Blackerby, Jack

              
ORAL HISTORY OF JACK BLACKERBY
Interviewed by Don Hunnicutt
Filmed by BBB Communications, LLC.
November 9, 2012
 
MR. HUNNICUTT: 	This interview is for the Center of Oak Ridge Oral History.  The date is November 9, 2012.  I am Don Hunnicutt in the studio of BBB Communications, LLC., 170 Randolph Road, Oak Ridge, Tennessee to take an oral history from Jack Blackerby about living in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.  His address is 1083 West Outer Drive, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.  Please state your full name, place of birth, and date.
MR. BLACKERBY:	My name is Jack Blackerby.  I was born in Carroll Country, Kentucky, in a little community called English, March 13, 1937.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Can you state your father's name and place of birth?
MR. BLACKERBY:	My father's name was Justin Callis Blackerby.  His nickname was Jack.  He was born in Oldham County, Kentucky, May 13, 1913.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Your mother's maiden name and place of birth?
MR. BLACKERBY:	My mother's name was Mildred Irene Thompson.  She was born in Trimble County, Kentucky, February 28, 1913.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Where did you and your parents live before coming to Oak Ridge?
MR. BLACKERBY:	We lived in Frankfort, Kentucky.  My dad was working for the state of Kentucky.  He had been working for them for four years in the Capital building in Frankfort.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What about your mom, did she work?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Not at that time.  She had been a teacher before I was born but after I was born she became a stay at home mom until my younger sister went off to college.  Then she went back to teaching in Oak Ridge.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you have any other brothers or sisters?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yes.  I have a brother, Ritchie, who was born in 1940 in Frankfort, Kentucky, and my sister, Molly, was born in 1947, in Oak Ridge.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What type of schooling did your father have?
MR. BLACKERBY:	He graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in education in 1934.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What about your mom?
MR. BLACKERBY:	My mom graduated with a degree in education from Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Tell me about growing up before coming to Oak Ridge.
MR. BLACKERBY:	There's not a whole lot of memories since I was only six when we came.  We had a little house that was almost in the shadow of the Capital building in Frankfort, Kentucky.  I can just remember going to kindergarten in Frankfort and starting into the first grade before we came to Oak Ridge and that's about the extent of my memories of pre-Oak Ridge, really.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you recall what brought your father to Oak Ridge?
MR. BLACKERBY:	He lost his job.  It was a political job and in those days if you worked in the Capital building of Kentucky it was considered a political appointment.  When the party went out, you went out with the party.  So, they changed administrations in December of 1943.  My dad was looking for a job.  Several companies set up interview spots right in the halls of the Capital building and that's how he found his job in Oak Ridge.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What was the job?
MR. BLACKERBY:	They wouldn't tell him.  Well, actually, he subsequently came down and went to work for Roane-Anderson.  Most of the people coming down were coming to work at the plant.  He was coming down to work for Roane-Anderson.  Roane-Anderson was essentially running the city at the time.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you recall what his job duties were?
MR. BLACKERBY:	He was working in accounting at that time.  The first assignment I remember him having with the Roane-Anderson Company was in their electrical department, like keeping their accounts and their books.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did the whole family come when your father came?
MR. BLACKERBY:	No, he came down in January of 1944, and it was the end of February when my mom and my brother and I came down.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you recall how you got to Oak Ridge?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yeah.  My dad came back up to Frankfort to get us and brought us down.  Our first two nights in Oak Ridge was spent in the Guest House, now the Alexander Inn.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you remember anything about the Guest House?
MR. BLACKERBY:	I thought it was a neat place.  But it looked like every other building in Oak Ridge at the time, standard government issued type construction.
MR. HUNNICUTT: 	Do you recall coming through the gates?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What do you remember about that?
MR. BLACKERBY:	I just remember it was kind of cool coming through because you had to stop and they had to search you.  Kids didn't get searched but they looked pretty carefully at the adults and whatever was in the car.  Searched the trunks and under the seats and things like that.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	After you moved out of the Guest House, where did you move to?
MR. BLACKERBY:	508 New York Avenue, a B house, two-bedroom.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Tell me what a B house is?
MR. BLACKERBY:	It's a two-bedroom cemesto house.  It's approximately 900 square feet.  Nice fireplace, hardwood floors, mud in the yard, gravel walks, gravel street in front and a boardwalk running parallel to New York Avenue at that time.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	How was the house heated?
