Interviewer: What's your full name? 811: Joseph Lee {B} the senior. Interviewer: All right. And this is Joe {B} Now you were born where? 811: Uh I was born about uh a mile and a half across the field that on the uh no, I was born on the hi- {X} {NS} yeah that was back yeah uh Interviewer: On what bottom farm? 811: Hickenbottom. Interviewer: Okay. And uh okay now this- that place was called what? Was there a- a community nearby or? 811: Uh Church Point. Interviewer: Okay. 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Has Church Point grown a lot since 811: {NW} Quite a bit. {NW} Interviewer: Yeah. In other words, you call this where we are right now chur- 811: {X} Interviewer: {X} 811: {X} Interviewer: Who were you named of? 811: Uh after let's see uh it was his uh after his uh grandpa. After my father's grandpa. His name was Joe Mennings. So we have other Joe Mennings. {NW} Interviewer: Yeah. {NS} And you've farmed all your life? 811: I well I'll tell you what I- when when I came up, I came up on the farm. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Uh we'd plant cotton and sweet potatoes. A little corn. Woman: {NS} Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: And we farmed uh why w- we would do we would plant Woman: {NS} 811: oh about ten acres of cotton, and Woman: {NS} 811: eight, ten acres of sweet potatoes and about five, six acres of corn. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Woman: {NS} 811: And while we did have our preschool {D: in the sixth grade} they've gotta help on the farm. {C: muffled} And as I grew up a little bit, we uh {NS} lost our way from mr Scanlon. What I would do like during planting season, well I would run that tractor all night {X} from about six o'clock in the afternoon, till about six o'clock that morning. Then I'd go on back and sleep till about ten o'clock. My poor daddy would go ahead and feed my mules and everything, then he'd hitch up and go in the field. And I'd just go on and when I'd get up, I'd go on in the field and I would catch him up, whatever he was doing. In the afternoon, I'd knock off about three o'clock and I'd go back and sleep till about five thirty. Woman: {NS} 811: And we started like that. And during the winter, when we would get through, I had a brother lived in Texas. I would go out there and wait three or four months. They didn't have too much to do on the farm. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Oh we'd wait uh I'd wait until it was time to start again in the field. Till after the winter. Come back and get started again. Woman: {NS} 811: And that's how it went on awhile until I got ready to get married, it was in uh {X} fifty-nine, I believe. So I finally went away from mr Scanlon and we moved in a little house right there. Oh yeah, stayed there nine years. Then we moved in a bigger house, right down over there We stayed there six- Woman: {NS} 811: and I had been working for 'em for about four or five years before I got married. So altogether I stayed on this farm with cattle, rice. Interviewer: Yeah. Tell me about the first house you were born in. Can you tell me about that? 811: Um Woman: {NS} 811: I remember the old house, it had a Woman: {NS} 811: um had wooden windows on it. I #1 {D: dare to} # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # 811: remember mosquitoes used to eat us up. {NW} And the- they didn't have- they had the rafters, #1 you know # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh. # 811: you didn't have nothing, all it was the thing just wouldn't go up Interviewer: Yeah. 811: to the top. And they had {X} that would fall down in the house. I remember that good. And we had an old cistern Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: with a- Interviewer: Now, when you built a fire, you have a fireplace? 811: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Okay. Tell me about your chores, about about building that fire. 811: Well what you gotta do is uh at that time you didn't have no- no coal oil Interviewer: Yeah. 811: It was kind of hard to come by. Interviewer: You started with what? 811: What- uh Well, with cypress. You had to go out there, that was your chore in the afternoon. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And go cut you some so- fine cypress to get it started. And then you'd be- wood would start you a few Then you have to kind of keep watch the weather. Kind of keep you some dry wood. Cause we had a wood pile in the corn bin. And we let it always tidy Woman: {NS} 811: keep maybe about a day ahead of dry wood cause if you let that wood get wet, you had trouble to start it. And then if you uh {NW} had you a go- what they call a good {D: bag alone} {NW} you didn't have to worry about starting no fire in the morning. Interviewer: Yeah I heard that. 811: Cause you would put this big ol' chunk in there, and they would boil all night. And the next boil, you just put you some fine stuff on there and you get you a good fire going. Interviewer: Yeah. Did you um what would the did you put the wood on anything? In other words, 811: Wha- you uh {NW} Interviewer: You'd put the wood on the when you put the log on, you'd- you'd have something you could set it on. Those two things? It'd be- 811: Lord them that was uh you've gotta twist it some kind of way or either you'd get you a brick or something then put under. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: It was not fancy like they build these days you know in these days you can set it on. Interviewer: Yeah what do they call like 811: #1 Um # Interviewer: #2 the # 811: I don't know what you'd call- Interviewer: Dog irons or? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: But uh hmm. 811: Now some houses didn't have 'em. Certainly all houses didn't have 'em. You had these uh Woman: {NS} 811: heaters iron heaters. I remember when we was going to school we had this little old one room uh schoolhouse. And we had a coal heater. And many a mornings we'd get around that old pipes would fall over and hit somebody in the head. {NW} {D: It was a point} We had about three miles of the the walk to school. Interviewer: Oh. 811: And if it would start raining the weather would get bad sometimes poor dad had to come get us. That would be eight o'clock at night when the weather would break up. {NS} Cause boy you were s- {NS} {D: We had it big like the kids. Did they} {NS} Interviewer: When the weather would break up, you mean it would? 811: Well, here we'd leave walking going home. You know there'd be lightning and thunder, boy you Interviewer: Yeah. 811: It's like somebody had something lit up outside, the way it was lightning. Interviewer: Have y'all had- had it like this lately? I mean this is- it was I came into town, I had to come through three- about two feet of water. 811: Oh, well uh I had to go to Lafayette for my checkup recently. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And we've acted like that back home. They got a state trooper that live uh- I know him pretty good. And they uh {X} we left while the- the water was deep right there. Interviewer: Uh-huh. And my wife was worried about that uh they go for my two weeks checkup. So I said I guess we gonna go she wanted to go in {X} Says I ain't going in that thing, it rides too bad. They- when they took me to the hospital, she had to hold my- I was sick as a dog. But I had to hold myself {X} the way we was riding back. So I said I ain't going in that. So she went down to my sister she was gonna drive, they don't want me to drive. I said okay. And that was the water wasn't too bad. {D: And man, we was going} and they kept her there till about three thirty. And I rarely come back boy they'd close almost all the roads in Lafayette. Woman: {NS} 811: #1 We # Interviewer: #2 Was it bad in Lafayette, too? # 811: Huh? Interviewer: Was it bad in Lafayette? 811: Oh man. {NS} Then uh Appaloosa well, Appaloosa got nine inches, I believe. Crowley got nine inches. Interviewer: {NW} I was in the- I was in Crowley last night. They had thirteen, I think. 811: Well that's the w- Interviewer: Somewhere around- somewhere around there. 811: That's the worst flood we've had since nineteen forty. Woman: {NS} 811: I heard a bunch of old people talking about it. They said that's the worst flood we had since nineteen forty. Woman: {NS} Interviewer: Hmm. 811: And look it- flat rain day before yesterday. They had a- a low pressure that that made up in from Crowley. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Church Point rain, and Appaloosa was just laying across. And it rained it rained that they wouldn't move boy {D: this was still} And but around six o'clock, they'd even start to break up and move outta there. It {NW} And should we {X} and we came up thirty-five there the water was running over {X} Interviewer: Yeah, you should've seen Crowley. {X} 811: Well uh I heard on the CB when it was uh which day- that was the day before yesterday. Interviewer: Wouldn't wanna- 811: You couldn't get in to Crowley. {NW} #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 Yes well # I had a hard time getting in that night. I came in that night cause cause- when it was raining cause it was starting. 811: Oh. Interviewer: And uh they- they closed off all the roads afterwards. 811: {NW} Interviewer: That was dow- #1 down # 811: #2 {X} # Interviewer: downtown. 811: Well you just made it, then. Interviewer: Yeah. {NW} Yeah, I sure did. In fact, I'm not- I'm not counting my chances too heavy on getting back today. 811: Now #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 It's going down, # right? 811: If you- yeah, if you go back to Crowley, you going back to Crowley? #1 Or you going to Appaloosa? # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # Well, Imma go to uh Imma go to Escambia farm in Iota. 811: Oh yeah. Well, that's gonna be your best bet. You go up to Branch to the uh {D: barely} four-way stop, you take a right. And that's gonna take you to highway thirteen. And then the- Crowley on this road. Interviewer: Okay. 811: {D: And now we all would wait from there.} Interviewer: {NW} 811: Oh you go Man: {D: The left} going to is Crowley. 811: Yeah. And you'll see the sign that says Iota. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: You take a right. Man: Unless you wanna go past all the way back there by {X} 811: {D: forty-five?} Oh no, that's gonna be too far. Interviewer: But uh okay this is the branch road 811: #1 here? # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh. # 811: Branch uh Grand Branch Road. It'll be thirty-five. But it's closed, I believe. I doubt they opened it. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Uh up there by ran the water was {D: Thursday} afternoon it was about a foot and a half deep running over there. Interviewer: Well, there's a low spot right down there by that- 811: What? Interviewer: there's a canal a refinery or something 811: Yeah. Interviewer: down refinery? 811: Uh yeah that's uh coming from Appaloosa there. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: #1 When did they put that up? # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # 811: That's {X} Interviewer: Yeah. 811: That thing start off as a little bitty little bitty old little plant. And they just kept adding on, adding on. I don't remember exactly. Cause in that time, you didn't have no way to get around you get a flat foot. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And uh Interviewer: Yeah. 811: I remember whe- when it was, I was about Woman: {NS} 811: oh Woman: {NS} 811: oh I must've been about thirteen. Twelve, thirteen years old. I remember we used to go to Bellevue. When we would go by there. And that was that little bitty old little plant. Man: {NS} 811: And they just kept adding on, adding on to it till it got big as it is {X} Interviewer: Bellevue. 811: Uh yeah. Interviewer: Okay. {NW} I'm trying to think where that is. 811: {X} Interviewer: Huh? Man: By Lewisburg. Interviewer: {X} {X} by Lewisburg, too. 811: Yeah, you can go through it. #1 Through b- # Interviewer: #2 Is that # 811: Bellevue. Interviewer: Is that in Evangeline or? 811: Uh that would be now {X} {NS} But you can go through that so fast that if you don't watch it I don't believe they even got a store there. They got a church. {NW} {NS} Interviewer: Yeah. I tell you, these roads around here are about as confusing #1 as I've ever- # 811: #2 Oh # Lord. Interviewer: Yeah, you y- you come around one corner and you get to another one you know it's just like a a jigsaw puzzle, I guess you could call it. 811: {NW} Interviewer: When you were coming up, was it like that? I mean, were there just roads everywhere all through- 811: Uh they didn't have that many roads. Uh let's see #1 like- # Interviewer: #2 Okay # now when you were- where would you go wh- you go into town, like uh you wouldn't go in pretty often, would you? 811: No. {NS} Daddy- well, we used to {X} uh Man: I don't really know how to {X} 811: {X} Well Interviewer: On that I'm sure should've gotten w- well talking about uh the fireplace and everything, you had to clean out the 811: #1 Yeah. # Interviewer: #2 fi- # 811: You had uh oh when I would build up so much coals and then you'd get you a shovel and a bucket. And what the fun part about it you could take your big ol' sweet potatoes and put in there. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And just cook 'em and Interviewer: You used to cook in there {X} 811: Oh yeah, you peel 'em. They had these big old iron pots you could put in there and warm whatever you wanted to warm. {NW} Interviewer: Uh now, you had to get the what outta the chimney? Get all the black? 811: Oh, the- well the only thing you had to get was the uh um was the coals and the ashes. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Cause they'd- you know how wood build up ash? Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: {D: wouldn't burn} So what you gotta do i- it was a- it would all pile up down in there. And what you would do, you would put your wood it would sink down in there, they'd it wouldn't {D: burn} {NW} So you'd take your shovel get a special little old shovel and a old five-gallon can or something so you just go in there and pick it up. Interviewer: But uh like the chimney, would it ever catch on fire? All the stuff in the chimney? 811: No. Cause uh you mean going up or? Interviewer: Yeah, all that black 811: No, it would never catch on fire cause it wasn't nothing but soot. {D: but your} uh like a what you had to do {D: like when it would stay all December, you know.} You'd get you something and ram up in there and get the birds' nests and stuff out the #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 Yeah, did y'all have # the martin around here? 811: #1 The what? # Interviewer: #2 That # bird that'll- that'll nest in a chimney? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: {D: They'd get down in that boy and put you a pile of hay.} You had to kind of clean that out. It was the same thing with the stoves. You had the pipes {D: to bang it in} {NS} Interviewer: Okay. Now you'd cut it. Wouldn't there be a place in the house the stove pipe would run up to the 811: Yeah, it'd go through the the ceiling of the house. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: {NW} And them bo- big older higher houses that were so bad they had a {X} and they just would cut a hole inside the house. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: And what they would do is uh instead of they would cut if the pipe was about this big They had something like about a six-inch pipe. While they cut you about a ten-inch hole. And then they'd take ten {NS} and cut the tin just so it would shape over the pipe. {NS} So like that, if your pipe would get hot, it wouldn't boil your water {D: it just on tin} Interviewer: How- how is the uh the fireplace built? Like was it some of 'em would be made outta moss wouldn't they? Moss and {X} 811: Some of 'em was made outta moss and dirt. Most of 'em. Cause they didn't have brick in that time. And the one we had was made outta moss and dirt. Interviewer: Okay. {NS} Now, the fire- you'd come in on a cold day and you'd stand- stand on the what? Stand in front of the fireplace? 811: Oh yeah. There was a well they had a they had a little flat form built out where- where they w- couldn't put no wood {D: cause it was dirty} You know, you had your flat form uh uh well, what you call the clay and uh #1 and moss and stuff, # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 811: #1 you know. # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # 811: what your chimney wa- whatever the chimney was made out of. Uh Interviewer: And it was built out- did that have a kind of a raised kind of place built out from the fireplace? 811: Yeah, they did. Cause uh cause you couldn't start your wood too close to it. Most time they would build 'em like on the side of the house. And uh Interviewer: Oh- oh a wood storage thing? 811: Uh no it would be a chimney, but they would pull it {X} {NS} went to build their chimney. {D: well it} this would cut a hole Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: and they would start their chimney, and they would go up on the outside of the house. And you- you would put your wood in there. And wouldn't be on the inside of the house. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: If your chimney was you couldn't put it on the wood floor if you had a wood floor. Man: Right, most of the houses, some of 'em had dirt floors. Interviewer: Yeah. {NS} 811: And uh that's the way they would build 'em. Cause most of 'em they made 'em after they built the houses. Some of 'em when they built the houses, they made 'em. Interviewer: Yeah. You know what the hearth- the hearth was? Or the you know, the part of the- the part of the chimney that was outside. Okay. Well, on a wood stove you know, on those wood stoves? 811: Uh. Interviewer: Where you have kind of a raised hearth, raised hearth there? You know, uh okay. Now, but up over the chimney you'd have a- you might? 811: Oh on the top. Interviewer: Yeah, you had a what? 811: You had- I don't know what you'd call that. But you had some- it was made something like this. Cause if uh you didn't if you left the top open, it would've rained in it. Interviewer: Oh? 811: So what you had- it's something like a horse. Interviewer: It is, yeah. 811: A horse you had on the top. And uh Interviewer: Like a horse? 811: I- I guess you would call it a horse. No, like a a sawhorse. Interviewer: Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. 811: It needed something like a well, it'd the chimneys, they got the {X} They made you know, something like that, but it wasn't as big. They got these big ol' fancy {X} They got the- the day our neighbor down there building one uh one about a year ago. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: And they got this big ol' fancy {X} put uh gas gas logs in it. Or burn wood. Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah. Well uh, um a stove was always more efficient, anyway. I mean it was better. 811: Yeah. Interviewer: {X} What I was talking about was uh you'd like to have those kind of a something that in the house uh right up over the the the fireplace that you could put a put a clock on, or put pieces 811: Yeah, something like a mantle. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Yeah. The uh the chimney was built so high, none of it would come out. And you had a- something like a mantelpiece. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: Over the top of it. Interviewer: Did- did uh 811: {NW} Interviewer: What about the- the stuff you had in the house to sit in? Tell me about that. 811: #1 Oh you # Interviewer: #2 {X} # in the old things in the house. 811: You had uh wooden chairs. Well, for instance like when I got married I bought some uh wooden chairs for fifty cent a piece. {NW} Interviewer: Pretty good price. 811: And uh while a couple of 'em I- I think we still got one or two of 'em. Them wooden chairs. We paid 'em uh fifty cent a piece. Man: The one I got in my room? 811: #1 You didn't have- # Interviewer: #2 I've got- # 811: Oh no, you didn't have no sofa. Wha- what you made is a wooden bench. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: Yeah, you get a cot and you make you one of these fancy wooden benches with a back and everything on it. And that's mostly what you had uh well, it's {D: safe enough} like a sofa. You put you a couple of pillows in it. You know, you cotton pillows. And you put something on the back. But you had nothing like this. Interviewer: How did you uh when you moved, did you have to move all your all your 811: Uh furniture? Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Yeah. You'd move in a wagon {D: or old trailer to it} Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay, now what about the things that you would put your would you have something that had drawers in it that you'd put your clothes in? 811: You mostly had a it was something like trunks. Every now and then you'd find Somebody that had a old uh chest that cedar, oak, or something. Mostly you had i- is- is big trunks. We had one, I remember it was about that high we'd put the quilts and clothes and stuff in. Very seldom you'd see something with drawers. I- ours {X} Interviewer: Yeah. 811: {NW} Interviewer: Um okay now something nowadays that you'd have to put put um put your clothes in in other words. You know, with drawers in it. 811: Uh-huh. Interviewer: What- what do you call that? 811: Uh. Interviewer: Uh well you know, back in the old days they had uh they had those big things. If you didn't have a built-in- 811: You had a press. It was a press. That big ol' {X} It had so- it had two doors. But it had shelves on it. You might've had maybe four or five shelves in it. And you had that two big ol' doors, you just walk up and open 'em, you know. #1 And that's what they would call a press. # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 811: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # And you got your clothes out. 811: #1 Yeah. # Interviewer: #2 And then you # 811: You'd close it back, you had a place you could uh well just like a cl- a clothes closet, a walk-in clothes closet. You had one place you could hang your clothes. Another place you had shelves, you could fold 'em and {D: pull 'em.} Interviewer: Ah. 811: I- it served the same purpose as as a closet. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Cause the- some of 'em was just as big. But what it was- they were so tall and heavy they'd well, they would be a antique now. Interviewer: Hmm. Um now the- you mentioned the windows. 811: They had the windo- you didn't have no screens. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: You had wooden windows. {NW} Uh the weather would get bad or something you had wooden windows with some latches, just like these old type of doors. You just pull 'em and- {NS} And when it would get bad, we just had to get out there and make a smoke. So the mosquitoes. You know, they- some- Well, we didn't have no screen doors. {X} {D: And keep from somebody have to keep with the windows open.} Interviewer: Did you have a- a place out at the front of the house? Uh, you know where you could sit? Put a chair or something like that? 811: Well um b- some of the houses had uh little porches on, where you could {NS} sit out. You know, little hangovers. Wasn't a porch, it was just a {NS} thing to hang over. {NS} And most of the places we lived always had a tree or something we'd {NS} get out there and sit under the tree. {NS} Interviewer: What kind of shade tree? Big- 811: Uh, we had oaks. Well, most of 'em wa- was good trees, they wasn't uh {NS} live oaks or something. Interviewer: China ball or 811: No, we didn't have too many China balls. Uh li- something like a live oak. It was uh but them China ball trees there. I uh I'm trying to remember the first time I ever knew the weather had gotten bad. Uh for a tornado We uh They just had put us in {D: last winter.} A big ol' deal or something like that, no. Poor mama was laying down on the on the sofa, she was feeling bad. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And uh it #1 started- # Interviewer: #2 Go ahead. # Uh you can talk. I'm- 811: #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 so- it doesn't matter. # Woman: We have a helicopter that just landed right out there. What's going on out there? {NS} Interviewer: Yeah. But- um {NS} but uh the- when you were young, okay, how did y'all plant rods? Did you plant it {NS} 811: Uh well we'd drill it down with a with- {NW} we had a drill, we'd start something like uh Interviewer: Hello. 811: {NW} That's the baby girl. {NS} Uh you'd do about forty acres a day, I guess. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Forty, fifty acres a day. {X} It'll- it'll strain you to do forty acres a day, cause you have to push your levees. You didn't have a levee plow then, you uh you would start drilling {X} was in the morning. And uh you had to have a fellow on the- driving the truck to back the truck to the drill. Put the rice in {X} Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And uh afterwards well, then you'd have to start you'd have to put two tractors on a pusher. To push your levees. {D: Cause one tractor you'd get to the corn, it wouldn't tow it.} {D: Or you're doing it} and the gravel was so hard and everything cause she didn't have nothing {X} You couldn't wait more than about six inches, I guess. And then old soil was hard, you had uh then you had to push it and you had about four fellows on the pusher. It'd take you a whole lot of man labor. {NS} Take you uh well if four men's on the pusher, and two on the trac- there were six mens. And a whole lot of time you- you would start about four o'clock in the afternoon and your land would roll cause you you couldn't water that land. And you didn't have enough- no water left with you {NW} And your levees was all one right on top. Close to the uh Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: But you might finish it by twelve, one o'clock that morning. {NS} Uh pushing your levees. {NS} And then to get a good day the next day, you had to get up about around four o'clock to try to get started for five. To put in a good day again. Well, that would never last more than about a week and a half. {NS} But that was a long week and a half during planting season. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And uh Interviewer: Week and a half of eighteen hour days. 811: Yeah. {NW} That was Saturday. Saturday nights {X} sometimes till one or two o'clock on Saturday night. Last Sunday mornings. Well you wouldn't and m- {NW} and they had these old crude oil engines. {NS} We'd have to have a man to {X} And most of these people they was religious people, they wasn't {NS} let them folks run on Sunday. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: They'll uh #1 stop # Interviewer: #2 What # 811: they'd stop 'em twelve o'clock on Saturday night. And they'd start 'em twelve o'clock on a Sunday night. {NS} And uh {NW} They would- they would {D: the only thing that be in the back} you know, pumping and they couldn't ask for the run down, then they had to go close all they levees. And that night at twelve o'clock, well they went off to get up and start opening they levees again. Cause that their problems were gonna start while the waters were gonna get there around four, five o'clock in the morning. {NS} Interviewer: Yeah. {NS} {X} 811: {X} Interviewer: And then in that sense, it's easier to plant {X} one reason why they're going with an airplane now this mix, is because I- they- they don't have to cuz it won't mess up the ground underneath. In other words, after they've water plowed, 811: Well uh Interviewer: put the roads up? 811: you uh wha- what it is is a whole lot quicker done. You uh and you save on labor. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: Well I say you save on labor cause if you drill, {NW} like I was telling you, you can't do more than {NW} bout forty, fifty acres a day. Interviewer: The seed will take that way? It'll take? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: In other words, all they do is just drop it down there {X} 811: {X} Or then uh well if you were water planting, yeah. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Tell you the way we d- we do it over here. We'll uh, take a ladder and we put four hundred and fifty pound {X} Interviewer: Yeah. 811: That was uh triple fifteen with zinc. Okay. And we put that with {D: Dixie} {D: We distill that.} Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Then we'd come- we'd flood it Then we get- then we work it in the water with this full ladder in there. Um we'd use drags and harrows. My father got to know what he's doing cause if you get {D: enough, you skip a bit this water is gonna show.} The grass gonna come up {X} Interviewer: Uh-uh. {NS} 811: So, what you do, you don't put too much water. {NS} And uh {NS} you'd get {NS} you go ahead and you do your whole field, {NS} when you get through, you let it- {NS} settle a little bit, about a half a day or so. You come and you throw your rice in there, {NS} and you leave it out till it sprout. Well, we used to {X} sprout. {NS} What we'd do, we'd take it and put it in a {X} {NS} Interviewer: In a what? 811: In a Interviewer: {X} 811: Oh yeah, in a- uh uh we had a special hole where you put it in. Where the water was still. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: No, you didn't have no fresh water {D: run in} Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And you throw a let's say if you uh had a- a hundred acres you want to plant. You're putting a hundred and fifty pound of seeds to the acre and you put a hundred and fifty sacks in there. {NS} You throw the sacks in there weighing a hundred pound when you put 'em. You go to get 'em out, they weigh a hundred and sixty cause they wet. {NW} They smell like hell. The rice we had it'd be all sour, you know. Smell like the dickens, and then you'd get there and get it out. You stack it on the truck. {NS} Then you would take you some tarp over it and you wrap it up. {NS} Uh airtight. {NS} And uh you leave it uh what it is thirty-six hours. {NS} Uh wrapped up under that {X} When you go back, your rice be coming out your sacks it'd be sprouted. Interviewer: Uh-huh. {NS} 811: Then you'd take it, put it in the planter, you'd throw it in the field. {NS} And uh the next day, you'd cut your water out the field, you go, you plow your ditches. Uh you'd plow all your ditches, then you gotta start- you gotta get all the water off {D: with a hose of water and stuff} You get it all off in about uh four days. You can see early in the morning, you go out there and look {D: you get it you're on the} ground and you see all the little green stuff coming out. {NS} And uh {NS} we used to do a whole lot of water planting. {NW} But lately we went back to dry planting. Water planting it had its advantages and disadvantages. If you got red rice, {NW} that's {D: raw in the form of} and now you get a bunch of red rice. But with water, {NS} you can kind of control it a little bit with water, if you water plant. {NS} You don't never let your field get dry when you first plant. You just make sure your rice sprout, you come back and you're flooded again. And that uh the red rice had a tendency it won't come up through uh through water. {NS} But any time it'd get dry, {D: the stuff in it} And after you let it come up, Interviewer: Is it i- it's a different type of rice. 811: What it is #1 is a # Interviewer: #2 hard # #1 hard # 811: #2 yeah. # {NS} And they'd uh {D: or they'd do it straight heads} You know, it- and the other rice, what it doing if a fellow don't understand it oh well like mr {X} he showed me that- a bunch of stuff about that. {NS} Now they say if you got {NS} ten stalk of rice, a good rice, {NS} and you've got eight stalks of red rice, {NS} now all this red rice doing is taking the fertilizer, the nitrogen, {NS} everything from your good rice. {NS} So you me- that mean you gotta put twice as much of everything in it. {NS} And make it produce the way it's supposed to. {NS} And any time you started doing that way, you push it up your red rice, too. After you let it come through. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And uh when they got {X} separate it. {NW} But it makes you a bad sample. {NS} You won't get the price you gonna get if you get just the white rice. {NS} Interviewer: One um {NW} one thing that they did was don't they rotate and you plant rice in the same field every- 811: Uh no or what we'd do uh was down on this farm me, I was taking care of this farm. We had uh let me see. {NS} Um we had about a hundred and sixty acres- uh two hundred and sixty acres of rice. {NS} Uh we'd put rice one year {D: and pasta} We'd rotate from rice to {D: pasta} every year. A- and that makes a big difference. And uh Interviewer: Don't they have some kind of farms now, where they they'd flood the rice and get those animals, get- {NS} get the crawfish? 811: Yeah. This farm of rice here did it. {NW} {X} bad weather. {NW} I don't know what happened, though. But they had money in it a couple of years ago. Tell me one of the boy made 'em fifty thousand dollars. {NS} Uh A young fellow the young farmer, he's about thirty, thirty-one years old. And he went out there in a {NS} they had some land, I don't know how many about five, six hundred acres he planted. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And then when I- that boy his daddy told me, I don't know how true it is, he told me he made fifty thousand dollars in one year. Interviewer: {X} 811: Yeah. Man: That's what he'd buy his tractors with. 811: With crawfish. #1 {X} # Man: #2 {X} # 811: #1 It # Man: #2 Then # he bought a new tractor. {NW} 811: I know a few years ago, they had rented some of them tractors, I don't know how much they was paying him But they got good crawfish country back there. That's across that uh that {D: ninety} uh they call it Chataignier Interviewer: Chataignier 811: Yeah. Interviewer: The #1 town # 811: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: Chataignier 811: Well, yeah it's it ain't much of a town, it's up near this Bellevue You run through it and you never know you did. {NS} And uh {NS} I don't know that- what they did, they had a bad one of this one. I don't know what they Interviewer: Um now tell me about your could you tell me about your mother and father? In other words, we- were they born here? 811: Uh yeah they both uh Let's see. I don't know exactly what house but they both was born I don't know. My grandparents, too. {NS} they was b- uh Fa- let's see, on my mama's {NS} oh yeah {NS} my uh daddy's momma she was born uh in the {X} parish. That would mean she was born {X} local. You know, r- round Interviewer: Okay. {NS} 811: And uh {NS} my mother's momma, she was born uh {NS} round Church Point, too. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. {NS} Okay. {NS} #1 What # 811: #2 And # And I don't I can't tell you about my two grandpas, I- cause I don't remember for sure. Interviewer: Okay. Did you know him? In other words, were they living when you 811: Mm-hmm. I knew uh well uh all except one. My daddy's dad, I didn't know him. But the rest of 'em I I knew. {NS} I don't ever remember seeing him. I think he might've died before I was born. But uh my two grandmothers and my mama's daddy, I knew them. Interviewer: Uh-huh. {NS} Now, your father was born {NS} 811: Yeah. Interviewer: born here? 811: Yeah. {NS} Interviewer: On this place? 811: Uh let's see. #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 811: Yeah. Interviewer: You call this wha- do you have a name rou- this around here or you just call it Church Point? 811: Church Point. Interviewer: Okay. {NS} 811: {NW} {NS} Interviewer: How did your mother and father meet? 811: Oh {NW} that's the sixty-four thousand dollar question, now. Interviewer: Yeah. {NS} Your father farmed, too? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Did he know French? 811: Mm-mm. But uh Interviewer: Is that so? 811: He didn't talk French but uh he understood a little bit. My mother didn't talk French. And none of my grandparents did. {NS} Cause uh no, none of 'em did. Interviewer: How many children, mr Mennings? Do you mind me asking? 811: Only five. Interviewer: That sounds- 811: Two boys and uh three girls. {NS} Interviewer: You- were you the 811: I'm the next to the oldest. I've uh got a brother older than me. We're two years apart well all of us is two years apart. {NS} Interviewer: Yeah. {NS} 811: {D: Oh, he lived} Interviewer: In Texas. 811: Uh-huh. Interviewer: Where? 811: Uh {X} Uh that would be {NW} I guess {NS} would be west uh of Beaumont. Yeah I guess about eighteen miles west of Beaumont. Interviewer: On ninety? Yeah. 811: Uh, well we usually go uh on the interstate. And we get off and come back uh north. We go west on the interstate and then we come back north. Oh about eight, ten miles. There's a little- A little community town, something like Branch, I guess. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And he was on the farm uh he stayed on the farm till uh he got married. He was working for the same fellow I was working for. Only he got married when he went to Texas. {NS} Then he started doing construction work in the county {D: away} {NS} Interviewer: Hmm. {NS} Um did did you uh your father farmed, he lived all his life here, right? 811: Yeah. And uh He di- he sharecropped on half and then uh he went on through it. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: Had men on half uh {NS} The boss would furnish the mules. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Uh the team of there were no tractors then, we just had mules. He would furnish the mules. Interviewer: Team of? 811: Yeah. And uh Interviewer: And he had wha- had what did- what did he use to work with? 811: Well, was m- was mules and uh and plows. You ha- uh {NS} the boss would furnish uh the mules, the feed, {X} the corn, too. {NS} And uh he would fill half of the seed. So uh if uh he had to buy two hundred dollar worth of seed. {NS} When my dad had to pay a hundred dollar, then he payed a hundred dollars. {NS} And uh okay and when the crop was gathered up, um {NS} all the boss would do was take his {NS} the hundred dollars that he wanted for the seed {NS} and then he would get half whatever he made. {NS} And then uh {NW} it got so uh {NW} everybody trying to better theirself a little bit there. {NS} He went on and bought himself a pair of mules. Okay that many he was on {X} He uh had to furnish all his feed for the mules and stuff. {NS} And uh {NS} the boss {NS} would pair one third of the seed {NS} one- yeah, let's see yeah one third cause he was on to it, and he had to pay the rest. And that meant when he sold his crop, the boss would get one and he would get three. {NS} Would get two. {X} on half. {NS} {NW} {NS} Interviewer: Hmm. {NS} Um {NS} we were talking about the house, okay, can you- now tell me- can you tell me about the rest of the house? What about the top of the house, what was that- 811: Uh most of 'em had uh shingles {NS} uh these uh wooden shingles. Some of 'em had tin. There were very few of 'em had them wooden shingles they would've had uh most of 'em had tin on 'em. {NS} Interviewer: Tin. 