to mind it because it's just something we've always done. And we tell them that's the way you'll be able can go, Oh, this pays to one boy whose name was John was put in the room with me. 00;01;03;29 - 00;01;25;12 Speaker 1 Oh, no. I was a little afraid that he might not be real happy about it. But anyway, the first day I took it out to Williamsburg, the children had been out shopping for some souvenirs. They usually spend all that money the first day on souvenirs, and from then on they are broke and they do sightsee. And I took the first day. 00;01;26;08 - 00;01;53;22 Speaker 1 But anyway, he came in that night with souvenirs for all his family and he said, Look, you are about to present to he have me a small little blue blue Jay. I was so excited over and I told him that one, if he had thought about what people say about Blue Jays that they say they are, the meat is bad. 00;01;53;22 - 00;02;26;21 Speaker 1 So he said no, that wasn't the reason he bought the blue J He bought it because he thought I would like it. I told him that that would be on my bookshelf the rest of my life. And every time I looked at it, I would think of him. I really do think of him when I see it. And then the thing that pleased me most, I guess of that too, was when we got back, every child wrote about the trip and in the story he said, I really do not mind rooming with my teachers. 00;02;26;21 - 00;02;58;09 Speaker 1 And she was a real nice roommate this year. We told the children too, that we would take a bath instead of saying, Don't do this and don't do that. We would not talk about things To do that. We would work towards seeing how many compliments we could get on the trip. We had had a bubble gum contest in school and they thought that was about the greatest thing I think, that they had ever done in school. 00;02;58;10 - 00;03;22;14 Speaker 1 Just to see the blow. The largest bubble on the bubble gum we started working to with these compliments. And by the time I could say that if they got as many as five, we would have a bubble gum contest. We knew until we got back. They had seven couple letters from people like at the motel and restaurants and different places that they had been. 00;03;22;18 - 00;03;44;17 Speaker 1 They had no idea that they were working towards getting funding. And so that came in really to praise children and think of behaving in a positive way, really motivated them into being the kind of person you want them to be more than the punishment sometimes that you will get. 00;03;45;03 - 00;03;49;24 Speaker 2 And when did the trips to Williamsburg, the storm, and are they still going on? 00;03;49;28 - 00;04;02;22 Speaker 1 Well, of course I have done I have went on four different trips as long as I had fifth grade and we used to win in the spring. But it was just something that I did is not anything. There's just no. 00;04;02;22 - 00;04;06;12 Speaker 2 Oh, it's not a matter of selling off. These cookbooks has become. 00;04;06;20 - 00;04;29;28 Speaker 1 No, it was just the first or second year we had the trip. We just were working out ways to make some money. And so the cookbook idea came to mind. And so we worked on that. And so then we started other ways of making money too, like selling candy and collecting drives, selling them, having a Tupperware. 00;04;30;26 - 00;04;34;08 Speaker 2 Would you call those traditions or just way too late? 00;04;34;08 - 00;04;57;15 Speaker 1 I almost became it was tradition, I guess, with me because I do. I started it because it was the children knew and talked about it before they were in my class. If they wanted to, couldn't wait to go to Williamsburg. They expected it. And last year, even though I knew it was my last year of teaching and that I was so busy having just bought a new house, it was something I just felt I had to do. 00;04;57;15 - 00;05;03;26 Speaker 1 I could not let them die. And when they had talked about it for three or four years and I looked forward to it so. 00;05;04;25 - 00;05;11;03 Speaker 2 Well, I was hoping that it was going to take the place of the old patrol trip to Washington, which ended right. 00;05;11;13 - 00;05;16;16 Speaker 1 Well, it didn't really it didn't take the place of it, because for many years there there was no travel thinking. 00;05;16;29 - 00;05;21;06 Speaker 2 Was that because of our clients have always wondered that because of all the. 00;05;21;21 - 00;05;28;09 Speaker 1 Time, it wasn't your place. It was something that happened in the city. They had some very unfortunate things to happen. 00;05;28;15 - 00;05;29;13 Speaker 2 In the city of, you. 00;05;29;25 - 00;05;33;04 Speaker 1 Know, in civilian lands. Some of the students. 