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Interview with Doris Grimsley

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  • Grimsley discusses the years she lived in Fontana Village while her father worked on the structural steel portions of the Fontana dam, the moves the family had to make due to her father working on other dams for the Tennessee Valley Authority, friendships with children of other dam workers, and attending Dam Kids' reunions years later.
  • TRANSCRIPT: DORIS SUTTON GRIMSLEY Interviewee: DG Doris Grimsley Interviewer: DN Dustin Norris Interview Date: October 17, 2014 Location: Fontana Dam, NC Length: 20:19 START OF INTERVIEW Dustin Norris: If you would start by just stating your name and then if we have your verbal consent to use the interview. Doris Grimsley: My name is Doris Sutton Grimsley and you do have my consent to use the verbal interview. DN: Thank you very much. [laughter] DG: You're very welcome. [laughter] DN: Now we can get started with the real stuff. So when exactly did you live-like what timeframe did you live at Fontana? DG: 1943 through probably midway of' 46. DN: And did you or your family members work on the dam while you were here? DG: My father was-he worked in the structural steel portion of the dam. Of course we traveled from dam to dam with the Tennessee Valley Authority. So he was here almost from the beginning till the last frame was poured and we left in 1946. DN: To go to another- DO: To the Watauga Dam out of Elizabethton, Tennessee. Doris Sutton Grimsley DN: Okay. What are some of your fondest memories from growing up around­or the time that you spent here? DG: Friends is one thing. Those of us that went to school here, I guess probably had the best years of any child ever growing up. And we became very close friends even though we knew that we wouldn't be together, probably, for a very long time because when one dam was finished, then workers were sent maybe to two or three other dams that they were building at the same time. So my father went to the Watauga Dam out of Elizabethton, Tennessee. Some of them were sent up to Kingsport and others went south of Knoxville. So we just went various directions. DN: Did you see some of the same people? DG: Through the years, off and on. Mmhm. DN: Okay. I've spoken to a lot of people who said they traveled like that with different dam projects. That's cool. So how much contact would you say you had, while you were here, with communities and businesses outside ofthe village? DG: Well of course the nearest place to do any shopping was Robbinsville and I remember going there many times. We traveled to Knoxville. My father's family lived in Western Carolina, it's in Sylva and Cullowhee. So we're quite familiar with this end of North Carolina. And also in Bryson City, so we were spread out all over the mountains. DN: So, I guess everybody that lived at the village during that time was well aware of the TV A as an institution, if not directly involved with it. But was there any kind of a consensus-like a general sentiment towards the TVA at that time? 2 Doris Sutton Grimsley DG: Not of those living here. Those that were being displaced from their homes, where the lake would rise up over the little communities, they didn't care for that very much at all. And you can see why. DN: When you left, you said you went to go to another­DG: Watauga Dam in Elizabethton, Tennessee. DN: What did you end up doing for your career? DG: I'm a registered nurse. DN: So you spent most of your life in North Carolina then? DG: No. [laughter] Continued to travel from Tennessee to Arkansas to Virginia, then Georgia. And I've been in Georgia ever since I finished school. DN: So when the reunions started, was that the first time that you got back in contact with some of these people? DG: Well they couldn't find the Sutton girls for a long, long time. They didn't know where to start looking. So I happened to be traveling up here with some friends and we stopped. We were in the old school house where they used to sign in down there. I was showing my friends my picture in one of the school pictures that was hanging on the wall. I said, oh look there I am. And one of the ladies at the desk said, urn, may I speak with you? [laughter] I said yes and I walked over and she said, did you go to school here when the dam was being built? I said yes. And she said, what was your name? I told her, well when I lived here it was Doris Sutton. She turned around and went running down the hall shouting, hallelujah we've found the Sutton girls! [laughter] So from then on-we had not heard of the reunion until that point. DN: When was this? 3 Doris Sutton Grimsley DG: You know I don't even remember what year it was. [laughter] Third Party: I saw 1995 over here. DG: Is that the earliest one- Third Party: A picture of you and Jan and Joe and Jerry at a table. DG: That was probably--either the first or second one, so '94, '95 was when we started coming. And it took them that long to find us. [laughter] DN: Well, when you came back to the village what's the biggest changes that stood out to you? DG: A lot of the houses, the homes, were gone. The hospital was no longer a hospital. That's the former lodge where we used to check in. This lodge was not here when we left. The school house was where the grill is now down there, and of course all that's changed. Our school rooms are where they have the square dances now. DN: I seen one of the signs on the way back from lunch. DG: Uhuh. And of course we had a grocery store--commissary, which is no longer here. It's-a little country store has been put in that area instead. I guess, do they-they still have a post office down there don't they? Or do they? DN: Well, I think it's up here now. DG: Okay. A few things have changed but not a lot. Some of the houses are gone though, my house has been demolished. DN: The worker's housing? DG:Mmhm. DN: You see a lot of stuff that has stayed the same I guess? 