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Would it ever catch on fire, did you ever see the {NS} 811: It very seldom every now and then, you'd hear talk of one would burn down. But as I grew older, and they got these up-to-date houses, I seen more fire then then I ever did. Cause in that time I don't remember nobody's house burning from the time I was about Interviewer: What would- what would cause 'em to burn? 811: Neglect I- I imagine. That's the only thing I can see. They'd uh go off and leave stuff on the fire. {NS} Or Interviewer: Cinders might come out and land on the 811: Uh yeah and then every now and then with them uh uh {NS} tin roofs you would get uh where your fire would start coming out on the top of the chimney or something. You know, it would start flying out, it'll fall on the roof. {NS} Every now and then, maybe one or two {NS} in about every ten years you would hear of burning Interviewer: Yeah. 811: like that. {NS} Interviewer: Yeah. {NS} 811: But it's very seldom you would {X} but from the time I was about six {NS} until I was about fifteen, I don't remember you hadn't had a house that burnt. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: You know, one of these old wood- dirt houses or wood-frame houses from the olden time. But from the time I was about fifteen, when they started having electric lights natural gas and stuff like that. Butane. We started hearing of houses burning. Every now and then you hear somebody say well so-and-so's house burnt. What happened? I don't know. And I know some particular people, and I don't know what happened but it burnt in about three houses. They were living in town, we were living out in the country, and we was going to school, we'd hear the fire truck burn that hap- went about it had- it was in about five years' time. They burn about three houses. {NS} Interviewer: Um {NS} 811: {NW} Interviewer: Now {NS} did the window the things you'd have to pull down to shut out light, 811: You didn't have nothing to pull to shut out a light. Interviewer: Well you know, when you had glass wind- when you got glass. 811: Oh, uh when the yeah, when they come up to glass windows, uh Interviewer: You get 811: What you ha- had to do is make you some curtains. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Some of 'em every now and then would Interviewer: Or did you see the ones that would be on rollers, you know? And they'd come to how you just pull 'em down? {NS} 811: We never did have nothing like that. Uh #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 811: we had us s- something like that, we'd take a stick Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: and put- with some heavy you know, heavy material. And just take 'em and close 'em with our hand. Open 'em and close 'em. {NS} And what mostly it was was uh they had some um fertilizer sacks or we'd buy fertilizer. When we was {NW} {NW} there was some white sacks. {NS} {X} take 'em and we'd undo 'em uh {NS} and why when after you undo 'em there's a good size. And poor momma would take 'em and kindly bleach 'em and get us some dye. {NS} And she would dye 'em the- Interviewer: Yeah. 811: the color she wanted 'em. And our underclothes, that's what we'd made our underclothes out of these fertilizer sacks. {NS} Interviewer: What were they made out of? They were 811: Uh {NS} whatever this uh shoot. {NS} Interviewer: Were they cotton? {NS} 811: Ye- uh they had cotton in it, but it was rough. {NW} It was- {X} never did have too much cotton, did it? {NW} I just know it was kind of rough. I don't know what it was, but it was rough. {NW} #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 {X} # good {X} 811: It'd take many a washing before you would get that and then we had to make our own soup. Me and my poor grandma used to get out there and make soup. {NS} We had to go to town she'd send me to town at they had a {NS} a sack one of these old fertilizer sacks and she had cut me a hole right in the middle of it, she had sewed the top and the bottom up cut me a hole, I'd go to town {NS} and get some scraps. {D: Then we did} cut all the meat off it and I get my sack full, and I'd throw it across my shoulder. Have half of it in the front, and half in the back. I had about three miles to go {NS} we get back with that- Interviewer: And you didn't have a car, you had to I mean, you didn't ride a horse, you had to 811: We didn't have no horse. {NS} It was a fu- {NS} That's what- that's when we was working on half. Interviewer: Put that sack over your back 811: And go where I had to go. {NS} And I would get about uh {NS} three box of {X} {NS} {D: that I had in a paper bag.} {NS} And we'd come back and get us a washcloth {NS} and uh {NS} put them bones and stuff in there and start a fire. And uh we put all these old bones in there. {D: When there'd be a little meat} instead of 'em feeding three box of {X} and pour in there. And that stuff would get hot. It would eat all the little bit of meat and stuff they had on them bones. And then we'd take the bones and throw 'em away. And you'd let it cook for so long, and then you'd just take it off the fire. When you get through, you'd have your soap. Interviewer: Hmm. {NS} 811: {NW} Interviewer: And on Monday, your mother would your grandmother would do the is it Monday when she'd do all the {NS} clothes and stuff? What would she use the soap for? 811: White washing clothes and dishes. Scrub- cleaning the house. She'd take that lye soap and get down there with a scrubbing brush. And then you had uh like when the clothes would get dirty you had to boil them. Take 'em and put 'em in a wash pot outside and boil 'em. {NS} Interviewer: She have a day usually when she'd do that? 811: Huh? Interviewer: Did she have a certain day of the week? 811: Uh yeah was mos- something like on Mondays. Interviewer: Like on Monday. 811: Or either- well, her boy had to work in the field then. If it was a good day on Monday where we- you know where the work was pushing where we had to get out there and work. Well she just going and- and do it late on Monday afternoon when she'd get out there and uh and start and it'd be way in the night before she finished. And it was the kid's mother and everything {X} {NS} Interviewer: And then the next day she'd do the? {NS} 811: Oh, whatever she had left, she'd finish. uh Interviewer: #1 For the ironing? # 811: #2 It'd be that # morning. Interviewer: She do any ironing? 811: Oh, there wasn't no ironing back then. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Very, very seldom. And for irons we had these uh irons, you'd take 'em and heat 'em on the stove. #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # {NS} Um {NS} now {NS} a room up under the top of a house would be a what? You've seen those? 811: Mm. no. {NS} Interviewer: Um well, you know, you said you had you had rafters in your house? 811: Oh yeah, you had uh {NS} It was uh you know, like this house here, they got uh you know a ceiling thing. Interviewer: Yeah, what do you got up there? You got a? 811: But uh the other was you didn't have nothing up there, all you had was your two-by-fours going across. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: And then your rafters would go up. You didn't have nothing to stop the heat or the with just your rafters and stuff up there. {NS} And most of 'em was high, you know there's mo- they'd build high. {NS} Then you would have- {NS} for water, we had a cistern. Interviewer: How'd you get water in the cistern? 811: Well, what you gotta do is put some gutters on your house. Whenever it would rain, put gutters around the house. {NS} I'll never forget one time {NS} {D: It was nearly December} and the mosquitos was bad {NS} yeah and they had a little old young mule that'd keep running around the house, running around the house, running around the house, kept running. And the old cistern had a tin top, and some kinda way he come running and jumped in that cistern. {NS} Interviewer: Jumped in the what? 811: In the cistern. {NS} {NW} {NW} And they didn't have much water, either. We already- we had to tow the water for about a half a mile. When it'd it didn't rain and that old mule done jumped in that cistern. The next one, we heard him hollering at that wasn't {X} type of lantern, you know {X} {NW} by the way, that old mule died in there, boy that thing was about eight feet deep. {NS} The damn next morning I had to go out there and get all kind of pulleys and stuff the the highest amount in there. Interviewer: A- a beaver? 811: A- a mule. Interviewer: Oh, a mule. {NW} 811: {X} go out of there. And then we- co- Interviewer: {NW} 811: couldn't drink it. I know {D: the cistern was out} for six month. {NS} What they had to do was get down in there and clean the bottom out and then they put some more bricks. {D: Cause in a bath, that mud it'd come a flood} {NS} We had some water. {NS} It was hard times then. {NS} Why, we said it was hard time, we was everybody had plenty to eat. {NS} But you know, you compare it to now, it was hard times. {NS} But everybody was much more happier then, now I tell you. {NS} You didn't have many people with bad eyes. We had these old {NS} lamps and then you didn't have to worry too much about the mosquitoes. you had bad {X} the smoke so {NW} It'd smoke up the house. {NW} {NS} And uh very seldom you had people having heart attacks, ulcers, and all that stuff. We'd make most of that stuff out of grease. We'd plant peas and all kind of stuff. Interviewer: Yeah. {NS} 811: Very seldom we'd go to the store for Interviewer: Um the room that you would cook in uh would be the 811: The kitchen. {NS} Interviewer: Okay. Was it in the house? 811: Yeah. {NS} And it was the most tiny I had, but maybe two rooms. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Cause I remember th- one of the houses we- that's where we slept, in the kitchen. Interviewer: Yeah. But now y- this here room you call your? This is your? 811: This is the uh the living room. {NS} Interviewer: #1 Your living room, right? Okay. # 811: #2 {X} {NW} # Interviewer: I mean, well things have changed a lot. This is a fine house you have. 811: Thank you. Interviewer: Um {NS} the uh okay you'd sleep in the what? Do you have a- a room you would sleep- what {NS} 811: Well Interviewer: #1 room where you could sleep. # 811: #2 Most of the time yo- # you had maybe two rooms Interviewer: Okay. 811: with the kitchen, and a bedroom. And the parents would sleep in the bedroom, and the kids would sleep in the kitchen. {NS} We had a little ol' cot or something, you know {NS} Interviewer: Yeah. 811: that {NS} we'd make our own mattress. {NS} Interviewer: If you didn't have a bed, they'd make a what? Make a, just a? {NS} 811: Well, most of 'em would uh {NS} you'd make uh a stand on the side of the wall and put you a some boards and stuff. {NS} Then put you some mattress on top of it. {NS} Interviewer: What did you make a mattress out of? 811: Wha- with cotton. We used to make our own quilts. {NS} But uh let's say for cotton what we would do is take it {NS} uh {NS} when we would go to the cotton gin well before that we'd take the seeds and take your time and pull all the seeds out of there. {NS} And then you'd take that cotton and you'd fluff it up. {NS} And you'd go ahead and you'd make your mattress. {NS} But then they uh they started when you could get it from the gin. {NS} Interviewer: #1 Mm-hmm. # 811: #2 The # the gin would de-seed it, and it would fluff it up you know, much much better. {NS} And you could uh {NS} go ahead and make you your mattress, your pillows. Now for quilts, well, you should buy cotton. Go to the store and buy this uh roll of cotton. And uh you take all kind of little old scrap pieces and sew 'em together, like during the winter we didn't have nothing to do, me and my grandma and my momma would get together. And would sew all them little piece together. {NS} One side you'd have all different colors on your quilt, and the other side was solid. And we'd sew all them little old different pieces together. {NS} And get one side solid {NS} and when I got married, my grandmother gave you a quilt. You and Sarah, I think. Child: {X} she gave me 811: Uh-huh. Child: {X} quilt. 811: Yeah, so every time I had one of the kids was born, they would make 'em a quilt. {NS} Interviewer: That's an art. It really is, to be to- to you oughta appreciate that cause your grand- grandmother, if she can do that, she's quite a good sewer. Cause there's 811: And I used to love to do all- to sew like that uh for doing fancy work, I'd come out first place at school, Interviewer: Yeah. 811: When I was in school, and then I just quit and I I was supposed to show the kids how to do it, but I {NS} {NW} get doing so many other things, I forgot. And I tried it to get back then I never could do it. {NS} Interviewer: Yeah. {NS} {NW} {NS} There's a- there's a f- a football player that was from down around where I'm from. Big guy, he played for the Rams. His name was Roosevelt Grier. 811: Yeah. Interviewer: He does- he does crochet. 811: Yeah, I seen him doing that on a commercial. On TV. {NW} Interviewer: Yeah, he's- he's good. 811: Mm. Interviewer: Yeah. Uh and he played football. {NS} Big fella. {NS} Big, tough guy. Um well a room up under the top of the house do you have- you have one of them in this house? {NS} Uh-uh. {NS} No. Wait a minute. Uh we just go- what do you call that? {NS} Man: Attic. 811: Yeah. {NS} Man: And sometimes it was for the insulation. 811: Yeah. We got one. Yeah we got one, but it's Interviewer: Got a 811: insulation all over it. Yeah. Interviewer: Um okay now a room maybe off of the kitchen where you kept your where they would keep dishes or extra food or 811: Well you would call that a storeroom. You know the little storeroom where you could cause what ya a most ho- most of the houses had 'em. {NW} They had their little storeroom cause what your i.e., that little outdoor house and they- they had it off {NS} cause your when you make your bacon and stuff, you have to have a house to put it in. All your canned goods. Your blackberries and your whatever you would can. Your peas and all that stuff. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: They had a little house outside but {NW} you got you a good lock on it. {X} But people weren't bad as they- as they did, now for taking stuff like that. Every now and then when it was when it was really bad {X} Interviewer: {X} 811: it was people who had watermelons and corn. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: You'd have people Interviewer: Y'all raise them here? 811: Now what? Interviewer: Watermelons. 811: Oh yes. Interviewer: What kind did you raise? 811: Uh we had these uh striped ones. One year we planted some of them yellow bellies. And we really- Interviewer: Are they kind of yellow #1 inside? # 811: #2 Yeah. # Interviewer: Are they good? 811: #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 I've never # seen one. They're sweet, aren't they? 811: Yeah, they sweet. And we plant squash and we'd can all the eggplants. Interviewer: Do you ever let squash dry? Do you ever let- squash dry? 811: #1 Y- ye- # Interviewer: #2 You have a name for it? # 811: Uh {NS} It'd been so long ago, I remember we used to have planted {X} and all that stuff. Interviewer: {X} you know 811: Uh-huh. And we're uh well if you want to save the seeds, you would let 'em dry. {X} Mom made a phone call? Child: Uh-uh. 811: Better go ask her if she made it. {NS} Child: You want some water? 811: Yeah, bring me a little thing. Do you care for a glass of water, #1 coffee? # Interviewer: #2 No, # no thank you. No, I'm fine. {NS} 811: And stuff like that it would {NS} {D: where you make your own sauce, it} You'll make {X} Interviewer: Hmm? 811: {X} Interviewer: {X} What's that? 811: Uh you take a we're not talking about something good. Interviewer: All right. Tell me, what was that again? 811: You take a like you kill a hog Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: and you had these big guts. You take 'em and you wash 'em good. You take 'em and you hang 'em on a fence about for four or five days. And let it dry. Then you smoke it. Interviewer: Have you had any of this yet, Roger? 811: Uh yeah you ate some. You remember the first time I came out the house been when I I made that okra. When I went and boiled that. Man: {NW} I don't know, I don't remember. Child: {X} 811: {NW} {NW} That's some good eating. Interviewer: Now I didn't even know what it was you you told me. I didn't he- you- you said something, I couldn't hear what it was. 811: You take a like this big uh you ever seen 'em kill a hog? Interviewer: Oh yeah. 811: They got these big, big, big guts. Interviewer: Yeah. What do you call them, the 811: Um I don't know what you'd call 'em. Interviewer: Hmm. 811: There were the big guts. Interviewer: And you let 'em dry? 811: You take 'em and you hang 'em out there. You wash 'em good. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: You hang 'em up somewhere where they can dry. Interviewer: Okay. 811: Then you smoke 'em. Interviewer: Yeah. {NS} 811: And you set it up. Interviewer: You mean dry, or you mean dry dry? 811: Well, uh but I mean Interviewer: Dry like needle dry. 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. 811: Like you would do bacon. Uh you smoke a little bit of drying bacon. Interviewer: Okay. Seems like to me you wash it out and if you put it out to dry, it would get- the meat would get uh in other words, it would go bad. It would get 811: Yeah that- then what you do, you season it, you see? You put your pepper and salt and everything on it, you hang it but you hang it somewhere in the shade. Like in your {D: smolder after some} And after it'd drip out good, then you salt it. You well season it. Interviewer: Now what do you call this dish? 811: Huh? A tasso. {NS} Interviewer: A tasso? 811: Tasso. {NS} Interviewer: Tasso. {NS} 811: {X} A tasso is uh #1 you kno- # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 811: Yeah. Interviewer: A tasso. 811: Tasso, that that- you use the- you make that out of beef meat. Interviewer: Okay. What's {X} 811: Well that's that hog gut I was thinking about. And this tasso {NS} that's beef meat. {NS} You cut it in strips and you uh {NS} you smoke it. {NS} And um {NS} you take it and you s- smoke this stuff uh {NS} Oh you gotta smoke it slow and long. {NW} Then you season it hard. You put plenty pepper and salt on it. And {D: you put that in the okra gumbo.} Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: {NW} {NS} Interviewer: What part of the meat was it? 811: Well, you just take uh any lean part of the meat {NS} You can buy it every now and then now. Uh the store in town, they might have some. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: It just like if you take a chicken or something and smoke it. {NS} And the smoke taste if you put it in peas or something. {NS} Interviewer: Um {NS} now what would you call a lot of things- useless things, you know, that you just kept around the farm? They weren't any good. Worthless, and you were just about to throw 'em away, but you always kept 'em. You ever have- have all that stuff? {NS} 811: Yeah, as they was going out of style, people would get rid of 'em. You'd think uh {NW} like old uh {X} planters old cotton planters. I remember we had one at Thanksgiving that's trouble. Poor Daddy went and bought a brand new one, it was seventy seventy-eight dollars. And in that time, seventy-eight dollars a whole lot of money. That's like three hundred dollars today. And we went {X} he we- he never would get rid of that old one. We just kept it. We'd pile it up out there for junk. Old pliers. Interviewer: Where'd you keep it? 811: We'd just take it and throw it on side the barn. Outside where well like the planters and stuff like that, we'd keep 'em indoors. But they were so expensive. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: That's just like something today, you know, like when you'd go buy a piece of equipment. If you gonna pay ten thousand dollars for it, you gonna kind of keep it- keep it indoors, you know where it's going. Interviewer: #1 Yeah. # 811: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: Um now your mother, around the house she would do all the? Yo- when your mother was sweeping, you'd say she was? 811: Well, she was sweeping. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And we'd make our own brooms. We- we had 'em made, we'd plant uh broom straw seed. Make our own brooms. Plant our peanuts. Uh they had some other kind of things they called {X} You'd make candy with it. You put it with peanuts. And uh {D: they would refer- what did we choose uh} something like uh we plant the broom straw seed and all we had to do was furnish the handle, and they charge something like I believe it was thirty-five cent a broom. They make 'em. And every year we'd make about ten fifty. Interviewer: Um now uh how would you get from the first floor to the second floor in a two-story house? You ever been in a house you know, that would have two stories? 811: Mm. #1 I've s- # Interviewer: #2 You've # seen 'em around here? 811: Yeah. Do- your stairs are like doors. You had to come like, outside and get on the porch there's very few of 'em ou- Interviewer: We were talking about the the stairs 811: Yeah. Um most of 'em was outdoors, you- you'd come like um well, you didn't have to exactly get outside, but you had to get out the house. Let's see, you would come out the front door, and uh as you would come out, you'd just {D: tell him to sit on the porch} you know. And you go up the stairs. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Um {NS} did you- did you ever see any on the inside? You know, they'd have a #1 on the inside of the house, # 811: #2 Yeah. # Interviewer: #1 they'd have a what? # 811: #2 Mm-hmm. # Uh they got wi- old house over there, old abandoned house they got uh one with the stairs inside. Interviewer: Yeah. Um {NS} now- okay. At the back, say when you walked out of the back door, did you ever see a house that would have a kitchen off of it? So, the kitchen would be off the house, or- Man: Or uh 811: #1 Mm. # Interviewer: #2 Okay. # Say out back, the- you'd walk out on the what? Out- outside of the back of your house, you might've had a? 811: Well, they'd usually have a little ol' screen porch or {NS} on the later model, you know #1 usually # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # 811: have a little porch or something. Interviewer: Would it be covered? 811: Yeah. Oh, you di- it was your- your porch or either your storage room. You had a little porch back there, but most of 'em was storage rooms. Like I was telling you, where you put all your canned goods. {NS} And uh Interviewer: Huh? 811: like- well, and all your preserves and stuff like wha- what you'd can, you know. Interviewer: Jams and 811: Yeah. Make all your jelly and and then, you had a other little off house for your- for your meats. Cause your- you had these big jars where you would salt your meat. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Like your bacon and stuff, or Interviewer: Put it in a jar? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: #1 {X} # 811: #2 Well, yeah. # You ever seen one? Interviewer: Well, I- I'll get you to me then, if you don't mind. 811: It's a- a ten-gallon jar. Interviewer: You kill hogs? 811: Huh? Interviewer: You kill a hog in here? 811: Yeah, they uh they killed one once, about three, four weeks ago. Interviewer: Yeah. {NS} 811: And um what you do, you you take it and you make you a put your salt, your pepper. If you put it in there, you put your salt and pepper over it, you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: {NW} That gallon uh jar would hold about ten gallons. And they had some twelve gallon, some twenty gallon, whatever you wanted. But most people with big family, you know bigger their family was, bigger the jars they had. And uh you salt it {D: as you going} when you get through, you pour you some water in it. Interviewer: What was it made out of? 811: Huh? Interviewer: The jar. 811: Um Man: Kinda clear, something like- 811: yeah, it uh something like what you call a crock- crock jar. Interviewer: Crock. Okay. {NS} 811: You'd get through you you get you a rag, and you tie on top of it to keep the flies off. {X} And then you take it and put it in your little house. {NS} And that meat would keep there for the longest. You didn't have to worry about it spoiling or nothing cause it wasn't gonna spoil in that salt and pepper. {NS} Interviewer: The meat never got never got- 811: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: never got spoiled? 811: Now if you didn't do it right, you would lose it. It went rancid. Cause a bunch of people lose some if you some of them young people that knew- thought they knew how to do it, you know. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: But usually wouldn't happen like that with us, it was always you know, one of the old ones {D: that would do it- had- had been at doing it.} Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: And I never known us to lose nothing. Interviewer: The meat around the bone, too, usually the- 811: Yeah. Interviewer: that shoulder or something like that. Um okay now you mentioned a- would anyone call a porch a gallery? Or any- #1 {X} # 811: #2 Yeah. # And they'd say a gallery the- the older ones the older ones down here, most of 'em would say a gallery. You know the- the French people. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: The ones that really talk French. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Cause they they always said things {D: backwards} to the {NW} to the people that {NS} that just talk English, you know they Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And if they tell you something, the- they'll tell it to you halfway {D: backwards} and you got to know know 'em pretty good, you know, to know what they they saying. {NS} Interviewer: Did uh did any your- uh let me ask you this. Did any of your family speak French? Like your father? 811: Mm-mm. They understood it a little bit, but none of 'em talked it. Interviewer: Okay your grandparents or your grandmother? 811: Mm-mm. Interviewer: What'd she call- where'd she get that dish {X} from? 811: Well, that was in that time the- everybody was you know that was just uh Interviewer: Okay. 811: everybody that survived, you know? To keep you know Interviewer: That's an interesting dish. It may be French. I don't know- I don't know where it came from, but 811: Well yeah, you can buy it uh {NS} it's got to be a old store, though. Where you would buy- now they might have some in Church Point, I ain't sure. Interviewer: {X} huh? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Would you ever eat the little intestines? 811: Yeah, you'd use that to make boudin. Interviewer: #1 Boudin. # 811: #2 That's how I say it. # Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. You ever- do you know what chitterlings are? 811: Ye- uh yeah. Interviewer: Wha- 811: That- that was the little guts so the ones you didn't use, you'd take 'em and you'd cut 'em small. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And you could- talk about good with cornbread. Interviewer: And that was- 811: That was chitterling. Interviewer: And you've eaten them? 811: {X} {NW} I didn't eat {X} Man: Some hog head cheese. 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Yeah, you made what? From the ho- head of the hog, you made? 811: Hog head cheese. Interviewer: Yeah. {NS} What about- would you ever take the liver and grind it up? Did you make a dish outta that? {NS} 811: Uh Interviewer: Wi- after you cooked it? {NS} 811: Mm. Let me see. {NS} Interviewer: Okay. Would you ever use the blood of the hog for anything? 811: Yeah. Make red boudin. Interviewer: Red boudin. Man: Blood pudding. 811: Yeah. Well, it was the same thing. {NS} You had your white boudin, your red one. And what you have to do is uh whe- as soon as you stab the hog, you had to go there with a {NS} uh with a pan. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: And you'd catch it. And you keep {X} it running in there, and then you get you some salt and put salt instead cause it's gonna clabber if you don't do that. Interviewer: You stabbed him with a? 811: With a knife. Interviewer: Big ol' knife? {NS} 811: Uh it don't necessarily have to be that big, long as it's pointed and you can hit his heart. You stab him on the left side. {NS} Right down there. And if you {X} very, very seldom you gonna miss his heart. {NS} Interviewer: Yeah. Um {NS} about the house, what would you call the boards on the outside of the house that would lap over? {NS} That was a you know, on the outside of the house they'd make 'em so they would have one board going down the side of the house, and then another board would lap over that. That was called? {NS} 811: I don't know too much about #1 {D: two little} # Interviewer: #2 What # what was your house what were the houses you- you lived in made out of? 811: Uh Interviewer: What'd they have on the s- outside of the 811: #1 The- # Interviewer: #2 house? # 811: {D: That weather boarding uh} no, they had brick paper. Let me see. Interviewer: Okay. 811: Yeah. Brick paper. Interviewer: Okay. 811: And baked siding. It is something like they got on that house over there. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: But it was gray. Interviewer: Right. And uh now you have a- a house had an L on the house, say. And when the two come together, would be a there would be a place where, you know, come together. What was that called, a? 811: Mm. Interviewer: You ever see that? You know, when you had a house, and an L on the house? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: And uh and the- the uh the two would come together and and the water would run together, and that was a? It'd be a little p- piece of tin there or something. 811: Yeah. But I don't know what would you call it. Interviewer: Uh okay. {NS} Now, did you have a you said you stored your wood out in the uh 811: Well, you usually had a a wood pile outside. Interviewer: Okay. 811: But you had you a wood box in the house. Like if you'd get three or four rainy days, well, we uh- we just had our time to cut wood. Uh either one would cut wood, one would do something else. {NW} {NW} And if you know there uh by that time when we got big enough that we had a radio, it'd work with a battery, and then they said they had a cold front or something coming for a day or so. You'd better get out there and cut you enough wood to fill up your box. Interviewer: {X} 811: Cause if you wait till late, you was in trouble. And then if it would stay froze, I remember one time it stayed froze for what? Nine days. And uh we couldn't go in the woods to get no wood. Cause the branches tha- that snowed and that and they had a bunch of ice. The branches was falling off the trees. And then, and if you would go walk in the woods, they could fall on you and kill you. So what we had to do was go on the edge of the woods {NS} and bring some back on our shoulders. {NS} {D: We'd run in lower wood} {NS} Of course that- we had had a bunch of trees and the branches would fall out the trees in the yard, and that helped us out some. But it was green. {NS} And that green, wet wood just wasn't going. {NS} When we got a chance, we went out there and got us some dry wood. {NS} Interviewer: And you did have indoor uh plumbing? 811: Huh? Uh {NW} Interviewer: You had a what? 811: You had a cistern. Interviewer: Okay, and then 811: {NW} Interviewer: What'd you call an outdoor toilet? 811: Well, I don- yeah, toilet. #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 Okay. # Joking words for it, you know? They call it the? The other words they'd have? 811: Uh Man: Little outhouse. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Yeah, most time it was a toilet, though. Interviewer: You don- do you ever hear talking about a commode? 811: Why, that come out Interviewer: Or a 811: when they came out with the ones in the house. Interviewer: Yeah. Well, they might call it a a privy or something like that? Okay. Now that's w- cuz we had one up in the house where I was at. That's what we called ours. Um what about um mr {B} what about other buildings on the farm? Uh, you mentioned the barn. What'd you use that for? 811: Well {NS} most uh farmers now you talking about uh like now? Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: Well, mo- most farmers today, they uh uh like on this farm, they uh they uh {NS} they go on with rice, beans, and cattle. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. {NS} 811: So what this big ol' barn back here was used for cattle. {NS} And then {NS} #1 uh # Interviewer: #2 that he keeps the cattle in? # You know. 811: Well, they can go and come in the barn like they want. Uh {NS} You've got about a hundred {NS} about a hundred and twenty head, I guess. And you got this big barn with some hay rice. {NS} Uh now if it's freezing cold, raining, what we do, we go put hay and the hay rice in the barn. And uh {NS} let 'em {NS} eat out of the water. But if the water's not any good, {NS} we've got some of these big ol' round barrels, I don't know if you ever did see 'em. {NS} Interviewer: Mm. 811: And we'd take 'em and just put 'em out there where they can eat outdoors. Interviewer: How do you carry those things? My goodness. 811: Uh, we got a fork. Uh all you do, you'd put it on back of a tractor and you'd back up to it and it works on a lift. They got one of the dealers supposed to bring two. {NS} But I don't know how you gonna- how that's gonna work #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 They weigh a ton a piece, # don't they? 811: Uh fifteen hundred pound, most of 'em. Interviewer: Pretty big. {NS} When you when you used to raise hay in the old days, tell me how y'all would cut it. Did you cut it? Did you ever cut it back in the 811: Yeah we uh- you but uh this fellow here, he never well, after I started working for him, he used to cut a whole lotta hay. Then we start building rice straw. {NS} We're going back of the combines, so you have the combines cut the rice. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: They would leave a row of straw. And we'd just go behind and press that. And it got so bad on the last well, you couldn't get nobody to haul it. You had to almost get on your hands and knees and beg people to haul it, you know? Um then we was- I was running the crew and {NW} this fellow had his truck, he was charging fifteen cent a bale. {NS} {X} And uh they usually would put out about a thousand bales a day, you know, if it go good. {NS} And uh Interviewer: That's a hun- that's a hundred fifty dollars a day. 811: Yeah. {NS} And he uh he had these fellows hauling and what I would do, they had a tractor and a wagon, I'd let him use that, too. {NS} And he was making headway like that cause he wasn't wearing and tearing his truck. {NW} Interviewer: #1 Why- # 811: #2 {X} # with uh with his own truck, you see. #1 And you had # Interviewer: #2 Why's # they char- why do they charge you so much to haul hay? 811: Why, that was cheap. I- I tell you right now, i- in Texas, they- they pay up to forty-five, fifty cent a bale {D: others didn't have a fork, you had to haul it.} Interviewer: Where were you hauling it to? 811: Well, I was hauling it like out of this field right here? {NS} {X} {NS} Interviewer: Oh, I see. 811: Now, if they had to get at Interviewer: #1 Oh, I see. # 811: #2 {X} # Interviewer: been outta the state. {NS} 811: Texas. Interviewer: Okay. 811: I always did love to travel. {NW} They forgot to {X} {NS} I tell you my wife the other day we {NS} always doing all work and no play, and I believe her. {NW} Then we had a doctor talking like I not- might not be able to work for another three years. So, I don't know how much ch- chance we gonna get to travel. {NS} While I'm not working, you know, be kind of bad. {NS} Never could save up enough money. {NW} {X} take a trip. {NS} Interviewer: Um {NS} so you bale rice straw? 811: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: And that was just about as good as hay? 811: I-I would uh I went out well tha- that's my job I wa- take care of rice and the cattle. I bale the hay. {NW} And we had a a farm out there in Jeff Davis parish by Jennings. And I went out there and baled some grass hay. Baled about a hundred bales, and they're big bales. And we was feeding that to 'em and I don't know- something came up {NS} well, I carried some rice straw out there. You know, they start eating that rice straw they didn't want to go back to they grass hay? Now if you're feeding 'em grass hay, I don't know what it is about that rice straw, seem like it got more protein or something in it. I don't know what it is, but they much rather that- they do that that grass hay. That grass hay, if you don't bale it just right, it got a tendency to sour. You know, if it's kinda green and if they eat it, sometimes it make 'em sick. But that old rice straw, it starts smell like the dickens, like that rotten. And they get out there and eat it, it won't do 'em nothing. {NW} {NS} Interviewer: Um {NS} now {NS} when you {NS} when too much hay where would you stack- put your hay in the barn? 811: Uh we'd stack that upstairs, in the barn. Like uh, this barn back here, we can put about twenty-seven hundred bales in it. Small bales. Interviewer: Hmm. 811: And these big bales, uh the idea it is you don't put it in no shade. You take it and uh stack it outdoors, but you gotta put a fence around it. You- you don't stack it close together, so when it rain you stack it on a hill. {NW} Interviewer: What kind of fence? 811: Well, put barbed wire fence, about six wires six, seven wires {X} Interviewer: Around it? #1 Why? # 811: #2 Yeah. # Cause once the cows they get in there, {NS} you got all kind of trouble to keep 'em out. Interviewer: Oh yeah. 811: We got one back there, we put a four wire fence they got there. {NW} Shit, we put wires, put wires {X} they got about seven wires on there, finally keep 'em out now. #1 And there was a # Man: #2 {D: Sometimes} # {NS} as long as they ain't hungry. 811: They'll jump push and get in there. And you stack and you space it about a foot apart. You know, so the- whenever it rain the water just roll off it. And the only thing, you kind of lose it on the bottom you lose about that much on your bale. The top part they do the water just rolls off it and the Interviewer: Hmm. 811: #1 And the # Interviewer: #2 Back # in the old days, when they cut it, you used to? When they cut it out the field, they'd rake it into what? 811: Uh Interviewer: Did you ever- 811: uh yeah you rake it i- in uh windrows. Interviewer: Okay. 811: Rake yo- your hay. {NS} Or you press to pick it up. Interviewer: Yeah. Did they- would they ever leave it out in the field? You know what out there? They'd make a? 811: Oh, they'd make a haystack. Now back before the in the old, old time. They didn't bale. They uh made haystacks. {NS} They uh took a wagon what they do, they go out on the {NS} was nothing but highland farmers, mostly. Then they needed some uh Had one or two uh milk cows and they mules. They take a long stick. uh old tree or something a small one, about this size, {NS} And they would cut it oh about {NS} ten, twelve feet high {NS} that's a- about fifteen feet. {NS} And they'd take a {D: post over there and} put it about three feet in the ground. Three or four feet in the ground. And they go out on the- on the headlands {D: on their torn rows where they were torn, you know?