Interviewer: I don't even need to plug it in it works fine on battery so that's fine um where did I leave my well darn I must have carried it back outside 678: Dean seventeen year old {D: Sheriff} and and and uh Joe lived in this house with us for a good while Interviewer: {D: Dean Shannon} sure did aw well Joe I told you that Joe was uh is my mother's minister #1 There # 678: #2 Mm-hmm # Interviewer: And Marshall she just really likes it there um okay now I'll just start off with uh just asking you some questions well sort of about you and okay let me get your full name 678: Henry {B} Interviewer: Alright 678: And I have a nickname of Bert Interviewer: Bert 678: Mm-hmm That's what I go by Interviewer: Okay is it B E R T or 678: B E Interviewer: B E okay and then even though I know your last name uh 678: {X} Interviewer: There are a lot of questions I know but I need to have on tape too you know even though of course I know where about you okay let me get your address here 678: {X} {B} Interviewer: Okay and {B} {B} And the county 678: Craighead Interviewer: And the state 678: Arkansas Zip code Seven two four one one Interviewer: Okay and where were you born 678: {D: Bradley} Arkansas Interviewer: And do you mind asking your age 678: Ask for anything you want Interviewer: #1 okay # 678: #2 to # Interviewer: Your age 678: Sixty-eight Interviewer: Sixty-eight 678: {X} Interviewer: You're pulling my leg 678: No Sixty-eight Interviewer: I'm not sure I believe 678: Give me time I'll make it Interviewer: I'm not sure that I believe you that you're sixty-eight I think that you're adding a few years in there 678: #1 No I'm sixty-eight # Interviewer: #2 {X} # I didn't think you when I saw you I didn't think you were the right one because I thought didn't think you were sixty yet and the person has to be at least fifty and I thought you could I thought uh okay your occupation 678: Well I'm retired from an Regular work but I am mayor Of uh city of Bay Interviewer: Okay and your church 678: Methodist Interviewer: Uh now before before you retired what were you doing what work did you do 678: I was in uh {NW} Furniture {NS} Finishing department Interviewer: Oh and that was uh and that company was the company you were talking about 678: {NS} I re- I worked twenty-eight years for the Singer company Interviewer: For the Singer Company yeah 678: And uh that's is uh Singer we maybe sh- should put it to Singer sewing Machine company and Then I went to Memphis And worked three years {NS} After I left Singer For the Davis company Interviewer: Now other than that three years in Memphis have you always lived here 678: No I lived uh Ten years in Truman {X} Nineteen forty-eight to nineteen fifty-eight Interviewer: {X} 678: But I headed uh {D industry} that I was up here every day same I want to move for convenience sake Interviewer: Uh-huh is Truman what county is Trumann in 678: Poinsett Interviewer: Oh yeah yeah 678: Town of about six thousand people Just six miles down the road here Interviewer: And that was from nineteen forty-eight to nineteen fifty-eight 678: Yeah Interviewer: Uh now where did you go to school 678: {X} {X} {NW} Bay Bay and Brown it was co- Consolidated school Bay Brown Interviewer: Bay Brown 678: Where it listed Interviewer: Okay and so uh the last grade that you completed was 678: Eighth Took some special work in the ninth that a teacher graciously gave me but I didn't get credits for it Fact I Decided to get married soon after that Interviewer: Oh you did 678: Age eighteen Interviewer: Well now that school was it a uh people came from all around 678: Not at that time we'd have said Bay Brown {NW} Later Later when they consolidated it was known as Bay Brown then they finally dropped the Brown Interviewer: Mm-hmm mm-hmm well were the classes very large like when you were 678: Oh yes Yes I first started at a school here in Bay Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And uh {NS} Quite crowded it was There'd be as many as thirty or forty Kids to the class Interviewer: Oh 678: And uh And when I moved out to Brown my dad bought a farm out there and We only had two rooms {NW} So we had the eight grades in in the two rooms Interviewer: In the two rooms 678: In the two rooms Interviewer: Oh 678: And possibly Oh there was at least a hundred attended the school At least that many you know through the eight grades Interviewer: Mm-hmm mm-hmm 678: Quite crowded Interviewer: Mm-hmm and so they would have just they'd have all those grades and just in two rooms 678: Two rooms they had a division in the {NS} The building and they they what was called a primary teacher she had the first four grades and the Professor had the next four Interviewer: Oh and that's the you had the one you called a primary teacher and then the one called the the professor 678: Yeah Interviewer: Oh I never heard that that's really interesting that that distinction there um now have you have you traveled much 678: Well not a great deal I {NW} Uh Since retiring I've I've traveled uh Quite a bit Around northeast Arkansas Interviewer: Okay 678: With the insurance company Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: But most of my traveling was with the baseball club as a A guest of the Interviewer: Oh 678: Baseball club Interviewer: Oh where all did you go that way 678: I went to uh Los Angeles Cincinnati Interviewer: Oh 678: Chicago Pittsburgh Interviewer: Hmm 678: And uh Uh Saint Louis of course That's where Wally played Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: To begin with Interviewer: To begin with oh he started off with the cardinals then he went to the dodgers 678: And he attended college down at Texas A and M and I was down there a considerable And I've had relatives in uh Uh what was four is it Carolinas and uh Interviewer: Oh you have you've been 678: Uh-huh Over in the far east Interviewer: That far east 678: I've been uh Well through the southeastern states all except Florida Interviewer: Oh you've been through 678: Mm-hmm Interviewer: All the diff- 678: Yeah and I've been to Well Quite extensively in Texas and Louisiana Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And uh Oklahoma had relatives in Oklahoma {NW} Have relatives in Northwest Missouri that's I'm going to a reunion up there next Saturday Interviewer: Oh that's right yeah uh-huh that's what you said 678: And uh Then uh {NW} Been to I've been to Chicago on business uh {NS} ventures for the Singer company too Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And South Bend Indiana So I've gone around a little bit Interviewer: Yeah you have and I so you've been through what you said the southeastern states what are the states you consider the southeastern states 678: Well the southeastern states Is uh {NS} Louisiana Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Mississippi Alabama Georgia And Florida Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Uh that's considered the southeastern Interviewer: #1 And you've said # 678: #2 States and # Interviewer: #1 You've been to all those except # 678: #2 Yeah # Except Florida Interviewer: #1 What is # 678: #2 My # Son has a baseball school down there but I just don't ever get down there I'm going this Interviewer: #1 Really # 678: #2 This # New Year's #1 I'm going down there # Interviewer: #2 Oh # What about do you think of Tennessee and Kentucky as southeastern states 678: No uh well I break them down as in football conferences Interviewer: I see 678: And uh Tennessee is uh Yes Tennessee is is in the southeastern #1 Conference so # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: We'll add that Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: I've been o- practically all over Tennessee my first wife had uh relatives All over west and middle Tennessee And uh And I've been in Kentucky and Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: At the Churchill Downs at uh Interviewer: Oh at uh 678: {D: Braced races} Interviewer: What city is that in 678: Louisville Interviewer: Oh yeah the yeah yeah oh you have been around 678: Yeah and most of it Paid for {D: decided to go along} Interviewer: Yeah what so when you when you were um that track when you got to go on the baseball team you were their guest 678: That's right Interviewer: {X} 678: Had my Hotels paid for my lunches paid for Everything Couldn't beat it Interviewer: That's a great deal 678: Best ticket in the park you know Interviewer: #1 Oh really # 678: #2 Yeah # I'd sit right up in one of the box seats Interviewer: Oh that's great mm that's great well now um when you were living in Truman now were you working for the Singer company #1 Then # 678: #2 Mm-hmm # Yes Interviewer: And uh you were living in Truman for convenience sake #1 {X} # 678: #2 That's right # I moved