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 four)

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. This is the fourth of a six part recording about Spring Street School in Atlanta, Georgia. This recording begins with Hughes Roberts discussing elementary school toys, such as soap box cars, slingshots, and marbles; as well as games such as territory, tic-tac-toe, dodgeball, and volleyball. He then details soap box car construction and locations where they rode the cars. Next, he remembers a Spring Street principal who punished one of his classmates after pranking a friend. Then, at minute 32:40, current Spring Street students discuss school jokes and punishments they have received from the principal and teachers. Next, they demonstrate how to construct paper airplanes, fortune tellers, and paperclip slingshots. They conclude the interview by sharing dirty jokes. 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;05;08 - 00;00;12;07 Speaker 1 Catch a rubber band there early in the day and get it right like that. 00;00;13;19 - 00;00;15;24 Speaker 2 And what would you shoot in it? Oh. 00;00;17;13 - 00;00;51;14 Speaker 1 Black Eyed Peas. Uh, marbled. Were white, couldn't be bothered to really be. Who wanted that paper? For instance? Take this paper, pull that bill tight. You know, white paper. But we were small pebbles. There were too much debris. There was more out outside as opposed to the units in charge. Scoop backing band. 00;00;51;18 - 00;00;51;24 Speaker 2 On. 00;00;52;08 - 00;00;55;00 Speaker 1 The merchant would bring in one of these things to scoop. 00;00;56;13 - 00;00;57;09 Speaker 2 I was surprised. 00;00;57;12 - 00;01;19;27 Speaker 1 It was amazing now, and I think they still make them. They made many years ago. I know what I think is to me, of course, Zappa was Zippo or something like that. What are the ones we hear we use? Let me know when you take a tree limb. See, we hate to break ranks. No FLACK Yeah, and get. 00;01;20;29 - 00;01;21;22 Speaker 2 Get it green. 00;01;22;03 - 00;01;30;03 Speaker 1 Get it, get it green. Cause it is better when you got it green. You know what was strong? We did too. 00;01;30;14 - 00;01;32;04 Speaker 2 And one of those would last your. How are. 00;01;32;04 - 00;01;44;13 Speaker 1 You? Oh, yeah, Yeah. Well, your rubber band would probably break, but you would have to reattach. Yea yea, put that on my string. If we're wrapping string around it. Real tight nut. 00;01;45;04 - 00;01;50;29 Speaker 2 Well would you shoot at paper cans or would birds. 00;01;51;27 - 00;02;12;03 Speaker 1 Birds. And you were both shooting people. That was a no no. We shoot people but shoot can then only shoot street lights. No lights to be in front of the governor's mansion. They usually took a beating from the slingshot mini guns too. 00;02;12;03 - 00;02;21;13 Speaker 2 Did you have any tradition of rolling up paper and shooting pencils out of it? 00;02;21;13 - 00;02;24;23 Speaker 1 No room going do anything like that. 00;02;26;00 - 00;02;40;07 Speaker 2 Or even putting pins and things like that inside your ammunition, too? No, no, no, no. I must be roughly am surprised to learn that you had so many knife going. So let you bring that to school. 00;02;40;10 - 00;02;44;04 Speaker 1 Were you going through with the fact that he had a pocket knife and. 00;02;44;04 - 00;02;46;17 Speaker 2 Nobody and they wouldn't the teachers wouldn't. 00;02;46;18 - 00;03;15;20 Speaker 1 Well, they wouldn't bother you if you didn't have math at recess when we played those knife. You what that involved would you take a about a square, Right. Yes. See you had to get ground was kind of kind of soft, you know, enough for a knife to go in and you draw a line across here like that. And this would be one one player would stay in this one believed in this here map of gun that thing in battle tonight night for gun. 00;03;15;20 - 00;03;32;24 Speaker 1 But how you decide who we put somehow we had some kind of of sat who we're leaning at the first man we stayed here and he would throw his knife or stick it up in his chair to right here. Let's see let's see that right, Danny, Draw line across there. Like it? 00;03;32;24 - 00;03;33;21 Speaker 2 See? Yeah. 00;03;33;29 - 00;04;05;07 Speaker 1 And the the player who get turned now has to stay in and this square. See all this. We call it game territory. Mm. Oh this is man. Now see. So when he threw his knife down so he cut it out there. So listen this is easy and I would throw again, not good at all fancy and he would throw and hit right here. 00;04;05;07 - 00;04;31;11 Speaker 1 He could do so. And I was the you to cut him down the way he didn't have any way of staying. So he'd had to stay in, in his plot of ground. So it was big. Each day you take your knife like this, you take a knife in your hand like this and throw it down like that. And that that was out of the game, which cut him into such a small area that that he didn't have anywhere to stand. 