Ray Alfred Dent

Matthew: This is Paul Hull and Matthew Dent, and today we will be interviewing Ray Alfred Dent at his home in Bastian. Uh, how are you doing today, Ray?

Ray: Awl, doing pretty good.

Matthew: So, can you tell us something about your life?

Ray: Yeah, I told you, but you didn’t have the tape on. (Laughs).

Matthew: Okay, so where and when were you born?

Ray: October 27, 1921 in Elgood, West Virginia. Mercer County.

Matthew: Who was you mother and Father?

Ray: Frank and Jenny Dent.

Matthew: What were they like?

Ray: They were just parents like any other.

Matthew: Do you have any fond memories of them you would like to share with us?

Ray: Oh, I have a lot of memories, but I don’t—I’d rather not go into it. It wasn’t that they wasn’t good, you know, but they’re just some others.

Matthew: Oh, I understand. Do you remember anything about your grandparents?

Ray: My Grandpa Wade, yeah, I remember him and my Grandpa Dent, too. He was a Cherokee Indian, my Grandpa Dent was.

Matthew: Well, what about your brothers and sisters?

Ray: Well, I had one, two, three brothers that was in the service. And I never was in. I didn’t pass. And my sister is married and got some kids, lives in Elgood. The only one that I got left. My sister had an old 4 ten [shotgun]. She shot a snake crawling up the wall behind the wallpaper and killed it. Some women are afraid of a gun. She wasn’t.

Paul: What were some of the things you done as a boy growing up?

Ray: Well, like I said, groundhog hunt. On a Sunday, we’d groundhog hunt, and the weekday, we cut wood or shucked corn or done a little bit of everything.

Paul: Did you have any games or hobbies you liked to play?
Ray: Well, just we played fox and goose, like I told you, where you had to keep the geese away from the fox, so he couldn’t eat them all.

Matthew: So who played the fox most of the time?

Ray: Well, the corn or buttons or whatever we was a-using was the goose, and the old fox, he was different, you know, maybe a red button or so, odd to the rest.

Matthew: Any other games you played?

Ray: Yeah, we got out and swing trees over and broke ’em down. Fell in rock piles. Got tore up. Ride bicycles. And we traded a lot. Traded a bunch of old guns and dogs and stuff for an old car one time, an old-timey Whippet. One of these real old ones. And we got that thing out and took the motor out of it. We would drive it up on the hill and ride it back down. And then we would push it back up and ride it down again. That was a lot of fun back then. And we would get a little ol’ hub off a wagon or something and roll it around with a piece of wire—yawl have probably done that. And we would do that all day, and then when they said, "Yawl come in here and do something," we was too tired.

Matthew: Okay, what about chores around the house?

Ray: Well, I had to help my mother a whole lot, and I used to cook a lot. I still cook, but not like I used to. I used to make pies and cakes and everything. And I wasn’t no expert on it or nothing, but everybody enjoyed eating them.

Matthew: Did yawl have a lot of money coming in?

Ray: Huh? Uh no, no money hardly. Money, you had to get out and work at something to make it. I think I worked out, I believe it was six dollars a-working. And that was the most money I ever had. And I went and bought me a pair of shoes, a pair of overalls, and a shirt with six dollars and had money left. You see how cheap stuff was then. And a cowboy hat like he’s got would be maybe fifty cents or something. Where did he get a hat like that anyhow?

Matthew: Western Stores mostly.

Paul: Did you go to school? What grade did you go to?

Ray: I went to Elgood School. I think I quit in the fifth grade. I had to quit and help raise the rest of the kids. There was eight—eleven, ten in our family.

Paul: Did yawl have a farm?

Ray: Yeah, we live on a farm. We had eggs, chickens and hogs and an ol’ mule to work.

Paul: What about courting back in your day? Did you have a lot of girlfriends?

Ray: Uh, no. I was afraid of girls. When I was about 16 or 17, you may not believe it, if I was walking down the road and a girl come along, I got on the other side.
Everyone laughs.

Paul: When did you move to Bland County?

Ray: About 44 years ago.

Paul: What was Bland County like back then?

Ray: Ghost town. All that stuff at Bland where Scott Place was at was a Muncy’s old-timey drug store.

Matthew: So when you got married—when, how was that?

Ray: Oh, it was fine. I worked hard, and she worked. And if one got in before the other, why, we would always fix supper for them.

Paul: What kind of jobs did you hold for Bland County?

Ray: Well, I worked at the saw mill, for C and A Lumber Company.

Matthew: Do you remember anything about Virginia hardwood?

