Uncorrected Transcript of. Interviews. with. MAYOLA EVANS GREGORY Undated and 3 February by James Eddie McCoy, Jr. Transcribed by Lauren Miller

Transcription

1 Uncorrected Transcript of Interviews with MAYOLA EVANS GREGORY Undated and 3 February 1997 by James Eddie McCoy, Jr. Transcribed by Lauren Miller The Southern Oral History Program The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Original transcription on deposit at The Southern Historical Collection Louis Round Wilson Library Citation of this interview should be as follows: "Southern Oral History Program in the Southern Historical Collection, Manuscripts Department, Wilson Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill" Copyright 2000 The University of North Carolina

2 [START OF SIDE A] MAYOLA EVANS GREGORY No Date JAMES EDDIE MCCOY: Present age is sixty-seven. Mrs. Mayola Evans Gregory. Ms. Gregory give me your name and your date, birth date, and where you, your address. MAYOLA EVANS GREGORY: Mayola Evans Gregory. Birth date: Address: Reunion Drive, Oxford, North Carolina. EM: Ms. Gregory where was you living at when you was a kid when you growed up? What part of Granville County was you living in? MG: Northern. EM: Okay, where, what part of northern Granville were you in? Where did you go to school at? Elementary school. You was living up above Whet Stone Church? MG: Mm-hm. EM: Oh, where did you go to school at? When you was going to the first grade? MG: That's what I said, I don't know what the school's named. But, it was a school right behind Bud Eakes' store. EM: What's the man's name? MG: Bud Eakes. It was a school behind Bud Eakes' store. I went there one year. EM: Eakes? MG: Right. EM: Mm-hm. MG: Then, I went to Young Zion School, then, I went to Oak Hill Colored School, they called it in the, everyone in there was in the community of Eakes', near Eakes', same Eakes man that the other school was, but it was on Bessie Morgan's place. It was a house. I went there from second grade until- EM: Total Oak went to the seventh grade. MG: To the seventh.

3 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS EM: Mm-hm. You was at Total Colored School until the seventh grade? MG: That Oak Hill Colored School, they called it. EM: Oh, okay, Oak Hill. This before Total Oak was in existence, or what? MG: It started, yeah, it started for Total's existence 'cause when Althena was going to Mary Potter at that time. EM: Okay, could you, could you show me where all these three places is if I'd asked you to show me, show 'em to me? MG: I could show 'em- EM: Where they was? MG: Where they were. EM: Okay, I know the roads have changed and everything. MG: Now, I couldn't show you where the Eakes, the first school I went to, because that's, I don't think that's a grouped up in the- EM: But what I mean, you could show me the area. MG: The area. EM: Okay. Um, what church were you going to? MG: Whet Stone. EM: Okay. Spell that. MG: W-H-E-T. EM: Okay, I'm dying to see know. MG: It's down here in the front of the shelf. EM: Okay, did Mr. Redding built that school, or who built that school, or did the community build that school? MG: Now, that I don't know. EM: You don't know?

4 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 3 MG: No, 'cause that's up there, so I went there. EM: Okay. What were your teachers' named? [At] Young Zion. MG: Aaron Yancey. EM:???? man. MG: Man, Edward Yancey's brother. EM: Aaron. MG: A-A-R-O-N. EM: Was he the only teacher there? Was it a one room school or a two room? MG: One room. EM: How many grades did it go to? First to the third, or first to the fourth, or what? MG: First to the seventh. EM: First to the seventh grade? MG: Mm-hm. EM: Okay, what did he do, teach the first grade first when you first got there, and then the second, then the third, how did he do it? MG: That I don't, I can't remember that. I don't remember that. EM: How long was he there, the whole time? MG: The whole year, yes. EM: Did another teacher come in before you finished that, before you finished that? So he taught you, how many years did you go there? MG: Just one. EM: You went one year to Young Zion? MG: Mm-hm.

5 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 4 EM: What grade, you was in what grade then? MG: First. EM: All right, where did you go to the second grade? MG: To this Oak Hill Color School. EM: Okay. MG: That's in Morgan's place. EM: That's in Morgan's place. Who, Bessie Morgan white or black? MG: White. EM: Y'all living on Bessie Morgan's place? MG: Mm-mm. EM: Ms. Morgan had a school on her property? MG: It was a house. EM: Uh-huh. MG: It was a house and they, they rented it to the county that let them use it for, the town rented it from her, and she let us use it for a school. EM: Okay, now, did this one have more room in it than the one at Young Zion by being a house? MG: It had one room when it started, then they made two rooms, but they didn't have but one teacher. EM: Who was the teacher? MG: Rosetta Pointer, the first teacher there. EM: Mm. How many years did you go there? MG: The rest of the seventh, to the seventh. EM: So, you went-

6 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 5 MG: From the second, I went to third grade to the, to the, 'til I finished and started at Tolers. EM: Okay. MG: And then, the other teacher was Rachel Blackwell, had two teachers at that school. EM: Ms. Rachel Blackwell came to- MG: To teach that school, too. EM: She did? MG: Mm-hm. EM: I found that just at South Field. I'm glad you told me that. How'bout her husband? MG: He didn't teach there. EM: Okay. Name me two of your brothers or sisters that was older than you that went to these schools with you. MG: Mm, John Irving, and me, and Walter. EM: Whole names. MG: John Irving. EM: Okay. MG: And Walter Thomas. EM: Okay, they are the two. MG: They were the two old ones. EM: They older than you? MG: Mm-hm. EM: And they went with you? MG: They went-

