Neil Family Interview 2

 (birds chirping)

(cars driving by)

BUDD NEIL: [00:01:40] We -- we moved from the country.

EDNA NEIL: Wait --

BUDD NEIL: OK.

GEORGE STONEY: There you go.

BUDD NEIL: (laughs)

EDNA NEIL: You can now --

BUDD NEIL: We -- we moved up here from the country in 1923. I was six-years old, and all my family, but three of us, worked in the plant over here. And when I got to 14, I got me job in the plant and went to work and, uh -- they 00:02:00started me off at five cents an hour. I made five cents an hour, worked 11 hours a day. Then, uh, President Roosevelt was runnin' for office and he said -- after he got elected -- that he -- oh -- he was gonna raise wages to $12 a week, and put us on eight hours a day -- and most people said they won't do it. They'll close the mill down before they'll pay $12 -- and, uh, work eight hours a day -- but they changed it. We went to work at -- then we worked, uh, seven hours on, uh -- every day we worked seven hours. Except Saturday, we worked five hours. We got off at 1:00. We went to work at 7:00, got off at 1:00 every day. You know, Saturday we went to work at 7:00 -- got off at 11:00.

EDNA NEIL: And we moved up here in 1932. And they were paying a little bit better wages -- I think -- beginners made $6 a week, and hands that had been there at least six weeks made $12 a week -- and -- but then, uh, you could buy a week's groceries for $3. You think you could get by on $12 a week, Joe? (laughs)

JOE NEIL: Yeah, uh -- it always tickled me when he -- they always, uh, referred to everybody has a hand, you know what I mean?

EDNA NEIL: Yeah. Nobody was employees, everybody was hands.

JOE NEIL: Everybody was a hand.

BUDD NEIL: -- make it? (laughter) Oh...I thought I was making money when I was making $3 a week -- and they told me they was going to raise me up to six -- for the -- Roosevelt ever went in -- I couldn't believe I was going to make $6 a week. And the company'd give a big barbecue at the Fourth of July and, uh, we'd all go to the barbecue. And we'd have all kinds of plays over there, 00:04:00you know? They'd have a greasy pole, and put money on the pole, and people'd try to climb it -- get the money -- and we really had a time over there at the barbecue every Fourth of July. Both mills went in together and gave a barbecue over here on the -- in the path over here --

EDNA NEIL: And each Sunday school class had to work up a skit. And they had to have a little competition about it. He -- who had the best skit. I remember one time, they had a silent church, and I was dressed as an old, old lady with a long black dress on and a old black bonnet. And I had me a quarter tied up in the corner of a big handkerchief, and when the pastor collection played around, I undone that -- the knot outta that handkerchief -- and put that quarter in. And everybody just laughed, you know -- but -- and we'd sing, and never say a word. And the preacher got up and preached, you know, and did all these 00:05:00gestures -- and never said a word -- and we won that year. (laughter) And then, uh, when the strike -- when they was trying to strike, uh -- I was too young to work -- but there was people riding around in trucks, and they had sticks, and they were yelling -- and there were pickets around the gate -- and I was almost afraid to go by the mill. But, you know, I didn't understand it. Because I never heard of a strike -- I never heard of a union -- having come from the country so recently. But, uh, when we first moved here, I thought we had really moved to town because we had electric lights and running water -- and there was so many kids around to play with -- it was just wonderful. And I'm sure that Joe and Brenda enjoyed growing up here, because they had a lot of friends -- at least a lot of 'em ate with us. (laughs)

JOE NEIL: I feel sorry for people that wasn't raised up here because we had 00:06:00100 brothers and sister -- I mean, it was every day. Pa, why don't you tell us -- did the mill, uh -- did they raise cows and hogs and --

BUDD NEIL: No. The people raised the cows and hogs and -- there --

JOE NEIL: But now, you was always tellin' me you had a, uh -- the mill company had a big barn they raised --

BUDD NEIL: Well, now, they did. They had cows over -- I mean mules -- and they farmed -- they farmed here. They raised corn, and they raised cotton at that time -- and you know -- and they had colored [tenants?] -- tenants, you know -- they'd, uh, worked the fields and gather cotton and corn and, uh -- they kept the mules over there. And, uh --

EDNA NEIL: Who benefited from it?

