>> Do you want the interviews, [inaudible]?
>> You can do that, yeah. We are rolling.
>> You're ready?
>> Yes. We're rolling.
>> So this is Amy Young and Katie Chauvin,
interviewing Mr. David Baker at
Clear Creek Elementary School in Cartersville,
Georgia, and the date is October 11th, 2018.
So just to start with Mr. Baker,
when did you first come to Adairsville?
>> I guess the first real recollection
of Adairsville was about 1964.
Actually, when we were going to move to Adairsville,
I don't really never remember going there before.
We were going to move there.
>> So your family first came to Adairsville in 1964?
>> Yes, ma'am. Actually I grew up most of
my life or the early part of my life until
then over on a little farm,
probably about four or five miles from here,
and we were tenant farmers.
And I think tenant farmers,
you have to move sometimes
[LAUGHTER] because they're going
to do something else with it,
and my dad found a little place in Adairsville to buy.
And so he bought that place and we
moved up there and of course,
then I've spent the rest of my life up there since then.
So I've lived in Adairsville about 54 years.
>> So what was Adairsville
like when you first moved here?
>> Well, when I first moved here,
I guess we moved in
a community about three miles
south of Adairsville called Stoners community.
People were, of course, very friendly.
One of the things I remember is how
when we moved off the farm,
we were pretty close-knit community there and I was
a little apprehensive because
I really didn't know anybody.
But the first day when we moved in at Adairsville,
our neighbors come greeted us and welcomed us,
and it was just,
as I look back,
they were very friendly,
very open and receptive to us, of course.
And as soon as we met,
we just become friends and matter of fact,
the first day that was there,
one of the boys that came with his mother and dad
become I guess one of my best friends [LAUGHTER]
for the rest of his life.
He's passed away since then,
but we spent a lot of good years being good friends,
and we live pretty close to one
another most and all of that time, during that time.
Of course, it was very rural then.
It was much more rural than what it is today.
They were mainly farms.
There were a few meals in just down in Adairsville,
and there was still a few of the little what we call
chenille places up and down 41 here.
The new 41,
as we always referred to it,
they still sold a lot of
peacock spreads and things like that.
Matter of fact, now, I think they
designated a large strip of that as Peacock Alley.
That was a way that
farmer years before I was around here.
That was one of the big ways that they helped provide
a living was to make those peacock spreads and,
of course, tourists would buy them.
But I can still remember a lot of the down to here,
they were a lot of the old spread lines
we called them where they'd have the spreads hung out,
and it'd be a place where tourists could
stop because at that time
the 75 wasn't completed through,
and all the traffic come through in 41 Highway.
And then also there were
peach orchards just right up the road up here,
right on top of the mountain,
there was still a large peach
orchard there during that time.
At one time, this area was big peach growing area in
the state and I
remember it being in operation and everything.
That was, I guess as I say when we first moved here,
but it was just totally different.
A lot of cotton farming was going on.
A lot of people grew cotton.
And as I said, I know when we moved up here,
we were farming down there,
but we moved up here,
we actually had a small chicken house
and we raised chickens when
we first moved up here as well as my dad worked for,
at that time, when we moved up here,
he worked for we call it Red Comb Feed Mills.
It was a chicken producing place.
They produced the feed and everything,
and individual farmers would
buy from them and that kind of stuff.
Of course, everything was done by him we
didn't have no automated stuff at that time.
[LAUGHTER] Everybody was down there working most of
the time in the chicken houses and
so it was a lot different than it is now.
>> A quick question.
Was that a change?
So you've been tenant farmers
where you have irregular income,
I guess, to move in to where your father had a job with,
I guess, more regular pay. Was that a change?
>> Well, no, not regular.
Let me explain to you.
My grandmother and granddaddy lived with us all my life.
And my granddaddy was a tenant farmer during Depression,
and he always said he had never completely rely
on farming after they struggled through the Depression.
I've heard him say that a lot of times.
The man is reasonably good,
but the Depression was the Depression,
[LAUGHTER] and we lived on the farm.
Grandad and all of us kids took care of the farm.
There was nine of us children.
We took care of the farm.
Dad worked on a public job.
He operated heavy equipment for C.W.
Matthews, Ledbetter-Johnson.
I know he worked for years building
411 from right over the road here to Rome.
That was a big project he worked on,
and then he worked on part of the project for 75.
So he always had a regular income,
but to supplement the income
because mother never did work,
she always stayed at home with us kids.
And so to supplement the income,
we've always farm pretty much all the time.
We raised our own gardens,
and all that stuff.
Most of the time, we never really bought very much from
the stores because we
raised everything that we wanted to eat then.
And so that was
a big part of what we'd done all the time,
and the chicken farm
was a good supplemental income for us.
But like I say,
my granddad, pretty much,
he ran the farm all the time for us,
and so we never were in
quite circumstance that a lot of people were in.
But now at the end of the season,
during the cotton season,
so we had to all go to cotton field and pick cotton for
some extra money because that size of family,
you were always looking for extra income,
and so we had all pick.
