Interviewer:  {X} that was about all. How you been?
811:  Oh, I've been all right. I- {D: she had to go to mass Saturday.} {NS}
Interviewer:  Yeah. You told me you were Catholic?
811:  Mm-hmm. {NS}
Interviewer:  And when did- how di- how old were you when you became a member?
811:  {D: Of the Catholic?}
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  Oh let's see, I must've been about twenty-two years old.
Interviewer:  When you?
811:  Young cause I was- probably soon after I got married. My wife was Catholic. And then I decided that was gonna create a problem with the wife and the kids and everything going to church so.
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS}
811:  I just decided to join Catholic. {NS}
Interviewer:  Your wife uh {NS} she was born and raised in this area?
811:  Mm-hmm. {NS} Well uh that would be the Bellevue community where- she was born and raised there.
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS}
811:  {X} {NS}
Interviewer:  How did you meet her? May I ask or? {NS}
811:  Well I met her at the one of her cousin's house. {NW}
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  And then I just start talking to her {D: first day} {NS} Actually let me get my medicine, it must be about two o'clock. Uh excuse me a minute.
Interviewer:  I- I go to school at Emory, I said, #1 not in #
811:  #2 Uh-huh. #
Interviewer:  uh traveled through Louisiana and talking with farmers and
811:  About wh- what's your uh major name?
Interviewer:  History.
811:  History.
Interviewer:  Sorta. Yeah, history and English, that sort of thing. That uh
811:  So that helps you a whole lot, don't it?
Interviewer:  Yeah. Yeah, I hope so. But I- I hope to to get a lot of information from my interviews.
Woman :  Have you run anything uh uh my sister-in-law told me she had saw an article in
Interviewer:  {X} what I'm doing and who I'm interviewing, nary I'll do that #1 but #
Woman :  #2 Mm-hmm. #
Interviewer:  I don't usually.
Woman :  It was probably someone else, then, because she was wondering you know they- they haven't been they hadn't been contacted you know to ask them if it was all right to write the interview, you know.
Interviewer:  Yes ma'am.
Woman :  The article about it.
Interviewer:  Uh-huh.
Woman :  And she was just wondering, you know, who had wrote it.
Interviewer:  {NW}
Woman :  {NW}
Interviewer:  Yeah. I know a lot of that stuff s- goes on and you know, people writing articles about other folks without
811:  {NW}
Woman :  Yeah.
Interviewer:  {NW} #1 A lot of the time, it's not really #
Woman :  #2 {X} #
Interviewer:  good, #1 you know? {NW} #
Woman :  #2 Yeah. # {NW} She's just
Interviewer:  Like learning some bad things about the family.
811:  {NW}
Interviewer:  Oh boy. Yeah, y'all haven't had any more rain here, have you?
811:  No. I tell you, good thing we didn't. {NS}
Woman :  {D: Joe's} gonna go, and when you get time you can come and meet me over there.
811:  Okay. Uh {X} I might just tell her uh that she gotta go tell mama's to go ahead.
Interviewer:  Where's she off to?
811:  Uh she going back there to clean her camp the both of them had a big sand dig back there Saturday night.
Interviewer:  Yeah?
811:  Well, they had to go clean the camp today.
Interviewer:  I- I wanna ask you about that. What sorta games would you play when y'all were kids uh
811:  #1 Uh #
Interviewer:  #2 round here? #
811:  {NS} We always had a old bucket with couple of rocks in it and make us a little old wagon use any kind of wheels we could find. Or either well, what you call a {D: shotty} some kids are a little better than the others with uh with hammer and nails. So we'd find us a couple of old nails or something make us little tiny slingshots, blow guns, pop guns. You use China balls with the pop gun, you'd take you a piece of fishing {D: can} {NS} and you cut it so long {NS} and then you take you a a piece of China ball stick and you cut it with {D: slip in there} And you cut it about that much shorter than your your piece of fishing pole and you take it and stick it in there, you get a China ball to the end of it and then you pull it into the back and it'd build up a pressure.
Interviewer:  Mm-hmm.
811:  Talk about {D: hurt.} {NW} And we had old B-B guns and then they would make our slingshots with piece of old tubes and shoot down {X} out of that tree.
Interviewer:  Mm-kay.
811:  And we'd do quite a bit of hunting with that, too, we'd kill rabbits, {D: bugs} {NS} Use our sticks for this loaded with lead on the end so when you'd throw it, it wouldn't cut flips, it just would the heavy end would go towards the front.
Interviewer:  Towards the front, huh?
811:  Uh-huh. Usually the heavy end would uh like if you'd throw it and you it would if you got a stick that's well- well-balanced, {NS} it's gonna cut flip, but if you got one of these heavier than the other one, {NS} very soon it's gonna cut flip. {NS} {NW} {NS}
Interviewer:  Any games you played with other kids around here? Were there a lot of kids in the neighborhood you were raised?
811:  No. Where we came up, the kids was {NS} go about {NS} four or five miles {X} {NS} {X} Hello.
Woman :  Hello.
Interviewer:  How you doing?
811:  {X}
Woman :  {X}
811:  Y'all- y'all can come sit with me {D: I'm finna to go to mama.}
Woman :  {X} {NS} {X}
811:  You gonna come sit out here, you gonna have to be quiet, though. Oh, you gonna sleep? {NS} Okay, let Mom give you a banana. {NS}
Interviewer:  Who's- is she #1 kin to you? #
811:  #2 That's # that's my sister-in-law. They leaving right now, I was gonna go show you I'm gonna ask if they got one of them old time cisterns. Like I was telling you about that day {X} mule that jumped in.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  And they got one like that {X} {NS} When we get through, if you feel that, we'll go look at it.
Interviewer:  Oh yeah, I'd love to.
811:  Yeah.
Interviewer:  Um {NS} okay, other games you- you didn't have a lot of kids around town?
811:  No. Just uh well on Sunday, sometime they would visit. {NS} But like during the week, it was just mostly family.
Interviewer:  Okay.
811:  And then during the week, everybody was working if they wasn't at school so you didn't get a chance to visit too much. Maybe at night if you didn't sleep too far. And the parents would work uh the fathers would work most of the time at night so they had to take their supper to 'em.
Interviewer:  How'd they work at night? You were telling me on the tape how you would plow at night, or work at night?
811:  Well well they had they had what you call a {D:A D high grade} I don't- I don't {X} It was something uh the weevils had got so bad in the sweet potatoes well, you couldn't just take 'em and throw 'em out there, so they uh {NW} created a machine that you would cook 'em. {NS} And they would cut 'em in some little strips and uh {NS} what he would do, he would run it about eighteen hours a day. {NS} And uh {NS} and we were old enough then to do the- most of the farming. {NS} But most of the time they would run it like uh during the winter during the harvest time. {NS} And if we would finish kinda early well it was always during the winter cause uh it was- didn't have too much to do then. It would cause that uh {NS} the farmer himself would hardly bring the potatoes there. {NS} It was the the ship uh like we ship potatoes up north everywhere. When he would uh weighed his potatoes out {NS} the ones that wasn't good he had to send 'em to this place to get 'em cook and they'd use 'em to make hog feed. {NS} They'd use the stuff to make hog feed and uh {NS} mule feed stuff like that.
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS} Um {NS} so you'd work at night? And your father would.