MR. BLACKERBY:	House was heated with coal.  We had a coal furnace, central heat, and then we also had a fireplace.  That was one of the neatest features of the home, I felt, was the fireplace that was in there.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	So how did you get the coal, do you recall?
MR. BLACKERBY:	I sure do.  The Roane-Anderson Company delivered coal to your house on a regular schedule.  There was a coal bin in all of the cemesto houses and it was accessible from the outside.  They would just drive by -- they wouldn't ask you if you needed any, they would just open up the door to the coal bin from the outside and if you needed some they'd fill it up.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you recall what your mother thought about coming to Oak Ridge?
MR. BLACKERBY:	No, I don't.  She's always been kind of an adventuresome type lady.  She went away from home at 16 to go to high school.  So coming down here probably did not bother her too much at all.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Is your sister older or younger than you?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Younger, she's 10 years younger.  She was born in 1947 after we were in Oak Ridge.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What was the first school that you attended?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Pine Valley School.  It was right down the street from us.  I could walk down there in less than 10 minutes from my house.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What do you remember about Pine Valley School?
MR. BLACKERBY:	A lot of great memories.  I spent six years there, from the middle of the first grade through the sixth grade I was in Pine Valley.  The 1943-44 school year was the first year that Pine Valley was open.  So I wasn't there on day one but I was there in year one.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you take your lunch to school or was it provided?
MR. BLACKERBY:	None of the schools in Oak Ridge had cafeterias that were originally built.  They designed it so that everybody could walk to and from an elementary school, even for their lunch.  I walked home for lunch every day.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do remember some of the teachers you had?
MR. BLACKERBY:	I remember them all.  First grade, Ms. McKamey.  Second grade; Ms. Stewart.  Third grade; Ms. Hurt.  Fourth grade; Ms.Carnes.  Fifth grade; Ms. Brewer.  Sixth grade; Ms. Driver.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What else do you remember about Pine Valley attending school?
MR. BLACKERBY:	The schools in those days we had a fulltime art teacher.  We had a fulltime gym teacher.  We had a fulltime music teacher.  I enjoyed all of those extracurricular things.  We were scheduled into them every week.  We were scheduled to do to those kinds of activities.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What was your dress code, or dress like, when you went to school?
MR. BLACKERBY:	No dress code that I recall.  Just everyday clothes.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	That consisted of what?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Blue jeans.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	After you attended Pine Valley what was the next school that you went to?
MR. BLACKERBY:	The next school was the original Jefferson Junior High at the site of the current Robertsville School.  It was thrown up pretty fast when they decided they needed more schools in Oak Ridge.  Originally, there wasn't a junior high in Oak Ridge.  Originally, there was three elementary schools and the high school.  Before they got the schools finished they said, "Gee, we need twice as many schools in Oak Ridge," Jefferson, at that time, was constructed in a very temporary type structure.  But the core of Jefferson was the old Wheat School and so I spent two years down there at Jefferson.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What did you notice different when you went to Jefferson Junior than the elementary school?
MR. BLACKERBY:	You had to make more decisions for yourself down there.  My dad played in the University of Kentucky band.  He played a mellophone so I was kind of interested in music.  I learned some music from my music teacher at Pine Valley and he taught me music at home.  He was my first teacher.  There was a band at Jefferson.  The first day I went, I carried a trumpet in.  The teacher was Ms. Lyman, a great teacher.  A lot of people were scared to death of her but she knew music.  I walked into her band class and she looked at me, she looked at what I was carrying, and she said, "I don't need one of those in my band."  She took it away from me and went over to the bin where all the music instruments were and pulled out a French horn and handed it to me and says, "You're now my French horn player."  That was really one of the best things that ever happened to me in my life is when she did that because I'm still playing it today.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Was she a good music teacher?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Great.  Strict.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What else made her a good teacher?
MR. BLACKERBY:	She knew how to teach but if you weren't willing to do what she said you paid the consequences, I'm afraid.  If you didn't stick with her you missed something later on.  I was afraid not to do what she said.  I got all of my lessons and I showed up on time.  I did pretty much do what she told me to do.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you have any other type of courses in junior high different than elementary?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yes.  Industrial arts.  In industrial arts we had woodworking, metalworking, drafting and several activities like that.  I enjoyed those.  That was really my first exposure to something that later on became my career and that's engineering.  I learned how to be a draftsman.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Were you involved in any sports activities?