Ray: Yeah, I worked there tipping lumber. They would hand it to me, and I had to tip it over to the man on the stack.

Matthew: Was that hard work?

Ray: Good gracious, yeah, it is hard.

Paul: Do you remember any musicians or anything like that traveled through Bastian?

Ray: Well, no, not really. Why, did your grandpa say he remembered some?

Paul: No, I was just wondering.

Ray: Oh, they was a lot of people, older people, that played music, you know. My mom played a banjo all the time, one of these old-timey ones. We killed a groundhog and tan him and put a head on that ol’ banjo off a groundhog hide. That was a lot of fun.
We got out and hunt polecats a lot, you know. And when you go to school and got around that old pot-belly stove, they say them Dents have been hunting skunks again. But you could take one old polecat and make two or three dollars. That was two or three days’ work, about 30 hours’ work, to get three dollars.

Matthew: Since you were talking about school, do you have an interesting story about that?

Ray: Well, yeah. We used to have a teacher would try to make us sit in the school. And somebody would stick a pin in one, and they would start a hollering.

Matthew: What did you eat for lunch back then at school?

Ray: Just whatever I had. Milk and bread. One of these gallon buckets, two or three of us ate out of it. So one morning, we got up and in a hurry to go. We had to walk to school about two miles. And we got up and took Mom’s shortening in place of lunch. She said, "I bet yawl had a good lunch." I said, "I bet you didn’t have no shortening."

Matthew: You told me something about Smokey Bear one time. Do you remember?

Ray: I played Smokey Bear when I worked in the Forestry. I played at the school. That was fun, but that bear suit was hot. It burnt me up nearly. I scared Larry Hagan half to death. He ran and jumped up on the teacher’s lap. They try to look around and figure out who it was, but they couldn’t see. Then I rode the truck down through Wytheville throwing out candy for the kids. I had a good time on that forestry job.

Matthew: Well, Poppaw, is there anything else you would like to share with us?

Ray: Well, what kind of more questions do you got?

Paul: How has Bland County changed over the years, for the good or bad?

Ray: Oh, it’s changed for the good, Bland County has. Everything is different.

Matthew: What about the respect? How did yawl see older folks back when you were smaller?

Ray: Well, if we called anyone by their name like yawl call me Ray, why, they would whup us for it. Said always call them Mister or Aunt or say Yes, Ma’am and No, Ma’am. Don’t ever sass no old people. I ain’t no spring chicken myself, maybe a last year’s rooster. Seventy-nine years old. How old is your grandpa?

Paul: About 73 or 75. Between that.

Matthew: What about your religion? Can you tell us anything about your preferred religion?

Ray: Oh, yeah, since I been serving the Lord, I’ve had more enjoyment out of life. If it hadn’t been for God, I wouldn’t have even been here. Been in so many cars wrecks, I am pretty near afraid to get in a car.

Matthew: Before you were a Christian, what kind of life style did you have?

Ray: A dog’s life.

Matthew: Can you explain what a dog’s life would probably be like?

Ray: A dog would have a better life than I did. That is one of the parts I didn’t want to go into. I used to be pretty bad to drink, but you wouldn’t believe that.

Matthew: Definitely not. Did your drinking habit ever get you in trouble?

Ray: Ooh, Lord, a lot of times. Yeah, the ground would fly up and hit you in the face and everything, or you thought it did. Robert is a laughing. He knows about it. He probably took a sup or two and couldn’t see where he is a going.
Everyone laughs.

Matthew: You said some of your brothers went into the service, didn’t you?

Ray: Yeah, Jimmy, he got shot up in the war. Charles was in the Navy, and Roy was in the Army.

Matthew: Is your brother James still living?

Ray: No, he’s been dead for a long time. His wife married again. He died with cancer, and my mother died with cancer. I had cancer. The Lord healed me.

Matthew: The Lord healed you?

Ray: And I had cataracts in my eyes. He healed that, too. Then my back—had to wear one of these old big corsets on me to keep from having an operation. You might have heard of the doctor, old Dr. Rob. I’ll say your grandpa probably knows him.

Paul: Probably.

Ray: He was the wickedest man that ever was. But if you was to have two days to live, he would have told you about it, not like some of them would kindly sugar coat it, what I call it.

They say, "you get weaker and wiser." But I can’t see that part. You might get weaker, but then the wise part, I don’t know. See, some people go into something that they know good and well gonna get them in trouble. That’s not being wise is it, Paul?
Paul: No.

Matthew: Well, thank you.

Ray: You’re welcome.

Nate Lundy

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