Okay, so today is February 28. My name is Blue Johnson. I'm here with Allison Kincaid, and we are interviewing Miss Alice Davis. Miss Davis, you understand that this interview is being recorded? And do you consent to being recorded at this time?
Yes.
Awesome. So then we can start getting into the interview.
Sure.
So our first question we have is, what age did you start going to the Simms school?
I started here at five years old.
Awesome.
They had like kindergarten, you started
mhm
at five and went all the way through it.
Do you have any other family members that attended the school with you?
Oh, yes. My brother and all my cousins, everybody.
Mhm, yeah, so it was like everyone went here?
Everybody, yes. If you were African American, you went to this school.
Did you think everyone got along well, or was there like, drama, or [unclear]?
Oh, no, everybody got along well because everybody knew everybody. Went to the same things, played the same sports together. It was almost like a village is what it was.
So everyone was super tight there, walking into like, [unclear]
Oh yeah. That's still that way. That's still that way.
That's fantastic.
Oh, yeah, we'd meet, my class that I graduated with. We meet once every three months. And we get to do stuff we go bowling or we go to the movie, we go to the theater, we just interact with the school and do things. Oh, yeah. Take trips? Yeah.
Do you have a favorite like teacher or subject?
My favorite teacher, I would say would be Barbara Blakey.
Mhm
Because I loved the classes. I like typing. I liked shorthand. She taught shorthand. And what she taught me has helped me get the jobs that I eventually went out into the world and got, just learning what she had taught me that it stuck with me enough.
She was like, your typing teacher [unclear]?
Oh, yes. Yes. She did all the typing and shorthand, everybody, yeah.
Great. Did you guys get to choose the classes you took? Or was it like everyone took like, all the same classes and you didn't have any choices?
Well, there were a few choices because see, some of them were like in sports or whatever. Some of them had more electives than what regular classes. Now you got a little choice on what you had to have, but it had to coincide with what that teacher had available.
Uh-huh
Because there was like only one teacher that taught eighth-grade English, one teacher taught eighth-grade math. And they also had to teach maybe ninth-grade or eleventh-grade class, so we had to coincide ours with when the teacher was available.
So you had like your required classes. And then you had
Yes, mhm.
like two or three electives that you got to take.
Three electives. Yes.
Did you do any extracurricular activities while you were here? Like sports or clubs?
Yes, I did. Wasn't a lot of sports offered here.
Uh-huh
I did cheerleading. Well, I started off with basketball. I did that my freshman year. And that didn't work. That's when they had like half-court. I don't know if you've ever heard of that, where it's the offense and defense on one side, and the team we were playing, there was a very big girl and I was like, only ninety some pounds. And she bumped me and slid me like halfway across the basketball court and I said I gave it up that was it for me. But then I started the cheerleading. And that was also taught by Pat Blakey, her and Barbara Blakey were sister-in-laws. And she had, she was local. She was from Luray, Virginia. And she had gone to Wilmington, Delaware, to college, and then she came back home, and she taught, I believe it was kindergarten, or first grade, and she also did cheerleading. So I did do that for three years.
Did you enjoy that?
Oh, yes. I enjoyed it. Because we got to travel a lot. Yes.
Uh-huh. Is that something you'd still do today if you could?
Oh, travel?
Travel, cheerlead, all that kind of stuff.
Oh, yeah, no, no cheerleading, but I do travel. We do travel a lot. And it gave me an opportunity to meet a lot of people.
Yeah, yeah.
I still see them now. I'll look at them and I'll say I know you're related to so and so. And so how do you know them? But you've got to travel. We traveled as far as Lynchburg, Lexington.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, we--Front Royal--because we had to play other African American schools. We didn't play any local schools.
Yeah, so you had to travel far.
So, yes. Sometimes three, three hours
Oh, wow
sometimes on the bus, and you would suit up before you left. And sometimes--and most of the games started at six and you had to--sometimes you got there a little bit after six, so you had to be ready to get off that bus and be ready to play or cheer right then and there.
Yeah, yeah
Oh, yeah. It was quite a [trip].
Sounds like it
[chuckles] But it was fun. You got to interact with your other cheerleaders and the players because we all rode one bus and we only had one bus available. And team and the cheerleaders and the sponsors all had to ride one bus.
Oh, so everyone was all together.
Everybody was together. Yes.
Yeah. What was your favorite place you got to travel with all that?