00;05;33;17 - 00;05;39;16 Speaker 2 Well, we have some legends in our class about certain people that went on that trip and what they did wrong. You know, How. 00;05;39;26 - 00;05;45;16 Speaker 1 Were you in the class? Did I go with you? I can't even. Were you in Carolina with those guys? 00;05;45;19 - 00;05;48;11 Speaker 2 No. The next day, one older. 00;05;48;26 - 00;06;18;24 Speaker 1 Well, I went one year with a true, true. And I enjoyed it. I was in the car with the chief of police and Garth Long way from Love It through Moses Mill. They had asked me to just go not as a chaperon, but to go. And all night long I don't think I slept because I was a messenger girl between the two cars boys were in one car, one side and girls on the other. 00;06;18;24 - 00;06;40;06 Speaker 1 So I go back to the other boys. One they all knew me notes to guarantee the girl. That's exactly what girls forgive me knows to carry to the boys. And so I was back and forth all night. One thing, though, I will never forget was that one boy on the trip who had never given any trouble at all at school, had a water pistol. 00;06;41;06 - 00;07;03;23 Speaker 1 He was making hay and along with some others, were making the life of one little boy miserable, one child. It just never did know how to play with children. The children didn't particularly like to be women because everything they did that he didn't like, he would run in town. So in a way, they were shooting him the wall and I went back. 00;07;04;12 - 00;07;22;28 Speaker 1 And you was just one boy. They had never been a properly in a way, with his water pistol. So he was petrified when he got back to school because somebody told me as done is the principal that he had. He and others had water pistols on the trail. She had told them before they left not to go away with Indigo pistols. 00;07;23;26 - 00;07;47;20 Speaker 1 But anyway, they did, as most boys do. When they get away like that, they like to do something they're not supposed to. That's just part of growing up. But I remember him so well because I stopped and I said he just looked like he was trying to do right after he'd been talking. And I stopped and I said, Don't be so upset over this. 00;07;48;09 - 00;08;07;15 Speaker 1 I didn't know this happened. But she heard it. But I said, even though she she didn't like it cause she doesn't feel that you did her exact right. But I said it really isn't real. And it's not so bad because our boys have done this some time ago. I probably your daddy did and all of the boys have at one time you. 00;08;08;12 - 00;08;10;04 Speaker 1 So just. Just forget it. 00;08;10;16 - 00;08;12;14 Speaker 2 You know? I told you. 00;08;12;28 - 00;08;35;10 Speaker 1 I said, just forget it. Just don't do it again. But just forget it. Well, it somehow it just that far away. He just seemed to kind of bring up the fact that I guess he thought some teacher thought what he had done was not so bad. He was not a student that I taught. It happened. And he was one that had been my movie boy. 00;08;35;24 - 00;08;55;20 Speaker 1 And I had grown to love him and had felt almost like he had been in my room. But our children, there's not too much difference really, in children from time to time. They do. They do very much the same things now. I think that probably their parents did when they were coming. Yeah. 00;08;56;02 - 00;08;58;07 Speaker 2 Well, you know. Do you remember you said one. 00;08;58;16 - 00;08;59;10 Speaker 1 Oh, she. 00;08;59;10 - 00;09;23;20 Speaker 2 And I got into terrific trouble on that trip to Washington where my four volume True Confessions nag me. And I can remember we were hauled into Miss Douglas's office, and I was petrified. Maria was much more sophisticated than I was. And Miss Douglas called our mothers. And when Miss Douglas was down on that telephone, I was just about damn so scared. 00;09;23;29 - 00;09;30;09 Speaker 2 My mother wasn't at home. And Miss Douglas, Maria's mother, and Maria's mother, just while. 00;09;31;23 - 00;09;33;06 Speaker 1 I can imagine, can't. 00;09;34;13 - 00;09;45;17 Speaker 2 See that was done. Took it very seriously. Everyone loved Miss Douglas, but like you say, they wanted to be disciplined. That boy, ours just. And do you remember? Sally would. 00;09;45;17 - 00;10;12;11 Speaker 1 Think. Oh, do I remember Sally? Everywhere I went, I saw Sally Whitfield. I would get on a bus. At that time, I didn't have a car and I would drive downtown and all of a sudden somebody from the back of the bus with yelled at me, I won. Marilyn Hey, Miss Harrington. And it was Sally. I'd go into maybe Alan's or Reagan Stephens or somewhere, and I hear all of a sudden somebody said, Hey, me, sir, and it got to be a joke. 00;10;12;17 - 00;10;14;12 Speaker 1 Everywhere I went, that was it. 00;10;16;04 - 00;10;19;28 Speaker 2 Did you hear about her little adventures in Washington? 