7 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 6 EM: That's right, that's what I want to know. Okay, my project is what come first, the church or the school, or the school or the church, or the family or the church, and that's why I'm glad you went to school in a house. MG: Mm-hm. EM: And, a lot of people, they think all the schools were churches, but I told them they be surprised at how many churches came out of houses. MG: That's right. EM: And how many schools out of churches, and it's almost centered around the same thing and they most geographic. So, when you went to school at Whet Stone, approximately how many miles did y'all have to walk, just guessing? MG: Five, four. That part back on over there was about two miles. EM: Were you going through the woods now? MG: Right. EM: You weren't going the way you should? MG: We would, EM: You wouldn't have never got there. MG: We wouldn't never have got there. Or we would have had to come all the back with the road and go all the way around almost the Lutheran Church and come back in. EM: How many miles would it be if you didn't go through the woods? Six, seven, eight miles? MG: Seven or eight miles. EM: And, y'all went through the woods? MG: Went through the woods there. EM: Okay, your nieces and your cousins will be listening to this tape, and we talk about going through the woods. Let's let them know what would happen when you got to school, and it started raining, and it rained, and you had to go back through them woods. Let 'em know how you wet you was.

8 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 7 MG: And if we had to cross, if we had a creek to cross, and there's a log, a tree had settled over the creek. EM: What did they call that somebody gave me a name, it's a name for that. MG: I don't know, but there's was a log, there was a tree felled, and we used to cross that, and if it rained, and the creek got up, we had to find another way to come home. EM: They did it at Tar River, but I can't remember what the man called it, walking across that tree when they go across the water. It was some name he gave me it was given for it. Some old fashioned name that he called it. Now, let them know what happened, who made the fire, the first got there, the teacher? MG: The teacher made the fire. EM: Where did the wood come from? MG: My daddy carried it there. EM: They wouldn't believe that the community carried the wood. You wouldn't have had wood. MG: We wouldn't have had wood. EM: Now, how far down they had to carry the wood, could he get back through them same woods and get back? MG: He couldn't go back through the woods the way we went. EM: That's right. MG: But he, we had another way to go, he had to go about three miles or more to get to- EM: Out of the woods to get to- MG: Out of the way of another path that we could go around and do it. EM: Now, let them know what happened when you got to school and all y'all are wet, sitting around the stove trying to get dry before you got started. MG: Make me remember going, just taking in. EM: Just go on and talk. MG: No, 'cause I, I think I don't remember when they said go on back to that.

9 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 8 EM: Go back to your father carrying the wood to school. MG: Now, he carried the wood, he had to go another way to carry the wood, 'cause there weren't no path for the wagon to go on to take the wood there. EM: Did y'all have coat closets on the outside or the inside, 'cause it was a house or whatever, which one you was in? MG: On the inside. See, it was a one, two, three, four roomed house that we was using just one room. EM: Mm-hm. MG: And then, they so many children came in, they cut room open and made it two rooms. EM: Okay. Now, did the children that got there, did y'all warm up your hands together, little children hands first, or how did y'all, all y'all get around? See, now, they got to know that when all y'all get around a stove, everybody soaks up the heat with there's thirty or twenty-five children in there 'cause your clothes and everything is wet, and let them know that you couldn't stay there at that stove long 'cause you had to get started. MG: Well, that's true. I, when we got there, the stove was real hot, 'cause the teacher would come in. EM: You just lucky you had a good one. MG: She would come in early, and she would, it would be hot when she got there. EM: 'Cause most of my interviewers not- MG: She was there when we got there. EM: 'Cause a lot of people I interview, the stove, they didn't get warm 'fore twelve, took about three hours for the whole room, 'cause they soaked up so much of the heat. MG: I don't every remember being cold in school. EM: Where did you get your books from? I know it's a hard question. You probably got them from the drug store, or you didn't get 'em from the school, 'cause school didn't have books then. MG: I-

10 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 9 EM: The school really didn't get in the book business before, you'd be surprised, about the '40s for blacks. MG: But we got the- EM: Hand-me-downs. MG: We got the hand-me-down books from the white schools. EM: Yeah, that's right, your teacher bought books- MG: She bought'em. EM: Uh-huh. Name some of the school mates that went to school along with y'all when you was going to school, that walk with y'all to school, if they was any in your area. MG: Yeah, George, George and Mary Blackwell. EM: Uh-huh. MG: Walked with me, just all around- EM: George and Mary sister and brothers. MG: Right. Gosh, Hadey May and Charlie Walter Yancey. EM: Mm-hm. MG: William and George Yancey. EM: Okay, now tell me some kids that walked a different way and didn't have no shortcut. Can you remember kids that had to come one way three or four miles, they couldn't take no shortcut? MG: That was Burleigh and Bennie Saddlewhite. They walked in the little shortcut. Charlie and Emma Lee Smith. EM: They didn't have no shortcuts? MG: Weren't no shortcuts for them. EM: But how many miles did they have to walk? MG: Three or four, five miles.

11 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 10 EM: Mm-hm, five miles is as far as the average person walked, but they is a lot of three and four mile walkers that I interview, a lot of them, and I tell people, the ones that walk five had to have been "A" students, to go to school and walk five miles. MG: Well, some of 'em walked, one guy, Levi Walker, now he walked from the road from before you get off the highway. He went to school over there, too. Walked a mile into our house, and then he had to go to school. So, he lived a mile off the road. EM: And when he got to your house, he had to go the short- oh, he went three miles and a half? MG: Right. If it was three miles to the school, he walked a mile, EM: He walked four miles. MG: Went four miles to school. EM: Did your father rotate you, your sisters, and brothers to help work on the farm, one go one day, the next one go the next day? How did he do that? MG: No, he,... they, all at once when times go, he'd say, say what the boys did. EM: Okay. MG: In the fall, they had to get the corn up. EM: We stand along the seventh grade to show what age y'all started working and let 'em know that you was working at ten years old. MG: Right. What time they started working? EM: Yeah, yeah, they, what you is saying that you didn't learn how to work now, they learn how to work, we was working at ten. They don't know that. MG: Most of 'em was working 'cause the ones under me, they was working. EM: Yeah. MG: But, I was a baby-sitter. I didn't start working until fifteen. EM: Mm-hm. Yeah, somebody had to. MG: (Laughs). Yeah, with twelve children in the family.