Favorite place? I think mine would have been Winchester. I liked their James Wood High School. I love their--their school was so big compared to ours, it was just like huge. And to me, that was an experience to be able to go in a room or go into a school that had just oodles of space. And it was just spread[ed] out all over.
Uh-huh.
That was my favorite. Yeah.
Do you do anything like outside of school other than your cheerleading and stuff? Like did you have any hobbies or like jobs throughout high school?
Yes, I did have a job. One of the teachers came through here. And he went down into Harrisonburg. Up until then, there were very few Blacks that worked in stores or had [outside?] jobs. And he introduced that ICT program. And he went down into the local places and he was able to place--it was about maybe 10 of us and I got to work at, it was called Leggett's then, it's now Belk because I had sewing and I love sewing and I still do it. I got a job as a seamstress there at their store.
Oh, nice!
And that was back in '63 and I worked there for two years and then I worked after I graduated and got married I still worked there. Yeah.
What's like your favorite thing to sew? Are you like a quilter? Or do you do like garment sewing or all that kind of stuff?
Garment sewing. And this--right now I'm making like blankets for the hospital. I do placemats I do a little bit of every kind of sewing. I just--and for my kids, now when they were born I made all their clothes up until they were eleven or twelve years old.
Oh, nice!
I didn't go in a store and buy it, I would go downtown and get the fabric and make it at home. And that's how they got their clothes until they were up until a teenager.
That's super fun.
It was, it was fun. And then again, you didn't have to worry about it being everybody having the same outfit. [laughter]
Yeah, and then you get to customize it.
It was--right you could customize everything, yes.
Yeah, I love to sew.
Oh good!
Yeah, I made that jacket.
Well, I was wondering--oh! Now did you learn that at school?
No, I taught myself.
Goodness. Well, you did a good job.
Thank you.
I'll tell you I was wondering. Look at that. Well, that's great. It's a good trade.
Yeah, it's super fun.
It's--see, fun. There you go. You have a lot of fun. If you can't have fun with it, then get away from it.
I don't know how to sew.
Well, you need to--hey. [all laughing] You should learn. [more laughter]
Do you use any of the skills and things you learned from the Simms school? I mean, like obviously you do but like what's kind of the things that have really stuck with you from the Simms school.
What has really stuck is the friendship. You make a bond with them and they're there. They're in your life all the time. A lot of my classmates, there was only 14 of us when we graduated, 2 have passed away. And we have some in New Jersey. We've got them all over and also some that had graduated before us. We still stay in contact. We pick up the phone and we call each other, we send cards or for a birthday you may get four or five different things of flowers or fruit because you're thinking about them. You don't forget them. They've been a part of your life all of your life. And as far as skills and things. Like I said with Mrs. Blakey, I was able to get a job running the teletype. I didn't know what a teletype machine is. Do either one of y'all know what that is?
I've never heard of that.
[laughs]
It's just like a typewriter. It's really like, a keyboard. It's almost like a keyboard. I got a job at Sears. I worked there for like 12 years. And when you placed your order over the phone, it's-- you don't write it all--[unclear] well, or girls or men answer the phone to start as a telephone operator. You'd call in you'd tell me your number out of the catalog and I'd write it down. Then it was taken to another person. And that's the teletype operator. That's what I became. And I would have to sit there at a typewriter, and--at a keyboard, and all of those things, it was punched in as holes.
Oh, wow.
It was just a little spool. You were sitting there typing and it transferred onto the spool. And our headquarters was in Greensboro, North Carolina. And your machine is hooked up to a telephone; you dial their number and tell them you're sending an order, hang it up to your keyboard, and that they would automatically start sending it.
Oh, wow.
This little old spool, and then they would confirm it: we got your orders, we got 400 orders and you'd say yes. And then you would hang up, take out that spool. It was just a little thing and you'd put it in this little case and put the date on it. And then you start typing more. And Sears was one of the leading salespeople here in Harrisonburg because that was the main store to go to if you wanted something. and usually during Christmas, usually before Thanksgiving, I'd work eight hours sitting there, it was another lady and myself. We were working from nine in the morning till nine at night. She'd work one shift, and I worked the other shift. And that's all we did was sit there and transport items, orders. And we also did a lot of business with West Virginia, the naval base that was there. And usually, they would order--they never came down like, every week, they would come once every five or six months. And when they called, you would be sitting there taking an order for maybe three hours.
Oh, wow.