00;10;20;13 - 00;10;26;22 Speaker 1 I know, but I have an idea. Well, that's interesting. I heard about some adventures, but not the one. 00;10;26;22 - 00;10;42;03 Speaker 2 She was pretty legendary. She. She was. You know, we lived on the Mayflower. I'm on about the ninth floor when we went on that trip, and she would throw notes down to supposedly to the men. 00;10;42;03 - 00;10;45;14 Speaker 1 On the street while I did hear, but I didn't remember who it was. 00;10;45;14 - 00;10;53;16 Speaker 2 Yeah. And then the tail got got stretched to saying that she threw him down from the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Monument. 00;10;53;16 - 00;11;21;29 Speaker 1 Oh, one day. Well, one thing that happened on our Williamsburg trip, the not the last year of the year before, I had one of the nicest places that ever had. But anyway, they were to a room just like, Oh, they're going to do something sometime they really shouldn't do. So anyway, we were at a motel and we had going to have breakfast and we were leaving. 00;11;21;29 - 00;11;47;26 Speaker 1 They are trying to get off to an early start. That morning we packed up everything and we're not coming back to the motel. So everybody had gotten on the bus except me. And the manager of the cafe attempted to not cafeteria. The restaurant called me and said, Your boys broke my door. Broke your door? What do you mean? 00;11;48;07 - 00;12;09;01 Speaker 1 He carried me over to the door of the restroom and hit the hinge and pulled out from the wall and broken some wood with it. So I said, Do you have any idea? Are you sure? It was some of mine? And he said, Yes, they were, and they were in my hand. I'm sure it was yours. So I asked him what he thought it would cost to take the extreme. 00;12;09;02 - 00;12;37;24 Speaker 1 So he said, Well, he really wasn't sure what. So I went back to the bus. I said, Everybody, please get off the bus. Nobody knew what it was. All that I had some parents to go with me. We went back and I said, Now, which one did These three spoke up? So I said, And of course, it would be one of the children whose mothers were standing. 00;12;37;24 - 00;13;02;06 Speaker 1 They are very embarrassed that he that he was in the group. Yeah. Again, he he was a child, but didn't use to do things wrong. But anyway, we told the man, we apologize. We told him he was sorry and that we would take part. And I told the children that each one of them was to have some money coming back to them at the end of the year from whatever was leftover from the trip. 00;13;02;25 - 00;13;21;05 Speaker 1 But the doll cost to get it fixed would be taken from whatever it was to go back to them, but they would have to pay for it because they had done it and they didn't mind. They knew they had done wrong and they were perfectly willing to pay the price I have. It so happened that the motel never did let me know. 00;13;21;05 - 00;13;41;06 Speaker 1 In fact, I wrote them and told that we wanted to clear the man and we wanted to pay for it. And again, they didn't answer the letter. So later on we wrote to make reservation to go another year. I mentioned it and they wrote back and say, I'm not sure about it, said that something happens in every school. 00;13;42;00 - 00;14;05;23 Speaker 1 But the funny thing was, right after that it happened. We went from Via to Cottage Grove Plantation. We went through the house in two groups and when both groups got through, we were walking around the front of the house and this lady, one of the guides, ran out and she said, Who is the leader of this group? And I said, I am. 00;14;05;23 - 00;14;33;07 Speaker 1 She said, Well, I just cannot let you get away with that. Telling you that you are the this is the nicest group that has ever been through this. But that is so funny. Was it that we had just left the motel with all this record behind that was supposed to be so bad and everybody was being rather depressed over that? 00;14;33;07 - 00;14;39;28 Speaker 1 And then to have us say we were the best group anyone ever been, my Well. 00;14;40;11 - 00;14;47;24 Speaker 2 On the subject of plaques and stuff, tell the one about the boys. The kids who ran out and see the wreck. 00;14;47;24 - 00;14;59;15 Speaker 1 Oh, that was this past year. We had volunteer mothers of working with the children in. Oh, well, I walked in the hall while they were in the hall. 00;14;59;20 - 00;15;04;17 Speaker 3 And I saw some child come half ago and I said, Wait. 00;15;04;20 - 00;15;37;07 Speaker 1 The man said, Well, I've been down there to see the wreck. I said, What? He said, A wreck on the expressway. And I said, Well, who gave you permission? You said, Nobody. But said, Oh, I was when I said, who gave this? You know. So anyway, I went in to talk to them about it and they had heard through someone come walking down the hall, had just politely stopped in and told them they had been a wreck on the expressway. 