4 Doris Sutton Grimsley DG: Pretty much. Some of the houses further up the mountain over here were not built when we left. That whole last section up there, and I don't know what it's called but it wasn't here. And I don't know if the Prince family still has a farm, but we used to go up where the old horse stable was. You start climbing the mountain-go up by their farm which was up on the hills there-and then go up to the big rock. Have you climbed up to the big rock? DN: I have not, myself. Somebody else has mentioned the big rock though, I'm going to have to take a look at it. DG: So you're going to have to try that one of these years. I'm too old for it now. But, yeah that was a fun trip to climb up to the big rock. DN: Well when you come back for the reunions, what kind of stuff do y' all reminisce about? DG: Just what we used to do as children and what are we doing now and 'how's your family?' And 'how many children and grandchildren and great grandchildren do you have?' [laughter] So it's just a nice time, to get together. DN: What ·sort of things did y'all used to do? Other than climb up to the big rock. DG: Swing on grape vines. If you've never tried that, that's fun. DN: It might be too late for me, I'd tear a grape vine down. [laughter] DG: Well, see I went school fourth through the seventh grades here and that's when we were doing all of that. We roamed these hills, we just had a great time. Good place for youngsters to grow up. We were rather sheltered, it was while World War Two was going on. If some of us got to go to Knoxville twice a year that was good because gas was rationed. Tires were rationed. Actually meat and staples were sometimes 5 Doris Sutton Grimsley rationed. You had to use coupons, you know, food stamps-you were only allowed so much per month because ofthe war effort. We never suffered, I'll have to say that. DN: Yeah that's the sentiment I've got from most people. Just simple- DG: My children have decided that I probably grew up in the best place that they know of. And they will all be here. DN: They're all-they come with you? DG: There will be twelve of us here tonight. DN: Wow. So I guess they've been coming to the reunions with you some? DG: Just in the last three of four years. DN: What do you think their memories of Fontana might be? DG: Well they love the mountains and they have decided they love this area-and the mountain area. They love it because you can come up here and relax, the air is clean, scenery is beautiful, it's quiet. You don't have the hustle bustle of the cities. And they just like to come up and relax. They love to hike, so they'll be out hiking in the morning. DN: I'd like to. DG: Shall they call you? They start at six o'clock. DN: I don't know when we're going to have to leave. We're going to have to get back down the hill. DG: Well they start about six o'clock in the morning. DN: I'm good for about 7:30, that's when I'm stirring. [laughter] DG: Their train might have already left. [laughter] DN: Do you think coming to the reunions has changed or influenced the way that you personally remember Fontana? 6 Doris Sutton Grimsley DG: It hasn't changed the dam per say. The village of course doesn't have the same people in it and you'll drive-I'll drive through the roads here and I'll say, well now that's where so and so used to live, that's where my piano teacher lived, and things of that nature. So it's changed a little bit but not a great deal. It just brings back good memones. DN: You took piano lessons? DG: My sister did much better in that than I did. I'd much rather been out playing-shooting marbles. Which I did, and had quite a collection of marbles by the time we left. DN: Is that-you get the marbles at the store down here or something? DG: No I'd get them-I won them from the other players. I mean it was not a simple game of marbles, it was MAR-BLES. [laughter] DN: Had to play your own way. [laughter] I never did play marbles. DG: Well it was fun. And when we left here then I gave all of my marbles to my friends who still played marbles-like the guys, you know, and things. Because I knew from then on I'd not be playing marbles anywhere, so. [laughter] DN: Well what do think-like when you come in this big lodge in here, you know, that's all set up for tourists to come in and see. How do you view the boom of tourism? DG: I'm glad that they have some tourism up here. I'm glad to see the village able to continue. So it's a good thing. I think it has changed ownership several times, but it's always a good place to come to. Western Carolina in entirety is a good place to come. Cause I was born in Sylva, my father's family's from there in Jackson County and 7 Doris Sutton Grimsley surrounding areas. So it's sort oflike a second home. Every time we traveled