MR. BLACKERBY:	No, except I played in the marching band.  Does that count?
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Yes.  You recall who the gym teachers were in those days?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Sure do.  Nick Orlando and Mr. Stuhmiller.  Nick, he was around Oak Ridge and everybody knew Nick.  Until the day he died I called him Coach.  I've never played sports under him, but I was in his gym class.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	He's an icon in Oak Ridge.
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yes.  He had a paddle that big that he always carried in his back pocket, and he used it.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you remember how you got to school form New York Avenue down to Robertsville?
MR. BLACKERBY:	That was a bus.  In the early days there weren't any buses to the elementary schools.  Like I said before, everybody is supposed to walk to school.  But the junior highs did have buses so that's how we got there, though I could have walked it in a half an hour, probably.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you take your lunch to junior high?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yeah, you could take your lunch or go to the cafeteria.  They did have a cafeteria.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What do you remember about riding the bus to school?
MR. BLACKERBY:	You didn't want to miss it.  I knew that.  One of the reasons was that I had always had to get on and run my paper route.  In the sixth grade is when the Oak Ridger came to town to be the newspaper.  All of us down in sixth grade went down and signed up to get a paper route and I was lucky enough to get one.  I carried it all the way through high school.  That was a good gig, carrying the Oak Ridger because it was very skinny, lightweight, and you only had to do it five days a week.  So that was a pretty good gig.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you remember how many customers you had?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Sure do.  The route number was 206 and I carried it down West Tennessee Avenue from Michigan to New York Avenue and up New York Avenue to Pine Valley School.  There were 106 houses on that route and I would carry anywhere from 92 to 102 customers.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Tell me about collecting for the newspaper.
MR. BLACKERBY:	It was a lot different in those days than it is now.  You had to go every week and knock on every one of those doors, sometimes as many times as three or four times before you could get your money.  There was always somebody trying to beat the kid out of a quarter.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you have a way of logging your customers?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Oh, sure.  Everybody had a route book, every address in there, whether they paid you or not, and how much they owed you.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Where would you pick your papers up?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Picked it up at the Pine Valley Barber Shop.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What time in the afternoon was it?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Right after school.  It was usually there around 3:30 or 4 o'clock.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	During this time, do you recall where your mother did her shopping?
MR. BLACKERBY:	She did most of it in Pine Valley supermarket.  There's a supermarket there.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you recall what else was in the shopping center?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Sure.  There was a drug store, a supermarket, a barbershop, a beauty parlor, and a fire hall.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Your father, how did he get back and forth to work?
MR. BLACKERBY:	He drove the family car, a 1936 Chevrolet.  The Electrical Department was located on Lafayette Avenue where Emory Valley Road comes into it there.  There's a tool and die shop now but that used to be the Electrical Department.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What did you do for fun during the summertime in between school years?
MR. BLACKERBY:	The City of Oak Ridge had a great Recreational Department and program in the summertime.  Every school had a man and a woman that were in charge of recreation on the playground.  They had organized sports, organized activities that went on all summer long.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What about the swimming pool?  Did you attend the swimming pool?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Didn't do much at the swimming pool.  That was kind of a long trek down that way and the swimming pool didn't play a central role in my raising.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you have a bicycle?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Oh, sure, several of them.  One of my hobbies was keeping the darn thing running.  If you wanted to get anywhere you had to get on a bicycle.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What about movies?  Did you attend movies?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Sure, Central Theatre where the Playhouse is now.  Every Saturday you had the cowboys, the standard Saturday affair for that day.  Me and all my friends went.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	How much did it cost to get in?
MR. BLACKERBY:	$0.09 and you could get a bag of popcorn for $0.09.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	So, $0.25 could be a big deal?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yeah.  That was all of my allowance too.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What else do you remember in that Townsite shopping center?
MR. BLACKERBY:	There was the drugstore that was there forever.  There was an ice cream shop.  The bank was in there, the original Hamilton Bank.  I think there was a market in there called the Community Market.  Going down the other wing was a record shop, a department store either Loveman's or Miller's, McCrory's was up there at that time, and then there was the Ridge Theatre on the other end.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you recall what McCrory's Department Store consisted of?