00;15;37;28 - 00;16;00;04 Speaker 1 So of course, child, they whispered to Ryan, they did wreck. And as soon as everybody got the word, the whole place jumped up, ran out the door, ran down to the fence to see the wreck. So later I kept the group in and I told of all who had gone like that to stay in. I wanted to talk to them so and keep in me. 00;16;00;04 - 00;16;23;14 Speaker 1 And I said, Now I want you to write me what you should do in a situation like that. Because you can say, you see, I know that you need that discipline and that if every time something happens outside the window, this sounds kind of unusual. If everybody in the building gets up and runs and I said, we'll have bedlam in the school and people will think we're a bunch of nuts. 00;16;23;18 - 00;17;11;13 Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, See one everybody wrote about being sorry and that he apologize and they should have had staff discipline except one little boy. He said when the whole place just tell about what he should do if a bomb is next to you and have to go all don't down lose weight. And the teacher says you can go if you see a rattlesnake ready to strike if you don't move until the teacher tells you to go when the house is falling and there was a fire, don't move unless the teacher that it takes because he went on in a bear ridiculous way. 00;17;11;13 - 00;17;31;06 Speaker 1 And of all the things that he said that he should do because the teacher and wait for the teacher to say he could do it. And then he ended his story that by saying and musalia, I think you would have done just what we did. 00;17;31;06 - 00;17;40;17 Speaker 2 Tell the story about the time you got in trouble with Miss Douglas for letting all the little Tennessee children come loose. No. 00;17;40;17 - 00;18;14;05 Speaker 1 Miss Douglas had always told the teachers to sell the school to the parents. You have to talk to the parents in a way that they appreciate the school and that that they can see and realize maybe some of the things that we are doing that are good. One day she brought in this child who was a very pathetic child, and that was another thing she always said to never, never anybody comes to your door a new child, don't ever show in in a way that you are sorry to have another child coming in. 00;18;14;05 - 00;18;50;22 Speaker 1 And no matter how large your place is now, how pathetic that child might look. You take that child, greet him with open arms like you're happy to have him join the group of. Anyway, this child was very pathetic, but anyway, I told him that I have to sit. We had a play and that he was going to get to be in the play, that I let him be the Indian and to play well because the part he was too high a man into almost nothing because the play was to be the next week and he was mainly going to have on a little Indian costume that I already had on hand to sit on the 00;18;50;22 - 00;19;15;01 Speaker 1 stage and be there talking to him with the others. But anyway, that afternoon his mother came to the door for him to go back to Copperfield to see for the week. So I said, by the way, life is going to be okay next week. He's going to be in India. It's going to be on the stage to beat the drum. 00;19;15;18 - 00;19;34;28 Speaker 1 And I want you to be sure and come to see the boy. Bring all the family, all the families are invited. We really want you to come because he's going to be real exciting, you know, to be in a play. I think Ralph said to me it'll be his first play, so this will be really exciting. So she her face. 00;19;34;29 - 00;20;02;29 Speaker 1 Bryan and she sang along. She thought that was great. Well, Monday morning I walked to school and the hall was full of people, children and parents. I soon learned that they were all from Copperfield, Tennessee. She had gone to Coffeyville and to all her cousins and brothers and sisters and nieces, nieces and nephews about Spring Street schools. And they had gone back. 00;20;02;29 - 00;20;30;08 Speaker 1 Ten of them had come back to Atlanta to live in this little house with them over on 15th Street and two in Spring Street School. So I had to miss Douglas, got them in row. She came to them. She sent me. Say, you see what you've done to me? I said, Well, you always told us to sell the school to parents. 00;20;30;08 - 00;20;46;08 Speaker 1 And that's what I tried to do. She said, Well, you really overshot the lot this time. But of course they were the kind of people they were trying to as they were. They are only a week or two and then they, of course, they were ready to go back to Coffeyville. 