811:  My father would work at night. He would run um {NS} well, something like that it didn't take much education, it was just something you learnt when it was {X} you had uh a couple of pressure gauges you had to watch. Your pressure couldn't get too high, too low, if anything were to happen then you had to shut it down cause it wasn't like the machineries they got today, you gotta have a college degree and everything. And he didn't have no education at all. He uh just was around there when I was putting it up and uh
Interviewer:  Yeah. Did your father know how to read and write?
811:  No.
Interviewer:  He couldn't?
811:  No. My mother could, but not my father.
Interviewer:  But he wanted you to get a
811:  Yeah. And so what happened- he took sick uh oh when we was young and me and my older brother had to start to make a living and well uh my older sister, she's two years younger than me, she went to the {NS} eleventh grade. {NS} Uh {NS} the next one went to the eleventh grade, and the bigger one finished high school. Uh so it was just me and the older brother he went to the the fourth grade, and I went to the sixth.
Interviewer:  And you left school while you were in the sixth grade?
811:  Uh-huh.
Interviewer:  Wow. That's still, that's pretty good for for you know, for your folks not having
811:  Yeah.
Interviewer:  a chance and you get good schooling.
811:  And then in them times, they didn't have no school bus or nothing like they have the {NW} got two school buses turn right in the yard here now. Got three kids and two buses turn in the yard to pick 'em up.
Interviewer:  The school you went to was where? It ba-
811:  I- in Church Point.
Interviewer:  Church Point.
811:  Hmm.
Interviewer:  That's right. {NS}
811:  Uh it was uh what it was it'll go to the sixth grade, I believe. That's the highest it would go, it was a one-room school. And they had one teacher that'd teach the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth. And the books they had, she would {NW} pick up they had I believe about a couple of 'em that was in the sixth or the seventh gra- in the sixth grade. And she would pick up some kind of uh a fairy story book {NS} uh up-to-date, you know, in them times I liked to read so much, I did every day. {NS} And then they didn't have no more spelling cause uh they had went there was spelling about in the fourth grade. And after that they didn't have no spelling. {X} what they teach anew she could make up problems and give you.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  Subtract and then add long division. That's all you had them days. And not too much of uh of long division, it was mostly just adding and subtracting.
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS} Now the kids who were in school were called?
811:  Uh a student.
Interviewer:  Yeah. You call 'em. But uh {NS} When you went to school, old times they used to sit in benches. {NS} What'd you sit at?
811:  Uh we had uh benches. {NS} They didn't have no uh I can barely remember what they was but I can tell you it wasn't nothing good to sit on. {NS} They had uh {NS}
Interviewer:  What would you write on? {NS}
811:  Well yo- they had a place i- it was was all in one part, it was something like a desk.
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS}
811:  But you had something like two kids could sit in it. It was straight. {NS} It was um uh {NS}
Interviewer:  Were there several of these in a room? There were several
811:  Um yeah, you had a lot. It was about twenty-five kids, I guess. And they-
Interviewer:  So there were how many of 'em, bout? {NS}
811:  Oh they must've had about fifteen, I imagine. They had some single and some was double. {NS} Like uh they put you in rows. Uh it'd be something like uh classrooms, each row. It's uh like a classroom.
Interviewer:  There were classrooms?
811:  Well, it was just the one room, and the the row of students, you know, like if they had {NS} four in the first grade, they would have four in the first row.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  The second grade, if they had five, well they had five in that row. And they were spaced out, you know. {NS} So there was just one big room.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  {NW} {NS}
Interviewer:  So, we all sat in? {NS}
811:  In whatever grade you was in, you just sat in that group.
Interviewer:  Yeah. But you did have places stuff that they would write on, you did have?
811:  Yeah, you had uh i- it was convenient to write on
Interviewer:  On these?
811:  Uh benches. It #1 was uh #
Interviewer:  #2 Yeah. # But now when you-
811:  {NW}
Interviewer:  when a boy went to school and didn't show up, they say he? {NS}
811:  Well, he was absent.
Interviewer:  #1 Yeah. #
811:  #2 {D: You know} they had # roll call if you
Interviewer:  He left home to go to school and he didn't show up. He what- they'd say he must've?
811:  Well they- if you did- {X} that come by, that'd mean he had played hooky.
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NW}
811:  If it was hooky, they'd be- a bunch of 'em got beat for that. Oh.
Interviewer:  But when you- when they sent you to school, you went, #1 right? #
811:  #2 Yeah. # We had so far to go, we didn't have no place to play hooky all day. {NS}
Interviewer:  Um what time would well, about three o'clock? Was that when school would uh
811:  Yeah, school let out about three, it'd take in about eight, eight-thirty.
Interviewer:  Okay.
811:  Till about three. And you had an hour off for lunch. So they had this during the winter time well, y- everybody had to bring their own lunch.
Interviewer:  How'd you take your uh your stuff to school with you?
811:  Uh
Interviewer:  I mean your- your food.
811:  Well, we had a gallon bucket. Uh #1 but we- #
Interviewer:  #2 you- #
811:  if we had {X} we'd put grease and rice {D: and sauce it in about} eleven o'clock the teacher would let you set it on the- on the coal heater to warm, so it would be warm. During the summer, you had eggs. And it wasn't like it is now. That's- if you have a hot lunch during the winter. {NS} Well, then a whole lot of times during the summer it- it would sour. {NS} If something would go wrong, it would get too hot then you didn't have no lunch, and you had to wait till you get home. {NS}
Interviewer:  Uh {NS} well, let's see. Usually about the day after Labor Day is that when school would
811:  I don't remember when school would start or stop.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  #1 I- #
Interviewer:  #2 Did you # go full- the full year, or?
811:  If you went, let's say if they had nine months of school. If you went three months, you went a whole lot.
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS}
811:  And the conditions of the world then, #1 there #
Interviewer:  #2 Yeah. #
811:  the ups and downs and everything.
Interviewer:  Yeah. Mr. {X}, how old are yo- may I ask how old you are now, you're?
811:  Thirty-eight.
Interviewer:  Thirty-eight?
811:  Yeah, I'll be thirty-nine the seventeenth of June.
Interviewer:  You must've- you worked yourself mighty hard. Now you had your first heart attack when you were #1 thirty-two? #
811:  #2 Uh # thirty-one.
Interviewer:  Thirty-one.
811:  Mm-hmm. {NS}
Interviewer:  Hmm. Um now, some of the games that you that you played, other games that you'd play with kids around the neighborhood, you know? Dark at night or anything like that?
811:  {NW} We wouldn't play too much at night. During the day, we'd shoot marbles. {NW}
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  And uh and we always did live pretty close to the woods. We would go in the woods and {NS} play all kinds of games in trees and stuff.
Interviewer:  Yeah. Like what? {NS}
811:  Uh {NS} Course they played Tarzan and {NS}
Interviewer:  In trees?
811:  Yeah. Get up in trees and hide, play cowboy and Indian.
Interviewer:  Did you do that much?
811:  Oh yeah, any chance we'd get we'd {NS} lived right by the woods almost every weekend that's where we'd go play, in the woods. {NS}
Interviewer:  And you
811:  #1 And #
Interviewer:  #2 and you could # you went up to the trees?
811:  And during the summer, you see, we had all kind of uh {NS} well, stuff to eat, like muscadines and grapes and stuff in the woods.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  Go pick that and come back and make jelly and and wine and stuff with it.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  {NW}
Interviewer:  You say you went up trees a lot?
