Interviewer: -have here, and, and everything. Um, the soil, you said you, you could plow it pretty well with a middle buster? 811: Yeah, you had a different kinda land, but, uh, sandy land, black land. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And, uh, bottom land. But mostly, the highlands were, always had, uh, sandy land. You had a very few that had black land. Interviewer: Yeah. That, uh, the soil here is very-, can you raise a good crop on it? 811: Yeah, uh, you got about ninety-five percent of it that, uh, will produce just well as any, anywhere else, I imagine, after you put the ingredients you need. Anytime you start neglecting it, now, put half what you need in it, it- Interviewer: Yeah. But the soil here is very- 811: It's Interviewer: very {D: fertile}. 811: A farm, and, uh, it, it ain't a rich, rich soil. Interviewer: But it's- 811: It's- Interviewer: It's fertile? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Oh, now, the type land, say, that you, uh, the real black land, you call that, okay. Do you got any, cause it's kinda sandy, and, and it's clay, got sand and clay mixed in? Aux3: Yeah, you ain't got too much of that around there, though, you get, uh, that, uh, black, sticky land. Interviewer: They call that? 811: Uh, a black land. Aux1: It's something like a black {X}. 811: Yeah. And that's not bad for, I tell you, the big farm was, what you call, big rice farm, was, that's the reason you gotta buy so much equipment, if you, gotta work it when they just right. And they're just right, that means you ain't got more than about three days, after a rain, or before a rain, to get it, fixed the way you supposed to fix it. And if you miss that, you just gonna have to wait, maybe at a month, or three weeks, or whatever, you don't know when it's gonna get right again. So you gotta have enough equipment to get in there and do it right away and get out. Interviewer: Yeah. Okay, the place where you were raised up, is it any different from right around here? 811: No. It's, uh, it's about the same. Interviewer: Okay. You got water over there, or here? Like, how'd you get water onto the rice? How, how do y'all get water on the rice? 811: Uh, over there you have to use, uh, there, what you call a relief pump, {X} and you had, bay- made dam- a dam in the bog and hope it would rain, or somebody else would lose a little water for you to get some. Them time, they wouldn't plant more than about ten, fifteen acres of rice. I guess it was all, you'd get out there and, cut it with mule binders, and all that stuff, it, uh, and if you had a bad season, you'd get out there with them old sickles. Aux1: Yeah. 811: And that was no fun. Aux1: Well, I {X} I knew had to cut it with sickles, but I don't know where on the farm, and chopped it up by hand. Oh, they just wanna get {X}. Interviewer: Y'all, tell me about that, do you have to, when you cut the rods? 811: Uh, well, I, I never did do it, but I new that the first ride on the field, when they had the mule binded, they had to go around the field, and cut it with a sickle. That meant, they had to go all around the field with a hand sickle and cut it. #1 And # Interviewer: #2 And they tied it up in a- # 811: tied it up in balls, and then, you'd hook your mules up, and you'd go around with your, your {D: barn} Aux2: Yeah, and then you'd have to {X} all over down there in the {X} 811: And then you had to start {D: shocking it} Aux2: Right, in the back. {X}. Interviewer: Hmm. How much would you raise an acre? About, how much rice? 811: Uh, that'll make a- I don't know exactly, must have been about, Well, you had a, about a hundred and fifty pound in a sack. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. How many bushels? 811: Hmm, so that must have been about, twelve or thirteen sacks, that, uh, #1 Yeah. # Aux1: #2 {X} # 811: No, not that much, about six {X} five or six sacks to the acre. Interviewer: They-, they were measured by bushels? 811: Uh, well, what you gotta do i- is break it down, cause it takes sixty, sixty-two pounds to make a bushel. And, they uh, the sacks they had, they had about a hundred and, uh, fifty pounds, in each sack. {X} instead of doing this {D: thing} Interviewer: Oh, that's how much you'd plant. 811: Uh, no, that's, uh, Interviewer: How much you? 811: that's what they would put in the grass sack when they're, back when they would harvest it. They'd put up, like a hundred-fifty pound, in a- in a sack, now, if you get a twenty-five pound bag when you buy 'em, well they, will throw you in a hundred and fifty pound bag. It makes you have to load it, on a truck, and truck it to the mill to get it dried, and cleaned. Interviewer: Yeah. Where was the rice grown, mostly? 811: {B} Well, you had, uh, most of 'em would haul at the rain, they had a couple of good places around Church Point over there, but they have to go or let it dry. You didn't have no, uh, Interviewer: And it was grown in a certain area? What would, would some land grow rice better than others? 811: Yeah. You had, uh, {X} if you had a hill, where you couldn't get the water too good, you didn't make no rice. But if you had a flat field, you could fill it good, get enough water, you would make, Interviewer: Yeah. Okay, now the highland farmers, what were they? Did y'all have any hills around you? 811: No, this, uh, we didn't have too, uh, this sure wasn't a hilly place. Uh, it was pretty flat country. Interviewer: Just a little {D: rising} land would be called a? 811: Well, you'd, uh, a knoll if you let, you know, Interviewer: Okay. Well, {X}, you ever heard, if you open the door, you hold onto the door? 811: No. Interviewer: Yeah, but you ever heard of, call that a knob? uh, {X} in land, call that too? 811: No. Interviewer: Okay, a knoll or something, would be just a little small? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: And, would the-, would there be any around here? Like, let's see, well, not a place where, where, say, the, the water had cut? Kind of a deep place, back in the woods, and there would be water standing there a lot of the time, you know? 811: Yeah, you get a whole lot of that. You get that out in the fields, too. But when they start going to farmers, they start putting out, pipe drops. Uh, what they'd do is, is put a pipe to drain the field. {D: So that, that it don't wash} it go through the pipes. But if you just leave it, year in and year out, it'll wash so bad, you can't do nothing with it. But the farmers doing, now they put, now everybody putting pipe drops. Interviewer: But, back in the old days, the water would make a what? Make a? 811: Uh, it'll, wash you a, I don't know what the heck they would call it, a gap? And, and, uh, in that time, in the olden time, I don't think it was as bad. Because your, your gullies when they're deepest, they, uh, and your water don't flow as much. Aux2: Mm-mm. It'll go on a float, you see, {X}. Cut a drainage, couldn't take it like you do now. Interviewer: Yeah. Aux1: Cause {D: she didn't like it}. Aux2: Um, we used to go, go ahead and, anyone could