00;20;46;08 - 00;20;54;03 Speaker 2 Tell me what kind of students were there that weren't transient, your run of the Mill Springs streets to see a nice girl. 00;20;54;12 - 00;21;14;27 Speaker 1 Oh, the run of the mill student at spring, I think was just great, really. Spring has always been not I'm not saying it's just cause I taught, but I've heard, I heard it before I went. I, in fact, when I talked to asking to be transferred there, somebody said, Oh, you don't want to go back. I said, If you do that, you really have to work. 00;21;15;12 - 00;21;16;29 Speaker 2 What year was this year? 00;21;17;00 - 00;21;40;11 Speaker 1 He was saying around 4019. And I said, Well, I don't mind working good. I think it's a kind of school, really. I'd like to be in. So anyway, I was transferred and I just found the children. I don't say that they were smaller than children from other schools, but there's a feeling about the school that you don't find most of them. 00;21;40;24 - 00;22;02;19 Speaker 1 There's a democratic feeling. Every people have a chance to express themselves. There's no fear. They walk about the building. I guess you missed out on their way as they do in most schools, but still they all love their school. There's something that sprang that kind of I think it kind of gets into the blood, the bones of something that they don't ever really forget. 00;22;03;00 - 00;22;07;25 Speaker 2 Well, most of these children, what you call was, you know, white of sex, entranced. 00;22;08;06 - 00;22;20;10 Speaker 1 Yes. Most of them, we didn't have their race mixed classes or races, I might say as much back in the early days as Nyah. Right now they have we had every race and Spring Street. 00;22;20;10 - 00;22;20;21 Speaker 4 School. 00;22;21;24 - 00;22;49;00 Speaker 1 Orioles just in most any more than any country that you can name. We've got a child from that country but and children will come they're not speaking a word of English in just maybe a couple of years. They speak as well as anyone else. But these children. And they'll most of them had the potential. And you could work with the parents in getting in, reaching out to teaching. 00;22;49;18 - 00;23;02;19 Speaker 1 You felt like you had something to fall back on. Whereas in some schools, whether you have just a child, do you really have so little to go back and getting parents to cooperate? 00;23;02;19 - 00;23;04;09 Speaker 2 And so it was a real community. 00;23;04;11 - 00;23;27;08 Speaker 1 It's a it's a community school. While the we parents never see the look down, I know that teachers in any way I mean, they were they really became some of our very best friends socially and every other way. I mean, some of the best friends I have today are friends of our made through teaching their children in school. 00;23;28;07 - 00;23;55;13 Speaker 1 And that is not true in so many of the schools that I have or that I schools where the children are thrown just to supplement families this spring, they don't seem to have a relationship with the teachers that they always had a great surprise for me. I do attribute most of this to our principal. She was the kind that made everybody feel welcome when they came into the school. 00;23;56;01 - 00;24;21;02 Speaker 1 She could laugh and talk with the parents about the little funny things that children did and the humorous side that just made teaching fine and fact. I really I've often said this to people and they would look at me like I thought I was crazy. Oh, I still look forward to going to school. It was really a fun place to be, to work with children. 00;24;21;02 - 00;24;49;08 Speaker 1 Do you good where there was a lot of laughter and you had, I don't know. It's just something that I can't quite describe. But it was just one of the greatest jobs I always felt like I could have had because of Spring Street School, not just because of teaching, but because the school was had been taken out by these. 00;24;49;08 - 00;25;17;06 Speaker 1 And I had gone around the room I was giving to and and she had owned up to anything. So I worried about it so much, but I decided I was going to talk to because I really believed that when no matter how bad anything is that happens, you should be willing to talk to parents and tell them and give them a chance to work it out if it is a problem. 00;25;18;04 - 00;25;44;00 Speaker 1 So in a way, I was in talking with the teacher that had the child the year before, she said, Oh, don't do it, you'll be sorry. You said, I'll be mad with you and all that. I said, I'm sorry if ten years from now here that child is caught stealing, I will think back over today. Well, I didn't do something bad, so I call the mother that morning and she had gone well, thank goodness. 