Interviewer: {D: That's better} 548: Okay Interviewer: {D: Let's see} {NS} You say that you were brought up out in the country 548: Uh-huh Yes sir Interviewer: Do you remember anything about the house that you were brought up in 548: Yes sir it was a big Florida house and Out in the {NS} Edge of the woods And um And we always worked on A new ground {NS} Interviewer: What does that mean new ground 548: {NW} indignant I don't guess you know what that is Interviewer: No ma'am 548: But it's just woods that's growed up you know and you go in there and clean out them bushes and trees and {NW} Haul the logs and pile the bricks and {NS} And burn them and {NW} Clean it off and ply it up and plant and Interviewer: And that's new ground 548: Uh-huh that's new ground And um Plant it And raise you a crop in there Interviewer: Uh-huh and did you say the new ground was the same as {D: dead end} 548: Uh-huh it's the same thing Interviewer: Mm-hmm 548: But uh In there is where we got Most of our wood Plowing up them roots you know {NS} When they get dry we go pick them up Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And burn them for wood Interviewer: That's what you used for heat 548: Uh-huh And to cook In the cook stove Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And That's the kind of Life that we lived when we was coming up Interviewer: Yes ma'am did uh did you use any particular kind of wood to burn in the fireplace 548: Huh We'd just go out in the field and pick up {NS} Uh them roots that was the already dry you know after you {NW} Plow them up they get dry Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: But when But They ain't no good until they get dry and then You burn Interviewer: Mm-hmm 548: And then Well there was three of us girls And um we didn't get to go to school none that's one thing hurting me Hurt us all Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And we had to work in that dead end all the time And we were brought up by our step father Boy he was rough on us Interviewer: Is that right 548: And So We was the one that had to do the work in the field And So we really had a hard time Interviewer: Yes ma'am he he made y'all work on raising the crops 548: Yes sir We plowed Whole On middle busters and everything else Interviewer: What's a middle buster 548: It's just a Type of plow Interviewer: Hmm what did it do 548: It takes a man to handle it But but Whenever we was put a hold to it we knowed to handle it Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: I don't know it's this A middle buster You go along and throw your rolls up when you leave a A middle about that big And then you come back for that middle buster a different kind of plow {NW} Just splits that place right half open Throws it out that way and leaves a big middle down through there Interviewer: I see when you do it the first the time it leaves a middle about a foot long 548: #1 Uh-huh # Interviewer: #2 Something like that # 548: And then you come back for that middle buster and Just cut Cut that little place about {NW} Half into and throw it each way and well that leaves a big middle down through there Interviewer: Yes ma'am what did y'all grow mostly 548: Cotton and corn Back in them days Interviewer: Yes ma'am how big a field did you have 548: Well sometime we had a Um Seventy-five maybe a hundred acres My step papa rented his land you know And he'd Rent just different {X} But anyhow sometimes he'd rent a Whole lot sometimes he wouldn't rent so much Interviewer: Yes ma'am did y'all just have to work all the time did you ever have the chance to play much 548: Uh-uh {NW} We had house work to do and field work to Us three girls did We didn't have enough time to play uh-uh We had to take care At least ten mules And Hogs And two cows {NS} And uh Uh Well {NS} Chickens and I can't Nothing else if I remember {NW} But We just Had to take care of all of them and Step daddy didn't have to do nothing Interviewer: Hmm I guess you got pretty tired at the end of the day 548: I mean Uh we'd all Pick our cotton And then we'd get ready to go Pick Out by the hundred And One place we we had to walk Five miles to work To pick cotton in them days Which you couldn't I couldn't do it now nobody else wouldn't But them days we walked five miles from standing there when daylight would come to go picking cotton Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And uh So we'd uh Way out by a match When we quit to go home Okay we walked home and the time we got home then And um And cooked supper and ate And Got into bed it was way late then And Oh I wasn't but about No more than seven or eight years old myself And but Um I was supposed to get up and wash dishes that morning My sisters cooked One milked the cow and one cooked and I washed dishes And I was about seven or eight years old Man I took that I couldn't take it One morning {NW} One morning they got me up to wash dishes When they got up to cook breakfast And I just could not hold my eyes open {NW} I crawled under the table under the couch and I mean under the bench and went to sleep And my sister went on to cook the breakfast she wouldn't wake me up They'd call breakfast and boy when my step daddy would come in I really got it I didn't crawl under that bench and go to sleep no more {NW} Interviewer: He didn't care for that huh 548: Uh-uh I'll tell you too though nowadays it's so much different than it was then Interviewer: We don't have to do as much hard work as you had to 548: Nobody I know of around here Me and my sisters We was just raised by a step papa and he didn't care Interviewer: Where was your place was it out um a ways from Greenville 548: No this was back up around road going through And uh So then my husband worked over at Chicago mill Interviewer: Worked where 548: Chicago mill over here Interviewer: What's that 548: Where they make crates to put Jeeps in and different thing It's right over here Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: On eleventh And um So he got Sick to where he couldn't work on a public job And so he