there the Singer company Used to be what we call a mill town and they owned all the houses Interviewer: Oh 678: And uh we'd rent them Real cheap So they decided they would sell the houses Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And uh They offered them to the employees Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And the reason I say convenience is why it was pretty convenient to buy a house Five room house for fourteen hundred dollars Interviewer: Oh that's 678: #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 very # 678: #1 And uh # Interviewer: #2 convenient aright # 678: {NW} And then sell it later for about seven thousand {NW} Interviewer: Oh that's pretty #1 convenient Mr. Moon # 678: #2 So that was that's # That's rather convenient I thought Interviewer: I think so too 678: We we had the limit of five years Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: So we had it fixed up pretty good and We liked the people down there and Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And we just stayed another five year and then my Dad and mother passed away and I came back and built a new home In Bay over on another street over here At their old home place Interviewer: Oh oh at their old home place 678: Their old home place Interviewer: Oh 678: I lost my wife and I {NW} I didn't want to stay there anymore so I Sold it That's when I got to Messing around with insurance Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: #1 That was # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm # 678: Between my hitch with Singer and between my hitch with Memphis Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Didn't really know what I wanted to do Interviewer: Mm-hmm That's when I did most of the traveling with the ball club 678: #1 Because I was # Interviewer: #2 Oh # 678: Sort of unsettled #1 And # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: Torn up and Once I settled down and decided to marry again why I wasn't didn't think I was old enough to retire and so Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Friend of mine asked me to come over and run a finishing department for him in Memphis Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: So I did that until I hit sixty-five and Called it quits Interviewer: I promise you I would never have believed you could be sixty-eight years old 678: Well I feel Interviewer: I thought you were about fifty-eight 678: #1 I feel uh I feel good # Interviewer: #2 Honestly when you came before I thought you were the wrong # One 678: You know for get a little arthritis that bothers me once in a while but a lot of young people have that so Interviewer: #1 Yeah yes do you see this copper bracelet # 678: #2 {NW} # Uh-huh Interviewer: That's what it's 678: {NW} Well that's Interviewer: I have it 678: That'll give you problems Interviewer: You have such pretty eyes you have beautiful eyes 678: Well thank you But I I guess I'm fortunate I I can go fishing and Just outdo anyone I go with young or old So I feel pretty good Interviewer: Well that's great well um let me ask you about your parents about where they were born where was your mother born 678: My mother was born in uh {NS} Lowry City Missouri That's L O W R Y Lowry City Missouri Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Need to know the date of birth Interviewer: Mm-hmm that's yeah 678: Eighteen seventy-two Interviewer: Okay how about your father where was he 678: He was born in Johnson City Tennessee Interviewer: Oh 678: But he went to His mother moved to Lowry City Missouri when he was just a infant Interviewer: Oh I was gonna ask 678: {NW} #1 He was born eighteen # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 678: Sixty-five Interviewer: #1 Oh eighteen sixty-five # 678: #2 Mm-hmm # Interviewer: So then then he they both grew up in Lowry City 678: Mm-hmm Interviewer: Well how how did they come to be living here 678: {NW} Well that's quite a story if you want it Interviewer: Oh yeah I'd love to hear that 678: Well they First I'll give you a little history on my Father When he was a teenager He had what the old-timers called consumption Little later got down tuberculosis {NW} So his daddy his grand-daddy was a wealthy Rancher up there in Northwest Missouri Interviewer: Oh 678: And he just bought a large herd of horses And sent my dad and another man up through the Montana and all the Indian territories Trading horses And just working their way west to see if the Air would uh Cure my My dad #1 That's what they # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm # 678: Used to think you know {NW} He made all those rounds {NW} Took him about I believe he told me twenty-one months to make the tour A man that he went with did die with Tuberculosis In Springfield #1 Missouri # Interviewer: #2 Oh # 678: On their way back #1 And my dad # Interviewer: #2 Oh # 678: Gained weight Gained weight and grew up to be a strong man and didn't have anything wrong with him except the asthma Interviewer: Really 678: So we got married They my dad and mom married in uh Eighteen ninety Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And uh {NW} He came down to this country to To be a tie inspector for his grandfather His grandfather Had what he called the old sage time lumber company Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: And had holdings from Springfield to Memphis just a just a timber rights So my dad came down to Inspect cross ties And he found so much good hunting and fishing And fertile Land That uh He went back and talked my mom into the notion of moving down here So they traveled overland in eighteen and Late Eighteen and ninety-seven And drove twenty-two days from Lowry City Missouri to To Bay And there was only about a hundred acres cleared up here at the time Interviewer: Oh you don't mean 678: All timber All timber Interviewer: You mean there was only about a 678: {NW} About a hundred acres right right in this #1 Vicinity there was farms # Interviewer: #2 Eighteen ninety-seven # 678: Scattered out you know out Around Lunsford and those places but right here in this vicinity Only about a hundred acres of cleared land So he settled down here Worked in timber Uh Most of his life uh and farmed too Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And uh Did quite well grew his family up here in Good style Made a made a comfortable living and Owned the third automobile that was bought in this town Interviewer: Oh really 678: Mm-hmm model T Interviewer: {NW} 678: #1 Nineteen # Interviewer: #2 Oh # 678: Nineteen fifteen When he bought his first automobile Interviewer: Hmm 678: So that's about up to date on my dad and mama they remained here until They died Interviewer: Uh-huh so eighteen they came here then 678: #1 Eighteen ninety-seven # Interviewer: #2 Eighteen ninety-seven # 678: Mm-hmm Interviewer: Well um uh now they both went to school up in Missouri 678: Up in Missouri Interviewer: Do you know how far they went in school 678: Yes my dad went through third grade and my mom went through fourth Interviewer: Uh 678: My dad's one of the smartest men I ever Ever talked to Great memory #1 Course # Interviewer: #2 Oh re- # 678: He He pursued his education through books and newspapers #1 And anything he could # Interviewer: #2 Yeah uh-huh # 678: Get to improve his education Interviewer: Well now he farmed and worked in timber #1 then and what did # 678: #2 That's right # Interviewer: Your mother do she 678: Just a housewife Interviewer: Uh-huh and now where were your mother's parents from do you know where they came 678: Lowry City Interviewer: #1 They were from Lowry City # 678: #2 Mm-hmm # Interviewer: And how about your father's grand your father's 678: My father's Uh {NW} Grandparents on his mother's side Originated And are still at Lowry City Missouri Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: But His mother married And uh Her husband Uh Well he was ci- he While he was in the civil war she went over to Johnson City Interviewer: Oh 678: He got wounded She went to Johnson City and that's Why I'm I say my dad was born in Johnson City #1 Tennessee # Interviewer: #2 I see # 678: My grandmother went to Johnson City to Help nurse my Grandfather back to health And while there why My dad was born Interviewer: {X} Um is where's Mrs. Moon from 678: My present #1 Wife # Interviewer: #2 Yeah well # Yeah first 678: #1 Well the first # Interviewer: #2 First and # 678: Mrs. Moon was from West Tennessee Around uh Dyersburg Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Actually it was uh uh Friendship was the name of #1 the town # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: Friendship But Dyersburg is county seat Interviewer: Mm-hmm yeah uh and what about this Mrs. Moon 678: She's from