Mary Wheeler
August 1, 1978
Interviewer: John Marshall

Courtesy of the Kentucky Oral History Commission,
Special Collection Archives, Kentucky Historical Society.

Ms. Wheeler:  When I first went to Hindman—of course I did collect there, that was one of the reasons I wanted to go—but I also taught in the school there.  And the first day that I was there, the principal told me not to sing those songs, let them sing them in school.

Interviewer:  Now what songs was he referring to?

Ms. Wheeler: The ballads . . . their own ballads.  The English ballads that the children sang, the people sang.  And he said now if the people coming down the road, walk by, hear the children singing, and they’ll think we’re not teaching them anything.  And he told me not to ever let them sing those songs in school and I didn’t.  He told me not to.