533: {X} uh just by {NS} you know {X} {NS} Interviewer: Alright {C: light thudding} {X} 533: Houston {NS} {NW} Interviewer: Okay and the county 533: Chickasaw {NS} Interviewer: and state? 533: Mississippi Interviewer: Alright what's your address Rick {B: should be beeped} {B} {NS} okay let's go through that business again about where you born. What was the deal? Was it a community 533: #1 down in the country or # Interviewer: #2 Well var- # 533: Vardaman is the name of the {NW} the town {NS} uh where the hospital was that I was born in. Vardaman is about ten miles eh west of here {NW} and it's in Calhoun county. {NW} um Vardaman is a town probably six hundred people five hundred something like that. {NW} Basically an agricultural economy down there Interviewer: Mm-hmm. {C: beeping} Is that V-A-R-D-E? 533: V-A-R-D-A-M-A-N {NW} {NS} Interviewer: Okay. Now is that? You said that was right across the county line. 533: Well it's uh. I guess uh four miles you know across the county line {NW} At the time uh. {NS} I was born in nineteen fifty two. {NW} And my parents uh lived in fact in Chickasaw county then. But uh. {NW} From where they lived it was about as close to go to Vardaman as it was to go to Houston. and um {NS} so uh I guess they had a little bit more faith in the in the medical facilities down there and a you know a particular doctor. {NW} and uh {NS} That's- that's where all three of us were born. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: My two brothers and I. Interviewer: Mm-hmm {NW} gotcha {NS} Okay and how old are you now. 533: Uh twenty-five. Will be twenty-six this year. Which ever way you wanna do it. Interviewer: Alrighty {NS} And are you a member of any church in town? 533: A baptist church {NS} Interviewer: Okay. And uh {NS} well. Getting back to to Vardaman. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: When- when did you move into Chickasaw county? 533: Well I said I lived in Chickasaw county uh. Til about age four. And then we lived in uh the Vardaman area. Not really in Vardaman but in Calhoun county. Near Vardaman. {NW} uh from somewhere between the time I was somewhere between four and five 'til I was about seven. Interviewer: mm-hmm. 533: somewhere along in there. Interviewer: Then after that? 533: And then after that back to Chickasaw. I've been here all you know ever since. Interviewer: mm gotcha okay 533: mm Interviewer: Tell me something about your sc- well your occupation. Have you always done this type of work? 533: {NW} Well when I was a b- Four days after I was twelve years old I- Interviewer: started working as a car hop you know back in the American graffiti 533: #1 days and this kinda thing. # Interviewer: #2 Right. # 533: {NW} and uh worked there. {NS} Graduated from car hop to cook and uh {NS} I guess you would say more less uh {NS} kinda like an assistant manager type thing you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And uh I was about sixteen then starting at junior year in high school. {NS} And we had a vocational program uh. DECA. Distributive Education Clubs of America. I don't know you may be familiar with that. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: And it was it was new. Uh. Nobody else around here had heard of it. At least you know in this area. This immediate area {NW} {NS} And you know how it was back then. The whole world was you know right there were you lived. {NS} So we knew nothing about it. There was thirteen of us started out in that. and uh. For the first {NW} {NS} like six or eight weeks of the program we didn't have any uh {NS} material yet from the state department of education, so the teacher who was real innovative and just a super woman {NW} uh kept us busy on things like what do you wanna be when you grow up? {NS} {NW} and uh so we all had our you know our little thing and you know Houston Mississippi a guy growing up wanting to be a radio announcer. And there was a girl in the class wanting to be a fashion designer. {NW} So uh by golly she just put us to work on finding out what it #1 took to be one of those you know. # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm. # 533: And uh. Basically what it amounted to and like I said for the first six weeks was uh {NW} investigative uh {NS} studies I guess you would say. {NS} and uh then she'd make us once or twice we'd get in front of the class and and give a speech on that particular thing. And I'd go to the library and {NW} Dig out a book uh The elements of radio you know and stand up and talk about A-M means so and so #1 and F-M means so and so {C: clanging} # Interviewer: #2 mm-hmm # 533: #1 and impress everybody including myself. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: {NS} And uh so she called me in one day. Which wasn't unusual for me to get called over the intercom and saying {NS} something like uh you know Rick time for you to go to so and so's room. {NW} Well anyway I went down there. you know figured I was in some kinda trouble. And uh she asked me. she said are you really serious about this radio stuff? And I said yes ma'am. {NS} Sure am. {NW} uh {NS} So she told me {NS} uh {NS} These guys out here put an F-M on. They put the F-M on like September of sixty-eight. This was um {NW} The last week in September or first week in October {NW} sixty-eight when she and I were having this conversation {NW} And they had told her that you know to keep her eyes open because they had a lot of faith in her like I said she was super sharp and the superintendent's wife on top of that. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: {NS} {NW} Keep her eyes open for some guy who you know. had enough energy to do the job {NW} uh A certain amount of intelligence but not too smart. And uh. {NW} You know a medium to halfway decent voice that. {NW} You know the kinda guy that she would recommend. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: {NW} So anyway. She asked me a bunch of questions about uh. Do you plan to stay around here? Would you like to stay around here {NW} uh {NS} Few things about gold and this kinda stuff. {NW} and uh. So she said well why don't you go out there and talk to the men at the radio station because I think they they would like to maybe {NS} you know {NW} Interviewer: Have you around there an hour or two a week or something like that. So that's where it started. It was believe the fourth of October in 533: #1 sixty-eight. # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm. # 533: {NW} And I was a green horn {NW} And uh. I been here ever since. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: I hadn't missed many days. {NS} Including vacations Sundays holidays you know in the radio it's kinda like {NS} I guess it's kinda like a lot of other uh jobs where you're public service related Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Uh. People may be on vacation or they may be going to grandma's house. But they expect you to be there so. Interviewer: #1 Right. # 533: #2 {NW} # Well I been here ever since like I said uh. Interviewer: #1 Mm-hmm. # 533: #2 Soon be- # Soon to be ten years Interviewer: Mm-hmm sure. 533: {NW} And uh. Interviewer: #1 {X} # 533: #2 So I guess you could say I've always done this # Interviewer: What would you call yourself? Uh far as your duties out here. 533: Well uh. {NS} Announcer dash salesman {NS I- probably be the proper designation. {NS} I do the typical desk jockey work too but I don't make my {NW} I don't make the big side of my #1 salary off the desk jockey # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # 533: part you know what I mean? Interviewer: Right. {C: mic sound} Tell me about your schooling. Did you go to schools in this area? 533: {NW} Uh I went my first two years uh {NS} in {NS} You know elementary education in Vardaman. {NS Uh and it was kinda difficult there the first year because the um. {NS} In the- Back in the days the kinda heat they had then in the the high school building burned. {NW} Uh. The summer before. I mean the- the winter before I started school. {NS} And so my first grade year was in the uh {NS} First Baptist Church in Vardaman Mississippi. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: No desk you know we just had those little chairs like you have in Sunday school when you're a little squirt you know. Interviewer: Right. 533: And your writing tablet on your knee and this kinda thing. {NW} And then second grade we got back over into the regular {NS} elementary building. {NW} And during that year we moved to um moved to the Houston area where my parents live now. {NS} and um {NW} But they uh would take us down there. They were both working in Houston. {NW} They would take us down there to school every morning you know. To keep from switching us right at the latter part of the year. #1 you know we moved up # Interviewer: #2 Sure # 533: here like in February or March and. {NW} And school was out then in April. {NS} So you know they just took us on back down there and then I started my third grade year at Houston. {NW} And I laugh at some of the kids now you know their their mommies have to go with 'em when they're going into junior high you know. And I said golly. {NW} Uh my folks asked me said well do you need anything I said no. {NS} So we hopped on the school bus and uh never been on that bus in our lives {NW} rode to um rode to the school that we'd never been to in our lives. Went and signed up registered and went to class you know. {NW} #1 So uh you know # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 Things change you know. # Interviewer: #2 Sure # 533: Things change a lot. Interviewer: What grades are covered in elementary schools around here? 533: Well you know elementary basically uh goes to sixth grade. #1 Mm-hmm. # Interviewer: #2 And then uh your junior high seventh eighth. # 533: {NW} And uh your high school nine through twelve Interviewer: I see. 533: mm-hmm. Interviewer: Was this Houston Elementary School where you continued? 