Sharon Ayers

Sharon Ayers - oral history transcription, 10-27-18.

INTERVIEWER: Okay.

AYERS: All right.

INTERVEIWER: [00:06] And your name

AYERS: Sharon Ayers.

INTERVIEWER: [00:10] And you went to school here?

AYERS: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: [00:13] What years? 

AYERS: Kindergarten. (laughs) Though I don’t know exactly what year that was—but let’s see. I’ll have to count back. But I went kindergarten and I went fifth grade. Yes, so those were the only two grades I went here. Because my family moved and—yeah.

INTERVIEWER: [00:32] Was the school integrated at that time? 

AYERS: Yes, yes. 

INTERVIEWER: [00:36] So you never went here during the segregated part?

AYERS: No. No, no.

INTERVIEWER: [00:41] So what was Yancey like for you?

AYERS: Yancey was great. I had a good kindergarten teacher, which was Miss Green. And we had two Miss Greens—and it was ironically how we would call them. The “Chubby Miss Green” and the “Skinny Miss Green,” that’s the way we used to be able to—

INTERVIEWER: [01:01] They were still here?

AYERS: Yeah! They were here when I—Because I had the Miss Chubby Green.

INTERVIEWER: Mm-hm, the dark-skinned one.

AYERS: Yeah, the dark-skinned one. And then in fifth grade, I had Mr. Smith. And Mr. Smith was here, and Mr. Jack Hammond. Yeah. But it was a great school. It really was. Of course, you know, we had problems, but nothing like we’re having now—to where everyone got along. But today’s school is so, you know, if you don’t fit in this clique or that clique, you kind of feel like you’re left out of things. But Yancey was always a community school, from the time I went here. You could—If you got in trouble, your parents would spank you, and then the neighbors could spank you, and everything. It was just a community like that. It was just a wonderful school, it really was. 

INTERVIEWER: [01:58] Any other teachers you remember from the school? Any names?

AYERS: I remember, what was—Mr. Gant. Yeah, I remember him, yeah. And like I said, Jack Hammond, and I think Miss Price. I never had Miss Price and all my friends who had Miss Price, they was like, “You’re lucky you didn’t get Miss Price!” (laughter) And I think that’s pretty much all I remember. And the secretary was—oh, shucks. Help me out. She was a white lady.

INTERVIEWER: Martin.

AYERS: No, no. No, before Miss Martin, yeah. 

INTERVIEWER: Oh, okay. I didn’t know.

AYERS: Yeah. And she was great, she really was. She was like the grandma type, you know? You had to go in her office, and if you went in there mad or whatever, she’d calm you right down like grandma, and then you’d get to speak, go right back to your class or whatever. So it was a great school, it really was.

INTERVIEWER: [02:55] So you had Mr. Gant also?

AYERS: Yes. Yes, had Mr. Gant. 

INTERVIEWER: Mm-hm.

AYERS: Uh-huh. I do remember that little discipline closet. (laughs) At that time you could discipline people, see? Now you can’t do that.

INTERVIEWER: [03:10] Oh that you stood still out there? They had that—?

AYERS: Yeah, yeah! Yeah! Mr. Gant, we remember, he had a long paddle.

INTERVIEWER: [03:19] “Dr. Feelgood”? 

AYERS: Yeah! Oh, yeah: Dr. Feelgood. And when you got in trouble, you then got swatted on your butt or something like that. But, yeah, he was here. And then they tell me Miss Price used to catch your knuckles or something—but I didn’t have her. But, yeah, good community school. 

INTERVIEWER: Everybody seems to be talking about that, Miss Flossie—Mr. Fleming probably already left here by then. No, he had to—

AYERS: I had Mr. Fleming was still here. Yeah, thank you for reminding me of that. Because he would walk the hall  sort of like a bulldog. You know how a bulldog’s shoulders come on in front of each other? You knew when Mr. Fleming was coming down that hall. (laughs) But yeah, had him as well. 

INTERVIEW: [04:04] So you were here in kindergarten?

AYERS: Mm-hm. 

INTERVIEWER: [04:07] But you don’t remember what year that was. 

AYERS: (laughs) Fifty, fifty—No. It was sixty—I was born in ’58, and I started school when I was five, so.

INTERVIEWER: [04:17] Sixty-three? 

AYERS: Mm-hm. Had to have been abound ’63.

INTERVIEWER: Well the school was still segregated then.

AYERS: Unh-hm. We had some whites. 

INTERVIEWER: [04:28] You did?

AYERS: Yeah, what year was it—

INTERVIEWER: They integrated the school in ’67. 

AYERS: No, it wasn’t that long. I could’ve sworn I had—I’ve been in the school system so long. I could’ve sworn we had—

INTERVIEWER: Well, you had the choice. White kids could come to the school, and I don’t know if they did or not, in ’66.

AYERS: Yeah. Because I could’ve sworn we had—

INTERVIEWER: In ’63 this was still a segregated school.

AYERS: Okay, well if I started at five years old and I was born in ’58, then it must have been segregated then. But I was thinking, maybe by the time I got to fifth grade. 

