• Format
  • Transcripts
  • Interviews
• Type
  • Text
• Extent
  • Duration: 12 pages (transcript)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Identifier
  • HL_HIST474_Martinez_Soles_2018-10-28_transcript

1 Interview with Hazel Soles Mary Martinez: Okay, for the record can you tell me when and where you were born? HS: Hazel Margaret Woody Soles. Born in Spruce Pine, NC, April 3, 1938. MM: Who were you raised by? HS: My mom. MM: Just your mom? Tell me about that. Tell me about her. HS: She was a mountain lady. She's been gone for 40 years now, and I still miss her. She did mountain medicine. She’d go out in the woods here, dig up roots, berries, and brew teas, and you'll get better. When Jim and I were still dating, he had a nasty cold. And we went to see her, and she brewed him up something and he said, “Hell, I got well right away, so I wouldn't have to drink anymore.” So many of those secrets went to the grave with her, but she could brew a mean tea, mean poultice, but you got better. MM: Was she also raised in Spruce Pine? HS: Umm hmm. MM: Did you know your grandparents? HS: My grandmother died in second grade, and she was the only family that I ever knew besides mom and my uncles; I have two uncles. And so my brothers and sister worked on by the time I came along; I was an “uh oh.” MM: Oh, so you're the baby? HS: Yes, by a long time. And my sister was married and had one child of her own before I came along. Quickly thereafter, had a second. And then she had one other son. And my brothers were both in the military. They're both dead now. And so I don't have a lot of family left anymore. MM: So your mom was how old when she had you? HS: Forty. MM: And your father was not in the picture. HS: I don’t know. I don't know a whole lot about him. MM: But you never met him? As far as you know? HS: No. And we lived on a farm. 2 MM: Oh, what kind of farm? HS: Raising basically needs. What we lived on. We had chickens. We had a cow. We had a pig. And that was the basic living. MM: And your mama basically lived in the home and the garden and did – tell me kind of what she did. HS: The only thing she did outside was clean for people. She had a couple of people that she cleaned for every week. But that was a bout all. MM: But what she did she do around the home? Tell me about her canning and-- her garden and her pigs. Tell me about all that. HS: She loved her garden. And she raised a big garden as well as for the animals. Corn, food and all that for the animals to eat. MM: Tell me about the animals you had again. HS: I had a cow, chickens, and we always had a pig. Killed him around the first frost and then that's what we ate on. Chickens, she had eggs we sold to people. She sold some milk. And just a basic farm. MM: What was your childhood like? Do you remember much about it? HS: Yes. I do. MM: Do you really? I don't remember much about mine. I'm always amazed when people remember their childhoods. HS: Yeah. I was very poor, very poor and sort of like lived on the other side of the tracks. I didn't have all the things that other kids in the class did. But I had a pretty good mind and I was always at the head or close to the head of the class. MM: And so there weren't a lot of other poor people around you in Spruce Pine? HS: Oh yeah, there were. Spruce Pine is a very, always has been and always will be I suppose, a very depressed area. At that time, when I was small, there was still a lot of mining going on. MM: What kind of mining? Coal mining? HS: Mica basically. And there was someone mountain called the Chalk Mountain which they did a lot of that, and now it's just an ugly sore sitting there. It's just a very poor town. But I did well in school and got along with everyone, I reckon. 3 MM: When you say your mother was a mountain lady that did herbal medicine and stuff, was it just for your family or? HS: Oh, yeah. Yeah MM: She didn't do that for other families? HS: No. If she saw you needed something, she’d go out and brew something. MM: She learned from her grandmother? HS: Yeah. Yeah. MM: But she never taught it to you? HS: Well, I guess I was not interested. But I see things back in the woods that I recognize and certain plants that she would make teas out of. And catnip; she would make a candy out of catnip which was good for something. And we didn't have a lot to eat. We had usually chicken on Sunday and that was it. MM: And what did