533: Right. Mm-hmm. {NS} Around here most of 'em are {NS} Named after the town you know Interviewer: #1 Right # 533: #2 except for a few # W-P Daniel but New Albany and things like this. cuz we didn't have any famous people #1 born around here. Mostly just little babies # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: you know. Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 533: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: And you had a separate junior high school here? 533: {NW} Uh do now. but at the time it was just a separate division of- of you now the main building there was like a two hundred foot hall or corridor separating 'em but yeah it was Houston Junior High School you know. Interviewer: #1 And after that where did you-? # 533: #2 And of course Houston High School # #1 Mm-hmm. # Interviewer: #2 Okay. # {NS} And you said that was- what ninth through twelfth here? 533: Ah right. Mm-hmm. Yeah I graduated from high school in seventy. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Do you consider your- What do- What do you consider yourself a native of now? 533: Uh Chickasaw county. Interviewer: Chickasaw 533: Yeah right Chickasaw county native. I mean like I said I was. born in the Vardaman hospital but Interviewer: Right. 533: Well actually I consider myself a native of {NS} of you know this area so to speak {NS} Uh around here I guess you would say because {NW} I feel at home in Vardaman. I go down there and do specialty programs um {NS} M-C things speak to banquets and {NW} and uh you now I feel at home down there Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: and uh I feel at home around here uh just about all the towns around #1 because # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm. # 533: {NS} I guess exposure and uh {NS} uh I'm pretty much a plain regular guy you know #1 and # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh # 533: so I just {NS} {NW} I just kinda make myself at home anywhere {NS} So really when somebody asks me where I'm a native of I say well the the Houston area Interviewer: Right 533: Because uh Everybody around here at least understands that {NW} {NS} Vardaman is in the Houston trade area and you know Houlka there in Houston trade area and this kind a thing Interviewer: #1 Right. # 533: #2 So I'm # Chickasaw county I guess. Interviewer: How many years all together did you actually live in Calhoun County would you say? 533: {NW} Uh. about- about three #1 I guess # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm. # 533: {X} It was somewhere between uh The time I was four {NW} and- and we left there uh {NS} Before I was eight #1 you know # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm. # 533: uh seven seven and a half. Something like that so. Three and a half years I guess something like that. Interviewer: alright 533: #1 mm-hmm. # Interviewer: #2 Okay # 533: #1 Did you have any schooling past high school Rick? # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: I went to a Junior College {NW} At Wood Junior College it's uh actually a Methodist supported school and they always wonder how a good baptist like me got down there {NW} But mostly it was convenience uh {NW} uh it's located thirty miles down the road. I was working here at the time I did not wanna to be be like a lot of my friends that you know {NS} they would go to school mom and dad has to buy their car and you know {NS} whatever they do. And so anyway I was working you know the regular {NS} forty hours a week I didn't have to work that much I don't guess. And uh {NS} #1 The boss didn't make me work that much. # Interviewer: #2 mm-hmm. # 533: They real good. you know real flexible and let you do what you have to do {NW} uh supplement that with what you wanna do or take that away from you. {NW} and uh but anyway it was um {NS} I lived on campus because I felt like you now I needed the uh the campus life you know to um to be a part of it. And I was used to being {NS} you know in clubs and you know president of this and {NW} representative on that and uh {NS} So anyway I went to Wood Junior College and stayed on campus but I drove up here everyday and I worked you know. and then I'd drive back down there at night and you know spend my nights. {NW} which uh didn't include a lot of studying {NW} because the time I got back you know everybody else had already taken their girls back to the dorm and {NW} and usually wound up in my room {NS} Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: uh I think uh the first- {NS} first week of school it was kinda funny I bought a carton of Marlboros you know took 'em down and put 'em in a drawer and about Wednesday they were gone. {NS} {NW} And I took a you know my old safety razor and it was gone so it didn't take me long to learn {NW} that if you smoked camels and you used a straight razor people wouldn't bum off of you Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 {NW} # #1 So uh I did that {C:laughing} {D:that} # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # {NW} 533: {X} Interviewer: good move 533: you know somebody come by wanna borrow your razor and they see the straight razor and they don't they don't want it anymore #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 Right. # 533: but um that's where I went to college. It was uh {NS} basically liberal arts you know I got a {NS} A-A degree Associate arts I believe you call it #1 and uh # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm. # 533: {NS} and I served uh. {NW} Really now and- and I make a lot of people mad. I'm on an advisory council for a Junior College uh in another area. and um I mean in this area but it's a different Junior College. {NW} And I make 'em mad when I point out the fact that what the What the kids learn in books {NS} is not so important as what they learn about how to deal with the people around them and uh {NW} and uh how- how they should live. How to put up with a lot a different things. {NW} I didn't really learn a lot in books. you know. Other than more or less a review of high school you know. {X} and all that #1 garbage # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm. # 533: {NW} and uh King Richard's third wife's second daughter's first son and stuff like this in Western Civilization We had a real {NW} funky one in there you know man she was ah she was heavy in more ways than one {NS} {NW} But uh {NS} I {NS} I wanted to take you know some speech courses and things like this but they never would coincide with you know I just couldn't work 'em in. {NW} And uh the speech teacher there was about {NS} sixty-five {NS} seventy you know the private colleges you know how they are. Gotta get somebody they can pay twenty-five hundred dollars a year to teach. #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: And she had uh a little bit of a a nervous condition and uh. I- she was fine lady {NW} and she was always after me to take her speech course you know and be in her speech club and go here and do that But I didn't have time to fool with it {NS} you know so I- I went through the first year didn't take a speech course {NW} uh and I decided After I had looked at the schedule said I wasn't gonna be able to take the second year and I felt like I just had to have one you know because I had never had one. They didn't have speech in- at {NS} Houston High School at the time. You know they had some pretty good programs. Chemistry and things like this but they didn't have speech and they didn't have. I mean they even had Latin {NS} but they didn't have speech. {NS} {NW} Uh. So I went to uh. My brother at the time was in like his last semester {NS} at Mississippi State so. Uh that summer uh one six-week session that that summer between my Freshman and Sophomore year at Junior College {NS} uh I went down to state and uh had intended to take speech and my first radio course because I'd never had a course in radio. #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm. # 533: Um. I left out something. Between my Junior and Senior year in high school I went to uh New Orleans to the Elkins Electronics Institute down there and got my first-class license. {NS} uh in September of sixty-nine or something like that whenever I got it first-class engineer's license you know because you gotta have that to {NW} to be sole operator of fifty kilowatts. {NS} Uh. #1 So # Interviewer: #2 You have your first-class? # 533: I am a first-class right I Interviewer: That's quite an acco- 533: got it back when I was you know like