811:  #1 Yeah, we #
Interviewer:  #2 Did you like to do it? # Did you
811:  we climbed trees, but we couple of us fell out, and then we didn't get broke- break nothing, but we got bruised up bad.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  #1 We #
Interviewer:  #2 What would you # do up in the trees? Just
811:  Get up in there and hide.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  One would pass and we'd jump on him. {NS}
Interviewer:  I heard about you know, folks would get in one tree and swing to the other.
811:  Well, we wouldn't too much swing to the other. We would get in there and hide in them old marsh trees. Them big old uh live oaks the branches were lower, you know. {D: You'd pass it right there and} jump on 'em. {NS}
Interviewer:  And you hmm. So {NS} uh whenever you saw a tree, you would go over and
811:  Yeah, we would go hide and play hide-and-go-seek in the woods.
Interviewer:  Yeah. Okay now that's a- that's a game. What- w- what about what about that game? Did you have a- who- somebody who was
811:  Uh what would happen, you would
Woman :  {NS}
811:  you would they would draw straws, if I remember right.
Child:  {NS}
811:  They would pick one, and what he would do, he would uh close his eyes and let everybody go hide.
Interviewer:  He would be?
811:  He would be the
Interviewer:  It?
Woman :  {NS}
811:  Yeah, the uh let's say there was about six of 'em. Five of 'em would be hid. I ju- I just don't remember what they would call the one that would stay. And we had to do uh go find the others and he had a special base. A- a tree or something used to and if he find one, he had to beat him back to that tree, and touch him before he get there.
Interviewer:  And he was
811:  So he was
Interviewer:  he was safe?
811:  Yeah. That knowing he was out, he had to help the- help them look for the rest And one of 'em would
Interviewer:  Uh-huh.
811:  beat him back to the tree before you would see him. Uh he was safe. He had a chance to go hide again.
Interviewer:  Okay.
811:  {NW}
Interviewer:  Uh you got to learn- got to learn how to run
811:  Oh.
Interviewer:  a lot, doing that {X}
811:  Run and hide behind briars. We'd come in all the briars picked us all
Interviewer:  There was a brush- a bush somewhere y- to to hide, you would
811:  Just
Woman :  {NS}
811:  {X} out or try to crawl under it
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  if you could.
Interviewer:  Um {NS} now uh other games like what about a game that they would they would make a {X} in the ground and uh you would get something and one person would get on one end and you'd start {NS}
811:  Oh a seesaw.
Interviewer:  Yeah. You'd get on it and start doing what? Start?
811:  Well, one would get on each side of the board, and they would start going up and down on it. They would call it a seesaw. {NS}
Interviewer:  Uh okay, did you ever see one that went around?
811:  A merry-go-round?
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  Yeah, they didn't have too many of them, it
Interviewer:  Yeah. Or what about one you'd tie to a tree limb?
811:  Oh uh uh a swing. We had quite a few of them. We would go in the woods and make them if we could find us a piece of rope. Rope's kinda hard to come by. You go swipe us a little piece off the boss's harness off the {D: new ones} {NW} and go tie it up in the tree {X} for the next week's yield.
Woman :  {NS}
Interviewer:  Yeah. It- was there places around here where you could go in the water?
811:  They had a a bog. Well, well, it was, yeah matter of fact, it was at that same um I just r- forget the name of it. The one that that past right there went talked to mr Dagle, and he told us uh the name of it.
Interviewer:  {X}
811:  #1 Yeah. #
Interviewer:  #2 Is that it? #
811:  Well,
Interviewer:  Is that the name of it?
811:  Yeah.
Interviewer:  Okay.
811:  {D: He would} pass oh about a quarter of a mile. But we wasn't allowed to go play around it cause they had a bunch of kids would get drowned every now and then. {D: I see a bunch of 'em} you'd hear talk about two kids get drowned every five years. That was a whole lot. And we wasn't allowed to go play cause if one of us would go by, then the other one would tell, and we was in trouble. So we didn't fool with it. Now uh we would go a whole lot with our daddy cause he loved it to fish.
Woman :  {NS}
811:  And late in the afternoon we'd go out there and catch fish.
Woman :  {NS}
811:  Course it wasn't deep, though. It was about waist-deep. And he'd let us get in there.
Woman :  {NS}
811:  Course none of us could swim.
Interviewer:  Did you ever learn?
811:  N- I learned a little bit afterward. Uh after I was a grown man, but during them times there
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  You did it a little bit? You?
811:  Uh yeah, by being on the farm uh {NS} we used to fool around quite a bit uh get a bunch of us together and go swimming. But I never was good enough to get nobody outta trouble, though. I believe if they had- be got- get in trouble.
Interviewer:  Yeah. But down there's- what do they call that? That's- Is there a- a bridge over that- over that?
811:  Uh-huh.
Interviewer:  There is? Okay, now we came down to it riding in there, right? And- and the- it was flooded #1 down there. #
811:  #2 Yeah. #
Interviewer:  Can you go over it?
811:  Mm-hmm.
Interviewer:  To where? Where-
811:  Um you can go {D: the reef shore}
Child:  {NS}
811:  on that road uh y- from there y- uh
Child:  {NS}
811:  you go to {D: U-N-S} Crowley.
Interviewer:  Oh I can take that road over to Iota, probably.
811:  Uh yeah. But your best bet would be to go to Iota is go ahead uh up there by {D: buddy's} four-way stop.
Interviewer:  Yeah, you told me. {NS}
811:  {NW} Cause that little winding up roads, you're gonna get yourself lost {X} surely got more curves on that
Interviewer:  I know. Um did y'all ever get together and have instruments that you would play? Make-
811:  No. Well, I don't remember an instrument till I was about fourteen or fifteen and knew what it was.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  Would anybody be- do that in this area? In other words, did any- did you any folks that would could make good
811:  No, not in the olden time. Uh every now and then you I remember about two people I knew that would play a {D: mop} music.
Interviewer:  Like what?
811:  Uh well called the harmonica.
Interviewer:  Yeah. Would you ever see the one
811:  Uh no, one of them Jew's harps?
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  No, I never did see
Child:  {NS}
811:  one of them.
Child:  {NS}
811:  And uh a fiddle let's see, one that play a fiddle it- and accordion. But otherwise, like guitars and I never knew what a- what a piano was till I was about sixteen. {X} {X} they knew what it was.
Interviewer:  Yeah. Like in a church?
811:  Well, in them times, you go to church you went to church once a month, you went a whole lot. Course, we was living with about twelve miles from the church.
Child:  {NS}
811:  And the only way we to go was this
Child:  {NS}
811:  with a wagon and mules.
Child:  {NS}
811:  So if service is about ten o'clock,
Child:  {NS}
811:  you had to leave about five-thirty that morning to get there.
Interviewer:  Yeah. Now about a wagon uh wha- what was the tell me about a wagon. Wha- that long piece that would go between the horses.
811:  Uh, you would call that the tongue.
Interviewer:  Uh well on a buggy, you'd have to back the horse in between the?
811:  Uh uh the um
Interviewer:  You know.
811:  that was shafts.