you have during the week to eat? HS: Oh, cornbread, potatoes, pinto beans, that type of thing. MM: Were you-- your brothers and your sisters you said were gone by the time you were born? So it was just you? HS: My sister was. My two brothers, I barely remember them being home and going away to the military. MM: So it was just you and your mother basically. And how old were you when your mother died? HS: She died in ‘69. And, so, I'm not a mathematician. We were living in Nashville at the time, I remember. MM: So, do you remember doing any chores as a child? And so how old are you and what were they? HS: I didn't do a lot in the kitchen ‘cause Mama would say, “Put that knife down, you left-handed thing, you make me nervous.” (Laughter). But I had my chores, I did. MM: What sort of chores did you do? HS: Just tidying around and doing things like that. 4 MM: You didn't do anything in the garden or with the animals? HS: (Shakes her head), uh uh. MM: Your mom did all that? HS: Yeah. MM: She kind of left you to your studies or what? HS: Yeah. I had an encounter with one of the animals. I had a sandbox on one side of the house, and I decided to move it to the other side. So I got my little sand bucket, and I’m going along and I'm singing at the top of my little lungs, “You are my Sunshine,” I remember what I was singing. And here comes the old rooster, and he didn't like my singing. He knocked me down. MM: The rooster knocked you down? How old were you? HS: I was just a little thing. And he had a couple of holes in my head before my mama came out. MM: You're kidding? HS: I didn't like roosters after that. MM: Well I guess not. Wow. Maybe that's why she didn't want you out around the animals. HS: I've always liked animals, except for the rooster. MM: So do you know if your brothers and sister helped around the—helped your mother? HS: No. I'm sure they had their chores but of course, that was before my time, so-- MM: That's interesting. What did you guys do for fun? Did you have any? HS: No fun. MM: No fun. HS: I’d go wading in the creek. I liked that. But it was mostly a very simple life. MM: Was your mother strict with you? Not much? HS: No, really no. But she taught me well, I think. 5 MM: Did she teach you anything or do you remember her saying anything about what she thought about work or the value of work? HS: No. No. She just mainly went about her own business with no comment. She was a pretty quiet person. MM: Was she? So, tell me what you did after you graduated from high school. Or wait, what was your first job? Did you have a job during high school at all? HS: I did some odd jobs. There was a motel not far from us. I did some maid work, making beds, and that type thing. MM: How old were you? HS: In high school. 10th, 11th grade, around there. MM: And they paid you for that? HS: Yeah. And there was not a lot of money to be had anywhere. But I graduated and – MM: And you were still in Spruce Pine? HS: Yes. This was in Spruce Pine. My sister lived in Marion, so when I graduated high school, I went to stay with my sister and went to business school. And then I got my first job and then another job and another job and another job. MM: Why did you decide to go to business school? HS: It was all I could afford. There was no money for college. And I might could have gotten scholarships, but those things weren't advertised that much back then. MM: Right, right. So did you like business school? HS: Yeah. MM: What were your favorite subjects? HS: Anything-- I guess the things that carried me on through like the English and the grammars and that type thing. MM: I bet you are pretty good at that. HS: And still get upset when one of the newscasters makes a very blatant grammatical error. I want to tell him, that's not right. MM: So what was your first job after business school? 