00;25;44;00 - 00;26;06;28 Speaker 1 She came by my room that afternoon just before school was. And so I told them, obviously, how live. I think it was the hardest thing I ever had to do in teaching. But anyway, she sat down on one side of the table and I told and she cried. And that we were told that, you know, that she had done this. 00;26;07;16 - 00;26;36;15 Speaker 1 And she of course, she was so concerned, she went home and called the child's pediatrician and he assured her that some children do it. It didn't mean that she would continue like that. But I know he said it was good for her to know, but because there were some things that she could do to help, to curb. And so, again, I've always felt like I just had a real feeling of alcohol. 00;26;37;06 - 00;26;42;09 Speaker 1 After talking with her and telling how good and emotional is, the child never do anything like. 00;26;42;09 - 00;28;33;23 Speaker 2 That ever again. 00;28;33;23 - 00;29;00;16 Speaker 1 Oh well, anyway, I I'll this particular child, while he was sitting there under my desk in the cubbyhole, the child's mother came to the to oh, I was embarrassed to death. I thought, oh my goodness, if she goes in this room and she sees him under my desk, go there. I stood up and she said something. And in a way she didn't come on in. 00;29;00;17 - 00;29;14;11 Speaker 1 Maybe she might have missed him, but maybe she was afraid to ask because she knew he was in trouble. A lot. But anyway, I remember as soon as his mother got away, I got him out from under my desk. I thought, you know, I'm not going to do that anymore. 00;29;15;00 - 00;29;17;01 Speaker 4 But I'm off to class. 00;29;17;01 - 00;29;25;10 Speaker 1 And so this day that I put him under my desk, that's the one thing I think he remembers about. And maybe I am. 00;29;25;10 - 00;29;36;17 Speaker 2 I have to see what I mean. The kids are remembering the outstanding things. Usually punishments are stories or things they made to harass the teachers. 00;29;37;04 - 00;29;55;02 Speaker 1 Well, I know a couple of things. I remember when I was in first. The second one was raining. One time I lived in for a teacher, made me wear this old sweater somewhere out in the rain and they went down on my ankle or something. And she was is Oh, I thought she was I was the first one. 00;29;55;02 - 00;30;15;02 Speaker 1 Then she had never married and she was like, I know. And that embarrassed me. So having to wear that as well. And another time the just shoes thing and I always told you it was about being spanked in school, and I think it was. 00;30;16;03 - 00;30;21;22 Speaker 2 But I always I didn't do that. It's very instructive that you were a teacher last night. 00;30;22;17 - 00;30;42;12 Speaker 1 But I always end up saying that she spank me. I was talking and I should have been talking. I was I was the and we were having a prior she was pregnant, I think. And I talked about the news that Brian was over. She took me by the hand and she probably hit me once or twice or something. 00;30;42;27 - 00;30;54;11 Speaker 1 To me, by the way, when I stood there, and as I think back, I'd say the rest of the day, but it wasn't 10 minutes. It always seemed worse than it was. 00;30;55;12 - 00;31;01;22 Speaker 2 But oh, when did they pass a law against spanking? I was, I don't know. Ever since I've been. 00;31;01;22 - 00;31;05;19 Speaker 1 In the system 23 years, a long 30. 00;31;05;19 - 00;31;18;06 Speaker 2 Years. Now, Tom, Brian told me that he doesn't remember anybody in spine, but he remembers it. He and his friends got grabbed by teacher Ryan. You know, that's great. 00;31;18;14 - 00;31;39;10 Speaker 1 No, no, I was to be great. I'm too. Since I've been away, I've seen them up. So we've had all kinds of teachers. I remember one teacher that didn't lives for one year in the classroom. She had been really upset. But why they put her in the classroom, I don't know. But she was a showed off to the. 00;31;39;10 - 00;31;39;24 Speaker 4 Children. 00;31;39;26 - 00;32;04;07 Speaker 1 Was screaming. But anything shut up is the worst thing you can ever say to in it to overnight. I still like the word shut up. You said be quiet. Same thing, but not shut out. So now I have a little I mean, I had some things in my previous place. 00;32;06;13 - 00;32;07;17 Speaker 2 Messed up on. 00;32;08;08 - 00;32;21;04 Speaker 1 The landing. It was really some problems that would do all kinds of things. Some things I really want to put in my notes. Look. 00;32;22;28 - 00;32;25;03 Speaker 2 I'm supposed to be honest in this regard. 