Interviewer:  Yeah. Wha- what did you say to 'em when you {X}
811:  #1 {X} #
Interviewer:  #2 Did you ever do that? #
811:  Yeah, you'd just tell 'em back up or usually you had to kinda have a special horse for a buggy. You couldn't use any kind of horse for a buggy. If you had a buggy- if you had a riding horse, it was very seldom you would a horse that you would ride with a saddle. {NS} It was very seldom you could {NS} put him on a buggy {NS} where he would {NS} he would do what he was supposed to do. {NS} Yo- if you had a buggy horse, you serve the purpose of a buggy horse. But if you had a saddle horse, They much better put him on a buggy cause he {NS} he'd end up hurting the family or {NS} running away, breaking up the buggy and stuff.
Interviewer:  Did you ride much uh
811:  No. {NS} I rode more after I grew up on horses. {NS} I- I r- r- uh very seldom I ride in a buggy.
Interviewer:  Would you- would you break 'em?
811:  Uh no never did. I was too scared of breaking a bone, {NS} always like to kinda be careful.
Woman :  {NS}
811:  Seen a bunch of people hurt on 'em, and I always try and avoid it
Child:  {NS}
811:  from getting hurt. And it was two years- get- you gotta go through too much pain to get well.
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS}
811:  I figured to heck with it. If somebody else wanna do it, let 'em do it.
Interviewer:  Um {NS} now about the parts of the wheel, you know you had the inside, and it fit on the hub fit on the
811:  Uh you had the hub, the spokes. {NS} Uh well yo- you had was your big hub, your spokes, and um
Interviewer:  That fit into the wooden
811:  you had your spokes, that was the wooden uh that would go in your hub. Then you had the ring your iron ring that goes around all your spokes together.
Interviewer:  It- the iron ring we- went around what? Went around?
811:  Round the spokes. {NS}
Interviewer:  Wasn't there a wooden part?
811:  That was the- the spokes, the wooden parts.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  And if you would let it um set up like for for a length of time, you know, in the park in the shade or something and you wanted to take a trip or something, then you had to the night before, you gotta take water and pour it {D: from this well up} Cause your iron ring would yeah, you would've had a tendency to they'll shrink.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  and then your iron spoke would come off. Your iron ring would break up your your spokes. So the night before, you had to take a bucket of water and uh some grass sacks and wrap 'em up and pour some water over the grass sacks, and they would swell. The moisture would make a make it expand, your spokes.
Woman :  {NS}
811:  Therefore, you didn't have no trouble with it. {NS} #1 It's dr- #
Interviewer:  #2 Yeah. #
811:  dry.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  You poured water
Woman :  {NS}
Interviewer:  over the wood, and it
811:  Yeah, over the just over the grass sacks and stuff, and the moisture from the grass sacks and uh
Interviewer:  but the wood would- when you left it out, say in the hot weather, the wood did what? It?
Child:  {NS}
811:  It- it would uh had a tendency to shrink.
Interviewer:  Yeah. Um now uh when you let's say in a buggy, you had um the things that the {D: tracers} came back in order to hook on to is called a?
811:  Uh you had a a tongue uh a singletree.
Interviewer:  I see. Um when you had say on a wagon, when you had two horses and each one was hitched to a singletree, uh then what do you call the thing that both of these are hitched to in order to keep the horses together?
811:  Um
Interviewer:  Say on a wagon, you had
811:  this was a c- uh
Interviewer:  you had a singletree, and then you had a?
811:  A coupling a coupling pole. Yeah.
Child:  {NS}
811:  That's what it was. The singletree would hook on to a coupling pole. The two singletrees.
Interviewer:  Uh-huh. {NS}
811:  And then uh
Woman :  {NS}
811:  and you had your- your breast yoke to the front that would hook uh on the tongue.
Interviewer:  Uh-huh.
811:  And you had a breast yoke that would uh kinda keep 'em together. And then uh the coupling tree to the back.
Interviewer:  Yeah. And y'all said y'all made a lot of cotton here?
811:  Uh yeah. We uh
Interviewer:  When you were younger.
811:  Yeah you {D: passed down} but the average farmer will only plant about ten acres. He'd make about seven, eight bales on the ten acres.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  And uh
Interviewer:  You don't know now, where they're planting.
811:  Uh in Acadia Parish, uh right now, they got one man left planting. {NS} And um
Woman :  {NS}
811:  the nearest gin is about fifty miles, cotton gin. {NS}
Interviewer:  Um now when you'd tell me about the work you do when you were cutting the ground, probably in the spring.
811:  Oh well what you usually do uh you always had rows left. So what you do, you you'll come and you'd cap your rows down {D: that meant} uh {X} uh it would close and one one up and open the other one.
Woman :  {NS}
811:  When you finish with that, and you had uh a little {D: diss}
Woman :  {NS}
811:  and you hook on there and uh
Woman :  {NS}
811:  you'd {D: diss} it up.
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS}
811:  And then it'd be time to well, to put your fertilizer down. Uh so like that, it w- it would take two set of mules and two people to do it. {NW} One would go on and put the fertilizer and you come back with a what they call a {X} with some choppers on it. And you cover it up. Uh what they usually do is put the fertilizer something like uh maybe two weeks before they would get ready to plant cotton or corn. Well, with the corn uh you'd put the fertilizer and plant uh {NS} well let's go back over and start again on the corn cause that's the first thing you plant.
Interviewer:  What'd you break the ground with in the spring?
811:  Well y- you had a- a buster. {NS} That's what you uh a- a buster was a thing with two wings on it. And a plow, that had a single wing on it. Now if you- you had flat ground, you had to do it with a plow.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  Um but that meant it'll take you twice as long to do it with a plow cuz you had a single wing on it. And uh most people wouldn't leave their land flat cause it would take too much time. So you're growing it out and to recap it and come back with a little {D: diss} it'd kinda build you up a row.
Interviewer:  Yeah. Did you use something to break the ground up real fine?
811:  Uh well there's this this little {D: diss} it'll break it up uh
Interviewer:  What about before that? Would they ever use just any kind of a little thing that had teeth in it?
811:  No well what they would they had this uh
Interviewer:  Spring-tooth?
811:  Spring uh yeah, spring-tooth, but they'd use this when your corn and cotton was coming up after it would rain and they had a hard crust on the ground. And you'd use this to pass to break the crust.
Woman :  {NS}
811:  Cause what they'd do if uh you didn't break the crust it'll co- it start to come up when it get to that crust, it'll start to turn
Child:  {NS}
811:  and whe- all it'd {D: do is die}
Woman :  {NS}
811:  so if you perfectly now {D: harrow, it would} break the crust and it'd come straight up.
Interviewer:  Ah.
811:  So that's the time you'd use your your ir- iron harrows, and you had side harrows. Your grass would start to come out on the side of your rows, and on the top. {D: Well you had a thing come it'll} it'll tear the rows down.
Child:  {NS}
811:  And you had this buster again well you come back and i- it'll tear the row down and they had- it'd leave a middle. And you'll come back through the middle with your buster and it built your row back up. {NS}
Interviewer:  Yeah. The you c- though the trenches cut by the plow were called the?
811:  Well that- that was your middle.
Interviewer:  That was the fir- the-
811:  Yeah the middle of your row.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  Yeah. Was there something you called the you know, the hole in- I mean the middle okay, the row was the what?
811:  I- well the row that was the
Interviewer:  The row was where you cut?
811:  No, that's where you were planting. #1 On your row. #
Interviewer:  #2 {X} # Oh, I see.
