Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9501110011
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-14 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
McCoy - a sprightly, retired teacher and, at 97, nearly a century older than her audience - described her childhood Christmases as Spartan affairs. "We didn't do much for Christmas at my home," she told Lisa Tuck's class. "We didn't have a Christmas tree." Instead, everyone hung gifts, unwrapped, on a tree at the church.
"I can still see the dolls hanging on the tree," she said. "We would wonder which doll was ours." Little boys got balls, cap pistols and drums, she said, and many gifts were handmade.
McCoy also spoke of learning her ABC's using a slate and pencil. "We didn't have books, we didn't have pencils and paper," she said of her first year in school at age seven. At home in Prices Fork, there was no running water, and kids were expected to carry water and firewood as part of their chores.
"We washed on a board and scrubbed on the clothes with homemade soap," she recalled. "Now, you press a button."
Even getting from place to place was dicey. "The roads had mudholes in 'em," McCoy said. The mail carrier rode horseback.
Despite the hardships she described, several youngsters shouted "yeah!" when McCoy asked if they'd like to go back to "the good ol' days."
"I think we'd be better off in the good old days because there was less pollution," one boy volunteered. Others said they wouldn't mind doing chores, sentiments that probably would be news to some of their parents.
For her part, McCoy said she likes modern conveniences. "For me, these are the good ol' days," she told the class.
McCoy also recited "The Night Before Christmas" for the enthusiastic audience, most of it from memory.
Next door in Ruth Lefko's class, Scott, 77, recalled the holidays as a time when there was always lots to eat. "We ate and ate and ate all day long," she said. "That's what we did." Scott, also a former teacher, passed around several vintage dolls like those youngsters in her childhood might have received for Christmas.
Christmas wasn't very exciting by today's standards, she conceded. "We didn't get a lot of Christmas presents back then."
Scott recalled feeling especially happy for her mother one Christmas when her mother got a little covered glass dish. Another memorable Christmas, Scott received an embroidery set. "Little girls used to have to learn to sew," she said. Christmas stockings were hung by late afternoon Christmas Eve, and children went to bed early to await Santa. When the children awoke, the stockings often contained candy and fruit.
Scott and Goddin, 66, also described the one-room schools they attended. "We learned a lot," Goddin recalled.
Kids of an earlier era even made do when it came to play, Radford told Tuck's class. "I got me a grapevine" for a swing or a jump rope. "And I shot marbles." Radford, 88, also said discipline in school was tough and, occasionally, physical.
A Carroll County native, Radford told of making soap from lard and lye, and of putting up apple butter and pumpkin butter each fall.
The visit seemed to energize the seniors and pleased the kids, some of whom came up after class to give the senior storytellers a goodbye hug.
"I love being here," McCoy said. "We had a ball."
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