} And they always had quite a bit of grass, and they would cut it. Go along there they had a a mowing machine. {NS} they would cut it. {NS} They would come back and uh The had what you'd call a- a mule rig. And it was a thing with a bunch of forks. And you would let it down, and you would go and it just would pass it, rake it up when you would get it get it full. {NS} {D: You had to put but your} match on it that thing would go up, and it would leave you a pile of hay. When you'd get through, you know, when your hay would dry, about a day or so after, you come back with your wagon. And you load it on your wagon. And you go back where you put that stick in and you start putting it around that stick. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: And uh {NS} yes, you'd go {NS} you would just keep throwing it higher and higher. Interviewer: {NW} 811: And by the time you #1 finished it it'd # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 811: be almost to the top of the stick, but by the time it'd settle, it'll be about a half way. So if you just would pull up on the old haystack like that, them old cows would get up under there, some of 'em would have calves or something during the winter. Go in there if you didn't watch it close, it would fall on 'em, you know. They'll eat to the bottom and the thing just would {NW} collapse on 'em and you'd lose a calf or something like that. Sometimes the cow would come out, but you wouldn't see the calf. {NS} But if I put that stick, it uh it would hold the hay up {NS} {X} {NS} Interviewer: What about a building or a part of a building where you would store your corn? 811: Well yo- you had uh oh well wo- you would feed your mules yo- usually had uh let's say if you had four mules, you had uh {NS} uh four stalls, one to put each one of your mules in. {NS} That- see, that would be on the left side uh the left or right side of your barn. You'd put your four mules in there. And then you had your {D: hoer} where you could put your wagon and stuff. And then, let's say if you had your stalls on the left side but on the right side you had your place to put your corn. {NW} And uh {NS} You always had upstairs a little old upstairs there if you wanted to put you some hay. {NS} Mostly what we used that upstairs for was uh like when we start picking cotton, and the cotton would be green, and we couldn't put it in the {D: wind} so we had to put it upstairs and let it dry {NS} until we get a bale. It'd take something like four days to pick a bale, you know, just {D: before it's open} {NS} And you'd go pick it green it would mildew so what we do is just take it and put it upstairs {NS} in the barn. Just let it dry. {NS} Interviewer: Um the place where you kept your corn was the what? the c- corn? 811: Corn crib. {NS} Interviewer: Um did you ever have a place where you would store grain? Or a part of a building? Or anything like that? {NS} 811: Mm. Interviewer: Like rice, they keep that now. What do they dry it in a? 811: Now? Interviewer: Yeah, they got a would you call it a 811: {NW} Interviewer: a granary? You know what- 811: Uh they got uh rice drawers. Uh Interviewer: Rice? 811: Rice drawers. Well, they call 'em bins. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: They got these big uh Interviewer: They're mighty bigger than a bin, though. 811: Uh, they might hold about thirty-five hundred barrels, most of 'em. You seen the this big old thing out here #1 when you step out # Interviewer: #2 Yeah, yeah, # yeah, coming in. 811: Yeah. Coming out. Interviewer: Coming out, yeah. 811: Yeah. Well, that's uh that's what you call a rice drawer. {NS} Man: {X} 811: Yeah. Uh, I'd like for you to come out here during the summer, during harvest time. Be glad to take you around and show you how whe- during you know, harvest time, they'd cut? And go through their drawers? #1 That's it # Interviewer: #2 If I'm # here, I'd like to see it I'd- if I'm back in the area. Um now, {NS} what about a place where say, besides the barn, did you ever have a place where you would milk {NS} the cows? 811: Uh most people didn't milk in the barn, cause you always had fleas if you had hogs, boy if you had hogs, you had fleas. {NS} Most people always had a milker right in front of the barn. {NS} Had 'em a little place, you know. {NS} Interviewer: That was a what? 811: Well, it was just outdoors, you know? There are very few people that would milk in the barn. {NS} If uh you was raising {NW} {NS} hogs, then your hogs was going in the barn. {NS} Cause there are very few people that would milk {D: on the barn} Cause you- the hog would make such a mess. And then they'd create fleas and stuff. Well, you had {D: D-Z-T} then. {NS} They uh they won't let you use it, now, but that was good for 'em. You went there and sprayed that, you didn't have no trouble with 'em. But otherwise them fleas would eat you up. Just like ants. They would get on you Interviewer: Yeah. What about where you kept your hogs? {NS} 811: Well, if uh you could most people had 'em a hog pen built on the side. Something pretty big, where they didn't have to feed 'em all year, you know cause uh say if for instance like if you was working on {X} the boss would furnish {D: a place} but he had to furnish his own wire and everything you know, to make his hog pen. And they always make a big pen. So that mean you didn't have to feed your hog. all summer and all winter if you had a little grass and stuff. Interviewer: What kind of fence did they have around it? 811: Uh it was a- a hog wire fence. But you always had to have boards and stuff to the bottom, or they'd root out. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: I put rings in their nose. Interviewer: You have a shelter? {NS} 811: Yeah, you had a little old house lay in the middle of their pen out there. Interviewer: Was it floored? 811: No. Interviewer: Like when you wanted to kill a hog, like don't you- don't you do that when you #1 floor the pen? # 811: #2 Yeah. # Well, I got one out there now that's floored, but uh in them time people would kill 'em mostly off the ground. It didn't have to be particular people. I say particular people. People that that could afford it. To build a shed. {NS} And take you a hog it maybe something like a month, and put him on the floor. {NS} And what I mean a floor is uh put him in a pen with a floor and feed him corn. Now that's what they call cleaning him out. And uh Interviewer: Uh where did where did people used to keep their milk and butter before the days of refrigeration? 811: {NW} Well- like us we would we'd make uh {NS} let me see. {NS} If you do, you didn't have to uh most of 'em was clabber cause if it would stick overnight. Then you could take it and put it in a cool place. Like you had a water cistern, you take it and put it in a jug. And let it hang down in the cistern. It would stay fresh like that. And then the later on they Interviewer: What'd be in the top of the jug? 811: Uh well, you Interviewer: They put a- 811: well Interviewer: or they put it down in the water? 811: Yeah, you see, you take a string and tie around the top of it and put you a top on it. Interviewer: What kind of top? {NS} 811: Uh no {X} uh they're like a gallon jug, you know? Interviewer: Oh yeah. 811: And uh and your bottle, you'll take it and put it in uh in a jug or something, your cream. And uh let it hang down in the cistern. And it'd stay cool in that. {NS} Interviewer: What about a- did you ever hear of people they'd be uh near a stream or a {X} they'd take a trough a trough and- and run water through that and keep it cool that way? Okay. 811: Mm. #1 No. # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # Well you get your milk now from a where? From a? {NS} 811: Uh w- we usually buy it, you know Interviewer: It comes from the? 811: Um {NS} from the creamery, I guess. Interviewer: Well, is there a place around here where they where they have cows and they do 811: Yeah. Did that two or three places round here. But what they do, they gotta take it uh {X} and purify it. They got these uh milk dairies, and they milk it, they got a big truck come pick it up. Interviewer: In Appaloosa? 811: Yeah. {NS} Interviewer: Well I'd say these are just out here, they're what? 811: Uh well now, that's just the farms. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: The milk dairies {NS} They uh milk the cows you know, they got they selected milkers and everything. And every morning, this truck come by and pick up a trailer truck he'd back up there and uh they pump all this milk in his truck. And then he'd go to the Pelican Creamery in uh Appaloosa over there in their {NS} Interviewer: Creamery. 811: Yeah. {NS} Interviewer: Did uh {NS} okay, where would you store your potatoes or your turnips, in the winter? 811: Well, you had a potato house. You had a a house that was uh you had paper all around it something like insulated. {NS} And you'd put your hand down to the bottom and you put 'em in there. {NS} And all over the top of 'em {NS} or like that so- but you might you had to keep it closed so you don't get frostbitten. And when you close your door, you put paper all over the door. Just keep it closed tight. {NS} You would lose some, but very little bit. Like to the bottom that was your seed potatoes, you had that to plant. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: And uh when you would go back in there, you had to pick 'em out again but most of 'em had some sprouts on 'em about that long. Interviewer: Turnips? 811: Uh no uh well, y- we didn't do it with turnips. We did it just with sweet potatoes. Interviewer: Okay. You know what a dairy- do you ever hear of them call a dairy that- that a dairy or anything like that? No? 811: {NW} Interviewer: Okay. Around the barn, a place where you let the animals walk, say all the mules and the and the har- and the chickens and the 811: That'd be the barnyard. Interviewer: Was it fenced in? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Um and then where would you let 'em out to graze? 811: Well, you always had a pasture. Interviewer: And was it fenced in? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. Now wh- tell me about the type fences you remember round here. 811: Well we uh they had barbed wire fences, you- you had barbed wire and hog wire. {NW} Now, your barbed wire fences was like for your barnyard and stuff. Most people used barbed wire. Cause they didn't have the hog pen and uh and the barnyard together. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: And uh they used 'em both. They used barbed wire and hog wire and when they would on they uh hog pen where they would use a that hog {D: pool for 'em.} Interviewer: Uh did you ever see those other type wire those other type fences made outta wood? You ever seen any wooden fences #1 around here? # 811: #2 Ye- # yeah, I've seen 'em usually on uh on yards, they had them picket fences. They used 'em on yards, they didn't uh Interviewer: Was that uh 811: you know, around the houses. Interviewer: Okay, were they nailed? 811: Yeah. And they had some of 'em they had some uh at most four cornered nails. Uh some old, old time nails. Oh and they had these old pew fences, too. Seen quite a few of them. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: They use that for a barnyard. Interviewer: I was gonna ask you about that. That- those were the kind that were uh 811: #1 Uh yeah. # Interviewer: #2 The wood # went into the- they cut holes in them. 811: Yeah, they notched the uh something like some wood nails. They ha- they had uh quite a few of them, too. Them old pew fences. {NS} Interviewer: Um did you ever see the kinds that went like this? 811: No. Interviewer: They were rail. You know they went- in other words, they'd they'd lay one over the other? Zig-zag, they didn't go straight, they went #1 never {X} # 811: #2 I # I never di- I seen {D: how in a books uh one} but I never did see none you know, personal. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: I'd have been glad to seen one. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Okay. And now, when you- you had to dig holes for the 811: For the posts. Interviewer: Yeah. In all the- in all those fences. Um well when you wanted to start a hen laying, what would you use to fool her? You- you know when 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. You kept your, say, your chickens and uh would you ever put anything in the 811: Well, they always Interviewer: in the #1 nest? # 811: #2 most of # the time, they had one or two that's laying. Well, we always- they do is just leave one in the nest. You know, one egg. Interviewer: That would be the? 811: Uh we call that a nest egg. We just leave that one one in there. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Well, what we would do is pick up the eggs every day and we'd always just leave one. Just go pick up and leave one in there and so uh most of 'em would start laying like that. But sometimes they'd go {D: on a spare} like a lot of the Easter and Christmas {X} {NW} They'd do it with holidays, they didn't want to lay at all. {NW} The rest of the time, they would lay good. {NW} Interviewer: Yeah. Um {NS} now your wife's b- if- if your wife had a nice tea set, or something like that, she'd say it was her best it was made out of what? Made outta? 811: Oh well, I- I'd put with my Interviewer: A cabinet where they'd- where they'd they'd might have a cabinet where they'd put there best what? 811: Well, {X} their best china. Interviewer: Yeah. Okay. Did you ever see an egg made outta that? 811: No. Interviewer: Okay. Like something- a kind of an egg that they would put in in a nest, {X} 811: No. Uh. Interviewer: Okay. But that would be a what? That would be a? You'd call it a china egg? 811: I guess you would. Interviewer: Okay. You never saw one? 811: No. Interviewer: Um {NS} what would you {NS} carry water in around here? 811: Well, you mean like now or in the olden time? Interviewer: Yeah. Bu- back in the old times, when you'd get water out of the cistern, say. 811: Oh well most of the time you had a wooden bucket. {NW} Interviewer: How did you get water out of the cistern? 811: Well, what you do is you you had a bucket on a rope. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: And you had a little door, you just open the door and you and you {D: pass you} let your bucket fall in there, then you pull it up. Interviewer: Did you ever see them and they'd have place down at the the cistern would be b- was yours built in the ground? 811: Yeah. #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 Oh. # 811: on top of the ground. Interviewer: Oh, I see. 811: Didn't have one of those on top of the ground. You know, on the side of the house. Interviewer: And the water would come out of a what on the si- on the top of the ground? The water would come outta the? 811: You mean the ones that was in Interviewer: The ones that were built up on the top of the ground. 811: Well it- Interviewer: They'd open- there'd be a little thing 811: You got a little faucet. And now, we had one a deep well with one of these long buckets, oh I'm sure you've seen it. {NS} Interviewer: No, tell me about that. 811: It was a bucket about that long. Interviewer: How- how long is that, about 811: Uh about three feet long, I guess #1 that bucket. # Interviewer: #2 Three feet. # 811: {NS} And uh you had a a long rope {NS} and you- you had a rafter built that {D: and this here was your-} your well right there. You had a rafter built on the top of it. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: And you had a pulley right in the middle of it. {NS} And you had a rope on it. What you do, you let that rope go down. And you'll have to let it go down pretty fast so when that bucket hit, it would go {NS} the water would get in it. And when you get it full, you'd pull it back up, and you pu- {X} you had to have, you had a bucket there. Like your water bucket or whatever. And you had a a little ring on the top of the- a shaft that goes down to the bottom. You take your tub and you'd pull it, and the water would fall out. Interviewer: Was the bucket a big one? #1 I mean was it # 811: #2 It was # about that big around. It would hold about Interviewer: But it was long. 811: Yeah. Would hold about two gallon and a half. Or two gallons. About two gallon at the most. Interviewer: Okay. Um now, what did you carry milk in? When you milked, you milked into a? 811: Yeah, a pot. Or you'd uh or they'd get- they had some little old uh about a gallon and a half bucket, little tin buckets. Interviewer: Okay. Were they big or- or do they w- can you de- what was the- how was it shaped? 811: Uh Interviewer: Would they get wider? 811: To the top, yeah. Interviewer: Okay. 811: And they had uh a handle on it with a little piece of wood, you know. Could even see some of these buckets with uh uh a little old piece of wood about that long. You know, on the handle. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: It was just an ordinary wire handle with this little piece of wood on it. Interviewer: Around your kitchen, mr {B}, you would keep a? Say some kinda bucket around there, or anything that you might carry uh scraps in for the pigs? 811: Uh yeah they usually- what we did is is kept a a bucket that was covered where it wouldn't smell so bad, we could cover it up. Or either had us a five-gallon can outside. Interviewer: That was the what, that was called? 811: The slop barrel. Interviewer: #1 Slop barrel. # 811: #2 You either had you # a fifty-five-gallon drum where you can pour all you dishwater in, and all your scraps. What you would do, you'd take you a sack of bran and put in there. And uh you'd go there, you had your shovel, you would s- go ahead and take your five-gallon can and dip it go put it in your hog troughs. And the bran would swell up, you put a that would last you about three weeks, two or three weeks. We didn't have too many hogs. We had something like three hogs. At a hundred pound, it'd last you about three weeks with all the scraps and stuff from the the kitchen. Interviewer: The bran did what? 811: {X} a hundred pound would last you about three weeks. Interviewer: Yeah. {NS} 811: #1 Uh but # Interviewer: #2 {X} # the bran, did it get {NS} 811: It would swell, {NS} you know. {NS} You put it uh in that water, it had a tendency to swell up. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Well, what did you fry eggs in? Like, you remember your gr- uh your mother or your- you fry eggs now in a? 811: Yeah well we had one of these old uh {X} black skillets well, when I was small. Interviewer: Made outta? 811: Uh well it was uh cast iron. A m- the only yeah, it had to be cast iron. Cause that's what we used to cook cornbread and stuff in. One of these old black pots. Interviewer: Did you ever see the ones that had uh old- the old black that had legs on 'em? 811: Uh some of 'em had legs and the others didn't. You had some flat skillet looking ones. But we had some with legs on 'em, some uh didn't have legs. Interviewer: Okay. Uh now, you boil water in a? In a what? In a? Well, something you'd have on the stove, you know? They'd keep 'em on the stove to boil water in. 811: Oh, a tea kettle. Interviewer: Okay. And uh your your mother might call a container uh we- a container that you might plant some sort of flower in, or keep it in the house? 811: #1 Uh # Interviewer: #2 You know, # like a vat or 811: A flower pail. Interviewer: Okay. When- when she got cut flowers she would do what with 'em? She'd put 'em in a? 811: In a jar of water. Interviewer: Okay. Or something that would be made for that. You know, you'd see 'em in a house. That would be called a? 811: Uh a flower pot. Interviewer: Okay. Um 811: {NW} Interviewer: {NS} Now the eating utensils that you would put at each plate when y'all ate. Uh when you when you had dinner. 811: Well, usually she would in them times, they would dish our food out. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: The mama would fix each kid's food {X} And don't come back for seconds. {NW} Interviewer: You ate with a wha- with a? 811: With a spoon. Interviewer: Did you have anything else to eat with? Uh like when you had a piece of meat? 811: Uh you had a fork. But then- {D: soon, very soon} you had meat, that when you would get it, you didn't want to play around with it. {NW} I remember when we had meat at once a week that was uh on Sundays. {NS} And then as it went along, we started getting it maybe two or three time a week. We'd have chicken on Sunday and sweet rolls. It was our biggest meal We looked forward to Sunday. And it was the bad part if you had company. The kids had to wait till till everybody else ate. And what they had left, that's what they would eat. It's not like now, they feed their kids first. But in the olden time the kids would come last. The company would eat first. Then the kids would would get the leftovers. {NW} Interviewer: Um {NW} what sort of sharp instruments did you have around? 811: Uh usually had a butcher knife or people would make 'em out of {D: fire or s-} or either a blacksmith shop, you go and you take you a- a piece of iron and make you one. Interviewer: Did- did men carry uh 811: They carried old Texas jacks. It would- {X} one blade knife. Most of 'em was switchblades. It was very seldom you would see a man with a knife that had more than one blade. Interviewer: C- people carry 'em with 'em a lot? 811: #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 People always # had in their pocket, they always had what? 811: Uh always had a well a little call- what we'd call that. #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 811: No, Texas jack. and the only thing you'd have to do is take the {D: red belly like that, it would break.} And they were dangerous with 'em, too. They would cut you. {NW} I tell you, at that time, about ninety percent of the men if you'd ask 'em for a knife, they'd tell you they didn't have nothing. If a fight started, everybody had one. {NW} Interviewer: They all had their- 811: No one had that. But you'll ask 'em to borrow one for something, nobody had nothing. If you start up a fight, {NW} ninety percent of 'em had one. {NS} Interviewer: Had the kni- had the 811: Had- had one of them old Texas jacks, yeah. {NS} You find it on him if you can, he had it stuck somewhere in his sock or Interviewer: Yeah. Did you keep a lot or did you keep one or two or? 811: Me? Interviewer: #1 Yeah. # 811: #2 Uh # during my time coming up, I I always did keep a- a- a case. Cause I castrate calves and stuff. Uh that's mostly what I kept it for. Interviewer: Those are pretty good, aren't they? They're #1 pretty # 811: #2 Yeah. # And they're so many, they expensive, too. And on the farm you need one. The boss didn't want us {D: to ride horses and doubt we had one.} Cause with one fellow, a horse had fell on him and he got trapped up under the horse. And if he could've cut the girth, he could've got from under him, but he couldn't cut the girth and the horse fell on him and he smothered. That's why he told us he didn't want us riding a horse {D: unless} we had a knife. So everybody on the farm you pretty much need a knife on the farm, though. You always got something to cut. Or some adjustment to do and something. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: #1 I swear y- # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 811: you've got t- it pays you to keep a good knife, cause you never know when you're gonna Interviewer: Farmers have keep good #1 {X} # 811: #2 Yeah. # Interviewer: good knives around? 811: Yeah. They should, most of 'em does. Well most of 'em t- uh pack these big knives. {NS} Big two blades in the case. {NS} But uh {NS} Well about fifty percent of 'em does bring them big knives uh with the outside case. Interviewer: Yeah. Did um now okay after the dishes dirty, your wife put soap on 'em and washes 'em, and then she does what? She? 811: Well, she dries 'em. Interviewer: To get the water off, she? 811: She dries 'em. {NW} Interviewer: I mean, to get the soap off, she? 811: Oh sh- she take 'em and wash the soap of 'em and rinse 'em. Interviewer: Yeah. Okay and then {NS} and then uh she dries 'em with a what? Usually? 811: With a dry cloth. Interviewer: Okay. What did she wash 'em with? You know? Or your mother, she'd use a what to wash 'em with? 811: Uh well she use a homemade a homemade dishrag uh like I was telling you about them fertilizer sacks that was Interviewer: Yeah. 811: They'll serve a whole lot of purpose for everything, dish rags and bath towels and everything else. Interviewer: Did y'all get to bathe much? 811: Well, I'll tell you the bathing it was- was- was mostly on Saturday. In them times that you would wash yourself off through the week, and on Saturday you take a bath. {NS} Cause the water was scarce. {NS} Cause if you'd have start toting water in gallon buckets about Interviewer: Yes sir. 811: about a half a mile, they didn't have too much to bathe with. Interviewer: Okay. Now you turn on at the water pipe, in the kitchen sink you turn on the? Turn on what? Well, you get water now, you just turn on the? 811: On the faucet. Interviewer: Okay. Uh when you're working out in the field, say, and they brought water out to you in a cart or a wagon, uh what was that container called? 811: Well, like you mean now or Interviewer: Yeah. 811: in the olden- well like now we usually uh take ou- our water jug out in the field and go come back for lunch. We put our ice and everything in there. Fix us a container of water with a water cooler. And if we running tractors we just take it and put it on the tractor. If we shoveling or something well, we just take it down in the field with us. And when we start shoveling, we set it down, when we get through w- we shoveling right there when we move further over we just pick it up and bring it with us. Interviewer: Okay. And that's a water what? 811: That's a water cooler. Interviewer: Okay. You get water- you push on the what or you turn on the? 811: Uh all you got is a little button you press to the bottom. Interviewer: {NW} The water comes out of a? 811: Uh well I guess you would call it a little fountain. Interviewer: Fountain. You can put a spigot you know. 811: Uh yeah cause you got two cups on it uh the top of it. You had two containers. Interviewer: Have you got a place out in the yard where you can get water? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: You just turn on the water out 811: Yeah. Out in the yard there. Interviewer: At the? 811: The faucet. Interviewer: Oh. You have any problems with your pipes here like in- this winter when it got cold? 811: No problems at all cause uh all our pipes is uh yeah they all in uh well they all covered. They leave from the well house out there and they uh underground. And when it get to the house, I got one faucet in the back the only thing I do is just wrap it up and put a something over it, like a tub or anything. And just keep one faucet running in the house. Interviewer: And that will keep it from? 811: Keeping the pump from freezing up. Long as your water's moving, it ain't gonna freeze. So every once in a while, your pump come on so your pump ain't gonna freeze, either. Interviewer: But you've- you've heard of people's pipes freezing? 811: Oh I have experienced. {D: Well, I might} fix enough pipes this winter to go into the pipe business. Interviewer: Really? Why? 811: Oh the ice. Uh Interviewer: Y'all had it bad here? 811: That one of the worst winters we ever had down we had a house right down there where I used to live, Interviewer: Uh-huh. {NS} 811: And man, every time I go there the water was gushing over the yard. Everybody get up under the house, get the {D: chain} I bet it broke every T on the they had on there. Interviewer: All the pipes? 811: Yeah, all- all the Ts. Had to unscrew 'em. Some of 'em, I welded 'em. And uh Interviewer: You oughta go into plumbing. 811: I should have. {NW} The way it was going. Interviewer: Um now the way things used to come, like when you went to the store, say, back in the old days uh how did things how did you get your say flour, how did it come? 811: Uh your flour would mostly come uh like in twenty-five pounds. Interviewer: In a? 811: A twenty-five-pound sack. Interviewer: Made outta cotton? 811: Uh yeah, it was a cotton sack that you in them days, most of your stuff you would get it was in sacks. Interviewer: Did you ever see 'em come in a big thing? 811: Well they- you could get 'em in a hundred-pounds, too. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: But very few people would get 'em uh the wholesale would have 'em quite a bit, a hundred pound sacks. And it had to be a- a tremendous big family to buy well a family like us, we were seven, and twenty-five pound would would last quite a while. We never get a hundred pound cause the weevils and stuff would get in it during the summer when it was hot. Interviewer: Uh now they used to have to roll some of these off the bagon- or off the back of a wagon on boards. You know? The things that {NS} said br- uh that would come in? 811: Yeah, you had your Interviewer: Molasses would come in a what? 811: That would come in uh tin barrels, your cooking oil. All that kind of stuff would come in uh in fifty-five-gallon drums. Interviewer: Mm. Okay. And it'd come in a barrel, you said? 811: Yeah, in a fifty-five-gallon drum. Cause I heard a bunch of I didn't exactly see, cause I heard a bunch of these uh old people that waits till the wholesale. Got one of my old hunting friends, there. He been there for forty- forty years, I believe. And he told me how he fit them fifty-five-gallon drums of cooking oil and and other stuff that would come. And a hundred pounds of sugar in the old days And now the most they pick up is fifty pounds, I believe. Interviewer: Okay. Uh now, in a barrel that had a narrow mouth, you would make something to, say to make the w- 811: #1 Uh # Interviewer: #2 to make a {D: jug} # 811: {NS} you had to have a funnel. Interviewer: Make a funnel to #1 make it go down there? # 811: #2 Uh-huh. # Interviewer: Did uh {NS} when you were driving the wagon, you used a what to hit the horses with? 811: Uh you had a a whip- uh b- well, the {X} had a buggy whip and then you had a a bullwhip. Well, most of 'em would use bullwhips Interviewer: Yeah. 811: {NW} on the wagons. Interviewer: Okay. Now when you when you go into town {NS} that's C-B- {NS} 811: Tell Junior to cut his C-B off that's coming out. {NS} Interviewer: I get interference with this thing all the time, with the C-B. It's- I- I guess it's the battery in it or something like that. I don't know. 811: {D: He come uh that-} that radio T-V. Interviewer: Over there? 811: Yeah, when he talking. If we put that on, it come out all day. {NS} Interviewer: Um when you buy fruit at the store, the grocer would put a put it in a? 811: Uh Interviewer: Paper b- 811: well in them time, you didn't have to- you always had a a sack or something bigger. They didn't have too many paper sacks then. Interviewer: Okay. 811: In the old time. Interviewer: Okay, when you bought, say when you went into town and you needed- your mother would send you say, with some money uh to get some flour, how much would you buy maybe? Would it ever come in a paper 811: Yeah, you could get Interviewer: They'd weigh it out? 811: Yeah. You could get nickel, dime's worth. Cause uh uh Interviewer: Ten? 811: You had ten pound uh twenty-five pound well, it couldn't have been much over about a dollar, if it was a dollar. I don't believe- it must've been about seventy-five cent. {D: Cause I remember I used to go to dime and thirty-five cent and get} thirty-five cent worth of {X} meat. And that sack I was telling you, I had the back of it full. {NS} And the rest of it is stuff I had like a when we'd go to town, we'd take two dozen eggs two or three dozen eggs and we could buy Lord knows how much stuff with it. And one day we went- we even went to the drugstore with some eggs. {NW} {X} {NS} We went to the drugstore with the {X} we went to get grocer- {NW} She said we don't sell groceries but she said I'll take the eggs, though. {NS} So she went on and boiled the eggs, gave us cash for 'em. Interviewer: Yeah. Um {NS} now potatoes, used to would be shipped in a? {NS} 811: Um sweet potatoes? {NS} Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Uh {NS} Interviewer: Or any sort of potatoes, really. 811: Well in a crate. Uh your sweet potatoes, most of 'em shipped in a they used to ship 'em in a wanted to call it a fifty-pound case. It was a crate, though. Most of 'em ship 'em nowadays in uh grass sacks, or either paper boxes. The crates got so expensive, I believe they got to about ninety-five cent a- a crate. Interviewer: Grass sack, is that real? 811: That's uh burlap. Interviewer: Burlap. Uh well now when you what would you call the amount of corn you took to mill at one time? When you went to mill. 811: Uh Interviewer: #1 {D: It's a big, brown} # 811: #2 {D: they took} # anywhere from fifty to a hundred pound, to twenty-five pound. Uh like I said, it all depend on how big your family was. Like us, we got about fifty pound. Interviewer: Uh okay, that wasn't a that wasn't a full wagon, that'd be just a {NS} 811: {D: You took} Uh you had cornmeal to eat. Uh, what I mean is uh like cornmeal. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Uh what you would do- you- you shell it and you get you a sack, um a hundred pound sack, you know, and if you had a horse, you just take it and throw it on your horse and you know? Put it up in the saddle with you and go ahead. Now like if you had to go have corn crushed for your uh your mules or something, well you usually take {NW} about six, seven hundred pound. That was a- a wagon load. Interviewer: Uh now you'd be out in the say out in the garden and uh your mother would need some wood and she'd- she'd yell, she'd say run bring in a 811: All my wood. #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 811: Just run out there with your arm of wood. Interviewer: Arm of wood. Um now you mentioned you had coal back, nowadays you just put in a new? When it burns out, you put in a new? 811: Uh on what? Interviewer: When you- when the light burns You forgot you put in a new? 811: Uh new bulb. Interviewer: New #1 You had # 811: #2 but # Interviewer: back in the old days you had {NS} 811: you had c- {NW} smoke and {D: cola} {NW} Interviewer: Yeah. When you went out a night, did you ever go out say at night and make a something to go out at night with? Like take a piece of rich wood or something like that? Take a piece of some kind of wood, maybe. Do you have pine around here? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: {NW} Take a piece of, you know, 811: Well, {NW} in them times, we uh {X} put it, but we had flashlights. Uh Interviewer: {NW} 811: We was kinda up-to-date then. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: I ain't that old, but I- I seen a bunch of a bunch of things I Interviewer: #1 {X} # 811: #2 and # when you would come out the house, it not like it is now, if you it the lights was dim in the house. And if you would walk outside the about in a minute, you could see just about what you could see in the house cause you only had no light in the house. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 811: But now you put the light on in the house, and you walk outside, it was about ten minutes before your eyes get adjusted to the dark. {NS} And then you still can't see nothing. {NS} I don't know if it they seem like to me in them times didn't seem like it was that dark. You know, it look like it was always a little bit lighter. Interviewer: Uh well, when people went out, say did you ever go out bird thrashing at night? 811: No, Interviewer: Would you ever go out and kill birds at night around here? {D: Kid with a stick?} 811: Mm-mm. We used to have cotton pickings at night. Interviewer: Uh-huh. {NS} 811: And get and get a bunch of people and make ice cream and all kind of stuff like that and uh Interviewer: How'd they make ice cream for gosh sake? 811: {NW} You had a freezer uh you take your your milk and stuff, you cook it Interviewer: Yeah. 811: make like a custard. {NS} Then you go get you some ice Interviewer: Yeah. 811: and this big ol' cool s- ice cream salt. And {NS} you put your custard, they had a well you had one or two gallons uh container you take it and uh you set it at a- a big bucket like a bucket and you set it in the ice. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: And you had a pallet {NS} in that container. {NS} And you had a {NS} a crank that would go on top of there. {NS} You set it in that ice and you get you a sack or something and let a small kid or something sit on the top of it. And you'd turn it and {X} it'd just keep on turning it about for half hour. {NS} And that ice would freeze. Interviewer: Good ice cream, wasn't it? 811: Oh better than the one you could buy. Interviewer: Yeah. My mother's made that, now that you come to think of it. {X} Um but whe- when you went out at night, they'd take a piece of wood or something like that or were you ever just if you didn't have a lantern, say. You might take a bottle, and put coal in it and stuff a rag in it and they call that a a what? I lit a? Or 811: {X} Interviewer: or would they ever take a piece of wood 811: I never did do it. I never did see nobody do it. Interviewer: #1 Yeah. # 811: #2 It's # {X} Interviewer: When they- when they went out at night, light a piece of wood say when they were fishing out on a lake? 811: We ne- cause they wouldn't let us play with fire when we were small. Interviewer: Uh-huh. And you what a flambeau was? 811: Uh-uh. Interviewer: Okay. A torch you know, like 811: Yeah. {X} Interviewer: All right. {NS} When now when your mother was was doing the wash she carried the clothes out to the line in a? 811: In a bucket or well, mostly a bucket. Interviewer: Did you ever see the things they would make that were woven, say? Woven kind of things uh when the- when you'd go on a picnic, you'd take a what? 811: Oh Interviewer: Or- or 811: Uh I- I don't s- Interviewer: when you go out in the woods somewhere, your mother would have a a what? Carry a lot of things in. 811: Uh a basket. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Well, we {NW} couldn't afford no basket, we had a Interviewer: Yeah. 811: I just {X} a bucket. Interviewer: Yeah. Um now nails used to come in a? Nails, didn't what did nails come in? 811: Nails used to come in a barrel. Uh Interviewer: Would it be a big barrel? 811: You had uh they would uh um Interviewer: You ever see the little ones? 811: Yeah, you get so- they had all sizes. Um I'm guessing they went from ten pounds to a hundred pound, you could get. {NS} Interviewer: It was just a little uh 811: A little old wooden barrel. Interviewer: Uh-huh. It had what around i- what went around a barrel to hold it? 811: Uh you had some rings. Uh wire rings. That was uh Interviewer: Or those metal what? Metal? 811: {NW} Uh metal rings. Interviewer: Remember that game they used to play? 811: Tha- that hula hoop? Interviewer: Y- yeah. 811: It was something. Interviewer: That's- that's what I was thinking of. 811: Yeah. {NS} Interviewer: Those things were called {NS} metal? {NS} 811: Uh rings I Interviewer: Hoops? 