Interviewer: Tape 3 Aux: And uh I said Oscar you've explained something to me that I've often wondered about. I said that I've I knew that the older people made a good living out here in these mountains and uh I couldn't I couldn't figure why now that you younger ones couldn't. And I've figured probably that you were just trifling and lazy he said nah sir that's not it. I said well you have told me already then what the trouble was. I said the trouble is that when the stock law coming in here that took your living away from ya. And that's when you started into making liquor and you've never been able to make any money on it. That's always been a faded, everyone that's ever fooled with it everyone I ever knew was a failure. I never knew of anybody that makes a success in the liquor business that way. And uh So that kinda cleared up that situation there with me On that. And uh In fact {NW} I think this Interviewer: #1 {X} # Aux: #2 {X} # we have over the country. Of course I realized that we've got automobiles. And uh {X}{C: overlapping tapes, indistinguishable) And the application he give me some applications said fill these applications out. So what I'm coming at {NW} and he says uh of course of a lots of 'em come in there and they {NW} {X} I'd send them over there and they would write 'em up and give 'em a job. Well it {X} There were nearly starved to death they had what you called {X} {NS} I called malnutritious. Interviewer: #1 {NW} # Aux: #2 And I yeah mother says that's wrong but anyhow # Anyhow being hungry is what it is. Interviewer: {NS} Aux: And they had that so bad that they had to send 'em to the hospital {X} and build their system up until they could go to work. And uh this one no in particular that I was gonna tell you about he come in there and he said mister {X} says I don't wanna go to work and I said well I can get ya job. {X} big ol' strapping fella and he says uh {NW} well sir I'd love to have ya. So I got out an application and was going make it out for him. I said uh {NW} how long uh, In other words in the application I said uh how how much schooling did ya have? He says sir? I said how long did you go to school? He said I went to school six years. And I said six years? He said yes sir. And I said uh what grade were you in when you quit school. He said I's in the first grade Interviewer: {NW} Aux: I said well now listen you went to school six years and you say when you quit you was in the first grade. He said yes sir sir that's right. Says I just never was able to get out of the first grade. Interviewer: #1 {NW} # Aux: #2 I failed # every time And then of course when we got the application fixed out sure enough he couldn't sign his name. And I had to sign his name of course so let him mark put his mark on there. But I did get him a job and he went to work. And a lot of these people that I knew back during those days that was really up against it they're they're thrifty. They are now living in good houses. There's lots of 'em and they saved up uh quite a little sum of money and in good shape they don't have to depend on anybody for anything. Lots of 'em on the uh pensions and so forth and I think {NW} the biggest thing that help the long {X} situation was uh the education that they received. And uh in uh different ways such as we've got now trade schools and so forth. which I think are are very essential in uh bringing these people up. And uh I I feel like the that uh we have uh people now that if they hadn't a had that that probably we'd a still been in the same ol' rut. Just if we hadn't a had schooling and education as we've got today we'd be in the same ol' rut. If we were back then. Now I believe you wanted me to tell you about uh when we used to deliver uh #1 uh # Interviewer: #2 But you # you and uncle George #1 {X} # Aux: #2 {NW} # Well Interviewer: {X} Aux: Back in the old days #1 day # 370B: #2 I was # living with Beck Aux: This dropping back now past quite a bit {X} talking bout for instance this back in the mule and wagon days. And uh this was back in uh nineteen uh twelve thirteen fourteen {X} but anyhow {NW} we delivered uh {X} 370B: {X} Aux: And so {NW} we delivered with a mule wagon. And uh we'd would make these payrolls and we'd collect what they owed us. That was every two weeks. And they would give us then their orders for the next two weeks. Some of these customers never come to the store Some of 'em come now maybe once every two weeks. It wasn't a everyday proposition as it is today they order what they's gonna have to have and which was meal flour and lard. And uh white meat staples is what it was it wasn't any of this uh light bread back then. The first light bread I ever saw didn't even have a wrapper on it. just come out in a solid loaf of bread and would lay it on the counter and and sold. Just like peas rice butter beans flour sugar all come in uh open containers and were just opened up and they'd take a scoop and take 'em out and weigh it up and sell 'em. And ya had to weigh up everything that way, ya didn't have packaged goods as you got now. Well of course we had these mules and wagons and uh it got mighty cold back in those