00;04;31;18 - 00;04;38;27 Speaker 1 Now, he missed or how you missed had a push to it thing going when United take up see. 00;04;40;05 - 00;04;40;11 Speaker 2 When. 00;04;40;11 - 00;05;07;01 Speaker 1 Your knife wouldn't stick up in the ground fellow I had a bad angle going in and didn't stick up that was he loved to turn so it was defensive. Oh, so that's how they ended up getting it. They don't want him so that otherwise you just chop it up. If you still get up every time thing, you would end up in a stalemate, so to speak, like you do and take that time. 00;05;07;08 - 00;05;08;26 Speaker 2 Mm. 00;05;08;26 - 00;05;24;00 Speaker 1 And I think you will see a picture of some of those soapbox races that we, you, me and they were primary, we take a two before that. That won't matter but. 00;05;24;04 - 00;05;25;07 Speaker 2 Where would you get that. 00;05;25;26 - 00;05;50;29 Speaker 1 Oh different construction places if just get around you later. We, we, we pick them up on the street or where they would build a house or something like that, you know, and very few people have a bowl. I know they lumber with hard combine squared. If you found around then you put another piece up like this when your hood. 00;05;50;29 - 00;06;24;06 Speaker 1 So they then you put your seat it trying to get it can we as a people to get back here. Many had take a broomstick run through here right all we way out here we could put any of the mail in there keeping them and you put another right here and that would keep it steady and this was the steering wheel. 00;06;24;06 - 00;06;39;08 Speaker 1 All these we are now you. We came out of the wagon. Most of them came of wagons. Sometimes you would get them off of discarded schools. You know what a school to get to? To who you. 00;06;40;00 - 00;06;40;18 Speaker 2 Ride with your. 00;06;40;18 - 00;07;26;23 Speaker 1 Foot, right where you put your rag. One put on and pair with other. Put those big push with dirt to put them. But most of these we would just we as uncle wagons sometimes you run into them baby K you know those baby carriages back then were just no big wheels to begin with and while spokes you know and they one is sturdy as these solid wheels which they had on weight these were about a foot I guess and down the steering wheel was usually a wheel just like yet it was just one another like it you you would have five wheels on but you used to the one that didn't have the rubber on 00;07;26;23 - 00;07;27;23 Speaker 1 it when the steering wheel. 00;07;28;17 - 00;07;33;22 Speaker 2 And this box that the steering wheel comes out of it is a three sided sort of bar. 00;07;33;24 - 00;07;36;18 Speaker 1 You know, it is just two before you get there with. 00;07;36;25 - 00;07;38;24 Speaker 2 It, but you have it on both sides. 00;07;38;26 - 00;07;59;00 Speaker 1 No, no. It's all narrower now. This is real ne'er to before, you know. Not that wide. Yeah. And this is this is all. Now you have your little, little piece of wood up here like that. Your feet See, But your feet on maybe a little further back. I got probably got this seat back a little far. They. I see. 00;07;59;17 - 00;08;06;29 Speaker 2 Well, in other words, this would be at the front, like if I was looking at three dimensionally, the big piece would. 00;08;07;12 - 00;08;12;15 Speaker 1 Be if you you're looking at it from the front, this is all you see the two before like that. 00;08;12;27 - 00;08;14;09 Speaker 2 And again, have any side. 00;08;14;14 - 00;08;36;18 Speaker 1 No side, no side. You have a neat beside the way you steer it. You would put a nail here and you take some clothesline root usually or any kind of strong route, but you could find rope like that and you win to say rope, you know, and you wrap around it three or four times on that side in there and three or four times on this side. 00;08;36;18 - 00;08;56;03 Speaker 1 And the other one, he would go down today that that we would come to this wheel. And it was a secret which way that thing would to make make you steer right. In other words, when you turn right to make you you you go right. Sometimes you put on backward, you turn right. But the whole world would go left. 00;08;56;03 - 00;09;24;01 Speaker 1 See? Oh, yeah, that's pretty tricky line. You're saying get your route on the right way. You steer the way you both both go. That's where would you steer and mechanism would get the rope attached to this broomstick that now sometimes you would push, you see that the seat would be picked up, She'd put that up like get that blue box on back