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UNCG CENTENNIAL ORAL HISTORY PROJECT COLLECTION
INTERVIEWEE: Edna Earle Richardson Watson
INTERVIEWER: Missy Foy
DATE: May 10, 1991
[Begin Side A]
MF: This is Missy Foy. It’s the 10th of May 1991 and I am in the Alumni House with Mrs. Edna Earle Richardson Watson. If you could start with just some general information, like where you are from and when you attended Woman's College [of the University of North Carolina, now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro or UNCG] and just some general, background information.
EW: I attended Woman's College from 1936 and I graduated in 1940. And I came from Moore County, which is near Southern Pines. My home village was Lakeview. And when I was here I majored in biology and I have taught biology and other sciences and then I went into guidance, vocational guidance, and I received a degree from East Carolina [University, Greenville, North Carolina] and taught and counseled for thirty years. At the time I retired in 1982 I was doing full-time counseling. I taught after leaving UNCG, or Woman's College—
MF: Yes. [laughs]
EW: I taught high school in North Carolina at Morven, North Carolina for two years. And then I returned to UNCG and worked as a lab instructor for five—four years. And during my undergraduate work here I had been a biology assistant to Dr. [Lawrence Starr] Ritchie. I worked two of the summers during that period of time. I was in Greensboro from 1942 until 1946 and the fifth year here I did professional work at the Y downtown. I was program director for teenagers and business and professional people. And then we—In the meantime, I married in 1946 and we migrated to Sampson County. My husband went back to school after he came out of the service in 1945 and got an additional degree in agriculture so he taught vocational agriculture and horticulture, for his thirty-six, about thirty-four years. And we have lived in Sampson County since 1947. We had three daughters and those three girls graduated here at UNCG. One in '73, one in '76, and one in '79.
MF: That's about three years apart each.
EW: Yes. Two at one time is a hard job. [laughs]
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MF: Yes. Did they all decide to attend UNCG because you had been here? And then I guess—
EW: Yes.
MF: —each one heard good things from one another.
EW: Yes, we visited here a lot. I had relatives in Greensboro and then we attended a lot of events here on the campus so they really didn't think of any other place.
MF: Yes. Did any of them stay in the Greensboro area after that?
EW: No, one went back to Sampson County. She met and married a Sampson County boy and they went back to Sampson County and she has worked continuously at the water treatment plant in Clinton as a chemist and she has had an advancement. She's more like an assistant to a superintendent, yes, the water treatment superintendent and she does a lot of PR [public relations] work. And the other two settled in Raleigh. They are both living and they are both married and live in Raleigh.
MF: Okay. While you were at WC [Woman’s College], what kinds of things do you think of when you think about student life in general?
EW: Well, we had an active student life. We had a number of clubs that we participated in and we took in a lot of the social activities and it was a very wonderful place to have a little group of friends. We enjoyed all the activities. We participated in academic clubs and social clubs both. At that time, you had four groups that met. Well, you were just—you weren't elected to them. You were just—
MF: Societies?
EW: Societies—that's the name. And we had activities that took part in that. We belonged to the Y Club here on campus and did some community life projects.
MF: What kind of community projects? These were ones associated with the Y?
EW: Yes, well, we had some little fund raisers. We didn't go directly out in the community as such but we tried to do service projects here on campus and it was an inspirational group and—
MF: Do you remember any of the service projects? I know, it's probably, you're probably thinking, "Oh, gosh, I can't remember. They were so long ago." I just wondered if you could remember.
EW: [laughs] I can't. I just can't recall any.
MF: That's all right. I just thought I'd say—
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EW: I'll probably think of it tonight sometime. [laughs]
MF: Oh for sure. I'm sure, yes.
EW: And then we belonged to the college girls' class or I did at the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant and that meant a lot to a group. We had meetings and socials and of course, we could walk up the street to Walker Avenue to the church and they did a great service to the college girls. Some of the girls went to other churches and they would be picked up by members or little vans.