12 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 11 EM: Mm-hm, tell me about your teacher. Did Ms. Blackwell and Mr. Aaron Yancey did they work hard trying to teach those kids? MG: Yes, they did. EM: Were they good teachers, trying? MG: To me they were. EM: They did their best with what they had to work with. MG: That's what they had to do. EM: Mm-hm. MG: Rosetta Pointer, EM: Mm-hm. And, it's, you know, I, from interviewing people I know what you went through, going to school, trying to get an education, and everything was against you because it was just that, you just didn't have no other choice to get an education but go to what they had prepared for you. MG: That's right. EM: Why did your father carry wood, because he just, that was his obligation? What made him? MG: I don't know whether he was just supplying the wood, I don't know that, why he carried it. EM: Most all my people I interview, it was family or somebody carry wood except that Rob Amos, he sold wood in that area, but... MG: I think we had some coal, once, one or two years, we had some coal. They brought us coal, but, downtown. EM: Uh-huh. Who, who patched up the school? (Laughs). MG: The town did. EM: Uh-huh. Did y'all have plays at school? MG: Sure. EM: Urn.

13 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 12 MG: (Laughs). EM: That's the funniest thing. I like to ask you about that. What, you set up a stage, or did you do it outside on the porch in the summer? Some people- MG: We just set up a stage in the, in the place where it was at. EM: And the parents would come? MG: Mm-hm. EM: And what would y'all do? MG: We did speeches, have plays, we'd had box parties, just like everybody else did. EM: We had it lucky, then, when we went to school, we had a stage that had everything. MG: This whatn't a stage, but we made us a stage. EM: I know, that's what we're talking about. Tell me a little about box party. I know a little bit about them from listening to people. You raised money for different projects? MG: That's right, and all the girls would make a box and put food, whatever they want in it, and if they was the [????] girl with the boyfriend would bid on it. There was a little girl like I was [??????]. EM: Right. Now, we have to let, now, we have to let people know listening to this tape, box parties older than you. MG: Oh, yeah. EM: Yeah, you understand, 'cause I know it's older than you, 'cause I talked to people, box parties, you should be seventy-five, in your eighties when you talking about box parties, because I know what they tell me about 'em. Mr. Chase say he loved his, he use to do it, and he would know who to raise the highest bid, 'cause the boy loved the, like, MG: That's the way they did it. EM: He said there was a science to it. They didn't know it, but he knew what boy had the most money, and which boy would like which girl. MG: That's the way they did it. EM: And did it like they auction off tobacco.

14 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 13 MG: That's right. EM: Had a lot fun. MG: A lot of fun. Had Halloween Party, we had a Thanksgiving Party, we had everything, Christmas, and Graduation. EM: Mm-hm. At Buck Town, they had their plays out on the porch when it was warm. The people stand out, set in the yard, and they use the porch for the stage. MG: That was on the other side. EM: Was your stove in the middle of the floor or upside the wall? MG: Upside the wall. EM: 'Cause a lot of 'em was in the middle of the floor, too. MG: Upside the wall. EM: Which one of your mother and father could read and write? MG: Both. EM: Both of 'em. How did they learn? Did their mother and father could read and, your grandmother? MG: Yeah, mama went to school. EM: Your mother did? MG: She went as far as Mary Potter. EM: Oh, she was smart. Where, where did she go, where was her first school at? MG: Far as I know, they been live where they been living it. EM: Up at Whet Stone? In that area? MG: Down where Uncle Shaw lived. EM: Okay, so, okay, she went to-

15 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 14 MG: That's the Young Zion school down on that end. I don't what, I don't know which school that she went to. And, I think she went to Young Zion. Young Zion been there a good while. EM: You know, I have a problem with that area. We have Lewiston School in there, we got Young Zion, and we had the Wilton School, and it's kinda hard, and the Green, Greenville School. MG: Mm-hm. EM: And, these schools are far apart but they talk like one was just across the road from the other one, but they was a long ways far apart, and I can't, it's kinda hard to get 'em straight. Did you think that they ever went to school in Whet Stone Church? MG: Mm. EM: Okay, did you know where Whet Stone Church first started at? MG: Yes? EM: Okay. MG: It wasn't Whet Stone, at first it was Macedonian, and it was a bush hall, back over there in the Montague place, I don't know whether you know where that is or not. But, you turn, around by Cowin, Gregory, back over in there somewhere. EM: Can we get to it from Shaw Pettiford's house? MG: No. EM: Okay. Because why? MG: No road through down there. EM: Ah. You're right 'cause- MG: (Laughs). I mean it was a road for no, what I meant, it was no road, it's no road in there now. They walked through the woods to there. EM: Some people would, some older people would say, "well, if you knew that, why you ask me?" MG: (Laughs).

16 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 15 EM: And, I laugh sometimes, but that's, you're right. I just want to know that you know where it started and, yeah, it started in those woods. MG: And then, they built the church on down there the year I was born, EM: Was that bush hall Macedonia? MG: Right. EM: And when they built the church, they changed the name. MG: Changed the name of it. EM: Did they ever tell you why they call it Whet Stone? It wet in there or what? MG: 'Cause Whet Stone was there. You know what a whet stone is? EM: Uh-uh. MG: It's a rock that you sharpen knives on.. EM: Okay. MG: And, it's a big hole down there in the front of the church on other Percy Mann that people use to come there and get stones to sharpen their axes and knives and things. That's why it's Whet Stone. It sits on a big rock. EM: I knew it was some, had to have something to do with water or rocks or something. Tell me about your mother and your grandmother. Let's talk about your mother on your mother's side. You see your grandmother? MG: Mm-mm. EM: What did they say about her? MG: Very little 'cause she had to leave when Wesley was born, so. EM: What did your mother say about her mother? MG: That she was a kind and gentle woman. That's all, as much as she- EM: Church. MG: Church, yes.