said uh Well he said we can move out to the country and about With the children helping us you know why maybe we could make a living Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: So we moved down here way side {B} place And uh so we stayed down there about twelve years And uh So the biggest part of the time he was sick And me and the children we we'd hope For three dollars a day to give us something to eat Interviewer: Mm-hmm do you remember how old you were when you moved down there 548: Not how old I was uh-uh Interviewer: Were you a little girl 548: Oh no a matter of fact I had some Was Married and had children Interviewer: Oh oh I see 548: And um So uh I I was talking about my husband worked over here you know Interviewer: Oh I see yeah 548: And he got sick Interviewer: Mm-hmm 548: And we moved from there down to west side Interviewer: I see yeah 548: And uh I don't {NS} Don't remember much else Interviewer: Um when you were growing up out in the country did you ever go into town much 548: No We didn't know what it was to go to town Or get a Piece of candy and I got one pair of shoes In my life before I married Interviewer: Hmm 548: That's right One pair I'll never forget it Interviewer: Where did you get those 548: I was living in Ruleville then We was out on the farm And my Papa Step daddy thought you know we was going to start to church and that's how come he gave me a pair of shoes Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: Got us all a pair of shoes And uh So I I got to go to church one time And so he didn't go back to church We didn't either if he didn't go we didn't go Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: Oh no Interviewer: Do you remember how old you were when you got those shoes 548: Nine or ten I think And that was the first pair I know I ever had in my life Interviewer: So were were you uh were you born in around Ruleville that part of the country 548: Uh-uh I told you when I was talking to you I was born in uh Silver pines in the hills Interviewer: Silver pines 548: But I was took away from there when I was two years old I didn't know no more about it Nothing but Mississippi Ruleville and Drew well I say Mississippi if you know where it's at Interviewer: Ruleville 548: Uh-huh Interviewer: So y'all when you were about two y'all went to Ruleville 548: Mm-hmm And Drew and Moorhead Morgan City In fact So when Uh we lived way out in the country Out from {X} And I'll tell you man things got so hard out there we couldn't even get something to eat Well we wound up Um We moved to uh Greenville but the meanwhile it had been several days We hadn't had anything to eat but parts of corn Interviewer: Oh 548: And that wasn't that wasn't way back you know You know that was after I married {NW} After we got to Greenville we made we made it pretty good Interviewer: About how old were you when you moved here to Greenville 548: {NS} Oh I wasn't over Thirty something I I had one child Well I had three when I moved to Greenville Two of them was dead And So I had three children while I've been here I was about Thirty something Interviewer: Yes ma'am {X} I mean were they all boys or 548: Five boys and two girls Interviewer: So what happened to the ones that died 548: Well One of them we lived way back in the country And Way back in them days Seemed like a Well people didn't know nothing about no doctors didn't Really didn't care enough about no doctor Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And uh {NS} So If if you lived on a man's place you had to be dying before he would get you a doctor Interviewer: Oh 548: You know you didn't have no money now Not Not if you lived {NW} Out making a farm {X} Crop on somebody else's farm Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And uh So this here baby taking sick And we was picking cotton And its grandma was keeping it And she says I give this baby a piece of bread and um It was trying to eat it Left some blood on the bread Interviewer: Hmm 548: Said you ought to take it to take a doctor Well so we We couldn't carry it to no doctor really never Never thought really We just went on back to the field And um {NS} That evening sure enough it takes sick Interviewer: Hmm 548: Real sick Well our boss man carried it to the doctor And So he'd had done taken a lockjaw Interviewer: Oh 548: It was tonsillitis and uh lockjaw And uh So the other Who was born in twenty-six died in twenty-seven Of It it taken colitis And it died in twenty-seven you know during that overflow Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: So anyway I've got five living Interviewer: Do they live around here 548: I have two sons you know lives here in town Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And I have a daughter that lives in {X} Morgan City Louisiana And a daughter that lives in Dayton Texas And a S- And a son that lives in uh Dallas Texas Interviewer: Hmm do you ever get to see them do they ever come down here much 548: Uh-uh Not much {X} Interviewer: What do your sons do for a living 548: Well the one in Dallas Texas he's got a A car bike shop And he's the oldest boy Of mine He worked here at a plant now what plant I don't know But the baby boy he works on the boat on the river Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: Uh that's That's what my boys doing Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: Of course the girls they don't work Got a house full of young ones Interviewer: Right yeah right did did you ever uh have a job in something or were you a housewife most of your life 548: I was a housewife All but working in the field {NS} Interviewer: So everybody had to work in the field 548: {X} Everybody {NS} I'd go up to the field when they did After I married I'd go up to the field when they did And then I'd come to the house when they did And I didn't have time to cook you know But I'd just make me a skillet of Meal Thick and brown I don't know what you ever saw any or not Interviewer: What's that like 548: {NW} Well Interviewer: #1 You said it's # 548: #2 Yeah # Interviewer: Thick and brown 548: Yeah Interviewer: Tell me about that 548: You putting that on the record Interviewer: It's okay 548: {NW} Interviewer: Doesn't matter 548: {NW} Anyway I I'd come in I didn't have time to cook so anyway I'd uh Just put me on a skillet A little grease in it Brown me some meat on in that you're making bread I know you know that Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: Brown me some meal in there And uh When it got good and brown Um Pour me some water in there and it would be good and thick Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: Good and thick and cook me a pan of bread that's what we had Go up to the field when they did Interviewer: Is that uh you said that's called thickening {D: bread} 548: Uh-huh Interviewer: Did you ever make much uh bread made out of corn meal 548: Uh-huh Interviewer: How'd you make that 548: Well I'd always get the kind that's Already seasoned you know And uh So I just Put a little milk in it or water Stir it up and a little grease Put it in the stove and bake it And So That that's what we had to do Interviewer: Did you make that in a skillet too 548: Cornbread Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: Uh-uh I make it up in a bowl you know and then Get my skillet good and hot I generally sprinkle me a little meat all around the bottom of the skillet won't stick Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: If you brown that meal first And uh So then Pour it out of my bowl over in that hot skillet set in the stove Cook it Interviewer: Is that the same thing as corn pone 548: Mm-hmm Interviewer: Is that what you call it 548: It's the same thing Uh-huh Only I just Put mine in the skillet you know Just Quickest way to get it done Interviewer: Right {NW} Did they did they call it corn pone or a pone of corn or what 548: Uh-uh Cornbread's all I ever called it Interviewer: Just cornbread I see 548: {uh uh-huh Interviewer: Have you ever called of any kind of corn bread called a {D: hoecake} 548: Cooked a many of one Interviewer: {NW} Could you tell me how you did that and they look like 548: Well I just Stir my meal up in a Bowl you know my Like I was going to make corn bread But I get my skillet hot And I put just a little bit in that skillet Enough for Wasn't so thick you know {NW} And then when it cooked on that side I'd {NW} Stick my knife under the edge of it and stick And put my plate under That a way Then I'd turn my whole cake over this way Slip my plate under the bottom And then grease the skillet Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And then turn the whole cake over back in the skillet {NS} I cooked a many of them I love them too Interviewer: Yes ma'am did you put anything on them when you ate them 548: Eat it with you know just With greens or anything I was eating I generally put a right smart grease in mine make it taste good Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: My hoecakes {NW} Interviewer: Right did did people when they cooked greens ever cook a little cornbread along with them 548: Uh-huh Interviewer: What'd they do that for 548: Well they They just Cooked greens in the pot and they cooked the corn bread in the stove You know like I was telling you Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: Make it up and cook it in the stove I always do want cornbread bread with my greens Interviewer: Yes ma'am but you didn't cook the cornbread #1 In with the greens # 548: #2 With the greens # Uh-uh Interviewer: Didn't do that 548: Uh-uh {NS} I've heared of it but I ain't never done it Interviewer: Yes ma'am did you ever cook anything along with the greens 548: Uh-huh Interviewer: Did you ever 548: Piece of meat I love meat in greens That's all Interviewer: What kind of meat is that 548: Just old salt meat {NS} Plain old salt meat Baked but I don't like eating greens Interviewer: You don't 548: Uh-uh Interviewer: Why not 548: I don't know somehow it ain't got the same taste Interviewer: {NW} 548: Not to me Interviewer: Yes ma'am the salt meat gives it a better flavor 548: Uh-huh Interviewer: Have you ever made potlicker how'd you 548: What I call it Is uh what I call potlicker is just You know soup of uh Greens or for beans you know The soup {X} Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: Now that's what I call a potlicker Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: But I do love a tub of cornbread Interviewer: Right it's pretty good did you ever hear of people back in the old days making cornbread in the fireplace or cooking any kind of bread in the fireplace 548: Yeah I heard my Mother-in-law talking about that {NW} She had an old Big old skillet with eggs on it And a lid And uh She'd uh make her her bread up and put it in that big old skillet But she cooked it in the fireplace And she'd get her some coals you know and put on that Top of that skillet Shoot that cooked good bread Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: I saw her cook some after we was married {NW} She still had the skillet so she cooked some in the fireplace {D: that time too} Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: {X} Interviewer: And that thing had legs on it 548: Mm-hmm Interviewer: How many did it have 548: Oh it was a big old skillet And it was just about that deep Interviewer: About three or four inches 548: Yeah Just about that deep Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And uh So it had legs on it about that long Interviewer: About two inches 548: Three Interviewer: Three 548: I I mean three legs about that long And then a good heavy lid on it It just Better than cooking it in the oven didn't take near as long Interviewer: Hmm 548: And So I saw her cook bread and then One Several times Interviewer: Yes ma'am have you ever heard of a skillet like that called a spider 548: No Interviewer: It was just a skillet 548: Honestly I don't know what it was but I All I know was a skillet that's what she cooked in Interviewer: Looked like a skillet yes ma'am I see did you ever hear of any kind of uh cornbread these round things