I said punk age you know. Interviewer: #1 Yeah. # 533: #2 {NW} # I just turned- I just turned seventeen uh. day or two before I enrolled {NS} and- but anyway. So I had that and uh that was the only quote radio end quote that I had. Was just my license and you know couple of three years experience that I'd had here on air. {NW} {NS} And so I went to state with the intention of taking a radio course and um a speech course and when I got there you know you pay your hundred and thirty-eight dollars I believe it was {NS} get in line. Interviewer: #1 Mm-hmm. # 533: #2 {NW} # And uh. So I wound up in an old run down building {X} they always use in the summer. {NW} And it had been condemned twenty years before you know. {NW} But uh {NS} It was four or five {NS} six maybe in that class. and you know how professors do. They like to feel I hope a pro- professor don't listen to this. But they like to feel you know real you know important {NW} and uh {NS} And it was always funny cuz I I was probably making more money than him {NS} But- {C:laughing} {NW} but anyway you know they go around the class and they say alright. {NS} Everybody gonna stand up and tell what your name is and what you're doing in my class. {NS} So we started the room you know and this one guy was a black guy and he said you know uh {NS} Told what he- where he was from. Why he wanted to be in the class and all this and another guy stood up. My name Billy Earl Jones I'm gonna be a county agent and I gotta have this course to get outta here. Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 you know. # Interviewer: #1 {X} # 533: #2 And uh you could almost you know- # {NS} Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 Yeah hear the snuff coming out. you know. # Got around to me and he kept looking at me and course uh. you know. Even before that time I had you know spoken to banquets like in West point. {NW} Uh I was a state officer in this DECA thing you know that I was telling you about in High School awhile ago {NW} And so I had spoken you know to clubs everywhere and all this you now and all. {NS} {NW} And I was always afraid that {NS} It- I mean at least at that moment I was afraid that this guy I've seen him somewhere he knows me and he's not gonna like me being in his class. {NW} So when he got around to me you know I just kinda {NW} Put my head down and {NW} I said my name's Huffman and I just uh wanna take this course so it enhance my career. you know. {NW} {NS} And so we went around the room a few minutes he came back and he kept eyeballing me and he looked over there and he said mister Huffman and I said yessir and he said stand up. And I thought. God it's like the army huh. {NW} And so I stood up and I said yessir and he said um. {NW} How long have you been working over there at Houston? You do work at that station in Houston don't you? Of course you know this. {NW} We cover Starfold which is {NS} forty-five fifty miles away like a local station you know fifty thousand watts Interviewer: #1 Mm-hmm. # 533: #2 Ha # {NS} On a clear channel we get in like a ton of bricks. {NW} So uh I said yessir I work there. And he said How long you been there? I said {X} figured it out right fast man I said uh roughly three years sir. {NS} He looked at me and he said well uh {NW} What do you do? {NW} Well around here you know it's not so much you do this and get outta my way and I'll do this and get outta your way. I mean we do a little bit of everything. Just like you saw out there a minute ago you know. {NW} And I don't know what I said. I don't remember, but something uh {NS} {NW} that amounted to more or less from cleaning out the john to greeting the governor you know. Which is really about what it amounts to. {NW} Uh we do it all. {NS} you have to around here because you may find yourself here by yourself someday you know. And- and if you're not prepared well {NW} you know you blew it. {NW} So he- I- I didn't really mean for it to sound cocky or smart. It's just a fact you know He said well. {NW} I guess you got some kind of license don't you. and I thought you know this guy is a radio professor? {NS} But that holds true a lot a times. They couldn't make it out in real radio so they go back and teach you know for twelve thousand a year. Interviewer: {NW} 533: But um I said yessir I have a license. And he said well what do you got a provisional? Which is kinda like a learner's permit you know. {NW} I said uh no sir I don't I don't have one have one of them. He said well I guess you got a third. And I said. No he asked me. First he said. {NW} What you got a third? And I said no sir I- I don't have a third. {NW} And he said well you got a provisional And I said well no sir and he said well and what the hell have you got? {NS} And I said I have a first. Interviewer: {X} 533: Oh man he got down. {NS} And he said uh. Mr. Huffman do you see that door? And I said yessir. And he said do you understand the mechanics of twisting the knob and pulling it back? {NS} I said thoroughly He said see if you can get outta here. He said you don't need to be in my class and uh I don't need you in my class {NS} And I argued a moment. I said but sir you know {NW} college is kinda crazy and- and you can't uh go in. {NW} I can't go in to the radio department and start out {NW} as a you know a graduate student all of a sudden just because I got experience and- and maybe know a little bit. I said I gotta have radio one oh th- one and two oh two and three oh three. {NS} He said I'm sorry. So I'd already paid my money so I wound up taking anthropology and had a ball. Man we went out #1 and. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: Uh. a slew out there {NW} North of {D: starfle} and dug up Indian bones. Had a #1 blast. # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm. # 533: A little bald-headed professor named Gibson. {NS} Interviewer: {NW} 533: {NW} but they did have a speech course the guy's name was {B} {NW} And I believe he was from uh believe maybe he graduated from your college. {NS} He was from over in there yeah. Interviewer: {NW} 533: He was a real itty-bitty squirt-y dude about my size you know And he was about twenty-six. Got drafted right after the class was over you know sent him to Nam {NW} Uh we didn't really. {NW} We didn't learn a lot. Uh. Lot of the people in there that you know they- they've never had a speech course and uh {NW} you know {NW} they get up there #1 and get # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: #1 talking and they sound like # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: {X} {NW} And uh so really it was it was not really a joke but it was you know a waste. Interviewer: {X} 533: In- in a sense because I could have been doing something else probably that would've uh {NW} uh done me a lot more good. And- and the kinda things he would do {NS} is uh you know pick out somebody in the class and get up here and give an introductory speech on Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: well crap. I mean you know I- I do that twenty times a day anyway. {NW} Uh you know to a certain extent. People that I don't know anything about Gregg Allman or Shaun Cassidy either but you know I gotta come up with something. {NW} {NS} So anyway that {NS} That ended my senior college career. {NW} I went back to junior college you know sophomore in the fall and was president of the student body and a whole bunch a other garbage and uh {NW {NW} Um graduated and {NS} after that I- there was no place really around here to continue so uh you know without going a long long distance I- {NW} No radio departments around here that- that amounted to much and uh. {NS} So that was- that was all of my education. Uh. {NS} Interviewer: Yeah. With that uh. I was just gonna say that first-class commercial license you could really call yourself a radio engineer with that guy. 533: Well right. That's what it is it's a first-class engineer's #1 license you know. # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm. # Yeah. 533: I got one in my pocket one on the wall in there but I don't tell too many {NW} people that I'm a first-class engineer because um. That course we had was real good. It- it crammed everything down your throat you know that you had to know and needed to know. {NW} And you know all the formulas of this that and the other. But if you didn't come right back and put it to work you know its kinda like reading a book on how to fly an airplane {NS} Interviewer: Yeah 533: {NS} Uh. {NS} You- you gotta make a few landings and take offs you know. {NW} And I never really fooled with it enough. Uh mostly what I needed a license for was to be able to uh. {NW} you know to read the meters to keep the thing on the air and and have sense enough to know when to call the chief engineer to come down here and you know put things back together. {NW} {NS: knock} Yeah. Auxiliary: {X} 533: {X} Where were we I forgot. Interviewer: We were talking about your first {C: loud squeaking} class license. 