days. In other words we {NW} we'd have to be on these open wagons and making these deliveries. And we had a tarpaulin of course to put over the groceries to keep them dry cause we'd lost money there but we got wet just the same. We'd dry off ya know after we got wet and that didn't make much difference. In other words {NW} we could get old but those groceries couldn't. Interviewer: {NW} Aux: But anyhow {NW} we wore sheepskin coats and corduroy pants wool shirts and wool underwear and big boots and uh and big hats so that that water would run off of us and then the cold water would freeze on our shoulders and on the hats too but we'd make the deliveries. Well as I said before of course when we got up in the morning well we'd course put our guns on us and we'd go out on these wagons and we'd deliver. Well my mother she's uh always kept a cook down at the house. In other words a maid that did the cooking. And uh she was supposed to have uh when we come in of course we didn't call it lunch then like they do now we just called it dinner in the middle of the day. And when we come into dinner and the turnip greens and the cabbage and whatever they had and other white meat or so forth or peas or butter beans was cooked. {X} Well they're supposed to be cooked and ready and on the table when we got in. And we'd come in those wagons and drive the mules up to the feed boxes and let them stand there and eat while went down to the house to get something to eat. And when we going down there and this cook didn't have the meal on the table well of course we'd then proceeded to convince her that it had to be on the table and we'd pull our guns and we would begin to fire in the floor shooting in the floor around our feet and she'd jump up and down and holler if she get by she got outta there but if she didn't she just got a little faster on getting that dinner on the table. But if she got by she got away she'd go up and tell my mother said miss Reynolds says those are the worst two boys I've ever seen in my life you got said I just can't stay here. And they kept on hiring new cooks all the time. Although she did get a older one that finally stayed with us. We'd shoot on her feet and she'd just work right on. But any how then we'd get ready and by that time they'd be ready for us to go again. We'd load those wagons and start out. Well they paid off every two weeks. And uh when they come in and pay those bills or when we'd meet those payrolls and get 'em and get their bills and we'd fill these orders. Well we worked right on through the night and day it didn't make any difference. We didn't stop. It wasn't always eight hours no six hours shifts then it was it was from the time you started till ya finish ya didn't quit till ya had finished the job if it took all night ya worked all night. Took all day and all night ya worked all day and all night and on into the next day. And we went right on and got through that job. Well then when we'd get through with it of course then we would have plenty of time uh between paid- paydays. And uh because the customers didn't come in. If they come in it was an emergency and of course there'd be one of us around there where we could wait on 'em. And we'd wait on 'em. But {NW} then we'd have plenty of time for hunting. And we'd have plenty of time for fishing. And we hunted and fished lots. Of course we broke every mule and horse they'd bring into that country there that they wanted broke we'd break 'em to ride or either drive and that kept us busy at times. These country people that had stock that they wanted broke and they'd break 'em in or either we'd go get 'em and bring 'em in and break 'em. And then of course we had uh this riding and getting cattle in and so forth. And as I said {NW} back then uh a few minutes ago and I'm kinda overlapping Now on this was uh I rode cattle back in nineteen twenty-eight when they was bringing eight cents a pound. I wanted to get into that and then uh it skipped my mind as I was talking long but you know uh along at that time we elected a man named Hoover #1 as president of the United States. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # Aux: Well when Hoover was elected President of the United States of course he told us he was gonna put a chicken in every pot and an automobile in every garage. Well he did that. He fixed it where y- you couldn't buy gasoline. In other words you didn't have any money to buy gasoline with. And ya had to put ya car up and put ya truck up. Interviewer: {NW} Aux: And then ya had to go out in the yard and get ya chicken and kill him to eat so we'd get by. And he did that. But what I'm getting to is this. At that time well the cattle {NW} were bringing. Like it was here a while back bringing a good price around fifty-eight and a half cents a pound on foot. Well back then they was bringing eight cents a pound on foot. Well cattle got scarce on the market. There wasn't anybody carrying 'em in and and uh in fact there wasn't there wasn't getting back far enough to get 'em. And they just wasn't getting to the market and they'd come down and they offered me uh for a drove of cattle that I had accumulated