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Interview with Dee Thompson Smith

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  • Dee Thompson Smith, a student at Western Carolina College in the 1950s, discusses a variety of topics: her decision to attend Western rather than Blanton's Business College in Asheville; her participation in the marching band, P.E. club, and intramural sports; and social life on campus.
  • Interview with Dorothy Smith October 31,2009 DS = Dorothy Smith (Interviewee) TC = Tonya Carroll (Interviewer) TC: Can you please state your name for the recording? DS: Dee Thompson Smith. TC: Do you give your permission for this interview to be recorded and used for academic and historic purposes? DS: Yes. TC: What years did you attend Western Carolina College? DS: Urn, I started fall of 1953 and I graduated in May 1958. TC: Why did you choose to attend Western Carolina College? DS: I had a art teacher in high school that had gone there and she used to bring her annuals to class and let us look at 'em and it was close by and so she just urn, told me lots of good things about it. TC: Did you consider attending any other colleges other than Western Carolina College? DS: I did consider attending one called Blanton's Business College that was in Asheville and, but the only reason I wanted to go there was they had a girl's basketball team and I wanted to try out for it, but it was just a business school. TC: So why did you choose Western over this other college? DS: Because it was a four-year school and it had different urn, curriculums besides business. TC: Were you on a scholarship? DS:No. TC: Do you mind telling me how you paid for school? DS: Urn, every urn, birthday and Christmas my grandfather would give me a twenty five dollar bond for a present and so I cashed those bonds in and used them. TC: All along were you plannin' on using those bonds to pay for college? DS: Well, the first year I went my parents paid and then after that I cashed the bonds in. TC: What did you major in at Western Carolina College? DS: Urn, I majored in urn, B.S. in Education, Physical Education and urn, Art Education. TC: Were you a participant in any groups, organizations or team while you were a student? 1 DS: Urn, I was a member of the band and I was a member of the P .E. club, and (pause) I played intramural sports. That's all I think. TC: What did you do in the band? DS: I was a majorette and we marched and, there were three majorettes and a drum major and the drum major led us and then the three majorettes and then the band. TC: Can you tell me about some of your experience while you were a majorette? DS: Uh, we would go to the away ballgames on a band bus and perform at halftime and that was • a lot of fun, sometimes we got to spend the night and stayed in hotels. Places like High Point and you know, the teams we played and sometimes we would just ride there and ride back, we wouldn't spend the night and I remember marching in a parade in Sylva, that was a lot of fun, it was a lot of fun to do but we had to practice everyday in the afternoon so that was time consuming. (laughs) TC: Can you tell me about some of your experiences playing intramural sports? DS: Urn, I learned to play field hockey, (laughs) which I had never played before and that was very physical cause you would hit the ball with hockey sticks and run up and down the field, and it was hard but I liked it and uh I played basketball and volleyball and urn, every kind of sport they had I participated cause I thought it was a lot of fun. TC: Did your team ever win an intramural championship? DS: I think we did, yeah. I think in one of the annuals my picture's on a winning team but I'm not sure about that I'd have to check. And I got to meet other girls like some of the girls that didn't live in the dorms played and I got to meet them and urn we didn't have girls' teams back then so the only way we could play was intramurals. TC: Whenever you said you would travel with the band and sometimes you got to stay overnight in the motels do you know who paid for that? DS: The college, it wasn't me (laughs) TC: Did you have a nickname? DS: Well I've had a nickname all my life so I just kept my nickname Dee, no I didn't have one. TC; Can you tell me some of your best memories from attending Western Carolina College? DS: (pause) urn, I enjoyed my literature, I enjoyed my English classes, Literature classes I think more than anything. I really enjoyed those and remember what I learned in 'em and I enjoyed urn, being friends, meeting people from other places and I enjoyed, well, I enjoyed it. (pause) I don't know what else, I enjoyed, we had urn some dances I went to and urn, ballgames, I enjoyed going to the ballgames, so ... that's not a very good answer. (laughs) TC: What about some of the worst memories? 