533: #1 Oh yeah well. # Interviewer: #2 I can # 533: #1 Yeah {NW: grunt} # Interviewer: #2 appreciate that # because I've got a amateur license and I know how tough 533: #1 You know # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: I'd like to have an amateur and I'm gonna get it someday #1 But I- # Interviewer: #2 But you don't have any # 533: {NW} Yeah. See I- #1 I'd have to learn the code # Interviewer: #2 {X} # Well yeah 533: #1 you know. # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: And uh that would be I guess you might say my only problem {X} well that's. {NW} {NS} Everybody's only problem you gotta get your novice. you know you gotta learn the #1 code. Your # Interviewer: #2 Right # 533: #1 beep beep bop bop bop Right # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: And uh I'm the kinda guy. I guess I'm kinetic as- as the word goes because you know {NW} you know I run about a hundred miles an hour all the time you know my brain is just {NW} like that. {NW} Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And now and then you know something good will fall out of it and we'll write it #1 down you know {C: laughing}. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: {NW} But um. Well I just {NS} Same thing with musical instruments. I love music and I know how to write songs. I write poetry. I got stacks. I got a briefcase out there by my desk full of it. {NW} But uh they'll never be any good to anybody because I-I don't know how to sit down to this piano over here or to the guitar- two guitars I got at home. {NW} And- and say okay bum- bum-bump you know {NS} and uh. I wrote one the other day Called why don't we get back together. Interviewer: {NW} It's got possibilities. 533: Uh well. Interviewer: {NW} 533: #1 It was just a # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: thought you know because we were talking about uh economics and I'm probably wasting all your #1 tape. # Interviewer: #2 No no # go ahead 533: But um you know we talk about a lot a things and we look around. {NW} And I don't know what brought it up. This uh this governor we have has been talking about {NW} A twenty dollar car tag. Well I said I don't want a twenty dollar car tag and everybody says. God man why are you crazy? {NS} I said no. {NS} It's the only fair tax we got. Sure I pay a hundred and fifty dollars for my car tag if I buy a new car {NW} But so does this guy out here that's on welfare {NS} and- and got a government house that cost him twelve bucks a month and fourteen kids that the government's feeding. Which the government is me really. {NW} And he's driving a deuce and quarter you know an Electra two twenty-five what around here is a deuce and a quarter. {NW} And uh. {NS} {NW} and- and {NW} when he buys his car tag he's gonna pay like everybody else you know this pro rate {NW} And if it was twenty dollar car tags that would be the only tax he paid all you know the whole year was twenty bucks because the house ain't his you know this kinda thing. {NW} {NS} Uh. He don't have to pay school taxes because he owns no land and on and on and on I said that's the only fair tax we got. {NW} And if they raise the car tags to tw-. you know lower the car tags to #1 twenty dollars you gonna raise your-. # Interviewer: #2 Lump it all together # 533: #1 Yeah. # Interviewer: #2 Yeah they- # {NW} 533: So I said well you know why don't we all get Black Together? and it was kinda you know {NW} uh. Wouldn't we be such a happy pair living so easy on our welfare. #1 Uh. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # {NW} {NS} 533: Riding around in our deuce and a quarter and all our friends thinking we look sorta like millionaires you know it goes on. {NS} Uh. We could be. {NS} We could just sit around and get it on forever. You and I could get Black Together. Anyway {NW} #1 but. # Interviewer: #2 Maybe we could get you sing one of your songs # 533: #1 Ah # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # {NW} 533: #1 No # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: #1 Well actually I'm not a # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: #1 singer either but it's the same thing # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: I {NS} I know the chords that you know on a on a guitar and this kinda thing but I just don't {NS} wanna fool with sitting down long enough. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: To try to figure it out. {NW} And uh it's a lot you know the same way with this other stuff. I uh Interviewer: Yeah. {NS} 533: Um. Interviewer: I'd always wish my mother had beaten me and forcibly made me take piano lessons. 533: Me too but you know I- I was afraid that it was like wearing pink drawers #1 you know. # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. Exactly. # 533: Make you talk funny you know. Interviewer: No. They had to those recitals 533: #1 Yeah # Interviewer: #2 I mean. # {X} 533: I finally talked my little brother into it. Uh he's about six years younger than me. Well he's bigger than I am and all. But um. At the time. {NW} Uh but I was saying wait you know I wish that I had done something. Been made to then because like you said now {NW} you find that old adult excuse that well I ain't got time to fool with it #1 as they say # Interviewer: #2 Right. # 533: around here you know because I got so many other things to do Interviewer: I think it would just #1 be great therapy to # 533: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: sit down and bang something out. 533: #1 Well but its # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: kinda like shooting pool or something you know to get your mind off a it. Going swimming. Guys around here all go fishing you know. {NW} They got a six thousand dollar bass boat and an eight thousand dollar pick up and they pull it all to the lake on the weekend. {NW} And uh you know they sit there and watch the worm #1 wiggle on the end of the hook and uh. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: #1 And that's all it is. Its just you know mental therapy # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. Sure. # 533: Could care less really about whether or not the catch fish. Cause they're gonna throw 'em back. Uh. They could buy 'em you now a lot cheaper than that. And uh. I fly an airplane {NW} I like to fly and uh karate. you know I do karate. Been uh done that since I went to junior college. {NW} Interviewer: How far along are you? 533: Uh in karate? In rank-wise not too hot in uh years pretty {NS} you know. What've I got uh seven or eight years. But I'll I have uh the busy part of the year like you know September through March. Because I do play by play sports here {NW} And you're gone three nights a week and you miss your karate class for three months in a row and then rank test time comes up and you're behind you gotta go back. Start over. {NW} Uh so you know. {NW} But anyway I enjoy you know getting it out that way and and uh. Interviewer: you do that mostly is it for the exercise? Or is it actually a a method of defense? 533: {NW} Well it's a method of defense? But the thing about it is uh. These movies have blown it out of proportion you know. You see a guy walking into a bar you know and {NW} somebody says something to him and he jumps about eight feet off the floor you know and throws both legs out and kills fourteen people {NW} Well you know a real true uh {NW} if you're taught right. Unless you got some kinda {NS} quack for a teacher you'd never do that anyway because uh the first thing you'd learn. The first thing that my first karate instructor ever told me. He said alright son {NW} Look down just as far as you can see And what you see? I said I see the ground. He said alright look back six inches. I said I see my feet. He said that's right. {NW} He said and God gave them to you for a reason And he said the reason he gave those feet to you is to move on and he said he gave you a brain to tell you when it was time to move. And he said when somebody starts trouble run them two things together and get the hell out a there. He said don't hang around. Because he said that {NS} {NW} Especially after you learn this stuff. you learn {X} about pressure points. And he said somebody gets on your case and you'll haul off you know and whack 'em in the- in the larynx and {NW} they got like thirty seconds you know. {NS} uh going to their solar plexus and then you know they're They're dead no time or whop 'em in the kidneys and they bleed to death when they're at home eating supper tomorrow. #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 That's # 533: #1 And he said you know you'll # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: you'll wind up in uh in the penitentiary over some idiot that flunked out a the second grade and you know and had two beers. And uh he said it's not worth it. {NW} And that's true. It's uh {NW} It's enjoyable uh to the point that you're in competition. and uh {NS} for the most part in- in karate and things like that {NW} you are equal. But then again you're not equal because you have a certain amount of uh this built in stuff you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm 533: uh your own uh uh intelligence has a lot to do with it. {NW} Karate is- is ninety no seventy-five to eighty percent {NS} mental It really is. It- it's mental {NW} And it's not so much as uh you know being super strong and hurting a guy as it is {NW} uh that if you had to knowing how. And uh at the first of uh you know the karate thing you know when you really {NW} psyched up about it and you're getting used to it and you get it in your head you- I used to find myself- I was like eighteen then {NW} And I'd find myself when I you know like if I walked into a- to a hallway. {NW} Or an elevator or a classroom {NW} okay {NS} unconsciously {NS} or subconsciously {NW} I was sizing everybody up you know. I was looking at this guy over there and he's six four and he weighs two ten and {NW} the best thing for me to do if he you know got after me was you know take his knee cap out. you know because it was easy to reach it. You didn't have to stretch too hard and too far you know. {NW} And then the little guy over there. Well I could you know if- {NS} Or a big guy bear hug you or something like that you know it's a lot a gross stuff. You can suck their eyeballs out you know its no problem just {NW} like that you know. {NW} Interviewer: You learned that in karate? 