Well, I decided that I did... well being a poor family, you know, my people worked but you know, you didn't make much. Mama couldn't make but $7 a week if she [degraded audio] to work with somebody. And the only job that you would get would be a cook or something like that, or you would be a nursemaid or something. And we just didn't have very good jobs you have to do except to do house work or laundrey for people. And my mother was a seamstress. So she did a lot of sewings for people. And then she did some laundry work. She would mend shirts and things for rich people, you know? Well, she said, "I don't know how you're going to school, we don't have any money." I said "I know, Mama," but I said "I wanna go so I can be a teacher." And so, at that time my brothers and sisters they were coming along down the lower grades of Effinger. We had only one brother that went to Simms, and he went only one year to Simms his last year in high school. So I said "Mama," I said, "Miss Royal taught Leo and Joe," I said, "maybe she'd let me stay up there, on Petersburg." So I wrote to Mrs. Royal, and Mrs. Royal said, "Oh," said my mother, "It'd be so great to have you Mary." Because she didn't teach me. She said, "I have sisters going over to Virginia State, and they walk over as day students," and she said "you can stay with us." Well I had a grandmother that was living with us, she used to, she and my grandfather lived in [degraded audio] You know where that is I assume, if you're from Harrisonburg. They had a farm, but when granddaddy passed away, Momma was the only child and Momma said "I don't want my mother [degraded audio]. And she brought her to Harrisonburg to live with our family. We went to stay with Mrs. Royal's family. Oh I loved it there. My grandmother would send me loose change, loose pennies and change. Or she sent me a box of food like cookies and different things that I'd share with this lady's girls. And we walked to school. It was two miles. We walked those two miles every morning going from up on where they lived to Virginia State.