MR. BLACKERBY:	It was just a regular old dime store.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you visit very often?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Oh, sure.  Every time you'd go to Jackson Square, well it wasn't called Jackson Square it was called Townsite in those days, but you always had to go down there and some of the hot roasted peanuts or something like that.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What about standing in lines?  Do you remember your mother standing in lines or were you with her for shopping?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Don't remember that.  I've seen pictures of it but I don't remember ever standing in any lines. At the Pine Valley Shopping Center, it was a small shopping center and we didn't have that problem, not that I knew of.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Tell me about your neighbors in the neighborhood that you remember.  Were they friendly?  Did everyone get along?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yeah.  Back in those days there weren't any lot lines so you didn't know when you were getting into your neighbor's yard because they didn't know what was their yard to begin with.  There weren't any leash laws.  Everybody could let their dogs out and let them run around.  You'd call for them and they'd come home to eat.  You didn't know what their parent's did for a living because they wouldn't tell anybody so you might be living next door to a VIP out at the plant but you didn't know it whenever they came home at night.  As I recall, as you go up New York Avenue you go past the school and then there's a rise and you come down on the other side.  On the top of that rise were some of the F houses that were allocated to people that were pretty much VIP's, as far as I was concerned.  But I didn't know it at the time.  I think one of those homes actually belonged to Colonel Nichols who was General Grove’s number one aide in Oak Ridge and I think he lived in one of those houses.  I think I was in his house but I didn't know who he was or what he did.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you recall your father talking about his job or what he might have done?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Sure.  His wasn't classified.  There were no secrets or anything like that.  His job was doing the billing and ordering of telephone poles and all of the stuff associated with the electronic system in Oak Ridge.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you have a telephone in your home?
MR. BLACKERBY:	We eventually did.  It's all on a party line.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Tell me about a party line.
MR. BLACKERBY:	All I know is that you could pick it up and hear the neighbors talking on it.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did your mother wash your clothes and hang them out on the clothesline?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yes, every house had a clothesline that came with the house.  Nobody had automatic washing machines.  Everybody had a ringer type washing machines and every cemesto house had a big laundry tub in the utility room.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Tell me about a ringer type washing machine.
MR. BLACKERBY:	A ringer type washing machine.  You had two parallel ringers, rolls, that are usually made out of rubber, lay right next to each other and you just feed the clothes through them whenever they are wet and you grind one of the rolls and it makes the other roller go and the water squishes back out.  Coming out on the other side are clothes ready to be hung on the line.  One of the jobs I had, I kid my mom about this -- you had to dip the water out of the washing machine by hand because it didn't have a hose on the bottom of it.  You just had to go in there and take a pot and empty out the washing.  I hated doing that but I knew that every time I did it there'd be a nickel in the bottom of that thing because my mom put it there.  I know, but she claimed she didn't.  Every now and then there'd be a dime in there that would fall out of somebody's pocket.  There would always be something in there.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Was the washing machine portable.  Did you move it up to the sink or was it attached to the floor?
MR. BLACKERBY:	No.  It was portable in that sense, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you feel safe where you were growing up in Oak Ridge?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Sure.  Everybody felt safe in Oak Ridge in those days because there was a fence all the way around it.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you have a personal ID badge?
MR. BLACKERBY:	You know, I missed that by a very short time.  I think I was 11 years old whenever they opened up the gates and you had to have a badge when you were 12.  I was really disappointed that I'd never got a badge.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you recall having visitors come and visit you and what you had to go through to see them?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Sure.  I can remember when my uncle, my Uncle Bill, was in the Navy and he came to Oak Ridge to visit us.  We didn't know what time he was going to arrive but we got a phone call.  He was at Elza Gate and he needed us to come down and sign forms for him and bring him in.  While he was down there, this was when the Army was still running Oak Ridge, he made the mistake of not showing a courtesy to some Army officer and they really were raking him over the coals because he didn't salute and say, "Sir" to a second lieutenant that was part of the Clinton Engineering Works.  I don't know why I remember that incident.  Other than that, we had to vouch for him and get his paper and a temporary badge and he came on in.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you remember the rationing stamps? Do you recall where your mother or father had to go to get those.
MR. BLACKERBY:	I surely don't remember that.  One of things I do remember though, there was a lot of mud in Oak Ridge.  There was a shack on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Tennessee Avenue.  It was one of the old Victory Huts, I think.  You could go down there and get all the grass seed that you wanted, free.  All you had to do was just throw it in your yard because they wanted everybody to fight back the mud.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Your sidewalks coming from the street was gravel?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	The street was still unpaved when you moved in?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Right and the sidewalk coming down New York Avenue was a boardwalk all along the way from the top till it hit Tennessee Avenue.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What about milk deliveries?  What do you remember about the milkman?