They'd order--yeah because they didn't come over that often. And they'd say I'm calling for West Virginia Naval Air Base, Naval Station. And you'd know, you just say to the girls, I'm taking this order, and you'd start writing and you'd--when you finished, you hear like a stack of paper that tall, and they'd order all the Christmas things, all the tools, everything they needed. And you would send all that order in, then you'd go and type all this stuff in.
Oh, wow.
And they'd make one trip over to get everything. You'd tell them when it--all of it came in and it came by truck from Greensboro; we had a truck that came every day that comes from there. And we'd sort the stuff. But really, I love--that's what gave me an idea of--with using a computer now because I would have not had had that skill if I hadn't had typing. At least I knew what a keyboard was, I was able to--and I love the keys. I love doing it now because the old keys--if you ever see the old typewriter they were raised up. And you almost had to keep your fingers like this right, to type on it, but now you can just lay your hands down and type whatever.
Yeah!
It's much easier. [laughs]
Oh, I bet.
Much, much easier. Yes.
Did you enjoy that job?
Oh, yes.
Or was it just a job you took?
Oh, no. I try to get the best out of every job. I have been a telephone operator, I have worked in JMU at their Mr. Chips. I was the office secretary. I started there as a clerk and then moved up to being the office manager, and payroll clerk, and all of that. Every job I have, I have taken something from it and learned.
Uh-huh.
And I try to show my skills or teach my skills to other people. So that, who knows they may want to take that trade, or they may want to do that. But no, every job has led to something else. Every job in my life has led to something else.
That's great. What's been your favorite job that you've ever had?
My favorite, don't laugh, was working in the school system with the little kindergarten students, the little ones. When they first come in, and they're like, all new. And you're teaching them, molding them into what they'll be for the next grade and the next grade--that was my biggest thing that I liked,
Uh-huh.
was working with the kids.
When do you start doing that?
I started when my children started back in the 70s. When my oldest daughter started, I started off as a parent volunteer. I would go in and help the teachers laminate or copy and do things. And then one of the assistant principals [Mr. Weihl], well, you're over here all the time, which I wound up being there all the time. How would you like to substitute? So I started doing that, and I did that off and on whenever I was off or I wasn't working or taking time off with my kids, I would do that. And that was--and I still do that a lot. I still do a lot of volunteer work in the county. I still do a lot at the schools.
That's great. So I'm just going to kind of circle back to your experiences at high school.
Yeah! Sure.
Were you ever excited to graduate high school or were you sad because you wouldn't get to see your friends as often?
It was mixed emotions because when I got out of high school, I got married, and I now live in Elkton. And I knew I wouldn't--and I couldn't drive. So it was one of these things I knew I wouldn't get to see everybody. I lived more or less on the outskirts of Elkton in the country. So with no permit no vehicle, it was--I was isolated more or less, but we kept in contact and now we see--like I said we'd talk to each other probably every day we see each other every three, well more than every three months. I usually, when I come to town I'll call someone and say hey I'm going to be eating at so-and-so or you want to meet to go to the library or you want to do this, and usually, two or three of them meet, and we just sit around for hours and just talk and laugh and just--we really have a good time. We really do. I enjoy--that you can see what Howard Curry now he was ahead of me in school, but we've stayed friends, his wife, his whole family, but just like this. I can name every place there who lives there and everything. Because this was what we called our stomping ground. We knew everybody from here, all the way to Mason Street. You walk this is where we walked from Mason Street up to school every day.
Oh, wow.
There was no buses, no transportation. You walked there every day. School's not closed like it is now, every-- but we walked every day. And you know, you talked, you got to meet with everybody and parents knew you.
Yeah, yeah. That's great.
Yeah, it was, it was fun. It was--I have no regrets. None whatsoever.
That's great. Did you attend church during school? Or is that something--
Oh yeah. Church was almost like a mandatory in this community. I meant, that's where you really got a lot of your information that happened or from other--like Staunton, they would maybe tell their relative that lived in Harrisonburg, and at church time, you know, they'd tell them what would be happening and stuff like this. This is more or less like our communication place, at the church, and I was going to church, oh, ever since I can remember. Not only on Sundays, but my grandmother, she, they went to church on Wednesdays. And if you went to grandmother's house you went, you--there's no question asked. You'd get your books. You sat on the backseat, you did your lessons while church was going on. You were there at that church if she was there, Mother Brown's grandchildren were there.
So that was something you looked forward to?