just a few at the time and buying over the country 'til I had accumulated two hundred and fifty-four head of cattle. And I had 'em all in what we'd call a T-C-I farm which is an alfalfa farm that T-C-I used to operate to raise alfalfa to feed the mules when they had mules in the mine before they went to machines. And they had since gone to machinery and had taken the mules outta the mines and of course they had no use for the alfalfa farm and they shut it down. And it become open range. And uh of course the stock law was in. That was another thing. But anyhow I put these cattle on that range and I had two men and uh it stayed with 'em all the time. And at night they'd corral 'em and we had a corral built. And they'd corral those cattle and then they'd put 'em out on the grass the next morning and stay with 'em all day and so forth. And I accumulated two hundred and fifty-four head during that time. And they was all fat and good cattle. {X} Eighty and half cents a pound for 'em which are half a cent over the market. And I told 'em nah I wouldn't sell 'em. Well later on they'd come back and offer me nine cents. Nah I- I won't sell 'em. I'm on just gonna just go ahead and uh and keep 'em. I know what I intended to get for 'em. I was using some bad judgment. I know now though #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # Aux: If my foresight was good as my hindsight I'd be alright all the time. Anyhow but my foresight just don't work that well sometime. But anyhow I kept those cattle. Well as it turned out as I said just now we elected the president {NW} named Hoover. Well when we elected him in there well then immediately well uh he started in to help the country. And the money dried up all over the country, And the markets fell everywhere. And I kept watching and finding out what I could. And the first thing I knew cattle was down to four cents a pound. Interviewer: {NW} Aux: The grass had died and they was in a fall of the year in the wintertime. And I'd look like I'd gone out to feed 'em and my cattle had lost some weight. So I added up I put my cattle on market at four cents a pound and got rid of 'em and was glad to rid of 'em at that price. And then I waited until Mister Hoover got things straightened out just right and when Mister Hoover got things straightened out just right like he wanted 'em and had all the banks ready to close and all the money dried up over the country. {NW} Well then {NW} I realized that I could uh buy beef pretty cheap. So I began to investigate and I found out by going up on the market and the yards I could buy my beef back at a cent a pound on foot. So then I bought it back cent a pound and, And uh when I bought it back at a cent a pound well then I uh rode up I had a farm uh what we what some people called plantation. You know that's like a man having about ten acres and calling it a ranch. Interviewer: {NW} Aux: And I had a farm down there that we uh they called plantation but I just called it farm because it didn't consist of b-between three and four hundred acres. But anyhow {NW} we had uh plenty syrup we had plenty of corn. And it wouldn't sell down there and it was accumulating and uh they had made it and that was my share of the crops that had been made down there. So I took a truck with a trailer on it and went down and got a load of corn and syrup. I brought it up and we shelled that corn. Shucked it and shelled it. Pat it ground and put it in peck sacks. And then we'd put that syrup in it and I had my coolers started and went up and brought some of my cattle back at cent a pound. And uh run 'em through the slaughter pen. I had the slaughter pen there and run 'em through the slaughter pen killed 'em and butcher them. And uh what I'm talking about this work now you didn't hire none uh them because you couldn't you didn't have the money to hire anybody if they just getting fifty cents a day you couldn't pay them. So you had to make it and I had to get started back. And uh so we just uh went in there and George just did the same thing up his place my brother and we started in and put our circles in. Syrup fifty cents a gallon. And home ground meal eighteen cents a peck. And uh stewed meat a nickel a pound and steak a dime a pound. Ground beef a dime a pound and pork sausage a dime a pound. And we put those circulars out and we would open on Saturday. Well on Thursdays the people'd come down there and lined up and demanded that we open. Well then {X} we had to get busy. And I had to get my father and my mother and I had a fellow that would cut meat for me he said and I got him. And my wife, kids and myself and we opened the doors. George did the same thing. And {NW} we couldn't wait on the people. Because on the comet price they- they couldn't buy a pound of meat for less than a quarter anywhere so they'd come over here and buy it for a nickel. And a peck a meal they'd have to pay probably thirty around anywhere from thirty thirty-five cents a peck of meal and we'd sell it at eighteen. And that syrup they couldn't buy it at all because people just didn't have it up here {X}. They had to come out of the country and they just didn't