INTERVIEWER: Because you were thinking about if Miss Price was still here, it made me think—

AYERS: See, I wasn’t here when Miss Price was here. But my friends were. You know, like your group. Sheila and all them, how they would talk about Miss Price. 

INTERVIEWER: Yeah. Well Sheila and I were in the same grade. 

AYERS: Yeah so, no, I don’t think Miss Price was here when I was here. Well, I would’ve missed her anyway. 

INTERVIEWER: Well you were here with the two Miss Greens. I remember them.

AYERS: Yeah, the two Miss Greens were here. Yeah. Mm-hm.

INTERVIEWER: And Mr. Fleming was still here—

AYERS: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: Because I know in ’66 he moved over to—’66, he moved over to Scottsville. 

AYERS: Okay.

INTERVIEWER: He left and went to Scottsville. 

AYERS: He went to Scottsville. Okay. All right. 

INTERVIEWER: I’m not really supposed to be adding into it, but since—

AYERS: Well, that’s all right! Please add into it! So wait, evidently, maybe it was some of the kids who wanted to come. Because I distinctly remember—well, Deborah. Has Deborah been interviewed? Because Deborah would know, too, because we went—I think Deborah and I maybe, we started out in kindergarten. But we’re going to say during that time, sixty—’58, in five years I was five and I started school. So maybe it was. Maybe it was segregated.

INTERVIEWER: I don’t know, because the whole time I was here—well, the last year I was here, was ’55 to ’66, there was no kindergarten here.

AYERS: Oh. Oh, okay.

INTERVIEWER: It started in first grade. It didn’t start in kindergarten. So you came in through kindergarten, and that was something new to me, because I didn’t have anything.

AYERS: Yeah, I went to kindergarten here. 

INTERVIEWER: [07:01] Which sort of makes sense, in a way. I didn’t realize there was only like four years between us here. What else do you remember about this school? Any great events that happened? 

AYERS: Oh! Well, you’re talking about way back: it’s really drilling my mind. (laughs) I guess we probably had, you know, the same activities and themes that the other schools had, yeah.

INTERVIEWER: But you have an interesting thing, because you were here during the change. But you may have been too young to realize the change went on.

AYERS: Exactly! Exactly. Because, like I said, I was here kindergarten, and then we moved, and then I think I came back in fifth grade. Now, was it Mr. Smith in fifth grade? 

INTERVIEWER: Don’t start me lying, because I wasn’t here.

AYERS: An older gentleman, I think he was a fifth-grade teacher here. And then I remember having Jack Hammond—and I think that may have been Scottsville. 

INTERVIEWER: [08:12] So, if you started in ’63, by the time you came back in fifth grade, the school was integrated by then.

AYERS: It was integrated then, yes.

INTERVIEWER: [08:24] Okay, so we need to talk about—You did kindergarten here. You did first grade here? 

AYERS: No. 

INTERVIEWER: [08:33] Just kindergarten?

AYERS: Just kindergarten. 

INTERVIEWER: Oh, okay. Then you wouldn’t have noticed! 

AYERS: Yeah, I wouldn’t have noticed. 

INTERVIEWER: [08:40] No, okay, that explains a couple of things. Okay. So what do you remember from kindergarten, how the school was, compared to what it was when you came back in the fifth grade? Anything? 

AYERS: Not really, no. No. 

INTERVIEWER: Because you were pretty well-sheltered in kindergarten, so you didn’t have to do anything. Like I was interviewed and I was trying to remember what it was like in first year. And I said, “Well, first year of class, you pretty much stayed in your classroom the whole time.” 

AYERS: Exactly! Exactly. 

INTERVIEWER: [09:14] And there was nothing you would remember about the school so much. Hm, interesting. So: life after integration here. 

AYERS: Well, like I said, I came back fifth grade. 

INTERVIEWER: [09:33] Was the gym here then?

AYERS: No. 

INTERVIEWER: No.

AYERS: No, unh-h

INTERVIEWER: [09:39] Still had the cafetorium? 

AYERS: Yes, yes. Well see, really, there’s not a whole lot that I probably would have noticed, because I was really ever treated any differently, you know? I was a leader of many friends, whether Black or white. So it really wasn’t like you could tell the difference between how they would discipline a Black versus a white. I wasn’t, that—I didn’t really have to deal with that or, really, saw where it made any difference. So I can’t say that we were treated differently and they were treated differently. I can’t say that, because I wasn’t.

INTERVIEWER: [10:30] You just reminded me of something. Sara and Cassandra: those are the name of the Greens. 

AYERS: Yes! Yeah, yeah. 

INTERVIEWER: I just remembered.

AYERS: You’ve got a good memory! (laughs)

INTERVIEWER: [10:43] The big one was Sara and the other was Cassandra. And they weren’t related. (pause) So any changes, do you remember, going to school then versus what they have now? Because I know that we’re sitting in a room right now that wasn’t here when you went to school. 

AYERS: No, it was just the original B.F. Yancey School when I went here. No additions or nothing. 