00;32;25;05 - 00;32;52;09 Speaker 1 The well, of course, some of these children that were lost, but they they were better. They at least I felt that a lot of them told you so. I would like to say one of them was one that stayed in the room with me. And he and he again, he wrote me in the last day of school says, I don't want to. 00;32;52;09 - 00;33;19;01 Speaker 1 I just love that, Oh, dear who I am. I'm telling you, he is little John Thompson. Do you know him is dead? He was great. Then, Governor Thompson. He's wonderful. I live on a monster. I just know him. But he's just. He was about five and he's one game Jays. 00;33;19;01 - 00;33;25;02 Speaker 2 Well, what do you think? You gonna keep up with these kids? 00;33;26;05 - 00;33;50;20 Speaker 1 Well, some I do, yes. I like to now of course I'm living that right. I have. I am in Atlanta about as much as I was before. I mean, I don't sleep here, but I'm coming back into it three times a week. Man, that was our idea. And God knows what. We didn't want to go far enough away that we would keep up, you know, with things right here. 00;33;50;20 - 00;33;51;14 Speaker 1 And like we've always. 00;34;02;02 - 00;34;50;21 Speaker 4 And you make all them up with a regular sized piece paper, fold it and have and fold it half again and start folding the strip of paper in triangular fashion, as you would a flat or as you've seen them do on television. And then when you get to the end, you place a small amount in, in under another layer of paper that has been folded over to hold it in place. 00;34;50;21 - 00;35;48;23 Speaker 4 And this plane would be played. So with a with the finished product, which was a triangular shaped piece of paper and it was used as a football, we would play a game by one person, two people would play it by pulling their desk together and sampling the football back and forth and whoever made the football and over the edge without falling off desk was the person who scored six points. 00;35;50;09 - 00;36;38;02 Speaker 4 And to score the extra point, the person who you scored against would put is touches heads on the desk, touch his four fingers together and his arms would be upright. He tried to bend the ball on one of its points and knock it through and you do this back and forth. They got to a certain point. So desk basketball was played to people. 00;36;38;02 - 00;37;14;27 Speaker 4 You did a quarter and stand it up on the edge and flip it. So it starts spinning real fast and you try to grab it in between your two thumbs, placing hands on the desk and the other person would kind of shape his hands in the form of an, Oh, that would be a basketball. And you couldn't move from where you caught the quarter. 00;37;15;06 - 00;38;05;29 Speaker 4 And you try to throw that quarter into the basket by raising your thumbs off the table and looking it forward. This soccer was played three pennies and you'd from the pennies in an upside down pyramid, there would be three pennies place game. One person would put his forefinger and small finger on a desk forming a goal and the next person would not. 00;38;06;28 - 00;39;12;02 Speaker 4 The bottom penny from behind the other two. And the game went on. You had to push one penny in between the other two without hitting them or stopping it. So it would pass and ratchet up. The game was to score as many points as you could, and there's no such things as valuable. And we didn't have any other things besides their last and shirt and paper, airplane shoulders and stuff like when the dirty jokes told us. 00;39;12;02 - 00;39;48;29 Speaker 4 Springsteen we were the ones that if you already collect by the I guess you can call it the three Americans. I don't know. It's just about three American guys. So there was a private, a corporal and a sergeant. They all got separated from their main camp. So there this is the Second World War with Japan in there somewhere. 00;39;48;29 - 00;40;37;04 Speaker 4 And I was so they're walking along and they come into this big, wide green night. They say, well, he's going to go first. So I asked Sergeant Short, so I goes for he takes a good run and start jumps. Then the private goes. He takes a good long running start and jumps it. Then all of a sudden some of the Japanese army comes and they surround them. 00;40;37;04 - 00;41;13;04 Speaker 4 But the other two get away. But as the sergeant was running, he looked back and he didn't make it. When the Japanese got there, Japanese general said, Look, look, keep us happy, okay? This friend, that man was in his bedroom with his wife and she said he just bought this new mirror at an auction. It was supposed to be a magic mirror. 