2 DS: The worst memory was when I got a urn, we got progress reports back then and I got a Fin a progress report and that really was bad. TC: Do you remember what subject it was in? DS: It was in English, a subject that I liked but I got a progress report, bad! So I had to really dig down and study. (laughs) TC: Did you have to retake the class or did you pass it? DS: I passed it, Oh!, my very worst memory was uh, failing the math urn, see you had to take a • math test and a English test and if you did bad on the math test you had to take like remedial math and you had to take it and then you had to retake the test and you had to pass it before you could graduate. Anyway, it ended up when I was a senior I had to take this math class and I had to take a test on it and if I had failed it I wouldn't have gotten to graduate, and when I was a senior I was in the class with the freshman taking math cause I had failed the test, twice. But I finally passed it and graduated. So I wasn't good in math at all. (laughs) Terrible! That was my very worst experience sweating out that math. Yep. TC: Did you attend any other sporting events besides the football games? DS: Yeah I went to lots of' em. TC: Can you tell me about when you went to the games, about the people there maybe some of the things you would yell? DS: Well, at the football games I had to sit with the band. And at the basketball games they were in, the first ones I went to were in that Breese Gymnasium, which is little and we were crowded sitting on bleachers in there but then they built urn Reece, Reid Gymnasium, Reid, yeah and I went to the first game ever played there and the University of North Carolina came and played. (pause) They did! Like a exhibition game and urn, a lot of people don't remember that but I remember that. TC: Who won the game? DS: The University ofNorth Carolina. (laughs) But that, the Reid Gym was really nice we thought it was really really nice after going to the Breese, Breese Gym. Urn, I don't remember yelling much though. (laughs) TC: Were there, most of the students would go to these games? DS: Yeah because we didn't have cars so we had to walk and urn, I mean we went to lots of things just to have somewhere to go, you know. The only thing I didn't go to while I was there which I regret were the plays, I never went to one play. I don't know why. TC: Do you remember who the best players were on the teams that you went to watch? DS: Mmm hmm. Yeah. TC: Can you tell me some of their names? 3 DS: (sigh) Well, Bob Ray and uh that Bobby Holcomb, Charlie Byrd, uh (pause) Jack Cunningham, Randall Shields, Harry Spartlotsen, I remember. TC: Do you know if any of the sports teams had any pre-game or post-game rituals? DS: Huh uh. TC: Did the band, would they do anything before each time they performed? DS: (pauses and shakes her head) • TC: No? DS: I don't remember that. TC: How were athletes treated by the students that weren't athletes? DS: Well they were the most popular and everybody liked 'em I guess and uh, looked up to them, and everybody knew who they were. I mean you just knew who they were. TC: How were the athletes treated by the teachers? DS: They weren't treated any different. I don't think they were. TC: Were you friends with any of the urn football, basketball or baseball players? DS:Umhum. TC: Can you tell me some stories about you and them? DS: (pause) TC: Maybe if you went to the dance with one of 'em or hung out with 'em around campus. DS: Yeah one was a, went on to be a major league coach and I had a class with him and we used to study together and he was from Andrews and he was uh married and I was married but we were friends in class and before class we would, I mean he was a big star, cause he played baseball and then he went on to be a major league coach of the Cincinnati Reds. TC: What was his name? DS: Dave Bristol. He, they write about him in the paper a lot and we had a teacher that was really hard and so we would drill each other you know in that class and kinda helped each other get through that class. TC: Do you remember what class it was? DS: Psy, it was uh, like psychology in the schools with children, dealing with children and education so yeah something like that. And urn, I always, every time I read in the paper I think about how we worked really hard in that class to get through cause they still write about him being, and he was the manager for the urn, the Atlanta Braves one year or two years I think, anyway his career was in major league baseball. 