uh Bona Interviewer: Bona {X} Now um in thinking about Bay as you've uh seen Bay over the years how would you say Bay has changed like from when you were a little boy growing up here and everything and uh how has it grown a lot does it how about the industry has it changed 678: Um {NW} Never Interviewer: And when you were little about what size was Bay 678: Bay was We always Claimed we had five hundred population Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: It stayed that way for years and years and years One to die one would be born Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: It's just the The Whole part of Bay here with a little bit across the track Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: {NW} And uh {NW} It went Through A transition from uh All after World War One We had uh sort of a Semi-depression And we begin to lose Businesses Interviewer: Oh 678: And uh then during the depression uh Everything closed except Uh the ones that could Barely barely make it Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: From that point we've never had as many stores as uh we used to have When I was a kid This town was incorporated in nineteen thirteen Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And uh we had the old wooden stores I can think off-hand of twelve or fourteen What we called pretty nice stores then Interviewer: Mm-hmm oh that many 678: We had one large Real large Brick building with a masonic hole up Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Upstairs We had a nice Brick building uh the bank was housed in And then uh up Long about Sixteen seventeen somewhere along there there was another big brick store built This town was ravaged by far four different times Just #1 Almost # Interviewer: #2 Oh # 678: Completely Wiped out from about nineteen and eighteen until about nineteen and thirty-two or three somewhere along there Four or five stores at a time would burn Interviewer: Oh 678: And uh I'd say that uh That's about the extent of the change until the Big farming tractors and everything is Trucks Bull automobiles Course transportation has uh Cut out the need for a lot of stores you can go to the other towns In five or ten #1 Minutes you know # Interviewer: #2 Oh # Yeah 678: #1 Jonesboro for instance # Interviewer: #2 Jonesboro # {X} 678: City limit's seven miles away and the heart of the city only eleven miles and Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: So automobiles Was one reason we didn't have any more stores built back Because you could go there and get What you wanted {NW} Probably cheap or cheaper And uh People just like to go to town anyhow you know Am I talking loud enough Interviewer: Oh yes mm-hmm it's fine it's great uh yes it's picking it up uh so most most of what this is mostly farming country around here 678: Yes Interviewer: Well what where are the uh main crops around here 678: Right now {NW} It's a Soy beans And cotton #1 Is the # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm # 678: Main crop Now they grow they grow uh {NW} Well there's some Feed growing around here I don't even know the name of it Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Being not being a farmer but Their principal crops {NW} Soy beans and cotton Right now And rice we get rye crowded Pretty close to the rice country we have rice Well about Four miles up the road here Interviewer: Oh 678: So You might say we have three Major crops here Interviewer: Uh can you remember the house that you lived in when you were a boy 678: Yes Interviewer: You remember much about it uh could you kind of draw me not a not the way the house looked but kind of a sketch of the rooms and show me the rooms what 678: I can I can #1 I can sketch you # Interviewer: #2 What the rooms were # 678: The one I lived in a four year old #1 Almost died there with a # Interviewer: #2 Okay # 678: Fever Interviewer: You did 678: Uh I tell you what {NW} {NS} I do if you want to I'll I'll give you Loan you a Copy of this that I have written up #1 For you to # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm # 678: Take with you and Stud uh read Interviewer: #1 Okay # 678: #2 You can # You can return it to me Interviewer: Alright I'll give it back to I'll read it 678: And uh Interviewer: Uh overnight I'll give it back to you tomorrow 678: Yeah #1 And uh # Interviewer: #2 {D: Right back} # 678: {NS} This is {NS} one of the last ones that uh Page twenty-four can be inserted in there somewhere this I think this is in order here Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And this will tell you Course some of this stuff won't interest you but it it did me and uh Interviewer: Oh this is great yeah I will uh and I'll give this I'll bring this back tomorrow when I #1 Come back tomorrow okay # 678: #2 That'd be fine # I'm gonna make copies for My relatives Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: But the house I was born in was on uh Well the highway wasn't there then neither highway we didn't even have a #1 Highway of course # Interviewer: #2 Oh you didn't even have a highway # 678: I would say the On the railroad or just a Just a house Interviewer: Just the house 678: Just a house Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Okay {X} #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm that's what I want # 678: This was the one room here He used to build what I call block houses to block them out Interviewer: Block them out 678: And back here we had Three rooms Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Why they didn't come on out here I don't know but this is a room Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: This is a room And this is a this was the Living room Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: We called them parlors back in those days Interviewer: Oh yeah you called those parlors 678: Can you read it Interviewer: Mm-hmm yeah 678: {NW} And uh This was the this was uh Kitchen and dining room Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Altogether #1 There and # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm # 678: These is bedrooms Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And we had an old cellar set right out here a wooden cellar Interviewer: Oh 678: And this of course had the Usual porch Interviewer: Oh it did 678: Oh yeah all porch And there was a porch here and back about Right here And about uh {NS} A quarter of a mile out here There's woods Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And I remember seeing a man named {B} Drive oxes Interviewer: {NS} You don't mean 678: #1 That's right # Interviewer: #2 it # 678: Driving ox we called him Jim {B} The ox driver Interviewer: You don't mean it 678: Where the old station is across town Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: Well that's about where he the woods begin and I can hear those old oxen {D: bellowing} {D: In the evening one day to} Smell the water Interviewer: #1 You don't mean it # 678: #2 {NW} # And I'd Stand out to watch them Come in when I was four year old Interviewer: #1 Good grief # 678: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: I can't believe that well did 678: I lived in a great period of time Interviewer: #1 You have you've seen # 678: #2 Really I I've # Interviewer: #1 You've seen all the # 678: #2 I've told someone that I lived from the # The day of the oxen until the day that they went to the moon And I don't believe you can beat that Interviewer: #1 I don't think you can either # 678: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: I can't believe you've seen with the oxen #1 I didn't know # 678: #2 That's right # Interviewer: That they uh were still doing that 678: Why my brother and I have even worked them You know just Interviewer: Have you 678: Just for the fun of it #1 We'd # Interviewer: #2 Did # 678: Makes us yokes #1 You know and # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: Get those bull calves and {NW} Hook them up Interviewer: What did they did they um did they have to use whips on them how did they 678: Oh yeah they {NW} They used whips {NW} What Interviewer: What could #1 Type of # 678: #2 They take the # Old oxens did you ever see an ox yoke Interviewer: I've seen pictures 678: Well they There's a big old wooden thing Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: That Hollowed out and fit across their neck and then they had a loop where you The U to hang it Come down and under their neck Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And uh there was holes in this thing come across their neck and {NW} And and it the U had holes in it and you could Lift it up or down to fit any size Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Ox And uh Put pegs in there to hold it And then