Child:  {NS}
811:  And usually when you plant on your row, you'd leave so- a middle so that means if your grass would get bad enough,
Child:  {NS}
811:  you could tear this row down.
Child:  {NS}
811:  {D: But it means} tear the row down but leave yo- your plant. And you had something to come back in the middle and rebuild your rows, tear the grass down and then sometimes you have to leave with a day or so to let the grass die off after it was a wet season cause if you would just come back with that buster again, all you do is just put your grass back up there and if the ground was wet, it'd take right back. {NS}
Interviewer:  Did um did you ever use uh two horses {NS} when you were plowing?
811:  Yeah, it was most- um well ninety percent of the time that's what you use. Two horses #1 {X} #
Interviewer:  #2 Okay. # Now one horse was the {NS} let's see. {NS} O- didn't one horse walk in the on the row? In other words, did one horse walk outside the row?
811:  Well um
Interviewer:  When you're using the middle buster, you call one horse the what? The horse on the left was a?
Child:  {NS} {NS}
811:  Um
Child:  {NS}
811:  well what you do when you're using a buster,
Child:  {NS}
811:  if you had- if your crop was small, you use a two-row center tree that makes your mules was far apart. If you didn't have none right in the middle where you was uh well your best- you busted it was uh on each side. And after your crop got big, {NS} sometime it was um too big, you have to use just one. {NW} What you would do, you would hit {D: your two up} and you would tie one on the end and you would go on and and work about a hour and a half. {NS} that one would get dark.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  #1 Um #
Interviewer:  #2 Hello. #
811:  you come on back and just unhitch that and hitch the other one. {NS} So like #1 that uh #
Woman :  #2 {X} #
Child:  {NS}
811:  give uh
Woman :  {NS}
811:  both of 'em a chance, you wouldn't just wear one out. Cause if you wouldn't do that, you'd have to {NS}
Interviewer:  Hello. {NS} The uh {NS} the horse on the left was the
Woman :  {NS}
Interviewer:  well, when you were using a middle buster, did you ever use a- {X} In other words, y- you know what the off horse was or the lead horse?
Woman :  See what I have here?
811:  Oh that was uh
Woman :  Sit right there and wait.
811:  well, what it was when you had
Woman :  You understand?
811:  you had a horse that would pull on a certain side.
Interviewer:  Mm-hmm.
811:  You had one
Child:  {NS} R was left and G was right.
Interviewer:  Oh.
811:  That was the {X}
Child:  {NS}
811:  Now
Child:  {NS}
811:  if this horse had been pulling on the left side, wasn't no need to put him on the right side. Cause he had a tendency to pull with his head out {NS} and some of 'em wouldn't pull at all.
Child:  {NS}
Woman :  No. No. {X} spells what?
Interviewer:  The uh
Woman :  Be quiet.
Interviewer:  now when you were pulling a horse,
Woman :  {NS}
Interviewer:  pulling a wagon, say with four {NS} horses or four mules, you'd use {NS} the the two in the front were the? {NS}
811:  That was your lead one.
Child:  {NS}
811:  I didn't see too many like that. No, I just seen the single ones.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  Just two?
811:  Yeah. Or like uh
Child:  {NS}
Woman :  I just gave you one.
811:  during uh when it's cutting rice and stuff like that {X}
Child:  {NS}
811:  and you had to have a good team. You had big teams
Child:  {NS}
811:  you know, big mules or big horses, whatever you had.
Child:  {NS} Cause you had uh not a whole lot to pull. {NS}
Interviewer:  Now suppose you came to a- say a log in the road,
Woman :  Wait.
Interviewer:  What'd you do?
811:  Uh usually it's very, very seldom you'd come to a log. But if you did and you you had a chain or something, you just could one hook uh one hook 'em off the wagon and uh
Child:  {NS}
811:  Well you was just {X} pull it off.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  You'd- you'd dr- you
811:  Just uh
Interviewer:  you'd tie the chain to the #1 log and #
811:  #2 that would #
Interviewer:  #1 did what? #
811:  #2 Yeah. # Uh to the log or to the wagon, or either one hook off the wagon.
Interviewer:  And
811:  And just take it and pull it on the side
Woman :  {NS}
811:  cause there wasn't no danger, nobody coming in the car or something to run over it
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  like it is now, if you see a
Interviewer:  The horses just dr- it's
Woman :  {NS}
811:  That they would just uh
Child:  {NS}
811:  hook on #1 to it #
Interviewer:  #2 They were strong # enough to
811:  Yeah, to pull it off.
Interviewer:  to drag it off?
811:  Yeah.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  Okay. Now, when you were did you have any land here that you had to get, say the brushes the brush and the trees and the stumps off of it?
811:  Uh since I've gotten a little older, uh we cleared some. Um after I came on this uh rice farm, what we used was uh well that was pretty early {X} pretty far back. They used dynamite to dynamite the stumps out.
Child:  {NS}
811:  And the pieces they had, they use old tractors and stuff to
Woman :  {NS}
811:  to pull 'em out. And later on, that's when they started using bulldozers. Um I cleared quite a bit of land myself with one.
Child:  {NS}
811:  With um brushes and stuff and {NS} stopped up uh {NS} all kind of drain ditches. I as I grew up, cause I run one I bulldoze it about about two years and a half
Child:  {NS}
811:  on the farm.
Child:  {NS}
811:  But I tell you, it was a whole lot easier with a bulldozer than it was with that dynamite
Child:  {NS}
811:  and them old tractors. Cause with a- with a bulldozer, you'd clear about
Child:  {NS}
811:  about a acre and a half a day.
Child:  {NS}
811:  And with that dynamite, if you cleared a acre a week, you had cleared a whole lot. {NW} {NS} And the trees wasn't half as {X} mostly all you had was old tree stumps. Then you had to dig up under there and set a charge and
Child:  {NS}
811:  run and hide yourself. And half the time, the charge wouldn't blow up out and go back and reset it again.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  And after you blew it out, you had to?
811:  You'd pick up the sticks and then all the way that never did blow it all out then you had to hook the chain on it
Woman :  {NS}
811:  and try to pull out what you could.
Woman :  {NS}
811:  So that meant plowing in there in about
Interviewer:  It was tough. {NS}
811:  For about the next five, six years, you had to be particular. You'd always have your equipment in there trying to plow cuz you always hitting more stumps and stuff.
Woman :  {NS}
811:  And therefore if I found one at the {X} you'd start about five years before you wanted to use it.
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS} Um what did you keep your your say your fi- your plow sharp with? You have anything?
811:  Uh they had what you call a blacksmith shop
Interviewer:  What'd you keep in there, say?
811:  Uh well
Child:  {NS}
811:  they had a special name, you had to take it to it. Um
Interviewer:  This was on the farm here? {NS}
811:  uh no he was uh more or less like in town.
Child:  {NS}
811:  Like if you uh
Child:  {NS}
811:  like on your plow points, you mighta had four plow points. {NS} Uh most people had about {NS} about two per uh one of 'em would last about a week.
Child:  {NS}
811:  All depends on what you was doing. You'd take it to him I think it was something like fifteen cent. Uh he'd use charcoal when he'd heat it
Child:  {NS}
811:  get it red red and take a hammer and beat it until it would get pointy pointy.