And I don't guess you
all have ever been in the cotton field picking,
but at the end of the cotton rows there,
we'd lay out big sheets for
everybody would for the family,
or however you're going to weigh up,
and we'd always put ours
together because it was a family thing.
And so we would lay out big sheets,
that big burlap sheets and at the end of the day,
they'd weigh you up and I can still remember.
We'd make three-dollars-and-a-half for
a 100 for picking cotton.
That's what we made
last cotton that we'd picked that I remember,
so that was what we'd made.
And mother could always
out pick everybody than all of us.
Even my dad, we kid him back
because she could always pick more cotton than he could,
but him and mother and all of us kids,
if he wasn't working at his other job,
then all of us on Saturday when it's picking cotton,
we'd all go to the cotton field.
Of course, one thing I always told him, I was glad.
I was small enough at that time to where,
when you was real little,
the way they taught you to pick cotton.
Mother make cotton sack out
of a flour sack or an old tow sack,
which was pretty short because
the old cotton sack was long.
They'd be about 10, 12 foot long and
you'd pull them behind pack them full of cotton.
But to get through the ropes and it would
be so heavy the child couldn't pull them.
And so mother would have us little ones a tow sack
and which wouldn't hold but 50 pounds of heavy grain.
It wouldn't hold that much cotton.
And so she let us pick
in that and then go back and
forth and empty our sacks up.
So I was glad that before I got to the big sacks,
they started using cotton pickers and
so before I graduated to the big things, they done that.
So that's sort of the way we made a living then
when we first or when I first
recall moving to the daily farm and everything.
But of course, we worked hard,
but we enjoyed it because
again the family was my granddad,
he was always a real gentle and easygoing fellow
and he'd make it fun for us.
He always using little things to help us or urge us on.
He had said if you all hurry and we get done,
then I'll take you to the creek and we'll go swimming
and so things like that,
and we had a good time after we went.
It wasn't all the drudgery that folks think it was.
Didn't worry about TV,
the TV that you didn't have one or two channels if you
and somebody have to keep turning downtown to find
them so that wasn't anything you worried very much about.
And most of the time we were
outside during the summer time.
You didn't stay in the house very much at all.
Was pretty much outside and one of the things too,
I mentioned about back then when
one of my recollections I think.
When we first moved to
the [inaudible] we lived on the old highway over there,
the old road and y'all probably
seen sections of it coming up through here.
And we lived on a part of the old road.
And we had a huge pecan tree,
and that's where we've done all of our work when we
gather vegetables and stuff
out of the garden or whatever we was doing.
We'd all gather around out there under the tree and
we break means or shut corn and anything.
That's where it come to and that's where we work because
it's cooler we had a shade to work under.
And it's amazing because
a lot of people back then
walked back and forth to daily farm.
There's a lot of folks who didn't ride or
didn't drive, they'd walk.
And there was always somebody stopping
by while on their way to the daily farm or back
from the daily farm they'd stop and get a drink of
water and sit down and have to talk a little while.
And it's always when I think about it,
if I stopped and done that if we
were stringing beans a lot of times
and they get them a pan of
beans and help us string beans or whatever.
They wouldn't just stop and talk.
That just sort of where it was,
and it was just a completely different time
than what it is now,
one of the things I remember.
But I think about
that a lot because if there ever somebody
coming by and stopping and
just coming out there and
setting whether it's a while or whatever.
They might have been walking or sometimes even
riding they'd still stop when they see us out there.
>> Your family lives on the way into Adairsville,
about how far outside of Adairsville did you live?
>> It's about three miles outside of Adairsville, yeah.
>> Did you walk into Adairsville?
>> Yeah, sometimes we would.
Now, most of the time,
when we was going to school
the bus route we was on it picked us up first
and we had to go all back through the country and
take about an hour or an hour and 15,
20 minutes ride all the way
back through the country because
everything was dirt roads back then.
The road we lived on was paid because it was 41,
but all the rest of the roads were dirt.
And we would ride forever in the mornings and get there.
Well, in the afternoons,
after we got up a little bit older,
in the afternoons a lot of times me and the friend that
I was telling you about that I grew up
with when we would leave
school instead of getting on the bus,
of course, mother and them knew
what we were doing so
and they wouldn't worry they didn't.
Then it wasn't like it is now,
they didn't worry about you.
If you got in trouble you
could rest assured your neighbor called them and
let them know what you was
doing and if they didn't go ahead and correct
you theirself they call and let them know
and you didn't think
about nobody bothering you back then.
But a lot of times when we started out to the bus,
we just wouldn't get on the bus,
of course, she didn't have cell phones
and all that kind of
stuff and didn't call nobody.
We just walk over to town because back then,
the school was right there in town.
We'd walk over to town,
walk on through on the old road and we'd
start home most of the time somebody would pick us up.
And we'd be at home in 15, 20 minutes,
most time at the worst,
if we did have to walk all the way home,
which was rare we'd still
get there before the bus got
there because in the evenings,
they would reverse the route and we'd have to ride
all that way back in
the evenings instead of being the first to get off,
we'd be the last to get off in the afternoon.
