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AE: It was something. William, Mrs. Garret’s son, went to West Charlotte, too. He was a Lion. I just don’t really, really know the words to explain what West Charlotte meant to me and the school teachers, other than they were there for you. Today I think teachers don’t have time to do a one-on-one thing with the students, but we had that. We had that one-on-one with our school teachers. PG: How did the teachers make that time back then? How did that happen? AE: Staying up there. Going down the halls. Stopping. “I want to talk to you.” They told you when you could come. We would be in little groups sometimes, and we could voice our own opinions. They made the time for us. PG: What kind of things would people talk to the teachers about back then? AE: If they were having problems in some of the courses they were taking. Sometimes relationships, family problems. Anything. It was just like when you left mom and dad, you had mom and dad there at school, too. Mr. Blake was just like everybody’s daddy. They just made the time for you, and they were strict. Of course, they were lenient in some things, but they said, “If it’s going to be this way, it’s going to be that way.” But then we were allowed to voice our own opinions about it, too. We would have all the classes come together in the gym, because we didn’t have a auditorium then, and just have a question and answer session, or something like that. PG: What would that be on, for example? AE: Bettering our school, people going to college, just anything. Good school counselors, we had that. But to me every teacher was like a counselor. It was just family orientated. That’s how it was. PG I guess the teachers stayed there a long time? AE: Yeah. They put their time in. It was just like you went to school, and you didn’t care what time you left to go back home. Sometime you hated to go to school, but I don’t think there was a day that I hated to go to West Charlotte.