4 TC: Do you remember what position he played on the baseball team? DS: Huh uh. No. I never watched him play or anything I just knew him in class. TC: So on the weekends or days you didn't have class what were typical things that you guys would do for fun? DS: Try to get a ride to Sylva or Waynesville (laughs) just to get away and we would walk into Cullowhee and there was a little cafe down there, we would walk down there (laughs) (coughs) we didn't have a lot and then we would get rides home with people cause I didn't have a car, so you just had to share and get rides the best you could and ... (pause) TC: What was the name of the dorm that you stayed in? DS: Madison. And then I lived in Boodleville. After I got married I moved to Boodleville and lived there for about three and a half years and that was fun. TC: What exactly was Boodleville? DS: It was urn, I think they were like apartments, kinda like the army had or old army apartments and they were joined together and they just called it Boodleville and uh we had a mayor and you had an apartment and it was fun because we just visited and had, we would eat together and watch t.v. together and it was lots of fun. TC: So it was all other students that stayed in Boodleville? DS: Yeah it was for married students. And most of the men had been in the army and were going to school on the GI Bill. So they were kinda older, you know. So that was fun. I had a good time living there. TC: Did you have to share a kitchen and like a common room? DS: Huh uh. No, you had your own little apartment with a little tiny kitchen and a bathroom and a bedroom and a living room. But they were joined together like one right after the other and uh we were real close friends, that was fun and see I was a P.E. major and so I got to know lots of athletes because they were P.E. majors (laughs) and we would have classes together. TC: Do you remember the hardest class that you had? DS: Kinesiology. TC: And what is that? DS: That's the study of muscles and how they act and Anatomy those classes and math. (laughs) TC: Math is my hardest one too. DS: Yes. TC: Do you remember any of the coaches? 5 DS: Urn hmmm. Urn, Coach Gudger of course, and urn the football coach I've forgotten his name now but I, I remember him too but not as much as Coach Gudger cause he was very, you couldn't help but remember him (laughs) he was a good coach though. TC: Was he just really hard on the players, or what was it that made you remember him? DS: He was yeah, he was hard on the players and he would jump up during the games and yell and flamboyant and everybody talked about him and you know. Is that what Bob Ray told you to, or, did he like him? TC: He liked him but he said he didn't let any foolish business go on, on the team. DS: Huh uh. TC: He said he was a real tough coach but that's what made him good. DS: But you would urn, like he would intimidate you, you would be afraid of him you know, you didn't fool around with him. (laughs) TC: Do you remember when the Arkansas Travelers came to Western? DS: Huh uh. TC: Dr. Ray told me about them coming he said it was a women's basketball team and they would do tricks. DS: (Shakes her head no) TC:Ok. DS: I don't know where I was. (laughs) TC: Are there any other stories that you want to tell me about your experience at Western Carolina College? DS: Well, I enjoyed it very much and I made lots of friends in different towns and you learned where they lived and it was small so you knew everybody, it's not big like it is today, and urn, it was you know, a small school so that was good. TC: Do you remember if the basketball team or the baseball team had a bus that they would travel on? DS: Huh uh. TC: No. How are sports today different from when you were at college at Western? DS: Well it's more, bigger you know like going to the Ramsey Center and oh, I don't know, I don't know that Tonya. (laughs) TC: I know that you've been back to campus a few times in recent years can you talk a little bit about how the campus has changed since you were there? 6 DS: Dramatically. (laughs) Oh it's entirely different, entirely different. Cause it was so small compared to what it is now. One cafeteria, urn you walked everywhere, just a few buildings, the library is about the same I think. TC: Do remember where the building that you had all your classes in, what it was called? DS: Urn, wait just a minute and let me think. Ok, there was the library, and then the football field, and then the Science building, and it was new. TC: Stillwell? • DS: Urn hmmm, Urn hmmm. And then like Huey Auditorium and then the Cullowhee High School was in the McKee Building. The high school was there in that building. And then urn, mostly that's where I went but then after they build the Reid Building, Gym we had P.E. classes in it. And urn, most of my classes were in Stillwell. I think all of 'em were. Art and English and all my classes except the P .E. P .E. classes were in Breese until they got that