So unless it was rainy or cold real
bad we would just walk or start out walking.
We never did get very
far and somebody stopped and picked us
up because we knew everybody
back then and everybody knew us.
And so they just
stopped and picked us up and take us home.
And then my best friend's mother worked
at Kumans they made the drapes and stuff like that.
And we got to where as we got older,
we'd just ride with her to town
every morning because she'd come to work
and we'd just riding into Adairsville with her and
we'd get out and spend time down there in town,
go to one of the stores and piddle around and then
go on to school about school time.
And so we we quit riding
the bus in the mornings
and she didn't care for us riding with her.
So that kept us from riding the bus so much.
Of course, I don't know why I was in such a big hurry
to get home because we always had work to do.
But I guess it's better than riding the bus
but a lot of time we'd love for
a little bit in town a few minutes or what have you,
and still we'd get home and plenty of
time to beat the bus
because it took so long to get there,
but But there again,
you knew everybody and everybody
knew unions, you go through.
You talk folks and maybe
have a quarter or $0.50 to spend in one of
the stores or something like that
because maybe you'd worked or done something
somewhere or other and picked up
a few a little bit of money.
If you had $1 a week or something like that,
you was in pretty good shape.
It go a long way because most
time then Coca-Cola was a dime and
then you could get packer crackers
for a nickel or something like that and
just stuff was a lot cheaper
than it is but money was a little harder to come by,
but still if you had a quarter you could eat
pretty much all you wanted to and drink
good drink Coca-Cola and you was fine.
It has a pretty good treat for us.
They's very few things like that.
Now, we got we had plenty of eat at home and all that,
but we more and them
very rarely bought Coca-Colas or anything like that.
We had our own cows,
we milked our own cows and all that kind of stuff.
Pretty much everything was that.
She'd make butter and we had everything we wanted,
but she'd make cakes
and things teackes and stuff like that a lot,
but just as far as store bought stuff,
you didn't have a lot of that.
That was pretty rare thing during that time.
>> Can you tell us more about what it was like going
to school in the Dairy school when you were growing up?
Yeah. Again, it was pretty enjoyable.
One of the things I guess, when I started,
when moved to Dairy,
I was in the fourth grade.
Ms. Lacy was my fourth grade teacher,
her husband [inaudible],
when I first went there, he was a music teacher.
And then he become the principal at the Dairy School.
He was a very good principal. Very strict.
Most kids today wouldn't like
school because you didn't get by very much.
And Ms. Lacy,
I can remember her.
She is a very sweet lady.
One of the things that I remember,
we had a huge playground,
because when it was recess,
as we called it, all of us would get out there.
And one of the things early on,
I can remember, there was a chain link fence,
so some similar to our chain link fence,
that surrounded the playground area,
but there was a ditch that dropped off
short and there was a gap in between it and us boys.
I guess just to have something to do,
[LAUGHTER] I don't know
what purpose that we had to do it.
But we would sneak over there
while she wouldn't watching and we had
lay down and roll under the fence and
then try to jump up and run back around,
and get back in before she'd seen us.
That was the game, I guess,
[LAUGHTER] just to have something to do.
And she'd tell us and tell us.
But she was concerned,
because there was a street right
there and even though
that wouldn't hardly no traffic on it,
but she is still concerned.
She'd say, boys, y'all might get [LAUGHTER] hit by a car.
And when she'd catch us,
she had a little Bo-Lo Bouncer paddle, that's right.
And boy, she would tear
us up by that [LAUGHTER] Bo-Lo Bouncer.
But it didn't hurt.
As boys, we were pretty tough.
And of course, we didn't tell her,
it didn't hurt, because
she could have found something worse.
But we was bad about doing stuff like that.
But there again, if you got in trouble,
we never went home and told my mother and
daddy about that everything because
that just we didn't want to share
that information with mom and daddy if we got in trouble.
But she was very good to us and we just really enjoyed.
But one of the things we had a lot of good teachers.
And I remember her and Ms. Hobson,
Ms. Fox, that's some of my grade teacher.
Mr. Curson, he was
our math and science teacher
as I got I think into the fifth grade.
And one of the things I remember about him there again in
recess was that he was our softball pitcher.
He pitched for all of the teams.
I still remember he always
wore a short sleeve white shirt in
the summertime and he tucked his tie in
his shirt pocket and he pitched ball for all of us.
And matter of fact,
I got to change, not too long back,
me and my wife took him and his wife out to
dinner one afternoon because
somebody put us back in contact.
He was just a super good man.
We [inaudible] a lot of.
He was just a great guy and
not only him but a lot of our teachers.
It was a lot different then.
One of the first thing everybody,
we'd have our pledge,
we'd have our prayer,
we'd read the Bible.
And one of the things too was
that the teachers were a lot stricter,
the stuff that we, of course,
not to say that we didn't try to get
by [LAUGHTER] a whole lot less,
but it was a lot different in that sense,
because they allowed some mischievousness.