there's just a Cord or a rope or chain whatever they use around in between them Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: {NW} Hooked on that old yoke It looks like really it was a brutal way to Do but that's the only way they could do them Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: But they didn't get sores or anything Interviewer: They didn't 678: And they'd work as many as eight you know two to Tea- Team would be Four teams eight oxens Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And they'd have a whip that'd reach The the front one I've seen them hop that thing it just sands the hair on them Interviewer: They have a whip that long 678: Yeah Yeah That and them guys use that whip just Har- hardest Interviewer: That is really something well they were uh they used them for plowing and everything 678: Oh yeah they plowed now I did I didn't see anyone plow with them around #1 Here # Interviewer: #2 Yeah # 678: But they these were hauling Logs and #1 Hardwood called # Interviewer: #2 Oh # 678: Blocks To make {D: handles} #1 From # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm # 678: And whiskey stage #1 Whiskey barrel stage # Interviewer: #2 Oh oh yeah # 678: #1 Mm-hmm # Interviewer: #2 Yeah # Barrel stage oh that's mm 678: But uh I don't remember really seeing anyone plow with them Interviewer: Uh-huh but you saw you saw them using them for hauling 678: #1 Yeah # Interviewer: #2 Stuff # 678: Mm-hmm Interviewer: Um well now this house now it it's it was there like you this was kind of an L shaped sort of #1 thing # 678: #2 Mm-hmm # Interviewer: In a #1 Way yeah # 678: #2 Of an L # Interviewer: Now the the parlor would that be your special 678: That's where the guests would sleep Interviewer: Uh-huh Or where the girls entertained their boyfriend Uh-huh #1 And the living room # 678: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: Would be just the where you 678: Oh where we all Shot the bull #1 You know # Interviewer: #2 Yeah # Yeah 678: #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 678: Popped the corn #1 Then then # Interviewer: #2 Oh # 678: Made the taffy candy you know #1 The molasses candy # Interviewer: #2 Oh yes # Oh 678: #1 That's where we'd # Interviewer: #2 Yes # 678: pull it you know it #1 You never did pull # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: #1 Any candy well we'd make # Interviewer: #2 Uh-uh # 678: Them my mom would make the candy and we'd get in the living room It was a great life really we had all our homegrown peanuts we'd put peanuts in our candy and we'd pop popcorn and Make popcorn balls from our sorghum you know #1 We grew ourself # Interviewer: #2 Oh yeah # 678: We we really Good times to live in Interviewer: Well now um did your father farm with the land he farmed around close to your house or 678: Not {NW} Not when we lived there Interviewer: #1 Not when you # 678: #2 He was a # He was strictly in the timber #1 Business # Interviewer: #2 He was just in timber then # Well now did he farm later 678: Yes But #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 You wasn't # Living there I mean you do remember farming when you were little 678: When I was five Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: The the year after I was four he bought a farm out Half a mile from town and Interviewer: I see 678: Then we started farming we children done most of the farming along with the hired labor Interviewer: I see 678: My dad was a man like I said he was a good manager and he managed to get out that fa- #1 Plowing see # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # Oh he managed to 678: {NW} But Interviewer: He was that kind of #1 Manager # 678: #2 Well # He could make more money in timber #1 And uh # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: He he would buy timber and Have it logged off #1 And uh # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm # 678: Naturally he had to have uh log teams Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Or hired the log haulers and He furnished log teams of his own so we had to have feed Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: We grew more corn than we did cotton Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And corn and hay Interviewer: Oh 678: And uh The farm was just sort of a side business Interviewer: #1 Side business # 678: #2 For him # #1 Good place to live we had # Interviewer: #2 Yeah # 678: #1 Good orchards and # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh uh-huh # 678: #1 Things like that # Interviewer: #2 Oh oh yeah # Well now would uh would a team a team would be two 678: Mm-hmm Interviewer: Horses or 678: #1 Mules # Interviewer: #2 Mules or # What 678: #1 Or one of each # Interviewer: #2 Mules # Or one okay that'd be a team um how like in a house like this how high were the ceilings in this house 678: Those houses were {NW} Ten foot ceilings Interviewer: Oh 678: Made out of Lumber most of it just lumber I can remember Very few houses when I was a small child that had weatherboarding on them Interviewer: Oh 678: In fact the house across here that I was born in was just an old Lumber Board house Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: #1 And now # Interviewer: #2 {D: And now} # 678: Now those boards are still there with the weatherboarding is put all over them Interviewer: The weatherboarding's been put 678: #1 Put all over them # Interviewer: #2 All over that # 678: #1 Mm-hmm # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: I'd say nine Oh twenty-four out of twenty-five houses in this town were originally built just out of lumber Interviewer: Just out of lumber 678: And later improved and weatherboarded Very few of them was weatherboarded to begin with Interviewer: Uh-huh well um how was the house heated 678: Pardon Interviewer: How was it heated 678: Wood Wood heat {NW} Cooked on wood Had one big old heater stove in the living room That was it the ones that wanted to get fancy might put one in the parlor for the girls to Interviewer: Oh they put a #1 Stove in there # 678: #2 Entertain their boy # Friend yeah But uh and we My dad would he had a stove in the parlor and Interviewer: Oh 678: And one in one of the bedrooms but that'd only be lit up when when it was needed Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: But the one in the living room why It never went out during cold weather he'd get up and Feed it wood during the night Interviewer: Oh 678: No one suffered you didn't You never Interviewer: You never remember being #1 Cold or # 678: #2 Never # Or you'd get out the old {D: Floor would pop you drove it} You'd run the stove and get warm and Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: Ready to eat {NW} Interviewer: That's great well now would um uh did people have did very many people have fireplaces in their homes 678: Not many around here uh And I really don't know why They a few of them built fireplaces out of uh Wood and limbs Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And uh And a few had brick but Oh I would say possibly One house out of fifty in this town in this area had Interviewer: #1 Would have # 678: #2 Fireplace # Interviewer: Hmm 678: It was sort of a Fad Or a Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: A luxury in one way #1 Because # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: Really they wouldn't heat like the old stove would #1 You know # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # Oh they didn't 678: #1 No # Interviewer: #2 Heat as well # 678: Forty percent of your heat went up the flue you know Interviewer: Oh that's what #1 All that # 678: #2 Yeah # Interviewer: #1 When you # 678: #2 {X} # Interviewer: Have a fireplace what that's what I was gonna in the next question I was gonna ask you what do you call the thing on the side of the house the smoke goes out of 678: That's the chimney Interviewer: And how about that open place on the front of the fireplace 678: Well that's where you received your heat from but So much of it went up the #1 Chimney # Interviewer: #2 Went up the chimney yeah # 678: And uh the old saying you know you'd uh You'd bake your shins and freeze your back Interviewer: {NW} 678: And then you'd turn around and you'd bake your back and freeze your shins Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: Uh that's about where a fireplace It would It would put the heat Push some out in the other areas but mostly Those that sit around a fireplace they just sit in a semi-circle and there they had their card games and their Interviewer: Right around the #1 Fireplace # 678: #2 Mm-hmm # And lo- lots of them used them for lights to read by Interviewer: Oh yeah #1 The fireplace # 678: #2 Yes mm-hmm # Interviewer: Well now that you know