MF: Yes. What was the college girls' class? Was that like a Sunday school type?
EW: Sunday school class. And we had a lady who worked with us and she was very important and she was, I think she wielded a lot of influence on the girls. And we had our own class and she was always the leader and then we had suppers and little socials at the church.
MF: Do you remember how you found out about that? Like was that usually one student would say, "You know, I'm in this class. You ought to come," or—
EW: I think we received invitations.
MF: Oh, okay.
EW: And at that time we did not have the church-related houses on campus.
MF: Oh right. Like the Presby House.
EW: Like the Presby. We did not have that, so that, I guess, was a forerunner of Presby House or you did there what you probably—I think we had meetings other times than Sunday school and maybe something like seminars or something like that.
MF: Yes.
EW: And I really don't remember. I went once, I think I went to the Methodist [Church] but they had a active program there but I'm not too familiar. And some of the girls went to the Catholic churches and some went to the First Presbyterian church. And I think all the churches then were—certain ones, especially, this West Market, West Market Methodist church up here, also—but they catered to the groups. I mean, they really did perform a service for the girls.
MF: Yes.
EW: And one thing I remember was, of course we always went down to The Corner. That was the big deal back then, you know.
MF: Right. 4
EW: We didn't—you went to The Corner for part of your social life. [laughs] Walked and ate a little ice cream and so forth. And that was a big thing then. And we had the Yum Yum's then too, of course, in a different location. [Editor’s note: Yum Yum Ice Cream Shop was located on the corner of Spring Garden Street and Forest Street where the Mossman Administration Building is now located.]
MF: Where was it then? I know it's been in like three different locations.
EW: It was on the corner across the street and on the corner where the new building is.
MF: Oh, okay, on the corner of Spring Garden [Street] and Tate?
EW: Yes.
MF: And okay, I know, because there used to be a little row of stores there on that corner about ten years ago. There was still a row of stores.
EW: Well, they had to move it. I know, the last time I was in there they were planning to move it and they moved it across the street. I don't know where it was located before my time up here.
MF: What about—I'm sure you lived in the dorm, right?
EW: Yes.
MF: Which dorm?
EW: I lived the first year in, we called it "East" at that time and I think it's Grogan now. [Editor’s note: "East" dormitory was named Coit Residence Hall in honor of Laura Hill Coit in 1938/1939 and Grogan Residence Hall opened in 1963 and named in honor of Ione Holt Grogan in 1964.]
MF: Oh, okay.
EW: And then we lived in Bailey [Residence Hall] and then in the dormitory that's at the very end of the Quadrangle and it was so new, it was very new, and that was the end of the dormitories at that time. We thought that was a long walk then. And they called it "A & B." I don't know, I can’t remember what it's called now. [Editor’s note: "A & B" dormitories were named Weil-Winfield Residence Hall in 1941 in honor of Mina Rosenthal Weil and Martha Elizabeth Winfield.]
MF: Is that Jamison [Residence Hall]?
EW: No, it's like at the opposite end of Jamison, down in the woods off [unclear]. It's right near Grogan. Right across the street from Grogan. Right across the drive. 5
MF: Is that Shaw [Residence Hall] house? I'm trying to think which end you're talking about. Jamison is all the way down beyond the tennis courts.
EW: Is it sort of along—facing the Quad?
MF: It's, it's just like, if this is the Quad and here is like the one, there are like one, two, three, one, two, three. This one's Jamison and the tennis courts are right over here.
EW: No, it's the one across the field.
MF: Weil-Winfield [Residence Hall]?
EW: Weil-Winfield. See, I remember "A & B." I can't remember. [Editor’s note: the side conversation has been redacted.] Still going strong? Hanging around.
MF: Weil-Winfield. Oh, okay.
EW: Oh, another thing we did. We played tennis a lot.
MF: Oh, okay.