6 HS: I worked for the North Carolina Land Life Resources Commission. MM: Oh, really? And what’d you do there? HS: Secretary to one of the biologists. MM: Did you like it? HS: Yeah. It wasn't hard. Then I moved to Raleigh from there. MM: Why did you move to Raleigh? HS: To try out my wings. And I worked for state there, I don't remember what department. And then I went to work for Mutual of New York Insurance. Worked there for a good while. Then got homesick, came back home. MM: How old were you then, do you think? HS: Twenty-ish. And nothing, no jobs in Marion or Spruce Pine, so I came to Asheville. Went to work for a law firm. And worked for them for a good while, and that’s where I met Jim. MM: So how did you guys meet? HS: He was a client. He worked for an insurance company that Azell and Dumont represented. And so we ended up – no, somehow, I missed something here. When I came to Asheville, I worked for a while– no, that was right, I was working for the law firm, and then I went to work for Olan Matheson Chemical Corp in Brevard as secretary to the personnel manager. And then, let’s see, I had met Jim by that time, and then we decided to get married. And he was working in Columbia, South Carolina. At that time, he had gone to work for the hotel business, Howard Johnson's, so we were in Columbia. Then he transferred to Spartanburg. Spartanburg to Nashville, Tennessee. And Howard Johnson's transferred us quite often. So from Nashville, we went to Beaumont, Texas and back to Columbia, South Carolina. And from Columbia to the coast, Georgetown, Polly’s Island, that area. And then we transferred to Atlanta and we were in Atlanta 20-some years. MM: Wow. So did you work in all those places? HS: Worked for law firms. MM: In every place that you were? Wow HS: Yeah, quote “practiced” law in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Georgia. MM: Did you like that work? 7 HS: Oh yeah, very much MM: What did you like about it? HS: It was an exciting pace. It required some skill. I did both secretarial and paralegal work. And I just, I enjoyed it. It was a-- oh, what do I want to say? There was a preciseness about it, I guess, that I enjoyed. MM: I bet you were good at it. HS: I liked it. MM: That's great. And then so you worked about 20 years in Atlanta. Was that your last legal job? HS: Well, when we first moved up here, I work for a single practitioner in Asheville; it didn't last very long because he didn't just have orange juice for his breakfast. But that didn't last very long. MM: So then you just retired from the business. HS: Yeah, I worked up at the church for about a year in the office there which was a very fast pace. And now I'm lazy. MM: Well, you've earned it. You know you worked many years. HS: Of course, Jim and I didn't have any children, but he had the two sons, so they were mine too. And the grandchildren are mine too. MM: And you traveled a bit, right, after you and Jim retired? Where did you go? HS: We visited every continent except the Far East, China, and the Antarctica. MM: Really? You went to Africa? HS: Umm Hmm. Africa, Australia, Europe, wherever else. MM: Did you like traveling? HS: Oh, loved it, yes. MM: Did Jim also like it? HS: He did. He was very inquisitive about things, so he enjoyed that. MM: What was your favorite place do you think? 8 HS: Oh, hands down, Spain. I love Spain. MM: Really? What do you like about it? HS: There was just a certain, or then, it may be different now, but there was just a warmth about the place. People were very friendly, and I just enjoyed that. Australia was interesting. New Zealand, I liked better than Australia. And the Nordic countries are beautiful; I enjoyed that. But it was a learning experience. MM: It always broadens one's horizons to travel, doesn't it? What would you say your philosophy of work is? Do you have a philosophy of work? HS: Just do your best. What more can you do? And be loyal to it. MM: Do you notice that there's any difference in the way people see work these days from when you were born and your time growing up? HS: Oh yes. Because anymore they think it's just for survival. There’s not a him whole lot of enjoyment in doing it for pleasure, in doing a good job at whatever you do, would be my— MM: Do you have any idea why that might be? Do you have any thoughts about why that is? HS: People are – it could be because of technology that’s doing so many things we don't have to do; people have gotten lazy which is good and bad. And I can never assign my chores to someone else; it was mine and I did it. MM: So you felt responsible? To do it, and to do a good job. Is there anything else you would like me to ask you that I haven't asked that you think would be pertinent? HS: No, but I would say this is the best part of the world to live in. I am a country girl. MM: You're a country girl. You said you got homesick. What did you miss about Spruce Pine and this area? HS: The quiet. The mountains; I love the mountains. And not so much hustle and bustle. You know like when we moved here from Atlanta, Jim said we moved from the rush-hour to the rush-minute. And he was about right. And I've gotten into that routine. MM: They say, I've been doing a lot of reading on this area, and they say that people who grew up in the mountains, it becomes part of them. They have a connection to the land that other people don't have. Do you think that's true? HS: Oh, definitely. You learn so much from the land, being associated with the process of growing, animals, trees, flowers, whatever. It's learning. 