I guess, but a lot of the things I see today,
they absolutely it just didn't happen.
They let you know they were in
charge and you were going to do what they told you to do.
And it wasn't always a paddling,
but it's by other means.
They correct you and
it was just a lot different then than what it is today.
We enjoyed it. We enjoyed the whole atmosphere even then.
Of course, we went to school in the old college building,
which is not there anymore.
That was the main building back then.
It had an upstairs.
Some of my classes was upstairs.
Then as time went on, of course,
I can name all of our teachers,
but we really had some good teachers.
We had a lot of good times.
I never was very much into sports.
Some of my friends were,
but I never did really play sports or anything.
There again, we farmed a lot,
we've done a lot at home.
So it wasn't that,
dad and mom said, no,
you can't do that or anything,
but it just seemed like our time was consumed with that.
And then we went to church [inaudible].
And so between the two,
we was pretty busy with
the things that we was doing like that.
And we were pretty happy doing it.
[LAUGHTER] I just never was that involved
with sports and all that stuff too much.
But I was involved with the other things like I say,
at home and then at church,
we always had a good bit going on there.
I stayed plenty [inaudible] without sports so I just
never did care that much for it.
>> What was the name of
this school where you went to school?
>> It was a Dairy school. We all
just called it a Dairy because at that time,
you see the elementary.
I will tell you this.
We didn't have preschool or kindergarten when I started.
I told them I spent my kindergarten and
preschool years going to
barn and milking cows for my mother.
[LAUGHTER] That was my preschool.
And it's strange and I will say this.
I can really remember
that and that was really a good time in
my life because between me and my sister older than me,
there was five years difference.
And [NOISE] when all of them were going to school,
I can remember I couldn't have been more than
maybe four years or five years old.
Me and mother would go to the barn together and we'd be
talking and just sharing and everything.
She usually have my hand,
I remember that and we go to the barn.
And as small as I was,
we'd milk two or three cows.
And to start with,
she would milk the cows and then
as I began to get a little bit older,
she'd set a little stool down and she'd say, now son,
you sit here and milk this cow and
the cows she'd always let me milk with baby.
She is real gentle and she'd say,
you sit down here and start milking,
baby, you've watched me do it.
And I milk these other two and she'd get done
to her two and then come finish milking that cow.
[LAUGHTER] Until I learned.
And it was a very special time
and I know it don't seem much to somebody,
but me and her talked about
so many things and she'd tell me about stuff and all.
But little did I know what
she was doing too as I was learning,
she was very particular about who milked the cows,
because she wanted it done a certain way
and want to make sure it was clean and
guess who got to milk the cows
for the rest of the time they had a cow, I did.
[LAUGHTER]
So I got the job after that.
But the school was a Darzal school.
It was elementary, middle and high,
it was all and one the most of
the elementary building we did have
one building that was
a new building out back of the college.
Old college building and it house first, second,
third grade and it wasn't very big at all,
but I was in fourth grade when we went there.
And then we moved up into
the college building just directly up from it and that's
where fifth and sixth grade was and then we moved over to
another wing of the building
when we got in what I guess you'd call middle school now.
And a little bit more and then, of course,
the high school section was in
another wing of the
there was in the old college building,
there was a big wing here and one
here and then a connector hall,
and they had it situated
where when you come out of the elementary,
the other grades started up
this hall and down
that hall and until they got over to high school.
And then by the time I started in high school,
they completed a new building over to the side and
all the high school moved over there and left
this building for just elementary and middle school then.
But to it didn't have
any air in it and the heat was steam heat,
there was old furnace in it and I know one winter it was
so cold they had to let us out of school for
a while because they couldn't keep the building heated,
I was so cold, and it was very cold, of course,
I told I didn't know why they really let us
out of school because all of us kids.
Boys. We'd like to go out and hunt and stuff like that
and there wasn't that much to do and of course,
mother and them didn't mind for us getting out and
doing stuff and we go
hunting and time we get back our bridges to
be froze past your knees and everything.
I as I got older, I said,
I don't know why they kept us at home we was colder
out there than we would have been in the schoolhouse.
But but I guess they thought that it was just too
bad to sit in the more rooms
and it would have been probably pretty cold,
but it was a lot different.
The old building was pretty
old but it's pretty unique too.
I've always wished I hadn't have tore it down.
I've because it it was just,
really unique, the way it was it was pretty old building.
It's and everything.
But but it was
a little bit different in what buildings are now.
So had the windows
up the ceilings were real high and you'd have
windows that go into the hall that would turn out for
ventilation and everything and then you side windows they
would turn out and it would give
you a little bit of cross breeze.
It's still hot in first of September when we start so,
but it's it wasn't more than you could bear.
We was used to it then we wouldn't use
air conditioning so we managed all right.
>> Now, since you work
in the Bartow County school system today,
what are the biggest changes that you can see
from since you were in school until today?
>> Tremendous. [LAUGHTER] I can see a lot
of good things that they do today.