any distances, we always managed to migrate back to Sylva to see family-his family. My mother's family lived in Georgia so it wasn't too far away. And it was just a good time to come. DN: Is there something that you want to talk about that I didn't ask anything about? DG: I can't think of anything. Can you think of anything Lisa that we've talked about in years past? Third Party: No. You told all the places you moved around with TV A. DG: Dad started at Norris Dam and then went to ... let's see ... Hiwassee Dam. And then to Fort Laudon Dam and then up here to Fontana. DN: Wow. And what did you say his-he was a steel­DG: He was a structural steel. DN: Okay, and he did that at every place? DG: Yes. Third Party: That's dangerous. And overseas too, right? DG: Well, he was working with a different company by that time. He worked with J. A. Jones and was sent to Salvador, so he worked down there for a while too. Third Party: But you were very pos---did you tell him, I mean, you've always been positive about being part of this organization. DG: Fontana? Oh yes, yes. I think he gathered that. [laughter] Yeah we really had a good time and, as I've made statement to my children many times, when we lived up here, TV A really took good care of their families up here. Because they furnished schools 8 Doris Sutton Grimsley and hospitals, commissaries, churches, post office, you know. If you had any big purchases to make of course you had to go someplace else but as far as the everyday things. Third Party: Horseback riding, ice skating ... DG: Yeah we had a great time-roller skating, tennis. We had all that that we did. So we didn't lack for anything. Third Party: For the children it was like a vacation. DG: It was really a good place. [laughter] DN: It's been like a vacation since we've been up here. DG: Mmhm. Library-they had a library. Just about anything you might want actually. So yeah, as I said before it was probably the best place we could ever have lived as children, to grow up in. No crime, we weren't afraid to get out later in the evenings and walk. there? DN: Now there was a little jail house down in the village somewhere wasn't DG: In the village here or down where the­DN: Maybe it was in the tent city or- DG: Well now they had dormitories down there. They might have had tents for a while until they could get the main structures built. Because we had-when we left Fort Laudon, Eleanor City, Tennessee, to come to Fontana, we had to move to Knoxville and live for three months until they got the housing ready to move up here. Third Party: And your aunt-other family members came here to work. 9 Doris Sutton Grimsley DG: I had an aunt that worked down there in the dining hall. She was one of the cashiers and she stayed here. And then she also went to Watauga Dam in Elizabethton. So the workers, you know, just went from- Third Party: It's a good place to find employment after- DG: Well employment, yes, we had workers coming in from everywhere to work here during the war. I can remember when VE Day occurred and then also VJ Day. And how the cars lined up and just blew their horns constantly all the way around these hills, from the village-all through the village all the way down to where the marina is now. That's where the main recreation building used to be, and some of the dormitories and the cafeteria were down in that area. For the fellows that didn't bring their families but stayed here during the week. And they had a big recreation center down there. So the cars would just circle for hours blowing their horns on VJ Day. And that may be when some of us learned for the first time what was being made at Oakridge. DN: Really? Third Party: Big secret. DG: And of course the power from Fontana Dam was used-it was built to furnish the power for Oakridge. That's the way I remember it now, I could be wrong. DN: I think-! mean based on what I've read that's pretty much­DG: So how do you like the area? DN: Oh I love it. Ifl didn't-I'd like to stay. I'm graduating in December, see, so I'm going to be moving back down. I'm from south of Charlotte originally so I'm going to head back home. DG: And your degree is in what? 10 Doris Sutton Grimsley DN: Public history. DG: I have a grandson that's in college now and I think he's going to minor in history. DN: I like it, I think it's done a lot for me. I've been working on-through the Mountain Heritage Center at the university, we've been trying to work with the village and do a Fontana exhibit. Which we've got part of it down in the Gunter Cabin now. DG: Oh good we'll have to go see. DN: Yeah y'all check that out. And we're trying to finish the rest of it but it's-between grant cycles and whatever else, it's just red tape. DG: A lot of red tape. But I wish you well. DN: Well thank you. DG: And congratulations on your graduation. [laughter] DN: I appreciate that. And I thank you very much for your time. DG: Well you're quite welcome. And come back to Fontana Dam any time. [laughter] DN: I believe I will. [laughter] DG: They need to put me in the publicity department or the­Third Party: Public relations. DG: Public relations. That'll do. DN: There's no better advertisement. [laughter] DG: Okay. Well thank you for your time. DN: Yes ma'am we appreciate you. DG: You're welcome. 11 Doris Sutton Grimsley 12 END OF INTERVIEW Transcribed by Dustin Norris, October 28, 2014.