MR. BLACKERBY:	It was delivered to the house like you see in all of the old movies.  There was actually milk trucks coming around delivering the milk.  That's about all I remember.  It was Broadacres Dairy, though.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you recall any door-to-door salesman?
MR. BLACKERBY:	No.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What about rolling stores?  Did you ever hear of rolling stores on Oak Ridge?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Sure did.  We used to live next door to one when we lived on Newkirk Lane we lived next door to the Russell’s and the Russell’s owned a rolling store.  The whole family worked out of the back of the store and it was parked over there every day.  It was pretty neat.  When you ran out of bread -- we didn't have to wait for them to come to us we just went across next door and got it.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	This rolling store went around the neighborhood selling goods?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yeah, it was very neat.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What about liquor in Oak Ridge?  What do you remember about liquor in Oak Ridge?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Our family was a dry family pretty much at that time.  But I heard stories that people were smuggling it in in ingenious ways but we never got involved with that at the time.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you use the bus system very much, other than going to school?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Sure.  It was virtually free.  In the beginning it was free.  Then it went to a nickel ($0.05) for a ride.  If I wanted to go somewhere like Jefferson or Grove Center or somewhere that was out of the Pine Valley area you could hop on a bus.  I think it was the number four bus, or six, that went up New York Avenue.  You could get a transfer and get to anywhere in Oak Ridge that you want.  It wasn't a big deal.  You would have to change buses, maybe, at the Central bus terminal and then you may have had to go to Jefferson and change again to get somewhere but it was great.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Is there a particular point on New York Avenue you had to catch the bus?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yeah, it was all posted the places where you were supposed to stand to get the bus.  They were all fairly close.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you remember the fire alarm boxes on the power poles?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	And what were they for?
MR. BLACKERBY:	To call the Fire Department.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Describe how you did that.
MR. BLACKERBY:	It looks much like the standard fireboxes around here now.  You had a lever on it.  You pulled it down.  I don't remember if you pushed a button or just pulled the lever down and activated it but you could have a fire truck there in no time at all.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did the box send an alarm verbally?
MR. BLACKERBY:	I don't remember.  I don't know.  There wasn't a handset or anything like that in there.  It must have been electronically.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you remember, in 1945, when it was announced that they dropped the bomb on Japan.  Do you remember where you were and what you thought?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yes.  I was with my dad, I don't remember who else was with us, but we were at a softball game at the Midtown Ball Park.  The Midtown Shopping Center and the Midtown Ball Park are essentially where the current Civic Center and the Library are.  I was at a ballgame there when it was announced.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What was your reaction?
MR. BLACKERBY:	I don't really remember.  Everybody was excited but I don't remember anything in my mind that said, "Gee, that's what we were doing here."
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What was your age then?
MR. BLACKERBY:	In 1945 I would have been -- I was eight years old.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you recall what your parents had to say about the incident?
MR. BLACKERBY:	No, I don't.  One of the interesting things, my dad had said when he got briefed when he came to work they said, "You're going to be around some people that might speculate what's happening here and we would like to know who these people are because they're not supposed to do that.  You're not supposed to talk about anything that's going on here."  He had to file a monthly report about anybody that he'd been in contact with that said, "Gee, you know what they're doing out there?"  He said he never did turn anybody in because he never did hear anything about it.  Evidentially, about one in every six or seven people in the area had those kinds of instructions, to report anybody that was speculating on what was going on out here.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What did your family do for recreation?  Did they do anything while you were growing up?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Most of the time, when we went on vacation we went back up to Kentucky to see our grandparents because that was a pretty long way to be away from where you grew up.  We had always spent time going up there when I was small.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What about neighborhood friends and activities that you did in the neighborhood?
MR. BLACKERBY:	One of the things that we always did in the summertime was have the Kool-Aid stand.  They just popped up all over the neighborhood.  All the kids tried to make a nickel or two at the Kool-Aid stand.  One of the big activities that happened on the top of New York Avenue for several years in a row was the Soapbox Derby.  It went right in front of our house, by golly.  It would start at the top at Outer Drive and it went right to the hump where it goes back up would be the end of the run.  But there'd be people all over the place.  You had a Kool-Aid stand on the days that was there.  You could make a lot of change.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	You mentioned the house on East Newkirk.  What type of house was that?
