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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 250
three boards to make the back.” Emma couldn't remember for sure how many rows of pews there were, “maybe ten.” When she was a little girl, about 6 or 7 years old, kerosene lamps were used to light the churches. The lanterns were hung along the walls. When she got older, the churches got battery [Delco] lights. Silverhill School. The first school Emma went to was Silverhill School (C-132). Teachers she remembered were Ruby Briggs, Professor Jamar, and Mattie Duncan. Emma said: There was no age limit for primer class. You'd go when you could go. My father would carry us in a wagon, or in a buggy when the weather was bad. If the weather was too bad, we didn't go. I was born in 1920 so I went to school in about 1926. It was a one-room school, maybe about 40 or 50 students when everybody was there. There were schools in churches also. Those I remember were Annie Pearl Jacobs, Gladys Lacy (19301935), Walter [?], Mae Barley, the Braggs family (Luepatra and Ida), and the Ward girls (Jesse, Bertha, Matilda, and Burney). There was Mildred Horton (Wiggins), James Horton, Walter Mae Barley (older than me), and Felix Lanier (older than me). James Love went to school with me, too. When the researcher mentioned she had visited James Love (the son of Moses Love), Emma said she hadn't thought about him in years and would call him to say hello. Children went to the outhouse during recess: “That was the only time we got to go, so we went.” The girls' outhouse had two seats and a hole dug deep in the ground. Emma said: When we had our lessons caught up, the teacher would let some of us go for water. We liked to go for water to get a little break. We'd take our buckets. We used to go down in the spring and come up some steps. We'd go down in the ground. That was on the Moses Love farm (C-131). We'd go down ten rock steps. They said Indians built them. We'd go down the road and cut across the path. It wasn't far. It would take 20 to 30 minutes for us to go get the water. It wasn't too far because the teacher wouldn't allow us to go too far. Darphus Love (C-132) lived across the road in the other direction. Darphus had a cistern and a pump. Darphus' wife was a cousin of Ovoy Horton. After School. Emma and her friends sometimes went to Mary Love's home. It was not far from the school. Mary was married to a Lightford, but they lived on her Daddy's land. Her daddy was Moses Love (C-131), whose land bordered the school to the north. Moses Love and Darphus Love were brothers. Emma said: We used to go to Mary's house and she'd play records for us. Mary had a Victrola that you cranked by hand. Three or four of us girls would go. We'd take turns. She'd play records--Marion Anderson used to sing. One song was “If you see my milk cow, please drive her home.” It was a Blues 250 - (4283)