811: Yeah. Cause they used to have 'em on the on them old outdoor cisterns. That's what they would call 'em. Metal hoops. {NS} Interviewer: Um {NS} now a little barrel was called a? Like beer would come in a what? Beer, 811: #1 you ever seen 'em? # Interviewer: #2 Uh # You ever seen 'em when they bought that? It would come in a? {NS} 811: In a keg. Interviewer: Keg. 811: Cause what we used to make plenty of in them old {D: croaker like I was} #1 telling you. # Interviewer: #2 You did? # 811: Yeah, we'd cap that stuff, man. Interviewer: Made- made what? Made? 811: Uh homemade brew. Interviewer: Home brew. 811: {NW} Then we'd cap it green but before and that {X} {D: would swivel right} {X} put that up under the houses, take it to buses. {NW} {NS} {X} {NW} {NS} Interviewer: How much of that would you make? Could you make it good? I mean 811: Oh when poor daddy would make it, he'd make about ten, twelve gallon. Interviewer: {NW} 811: And that would be till ten, eleven o'clock at night capping it. Had a beer tester to tell when it was ready, you know. Interviewer: What did you put it in to make- okay, what were the ingredients? 811: Uh you had uh uh- uh- uh they call it moss. Was a syrup, a beer syrup. And you put you some yeast case in there. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: With sugar. {NS} It wasn't hard to make. But you had to know when to cap it. That was the important thing. Interviewer: You had to know how much 811: Yeah, but you had a tester. And you had to know how to read that tester. {NS} And if uh that tester- you would go they were just about on the mark and it was about six o'clock that evening after we'd already cap it ten o'clock that night, you'd better cap it. {NS} And if you start at ten, sometimes you have about a hundred and fifty bottles. {NS} Interviewer: Okay, the bottles would put would- you'd put what in the top of the bottles? 811: Well you- you had a cap. We had a special cap for I had one somewhere here. Interviewer: Y'all had a- y'all had a first-rate 811: Oh {X} That was a good- you- {NW} We'd put dusty barrel and make wine. Interviewer: Yeah. 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} 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}. 811: {D: It's seasoning, or grease} Yeah, um. Interviewer: {D: I got some food there out in the car. I thought} {X} {D: I want to try a little bit of this slaw} {X} 811: Rice and uh {X} Interviewer: Yeah you mind if I try some over here? 811: Um, no go ahead and help yourself. You might not have another left if it's pretty good. Interviewer: That is good stuff. You like it? 811: Uh yeah, I wouldn't {D: go out of bed, but I can} Now that's made out of pork. Interviewer: Mm-hmm {NW} 811: And I can't have no pork. Interviewer: Pretty good. {X} {X} How you been doing? 811: Oh pretty good. Interviewer: So Did you- did y'all go to church yesterday or did you go to that business your boss was having? 811: Uh, no my wife had just wanted to clean {D: because we're having a} a party next Saturday night. And they had got something else the other night and they wanted to have it cleaned for 'em. Interviewer: Yeah. Did y'all have things like that when you were kids? In other words, people get together and you know people move around the floor, anything like that? 811: Yeah you had uh dances and {NW} Stuff like that. Interviewer: Yeah. Uh. 811: Put mustard on it and tenderize it. Interviewer: Yeah. Now you used to raise chickens, didn't you? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay, the place where you kept your chickens 811: Oh you would call that a chicken house. Interviewer: Okay. You have a place for the little ones? 811: Uh yeah you'd probably call it uh {D: the brooder} It was uh you had but it was closed in. You had a top part that was closed in and then you had uh part of it that was screened. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: Where you could go out to catch air. Interviewer: {NW} Um now Okay the that was just a what? Kind of a place that just had wire around it would be just a little 811: Uh little chicken uh uh pen. Interviewer: Um. Now when you killed a chicken what was the piece that the children liked to have? 811: Uh well the wishbone. {NW} {X} And they'd pull on it, the one that gets the short end, I believe, had won and the one that get the long end had lost. {NW} Interviewer: Was there any rules behind who got the better one? {C: coughing} 811: Uh I don't I don't remember It's been Interviewer: It's pretty good stuff but it's not 811: {X} Interviewer: Well that's okay. It's yeah it's pretty hot. Um Now the inside parts of the chicken that you didn't 811: Uh the only thing that you wouldn't eat was like the gizzard, Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: Uh the heart, and the liver. {D: And the rest of it} Interviewer: You called them the chicken 811: Uh well you'd call it the the the gizzard. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: The heart and the liver. Interviewer: Did you ever make anything out of that? Just scramble 'em all up and 811: {D: Uh rice dressing} You uh you you use gizzards and uh and uh heart and the liver to make rice dressing. Interviewer: Um okay. The inside parts of a of a calf or a pig that you would eat 811: But uh The calf you would eat the heart. You had uh what do you call it the {D: the debris} And that was your {NW} heart and liver. Uh and uh Interviewer: {D: do you know what the hasbits were? or uh} You ever eat liver and uh liver and the lungs? 811: #1 Yeah # Interviewer: #2 {D: You call it liver lights or?} # 811: Well lights, yeah, you have lights. Uh I just uh usually do it just uh you'd take a calf or something get it killed at the slaughterhouse, they ask if you want the debris. And obviously I don't rightly remember what all of it was but they'd have you know so much you can use and uh Interviewer: Look the inside parts of the chicken that you would eat was uh well what about the kind you would stuff sausage in? 811: Uh the uh the guts and stuff? Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Right um what the Interviewer: In the in the pig or the 811: Yeah, the pig you'd use uh that to make sauce and then uh {X} You'd use the the entrails. Interviewer: Did you ever cook them themselves? Just cook the intestines? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Make what? 811: Uh you'd just make um you could boil 'em and pour vinegar with 'em. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And even though you'd boil 'em, you could put them down {NW} {X} Interviewer: Pretty good but tastes a little grease um 811: Greasy. Interviewer: Um Did you ever have {D: chip oh} Well you know 811: Uh the ch- uh they call it uh What it was, chitterling? Interviewer: Yeah, do you? 811: Yeah. {NW} {X} Interviewer: Nah, well I-I've never had chitterlings, but I hear they're good. You know how how they were prepared uh. {NW} Excuse me. 811: You want some water? Interviewer: No, no I'm fine. Um Now What did you- when you were milking your cows how did you call in the pasture, what did you call? 811: Yeah usually uh {X} Back of the pasture somebody could just holler {D: chuck the hog, chuck the hog and then} {C: imitating call} Interviewer: Or or you know coi! where I'm from. So y'all would say what? 811: #1 Uh # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 811: Yeah. {X} {D: If you had a nana she would} or ninety-five percent of the time she would come running. {D: The only way you had to almost go get one and milk them like there for} If you had to wean the calf, you'd still milk her. Cause she wasn't gonna come up if she didn't have a a calf and then if you wasn't feeding her Interviewer: She'd sit back down in the pasture and 811: Yeah {C: imitates mooing} Interviewer: Start to what? 811: Start to {X} Interviewer: When you're feeding the cow what kind of noise will she make? She'll start 811: {C: imitates mooing} {NW} She'll uh- you'll get out a little uh Interviewer: When when you were when you were milking a cow what did you say to her to get her to stand still? 811: You'd tell her {D: La porteau} El- Interviewer: {D: porteau?} 811: Yeah And what that- that- that was a French word I never did know what it was Um Interviewer: Okay. When you call the calf what do you say to it? 811: Uh You call it the same way you call a cow. Uh. Interviewer: Okay. Your horses and your mules? When you're getting them into the pasture? 811: Well you usually whistle at 'em. Uh they usually come. If you had 'em trained but if you wouldn't train 'em {X} If you're just wasting time calling 'em if you had a well trained where you could whistle at 'em they would come. Interviewer: What was the way to train 'em? I mean did you have a certain way you'd train 'em? 811: Not necessarily. If you would uh {NW} {D: The key to anything is if you get it and you started a habit} {X} To eat us up. You put 'em a little hay, a little corn, whatever. You was feeding. And at that time {D: It's a funny thing if you feed 'em} at four o'clock every day that's what time he was going to come over to eat. He ain't gonna hardly come hang around from two thirty to four and he'd come up at four. And uh you'd feed him at four and he get through, he go. Interviewer: Okay. Now when you got on a horse you'd say to him 811: Get up. {D: If you wanted them to start you'd throw them wool} Interviewer: Okay. What What if you really wanted him to take off you know? When you're riding him? You ever had any races? 811: Yeah. Quite a few. The last one that I had I promised to never race again. Interviewer: Why? 811: {NW} I fell off. {X} Hit myself in the back Interviewer: {NW} 811: back of the head and uh I messed up some uh discs in my back. I had to have a leg drew up on my Day bef- uh the one before I went to the doctor then he put me in the hospital. Interviewer: Leg drew up on you, what do you mean? 811: Well Well back when uh it's all bent Interviewer: Yeah 811: And thought I was limp you know when I got to the doctor he told me to draw it up almost a quarter of an inch. Interviewer: You mean the leg is shorter? 811: Yeah. They start- that's right. When he gave me some medicine for it he told me to try it for two days. If it didn't work, he'd have to go put me in a contraption in the hospital. But fortunately it worked and I didn't have to go. Interviewer: {NW} Um Now to call your pigs in when you're feeding them 811: Uh yeah {D: too-lee too-lee} {NW} Interviewer: Uh and sheep? You said you had sheep too. 811: Uh well we didn't have none but uh I knew some people that had some sheeps and goats. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: We didn't uh raise any. Interviewer: Um. Hmm. And uh now if you'd been traveling well back in the old days if you had to go from here to uh say to rain, that was uh you you that was a uh far 811: That was a far trip you uh you kn- you had a horse and it'd take you somewhere. Two hours or three hours they'd go on a horse. Interviewer: Um If um if you'd been traveling and you hadn't finished your journey you might say that you had a? You still had a long? 811: Still had a long way to go. Interviewer: Before you got to Rain. Um now if something was uh a very common thing around here and you could find it just about anywhere, say somebody wanted it. I mean well something was very common and uh you didn't have to look for it in a special place say if somebody wanted cypress trees they could find it just about 811: Uh I could find one of those anywhere Interviewer: Yeah and 811: Around- around in the woods and Interviewer: Yeah um when you were uh okay now when you were riding horses and a horse would say a horse would get up on you you might fall 811: fall off Interviewer: Which way? 811: Uh if he had reared up you'd both gotten you would fall back. Interviewer: #1 Yeah # 811: #2 And uh # {NW} If you were riding him and if something scared him let's say uh if they had a piece of paper or something in that ditch, and it spooked him if uh he would jump from one side to the other and if you wasn't expecting, he would fall off on the side. Interviewer: Yeah. And if he was stopping you'd fall which way? 811: Well he'd fall to the front if you had stop uh Interviewer: Okay. Okay now if you were, say you were walking on ice right here on a pond, if you slipped and fell you'd say I fell 811: Fell back. Interviewer: Uh Okay Now {D: When you were plowing with mules did you ever have any you know have any of 'em cut up on you when you} 811: Yeah. Well had one of 'em, never forget it, five o'clock in the afternoon I say about five, yeah around five, five thirty {X} They're going home And one hit you cause whatever you had on She was coming home and breaking a hold of 'em Interviewer: Sometimes you'd hitch 'em up and they'd go they wouldn't 811: Uh they'd go back, they'd want to balk on you. Balk meaning they don't want to go front they want to stay there. And usually you could break 'em from that It'd take time, but you could break 'em. Interviewer: They'd wanna go back? 811: {X} All they want to do is rile up and jump up and down. Interviewer: Yeah. Um. Now the trenches cut by the plow was called the what 811: That was the middle. Interviewer: Yeah the middle of the fir- 811: The uh the f- the four the- the rule Interviewer: Yeah Cut two of those you'd be two? 811: Yeah two fours. Interviewer: Okay. Um well when you you say y'all would cut hay sometimes. Um Kind of would you get a second Like you'd get a first cut and then you'd 811: Yeah you could get a second cut. Interviewer: Okay. Um. And you'd call that the well when you came out in the spring and say all that rice straw was left in the field they'd say did you ever have to do anything with that with all of that 811: That rice straw? Yeah They'd usually pick it up and uh well you had haystacks in them time- you didn't uh- the rice straw wasn't left in the field. Interviewer: I see. 811: Course you had to {NW} bring your rice out to what they'd call a thrasher. And they uh had a big old pipe over there. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And you would hook a tractor on it and it would blow it the straw out a big old tremendous pile and you would call that a haystack. And what you'd do if your stack was big enough uh you'd just take it and move it elsewhere and make the other one. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Um. Something would come up would you ever have crops like when you planted potatoes they might come up the next year they'd come up uh 811: Uh It was very certain you'd have something to come up the next year. Because if you had a bad winter you had to plot uh {D: and do something- entertain- let the cattle eat it} whatever they had left and it's very soon you had any And it left, but you could see beyond the seeds and stuff. Interviewer: What about the stuff you would raise in the patch say behind your house? 811: Uh. Interviewer: Would you ever have anything else come up? Say in the patch that you grew things 811: Yeah you uh uh you had grass and different kinds of stuff. Interviewer: Oh yeah I mean I'm talking about the stuff that you raised, cultivated you know 811: Oh. Interviewer: Y'all have a did you raise your own home grown 811: Yeah fruits and stuff you know uh vegetables, all that Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: #1 I don't know # Interviewer: #2 Would you have a # 811: {D: A garden or a plot that} Interviewer: You know Did uh Now like something would you ever get any kind of little you know things that would come up there like you'd plant 'em one year and then the next year they'd come up? 811: Oh very few if it was uh something that would seed, maybe onions or parsley, parsley mostly. {X} come up and actually Interviewer: You say they came up? 811: Yeah uh Interviewer: Vol- 811: Volunteer Interviewer: Volunteer? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Um Like a what else? what about those little red vegetables that would come up? 811: Um Well, the only thing red was a {NW} something that we would reseed. If you had uh something like a turnip or something like that well, it uh ver- very very soon you'd get one that would come up the next year. Interviewer: Okay. Anything that would come on a vine? 811: Um {D: Yeah you had snap beans, butter beans} and stuff like that would come up uh. You would have the pole ones where you had to pole 'em and uh get some poles and a stick and they would go up the pole. Interviewer: Mm-kay. And they were called some kinda wanderer? 811: Uh that was uh {D: well you had butter- butter beans and uh} what the heck was that? The vine butter beans or snap beans, whatever {NW} You could buy the ones you wanted. If you wanted the pole ones {X} Interviewer: What about the real long ones? 811: Uh the flat beans? Interviewer: Yeah 811: Uh Interviewer: The snap beans you just ate them pod and all, right? You didn't have to 811: Well they- they snap 'em Big beans often break 'em or depending how long they was yeah. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: You'll break 'em in half. Interviewer: Okay. Was that a name for all sorts of green beans? You were talking about snap beans? 811: Yeah yes snap beans, butter beans, sweet peas. We had different names for 'em. Interviewer: Did you ever- now talking about butter beans, what different types of them did you have? 811: {NW} Interviewer: Did you have big yellow ones? You know? 811: Yeah you had uh they had about two or three different kinds you could get. You had the butter uh uh shoot I just remembered their name well I know you could buy about two or three kinds. Interviewer: Um. Okay. Did you ever get Limas? 811: Yeah we had Lima beans and uh Well we had a tremendous bunch of beans {X} Interviewer: #1 {X} # 811: #2 And uh # Interviewer: Okay. 811: Black eyed peas. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: {NW} Interviewer: Um. Well uh now the kind of now I want to ask you about the things you made and you cooked and all sorts of things like that. What was made of flour and baked in loaves? 811: Uh that was uh light bread, you know biscuits. Interviewer: Okay. Would you ever make it to rise? 811: Yeah uh your light bread you had to you'd use yeast and uh what we'd usually do is uh you'd save a piece of it {NW} and just let it rise and you just add on dough- you wouldn't have to buy yeast every time you wanted to make some. Interviewer: I see. 811: And your biscuits you would put baking powder, baking soda in them and they would rise. Interviewer: Okay. 811: Cause in the time that you was cooking it. Interviewer: Most of the bread you'd there was a difference between the bread you made at home and the kind you bought at the store. 811: #1 Yeah. # Interviewer: #2 It was called # 811: It was homemade and uh bought bread. Interviewer: Bought bread? 811: That was what we would call it. Interviewer: Yeah yeah you can get like that ball of bread. 811: No {D: you let you get was so stale} you'd better off just Interviewer: {NW} 811: If you had a {NW} {X} Uh {X} He'd have all kinds of stuff uh uh Interviewer: Yeah 811: Uh {X} and I don't know where he'd get his bread but I mean he got that it was so hard you didn't want it. You was better off making your own. Interviewer: {NW} {NW} Can you name me all the kinds of things you'd make with dough? Wheat flour dough? 811: Uh you'd make uh cornbread with cornmeal. Interviewer: Okay but now talking about wheat flour dough. Would your mother ever just take it and make it up into you know take a biscuit dough and make it up into a loaf? 811: Uh yeah she made uh bread loaf with that. Interviewer: And that was- 811: Cakes and pies and Interviewer: Okay. What would she call that bread she would make with biscuit dough? 811: Uh I forgot uh well I remember it had a long pan but I don't remember Interviewer: Okay you ever have hoecake? 811: Yeah Uh Interviewer: What was that then? 811: Pancakes and uh Interviewer: Hoecakes 811: Well pancakes and hoecakes are about the same. Interviewer: Oh they are? {NW} 811: Yeah uh Interviewer: What did a hoecake look like? How was it shaped? Was it 811: Oh well you didn't have no special shape. All you did was take the dough and put it after you mixed it up you'd put it in the skillet, it'll come out. Some of 'em was round and some of 'em was Interviewer: Oh oh I see. Did you cook it in grease or? 811: Yeah. A little grease and uh stick it in the top of the stove and well you add heat. Interviewer: Mm-kay. Anything else you would bake maybe from wheat flour? Bake cakes 811: Yeah, pies Interviewer: Make an apple what? Apple- 811: Apple pie, blackberry pie Interviewer: Okay. 811: Pineapple, peach Interviewer: Would you make would she ever make uh say a pie that didn't have a crust on the bottom or something like that? Call that an apple what? 811: Apple turnover. {NW} No, she not {NW} Uh Mostly she was making stuff like blackberry pie, peach pie. Stuff that we had a good bit of you know. Interviewer: Would she ever cook something you know in a real deep dish? And uh and just say had crust on the top? She might put meat in there or something else. 811: No not that I remember. Interviewer: Okay. Did you ever hear- did she ever put would she ever like put potatoes in the bread 811: #1 Yeah # Interviewer: #2 Or- or some mix # 811: Make a sweet potato bread. Interviewer: Yeah? Okay. How'd she make that? She whip it up or? 811: Uh Your potatoes you had to mash 'em up and uh then you'd take your- make your dough. Put it in the bottom of your- your your uh your pan. Then you'd take the sweet potatoes and put 'em in the middle and you'd take your dough and you'd put it over the top. Interviewer: #1 Yeah sounds good. # 811: #2 Then you # You'd bake it. Interviewer: Okay. Now you mentioned cornmeal. Uh. What else? 811: Uh you could make cornbread kush Uh Interviewer: Okay. From cornbread you'd make okay any type of cornbread? Would you just would you ever make cornbread did- did you have more than one kind? 811: Uh you could no you had uh you could make cornbread dressing uh with meat and uh you know mixed up with cornbread and uh Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Then you could make your kush. Interviewer: Okay. 811: That was about all the dishes you do with cornmeal. Interviewer: Well when you made cornmeal up into uh and cooked it in a skillet that was called what? 811: Cornbread. Interviewer: Yeah that was a what cornbread? 811: Uh. Interviewer: You know what a cone was? {NW} Did you ever hear folks making uh making uh cornmeal and just salt and water? Hot water? Had to cook it up with hot water? Hot water bread or? Okay. Did your mother ever cook, would she ever cook it in the fireplace? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Alright. How would she do that? 811: Uh Well you had a little old uh stand would take uh over your your {D: like your back low whatever you had in it} You had a big skillet with a top on it. And you'd just take it and put it, set it on the well kind of like on top of the fire. Interviewer: Did you ever see 'em cook it in the fire? 811: No. Interviewer: Okay. Or on a say on a board in front of the fire? 811: Uh You had uh what you would call uh some fire horses. And you had some boards that would go across 'em. Interviewer: Yeah? 811: {D: Couple of three bars and you could set your} your pot on that which your cornbread was in. And you had to watch it when the bottom was cooked you had to take it and turn it over. And put the top to the bottom. Cause the top wouldn't cook. Whenever the bottom would get cooked, you'd just take it and take your plate, take your skillet and turn it upside down and slide it off. Interviewer: Okay. Um {NW} Well when you when you eat fish You ever eat fish? Sure you- 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Uh can you eat it now? 811: Uh yeah. Interviewer: In a- cooked in the right way huh? 811: Uh yeah I just uh One of the things that was so good fried- I made a I had a little piece of goldfish that was fried. And uh it don't bother me to eat it now but I used to love fish. I loved to cook it too. Interviewer: You when you were younger you 811: I would Interviewer: You ate 811: Yeah I ate quite a bit of it. Interviewer: Yeah. Um Now what do you like? What kind of cornmeal do you like with fish? 811: Oh, I like my fish fried in cornmeal. Interviewer: Oh. 811: Uh roll it in that if I'm gonna fish, I wanna fry it in cornmeal. Interviewer: Okay. Did you ever uh say make these kind of round things in cornmeal and they would they would put you'd put onions or pepper in it? And uh they were round and you fry 'em in grease and eat 'em with fish? 811: Um no I- Interviewer: You know what a hush puppy was? 811: Uh uh-huh. {NW} {D: Might've been too fast for me to pick that up} Interviewer: Yes um. Okay now you mentioned cornmeal dressing like when your mother was cooking say greens, would she ever dunk cornmeal batter in there? 811: No. Ju- just make it and we'll uh cook the greens in one pot and uh cornmeal in the other one. Interviewer: Yeah. What'd she put in greens when she was cooking 'em? 811: Or if you had a piece of, what they call uh, a piece of fat and bacon. Smoked bacon. It's uh Interviewer: Yeah. Uh Was that- did that have a lot of lean on it or? 811: No, it mostly was fat cause uh your lean uh if you have to have a grease hog mostly you'd kill a grease hog because you wanted your grease and uh {X} stuff like that. It was very seldom they would kill a hog just for meat. It was mostly for grease. Interviewer: Uh. Okay. Did you ever put any part of the grease when you rendered up the hog- you know what I mean by rendering it and getting the cracklings out of it? Would you ever put that in on the cornbread? 811: Uh no. Interviewer: Make cracklings? {D: in bread?} {C: coughing} 811: Uh you mean some of the grease? Interviewer: Yeah what would you eat with the cracklings? 811: Or sweet potatoes or cornbread. Interviewer: Okay. Um now something that would be fried in deep fat and it would have a hole in the center of it what was that? 811: Uh Interviewer: They were fried in deep fat, you know? Had a hole in the middle of 'em boy they were good. They'd be made out of bis- dough, flour dough 811: Oh donuts? Uh we didn't make too many of that. That's a uh we grew up some uh I ate quite a few. After we got older for doing the you know teenagers then we didn't uh {NW} we didn't have any. Interviewer: You folks have another name for them or different types of 'em? 811: No they- Interviewer: What about a French name for that? 811: {D: I knowed it} Interviewer: {D: Okay you know what a croissant was?} 811: Mm-mm. Interviewer: Alright. Um when they made uh- okay. Now something that you would make a batter of you'd call them what? And you'd have them in the morning like- 811: #1 Now that's a # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 811: Barley cakes or um Interviewer: Okay. 811: or flapjacks, whatever. Interviewer: Yeah did you have any would they always be made out of wheat flour? Or did you ever make any out of cornmeal? 811: Uh little bit, you could make something, what they call a croquette. Uh that cornmeal. Interviewer: Okay. And that was a what? 811: Uh all I've done with the croquettes is you take it and mix up your cornmeal and gotten it fried. You know, I put it in a little grease and- Interviewer: Yeah. You'd eat that with 811: Oh you could eat it with milk or Interviewer: It was kind of crumbly 811: #1 Yeah # Interviewer: #2 if you had cornmeal in it. # You put anything else in? 811: No. Uh you'd have eggs or bacon or whatever you had. Interviewer: {NS} Yeah. Did you ever make fritters? 811: Uh do you- uh what fritters? Interviewer: Fritters are you know- okay. Uh now talking about eggs, the two parts of the egg, there's the what and there's the 811: Then the white and the yellow. Interviewer: Okay. Um Did you now how do you eat your eggs when you have 'em cooked? 811: Um. Interviewer: Can you eat 'em? 811: No I don't. I used to love the scrambled ones but now for the last couple of three months I well I what I would do when I was in the hospital they would cook 'em but they would cook 'em some kind of way in water I don't know how they would cook 'em Interviewer: Oh. 811: Cause they couldn't cook 'em in grease. Interviewer: They'd cook- would they let 'em 811: Uh poached I guess and I didn't like 'em like that so after I came home I didn't bother with that. Interviewer: Uh. Now when you killed a hog when you cut him up you cut the side of the hog, what do you call it? 811: Uh you uh cut it in quarters. Your h- that's your hind quarter. You uh your front quarter your backbone Interviewer: Okay. 811: And a slab of ribs. You see that's your hind quarter, your front quarter, then you cut your slab of ribs out of the middle. Interviewer: Yeah. The meat between the shoulders and the ham was 811: Uh that would be uh you- your uh front quarter. Interviewer: Yeah. You know what a middling was? 811: Uh no. Interviewer: Okay. Um the kind of meat that you might buy and slice up thin to eat with your eggs 811: It would be bacon. Interviewer: Yeah you'd have to get the what off that bacon, kind of the outer edge? You'd call that the 811: Uh you might get uh some of the lean off it. Interviewer: But in this 811: Only I {NW} you'd have to get the skin off it. The- I thought of the skin. Interviewer: Uh you buy any meat that you might slice up yourself and eat with your eggs? What's that? 811: Ham. Interviewer: Uh okay. Now If- if the meat is kept- has been kept too long, you say it's done what, it's gotten? 811: Gotten rancid. {X} Interviewer: Uh when you butchered uh a hog you'd say what you'd make from its head was what? 811: You'd make bullseye hog head cheese. Interviewer: Okay. And did you ever you never prepared a dish by cooking and grinding up the hog liver? 811: Uh usually you uh your hog liver, when its dried up you'd make {D: bulldown with it} put the hog liver {D: and that'll make bulldown} Interviewer: Okay. Uh. Would you ever take the juice of the head cheese? Or the liver sausage? And maybe stir it up with cornmeal? You ever hear of people doing that? 811: Yeah I heard about I- I've seen the fried hog brains. Rolled 'em in cornmeal. Interviewer: Hog what? 811: Brains. The brains that come- {NW} They'd roll it in cornmeal and fry it. Interviewer: Okay. Now suppose you kept your butter too long and it didn't taste good 811: Well it would get rancid. Interviewer: Okay. How would you say it it tasted or how would you describe the smell of it? You'd say smelled 811: It would smell rancid. Interviewer: Okay. Would you ever hear okay now talking about somebody if they hadn't taken a bath in a while would you say the same thing about them? 811: {NW} Interviewer: You'd say they smelled 811: Well oh rancid oh Interviewer: #1 Some # 811: #2 {NW} # {NW} Interviewer: Somebody has told me that if somebody hadn't taken a bath in a while they said they would smell funky 811: Yeah {C: laughing} Interviewer: Okay what does that mean? 811: Why that'd mean they smelled bad. Interviewer: Okay. When you said somebody smelled 811: funky Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 811: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: Uh what talking- would you ever say anything was stout or was um something smelled stout or it got stout? Do you know what that means? 811: Mm no. Interviewer: Okay. Um now you kept uh when you kept your milk around it would do what? 811: It would sour and {D: clabber} Interviewer: Okay did you ever make anything from that? Any- 811: Uh you could make uh whipped cream from uh clabber Interviewer: Okay. 811: Your milk would sour and turn to clabber, and then you could make whipped cream with it. Interviewer: They make any sort of cheese other than that? 811: Um yeah it was uh well that- whipped cream was a cheese um oh shoot I forgot the name of the cheese. We would call it whipped cream. It was cottage cheese. {NW} And that's what it was, cottage cheese. Interviewer: Yeah. Joe, when you milked what was the first thing you had to do after you milked? 811: You'd go strain the milk Interviewer: Okay. Um now somebody like yourself they'd say you can sure put away the 811: The meal. Interviewer: And looks like he can eat his 811: His share of meal or Interviewer: Okay or all the food #1 you know # 811: #2 yeah # Interviewer: you like if you enjoy eating a lot they'd say you can eat a lot of, put away the 811: Uh he can put away a whole lot of food. Interviewer: Okay. Um now when your wife is making a pie what- would she pour some kind of sweet thing over it? It might be milk, cream, mixed? Would she ever add nutmeg or something like that? 811: #1 Yeah uh # Interviewer: #2 That'd be called a # 811: Cake mix. Interviewer: Okay. You, now you pretty- what's your diet now? Do you eat pretty regularly? 811: Uh yeah I can eat anytime I get ready. Um but in between meals I'd eat a banana or maybe an orange. Interviewer: Just for a 811: Just for a little afternoon or morning snack. Interviewer: Uh now what do you have for breakfast? 811: Well I usually eat cornflakes with milk for breakfast. Interviewer: Do you have anything to- to drink? 811: Well I dr- in between meals I drink juice. Um grapefruit juice, orange juice. Pineapple juice. Interviewer: Okay. Did you ever drink any- what would you have when you were younger? You got up and you 811: Uh just mostly we had was water or milk. Interviewer: You just drank that? 811: I drank a water either I drank a milk cause we didn't have no kind of juice. Interviewer: It would be in a what? In a 811: In a jar or pitcher, whatever Interviewer: Poured into a? 811: A cup. We didn't have too many glasses yet. {NW} We had ten cups. Interviewer: Okay. Um. What would have to drink at the at the say at the pump or something like that and you had a what 811: Uh we usually drank uh straight from the pump or either we had uh a glass out there w- w- Interviewer: Um did you ever what I was getting around to, did you ever make any- have anything else for breakfast uh when you get up and drink a cup of 811: Uh Oh you mean uh old time we Interviewer: Yeah. What do most of folks have around here for breakfast? 811: Uh in the- during them times? You know way back? Oh they had cornbread and milk. Interviewer: What would they drink? 811: Uh they would drink milk. Interviewer: Okay. They ever drink anything that they would {D: poach} and cook? 811: Oh they would have uh chocolate Interviewer: Okay, coffee? 811: Yeah. The older people would drink uh coffee because they'd uh buy their coffee green and they would poach it. And grind it. That's it Interviewer: Okay. {C: coughing} How do you make the coffee? 811: Well what you do you get the green coffee, #1 use a, use a pot, # Interviewer: #2 You poach it? # 811: you'd poach it. And let it cool off then you had a coffee grinder you'll take it, and you'll grind it up and then you had uh what you call a homemade {D: grag I guess} with a little sack on it. You'd take your coffee you put it in the little sack and you get you some boiling water pour it over it. Interviewer: Okay. Now how do you- talking about put milk in coffee, some people like it 811: Uh like chocolate uh coffee, milk, or a little coffee in their milk or cream Interviewer: Some people like it like coffee 811: Coffee milk Interviewer: Okay, others like their coffee 811: Uh straight black. Interviewer: Okay. Uh okay you might say somebody asked you how- what would you take- I mean what will you have and I'll say I take my coffee 811: Uh Interviewer: I don't want any 811: You take your coffee black. Interviewer: I want it 811: No cream or without sugar. Interviewer: Okay. Without anything right now uh. Do you if you well uh if you ask me how much did you drink you might say Uh I might say I Well if I ask you how much you drink what do you say- what do you? 811: Uh you mean liquor or? Interviewer: Well 811: {NW} Interviewer: Coffee. 811: Huh oh about eight, ten cups a day. Interviewer: Yeah. That's how much you 811: Yeah coffee I drink a day. Interviewer: Okay but you don't anymore? 811: No I don't. Interviewer: But you, you surely 811: Uh well I- I used to when I would drink it, I would drink about ten, twelve cups a day. Interviewer: Yeah 811: Maybe more if I was around the {D: the house} Interviewer: So you used to 811: Yeah I used to drink about twelve, fourteen cups a day. Interviewer: Somebody might ask you how much coffee have you 811: Have I drank. Interviewer: Yeah in your lifetime. You'd say I sure have drank 811: {NW} Sure drank plenty. Interviewer: #1 Drank eight or ten cups a day # 811: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: Now when dinner was on the table and uh and the family is sitting around waiting to begin, what do you say to 'em? 811: That dinner's ready. Interviewer: Y'all. 811: Y'all let's get to dinner. Interviewer: Okay. Get a chair and 811: Come sit at the table. Interviewer: If you have company for dinner you know he comes in, he knocks the door, you say 811: Well come on in. You're just time for lunch. We're just fixing to have lunch. Interviewer: Okay. Um Uh Won't you here's a chair, won't you 811: Won't you have a seat and join us for lunch? Interviewer: Okay so he took the chair and 811: had lunch with us. {NW} Interviewer: Nobody was standing, they could all 811: all sit down. Interviewer: Sit down. And uh if you wanted somebody to not wait until the potatoes were passed, you'd say go ahead and 811: and help yourself. Interviewer: So he went ahead and 811: and helped themself. Interviewer: Helped himself. Um Um when you were, say if you were at a friends' Joe, how would you they passed you some rutabagas and you hated rutabagas you know you'd say I don't 811: I don't care for any. {NW} Interviewer: Care for 'em. Um now on Sunday Or the meal on Sunday evening. The food might be cooked and served a second time. You'd say it had been warmed 811: Uh rewarmed. Reheated. Interviewer: Warmed. 811: Warmed over. Interviewer: Warmed over. Uh now did- what- did you ever smoke uh 811: Yeah. Interviewer: What did you smoke? 811: Um Winstons. Interviewer: You smoked cig- 811: Cigarettes. Interviewer: Okay did you ever smoke anything else? 811: Uh cigars uh very very seldom but I smoked one maybe once or twice a year. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: {D: Had a new baby so I passed the habit.} Interviewer: You didn't smoke them very 811: No. Interviewer: Okay. What about other ways of tobacco? Like do what they would do 811: Roll 'em uh I had smoked some of them too The ones you rolled yourself Interviewer: Oh where you put it in your mouth 811: Yeah and smoke it. Uh Interviewer: The kind where they'd put in their mouth and it'd make {D: water} 811: Oh no, I never dipped. Uh that sniff, I never did chew that, no. Whatever that- I never did chew Smoked quite a bit, but I didn't chew. Interviewer: Okay. Um now you were talking about about when you went to the mill, when you said you went to the mill you'd get to you might have cornmeal ground there okay and you'd make cornmeal out of it or you would- what else would you make? 811: Well uh uh your corn you uh take your corn over and you have it ground uh to make cornmeal with. Or you do- you could have it chopped to make chicken feed. Interviewer: Okay. Did you ever take it and have it ground up and then you'd take it home and boil it? You know, in the it's really southern food, folks don't like it up north. And they boil it and you might eat it in the morning with your sausage, your eggs, it'd be white. And you might put butter or gravy or salt and pepper on it. 811: I I never did see it done out here. People talk about it, but I never did see it done. Interviewer: What- what'd they call it? 811: Um I just remember they called it, I remember Interviewer: You know what grits was? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Well you liked them didn't you? 811: Yeah. {NW} But grits wasn't wasn't made out of corn not that I know of. Interviewer: What was it made out of? 811: {NW} I ate a whole lot of grits but I never even know what they was made out of. Interviewer: Out of what? 811: I never did know what they was made out of. Interviewer: {NW} Okay. Alright Did you ever seem 'em put corn in lye? And some sort of thing out of that? Lye hominy, you ever eat that? {D: Or Holland? any sort of home?} Alright. Um okay now something would- somebody was cooking something and it'd make a good impression on your nostrils. 811: Should smell good. Interviewer: You might say to somebody mm Hmm won't you just sme- 811: Smell, smell or whatever. Interviewer: smell what? Just like, take a take a sniff 811: Yeah, take a sniff of this. Interviewer: Okay. 811: {NW} Interviewer: Um now you crushed the cane and you would boil the juice and make 811: Make syrup or uh make sugar. Interviewer: Anything else? 811: Make syrup sugar. Interviewer: Um what about something thicker than syrup? 811: Uh Interviewer: What's thicker than syrup? That black stuff. 811: Black jewel. Interviewer: Huh? 811: Black jewel. Interviewer: Black jewel? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: What's that? 811: Uh that's uh that you use that to feed the cattle {D: it would take things up they make} Interviewer: Okay. 811: From sugarcane. {D: Uh they call it proleke} Well usually uh Well less after it's all mixed up, but what- what'd they call it you go pick it up and its black jewel syrup. Interviewer: Okay and from sorghum you'd make what? Uh Did you ever make molasses? You know what that was? 811: Yeah, but yeah I have- that's uh bout the same purpose of that black jewel syrup. Interviewer: What? 811: That I uh uh Interviewer: What's the difference? 811: Uh I- well all I know you used to go pick it up uh about three, four years ago from the sugarcane plants Interviewer: What? 811: {NW} we'd call it molasses, black jewel syrup. and uh Interviewer: Um now there's imitation you might say this is an imitation maple syrup, this is well you know the syrup you buy now, it's not some of it- you used to buy maple syrup, right? 811: #1 Yeah. # Interviewer: #2 Did you hear about that? # 811: Or either pure cane syrup. #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 What's that? # 811: Or pure cane syrup. Interviewer: Pure cane or Something like the pure cane syrup or or it might be imitation you know, the stuff they make nowadays is not the but you might say, this is not imitation, this is 811: It's real, you know, the The- the gener- Interviewer: The genui- This is the- this is the 811: {X} Interviewer: Okay but on a belt what would it have to show that it was cowhide? And nothing else? You know? They have a mark on those belts and they say 811: Uh, don't know Interviewer: Genu- 811: Geri- Geri- Interviewer: Genuine. 811: Genuine cowhide. Interviewer: Yeah you ever seen those on the belts you buy? Well when something's not imitation you say what, genu- 811: It's a genuine Interviewer: Genuine or 811: Genuine whatever it is. Interviewer: Yeah okay. When they sold syrup, when they used to sell it, how did it come, Joe? 811: Uh you could get it in gallons, half gallons Interviewer: Okay, or sugar? 811: Uh Interviewer: In the store you bought it uh 811: You could buy the Interviewer: When it wasn't put in package 811: #1 You could buy it loose # Interviewer: #2 {D: The packing was the} # Hmm? 811: You could buy it loose uh nickel's, dime worth, whatever you wanted. Interviewer: Ten? 811: Ten- ten pound, five pound, hundred pound Interviewer: five cents or 811: yeah, a dime's worth Interviewer: Ten- 811: Ten cent Interviewer: Ten cent worth Uh Okay they sold it in bu- in they sold it by what? By bulk? Bulk? 811: Well Interviewer: What about crackers? Do you ever see them? 811: Uh Interviewer: Did you buy crackers? 811: I- I don't. I see them in the just seen the packs, I've never seen uh Interviewer: Okay. And on the table, to season food with, you'd have? 811: Uh s- uh Interviewer: Just the two things you know 811: Yeah. It's the salt shaker and pepper shaker. Interviewer: Yeah salt and 811: Salt and pepper. Interviewer: Okay. Um now there's a bowl of fruit say peaches and apples and somebody offers you a peach, you'd say no 811: thank you. Interviewer: In order to get the I don't want a peach 811: Uh take the apple Interviewer: Okay your brother comes in you know he'd have a bunch of something with him and you'd say want- You know he'd have a bunch of apples with him, you'd say hey why don't you 811: Have a- give me a apple or Interviewer: Yeah. Um When uh would you ever, you know, you'd go by the trees around here, the pecan trees and then stuff a lot in your pockets? {X} {NW} And come back and 811: your pockets are sticking out. Interviewer: With a bunch of 811: pecans or Interviewer: Yeah. Plundered all sorts of things like that. Um. Now a place where they would grow a lot of uh a lot of fruits and things like that uh if you had a lot of peach trees you got a 811: Uh you got a peach orchard. Uh Interviewer: Um Okay was there anybody around here like a man 811: No uh {D: We- no, we had what we would call} the only thing he- you had quite a bit of was figs. Uh Interviewer: Probably got tired of them. 811: And um people would have quite a few of those trees. That's about the most- and pears you would get a quite a few pears. Some of 'em had pear orchards. And uh pecan orchards. That was about the most. That's uh there's other fruits they did oranges and apples and stuff they n- I never know {X} Interviewer: We used to have some oranges here, didn't you? 811: Not that I remember. Interviewer: Okay. 811: I never did know the Interviewer: What about wild uh {X} 811: Oh there, you see quite a bit of strawberries. Interviewer: Yeah? 811: Yeah Interviewer: Okay. 811: {NW} They got {NW} orange trees. But uh these people just use- plant it for their own use, you know. They don't get out {X} You might go by there, they might sell you a couple of bagfuls. Interviewer: Of what? 811: Uh tangerines or {D: do a little bit of} oranges. But they had never had done with it you know to put it on the market. They rarely sell. Interviewer: Oh. {D: For me, raisins and oranges in any kitchen for} 811: {D: From what I know it's all in use uh} his kids, grandkids, and stuff like #1 that. # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # Um okay. What about uh any other wild things uh? That old tree that George Washington chopped down, you got them around here? 811: Uh Interviewer: Cher- 811: Cherry trees? Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Um If they're here, they- they're very rare. Interviewer: You ever eaten a cherry? When you eat once, you bite down on the what? You might break a tooth. 811: Oh oh the seed. Interviewer: Break off a 811: Break off a tooth on a seed. Interviewer: Yeah. Um now the peach, the inside of the peach is the 811: Uh you got a- a seed in the peach or uh Interviewer: Georgia is, now that's where we raise peaches over there. 811: Y'all raise peaches? Interviewer: Oh yeah, we call ourselves the peach state. 811: They say that the the the the swamp, let's see what the heck is that? It used to be the pelican state. {D: We battled to change it.} Interviewer: Louisiana? 811: Yeah. Louisiana was the pelican state but they changed it to uh now let's see the bayou country. Interviewer: Uh. Kind of peach you have to cut the seed out of 811: I don't know that much about peaches. Interviewer: You ever eaten one? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: There's one kind of peach you can just work it. 811: Yes it's open. Uh that was a I don't know the name but I know it was a juicy peach. {D: It was tickling} #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 And then the other one was a # 811: That was kind of a horrible peach where you had to cut it and peel it. Interviewer: You know they call this uh we were talking about the seed of the peach but normally it's a what? You call it a clear seed or? A clear stone or? Clean stone or? 811: I don't know that much about peaches. Interviewer: Uh now after you've eaten the apple you throw away the 811: Uh the heart of it. With the seeds in there Interviewer: Yeah. Mm-kay. You call it the apple 811: Apple uh seeds or or the heart of the apple. Interviewer: Okay. Would y'all ever take any fruits and dry 'em. 811: Uh no. Interviewer: Like apples. 811: Uh-uh. Interviewer: Take anything and dry it? 811: #1 Uh # Interviewer: #2 {D: like catsup, you said?} # 811: Yeah stuff like that but uh {D: And kushas and stuff before one of the seeds for next year} Cucumbers. Interviewer: {D: Kusha is a kind of a what?} 811: Uh it's a preserve. Something that you can preserve. Interviewer: Can you eat it? 811: Yeah. You take it and you cook it down in syrup or sugar and make you a- a preserve. {NW} Uh we did squash. We'd let the squash dry out. #1 {D: You got heard of that} # Interviewer: #2 They'd call that what? # when you let them dry. {X} 811: Uh well all you would- well, you wouldn't let that many dry, about four or five of each for the seeds. uh Sometimes you'd just, when you had opened 'em, you would take the seeds and put them out there and let 'em dry. Interviewer: Yeah. Uh Okay when you dried the skin, it would do what? 811: It would shrink up. It would get hard hard. Interviewer: Yeah. The skin would kind of uh 811: It would shrink. Interviewer: Shriv- 811: Shrink up and you'd have to break, you'd have to use a hammer or something. I need a piece of wood, something to hit on it. After it'd get dry. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. You see the skin it would get all- you know the skin would get all all shri- uh 811: It would all shrivel up. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Um Okay uh now the kind of nuts that you pull out of the ground and roast we grow 'em over in Georgia. 811: Oh uh peanuts. Interviewer: Yeah. Other names for 'em? 811: Uh {D: the friend would call them pistas} Interviewer: {D: Pista?} Okay. Pindars, you ever hear that? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Goobers? 811: Uh pindars. and- Interviewer: Uh now what other kind of nuts do you have? 811: Uh You had pecan, and uh {D: ahicto nuts} uh that's about it. Interviewer: What about those kind of nut that they would put over chicken, when they cook chicken you know, a certain way? They call it or or turtle when they're- You ever hear they put almonds those long flat nuts over. Almonds. 811: I don't know the term. Interviewer: Okay. Alright. Any other sort of nuts like wal- or black- 811: Uh Interviewer: Black- 811: What the- that's uh hickory nuts? Interviewer: Hickory 811: Yeah. Hickory. Interviewer: Or black walnut? 811: Wal- walnut. Interviewer: Black walnut? 811: Yeah that's the one that was so hard to break. Interviewer: What's that? 811: I say that's the ones, the ones that was so hard to break. Interviewer: Okay. They have what on the head? 811: They had a uh shell, a black shell on 'em. Uh well a black hull. And then you had the shell. They had a hull on top of 'em. Interviewer: This was a what? 811: A- a black uh uh hickory nut I think it was uh. Interviewer: Okay. Or a walnut? 811: A wal- a walnut. Interviewer: Okay. Um Now you said you used to have strawberries here but now they're all 811: Uh they might have a few people still plant 'em but I haven't seen them in quite a while. Interviewer: They're all 811: They're all, everybody just quit planting 'em. Interviewer: All all gone. 811: All gone. Interviewer: Pretty much in other words for all intents and purposes they're all 811: All gone. Interviewer: All gone. Oh. Okay now what kind of vegetables, what else do you raise here in your garden? Can you tell me about that, Joe? 811: Uh You raise Uh- a different sort of m- well uh we started mustard grape. You raise your garden you have to do garlic, get parsley. Um your beans, like peas, your snap beans, Interviewer: Okay. Any red vegetables? 811: Uh beets Interviewer: And the ones that have a root on 'em? Red-uh 811: A radish uh Interviewer: Okay. 811: And uh Interviewer: What about the kinds that come on a vine? 811: Uh yeah that's Interviewer: Slice 'em up and eat 'em in a salad? 811: Cucumbers and {D: most melons,} watermelons uh Interviewer: Okay. What kind of melons you raise? 811: Or {NW} There- most of them all, the striped one, yeah Interviewer: Yeah. Have you ever seen yellow meat melon? 811: Yeah we have planted some years ago um Interviewer: {X} 811: Yeah yellow meats uh and then quite a few years ago we planted some and they really made we'd bring about a wagon load. Interviewer: {NW} {NW} Uh. Interviewer: {X} What color them? 811: Uh Some of 'em most everybody applied the big ones Uh Interviewer: big 811: uh canned tomatoes Uh I mean uh Interviewer: You ever see the little ones what do they call them? 811: That's the little canned tomatoes the small ones That's uh Interviewer: #1 {X} # 811: #2 Uh. # Interviewer: #1 You ever call 'em tommy toes? # 811: #2 {X} # Yeah. Interviewer: #1 What's that? # 811: #2 And that # uh uh tommy toes you got the big ones out Interviewer: Yeah {NW} Now what kind of potatoes you raise? 811: Uh Irish potatoes Interviewer: Mm-kay. 811: Sweet potatoes You got two three varieties of sweet potatoes. You got the white the {X} Interviewer: You got any yams? 811: Uh yeah. the yam There's a very rare few people that plant the yams because they rare but I won't plant 'em it makes quite a bit of money on uh Interviewer: Mm-kay. Puerto #1 Any other # 811: #2 Uh Puerto Rico's # Interviewer: Uh now you mentioned onions the little yellow trash ones that you would eat 811: #1 Uh # Interviewer: #2 What do you call them? # 811: Well the onion tops and uh afterwards you uh and after they seed you can put 'em and let 'em dry and you can use the bulbs Interviewer: What about the little little fresh ones that you would eat? They're called? 811: Uh that would be uh the onion Interviewer: #1 You'd shout # 811: #2 uh # Interviewer: #1 shout # 811: #2 well uh # shallots Interviewer: Mm-kay when you uh what kind of vegetables would you put in a good soup? when you making a good soup? 811: Uh you'd put carrots and Interviewer: What do you like in a good soup? 811: I don't eat soup #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 You don't? # 811: No. {NW} Interviewer: Uh about uh Joe what about uh gumbo? 811: Well I like to put a whole lot of stuff in the gumbo Interviewer: Okay 811: I put chicken sausage I like to put uh oysters Now my wife don't care for when I make this stuff put too much stuff in it sometimes I make it #1 too # Interviewer: #2 What does it make # it sticky. What does it what is it that makes the gumbo sticky? What vegetable? 811: Oh uh okra gumbo Interviewer: Yeah 811: You uh {NW} Interviewer: Okay 811: But I didn't {NW} Interviewer: What kind of vegetables that come in big leafy heads? 811: Um you got the lettuce and cabbage Interviewer: Okay. You raise how many you raise about If you had two of these you'd say I like these 811: Uh like these lettuce uh and cabbage Interviewer: Okay. Uh lettuce comes in? You might buy go to the store and buy two 811: Two heads of lettuce Interviewer: Two heads of lettuce? Okay. Um when you gotta get the beans outta the now butter beans you have to what? You've got to? 811: You gotta pick 'em #1 uh # Interviewer: #2 You have to # 811: #1 hull 'em # Interviewer: #2 do what? # Hull? uh when when you take the tops of turnips and cook 'em you make up a mess of 811: Turnip tops. Interviewer: Okay you call it a mess of what 811: UH Interviewer: Any other kind of greens you 811: Uh you have mustard greens and uh you have spinach Interviewer: Yeah. You just got a what of greens here you say you got a? 811: {NW} Interviewer: Did 811: {NW} Interviewer: say you gotta 811: {NW} Interviewer: full of greens 811: #1 Yeah. # Interviewer: #2 would you say that? # 811: A parcel of green. Interviewer: What does that mean? 811: That means you gotta a whole mess Interviewer: Okay. 811: of different greens Interviewer: Okay. What do they say that any other way? Use that or how do you use that word? 811: Uh a parcel Interviewer: Okay that means uh 811: Uh well like a group or a parlor Interviewer: {NW} Um Do can you give me a few examples of how you use it? 811: Oh I I was ju- Interviewer: Yeah like if you said you had a 811: A parcel of 'em Interviewer: Uh huh like what would you say you had a parcel of 811: Uh mustard green uh Interviewer: Okay 811: Turnip tops uh Interviewer: And that means a lot? 811: Yeah {NS} Interviewer: Talking about somebody's cattle you'd say you had a what? 811: A herd A herd of cattle Interviewer: About how many About a hundred? 811: Uh a hundred head um Interviewer: Mm-kay. Um Now if you and two boys and three girls you'd say got five? 811: Five kids Interviewer: Okay. You ever speak of them in so many heads 811: {NW} {NW} #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 Okay. # Uh well what about a man a man who had say a thousand acres of land would would have a they'd say he'd have a 811: A big farm Interviewer: A big farm thats a right How much money you'd say that's a right 811: Uh uh Interviewer: You ever hear any people say that's a right smart? 811: Yeah Interviewer: Okay what does that mean? You know #1 Okay. # 811: #2 Uh # It's it's just a wood far as I know it's Interviewer: #1 You'd say he had a {X} # 811: #2 {X} # A right smart Interviewer: #1 Right smart # 811: #2 Mm-hmm # Uh acres of land Interviewer: Okay Um now you raise corn here? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. You the kind that you tender enough to eat off the cob all that 811: Uh you call it a mock shoe. Interviewer: Mock shoe? 811: Yeah. {X} Interviewer: Alright. And you you pull off the what? 811: The shoe. Interviewer: Okay and then you got the what? You gotta get the? 811: {NW} You pull off the shelf you got the shoe on you gotta Interviewer: #1 {X} # 811: #2 take a brush and brush it. # Brush all that off. And then you can take a knife and and carve it off the cob. Interviewer: Yeah. At the top of the corn is the 811: The tassel. Interviewer: The tassel? Okay. Now what kinda melons you raise? You raise mush melons you said? 811: Yeah Interviewer: Any other kinds? 811: Watermelon. Interviewer: Alright the little yellow meat was called 811: Uh yellow meat melon Interviewer: Yeah. Mush melon you said? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Alright. Now the sort of things that come up in a field after rain you ever seen them anywhere? In French they call 'em champion. 811: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Some people eat 'em. Uh they come up in a in a field when it's damp or on a log a rotten log. 811: I might've seen them and didn't know what they was. Interviewer: Okay what do you hold over you when it rains? 811: A umbrella. Interviewer: Okay they look like little umbrellas. 811: I I see them but I never knew what it is. Interviewer: What you know what they call 'em? 811: Uh uh. Interviewer: You ever heard of a mush? 811: Mushroom? Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Oh that's what that {NW} Interviewer: Okay. What the ones you can eat they call 'em? 811: Uh. Interviewer: Name for 'em? 811: Uh we used to call 'em devil's bread. {NW} Interviewer: Devil? 811: Devil's bread. Interviewer: Okay. 811: Uh we would {X} look at devil's bread {NW} Interviewer: Uh big ol' thing? 811: Yeah. {X} Beat up on it. {X} Interviewer: No uh {NS} uh Joe and Mike call 'em uh You ever call 'em bay chickens? You know and they grow on a bay tree. Never heard of that? 811: Uh uh. Interviewer: When you hunted uh I wanna ask you about some of the birds you ran into around here. 811: Uh you have doves and quails and Interviewer: Okay at night when you go out what kinds of birds you've seen in the woods? 811: Uh nights you see well around here wild years ago you had a bunch a you call a grosbeak and they had quite a few of them {NW} at night you bunch of chicken hawks Interviewer: Yeah. You know that bird they call a {D: shwet?} 811: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Okay. What about the ones with big eyes you know 811: Oh that thats a owl? Interviewer: What kind you got? 811: Uh you got the chicken hawk and owl We don't have too many owls round here anymore. Interviewer: Yeah. You have any different types of them? You you have the big one? 811: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: The big kind that 811: The ones we had is bout the same as Interviewer: Got a deep voice. {NW} 811: Bout the same size as a chicken hawk. Interviewer: You ever see the little ones? 811: Mm no. Interviewer: That make a shrill noise? {X} {X} Like that they sound 811: We used to have uh quite a few of them them letter wing bats Interviewer: Uh uh. Or screech owl? 811: Yeah. In the woods. They was bad at night {NW}. Interviewer: Mm. Uh okay. The kind of bird that drills holes in trees? 811: Uh woodpecker. Interviewer: Okay. 811: We got still there quite a few of them. Interviewer: What do you call that big one? That gets bout the size of a half grown chicken? Um you ever hear of a Lord God? 811: Uh huh. Interviewer: A ripped shirt tail or something like that. Um. Like you ever hear people call them any other names? 811: Mm mm Interviewer: You ever hear 'em call 'em a pecker wood? 811: Mm um the only thing I know is a wood pecker. Interviewer: Okay. Is Is anybody ever been compared to a to a woodpecker? Any any people that you do know of? Class of people of a type of pe- 811: Nah you get people that {NW} {X} nobody pay them no mind yeah {X} pecker wood either woodpecker over there Interviewer: Okay. 811: Anybody pay them no mind you just go ahead and {NW} {NW} probably just making conversation Interviewer: Yeah. Uh. The kinda black and white animal with a powerful smell 811: {NW} Interviewer: You just wanna get 811: Away from it that's a skunk. Either a bed pee on whatever you wanna call it. A pole cat. Interviewer: {NW} You ever had one come around your yard? 811: Yeah. Quite a few. Interviewer: You just wanna get 811: Get away from him. Either let him have his way and let him go his way. Interviewer: {NW} Yeah. Uh. The kind of things that would come and raid your hen roosts 811: Uh you have a possum foxes uh you have pole cats too that {NW} coons Interviewer: Any names that takes care of them all? 811: Uh that fox he he's about the sneaky one of the bunch Interviewer: {NW} Yeah. 811: Clean your chicken house up in a hurry. Interviewer: You say I'm gonna get me a gun and 811: And go out there and try to get that rascal. Interviewer: Some traps and stop them Okay. You ever you ever had anybody You know what a varm was? People talking about varms? Varmints? 811: I heard talk of varmints? Interviewer: That's just anything big size little size 811: {NW} That could be a any kind of animal that destroy uh the property. Uh they would give 'em a name of a vermin. Interviewer: When you hunt Joe uh what about those animals that that like to go up trees? 811: Uh squirrels. Interviewer: Squirrels you always find them? 811: Uh uh better if you hunting with dogs. It's very seldom you gon' find them. You ask the uh the hunt squirrels you gotta be awful quiet. And then you shouldn't have no wind. And you gotta hunt 'em early in the morning but quicker if you got dogs. You ain't gone find 'em when they go hide up in a mulch tree hide behind a branch. And if you find 'em you just lucky. Interviewer: What kind you got here? 811: Uh the uh Interviewer: The big one? 811: Yeah you got the big one and the little small squirrels. Interviewer: {NW} the big one is a? 811: I don't know the name of 'em but I know he's got a both kind of uh I never did hunt 'em. Um I killed a couple of 'em by accident uh might've been a walking in the woods and had our guns up there right across one or two. That's about the most I killed is about two. In my whole lifetime and I I wasn't looking for 'em. Interviewer: You just kinda run 811: {NW} runned up on 'em and and shot 'em Interviewer: Oh. You you see the little one that maybe can't climb trees? You got him around here? 811: No. Um All the ones we got they not baby they Interviewer: #1 {X} # 811: #2 {X} # Interviewer: They can what? They can? 811: They can climb a tree and climb in a hurry too. Interviewer: Yeah. You see 'em they run over through the tree and? 811: Oh yeah they'll leap from one tree to the other and everything {X} Interviewer: Yeah. 811: He go up in that one tree and he look from there we he probably be a mile away Interviewer: Uh okay. Now what kind of fish do you get around here? 811: Uh you get catfish goldfish and uh bass uh you got you got different places where you can fish and uh different seasons. Interviewer: Mm-kay. 811: Where you might catch catfish or mudfish. Interviewer: Around a pond? 811: Yeah. Some people stop their ponds but the ones that don't you get mostly buffalos and if you don't get no uh Interviewer: Yeah. 811: What you call a a classic fish. Interviewer: A gou? 811: Yeah yeah. Interviewer: What's a gou? 811: Uh a ga- a Gaspergou? Interviewer: I don't know one thing or the other I just heard of 'em. 811: Um a Gaspergou is something like a goldfish. All the bones it got in it is big bones. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: Then you got uh about in the gulf you go out there you got them {D: fladdles.} and red fish and red fish is a good fish. Interviewer: Out in the gulf? 811: Uh huh. Interviewer: Uh okay. Now what other things do you get around a pond around here? Tell me all the animals you like to find out 811: All the you get ducks uh snipes Interviewer: Other little things you now small things you might kill? 811: Uh you get a whole lot of snakes I can tell you that Interviewer: Yeah. 811: {NW} and Interviewer: You ever gotten a snake 811: No I never did get snake bit. Uh Interviewer: Okay what about uh the little things that crawl around in those ponds you know? 811: Uh crawfish you get uh quite a few of them in some ponds that's uh Interviewer: Yeah they even raise 'em here. 811: Yeah. Interviewer: #1 Alright what do you # 811: #2 and then # uh good it used to be cause what was happening uh we had a pond over here where they had crawfish and that was sad and they had a oil well and some salt water got neath it uh and it destroyed 'em and then they start using some chemical in the rice and it killed the fish off everything if it get to the pond. It'll kill all your fish Interviewer: Yeah. Uh now the things that you got from the sea other seafood you would get 811: Uh Interviewer: What do you get from down around the gulf? 811: Uh you'd get shrimp uh Interviewer: How much of them would you buy? Go out and buy a couple pounds 811: Of shrimp? Uh But a bunch of these people just go out there and troll theirselves uh Interviewer: Are there any different kinds? 811: Uh yeah you got the big shrimp and uh the little shrimp. And then you got uh fish and baits. Too you can uh you get about three different sizes. Interviewer: Large jumbo extra jumbo and unbelievable #1 huh # 811: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: Yeah. Um. Those things you hear around the noise making making a noise around the pond at night 811: {NW} Uh yeah you got bull frogs. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And something else you got a whole lot of it's nutria rats. Interviewer: Nutria you got them here? 811: Oh Lord. Interviewer: Man. #1 They are big aren't they too? # 811: #2 Uh huh. # You got nutria mush rats and talk about hard on the rice field. They cut your lettuce drain your water out your pond Interviewer: And I hear those those things'll kill a dog too 811: In the water A dog can't beat 'em in the water. Interviewer: They will slice 'em up. 811: And uh he drown the dog uh they trap 'em all in the winter now but I don't know if it I I'm sure it's helping some uh I talked to a trapper told me he had trapped uh over six thousand dollars worth uh in one season. Interviewer: And used 'em for what? 811: Well they used the heart uh Interviewer: Neutrals? 811: Yeah. Neutrals mush rats that I'd sell them for three four dollars a heart Interviewer: Musk rats 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And the neutral rats uh I think a fox heart sell for bout twenty-two twenty-three dollars. Interviewer: Uh okay are there any types of frogs around here? What about the ones you find in your garden? 811: Uh you got spring frogs uh tut frogs. Interviewer: You ever do you ever roll one bout okay any other kind the kind that hop real high? 811: Uh ya spring frogs and you gotcha whatcha call a rain frog. Interviewer: Alright. Uh the kind that that uh come out after a storm that's a rain frog? 811: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: And uh what about the ones that are supposed to a sign that winter's over? You ever see them come out? 811: Mm no. Interviewer: That just the little tiny ones there. 811: Uh the baby tut frogs? Interviewer: Yeah alright. Um 811: {NW} Interviewer: You ever you ever done anything with toad frogs you know you can roll uh a piece of shot by a toad frog and he'll eat it? 811: Uh I know if you take a good frog and put salt on it {X} Interviewer: Really? 811: Almost any kind of frog you put salt on it Interviewer: #1 Yeah. # 811: #2 Oh. # Interviewer: But you can what is it he'll take a fly and 811: Uh yeah they'll uh Interviewer: Swat and 811: And swallow. Interviewer: Okay. Or you roll you ever seen they'd roll a piece of shot by him and they would 811: No I never Interviewer: Well try putting a rock there and he'll 811: Imma have to try that Interviewer: he'll 811: He'll swallow it? Interviewer: Yeah. 811: I sure wanna try it. Interviewer: Uh when you uh when you go fishing what might you use to go fishing with 811: Uh you'd use bait uh some people like to use uh Catawba worms or um maybe the little frogs. Interviewer: What do you dig? #1 You might dig? # 811: #2 Uh bait # Yea you go out and dig uh uh what's I forget the name of the one but it's a bait. Interviewer: You know what a leash letch was? 811: Uh. Interviewer: Okay What about the big talking about worms? What kind of them you got? 811: Uh Interviewer: There's a There's a kind that you might find in a rotten tree That's a 811: Uh I forget the name of it Interviewer: Oh well The kind that you find at night comes out at night real big wiggly kind That's a 811: Hmm Interviewer: Is there any kind that comes up after rain? 811: Uh Interviewer: They all come up after rain 811: Um Interviewer: What color are they or what do they call 'em? 811: Uh I A one gully worm we'd get quite a bit over here. Uh what they call a caterpillar only one Interviewer: Uh huh 811: And talk about type of crops for you They uh last year they ate some rice for us Uh Interviewer: You think they'll do it again? 811: Is uh {X} is a certain time of the year and they'd get in a pasture where the grass is is tender. They'll clean a forty acre pasture up about in two days. The same thing with rice field. If you gotta water it that too bad. But if you ain't got no water they'll eat it up. Interviewer: What time is that? What time of year? 811: Uh they usually start about May uh around May and June. Or sometime before There's a Interviewer: And they last 'til? 811: Well they might just you might check your field and you ain't got nothing in it as you come back the next day they done ate half of it. They might be you're the only field there in about twenty miles. They just drop in there and clean you up and another fellow next door he ain't got nothing. {NW} then you gotta get a poison for 'em. And Interviewer: You gotta nearby nearly cram it down their throats to kill 'em too. 811: Aw no uh that stuff uh it make contact with them about in a hour. It'll kill 'em. And uh something like two dollars a acre I believe. Uh two or five dollars a acre Interviewer: Is that pretty #1 high # 811: #2 well # Interviewer: #1 {X} # 811: #2 {X} # It ain't no it's a it's a chemical. They kill 'em which you figure uh on your rice land uh a year like we had like say for instance last year uh you seed rice we sell them bout for twenty twenty-two dollars and fifty cent Interviewer: Of what? 811: Uh a {X} a barrel {NS} Uh {NS} dollar that's about twenty-two fifty for a hundred pound and you put a hundred fifty pounds a acre And ya foot log is about a hundred and thirty dollars a ton and you's putting four hundred and fifty pounds an acre Interviewer: Yeah 811: And then you got your fuel costs uh it's costing you about oh bout a hundred and seventy-five dollars a acre the planting rice and then if you any kind of chemical you come with acid is extra cost and if it cost you five dollars a acre or more uh and you add up and you didn't get uh will cost you let's say about a hundred and ninety-five dollars a acre to to produce your rice. And when you sow you ain't getting but two hundred dollars a acre You in their property but five dollar a acre and some people didn't do that didn't profit five dollars a acre and if they didn't have beans to get 'em out of trouble they were really in trouble the little ones that Interviewer: Uh now around the lake you'd also see these things that they'd get in it they got hard shells you know 811: Uh turtle Interviewer: Yeah What types of them 811: Uh you got what what what we call here is a snake turtle the striped ones. We call it a snake turtle and uh and then the black turtles we call that a snapping turtle loggerhead that's the grip well most everybody around here eat them but they don't eat them uh {NS} Interviewer: Something like a turtle only it lives on dry land is a? a what? A tear you gotta tarp in here 811: Um Interviewer: You know what a cooter is? 811: Uh uh Interviewer: Uh now the insect that flies around a light and you try and catch it and it powder comes off in your hand you know it when you try and grab it them things you know what they are big ol' wings 811: Oh a butterfly Interviewer: Okay or a uh them come around a light at night 811: Yeah we got uh quite a few of those that butterflies and hoppergrasses Interviewer: Yeah 811: and mosquitoes Interviewer: Now a hoppergrass that just what that does that come around the 811: It uh uh you got a bunch of bugs small bugs and stuff around he come around and try to get some to eat Interviewer: Does he eat bugs? 811: Yeah Interviewer: Thought he ate just outta the garden 811: A hoppergrass Interviewer: Yeah 811: A hoppergrass will eat if he has access to it he can get it Interviewer: Uh eat what ants 811: Uh huh Interviewer: Okay what other kind of bugs you got around here 811: #1 Uh # Interviewer: #2 Any other kinda # insects you know of? 811: You got flies wasps uh Interviewer: What what kinda them you got? 811: You got uh almost all kind of {X} but quite a few bees too you got them yellows jackets and uh Interviewer: Where do they live? 811: They usually be in the ground uh if you be digging or cutting down in a ditch or something that's where you usually find 'em they'd get on ya you better go straight to the hospital {X} Interviewer: Stung in your hand is what? 811: Uh what happens they'll sting you in your face your head we're assuming they gon' sting you on the hand They get in your face your head your ears uh Interviewer: You ever have 'em come after you 811: I had quite a few sting me Interviewer: #1 what happened # 811: #2 after you can get the stinger out it's half bad # Uh what they do is leave a little ol' long and that's what the poison is in usually if you can get it up get that stinger out right away and take some {D: bika} either alcohol or uh baking soda and vinegar and put on it it won't swell at all But if you leave that stinger in there you can keep the headache for a week Interviewer: Where'd you get stung 811: I got stung bout here the head Interviewer: Which ear though 811: Huh uh this ear right here. But uh we used to have some uh that use the bees to breed clover. And we had a bunch of 'em out there and during the summer it was hot they would come out the bee hives and we had a rice field right along there we had the the flood and they'll uh be around that water where that fresh water was running and we'd get them rascals we'd get behind us if you had a field to close it when its time to close it you'd have to close it and you have to close it during the heat of the day one or two gon' always sting ya But the funny thing if you didn't fight 'em they didn't bother ya. If you can stand 'em lightning in your face and stuff and they wouldn't they wouldn't sting but I couldn't stand that I slap 'em {X} Interviewer: Okay Then the things that eat your clothes you what do you put 811: Uh the moths #1 you know that moth # Interviewer: #2 yes # #1 You put what in 'em # 811: #2 {NW} # Camphor ball Interviewer: Call 'em what a moth 811: Uh well we call 'em camphor ball Interviewer: Okay um and one of 'em would be a you you just a you know you ever had you ever catch a catch one of 'em 811: Uh one of these moths Interviewer: Yeah just one 811: Uh no I never did Interviewer: It's called a what it's a 811: Uh it's a insect that that they call it a a moth Interviewer: I see. Uh now the kinda things that you used to catch in a jar. They would fly around at night you know? 811: Uh they call it a lightning bug. Interviewer: Yeah. Uh when you were fishing now you'd you'd fish with a cane pole you know and this thing would come and land on your pole it was had long thing body and uh long wings 811: Uh Interviewer: #1 big eyes # 811: #2 uh # call that uh a jubilee either uh a horse a horse fly Interviewer: Horse fly? 811: That's it no #1 what about # Interviewer: #2 Uh # 811: um Interviewer: Did you have a thing thing would eat mosquitoes or sometimes when they when it would come around they said that uh that there'd be snake nearby. You know they'd land on the end of your cane pole and it had big long wings thin shiny wings 811: That that was a jubilee that's what we call it Interviewer: Jubilee? 811: Uh huh Interviewer: Okay And they would they would #1 fly around like this you know? # 811: #2 Mm-hmm. # Interviewer: You ever hear people call 'em a snake doctor or 811: Mm-mm. Interviewer: mosquito hawk? 811: Yeah uh mosquito hawk or either a jubilee. Interviewer: Okay. Um now you're you mentioned uh what about the other things that would sting ya out in the woods you you see the ones that uh built big paper nests 811: Uh yeah the wasps Interviewer: Yes Okay a wasp and what about the kind of wasp that would build a 811: #1 uh # Interviewer: #2 a nest outta # 811: {X} Interviewer: Okay. 811: {X} Uh I never did know one of those that sting me Interviewer: No they won't do it but them the ones that build a big ol' nest bout the size of a football. And uh they're big ol' things I mean they really raise a welt on ya. Hornets hornets? {C: pronunciation} 811: Uh yeah yeah that's um that's bees uh. Interviewer: And what do they call 'em uh? 811: Oh shoot I for uh. You got bumble bees. Uh the them black jacks Interviewer: Black jack? 811: Yeah thats the kind that stay in the ground. Um the blackjack is them big ol' ones. Interviewer: Oh 811: {X} pass by you and they'd just like somebody cut you with a knife Interviewer: Kay you know what a hornet is? 811: Uh Interviewer: Hornet 811: That's some that's stays in the ground too. Interviewer: A yellow jacket? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. Uh now when you're out walking in the woods these kinda things might burrow into your skin and raise? 811: That's uh a tick? Interviewer: Ticks. 811: Mm. Interviewer: Other things? 811: Uh and red bugs Interviewer: When when you're fishing what do you use for bait you ever use a small fish? 811: Mm no we always did the uh use a piece of chicken gizzard or frogs. Interviewer: {NW} okay. 811: Or either some of them other kinda worms. Interviewer: Okay. Uh now when you hadn't say when you hadn't cleaned in a room for a while they'd be a #1 a what up in the corner of the room # 811: #2 A um # Interviewer: in a barn? 811: Spiderweb. Interviewer: Okay. 811: You know we would use that quite a bit uh for a mule or a horse some to cut itself or or one of the kids would cut they self. Interviewer: Why? 811: Spider web that would stop the bleed. Interviewer: It would? 811: Yeah. Go grab a handful of that and put on there. Interviewer: Handful of what? 811: Uh spiderweb. Interviewer: I had heard that that's 811: #1 we'd us it # Interviewer: #2 funny you told me that. # 811: quite a few times Interviewer: You ever use it for anything else? Just to stop the bleeding? 811: Yeah Interviewer: I'll be danged Yeah I bet you had to look out when you were grabbing 'em tho. 811: {X} If you had a emergency you didn't look you just if you knew they had some you just go get it Interviewer: #1 Could've gotten bit. # 811: #2 {NW} # Cause you know that they'd be pile up in the corner {X} It was some old ones Interviewer: Yeah 811: Then you'd have no spiders around Interviewer: Uh okay. Any other kinds of things that you would make uh things like that you would you ever use a part of a tree that was underground 811: We used that uh uh it wasn't uh some trees we used to make tea or hooping cough and croup uh what they call {D: marmouth} tea some little ol' trees. And uh corn shucks we used that for uh chicken pox. Take it and uh boil the shucks off the corn. If you had chicken pox and uh they would stay inside and you would eat {X} you'd drink that they'd get to popping outta ya like a bad disease {NW} Interviewer: Okay. Uh what about the parts of the trees that were underground that was what the 811: Uh the tree root Interviewer: They'd dig out the what dig out the 811: The the root of the tree Interviewer: You ever use that for anything? 811: Uh well I uh some people use it for tea but uh like uh what you call a {D: marmouth tree} They would dig it out and cut the root. And uh boil it for tea. Interviewer: Did you ever remember making anything for the blood? Like give you for your blood in the spring? 811: Mm Interviewer: Did it do much good? 811: Naw but after I grew up for high blood uh but once grandma had high blood and she got and she told me she said when you go back home get you a a quarter water two ta- tablespoons of absinthe soda now and a lemon and squeeze it and when you come in if you thirsty just take a drink of that. And uh I couldn't sleep on one pillow after all I did that bout for a week. And she sleep had to sleep on one pillow and I went to doctor and my blood was normal. Uh before he was telling me I had high blood. I'm mad I shoulda kept going it but I just neglected it but my blood got up again Interviewer: Yeah. You got any of those kinda trees you tap for syrup around here? 811: Uh I remember when Sparling used to do it but I I don't know what kinda tree it is. Interviewer: Uh what sorta trees you got around here common trees around here? 811: Uh you got what you call a a chicken tree that's just a tree that that rolled land uh it'll grow and seed and anywhere a seed a fall a tree come up there. If you leave a piece of land bout five years it's gon' take it get quite a few of them. #1 Uh. # Interviewer: #2 Are they big trees? # 811: Uh they start off small but they end up they don't ever ever get more than bout that big. But they take over your uh a piece of land they'll just ruin it. {NW} Interviewer: now I seen these things out in the field and they come up they et this kind of white white and fluffy things that go out and over the land 811: uh no they get Interviewer: just little weeds really 811: yeah but that's uh Interviewer: they prickly they look prickly 811: thats what you call a chicken tree that's when you gotta Interviewer: what you got a chicken tree you see it's a tree like that one right out there. 811: yeah well that's what you call a chicken tree Interviewer: okay {NW} 811: I know it was really like a {NS} take over the place in about five years and if you just keep um away yeah then you got oaks quite a few china ball trees Interviewer: any good shade trees Jeff? 811: uh you find some of them live oaks like in these old places when they plant 'em for years ago some of them bout two hundred years old a real shady tree darkness it's where you gonna find a whole a ol' home ya know like a gen like a two or three generations that been living there and keeping the place up Interviewer: what about those kind of big kind of trees with broad leaves and they shed all at one time and it's got a bark that peels off and it's got little nodes or bulbs on it with tough wood used it for chopping blocks or something like that 811: um Interviewer: with long white libs and scaly bark 811: uh must of been a a white oak Interviewer: okay a s- a you know what kind of tree it was oh back her climbs in the back 811: no Interviewer: a syc- 811: a syc- a sycamore tree Interviewer: you got them? 811: {NW} I don't Interviewer: what about a kind of a shrub that grows real red in the fall and uh it's poison to some people 811: uh poison ivy Interviewer: okay um and then you got you got sumac or shumac here? 811: uh I don't know what it is Interviewer: uh okay uh {NW} now you mentioned straw- you mentioned the kind of berries you get here uh you get any of those red berries with a rough surface? 811: yeah uh we call them blackberries what do you talking red and they're black Interviewer: okay a razz you got a ` you ever eaten rasp raspberries 811: yeah yeah um I've ate some Interviewer: ate some what 811: raspberries but uh but we got multiple round here it's a we used to get a whole lot of them until they started forcing that rice and that stuff it delays them uh and what happen about the time they come back out it's uh the season is over they don't Interviewer: okay now the kind of uh the kind of you might say be careful about those berries they might be 811: uh poison or um the uh uh Interviewer: you got any kind of trees that uh that let's see they got a big large flower on um and they got the green shiny leaves 811: mm not that I know of Interviewer: {D: well uh what what do they call here the state of the bell here} {D: the locus} up above here is what 811: the state Interviewer: yeah 811: uh Interviewer: they call it 811: that Mississippi Interviewer: okay and that's the what state 811: uh Interviewer: you got any magnolia trees here 811: got very few uh that I know of Interviewer: yeah um {D: any other kind of laws here any kind of laurel trees here} 811: Mm mm alright uh well now I wanted to the change the subject and talk with ya about about folks and things like that when a when a married woman couldn't make up her mind about something she say I better ask my my husband Interviewer: okay uh she'd say like your ol' your father what would he call his wife he would call her his 811: his wife Interviewer: okay or any other any other names uh 811: uh well the first one you would say my phone and most of Americans I mean uh {D: alias} talking to people he would say my wife Interviewer: or my old 811: old lady Interviewer: okay and she'd say my old 811: {NW} my old man Interviewer: old man okay uh a woman who whose husband is dead is uh 811: uh it's uh a mix uh uh let's see Interviewer: her husband was dead 811: she's a widow Interviewer: What if she what if her husband just left her 811: uh well she still a widow uh Interviewer: did you did you you know any of the your grandparents 811: uh yeah I knew three of um Interviewer: you did 811: yeah Interviewer: that's right you told me that I think um and what did you call them you called your grandfather what 811: uh my Nan was uh {X} we I called him papa Interviewer: yeah she was your 811: grandma grandpa Interviewer: okay uh let's see that was on your mother's side 811: uh yeah Interviewer: okay what about your on your 811: on my uh on my daddy's side I uh on my father's side I knew his mother Interviewer: okay she was born to your parents 811: uh-huh Interviewer: okay could uh could either of your grandparents read and write or uh I mean or any of the three that you knew 811: no not that I know of Interviewer: what did they do they were were they here of the place 811: uh well uh they was living on different places uh uh um {D: bob was uh um Paris} they were living like on one form uh a plantation is what you might call it it was more or less a form and a the other one was living like on a plantation Interviewer: yeah they were um #1 well on the # 811: #2 {D: the} # Interviewer: if went back to Florida they'd probably slaves right I mean your grandparents 811: well they would uh they might have been slaves before uh during the time that I was born the slavery was over with Interviewer: sure yeah I know that I mean you only {NW} you're only thirty-eight you know 811: uh ` wha- what it was they they were pretty free to go where they want to go if they felt like leaving uh I guess what it was it was uh I did where I wanted to go they put much bed on the oil there you know like during the slavery times some one like that come and tell you or kill them all the time you know what I'm talking about they went out on there own they didn't have no education that there the only thing they knew was farming little stuff like that Interviewer: yeah 811: so you got to imagine huh they had each other they could have left if they wanted to I imagine where they put to it they want they would stay you know {D: no on could have put it they would take a guess} Interviewer: that was right after the 811: uh {NS} I said that was right after the the depression they say the depression was just about around thirty-seven and that was about six seven years after the depression when I was old enough to know {NW} what was now I remember when we had to to have uh stamps to buy what we wanted coupons if you would buy your book up you just was caught but you couldn't get more that about twenty-five a loaf or sugar Interviewer: was that during the 811: uh it was about the that was in the right round the fifties uh let's see mm uh back from the yeah that was around forty forty-eight forty-nine Interviewer: okay uh now um you have a name besides the name your known by in the family 811: mm {X} calls me Joe Interviewer: you didn't have a 811: uh no what you call a nickname no they uh put a bunch of but everybody calls me Joe Interviewer: um something that would have a a kind of a crib on wheels for babies would be called a 811: a a that would be a baby crib Interviewer: okay but did you see the one you could take the baby out in 811: uh uh eh uh baby stroller yeah you go out and why why day for a stroll Interviewer: okay um you know when a woman was was gonna have a baby you'd say she's 811: she's expecting or that she's pregnant Interviewer: uh what would women say to each other when they were talking about it they'd say she 811: she's expecting that she's going to have a baby uh Interviewer: if she didn't have a husband 811: oh well it was there the sheep sheep there we didn't talk about it too much {NW} got a little backed up Interviewer: okay they'd say she she what 811: she got caught for somebody Interviewer: she got caught 811: yeah Interviewer: okay or she got herself 811: got herself played or messed up Interviewer: okay um she got not what they were saying 811: not Interviewer: like that okay um when you didn't have a doctor to deliver the baby the woman you might send for is a uh 811: the maid they'd say uh Interviewer: in old times they called her uh who were you delivered by a doctor 811: no I was deliver by by one of these uh uh shoot I can't think of the name of it Interviewer: when a boy had the same color hair or the same eyes as the father they'd say the boy 811: resembles his his father Interviewer: okay {NW} what that say a boy around the neighborhood who started picking up lots of bad habits like your father make a few drink a lot or something like that they'd say that boy sure 811: sure takes after your daddy {NW} he drank everyday Interviewer: yeah that boys just a 811: he act just like his daddy Interviewer: yeah um but now your parents uh like you say when you come you say you were differently uh 811: yeah we's gonna brought up kinda strict Interviewer: yeah and uh to a child that was misbehaving uh you'd say you're going to get uh 811: you gonna get a whipping boy Interviewer: okay any other way of saying it your daddy he'll pull the belt off and give you a good 811: a good whipping or even a good spanking Interviewer: did uh what would uh what would you say to uh to a big boy say a boy about sun sized you ever give him uh 811: what what are you trying to do I used to whip him then he got a certain age and I found out after they get that age {D: and they like it they like the punishment and they want more} and you whip them and you whip them right there but if you punish them he's gonna learn for a long time and gradually I'd punish him for a month and then go no where {D: and he'll tell all his friends about you gonna be set at the place} but I can't go well how come you can't go well you're gonna tell your friends he's punished and he'd make up some kind of excuses there but if I whip him it's all over after the whipping I found out and punished him put in a whole lot more and almost any kid has that certain age there where they wanna go visit here or there I go the grind pairs somewhere and if you can punish him he's gonna learn it's gonna do him a whole lot more good Interviewer: yeah 811: and with the um Interviewer: you might say he act now that he's 811: yes yes he's uh not happy as he is I think punish him is is gonna do a whole lot Interviewer: now well wait uh if he's five inches taller this year you'd say he certainly 811: has grown Interviewer: grown a lot in the past year then uh the you came up so fast you could only see 811: to see him grow Interviewer: like your boy 811: yeah he Interviewer: from last year he 811: uh he grown I'd say about four inches and put on he put on maybe twenty-five pounds Interviewer: okay now um a child that was born to a unmarried woman is a uh well what do they call you know what did you hear coming up they have a name for them 811: I don't Interviewer: Well I'll be I'll be frank with you you know I guess things were a little different 811: you know we didn't if I didn't make a whole lot of difference the bad we didn't do like the kids do today Interviewer: yeah 811: if we as we a horse had to call us up we didn't know or cared for what come Interviewer: yeah 811: and we never did even if we knew of it we didn't know if she was married or not or {D: what the people would do or be if we guess it} Interviewer: right 811: playing down about the whole thing Interviewer: yeah 811: and uh and you never had a the part they talk about you know lets she was uh had a kid out of wedlock or something like that Interviewer: the baby was yeah 811: was born without a a out of wedlock with no father something like that we'd never hear that Interviewer: okay but um in this area Joe I know there was a lot of there was what about a baby that was say a baby that was born to a to a white girl or a poor white girl or something like that would they have a name for that kind of a jesting name for it 811: uh Interviewer: you know or okay now your brothers son is called your 811: nephew Interviewer: okay um a child that had lost both it's be it's just a it's if it's lost both it's parents it's 811: it's gonna be a adopted kid Interviewer: or it's a or uh yeah you know somebody that lost both his parents you'd say he was a they adopted a what 811: uh a kid that is an orphan is a Interviewer: an orphan ? 811: an orphan um Interviewer: and who would look after him his legal 811: his legal guards I'd say or suppose they'd it's my aunt or his aunt or whatever or the closest kin to him usually at that time it's either the aunt or the mama uh or one of the parents Interviewer: yes 811: or someone will take it like it is or put it up for adoption Interviewer: but he'd have a legal guardian 811: a legal guardian um well Interviewer: now you'd say this town is full of my uh or if you've got a lot of cousins or nephews or nieces around you'd say this town is full of my 811: kinfolk Interviewer: okay somebody might have the same family name as you and look a little like you but you say no 811: they not related to me Interviewer: no 811: no kin Interviewer: no relation okay now somebody who came into town and nobody had seen before he's a 811: a stranger Interviewer: it make any difference what part he came from he's from another country 811: well if you are thinking he is from another country if he had come to a town like this Interviewer: they'd call him a 811: they would call him a foreigner Interviewer: okay would they ever say that about a person who's from the north 811: I doubt it we'd probably call him a Yankee Interviewer: okay 811: but they wore they before that Interviewer: alright um okay now okay what relation would my mother's sister be to me 811: uh that would be your aunt Interviewer: okay um a couple common names for girls that start with an M would be 811: uh Mary Interviewer: or any other ones 811: uh Martha Interviewer: okay uh what about a a male goat is called a what kind of goat uh a nanny goat and a 811: a male goat Interviewer: the uh 811: uh papa goat Interviewer: okay uh remember that old bandit called the kid called what uh okay the nickname for Will or William would be what if your father had the name of William you call him your 811: oh uncle William Interviewer: okay or we have another name your uncle William 811: your William Interviewer: he'd be your what 811: my uncle William Interviewer: okay uh now a short name for that would be what 811: uh uncle will Interviewer: okay you know Jimmy Carter has a brother what's his name you know what his name is 811: Doug Doug {X} I know he smoke about six packs of cigarettes a day I don't know who he is Interviewer: yeah yeah drinks a lot of beer too 811: I didn't know about the beer I tell you He smoke a lot of cigarettes I seen him on TV Interviewer: Yeah {NW} yeah well he's a he's a okay he's named Biff uh Biff 811: {D: Budney} Interviewer: yeah {NS} okay you ever know anybody by that name you call them a male goat by that name you ever heard called a billy 811: a billy goat Interviewer: yes oh okay um {NS} now now a nickname for a girl named Helen would be well H-E-L-L-Y spells 811: Helly Interviewer: and and the L-L-Y N-E-L-L-Y you ever heard a woman named that oh okay yep now another name beginning in m for a man would be what think well lets see the four gospels you ever heard the bible 811: yes Interviewer: okay they were written by Mark Luke John and 811: Matthew Interviewer: huh 811: Matthew Interviewer: okay {NS} um a woman's name with an S would be what 811: uh that'd be Sarah Interviewer: okay or if your if your father had a brother john he'd be your 811: uncle Interviewer: you'd call him your 811: uncle john Interviewer: okay um now what about a wo- a barrel maker would be a what they called them in the old days what did they call them you know what they call a barrel maker in the old days 811: no Interviewer: okay do you know what the uh the the baseball hall of fame you know did you ever watch baseball on TV 811: yeah Interviewer: okay they said it somewhere 811: to Cooperstown uh New York Interviewer: okay now that name 811: uh coop coopers Interviewer: cooper okay if you saw a woman by that name you'd say good morning 811: uh ms cooper Interviewer: um now a preacher Joe who was a trained and he didn't have a regular pulpit and he preached on a Sunday here or there but he didn't he made his living doing something else he'd be called a what 811: a Interviewer: they have a name for it like when you're across what what religion were you before you were catholic 811: methodist Interviewer: you were 811: yeah Interviewer: well methodist I am a methodist um you'd call him what kind of preacher now did you have those kind of fellows travel around and preach to the church 811: what the what we had them I'm sure that's what he was he would ask for that on Sunday he had a couple of more judges yeah Interviewer: okay now what about a man you would trust to build you a chicken coop but you wouldn't trust him to build anything else you'd say he was what kind of carpenter 811: that would be a jack league Interviewer: #1 okay # 811: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: would you ever say that about a preacher like that 811: uh yeah Interviewer: you'd say he was 811: jack league preacher {NW} Interviewer: okay would you say that about a lawyer uh {NW} 811: {X} Interviewer: Yeah um did you uh now when you were talking about somebody in the army you they'd be called a what 811: A soldier Interviewer: Okay or somebody who was high up would be a uh 811: Uh Uh Be a sergeant or Captain or Lieutenant Interviewer: Higher than that 811: A major Interviewer: And then higher than that would be a 811: Uh Interviewer: Who's that old fellow who invented fried chicken 811: Uh {NW} Colonel Interviewer: Okay and then higher than him would be a well I mean you talking about old when you're talking about say Eisenhower they call him a what 811: Be a general Interviewer: Alright um now the man who who who's presides over the county court here is a what 811: Uh Interviewer: In in town 811: Oh that's the uh That would be the mayor Interviewer: Okay or no who presides over the court he wears a black robe 811: Oh the judge Interviewer: Yeah you got who's who's the fellow in town 811: Uh We ain't got not judge in uh Church Point. Interviewer: Yeah 811: Uh Our circuit judge is uh {NW} In Crowley Uh Where we got uh we got our mayor Town counsel and everything yeah if anything going Into town that's where You had a beaten idea {D: Say where you go to hire your coach, you go uh} To Crowley Interviewer: Yeah is is Crowley where you go to do most of your 811: So yeah that's where uh the courthouse and everything is Interviewer: You go there to do your 811: Uh Your business uh Whatever Interviewer: Yeah but I mean when you got to say do some 811: Uh Interviewer: You go Okay you're talking about going to town to do some 811: Oh shopping or Interviewer: Yes 811: Or uh Uh You don't have to go Crowley to do your - You go to Church Point and do your shopping but uh Like Legal business uh And that's when you got uh all the {X} Interviewer: Yeah 811: That would be uh At the courthouse at Crowley Interviewer: Okay um around around a courthouse they got a what they got one of those big old you know a place around the courthouse where you can you can sit and there'd be trees and grass 811: #1 Uh # Interviewer: #2 And everything # 811: #1 Uh # Interviewer: #2 They call that # A what that's a 811: Uh they call that the courthouse square Interviewer: Uh now somebody who would be employed in an office like in in Crowley or something like that would be called a private the man's private you know she'd look after his mail and everything 811: Or a private secretary Interviewer: Yeah uh what's a person who went uh who was when you went into town would you go into the to see a what to see a 811: Uh You could go in to see a doctor or Interviewer: Go to the where if you wanted to be entertained you go to the where would you see a play or a movie 811: Or at at the movies Interviewer: Okay 811: Go into town to see a a movie Interviewer: And you'd go to the what 811: Uh to the theater Interviewer: Uh now let's see uh they say that uh they'd somebody was an actor John Wayne was an actor or uh Nicole Bailey was a a woman was a 811: A singer or actor Interviewer: Okay a woman would be a a man was an actor a woman would be a you know a woman you see on TV she's a what she's a 811: A female actor Interviewer: Okay or actress 811: Actress Interviewer: Uh now anybody born in in this country is a you know 811: Is a citizen of the United States Interviewer: Yeah when you start thinking about the problems other countries have it makes you proud that you're 811: You're a Citizen of the United States Interviewer: Yeah that you're a 811: A a citizen Interviewer: Yeah uh you know they say uh I'm proud those stickers you see on cars 811: I Interviewer: Bumper sticker 811: I'm proud to be American Interviewer: Right um um now but things were I know were different long ago when say when your farm was coming up and they had different facilities for even different water fountains f 811: Yeah {D: Well what actually did we} had that In North Louisiana Interviewer: Yeah 811: When I was coming up there, that been about Ten twelve years ago Interviewer: Yeah, was it- was it- what about here 811: Uh A lot of trouble we had The year that I remember Uh That was between the black and the white it was They didn't want to segregate the schools And they uh And they Started uh Some of 'em put uh well I was under the instruction to get married Uh Interviewer: To where 811: The instruction- you had to go to the instruction to get married And uh Interviewer: Oh Catholic 811: Yeah And uh we had a bunch of priests doctors and such that would come down And speak So we went Uh Me and my wife Was two black couples that was going there was Twenty-two couples And the rest was white {X} And then my sister went and saw it About uh Three or Three or four months after this And uh The uh Went there with shotguns started to say that black man over there they're going to kill him And so uh Interviewer: For what for 811: They didn't want him going To We had a church in our quarter they had a church And they didn't want us to go up there So Everybody finds out about that that was you know like The fellow I was working for He found out about it and he told me And he told me there and my sister not to go And some of the The big people that was in town was involved in Interviewer: The man you worked for you called him 811: {X} He uh He didn't tell me nothing about it Because he knew I wasn't going didn't know my sister and I was going But uh My mother-in-law She knew- a lady that she was working for- she finds out about it so she {X} {D: Then she thought got to go to} instruction And so they they didn't go they was around there with guns and stuff saying they was gonna kill her And it went on like that Uh And they start to- the blacks started to try push it some of them some of them was bullied But most of them didn't care about it Because uh We had our own church and everything we had our clubs and stuff If we wanted to go drink a beer or something But most of 'em wanted to go to the Wanted to go to the white church {X} {D: They're white they} Bruised 'em up beat 'em up So then uh The blacks decided they wanted a school The federal government wasn't going to build the school and it was segregated Interviewer: Federal government 811: The federal government wasn't gonna give no funds to build the school And that would segregate the school Okay to build the school Said they're just going to segregate it Uh The school they built for the black was just going to be from uh From the eight And go to the The tenth grade Interviewer: It'd be the eight 811: {NW} The ni- eighth ninth and tenth I believe is what it was {D: That is} The six seven eight nine Yeah it was six seven eight and nine they had to find a way For it Why then They didn't want to {D: Give no driver's ed's course} When they got there {D: This Jones as if he's} From New York He came down here and led a march Uh They went uh picket uh The school board {X} And then people made the mistake of getting out of their office To come see what was going on it was hot that day We was hauling in rice And they made the mistake of getting out of that air conditioned office and come outside And then they wouldn't let them get back in Interviewer: Whew 811: And then they just stayed out there all day in that hot sun And uh Well I was in the civil defense then So they Called us and told us to stand by They had the sheriff department police department out there And uh After that day they got what they wanted {NW} And after that They segregated the schools And uh Interviewer: You mean they integrated 811: Yeah They integrated the schools All the schools the convert and everything Interviewer: Yeah 811: And whenever and the kids had that choice whether they wanted to make their first community confirmation they could have made it with that class Or either they could have went to another church And uh {NS} And we'd been Went over to kids my kids uh Made their first communion or A confirmation we all went to the white church and it was just as nice {X} Her best friend is Is white people And {NS} Interviewer: Yeah 811: After the ones that wanted to push you know Push it before it was time {D: admitted bad on them} They didn't need you know just as long as I had a priest to go I didn't care if anybody was going to their places And uh Then And whenever they had something {X} If they needed something like needed some help or something wanted us to go away Interviewer: Uh-huh 811: For a {D: Civil defense} We'd go Yeah shouldn't- we did something back from one of the stores or something uh {X} She We had to learn about it And fellows with {X} And everything Interviewer: Yeah um well what what did they call what would what would they call you in other words when they got 811: Uh when they got mad at you You you think they mostly we were the poor like we were They'd call you a nigger Interviewer: Yeah 811: Or stuff like that Interviewer: Okay 811: Would you think a man that was intelligent It's very seldom he'd call you that But you take a poor fellow That was {X} Yeah, they would be the first one that was gonna call you that Interviewer: Yeah okay um when when they uh alright well when what would you call them in other words did you did did other folks have names for them 811: Oh they'd call them kids and honkies And stuff like that I never put myself in a position where I was called what Interviewer: Yeah 811: {NW} But you know Forget me {X} Interviewer: Okay 811: But I had a few of 'em When we were smaller calling me that there They had some rascals They'll call it to you just to call it to you Interviewer: Yeah we talked about 811: Well you I I'd say uh Interviewer: Like the man you worked for he was you'd call him a what they'd call well I mean they would call he would call them a what you know there was a difference between a poor white and a rich man in other words and they would call him a 811: {X} We called him a a poor fellow That that was the fellow {D: arrived there at the lowest one he} {D: Now he'd call him a poor frog in a minute} Interviewer: Okay now a Cajun was a what 811: A Cajun Was what you call a French man Interviewer: Okay you ever hear them called a coon hat 811: Yeah they'd call {NW} They're they're called another {X} you know Interviewer: What 811: {NW} Uh the whites you call them a coon hat Interviewer: Okay we mentioned the word pecker wood do you ever hear them say that 811: Yeah Call them peckerwood or a {D: humpy} But during the time Interviewer: #1 That was # 811: #2 when there was a # Interviewer: What blacks would say to them 811: Yeah Interviewer: It was okay 811: And {D: looking you had to make a white that was on} Interviewer: Yeah 811: But you know i- it got so {D: on the last} W- with a black After a white would call them a- a nigger or something Interviewer: Yeah 811: Th- the ones that had a little sense They'd tell you {X} You know who your brother is Interviewer: Oh I know I know 811: They'd tell him something like that you know It'd make him mad enough he wanted to fight you it'd {D: appeal to nobody} Wasn't anybody's business Interviewer: Yeah well uh showed a lot more sense in it than a lot of folks around here uh but um did you ever hear the word cracker used? like we- we- okay uh now and then there were the type of men who who lived way back in the woods or the type of people who lived way back in the woods and they hardly ever got out of the town was there a place around here that they could live like that 811: Yeah I I know some people that are {NS} Live like that now Uh I don't believe they even got no electricity Interviewer: They're just 811: They can go to town but they go to town about once a month {NS} They live about a Mile a half down this road here {D: Maybe even further} Interviewer: You say they're what they're 811: Well There's people that Interviewer: They call them what 811: Uncivilized you know they didn't Follow When everything else came {NS} Interviewer: Yeah 811: When the world was getting to be civilized they They stayed in a nutshell Interviewer: Uh somebody who lived back in a swamp like that they'd call them a 811: Uh Interviewer: Or somebody maybe who lived up in the Piney Woods up in north Louisiana they have names for them 811: Uh yeah they did let me think they were called {NS} {NW} They didn't like to call them hillbillies Interviewer: Alright you know what a Hoosier was you ever hear that 811: Uh-uh Interviewer: Okay uh but a {D: bakra} you never anybody call anybody a {D: bakra} okay or a peck same thing 811: Oh yeah {NW} Interviewer: A peck right okay {NS} Somebody uh was was waiting for you to get ready and you had to go out with him and he'd call to you and he'd say will you be ready soon and you say I'll be with you in 811: In a minute Interviewer: Just 811: Uh Just a minute Interviewer: Okay uh when you were going out and you knew you were on the right road to go somewhere but you weren't sure uh of the distance you'd say uh you'd ask somebody on the road you'd say how 811: How far uh Such city {NS} Interviewer: To going to say to Crowley you'd say how 811: How far do I have left to go to get to Crowley Interviewer: Okay uh when you're pointing out something nearby to somebody you'd say what now 811: That over there Interviewer: Look 811: Look over there Interviewer: Yeah uh and somebody wanted to know how many times you went to Crowley they'd ask you how 811: How many times did I Interviewer: How o- how 811: How often did you go to Crowley Interviewer: Okay uh okay when um when you wanted to agree with a friend when he was saying something that I'm not going to do that you might say well me 811: I ain't going to do it either Interviewer: Okay me 811: Me either Interviewer: Okay uh blank am I uh you'd say blank am I or am I 811: Neither am I Interviewer: Neither am I uh now when you okay when you're feeling uh Joe when you're feeling a little uh you're feeling a little say feverish or something like that you might what do you feel to see whether you got whether it's your heart or not 811: I feel my forehead or Interviewer: Yeah 811: Check my pulse or Interviewer: Yeah you do that occasionally now you you've gotten where you take better care of yourself now 811: {NW} {D: try to} {NW} Interviewer: Yeah 811: A whole lot better care I I got to tell you how- I never realized how sick I was Interviewer: Yeah 811: Until I was still {D: this way} Had so many things that That I went on doing it that long I was over there but I don't remember {NS} Interviewer: Did like did your uh did you ever know that you had high blood pressure before 811: Yeah Interviewer: Heart attack 811: Mm-hmm Interviewer: How long was that 811: Uh The doctor had told me Interviewer: Yeah 811: About two years before I had the first heart attack He told me He said if you don't quit eating all that seasoning And All that rich food and stuff you see you're going to have a stroke either a heart attack And he's a doctor he lacks the He lacks his patience but he What he says that's where you ought to go Interviewer: Yeah 811: And he'll cuss you out in a minute And I say Interviewer: Uh-huh 811: And sure enough {NS} I made it thirty years old {NW} I had one Well that's it He knew what he was talking about Interviewer: Yeah 811: And then I {D: folded hard and} Got carried away and I Didn't think of myself again Had another one Interviewer: Yeah 811: {X} Interviewer: What 811: {NW} Interviewer: Let me whether you had things like that 811: Uh How long you going to be uh Well #1 {D: gone now} # Interviewer: #2 Uh # I I'll be here through um I guess tomorrow the day after would that be okay would you 811: {NS} {NW} Let me see tomorrow Tomorrow's Wednesday Interviewer: Yeah 811: {NW} Uh Interviewer: {D: Hey June} 811: {NW} Yeah so we're done {NS} {NW} Interviewer: Sure your sister or your mother there {X} 811: Uh Interviewer: It ain't it ain't contaminated or anything 811: {NW} Interviewer: I just brought some of it out here 811: You can't close it you've got to go from the outside uh You find all your stuff {NS} Interviewer: {D: What about this} 811: That's the one medicine they never did love {NS} {D: bad} Interviewer: What was in the can 811: Uh that's uh your your vitamin Interviewer: There in that little bottle 811: Uh yeah but he say he do that About Interviewer: Give to eat 811: Huh Interviewer: Give to eat 811: He said you're gonna eat it That that uh he's taking a {X} Off his feet {NS} And uh {NS} That that one medicine the one in that little bag Interviewer: Mm-hmm 811: Uh he said take it and put it in his {D: feed} Interviewer: {X} 811: Yeah that's the dose of one but I told him you Either right around five-hundred dollars Interviewer: {X} 811: {D: How do they get it that small} I thought you were supposed to {X} Interviewer: {X} 811: No way We thought I might got it Interviewer: You give me the flu 811: Yeah Interviewer: Oh let me get somebody {X} 811: I seen you {D: fracking} In there this morning might've seen him outside Went to put him back in I didn't go all the way {NS} Interviewer: {X} 811: {NS} Uh go move his car {D: doing that} Interviewer: Oh my car 811: Yeah Your keys on {NS} Interviewer: Okay would Thursday afternoon be okay 811: Uh Yeah Interviewer: Okay what time about 811: Uh Interviewer: Same time 811: About oh yeah about two Interviewer: Okay 811: {NS} Hill busy hillbilly music or country music Interviewer: Yeah 811: That's uh definitely {X} Interviewer: Um let's see yeah that's okay {X} 811: Oh All right Interviewer: Um how's the weather how's the weather been down here have y'all had any rain 811: Mm no we haven't had no rain since uh Uh last week when we got that That flood Interviewer: Yeah when you go a long time without having rain here you say you're having a 811: A drought Interviewer: Yeah right now you just say you're having a I'm having a drought 