Child:  {NS}
811:  And
Child:  {NS}
811:  uh
Child:  {NS}
811:  {D: You would grab one} you would carry one, you'd pick up the other one.
Child:  {NS}
811:  Or either you'd carry 'em both it'd take him something like maybe fifteen, twenty minutes to do it.
Woman :  {NS}
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS} Um {NS} now some of the things that you'd {NS} well {NS} have around there to say, sharpen an ax on, you'd {NS}
811:  Or a emery wheel?
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  Yeah.
Child:  {NS}
811:  Uh you could sharpen my ax uh uh
Interviewer:  What about something that you would use to work off and on
811:  Oh what would they have called that?
Child:  {NS}
811:  Uh shoot. I forget the name #1 of it #
Interviewer:  #2 You use some sort of # wet uh {NS}
811:  Uh you had a a grindstone and a hand stone. {NS} That's hand stone uh {NS} {D: Most of 'em was water stone.} You have to use water with 'em.
Child:  {NS}
811:  You had a
Child:  {NS}
811:  a knife
Child:  {NS}
811:  uh that's it. {NS} You could put it on your hand stone, you could sharpen your knife.
Woman :  {NS}
Interviewer:  Did you ever uh play games with those, you know, when you were a kid?
811:  The knives?
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  Uh as we got a little bigger. When we were small, we didn't play with 'em. As we got bigger, uh we had cousins and stuff would come around and they'd get uh {NS}
Woman :  Pick up those cards.
811:  some of them um
Woman :  I'm gonna whip
811:  dates that uh {NS}
Woman :  I'm gonna whip you.
811:  they had a few, we never did own none. And uh we'd play with 'em like that. Try to stick 'em in trees and stuff.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS} Uh now {NS} yeah, and another game you'd play, y- there was a {X} you know, and you would {NS} You ever do those?
811:  Uh no.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  #1 Stick the {X} in the ground #
811:  #2 You had some #
Interviewer:  #1 and try #
811:  #2 some rings # or either uh horseshoes. Mostly it was rings where you had some little old rings and you {NS} #1 Uh #
Interviewer:  #2 You would? #
811:  Yeah, I don't even remember the name of it it's been so long.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  And what would you do with 'em? You would? {NS}
811:  Uh well y- you'd kinda draw a line and try to rope the {X}
Child:  {NS}
811:  Uh like each one had something like three or four rings that
Interviewer:  And you would take the ring and?
811:  And pitch it. Pitch out a rope, there.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS} Um {NS} now your father, when he shaved, did he ever use a straight razor #1 or would he? #
811:  #2 No. # #1 Uh #
Interviewer:  #2 He had a leather #
811:  yeah he had a- a leather strap.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  Course uh they used to cut hair
Child:  {NS}
811:  him and uh
Woman :  Shut up.
811:  the neighbor, they would cut one another's hair. And they used a- a straight razor and a a leather strap {NS}
Interviewer:  Huh.
811:  to sharpen it.
Interviewer:  Uh you comb your hair with a comb or a?
811:  Yeah, you had a I don't remember what kind of comb you had
Interviewer:  Hair?
811:  A hair comb. And a
Woman :  {NS}
811:  hair brush.
Interviewer:  Yeah, you would use that. You would take it and
811:  And comb.
Interviewer:  Or?
811:  Or brush.
Interviewer:  Brush your #1 hair. #
811:  #2 Mm-hmm. #
Interviewer:  Um did y'all burn coal around here much? Uh did you ever did y'all ever remember burning coal?
811:  The schools would burn it.
Interviewer:  Okay.
811:  And uh
Interviewer:  {NW}
811:  some very few people in town would burn it cause they uh that some people {D: in town would burn it cause} they'd get it for the school.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  Uh
Interviewer:  Near the- near the stove in the school would be a where would they keep it in?
811:  Uh they had a
Interviewer:  They'd make?
811:  a pile outdoors and uh they had a coal box in in the corner of the school.
Interviewer:  Okay. And they'd carry the coal in in- in a- in a what? In a?
811:  A little old container. They had a little shovel you uh and a little old coal bucket they would call it. You go down there and pick up your your coal and put it in there, and then you go pour it in there.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  And then you
Woman :  Down here.
811:  {NW}
Interviewer:  Can you now in this day and time, what do you use for transportation? You drive your own?
Woman :  Come here.
811:  For uh this day?
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  Oh well we got a automobile.
Interviewer:  Do you drive your own?
811:  Yeah.
Interviewer:  In other words, you can yo- you usually you feel up to it now or?
811:  Well #1 like a #
Interviewer:  #2 When did you get your first #
811:  uh my first license, I was fifteen years old when I got it.
Woman :  Wait.
811:  And my first automobile, I must've been about twenty, twenty-two when I got it.
Child:  {NS}
811:  Hope I can drive right now. {NW} Couldn't be off for three more months. {NS}
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS}
811:  Guess I'm gonna have to
Woman :  Wait a second {NS}
Interviewer:  When you first got it, you probably
811:  Oh yeah, I enjoyed driving it then.
Woman :  {NS}
811:  Just like a kid with a new toy.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  Where did you go? Like
811:  Uh {X} uh I was newly married then, about six months. {NS} We'd go up and back to the {X} and
Child:  {NS}
811:  go visit the brother-in-law. {NS} He never did take no long trips. Uh {NS} afterwards, after w- uh we had a couple of kids, well we started going to Texas every now and then. I had a brother living over there.
Woman :  {NS}
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS}
811:  And uh we would drive up there {NS} over the weekend.
Interviewer:  When uh {NS} when you uh on the wagon, when the wheels started squeaking you did you had to?
811:  Uh you had to pack 'em uh you had wagon grease. You had to uh on your wagon, on your tongue you had a- a pin that would stick in there to hold uh {NW} #1 hold your tongue. #
Woman :  #2 {X} #
811:  but on that that pin, it was a wrench, too. {NS} And what you do when your wheel would start squeaking, you'd take that wrench and you'd unscrew the hub off it. You pull your wheel off, and with some more grease in a bucket, and you just take a stick {D: and pass and then} pass it on that hub and slip your wheel back {NS}
Interviewer:  You grea- you
811:  Grease the hub. It would cure it.
Interviewer:  You got your hands all
811:  Well, you could uh if you'd use a stick, if you had a stick,
Interviewer:  You wouldn't get your
811:  you wouldn't get your hand greasy. But you had to be more than one cause you didn't have no jack. You had to use a long pole for leverage to raise it up. Uh you had one man he could balance the pole
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  we could hold it up.
Interviewer:  I see. Uh what did you have around the house you know, that you could carry heavy things in? Can you think? Say, with a wheel on it?
811:  Uh, you had a wheelbarrow.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  Okay. Um now the- those old those old uh wheels had a- on the cars, had inner had something inside the tire, didn't it? You know, the inner
811:  Uh inner tube. Uh and them day and age they- {X} a rubber tire with an inner tube.
Interviewer:  On the ti- on the cars?
811:  Oh, you mean on the cars.
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  Oh, yeah y- uh you had a- a tube in 'em.
Interviewer:  Yeah. Okay. Now you said you'd like to go fishing a lot?
811:  Well in them time w- we loved to go fishing.
Interviewer:  Down here? Where? Di- anywhere around here?
