Dorothy Collier

Dorothy Collier

Age: 79

Occupation: Homemaker

Hometown: Lucasville

Interviewer: Chelsa Porter

Dorothy: Things was goin' on and, well, a lot of it we missed because we were home workin' and playin' and makin' our own fun and everything. When summertime come - why my husband - he got two weeks vacation. And the kids all would go swimmin' wherever place there was a pond or anything around everybody. It was full of kids swimmin' and - but - we was just poor folks. Enjoyed life though. There's been so much going on in my life; it's hard to say just one certain thing. My children all went to school and they all have good jobs now. But in my childhood, I just worked right along with my mother and dad. And when evening come and we were through working outside, why then we - a big bunch of us - would get together and play games on the outside. To tell you the truth, I'm getting' so old I'm forgettin' a lot of it. I'm 79 and it's kind of hard to remember, to tell you the truth.

Dorothy: No, just the flood of - what year was that… in 38 - 37 - or 36? Back in 36 and 37 is the flood and it effected other parts of Ohio more than it did here. But - in - supplies and things had to come through and a lot of it made it hard on everybody 'cause you couldn't buy the things that you really wanted. But - in - I think, well, we didn't lose as much as the people in the flood. Which I had an uncle and I had a lot of my people to be in it. And my uncle, he was a barber in Portsmouth. He kept movin' his barber chairs and things up one floor to another until he got clear up to the top. And it didn't do any good because the water went clear over his house. So - but we went down on a Sunday with a flood when the water was just beginning to crest. And we set on the floodwalls and dabbled in the water. And just the next day, they opened up the floodwalls and let it into Portsmouth. And we just came that near. We could have been swept. It's hard to tell, but kids all over the countryside was there. But I never thought it was very smart after I got to thinking about it. Then we see our kids do things now and we think, "Well then, they ought to know better!" - but sometimes we don't though. And back in talkin' about roads and things, new roads and everything. During when the boys was in the 3C camp in McArthur - now where the elementary school is , back in there - it used to be the fairground. And they put the 3C camps back there. And my husband, he was in there about six months and then he transferred him back to Portsmouth to work. They were just beginning to take people to the Army when he left. And they offered him a position in the Army if he would go right on. And it wasn't but five years later they turned down him down for the Army because he had black lungs. And there were a lot of the boys from the 3C camps that went back then. They made all these new roads all over Vinton County. And you couldn't hardly go there on the backroads without one of the boys noting, "Yeah, we work there." So - and that was back in the good old moonshine days when the boys could get it. And a lot of things happened and I can't remember then. And there was a lot I missed 'cause I was busy working at home - working.

Dorothy: On my wedding day - well, I went to Portsmouth with my mother. She had to sign the papers. And my dad, he was fighting fire so we went to his uncle's and he married us after we got our papers fixed at Portsmouth. We went and got married and our neighbor and us went to my sister's. She had fixed dinner and we ate. Then about two o'clock, I took water to the men that was fighting the fire. My husband, he walked back around to his folks' and borrowed my brother-in-law's car to go buy candy. Don't know if you kids know about that or not. Well, they used to get together when people got married and get bells. And they call that "belling." And my mother says look out if you have a washtub around and they'd knock a hole in if they could get a hold of it. The groom has to treat the crowd to get them to shut up, I guess. But anyhow, they buy candy and cigars to give out. But the most of it - well, that night it took to two or three in the morning to get rid of everybody. So we stayed all night with his folks and them. Couple days later, we fixed an apartment in his grandmother's upstairs. And that's how we lived until we got a house to move in to. Saying is, that poor people have poor ways, I guess. That's about all - it wasn't exciting or anything.

Dorothy: Singing - a lot of games and things like that. And we walked to church which was about five or six miles away,

Dorothy: They had about 500, honey. That was the 6^th grade clear up to high school. It depended what grade you were in to where you went to school. There were still one-room schoolhouses then. They were just beginning to spread out then. And just like the first school, they had the little kids were going there. And there was another school where the in-between graders were going. Then there was the high school where the high schoolers went and you were divided out in different places. I know the first school I ever went to was old. It was the first school ever built - [laughs]. My little sister started school there and I was supposed to go upstairs and we'd eat lunch together - Mom would fix it in one bucket. And one day she fell down the stairs and the teachers wouldn't let me take her up there anymore. Then I had to go down to first grade and set in one of them little bitty seats and eat our lunches down there in that grade. And out family doctor, I was in first grade, and I wouldn't let anyone else pull it. And that man, he was a young doctor at that time, but he brought three of my boys into this world. Davis - he was our doctor and he was a family doctor. And I know he's every bit of 90 years old when he passed on. But if you want to know about people in Vinton County, they are the best - some of them.