come in there and catch a fish and a crawfish, and everything, and now, you can't, you don't have it. Interviewer: Yeah. Did, did y'all, in other words, that place would be called a what? Where- 811: A washout. Because, uh, you'd think, if it would ran a, a six-inch rain, Interviewer: Yeah. 811: It might would take two or three days for it to drain off, drain off the fields. Unless your water level would drop, it would run off, bu what, what happened right now, you'd get a six-inch rain, and the water gonna go down about in a day. Your gully, gonna flow, and then your water's gonna start coming out the field, into the gully, and it's coming out a full {X} Your water done ran out your gutter before it drained off your field, and it's gonna, it will give a tendency to wash you, a gap. Interviewer: I see. A gap is just a little place, you know? 811: Yeah, it started as a little place, but it'll wash it. Interviewer: How big'll it'll get, they'll get? 811: Uh, it'll wash from the, if you got a, let's say a twenty foot drop, from the, the top of your field to the bottom of your gully. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: He's gonna wash about a ten-foot gap, no, no, from the field, deep. It'll wash you a gap, about five, six feet wide. And, if you leave it long enough, it'll wash it more than that. The more you leave it, the more it's gonna wash. Interviewer: But a gully is a, is a what? What is a gully? That's just a? 811: Uh, well, that's a place where, uh, Interviewer: Where there's water? 811: Yeah, for the water there. To drain off, Interviewer: Is it-, 811: the fields, and stuff, you know, Interviewer: Okay. So that you would cut in the field, for the water to drain off, now? 811: Oh, that would be a levee. Interviewer: Okay. Or a place, you know, that you dig yourself? For water to drain off? 811: Yeah, you can dig a, a ditch, Uh, but, uh, this canal, that's something that the, the state does. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: There's, uh, Interviewer: Digging ditches yourself? 811: Yeah. The- the state does, uh, Interviewer: But a gully doesn't have any {X}. What about something that would have a lot of trees, say, standing in it? 811: Well, that could be a gully, either, or a bog. Cause, uh, the gullies get a whole lot of 'em, that, uh go, but not a way they, they grudge 'em too often, you don't see too many, but the bogs. they have quite a bit of trees in. Woman: {NW} 811: And when they done, they, uh, they stays poisoned, them trees. And, when they'd ran a flood, the more rotten trees start to break up, and they go pile against, uh, bridges, and for it to, you know, to breathe and wash out, everything {X} Aux1: Them trees, and what did, you know, really {X}, the water over 'em, and they hit that {X}. {X} of the bridge. Interviewer: Really? 811: The same thing happened right down there, they go down there with a back-hoe, but what happened to water when it as high as it was, but I did, I just got on the bridge and mashed the trees down, and let 'em pass. And when they went down, we was supposed to go in and burn 'em, because all they did is just went on other side of bridge and got hooked on other trees. And they just pile up right there. Interviewer: Oh, now, just a little place where water would flow, would be a? 811: Uh, a drain ditch, yeah. Interviewer: Hmm. Have you got something, say, small, that {D: I'm buying}? 811: Uh, you got a gully. Interviewer: Okay. #1 Or a, you know what a {D:coolie} was? # 811: #2 Uh, uh, # #1 Well, # Aux1: #2 What's that? # 811: Uh- uh- that's just a fresh nail, for a gully. {D: The fishermen would call it a coolie.} Interviewer: Water doesn't run in a gully all the time. 811: N- uh, no. Uh it was very seldom, some gullies were running, but there were very few of 'em. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Cause you take like that big, uh, gully that goes, uh, Child: {NW} 811: that passes, uh, by Mr. Greene and them over there. Child: {X} 811: Uh, it was very seldom you'd get a flow of water in there. Aux2: Oh, that time, you know, right after rain, but afterward, 811: If you'd get a dry season you'd, uh, of cattle, or, that you'd get for, uh, uh, follows, you were there for the cattle, and everything, they were drinking, well, if you get a, a dry season, they gotta pump water in it for the cattle to have water. Interviewer: Hmm. Oh, now, when you go back in the woods, you might run into, kind of, a low place. You know, 811: Yeah. Interviewer: where you might find a lot of duck or anything, or, uh, game back there, what's that? 811: Uh, you, you would call that a {X} there. Uh- that- in the woods, they got a, you don't find too many of them around here, but, uh, like, uh, in Jeff Davis Parish, uh, Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Uh, you'd find quite a few of them, cause that was, um, what you would call, some, uh, rolling country. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: You got a bunch of hills, and, uh, it rolls a whole lot. Interviewer: Do you, do you have any land around here that's so low, you may have to plow it later? You know, would have a lot of water in it, you'd have to plow it late, uh, to plant cotton there, or corn, or something? 811: Uh, Interviewer: down by the stream, #1 or something like that, you know what I'm talking about? # 811: #2 Well, you have to, you, you # get a, a pond. Too many people don't plant, you know, uh, cotton or something there, cause they, they just take the chance of, of losing it, cause if they get a rain, it's gonna starve it. Aux2: Oh, yeah. 811: So, too many, if they got something like that, they just leave it for pasture. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Our grazing is up there. #1 And, uh, # Interviewer: #2 That's all the what? That's just a-, # 811: Uh, uh, a {D: shloo} Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Or, a piece of low land at, Interviewer: Um, now, the type, you know, you were talking about the type soil you had here, uh, real, um, thick soil, and, #1 low? You got # 811: #2 Yeah, we have that. # Interviewer: any loo-, low, sandy? 811: Yeah, you got sand in the, uh, sand they soil, too. Interviewer: Yeah. Uh, see some of those games on TV yesterday? Boy, they were some good ones. 811: Nah, I didn't, what I did? I think I was laying down. Interviewer: All day? Boy, you missed a couple good basketball games. 811: I, I started looking at a, uh, who it was? The, uh, what was it, Golden State Warriors, that? Interviewer: Yeah. Man, those guys are so big, have you ever seen 'em play? 811: Ah, not in person, I seen 'em, uh, uh, like, on TV. Interviewer: Oh. 811: You see that fight they had the other day over there? Interviewer: Uh-uh. 811: {NW} Well, actually, they two guards started fighting. Interviewer: Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 811: And they end up, in the grass, I never expected, I would hear, hear a foot-, uh, basketball player. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: Didn't expect it in the footb-, in the basketball. Aux2: Someone got injured. 