9 MM: Well, I know that you are a real lover of nature and gardens and animals; I guess it's been that way since you were a little thing. HS: And I like to cook. I finally taught myself how to. MM: Your mother didn't teach you to cook? You kind of taught yourself? HS: I did not cook until I left home. MM: Why was that, do you think? HS: She wouldn't let me in the kitchen. MM: Oh, your left-handedness? HS: But trial and error, I got through it. I fed that man for 48 years. MM: And he enjoyed your cooking? HS: Oh yes. Have I told you what his last words to me were? MM: No. HS: I had gone out to the kitchen, it was dinner time, and I looked out the window and saw Carolyn. It was cold; it was the end of February, or end of January. And there was Carolyn with a bucket in her hand. And so, he goes, “I’ll just go ask her what's in the bucket.” So he went out on the deck and he and Carolyn had a nice little chat, and he came back in the kitchen and he said, “What are we having for dinner?” And I said, “I have a piece of salmon in the oven.” And he said, “Can we have some of those—” some kind of potatoes I made that he liked, I guess. So he went away. Fifteen minutes later, I went back to get him, and he was gone. MM: Oh my gosh. Wow. HS: this is the way he would've wanted it. And hard as it was, I didn't have to watch him suffer. So – MM: And inquiring about his beloved dinner, huh? Wow. And wasn’t salmon one of his favorite meals? HS: Uh uh. MM: No, it wasn’t? HS: Uh huh. MM: It’s you that like salmon? I remember it’s somebody that likes salmon. 10 HS: That was one of his favorites. But you know how they do in the papers, they say memorials may be made to such and such. And so, we put for him to make memorials to Meals on Wheels or to St. James. And at St. James they leave money for about a year in a line account. In then after about year, they'll say to the family, how do you want the money spent? So they asked me, and at that time St. James was promoting a project which has really taken off now, Bounty and Soul, and so they asked me what. And I said, the man had a tremendous appetite, and I think the thing that would have made him happy is to be someone getting a meal off of it. His memorials went to Bounty and Soul. MM: That's awesome; that's perfect. And even Bounty and Soul, and his last name being Soles. That's so perfect, so perfect. HS: But they’re very nice people. I just cleaned out my refrigerator out in the garage, and all the food I had there, you know that I put up when Jim was still alive, and I knew I wouldn't be eating it now, so I took it all down to Bounty and Soul, and they appreciated that. But find someone that can use it. MM: Wow. Was it still good after all this time? Was it canned stuff that you put up or? HS: It was frozen. Tomatoes, and apples, and beans. MM: Well, thank you Hazel. I appreciate that. (Recorder turned on again: talking about Spruce Pine and Hazel going back to visit). MM: The place has not changed? Really? HS: It's still the same few buildings that were there. They had a fire several years ago and it about destroyed one block of (Sam’s?—28:15) so it was reduced in size after that. But there was no industry after the mining part pretty well ran out and there's nothing for people to do there. MM: So how much have you come back? HS: Not very often at all. I don't want to. MM: Is your mother buried there? HS: Uh huh. She is. And I've been back to the cemetery just a very few times, not often. MM: I know there's a lot of drug problems down there. I remember when I was doing one of my internships, and there was somebody who worked there went down to Spruce Pine to do drug counseling in that area, opiates and that kind of thing. I guess that happens a lot in depressed areas. People don't have anything to do and they don't feel good. 11 HS: it was very, very cold in