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  • Grimsley discusses the years she lived in Fontana Village while her father worked on the structural steel portions of Fontana Dam, the moves the family had to make due to her father working on other dams for the Tennessee Valley Authority, friendships with children of other dam workers, and attending Dam Kids' reunions years later.
  • TRANSCRIPT: DORIS SUTTON GRIMSLEY Interviewee: DG Doris Grimsley Interviewer: DN Dustin Norris Interview Date: October 17, 2014 Location: Fontana Dam, NC Length: 20:19 START OF INTERVIEW Dustin Norris: If you would start by just stating your name and then if we have your verbal consent to use the interview. Doris Grimsley: My name is Doris Sutton Grimsley and you do have my consent to use the verbal interview. DN: Thank you very much. [laughter] DG: You're very welcome. [laughter] DN: Now we can get started with the real stuff. So when exactly did you live-like what timeframe did you live at Fontana? DG: 1943 through probably midway of' 46. DN: And did you or your family members work on the dam while you were here? DG: My father was-he worked in the structural steel portion of the dam. Of course we traveled from dam to dam with the Tennessee Valley Authority. So he was here almost from the beginning till the last frame was poured and we left in 1946. DN: To go to another- DO: To the Watauga Dam out of Elizabethton, Tennessee. Doris Sutton Grimsley DN: Okay. What are some of your fondest memories from growing up around­or the time that you spent here? DG: Friends is one thing. Those of us that went to school here, I guess probably had the best years of any child ever growing up. And we became very close friends even though we knew that we wouldn't be together, probably, for a very long time because when one dam was finished, then workers were sent maybe to two or three other dams that they were building at the same time. So my father went to the Watauga Dam out of Elizabethton, Tennessee. Some of them were sent up to Kingsport and others went south of Knoxville. So we just went various directions. DN: Did you see some of the same people? DG: Through the years, off and on. Mmhm. DN: Okay. I've spoken to a lot of people who said they traveled like that with different dam projects. That's cool. So how much contact would you say you had, while you were here, with communities and businesses outside ofthe village? DG: Well of course the nearest place to do any shopping was Robbinsville and I remember going there many times. We traveled to Knoxville. My father's family lived in Western Carolina, it's in Sylva and Cullowhee. So we're quite familiar with this end of North Carolina. And also in Bryson City, so we were spread out all over the mountains. DN: So, I guess everybody that lived at the village during that time was well aware of the TV A as an institution, if not directly involved with it. But was there any kind of a consensus-like a general sentiment towards the TVA at that time? 2 Doris Sutton Grimsley DG: Not of those living here. Those that were being displaced from their homes, where the lake would rise up over the little communities, they didn't care for that very much at all. And you can see why. DN: When you left, you said you went to go to another­DG: Watauga Dam in Elizabethton, Tennessee. DN: What did you end up doing for your career? DG: I'm a registered nurse. DN: So you spent most of your life in North Carolina then? DG: No. [laughter] Continued to travel from Tennessee to Arkansas to Virginia, then Georgia. And I've been in Georgia ever since I finished school. DN: So when the reunions started, was that the first time that you got back in contact with some of these people? DG: Well they couldn't find the Sutton girls for a long, long time. They didn't know where to start looking. So I happened to be traveling up here with some friends and we stopped. We were in the old school house where they used to sign in down there. I was showing my friends my picture in one of the school pictures that was hanging on the wall. I said, oh look there I am. And one of the ladies at the desk said, urn, may I speak with you? [laughter] I said yes and I walked over and she said, did you go to school here when the dam was being built? I said yes. And she said, what was your name? I told her, well when I lived here it was Doris Sutton. She turned around and went running down the hall shouting, hallelujah we've found the Sutton girls! [laughter] So from then on-we had not heard of the reunion until that point. DN: When was this? 3 Doris Sutton Grimsley DG: You know I don't even remember what year it was. [laughter] Third Party: I saw 1995 over here. DG: Is that the earliest one- Third Party: A picture of you and Jan and Joe and Jerry at a table. DG: That was probably--either the first or second one, so '94, '95 was when we started coming. And it took them that long to find us. [laughter] DN: Well, when you came back to the village what's the biggest changes that stood out to you? DG: A lot of the houses, the homes, were gone. The hospital was no longer a hospital. That's the former lodge where we used to check in. This lodge was not here when we left. The school house was where the grill is now down there, and of course all that's changed. Our school rooms are where they have the square dances now. DN: I seen one of the signs on the way back from lunch. DG: Uhuh. And of course we had a grocery store--commissary, which is no longer here. It's-a little country store has been put in that area instead. I guess, do they-they still have a post office down there don't they? Or do they? DN: Well, I think it's up here now. DG: Okay. A few things have changed but not a lot. Some of the houses are gone though, my house has been demolished. DN: The worker's housing? DG:Mmhm. DN: You see a lot of stuff that has stayed the same I guess? 