Reid Gym built. TC: Where would the band practice? DS: On the football field and they had a band room that was kinda in the basement that went out on the football field so we would go there. TC: So as a majorette what exactly would you do? You wouldn't play an instrument in the band would you? DS: Huh uh, we would just march in parades and then the band would like form a urn, some kind of letter or something you know, at the half-time games and we would just twirl our batons and march along. (laughs) They don't have all, they have flag girls now, they don't have majorettes now. TC: And there were just you and three other majorettes? DS: Two. TC: Two others. DS: And one boy drum major, you know. There was three. TC: Were you a majorette in high school? DS: Uh hmmm. And from the ninth grade, eleventh grade, twelfth grade. TC: The band received a big award this year. DS:Uhhmmm TC: Can you talk a little bit about how the band was back then? DS: Small. (laughs) Nothing like the band today. It was more like urn, a high school band. I don't know how many members were in it but they could play good. And urn, they played during the football game and at the half time. 7 TC: Did they ever compete with any other bands from other schools? DS: I don't think they did that back then. (laughs) TC: Ok well, is there anything that you would like to add? DS: I can't think of anything. TC:Ok. DS: (laughs) I'm not very, I can't think very good tonight. TC: That's fine. Well thank you very much. DS: Well, did that help you? TC: Yes it helped a lot. DS: Really? TC:Umhmmm. DS: Are you sure? TC: Yeah. DS: Well how did mine differ from Bob Ray's? TC: I asked him, he mostly talked about basketball you know since he was a basketball player but urn, he told me that they didn't have a bus and they would pile in three station wagons and drive to the away games and when you told me the band had a bus I thought Wow! DS: We didn't have a bus I think they hired a bus and we went, and we didn't go very often. Like a chartered bus but we didn't, but he was basketball this was football. TC: Right. DS: I don't know how the football team got there, but we did go to, I remember going to those other and we might of only spent the night one time. I just remember going and staying in a hotel, not a motel a hotel and I don't know what city it was in. TC: But he said a lot of the same things that you did. He talked about whenever urn, they opened the Reid Gym and DS: It was big! TC: and they played Carolina, he talked about that. DS: Urn hmmm, yeah it was packed! 'Cause they were popular back then like they are now, and for them to come to Cullowhee and play TC: Yeah 8 DS: it was a big deal. TC: I was looking through some of the old newspapers and read about the Sadie Hawkins Dance. DS: Yeah, I remember that and you dressed up and you asked a boy to go. That was fun. TC: What kind of music was popular back then? DS: It was right around when Elvis first started it was like a coupla years before he got popular. Cause I was there and we all gathered around and watched him on that, on the t.v. urn, when he was on the Ed Sullivan Show, that was the first time I ever saw him, but I had heard, people were • talking about this guy from Memphis, and so we all watched him. The girls just thought he was wonderful. That kinda music. And we had sock hops and one class I really liked was a folk dancing class and you had to do these little folk dances for P .E. and it was fun, and all these big ol' football and basketball players were in there and dancing around doing these little folk dances. (laughs) TC: Bob Ray did tell me that you were a really good clogger. DS: (laughs) How does he know that? (laughs) TC: He told me that. DS: I couldn't clog now. (laughs) TC: But you did then? DS: What a thing to remember about me! I would've never thought that. TC: What were some of the other dances that you would do? DS: Like that urn, like you were asking me to show you, swing dance, that, that and slow dance. TC: Did you wear the poodle skirts? DS: Not really. We wore straight skirts. We couldn't wear urn, if it snowed we could wear jeans, if it snowed. If it didn't snow we had to wear skirts. The only time we could wear jeans was like on, well we could wear them around the dorm you know but not out to, we couldn't wear 'em in the dining room to go and eat. But, I remember when I was about a junior Bermuda shorts became popular, that came down to your knee and they started letting students wear 'em in the summer, but we wore skirts over our knee and socks (laughs) and sweaters mostly. But we would lay out in the, when I lived in the dorm we started laying out in the sun up on the roofto get a sun tan early like in February, pretty days you know, March, to get a sun tan. (laughs) TC: So the only places to eat on campus were in the dining hall and in that little cafe in Cullowhee? DS: And The Townhouse, yeah. You know where that is? That's down there by the post office, there was a restaurant called The Townhouse where you could get hamburgers and stuff, you could eat there and that cafe in Cullowhee, and one dining hall, one. It was way up on the hill, 9 across from Madison on that hill. You had to walk up from Stillwell up the hill to eat lunch and then back and up for supper. (laughs) TC: Wow. DS: And urn ... TC: How often would you go home? DS: Well they had real strict rules and you could only go home like when you first started in the Fall you could go home like one time and then Thanksgiving and then Christmas and you • couldn't go home all the time. I think one time maybe it was like once a month or something. And the only place you could go at night was the library unless there was a function, school function, a ballgame or something you could go to. I don't remember going to movies though I don't think they showed movies you had to go to Sylva. You could date but you had to be in by a certain time and you had to sign in and they would lock the door and if you stayed out past that you'd a, get some kind of a slip and if you got so many you had to go before the, before the, like they had students on this board and you had to do that. TC: Did you ever have to go before the board? DS: I think I might've had to go for being late a time or two, we had a girl that locked the door, her name was Hester she was a upper classman (laughs) and uh you had to have lights out at a certain time, it was strict. TC: Well it's really changed since then. DS: (laughs) I know! TC: When you went home would your parents have to come and pick you up? DS: Huh uh, I would get a ride. No, the only time they came was to take me there with my clothes and uh, then urn, I'd just get rides with people going to Asheville. (laughs) (pause )But it was really different than it is now. So people would go to the library just to get out of the dorm at night. (laughs) TC: Goodness. DS: And the ballgames or anything but I don't know why I never went to a play cause they had plays and people would act in them and everything and urn, I never went to one. I'm sure they were good. I think that's real odd that I never did that. (laughs) TC: Well, I never went to any either so maybe it's just after you're gone that you think oh, I should've done that. DS: Urn hmm. Cause when I lived in Cherokee I would go up there to plays and loved 'em. You know I'd go, I went with Mrs. urn, some of the teachers we'd go up there to a play and I just thought they were really good, I enjoyed it but I thought why didn't I do this when I was in school? I don't know if that helped or not. TC: It does, it was great. 10 DS: Now what about Bob Ray he was a good basketball player and then when he graduated he got to be an assistant coach. TC: Yes, he said he was the first full-time assistant coach for Jim Gudger. DS: Urn hmmm. Jim Gudger must've liked him. But he was like a star, he was really good. TC: And then he's gonna to be inducted into the hall of fame DS: North Carolina? • TC: No, Western's Hall ofFame DS: Oh they have one? TC: Next week I think. DS: Is he? That's good. TC: That's how I found out about him to interview him is my mom found it, saw it on the internet and told me about it and I thought well he'd be pretty good to interview and DS:Umhmm. TC: my teacher went to church with him and got his address for me. DS: Yeah. TC: For his urn, email. DS: Yeah. There was another boy that played football that urn, became a teacher up there his name was Bob Setzer and his wife taught at Smoky Mountain, Mrs. Setzer and I urn, knew him in school and then he became my teacher in urn, Industrial Arts and I took a course under him and then he was a football player I think he's in Sylva somewhere but it was small and you learned someone's name but you learned where they were from like Andrews or Franklin or down you know eastern part of the state and so now when you hear that city you think of people you knew from there so I thought that was neat learning people like that. TC: Are you still in touch with some of the people you went to school with? DS: Just urn, the ones in Asheville, no well one in Robbinsville I see her at church she remembered me and urn, ifi see somebody you know, but I probly don't recognize them now, but at the reunion it was fun you know cause I saw people I hadn't thought about in fifty years. It was really fun so that's it. TC: Ok. Thank you. DS: You think that's good enough? TC: Yes! It's fine. DS: You're sure? 11 TC: Yes. DS: (laughs) Bob Ray remembered I could clog. 12
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