17 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 16 EM: Did they have to walk a long ways to? MG: She must have had, 'cause they, her church was Michael Creek. That's where they was, her mother was. EM: They came out of Michael's Creek Church? MG: My grandma did. EM: Your grandmother did. MG: Mm-hm. EM: Did they own their own land? MG: Granddaddy, yeah. EM: On your mother's side? MG: Yeah. EM: Did you see the, your grandmother died first? MG: Yeah. EM: On your mother's side. MG: Right. EM: Her mother died first. MG: Mm-hm. EM: What about granddaddy? MG: Oh, he was a doll. I knew him. I stayed with him. (Laughs). [??????] no good. EM: Uh-huh. He was a loving and kind man. MG: Yes. EM: Did the best he could for everybody. MG: That's right.

18 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 17 EM: Could he read and write? MG: Far as I know he could. EM: That's amazing, and that he owned his own land. He whatn't a sharecropper. MG: No, he owned his land. EM: Was he a sawmill man or what? MG: Nope. EM: Always farmed? MG: Always farmed as far as I know of. EM: What was his name? MG: Walter Pettiford. EM: Your mother's father? MG: Right. EM: She was a Pettiford? MG: Right. EM: Okay. Can you, where did they say the Pettifords first started out at in this county? MG: That's in the book that I haven't read yet. EM: I don't want you to read it. MG: I mean. EM: What do you think? MG: What we was told, what, I mean what we, we said [??????], this is all we know. EM: Mm-hm. MG: That's when they come off the boat, they were settled in Granville County. EM: Okay. I ask, I interview in and out of your family.

19 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 18 MG: Mm-hm. EM: And that's why I wanted you to give me an idea of what area did you think they came out of. If I would say the Stovall area, or Mountain Road, or in that area would you think that would be about right? MG: Mm, the Gregorys come out of them mountains. EM: I'm not talking about, you just, you told me Walter Pettiford went to- MG: No, I was saying his wife, EM: Mm-hm. MG: Grandmama did. EM: Your grandmother went to... MG: Was out of Michael's Creek. EM: Michael's Creek. Okay, how, where did they get to Michael's Creek Church? MG: I guess, that's why they came from down Stovall, the Gregorys did, that's my mother's, grandmother, before she married. EM: Did she come up on the Gregory plantation? MG: Maybe she did, I'm not sure of that. EM: Your mother was a Pettiford? MG: My mother was a Pettiford, but her mother was a Gregory. EM: Okay. So, they Gregorys, but your granddaddy owned land. MG: They owned land. EM: So they could have come off the Gregory plantation 'cause most of the time, you come off their plantation, they give you a few acres of land, fifty, or a hundred, or whatever, but you would have known, if you. Have you tried any research on the Gregorys? On your mother's side? MG: No, no.

20 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 19 EM: You never tried any? MG: Not, not there. EM: Was Ms. Gregory before you get to your church turn back down in there, would she be related to y'all? MG: Mm, yeah, she might. Mama's first cousin. She is, her husband-in-law was her sisters' and brothers' children. EM: Okay, don't ask me how I know that. MG: (Laughs). EM: I interviewed her last week. MG: (Laughs). EM: Okay. Let's talk about your father's side. MG: Mm-hm. EM: Tell me about your daddy. MG: Mm. EM: He had twelve children, tell me, did he run a good ship? MG: Oh yes, he did. EM: Huh? MG: He was, yes he did. EM: He ran it. MG: Mm-hm. 'Cause if he said don't do this, he wasn't, he was, EM: You have to explain it now, 'cause these children be listen to it. MG: Yeah. EM: They have to know.

21 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 20 MG: He was, they say he was mean, but he wasn't mean. He was just, what he said, that was it. EM: That's right. People don't know that. MG: No, they don't. EM: They don't know that. MG: Talking back was, that was definite a no-no. EM: I tell people my father could go to California, and it was just like he would be here. MG: That's right. EM: With me doing work when he come back. They don't believe that. MG: Boy, there was a, as I, I got in that table back there. Far as there was being hungry, he was a good provider, he was a good provider, he was a good worker- EM: But, he ran his ship. MG: He, we dressed, I mean, we didn't go to church half dressed. We didn't go with these low-cut dresses either. (Laughs). But when we went to church, I never seen a day that I was hungry. I never seen a day that I was cold. EM: Why, that when we came along, we knew what you was going to do on Sunday and children now don't know? MG: Well, we did, if we was sick in the week time, we know we was going to church on Sunday. And you had to be well in the week, you had to work. EM: 'Cause you was going to church. MG: You was going to church. EM: Or you was dead, yeah. MG: That was one thing you had to do, is go to church. EM: That's what everybody say that I interview, and I hope these kids understand that. That when Sunday came, you went to church. MG: You went to church. That was one thing you had to do. And there weren't no 'ifs' and "ands" about it. If you stay at home, you had to be real sick.

