# Oral History Interview with

# 

# JOHN TAYLOR

Saturday, Sept. 25, 1999

At Skyland Conference Hall

66^th^ Reunion of the Shenandoah Chapter

of the

Civilian Conservation Corps

Interviewer: John Amberson

> Park volunteer in archives

Transcribed by: Gloria Updyke

Shenandoah National Park

Luray, VA

Original manuscript on deposit at

Shenandoah National Park Archives

# INDEX

[page]{.underline}

Army 3

Camp 10, Skyline Drive \[Pinnacles\] 1,3,4

Camp water supply 2

CCC

Finding out about 2

Gained from 4

Joining up 3

Charlottesville, VA 1,2

Coca-Cola 3

Covington 3,4

Father , auction overseer 3

Free time 4

Education programs 4

Great Depression 3

Luray, VA 1,4

North Guard, VA 1

Panorama 1

Tunnel, Mary's Rock, clearing ice 1

Skyline Drive 1,2,3

Springbox, building it 1

Supervision, army vs. park service 4

White Hollow, VA 2

World War II 3

# Transcription

JA: Mr. Taylor, would you state your name please, and your address?

JT: John W. Taylor, 5345 Martin's Creek Lane, North Guard, VA 22959

JA: And Mr. Taylor, have you read the gift release and oral history
release, have you read that?

JT: Yeah.

JA: And have you signed that?

JT: Yeah.

JA: Thank you so much. What dates were you in the CCC?

JT: I don't know exactly the date, but it was October '39, I uh, joined,
well I was inducted into the CC camp at Charlottesville, Virginia. And I
was brought up to Camp 10 on the Skyline Drive. I spent the winter of
'39 at Camp 10 on the Skyline Drive. I was helped, do you want to know
what I was doing?

JA: Yeah.

JT: Well, we went over the mountain next to Luray where a spring was,
and we dug down 18 feet and leveled it out where the water could run out
from the spring. And then we put a T in that was uh, 50-foot. And we
filled that T up with rocks. We took wheelbarrows and went up on the
side of the mountain and got rock and we brought 'em down and filled the
whole thing up, the T up with rock up until about 18 inches or something
like that, and then we put in gravel. And then uh, a little bit of dirt
over top of that, and that took up 'bout my whole 6 months that I spent
on the Drive.

JA: What was the project for? What was that...

JT: It was to put water into the park building down next to Luray.
\[Headquarters Administration Building\]

JA: I see. So you worked actually the Luray area there.

JT: Yeah, it was in the Luray area. We went off the mountain at
Panorama.

JA: Yes. Ok.

JT: And uh, while we was on the uh, we was 3 miles I reckon you'd call
it west or north of the uh Tunnel, Camp 10 was. And a bunch of the boys
would, out of our company would go down and dig ice and load it on
trucks out of that Tunnel, is where it would drip down. Every Monday
morning, that was one job that someone had to do. Now of course I was in
the crew that was building the spring.

JA: Right. Yes. But they brought the ice down, had to clear the Tunnel
in other words?

JT: Yes sir. Yes sir.

JA: Once a week?

JT: Once a week. I \[had it known\] how water would freeze up. And uh,
one time we went 3 weeks without any water, except we would melt snow to
take a bath, and shave, and uh, course I guess they trucked the water up
out for the kitchen, I don't remember now.

JA: It wasn't the easiest place to live in.

JT: It was rough up there in the wintertime.

JA: Well when you first enlisted in the CCC, did they sent you directly
to the park, or did they send you someplace for physical conditioning
first?

JT: Well I, the truck picked me up at Charlottesville and took me up to
a camp at White Hollow.

JA: Mm hmm.

JT: Which is a few miles west of Charlottesville.

JA: Ok.

JT: And we uh, we had a meal there, and I don't know what else we did
there, but I know we didn't stay there all day. They took us from there
on, brought us up on the mountain.

JA: On the mountain, right. Well when you first, when did you first hear
about the CCC?

JT: Well, I first heard about them when they was first started, because
uh, but uh, I really did, I wanted to travel and I was 17 years old. And
I think I had to put my age, I'm not sure but, anyhow I was 17 when I
first started thought about joinin', and did join. And I was wanting to
travel, but where I wound up at was up here on the Drive.

JA: Well, it was hard times in those early years.

JT: It was, I tell you, my father, back in those days sir, people called
them good times. You could get a Coca-Cola for a nickel. But you had to
work a half-hour to get that nickel, so uh, but then in, there's one
thing I say I'm proud to thank the Lord, that he let me live through the
Depression and World War II. I participated in World War II. I hit that
beach D-Day with Private Ryan. I mean,

JA: Is that right?

JT: Yeah.

JA: You were in the army?

JT: I was in the army, but uh,

JA: But your family, how about your family during those years when you
enlisted, what was your family doing?

JT: My father was uh, we was right fortunate. My father was an overseer
of a big auction. And he got 30 dollars uh, 60 dollars a month, where
the other people that worked got a dollar a day. And they worked from
7:30 in the morning 'til 5:30 every day. And uh, except Sunday, they
didn't work on Sunday.

JA: What made you decide come to the CCC, as opposed to work for your
father?

JT: Well, to tell you the truth, there was so many people that needed
jobs, I was in a family, my father had a job, and uh they wouldn't give
me a job working in the auction.

JA: You said your father was already employed?

JT: Yeah, my father was.

JA: So, you uh spent how long, 6 months was it in the CCC?

JT: I spent 6 months up here on the mountain. But then in the spring of
'40, they transferred a bunch of us boys out of Camp 10 to Covington,
and brought a bunch of boys from Covington up here on the mountain. And
what it was, they took all the Virginia boys out of Camp 10 and sent
them over there, and took all the Pennsylvania boys from over there and
brought them up here on the mountain. 'Cause,

JA: Give them a chance to work on the Drive I guess.

JT: Yeah.

JA: That's very good. You had, you say you had, you came down from Camp
10 every day down here to headquarters and worked there?

JT: Down to, next to Luray.

JA: Yes and then you went back in the evening. Did you have a lot of
free time in the evening to do things that you enjoyed doing?

JT: Well, yeah, well the only thing you could up here on the Drive was
to go sightseeing, I mean you walk through. I was born and raised in the
country, I's an old country boy and I love the country. And uh a bunch
of used to walk through the woods. But uh, we was up here in the
wintertime, so it was really cold and you didn't get out much.

JA: No. Did they have education programs for you to uh?

JT: Yeah, they had some, they had education. I had uh, workshop,
learning a trade. I've got uh, a lamp, 2 lamps that I've got at home now
that I made in the workshop over in Covington.

JA: Did you?

JT: Yeah.

JA: So do you think that your time in the CCC's was good times, did you
enjoy doing that?

JT: Yes sir. I enjoyed it.

JA: Did you think you learned something from it?

JT: Yeah, I learned, well I think what a lot of young men miss today is
what we got back in those days. Living together under, you know, we
didn't have any money, we uh, but we lived together and we got along and
I think that's what helped me in the army, that I learnt to, you know,
you couldn't run wild. You had to take orders and obey them.

JA: Right yes.

JT: 'Cause at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, we went under the army. And at
8 o'clock in the morning we were under the park service.

JA: The park service. So you had 2 different bosses in those days. Yes.
Well that's very interesting. And I think your experiences here working
at headquarters is one of the few, we don't have too many guys that talk
about the headquarters experiences and I appreciate you doing that for
us. Well, Mr. Taylor, thank you for time you've spent with me today,
I've learned a little bit more and I appreciate it.