go get it. So they could get pretty good meal at the a half a dollar {NW} and uh feed the family. And from then on well things just boomed and then we began to add first the one thing to the stock and then to the other. And uh by uh the time that the depression was in the right swing well then that's when W-P-A days of course come in. And then they they started to uh These uh public work on the road. and they brought seven dollars and a half a week a piece. They was working on those roads. Well they would come in and they'd buy their groceries. Well afterwards I know {NW} one of 'em told me who was uh W Let's see uh W E Rogers. He told me he said you know {NW} he said I remember when {X} back yes couple years ago he says When I used to get my W-P-A check and I'd come over here in my Ford {X} car. He said you know I'd take that check and come in there and buy groceries and I'd put all I could haul on that Ford. And carried it home said we had plenty to eat. And says uh we got along just fine so they got along fine on that. And I remember that there's lots of 'em didn't have automobiles and I'd finally uh course I had a bunch of trucks running by that time and I had what we called a lodge truck at that time which was a panel a ton and a half. And I sent 'em loaded the groceries loaded up to the tops of panels and then them hanging round I've seen as many as twenty-six of 'em hanging round on it going home with the groceries. 370B: I've got a picture. Aux: And uh they'd carry the groceries home and we'd get those out to 'em and uh those trucks would run and deliver. But uh we uh had then just started in to what we were gonna really have trouble with was regulations and red tape. Which finally had put uh about ninety percent of the merchants that we {X} and got these others going crazy and committing suicide. But anyhow {NW} uh that is one reason that that I'm out of business today is on account of government red tape. And that's a bunch of bureaucrats in Washington and they have to have reports on everything which amounts to nothing except to sift through sometimes. And they'll give you a pity if yours happens to come up through that sift and through that picking up. But anyhow uh that is one thing that has uh made business mighty hard on 'em and it is still and it's getting worse and worse all the time. But uh I remember of course going on back uh when we were boys even now there's kids that uh boys at that time uh wasn't like they are now. By the time you was six seven years old you were more or less on your own and when you was ten you was really on your own and by the time you was twelve you was a grown man. And uh you uh you accepted responsibilities. You didn't whine around like they do know and uh stand back. In other words uh when we were around uh George was around {NS} and yes I remember around five and I was seven well we was selling uh we'd make a garden and we would pick beans and mustard and turnips and so forth and we'd peddle 'em over to the neighbors and we had a bunch of cows. And of course at that time there wasn't any stock law in the city of {X}. And our cows run out there and we'd milk those cows and uh of course momma overseeing it. And churned the milk. {NW} And we'd sell the butter and the milk peddling over the neighborhood and about over the town. Walking and peddling and and I remember at that time it was {X} people got into the water in the city of Busbin. Which they would {X} get in that water {X} nearest I could remember from Hawkins springs. And the wells all got typhoid fever in 'em. And they had to start them to put in uh {NW} in uh the water line which all had to be done by hand. Wasn't any thing except just a pick and shovel to do that work back then. And they had start putting than line in from up what we called midfield now up at the What was the name of the spring? Do you remember up there that they got the limestone water from? 370B: #1 I don't know. # Aux: #2 And # anyhow it was about uh it was about eight miles that they had to put that line in the funny city of Busbin water. Which was gonna take 'em probably two years to get it in. And the people they're there drinking water. Well then uh our doctor who was doctor Spencer at that time who delivered us into the world he'd told George and myself said why don't you boys go out there and find a good spring that you can get water from bring in a sample to doctor Warners and and myself and says let us examine it. And uh says if its tests out okay says you can sell drinking water in the city of Busbin. So we decided we gonna sell drinking water in the city of Busbin. We'd go out and get a sample of this water what we called then at that time a Thompson spring. And bring it in and it tested okay. And then recommended to the people for drinking water. Well of course we had a big ol' surrey at that time. Some of ya might not know what a surrey is but that was a two seated uh hot pit with fringe tasseled uh top around it and uh was patent leather and it was a very expensive uh {NW} well traveling than a carriage. In other words the surreys were were popular. We had this this one that we had the old one. He had bought a new one. And a lot of people call 'em uh A barouche. 