22 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 21 EM: That's right. Yeah, 'cause children now don't understand that's where you learn how to read and write at. MG: That's it. EM: That's your first school. That's the first thing your mother and father, and your granddad want you to do. Anything anybody tell you about your parents way back, they wanted to learn how to read the Bible. MG: Read, read, EM: The Bible. MG: And you had to have, he said conduct, you had to have a good conduct. He said anybody could make an "A" in conduct. You go to school, you had to know how to, to say "yes, ma'am," and "no, ma'am," and call him by his name, which was simply a nono. You didn't call him by [??????] be called his name. And that children, I ain't never heard them call mine. EM: What about your granddad on your father's side? How was he? MG: Never saw him. EM: What his mother? MG: Never saw her. EM: You never seen them? MG: No. EM: They died early? MG: They died when he was eight years old. EM: Oh. You take him and look after him? His brothers and sisters? MG: Well, that's the interesting part. His mama, I don't want to go into the real details of, his mama gave them away when she know she was dying. She was going to die. She gave, she had six, eight children, she gave 'em all away to places, homes that she thought they would grow up in. EM: And they worked out?

23 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 22 MG: Well, sort of. EM: Mm-hm, there was no choice, she didn't have none. She knew she couldn't. MG: She knew she couldn't, but, I think my daddy had about the roughest time. EM: Okay. MG: He and Amanda. 'Cause the house that they stayed in, the lady gave him away, she was with him, then gave him away. They carried him down in Stovall, and this is what she, that what my daddy told me, carried him down to Stovall, he was a little boy, he was eight years, he was about, and, the man left him down in there. But, that the next morning, to the fishing that was suppose to be, she gave him to, that next morning when the sun rose, and they come over the same, said Amanda, and went back and got him. She said the woman couldn't sleep that night. But she made life tough on him, 'cause he had to, one thing he had to drag buttermilk which made him sick. And so one of his foster brothers just went told his mama, said he just can't work sick. So when his sister got married at thirteen, he left there and went to stay with her. And he was got grown enough there, he moved to the Eakes' farm and that's where he died at the farm where we living at now. But, he had bought the place, part of it, when he died. EM: Where we at here, now? MG: Mm-hm. EM: Okay. MG: No, not here. This isn't the farm. EM: Where's the Eakes'? MG: It's back over there. EM: They was white? MG: Mm-hm. EM: What, like Eakes' Funeral? How you spell it? MG: E-A-K-E-S. That's the Eakes farm, that was, his daddy that we moved, his mama, grandma and dad, EM: Did y'all sharecrop there or what? MG: Fourth.

24 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 23 EM: Y'all owned a fourth of theirs? MG: Mm-hm. EM: Do you know about how many years you stayed there? MG: He went there in'21, he died at 69. We were all born there. EM: All y'all was born on the Eakes farm? MG: Mm-hm. EM: Okay, and y'all was sharecropping before? MG: We owned a fourth. EM: A fourth. MG: We worked fourth, and I- EM: Half, and then come on down to this- MG: No, never half. EM: Okay. MG: He hired peoples to work for him. EM: Your father did? MG: Mm-hm. (Laughs). Until Etlon, me and Pat, and Johnny and me got big enough to work. EM: He was smart, he got get somebody else to work for him, and he worked on a white man farm, too. MG: Working the white man's farm. EM: He was smart. (Laughs). MG: And he had hired help until I was old enough to know him. EM: Mm-hmm. Mr. Eakes must have been a nice, fair man.

25 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 24 MG: He was. EM: He had to have been for your father to do that. Was y'all on the family on that farm? MG: We was on the perimeter, we stayed there longer than a year 'fore John Howard lived there a while. EM: Black or white? MG: Black. We lived in the little house, he lived in big house. Then, he left, we moved into the big house. EM: How many children Mr. John Howard have? MG: ***** EM: Mm-hm. Okay, now we going to go back and talk about what made your father a good father. He came up when people had strength and sacrifice. We don't know what that is now. Those people were strong. They was like animals down in the pasture. They could endure everything. They were strong. They sacrificed, and that's why you had food on your table. That's why all y'all were warm. Twelve children, he knew how to make 'em by something in life. You ain't going to find twelve children come out of family and not know you that four or five hadn't been to prison, three or four of them hadn't killed somebody. MG: That's true. EM: You, you see what I mean? Y'all can go anywhere in this county, anywhere and tell people where you from, you got a name, out of all y'all brothers and sisters. You see how you turn it, professional school teacher, carpenters, everybody were gifted with something, but you had somebody there to be a what? Ran it. MG: EM: MG: EM: MG: That's right. Did he run it? He did it. You had somebody saying grace at the table. Everyday. EM: Had somebody to pray.

26 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 25 MG: That's right. EM: Had somebody to love you. Had somebody to take- MG: He comes up there when he whooped them, he thought it did. (Laughs). EM: You know, Ms. Gregory, I'm going to tell you, I have got whoopings with no clothes on. That whatn't child abuse, 'cause you know why? Why would I get whoopings with my clothes off, if I knew I was get 'em, and I get in trouble? MG: That's right. EM: I had to get my whoopings. You know, I was one of those kids that whoopings should get, you know. You get used to 'em. MG: See, I got four [??????]. Emma Lee, Patty, and John Irving and me and when he whooped Emma Lee, and Patty got into a, and when he whooped 'em, John and me got whooped to, because they be playing, we came up in four. That was me and William, and Joey, my other sister Molly too, we came up together. When I saw him whooping them, I made sure when he called me by my name, I answered, and he said, "don't," I didn't until I got sixteen. Now, he whooped me when I was small, crying over a butter-biscuit, and I had my eyes shut, and he whooped me that time, and I went home and showed it to mama, there was welts all over me from here down. And she just looked at me and never, she never said word to him, what he did, if he corrected, she never opened her mouth. And when I made my mind that he whooped me again, he going to have to catch me, but he did catch me, and that was my fault. 'Cause he told me he won't too many soft and I'm of it and he won't allow it. 'Cause he, he just giving me a back lick, but he never, to say he whooped me after I got up, after seven years old, he never did. 'Cause when he called my name, I answered him. Not saying he didn't whoop the other ones, but then, he began to get soft down the line. EM: MG: EM: MG: EM: MG: EM: It payed off, didn't it? It did. Did for the six of us. We did okay. And far as, I say as far as buying food, we only bought coffee and sugar. That's right. Lye, mill, beans, we raised everything we- Y'all had a year round garden, you knew what-