MR. BLACKERBY:	That was a C house.  When my sister came along we qualified for a three bedroom.  My brother and I shared a bedroom in the B house but if you had three kids and not all of the same sex you could get a three-bedroom house, so we got a C house.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	When you were in the B house and you and your brother were in the bedroom, did you have bunk beds?  What were the beds like?
MR. BLACKERBY:	No, we had separate twin beds.  In that respect, a soon as they started shutting down dormitories -- our house was furnished with dormitory furniture after that because they were selling it off and my folks went down and just about furnished the whole house with top quality dormitory furniture.  That stuff is scarce right now but it was really good furniture.  That's what I had.  We had two dormitory beds, dormitory desks, and dormitory chairs in our bedroom.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Describe the C house.
MR. BLACKERBY:	It’s a three bedroom.  Same type of construction as a B house but it had an additional small bedroom, postage stamp size.  It was about 1,200 square feet.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Same type of heating?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	And this was close to Pine Valley School?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yes, right around the corner.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you recall when they opened the gates in March of 1949?
MR. BLACKERBY:	They opened up the gates right after I started being a paperboy for the Oak Ridger.  The Oak Ridger printed up a lot of programs for the opening of the gates.  All of their paperboys were selling programs for the opening of the gates so that's what I did on the day it opened.  I was selling the programs along the parade route.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you recall where you were?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Mostly, I was around Jackson Square.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Describe the crowds along the parade route.
MR. BLACKERBY:	It wasn't a unique crowd, as I recall.  Everybody was a little apprehensive about opening up the city anyway.  We thought everybody's going to be robbing your house and all kinds of thugs and crooks were going to come into Oak Ridge.  Most people were a little apprehensive.  We are going to have to start locking our houses and our cars.  Nobody ever locked the house.  Nobody ever locked their car.  There were a lot of people that were a little bit worried about that but I don't remember any of that setting the mood of the crowds.  These were mostly Hollywood types that were in the parade, movie stars and some politicians and bands.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you remember the cowboy Hollywood star, Rod Cameron?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Sure do.  I remember him almost falling off of his horse.  They said he was drunk when he got on it.  
MR. HUNNICUTT:	I've heard that.
MR. BLACKERBY:	You've heard that too.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	As you grew up and went to high school were you still living on East Newkirk?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Tell me about where the high school was located when you attended.
MR. BLACKERBY:	Where the high school is, at its current site, it had just been finished.  My freshman year was when that school was brand new in 1951.  That was a big deal.  I only spent two years in junior high because that's when they opened up the high school the first year they actually moved four grades up there: 9, 10, 11, and 12.  Ninth went out of junior high and into high school.  That was a big deal.  That was a big school and a big change going to that school.  Everything was brand new.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Tell me what you remember about the first day you attended.
MR. BLACKERBY:	I can't remember the first day I can just remember what a typical day might have been like.  Sometimes there was a problem getting from one end of the school to the other in time for a class.  They scheduled them every hour and gave something like, five minutes to get from one class to the other.  You had to stop at a locker and it's the first time you ever had a locker.  You had to grab some books and head to the other end.  Again, I was interested in taking industrial arts.  I was taking drafting courses on one end and I was taking math on the other end of it and music in the middle.  They never seemed to have the same classes in the same wing next to each other.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you ride the school bus or walk?
MR. BLACKERBY:	I walked there.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you recall what the hours of school were?
MR. BLACKERBY:	No.  If you were in the band you had to go at 8 o'clock because the band -- that was the only time that was set aside.  8:00-9:00 was the band and most kids got there at 9 o'clock because that was their first class.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Who was the band instructor?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Gil Scarborough.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	How was he different from Ms. Lyman?
MR. BLACKERBY:	He was a man.  Actually, being exposed to men teachers back in those days was a big deal because it was mostly women.  I had my first man teacher in eighth grade, Mr. Dew.  He made a big impression on me because he tended to trust kids to do what they're supposed to do more than teachers did before.  The younger teachers in the younger grades did a lot of babysitting but Mr. Dew -- he'd sort of say, "Here's what you're supposed to do.  I'm going to give you an hour to do it."  Then he would kind of sit and monitor things.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you feel that what you learned from Ms. Lyman really helped you when you went to the high school?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yep.  As of right now, I've been playing music almost 50 years and 90 percent of what I learned I learned in the two years I was with Ms. Lyman.  The rest of the time I played a lot.  I taught myself a lot but as far as learning it from somebody else Ms. Lyman was the one.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you play with other people, like a dance band or anything like that in high school?