533: you know pull the ears off. Well there's a lot a different kinds a karate you know. #1 and uh # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: karate and kung fu ain't the same {NW} A lot a people will lead you believe. But anyway it's uh I- I enjoy the physical contact because I- I liked football but I never was big enough. {NS} you know and uh I liked basketball there again you know everybody else got to be six two and I was still five one. {NW} Uh so I washed jocks for one {NS} Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: six week span you know and decided that wasn't for me either. {NS} But um. Well actually I think my geometry class just decided that wasn't for me cause I think I made a C. {NW} My Pa says hang up the drawers and get back to the books. #1 you know. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: But uh I enjoy you know Being around uh. Uh your- your karate people uh are For the most part good folks. And the association uh {NW} All you got to do is- is Hold a hand up to a guy and say look I'll knock your block off in a restaurant somewhere and you're out You are zero man. You never get back in a karate association in southeastern United States. {NW} And uh you know it's- it's good. Like I said though it's kinda like uh. {NW} It's kinda like a {NS} Rock and roll bands used to be I guess. you know you had so many freaks in there that if you picked a guitar you was automatically a freak. And if {NW} people know that you are a- a karate student or a you know karate person. Whatever the word you wanna use. {NW} Uh they automatically. You're badass if you'll pardon the French and uh I know we uh {NW} I took in uh Tupelo and Amory This you know we'd move the class around because you know the number of people would dwindle and uh {NW} We uh I finally talked them into coming to Houston and see if we could have a class here save me a lot a driving you know. {NW} And uh so the first night I talked it around and we had Aw man the community house was full. Must of been two hundred people {NW} And we weeded out about a hundred and seventy five the first night. And- and we weeded Interviewer: How did you manage that? 533: Well there was this big black guy there named {B} he's about. {NW} {NW} Uh Jack's probably six five. He'll weigh two twenty but he's just like a brick wall you know. {NW} And uh then came in {B} {NS} who was third-degree black belt. He was the uh president of the uh karate association around here {NW} and he uh {NW} He's about my size. He's five seven or eight. Hundred and forty five to a hundred and fifty-five pounds. {NS} {NW} uh he can punch on a timing. A timed punch bag he can punch twenty four times in three three and a quarter seconds. Just to say that he's swift {NW} Ain't good enough you know what I mean? Interviewer: #1 I can't even imagine. # 533: #2 But anyway. # No that's inhuman it's {NW} you know {NS} Make Joe Palooka's old movies look bad you know. {NS} But uh. {NS} So We were trying. I say we. He was trying to explain you know some of the basics the inte- intellect part. And it wasn't so much that you know was gonna go out and beat the hell outta everybody from the the clan to the you know. Uh to the other end of the ladder but anyway so he said I need a volunteer and I'm gonna show you something. {NS} {NW} Uh he said you know I'm gonna show you. I just want to make a point to you that'll- that its right here it's- it's in your head. Course you gotta have some physical conditioning. But you got to have the drive first {NW} and so you know everybody pushed old Jack out there. you know his arms are about {NS} you know eighteen inches around and this kinda thing. {NS} I don't know why. It's- hardest thing he ever picked up probably was a baseball. {NW} Well {NS} {NW} So Greg said okay hit me. {X} Jack squared off you know {NS} Popped him in the gut. Didn't move him you know and then Jack he just kept on. He said okay hit me a little bit harder and he kept on. {NW} Well you know bunch of 'em left And anyway time went on {X} think it was like fifteen people you know. It was uh the class which is good you know you got people to work with and you you know everybody understand each other. {NW} And the police came by one night just on their regular routine runs. you know and I've known 'em all my life you know. These One of 'em anyway {NW} And uh so they were out there kinda you know sitting on the road looking through the windows seeing us you know doing our little things. {NW} And so um The instructor said uh Rick uh you know these guys? I said yeah sure and he said why don't you go out there and tell them to come in. they might like to you know join us. I mean be a part of it you know learn a little bit a this stuff {NW} And I walked out and uh I said hey Bill. {NW} I said why don't y'all come on in. He said oh man I'd a never thought you'd get messed up in something like this {NW} And you know I thought hey look man I'm not peddling dope. I'm not making whiskey. you know I mean this is {NS} It's like a football game you know. {NS} But that's you know. Like I said all he'd ever seen was #1 you know # Interviewer: #2 yeah # 533: probably uh {NS} When he saw Billy Jack you know and {B: should be beeped out} Billy Jack shot the old cop {B: name should be beeped out} between the eyes #1 {NW:breathing} # Interviewer: #2 {NW:laughing} # 533: But yeah I don't know how we got off on that, but I'm bad about Interviewer: Oh that's 533: talking in tangents anyway. Interviewer: That's interesting. 533: But um. Interviewer: What uh- What else are you interested in? Are you- you mentioned that you were president of the student body. {NW} What other sorts of organizations have yo 533: #1 Well. # Interviewer: #2 been # affiliated with? 533: In- in high school I was uh {NW} up the ladder. I think I was {NS} reporter secretary and then president the F-F-A. {NW} Uh I was vice-president then- then president of the local local DECA chapter and F-F-A {X} we had the land judging team won the public speaking uh. {NW} Got the Dekalb agricultural award for the highest you know grade average in Vo Ag {NW} mm- I you know this I- I can't remember and I don't wanna sound like I'm bragging uh Interviewer: No no no 533: Um you know a bunch of stuff like that and um {NW} Like I said vice president of the state association of Mississippi DECA {NW} and uh {NS} One of the student of the year awards in the state that time. Uh. {NS} Outstanding young high school Americans or whatever those things are who's who in American high schools and {NW} And uh There's a lot a I- I won't say that no {D: you know} colleges weren't bargaining for me. They were just hoping I'd come you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: But anyway I fooled 'em all picked this little one down here that I wanted to go to. {NW} And I think I was you know vice president of the house council and {NW} freshman class president and- and some kinda rep to something else there. And then I got into the Mississippi intercollegiate council. Which is uh you know all the colleges and junior colleges in the state have a representative on this council that goes and {NW} represents as a group they represent all of the colleges and universities to state government and the legislature and this kinda thing. {NW} So I was one of the vice presidents on that and uh. {NW} Uh {NS} just a bunch of stuff like that and then after I got out into the real world life I guess you wanna call it that {NW} I said well I'm just gonna back off a while and assess this thing and uh you know I'm not gonna run out and get in the lines Sabbatarians the J-C's the rotaries the hound dogs you know all this {NW} So I just kinda you know laid back for a month or two there and uh I don't know maybe it was longer than that- a year I guess. Well I went into {NS} {NS} coached little league baseball team one summer. {NW} {NS} They uh. {NW} The manager here was uh {NW} I don't know president a the uh {NS} like the little league association you know {X} business man you know they usually in that thing. {NS} {NW} {NS} And uh so there was a They were back here in the- in the kitchen where we were a while ago the Station which is a heck of a place to meet but I mean um. Anyway they were back there dr smith and {B} patient manager and this one that one and the other one you know they were talking about the baseball teams and {NW] you know you- you get small town- {NS} yeah come in Auxiliary: {X} I'm fixing to run down and get them 533: {X}{NS} {NW} Uh but anyway {NS} Where were we? We were on this uh Interviewer: Your little league. 