- [Interviewer] All
right, Lehman, Lehman O. Where'd you grow up, where
are you from originally? Where were you born? - I'm from Hilton, Kentucky. - [Interviewer] That's
where you were born? - Yeah, I was born up there road, about a half a mile out here, I'll take you up there and show you. That house is 225 years old. That's where I was born, and the bed, the old bed is still up there that me and my sister was born in, there's two of us left. - [Interviewer] And you're how old? - I'm 90 years and 2 months. Going on 92.
- That's great. - 91 I mean.
- You look great. So, tell me about your childhood, you grew up with both your parents? - Yeah, yeah.
- How was your childhood? - When my father, I was five
year old when my dad died. - Oh, I'm sorry.
- Five years old, yeah. I do remember a time or two, him taking me to the store down here and buy me some candy, I've had. I missed him pretty bad, but my father was in the Spanish-American War and we got pictures of him up there. I'll take you all up there and show you this house where I was born, they got pictures of him up there. - [Interviewer] How did
you lose your father? - My father, back then they
didn't have much hospital, he died in the Red Bird Hospital, died with some kind of cancer, I don't know what killed him really. They didn't have much doctors then. But we had to take him to Red Bird, it's about from here to Red Bird, had to carry him on stretchers. And they was five men
carried him over there, he lived in the hospital over there about a week and died over there and they had to go and carry him back we didn't have no vehicles. Had to carry him back on stretchers and they buried him down here
at the Hilton post office down here about a mile. - [Interviewer] So tell me about how you grew up, did you have electricity? You didn't have water? You didn't have anything? - Well, I grew up, we
didn't have no bathroom in the house, we had a toilet, like that, just a regular toilet outside the house. And of course we didn't
have any water in the house, so we had that big well up there, after the interview, I'll take
you up there and show you. Had to draw water, had a rope and a pulley and it draw
the water out of the well, and back then, you raised most of the food that you eat in the summertime. And then we planned on
doing through winter, cabbage and potatoes,
and something like that. But no, I told you, you think before that I worked for my uncle up there, he worked me very, very hard for 25 cents from 6
o'clock to six at night. And one time, we took a load of timbers to a mine over there in Harlan, Kentucky. And I felt sure that he had kids, he draw a pension, he had money, but he wouldn't even
buy me a 10 cent hotdog and a nickel pop. I had to sit there and
they ate a big dinner, him and his son, and I had to sit there and just drink water. It was hard for me to believe that he wouldn't spend 15 cents, and I told him if he
would buy me a hotdog, and a small pop back
then was just a nickel. He said, you don't get paid 'til. He wouldn't do it, anyway. After that, we came back home, I told my mother about that, and she said, son I can't believe, that with him drawing a pension, that he wouldn't buy you a 10
cent hotdog and a nickel pop. But you know, I decided, I told mother, I decided I wanted to go for the Army, but anyway, she said son,
I have to tell them I'm 17, and you have to back it up
to a recruiting officer, and she said, I don't want you to go, but I didn't, I was told I
was about to go and try it, we didn't have any vehicle back then, we had to go down here and Ed Wilson, a cousin of mine, drove
a black brother in a bus, we got on that black brother's bus, and went to Harlan, she went with me, she decided she would do that. I got over there to
that recruiting officer, and I told him I was 17 years old. - [Interviewer] How old were you actually? - Huh?
- How old were you actually? - 13, I was 13, but you had to be 17 before you could get in
the United States Army. And that recruiting officer said, Mr. Wilson, you look very, very, young, he said, I don't believe
you are 17 years old. I said, yes my mother's out
there in the waiting room, and you go out there and
ask her how old I am. I just told her what
to tell him, you know? And she said, he asked her, and she said he's 17, and he said, well I'll tell you what, you go come here in the morning, Mr. Wilson. We had to ride the bus,
like I said before. And I'll have you a ticket made
to Camp Atterbury, Indiana. And you go up there
and have an examination to see if he qualifies for the Army. Well I went over the next
morning and called a bus, I had never been anywhere
out of the State of Kentucky. But anyway, I went to
Camp Atterbury, Indiana, and I started to train
when I went up there. I, when I got up there,
I didn't have much money, I had $25 or $30 was all the money I had. But anyway, I went
through a taxi cab outfit, and I didn't know where that place was. He drove me 100 miles and took about all the money that I had, and I went in there and to be examined, and I was examined and this
recruiting officer said to me that I didn't look like
I was 17, but anyway, he said we need men, you say you're 17, and your mother said you
was, I'll just pass you. And I tell you, they passed me and he sent me to Camp Atterbury, Indiana, like I said and I was examined and I was 10 pound underweight, but they passed me anyway, so I went from Camp Atterbury, Indiana to Fort Knox, Kentucky for basic training. I was in basic training in Ft. Knox for three months, and I came home on leave, and for 14 days, and they sent me to the South Pacific, 100 miles out of, I forget what
the name of that place was. And I was up there for two years. I stayed two years, I had lived so hard, I came back and got a job in the mines, and went to work. - [Interviewer] How many
years of school did you get? - Huh?
- How many years of school did you get?
- 8th grade. - 8th grade.