BUDD NEIL: Well, the company did, I recon. 'Cause --

BRENDA NEIL: Where was the barn at?

BUDD NEIL: Well, where our church is was one barn, and up there beside the schoolhouse was another barn.

EDNA NEIL: They had -- they had a pasture that they furnished for people that kept cows. And they had cow barns and everything. And one time, Brenda went to Sunday school, and Joe was sick -- and we didn't go -- and she come home -- 00:07:00they told her about Moses and the bull rushes -- and she come back and told me. I said, what was Sunday school lesson about? She said, uh, there was a little boy born and these old men were gonna kill him -- and said his sister took him and hid him in the bull pasture. (laughter) She could always speak such --

BUDD NEIL: She was speaking of the strike -- I was working when they struck over here -- they didn't strike. What really happened -- we went to work that morning, and they had the gates locked -- the union locked the gates -- they wasn't trying to form a union -- they locked the gates -- padlocks on 'em -- we couldn't get in. They sent us back home. And, uh, two or three days we went back to work. But, uh, one of the strikes -- when, uh, state troopers come down here -- they'd gather 'em up a cart 'em to Atlanta. Lots of people was just bystanders, they wasn't even in it. They wasn't involved now way 00:08:00-- but they got them, too. And they'd take them to -- to Fort Mac.

EDNA NEIL: I'm pretty sure he was glad when they locked the gates, 'cause it give him the chance to go rabbit hunting and fishing. Those were two of his favorite pass-times. (laughs)

BUDD NEIL: I believe -- they might've -- they might've done better if they'd of had any (inaudible) -- but this set of local people -- all from the village -- they didn't live here, they just come in here and were gonna give us a union, you know? They was gonna form a union and, uh, really the hand wasn't involved 'til they got them trying to sign 'em up -- you know, to join the union.

EDNA NEIL: I don't think it was very well organized.

BUDD NEIL: It wasn't organized.

JOE NEIL: They just worked 'em up into, uh, friends and then --

BUDD NEIL: Yep. And, uh, I -- they wasn't capable -- or I didn't think that the men that was, uh, head of it -- they wasn't capable of having a union. They didn't know what it was all about, I don't believe. 'Cause they didn't go at it right. They went at it wrong.

JOE NEIL: The ones they put in, uh -- took to Atlanta -- they put them in the army, or something.

BUDD NEIL: No. They put 'em in the stockade -- kept 'em down --

EDNA NEIL: Fort McPherson--

JOE NEIL: Back then, if you worked in the mill, you didn't have to go to the army, did you? I mean, they would -- if your -- your job was dependent on, uh, a certain job, you didn't have to -- uh --

EDNA NEIL: In World War II, uh, a lot of people were deferred because they run key jobs in the plant. And we were making the products for the military.

JOE NEIL: So you didn't have to -- and if you got laid off, you went into the army. Isn't that right?

BUDD NEIL: If they laid you off, you went to, uh -- if you wasn't working over here, you had to go.

CAROL NEIL: What about when y'all lived in the house -- before they was bought -- you don't have to pay rent --

BUDD NEIL: Yeah, we had to pay about $2 a week -- $2 a week --

EDNA NEIL: It was according to what size house you had --

BUDD NEIL: Yeah, yeah.

EDNA NEIL: Some of 'em were about 75 cents or a dollar -- quarter a week.

BUDD NEIL: They furnished a house -- and when the mill got counted -- slack -- uh, they, uh -- they'd give you the rent and they'd give you the water. You didn't have to pay no water, and you could buy --

EDNA NEIL: No lights.

BUDD NEIL: No lights. And you could buy a coal -- and if you ever went back to work, they'd take it out of your check when you went back to work -- when you got time on your feet.

EDNA NEIL: We had no hospitalization insurance whatsoever, and if we had a baby, it had to go to the hospital to have it -- or have an operation -- when you went back to work, they'd take it outta your check -- a dollar or so a week.

BUDD NEIL: They'd pay your bill, then you -- then they'd -- you know -- they'd get it outta your check every week -- if you worked. If you wasn't able to work, they couldn't. But I thought they was mighty good to the hand. And, uh --

JOE NEIL: Well, they were.

