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Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Vesta and Sam Finley, July 22, 1975. Interview H-0267. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

Small country schools

Vesta stayed in school throughout the ninth grade, and she and her siblings all attended the same country four-room school house.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Vesta and Sam Finley, July 22, 1975. Interview H-0267. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

MARY FREDERICKSON:
What was the school like that you went to?
VESTA FINLEY:
Well, it was just an elementary school, you know. We had teachers from Mars Hill, a little town near us. You know, the closest town. I guess you've heard that they're going to have a college there, you know. But it was just a country school [laughter]
MARY FREDERICKSON:
How many grades? It was one where all the grades were together, or. . .
VESTA FINLEY:
No. Well, some teachers had two grades; most of them, I guess, did, because we had a four room school and we had seven grades. Well, my last years I was in school there it went to the ninth grade; we had a teacher through the ninth grade.
MARY FREDERICKSON:
Was that in the same place? In the same building?
VESTA FINLEY:
Yes.
MARY FREDERICKSON:
How far did you go?
VESTA FINLEY:
Well, I was in the ninth grade when I quit school and went to work. But since then I went to tech school, and I got an equivalent certificate for high school education.