811: No we Don't Really re- need no rain right now Interviewer: Yeah 811: Uh not for the farmers' use use because they uh For their much got enough for a while Interviewer: Yeah um when was the last now that rain you said we had a couple weeks ago that was a 811: Well uh with the last week uh I would call that a flood Interviewer: Flood when you uh you say you might not be having a real heavy rain you might just be having a 811: Well We'd call it a little sprinkle or Interviewer: Yeah when when you have lot of rain come at a little time that's a 811: That's a flood Interviewer: Yeah say we had a regular 811: {NW} R- a regular flood or regular downpour Interviewer: Downpour uh say when you get a lot of do you ever get a lot of thunder and lightning with that or 811: {NW} Yeah generally some will get quite uh Electric storms or And it's real bad rain though Oh dear if you had one of that {D: full day} in the morning or something you You were around a TV shop You can't get there cause it doesn't boy almost everybody's TV In the neighborhood Or like during the day {D: more than one} Connect their TVs or Or you get a bad one like {D: full day} In the morning People don't get up and disconnect them after lightning hit their Anyway not all Uh anyway you got your switches cut off if you got them still plugged to this {D: boiler} If it hit the {D: wasp} You get a Quite a bit of that here in the summer Interviewer: Do you get any bad winds around here 811: Uh Mostly the winds you get Real bad winds there's uh In hurricanes {NW} Uh Let's see fifty-seven We had a bad bad hurricane With Hurricane Audrey That was the first one over in new And it uh Came out the mouth of the Mississippi up there on Cameron I don't know what I think it's Cameron Parish Oh it killed Oh hundreds and hundreds of people It uh It washed 'em out about The the tidal winds and stuff Washed them up the Lake Charles Interviewer: {NW} 811: And on these streets they just had bodies stacked up All the way to Everybody that they had about two or three people that survived that were That was in {D: it all} Interviewer: A lot of people got 811: They- They wanted them to get out but the people wouldn't leave {X} {NS} Wanted to send the national guard and that would make them get out they wouldn't get out And the storm just Tidal waves came in there Just washed them away They found a couple Three of 'em on houses and mattresses and stuff in trees The snakes were so bad most of 'em they find was in shock They had to cut the branches They was holding so tight to They couldn't make 'em turn loose they had to take something and cut the branches to get them out of the tree or Whatever Interviewer: Where was that 811: That was in uh Cameron Parish that- that's uh south of Lake Charles That's right to the To the gulf Interviewer: Uh do you get any bad winds here 811: Uh The last hurricane we had I don't remember what year it was but I would wake up and assume the fence had uh Interviewer: What did it do 811: And uh report we got uh Oh yeah it was clocked at about a hundred and three miles an hour Interviewer: {NW} 811: That was about Four Four forty-five in the morning And then it lasted About for fifteen minutes And then it kind of that's when we just before we got to die of the hurricane it And then it landed uh Then about for Fifteen minutes it stayed calm calm When we was in the eye of it After the eye passed we got uh winds about up to ninety miles an hour again was Kind of on the backside of it But b- just before the high end that's when we got about About a hundred and three miles an hour Interviewer: Oh did it do any damage does it ever do any damage to things around here 811: Uh This wind you don't get Uh Too much down here this blows uh roofs off barns and uh {NS} Well it does enough like trailer houses it blows them over But uh it was Three years ago Uh In Crowley we had a tornado came through just before {X} Interviewer: And it 811: It flattened everything in its pass Well We- I went by there uh They called us up About four oh clock in the afternoon to go uh {NS} {X} At night And I got there about Six thirty But I didn't hear how bad Bad it was you know uh we just went out then they put us to our post Well you watch this while the people go in there looting and stealing and stuff So we just Sat out there in the Here come a state trooper, and you say you say I'm going to take you Sight seeing They didn't have no power all electricity was cut off Interviewer: Yeah 811: And we passed on {X} Said that's where a big house was right there There was nothing Just a vacant lot Some {NW} Houses you would pass by that was brick houses Interviewer: They had 811: They had no walls no top nothing And whatever they had sitting on the table cars and stuff they're all parked and stuff just like that They had 'em parking over they had on the table was on the table It hadn't disturbed none of that but first uh The frame of the building it was gone And uh Nobody Got killed in there But it happened in the morning before day One person died from there out in the country but it Oh it must have destroyed maybe about Seventy-five eighty ninety homes That was a total Disaster {D: endured} Interviewer: Hmm 811: That was one of the worst things they used To me usually see that on TV You know elsewhere, but you see that close on Interviewer: The wind that's just 811: Oh that Tornado just came through and Had people that tell me that uh in their brick house that they heard it coming you know Just a big roaring noise And uh They had the air conditioning on in the brick house and all the wind that It it just would take it and suck it and blow it up They had so much pressure If they would've had a window Or something open But it it had The They told me they had so much pressure in that uh {D: cycle that it was turning} They said it must have been Going anywhere From two hundred to three hundred miles an hour see that {D: type of wind} About two good seconds for it to go through Interviewer: Hmm 811: And uh One lady told me she had a A window up in the bathroom A crack in it And she had the door closed And she the roaring noise it passed about A block Well it had tore up stuff a block from her house {NW} And she said when she woke up The curtains were sticking to the window And you couldn't pull them back And finally she fit And opened the door Into the bathroom She couldn't raise no windows up and the window that had the crack in it {NW} When she opened it she said her house had started cracking Interviewer: {NW} 811: And when she opened it The door she got a chance to raise the window And she said uh It There the rain And wind so curtain was standing stiff {NS} It had sucked the {NW} Said that's what usually happened if you've got a brick house because with double wood frame house You got cracks Interviewer: Yeah 811: And it's going to do that But a brick house that's well sealed It'll blow up uh with the suction and just suck it off Interviewer: Uh if you say the wind is coming from that direction where does the wind come from the wind 811: Well Usually when you got well it may come from anywhere it may come from the Way over the clouds if you've got a Come from the south but most of them you get them from the south it's coming out of the Out of the gulf Very soon you'll get one coming From the west or the north Most of them will come out of the The south southwest or Southeast Interviewer: Yeah um did it ever okay now when you have a just a little light rain you say you're having a 811: Well just getting a little sprinkle Interviewer: When you wake up something a little harder than a sprinkle was a you know 811: A shower Interviewer: When you wake up uh in the morning sometimes do you ever does it ever can you not see outside 811: I guess sometime it's foggy Interviewer: Yeah 811: It'd be fog Interviewer: You get you get that here a lot 811: Uh Interviewer: It rolls in off the gulf 811: Uh yeah but most of it you get just patches You don't get uh You might Leave from church it ain't got none you get up and you can't see nothing But uh Sometimes you get just a solid block of it before you You know The whole community you might {X} And the more closer you get around water the worse it is Uh don't have too too much water Right there We in one of the best Part of the country for tornadoes and hurricanes Course we get some here but where we're at we're kind of on a hill we ain't got no bottom and they told me the spot I A low place wherever there's water And uh I you know well we We don't get Too too many but we get our share Interviewer: Yeah um do you have any ways you tell the weather or you know since you've been farming all your life 811: Uh You know a farmer's a gambler He just takes his chances he You might have called a weather forecast long range weather forecast They might tell you uh Especially like during a Hay season You don't want to cut no hay and have it rain or {NW} You'll call the weather forecast anyway you're going to have s- Sunny skies for a week And you go out there and cut hay fifty sixty acres of hay and it starts to rain Another thing you do is use your own judgment if you will {D: oh the weather is} When you get out there say well we're going to take our chances it ain't going to rain we're going to cut it Interviewer: Yeah 811: But uh you can hardly tell too much predict the weather too much Interviewer: Um you can look at the 811: Or you can look at the the skies and Kind of make up your mind Decide what you're going to do It the same way like uh well almost anything on the farm like if you want the flat rice or Cut rice or something Usually when you have a hurricane coming that's uh The hurricane season during harvest time the rice yeah And uh if your rice a little green You're going to lose on the On the yield if you cut it green But after a hurricane hit you you'll lose more So if you can get enough labor to get in there and help you to cut it That way it's kind of grain you're going to lose but you You ever lose as much if you let the hurricane come blow it all down Interviewer: Uh when you look at the sky you look at the 811: Or you look at the clouds or the weather Interviewer: Yeah 811: Try to Try to predict it Interviewer: Yeah what about the wind like uh 811: Usually if you get a A south wind You can kind of A strong south wind you can kind of expect rain but if You get a A dry east wind Or like a either a north wind You're going to worry too much about rain {NS} Like I said It's on the fence {NS} Would you go out and close that door please Aux: All right Interviewer: What this 811: Yeah it well I Interviewer: I thought I closed it 811: No it uh sticks whenever the sun shines on it you've got to {X} Interviewer: What 811: Um {NS} In the morning In the mornings it open good Interviewer: Yeah 811: And after the sun's shining on it and that night It opens and close I don't know what happened to it {NS} It ain't supposed to sway {NS} Interviewer: Yeah strange huh um now on a day when you look up at the sky and there are no clouds around you say I believe I'm going to have a 811: Uh a clear day Interviewer: Okay 811: No rain Interviewer: It's gonna be a what kind of day say 811: It's gonna be a pretty day Interviewer: Pretty day uh and then on an opposite kind of day it's not a nice day and sunny and shining and bright you'd say it's a 811: Cloudy day Interviewer: Cloudy day some mighty kind of weather we're having a mighty 811: Mighty bad weather we're having Interviewer: Um the clouds are getting thicker and thicker and you think you figure you're going to have some rain or something you know and the wind stops and and you say I believe the weather is 811: Is fixing to change we're going to get some rain Interviewer: Yeah and the wind might have been going pretty hard and it just 811: Some of the wind comes down you can expect rain {NW} Interviewer: Or when you've been out in the field and the wind has been gentle and it starts 811: Starting to kick up you can expect a change in the weather The wind's gonna shift or Either it's gonna rain Interviewer: Yeah uh well if it's been cloudy and uh the clouds pull away and the sun comes out you say the weather is 811: It's breaking up Interviewer: Uh a morning say in the fall when you first go outdoors like a couple nights ago we had that type of weather were you out there 811: No Interviewer: Late night Friday you find it's a little cold but not really disagreeably cold you say wind is kind of going 811: Kind of goes through you kind of nippy Interviewer: A little nippy a little oh it's a little what outside 811: Little chilly Interviewer: Chilly uh if there's a white coating on the ground in the morning you say you had a 811: A frost Interviewer: Do you uh you ever have any problems with water around here the water did what it might 811: Uh freeze up or Interviewer: Yeah 811: Dry We had some problems with this past winter more so {NS} Uh We haven't had a Winter like that in quite a while Interviewer: Yeah hmm uh but generally the weather's pretty good here 811: Yeah you get a For about the last uh Four or five years you had a good Year for harvesting the crops Interviewer: Yeah 811: That's the important day if you've got a good year to harvest Interviewer: With all the stuff they've got now they can pretty much make a crop can't they 811: Yeah Interviewer: They can raise them 811: {NW} They can pretty much raise a A good crop or Well a crop's like anything else if you've got the season for it Uh you can do good but if not {NW} The season and the price that's what makes the difference Interviewer: Yeah 811: And if you get two bad ones together you just caught Interviewer: Okay um now all right where did uh an old time storekeeper would keep his pistol behind his 811: Behind his ear Interviewer: Well if he was left-handed he'd keep it behind his 811: Uh he'd keep it behind his left ear Interviewer: And if he was right-handed 811: He'd keep it behind his right ear Interviewer: Okay uh now this is your you've got a chicken bone caught in your 811: In my throat Interviewer: Yeah they call it your 811: Your goozle Interviewer: Your goozle okay what is that 811: Uh what's a goozle Interviewer: Yeah 811: {NW} That means that's your throat Interviewer: Oh okay #1 They call it throat # 811: #2 {NW} # Mm-hmm Interviewer: Uh when you go to the dentist he looks at your 811: At your teeth Interviewer: He'll pull a 811: He'll pull a teeth uh a tooth out Interviewer: Yeah you've got pretty good teeth you don't hardly ever have any problems with them 811: Oh I had quite a few when I was Young boy {NS} Toothache here It was awful Interviewer: And then there's a disease of a pyorrhea 811: Yeah Interviewer: Disease of the 811: Uh of the gums Interviewer: Um now this is the you call that the 811: The palm of your hand Interviewer: Yeah you could hold something in your 811: Hand in my hand The palm of my hand Interviewer: Uh okay now when you get mad at somebody you make 811: {NW} You made a fist Interviewer: When you duke it out with him say when you were duking it out with your brother 811: Oh was a- was a fight {NW} Interviewer: You hit him with both 811: Oh yeah hit him with both of 'em Interviewer: Both 811: Both fists Interviewer: Yeah uh now the upper part of a man's body is his 811: His chest Interviewer: Okay well they'd say they'd say uh you got broad 811: Broad shoulders Interviewer: Um when people start getting old they complain that they're getting stiff in their 811: In their arms their legs that they {X} Interviewer: Yeah stiff in the what 811: In their joints Interviewer: Uh and uh you got a pain in in both of your 811: Both of my foots Interviewer: Yeah uh when you go out in the dark you might stumble and bruise your 811: Uh your Your leg Interviewer: Yeah this is the front part of your leg 811: Yeah Interviewer: Call it your you know 811: Uh your knee Interviewer: Yeah but you ever you ever stumble over something in the dark 811: Yeah Interviewer: Bruise your just bruise the #1 Part of your # 811: #2 The # The part of your leg Interviewer: Yeah uh okay when uh say you were out at night with friends and and the ground was too cold to sit down on you would you would just do what s 811: Would just uh standing Interviewer: Stand up or you could you wanted to get warm by the fire so you would 811: Oh you could uh Make a fire And gather around it Interviewer: Gather around it you wouldn't stand up you'd 811: You'd just squat down Interviewer: Squat down on your what 811: On your uh Interviewer: Call it your you know what your hunkers are your you ever heard of that #1 Go for that # 811: #2 {X} # When you're all fours Interviewer: Yeah well no that's crawl that's when you get on your all fours you start to 811: Starting to crawl Interviewer: Yeah 811: {X} Interviewer: No hunker down you ever heard anybody say that 811: Yeah but we had other names for it Interviewer: Yeah uh somebody was sick a while he was up now but they say he still looks a little bit 811: He looks a little bit drowsy He don't look quite well yet Well he's getting along good Interviewer: They might say he probably felt a little 811: Kind of bad he feel Fell quite up {D: to forehead} Interviewer: Uh a person who who was overweight but real strong they'd say he was a 811: He was a big man Interviewer: Yeah mighty 811: Mighty strong Interviewer: Strong man or other words other ways to describe it would you ever say he was stout 811: Yeah if he was a heavier set man Interviewer: Would be a 811: A a big man Kind of overweight Interviewer: That'd be a 811: A heavyset man Interviewer: Okay or another way 811: A fat man Interviewer: Would you say stout 811: Yeah Interviewer: He was 811: A stout man Interviewer: Person who always had a smile on his face and never lost his temper 811: Believe that was a gentle fellow Interviewer: Yeah about him they'd say he's always in a 811: Always in a good humor Interviewer: Uh when I was a boy I would walk around and always stumble over things and somebody like me a person a parent would call 811: Uh {NW} Interviewer: You know a big boy like your boy 811: Uh yeah that was 'un-neat they Just leave all his stuff that is a {D: slouchy} Fellow Interviewer: {NW} Yeah also a fellow who uh who did things you know he was always knocking things over 811: Clumsy A clumsy fellow too Interviewer: Uh he didn't he didn't mean to do it he was just 811: Just clumsy he just Interviewer: Yeah he was 811: Careless Interviewer: Uh or you might say something somebody he didn't do it that wasn't an accident he did it 811: On purpose Interviewer: Uh a man who kept doing things that didn't make any sense they'd say he was just a plain 811: A plain in uh Plain stupid {NW} Interviewer: Uh you know kind who would always uh cut maybe planned to cut hay a day before you'd have a rain or something like that they'd say because of the 811: They'd be just stupid {NW} Interviewer: Yeah you ever hear call people a fool 811: Yeah Interviewer: You call folks a fool 811: Well Yeah they if uh I tried to call you stupid or either dumb Because if I had been called stupid That means he don't know he don't want to know Interviewer: Yeah 811: And in front of that's a fool {NW} He just don't know But if you want to make a fellow real bad you call him stupid that'd mean he don't know he don't want to know {NW} Interviewer: Yeah uh a person who will never spend a cent never spends his money 811: That man is tight He Interviewer: Uh what about a person who has plenty of money and hangs onto it he's a somebody who gets money and help from other people and doesn't give much or anything in return well he's a good he'll pay you good money but you'll have to earn it he's a regular 811: He's a regular hard fellow {X} He don't to give you that Interviewer: Okay um when when you use the word common about a person what would that mean 811: That mean he was just Something like everyday for others it means all he is is just you didn't Have to prepare yourself to talk to him or ask him something You always say it Interviewer: You'd say he's just a 811: Just a common fellow Interviewer: Uh an old person about eighty say who did all this farm work and never got tired they'd say I don't care how old he is he's 811: He's uh He's a strong old man Interviewer: Yeah he's somebody who was still quick did you ever have any folks in your family like that like your grandmother that could say maybe even though she was old she was still right she was still 811: Yeah when we first started they would call us Lazy and stuff because when they'd tell us to go do something we would drag our foots and they were all Always active They tell you I'd rather go do it myself if it's going to take you that long {NW} Interviewer: And they'd go do it 811: Go do it their self Or Sometimes and other times they You was glad they'd go do it because they did go do it when they come back you wish you had So that was a good worker Interviewer: Yeah if your children were out a little later than usual you'd feel a little 811: Uneasy That's the word that I When they go somewhere and they aren't back on time I usually go see for them Interviewer: Uh now some somebody who uh who doesn't want to go upstairs in the dark you'd say they're 811: They're Scared or either coward Interviewer: Yeah other words they'd say he's a 811: He's a coward Interviewer: A place like a dark road or along a graveyard is a you'd say it's a 811: A scary place Interviewer: Here right. A scary place uh she she isn't afraid now but she well uh let's say now somebody said I don't understand why she's afraid because she the way you say somebody used to be or now now then you'd say I don't understand why she's afraid now she 811: She didn't used to be afraid Interviewer: Yeah uh now there's nothing wrong with with say somebody who lives way back out in the woods by themselves but folks would say they just act so a little 811: A little weird {NW} Interviewer: Okay other words 811: Uh wacky wacky Interviewer: Yeah kind of just 811: Kind of cuckoo Interviewer: Just a touch they're a little bit 811: A little bit off Interviewer: Queer would you ever use that 811: Yeah Interviewer: Okay you'd say they 811: They're they're a little bit queer Interviewer: Okay has the word changed its meaning for you in recent years in other words give me give me a few examples of how you'd use it 811: Uh Run that by me again Interviewer: Okay how you would use it the word in other words would you ever say he is a queer to mean a person who was eccentric 811: {NW} {NW} Interviewer: What would it mean then 811: Well that Kind of Come in the later years the early years he was Cuckoo or Crazy Interviewer: Yeah 811: Something like that that was the more common word In the last eight to ten years that's when you started hearing the They would have called him Weird or queer Interviewer: Okay and it would mean 811: That you Didn't have everything going {X} Well people could tell that he was kind of off a little bit He didn't have his right mind Interviewer: Yeah 811: That was just the people's opinion though Interviewer: Okay um so do you in other words it wouldn't have changed then 811: Uh Yeah it changed I said that it recently come out Interviewer: Okay what would they when they used the word queer about a guy in the city what would they mean there 811: {NW} Interviewer: They'd mean 811: {NW} Interviewer: They'd mean he was a homosexual 811: Yeah Interviewer: Okay all right um now somebody who makes up his mind and nobody could change him they'd say he's don't be so 811: So hard Uh Or so {D: Disunderstanding} Interviewer: Mm-hmm he's just a 811: A hard-headed fellow Interviewer: Uh-huh 811: He's being {X} Says {NW} Interviewer: He's what in his ways you'd say 811: He's set in his ways Interviewer: Uh now you can't you can't joke with a person without him losing his temper 811: He's short patient he gets mad in a hurry Interviewer: Uh-huh he gets awfully 811: Awfully mad Interviewer: Uh I didn't know he was going to I was just kidding about him 811: I didn't know he was going to get so mad {NW} Interviewer: Uh you've been working very hard you say you're very 811: Tired Interviewer: You're very very tired you say you're all 811: All wore out Interviewer: Okay if I'm I'm completely I'm just 811: Completely wore out Interviewer: I've had come in and tell the misses say I 811: I've had it Interviewer: Mm-hmm uh now somebody got overheated and chills and his eyes and his nose started running you'd say he 811: He had chills and a fever Interviewer: He must have 811: Got overheated Interviewer: Uh and talking about a cold you'd say they had you thought they had they must 811: He must have got overheated and Caught a cold Interviewer: Caught a cold uh {X} Voice 811: He was hoarse Interviewer: Okay and or like you right now you've got a bad 811: Bad health Interviewer: Well in other words it gives you a bad 811: A bad cough Interviewer: Does that does it give you that or 811: Uh Interviewer: Medicine you take 811: No it If I over talk I start to cough And then other times sometimes I don't be talking the doctors always tell me what it was Matter of fact I didn't ask him I have to ask him next time {X} Bad though it Happened It don't happen often Interviewer: Um you'd say I better go to bed I I'm feeling a little 811: Feeling tired Interviewer: Or 811: Little sleepy Interviewer: At six oh clock I'll 811: I'll go to bed Interviewer: Well I'll go to bed now and at six I'll 811: I'll get up Interviewer: Uh you might say he's still sleeping you better go 811: Wake him up Interviewer: Now somebody who can't hear well you'd say they're getting a little 811: Hard of hearing Interviewer: Okay or he you just got to shout at him you say 811: {NW} He hard of hearing Interviewer: He's 811: {NW} Interviewer: If he can hardly hear at all if he can't hear at all 811: Well he's He's uh Interviewer: Say 811: Deaf That- that's it Interviewer: Okay 811: Yeah Interviewer: Deaf or {C: pronunciation} 811: Deaf. Interviewer: Okay now you've been working hard you've been out in the field come in and take your shirt off and you look at it and you say look how I look how much I 811: I sweated Interviewer: Out there in the sun uh folks used to get a lot of these things that would come up on your arm or something like that and they'd make a big spot lump kind of red place with a core in it that was a 811: That was a boil Interviewer: Uh some of them would have just uh more than one core wouldn't they 811: Yeah Interviewer: You ever get them 811: Uh yeah I had some Boy they would hurt though Interviewer: And uh what would come out of them all the stuff that would drain out 811: Uh it was pus and Interviewer: Yeah other names for it they called it what all 811: Uh that uh head You had a head in there Long as you didn't get that out it would It would never kill you It'd just keep Coming back Interviewer: Yeah 811: If you didn't latch it and get it out then It might would go away but it'll come back about in a year And it was just something in your blood and you could uh The best thing for it was Tea leaves take them make a poison put on it Interviewer: Mm-hmm 811: You'll do that at night the next morning the head would right to the top either take a The skin off the hull of an egg And put on if you could stand it Because it'll draw it If you could stand it all that night and if you could stand it the next morning you could bust it {NS} Then cut the head it was ready to bust But Interviewer: Skin off the hull of an egg you mean the inside part 811: Uh Interviewer: The egg 811: Right against the shell you got a little skin Interviewer: Yeah 811: Little Interviewer: Hard boiled 811: Huh Yeah Interviewer: When the egg's been boiled 811: Just a little bit of You'd just g- {NS} Skin it around just take it and lay it on there It'll kill it Interviewer: Yeah uh now if you got some infection in your hand and your hand got bigger then it 811: It was swollen Interviewer: You'd say your hand did what 811: It got infected and swole up Interviewer: Swole up huh now when you get what's the best time to open a blister when you had a blister on your hand say when you'd been out hoeing or out in the field 811: Uh when you would get home cause if you were to open it out in the field it would get infected Interviewer: Get all 811: Get all Full of dirt and stuff and it would get infected Interviewer: Yeah you would drain all the what 811: All the water out of the blood whatever it was Interviewer: Yeah 811: A water blister either or a blood blister Interviewer: Now in a war somebody got shot the bullet made a 811: Made a hole Interviewer: Yeah and have to go back and have a doctor 811: Uh see about it uh Get a look at it and Take the bullet out if it was in there Clean it up Interviewer: Clean up the 811: The wound Interviewer: Did uh when you uh say a wound didn't heal clean uh this kind of white granular substance would come uh and form around the edge you know and it would grow up and sometimes it would have to be cut out or burned out with aloe what was that 811: Uh Uh Interviewer: Okay you know of any flesh around that would grow around the wound 811: Uh it was what you call a scab Interviewer: Yeah 811: That would grow {NW} Interviewer: You ever hear of proud flesh 811: {NS} Uh no Interviewer: Um when you got a little cut on your finger what would you put on that 811: Oh {NW} You had peroxide iodine {NS} Uh And what you called monkey blood Interviewer: #1 Monkey blood that was # 811: #2 Yeah # Interviewer: Yeah 811: Uh {NS} Interviewer: When uh when did you ever get malaria what would they give for that 811: {NW} I don't know {NW} Uh I never did have it {NS} But I heard uh Some people having it but I never knew what they would {NS} Would give for it {NS} Interviewer: Okay 811: Uh-huh A what No {NS} Interviewer: Some tonic uh qui- 811: Uh uh Quinine Interviewer: Yeah 811: Yeah that's what it was quinine Interviewer: A lot of times when you were younger people would would say die and they didn't know what they 811: What they died of or {NS} Course your doctors were so far from {NS} And they {NS} You had malaria or something Or either T-B They would just uh quarantine you if you didn't want to go to the doctor They just They don't want nobody in your house and if you died A T-B death burn all the Clothes and stuff The bed clothes {NW} Everything that person was on Interviewer: Mm-hmm 811: They have to burn it {NS} Interviewer: What uh did they say oh she's been living all alone ever since her husband 811: Since her husband died Interviewer: Okay other ways you'd say he 811: He passed away Interviewer: Okay or you might say boy I {NS} 811: {NS} {C: silence} They laid him away in the {X} they made pine boxes and just put you. Interviewer: What did they call 'em? 811: Uh iron boxes and {NS} well they call that uh they buried them in a pine box. {NS} Interviewer: So and that was a what that was a? 811: A funeral. Interviewer: {NS} The place where they buried. 811: Oh. In a graveyard. Interviewer: Yep. 811: Uh sometimes they didn't have no graveyard cuz it's taken. Take you to a place in the woods somewhere. Interviewer: The box that you're buried in they call a. 811: There was a coffin. Interviewer: Okay. {X} The pine box should y- that would be did you ever see the ones that were wide at the shoulders? They were thin at the #1 feet. # 811: #2 Mm-hmm. # Interviewer: And they were called. 811: Um Interviewer: You know what a sharpshooter was? 811: Yeah. {NW} {C: cough} Uh I don't really know the name of those are We knew it was coffins. Interviewer: Uh the people who are dressed in black. 811: That was the Interviewer: You say they're in. 811: They in mourning. Interviewer: Uh when people got really worked up over death in the family if the women lost control of themselves we'd say they were. 811: Hysterical. Interviewer: {NS} Uh {NS} now what about some other diseases that you knew that people would die of? When you were younger. 811: Um. Interviewer: What would they get sick with? Could y- did they ever get that disease of the throat? Children would get in their throat and they would choke in the night. 811: I think a bunch of kids died with asthma and I had it bad. Interviewer: You did? 811: And so I got treated cuz I bout to died two or three times with it. And uh you would just get the cough and if were hot and that's the only thing they didn't have no cure for it. Or nothing to cut it uh {C: background banging noises}. And uh they would treat you for it and after you would go some i- i- it would pass. And you had uh {NW} {C: cough} {NS} {C: banging noises} the bad bad sore throat {NS} {C: clang noise} and you had quite a bit of lot of T-B was tuberculosis that's what it was. quite a few people would die with that. Interviewer: Uh did that did uh that disease that children would die with they would choke {C: background noise} dip-. 811: Uh dip- uh diphtheria. Interviewer: Okay. And uh the disease that would make a person's eyes turn yellow 811: Uh yellow jaundice. Interviewer: Okay. When you got a pain down there on your side. 811: Uh that was your appendix. you mostly found it in the side. Interviewer: Uh that was what the str-? 811: Uh y- your appendix. #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 811: Yeah your appendix was bad or you might bust or {NS} {C: crash} Interviewer: You didn't have a case of. 811: Of uh your appendix was gone bad. Interviewer: In the side? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Um th- they used to not know what that was didn't they? 811: A way back we didn't have too too much of it. The doctor didn't know what it was. Interviewer: What'd they call it? 811: I don't remember what they would call it. Interviewer: Uh now you ate something that didn't agree with you and they come up you say you. 811: You had indigestion or vomit. They just throw up. Interviewer: Uh {NS} {C: clang noise} okay. Wh- what's the crude term? #1 Which is- # 811: #2 Uh puke. {NW} {C: laugh} # {NW} {C: coughs} Interviewer: If a person vomited he was sick. 811: Of the stomach. Interviewer: Say uh I'm feeling a little. 811: Little sick of the stomach. Interviewer: Uh {NS} {C: noise} now there was a terrible accident up the road and but there was no need to call a doctor because the victims were. 811: Was dead. Interviewer: By the time he got there {X}. Uh now if you invited somebody to come and see you say this evening an- and you wanted to tell him you'd be disappointed if he didn't come up come you'd say now if you don't come I'll b- I. 811: I'd be disappointed. Interviewer: Okay. {NS} O- or you might say anytime you can come over will be. 811: Right fine with me. I'd be expecting you. Interviewer: We say if you can come over. 811: Uh we'd be waiting for you. Interviewer: I'll b- uh. 811: I'll be {NW} {C: clears throat} Interviewer: Be what be? 811: Be glad if you could. Interviewer: Okay. Would you ever say proud? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: How does that mean? 811: Well I'm gl- be proud that that she could come over. Interviewer: Mean the same thing as 811: Yeah it's glad. Interviewer: Okay. Now a boy kept going over to the same girl's house you'd say he's. 811: In love. Interviewer: He's uh. 811: He's falling in love with that girl he's about to get {X}. {C: laughs while speaking} Interviewer: So you w- you'd go over to your wife's house a lot before you were married you'd say you were. 811: In love. Interviewer: Okay. What if a boy was beginning to pay serious attention to a girl you'd say he's. 811: He's getting {X}. Interviewer: He's uh the older word. #1 You know let's say when you- # 811: #2 You start liking her. # Interviewer: Okay. Othe- other ways of saying it? U- uh what about i- if if he wasn't real serious they'd say he just 811: Just trying. Interviewer: #1 {NW} {C: laughs} # 811: #2 {NW} {C: laughs then coughs} # Interviewer: Okay. Now a girl was {NW} {C: laughs} was spending a lot of time getting ready to go to a party you'd say she was {NS} she was doing what? 811: Making herself pretty. Interviewer: She's still outside {X} in front of a mirror. {C: yawns while speaking} 811: Dressing up. Interviewer: Okay now you were getting ready to go somewhere and you'd spend a lot of time. 811: No just dressing up. Interviewer: A woman would carry a. 811: A purse. Interviewer: And she's rather rich she'd wear. 811: Uh a watch. Or either uh a bracelet. Interviewer: Suppose there were a lot of little things strung together used to go around your neck as an ornament. What would you call these? 811: Uh beads or either a necklace. Interviewer: Um what would a man wear to hold up his trousers? 811: Suspenders. Interviewer: Uh now y- you put a lot of things in your pocket since we've said that made 'em. 811: Made 'em {X} {X}. Interviewer: Okay you said {X}. that. 811: Speak out? Interviewer: Okay. Now every time you wash a cotton shirt in hot water it 811: It would sh- shrink. Interviewer: Okay you say the one I washed yesterday. 811: It shrunk. Interviewer: Shrunk up. {X} #1 {X} # 811: #2 {X} # It shrank. {NW} {C: cough} Interviewer: It's done what it's. 811: It shrunk up. Interviewer: It shrunk up. Uh. Well you know getting back to you know to the party and everything you'd be going to or something like that uh a girl would be leaving an- and a boy would say can I. 811: Can I walk you home or. Interviewer: Okay. Um now a girl was was putting on her best dress and everything like that her little brother would say you're fixing up for your. 811: For your boyfriend. Interviewer: Uh other names? 811: Uh. Interviewer: He's going to see his wh- his what. Main. 811: Main girl. Interviewer: Main girl? Would you use something like that? 811: Well that was later that- Interviewer: Yeah. Okay. Wha- what would y'all say? 811: Girl. Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 811: #2 Yes. # Interviewer: Now you come home with with lipstick on your shirt and your brother would say you've been. 811: {NW} {C: laugh} You've been necking {NW} {C: coughs} Interviewer: Uh when a girl stops letting a boy come over to see her she. 811: She's not interested in the other boy. Interviewer: And what'd she do with him? She. 811: Put him down. {C: laughs at end} Interviewer: Okay. The boy if he asks her to marry him but she. 811: Turned him down. {C: laughs while speaking} Interviewer: Okay. other way of saying that boy uh he hadn't been the same since she. 811: Since she jilted him. Interviewer: Jilted him {NW} {C: starts laughing}. Wrote him off. 811: That oh well he's walking people. Interviewer: {NW} {C: laughs} Uh but sh- they went ahead and got. You might say they went ahead and got. 811: Married. Interviewer: What other way of saying that you'd say they got? 811: Got hitched up. Uh uh broke the neck. Interviewer: Broke the neck? What does that mean? 811: That means marriage. Interviewer: Does it? 811: Yeah. Interviewer: You know where it came from? 811: I don't know where it came from you use it when uh well now uh some of the young fellas get married we start to tease him. Interviewer: Jump the broomstick? 811: Yeah. {NW} {C: coughs} Interviewer: Uh {X} {X} #1 {X} # 811: #2 {X} # Interviewer: Uh after a wedding what would you have? Maybe some kind of noisy. 811: A reception. Interviewer: Yeah but uh. 811: That party. Interviewer: Um did you ever hear them having these kind of noisy things after a wedding where they just all get yelling and come around and fire pistols off or even dynamite or something around the house? 