I guess one of the biggest things that I
see that's really good is how they work
with a lot of special needs kids because
then really would there was special needs kids,
but the thought was that they
didn't they wasn't in
inclusive classes like they are today.
And most of time I know here in this county,
there's school that was most basically was used
for special needs kids and it's called
Hickory and they were usually isolated there,
if I remember correctly,
and that's one of the big things
I can see a great improvement of is the way that
they they try to work with these kids to help them to be
involved with everybody else and
to bring them as far along as they can.
Of course, technology today [LAUGHTER] we dusted erasers,
you know, that was and I wrote on the chalkboard.
But the only thing just like that.
When I was in school,
you weren't allowed, of course,
we didn't have any devices like you got now,
no cell phones, and nothing like that.
You didn't have any calculators,
no handheld calculators, anything like that.
So all of it was done,
you learned the method of how to do it.
It's just like math
one of the things I think about a whole lot.
Ms. Fox taught us math when I went into the fifth grade.
And I can remember back then,
say what you had to do when you were in class,
when you went in her class,
she had all problems up there.
Just say it was multiplication or division,
if it's division then you followed
the steps that she taught you,
you know, so that you could
learn to come to the right answer.
And if you knew the answer in
your mind and you started to put it up up there,
she'd say if it's ma, she'd say,
Mr. Baker, don't get the cart before the horse.
Now, follow the steps,
and that was one of the things that she
really impressed you with the thing
always follow the steps and
you'll come to the right conclusion.
And see today, that's one of the things that
concerns me is if something happens,
and even after I went when I first went to work,
I went to work Coco and at Ralph settlement
and even when I first went to work,
we didn't have handheld calculators
and I had a little book that I took out there.
And if it was something that and see,
I would sell drinks to AMP and big star and
the big things and I have
five to $600 worth of drinks that I'd sit on the side.
And I figured it out.
I flipped over on the back of
that little pad and I figured it on that.
If I didn't have or know the steps,
I'd be in trouble and of course,
heaven forbid that we not have
the calculators and computers and things like that.
But how many kids would know how to do
any figuring anymore as I put
it and that's one of the things and not only that,
but one of the other things too is,
and I think this is a great problem that we
have that I see is with reading.
So many of our kids they
get way down the road and they still can't read
and reading is vital to
anybody not only just their education
but also their ability
to make things work for them in life.
If you can't read see when I was in school,
one of the things that you did
was when they were teaching you to read,
you not only read,
they would give you
homework and you would have so much to read,
then you had to get up in class and read.
Public reading and I know a lot of folks says, well,
that's not fair, but I've seen a lot of kids,
then and even since then when they were challenged,
to do it and they shouldn't be
there to be ridicule
because they can't read the best in the world.
But it acts I think challenges people to do
better and not just to get along,
but but one of the great things
is I wish folks
could be more challenged in our schools today.
I wish children could be more
challenged and whatever it is they're
doing because if we don't have some challenge,
then then they don't learn,
and maybe I know I'm old school,
don't give them a piece of
candy and say you're all right,
but here's what you've got to do and
this is the mark you're reaching
for and that's what they did to us,
you didn't you didn't get socially promoted.
If you had a bad grade,
you had to go home and explain to Mom and Daddy why you
had a bad grade and I
I wish that our
education system and and I know in the framework,
and then of course, one of the things too,
I wish parents would reinforce discipline.
And reinforce the learning process
that kids have because
most of our parents today are not most of them.
I'm going to say. But a large part
of them just don't spend time with the kids.
Again, my mother was at home all the
time and I know that can't always happen today.
And as I look back,
my folks made good many sacrifices to where our family
could be together and worked together.
They didn't mind us kids
working and but in the same process,
we were all together working.
That was just part of
our life as the way we were brought up.
And it worked pretty good for us.
As I tell folks, we've still pretty happy family.
We've had some bad things that happened,
loss of family, but in all of it,
we remembered what we've been taught through the years,
and I think that's valuable to folks and
our education system is all part of that because
then the education system
reflected the principles of the day and I think it's
reflecting the principles of
the day as we deal with it because too
many of our parents don't reinforce discipline.
They don't reinforce the education
of their children, teach them self.
It might they might enjoy it if they'd sit down and
read a little bit to the kids instead of just watch TV,
or let them sit there on the phone and that stuff.
I tell them a lot of times nowadays,
too many children have no life experiences anymore.
All they've got is a video game and that's sad to me.
It really is sad. That's my $0.02. [LAUGHTER].
>> So let's shift gears a little bit.
Can you tell us a little bit more about the church life
in Adairsville and what it's
been like throughout your life?
>> It's always been very important in that area.
I think like I say,
I grew up the early years of my life just right here.
And the church that I remember as a child growing up in.
My family, of course,
still a big part of them still go there even though
I was called preach
and I started pastoring churches and everything.
And of course, I actually
was several years after
I started preaching in pastoring churches.
I pastored there for
about six years and that was very good time for me.
I really enjoyed that.