Oh, yeah, it was fun. It was, it was fun, because she, she went to a different type of church than what we did. We were Baptists, and she was what they call a holy sanctified church. And it was a different type of church. But, but we went, we enjoyed it, we didn't complain. No.
That's great.
Yeah, it was fun.
How did you feel like when you heard that the Simms school was closing and everything was going to start being integrated?
Mixed emotions. I knew it was coming, you know, couldn't stay the way it was. And, I was glad that the opportunities were there for those that were coming along. They had already started hard integration back in '62 and '63. We had a larger class, but then they pulled some--we had children from New Market, Mount Jackson; they pulled them and had them start going there. Somebody else in Harrisonburg, Turner Ashby. So we started off with like, 20-some, but then by the time we graduated, we were down to 14.
Oh, wow.
But the--you know, the opportunities were opening for them, just like I said, driver's ed; we've never had drivers ed. They would be able to drive, get jobs, play sports. You know, that's the thing, they were able to just expand theirself.
Yeah, yeah.
It was, it was rough when they would, you know, come back and tell us what happened and things like that. But, it's a part of adjustment to me. I think it's it's a part of adjustment.
Yeah. Are you like, glad that the Simms school got turned into a community center? Do you wish it had stayed like a school or become something else?
I'm glad it's still here. Because a lot had been torn down. This school has been a part of this community. It's always been here. When I was coming up, anything dealing with the community, it was done at school. They posted a meeting, or there's a dance or they--we had bake sales, we had dinners, all of it was done at the school because that was more or less the place to have faith. And it's just a foundation. I was glad that they did not tear it down because that's a lot of memories. I've been back quite often. I brought my grandchildren up here to see the school. And we'd show them our lockers and what happened, you know; my husband also graduated from here. He was two years ahead of me. But, we have a lot of memories, and they just laugh when we tell them some of the things that happened in this classroom or the things that we did, and they would just laugh, they would say, you know, yeah, I really did that. They've never been to a segregated school. And just here recently, our son from Delaware, our grandson from Delaware, he came down, and we got to talking, and he didn't realize we had gone to a segregated school. He had no idea and I said--I, it was shocking to me because I thought I had brought him to the school but my other grandson I had, so when he comes back, he's going to come and we're going to visit the school. We're going to walk into the community and I'm going to show him just how far we had to walk to come to school, so he can have a better picture of just how it was.
Yeah.
For him to know. Because he had no idea. He, he just assumed that we had gone to Harrisonburg High School and we've gone to Turner Ashby. He just naturally assumed that, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. So, like, how often did you have like school dances; you mentioned those how often did those come up?
We usually had them, oh, maybe once every couple months, and we'd have them like to raise money. A lot of money wasn't funded into the school. So I remember when we had to have, we wanted cheerleading outfits a lot, we had a dance to raise money. So that we could--we bought the fabric and made the cheerleading outfits and bought the sweaters alike with the "S" on it. But that's the way we, we had to do things. I mean, it wasn't money funded into the school. So when you had a bake sale, you just let the community know, and everybody would come out and buy some, even though they might have donated something to it. They would come and buy some. For some meals, they would come and eat, you know, even though they had maybe cooked dinner at home, but they will come and buy dinner because they knew they were supporting the community that was supporting the kids. Oh, yeah, they they would come out for anything like that.
Oh, yeah. What was your favorite dance that you ever went to in high school, middle school, and all that?
The favorite thing I ever went to?
Favorite dance.
Dance? I guess it would be our prom. So that was the biggest thing where they got to decorate and we had a band from out of--most of our bands came from Washington DC. or--yeah, that was the closest band that would come to the school where they would come from DC. And yeah, that was the big time thing was to have--where they decorated, it was beautiful. Oh yeah, and to be able to dress up. And because I took pictures, I have lots of pictures that I've donated to different places. And we now, we sit back, like I said when we get together and I'm always bringing pictures. And they laugh and I have the first picture of us with my group when we started kindergarten and first grade. We have all of them. And I've given everyone a copy.
Oh, wow.
For them to have. And we just sit and laugh how they--we can--none of--we really haven't changed that much. We really haven't changed, and we'd sit there and we'd laugh at this person and what they've done and we wonder where they are and things like that. But with Facebook now a lot of them have gotten in contact with us that we hadn't seen for ages. I just got in contact with a lady, one of the students that used to live here, and I think she's down in Chesapeake.
Oh, wow.