4 Doris Sutton Grimsley DG: Pretty much. Some of the houses further up the mountain over here were not built when we left. That whole last section up there, and I don't know what it's called but it wasn't here. And I don't know if the Prince family still has a farm, but we used to go up where the old horse stable was. You start climbing the mountain-go up by their farm which was up on the hills there-and then go up to the big rock. Have you climbed up to the big rock? DN: I have not, myself. Somebody else has mentioned the big rock though, I'm going to have to take a look at it. DG: So you're going to have to try that one of these years. I'm too old for it now. But, yeah that was a fun trip to climb up to the big rock. DN: Well when you come back for the reunions, what kind of stuff do y' all reminisce about? DG: Just what we used to do as children and what are we doing now and 'how's your family?' And 'how many children and grandchildren and great grandchildren do you have?' [laughter] So it's just a nice time, to get together. DN: What ·sort of things did y'all used to do? Other than climb up to the big rock. DG: Swing on grape vines. If you've never tried that, that's fun. DN: It might be too late for me, I'd tear a grape vine down. [laughter] DG: Well, see I went school fourth through the seventh grades here and that's when we were doing all of that. We roamed these hills, we just had a great time. Good place for youngsters to grow up. We were rather sheltered, it was while World War Two was going on. If some of us got to go to Knoxville twice a year that was good because gas was rationed. Tires were rationed. Actually meat and staples were sometimes 5 Doris Sutton Grimsley rationed. You had to use coupons, you know, food stamps-you were only allowed so much per month because ofthe war effort. We never suffered, I'll have to say that. DN: Yeah that's the sentiment I've got from most people. Just simple- DG: My children have decided that I probably grew up in the best place that they know of. And they will all be here. DN: They're all-they come with you? DG: There will be twelve of us here tonight. DN: Wow. So I guess they've been coming to the reunions with you some? DG: Just in the last three of four years. DN: What do you think their memories of Fontana might be? DG: Well they love the mountains and they have decided they love this area-and the mountain area. They love it because you can come up here and relax, the air is clean, scenery is beautiful, it's quiet. You don't have the hustle bustle of the cities. And they just like to come up and relax. They love to hike, so they'll be out hiking in the morning. DN: I'd like to. DG: Shall they call you? They start at six o'clock. DN: I don't know when we're going to have to leave. We're going to have to get back down the hill. DG: Well they start about six o'clock in the morning. DN: I'm good for about 7:30, that's when I'm stirring. [laughter] DG: Their train might have already left. [laughter] DN: Do you think coming to the reunions has changed or influenced the way that you personally remember Fontana? 6 Doris Sutton Grimsley DG: It hasn't changed the dam per say. The village of course doesn't have the same people in it and you'll drive-I'll drive through the roads here and I'll say, well now that's where so and so used to live, that's where my piano teacher lived, and things of that nature. So it's changed a little bit but not a great deal. It just brings back good memones. DN: You took piano lessons? DG: My sister did much better in that than I did. I'd much rather been out playing-shooting marbles. Which I did, and had quite a collection of marbles by the time we left. DN: Is that-you get the marbles at the store down here or something? DG: No I'd get them-I won them from the other players. I mean it was not a simple game of marbles, it was MAR-BLES. [laughter] DN: Had to play your own way. [laughter] I never did play marbles. DG: Well it was fun. And when we left here then I gave all of my marbles to my friends who still played marbles-like the guys, you know, and things. Because I knew from then on I'd not be playing marbles anywhere, so. [laughter] DN: Well what do think-like when you come in this big lodge in here, you know, that's all set up for tourists to come in and see. How do you view the boom of tourism? DG: I'm glad that they have some tourism up here. I'm glad to see the village able to continue. So it's a good thing. I think it has changed ownership several times, but it's always a good place to come to. Western Carolina in entirety is a good place to come. Cause I was born in Sylva, my father's family's from there in Jackson County and 7 Doris Sutton Grimsley surrounding areas. So it's sort oflike a second home. Every time we traveled any distances, we always