you know got onions in them 548: Muffins Interviewer: Right how'd you make those 548: Well now the truth I ain't ever made them Interviewer: Oh you haven't I see 548: I ain't really ever taken the time to do that I Make a skillet of bread and go on Don't want to have a skillet Interviewer: Yes ma'am when you make that is that uh pretty thick in the middle 548: Yeah used to be But now it'd just be one uh-uh But now if I cook a If I cook cornbread now I wrap it up in uh Uh this here cellophane paper you know Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And Put the nice box and eat off of it two or three days you say um Soup or potlicker or whatever you want to call it you know I warm up my stove And put it over my cornbread and it's just as good as it ever was Interviewer: Yes ma'am what kind of things do you like to eat 548: Well I I don't know too much about it {NS} Now for breakfast I like uh Sausage and eggs Grits And for lunch Um I ain't supposed to eat no dry beans nothing like that Interviewer: Why 548: High blood and And uh Hernia and First one thing and then the But I'm not supposed to Eat no dried beans so I I mostly make soup or Sometimes I Buy me Some Chicken that's already cooked or Or fry me a piece or two of chicken or Fry me some squashes or you know first one thing then the other might be Interviewer: Yes ma'am what other kind of vegetables besides squash do you like 548: Well I like tomatoes I like tomatoes and And uh Green butter beans I eat them I love them too Onions I like lots of onions {NS} Interviewer: My grandmother does too she likes to eat a slice of raw onion with her lunch 548: Yeah but I can't {NW} I've got teeth but I can't wear them Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: That They ain't never been fixed right Interviewer: But they don't fit 548: Uh-uh They don't fit Interviewer: Hmm 548: So Anyway I can't wear them But I was I was Thirty years old When all of my teeth was pulled Interviewer: Hmm 548: And I haven't had any teeth since Interviewer: Is that right 548: And I had me some made on Medicaid Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And on Medicaid uh In Texas They don't do that here But they will in Texas Interviewer: Hmm 548: You know In Texas They made me some but I couldn't wear them Interviewer: Hmm 548: Seems like they're too Deep you know My my gums don't even pinch it My gums Top of the gums around my teeth here Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: They just Cut along along that up there that's too deep {NS} Well Interviewer: So you like squash and onions and butter beans any other kind of beans you like 548: Well Yes I like pinto beans but they've got to be cooked you know Pour water on Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: Whenever they boil a little bit that water begins to turn black Interviewer: Mm-hmm 548: And then you drain it off And put a little butter in it Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And they won't hurt me I love them too Interviewer: Mm-hmm did you ever buy yourself a a a lot of beans or butter beans and have to sit down and you know 548: Pick pick the rocks out Interviewer: Right 548: {NW} Yes sir lots of them Interviewer: Mm-hmm 548: Lots of them Interviewer: You had to get them out of the pot you had to 548: Hmm Interviewer: Those butter beans you had to get them out of the pot 548: Oh oh yeah Shell beans Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: We called Yeah We had uh We had to shell out green beans Peas or whatever we'd get We had to shell them Interviewer: Does that does that take very long to shell them 548: Uh-uh No It don't take long {X} About uh Seven years ago I had taken sick And I already I'm making a mess out of that Interviewer: No this is okay go ahead what was the matter with you 548: Well I went to a Doctor Doctor Hurst and he didn't know what was the matter with me Well I was just Just like I was in a bed of ants Interviewer: Hmm 548: Oh I was just stinging all over And uh So I went to {NW} Uh {B} Skin specialist Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: He was supposed to know But no He didn't know what was the matter with me Okay He wound up sending me to the psychiatrist Interviewer: Oh 548: {NW} When I got there I didn't know where I was going Uh he just called this man made an appointment well I went on {NW} And I sat down and just looked him at so funny I know I did he looked funny to me And uh I said well what kind of doctor are you anyhow He said psychiatrist {NW} man That got me {NW} And uh Just think now that skin specialist done that Interviewer: Hmm 548: Okay Well I went to {B} And he told me it was black heads Interviewer: Uh-huh 548: And it was all over me then Interviewer: Hmm 548: And uh So Well I went to nearly every doctor the biggest part of it None of them didn't know what it was Interviewer: Hmm 548: So I went to one doctor he says Well you've got the itch Well I didn't have that either {NW} So okay I went to Texas to my daughters hoping I'd find a doctor could do something for me Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: Well I went out there To One of them big sure enough one of them big clinics you know Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And uh Where you send people from hundreds of miles in there you know Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: I went in there and they they didn't know They put me in the hospital twice {D: they never could tell} Well fine I'll just give up said well I'll just go back home So I come back to Greenville {NW} Went to doc {B} And man I was covered in skin cancers Interviewer: Oh 548: And that's what it was Interviewer: Hmm 548: And uh So I told him about uh This doctor {B} Sending me to the psychiatrist He just laughed And he looked at my arms he says I don't think a Psychi- Str- -trist will do that any good Interviewer: No {NW} 548: And he had to burn them off Interviewer: Ugh 548: Man he burned them off and burned them off One time he burnt thirty off across my shoulders back there Interviewer: Ew 548: I mean And my neck I was just like I was worse than I was {X} But now then I'm just about to get well Interviewer: Well that's good I'm glad to hear that 548: Finally found a doctor that knows what he's doing Interviewer: How long did they give you pain before you got it taken care of 548: Oh it was about Between six and seven years Interviewer: Oh 548: Man they just {D: light me up telling people I'm crazy} Interviewer: They hurt all the time 548: Just itches yeah Uh I don't know just go to itching you know and you go scratching and just itching {NW} And maybe Oh I'd uh I put everything on it rubbing alcohol and everything else made It just flattened down a little bit and then in a little bit it'd start again But I couldn't sleep at all at night Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: But I never got nothing done for me until I got back over here to doctor {B} And that's the one doctor I didn't go to before I left here I didn't go to him I went to the other skin specialist {B} Didn't work though Interviewer: Do you still go see him every now and then 548: Uh-huh Interviewer: Well I can't see any trace of that stuff on you 548: {NW} No Interviewer: Okay 548: There's some Hard not too long Interviewer: Oh yeah 548: Hard not to scratch too much Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And uh Little Little spots all All over me Interviewer: Oh yeah 548: And all I mean Bumps and bumps all all over me it was worse than they are out here Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And the doctor that was caused by me being out in the hot sun when I was young Interviewer: Is that right 548: That's what he said Interviewer: Well I'll be I'm glad you got that taken care of 548: Yes sir And I had a bunch of them taken off around my neck I know you can see them Interviewer: I see 548: Not fading Interviewer: Yes ma'am I know that must have been painful 548: {NW} Wasn't no sleep for me at night day or the night neither Interviewer: You were talking about uh raising cotton what uh could you tell me about what you did when you raised cotton 548: Well I I didn't know too much about what What they did way back then Back yonder or now Interviewer: Back yonder 548: Well I didn't do anything but break it up and Plow the ground good and then plant it Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And then hold it And plow But Nowadays they don't have to even hold it Nowadays they just Got some stuff they put in the dirt you know For the planting Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And then they don't They don't hoe it now Interviewer: I didn't know that 548: Uh-uh Interviewer: Sounds like an improvement 548: It is Them back yonder them days you couldn't keep it hoed to save your life It would just keep growing all the time The grass and weeds and vines {NW} But nowadays you don't even have to hoe it uh at all Interviewer: What kind of grass did you have trouble with huckleberries or something like that 548: Yes Back in them days you did but not now Because they They don't grow on that land nowadays you put that Stuff in that dirt you know before you plant it Huckleberries and everything Nothing don't come up in there no kind of Watergrass or nothing And they dropped the They dropped the cotton about this far apart The seed About that far apart Interviewer: About two or three feet 548: Mm-hmm And They'd just just come up just like that and dropped it you know and There ain't no weeds no grass You just go in there and plow And then when they get ready they go in there in one of these mechanical pickers and pick Interviewer: Yes ma'am do you ever have to chop cotton 548: Oh of course Many a day Interviewer: Tell me what you did what what you had to do when you chopped cotton 548: Well During that time I I was talking about making that gravy during that time is when it was chopping time Uh For three dollars a day To feed my family And I don't know you just {NW} Uh you cut the Them Them days they just Sold the cotton picked And you go through and chop that cotton You've got to hoe {X} Chop it out a hoe's width apart And Chop that cotton out and all that grass and weeds out from around the cotton And then somebody else comes along and plows Interviewer: Is that the same thing as thinning it thinning it thinning the cotton out 548: Yeah thin the cotton out yeah Interviewer: Is that the same thing as chopping it 548: Well No you Well it is the same thing because you just Thin the cotton and cut the grass and all at the same time that That's how I went in and chopped me two it don't make no difference Interviewer: Yes ma'am I see you were talking about an overflow uh that y'all had what was that exactly 548: Well that was in twenty-seven Um We lived down here near the Memphis City Then Interviewer: Down near where 548: Near Memphis City Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: That And uh So we had to leave home on account of Man water got Got way on up in our house We had to leave home And uh I went out to my Sister's She lived up in Drew Drew Mississippi Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And uh We went out down there to stay until the water went down And uh My brother in law told my husband says uh You just come on and help me in the field says if y'all need any doctor any medicine I'll get it Well my husband went on went to work For him And I already was sick had Typhoid fever or something Interviewer: Oh 548: And uh So I couldn't tend to my baby It was just crawling And it crawled over that floor and And just Nobody to tend to it and it just cried all the time not {NW} I couldn't even pick it up and put it on the bed much less something else And there was a lady Just married A young Girl And she comes down there and she says uh What about me taking the baby down to my house And says I'll clean it up and And I'll Feed it its dinner and give it its nap {X} And I'll bring it back I said okay So she carried the baby on down to her house And uh And so she fed the baby When Come {NW} She got it to sleep {NW} When