Interview with Lola Cheatham Interviewer: Jill Dahnert Transcriber: Jill Dahnert Date of Interview: April 8, 1986 Location: Mrs. Cheatham’s Home, 1537 Belvin Street, San Marcos, TX _____________________ Begin Tape 1, Side 1 Jill Dahnert: This is Jill Dahnert. The date is April 8, 1986. I’m interviewing Lola Cheatham in her home on 1537 Belvin Street in San Marcos, Texas. I’ve explained to Mrs. Cheatham all about this interview, and she has signed a release stating this interview can be deposited in the Southwest Texas State Library. Mrs. Cheatham, do you understand everything I said to you about the interview and about the release? Lola Cheatham: Yes, I do. Dahnert: Mrs. Cheatham, you said you were born in Caldwell County and attended elementary school there? Could you tell me something about attending school there? Cheatham: It’s been so long, I just—just a little one-room schoolhouse at that particular time— later on, and we had, oh, I don’t know exactly how many students there were but not very many—about, oh, I’d say maybe sixteen or maybe less. Dahnert: There were students from all different grades? Cheatham: Yes. Dahnert: All in the same class? Cheatham: From the first on up to the—I guess the sixth grade. I’m not sure—it’s been so long ago. But I would say yes, from the first to the seventh grade, usually they weren’t like that, from the first to the seventh grade. And we carried our lunch in lunch boxes, you know. We didn’t have no cafeteria like they have today. We carried our lunch in a lunch box. And we—school would take up at nine o’clock, and we’d be out by—at least by four o’clock and then I’d—we didn’t live very far from this little school. It was easy for me to walk down there. My teacher was Miss Julia Buford. And, oh, she taught all those classes there. Dahnert: How did she teach all the grades in the same place? Cheatham: I don’t know how—I don’t know how, but there was just only one teacher. And she would just have, well, I guess she must not’ve given more than thirty minutes to each class, you know. I don’t think it would be an hour. But that has been so long ago. That’s what they did in Lola Cheatham Interview, April 8, 1986 1 Texas 150 Oral History Collection. University Archives, Texas State University those days. One teacher—little one-room schoolhouse. There was only one teacher. So—as I said, after I graduated from there, well, let’s see, there were how many of us in school—my sister Willie, Susie, Sam—I had a brother named Sam, and Cole, my younger sister. And we all—there were others, you know—but there weren’t any more than about sixteen usually in a class—maybe sometimes more. Because you know how people moved to different places like that. I was, I say went to school there for six years. Then my mother moved up here to San Marcos, and then I attended Dunbar from the age thirteen on until I graduated. Dahnert: Why did your family move to San Marcos? Cheatham: Oh, well there was an oilfield down there with just—you know, it didn’t have any schooling, they just—oh—people just got away from there because—on account of the oil and gas, it’s such an—we moved here to San Marcos. I’ve been here ever since. I haven’t lived any place else. I don’t know how many years. Dahnert: What was it like attending high school here? Was it a big school? Cheatham: Yes, we had a big school here. We had, well, at that time, they had a principal and about five other teachers. There was from the seventh grade up on to tenth grade. We really didn’t go through the twelfth grade here. It went up to the tenth grade here, so we got taught that; then we had others that taught first and second grade—Ola Coleman, she was a very good teacher. We had Mattie Terrell—she was a—she kind of taught physical ed.—I’d call it physical ed. And she’d sing and train the children how to sing and go through the exercises. We had an English teacher—I’m trying to think of her name now— Dahnert: What kind of subjects did you have to take? Cheatham: We had history and geography and algebra—arithmetic—I think on what I did have some algebra. Then in the tenth grade we had algebra. Biology and—let’s see what else did we have. We had spelling, you know. We had to have spelling, too—oh, we had homemaking— teaching you how to sew and cook. We had a teacher there, Miss Smith. I can’t think of her name; it was Smith. Dahnert: After you graduated from high school, you went to Texas College in Tyler? Cheatham: Tyler, yes. For two years I went there. There I had what you had in college. I had English, education. I had a teacher from—my English teacher was—let’s see if I can think of her name now. She was from South Carolina—I’m trying to think of her name now. She’s from Darlington, South Carolina. She was a very pretty woman. I can’t think of her name now. Dahnert: What was it like going to college then? It was different than it is now— Lola Cheatham Interview, April 8, 1986 2 Texas 150 Oral History Collection. University Archives, Texas State University Cheatham: Oh yes, there’s quite a difference in college then. I took, as I say, I took chemistry and English, and I had French. I never learned much French, but I do know a few words in French. And—what did I say? English and chemistry and history. Dahnert: Where did you stay? Was it dorms? Cheatham: Oh yes, I stayed in a dorm. We had dormitories. We had a matron to see after all the girls. Then we’d have socials at the weekends there on campus. We had a football team, a good one, too. We had—we’d get on buses and go to the games just like they do now—it reminds me of that when we’d get ready to go to the games down to Marshall and wherever they played, you know. We’d go on the bus to cheer them on to victory. We had a very good time. Let’s see, what else did I take—history, mathematics. I can’t think of any other subjects I took. But anyhow, we had a good time, always. We always had a good time. Then we had—the food wasn’t so good to me, so I got permission from my mother to let me go out in the town and eat. So I’d go out each day and get a lunch and eat my meal. And then in the evening, then I’d go early and eat out at that cafeteria. So I had some very good teachers, and it was very beautiful down there. I can remember so many of them—President Glass. He had one arm, somehow his arm got—it was cut off, and he was the president. And—then I had Mrs. Gray—well, she was a matron. Well, you know she was—she was a teacher, too. And then I had Mrs. Anna May Johnson. She was my— the last time I attended there she was the matron. They’ve all, I think they passed on, they’re all gone. And I had Professor Fowler who taught Latin. I didn’t have a class, but he taught Latin and he also taught—I think he taught history too. Dr. Red, he was from New York City. He taught, well, he taught education; that’s what he called it, they called it at the time. I had Dr. Hunter, he taught chemistry. Dahnert: What was it like in the dorms? Was the matron really strict? Cheatham: That one was Mrs. Brigg was very strict. We had to have lights off at a certain time and everybody—she checked all the rooms to see if everybody was there. And then Mrs. Johnston—she wasn’t quite so strict; she was very sweet because she had a daughter there. We all had a good time—it was real fun then. But I’m sure it’s much different now. And we had lots of fun. We could go—we had to do our laundry on Saturday and get the beautician to fix your hair and everything like that. We had that too. I just never was much on ironing—I always had a girl do ironing for me. And she was very good. And I had my hairdresser was—as I said, we’d go down there, we couldn’t do it in our rooms. Sometimes we’d have, you know, electrical equipment, but she didn’t want you doing it in the rooms because the laundry was the place where you had to go and get it done. There was a place down there separate from the washing— the laundromat. We had to do all our hair down there. And then we would—we had three meals a day. And to get breakfast, you’d have to get up early and get out, get down there for breakfast or else you wouldn’t get any.