811:  Uh #1 Yeah just #
Interviewer:  #2 {NW} #
811:  uh anywhere we could find a hole that had fish. We would go in but then as I got older, I much rather to hunt than to fish. {NS}
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS} What would you what'd you put in what'd you have to hunt with? {NS}
811:  Well, when I really started hunting I I started hunting with a gun.
Child:  {NS}
811:  After I I grew up and got pretty big
Child:  {NS}
811:  and I got me a couple of dogs, took me about
Child:  {NS}
811:  four or five years before I could get the kind I wanted.
Woman :  {NS}
Interviewer:  Yeah. What'd you have first?
811:  Uh {NW} thinking about the first set of dogs I had. Uh
Child:  {NS}
811:  I bought a
Child:  {NS}
811:  bought me so- a couple of 'em. {NS} I left for about five days ago on a duck hunt and somebody went and
Child:  {NS}
811:  opened the pen and stole the- stole the dogs. Okay in the next couple of years, I bought me some more. They got out and they got killed. And then I decided, well if I'm gonna spend money
Interviewer:  By a car?
811:  Uh
Interviewer:  By a car?
811:  dogs.
Interviewer:  How'd they get killed?
811:  Well, yeah the cars. They went up to the highway and the cars ran over 'em. And then usually if you get a young dog, it'd take you a couple years to train it. And if you don't train him yourself, you just ain't got nothing. So I started off with one young dog and I give up on {X} to heck with 'em, I'm just gonna leave {X} And that day she started hunting. {NS} And I got me another one. And with the two I got right now, I wouldn't take five hundred dollars for 'em.
Interviewer:  Really? What kind of dogs are they? {NS}
811:  Uh one of 'em's a beagle and the other one's a {D: a cross} beagle. {NS} We do rabbit hunting. {NS}
Woman :  Pick up those cards. {NS}
Interviewer:  {NS} Um {NS} now in a pistol, you put now in a shotgun, you put what?
811:  Shells.
Interviewer:  But in a pistol you put?
811:  A bullet. {NS}
Interviewer:  Okay. Or a rifle, you put?
811:  A bullet.
Interviewer:  Okay. You call, you know you ever fire when sometimes when they might be firing blank?
811:  Uh cartridges or
Interviewer:  Huh? When they're not firing real shells, they're firing blank?
811:  Um blank cartridges.
Interviewer:  Okay. Uh did uh now, when you went fishing, what did you fish in, any? {NS}
811:  Well uh we used pitchforks. We didn't have no sand then, we would take us some grass sacks and uh it was usually holes in the bottom. You could almost see the fish in it.
Child:  {NS}
811:  We'd take uh
Child:  {NS}
811:  some grass sacks and tie 'em together.
Child:  {NS}
811:  The county had blocked the fishing, go there with some forks. {NS} And we'd catch a half a grass sack of fish in about fifteen, twenty minutes.
Woman :  {NS}
Interviewer:  Okay. {NS} When you went out in the water, what would you go in? Uh would they have anything around here that people would go in the water in?
811:  No. When you go in, you go in, you go in a foot you didn't have no boat uh skiff or nothing.
Woman :  {NS}
Interviewer:  Okay. {NS} What'd what'd they call those narrow kind of boats they had around here?
811:  What was uh they had pirogues.
Woman :  {NS}
Child:  {NS}
811:  Uh
Child:  {NS}
811:  the only people you seeing with them in them time it was uh
Child:  {NS}
811:  big companies like uh {NS} that they'd s- surveying and stuff. But uh you take like a
Child:  {NS}
Woman :  #1 Right now. #
811:  #2 Any # private individual, they didn't they very seldom they had one.
Child:  {NS}
811:  Was mostly just companies that had 'em. Cause that was something when you would see it was was rare everybody when they would see one like that, everybody run to see what it was. {NS} They had never seen it or either they didn't know what it was.
Interviewer:  Were they expensive, mr {X}
811:  I- I don't know. Uh whether they was expensive or not.
Interviewer:  Yeah. But- folks wouldn't have their own boats around here? In other words
811:  Not in them time, in uh like in the olden time?
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS}
811:  I {NS} I remember seeing uh some fellows were surveying uh this b- bog and that's the first boat I had ever seen.
Child:  {NS}
811:  I thought that was one of the craziest things I'd ever seen further out there paddling in that boat
Child:  {NS}
811:  from one side of the bog to the other one.
Interviewer:  You ever seen 'em build one?
811:  Uh I seen 'em build after I grew up. A- an old gentleman uh out there by Sweet Lake that build his own.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  Okay. And after he would built the boat, he would?
811:  Uh he had to
Interviewer:  When he was testing it out, you'd say he was? {NS}
811:  but it- it'd during the- when he built it he can't build it in the rainy season.
Child:  {NS}
811:  It's got to be dry
Child:  {NS}
811:  for the growing stuff and then uh
Child:  {NS} he- he don't take 'em out and test 'em. Uh other way he built 'em for they- they test 'em theirself. {NS}
811:  And uh
Child:  {NS}
811:  if they got a
Woman :  {NS}
811:  any
Child:  {NS}
811:  thing that's wrong with 'em, they bring 'em back and redo it. {NS}
Woman :  Pick up the cards.
811:  Cause he's a older gentleman that's retired and uh {NS} they say he don't
Woman :  Steve.
811:  he don't feel like going take 'em out in the water so all he does is build 'em.
Woman :  {NS}
Interviewer:  Yeah.
811:  Uh
Interviewer:  When you're putting the boat in the water, you say you're?
811:  Well, what you're doing, you'd either be testing {X} it launch the boat there.
Interviewer:  Uh now {NS} when a woman wanted to buy say, a dress of a certain color, {NS} she'd use a piece of cloth as a? {NS}
811:  Uh
Interviewer:  She'd take that to show the {NS} for a what? To use as a?
811:  A- as a pattern of what she wanted.
Interviewer:  Yeah. Well, you know, when she was going to the dressmaker's or something like that?
811:  Oh yeah.
Interviewer:  She'd take a piece of cloth to show 'em the kind of
811:  Material she wanted.
Interviewer:  that'd be a kind of a? A what? She'd call that a s- a? {NS} Well okay, when you- when you get things here in the mail, do they- they send you a free?
811:  A sample.
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS} That's what I w- you know, was kinda the thing she'd call a sample.
811:  Yeah.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  And {NS} your mother, you said, would make a lot of your clothes and things like that?
811:  Yeah, she'd make uh underclothes and quilts, bedclothes and stuff like that.
Interviewer:  Can she make her own clothes? {NS}
811:  She didn't do too much
Child:  {NS} you know, sewing for herself, you know like uh dresses and stuff.
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS}
811:  Uh
Interviewer:  Could she make a good dress? {NS}
811:  I never knew her to make a dress. I- I knew her to make uh
Child:  {NS}
811:  like our underclothes and uh {NS} and quilts.
Interviewer:  Were they good looking? They were? {NS}
811:  I- I bet it was some of the finest I had ever seen. Uh the quilts and stuff she would make
Interviewer:  You say they were? {NS}
811:  uh some of the prettiest I ever seen.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  Okay.
Woman :  That's not
811:  That's what I imagine that's the only ones I ever seen, the ones that she made, but I thought they was
Woman :  {NS}
811:  they was well-made. They was fine.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  They were mighty {NS}
811:  They was mighty good #1 looking and #
Interviewer:  #2 mighty pretty? #
811:  Yeah.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  Okay. {NS} {X} she'd say this quilt is- I mean this dress is?