370B: {NW} Aux: Uh. That is a olden time name for 'em a barouche but we later on called 'em surreys. And four people could very comfortably ride in there and probably with kids more than that. And uh so {NW} This old surrey we decided we'd take it down to the blacksmith. And had him to build us a spring wagon out of it. Well we carried down there and went to him and told him we wanted to take his body off of it and put us a wagon body on it, on those springs that would hold twenty demijohn. A demijohn is a five gallon glass jug that uh we would go and get that water in and which was in a wooden crate. Approximately fourteen by fourteen {NW} inches. I imagine that the bottom fourteen inches squared. {NW} We measured them and saw what it would take for twenty of 'em we'd go haul twenty to load. And we told 'em we wanted to make a wagon out of it and he said well now {NW} what about your daddy? Well papa it's alright with him. And none of them would wanna tell ya I like calling name in but it didn't get it anyhow we were gonna pay you for this and we're making money. We want ya to do it on credit. And he said well said I'll have to see about that. And I said well alright so {NW} he said I'll let ya know tomorrow. So we left it down there and went on home. He go around to see papa and papa told him said whatever those boys want. Said you go ahead and fix 'em up in it says I stand behind it. {NW} Says they'll pay ya. And so he went ahead and fixed it. {X} demijohns and these glass jugs. And we didn't wanna get the money from anybody, We wanted to make it. So we went down to doctor {B} who run the drugstore {X} Told him we wanted uh forty {NW} of these demijohns. And later on we had to have more. But anyhow we got forty to start with. And bought those on credit from him. Course he saw papa and papa told him it'll be okay. And uh {NW} so he charged 'em to us and we got our buckets and we had to have funnels and then we had to be very clean about that water. You couldn't have a speck in that water cause it would show up in those glass jugs and so we had to be very careful about that. But anyhow we started in the water business then. And started selling water {X} drinking water. We got twenty-five cents a demijohn. A glass demijohn for us. That was five cents a gallon. Which we made on a load {NW} you see with twenty we uh` actually made we got five dollars for it and we made some times two trips a day and sometimes three trips a day which we were making pretty good money on it then and we paid off our indebtedness. And after we'd paid off our indebtedness ya know and things were going along smooth well then we decided we'd save some money so we began to put it in the bank. There was a bank on second avenue and twentieth street. Was Conwell's bank and we'd put our money in Conwell's bank up there. {NW} And we had nine hundred and twelve dollars and some odd cents in that bank that we had saved up after we'd paid off our indebtedness and Conwell {NW} took all that money up there one night and put it in a suitcase and left. Interviewer: {NW} Aux: And Interviewer: #1 {NW} # Aux: #2 we # we were mighty mad about it {X} could have got a hold of him he wouldn't gone anywhere. But anyhow He left with our money and everybody else's money. Well that that kinda got our goat pretty bad. We said then we gonna spend every dollar we ever made then Interviewer: #1 {NW} # Aux: #2 and not let anybody else get it. # But we didn't live up to that. We did save some money. But anyhow Conwell I understand went to Tennessee. Well back in those days when you crossed the state line you was home free. #1 It didn't make any difference # Interviewer: #2 {X} # Aux: what they was after ya about. And uh they got all this red tape and all started then so if you could just run fast enough and beat 'em from one county to the other. And so one sher- uh sheriff off after the other and then when you could cross the state line well then you was home free you's alright. But anyhow we sold that water until they got that line in. And as it happened there was lots of these people that bought water from us back in those days. {X} which we were large we were still pretty young. In fact uh uh George was {X} uh I-I think he was about fifteen when he went in and I was fifteen when I went in. {NW} George went in to himself about two years after I did. Two or three years. But any how fifteen years old. {NW} Uh year's nineteen twelve. That's right and I was born in eighteen ninety-seven. {NW} And uh so I was fifteen. But anyhow {NW} There's a lot of those people that could that did trade with us even after we went into business. {NW} And on up. I remember one of 'em very well. Her husband was a railroad engineer was a Mrs. Hampton. And uh she traded with us for a long time after and quite a few of the others did. But you know the old life timey way {NW} a man in the grocery business of course I never did practice that much. Uh. But I did uh have a brother in law one time that did do that. We going around taking orders in town. {NW} You go around taking orders