BUDD NEIL: One time (clears throat) -- one time they -- they came around and everybody -- almost everybody -- you had the chicken [rooters?] -- and they had these 200watt bulbs, and they -- rooters -- and, uh, these fellas told 'em -- he said, y'all better watch that they're putting meters on these (inaudible) if y'all don't be conserving -- saving with the electricity. But people would go off -- maybe for the weekend -- and leave every light in the house on.

JOE NEIL: It was free. It didn't cost anything.

BUDD NEIL: It didn't cost anything. They just -- they just really burned 'em. And my brother-in-law was, uh, a maintenance man up at the other mill. And he said they called him one day to go on the old mill village to fix the light. He said when he got over there at 12:00 daytime, there was only one light that wasn't burning in the house -- one was broke. (laughs) Said he'd tell 'em. He said, y'all better watch it or they're puttin' meters on these. But nobody would believe it. But they finally did put meters on 'em. And you had to pay then. So much -- wasn't -- wasn't bad --

EDNA NEIL: Back in those days -- talkin' 'bout leavin' all the lights on -- back in those days, we'd go to bed at night and not even latch the screen door. That's how well and how much we trusted our neighbors. And --

JOE NEIL: It was just -- you just had all these neighbors and friends, and they was -- they was like family. They wasn't like neighbors. They was family. Because what you had to have -- what -- what you cooked for supper, everybody would come in and eat with you. And, uh, at night, I remember when we used to walk to Mr. Johnny Kimmel's and -- everybody didn't have a TV -- and we'd 00:12:00sit on the trees, and all the kids'd play tag. And the mother and daddy sit there and talk about the mill. And, uh, that was our entertainment. That's about the only thing I can remember --

EDNA NEIL: And tell ghost stories and --

JOE NEIL: Ghost stories, or --

EDNA NEIL: -- anecdotes from long time ago, when we lived in the country. And all such stuff as that. It was fun. And I know Brenda and Joe remembers when the mill company would come around at Christmas time and they'd give each family a half a ton of coal. And they'd give each child a bag of fruit and nuts and candy -- stuff like that. They'd have a man on there, dressed like Santy Clause, and they'd hand out stuff. And there'd be sometimes 25, 30 or more kids following that truck around the village.

JOE NEIL: We'd -- we'd run the truck all over the village, but they wouldn't -- they wouldn't give it to you 'til you got to your house.

EDNA NEIL: That's right. (laughs)

JOE NEIL: When you got to your house, that's when they would -- they would hand you your sack, 'cause your name was on it -- you know?

BUDD NEIL: They had a list made up. They had a few extra ones, in case, you know? But they had, uh, your name on it and they'd go around and you'd have 00:13:00to tell 'em, uh, how many you had in the family. And they'd put the name down, and when they got the fruit all sacked up -- that they delivered on the truck -- I used to ride on the truck with 'em to, uh, deliver fruit to the kids, you know? And, uh, it was lots of fun to see all them little kids smiling and --

JOE NEIL: And it, uh -- and Christmas night -- it was the only time they'd -- they'd all give us, uh, a big box of fireworks and a cigar. And we would all -- I can remember that.

BUDD NEIL: (laughs)

JOE NEIL: I don't know which one I enjoyed the best. The cigar, or the fireworks. (laughter)

EDNA NEIL: They knew how to get the kids.

JOE NEIL: Yes, they did. Mr. Johnny Kimmel would give us all the cigars, and a box of fireworks.

EDNA NEIL: It wasn't the mill company. It wasn't the mill company.

JOE NEIL: No, the mill company didn't. But Mr. Kimmel did, and, uh --

EDNA NEIL: And we had a football game out in our backyard every -- every evening --

JOE NEIL: Every afternoon we had a football game.

EDNA NEIL: And Brenda was one of the best players I had. (laughs)

JOE NEIL: And at school, we used to play in the cow pasture, and the guy said he slid in a cow patty -- lost it -- thought it was second base, you know? 00:14:00(laughter) I mean, it was just, uh --

GEORGE STONEY: OK. Let's hold it and then -- gotta get [Ben?] to move up --

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BRENDA NEIL: -- kind of (inaudible)

BUDD NEIL: Uh, Joe was talking 'bout us being family. You know, if you slept late, you could run out to the neighbor's house -- and if they was eating, you'd just walk in, sit down, and start eating with 'em. They didn't care.