the baby woke up I reckoned she thought She was doing the baby a favor She took it out to the dewberry vines Had dewberries man you've never seen {X} Dewberries And she picked them things and fed them to that baby and it had four teeth Interviewer: Oh 548: And he was swallowing them whole Interviewer: Hmm 548: And So That night he had taken colitis Interviewer: Hmm 548: And that's what killed the baby Interviewer: Oh 548: That brother in law of mine didn't ever get me a bottle of medicine A doctor or nothing Interviewer: Hmm were there any doctors around there 548: No You see we missed We went on out there but we had uh Just come on out of Town there Of sunflower With the rest of the people that come out of the water I would have had a doctor you see But I didn't Uh I went on to my sister's I would have not done it but I did Would have invited her to come on out with the rest of them I'd have had a doctor Interviewer: Yes ma'am kind of rough back then wasn't it 548: {NW} And just think Just Now How much the Interviewer: Hear people talk about the good old days they really don't know what they were talking about I guess weren't always so good 548: {X} Well We didn't know in them days it was so hard though We didn't know the difference We just thought it was normal we didn't know Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: But of course nowadays we know the difference Interviewer: How big of rooms were there in the house that you grew up in 548: {NS} Well I moved in so many houses I don't know Interviewer: What about the one that you lived did you live in one longer than the others when you were growing up 548: Yeah I believe uh I believe we lived at uh Drew longer than than we did anywhere else We lived on {B} Lane I I It was a big four room house uh Interviewer: Was it shotgun 548: Uh-uh Big four room house Shotgun's a three Three room house you know Interviewer: So 548: Straight through Interviewer: Oh I see what were the different rooms that you had in it 548: Well we had a A Kitchen Dining room And two bedrooms That's what we had Interviewer: So you say you moved around a pretty good bit when you were growing up 548: Seemed like uh I don't know nearly every year we had uh Go through that same thing of cleaning the Uh place to make a crop You know different places Interviewer: What uh what county are we in right now 548: {B} {X} Still in Mississippi is all I know Interviewer: Is this Washington County 548: This Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: It is I reckon Uh-huh Interviewer: Is that is that what they call it have you ever heard it called that before Washington ever heard it called that 548: I really don't know Interviewer: How old did you say you told me on the phone yesterday you were 548: Sixty-nine Interviewer: Do you go to a church around here 548: Uh-huh Little Pentecostal church down here on eighty-two Interviewer: Do you go pretty often 548: Yes sir I go every time somebody wants to come and get me Interviewer: Oh {NW} 548: I haven't got any way to go Interviewer: Oh I see 548: My children they don't go to church Any they wouldn't carry me You know they won't come and get me and carry me Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: They don't go Interviewer: But do you have a friend of yours who comes and takes you 548: {NW} No so when I get to go uh The preacher up there him or his wife the one that comes and gets me That's the only way I get to go Course they'll come when I call them Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: They'll always send somebody Interviewer: Have you always gone to a pentecostal church 548: Yeah When there's one you know close enough I can get to it {X} Interviewer: Do you enjoy going to church 548: Mm-hmm Sure do Interviewer: Did you do a lot of singing or 548: I try to Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 548: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: Right uh do very many people go there 548: Well no not not too many it's a new church And there ain't too many going out there now They They have a good time Interviewer: Yes ma'am do they get new members every now and then 548: Mm-hmm Interviewer: Is there anything that you have to do when you become a member of the church out there 548: Not down there That kind of That kind of Pentecostal down there Uh They don't go by no church books or nothing you know Because when you When you Baptize and get the holy ghost then that that's it They don't have a church book Because they say that church book's going to burn up anyway And So they just don't have no church books Interviewer: Is there anything that happens during the church service when somebody becomes a member or anything 548: No Uh Interviewer: They they don't go down in front or 548: Yeah they they go to the altar and pray yeah But sometime sometime they don't even go to the altar and pray they They get the holy ghost without going up you know In the audience they just Get the singing you know They get the holy ghost But they don't They don't keep no record or nothing uh-uh Interviewer: You were saying that you didn't get a chance to go to school very much when you were growing up do you remember going to school at all 548: Mm-hmm One little place I remember And we went to school on {B} Place {NW} Just Just a few days {B} Place Interviewer: And that was all you went to school just a few days 548: Uh-huh Never did even get out of the first grade Interviewer: What is the what is the first grade 548: Well You know you start in the primary And then the next the first three Interviewer: After the primary 548: Yes {NS} Interviewer: Was this when you were living around Rueville 548: Mm-hmm Interviewer: #1 Or Drew # 548: #2 Yeah # Interviewer: Around Rueville 548: Mm-hmm Yeah I had studied yeah that was it {NS} Interviewer: In the primary did they teach you how to read in the primary 548: Uh-huh Teach you to read They don't teach much though I know you You went through the primary yourself Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: It don't teach you