MR. BLACKERBY:	My dad was in the municipal band, the city's municipal band, during the war.  It was active until about 1965, or something like that.  I started with him when I was in the sixth grade.  I went with him into the band and started playing the Community Band, at that time.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Where were they playing?
MR. BLACKERBY:	We'd play in the high school --we'd rehearse in the high school music room.  We'd play concerts in the auditorium.  The very first concert that the municipal band did was in July 4, 1944, in Jackson Square.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you remember who the band director was?
MR. BLACKERBY:	It was a gentleman by the name of DeBeers.  That's all I remember.  I've got a list of all of the former band directors at home.  In the early days they went through a lot of band directors because people were coming and going a lot.  The current version of the Community Band really got reenergized from Doc Combs who became the Community Band Director.  I've been playing with that for years.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What other classes that you attended in high school do you remember teacher wise, names?
MR. BLACKERBY:	I remember the drafting teacher.  I say I remember it and I have to recall it now.  It'll come back to me in a minute because I was thinking of him yesterday.  He had a big influence on me.  I took mechanical drafting and architectural drafting.  Every drafting course they offered at the thigh school I took as my electives.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you belong to any clubs during high school?
MR. BLACKERBY:	I belonged to the Bowling Club.  I bowled a little bit.  The Spanish Club one year, when I was taking Spanish.  The band kept me pretty busy, the Marching Band.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Where did you bowl when you were in the Bowling Club?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Grove Center.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What do you remember about the Grove Center Bowling Center?
MR. BLACKERBY:	I thought it was the biggest bowling alley I had ever seen.  It was 12 lanes.  One of the fellows on our team's dad actually ran the bowling alley down there.  We got some special privileges when we went over there to bowl.  He'd bowl with us.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you remember his name?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Sure, Jimmy Certain.  He became a professional bowler.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	When you got out of high school where did you go for your next schooling?  Did you attend college?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Oh yeah, I knew I wanted to study engineering so I visited Tennessee Tech. and UT.  I ended up going to UT and studying engineering under the co-op program.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Back up just a minute.  Did you do a lot of dating when you were in high school?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Not as much as I should have.  
MR. HUNNICUTT:	When you did, where did you go on your dates?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Usually just went to a movie.  That's about all there was to do, really.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Where you able to drive your family car?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yeah, when I was 16 I got to use it.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you ever have a car of your own?
MR. BLACKERBY:	No, not until I got out on my own, really.  Well, actually, when I was in high school there were three students that had cars.  Out of 1,400 students there were three student cars out there.  It's not like that today.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you remember the American Museum of Atomic Energy?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Sure.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you visit the museum?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Tell me what you remember and where was it located.
MR. BLACKERBY:	The one I remembered was in Jefferson Circle, I believe, in a former cafeteria.  I just remember going through and getting my radiated dime, like everyone else did, and seeing the Van de Graaff generator.  Pretty neat place.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did you happen to visit the museum on the first day of opening?
MR. BLACKERBY:	No.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	You got out of college at the University of Tennessee and then what did you do?
MR. BLACKERBY:	I co-oped, which meant I was spending --Tennessee was on the quarter system.  Every other quarter I would work and then the next quarter I would go to school.  You did that for the middle three years.  You went to freshman year and three years you co-oped and then your senior year you went straight through.  Every other quarter I was working in Y-12.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	You were still living in Oak Ridge?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yes.  Well, whenever I was working I lived in here.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	On East Newkirk?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yeah, until I got married.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	I'm going to talk about some places of interest and tell me what you remember about it.
MR. BLACKERBY:	Okay.  
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Oak Terrace Ballroom and Restaurant?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Sure, that was at Grove Center.  It was right above the bowling alley.  I remember eating there and I remember going to a few parties there.  Not a whole lot.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What about the Snow White Drive-In?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Been around it a thousand times in my buddy's car.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Where was it located?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Across the street from the Secret City Motors.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Tell me what you remember about it.
MR. BLACKERBY:	The greasiest hamburgers with the most onions you could get.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you recall what the inside looked like?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Typical diner.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Did they have curb service?