managed to migrate back to Sylva to see family-his family. My mother's family lived in Georgia so it wasn't too far away. And it was just a good time to come. DN: Is there something that you want to talk about that I didn't ask anything about? DG: I can't think of anything. Can you think of anything Lisa that we've talked about in years past? Third Party: No. You told all the places you moved around with TV A. DG: Dad started at Norris Dam and then went to ... let's see ... Hiwassee Dam. And then to Fort Laudon Dam and then up here to Fontana. DN: Wow. And what did you say his-he was a steel­DG: He was a structural steel. DN: Okay, and he did that at every place? DG: Yes. Third Party: That's dangerous. And overseas too, right? DG: Well, he was working with a different company by that time. He worked with J. A. Jones and was sent to Salvador, so he worked down there for a while too. Third Party: But you were very pos---did you tell him, I mean, you've always been positive about being part of this organization. DG: Fontana? Oh yes, yes. I think he gathered that. [laughter] Yeah we really had a good time and, as I've made statement to my children many times, when we lived up here, TV A really took good care of their families up here. Because they furnished schools 8 Doris Sutton Grimsley and hospitals, commissaries, churches, post office, you know. If you had any big purchases to make of course you had to go someplace else but as far as the everyday things. Third Party: Horseback riding, ice skating ... DG: Yeah we had a great time-roller skating, tennis. We had all that that we did. So we didn't lack for anything. Third Party: For the children it was like a vacation. DG: It was really a good place. [laughter] DN: It's been like a vacation since we've been up here. DG: Mmhm. Library-they had a library. Just about anything you might want actually. So yeah, as I said before it was probably the best place we could ever have lived as children, to grow up in. No crime, we weren't afraid to get out later in the evenings and walk. there? DN: Now there was a little jail house down in the village somewhere wasn't DG: In the village here or down where the­DN: Maybe it was in the tent city or- DG: Well now they had dormitories down there. They might have had tents for a while until they could get the main structures built. Because we had-when we left Fort Laudon, Eleanor City, Tennessee, to come to Fontana, we had to move to Knoxville and live for three months until they got the housing ready to move up here. Third Party: And your aunt-other family members came here to work. 9 Doris Sutton Grimsley DG: I had an aunt that worked down there in the dining hall. She was one of the cashiers and she stayed here. And then she also went to Watauga Dam in Elizabethton. So the workers, you know, just went from- Third Party: It's a good place to find employment after- DG: Well employment, yes, we had workers coming in from everywhere to work here during the war. I can remember when VE Day occurred and then also VJ Day. And how the cars lined up and just blew their horns constantly all the way around these hills, from the village-all through the village all the way down to where the marina is now. That's where the main recreation building used to be, and some of the dormitories and the cafeteria were down in that area. For the fellows that didn't bring their families but stayed here during the week. And they had a big recreation center down there. So the cars would just circle for hours blowing their horns on VJ Day. And that may be when some of us learned for the first time what was being made at Oakridge. DN: Really? Third Party: Big secret. DG: And of course the power from Fontana Dam was used-it was built to furnish the power for Oakridge. That's the way I remember it now, I could be wrong. DN: I think-! mean based on what I've read that's pretty much­DG: So how do you like the area? DN: Oh I love it. Ifl didn't-I'd like to stay. I'm graduating in December, see, so I'm going to be moving back down. I'm from south of Charlotte originally so I'm going to head back home. DG: And your degree is in what? 10 Doris Sutton Grimsley DN: Public history. DG: I have a grandson that's in college now and I think he's going to minor in history. DN: I like it, I think it's done a lot for me. I've been working on-through the Mountain Heritage Center at the university, we've been trying to work with the village and do a Fontana exhibit. Which we've got part of it down in the Gunter Cabin now. DG: Oh good we'll have to go see. DN: Yeah y'all check that out. And we're trying to finish the rest of it but it's-between grant cycles and whatever else, it's just red tape. DG: A lot of red tape. But I wish you well. DN: Well thank you. DG: And congratulations on your graduation. [laughter] DN: I appreciate that. And I thank you very much for your time. DG: Well you're quite welcome. And come back to Fontana Dam any time. [laughter] DN: I believe I will. [laughter] DG: They need to put me in the publicity department or the­Third Party: Public relations. DG: Public relations. That'll do. DN: There's no better advertisement. [laughter] DG: Okay. Well thank you for your time. DN: Yes ma'am we appreciate you. DG: You're welcome. 11 Doris Sutton Grimsley 12 END OF INTERVIEW Transcribed by Dustin Norris, October 28, 2014.