27 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 26 MG: Year round garden and kill a cow in October and he stayed in the, up in the, in the smoke house until April, and I don't eat beef today. (Laughs). EM: And another thing, I want you to tell people and let children know, that your father gave food to somebody and knew dag-gone-well y'all needed it, and when he cut a cow, he sent you all a piece. MG: Everybody got cow, everybody got pig, hogs that we killed it. EM: You shared it. MG: That's right. Everybody, when he made molasses, big old barrel of molasses, and that last, just one year to the other. We always had molasses. EM: But how, but he was giving away food and had twelve children, sharing. MG: He planted more, he planted not for himself, he planted for everybody. EM: He didn't have to. MG: No, he didn't. EM: He could have been selfish. MG: Well, that's one thing he didn't, he said he didn't want us to come up the way he came up. EM: That's right. MG: Didn't have to eat what we didn't love. There was enough stuff on the table. Daddy, he'd stuff it all, we going to make you eat nothing that we didn't like. EM: Now, another thing now, you got to, you gotta let me know that whites in the community did the same thing. MG: That's right. EM: Yo' daddy sent the whites meat. MG: That's- EM: The whites sent the- MG: That's right.

28 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 27 EM: Same way. MG: It was Tommy Frasier and the Eakes up there, and then they, after Eakes moved, there was the Clarks, and then The Clark moved to Bum, and then, who come about, Paul Eliot, I mean we fed him. (Laughs). We fed him. EM: Yeah, people have to know that. White people was poor, didn't have nothing, didn't know how to, was a black, they was treated the same way. MG: And Tommy Frasier littlest to go in by and his wife was just as, well you didn't know she was, didn't know she was white sometimes, 'cause she would come and visit. What she had, we had. She had enough to spare, we had. EM: That's right. Borrow from each other. MG: Right. EM: Everybody looked out for everybody. MG: Everybody looked out for everybody. EM: Com shucking. MG: Com shucking, cutting. EM: Wood cutting, everybody- MG: Building bams. EM: Bam raising, they call it. MG: (Laughs). EM: Black and white were- MG: Black and white there together. EM: Together. Why it ain't today now? You neighbor ain't there. Your cousin across the road ain't there. MG: That's what I wonder. EM: Uh-huh. MG: Where did it go?

29 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 28 EM: What happened to all them people? We can board stuff up and down the whole street, and I lived in town. MG: And now they tell you, if I got, you ought to get it, have it yourself. (Laughs). That's true. EM: Ain't no more sacrificing, is there? MG: No more sacrifice. EM: None of it. MG: Nobody. EM: Nobody's strength. Your father was what in the church? MG: He's a deacon. EM: He was? MG: Well he come, when I come, when I begin to learn, he was teaching Sunday School. EM: And what was your mother doing? She worked in the auxiliary? MG: All auxiliary. EM: Which one of your brothers was a deacon in the church? MG: His name? EM: Uh-huh. MG: Roy, Edward. Me and Roy. EM: And was Joey ever? MG: No. EM: Well, how did y'all come up, so, he was proud the way he raised y'all, wasn't he? MG: I guess he was. EM: He must have been proud of y'all.

30 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 29 MG: I guess he was. I don't, I mean, I don't know about it all the way. I just say he, he just told us what we had to do, and that was it. EM: Did he know y'all was gifted? MG: Well, he taught us everything. EM: He did? MG: He taught us everything. EM: How to sing? MG: Yeah, he sang. EM: How to work on cars? MG: Yeah, he worked on cars. He was a jack of all trades. EM: He was good at all those trades. MG: He worked on cars, he sawed. My older brother, he's dead, he shoed mules. EM: What was his name? MG: John Irving. He shoed mules. EM: You got to tell them what that means. Shirred mules and shoeing- MG: That's the same thing. They call it shirring. Put shoes on them mules. EM: Had a boy told me, he said he went to the country, somebody told him, "fetch the ball." He didn't know, he said what the world are they talking about. Talking about "fetch the ball". MG: (Laughs). EM: So he said he didn't know it, but then he seem somebody throw the ball, he said, "oh, that's what that meant." Because, he said he didn't know what they was talking about, and so the kid went and got the ball and threw to the person and he said, "oh, that's what they was talking about." MG: Mm-hm.

31 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 30 EM: These words, you know, I just want you, you know, just, who ate red dirt? And who ate starch in your family? MG: I think we all did eat a little bit of that. EM: Why? MG: I don't know, but I, I eat the red dirt because I saw mama eat some dirt. EM: They say when you're pregnant, black peoples craving for it. MG: I never did. EM: I didn't. I tried Oggles Star[?], everybody had Oggles Star. MG: That Oggles Star, I just loved the taste of it when I was a child, I saw mama eat it. EM: I couldn't swallow mine. Mine, but how could you, you ate, you loved it, didn't you? MG: I loved it, I licked it. EM: Oh, okay, that's what I, okay. MG: But now the red dirt, I, I couldn't take. Oh, you, you going to write that down? You going to card that, oh. EM: Gimme your father's sisters and brothers. MG: Minnie, Emma, Lizzie, Halley, and Alice. EM: Okay. MG: And, Willie and Ernest. EM: Okay, let's go with your mother, that's one, two, three, four, five girls and two boys. MG: Three boys. EM: Three boys on your father's side. Now, your mother's brothers and sisters. Virginia first. MG: Virginia.