MR. BLACKERBY:	At times they did.  I don't think they had it all of the time.  It was a typical cruising site.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What about the Skyway Drive-In?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Sneak as many people as you could in the trunk of your car.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Where was it located?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Where was it located?  About where -- let's see.  What's out there now?  About where the Kroger's is right now.  Near that area.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	We mentioned the swimming pool.  Did you attend the swimming pool very much?
MR. BLACKERBY:	No.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	When you were growing up do you recall ever having to go to the hospital for any reason?
MR. BLACKERBY:	No.  I can't remember anything that I had to go the hospital for but I knew where it was.  It was right on my paper route.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What about if you were sick at home.  Do you recall doctors coming to the home for a home visit?
MR. BLACKERBY:	I don't recall them ever coming but they actually made home calls back in those days.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What about the dentist.  Did you visit the dentist’s office in town?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Not very often.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	You’ve graduated from the University of Tennessee and then...
MR. BLACKERBY:	Actually, I didn't graduate.  I went over there for four and a half years and it didn't happen.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	So where did your career go from there?
MR. BLACKERBY:	I went to work full time at Y-12.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	And your job was?
MR. BLACKERBY:	I was in the Engineering Division out there.  I worked in the Mechanical Engineering Department, the Numerical Control Engineering Department, and the System-Engineering Department.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Where did you meet your wife to be?
MR. BLACKERBY:	I met her in the Community Band in 1982.  We were both married to somebody else at that time.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	I see.  Where did you get married?
MR. BLACKERBY:	In the Unitarian Church.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	In Oak Ridge?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yeah.  That's the second marriage.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Where did you live?
MR. BLACKERBY:	We were living in the Garden Apartments for a couple of years.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	And they were located?
MR. BLACKERBY:	They're off the Turnpike.  I don't know what they call them now.  Back behind the Redwoods.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Describe what the Garden Apartment looked like.
MR. BLACKERBY:	These apartments were built at the same time the Woodland area was built, about 1950.  These particular ones, I think, were either three or four stories tall.  They had nice big apartments in them and virtually soundproof, for apartment buildings, and steam heat.  Very nice, I thought.  Plenty of grounds around so you weren't on top of your neighbor, except the ones in your building.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you have children?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yes, I have.  By my first marriage, I have three kids.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	And they're boys?  Girls?
MR. BLACKERBY:	My son, Mike, is a freelance writer and has articles in the [Knoxville] New Sentinel and the [Oak Ridge] Observer.  He used to be the sport's editor for the Oak Ridger for about 10 years.  I've got a daughter, Belinda, who works for the local credit union.  And another daughter, Paula, who is a nurse.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Looking back over your Oak Ridge school attendance, how do you rate the Oak Ridge school system?  Was it good, medium, great?
MR. BLACKERBY:	It was great.  In the early days, it was unquestionably the best school around.  I think there are some schools that are approaching Oak Ridge now as far as quality of education and opportunities.  But Oak Ridge is still, probably, the top one in the area in my book.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What do you like best about living in Oak Ridge?
MR. BLACKERBY:	It's got so many things that I like to do.  The musical opportunities are tremendous.  We've got a band.  I play in the Community Orchestra.  That alone can keep you busy.  You've got darn good services.  You’ve got the Police, the Fire Department; all of the city services are quite great.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you recall what the police cars looked like in the early days when you were growing up?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yeah, as I recall they were Plymouths; black and whites.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Is there anything that we hadn't talked about that you can remember you'd like to talk about?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Well, I can't think of anything right now.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Do you think the city has progressed over the years?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Has the city progressed?  Well, that's hard to say, really.  It's like taking two steps forward and one step backwards and then we make two forward and one back.  I think when your children get grown-up, the schools become less important.  To the community you know they are important but I just don't keep track of those kinds of things like I used to.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What do you and your wife do for fun activities now in Oak Ridge?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Music.  Music.  Music.  She plays the flute, by the way.  She's a very good flutist.  She was born in Canada, grew up in Florida, and came to Oak Ridge in the early '70s.  
MR. HUNNICUTT:	What does she think about Oak Ridge?
MR. BLACKERBY:	She likes it, thinks it's great.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Great place to live?
MR. BLACKERBY:	Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT:	Jack, it's been my pleasure to interview you and I believe your oral history will be a tribute to the history of Oak Ridge.  I thank you very much for your time.
MR. BLACKERBY:	Thank you for your great words.  I enjoyed it.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[Editor’s Note: Portions of this interview have been edited at Mr. Blackerby’s request. The corresponding audio and video portions have remained unchanged.]