811: Yeah. They had to had it get on the court ball {X} Interviewer: Yeah, yeah, you oughta go, you oughta go to a game sometime, they way they're playing with us, sometime in New Orleans. I saw that {X} play. Boy, he is so big. 811: What about a, uh {X} Interviewer: You ever seen a man that big in your life? He could stop, he could go from the {D: fly} line and take one step, and just {NW}, jam it. Aux2: They should make more {X}. Interviewer: Yeah, they do. They sure do. 811: That, then, got to be-, they call it a contact sport. That's why- Interviewer: It is. 811: they do more roughhousing {X} cause a bunch of that stuff, they do that elbowing, and stuff, that's not necessary. They- they pass them elbows, there {X}. Aux1: Yeah, they do. I guess that's the name of the game, if you wanna win. Aux2: You got to- 811: There, here, the one that, that, uh, get the foul called on is the one that gets caught. The one that don't get caught, he don't get no foul called on him. Interviewer: {NS} 811: {X} Interviewer: It is in some ways. 811: You ever play football? Interviewer: Huh? 811: You ever did play football? Interviewer: No, my father wouldn't let me. Breaking, you know, break your arms, Aux2: #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 Yea, yeah, sure. # 811: But you know, that football, it is, uh, you pretty well protected. Some of them kids, I, well I, my boy wanted to play, I told him, I says, you wanna play? I say, you gonna have to make up your mind. Aux2: That's right. 811: When you go out there, don't have no mercy on nobody. But the fellow that's gonna hit you, he ain't gonna have no mercy on you. I say, if you go out there and hit a fellow, break him a leg or something, I said, you get to feeling sorry, says somebody's gonna hit you back. Interviewer: Yeah, right. 811: I say well, if you go out there, you just gotta make up your mind. Then do it to him before he do it to you. Aux2: I talked to my boys when they was young, in high school, I said, why don't y'all join football, basketball, {D: Trevor} told me, he said, if a fellow bumped me, {D: there done}, I know you done it deliberately, tell him, I'll get mad, I'll hit him. And I said, well, you can't play, not that way, I said, but he say, I look at them fellas, some of 'em, they, they do it deliberately, and, you know, and a lot of time, the referee don't see it, and, and he said, right there, he couldn't stand it. 811: But, you know, a game like that, it is, uh, it is a team game. If you go into the huddle, and there's a number twenty-two elbowing my son, I can't get there, the referee {D: he might've seen he did} so you, you pass him a {X} Interviewer: Did y'all have any rough games when you were coming up? Would y'all play that any, or? 811: No. Interviewer: W- did you ever have a game where, somebody told me about a game that was pretty rough, they would take a, a can, and some sticks, maybe, and beat, you know, beat the can around, try and get it, hit it between each other with the sticks, or something like that, never played that? 811: Mm-mm. Aux1: No, I done saw kids play, that's a real game. Every time they'd swing at the can, and lift the, can and {X}. {X} Interviewer: Knock out somebody. Aux1: Yeah, knocked their teeth out. Interviewer: Uh, what about animals when you were coming up? Did you raise, raise them? About, now, you mentioned dogs, what kind or dogs did y'all have around here? 811: Uh {X} you didn't have, hardly no purebred dogs, then. #1 You had, # Interviewer: #2 You just had, # 811: you just had bulldogs, mostly. Most of your dogs was crossed with bulldog. Interviewer: Yeah. You'd call him, if he was a mixed breed, you'd call him a? 811: Uh, bulldog, you'd just call him a bulldog, either, a shepherd. Interviewer: You see those little ones? What'd you call them, those little dogs, yapping, noisy? 811: Oh, the little, uh, ah, uh, {X} Interviewer: Just the little fu-, uh, 811: #1 Feist. # Aux1: #2 A little feist. # Interviewer: Especially, uh, an especially, uh, worthless dog, could be a what? 811: It uh- it'd have to be a feist, would be. Interviewer: Yeah. Aux1: And, boy, he can yap, oh, 811: But in that time, you wouldn't see too many of them, though. Most of the dogs you seeing was big dogs. Aux2: There's right, them old German shepherd, and German police off-, a mixed breed, 811: And that was some bad dog. Aux2: No. Interviewer: Did you ever have one come, have you ever gotten a dog? 811: Uh, we had one, the, uh, they had it, and the only one could make him be quiet was my poor daddy. Uh, when he was working at night, we went, he had to had our old mule. And would hang around there, he killed that mule, he cut his throat. And they had some swing gates, and we was coming out there, and he was sleeping, down by that gate. And when he heard us, we was right there, and he scared us. And we went up on top of that gate, and he was trying to get up there at us. Interviewer: {NW} Aux1: #1 Here boy, you want some {X} # 811: #2 {X} # Oh. And poor daddy happened-, uh, well, who else they had working there? They had another fellow, he seen the dog after us, we heard a pop, well, where, took us up, and we had dropped about everything, so he came out there, and nobody else couldn't hit that dog, we picked up a stick, and he hit that dog {X} But he wouldn't try to growl back at it, he just would lay down there. Aux2: {X} 811: And anything he would tell, that's the only one that dog would listen to. Aux2: Oh, boy. 811: And them old dogs would kill more mules, and stuff, and they used to make them dogs fight a whole lot. They'd bet money on 'em, if you had the best dog. Aux2: Yes. 811: They wouldn't guess the law like it is, not him being anywhere down the road. Aux2: Yeah, and make them money. Interviewer: Um, did you ever get dogs? 811: No, I never get dog-bit. That was the closest I had ever come, to a dog bite. Aux2: And you was afraid. 811: That rascal, he would've bit, bit my brother. but when he was done, he was grabbing for his throat. He could have caught his leg, but that was a dog he never grabbed for, for your leg, or your head, #1 head, or you grab. Oh, yeah, he-, # Aux1: #2 {X} kill him. # 811: {NW} Interviewer: Where did he go for, he went for your? 811: Uh, he went for, hi-, for my brother's throat, and he was getting on the gate at the same time, and he missed it. Aux2: It was really-, 811: Yeah. Aux2: {X} Interviewer: What did you say to your dog, when you wanted him to attack, or another person, or another, something else, or another dog? 811: They say, sic him. Aux2: Sic him. Yeah, boy. Interviewer: Uh, now, if you, if a dog was coming after you, was there a way that you would, you would, if you're walking along a road, you might? 