every morning you know grocery orders. And then they'd deliver these grocery orders which was started way back yonder in early days. When they had to get out and look for business. But I come along. {NW} When I started in {NW} of course we had a depression every seven years back in those days. They call 'em depression they call 'em recession now. But we call 'em panics back then. And our panics didn't last as long as these do that is like these do now. They lasted about seven eight months sometimes. Never over a year and then everything opened up and everything boomed. Just like a rose blooming. And ya made a lot of money. {NW} Well then when ya got things up where you was getting really straightened out sure enough and accumulating something they decide in Washington it was time then to gather back in. So then they'd bring on one of these uh uh panics as we'd call 'em back then. And they'd gather the money all in. When they'd get the money all in and get it about all in where they thought they'd got about what they should the money men did well then of course they'd let her bloom out again and she'd start to work. And that's where the working thing. And {NW} just like now you take now they're talking about inflation. {X} In other words taxations to stop inflation. Well uh the inflation is created through uh speculation. And our speculators are because of the inflation. And just like on the wheat situation we've just been through with. Just like on the cotton situation as today. And they put it over as inflation. When actually it's speculation. They just got it turned around. And these speculators of course get their news through different sources and Washington and so forth. And then on one of these uh sales gonna be made on these farm imports. And that's when they start in to hoarding as we call it. And holding it just as they were hauling a shortage of grain when all the grain was was full. And uh they's hauling the shortage on the farms. And they still they was a lot of the farm holding the grain. And uh instead of letting a free market go then of course we have to talk price control. And there's only one way in the world to {NW} control prices. And that is supply and demand will control 'em. {NW} And whenever you get these speculators when they get loaded up until they can't pull move anymore and then a new crop comes in on 'em I think then it'd straightened out. And I think that's what it's gonna take to straighten it out. I don't think that we gonna do anything as long we try to control this bushel of wheat or that bushel of wheat or this bushel of corn and- In other words just the people are just gonna use so much anyhow. They not gonna buy. They not gonna destroy. There's gonna be some of 'em that'll waste some but what I mean is actually destroy uh they're not gonna do that. Because if they buy it they gonna use it. And they gonna buy it as they need it. And that's what you call demand. And supply is when they go out there and farm and make it and raise it. {NW} Well that's the supplies coming in. And they gonna have to uh uh everybody's got to work if they live in this country or you either got to just go without that's all because this is a country of each person. Must uh get out there and make some effort. Now of course we'll have an argument and people'll say that there's people that won't work and there's people that will not get out there. Well that's true enough as long as they get somebody else to support 'em. And there's a lot of people that's carrying a bunch along that way and uh I don't think that we ever will see a world where everybody is really industrious because we gonna have a few drones. You know even bees as industrious as they are they have drones you know and have to kill 'em off. But anyhow I've taken it all as a whole {NW} through and through life and coming on up. {NS} And uh as I said back in the horse and buggy days well you know we traveled at that time. {NW} When we had a real fast horse we would travel five miles an hour. And that was really traveling. And then later on of course we uh got automobiles and they would travel uh well they went from thirty-five to forty miles an hour. Interviewer: {NW} Aux: I'll never forget the time when I made sixty miles an hour the first time. And then uh now you get on the road you make eighty ninety and hundred miles an hour you know. In other words you get run over if you make less seventy seventy-five. And uh so things have changed from time to time we come from uh well back yonder uh horse and wagon and buggies and ox wagons I remember them of course. And uh I remember when the pecker wood saw mills. And by the way I saw one the other day. It was the first one I've seen in years and years operating. The pecker wood mill. And you know {X} mill just sets down anywhere #1 and so # 370B: #2 Where? # Interviewer: #1 Where did you see it? # Aux: #2 {NW} # That's right {X} lumber and so forth. But uh {NS} you take uh talking about the condition of the world today. Now I was born June the twenty-seventh eighteen ninety-seven which is seventy-six years ago. {NS} And just soon as I got big enough to know anything