sometimes if there was a maybe like a brick area in the front of the fireplace what would they call that or stone or something an area 678: Oh Not being familiar with them uh Interviewer: #1 Hearth # 678: #2 What is it a # Hearth #1 That's # Interviewer: #2 Oh yeah # 678: What I was trying to think #1 Of # Interviewer: #2 Yeah # 678: Hearth Interviewer: And do you know what they in the fireplace those metal things that you lay the wood across you know what those are called 678: Some call them andirons Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: Yeah they there's another name for them but uh Interviewer: See if you ever heard of uh either fire dogs or dog iron 678: Yeah But we back then we knew them as andirons A-N-D Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: Dash I-R #1 O-N-S # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm # And now that sort of a shelf up above the fire 678: Mantle Interviewer: And uh like a big piece of wood that might burn for several days 678: Backlog Interviewer: And um now if you were gonna start a fire in the stove or whatever the little pieces of wood you'd use 678: It'd be kindling or shavings Interviewer: Or shavings um now the black that forms inside of the stove 678: Soot Interviewer: And then now when you have to clean this I guess you have to clean your stoves out when you clean them out you had to clean out the 678: Ashes Uh The stove uh fireplaces you would have to burst down the soot that would accumulate on the sides Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: But the stoves they'd they'd That didn't accumulate uh Soot It burned it all off Interviewer: Oh it burned it out 678: #1 It would get so hot # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 678: It'd burn it all up Interviewer: Oh 678: But you'd have to take the ashes out Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: Why they'd build up Keep building up and building up until you would get no suction Interviewer: I see 678: Finally be able to talk and have no room for the wood but You learned about when to take them out #1 Know when to # Interviewer: #2 Oh yeah # 678: Give it good suction I can remember taking the ashes out Stove wouldn't be going good wouldn't be heating Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: Too well and You'd take the ashes out and then it'd take off Then You could just See the blaze Flash you up and hear it you know Interviewer: Uh-huh um 678: {NW} Interviewer: Well what would you have what would you have to sit on in your house 678: Well you mean around the living #1 Well now # Interviewer: #2 Yeah the living room # 678: Well let's take the kitchen {NW} We I can remember my mama had the cane bottom chairs #1 These these # Interviewer: #2 Oh # 678: Were cane bottom at one time Interviewer: Oh these were 678: These were two chairs that I bought when I first married Interviewer: Oh really 678: So in nineteen twenty-six Interviewer: Oh 678: And before I quit working over at the Plant down in Memphis I took them over and Cleaned them up and refinished them took the old cane out and put these Cushions in Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: But my mama would have cane bottom chairs and uh then Next to the wall there would be a long bench Interviewer: #1 Uh-huh # 678: #2 Just an # Most everyone That had a large family in those days had a bench Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: That's where the kids and the Roughnecks eat you know #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # Well now uh when did you first begin to use those long uh things long cushion things to sit on the uh 678: Sofas Or settees or Interviewer: Yeah that's what I what do they call them when they 678: Oh uh Interviewer: Would a sofa and a settee be the same thing or 678: No little little difference set a sofa had kind of a A r- Where you could recline kind of #1 On one end # Interviewer: #2 Oh # Uh-huh 678: And a settee was longer where it would seat Oh possibly three people or four But uh I was Probably The first one that I remember my mother Having I was ten year old Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: My dad bought her a She called it a sofa but later on I heard him call couches Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: See Cause she called it a sofa Interviewer: She called it a sofa 678: As far as our personal home that's a that's The first I remember but I remember seeing one in my grandmother's home with A few years before that Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: But no one was allowed to sit on it #1 It was in the # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 678: Parlor #1 No no one was allowed to sit on it # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # {NW} Oh that's 678: You'd only Peep in there #1 You know and # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 678: #1 It was forbidden territory # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # {NW} 678: Until uh The daughter's boyfriend would come along #1 And then they could sit in there but # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # {NW} 678: The the kids they didn't go in there #1 Except a # Interviewer: #2 That's great # 678: Peep of the door having to be open Interviewer: Oh that's funny 678: {NW} Interviewer: Oh oh yeah in the bedroom a piece of furniture with drawers in it that you would put things in 678: Bed dresser Called them dressers I remember Just a few years ago I got rid of the dresser that my mother had when I was four year old Interviewer: Oh 678: Why I got rid of it I don't know Interviewer: Oh 678: But they didn't sit down like the chest of drawers they always had legs little Carved legs or something about Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: Tall Interviewer: #1 They didn't # 678: #2 They # Interviewer: They were up higher #1 Than the dresser # 678: #2 Uh-huh # Had to sweep under them Interviewer: Oh 678: {NW} Yeah that was the idea Interviewer: {NW} 678: And but the drawers were similar to the {NS} To the modern Chester drawers and and most And mostly prettier #1 They were more hand # Interviewer: #2 Oh they were # 678: There were a lot of hand carving put on them and And uh curved fronts and And actually it was prettier furniture than you see today unless you go into the real expensive #1 Furniture # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: I remember this particular dresser had some little brass knobs on it and My brother took a hammer and beat those #1 Knobs in # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 678: And then my mama took a switch and #1 Done done something to him # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # {NW} 678: But those knobs remained on that thing until I got rid of that Old dresser about Oh Fifteen or twenty years ago I don't even remember Interviewer: Why 678: Why or #1 Who but # Interviewer: #2 Yeah # 678: I let someone have it Interviewer: Now I bet you wish you still had 678: Oh yeah Had the Had the curved fronts you know out here real pretty #1 You know # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh uh-huh # 678: Curved front and Curved doors real real good piece of furniture {NS} And I and I cut up her old organ and made some more furniture out of #1 It # Interviewer: #2 Oh you did # 678: What a tragedy Interviewer: You cut up her organ 678: She wanted me to wanted me to make her some {NS} She called it a sideboard wanted a sideboard Interviewer: #1 Sideboard # 678: #2 You know and I kept the # Mirror and really fixed her up some fancy furniture and then she let someone have that Later years Interviewer: Really 678: But this was a good organ perfectly good organ #1 Would be worth thousand # Interviewer: #2 Oh # 678: Oh Three thousand dollars today Interviewer: How'd you learn to do furniture so well 678: Well you're going with it #1 Sorta # Interviewer: #2 You # Just #1 Talent # 678: #2 {NW} # #1 That's right it's a talent like a singer or # Interviewer: #2 Like a talent like a singer # Yes 678: You know If someone has a good voice and likes to sing they know it and they sing Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: Like I always tried to and couldn't I done very well until later years and I You noticed I have a crackle and I sort of have some asthmatic problems and Can't sing anymore But Far as the woodworking my dad Done all of his woodworking on the the uh Well building a barn or whatever #1 We needed # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: To do Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: And even do the blacksmithing Interviewer: Uh-huh oh 678: And as I went along why I like Uh some way I liked to work with wood and I can build anything I take a notion to build #1 No # Interviewer: #2 That # 678: Problem Interviewer: Oh and you just kind of just picked it up #1 Along # 678: #2 Mm-hmm # Picked it up Interviewer: Well now um another piece of furniture that they used to have it would be like to hang your clothes in a big piece of furniture um 678: Wardrobe Interviewer: Yeah 678: {NW} #1 Wardrobe # Interviewer: #2 Wardrobe # 678: Yeah Interviewer: Yeah you remember seeing those 678: Yeah {D: Think} Uh there's a few right in this town there Oh some of them tall as that door rea- big old dark piece of furniture you know every one of them dark Interviewer: They're all dark 678: Yeah Interviewer: {X} 678: {NW} And Two doors Interviewer: Well now what was the reason that they used those did they 678: They really People hadn't got around the point where they knew the value of built in closets Interviewer: I #1 See # 678: #2 They were # I never {NS} Never lived in the house with my parents had had a built in clothes closet {NW} #1 We had a # Interviewer: #2 Oh really # 678: {NS} We got a little bit modern long about Nineteen Twenty And my mama had a Place built for her quilts Interviewer: Oh she #1 Did # 678: #2 To store her # Quilts in #1 The doors # Interviewer: #2 Stuff filled in # 678: Mm-hmm #1 Shelves # Interviewer: #2 Shelves # Uh-huh 678: But far as uh they just always cut a corner off with a Rod and put hangers in that and that's where you hung your clothes You just didn't have the variety of clothes you have now You'd have the man would have a suit he'd wear to church Possibly two suits but Never more than two And women didn't have all that many dresses Just didn't think they'd need them So you didn't need as much room but After I married And I don't know why I never did like to Hang my clothes and have to get under a Uh Cloth you know a curtain To get them And I just thought well that's That's the wrong way so I Over on the street Uh west of here where I Lived for a long period of time went back where I grew my family up I built Three closets in that house Interviewer: Oh 678: And uh tha- I must have that's in about nineteen and Thirty-four Interviewer: Oh that #1 Yeah # 678: #2 Yeah # And people began to put clothes now possibly in cities like Jonesboro maybe they started sooner {NW} But I know of old houses up there now Uh People that Live in those old houses and they tell me that uh They had to build closets Wasn't there one in it Twelve fourteen room houses not a closet in them until they #1 Later years they had them # Interviewer: #2 Twelve fourteen room houses # 678: #1 Yeah no closet # Interviewer: #2 And no closet # Huh 678: They'd keep their Clothes in In trunks Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And chests And only get the ones out that they wore uh Course you You may have seen this happen But during the spring {NW} They'd get out all their clothes and hang them out and air them Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: And then they'd put them away in moth balls during the #1 Winter # Interviewer: #2 Oh # 678: And the summer clothes the same way Interviewer: {X} 678: And uh They'd only get out the clothes if they was gonna wear it for the next two or three #1 Weeks see # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 678: {X} And they put the others in moth balls It was just a way of life it satisfied them and No big uh fuss done #1 Over it everyone # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm # 678: Happy Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And they had all the clothes never all they want You know Interviewer: They have it all they needed 678: #1 All they needed # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # Um well what do you call the things that people would pull down to keep the light out over the windows 678: Curtain blinds Blinds Interviewer: Blinds we got the ending now would those be on rollers 678: Yeah Interviewer: They'd be on rollers th- they would uh 678: Yup it's ups and downs Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: Oh and they made them real fancy #1 Up here # Interviewer: #2 Oh they did # 678: These parlors would have some real fancy wooden tassels hanging on to pull with #1 You know yeah # Interviewer: #2 # Yeah they'd make the the parlor room real fancy 678: Uh-huh {NW} And Later on course uh venetian blinds came along Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Uh I was foolish enough to buy some one time until I had to clean them Interviewer: {NW} 678: Then then I got rid #1 Of them # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # And then you got rid of them {NW} 678: But When they had these old blinds they also had pretty Pretty window curtains uh lots of lots of the homes People had heavy felt Interviewer: Oh 678: Curtains you know and a lot of them Would uh Close {NW} On hinges You'd you'd just turn this thing all the back #1 See on either side # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # Mm-hmm 678: And put the light in And then {X} night when you just close it seal it up {NS} It not only kept {NW} Peepers from coming by Which uh we never heard of then #1 But uh # Interviewer: #2 Never heard {X} # 678: Still you didn't want people looking in but it It uh helped keep the house warm some Interviewer: Oh sure 678: Those heavy curtains #1 That was # Interviewer: #2 Sure # 678: #1 Another reason for using them # Interviewer: #2 I didn't think about that # But that makes 678: They'd even blind those things Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: Real heavy And they'd close them up why {NW} Cold wouldn't blow in the windows I lived in the house My dad after he sold the farm out from town here he bought a farm out in the Browns district and that's where I went to school #1 The last two years # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: He bought an old country home when we moved out there in January And it snowed in the house {NW} Two or three inches deep inside the windows They were so loose Snow would penetrate like sand Interviewer: I 678: It even froze my grandfather's ear to where it was #1 Purple and thick # Interviewer: #2 I don't believe that # 678: Thick Just Froze solid Interviewer: And you can remember that 678: Yeah I was prob- I was eleven year old when that happened {NW} But snow was banked up in these windows Course my dad got busy and made a beautiful farm home out of it #1 You know it took # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # Uh-huh 678: Almost a year to do it and we built a Almost a mansion out there Three big barns and everything you know Interviewer: Three barns 678: Yeah three barns even had a Baseball diamond on our farm {X} Played baseball We did all that in five years we sold that of course at a big profit #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 Oh yeah oh # 678: But the when we moved into the house And to give you a little history That was in nineteen and January of nineteen nineteen Well nineteen eighteen was the Ending of world war #1 One # Interviewer: #2 Oh yes # 678: And the first flu epidemic We hear of flu now but we don't know what flu Today is #1 Compared to then # Interviewer: #2 Today to what it was # Was then 678: Uh there was Seven in our family and my dad and I were the only two that was able to {D: pick up} Interviewer: {NW} 678: I have known Whole families to die here At that time Interviewer: To d- to die 678: {NW} To die from the flu I remember two bo- two grown boys their dad and mother died Uh Lived up about a half a mile from town #1 Here # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: And we found them dead there no one people wasn't able to go around see about the other four Interviewer: Just from that flu they would die 678: It was awful And then {NW} That winter During Early December This town got under water And it froze over And the flu kind of subsided We #1 Skated # Interviewer: #2 Oh # 678: All o- all over town here Just #1 For for # Interviewer: #2 Oh # 678: Days and days and days our ice was So thick that uh Why I guess you could have driven a team on it if you'd wanted to Interviewer: Oh 678: Then the water went down And left the ice suspended And then when it went to To begin to uh Thaw a little Moderate That ice began to break And you talk about noise it just sound like a train going through {X} A hundred yards of ice it'd collapse in the street you know Interviewer: Oh 678: So when the ice Fell now of course it had the melt run off And then we moved in the middle of January And the ground was so soft and so {D: marry} It took four Horse team to pull one load of furniture Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: That was in nineteen eighteen in the spri- uh #1 Winter of # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 678: Nineteen