Whitney: What kinds of
things did you learn in school when you were younger?
Mrs. Hicks: Okay, when I was
in the first grade, I had Mrs. Nanny Munk, one of the most strict teachers that
has ever lived. You were afraid to even
breath loud. One time she smacked me
because she handed out ah, it was little, ah pictures of Santa Claus, in fact
they didn’t have ah, one of those copiers that ran, ran, ran like that. This
was s thing that had kinda looked like ah, spongy stuff on it, you had to put,
you made a copy and you patted down on that little thing. Then you took it up and you’d take another
one and pat it down on there, and take it up.
We didn’t have anything that was automatic, nothing like you have
now. And, she gave these Santa Claus
pictures out, and I picked up, I was so excited, I picked up a black crayon and
I started coloring his boot, and I started coloring before she
said everybody start coloring. Now, maybe a little bit more discipline should
be now, but that was a little bit much, you couldn’t do anything. And, we just
had 2nd, 3rd, 4th grade we had, just you know,
books, like spelling books, math, we had books, not like some of the, in
elementary school now, we don’t even have books, not but a very few. And one of
the things that I think ah, children really need to have now are geography
books, and history books. So many children don’t know anything about geography,
I’ve noticed that a lot. Children that have graduated from high school don’t
know anything about geography. Now, I don’t know as much about geography as
Clyde, my husband, his brother was in the merchant marines, now let me see, he
went to every continent in the world while Clyde would kind of keep up with
him. You can’t say a, well, he could tell you where every country, where
everything is right now. So, on Jeopardy when there’s a question about
geography, I know Clyde will know it. But now, y’all don’t have that much
geography now. Do you even study geography?
W:
Yeah, I think we have a world geography class.
Mrs.
H: But, it’s kind of together right? See, we started geography in the forth
grade,I’ll never forget it. We started learning about the Tigris and the
Euphrates river, and I never thought that I would see the day that our soldiers
would be over there in Iraq right now where the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers
are.
W:
Where did you see your first movie and When?
Mrs.
H: I saw my first movie at the Palace theater in Roxboro, and I was about, I
was about 7. My sister and I went with aunt Ersel, my mama’s sister to see Gene
Autrey, now he was a fine cowboy. I think children now are so pitiful that they
don’t even know who Gene Autrey or Roy Rogers were. And, we thought we had seen
it all, but it was Gene Autrey and he had a sidekick names Frog. And, he was
the funny one. I remember they locked him up in a closet. But, we thought we
had seen something when we went to the movies.
W:
How do you think it compares to the movies today?
Mrs.
H: Oh my word! I remember when I saw “Gone with the Wind” now that was filmed
about ’39. I guess I saw it, well I wasn’t but 3 years old so you know I didn’t
go then. But anyway, at the end of that movie, Clark Gable said “Frankly, my
dear, I don’t give a damn.” And that, lord, there was so much controversy about
that. That word, you could not say it. But, they did finally decide to let it
be in there. Now, that is very mild to what y’all see today, I think children’s
heads are filled up with too immoral things, it’s terrible. You’d be better off
not look at a television or movies. They don’t have to have bad words in them,
they can mean the same thing. I don’t know why they put them in there.
W:
Do you have any experiences at home or abroad during World War II, the Korean
War, or the Vietnam War?
Mrs.
H: Well, the only experiences I have in World War II, is the first one I can
remember, and I had cousins that went, so, and we always kept up with it so
much because there were so many neighbor boys that got killed. Whenever
the Times, that was the
paper out of Roxboro, every time it
would come out, we’d always see there
was somebody that we knew that had got killed over there mostly in France, the
Guava Canal, and all around in World War II. I know my mother always cut the
pictures out, you know, in the write-up about the boy and we’d keep them in the
Bible. I guess she’s got it right now. But, it really affected our
neighborhood, ‘cause we knew so many people that got killed. And then, the
Korean War, I don’t really know anybody too much that went to the Korean War.
But, let me see, I know Jones Parrot over here went, and I’ve heard him say
that he had run that machine gun that he, in battle, I mean, until the whole
barrel was just red hot, and then I remember the Vietnam War, well, I had a
cousin that went over there, and he got wounded, and I think everyone in his
platoon got killed except 8 of ‘em, and he’s one the 8. Now, he’s got shrapnel
in his back right now, that he has so much pain with. Sometimes, he’s in so
much pain, but they can’t operate on him because they know if they do, that
he’ll be paralyzed, so he doesn’t have much of a choice. And then, Desert
Storm, they went into Iraq then, that’s when they should have gotten Saddam
Hussein. But, now they’re back over there again, with the war, I think they
call it the War of Freedom. But, I don’t really know anybody that went to the
war in Iraq.
W:
How was segregation when you were growing up?
Mrs.
H: Well, we were segregated, they had the white schools and the black schools.
All the time, we weren’t integrated until after I married and Larry, that’s my
oldest son, Larry’s 47 now, it was up here at Berea. It was one family that
came up there, you know the Supreme Court passed that it should be all segregation
in what year, what year was it, ’65, anyway, it was several years before it was
ever put into place around here. Now Larry was about the 3rd grade I
think, it was ah, one black family that started coming into it and then it just
went gradually until it all got integrated. But, I didn’t even know what it was
when I was little, I mean we had no, we didn’t even think it would ever be,
‘cause I didn’t know anything but that there were black schools and white
schools.
W:
How has Oxford changed since you’ve grown up?
Mrs.
H: Well, now, see I was born and raised in Person County up near Roxboro, when
I got married in 1956 and moved down here that’s when I you know that’s when I
got started going to Oxford. And, it, well so many stores is closed now, so many
has closed. But, it was the same streets and everything, you know like it is
now, well except that ah, you know the monument that’s down there at the
library now, for the Civil War. It was up there in front of the court house, in
fact, it was right in the middle of the street. Traffic went around it on one
side and on the other, so they, and I don’t know what year they moved that ah,
monument. But, I have people that have passed through Oxford, and you tell them
you from Oxford, well usually they know Oxford by Oxford Orphanage, but if they
don’t they said, “Well is that that town that had that monument in the middle
of the street?” So they moved it down to the library, I don’t know what year it
was, but it’s been moved a pretty good while because I know y’all don’t
remember it being there.
W:
How do you fell that the computer and the Internet have affected the country?
Mrs.
H: Well people don’t ah, write as many letters to friends, and because, you do
all this email stuff. And, you can order on Ebay. I’m not very good on
computers, because I think after you’re older, and they kind of intimidate me.
I’m not very good at them, because in 2nd grade, we had to go to the
CCC lab, and Mac Lab, and I get up there and I’d be into something and I had to
call a 2nd grader to get me out of a program that I had gotten into,
and I wanted to get out. But, those children, since they’ve had, since
kindergarten, I mean they’re just really good with computers. So, in fact, the
children starting school now are better in computers than you were when you
were in kindergarten.
W:
What changes have occurred in the lives of African Americans and what is your
attitude towards these changes?
Mrs.
H: Well, I think, I think integration was very good because I think if
everybody’s born equal, than everything should be equal. I think, and um, I
think African Americans are just as well qualified and to do jobs as anybody
else. I mean, I feel just like they are equal to everybody else.
Mrs. Eunida Hicks grew up in
a time when things weren’t as easy for a girl.
She tells about her experiences and her life so others can see how it
was back then. From her experiences,
she has shown that she is a strong women and won’t let being in a “man’s world”
hold her back. She has accomplished
many things in her life and is very happy with herself and her lifestyle. I am happy to see that a woman can do the
same things as a man and still accomplish them just as well as men.
