Life in Oxford
by Emmie Carlton Johnson
Transcribed from an Interview on July 15, 2014
Note: Emmie’s father was Wilbur “Squire” Carlton, who was a professor of foreign languages at Oxford College for 35 years and later served as mayor of Oxford
Note: Emmie’s father was Wilbur “Squire” Carlton, who was a professor of foreign languages at Oxford College for 35 years and later served as mayor of Oxford
I was born here in Oxford in 1929 in a house on Emory Street – the house where only the chimney remains today. (It burned down fairly recently – about 10 to 12 years ago, now). Back then our house was owned by a professor who turned the big two story house into four apartments and my daddy and mama rented one half of the downstairs. There were a lot of house fires in Oxford. That’s how so many of the old homes have been lost. The Stone House was one of the biggest I can remember. I was in the third grade at the time. The McGath house was another big two story house that burned. It stood on Emory Street where the college now has the alumni offices. Fires were so common because every house had fireplaces and the town had no fire department. Whenever there was a house fire, the students would come running from the college and form bucket brigades. We didn’t have water hoses or fire hoses back then. We had a volunteer fire department, but it took time to get word to everyone and for them to come from their homes. The Covington Fire Department would come, but it would take a while.
Albert Welchel died in the house fire that destroyed his home. He owned the property where the waterfall is – back in the woods. One of the fun things to do on a Saturday afternoon was to get a crowd together and go to the waterfall. Another place we went was Pied Mountain, where the quarry is today. They’ve quarried off the mountain now, but it used to be that there was a terrific view from up there; you could climb up and see Stone Mountain from there.
We lived on Emory Street in the 1930s when Emory Street was being paved. I had chicken pox at the time. I would sit out on the front porch and make friends with all the dump truck drivers.
In 1936, Emory turned 100 years old and they commemorated it by ringing the bell in the Seney Hall bell tower 100 times over WSB radio in Atlanta. That’s when I learned that radio waves travel faster than sound waves because we had the radio on and could hear it strike on the radio before we heard the bell itself.
In 1936, Emory turned 100 years old and they commemorated it by ringing the bell in the Seney Hall bell tower 100 times over WSB radio in Atlanta. That’s when I learned that radio waves travel faster than sound waves because we had the radio on and could hear it strike on the radio before we heard the bell itself.
Student Life
The students at Oxford College were required to attend church. Each pew was numbered and students were assigned to a certain number. At the beginning of the service, the seat numbers were checked and if someone’s seat was empty, they got a demerit. When a student accumulated four demerits, they were “campused,” which meant they couldn’t leave the campus for a certain amount of time.
Study hall was required too. Students had to be in their dormitory from 7:00 to 11:00 pm for studying. “Lights out” was at 11:00. A proctor came around at study time and checked the rooms to make sure the students were in there studying. Sometimes a few boys would sneak out and pull pranks. One of the favorite pranks was when boys would take my daddy’s milk cow up the stairs in Seney Hall to his classroom. My father was a pretty good sport, but he didn’t appreciate that – mostly because he was concerned that his cow could have broken its leg.
One of the things we used to do for the students at Oxford College was we always had roses for the students to wear on mother’s day. If your mother was living, you wore a red rose and I still remember one year when one boy was the only one who was wearing a white rose, which meant that his mother had died … how sad that was.
Study hall was required too. Students had to be in their dormitory from 7:00 to 11:00 pm for studying. “Lights out” was at 11:00. A proctor came around at study time and checked the rooms to make sure the students were in there studying. Sometimes a few boys would sneak out and pull pranks. One of the favorite pranks was when boys would take my daddy’s milk cow up the stairs in Seney Hall to his classroom. My father was a pretty good sport, but he didn’t appreciate that – mostly because he was concerned that his cow could have broken its leg.
One of the things we used to do for the students at Oxford College was we always had roses for the students to wear on mother’s day. If your mother was living, you wore a red rose and I still remember one year when one boy was the only one who was wearing a white rose, which meant that his mother had died … how sad that was.
During the war, gas was rationed so we walked everywhere. Sometimes Mr. Longshore would come along in his taxi and load up a bunch of kids to take us home from school when it was raining. Other times, we would walk to Covington to go shopping or some such thing, and then Mr. Longshore would take us home. I went to high school in Macon. We were allowed only three gallons a week, so Daddy had to save up his ration stamps for three months just to be able to go down to Macon to pick up my sister and me for Christmas.
Mr. Wilbur Harwell was the postmaster. The post office used to be the back part of the rock building that is on the corner of Emory and Clark Streets, right across from what used to be Allgood’s Store. The Harwells owned that building and had a store in the front part that was run by Wilbur’s brother. They lived in the house that was diagonally across Emory in the two story house that is still there.
Courting
I met my husband, Thomas, in Macon, where he was going to college and I was going to high school. He was dating a friend of mine. She was helping out at her church with some of the youth and they needed someone to help with the younger kids, so she recommended me.
Thomas came to pick us up to take us to church. I didn’t really get to know him well until later that summer when he came to Oxford to attend college here. I was 18 at the time and was dating someone else, but he had always been so nice to me when I was in Macon, that my mother invited him over for supper. After a while, I broke up with the boy I was seeing and started going out with Thomas. While we were courting, we went to concerts and movies, like young people do today, but sometimes the social clubs on campus would give hay rides and have weenie roasts. Then sometimes we would just go into the kitchen and make candy. We also played board games like Caroms. Most of the time though, we would just walk to places. Both Thomas and I loved to play tennis. I won both singles and doubles tournaments for four years while at Wesleyan. Tennis was real popular then. Thomas and I went together for four years and were married in 1951.
Thomas came to pick us up to take us to church. I didn’t really get to know him well until later that summer when he came to Oxford to attend college here. I was 18 at the time and was dating someone else, but he had always been so nice to me when I was in Macon, that my mother invited him over for supper. After a while, I broke up with the boy I was seeing and started going out with Thomas. While we were courting, we went to concerts and movies, like young people do today, but sometimes the social clubs on campus would give hay rides and have weenie roasts. Then sometimes we would just go into the kitchen and make candy. We also played board games like Caroms. Most of the time though, we would just walk to places. Both Thomas and I loved to play tennis. I won both singles and doubles tournaments for four years while at Wesleyan. Tennis was real popular then. Thomas and I went together for four years and were married in 1951.