the winters which I think has moderated now. But, of course, we didn't have heat and air, we had a fireplace or a stove. And that table in the breakfast area, that I have the doodads on, that is the base of my mama's wood cook stove. And a million biscuits got cooked there. MM: Was your mother a good cook? HS: Very. Very plain. But good. MM: She made a good biscuit, huh? HS: Oh, very good biscuits. I can't make biscuits. I don't have biscuit hands. If I make them, they are little hard rocks. MM: There must be an art to it. HS: But they were good times. Can't do a lot of complaining. MM: Well, it sounds like you are loved. HS: And there wasn't a lot of entertainment, so you learned more, I think. MM: What were your interests as a kid? HS: I loved flowers. In my dream was to have flower shop, but that never materialized. MM: Oh, really, that was what you would've liked, huh? To have a flower shop? HS: Yeah. But I ended up being a legal secretary. And I worked for some very nice people. MM: Yeah, that makes a big difference; who you work with makes a big difference when you have to get up and go to work every day. HS: My boss in Atlanta for 20 years, he was French, and He still spoke with a cute little accent. And his wife was from Venezuela. So they had two children who spoke several languages, and he was a lovely, lovely man. MM: Was he still there when you retired? HS: He died about two years before I came up here. MM: Oh, that’s too bad. HS: He developed cancer. It was funny, his wife was a wonderful cook. She only fed him the healthy things. He didn't smoke. He didn't drink excessively. 12 MM: Yeah, you just never know. It's just so sad. But cancer is not a good way to go. HS: And I used to think that Vickie, Mr. Lemick, I called him Mr., but she was Vickie, she was with him like I was with Jim. He was it. We depended on them for everything. And I thought if anything ever happens to Mr. Lemick poor Jim, what would Vicki and I do? But we managed. MM: I guess you have to, huh? HS: Yeah, I've learned a lot about things I never thought I would have to do but, you know, what I can't do, I at least try. Don't we girl cat? (speaking to her cat.). Look at that claw. MM: She is the most contented cat in your lap. HS: And when that electric blanket goes on, that's where she goes, and she doesn't move. When I turn it up—usually once a night should get up and go to her pee pan and get a nibble to eat. MM: Did you have pets growing up? HS: Just the barn animals. MM: Just the rooster who tried to kill you? HS: Mama wouldn't let animals in the house, and when Jim and I first got married, we had two little dogs, Tick and Tack, and we take them home and they went in the house. And we be eating, and you'd see Mama, her hand would disappear under the table, and then you'd hear putt, putt, putt to the table. MM: Did she stay in in the house where you were raised until she died? HS: No, she moved to Marion. MM: Near her sister? HS: Yeah. Right across the street. My nephew’s wife called while I was at church, it was a pleasant surprise. I haven't talked to her in a long time. But she said I've been on her mind, and she just wanted to check on me.

Hazel Soles discusses the many jobs that she's had and the places that she has lived. She talks about growing up on a farm, then going to business school, and loving the different types of work she has been able to do. This interview was conducted to supplement the traveling Smithsonian Institution exhibit “The Way We Worked,” which was hosted by WCU’s Mountain Heritage Center during the fall 2018 semester.

• Creator
  • Soles, Hazel, 1938-
• Contributor
  • Martinez, Mary
• Format
  • Sound recordings
  • Transcripts
  • Interviews
• Type
  • Sound
  • Text
• Date
  • Date interview: 2018-10-28
  • Date: 1940s; 1950s; 1960s; 1970s; 2010s;
  • Date digitized: 2019-04-24
• Extent
  • Duration: 35:28 (sound recording)
  • Duration: 12 pages (transcript)
• Subject - Topic
  • Autobiography
  • Families
  • Farm life
  • Legal secretaries
  • Soles, Hazel, 1938- -- Childhood and youth
  • Soles, Hazel, 1938- -- Interviews
• Location
  • Mitchell County (N.C.)
  • Buncombe County (N.C.)
  • North Carolina, Western
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • WCU Oral History Collection - HIST 474/574
• Identifier
  • HL_HIST474_Martinez_Soles_2018-10-28
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library