But it was very important I think to the majority of
people then in our area
because even when we moved up here to Adairsville,
there was a church right there in
the community and even though we never did
move our membership and go
there during special things or revivals and stuff,
we would go to the service over there,
just like we did to our own church
that was just like I said,
that was one of the things that
took up a lot of our time other than just work.
That was where all the people met.
That was our social gatherings and stuff like that.
That people look forward to being
there because a lot of times they
got see folks that they didn't see
and then for worship and everything.
And it was just pretty much center of attention
because even though the population
wasn't as near as much as what it is today,
most of our smaller church areas like this around here.
Our congregation size was a lot bigger
because there wasn't very many folks
and there was people in
the community that didn't go to church,
but there wasn't very many folks that didn't,
you know, go to church somewhere.
>> What was the name of the church that
you were a member of when you were a child?
>> Mount Pisgah.
>> It was it's over on 293.
It began in about 1913.
At that time, it was called Caves, Georgia.
It sits between Caspll and Kingston.
It was an area and that's pretty wide area.
But at that time,
the Gaines is that was
a pretty wealthy family in this area.
They had flour meals.
They own a couple of different flour mills.
They had a flower mill there and there
was a number of sawmills in that area.
There was a mining operation right there as well
as there was a big creek
that runs through there called Turon Creek,
and there's a lot of Creek bottom land.
They grew a lot of wheat and different stuff.
There was a lot of farmers right there.
There was no school in that area either.
And so when the church began.
It began as a school and a church in 1913.
They got together and constituted
a church and began a school there too.
At that time, I think the county was providing schools,
but the distance it was that there wasn't a local school.
I was able to talk to a lot of the older people.
I've done a lot of history on it.
When I was there as pastor because a lot of
the older people that I
that we always call her grandma Monax.
She is in her 90s then and she remembered
it and JT Malnax one of her sons
and Henry Law a lot of the ones that was there
when it started that actually
went to school there and everything.
I went to them and recorded a lot of what
they told me about the school and the church,
and all of them during that time.
And they of course,
the community just began
growing and when the gains put the mill
there because of the source
of power of the creek being where it was.
That was the PowerPoint there.
And so the community just grew from that and then
the mining operation come in there and
the folks saw and timber,
and that stuff and farmers, and what have you.
And from that it grew and there was
no church and no school and that's what they built.
I don't know other than maybe
being a there was a post office there,
but it was at the meal and there was
also a meal store there,
but that was no actual town or anything there.
You had to go to Kingston,
which would have been the closest place
to go to regular town over there.
So that was where it come from and it's of course,
they still have service now.
That is still pretty good.
Size congregation go now.
But the school I think lasted up to almost the 30s,
and then the county consolidated with them they
began to take more control of
the schools of small schools.
And I know a pastor church and Calhoun, the same thing.
It began actually in 1898,
I think it was.
And when it began,
it was a school as well.
And there again, a lot of the people
that was going there when I was pastor,
remember going to school there.
A lot of them met their husbands and
wives there and that stuff.
And but later then
the county consolidated those small schools that
the local churches started
into the county system at that time.
So a lot of the churches
here actually was school or had schools,
matter of fact, Pine Grove Church, her pastored there.
That was another one.
My family and moved in that area like 1,900,
that was my great granddad and them.
But my dad and m farmed there
until right after the depression.
And during that time or when my dad was going to school,
he went to school at
school that was there at the church,
that was the that was the school until.
Again, it was consolidated now he was he was
born in the late teens,
I think it was so he went to
school there during his school years.
So a lot of the old churches like
that provided schools also in this area.
That was pivot vital as far as
education of the kids back then.
Well, it's only place that they had.
And matter of fact, one of the over one of
the first pastors there at
Mount Pisgah where I grew up at.
He was also a pastor there
when it started and he taught school there too.
And he preached to he was very very old man.
I can still remember when he was preaching,
and everything he everybody I always loved
for brother Coward to come
because everybody knew him
thought a lot of him and everything.
But he he was and I tell people,
there's a lot of times and this might seem odd.
I know nowadays, folks don't think
children can set steel in church and all that.
But now, with my dad,
you can manage to set steel in
church and listen I can remember
a message that brother Coward preached when I was
about maybe seven or eight years old.
And I remember it today just like he was preaching that.
And I mean, of course, now,
things were different because
they my dad didn't care where you sit in church.
He was ding at church,
but when he went in,
he said on that very back row
against the wall and he said,
you all go sit where you want to.
You just remember, I've got my eye on you.
And we did we sat where we want to,
but we knew not to get up and we knew
not to talk you didn't carry toys,
there was no need because you were listening.
And of course, singing and all that,
but you were listening to what the preacher had say.
And back then now and another thing I'll say back then,
the old preachers and they they
didn't mind if you got to playing or
doing something and mom and daddy didn't notice you.
They didn't mind saying how
about a stopped playing and listen to what I guys.
They would call you down
and they were if things were different than,
you respected things like that.
You respected older people
especially that's like folks in our community.
You talked about our community when we moved to Dirfill.