811: Well, usually, one of 'em that came at us one day, but we, Interviewer: Pick up a, 811: A rock. And the only thing we had, that dog, we had that big old rock, and that rascal was coming, and we threw that rock, and he hit him in the mouth, that dog's teeth, the mouth started bleeding, it knocked some of his teeth up, that was a bad dog. And his master was standing up on the hill, looking at him. Aux2: And he wouldn't call him back? 811: No, he wouldn't call him back. Aux2: You know, he did with your neighbor, Mr. {X}. Aux1: You know, in them time, I'll tell you, them people were so {X} against the, the {X}. #1 How much it'd- # Interviewer: #2 I know, I know, # I, I know, for a fact, that, that, uh, white folks kept those kind of dogs, didn't they? 811: #1 Yeah. # Aux1: #2 You're right. # 811: And that dog, that made to bit us, that was the boss's dog. Aux2: And he {X}. 811: But you did, you had, certain group of people, but the rest of 'em, they was some fine people. But you had a group of 'em, like that, they would enjoy stuff like that. Then, you know, you went told that poor daddy, wanted them to whip us with that dog? #1 {X} # Aux1: #2 {X} # 811: #1 Could've killed both of us. # Aux1: #2 That dog could've tore {X}, and he, # Aux2: And if that would've happened, that we {X}, 811: He was standing right up there on the hill looking at me. He wouldn't hardly {D: know it, though} Aux2: You know, I got caught like that with a big ol' German shepherd. I was in {X}. So I left from by the truck, I was loading up corn, out of old {D: Billy}, and I went, 811: Did the dog live out there? Aux2: Yeah, when I swung at him, yeah, he got out the way, if he wouldn't have, uh, the way, I was gonna try to kick that dog, if I'd have- knock him with the {D: boot}, I was gonna pick it up and do it again. Cause, man, I'm scared of a dog. 811: I'm scared of a dog, too. I don't, eh, and you know, the way I feel I don't, if I've got a dog, I wanna keep that dog, we ain't gonna bother nobody's cause I don't want nobody's dog to bother me. Aux2: Right. 811: If I've got a dog in the yard, that's usually my answer, no yard dog, now. Cause I figure, somebody come. You got somebody coming here, you gotta be watching the dog, or- Aux2: Mm-hmm. 811: Or blowing before they got on to knock us up, if I don't see him. And when I go to somebody's house, if they don't wanna be bothered with me, or something. If I gotta stay out there and blow and start knocking and stuff, and they got that dog back in the yard, Interviewer: It's especially bad, when you go to their house, and they're not- 811: They're not there. Aux2: That's right. I got one that was, {X} but he ain't gonna bother, you know, nobody, anybody can stop him, you know, come and knock at the door. He won't bark, at least at night, if it's a stranger, he like to bark, but he ain't gonna try to attack. Cause, uh, I had a, a little small one like that. He was kinda lean, if it was his friend, he was gonna, bark, and, you know, go about, {D:and just race} but, uh, I never did saw him trying to, you know, jump on one. 811: I remember when we were small, we had a old black and white dog, we call him Spot. And, uh, I remember one year, poor daddy took pneumonia and that old dog would love to hunt. And poor grandma put that raincoat on, and went outside, he'd pull it off. If he had went outside to get some store wood, he'd pull that raincoat clean off. Aux2: Oh, no. 811: That poor mama would beat us, and we had them old wooden windows and stuff then, and you remember? {X} wooden window. She had take over the house, all of us they stay close to {D: oldie} If he'd get there one day was beating us, they said {X} {NW} That, cause, uh, she couldn't, or she'd whip us. It'd be us crying in the house. Shit. Aux2: He was going to- 811: He was coming after. Any boy that would hit us, like if we walked out in the woods or something, somebody would hit us, if we didn't have him tied or something, he was gonna, tied, he was gonna, he was gonna kill him, too. Nobody could've put a hand on us. Aux2: #1 {X} # 811: #2 {X} # Boys running- they thought we was rascals. Yeah, we knew- Uh, we'd do our kind of {X} early in the morning, poor mama wasn't gonna whip us cause she had to say curled up in the house all day. Boy, we could do all {X} Aux2: That's when you're always- 811: always she'd whip us at night, that dog would be to the window. to the door scratching, trying to get in. Aux2: Mm. Interviewer: The dog would want- 811: want to get in there, to attack her. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: If you'd just holler. And, and the fellow poisoned that dog. Yeah, that, tried to bark, and that it wouldn't set in there. and he had a dog. They wanted to make them fight, and they didn't wanna. So they kept on, kept on until they made 'em fight, and the other dog killed his dog. Cut his throat, and then he, uh, one night, there, they came home, they was playing cards. They was playing cards for gooses. Interviewer: For what? 811: For gooses. Uh, wild geese. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And they would take so many grain of corn, you know, a fellow would come in and buy, let's say, a dollar's worth of, of corn, that was, uh, a hundred, uh, grains of corn. Let's say, if you were, {D: could eat, though} I bet you had to have something like three-hundred. to win a, a goose. I said, if you had played till twelve, well, if you, just had a hundred-and-fifty, well, you give me a dollar and a half, and let him go. And if you, yeah, well, if you wanted a goose or something, well, if you want to put another dollar and a half, they would get my goose. And they, that fellow played, and, uh, Interviewer: {X} twelve, you mean twelve-? 811: Twelve oh clock that night. Uh, I think you played ''til about eleven oh clock. And we had the dog tied, and he went out the door when he left. The dog followed him, he got along the road, he poisoned him. Interviewer: What about other animals on the farm? You told me about the mule, that {X} 811: Yeah, we had a little mule, and-, you had a, Interviewer: Okay, now, but in a herd of animals, of cattle, you'd call the male? 811: Uh, a bull. But, uh, usually, you didn't have too many herds of cattle. You had, maybe, two or three milk cows. And then, everybody didn't have bulls, usually, when the cow would start the run, you'd wanna breed it there with-, Aux2: {X}. 811: Go take it to the neighbor somewhere that had a bull. Interviewer: Man, you call the-, other names for it? What would a woman call it, ever? Uh, do you ever hear 'em called a toro? 811: Uh, well, some call 'em bulls, other than that, they usually hear somebody say toro, but they, they never, they would, uh, in that time, it was just plain bull, he called that toro {X} a nickname there. Interviewer: Yeah. Would women say that? Okay. Would women? 811: I never heard that. Interviewer: As far as you know, bull? Um, now, the ones you would drive carts with. Did you ever see them? 811: Uh, um, Oxes. Aux2: Oxen. 811: Yeah. Interviewer: If you had four of those, you'd say, you were, had two? 811: Uh, yeah, two team, uh, oxes. Interviewer: Um, Aux1: I, I never did see a real ox. Aux2: I ain't never seen 'em in action, I've only see in on, uh, movies, and, uh, TV like that. But, uh, I don't think we {X}. 