811:  It's special.
Interviewer:  Or or this one is pr- is?
811:  Prettier than the other one.
Interviewer:  This one's even?
811:  Yeah.
Interviewer:  Even cu-
811:  Prettier.
Interviewer:  Prettier. {NS} Wi- what would she wear around her dress in the kitchen?
811:  A apron.
Interviewer:  Yeah. {NS} Uh okay now when was it you bought your first uh {NS} when you you what were y'all for clothes, you'd wear? {NS} {NS} Like okay. Your father, what would he wear to s-
811:  Uh uh
Child:  {NS}
811:  boy he'd wear overalls.
Child:  {NS}
811:  Uh
Interviewer:  Yeah. Round the farm?
811:  Yeah.
Interviewer:  Uh okay. Now {NS} when did you buy your first {NS}
811:  Uh
Interviewer:  uh
811:  bought my first pair of shoes, I was fifteen years old.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  Really?
811:  Uh-huh. And I remem- no, I wa- I was uh nine. I remember I bought a pair of white shoes. And I kept them shoes till I was fifteen.
Child:  {NS}
811:  I was nine years old when I bought my first pair of shoes.
Interviewer:  {NW} Okay now on Easter you might go to church and you see somebody's got on a a {NS}
811:  A new outfit or new suit or something.
Interviewer:  Yeah. Um {NS} now what would it- if it had three pieces, it would have a what?
811:  A vest. {NS}
Interviewer:  And a
811:  And a coat.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  and? {NS}
811:  Pants.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  Pants. Okay. Uh {NS} okay, your other names for what you might wear round the farm? You might just wear a pair of like you have on, a pair of? {NS}
811:  Uh a pair of uh pants.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  Yeah. Um {NS} now you know you you say {NS} this coat won't fit this year, but last year it? {NS}
811:  It fitted uh but might've got a little heavier.
Interviewer:  Yeah. You know you know how {X} when you pick up some weight.
811:  Yeah. You have to
Interviewer:  You decided this year it won't fit, but last year it?
811:  It fitted fit-
Interviewer:  Fitted. Um if you stuff a lot of things in your pockets, it makes 'em
811:  Make 'em stick out. {NS}
Interviewer:  Yeah. Like when you were going down to {NS} pick up a lot of nuts of some sort? {NS}
811:  Uh picking up pecans and stuff and
Interviewer:  Made 'em?
811:  Made 'em puff out.
Interviewer:  {X} {NS}
Woman :  Don't you get outside. {NS}
Interviewer:  Is th- is that somebody here to visit you?
811:  Yeah, excuse me a minute. {X}
Interviewer:  Okay.
811:  {X} {NS} Uh {NS} {D: the charity}
Child:  {NS}
811:  he asked for my wife
Child:  {NS}
811:  and so he came in there and uh
Child:  {NS}
811:  and brought it
Child:  {NS}
811:  cause he wasn't supposed {D: the other time he uh was uh supposed to bring it} {NS} but he took it on his self and he had just drove there that afternoon and he drove back to Lafayette that night. And then back to Baton Rouge. {NS} I {X} but he didn't talk to him
Child:  {NS}
811:  uh said that happened. {NS}
Interviewer:  And brung your boy back.
811:  Yeah, he brung him back to life yesterday to the hospital. {NS} And then w- was the {X} thing about it you know my boy went for caretaker. Uh they pay him uh
Child:  {NS}
811:  each kid got a pay, I believe it was three dollars.
Child:  {NS}
811:  {D: They had someone's paycheck.} he was uh well, like my boy, too but he was going for caretaker but he had to put three dollars uh for somebody to take care of his {D: care} And uh I don't know how many animals they had. But uh he went
Woman :  {NS}
811:  and uh he told him he didn't have to worry about going back to shoo his animal {X} gonna have somebody to shoo it for him. But my brother-in-law took him back over there. And they were supposed uh they went to {X} come back till Tuesday.
Child:  {NS}
811:  And you know they sent his check for caretaking?
Child:  {NS} {NS}
811:  Um they said that they felt that he deserved it cause if it wouldn't had been for that, he would've been there to they had to take care of the animals. {NS} And {X} accept it from my boy them kids wasn't supposed to go there till they was fourteen years old.
Child:  {NS}
811:  And he let him went when he was twelve for caretaker.
Child:  {NS}
Man:  {X} your son {NS} decide {X} kid about uh {NS} fourteen, fifteen year old.
811:  And you know he was the only black boy
Child:  {NS}
811:  in the group.
Child:  {NS}
Interviewer:  How old's your son now?
811:  Fourteen.
Interviewer:  Is that all?
811:  Yeah. {NW} {NS}
Man:  Well, I- I tell you my my daughter and him, do you know they drive {X} together {X}
811:  Uh from the {X}
Man:  Yeah. And uh #1 {X} #
811:  #2 {NW} #
Man:  Crowley. And they was about the two biggest kids. And now {X} she little bigger than him, #1 though. #
811:  #2 Oh #
Man:  {NS} You oughta see a oh boy I- I tease her all the time. She always every- every time she'd {NS} uh get back in the evening she'd sit down a little while, she'd go yes {X} Well I said Virginia, why do you sweep so much? {NS} Dad, I be {X} Oh, come on. I said you're too big already. I said you should get out in the yard and go {X} or eat a {X} do something Cause I said that's why all the boys won't {X} Boy, she get mad then. {NW} {NW}
811:  But he- he'd get out there, he'd work. And the bigger girl, she like that, she like to eat. Boy #1 she #
Man:  #2 Yeah. #
811:  Oh.
Child:  {NS}
811:  And he weigh about a hundred and ninety pound.
Child:  {NS}
Man:  {X} that's a big guy for as young as he is. Yeah.
811:  {X}
Child:  {NS}
811:  one day he wanted to he wanted to play football. He had started to play football, but he got that tha- uh that feel that he's gonna have a champion calf.
Child:  {NS}
811:  He got that {X} {D: chores}
Man:  Mm-hmm.
811:  {NS} He started to feel that {NS} he was gonna show a champion calf before he finished showing. And you know it come close. {NS}
Man:  Yeah? {NS}
811:  He was second in his class.
Man:  Yeah?
811:  And uh all the other boy had to do was uh the one that beat him if he'd have beat the other calf, he'd have had a chance to go in there for {X}
Man:  Yeah? {X}
811:  And um and that's when he got in his mind uh he other than that, he would've played football.
Man:  Yeah.
811:  But now he done changed his mind, he wanted to show a champion calf before he he finished school.
Man:  Uh-huh. {X}
811:  {NW} I was surprised he
Woman :  {NS}
811:  I used to go see about uh take him out there to go see about his calf and stuff, you know {D: thereby uh}
Man:  Mm-hmm.
811:  He went
Child:  {NS}
811:  out there and looked at one
Child:  {NS}
811:  and uh him and the fellow talked
Child:  {NS}
811:  fellow told him to pick out anything he wanted. He had told him, he said if you c- come out champion, he said if I die, or something he said, you can go in my pasture. {X} my wife and uh that's him and {D: Miller} And uh {NS} with George. You can take any calf you want in my pasture. It ain't gonna cost you a penny. {NS}
Man:  Mm-hmm. {NS}