Even though we we knew them when you addressed them,
it was like some of our best friends
and neighbors of Mr. Howe and miss Howe,
Mr. and Mrs. Marshall,
you didn't just call them by their first names,
Mr. and Mrs. Cantrell,
that was all of our neighbors around us and we
that's when you referred to Daddy Better here,
you say Mr. and Mrs. Cantrell and but
that was Mr. Sam Shaw and just different ones like that.
And that people in general had a more I guess,
respectful tone at that time and what you see now.
>> So it sounds like the church was
a big part of the community when you were younger?
>> Yes.
>> How was that changed now that you're older?
>> Well, as far as there again for our family,
it really hasn't changed that much
because we're still very closely tied to the church.
But regretfully, we see nowadays
that even though I know numerous numerous times,
I try to visit with people to invite them to church,
if I know them I talk to them different things like that.
But seems like I guess
people's values and their ideas have changed
their their thought on
a lot of different things has changed and of course,
it's it's pretty obvious
and the way things going in the world because,
again, when I was growing up,
so many things that is pretty much accepted
today was unheard of then, I mean,
a lot of things that happened then you
man or today if it happened then folks,
they were absolutely appalled by,
and that just wasn't
their way of living and doing things and people had,
I think a lot stricter moral code
than what they have today,
and it's pretty obvious that they do.
But but it's one of the things is to me,
the fact that so many people and I guess it concerns
me is they raise their children they don't go to church,
so their children don't go to church
and their children don't go to church.
It's hard to break that pattern or to get them
to start to church and that stuff.
But of course, I know it
can be programs like anything else.
But still,
that's one of the things that concerns me, I guess,
as much as anything today because
I feel like that there again,
if you have a society without a moral compass,
then at some point we're all in trouble
because there's got to be something
that draws us to what's right.
And of course, I believe the Word of God
and I believe the Lord does
and he directs our lives
and our lives can be made better.
And that's to me the sad part about it
when I think about what the Word of God teaches us.
It's a wonderful life if we all live
it and it draws to a better way,
and because I've experienced it all
through my life and I've
seen what a difference it can make.
And to me, it is no life to
live addicted to stuff and destructive to your own self.
And that's what I see that's
happening because people are
going away from the word of God.
And I believe I'll just take the way I know.
Is the songs just a better way to leave.
And it's been a good life and there again,
I'm thankful for the I guess
the heritage and I'm thankful for the old generation
that I was brought up that instructed
and gave some good advice and if
people would just follow it today
and a lot of times I don't really know
what it's going to take to cause people to turn
back to the Lord or to the Word of
God because I think it's the way of life
and I don't know what it's going to take,
but I know it needs to people
need to turn back to that and and
find what they need in their life
because it's not in
all this other stuff that they're looking for.
I believe I can safely say that.
>> Well, is there anything else you would
like to be included in this interview?
>> Well, I probably told you all I know.
No, I could talk for hours,
I didn't get into the little.
>> I have one question for you.
>> Yes.
>> You talked about before and after school,
maybe going downtown and
loafing a little bit and add the friends.
What what was there in that downtown,
you're talking about the public square,
would you get across the railroad tracks from the school.
Where would you go, what stores
were located there and where would you go?
>> Well, at that time,
there was a five and dam that was
there and the hardware store.
And of course, you knew all of these folks,
the fellow run five and dam as well, I mean,
the hardware store wife run the five and dam down there,
you sometimes go in there and get she always
had penny candy and some chocolates or what have you,
if you had that little bit of
extra money and I was trying to think of their name,
but names are hard sometimes for me to remember.
But then the cover friends
owned a store up there and they had soft drank or
what have you were going there and we and there again,
see these are people we knew and when you come in,
it's just like they always had time to talk to you,
they'd be talking to you about different stuff
and you'd walk around and
look in the store and of course,
most time they knew you didn't have
a nickel a dime or one quarter to spend,
but they they didn't mind.
They let you look and they
didn't shoe off or what have you,
but you could walk around and look
and wish just as I told them,
one of the things I remember when I was a kid in
the firm dam they always had a toy table,
big toy table and you go in
and you get a little bit of pin candy.
And then you'd wear the floor out
walking around and around the toy table,
looking at all those toys,
knowing you never was going to get
none of them because there again,
we we were country folks and you
just did you couldn't afford a lot of stuff like that.
But you were thankful for it
and you learned at
a very early age just because you said to Mom and Daddy,
I won't didn't mean you got it because
they didn't go borrow a bunch of money for Christmas.
If you got up on Christmas morning and you had
a checkered board and a Chinese checkered board
or sometimes it just
be a few games and fruit or something like that.
You were very happy that you got that and some candy.
So but then we'd have get
some soft drains or
maybe a soft dran because there again.
A lot of times see during
that period of time once we got
up in middle school to high school age,
they had summer programs or they
had work programs at school.
You could stay for
45 minutes or an hour and
help in the evening to clean up or what have you.
And you you'd make
$4 or $5 a month or something like that.