811: No, that happened before our time. Interviewer: Uh, if you, now, if you had a cow by the name of daisy, expecting a calf, you'd say, Daisy's gonna? 811: Uh s- uh soon have a calf, or, expecting a calf. Interviewer: She would, uh, she'd go back to the woods, when she was gonna? 811: No, not necessarily, uh, Interviewer: She was gonna come fresh? 811: Uh, uh, no, but they, what they usually try to do is, is close up. Then, you'd just about what time she was gonna have her calf, then put her in the pasture, where you could, kinda, keep an eye on her, as it was kinda important, if you had her milk {X} Aux2: {X} Has {X} to offend me. Interviewer: Yeah. Um, now, the male horse was a? 811: Uh, you didn't have too many, male horses, what they would breed with, was a jack. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: There, uh, now, you'd breed a, a mule. Uh, to a jack. Uh, they wouldn't hardly breed no horses, that I remember. Aux2: {X} They would breed the horses with the jack, and the horses would carry a mule. 811: Yeah. Aux2: And, uh, 811: I- I didn't know exactly how #1 {X} # Aux2: #2 {X} Now, if you # breed, a, a, a donkey with a jack, they bring the donkey, {D: or even} a jack. 811: And so, what you had there, you had, about two or three people in the parish that had a jack. Aux2: That's right. 811: And the poor farmers would go down there, they back in that hard time of the year, they did- they didn't have the money to {X} Interviewer: {X}? 811: Or something like, well, I just run three or five dollars. Aux2: Three to five {D: something}. Interviewer: {NW}. And, 811: He just would miss that breed, was, during the time when, she was running. That might be either a year or six month before she run again. Aux2: Yeah. 811: And for the next time they get to {D: miss the mule}. Aux2: #1 You know, uh, # 811: #2 Yeah. # A breed. Aux2: I had, um, old mare like that, she come in heat, so I went to the fella, you know, the breeding with his {D:steer}, so he told me, he said, ten dollars guaranteed, well, I said, I can't pay you ten dollars now, I said, oh, I could give him about three dollars. So he said, okay. Now, I said, if I give him three dollars, will he {X}? And well, I said, now that's guaranteed? He said, that's right. {X} twelve more, wait 'em, she hadn't caught. 811: I work a many nights, for three dollars a night. Aux2: I remember, I, I worked from sunup to sundown, for seventy-five cents, daily. And that's when the sun rise, be there. When the sun go down, they {X}. That's right, that's long hours. And, um, And I see them all graduate, and start a family, {X}. And {X} better. Because, now, you couldn't wake up a five year-old kid for seventy-five cents a day. 811: But, you know, {D: I fear the damn time when I} when, I, I knew things was bad, then, yeah. But, when I was working, like, for, uh, for three dollars, three fifty, a night, or a day, when you went to the store, Aux2: That's right, you, the little money you have will go a long ways. But now, you go to the store with about fifty dollars, and make grocery, #1 Yeah. # 811: #2 Uh-huh. # You can come back with it all in one hand. And you could go to the store with a dollar and a half, and you could come back with Aux2: What all you want, with, all the grocery. {X} Aux1: You can't do it now. 811: Oh, cause I remember good, when we used to, and they, uh, end of the ye-, uh, during picking cotton time, they would give you, the cotton seed money, so your seeds was twelve or fifteen dollars. Aux2: You alright? 811: And you can go to that store, and you come back with the bottom of your wagon covered. Aux2: That's right, the {X}. 811: For twelve or fifteen dollars, almost anything you wanted to buy. You had a few piece of clothes. {NW} Interviewer: When you bought, say, when you paid your bill on time, or something like that, did the storekeeper, give you something, and say it was for? 811: Well, they'd usually give, uh, a pair of pants, or, either, a suit. Aux1: Or a hat, or something. 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Did he say it was for? 811: For appreciation, or, your business, that you, you know, paid your bill on time, and, Interviewer: Well, what, what, what if he would give, say, the kids something, and say, that was for? 811: Well, if their kids was with 'em, somebody would give 'em a, a candy, or, Interviewer: Say it was for what? For? 811: Why, that would, uh, what the heck they would call it? Aux1: What'd they call it? Oh, {D: yim yowp} 811: {D:Yam yap} that's what it is. Aux2: {X} 811: {X} Call that {D: nyang yep}. Aux1: Yeah, {X}. But she, they, they stopped over there. 811: {D: The nya nyat} that was, uh, uh, Aux3: Jean? Excuse me, um, Lee said {X} meant to tell you to call Miss Barbara, and find out what she wanted to- Interviewer: Yeah. 811: They go around in a circle. Aux2: Mm. 811: and once you're on that circle, you know? I didn't wanna laugh. It's getting low, it's getting low, it's getting low. One Sunday afternoon, me and my wife have to go to the movies. Um, we got off, uh, I miss my street, some kinda way. But I hate that one sixty-seven, uh, Westbound. Aux2: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: What kinda road is that? That's a? Aux2: Four-lane. Interviewer: Four-lane, yeah. 811: That night at one sixty-seven, that's a, Aux1: No, no, I know what you're talking about now. 811: At that {X} Aux2: {X} 811: Hey, you know, I hate that road, and that thing's cutting there straight through LaFayette. And all, I found myself, I was going to Aberville, and I had it, when I said, all this time, I've been running around here getting low. And that was on a Sunday afternoon. Aux2: Ah. Interviewer: #1 {X} # 811: #2 {X} # Aux2: You could see him, you couldn't, get too much traffic, 811: It was clean, all that, Aux2: Ah, I worked down there, by the floor. Three or four years, you know, {X}. {X} {X} Interviewer: Like what, what kind of roads? 811: Uh, you got, well, about, seventy percent of 'em is blacktop roads, now. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Uh, it used to big blacktop part of the way. Uh, before, you had about, uh, oh, by the last, uh, about ten years ago, you had about, seventy percent gravel roads. Interviewer: Gravel? 811: Yeah, about. That was about ten years ago. Interviewer: Yeah. Now, when you're in, in, uh, okay, now this road, that leads to your road, you said, is just a? It's not a main road, it's just a? 811: Yeah, it's a, what, what'd you call it, would be a, a service road for a farmer. Interviewer: Yeah, okay. What, now, a little road that would go off from the main road, would be called a? 811: Uh, a service road. Interviewer: Yeah. Um, do you, uh, do you got those kind of white, hard, paved roads? Hard, uh, like city side walks around here, any of those? 811: No. Interviewer: Like, one sixty-seven, what is that? That's just? 811: Uh, that, sir, that would be a, uh, hard-paved road. Interviewer: Yeah. It's not blacktop, it's? 811: No, that, that would be a hard-paved road. Uh, I forget the, the stuff they really called it. Uh, well, that would be a concrete road. Interviewer: Yeah. Did-, now, when you go onto Church Point, along the side of the road, uh, they walk on, something along the side of the street? 