nineteen Pretty rough times #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 It sounds # Like it and the flu and all 678: #1 War's over you know the eleventh of November # Interviewer: #2 {X} # And 678: {NW} And right after that's when the rain set in and the freeze froze over No schools which I hated awful bad Interviewer: {NW} I'm sure #1 I'm sure you did # 678: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 678: #2 Couldn't go to school # Interviewer: #1 Couldn't go to school # 678: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: Oh well what was the um what was the house covered with what was 678: Wood shingles Interviewer: And so then 678: One Occasionally would have a Metal tin on it Interviewer: A tin 678: Tin roof Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: Just occasionally Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: The objection was that when it rained it made too much #1 Noise # Interviewer: #2 Made too much noise # {NW} 678: Any excuse you know Interviewer: Well now the area between the roof and the and the uh ceiling of the house I guess the area between the 678: Rafters {NW} Interviewer: Yeah 678: {D: comb} of the house Interviewer: Yeah 678: {NW} Interviewer: And then there was the sometimes the 678: Attics Interviewer: #1 Yeah would have some # 678: #2 Mm-hmm # Some of them were built Tall enough that they had enough stairs {NW} #1 Sleeping quarters for the # Interviewer: #2 Okay # 678: Hard hands and the Interviewer: Oh 678: For instance uh Just say they would build the wall as this one and that was ten foot Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: Well they would maybe drop the ceiling down to here Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: And then that'd give them that plus the Roof Interviewer: Oh I see 678: Or for bed- #1 Rooms # Interviewer: #2 Or for bedrooms # 678: And that's where the hard hands slept there wasn't no Some of them don't have stairs except just a straight ladder that you climb right straight up the wall and go through #1 A scuttle hole # Interviewer: #2 Oh # Oh and it did 678: Hole was hole was big enough to push bedding bedding up through and everything and we got it up there why Probably cut the hole down to so big then Interviewer: I but it was hot in the summertime 678: Hot as a dickens {D: wind on each end} {NW} #1 You better # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 678: Believe it was hot Interviewer: Oh um what would they call it or if people ever had a little room all for the kitchen store extra canned goods and 678: Pantry Interviewer: Did you ever know of a piece of furniture called a safe 678: Oh gosh yes #1 My mother # Interviewer: #2 What # 678: Owned one that had The doors had uh Metal Interviewer: Panels 678: And Holes pecked #1 All in it # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: For ventilation Interviewer: Uh-huh what would they put in there 678: They'd put the dishes {NW} There and and then Food that didn't spoil that's why the ventilation was there Interviewer: Oh that's why the #1 Ventilation was there # 678: #2 Mm-hmm # Food that wouldn't spoil which was very little Interviewer: Yeah 678: Uh women back then had to cook three meals a day Very seldom would they Get by their afternoon meal without warming up something Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: But of course uh Uh like stew potatoes things like that would keep Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: An old man would want to eat them cold but most of us who can think course they want them #1 Hot you know # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 678: And the old stove the old cooking stove Uh they called them r- range cooking range they had a reservoir on the side and Uh there's where you heated part of your water It never got scalding it was just just right to wash dishes Interviewer: Oh 678: And you had your little tea kettle for your hot water Interviewer: Uh-huh oh so then you you'd use the tea kettle for the 678: Uh-huh scalding #1 Water mm-hmm # Interviewer: #2 Scalding water # And then just the reservoir would be 678: It'd hold about five gallons see and that #1 Was # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: That was what you would do for wash your dishes #1 With and # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: And when you got through uh Through why Uh kids said you had to pump the water to refill the Reservoir Interviewer: Why now how would would they take some of that water out to wash I mean how how did they get the soap off when they had one pan with soapy water then what did they 678: Yeah {NW} They would uh Uh My mama We always Called her a nasty clean she was so clean you know Aux: Oh uh Bert you're wanted on the phone 678: {X} Interviewer: Okay Oh oh now if you were ta- if you had a lot of old worthless things that you were about to throw away what would you call that 678: Burnt relics I suppose {NW} Or I don't know Interviewer: Or just junk maybe 678: Yeah Interviewer: Would you ever use that word 678: Well if I was going to throw it away it'd certainly be junk Interviewer: #1 It'd be junk # 678: #2 Yeah # Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 678: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: What would you call a room that was used to store odds and ends in 678: Well We'd call it a store room or a junk room Interviewer: Mm-hmm um now talking about the daily house work that a woman you know like #1 That your mother # 678: #2 Mm-hmm # Interviewer: Would have to do you'd say every day she has to not uh just in general to the house every day she'd have to do they say tidy up or clean up what do they usually say 678: You mean now or back #1 Then # Interviewer: #2 Back then # 678: Really I don't know what they called it except uh I got in on it I got to #1 Help on it # Interviewer: #2 You did help # 678: {NW} Uh I believe that {NW} My mama called it house cleaning Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Uh on Saturdays After school's out on Fridays Uh very few rugs on floors then The parlor had a Maybe a rug Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: But the others were pine floors Uh Scrubbed with lye water Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And they My brother and I Had the job before we got big enough to plow or anything My mother would get in there and mop this {NW} Or just scrub the floor just {D: whit it} Saturate it And it was our job to Take a rag and clean around the corners and be sure that everything was clean Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And that floor was bleached out white that lye would bleach it Interviewer: Mm 678: She was immaculately clean And uh the walls would be papered with newspapers Go to bed and read {NW} Same time Interviewer: Oh you'd read the wall 678: But she did yeah we called it reading the wall {NW} She did uh Call it house cleaning Interviewer: Well what would you use to sweep with 678: Well br- just since I can remember we've had factory-made brooms Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: We had a few of the old homemade ground brooms but uh that was the exception #1 Most of them were # Interviewer: #2 Is that # Most of them were #1 Factory made # 678: #2 Better brooms # I'd say better brooms than we get today Interviewer: Oh now talking about what women do to the clothes you'd say they had to do the 678: Washing Not laundry washing Interviewer: #1 They did it's that washing # 678: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: Now how about to get the wrinkles out 678: Iron Iron #1 Pressing # Interviewer: #2 Yup # 678: Very very Very little pressing Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: Pressing was uh The special clothes or um maybe Trousers Some of the men never pressed their trousers But uh My mama would refer to it as iron day Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Wash day and iron day That's Interviewer: Uh now do if a person had a two story house to get from the first floor to the second floor they'd say they have to go up the 678: Stairway Interviewer: And now from now if you had a porch to get from the ground up to the porch you'd say you had to go up the 678: Steps Interviewer: Um what would you call the little things along the edges of roofs that carry the water out 678: Gutters Interviewer: And uh uh how 678: Very few of them back then though Interviewer: Oh they didn't have them 678: {X} I remember when I was kid seeing Uh one or two in Jonesboro Interviewer: Oh over in Jonesboro 678: But I don't remember one around here Interviewer: Uh-huh um now if you have a house a a place on the roof where you have a house an an L what do you call the place where the two come together 678: Valley Interviewer: Uh what would you call well what kinds of little buildings did you have you mentioned that you had a cellar out around your house 678: Oh we had the privy you know Interviewer: Oh The privy 678: #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 678: #1 We can move on forget that # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # You call that the privy 678: Well we don't no we didn't call it the privy uh I don't remember what they called it but I I just heard the word privy after I got a little bit older Interviewer: Oh um what other little buildings like for example uh what about 678: #1 Uh # Interviewer: #2 Any place # For storing wood or 678: #1 Well # Interviewer: #2 Tools or # 678: We had toolsheds Interviewer: You had toolsheds 678: The wood was just Ricked up and {X} #1 We had toolsheds and # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 678: What we called cowsheds for the cows and Interviewer: Oh 678: And uh Stalls for the horses Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: And uh And we had uh Hog pens {NW} With uh Hog houses To keeping them out of the way even the dog houses Everybody had a #1 Hound oh yeah # Interviewer: #2 Everybody yeah # A hound dog 678: Part of our living #1 Coon dogs you know # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # Oh yeah 678: {NW} Interviewer: I guess so I didn't think of that 678: {D: All along was} The sport we got out of it well we sold the coon hides and Eat the coons #1 See # Interviewer: #2 Oh you do # 678: I never cared for coon but uh Well I went to a coon dinner up in Rector not long ago And everybody just Man they just {D: haven't found the life of me} just Forcing it down Interviewer: {NW} 678: Didn't care for it at all Interviewer: I don't think I care for it either doesn't sound very good oh what about to store corn where would you store 678: Crib Interviewer: How about to store grain 678: Bins Interviewer: Oh do did did you ever hear about people having a anything called a like for wheat what about wheat where would they put it 678: Uh {NW} We we grew some wheat when I was a kid But As I recall We'd thrash it And load it in wagons {NW} And haul it to Jonesboro we didn't store it Now they do store it but I don't know they We had uh {D: sallows} You know for {C: tape slows down} ground up food {NS} And uh bins for peas or seed #1 Peas # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: {NW} But I #1 I didn't we didn't # Interviewer: #2 Anything covered # 678: Store any any wheat so Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: I don't know what it would be called back then Interviewer: Okay have you ever heard of anything called a garner 678: No Interviewer: Okay um then the upper part of the barn would be called 678: The loft hay loft Interviewer: Now if if you had uh before they put hay in bales what would they do with it 678: They would They go to the field put on the wagons Drive in front of the hay loft One man would take a pitchfork and pitch it up in The hay loft and One or two or even three men if necessary would #1 Take it # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm # 678: Start to the back hand with it Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: And just stack it full Interviewer: And then they'd stack 678: A few of the {NS} Modern farmers or the larger farmers had what {NW} What they call a Hay fork Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: Run on a track and with pulleys And uh it had uh big tongs you know it'd Come down and it'd grab a a whole of a bunch of that hay and then By manual Rope pulleys You would pull it up and then until it hit the track and then run it back Down the The rafters the comb of the rafters and And dump it Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: But it wasn't much faster than hand so we never went that modern We figured we needed to exercise #1 I guess I hope # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # Well now out in the field if uh or if it was or- that is if they had too much to put in the barn 678: Shock it Interviewer: Well they'd shock it 678: Put it in shocks Interviewer: #1 Would put it in shocks # 678: #2 Mm-hmm # Interviewer: Um now would that be covered or how did they 678: #1 Some of them # Interviewer: #2 Keep that from getting # 678: Covered it but uh most of the time My dad the practice he used he would We had what we called uh {NW} Whippoorwill pea hay Mostly And then we grew some millet Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: And then uh we would cut crabgrass Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: We would store this uh these peas on shocks and then we would Cap it we called it capping it #1 That would # Interviewer: #2 Capping it # 678: The millet Or the crabgrass #1 And it'd just settle # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: Down and it'd shed water Just almost like a canvas Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: But Few people would put it in one enormous shock Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: And take canvas and cover it Interviewer: Oh I see 678: But we didn't we put it in {NW} Small shocks and then When we did that we would Uh Usually go out in the field with a hay baler then and And uh draw the sho- Pull the shocks in with Teams and to where the baler was stationed and Bale it It had to cure out it had to go through what we called going through a sweat Interviewer: Oh 678: Then it would mold you know and run then We'd shock it put a s- Uh Hole in the ground with crosses #1 On it and we'd # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 678: Start stacking and that'd the ventilation get up and under there and go up this pole And uh Get plenty of air and you'd have some pretty bright hay But if you didn't why you'd You lye would get a mold in it and #1 Ruin your hay # Interviewer: #2 And then ruin it # The hay yeah 678: Stock didn't like to eat molded hay #1 And when they did it'd give them a # Interviewer: #2 Oh # 678: Cough #1 And just cough just like is yeah # Interviewer: #2 Oh # 678: Yeah Interviewer: It would give them a cough 678: Mm-hmm Interviewer: Well I'll be darned didn't know that well now you mentioned this cow shed would that be where you would milk the #1 Cows # 678: #2 Mm-hmm # {NW} Well we'd milk them where they would put the night up for Bad weather {NW} Each one knew its own its own stall #1 Shed # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm # Mm-hmm 678: We had uh We had cows named uh Spot And Beauty and Uh and Red and all that number {X} Names you know but Uh Uh old Rooney I remember one we had named old Rooney she {NW} She knew exactly where #1 Her stall was # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm # Mm-hmm 678: And if one of the others would get in there she'd fight them away Interviewer: Oh 678: But each one Had a place All the younger calves we'd put them all in a Place together but Wherever we milked these cows that's where they bedded down for the night That's where they got their feed and bedded down and just turned out the next day to pasture Interviewer: Mm-hmm 678: Or if it was during the winter time just turned out to browse around whatever they wanted to do Interviewer: Mm-hmm what would you call the area right around the farm uh 678: Well we called it the horse lot Interviewer: Horse lot 678: And it'd be referred to as a cow lot or a horse lot but we referred to it as horse lot Interviewer: You always called it the horse lot 678: Because we had More horses than we did any other #1 Animals # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm # 678: We kept Most of our farming And logging teams were horses #1 We liked horses better # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm liked horses # 678: Than mules and we kept a lot of saddles stocked Interviewer: #1 Oh you did # 678: #2 {X} # Buggie Interviewer: Uh-huh 678: Think we lived pretty good Interviewer: Uh it sounds like it sounds to me like it really I don't know it sounds like 678: Put our sisters On a wild little calf #1 Let her ride it # Interviewer: #2 Oh # 678: #1 No oh no did you do that # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 678: Oh yeah throw her sky high you know Interviewer: #1 Oh # 678: #2 {NW} # She'd cry and we'd say well now if you're gonna be a crybaby go on in the house and leave us alone Interviewer: {NW} 678: And she'd limp around the hole in the {D: groove's} Places and wouldn't go in the #1 House # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # {NW} That's funny Where where would people keep their milk and before they had 678: Well Uh some of them had Cellars Which was damp and {NW} Even got snakes in them at times Just built out of the earth you know But my mama