William “Smitty” Smith - Self Taught (clip)
Interviewed by Danielle Dulken on January 15, 2023
William Smith: After I married, I decided to go into business for myself, and we did that and then we began to try to do that. I only did bricks. After then, I was approached on a job at the Carolina Inn by my boss and he asked if you could lay rocks, and I only had one answer and that was “yes.” So, from there I went and watched the old timers for one hour and I began to lay rocks after then. The only thing that I didn’t know, I didn’t know how to make the mortar. I would ask the older guys and they would say, “you make the mortar the same way you make it for the bricks and that didn’t work.”
Danielle Dulken: Yeah, they didn’t want any competition.
William Smith: Absolutely, and they told me that. They would tell me “You do the bricks and the blocks, and we will do the rocks” But nobody did step up and show me the ropes. I had to learn it on my own.