811: Sidewalk. Interviewer: Yeah. Do you ever walk? 811: Uh-huh. Interviewer: Did they have a, back in the old days, they didn't have that, did they? Or, 811: They had a boardwalk, Interviewer: Yeah. 811: that was, boats. Interviewer: Do you know what the {D: bankett} was? They talked about a {D: bankett}? 811: Uh, Interviewer: Okay. 811: That was beyond, uh, {D: a bankett} of a gully, or a bog, that would be the hills. Uh, where they would spread out, and make kind of like a roll or something, on it. Interviewer: Yeah. Aux2: You ever been, uh, um, along the Mississippi River? Interviewer: Yeah. Aux2: Well, you see how they got a {X} on the hill? Interviewer: Oh, yeah. Aux2: And that's with the service road, down- Interviewer: Oh, yeah. 811: That's what you call a {D: bankett} Aux2: Yeah. Interviewer: Um, now, did, uh, when you were coming up, or, say, you said the roads, uh, would you drive your cows? Say, if you were driving your cows down to the woods, uh, what would you drive 'em on? 811: Uh-huh. Well, you had, uh {X} {D: More though} you had a little fence. Uh, you didn't, didn't necessarily have to get on the road, because it was always, uh, you could go through the field. Interviewer: And they'd walk along? 811: Uh, along, well, along the fences. Interviewer: Well from, from barn to pasture, would be, uh, you know, we never cut a little place? 811: Uh, a gate. Yeah, there wasn-, you didn't have a gate, uh. Interviewer: A place that they would walk in, you know? They would walk in, all the way down to the field, along? Aux2: Or you know, {D: when you needed to go in the woods}, You, you roll a fence, you know, and you make a trail that, you know, uh, you, you wouldn't have to run 'em, down the field, if you didn't wanna. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Yeah, a little, Interviewer: Cows? 811: Uh cows, there. Interviewer: Mm. Um, when you were, say, when you were coming to a man's house, like, out there, you got a? That's your? 811: Oh, my yard? Interviewer: Yeah. Well, you pull your car up in your? 811: Driveway. Interviewer: Driveway, but, something, uh, say, a long thing? Like, when you go to the, uh, to the fellows that you work for, have you ever seen those, uh, plantation? You ever been to a plantation? You ever seen those? 811: No. Interviewer: Okay. You know, they might have a big, kind of, tree line? Have trees over the road? What would they, what would that be? Just a? You were down to the {D: Daigles} here, this road is a? 811: Well, that- that was, uh, call that a, um, well, I guess a, Aux2: Farmer's Interviewer: Farmer's road, or something? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Um. But, you probably remember, back in the day, when the roads were? 811: Was {X} and then they became gravel. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Then blacktop, Interviewer: They use that, for what? 811: Uh, they use, uh, blacktop, this, uh, tar. Aux2: Asphalt. 811: Yeah, asphalt and tar. Interviewer: Yeah. Um, we were talking about the animals on the farm, uh, now, the male horse was a? 811: Was a stud horse. Interviewer: Stud horse, okay. And the female was a? 811: Uh, a mare, most of them were. Interviewer: Yeah. Did you, did you, uh, now, did you ever have, try to break a horse, or you couldn't stay on the horse, or anything like that? 811: No. Aux2: I didn't see him break 'em, did I? Aux1: Oh, I had a {X}. {NW} Interviewer: Oh, when they got those gravel roads, they, they had to put, 811: Shoes on there, on the horses. {D: Uh, on the sake uh} especially the {D: buck horses and the rye horses} That they would get rocks, in their foot, and they'd go lame. Aux2: Yes. Interviewer: Yeah. You nailed it into the? 811: Uh, well, you had to have a special, special man to do that, just like, that wasn't a blacksmith, but {D: the fellow that would beat the paw points was the} He would, uh, put the horses' shoes on. You had to trim those down, get the right size shoe. Interviewer: Trim all four? 811: Trim all four of the hooves, get the right size shoe. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And then, if you didn't, they'd usually have to bend it, or make one for it. Interviewer: Yeah. Now, you put your foot in the? When you ride the horse, you 811: #1 In the # Interviewer: #2 put your foot in the? # 811: stirrups. Interviewer: Yeah. Did, uh-, and you held on to the? 811: Onto the lines. Interviewer: Okay. Well, when you're riding in a wagon, you had? What to hold on to? You had? 811: Well, you had the lines to hold on to, but, uh, most of 'em had, uh, well, you had a closed-in wagon on either, some of 'em had seats on 'em, or you'd put a bench or something, there to sit on. Interviewer: Yeah. Did you ever raise sheep here? 811: Uh, we didn't raise, but there was a bunch of people, that raises 'em, and goats. Well, there in the old times, well, everybody, that's one thing they would raise, is goats. That they like on the Fourth of July. And they would, they, they'd dig a hole in the ground. And, uh, mix some corn cobs, put in there, and make a big barbecue, over that goat. Aux1: Yeah. {X} 811: For the goat. Interviewer: A nanny goat, or a? 811: Uh, any kind they could get. They wasn't particular. They could get a nanny goat, they would get it, they could, get a ram, they would get that. Aux2: And- 811: And they knew, some of them old fella {X} try to stick you with a {D: wool} Aux1: They could {X}. 811: Talk about a time the- the {X} Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Then you had all that homemade beer, and stuff. Interviewer: Yeah. Aux2: This was something else. That homemade, {D:home brew} was, better than that {D:deer den, and X} Interviewer: He was telling me about that. Aux2: I used to make it myself. Interviewer: Yeah, you said you had a place to make it, too. Aux2: Yeah. And, uh, talking about, shoeing horses. I used to do that, now, shoe my own horses. 811: {X} Aux2: Oh, boy. Yes, indeed. Interviewer: Uh, y'all, y'all raised sheep for the? 811: Uh, well, most people that- that raise 'em, uh, they would, raise 'em to sell 'em, for market. Interviewer: Sell the? 811: Uh, sell the sheep, and, uh, they would, uh, like, um, Aux1: Shear the-, 811: shear the sheep, uh, once a year, and sell the, the wool. Interviewer: Okay. Now, the male was called a? 811: A ram. Interviewer: And, the female was a? 811: Uh, well, just, uh, a female. Aux2: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Um, now, the, the, the hog that you would breed with sow was a? 811: They had a bull hog, or, Interviewer: Alright. Uh, all the names? #1 What is, what, what, a hog? Yeah. # 811: #2 an, uh, a male, and, and a, a bull hog. # Interviewer: What, what would you call, now, what about, what would you do to a hog, when you didn't want him to grow up to be a boar, you? 811: You'd castrate it. Interviewer: Okay. Uh, and he'd be a? 811: Uh, yeah, he'd just be up there all day. Aux2: {X} 811: Yeah. Use him for uh uh, yeah, that's what you call a slaughter. Aux1: Uh. Interviewer: He'd be a? 811: Uh, well, yeah, a grease hog, or, well, both, it'd be, that's what they would use, a grease hog. Interviewer: Grease hog? 811: Yeah. That's what they would use to make that hog lard was, you know. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: There, crackling, and bacon. Interviewer: Oh. Now, when a hog was first born, it was just a little? 811: A babe. Interviewer: You say it was a? Uh, a little one, when it's first born, is a? 811: A babe? A little pig. Interviewer: Wh-, when it gets a little older, it's called a? 811: Uh, a hog. Interviewer: Okay, when they're grown, they're? Uh, well, you know what a shoat was? Uh, how big is it, would a pig have to get to be called a shoat? 811: Huh. Aux1: oh, not too big, when he get about so. Interviewer: Yeah. Aux1: Oh, so high, you know. Interviewer: Well, {X}, an unbred, uh, female, was a? Did you ever see an unbred female? What, what do you call it? When one that had been spay-, had been spayed? 811: Uh, yeah, it was, uh, oh, well, the same thing, just like a male, if you would cut him, if you had an unbred female, that meant you want to keep her. Interviewer: Okay. What was a barr-, you know what a barrow was, or? Barrow, or, a gilt? 811: Uh, that's different breeds of hog. You got barrow, gilt, and I never did know the difference, I, I went, uh, uh, to a hog ranch, a, couple of years ago, and the fellow was out there telling me about the barrow, and gilts, and he was showing me the, I never did know the difference, I couldn't see the difference, but-, Interviewer: Did you ever raise 'em? You never raised 'em. 811: Uh, we never did raise, uh, a whole lot of 'em. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Uh, just for our own use, not, uh, for market. Aux2: {X} put, 'em, uh, {X}. I got everything there, put 'em in the {X} when you get home. Interviewer: Yeah. Aux2: And, uh, I went to see there, but, {D:you gotta stop doing my stuff}, so I said, no. If I do all the work around home, what are the kids gonna do? 811: You have to run and catch 'em before they get away. Aux2: Yeah, yeah. I say, you, you {D:look the man coming in}. Interviewer: Yeah, glad to meet you, I enjoyed talking with you. 811: Oh good, uh John {X} got #1 Do you, uh, # Interviewer: #2 Nice to # meet you, I enjoyed talking with you. Aux2: Okay, I enjoyed having Aux1: this conversation with you, {X}, 811: Come back. Yeah. You ain't gonna be gone away, you can come back tomorrow. Aux2: Oh, oh, I'm about to work tomorrow, I've got to {D: sit down} {X} with my whole {X} 811: Oh yeah. Aux2: I've got to {X}. then I'm gonna cut out her {X} 811: Oh, yeah, I do. {D: Well, it's kindly so.} Aux1: Yeah. {X} Aux2: Okay, sir. 811: Okay, sure, thank you for coming, John. {NS} Interviewer: Nice fellow, is he a farmer? 811: He, uh, he farmed almost all his life, ''til about, five, six years ago. And then he come off the farm, and, uh, he went to work for the railroad company. Interviewer: Yeah. Uh, hey, how you doing? {D: Joe Junior}. {NS} The hogs, you know, when you, the ones that, when they stand up on their back, when they've been? 811: Oh, a hair? There, usually, you'd, you'd get a bull hog, you'd get mad. And then have it stand up on, on the, uh, Interviewer: brist- 811: Of the {D: brisket}. Of, uh, Interviewer: Bristles back there? 811: Yeah. On the bristles, and Interviewer: Yeah. Did, uh, did you ever see any of the ones, that would come up, you have a name for a hog that'd grown up wild? 811: Yeah, you call that a wild hog. Usually, a, well, well, it went to hide from, uh, as far as I, I can see, I imagine, they, you'd get a hog that would go out in the woods, and you, well, you could pen it up. Cause, uh, they got a season on 'em, around there, where you can hunt 'em. Woman: {X} 811: Uh, they usually get in the Piney Woods. And, uh, they usually, oh, they get to be mean, too, if they got little ones, they'll attack you. Interviewer: They got them-, 811: Them, uh, long tushes. Interviewer: Did you, y'all got any, what are the Piney Woods around here? 811: Oh, your pines would be, uh, north, and west, see. Interviewer: Oh, I see. 811: Uh, cross {X} they start on the other side #1 of the-, # Interviewer: #2 {X}, # 811: Yeah, all back up in there. That's all you got back there, is farms. Interviewer: Call it Piney Wood river, {X}? 811: Oh {NW} Interviewer: And how'd you, uh, well, some of the, some of the animals, you know, when you see 'em around the farm, um, like, when a calf was being weaned, it would start making noise. 811: Uh, he would bellow, uh, well, you would wean it, roughly, he would bellow maybe for three, four days, many longer than that. Interviewer: When, uh, when it, kind of a gentle noise of, fo-, of, uh, a cow would make during feeding time, when you were feeding it, you know, you would start- 811: Uh, Interviewer: It'd begin to? 811: Uh, she would start to bellow, too, if it was eating time, and, and after you'd went in. Interviewer: Yeah, but kind of a gentle noise, you know, she'd make when you were feeding her, she'd go mm. 811: Yeah, she'd, mm, with that light bellow. Interviewer: Oh, uh, mooing? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Just starting to mm. 811: A little {D: booing} noise. Interviewer: You say, uh, uh, I think I'd better go out and, it's getting around? 811: Around time to go milk her and feed her. Interviewer: Yeah, did you have stuff like that you had to do, in the last part of the afternoon, or? 811: Yeah. Uh, do it out- you had to milk 'em in the morning. And in the afternoon, too. {X} Interviewer: That was, that dinner was? 811: That was, uh, oh, about, around five oh clock. Interviewer: Oh, five oh clock? #1 That was when? # 811: #2 Yeah, in the afternoon. # Uh, #1 oh, just about the time # Interviewer: #2 And you'd say? # 811: the day was done. Interviewer: You'd say, it's getting round about? 811: It's about time to go milk and feed. Interviewer: Feeding? 811: Feed and milk. Interviewer: Gotta run, go out and feed the? 811: The cow, and the chickens, the hogs. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: That's what you call your afternoon chores. Interviewer: Um, okay. How would you call 'em? 811: Uh, you had differently, your hogs, you would call 'em choo choo. And your chickens was keety keety. And your cow was chuh. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And, uh, usually, your, your mules, they wouldn't hardly come up, uh, Interviewer: They wouldn't? 811: Cause, uh, when you was waking 'em, you'd feed 'em, till you come out the field, you put 'em in the stall and feed 'em. Well, if you wouldn't wait to let us in, you would feed 'em. So therefore, they wouldn't hardly come up. Interviewer: Yeah. Now, you know, something higher than a hill would be a? You ever been up in a? 811: A mountain? Interviewer: Yeah. You ever been up there? 811: No, I never been. I ain't never seen a mountain. Interviewer: You have to go sometime. 