And she had had a heart attack. And I happened to see her brother at one of the meetings up here. And I contacted her and she cried, she just cried and cried. I told her, I'm going to hang up and you get your cry, and I'm going to call you back in an hour. And before I could call her she called me back, and she said, I'm okay. I'm okay. And just hearing her voice. And she said she appreciated it because she hadn't really heard from anyone. And things like that. It just, it's a joy.
Yeah.
It's a joy. It really, it just--it brings--it gives me joy. Just to be able to communicate with people.
Yeah.
To talk with them.
Yeah, that's great.
Oh, I love it.
Mhm. So it sounds like the Simms school was just great, and you really loved it. Was there anything you would have changed? Like, at all if you could?
What? I don't know, because I don't know what? [pauses] What else was out there?
Uh-huh.
I mean, it was just there and we took advantage and we just blended with it; I can't think of--because not knowing what else was out there.
Yeah.
I wish that we'd have had more contact with our other schools in the area now just like I lived in Bridgewater, I lived two blocks from an elementary school. But I couldn't attend it. But I did meet some friends from there. And we stayed... it was so strange; we would meet down at the--what's now the Christian school, I believe, right behind the fire company. That used to be the Bridgewater elementary school.
Oh, really?
Yeah, that was the elementary school. And I got to meet a couple of friends there, girls that I didn't know I would--they would go down swinging, and she--and I'd go swing with her even though I knew I wasn't supposed to. It was just that she wanted to be a friend and I wanted to be a friend. And my parents didn't say anything and her parents didn't say anything. And I'll never forget... It was real warm. And there was a store in Bridgewater, and she went in to get ice cream. And she told me, she said, "come on." And I told her though I couldn't go in that store. And she didn't understand that I couldn't go in that store beside her and buy ice cream. And she went all in and I was, you know, kind of upset that she left me--that she didn't stay with me. And she came out with ice cream for both of us. And we have been--we stayed friends all the way through. And we're still friends. We still see each other. But it's the little things like that that you remember.
Yeah, mhm.
Yeah, I couldn't go in the store with her and buy anything, but she went and bought for both of us and come out with it. And it's made my heart glad that she would think about me because she could, she could have just got it for herself. And not even think about getting me one. Yes, it's memories like that, that I still treasure. I still treasure.
Yeah, that's great.
Yeah.
How old were you?
I was about let's see, we moved to Bridgewater in '57. So I would have been about 12, 12 or 13. But it was you know, I would have to go by her house when I went down to the elementary school. And if she was out in her yard, she'd come down. And we'd swing and sometimes we'd talk and, but I never... she never got to go into my school and see how things were at my school. I never got to go into her school, to see how her school was, and that we--our paths separated. She moved away when she got married. I moved to Elkton when I got married, but we connected. I guess it's been about 20 years ago, we were both having to be out my husband had cancer and he was out there at the Harrisonburg RMH, and I was with him. And she'd come in--I kept looking at her and she kept looking at me and we got to talking. And I didn't recognize because of her married name, I didn't know who she had married, and we got to talking, and I said are you, Wanda? She said yes. I said you lived in Bridgewater, Main Street, and your dad used to be the mayor? She said yeah, I said, Do you remember me? I said we used to swing together, and that did it. She just grabbed me and hugged me. You know, people looking at us. We were just like--and we had been friends ever since. We would meet, go out to dinner. And she remembered, she remembered playing with me and everything. Yeah. [pauses] Yeah, it's a lot of memories. I mean, they're there it's--you'd never get rid of them, they're there.
I had something I was going to say, but I totally forgot it. [laughter]
I'm sure you have friends and memories that you'll--
Uh-huh
Right now, you really don't think about them until after you get out in life.
Yeah.
That's when you--those memories will come back to you.
Mhm. I think that's all the questions we have unless you have something you want to ask of anything?
Do you have--I guess anything else that you would maybe want to share that we didn't get to cover? That you just want to tell us about; anything in particular?
[laughter] You don't need to get me started! [laughter] I just wish that the kids would take each other with more value. I don't like to see the kids now the way they treat each other. I--it just hurts me just, the way they don't realize what they're doing to themselves and that other person. That's my main thing. And that's one reason why I still stay interactive with the kids. And like he said he sees me the ball games. I'm at every ball game even though my children are graduated, my grandchildren have graduated. We still interact with the kids. They know me, I know them. And I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there for the kids. That's, that's just me. Yeah.