JOE NEIL: It was like family. I mean, you know, and wherever the kids wound up at supper time, it's where they eat. If I was down the street, and supper time come, that's where we eat. And if they was up here, we'd eat up here.

BUDD NEIL: They'd just pull up a chair and just start eating -- I'm gonna eat with you -- and we said, come sit down and have --

JOE NEIL: They'd invite you to come -- come on, we can eat. And there's always plenty. I don't remember --

EDNA NEIL: Everybody always had the same thing, so it didn't matter where you eat. (laughter) (inaudible; overlapping dialogue)

JOE NEIL: -- and turnip greens, and that was it -- I mean -- (inaudible; overlapping dialogue) -- and everybody'd have some water and that -- and say, come on. But, you know, that's the thing about -- is everybody was in the same boat. Nobody -- nobody was above anybody, nobody was below anybody. They 00:15:00was all on the same level. They was all stuck (inaudible) -- and it was just one big, happy family.

GEORGE STONEY: But I gather that earlier on, your grandmother had a different attitude.

EDNA NEIL: Yes. Well, I'm sure the cotton mills back in the 1900s -- in the early 1900s and the 1920s -- were a lot different to what they were when we came up here. Because my grandmother [Madison Gale?] told my mother that she would rather see her take my brother and me to the graveyard than to bring us to be brought up on the cotton mill village. And my mother said, why? Because, you know, they had always taught us that, uh, an honest day's work was nothing to be ashamed of. And she said, well -- said, uh, lot of people that worked in these mills had tuberculosis -- and said we were liable to contract it, you know? And, um -- but after we'd got up here, they'd already put in 00:16:00humidifiers -- you know, to keep the lint down -- and they had, uh, cooling systems -- and it was quite a bit different to what she had heard, I'm sure. But my mother was real particular with us when we first come up here. She didn't want my grandmother to say, I told you so.

JOE NEIL: I think -- one thing, too -- that they didn't have guards on the machines -- and stuff like that -- and, uh --

EDNA NEIL: It was dangerous. They worked child labor --

JOE NEIL: It was dangerous, it was child labor, and no guards on the machine, and the lint was like snow, and, uh --

EDNA NEIL: People breathed it and, you know, they -- they were not happy.

BUDD NEIL: But another thing about this is, you -- you had to cover up, though. I say there's a certain standard. If you didn't meet a certain standard, you didn't stay here. You had to keep your property up -- where you lived -- course it belonged to the company -- but you had to keep it up. You couldn't let it go, like, some of 'em let 'em go now -- just let it go and --

JOE NEIL: And they would -- they would paint the house and do the -- do the material part of it, but you had to keep it clean and cleaned up around -- and 00:17:00it had to be, uh -- you know, it had to be -- come up to a certain standard.

EDNA NEIL: And you had to meet a certain standard of conduct, too. Because there was no drinking, and no gambling, and no chasing around after somebody else's mate. If the officials heard about it, you was fired right then. So it -- that's why it was such a good place to live.

BUDD NEIL: Uh, you know -- right funny -- there used to be a fellow who worked here, and one day -- he's coming through the pasture over there -- and he was mumbling to hisself, and his -- uh -- one of his nephews said -- asked him what was wrong with him -- said, what's wrong with you? I know there's something wrong. And Mr. -- Woody Wood's daddy -- was a, uh, superintendent over there -- and he said, if Mr. Wood's don't take back what he told -- said to me this morning, I'll never work for him again. He said, well, what did he say. He said, you're fired. (laughter)

JOE NEIL: That was Mr. Wood -- he was the Will Rogers of East Newnan. He --

BUDD NEIL: He sure was. (laughs)

JOE NEIL: Ask -- uh -- I can remember all my life -- even (inaudible), you know -- he said -- Mr. Walt said he had a load of gun powder one time, and he turned the curve up there in the wagon, and the guy threw a cigarette in it -- said half of it burned up before he could put it out, you know? It was just something -- all the time -- with Walt Wood.