811: Uh, Interviewer: Any place around here where boats would stop and unload freight? 811: Uh, Interviewer: On the river or anything like that? 811: The nearest place would be, uh, well {X} Interviewer: There's a what there? 811: There's a dock. {NW} Uh, yeah, they got a, a, big shipping dock, that's where they, in New Orleans, where the, big ship are brought. Well, that's where they ship, uh, from New Orleans {D: to Lake Shore} Interviewer: Yeah. 811: They ship all the rice from Louisiana. And then they ship from them through Dallas. Interviewer: Have you ever been down to the, to the, uh, down, and seen the water, down, big body of water below here? 811: Uh, I went down to the Gulf. I went into the Gulf, one time fishing, and, made myself a promise, I ain't wanna go back, never. Interviewer: Yeah. You, you like to fish? What, when you hunted, what, what do you find, what sort of game around here? 811: Uh, we love to rabbit hunt. The, uh, I, enjoy duck hunting. But, uh, it'd get too expensive. I can't afford it. And uh uh every year, the boss would take me out, with him. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Uh, duck hunting. I would enjoy it, but I would much enjoy rabbit hunting, cause it was, uh, it was less expensive, and it was more fun. Then, it finally got to start paying big money to game hunt. If you can afford it, fine, but if you can't, and I couldn't, so I didn't, I didn't too much care for it. Interviewer: Yeah. Well, um, I've been, uh, talking for a long time, I'd like to come back and talk with you some more about the sort of things you ate and cooked, and that sort of thing, if you have some time. 811: Okay, when, uh, you wanna- Interviewer: Would tomorrow be okay, you gonna be in tomorrow, or? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. In the afternoon? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. 811: Uh, imagine if you come back around two oh clock? Interviewer: Okay. Alright, you, you {X}. just {X} by after lunch, yeah? 811: Yeah, I gotta- my wife make me rest. The doctors want me to, Interviewer: Well, she, that, she's a good lady. 811: Oh, Interviewer: She'll keep you down. 811: In there, the first one I had, it wasn't, it wasn't bad. I did fine, but I didn't know how bad this one was, either. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Cause I didn't know what went on about for two weeks. And she was there with Mary B., you know, and just, watching me, going by, and I didn't know what the heck was going on. And she was been looking at me, day by day. Interviewer: When you went to the? 811: Uh, a hospital. Interviewer: Where? 811: Uh, well it, they took me to Church Point, they gave me a shot, and they transferred me to LaFayette charity. And, um, I went down the third afternoon, and I remember when I got in there, and, uh, they started giving me, uh, IV right away. Uh, after that, I don't remember too much of what was going on. uh, I guess, what it was, uh, I remember some of the things, I guess the bad things, I didn't want to remember. With the medicine and everything, I just put it out of my mind, cause I didn't want to remember it. And, first my heart was a concern. The doctor told me it was one of the worst ones he'd ever seen, he was about, thirty-five, thirty-six years old. And if he ain't never seen anything like that since he been a doctor, and, just with the heart trouble, it wasn't bad. And with all the complications I had afterwards, I had a lung that collapsed. And, uh, I had pneumonia. And well, I finally, they start to kind of bring my lung back, they, they had a, what they call it a, a pipe, I don't know what the heck it is, but they make you, it rolls, and you got to eat here, and it blows your lung up, and, uh, you gotta do it about four time a day, for about fifteen minutes. They would put some fluid in there, and that fluid would get in there, and kind of, blow it up. And, uh, right after that, they kinda cleaned some of that out. My stomach went bad on me. Uh, got all {X} They had to pump it out. They got that half of the x-ray done, uh, my bladder got infected. And finally I said, well, But they, uh, the doctors didn't worry about that, there. They was more worried about my heart than anything else. {X} But I said this wasn't my time to go. I can't do it. {X} The doctor don't understand it, he said I went back for my check-up. He said, I don't understand, he said, from what you come through, he says, you shouldn't be, strong as you is. Interviewer: What's your schedule now? I mean, do you, 811: Uh, Interviewer: Getting a {X}, typical day? 811: I can go on a walk, like, from here to the mailbox, at the end of the road. And come back, I can ride a little piece, I can't go far, I just started riding Friday. They wouldn't let me ride. And, uh, {D: I can't tie myself it, though.} And, uh, I at least lay down twice a day. I ain't gonna be {D: sure and don't tie myself, though} Interviewer: Oh. Friday was when I took you out to shoot, I didn't, I shouldn't have taken you out there, when, 811: Well, don't worry, I went, Thursday for my check-up, that's when he told me I could start riding. Interviewer: Yeah. Without your wife's permission, I don't think I should've taken you out {X}. 811: Well, we rode that little piece right there, she didn't mind. I'd been covered up for, for what, seven weeks, I hadn't been up. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And, after all the complications and everything, Interviewer: You've been just lay-, you've been in bed? You've been, 811: Uh, well, I stayed, uh, Interviewer: For the first few weeks, you just, 811: Well, I was in the hospital for twenty-five days. #1 Uh # Interviewer: #2 You just laid uh # 811: there, start letting me get up about a week before. All I could do was get up and go to the bathroom. That's as far as I could do, and come back and get in bed. And I just could go when I needed the bathroom, I couldn't get up and walk around. Interviewer: That was the farthest you could go? 811: Yeah. That was, about, uh, that was the four weeks I was in there. Because the two first weeks, I couldn't remember nothing, they had me in intensive care, about, for ten days. And I wanted to get out of bed, they {D: said they} find out I was better off in bed. They said, I had more, give me more privileges {X} And, uh, then when I came home, I couldn't even go outside for a week. I'd just stay in the house, and just, walk around a little bit in the house. Well, it's gonna be a month, uh, {X} Interviewer: What time to do you get up, mostly? Uh, 811: I usually get up pretty early, I get up, uh, sometimes six, six-thirty. And I sit round the house, uh, till about ten o'clock, then I go lay down. Sometime I sleep, sometime I don't. I usually go to bed pretty early at night, though. Interviewer: Okay, well, if you have some time tomorrow you could sit and talk with me, I'd sure appreciate it. 811: Okay, if you'd come back around about two, I'd be here, if, Interviewer: Okay, fine. Well, I enjoyed talking with you, {X}.