And then mother and daddy
always let us spend that money ever how we wanted
to spend it that we do
and that was our pocket money that we'd go to town.
We'd go through town and like I say,
get us a coat,
get us some candy or something like that,
and enjoy it on the way
home because now that was something like I
say you very seldom ever got anything like that at home.
Mother and daddy just buy cokes and stuff like that.
It was very rare.
We had to eat old stuff like ham
and potatoes and beans and corn bread and biscuits,
and that whole stuff like that.
Nowadays everybody that's the meal
they don't get very much,
but then we had it all the time.
But now, mother always had like if
you went into her house any time of the day,
she always had a plate
of biscuits in the oven that would be warm.
You'd open the oven and she didn't care if
you to eat anytime you needed something to eat.
There was a pan of sweet potatoes that had been baked,
always something like that.
A lot of times I can remember
she'd have because so many of those kids.
She'd have one of the dish pans like this
and it'd be about full of tea cakes.
She had mixed up chocolate and some of it,
she'd have chocolate on and different things like that.
And there was all homemade stuff like that,
but the store bought stuff made.
We just thought that was really cool to
get something store bought sometimes.
But then some of
our other friends sometimes would come and we just sit
around or talk a while and
then start at home when we thought we need to,
like I said, most of time we
knew we were going to get a ride,
so we wouldn't be in a big hurry to go.
And it just something a bit different
because we knew that we had work to do when we get home.
We knew about what time
they was expecting us to be there.
It's just the fact that we're
getting to low for a little bit, I guess,
because none of us had cars or anything like
that riding around in cars or anything.
>> What year did you graduate from high school?
>> It's '73.
>> '73. So you were there
during during the period of integration?
>> Yes that was before.
>> Tell us a little bit about that.
>> Well, in Adairsville,
it was almost virtually no big deal at all.
I honestly cannot remember one instance
that we had a problem because there in the Adairsville,
the McConnell's, the Beasley's, and the Shahs,
all of those folks,
we knew all of them,
and when they come to school,
it it just was no big thing, like now,
given during that time, now,
you didn't go home with one another,
you know what I'm saying and have that social.
But one of my best friends through
school after he started
coming to school was John Beasley,
he was really big football player.
>> Was he Vick's father?
>> It was his uncle.
>> His uncle.
>> Uncle. John died not too long
back and he was also a master.
And me and him was just real good friends all
through high school or
through school years and everything.
But we, I honestly can say that it was no big thing.
I'm sure to some folks it was.
Now, my dad and granddaddy
both would talk to us about stuff like that.
And my dad often would say
because he come up through
depression years and all that stuff,
and dad would say,
I'm glad I wasn't born a Black person,
and everything because they had
a hard way to live years before that time,
and he let us read just like Mr.
Shaw that lived over
he was on a Black man that lived in our community.
But when you said something about Mr. Shaw,
it it better be Mr. Sam Shaw,
that was just the way you addressed him.
He was custodian at the school.
Everybody knew Mr. Sam and matter of fact,
he was a preacher too.
He pastors some of the Black churches then.
And everybody was very respectful of Mr. Sam.
But I honestly during that time,
but I'm going to say and I'm
probably sure that there was
some problem somewhere or other,
but it was none that I really ever experienced,
to be honest with you during the time I was there.
Because like I said,
a lot of the guys now, the Shaw boys,
and a lot of the other ones,
we just grew up at school together and we
played at school, as I said, now,
socially then, it wasn't acceptable for
you to go spend a night with one another and that stuff.
But still you was
respectful of one another and it just never was
and I know all met our mayor at the sea.
I was talking to him not too
long back and then was talking about it.
And he told me he said
he called me Mr. Baker for whatever reason,
but I guess because I'm older.
There were several other people running.
During that time and a lot of
them and I don't mean this in bad way,
but with a lot more money
to did spend a lot more money than he did,
but he was flaber and he said,
after I won that and I started going
to all these different things for mayors,
he said one of the things that
most everybody says or asked me because I'm
mayor of a small town and Georgia is I guess
it's predominantly black and
he said they're also shocked.
When I tell him, no it's about 70%
or better or maybe 80% White.
And I won over all the White folks.
But there again, see his family,
they were all well thought of
because they were like most of the people at that time,
of course, you always have
your upper Echelon folks
that had a lot of the money and all that stuff.
But the majority of people were working class people.
I know a big part of those folks and they
worked in on some
of the big farms around there
driving tractors and stuff like that.
If they had off day,
you you'd go around to there,
there's just like my dad wore overhauls,
and they would be dressed to
a t in their overhauls and with creases in them
and the whole thing because they had respectable jobs.
Back then, there
was very few families
where there wasn't a mom and dad there,
very few, and it was just I never
did really remember being
no great big racial problems there.
It might have been some, but I
never knew about it in moment.
Because there again, dad,
they wouldn't be on stuff like
that causing a lot of problems,
you know what I'm saying.
>> Well, I guess,
thank you so much for your time.
>> Well, thank you all.
I hope I didn't appreciate for you all to.
>> Great. Very good. Thank you.