EW: And I had the same roommate all the time.
MF: Oh, you kept the same one?
EW: And we came back last year for our fiftieth anniversary reunion.
MF: Where was your roommate from?
EW: She was from a little town twenty miles below Gastonia called Goover, G-O-O-V-E-R.
MF: There were a lot of girls even at that time coming down from New Jersey and New York.
EW: Oh yes, yes. We had—they roomed on the same floor most every year, with the same group.
MF: Right.
EW: There were a lot from New Jersey and Connecticut and—
MF: Okay. Some—a few have, a few people have told me that they felt that the girls from Northern states were a little more prepared, academically.
EW: They seemed to be, and especially from the larger towns because I know I had a friend who sat beside me in English my freshman year and she seemed to be very well trained. 6
MF: What kind of unique experience or special qualities did an education from a women's school have? What kind of meaning—did that have any kind of special meaning for you? Let me explain what I'm trying to say. A few people have told me that there was something very special to them about attending a women's school that they then feel they could excel in a way that they could not at a co-educational school.
EW: I think that's true. I think it gave me a lot of self-esteem and confidence and especially those of us who came from small high schools. I mean, in the year 1936 we had a lot of high schools in North Carolina in the rural areas and we had small graduating classes. It was scary, you know, to be thrown in. I mean, this was a big place at that time, you know. It was obviously a change.
MF: Sure.
EW: But we didn't have any problems.
MF: Since the school has, well, now it's UNCG and now it's a co-educational school, do you feel that that the school has lost anything by becoming co-educational?
EW: No, no. I think it's wonderful.
MF: Okay, good.
EW: I'm all for it.
MF: I've found both. Some people who feel one way and some who feel the other.
EW: Well, I think having taught thirty years and been exposed to both sexes in the classrooms think definitely that it's [unclear]. But no, I think, I think it's wonderful. It's wonderful when they integrated and had minority students here.
MF: Yes, yes. During the time you were going to school there were a lot of things happening in Europe and then eventually the Second World War [global conflict fought between 1939-1945] would start. What kind of atmosphere did that create on campus?
EW: Well, it seems as though—we didn't have a whole lot of tension or real—but there was an undercurrent of fear and—that we experienced. And one of that—about the time, well, this was a little bit later. This was when I worked in Greensboro. We had such a change in Greensboro at that time when they had the ORD [Overseas Replacement Depot] military base here and the young men were brought in and just trained for six weeks and shipped out.
MF: Yes, right.
EW: And that was when I was working here. I was away two years and came back but that 7
made a big impact on Greensboro and I'm sure the college, too, at that time.
MF: Sure.
EW: Because we were just overflowing with young men with no social facilities or entertainment. And at that time I was working part-time going to the Y downtown and we experienced that.
MF: Yes. What do you see for UNCG in the future?
EW: Oh, I think it's going to be greater than it has been and I've been very active in recruiting students and I keep in touch that way. And it's interesting to work with students and those who come here. I do this volunteer work in our county for—and that's a program through admissions office here. They call it "Area Recruiting [unclear]." So I get to keep up with the students and talk with them and they are all very impressed. And one thing that pleases me, their parents when they come here are so impressed.
MF: Oh, yes.
EW: And I had come with parents and students, sometimes with students along, and we attend—we take our students to little receptions that they have in different areas and they get to meet somebody from the financial aid office and someone from admissions office and then they're just very responsive to that.
MF: Oh, that's great. Yes.
EW: And it keeps a bond going on all the time.
MF: Sure.
EW: I think the—I think one of the most important things about this school is the feelings that the graduates have for this school.
MF: Yes.
EW: I can't speak for the young—you know, just the more recent graduates but those that I've been associated with throughout the years seem very close and very dedicated and look back on their college life with a lot of love.
MF: Yes, I'm sure they do. Thank you very much.
EW: You're certainly welcome.
[End of Interview]
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