much Interviewer: What were you supposed to learn as a first grader 548: Well mostly how to Interviewer: Arithmetic stuff like that 548: I don't think so Interviewer: Mm-hmm 548: {X} I don't remember Interviewer: Mm-hmm 548: Uh what kind of tables Did they work back Multiplication tables Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: Something like that Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And uh Read {NS} And Sort of Figure a little not much Interviewer: Did you have a a man or woman teacher 548: Woman Interviewer: Was it a a one room school house or 548: Yeah Just one little old Room sitting off {X} Interviewer: How many children were there during school do you remember 548: Well there was A good bunch of children there And you know them days what we carried for lunch Interviewer: What was that 548: {NW} We wouldn't eat with the rest of the children But some of them carried Just about what we did but we wouldn't eat With them {NS} We carried turnip greens and corn bread Or milk and bread or Just Whatever we could get that's what we had Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: When we got to go to school Uh Interviewer: Why wouldn't you eat with the rest of the kids 548: Didn't want them to see what we had {NW} What we had to eat Interviewer: Nothing wrong with that it's just regular food 548: Yeah I know it is But you know You didn't find very many eating that kind of food uh Interviewer: What would they eat 548: I don't know we'd be off in one place #1 And they'd be # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 548: At another Interviewer: Uh-huh I see 548: And Mister {D: Pebbles} His kids Grand kids They'd always go home and eat dinner Interviewer: Hmm 548: They always had good dinner Interviewer: This was the man who owned the place 548: Mm-hmm We was living with him Interviewer: I see have you ever been out of Mississippi 548: Yeah I've been Interviewer: Well you said you were in Texas 548: Mm-hmm I went to Texas that time Interviewer: And that was to visit uh your son 548: Uh-huh And daughter Interviewer: Have you ever been any place besides Texas 548: Uh-uh I was always scared to get out and travel by myself Interviewer: Is that right 548: Mm-hmm Hmm If I wasn't scared to I'd just I'd be gone half the time you know just go to my Sons and my daughters you know Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: On the bus Interviewer: Mm-hmm 548: But I don't know I'm just afraid I can't make it If I get on the bus Interviewer: Did you did you ever learn how to drive 548: Mm-mm Never learned how to drive none of that But when my husband died Uh we had bought a little old Volkswagen If I could uh drove If I could have drove it wouldn't have done me no good my children that are done away with it anyway They done away with my Volkswagen Interviewer: {D: Yeah} 548: {NS} So Me and my husband was baptized the same day {NS} Over here in the blue hole Do you know where it is Interviewer: No ma'am I just got in town the other #1 Day # 548: #2 That # That's the place that's over there that you think it ain't no got no bottom in it Interviewer: Is that right 548: That's right Interviewer: What it's just along the river 548: Uh-huh And uh So There's places in it that ain't got no bottom in it they tell me But we was baptized that day And my husband He He had come out of the water I don't know whether you believe in holiness or not But But he used He lived a hol- good holiness life Uh Ten years And uh so we just Got back you know and quit going to church and So Anyway when He went back though me and him was baptized again that day And So he died Right there where he was baptized at Interviewer: Hmm 548: And So That's been about Seven Seven or eight years ago So he died right there on the Banks Interviewer: Hmm what is that holiness you said he lived a good holiness life what does that mean exactly 548: Well {NW} I don't know Some folks Believes in uh Going to church you know and just sitting there you know not saying nothing Not get up and testify you knowing or nothing And you may be one of them I don't know But anyway Um A woman's got a soul to save the same as man has And I and I think it's right that a woman should get up You know and speak How she feels towards the lord you know During service and And uh Just Get up and And talk Just like she feels Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: But Now Baptist Methodist Well lots of churches you know they don't believe in that they believe in {NW} A woman sitting still not saying nothing But I still think a woman ought to have her say Because she She's got her soul to save too And uh So A holiness just You know they don't Go to Out they don't Drink they don't dip they don't smoke And They They just clean their life up completely You know and they just {NS} Live a clean life that's all I can tell you Interviewer: It's okay for a woman to testify and all that at the Pentecostal church 548: Mm-hmm Yes sir yeah And a woman gets up and preaches in a Pentecostal church #1 Too # Interviewer: #2 Is that right # 548: That's right Interviewer: I didn't know that 548: That's right Interviewer: Do you go up to where the preacher is or just stand up where you're sitting 548: Well When they give you a They give them all a chance to testify you can just stand where you're at and #1 Testify # Interviewer: #2 Oh I see # 548: You don't stand Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And testify But down here where I go it's a woman preacher Interviewer: Oh 548: It's a woman preacher and a man preacher Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: But But if you haven't ever been to one of them kind of churches I'd appreciate it that you'd go Interviewer: I went to one in Arkansas 548: You did Interviewer: The fellow I was talking to there they invited me to come 548: Uh-huh Interviewer: It was interesting 548: Well did you like it pretty good Interviewer: Uh it was I had never been to one like that before 548: It was just Sort of Odd but Interviewer: To me it was since I had