533: Yeah. Anyway I went back there and I was you know I was on the air It was like seven oh clock at night you know. Or in the evening in the summertime you know it's still daylight around here {NW} And I went back there and they were arguing and- and you get small time politics that you know you get uh you know this man coaching a team and he {NW} you know lets all the big ones play- anyways what it amounted to was {NS} They had like {NS} twelve or thirteen boys {NS} That they didn't have a team for And I walked through fixed a cup a coffee or something you know and said hello to everybody and uh. And I just picked this up. {NW} And I said hey golly you know wasn't any a my business but I'm bad about stepping in anyway uh. you know trying to help or getting in the way one {NW} So I said what's the problem? They said well we got all these boys over here we don't have a ball team for 'em we're just trying to figure it out you know and they were all taking a smoke break and scratching their head. {NW} {NS} And I got to looking at their list and what they were doing was all of the guys that were pros from dover you know I mean all the guys that knew how to play baseball and- and run your socks off playing baseball had done been picked {NS} Alright these little dudes that- that had had a glove you know since their birthday and that's all {NW} and didn't have room to play or you know their daddy uh was {X} didn't care enough to teach 'em how to play. you know just anything. They- they just didn't know how to play baseball nobody wanted 'em. {NW} And man I got just like a cobra just like a moccasin you know what a moccasin does? You can smell 'em whenever you make 'em mad a cotton mouth moccasin you walk through some a these hollers out here these valleys if you wanna call 'em that {NW} and uh. And you know when you done stirred up a bunch a moccasins cuz you can smell 'em Interviewer: I didn't know that 533: And 'em suckers will {NW} like that they'll come get you #1 That's- that's one a few snakes # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: They will come and get you. Interviewer: uh 533: Well that's just about the way I got. I bowed up like a hound dog {NW} And- and I said something equal to what the hell is this anyway? It's dixie youth baseball {NW} And it's to teach boys how to play and how to cooperate and how to get along with each other and get out of the streets. And how to be a man uh you know in little boys' clothes and- and how to {NW} enjoy something even if you lose. I said it's not to get out there and see who can knock the ball the furthest necessarily. {NS} And they all back up you know and I mean these guys you know are fifty years old you know They's {NW} They been smoking a pipe thirty years. {NW} And the intellectuals you know and they looked at me and they said well Well what do you think we oughta do? And I said hell make some more teams man. Said we ain't got no coach. I said you ain't asked me. #1 And my boss looked at me # Interviewer: #2 {C: laughing} # {NW} 533: And they said alright you coach 'em. And I said alright by god I'll coach 'em And we'll play y'all {NW} and uh so you know I done stuck my neck out and went out and bought like a hundred. Paid a hundred and twenty-five dollar membership. Course the station took the took the team you know it was Interviewer: Yeah. 533: W-C-P-C's you know team. {NW} And we had some little monkeys on there Marvin, and they couldn't hit a ball. Couldn't see a ball. Didn't know which end a the bat to hold. But we had the best time. {NW} And so I coached that for a year or two you know and I didn't get into um much of anything else {NW} and then they came along and uh {NS} Somebody nominated me for uh outstanding young man of the year. uh which is uh you know the J-C's do that you know {NS} and I looked good in every category except uh {NS} civic I guess you know at least {NS} some people thought that. I mean after I got the young man of the year award here. {NW} and they said well for state competition uh {NW} uh {NS} Maybe you need a little more civic stuff you know. So I joined the J-C's kind you know. {NS} kinda that {X} but I- I never really was happy with 'em. And uh and kinda got I guess you'd say disgruntled with 'em because {NW} you know around here most of us at the station are work horses. And everybody knows they come out here and we can {NS} get together and get everything done. {NW} and they'd come up with stuff like uh {NS} you know the honey Sunday which they sell you know like honey or- or jam or jelly or something and they take all the money and give it to the Mississippi rehabilitation for the blind or something like this. {NW} So uh Well I'll be damned {NS} electricity off in the radio station. Anyway {NW} uh So the president of the local J-C's had been to a district meeting or something you know and got about half tight and said we'll sell a hundred and fifty cases a that stuff. Y'all need to send us a hundred and fifty cases. {NW} Anyway I ha- you know I had volunteered or they'd volunteered me or something to be chairman of honey Sunday Interviewer: #1 Mm-hmm. # 533: #2 Which is what they called it # {NW} {NS} And then I found out I. Maybe it was seventy-five cases? And they'd never sold more than ten or twelve cases. I mean twenty-four jars of jelly to the case you know Interviewer: {NW} 533: And {NS} And so uh {NS} What happened was there we were with like seventy-five cases of grape jelly I believe it was. in these little mugs you know its like a buck and a half a jug man. God you know you could go to the grocery store and buy five of 'em for that {NW} #1 And so # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 Yeah # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: So uh there we were. you know we just had you know picked up loads of that stuff and I and I um being the way I am you know knowing people here and there {NW} I knew they were never gonna sell that junk in Houston. {NW} So I went to Tupelo which is You might say northeast Mississippi's metro area. you know it's a pretty good sized town Thirty-five thousand two or three malls you know and all of this stuff. {NW} And so I went to uh {NS} {B} over there who's {NS} chairman of the mall merchant's association {NW} And I begged him to let me have the space inside the mall on a Saturday when {X} they were having you know like a flea market in the mall there {NW} And she said hey that man I- look that's gonna be almost unheard of for an out of town {NW} uh eleemosynary type organization to come in here. I said just let me do it So she let me do it. {NS} So I came back to the meeting and I said alright guys we got a We got a space in a Tupelo mall. Gonna be inside. Don't matter if it rains, snows, sleets {NW} uh we in there And we gonna be the only type organiza- only one a this type. Everybody else is gonna be commercial you know {NW} They said boy that's fine that's real fine. I said I- I gotta work Saturday I come in at six oh clock on Saturday morning you know what I mean? {NS} {NW} I said so I need about four volunteers. And I said two of you you know go over there {NW} like uh when the mall opens at nine thirty and y'all stay 'til say one oh clock and then two of you be over there at one and say work 'til four and then you know I'll be off work and I'll go home and clean up and get on over there and I'll work six seven oh clock at night and we'll count the money and come home. {NS} Man I had volunteers all over the house you know. {NW} Well come time for that Saturday morning {NW} And uh they got up uh you know I- course- like I said I been here three hours you know. They were gonna come out here at nine pick up the stuff and take it on off you know {NW} and uh nine oh clock and I ain't seen a soul {NS} {NW} and uh so I started trying to call 'em nobody was home. Well I thought surely {NS} to heaven's name {NS} the guys {NW} uh that are gonna come at one you know {NS} Well uh you know I'll check in with 'em #1 before they go # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm. # 533: so that they won't just go on over there stop by and get stuff. couldn't find them. {NS} {NW} So anyway to make the short story long. Nobody went. {NS} Interviewer: Oh 533: Had absolutely nobody Well I was totally embarrassed shoot This lady was a client of mine. All the merchants in the mall clients of mine {NW} and uh you know there was There was- their flea market was a giant success except that it looked weird because there was a space over there about twenty feet {X} {NW} and they they said okay Rick you can have that you know. {NW} And like I said here I've done stuck my neck out with some of the big wigs of northeast Mississippi man. I mean not to mention the mall but now downtown you know people that built Tupelo. Interviewer: {X} 533: {NW} And I said guys {NW} just don't let me down. God help you if you do I'll kill you. Interviewer: {NW} 533: you know {NW} uh. you know and course like I said I was- I was kidding cuz I didn't Everybody had a good excuse you know course excuses are like other things we all got one but they're not worth much {NW} and uh. {NW} So anyway that that Saturday came and nobody showed up and by this time I had gotten venomous you know I had just really it was eating my intestines from the wrong side you know {NW} And so I When I got back to the to the next meeting I told 'em. I said you can take your grape jelly and shove it I said I tried I said a chairman of a project according to to the way I read Robert's rules of orders. {NW} Is not the guy that that's supposed to go out and- and do ninety-nine percent of the work I said he's supposed to head it up set it up draw it out and get it done {NW} Now I said I maybe I didn't do my best. If I'd a done my best I'd gone over and sold it myself. which is apparently what y'all expected me to do but I said I ain't made that way and I'm sorry. {NW} Well uh you know we got over that few months went by and and me and another guy that works here {NS} {NW} uh were co-chairmen of election seventy-five or something like that had a giant election rally on the square up here you know {NS} And he and I being co-chairmen we wound up doing it all. {NS} And uh couldn't get any cooperation out of anybody one of the guys in the club's an electrician {NW} {NS} uh we blew a few fuses you know and this kinda a thing. Couldn't get him to come up there and fix it. Another guy works for the gas company. We needed gas in the concession stands. Couldn't find him. {NW} Another one has a car dealership we couldn't get him to drive a new car out to pick the uh {NW} candidates up at the airport so after that I went to one more meeting and I said {NW} goodbye Interviewer: {X} 533: you know Interviewer: {X} 533: #1 And # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: {NS} so anyway that {NS} you know as far as being involved in anything in the community other than you know {NS} paying his taxes and and- and you know {NW} I do what I can you now speak to clubs M-C this that and the other and you know that kinda stuff but {NS} I- A good hardworking Sabbatarian or J-C I ain't {NS} because I've been bit. Now I'm in the the uh masonic lodge and the shrine and uh we do a lotta work for crippled children and things like this and uh that {NW} I enjoy because we are not competing we're not going out to get publicity {NW} uh we're not you know trying to see if the president of the local shrine club can get his picture in the paper five hundred times a year because the president of the local club happens to be this year my daddy {NW} and I'll keep him out of there much as I can {NW} uh you know I don't like over exposure for the family you know Interviewer: {X} 533: but uh Interviewer: {C:laughing} 533: that I enjoy you know we'll have a we'll have a road block we had one not long ago and we got uh like five hundred and something dollars and then this little kid got burned and we sent him to the hospital and you know that kinda thing you enjoy not b- Like I said you're not looking for glory you're not competing with a club in matches or Okolona or somewhere to see who can you know raise the most money and hoot and holler the biggest about it. You're just doing it because somebody needs it you know and you're helping 'em and you're you're not doing it for personal gain or anything it's just you know being human you know helping you're neighbor. {NW} that you know I guess you would say that's probably my big thing Interviewer: The Shriners where I'm from sponsored the county fair. Do you have any kinda big fundraiser's project? 533: Well {NW} {NW} uh The shrine club itself a local club is kinda young and um The club itself is young the uh membership's not necessarily young. I think I'm the youngest one in there. and course have been ever since I was twenty-one. {NW} But um We uh we're trying to establish you know a certain thing that's ours all year. And I- I've got some ideas on some things uh {NW} I'd like to have a tennis {NS} tournament you know North Mississippi tennis Interviewer: #1 Do you have # 533: #2 tournament. # Interviewer: #1 good tennis facilities around # 533: #2 Well # {NS} There's some areas where we do you know with- within the- the reach of our club Interviewer: Mm-hmm. {NS} 533: Uh the only problem is I have to get somebody still long enough to talk 'em out of you know a little bit a money. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: {NW} Uh you know to put up for this thing. {NW} Interviewer: #1 I think that # 533: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: {X} 533: Uh 533: one of the club's uh Lee county over on Tupelo they have an annual boat show and they make about five thousand dollars you know on a boat and ski show. and uh we have a rodeo and we made you know like eleven hundred dollars on it and it'll grow n- you know a- as time goes on. But #1 anyway # Interviewer: #2 yeah. # {NS} Sure. That's interest- 533: This is probably not the stuff you wanted to know and. Interviewer: No I need a lot a free conversa- 533: Oh {NW} Interviewer: Lot a things come out. What about- Are you in any in any sort a church group or anything like that? 533: Not really uh The way- The way I'm set up now {NW} {NW} Is uh I work every other Sunday you know like I work twelve days and off two and uh {NW} It's really hard to you know like to be a Sunday school teacher or a you know department {NS} help or anything like that when you're you know you know you're gonna be out every other week Interviewer: Right 533: and uh and chances are some a those weeks your gonna have to be gone somewhere. So no. Other than you know being a member and and and being there uh that's about it. Not like I wish I could be but then you You can't have everything you know. Used to I was off every Sunday. I got off a little bit {NS} early in the afternoon on Saturday and didn't come back 'til Monday Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: {NW} uh and then a couple of the other guys did the same thing. They were off on Saturday and came in Sunday {NW} There was one uh fella here. Wayne. Um he had two little girls like they're six and seven years old now but back then they were like five and six {NW} and um or something. I don't know four and five maybe and uh he was back there one day and he doesn't he doesn't ever say anything serious very much you know and he said you know I just got to thinking about it he said my kids are you know four and five or whatever they were and he said I never been to church with them on Sunday. Because see he came in {NW} uh worked a split shift you know and uh he missed both services you might say {NW} and I said well I tell you what I'll do I said why don't you know you work one weekend Saturday and Sunday and I'll be off and the next weekend I'll work Saturday and Sunday {NW} and you be off. So it's worked out real well you know we enjoy it when- Uh. I worked this past weekend I came in at three thirty uh yesterday morning you know. Got off at one yesterday afternoon. Uh. you know and the time you get home you're too tired to eat too tired to talk {X} you know and after a little while you know and then I- I think it was after twelve before I went to sleep last night you know which my usual habit {NW} and so I'll be groggy for a day or two. But it'll be worth it because this weekend you know it'll seem like a vacation you know two whole days #1 man. # Interviewer: #2 {C:laughing} # 533: #1 Uh. # Interviewer: #2 {C:laughing} # 533: So it- it works out that way and you know I- I got off into that talking about church. And no I- I'm not as active as I should be and I- I'm hoping that someday {NW} In the not too far distant future that we can um you know arrange things around here where the- you know we get some part time help on the weekends or something like that where th- we can uh you know everybody could be off Interviewer: Yeah. 533: you know at least {NW} maybe work just one weekend out of the month or something like that because it's not fair uh I don't think for {NS} {NS} Well I think everybody has to have something to look forward to {NW} And I know it's bad to bring excuse me some you know young people in here and make 'em work Saturdays and Sundays but if they wanna work you know They gotta start somewhere just like all the rest of us did {NW} and then they can uh you know work up into the other stuff you know {C:beep} getting off on the weekends uh after all I been here ten years. {NS} Uh not really uh be ten years in October. I'm twenty-five years old you know an old man in the business and a young man in the in the clothes but uh {NS} uh. you know I I think people deserve a little consideration and that's what I'm hoping for anyway. {NW} Interviewer: Uh how long does this station stay on the air? 533: Well it's the A-M is daytime which is local sunrise to local sunset which varies like the devil around here. Interviewer: Right. 