Dorothy: Well, back then. I'm just trying to think of some of them. I can't remember too far back, but I can remember back into the '50s. I imagine that's the most I can remember. Pete Abley has been a judge ever since he was a young man. And I was to think of it, we had a lawman at one time named Bill Brown. And I grew up with a bill Brown and I hated him for. We had a log. We had to cross the creek on and he'd always wait until you got middle-ways and he'd push you off if he got the chance to. Anyway we had a lawman by that name and I'm just tryin' to think of who all the people were. To tell you the truth, when you move around a lot like we did it's hard to. Why it's so aggravating. But sometimes when you're someplace else, that takes the place in your mind 'til really I don't - . Everybody this has all happened to is gone and it's hard to remember. When you get as old as I am, you speak to people - you know their faces - you've forgot their names. But my biggest surprise one time was I met an old-like couple in the bank. And they walked up to me and hugged me and asked how the family was. And I looked at them and thought, "I don't know who you are." And every time I'd see those people, they were in the bank to do business and things. But to this day, I don't know who those people were, but they would hug and kiss me like a long lost child. I don't know who they were, but - I don't today - don't know who it could have been. Everyone thought I knowed them. And I just went ahead and they were probably relation or somebody I'd known. For years I didn't know. I guess it's terrible to get old, but a person can't help it. It comes. Tell you the truth, I've often thought of that star on the courthouse. That is a landmark that we saw for years and years and years and depended on. You could be out of a night and look and see that in the sky and it sort of like guided you home. And there still is one on a hill going towards Gallipolis down there. And I always had to go back and forth so much when Preston was in the hospital and I looked for that. And I think everybody did and all. There's been so much I've missed but a person just has to do the best they can.

Dorothy: Well, yes, more so then because people don't have time like they used to have to talk with their neighbors and friends and things. Cause people back then, you had to live by what people told you really. You didn't have a bunch of newspapers then or television to come on and tell you what was happening. It was just saying by word of mouth. And you had - was just glad you could talk to someone who really know what you needed to know.

Chelsa: Is there anything that stands out in your mind that you were told often?

Dorothy: things like - things that had to do with the war or something. You were just home working and someone comes by and tells you it's going to happen. It's like being in town or out of the country and somebody tells you. It's just the same as having a real paper or something.

Dorothy: You holler and say so - and so, "Go get me some firewood." And they'd say, "Wait 'til this program is over, mom." That's exactly how it was. And I know one lady, she sold their television because the kids didn't get their work done. I'm not kidding you; this is true. I could point out to where it was at. I'm not kidding you, she had this television for her kids and they wouldn't get their work done, so she went and sold it. But my kids, they knew. They'd hurry and get their work done so they could come in to watch programs of an evening. And we were the only ones that got Huntington because we were so high up. And all the kids in the neighborhood of a night would come up to watch it. They'd be so many of them that Grandma, she lived with us, she'd get a switch and tell them if they didn't shut up and set still, she'd give them a switching. But they come just the same. One boy would say bad words and she'd wash his mouth out with soap. It was funny in a way. And I'd set and watch and laugh at them. It was really funny. I don't know if the kids all remember. They'd come to our house to sleigh ride because we lived up on the hill. And they'd get about halfway and I'd get a canning kettle and make hot chocolate for them. Well, kids didn't have much to do. Things were coming in fashion a lot and most kids - if they went anywhere - had to walk or hitch a ride. Cause you know little by little - my dad - we walked to get on the school bus, when they finally did get a school bus. And he'd take a log and hitch a horse to it to make a road in the snow for the school bus because we had to go to school whether it snowed bad or not. Snow would be up to our knees or waist, but that was one way of getting to school. But a lot of places, when it snowed like that, they'd shut schools down until the weather became better. I remember when they first started that bus. We'd have to walk almost half a mile and dad would make a place for us to walk in the snow. I can always remember my oldest son was always coming in wet clear to his waist playing in the snow. And his dad walked and went to town to buy him a pair of boots. And he'd have them on and be just as wet as he was before. And he said, "Dad, those boots ain't no account." And he said, "They ain't?" And he said, "Yeah, I'm still wet." And I said, "How come you'd be so wet if you had those boots on?" And he said he was wet as a little pup. That was back in the days when the kids wore boots and things like that to school. Ah - sometimes they'd have the funniest sleds you ever saw.

Dorothy: Yes, several of them, honey - if I could just think of them. They used to have real nice events on the Fourth of July and everybody went, I think. And you'd meet some a-comin' and some a-goin'. So but they used to, of course, now - before they took the fairground out. They had horse racing and they had real nice events - had stands and everything like that until they took it out, of course and made it a 3C camp. So the government came in and had it put to use. There's things now that we just don't pay that much attention to. There's always events going on back then. It was a great big thing to have something extra going on. You go and see what's happening. So I can remember at Christmas, they didn't have as much things out in the open as they did from one house to another - like if someone who needed help.

Dorothy: Well, I don't. To tell you the truth, there is more law now than what there was back then. People would pay more attention to other people, to tell it, than they would other things. Well, seems like if you was a poor, downed out person, they'd pay more attention to ya than you would. Someone who was always hollerin' for help. But because nowadays everything goes by law and you don’t talk unless they ask you to and things is quite different. The law is a lot stronger. I don't know, seems like people paid more attention back then. Why, if something was wrong, they'd listen at ya. Today, sometimes they do; sometimes they don't. Sometimes now you have a better chance of correctin' something as you would then - cause they just say, "Oh well, young people like to get into mischief." But mostly I don't know so much here lately. I've been in Vinton County since the '70s. This is where my husband wanted to come when he retired.

Chelsa: Were there any influential worries on drugs and alcohol as there are today?

Dorothy: Alcohol, yes, back then - not drugs. Anyhow it was alcohol they had to worry about back then.

Dorothy: Well, a lot of those things are still here - just like the courthouse - like some of those oldest buildings.

Chelsa: Is there anything else you could share with us on the history of this area?

Dorothy: There are older people than I am who could tell you more. The bank is where the drug store used to be. My kids were very sick and the doctor called the drug store and told them to give me the medicine even though I couldn't pay for it. And they did. He was a great doctor - Dr. Chamberlain was a very important person in Vinton County. That's about all honey.