32 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 31 EM: Okay. MG: [?????], Herman, Claude, Grimm, and Roy. EM: Okay, who was short? MG: Claude. EM: Okay, did you, did you, did you see 'em all? MG: I knew 'em all. EM: On both sides? MG: Mm-hm. EM: Okay, they all was church-people too? MG: Yes. EM: Most'em. MG: Most'em. EM: Your whole family was built up in that anyway, so you don't have no problem with that. I think that your mother didn't move around. They stayed in the same place. MG: Before he married her, they moved, see, he went there when he was twenty-one years old. EM: Uh-huh, with the Eakes. MG: Mm-hm. EM: Before he got married. MG: Before he got married. EM: Mm-hm. And your father never would hire y'all out, did he? Not unless you wanted to. MG: Unless we wanted to go out. EM: Okay, that's what I mean.

33 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 32 MG: Put the sinners out to work. That's part of the course. EM: Yeah, that's how most of the time. Yeah, I understand. Most of the time when you got a father that's, he can find enough to keep you busy. The main thing, y'all had love in your house, didn't you? A lot of it. MG: Well, must have been. Guess we did. (Laughs). EM: 'Cause y'all do it now. Y'all stick together like peas in a pod. MG: Mm, mm, yeah. EM: You don't have that, you can tell, that y'all care about each other. MG: Yes, we do. EM: Um, it was worth it, the way your father brought you up, whatn't it? MG: I think so. EM: If he hadn't, look what woulda happened. MG: I reckon that. EM: Huh? MG: I said yeah about that. I remember this incident, the man said he taught at his death, at the funeral. Said, "I came up with- [END OF SIDE A]

34 [START OF SIDE B] MAYOLA EVANS GREGORY 3 February 1997 JAMES EDDIE MCCOY: I'm James Eddie McCoy. I'm visiting with Mrs. Mayola Gregory. Address is 3024 Reunion Drive. The day is February the third, I'm going to complete her tape that we have worked on before. Ms. Gregory, give me your name and the date. MAYOLA EVANS GREGORY: My name is Mayola Gregory. EM: Today's date. MG: Today, February the third, EM: When I last finished talking with you, we was talking about your parents and you gave me the history of your family. Now, then, today, we going to talk about the Evans' singing career, your family's singing career, your sisters and brothers, and you going to tell me some history about y'all career in singing and when you got started. Let's start with, why don't we start with you going to school and you name your teachers and what grade you start off in school when you was, knew that you were, whatn't shamed to get before the class and speak and say poems and do different things. MG: I started doing programs and then, I, she, Ms. Lola stayed there until I was in the fifth or sixth grade. Then, Ms. Rachel Blackwell came in, and I did all the program for, I think, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and school close. EM: Did you have sisters and brothers under you that was doing that time in school, Mt. Zion? MG: Naw it was at Oak Hill. I had three of my sisters and brothers in school with me at that time, and then, in the eight grade, I was at Tolers, and in Toler, anything come up, I was in it. EM: You volunteered or they volunteered? MG: They volunteered me sometime, and I was, if I want a [?????], I got up with the group everything that was done, I was in it. And, in the eighth, ninth grade, the plays that we started giving the school and I, I participated in the plays at school, but I didn't give any. And when I became secretary of the Sunday School, Whet Stone Baptist Church, made secretary, that's when I started to, sponsoring programs which is the Easter program for the church, Mother's Day, Children's Day, and Christmas. EM: How, how did you get to be involved in the church programs and you had other Sunday School teachers and other kids older than you and you and you could just take 33

35 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 34 right over and organize different parts of the church and different programs? You whatn't shame enough to-? MG: No, but I was the secretary. EM: Mm-hm. And so by being the secretary, that mean you could be in charge? MG: I could be in charge. EM: Okay. MG: Then, I went from there to the- EM: To the different programs you would have in, in the church and you- MG: That was the Easter program, Mother's Day, Children's Day, and Christmas, the programs we would have at church. EM: Okay. MG: But the Sunday School would sponsor. EM: Who started singing in your family? How did that get started? MG: Oh, the singing started with my four older siblings. EM: Name them. MG: Ethel, my sister Ethel, and Patty and my brother John Irving and Walter. And they sang until they went into, the was old enough to go into, the boys would go into service. EM: Who went to service? MG: John Irving and Walter. EM: They went the same time or different times? MG: They went different time, but the same year. Then, we started the singing as, that's when I joined my other sisters, and we sung a trio. EM: How many years y'all sing that? MG: About two or three years. EM: Were you going around, or you just sang the trio in the church?

36 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 35 MG: We went places to churches. EM: Mm-hm. MG: And then, then when my older, younger brothers got old enough to go- EM: Who was that? MG: Which was, who was it, nicknames or the- EM: It don't make a difference. MG: It was Edward and Rodney. Then, we started singing with them, they was, one would sing one Sunday, one Sunday we sang and the next time, they other one would sing, until my brothers came back. They didn't sing anymore, but I kept singing, and then, Ethel and Patty got married, when they got married, John Irving was dead. My other sisters start singing, we, me and her sung trio, duet. EM: Who played music for you? MG: Ethel played music. She played the piano while we sang a trio. EM: Ms. Ethel played then? Okay. MG: And then, when me and my younger sister started singing, she played the piano. EM: What's, what's her name? MG: Bessie. EM: She started playing piano? MG: She started playing the piano, for me and her, and then, I was still in school at the time, and after graduation, we, Joe was, but after graduation, each night after we come from the field, EM: From the field? MG: From the field where we working. EM: Uh-huh. MG: Farming. We came from the field after supper, we would go into the living room after Patty my older sister got married, and we could go in have access to the piano.