- Well, what is was, I started high school, but
anyway I went over there, and these young fellas, I
was about 18 or 20 years old, there was three of them. They got jealous over me over
a girl that went to school and they broke to door down
and come into the school and almost beat me to death. The principal was downstairs,
he happened to hear it, or they would've killed me. And but anyway, he got them off of me, and I left the next morning
from school over there at Red Bird, I didn't
go, I went to the Army. - [Interviewer] And then eventually, after the Army, and you
worked as a coal miner? - Yeah, I worked in the
coal mines then, yeah. - [Interviewer] And
growing up in Appalachia, what's would've been
the most difficult parts of living in Appalachia? - Well, I'll tell you what, back then we didn't have no juice, had to use the lamp light, and of course didn't have
no water in the house. And back when we was raised up, it was pretty, it was hard, I'll tell you, and no road then in here, the road ran up by this creek here. It was a long time before
they built the road up there. But our road came out this creek up there, where I was born and raised
at this house out here. But we didn't have no
road, didn't have much of, you walked everywhere you went. - [Interviewer] There were
go vehicles back then, there were no vehicles back then. - Nope, nope. - [Interviewer] How'd you get around? - We rode a mule. My dad had some fine team of mules and he'd worked them, and hauled them, and that's how he got around, he rode the mule. - [Interviewer] When you were a young man, did you have dreams of doing
something with your life? - When I was a young man,
I thought I might try to retire in the Army, I was young, I was 13 but I told them I was 17. But I stayed two years
and I decided I'd get out, and I got out and got a job. And then of course I've
been very tired a long time. - [Interviewer] Have you
ever considered leaving this part of the country? Moving somewhere else? - Well, you know, by golly, I got one sister left, she lives in Ohio, wanted me to come up there, but I've been born and raised here on this, they call this Big
Branch, this holler here. I will stay here. - [Interviewer] You're happy here. - Yeah, right. You've been here that many years, like I told you I'm 90
years old in about 2 months. Too old to leave now (laughs). - [Interviewer] What
are your best memories? - Huh? - [Interviewer] What
are you best memories? - Well I'll tell you what, back when I, best memories I ever had, up there where I was
born and raised up here at this old house, I
wanna take you up there and show you that before you leave, I'd like for you to see, 225 years old. I guess that's the best
memories I can think of here. - [Interviewer] I'd love to see it. - Yeah. What has been the most important
technological advancement that has happened in your life? - [Lehman] Well, automobile, back when, I didn't really have nothing, I rode a mule all the time, I didn't really have no vehicle
back when I was growing up. - [Interviewer] How would you
visit a doctor or a dentist? - [Lehman] Well, back then
I'll tell you one time we went. Me and my sister, there was two of us, we both got pneumonia. Mack Wilson down here at
the Memphis Holler, here. He had an old A Model car, and mother called him and he came up here at this old place up here, 225 years old. He came up there and
took us to the hospital over there in Harlan, Kentucky. We most stayed in there
for about seven, eight days with pneumonia, and got out. - [Interviewer] And what's
the most important lesson you've learned in your 90 years? - Well you know I just ain't
the old run of the bull, but I can see I'll do pretty good, to be 90 years and 2 months old. I can still drive and stuff. - [Interviewer] You mow the lawn still? - Yeah. I can drive pretty good. I'll tell you this one story here, you know, about six months ago, I was going to Harlan over there and I got stopped on Pine
Mountain, by the state police. He just joined, this was on a Friday. And he just joined, he caught me up there, and of course I had
insurance and everything and he asked me, he looked
at my driver's license, and he said, buddy, you too
old to drive, aren't you? - I said, buddy you can't
get anybody to drive you any time you want to. - He said, I want you to come in, that was on a Friday. He said, I want you to
come in Monday morning and give your driver's license up. And I said, buddy, you can't get anybody to drive you, you know. And he said I want you
to come in Monday morning to give your driver's license up. He says, do you have anybody that I could talk to, a
daughter or something? And I got a daughter that's a lawyer for the University of Kentucky, yeah. I give her my daughter's
number, I give him. But anyway, he called her, he said I got your dad
stopped here on Pine Mountain. And of course, he's got
insurance and everything, but I'm asking because
he's too old to drive. And she said to him, she said, let me tell you something or other. What have you got him stopped for? He said an inch on the yellow line. She told him, I could hear her, she said let me tell you
something or another, she said I'm a lawyer for
the University of Kentucky, my son's a lawyer, and my
husband is circuit judge. And she said, we'll be
there Monday morning at 9 o'clock, and we'll see, she said that's not even a fine. And of course he hung up, and he told me, you know, after
he got done talking to her, he said, I'll tell you what
I'm gonna do, Mr. Wilson, I'm gonna follow you to
the foot of Pine Mountain, and your daughter says
that's not even a fine, but I think it is. Well I said, I don't know
nothing, I don't know. And I said well you can follow me to the foot of Pine Mountain. And he followed me to the
foot of Pine Mountain, and he throw them blue
lights back on me again, and he came out there and said to me, he said Mr. Wilson, I'm sorry
I done you the way I done you. He said, you don't have to
come in and give your license, and that was the end of it. - [Interviewer] All right, Lehman, well thank you so much for talking with me and sharing your interesting story. - Yeah, buddy, thank
you for interviewing me, I appreciate that. - [Interviewer] Yeah,
you've had a great life. - Yeah.
- Good luck. - [Lehman] Good luck,
I appreciate that man, thank you.
- Thank you. - [Lehman] Thank you, thank you.