never been #1 To a place like that before # 548: #2 Mm-hmm yeah # Well it's alright now because if if you live in that If you live the life you're going to live it clean Interviewer: Yes ma'am nothing wrong with that 548: No sir Interviewer: Uh have you ever been in any kind of uh club or anything like that any kind of uh well this six- sixty plus is that a club 548: Well I reckon it is But you don't join it you just Just the sixty plus like we go over there and eat dinner Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: And sit just the sixty plus They go there and eat Well they have uh Golden age Clubs Well Um Some some of them goes over there Did I ain't hear They don't now I don't think And they go over there you know and play dominoes and of course one thing and another over there But I ain't hear from that and I don't think they do that now Interviewer: Do you ever play any games in the sixty plus club or any #1 Things like that # 548: #2 Uh-uh # Interviewer: Do you ever go on any trips or anything do they 548: No Interviewer: Have that kind of thing 548: Yeah they do have that kind of thing but I don't know they ain't never got around to me {X} Interviewer: Hmm 548: So I don't know Yeah they go off on trips Interviewer: How far away is this sixty plus thing where you eat 548: It's not Hmm It's not far at all You just Go Down Broadway you know where them red lights is down there Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: On eighty-two you know Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: Well you go straight on across the road there And {X} Up a highway over yonder and turn that down it's just a Just a little piece down there Interviewer: I see 548: But But what I do here if uh Miss Pool over there you know they don't eat lunch over there they Interviewer: {X} 548: Uh-huh I imagine they will tomorrow Now for knowing I don't know but I imagine they will {NW} But it'd be mighty nice if you Walked in there She took a lot of older folks {X} Maybe they could tell you a lot more than I could Interviewer: Oh you're doing just fine I'm finding out just what I want to know from you 548: {NW} Interviewer: Was your uh your dad was a farmer then #1 I guess # 548: #2 Uh-huh # Interviewer: He was a farmer all of his life 548: Yeah mm-hmm Interviewer: Do you have do you think that he was uh he was brought up around uh seven times or around Rueville #1 Where you are now # 548: #2 Uh-uh # Interviewer: Do you know where he was from 548: I ought to know but I don't Interviewer: But you don't think it was around Rueville or that area 548: Uh-uh He he was born in the hill not around Silver Pines Interviewer: But you think he was a Mississippi man 548: Well Far as I know he was yeah Just say yeah that He was as far as I know Interviewer: But you say he was from the hill 548: I say he was born in the hill Interviewer: Born in the hill 548: Some part of hill Interviewer: And your mother I guess she helped out on the farm too 548: Mm-mm No sir Interviewer: Housewife 548: That's right Interviewer: Exactly how many uh children did your mother have 548: Well she didn't have but five Five by her first marriage I mean three by her first marriage And two by her last marriage Interviewer: I see oh that's right you say you had a step daddy how old were when your father died do you remember that 548: Two years old Interviewer: Just two uh was your mother do you think your mother was from the same part of the country your father was where she was born not sure about that did your do you think your your mother and father had a chance to go to school any 548: Mm-mm They didn't Interviewer: Didn't have a chance to go at all 548: Uh-uh Well they couldn't write Couldn't read and write Interviewer: I guess it was pretty hard back then to be able to go to school {X} 548: Or or either Well that's all all you could look forward to is farming Interviewer: Yes ma'am 548: Uh you know there was a few you know That could Do other things But {X} Folks uh didn't have much education all they could do was farm Interviewer: Yes ma'am yeah a lot of people I talked to said that you had so much work to do on the farm that uh just couldn't afford to go to school 548: Well that's the truth too That's the truth too And really You didn't have clothes to wear you went And really you were so far away from the school house you couldn't {NW} Probably couldn't walk that far so Interviewer: So that's a that was just a regular thing back then 548: Uh-huh Interviewer: The fact that people didn't go to school much just the way it was I guess 548: Yeah that's the way it was Interviewer: Did you ever did you ever know your grandparents did you ever see them 548: Well I I was small I remember seeing my grandfather Just seeing him and that's all Interviewer: Was that your on your father's side 548: Mm-hmm On my father's side Interviewer: Did you know anything at all about him 548: No Interviewer: Like where he was from or anything like that 548: No lord I didn't know Interviewer: {NW} 548: I was quite small Interviewer: Yes ma'am I guess he was a farmer too 548: Yeah mm-hmm Yeah he was a farmer Interviewer: Did you ever meet your grandmother 548: On my mother's side I did Interviewer: Did she live uh close to where you are on the farm 548: No Uh I I I really don't know where she Was born nothing like that Only thing I remember is uh She picked cotton with us children Interviewer: #1 Is that right # 548: #2 When we were # Little And that's all I remember about her Interviewer: She was probably a housewife though 548: That's all she ever was was a housewife Interviewer: And you don't know anything about her husband #1 Your granpda # 548: #2 Uh-uh # Interviewer: On your mother's side 548: He was dead already Before we Interviewer: Did you ever hear your mother talk about uh times when she was growing up 548: Not too much Interviewer: You say uh your husband died about seven years ago 548: Uh-huh Interviewer: How old was he when he died 548: He was about I don't know exactly but he was Seventy I'll say seventy-three {NS}