811: Mm-mm. Interviewer: Did you ever hear {X} or a okay. What did you know what a shivaree was? 811: Mm-mm. Interviewer: You never heard of a shivaree? Okay. 811: I heard the French men talking about a {X} {C: French word}. Interviewer: What was that? 811: Well that's when a man and his wife would separate. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And they would get back together all the neighborhood go {X} {X} and throw a big party {NW} {C: coughs at the end} Interviewer: Okay what was that? A what? 811: A {X} {C: French word}. I don't know what the word means {X}. Interviewer: Yeah. Did your wife know any French or- 811: Mm I I doubt they talk French good. you know not what you'd call a real Frenchman. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And uh her mom understands it good but she don't talk it. Interviewer: Oh. Her father's a. 811: Well. Interviewer: {X} right in the area or. 811: He was but he's uh disabled now. He's um he farmed all his days. Interviewer: Oh. When w- w- when somebody was what about if a widow got married or something like that again would th- that was a {X}? 811: No. they said they would the man and his wife would separate and some boy would go talk and get 'em back together or either the fellas would go {D: record again.} {NW} {C: cough} Interviewer: Okay. Uh what w- would you ever you ever call the incidents where folks would get together and and some trouble would be caused or something like that we mentioned you know uh would they ever have would they ever have any sort of community thing when they would just getting toss somebody out of the community when they didn't like 'em or something like that? 811: Well when we was first coming up that happened on more than one time the police that we had here {X} they had some friends that had cotton or something in the field. And {X} in the morning and make the blacks get out and go pick. They didn't care what the price was if you didn't wanna pick cotton you had to leave out of town. And that's when we had uh {X} they uh the police went down there if they didn't like somebody. {NW} {C: cough} I seen them beat people around there they beat bloody bloody. {X} or they couldn't come back to town maybe for a month or so. Interviewer: What was the bazaar? 811: What? Interviewer: Bazaar. 811: That was something like a community thing where we would get together they would have barbecue {X} and we still have it once a year. Interviewer: That's a what? 811: Uh that'd be a bazaar. Interviewer: {X} 811: Uh-huh. And uh the church sponsored it. Uh and everybody they would raise money for the church. Interviewer: Uh w- did you ever remember uh uh any sort of political situations where they would just toss they would some folks would get together and run people out of the community or if somebody had taken an unpopular political stance? 811: They had uh they didn't run 'em out of town but they made it hard for 'em. {X}. They had uh {NW} {C: coughs} {X} {X} he's the only big man. And uh when uh it was election time Lord the old people was voting he would tell 'em I wanna elect this man. I want you to vote for him. That went fine until the younger people got ready to vote. When they uh passed a law where they could vote. but if they vote they had somebody there watching them And they would vote the other way. He called uh {X} cuz almost everybody was living on his property. He'd tell you well your boy or your girl voted against me I don't want him on my place. They gonna have to find him a place to stay. Or he would get mad That that was with the black and white. It didn't make it no different. {NW} {C: coughs} But I believe that's what kinda killed him. He uh when uh put out a bunch of money for the election and h- he figured the blacks was gonna go against him and so he was watching the poll in the black community. And he was paying money to the the white community. But they took the money and voted for the other man they beat him until he done for. And that man took sick a- and he died. He could never get away uh after that. And oh they say politics is a sure thing. But if you wanna this day and age if you wanna do politics you gotta get tangled up in politics that's what it is. {X} {NW} {C: cough} {X} or not. They had a fella running for office when he run he gonna come out there and shake everybody's hand pat you on the back but after that man get in office you can't talk to him. He don't know you. And I find if uh You got a big put a big fella in the community you go to him and say well you wanna {NW {C: cough} us to support that man we gonna go along with you and if something happens you can go talk to him we can't. Or either you can bring us to talk to him. And that's about the only way. Cuz if each one go by himself he'd never all that time you'd get in trouble or where you can't get out you need a politician to to help you out. Or you if you need a job or something for your son or something politician he know what strings to pull. Interviewer: {NS} {C: background crash} Uh there might be trouble at a place and the police would come and arrest the. 811: {NS} {C: noise} Arrest the one that's disturbing the peace. Interviewer: #1 Or they might arrest. # 811: #2 The whole {X}. # The whole crowd of Interviewer: yeah. Uh. {NS} {C: background crash} Now wh- what sort of things would bring people together when you were younger? 811: Well on Saturday night they'd gather up a good bit, they had a fireplace nightclub and stuff but. {NW} {C: cough} There is a big crowd was about once a year. to that uh bazaar I was thinking about. That was the bring a big crowd. Interviewer: W- Would young people ever go out in the evening and move around the floor and have a? 811: Yeah I'd go out dancing. Uh. #1 They- # Interviewer: #2 {D: You only have one} any different kinds of them? # 811: Uh yeah uh they used to have holler dancing which you call uh la-las. {C: La-las is also known as Zydeco, a famous music genre in Louisiana, especially with French Creoles) Uh French dances. Uh Strange house uh like say for instance one side they one family would make a a house dancing {D: cost you something like} {X} And the older people would play cards. And they'd bring their daughters and sons there. Uh people would play {D: strip poker}. And draw poker. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: They start playing bourre lately there uh well the bourre game come much not not too long ago Um that's about fifteen years ago maybe a little. Interviewer: Uh okay. A la-la was a what? 811: Uh a French dance. They'd play accordion and a rubbing board. Interviewer: That was a type of dance? 811: No that that's what they would play. Uh there was a French dance that just had accordion one fella playing the accordion the other rubbing the rubbing board. Interviewer: Okay. Any other kind of dances? 811: #1 No that was. # Interviewer: #2 Did you know what a fais do-do was? # #1 Fais do-do. # 811: #2 I heard talk of it but uh. # Interviewer: Uh {NW} {C: noise} now um when you went into town tell me about the first time you ever went to you ever been to any big places or? What was i- wha- what were some of th- your memories of the first time you ever went into? 811: The first time over. {NW} {C: cough} Interviewer: {X}. 811: {NW} {C: grunt}. Well that been not too long {X} that's been about twenty years ago. I remember the first time I went to Houston. I had never seen so many people in cars. {X} and th- it was funny when we went there we had we was in a truck and had to lock the truck up {X} just leave our stuff wide open. Interviewer: Yeah 811: How the people would steal and everything all that. Interviewer: Yeah. Now a building for books is called a 811: Uh a bookcase. Interviewer: Well #1 you have a place in town where you- # 811: #2 Oh a library. # Interviewer: Uh well and you'd mail a package at a. 811: Post office. Interviewer: Wh- when you went to Houston where did you stay? 811: Uh well what happened we just uh we didn't we went {D: had a} load of sweet potatoes I just went on the truck. And uh we got there about {X} {C: muttering noise of someone in background} twelve o'clock that night. And we left about ten o'clock that morning. Interviewer: Now the first time you ever went to Church Point when you didn't have a horse {C: Church Point is a town in Louisiana} you had to buy groceries and you how'd you get 'em home you? 811: Uh {C: background muttering by someone} I had a sack I could tote 'em back. Interviewer: Uh well now when you go in a strange town you stay where overnight? 811: In a motel. Interviewer: #1 Or- # 811: #2 A hotel. # Interviewer: Um {NS} {C: crashing noise} now the woman who would look after you in a hospital was a. 811: A nurse. Interviewer: Okay and you catch a train where? 811: At the depot. Interviewer: The rail do you call that the rail? 811: A railroad station. Interviewer: Y- you ever you ever been to a bus? 811: Station. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 811: Yeah I rode the bus a whole lotta times. Interviewer: Okay. In around uh in around off {X} there's a- around the courthouse there's a big kinda shady place. 811: Uh called the courthouse square. Interviewer: Uh when two streets cross and a man started out walking across those two those two streets say uh well they were like they were going like this. Uh and you needed to get from a corner of one street and cross to the corner of the other. Instead of going that way you'd go you might go they'd say you went 811: Well Crossways? Interviewer: Crossways or #1 talking about corners you'd say- # 811: #2 Oh uh. # Catty corner. Interviewer: Uh okay. And if there was a vacant lot say at a corner instead of walking around the lot you'd say you walked. 811: Across it. Interviewer: Okay. {X} {C: someone muttering in background} um {C: background muttering continues} when you first found did you ever go to New Orleans? 811: Yeah. Quite a few times. Interviewer: Okay now they have #1 now they have buses but they u- not too long ago they had what? # 811: #2 The streetcars. # Interviewer: And you could ride on 'em. You tell the bus driver uh next corner is where I 811: I wanna get out. You had a cord to pull. Interviewer: Okay. Uh now of this parish uh Crowley is the. {C: Crowley is a town in Louisiana} 811: Acadia Parish? Interviewer: Yeah. Crowley is the? 811: U- uh {NW} {C: grunt} Interviewer: Call it the what. The place where they do all of the #1 the # 811: #2 All the uh # All the government work is the uh {X}. Well that's where the courthouse located for Acadia Parish. #1 {NW} {C: cough} # Interviewer: #2 What about the # the parish. {C: dishes clinking and muttering in background} Okay. Um {C: background noise} That's where all the the. 811: Uh the uh Interviewer: The go- 811: The government books and uh the clerk of court. Interviewer: Okay. Now a person who's running for political office they say he wants people to get tougher on our on what? You know the law. 811: Oh. Uh make a law. Tougher on the law strict. Interviewer: And talking about order too he'd say I want #1 we need more- # 811: #2 More order and law. # Interviewer: Or law. 811: Yeah. Interviewer: Or law. 811: Uh in this community. Interviewer: We need more law. Law and order? 811: Law and order. Interviewer: Um now the war they fought that was fought here about a hundred years ago between the 811: The Interviewer: #1 North and the South is called. # 811: #2 Oh yeah. The Civil War. # Interviewer: Uh what are some of the states that fought it? 811: Um. Interviewer: Around here do you know? 811: They fought in Baton Rouge the state uh state capital over there. They fought and uh {X}. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And uh Interviewer: Can you close that? 811: Mm-hmm. {X}. {X}. Interviewer: Uh {NS} {C: knocking noise} other places that you you know that you of or in the South other states? 811: {NW} {C: sigh}. Interviewer: Like I'm from. 811: From Georgia, Alabama Mississippi. Interviewer: Alright in Alabama what are some of the cities there? 811: Um {NS} Interviewer: You know the one in {X}? 811: The. Interviewer: Hank Aaron is from they call it. #1 Okay- # 811: #2 Atlan- # Atlanta #1 uh # Interviewer: #2 that's Georgia. # 811: Yeah and uh Interviewer: Know any any other cities in Georgia? 811: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Okay. 811: {X}? Interviewer: Okay. 811: {NW} {C: cough}. Interviewer: The state where they grow oranges is? 811: Uh Florida. Interviewer: Uh {NW} {C: cough} Now Richmond is in? 811: Virginia. Interviewer: Okay. And then you got uh th- the what's the capital of the nation? 811: Uh Washington DC. Interviewer: Okay and it's right near another big city in Maryland. 811: Uh yeah. Baltimore, Maryland. Interviewer: Uh {X} {C: someone muttering in background} Nation is. 811: Texas. Interviewer: Well the biggest in terms of population. The the biggest city in the nation is in what state? You know the city that had all the problems a year or two ago? 811: Oh New York. Interviewer: It's in what state? 811: Uh New York. Interviewer: New York. 811: City. Interviewer: In what New York. New York state. 811: Yeah. New York state. Interviewer: Okay. Uh before they had electric chair murderers were 811: Uh they were shot. Interviewer: Or they were. 811: H- hung. Interviewer: Hung yeah. 811: On the uh didn't they have that that guillotine though? Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah uh yeah I've heard of that now we don't have that here. But you say a man that commits suicide you went out and {C: cough in background} 811: Hung himself. Interviewer: Uh. Now Raleigh is the capital of what state? Well you know the states above Georgia? Got a lot of mountains and we got North North 811: Uh Virginia Norfolk? Interviewer: Uh okay you got South what? Georgia Alabama South 811: Carolina. Interviewer: Okay you say what? One of those two states up there North 811: North Virginia and uh Interviewer: North Carolina? You got you ever heard of that you ever been there? 811: No {C: laughs}. Interviewer: Okay No- North Carolina or 811: The further I've been is the state of Texas that was Houston. out of the state of Louisiana. Interviewer: Okay and north of here is what state? 811: Uh. Interviewer: What are some of the states north of here? 811: Uh let's see north would be uh Oklahoma. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: #1 Uh. # Interviewer: #2 Little Rock is? # 811: Yeah Little Rock. Interviewer: What state? 811: Arkansas. Interviewer: Alright. Now the Volunteer State is what? U- Up the river from here you got what cities? You go up above Vicksburg and you got? 811: Mississippi. #1 Mississippi. # Interviewer: #2 Okay. # You know th- the town up the river that had {X}? Memph- the 811: Memphis, Tennessee. Interviewer: Yeah okay. You know any other cities in Tennessee? 811: No I talked to uh a bunch of truck drivers that go through there and come back and and tell me about it what kind of country they is in. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And they got one for Interviewer: Where do they got that good old music? 811: Uh Nashville. Tennessee. And uh they offered to take me they go to Detroit and uh. Interviewer: The city on the river up there shoo. 811: Yeah they go up there and pick up uh liquor to the Canadian border and he offered me to go two or three times but it like I said with all the work and no play we I just didn't get a chance to go cuz it take them a week to go up there the only time all I had time to go is during the winter. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: And sometimes you get snowed in up there you can't come back maybe for two weeks. And two weeks without working not {NW} {C: scoff} wouldn't a did too good So I just know maybe now since I might get a chance to travel a little bit like that. Interviewer: Yeah. Okay now Boston is in 811: Massachusetts. Interviewer: They call the states up there from Maine to Connecticut the? The new what the new New E- 811: New England states? Interviewer: Okay. Um now the Bluegrass State is what? 811: Uh Kentucky. Interviewer: Where do they run the derby up there? 811: Uh tu- Kentucky the Interviewer: They run it in you know the town Lou- 811: U-uh. Interviewer: Loui- 811: Louisville Kentucky. Interviewer: Alright. Uh {NW} {C: cough} okay. {X} any well now the state up above Arkansas is what? Saint. 811: Uh Saint Louis? Interviewer: Yeah that's in Saint Louis uh 811: Uh. Interviewer: {X}. 811: Missouri. Interviewer: Okay. Uh do you know any of the towns in in Alabama? Where they make a lot of steel? 811: Mm. Interviewer: Bir- 811: Birmingham Alabama. Interviewer: Okay. Um the choo choo from Chatta- 811: From Chattanooga Tennessee? Interviewer: Right. Okay. Um and then there's a city up in Illinois. You know that big one up there? {D: Called butcher} of the world? Uh where they used to ship all the cattle out for {X}. 811: Uh Chicago, Illinois. Interviewer: Yeah that's what okay. Th- the Reds play baseball in. 811: in Cincinnati, Ohio. Interviewer: Okay. Uh from here to Crowley is about what is about? 811: Let's see. Take about twenty miles. Interviewer: Um {NW} {C: sniff} now if somebody asks you to go with them to Crowley you'd say you're not sure you wanna go you'd say I don't know I don't know 811: Uh. I don't know I don't feel like going. Either I got some other commitments to do right now. Interviewer: Yeah. And I'm not sure that I'm not sure. 811: That I can go. Interviewer: Uh well call me tomorrow I 811: I'll be able to tell you for sure then if I what I can do or not. Interviewer: Okay. Somebody asks you to do something for 'em and you might you'd say uh I {NS} {C: crash} I think I can or I might uh say uh I'm not sure but I. 811: I'll try. Interviewer: I'll try or I might. 811: Might be able to do it. Interviewer: Call me tomorrow I might could 811: Could tell you for sure whether I can do it or not. Interviewer: You'd say what? 811: Wha- {NW} {C: cough} call me tomorrow and I can tell you for sure whether I can do it or not. Interviewer: Okay. Uh if you want somebody to go with you you'd say I won't go 811: I won't go at all unless somebody come with me. Interviewer: Uh if you were asked to go somewhere without your wife you'd say I won't go 811: Without my wife. Interviewer: Okay uh uh I won't go. 811: {X} my wife can go too. Interviewer: Okay. Now y- your son was could've been helping you do something and you'd say she went off he went off playing. 811: Playing. Interviewer: He could've helped me he went off playing. 811: Playing ball. Interviewer: Played ball. 811: If he didn't help me. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: {NW} {C: coughs} Interviewer: So y- you might he went off playing ball and he might 811: Might've been here helping me. Interviewer: Okay. Uh y- you come back and y- y- you'd say to him uh when he came back you'd say well you might 811: You might've stayed here and helped me instead of running out and going to play ball. Interviewer: Uh. um a man was funny and you like him you'd say they ask you why you like him you'd say I like him. 811: Cuz he's a nice fella. Interviewer: #1 {X} I like him. # 811: #2 Cuz h- # Cuz he's nice. Interviewer: Uh. {NS} {C: background crackling and faint buzz} Now if you have uh {NS} {C: background crackling and faint buzz} now another big church in the South that uh some people folks might join around here would be what? {D: You and I were} Methodist but other folks might be 811: Might be Catholic or Baptist uh Interviewer: Okay. If two people became members you say they 811: They joined. Interviewer: Okay. You worship 811: Worship God. Interviewer: Some folks don't believe in Uh the preacher delivers a. 811: A sermon. Interviewer: Uh and you'd say oh that music was 811: So sweet. Interviewer: It was just just beau- 811: Beautiful. Interviewer: Uh now you had to change a flat tire on the way to church one Sunday morning you'd say church will be over. 811: By the time I I get there. Interviewer: Uh the when when people didn't behave like when you were a child and you didn't behave your mother might tell you that somebody was gonna get you. Who was he? 811: That was my fault {C: laughs while speaking}. Interviewer: Okay or they'd say if you were out late at night this guy was gonna get you he was the. 811: That was the policeman. Interviewer: Okay or maybe this fella had hooves and #1 horns and a tail and a pitchfork. # 811: #2 Oh. # The devil {C: laughs while speaking}. Interviewer: Okay. Other names they'd tell you was a uh nicknames for the devil? 811: {X} or {C: laughs after speaking} Interviewer: {X}? The old what the old. 811: The old devil. Interviewer: The boo- was there anything about the booger man? 811: Oh yeah. The old booger man. {NW} {C: hiccup noise} Interviewer: Now what was is that you would that folks would think they would see around a graveyard? 811: Uh ghosts. Interviewer: #1 Other names? # 811: #2 Uh spirits. # Interviewer: Or and all sorts of they'd say she's ugly as an old. 811: Old witch. Interviewer: And the house was they'd say it might be. #1 Th- they'd say house way back out in the distance. # 811: #2 Uh. # It was haunted. Interviewer: Y- they'd try to get you to go to that and you'd say. No I 811: I ain't going into that haunted house. Interviewer: Yeah. Uh I'll go if you insist but I'd rather not. 811: I'd rather not go. Interviewer: Yeah. Uh or {C: background noise} putting these somebody tell you to put on a coat or better put on a sweater it's getting. 811: Getting cool th- cold outside. {NW} {C: cough} Getting cold. Interviewer: How cold it's getting r-. 811: Getting rough? {C: background noise} Interviewer: Okay. {C: background noise} Say it's not it's {C: someone talking in background} it's {C: someone continues to talk} 811: Getting rough out there. Interviewer: Okay. {C: someone continues to talk} It's not just cold it's. 811: It's rough. Interviewer: Okay or uh it's uh it wasn't just a little cold this morning it was. 811: {X} {C: loud talking in background} Interviewer: Okay. {C: loud talking continues} Uh or if somebody intensely disliked going somewhere you'd say he he just. 811: He just don't wanna go {C: talking in background} Interviewer: Okay. So I dare you to go to a place at night and you'd say I'd you you say you'd you'd what? He dared you to do it and you say I'd 811: I ain't gonna do it. Interviewer: Or I dare uh you know talking about daring somebody to do something we figured if you'd {C: talking in background} 811: I- I ain't gonna take a dare I'll go. Interviewer: Okay. 811: Usually {X} anybody think their daddy's a thief. {NW} {C: laughs} {X}. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: {X}. Interviewer: If they didn't dare do it you'd say they. 811: They're against us. Coward. You know, either they was a thief if they didn't do it. Interviewer: It's because they 811: Because they wouldn't do it. Interviewer: They dare. 811: They dare they kept the dare. Interviewer: Okay somebody who wouldn't took the dare you say they d- 811: That he he did it. Interviewer: If he wouldn't do it you'd say you he. 811: I dare. Interviewer: Dare not or {X}. 811: {X}. Interviewer: well you know okay a person that you dared to do something he was a what? A thief? 811: If you didn't do it. That was if you every boy think their daddy's a thief. So that meant if you didn't do it you was a thief and they said if you did it you wouldn't. Interviewer: You wouldn't. 811: You weren't no thief. Interviewer: Okay. Um now your mother cooks something that you like a lot and you'd tell her it's good or emphasize it and you'd say Ma that was 811: Real good. Interviewer: Real good. Uh you you were hammered and nailed you took a nail and you did what you put an 811: #1 Between your fingers? # Interviewer: #2 Took the hammer and # 811: Nailed it in. Interviewer: Okay you hit your foot you hit your finger with a hammer and you said 811: I missed the nail. {C: laughs while speaking} Interviewer: Okay. #1 Uh that's what you'd say {C: laughs while speaking}? # 811: #2 {NW} {C: laughing} # Interviewer: Okay. Um now when you met somebody wh- by way of greeting 'em what do you say to 'em? 811: Uh {X} Interviewer: Pass 'em on the street. 811: Good morning good afternoon whatever. Interviewer: Uh a friend might say good morning to you what might you ask him in return? 811: How do you do. Interviewer: Okay. Uh now when you're introduced to a stranger what do you say to him? 811: Uh usually shake hands and tell him my name. Interviewer: Say how. 811: How you doing. My name is so and so. Interviewer: Okay. You've enjoyed somebody's visit and you say a bunch of people leaving your house and you would say. 811: We really enjoyed your company come be sure and come back again, bye. Interviewer: Okay. what do you say to somebody when you meet 'em around Christmas? 811: Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Interviewer: Okay. and by way of appreciation besides thank you you might say I'm much thank you I'm much what to you I'm much. Well a person that didn't wanna accept anything from anybody because they're too proud they'd say they didn't didn't wanna be. You know a man who didn't want didn't want other people to come help him work they'd say he was 811: A proud man. Interviewer: Because he didn't wanna be what didn't wanna be? 811: Didn't wanna didn't wanna accept help. Or he'd gotten hit. Interviewer: Talking about the state of of what he didn't wanna be to other people you'd say he didn't wanna be {NS} 811: He didn't wanna be in uh pitied by Interviewer: Okay. 811: #1 By- yeah. # Interviewer: #2 He didn't wanna owe 'em anything. # They'd say he didn't wanna be 811: He didn't wanna be indebted to anybody else. Interviewer: Alright. Now you might say I'm much uh now you made a purchase the storekeeper took a paper piece of paper and he he did what he took the purchase put it in there and 811: Wrapped it up. Interviewer: You got home and. 811: Un- I unwrapped it. Interviewer: When when a storekeeper had to sell something for two dollars that he paid two fifty for he'd be selling. 811: Uh below his cost. Interviewer: Okay he was taking what 811: He was taking a a beating. #1 {NW} Or he done lost {C: laughs}. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} {C: laughs} # Okay {C: laughs after speaking}. Um now it's time to pay the bill you say the bill is 811: Is due. Interviewer: Do you ever go into any clubs? Or anything like that? 811: Uh yeah but I do some so- societies. Interviewer: You had to pay your. 811: My dues. Interviewer: Okay. You didn't didn't have money you'd try to go to the neighbor and. 811: And borrow some. Interviewer: And the neighbor would say mm-mm money's {C: negative mm-mm and 811 laughs in background} 811: Money's short {X} Interviewer: And th- during the Depression when you were a kid money was. 811: Money was awful short then. Money was hard to come by. Interviewer: Uh you were talking about the {X} you'd say it's about as {C: loud background noise} Money was 811: As short as chicken feet {C: laughs after speaking}. Interviewer: {X} 811: The scarcest is the chicken's feet and then the- Interviewer: Yeah. Now we were talking about the things that you would do when you were a kid uh you say you ran down the springboard and something around a lake that you could 811: Oh a uh diving board? Interviewer: Yeah. You say you ran up to the end of the diving board and 811: Dove into the water. Interviewer: Dove into the water. Um when you dive- dove in and hit {NS} the water like that you say you did a {C: clap of hands}. 811: Uh a belly bust. Interviewer: Yeah. Or you might turn a what in the air turn. 811: Uh you might cut a flip. Interviewer: Okay. when when kids are out in the grass they might be turning what in the grass? Turning a som-. Som- uh you know they'd be going ov- head over heels. 811: Oh they're cutting flips. Interviewer: Turning a. 811: Uh somersault. Interviewer: In the ground. Um now a child wanted to get across the river so he he went right to the side and he dove in and he. 811: Swam swam to the other side. Interviewer: Swam across. Um now you saw something up a tree if you wanted to take a better look at it you went over to the tree and. 811: And looked up in the tree? Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 811: #2 Or either climbed up and. # Interviewer: Okay. Um now a little child is saying his prayers he walks over to the side of his bed and and did what he g- he 811: Got on his knees. Interviewer: We say he kn-. 811: He kneeled down. Interviewer: Kneeled down. Uh {C: background noise} now {C: background noise} talking about something you saw in your sleep you'd say often when I go to sleep I. 811: I dreamt. Interviewer: But when I wake up I can't remember what I. 811: I dreamt. Interviewer: Or I dreamed I was falling and all of a sudden before I hit the ground I. 811: I woke up. Interviewer: #1 Yeah. You ever had that happen to you? # 811: #2 Yeah. # Interviewer: Okay. {C: loud background noise} Now one of your child children might be coming in the in the house and they would be {NS} {C: noise effect, stomps on ground} you'd say they were. 811: Stomping their feet. Interviewer: Stomping their feet. Or a child might be getting near the stove and you'd say now that stove's hot so. 811: Don't touch it. Interviewer: Yeah. Don't you. 811: Put your hands there. Interviewer: Okay. You're out and working in the yard and you'd say Joe you'd say run you need a hammer you'd say Joe run. 811: Catch me that hammer. Interviewer: Okay. Uh you were you were talking with a friend and you'd say let's meet in town uh if I get there first I'll. 811: I'll wait for you. Interviewer: Uh okay. Now somebody didn't know what was going on but they but th- but you'd say they. So he didn't know what was going on but he sure he wanted everybody to think he did so he he what he. Okay and he made you'd say he made out like. 811: Made out like he knew. {C: loud background noise} Interviewer: Uh {NW} {C: clears throat} whe- back in the old days how'd y'all keep in touch with people? You. 811: Oh. Interviewer: You would sit down and 811: Yeah you would write but it was so very {X}. You would. Interviewer: You know. 811: Most of the time wh- uh when you wouldn't see him is when they had death or something in the family. With the most of the time th- the family would really uh communicate together but otherwise it. Interviewer: You never. 811: You never hardly see them or kept in touch. Interviewer: #1 Okay and you never wr- often. # Interviewer: #2 I wrote. # Okay when you were r- when you write somebody you expect a 811: Uh a answer. Interviewer: Okay. But they but they hadn't known your 811: Your address. Interviewer: Okay. When you when you put the letter in the envelope and then you take your pen and. 811: You address it. Interviewer: Uh okay. Now a little a child has learned a bad word or something new and and you'd say now who. 811: Who taught that to you? {D: fades off into laughter} Interviewer: Who taught you that stuff? Something um if you wanted a bouquet for the dinner table your wife would go out and? 811: And uh clip one off the. Interviewer: Okay. Uh something that a child might play with would be a would be a what? Say. 811: Uh a wagon or a bicycle. Interviewer: A little thing you call a. 811: A doll. Interviewer: Play play with and be a play 811: A play toy. Interviewer: Okay. Now you sign your name with a writing {C: clashing in background}. 811: With a pen. Interviewer: Okay or. 811: A pencil. Interviewer: Okay or something that a child might you might uh put in the child's diaper it'd be a safe 811: Uh a safety pin. Interviewer: Okay. Um now you say I I got scared once and well I got thrown once on a from a horse and I've been scared of horses ever. 811: Ever since. Interviewer: Yeah. Um {C: background scraping noise} now somebody asks you uh how long that that body's been down there you'd say well as far as I know it's 811: It's been there always. Interviewer: Yeah {NW} {C: laughs}. Or okay um. Now let's see Talking about the the corn about this time of year you'd say the corn isn't as tall as it you'd say you know round this time of year the corn's not as tall as it 811: It uh i- it usually gets in the. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: The corn is just starting to to come up now. Interviewer: Yeah {D: no doubt}. But late in the summer you might look at the corn and you say #1 the corn. # 811: #2 No- # not as it usually be. Interviewer: Okay. Um and uh a child might be might be doing something the boy got a whipping and you say I bet he did something he. 811: Didn't have no business. Interviewer: Uh you aren't doing what you. 811: You supposed to do. Interviewer: Or you a- you 811: What you oughta do. Interviewer: Okay or if he got a whipping you'd say I he di- he must've done something he. 811: You didn't have no business #1 or he # Interviewer: #2 Or. # 811: That he shouldn't have did. Interviewer: Okay or you ou-. 811: ought not oughtn't Interviewer: He did something he ought he what he you say he ought not 811: That he ought not had did. Interviewer: Okay. Now somebody said will you do that and you'd say no I. 811: I didn't. Interviewer: Or will you do it or nu- no I. 811: I won't do it. Interviewer: Okay or can you no I. 811: I won't do it. Interviewer: Okay or uh I'd like to but I. 811: I can't. Interviewer: I can't. Sh- or you might say sure I. 811: I can do it. Interviewer: {X}. Um now okay can you count to uh to twenty-four slowly? Yeah twenty-four. 811: One. Two. Three. Four. Fix. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen. Seventeen. Eighteen. Nineteen. Twenty. Interviewer: Okay twenty-four twenty-five twenty-six. 811: Twenty-seven. Interviewer: Okay. Twenty-eight twenty-nine. 811: Thirty. Interviewer: Thirty-nine. 811: Forty. Interviewer: Okay. Sixty-nine. 811: Seventy. Interviewer: Ninety-nine. 811: A hundred. Interviewer: Okay. Um ten times a hundred thousand is a. 811: Is a million. Interviewer: Okay. Now there's a lot of men standing somewhere and you say the man the head of the line is the 811: is the leader. Interviewer: Okay he's the what man? 811: The head leader. Interviewer: Okay. In baseball you get a hit you run to. 811: The first base. Interviewer: Then the steal. 811: Second base. Interviewer: Then. 811: Third base. Interviewer: Okay. First second third. 811: And home. Interviewer: Okay and then comes the well you count these as first second and third 811: The fourth. That would be home. The fourth base. Interviewer: Okay and then comes the. well after the fourth comes the. What's your man standing in line? The fourth man then the. 811: The fifth man. Interviewer: Then the. 811: Sixth. Interviewer: Okay. Um now sometimes you feel you good luck comes just a little at a time but your bad luck comes. 811: All at once. Interviewer: Yeah. Uh you might say last year I got twenty bushels an acre and I'm expecting to get forty. 811: Bushels this year. Interviewer: Okay so I'll be getting? 811: Twice twice as many. Interviewer: Okay. Uh now the months of the year can you do it? 811: Twelve months. Interviewer: #1 {X} # 811: #2 {X} # Uh January February March April May June July August September October November December. Interviewer: Okay. now they say honor the what day to keep it holy. 811: Uh christening day. Interviewer: Okay or uh the days of the week are the day. 811: Uh. Interviewer: The first day of the week is? 811: Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday. Interviewer: Okay. You know what the- they say honor the what day the? 811: Oh uh honor the the seventh day. That would be Sunday. Interviewer: Okay. Uh now when do you stop saying good morning? When after you've met someone you'd say. 811: Uh. Interviewer: Say when? 811: Well twelve noon. Interviewer: And then you say. 811: Good afternoon or good evening. Interviewer: Okay. You ever say anything that you might say any time of the day? 811: Uh hello or. Interviewer: Okay or. #1 Uh when you're leaving somebody's house at night. # 811: #2 {X} # Good night. Interviewer: Okay. Or you say on the farm you guys start work before daylight. You'd say we started work before. 811: Before sunset. No before uh sunrise. That'd be full daylight. Interviewer: Okay. And we worked until. 811: About uh 'til after sunset. Interviewer: Okay. 811: It'll be 'til dark. Interviewer: We saw you might say we were a little late this morning when we started out in the fields the sun had already 811: The sun had already rose. Interviewer: Rose. Uh now today is is let's see today is Thursday Wednesday was. 811: Yesterday. Interviewer: Okay. If somebody came on yo- to visit you on on Sunday the last Sunday you'd say he came a week earlier than last Sunday you'd say he came here. 811: Uh the week before last. Interviewer: Okay or Sunday. 811: The Sunday before last. Interviewer: Okay. If he's gonna leave next Sunday or wha- what if he's gonna leave a week beyond Sunday that would be when? 811: The Sunday after next. Interviewer: Okay. Now if you wanted to know the time of day you're on the street in town you walk up to somebody and you say uh. 811: Do you have the time? Interviewer: Okay. And uh if it was midway between seven o'clock and eight o'clock you'd say it was. 811: Uh seven-thirty. Interviewer: Okay or half. 811: Half past seven. Interviewer: Okay. Um now if it was fifteen minutes later than that you would say it's. 811: Quarter to eight uh fifteen to eight. Interviewer: Okay. Or if it was ten-fifteen he'd say it was. 811: Uh fifteen after ten. Interviewer: Okay. You've been doing something for a long time and they say uh you've been doing it for quite. 811: Quite some time or quite a while. Interviewer: Uh if something happened on this day last year you'd say it happened exactly. 811: One year ago. Interviewer: It happened exactly a. 811: A year. Interviewer: One year. It happened exactly uh. 811: One year. Interviewer: Year ago? 811: Uh-huh. One year ago. Interviewer: Okay. Alright. Um Well that's about it I appreciate you talking with me. 811: Okay Interviewer: I enjoyed doing the interview. Ho- hope you didn't find it was too long or too long or anything like that. Uh but y- your wife folks you say were born and raised up here 811: Yeah. Interviewer: #1 And you two you've been here all your life. # 811: #2 Mm-hmm. # Interviewer: #1 Uh. Okay. # 811: #2 {X}. # Interviewer: Did you ever have any problems with with French or folks from the area? 811: Uh usually {X} when he get to talking French and if y- you say a couple of things slow uh {X} I'll understand that but as soon as you start talking {X} you can stop right there I don't understand. {NW} {C: cough} {NW} {C: cough} Now usually they can kind of we can get kind of a batch up something we both can understand Interviewer: Yeah. 811: Her mother was a a big problem. Interviewer: Yeah. Your wife's father you didn't have any problem talking with him? 811: No he talks good English he just uh he'd tease me whole lot of time and say a bunch of words in French but I don't pay him no mind. Interviewer: Yeah. 811: I tell you say what you want about me as long as you don't call me late for supper. #1 {NW} {C: laughing} # Interviewer: #2 {NW} {C: laughing} # Okay. Uh {X}? 811: Uh {X} {C: audio becomes distorted and fades out} {NS} {X} {C: audio still distorted and faded} {X} {C: audio still distorted and faded} {NS}