BUDD NEIL: (laughs) You know, back in them days -- you know, when time was so bad -- everybody was raising hogs. Everybody had a cow, and everybody milked the cows, and they kept the hogs -- and the company had a place over at the mill you could kill your hog -- and at one time, the company would kill 'em for you. They'd send people over there to kill 'em for you, and you didn't have to lose a day's work. They'd kill 'em for you, but you had to pay a little fee -- you know, for them to kill 'em for you. Everybody had 'em.

JOE NEIL: They thought of every aspect. I mean, they -- they saw -- they -- they saw about you -- I mean -- (phone ringing) -- you could have any --

GEORGE STONEY: Sorry. (inaudible)

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JOE NEIL: Oh -- all I was saying was (clears throat) -- they saw out to every aspect of it. Like, I don't know in school where the -- daddy, you might know -- see, we always had plenty of fresh fruit, and, uh -- uh -- they took us to the dentist, or anything -- I mean, you know -- we was all -- we was all seen about it.

BRENDA NEIL: Got shots.

JOE NEIL: We got our shots, and we was took to the dentist --

BRENDA NEIL: Took to the dentist.

JOE NEIL: And all -- all kinds of testing -- and we got fresh fruit every Friday. I mean, you got fresh fruit right -- you know -- all you could eat. And, uh -- so, uh -- I don't know whether the mill company furnished that, or --

BRENDA NEIL: (inaudible)

JOE NEIL: They'd come around and vaccinate your dogs. I mean, they saw after you just like you was -- like you were kept. I mean, that's what it amounts to.

CAROL NEIL: Better off back then than now.

JOE NEIL: (clears throat) Absolutely. I mean, you did have a roof over your head and somethin' to eat.

BUDD NEIL: That and we had a ball team, you know? The company, they'd help us. They'd give us the land over there to have a ball diamond and --

JOE NEIL: Kept it up.

BUDD NEIL: County -- yeah -- county scraped it first, and then they finally fenced it in, you know? (inaudible) little mission -- people'd come over there and see 'em play -- and they'd get enough money to buy the equipment 00:20:00and balls, you know, and the suits and all. They had a good ball team -- they had tennis courts --

JOE NEIL: And they had a price --

BRENDA NEIL: The good old days. (laughs)

JOE NEIL: They had a fire hydrant, uh, fixed where you could -- and set it -- where you could pull up and wash your car. They had a place you could go and wash your car. Everybody went over to a certain place and washed their cars. I mean, it was -- everything was -- they thought of everything. Anything you needed, they -- they -- they supplied it for you.

EDNA NEIL: But it sure has changed now, because a lot of business men -- when they -- company sold the village -- a lot of business men bought up the houses and they rent 'em out to just anybody they can get the rent out of -- whether the government pays it, or they do -- or not -- and the village is really going down. It used to be a nice place to live.

JOE NEIL: We would all -- we would all meet up at the general store and plan our day -- what we was gonna do -- we was gonna go down to the branch, or we was gonna -- you know -- they used to say, uh, you could tell what color they was dying in the mill by what color the youngins were. You know, 'cause they swam 00:21:00in the dye branch -- and, uh, that's the truth. (laughter) And, uh, so we was sitting around one day bored, and, uh -- we -- we knew a man that had a watermelon patch, so we said, we're gonna -- we gonna go steal us some watermelons tonight. We was gonna borrow some watermelons. We was taught not to steal, but we went and got a trunk-load of watermelons and brought 'em h-- brought 'em to a place, and we ate all we could hold. And played with 'em, and throwed 'em at each other. It was like we'd -- we'd just bust 'em on the head and people'd get stuck in it. So the only head we needed was over the railroad tracks. So we took 'em over and busted 'em on the railroad tracks. And so, nobody stopped and asked -- so we thought, we gotta do something. So went home and got a bugle and a bright flashlight. So we backed up to the railroad track, and this little short guy was standing there holding the light on his head. And this guy behind us had a (inaudible) scout duty. And, uh, so our school teacher's husband come by in a old-model Buick -- and 00:22:00he looked one way, he didn't see anything. He looked the other way, and just as he started across the track, we turned that light on and blew that bugle. (laughs) He likely turned his car over. He got out, and come back down there for five minutes -- he looked up the track, he looked down the track -- I recon he figured that was the fastest train he ever saw. (laughter)

EDNA NEIL: I came home from work one day, and -- and he -- and one of his friends across the street --

JOE NEIL: A bunch of my friends --

EDNA NEIL: -- had found the skeleton of a horse.