37 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 36 EM: Mm-hm. MG: We would go in and sing almost seven o'clock until nine, ten o'clock at night. Just the four of us, and then we invited the Alans, Curtis Alan children, they came. EM: Okay, name a couple of them for me. MG: Child! Curtis Alan, Mary, and Catherine Alan. And then, they sung a while, thendidn't I tell you to be quite- then, the Gregory family came in. They started to come over and singing with us. That was John Lee, Karen Lee, and Rosa, William and Roosevelt. EM: So, were they practicing with y'all, where they in the same church with y'all? MG: We all the same church. EM: All y'all is in the same church? MG: All the same church. EM: And, and this become a church group for young adults or something like that, or what did y'all, what came out of your three families? MG: I could sing with the families. (Laughs) EM: Okay. MG: Then, the Webb family came in. This is Leah Webb, son Jimmy and Marty. EM: Mm-hm. MG: And, we were just messing around, singing at home. We, and so, one Sunday afternoon, I asked my brother, Joe, that if we were to, we go to church the same would he play for our Children's Day. He said yes, and we still hadn't practiced the church, so one Sunday after Sunday School, June Alan said, "let's go in the church and practice." So, we went in the church and practiced at the church, and we had our Children's Day. I played the first, I played the first song for the Children's Day. EM: Oh, you can play the piano, too? MG: All of us can play the piano. EM: Ooh-whey.

38 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 37 MG: All for except one. She's dead. And, we sung at that Children's Day program and fter we sung there this when we had a, we had a, we would take it out to another church, and we sung and we sung at another program at Whet Stone first, and then my other brother came. That's when Mid came in to sing with us. We had been singing about two or three years before my other sister came in then Patty, came sung. And years passed and Lee John and after then came Bill. EM: All y'all was singing from church to church? MG: Singing from church to church then. Bill John, years later, Roy John. EM: And then, y'all was, and y'all was real on the road then? MG: We was on the road then. We was gone ever Sunday somewhere. We was known as the Whet Stone Sunday School Choir. EM: That was the first name? MG: That was the first name, Whet Stone Sunday School Choir. EM: How many years did y'all go as that? MG: I guess about ten years with the Sunday School. And you had to be a member of the Whet Stone, you had to come to Sunday School to join the choir, you couldn't, we didn't pick up anybody else. EM: But you still had the Gregorys, the Webbs, and Alan. MG: They all went to Sunday School. We all went to Sunday School. EM: Okay. MG: And, I can't name 'em all offhand too, but, EM: That's all right. MG: I guess, we have a, think about twenty-five or thirty people there, some with us years, for years and drop out. EM: Were y'all, were y'all relatives? The ones that start off in the Sunday School Choir? MG: Not, not necessarily. EM: Okay. Who decided that you needed to change the name and go out?

39 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 38 MG: Well, we didn't decide that. Jenny Gregory Webb named us the Whet Stone Gospel Chorus. EM: Uh-huh. MG: And she, we went on a program with her, and she named us, she called us the Whet Stone Gospel Chorus, so we dropped the "Sunday School." EM: Uh-huh. MG: But every cousin I have, first cousin I have has sung with us. EM: Uh-huh. MG: But they dropped out, and we kept going. Right now, it's just two, three people in the choir that started it. EM: Uh-huh. MG: That's myself, [?????], and Joe. EM: Uh-huh. MG: And see, my other sister left. She went to go to- EM: Um, when did, who started booking y'all? How did you start getting to be booking and started moving, going out as the [?????]? When did you change that? MG: We never changed to that. EM: You always still sing the Whet Stone? MG: Whet Stone Gospel Choir. EM: Okay, now, who started booking you? MG: Well, the people just, we didn't book, people called us. You know, just like a hospital's having a program there, ask us to sing. EM: But y'all was going on, out of state, out of town. MG: Not then. EM: Oh, okay, okay.

40 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS MG: I mean still we don't book, they, people call us. That's when we go. Then, we organize in 19 and 49. EM: 1949, y'all organize? MG: We's organized EM: Okay. MG: We had been singing at home a year. We started singing in '48 at home. EM: Mm-hm. MG: And then we organize in 1949 after- what- where was I? EM: MG: 1949, we organize, in We had been singing then about three, four months, before we organize, and our first director was my daddy, John H. Evans. EM: He was the director? MG: The director. EM: Uh-huh. MG: And the second one was Delford Gregory. EM: Who was that? Was she your cousin? MG: No, that was John D's mother, mother-in-law at the time. EM: Okay. MG: And, we had Dennis Best was the next one. EM: Uh-huh. MG: And, Grim Pettiford. EM: Uh-huh. MG: Was our director, and Lucy Gregory.

41 GREGORY, MAYOLA EVANS 40 EM: Uh-huh. MG: She still remains the director, we haven't fired her. EM: Okay, so one thing that y'all did that a lot of groups don't do, you was smart enough to know you needed a director. Someone to keep you focused and in line. MG: There were some tough ones. EM: And make sure, you know, things was right. MG: Right. EM: Okay. Now let's go back. All right now, the directors how did you travel, in cars? MG: In Cars. EM: Okay, did you get paid when you was going from church to church, now how did you have money? MG: Well, they paid, they paid us, we didn't act, we went just the same. But they would pick us, they would give us some for the gas fare. That's all we ever asked for at that time, you know money was scarce. We didn't ask for anything, but they would give us gas fare. EM: Now was Ms. Jenny Gregory Webb the leading-est singer in Oxford, in Granville County, and by, was she one of them back them in that day and time? 'Cause you talking about 1949 when y'all start, she was in the '30s. MG: She was in New York at that time. EM: She was in New York? MG: Mm-hm. EM: And what? She had moved back? MG: She moved back here. EM: Okay. MG: She was in New York, and she was coming home once a year to give at program Whet Stone once year. EM: Yeah, I remember her singing. Okay.