INTERVIEWER: Well, there was one addition that was there, because there was an addition that was done when I went to school there.

AYERS: Which one was that? 

INTERVIEWER: The back of it.

AYERS: Oh! Oh, yeah. 

INTERVIEWER: They extended the rear.

AYERS: Right, right. But you know, kindergarten, you wouldn’t be paying attention to any of that kind of stuff. You were just so glad to come to school, and if you had a good teacher, that was great—you wanted to come. So that’s pretty much where I was. And, like I said, I just can’t say that African-Americans were treated different than the whites, because I didn’t experience that.

INTERVIEWER: [11:54] How much do you remember about the difference in the community during the time? Has it changed? 

AYERS: Oh, it has changed a lot, with the diversity. And like I said, if you got in trouble in this community, your parents would discipline you and whoever else you were involved with, they had the right to discipline you. Or if they saw you out doing something that you weren’t supposed to be doing, they didn’t hesitate to call you to the side and say, “I know I’m not your parents, but you know you shouldn’t be doing this.” But now people are so, like, “I don’t want you in my business.” You can’t say anything to their children, because they become so defensive. And being in education now for going-on 28 years, I have come across so much of that, that parents are very protective of their children—which they should be. But when it comes to the discipline side or the academic side, where they’re being disruptive and they’re causing other kids to not be able to do what they need to do, a whole lot isn’t being done about it. And I think the problem is we’re so young having babies that we don’t have the time to raise our children. The grandmothers are raising the kids. So what it comes around to you getting called to the school for a conference or whatever, I know that some of my parents become defensive, you know?

INTERVIEWER: Yeah, I do.

AYERS: But it used to be, when I was in school, if the teacher said you did it, you did it, you know? Exactly. But now it’s, “Well he’s tell me—“ or “She’s telling me something different. So I have a tendency to believe them because I know they wouldn’t lie to me.” That’s the way it is now, and it’s sad because a lot of kids are falling by the wayside and getting in trouble and having to go to alternative schools and things. And all it takes is a little bit of discipline and letting them know who the parent is. 

INTERVIEWER: [14:06] We didn’t have any problems when you were going to kindergarten here? 

AYERS: Oh, no. Oh, no. No. Miss Green didn’t play. I can tell you that. (laughs) She was all about you getting your education. 

INTERVIEWER: That’s good.

AYERS: Mm-hm.

INTERVIEWER: [14:26] Anything else you wanted to add to this? 

AYERS: I was very disappointed when they decided to close this school. And that’s when I became somewhat instrumental in letting them know and letting them know it would be the school board that, “You created a monster and you didn’t know how to kill it without closing the closing the school, so that’s what you decided to do. Because all of the instructors, all the teacher who have ever come through the school board to get hired and things like that.” So if I am a person that can see that you’re only here for a job, then somebody else ought to be able to see it as well. And that has caused our children over the year-and not only at Yancey—to fail. To where it’s all about a test score. And some of our kids—We know that some kids just don’t test right, you know? They like verbal tests and things—and we have to know those things to help our children. Yeah, I don’t understand the school system too much now. Like I say, I’m from the old school. And I’m not going to stand up and tolerate any child to backtalk me or disrespect me. That’s what I go on, that’s my motto: if you don’t learn anything else in school, you will learn respect. And hopefully that respect will take you a long ways. But it’s not like when we were in school. 

INTERVIEWER: Nope! Nope. Not by any means!

AYERS: And I don’t think we turned out bad at all. 

INTERVIEWER: There’s some points in there. (laughter) 

AYERS: We may have done some things we shouldn’t have done but, you know, overall I think we’ve done very well in our careers and things. And hopefully we’ll be able to help some of these kids who have fallen by the wayside to get back on track.

INTERVIEWER: [16:33] What do you think it would take? 

AYERS: At this point, you know, the world is offering them so much—and it’s not good stuff. We’re like a microwave now: we want Instamatic stuff. We want it right here and now, and the world is providing that for them. 

INTERVIEWER: Instant gratification.

AYERS: Yes, but it’s the wrong thing. 

INTERVIEWER: True enough.

AYERS: But parents have to stand up and become parents again. And let them know, “You are the child. You have responsibilities in school. You’re to be the student, and I’m the instructor.” Or, “When I get home, I’m the parent.” And until we do that, I don’t know.

INTERVIEWER: [17:18] You think it can happen—?

AYERS: And it’s sad. I think it can happen, but I don’t mix religion with politics. But I know that being a Christian—really becoming a Christian turned me around a lot, and made me have a different way of thinking. And I thank God for that. I thank God for my parents, that they were instrumental in seeing that that was done. And I know that some people don’t agree with that, but that’s okay. We have a right to disagree. 

INTERVIEWER: [17:58] That’s great. Anything else? 

AYERS: That’s it.

INTERVIEWER: All right. This has been an interview with Sharon Ayers. And I thank you for this. This was done on October 27, 2018. Thank you, ma’am.

AYERS: Thank you. 

(mic noises)

END OF TAPE [18:17]