JOE NEIL: A mule.

EDNA NEIL: A mule, or something -- JOE NEIL: We knew a man's mule that died, and we went over there and got his mule and brought it home. And we was gonna erect it out in the front yard. We thought he looked good standing out there.

EDNA NEIL: They got some wire through -- wire or something --

JOE NEIL: Wired it together, mother.

EDNA NEIL: And I come home, and they stood that mule skeleton out in my front yard -- and I, like, had a fit. And he thought I never would let him learn nothing, 'cause --

JOE NEIL: We didn't -- you know -- we didn't get in any kind of -- we didn't have no -- we didn't get into any kind of problems, or hurt anybody, or doing anything -- we's just mischievous -- and, uh, uh -- it was just -- it 00:23:00was like I said, I had 50 brothers and sisters, and every day we all met together and got into something -- or whatever -- nothing bad --

EDNA NEIL: I got up -- I got up one morning and walked out the backdoor, and there was a five-gallon lard bucket -- a lard can sitting out there, half-full of cottonmouth moccasins -- from this long to that long -- and I went straight up that time -- just about -- and I got him up to see what it was all about. He was gonna skin 'em if I'd help him and make him a belt and billfold. And I had little enough sense to get out there. He poured 'em out, and we skinned 'em, and he put them -- he soak 'em in formaldehyde or something -- and they were the pretty, smart skins -- and he stood 'em up there beside the house to dry, and some little kids down the street come up and tore 'em off of the planks he had 'em tacked to -- and I just, like, had to catch 'em and hold 00:24:00'em -- I did have to catch 'em and hold 'em -- he's going after some kids.

JOE NEIL: Oh, yeah. We used to -- we used to just walk around at night, you know, and, uh -- we'd stop and tell ghost stories and, uh -- and, uh, on Saturday night, we'd always walk to the show. We would walk to the -- and see the late show, and have to walk back home. But it was about three miles in the dark, you know. And we'd always watch the Frankenstein movie and, uh --

GEORGE STONEY: What about your education?

JOE NEIL: We had a -- we had a -- well, the only thing about (clears throat) -- we, uh -- I would say -- you might -- you might say different -- but I don't -- we didn't get the education we shoulda got. As far as, uh, uh -- I don't know if we didn't just, uh -- if we didn't try hard enough, or what. They was too easy on us, or, uh what. But when we to, uh, a different school -- later in high school -- it was hard on us, you know. I don't know if they made it hard on us, or we just -- we just --

BRENDA NEIL: We found out we were different.

JOE NEIL: We found out we was a lot different, you know? We didn't have that big, happy family. We had -- you know -- going to school with -- and I don't 00:25:00know. I think they -- they just, uh -- they was easy on you, you know?

BUDD NEIL: They was too easy on me. They --

JOE NEIL: They were too easy on you. They would let you slide because who you was -- or --

BRENDA NEIL: Ms. A wasn't too easy on you.

JOE NEIL: Oh, she wasn't too easy -- but, uh --

EDNA NEIL: Who?

BRENDA NEIL: Ms. A.

EDNA NEIL: What'd she do?

GEORGE STONEY: So you might explain that, uh, you went to the mill village --

JOE NEIL: We went to the mill village school, and they -- they were easy on us. And they -- and they -- and the teachers all knew us and they favored us, you know? I -- I -- I'm not gonna fail him. He wants to go on with these folks, you know? And then when you got to, uh, a real school where is was -- it was hard.

BRENDA NEIL: We all had to go in and build fire every mornin' then -- if we were starting school --

JOE NEIL: Yeah, see, that was my job. Uh, it was toting coal. In the second grade, I was the one have to get -- uh, me and the guy, we could -- just coal piles -- just right outside the school door. But it'd take us 30 minutes to get that coal pile and back. You know, we had to, uh, take a while. But, uh, we had to keep the fire -- and the teacher was the -- we had a potbelly stove, and the -- and the desk were around the stove, and the teacher stood up the 00:26:00stove with her hand behind her warming and reading -- and we as all sitting in a circle, you know? And everybody that bring a lunch would set it on the stove, where it would stay warm, you know? So we didn't have a lunch room or anything. We had to take one.