well it was something wrong with this world. There's been something wrong with it since I been here. {NS} And when I leave here there's gonna be something wrong with it. According to my opinion and according to other people's opinion. But I feel like that this world will go right on and I feel like every generation will be able to take care of their own affairs as they come along. I don't think that I don't think that this younger generation need any advice from us older people. I think what we should do is sit back and watch 'em bring it on up. Cause we left it in such a mess Interviewer: #1 {NW} # Aux: #2 for them to take over and such a condition that they gonna have a time to # straighten it out now. And uh I hope they'll be more successful than we were. But uh you take uh it has uh as we say it grows steadily worse well I don't know whether you could say it's growing steadily worse or not. I remember back when we used to cut wood over the summer so we could keep warm in the winter. And when we get up in the morning cause we didn't have any warm house. We'd have to get up and build a fire. And I remember how that floor felt when you'd hit it on those cold mornings and you would have a terrible time getting that fire built. Finally you'd get a little bit of heat started. And now ya get up in a nice warm house and everything's just as comfortable as can be. Interviewer: {NW} Aux: I think we've come quite a distance there. And another thing I remember back when you used to go in the kitchen and uh and you didn't have any refrigeration. And the thing I'll never forget how the safe used to smell where they kept all the bread and all that was left over you know and getting old. No way in the world of keeping it cool. And I'll never forget when uh they used to have to the women Nearly all the women back in those days you know had rough hands. And they were bent over their their backs was humped in behind. And uh That was mostly from mobile wash tub scrubbing on one these washboards up and down you know and then of course boiling the clothes in a hot pot. That is hot water so that it would if there was any germs that that would kill 'em you know and they had the battling stick as they call it and they'd take the battling stick and they would stir those clothes. And by the way when it comes to the battling stick I got a tale I wanna tell about a battling stick. Interviewer: {NW} Aux: It was a fellow named Dy- {NW} Dykcon. Dyk was raised upon Mulberry river. And uh {NW} his father was a farmer up there. And Dyk was a good big boy and there was a fellow down on the river there that had a grist mill that was operated by water and I've seen a grist mill I knew about it. And after years but anyhow Dyk he uh went over there one morning to carry corn. To get it ground into meal. Well you used to put it in a sack and put it cross a mule's back and you got up on the mule behind it. You didn't have any saddle or anything you just got up on a mule back. Off down the road you'd go with a mule and the corn and get it ground and then you'd put it on the mule back and come back. If it's warm weather of course the mule eat {D: the first bite and} 370B: #1 {NW} # Aux: #2 so forth he got whipped # But that didn't hurt the meal. The meal eat #1 good just the same. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 370B: #1 {NW} # Aux: #2 And the sack got wet # the meal too but it was alright you never did know the difference. But anyhow he takes his corn down there that morning. And uh to get it ground. And while he's standing there uh waiting on the miller to get tut he looked off down on the creek there where this wife of the millers had a wash pot and where she did her washing. Well of course it's Mulberry river there which was a narrow river. There was a foot log. Trees used to grow along there in those days than they do now. In other words we had trees back in those days. What's called virgin timber. And {NW} This tree had been cut down across there and this foot log was there. And she was standing at the end of this uh foot log with that battling stick. And Dyk said she was hitting a lick every once in a while down that way hitting one lick after the other. Said he stood there and watched and he couldn't see what he's doing he decided he'd walk down there and he walked down there and those squirrels {NW} were migrating from one side of that creek to the other. Which squirrels will always migrate especially in the summertime. If a dens get full of fleas uh something of the {X} out of the food gives out they gonna migrate they gonna change from one territory to the other. So what these squirrels was doing was crossing this log. And she's standing there Interviewer: {NW} Aux: hitting 'em with that #1 battling battling stick and killing 'em. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # Aux: And he said that woman killed a hundred and sixty Interviewer: #1 {NW} # Aux: #2 squirrels there while they's migrating # cutting them across with that battling stick. And he never saw Interviewer: #1 {NW} # Aux: #2 a second piles of squirrels. # Well you know I kinda doubted I I look at Dyk you know and he's always been a trooper man and I'd always known him to be a trooper and I thought well now you'd reckon he'd gone wrong Interviewer: #1 {NW} # Aux: #2 or something. # And I thought about that thing and it stayed on my mind well later on I was talking to a sailor man that worked down on the other down in. He had to go through the Allison reserve below Tuscaloosa which is a large game reserve. And lots of game in there. And he was telling me there one day about coming back up the road and coming through the Allison reserve. And he said you know he said those squirrels were migrating here and said they'd cross the road. {NW} And said do you know I had to stop my car. And sit there and wait on the little squirrels got through crossing that road. Said that nothing uh {X} nothing attracts their attention, and they will not stop they just keep coming. And said that I just sit there and waited until they got through crossing the road. When they got through crossing the road I come on. And then I could see well now probably Dyk was telling the truth Interviewer: #1 {NW} # Aux: #2 about those # squirrels up there on Mulberry. But anyhow {NW} talking about that back then you didn't have any washing machines you know. You didn't have any electric stoves. You didn't have any gear stoves. You didn't have any electric hot water heaters no gears hot water heaters. And uh I remember when the first hot water heater I ever saw was uh a pipe that they made to fit inside of the range coal a coal cooking stove which was a range we called it. A big range. And it went in the fire box. This pipe did. Well you had your water running in through that coil in that fire box and out back the end and then in the uh tank. And your water heater then went into the tank. Well the only trouble about that was that was after they got that water in here which that lime water after that typhoid epidemic. And they got it in here and then when it goes through this pipe it runs through there so long this lime would Interviewer: #1 {NW} # Aux: #2 build up # Then you'd have to take all this loose and take that coil outta there cause that coil would fill up. And that was the first hot water system I saw. And then another thing about those days too you really enjoyed very much and that was taking ashes out. Interviewer: #1 {NW} # Aux: #2 You know # especially out of fire places the stove where ever might be and you'd shovel those ashes and they would get all over the place and the dust would settle and the ash dust would settle on it. And you'd have to wipe it off then. And nine times outta ten when you'd start out with it you'd something with a coal {X} and splash 'em all over the floor. And then you'd have to come back and clean them up. Well we've uh come along quite a bit matter and I remember too back during those days that we didn't have any screens back in early days. Nothing to keep anything out that is flies anything else and you didn't have kinda air conditioning. You had nothing except just the weather. That's what you had to contend with. No insulation to go in the ceiling uh walls anything like that. It was just a straight {NW} seal with. And some people were lucky enough to have it tapered some of 'em painted some of 'em didn't do anything. And then you had the roof up there and that sun coming down then I believe it got a little hotter than it does now but anyhow. Get in that house {NW} and got pretty warm. And then another thing you didn't have you didn't have any paved roads you had all dirt roads. And every time a wagon or a buggy come by that dust fogged up. I remember when we used to get up in the morning. And we would uh {NW} make up the bed. Course the windows was open and no screens or nothing. And you'd make up the bed and then you'd get another sheet and you'd put it over the top of the bed and cover it with it. So that the dust that come in that day would uh settle on that sheet. Well you say well why didn't you close the windows? Well if you closed the windows you had a hot box sure enough then. And {X} because uh the sun shining down and all so it would settle on that sheet. Then when you'd come at night and get ready to go to bed of course the first job you had was to light the lamp. And if you know {X} had a lamp or never tried to read by one well you can't appreciate electric lights like you should. You should try a lamp just a few times any how just to see how it works. Any how we would have to fold the sheet back. And take it very carefully so it wouldn't scatter that dust any more than possible. And fold it back and then take it outside and dust it good to get that dust off of it. And then we'd get ready for bed you see. Well back in those days of course uh there was such thing as prowlers. We had 'em but they didn't live long Interviewer: #1 {NW} # Aux: #2 because people was ready all the time for 'em. # Interviewer: #1 {NW} # Aux: #2 and if they got in # they'd get in sometimes in one or two places but the first mess was Waterloo cause as I say they just didn't stay here long. And uh that broke up and another thing we had dogs. And that helped to protect the place while it was open.