here, you know, orange crate, some kind of great, great something like that. 00;09;24;01 - 00;10;00;23 Speaker 1 You know, like back in those days, we didn't have so many pasteboard boxes. Everything we shipped in wooden crate. Seeing that was another way to get wood is from the grocery stores. And we had crates and but most of them were just real basic in design. So it was beaten the other way. It really wasn't too much to then it involved the Soap Box Derby evolved into making them lighter to begin with, where you would sit in a little cockpit like thing and people would take these up. 00;10;01;09 - 00;10;25;08 Speaker 1 Back in those days, they had a lot of cooler sand and sand, you know, and Orange cross and people would take those sand and turn them around where what needed painting or see and cover the back like that. See you would like that see make you who more streamlined up there and in doing that you had to make it wider than if to before. 00;10;25;08 - 00;10;57;05 Speaker 1 In other words, you'd make it probably a photograph here and that's where you're funny and would look then see and we would like it. But most of them were just very basic in design because like with Q Normal and all was rather difficult come by and you just had to make that so big, what you could pick up, pick up around in your basement or anywhere, have a construction job. 00;10;58;23 - 00;11;04;16 Speaker 2 So it was mainly a functional little car. You didn't try to make it fancy. 00;11;04;16 - 00;11;25;21 Speaker 1 Oh, no, no, no, we did. We do want to face, you know, oh, if I'm going to face, but came in the paint. Now, some of them were painted up pretty good. You know, it just we did something rather than we, you know, we did like bicycle today. And frankly, there were more these around in the Wabash. It was in those days. 00;11;26;20 - 00;11;28;06 Speaker 2 That you wouldn't ride to school. 00;11;28;10 - 00;11;29;24 Speaker 1 Oh, no, I couldn't. 00;11;29;24 - 00;11;30;18 Speaker 2 We couldn't stand. 00;11;30;18 - 00;11;55;06 Speaker 1 It. Yet down the hill here and Westminster met a little way not too far down that would use ran down Berkeley on a Dorothy. The matter came to Berkeley and go down there hill, see you get to the road you could go all the way to down to the creek Looked pretty steep hill back here you know from the post bottom but at matter. 00;11;55;28 - 00;12;01;06 Speaker 2 Did you have the tradition of the flexi, which is just a flat car that you lie down. 00;12;01;08 - 00;12;22;10 Speaker 1 Going down to flex like this came along the lower the flex is where actually I think came from the the people who made the flex is made slaves to begin with. And I think they got to where they put wheels on them. I know flexi flower they came in about 1932 33 somewhere along the way. 00;12;22;24 - 00;12;25;28 Speaker 2 So there was never a tradition of making the flexi yourself. 00;12;25;29 - 00;12;48;24 Speaker 1 No, no, the one with anybody I had a flexi was about flexi. I remember back this was like I say, Christmas 232 a day, three that were very popular. I had a lot of kids. You got to flex again with Flex and to me that I needed to give them because they were sure they will power people up on three or four people would get on them. 00;12;48;24 - 00;12;50;24 Speaker 1 But that was really dangerous to. 00;12;51;23 - 00;12;54;03 Speaker 2 Let them have a break below you. 00;12;54;10 - 00;12;56;02 Speaker 1 Yeah, they had to have something. 00;12;56;02 - 00;12;59;07 Speaker 2 Not that kind of a break with the ropes on this car. 00;12;59;07 - 00;13;58;18 Speaker 1 BE No, no real. Need some some not many of them. Most time you start by dragging your feet as we've done. But some guy would put a little handle back here, see where you could reach it. And. 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. Students interviewed men, women, and children of various demographics in Georgia and across the southeast on crafts, storytelling, music, religion, rural life, and traditions. As archivists, we acknowledge our role as stewards of information, which places us in a position to choose how individuals and organizations are represented and described in our archives. We are not neutral, and bias is reflected in our descriptions, which may not convey the racist or offensive aspects of collection materials accurately. Archivists make mistakes and might use poor judgment. We often re-use language used by the former owners and creators, which provides context but also includes bias and prejudices of the time it was created. Additionally, our work to use reparative language where Library of Congress subject terms are inaccurate and obsolete is ongoing. 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