Walter Duff, Sr.

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Interview of my Grandpa Walter Duff By Logan Duff

Let me introduce to you my 75 year old grandfather, Walter Duff. He was born in 1932 into a family of 8 boys and 4 girls. He was born and raised in a holler in Highsplint, Kentucky. For over 3 hours I listened to some amazing stories about how he lived. I will now share some of his stories with you about what life was like when he grew up.

Imagine going to school and only having 14 people in your whole grade! That's exactly how it was for my grandpa at Highsplint Elementary. Walt grew up near the coal mines in Kentucky. Families migrated in and out of the coal mining camps so there could be up to 18 people in his class. He told me his favorite subjects were math and science, just like me! They didn't offer anything in math over Algebra. He had a teacher who knew how much he wanted to learn harder math, so he worked with him after school on more advanced math. All of this math helped him with jobs later in life and got him out of the coal mines. That's what it was like for him as school.

There were12 kids in Walt's family. By the time he was 8, Walt already had 2 brothers that died. With no running water or electricity, there wasn't a lot of time for having fun or friends. When they did have fun they did normal stuff like we do today, hiking, swimming, fishing, 5 cent movies, baseball and kick the can. Most of his time was spent doing chores like milking cows, getting water, chopping wood, and tending the garden in the summers. His friends were family members. School friends lived too far away. He had interesting pets and hobbies. I don't know many people who had 6 dogs, a few cats, a mule and a bull! He also collected rattlesnake tails that he could sell for 25 cents each. This was a very hard life for Walt and his dream was to get out of there and not become a coal miner.

As Walt grew up and became a teenager, life was still hard but his friends made it a little easier. A guy named Bluegrass was his best friend throughout his school years at Evarts High School. His other best friend was Billie (Billie was a girl) who he later married and is now my grandma. When they listened to the radio (no TV's) they listened to songs like "Commin'Round the Mountain". Roy Achuff and Gene Autry were also popular singers at the time. A big night out for them would be taking the bus to the movies. That's exactly what Walt and Billie did on their first date. They didn't have to take the bus after Walt bought his first car, a 1939 Studebaker. He bought it when he was 18 years old for $50.00 (that's 200 rattlesnake tails!). The most fun he had was going on his senior class trip to Florida. They started raising money for the trip at the beginning of the school year so everyone could go. It was Walt that came up with the idea of renting buses and charging students $1.00 to ride to football and basketball away games. This was how they raised all the money they needed for the 96 people in his grad class. Mrs. Grant was his favorite teacher and helped the students raise the money needed for their trip. Walt made his own money by working as an usher in a theater. He got paid 45 cents an hour and after 2 months he got a nickel raise. That's what life was like for a teenager back then.

After graduating from High School, he had lots of jobs. His first real job was a machinist for the Big 4 Railroad in Indianapolis. Later he built engines for Crosley cars in Cincinnati. He also worked for Powell Valves doing machinery repairs. It was about this time in 1952 that he married Billie. Billie was 18 and Walt was 20. Shortly after they were married, Walt got a good job with General Electric that paid $3.00 an hour. After working all day, he also attended UC night school for two years. All this experience got him his final job at Procter and Gamble where he worked for 30 years as a machinist. That' how much he liked being a machinist.

Since Walt retired, he gets to do all the fun stuff he didn't have the time and money to do when he was younger. Walt and Billie spend their days bowling, golfing, fishing and enjoying their 3 children and grandchildren. After Walt beat throat cancer, they decided to start traveling also.

After spending all this time listening to my grandpa, I learned how smart he really was. I always knew he was smart. He can fix anything and he knows something about everything. But I didn't realize how smart he had to be to accomplish everything he did. His advice to me was to treat others as you would like to be treated. If I do this everything will fall into place. Prosperity and success will come. Since he is so smart, I guess I better listen to him.