BUDD NEIL: Yeah, I heard Joe say last time he was surprised when they got a cafeteria, you know? Didn't have to smell them boiled eggs all day. (laugh)

JOE NEIL: Everybody'd bring a boil egg, and it'd sit on that stove and (laughter) oh my.

GEORGE STONEY: Well then, what happened when you went to high school?

JOE NEIL: It was -- it was hard on us, 'cause see, we felt out of place and, uh -- we felt like we weren't excepted.

BRENDA: That was the biggest difference. You -- you was --

BUDD NEIL: You was out of place.

JOE NEIL: You was out of place. They -- and you -- and Newnan was a rich town.

BRENDA NEIL: And a clannish town.

JOE NEIL: And, um -- we just -- we just didn't -- socially, we just didn't mix with 'em -- but, um --

BRENDA NEIL: I played basketball.

JOE NEIL: If you were -- if you were a sports person, like she was, now you didn't have any problems. You -- you fit right in, you know. Because, you know, if they couldn't beat you in sports, you fit in.

EDNA NEIL: She won two trophies in basketball. She won one her freshman year. And then she won Most Outstanding Player for her sophomore year -- won it --

BRENDA NEIL: I won Most Valuable Player first three years.

BUDD NEIL: They told her, over here at this school you have to go out for basketball the first year. 'Cause she -- she couldn't make it -- and she made it the first year. Won Most Valuable Player.

JOE NEIL: But that's all we had to do, play basketball -- you know, we lived at the basketball court -- swimmin' hole --

BUDD NEIL: I'll tell you one more thing that Joe didn't tell. That, uh, he might've enjoyed it -- he really enjoyed it, I think -- but they built a new schoolhouse over here, and, uh, they didn't have no shrubbery in the yard or nothing -- and he set out all that shrubbery over here at the schoolhouse -- well, he was missing the grades when he was setting out all that shrubbery -- he wasn't getting his grades up.

JOE NEIL: I volunteered. (laughter)

BUDD NEIL: Just set out all that shrubbery.

EDNA NEIL: That was his last year in grammar school, and he landscaped through. 00:28:00That why he got promoted landscaping the grounds.

JOE NEIL: But --

BUDD NEIL: He done a good job.

BRENDA NEIL: But Joe tried to date the teacher his first year in high school. And that's where he got off on a bad foot.

JOE NEIL: Now, but the thing about it is, you didn't -- you didn't, uh -- you was self-taught. I'm not -- not so much -- not so much in reading and writing and arithmetic, but you were self-taught in how to do anything. Because if you wanted an atom bomb built, there was enough people here -- somebody could help you build one. And they were some of the smartest people that ever was.

EDNA NEIL: And I'll tell you what the teacher told me -- Brenda talking about him wanting to date the teacher -- he had a real young teacher, just outta college -- she was beautiful -- and she called me and told me, would I please talk to him. Said he kept asking her for a date, and said -- she told him one day, she said, Joe, well you know that teachers are not allowed to fraternize with students. He said, well, if you'll just go out with me -- he said, I won't ask you fraternize none. (laughter) And she asked me to talk to him, 00:29:00and you can imagine about how much good it done. He's always been incorrigible.

JOE NEIL: No, I was saying that --

EDNA NEIL: But he was a lot of fun.

JOE NEIL: But -- if you had a, uh -- uh, it's just like the guy wrecked his car. And, um, uh, Pop and him put it back together. Because, you didn't take it to a garage -- you didn't have a garage to take it to. You just -- you just done the best you could do, and got by the best you could -- and, uh -- you know -- self-education is well taught. You know, you learn from your mistakes and it's a -- it's a -- and I don't care what -- what happened, you had to fix it. 'Cause there wasn't nobody to call. You couldn't afford 'em if you wanted to, you know?

BRENDA NEIL: You didn't have a phone to call.

JOE NEIL: No, you didn't have a telephone. You know? You just fixed whatever -- you got by. And whatever tore up, you fixed it. And everybody here could do somethin'. I mean, they was just -- you know -- they was just self-taught people, you know.

GEORGE STONEY: Did --

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