00;41;14;12 - 00;41;50;26 Speaker 4 So she stood in front of it and said, Mayor, I'd like the biggest city in the world. So she got them. The really 34 double the sunlight down here. And so her husband looked at me and and thought to himself, and he went up to them and said, Yeah, I want the longest pecker in the world. So his right leg fell off him. 00;41;50;26 - 00;42;23;09 Speaker 4 Well, one day there was this man, he walking down the road and he said the hottest day in history. And there were millions of fans in this hotel lobby. And he went into it. He asked and one of the gentlemen. So he went up and up to the front desk. He says, Yeah. And the guy said, up to the first floor and to your left. 00;42;24;23 - 00;42;45;00 Speaker 4 And so the guy went upstairs to the first floor, went to his right, and there's this just big empty room. And he can right in the middle of the room was just a big old hole in the floor. What kind of beer? 00;42;47;02 - 00;43;17;27 Speaker 4 Well, he goes and craps in the hole, then he comes back downstairs and there's brown stuff all over the lobby. And the guy at the front desk said, Hey, where were you when the shit hit the fan? And then there were a couple, Uncle Tom Jones bear, you know, black. Why now he's here when they come was stumbling out the barn here. 00;43;18;12 - 00;44;08;14 Speaker 4 You know, graders take lead. So it went into a phone booth, squatted down, and when he finished doing his business he raised up, hit his head on the phone and the receiver fell off and the operator said, $0.10, please. $0.10, please. He's for you, lady. You don't even provide toilet paper. Then there's the other Uncle Tom joke where he comes out of the barn, he has to relieve himself one more time and he squat down in the middle of the sidewalk and takes crap. 00;44;08;19 - 00;44;40;12 Speaker 4 So just then he sees off Officer O'Malley coming. The Officer O'Malley's hold him in about 500 times. He knows he's not supposed to crap in the middle of sidewalks that comes up with his hands. So? So now it comes. Hey, Tom, what you got on your hands is the fastest thing in the world. Says No, man says, Tell me what it really is. 00;44;40;13 - 00;45;08;00 Speaker 4 I hope it's the best thing in the world, Sir says Sir, Showman. Show it to me, man. There's no money. You get away. So. BOTH Okay, I'll show it to you. If you. When I lift up my hand, you grab it. All right? Yes. All right. This is one, two, three, go. And a guy was up his hands. 00;45;08;10 - 00;45;13;14 Speaker 4 Officer O'Malley grabs pow shit, and he says they're done shitting on. 00;45;30;28 - 00;46;00;11 Speaker 3 Their camp and I carry on a conversation with the guy next to him on He does arranged in a horseshoe shape on top of the horseshoe towards the teacher's desk. She was calling the class. Middleton was calling the class to attention and telling us to. 00;46;00;11 - 00;46;04;16 Speaker 5 Please be quiet. Johnny somehow did not hear the order. 00;46;04;27 - 00;46;11;03 Speaker 3 Continued to talk to his friend that on a. 00;46;11;07 - 00;46;47;18 Speaker 5 Second request was delivered. He did not respond and continue talking. And again apparently did not hear the man. And finally, after she asked him a third time to be quiet and he did not hear it. Melanie Everett It was it's hard to describe her role within the class, but she was a bit of a melodramatic lady and she expressly raised her desk being on the other side of the Horseshoe and approached Johnny. 00;46;47;18 - 00;47;23;01 Speaker 5 Well, Johnny had his his hands, his arms resting on the desk with the four arms up, hands up. And continuing his conversation with his friend. And they pulled out a small knife that she had gotten out of a bubblegum machine as a prize proceeded to plunged into the left for Johnny Campbell, then scurried in, screaming. At the same time he refused. 00;47;23;01 - 00;47;34;14 Speaker 5 You got to shut up. You've got to shut up. And she scurried back across the room to her, her own desk. And Johnny, of course, began to cry because blood was. 00;47;35;09 - 00;47;43;28 Speaker 3 Spewing out point from his arm. And she, Melanie, still standing there. 00;47;43;28 - 00;47;48;17 Speaker 5 Was queried by his and what he what she had just done to Johnny. And she claimed that she. 00;47;48;17 - 00;47;53;02 Speaker 3 Had just stuck her fingernail, had him, and. 00;47;54;07 - 00;48;18;11 Speaker 5 Somehow it had caused blood to come. And I had happened to notice that she pulled this knife and she had it hanging with other assorted prizes from a chain on her belt, ripped it from that and said, Oh, no, you didn't, and proceeded to show the knife. It still was red with blood to the rest of the class. 00;48;18;11 - 00;48;32;12 Speaker 5 And Ms.. Billiard carted Melanie away at that point to Douglas's office, along with Johnny Campbell, who needed some sort of medical attention, which was rather minor. But it was quite, quite a episode. 00;48;34;10 - 00;48;36;02 Speaker 2 Yeah. No transcript exists for this recording. Professor John Burrison founded the Atlanta Folklore Archive Project in 1967 at Georgia State University. He trained undergraduates and graduate students enrolled in his folklore curriculum to conduct oral history interviews. 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