533: Uh {NW} in the uh in the winter months a December for instance uh month of December our A-M fifty thousand watt scheduled to go off the air at four forty-five in the afternoon cuz hell it's dark you know I mean its dark and uh but then in the summer uh June and July we're on 'til eight fifteen P-M see so it's kinda weird Interviewer: {NW} 533: but uh we're working on getting a little bit of that straightened out that's just federal regulation you know {NW} The A-M co- I mean the excuse me the F-M comes on at four in the morning and and goes until eleven at night. It's licensed to operate twenty-four hours a day but {NW} It's really not that big of a market yet around here. Well {NW} we could create a market for it but uh part of the problem is I don't wanna work from eleven P-M 'til four A-M. you know what I mean? Interviewer: Graveyard. 533: Yeah. {NS} {X} I wouldn't mind it too much if you know if I have absolutely nothing else to do. If I could make enough in that {NW} ten at night 'til seven in the morning and whatever you know to sustain a living. Then I'd be fine. I'd like to go home get up about twelve noon go fish {NW} Dip a little snuff #1 talk politics and ride around you know but # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: #1 anyway. # Interviewer: #2 Uh # 533: #1 Yeah. # Interviewer: #2 Sure # Okay. Tell me something about your parents where were they born? 533: Um around here uh my dad was born in uh well you know they were born at home. you know what I mean? {NW} {NS} #1 yeah uh # Interviewer: #2 Right {C:laughing} # 533: Uh dad was born in Chickasaw County. {NW} you know back then uh {NS} Your areas were different I mean yo- and- and still are to a certain extent around here because uh like even when I was in school {NW} uh some of my friends well Mike lived at Van Vleet Steve lived out on airport road I lived at Thorn you know and uh Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: and Dairy lived at Hot Air Interviewer: #1 you know # 533: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: #1 They're little communities- # 533: #2 What was his place called? # Hot Air. #1 Sure man. # Interviewer: #2 Where is that? # 533: Uh well it's Where'd you spend the night? Holiday Terrace? Interviewer: Right. 533: Alright it's about {NS} five miles east on that highway there Interviewer: {NW} 533: you know you got little communities and you know everywhere there was a store it was a community we got Sparta we got- Did you ever see the movie in the heat of the night? Interviewer: Yeah 533: Okay did you notice that the sign said welcome to Sparta Mississippi? Interviewer: {X} 533: you know when he- when he was #1 on the train you know # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: Virgil {C: pronunciation} #1 Virgil was on the train. {C: pronunciation} # Interviewer: #2 I remember that. Yeah # 533: and uh nobody else noticed it. I was about fifteen we went to the movie one Sunday afternoon which was taboo anyway you know you didn't go to the flick on Sunday evening man that you'd go to hell. #1 for that # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # {NW} 533: and uh Interviewer: you done bad 533: Yeah well anyway. Maybe I wasn't fifteen. Must've been about fourteen and I went with some of my friends and uh {NS} uh. This was on and you know In the heat of the night {C: singing} and they were talking you know and everybody's eating popcorn which I didn't like. I never did like it stay on my teeth. {NW} and uh I looked up and I saw the sign it said Welcome to Sparta Mississippi you know just as the train went by {NW} you know Interviewer: {NW} 533: and I cackled man I just screamed my guts out and the old lady came down and like to throwed me out Interviewer: {NW} 533: but I couldn't stop laughing long enough to tell 'em what was so funny because there was like {NS} you know uh a tri-track. you know three sets of tracks. you know and uh {NW} in a town that looked more like #1 uh Pollytock in New Albany # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: you know and they were saying Sparta #1 and Sparta is like # Interviewer: #2 Yeah # 533: you know {NS} one store and a beauty shop. {NW} and uh and a dairy farm you know I- that's what is the town of Sparta now. {NW} people within a three or four mile radius of there they call themselves living at Sparta {NW} it's the same way at Thorn which is where my dad uh was from there was uh a post office and a general store and you know many years ago an old school that went from grade one through eighth and after eighth grade you were a grown man you know {NW} uh so that was Thorn and my mother grew up in uh over just over in Calhoun county place called Ellzey which was the same way they had a graveyard a church and a schoolhouse you know {NW} and that was Ellzey. It was like Four miles North of Vardaman but {NW} all they had was a horse and buggy and you didn't make the trip to Vardaman but once or twice a month {NW} so you know back then it was community oriented and if I say that you know something about Thorn {NW} Well that's uh four miles from where we're sitting {NW} yonder way {NS} and uh {NW} its not People still call it Thorn. you know where do you live? {X} Thorn. you know and uh #1 I don't know it's # Interviewer: #2 {NS} # 533: especially uh you know a lot of the blacks they uh they have these ball teams you know and Hey what team do you play for? I play for Una I play for Hot Air I play for Darden Sluggers you know #1 Little community called # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: #1 Darden you know. And they got names for # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # 533: {NW} and uh so community orientation around here is is still to a certain extent a thing. They had the Sparta Water Association which {NW} a federal grant from the U-S government you know. uh helped in a in a loan you know from the F-H-A or whatever {NW} and they built a water association to serve like a hundred and fifty-two hundred families you know and it's just like a just like a city water system {X} country and that's the name of it Sparta Water Association you know {NW} {NS} so uh but anyway uh my dad was from Thorn which is in Chickasaw county. Um. Little hole in the road out there {NW} and uh {NS} He was born out there uh My Aunt Dorris Kellam delivered him. {B: named should be beeped} His Aunt. {NS} you know Interviewer: No kidding. 533: Yeah you know. Cut the cord and the whole bit you know. {NW} With a butcher knife Interviewer: Oh my god {C:laughing} 533: He's still got the knife. Yeah. Interviewer: My goodness. 533: Uh and mother was born uh you know down in Calhoun County like I said little area down there called Elzey E-L- L-Z-E-Y I believe Interviewer: E-L-Z 533: E-Y right. Yeah. No L on the front E-L. No It's just Oh you've got it in parentheses #1 I'm sorry # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # 533: #1 I thought that was L-E-L-L-Z-E-Y # Interviewer: #2 Right. {C:laughing} # {NW} #1 {NW} # 533: #2 Thought man I talk funny. # Interviewer: Okay 533: Uh. Interviewer: What about uh what did your father do for a living? 533: Well uh. He's kind of a jack of all trades in his- in his lifetime. Well right now he works at a pep industries. They uh They manufacture the wiring harness for automobiles you know Interviewer: Mm. 533: Get contracts you know like General Motors you know and they'll have to make {NW} you know fifty million feet of wire of a certain kind {NW} and he's uh a maintenance supervisor type over there you know. He keeps the machines running all of that kind a stuff Uh Interviewer: What about your mother? 533: {NW} She's a factory worker. She sews chairs seamstress I guess you would say huh {NS} Interviewer: Sounds good. {NS} 533: Yeah Got a little bit more class. Interviewer: {NW} 533: {NW} Uh I in-introduced My mother one time at a banquet you know You get up you know {NW} Hello welcome. And I'd like to introduce my parents. And I introduced her as a domestic engineer. Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 you know {X} # What's a domestic engineer? I said that's a Interviewer: Right. 533: That's you Ma Interviewer: That's like sanitation engineer. 533: Yeah you know for a garbage man Interviewer: Right. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Sure. What about your parents' schooling? 533: Uh. {NW} Well Dad went to you know the eighth grade at that little community school out there and uh then broke loose to make a living you know. Helped raise the family. Hauling pulped wood and stuff like that. He was {NW} He was a grown man you know when he was fourteen years old. I mean he was as big then as he is now you know. Smoked a pack of camels a day and the whole bit {NW} and uh he went back and uh I think maybe he got a high school diploma. It was before G-E-D came around as- as we know it now. Where you go and take a test fo- you know #1 like a day. # Interviewer: #2 Mm. # Mm-hmm. 533: It was a special thing where they went to school for like you know three or four months at night you know a couple of nights a week and uh he got a diploma must of been like in sixty-four or something like that my brother was like in eighth or ninth grade and he had to teach him how to do the math you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Uh. and mother graduated from Vardaman high school you know twelfth grade {NS} Interviewer: Okay. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Do uh. Do you know your grandparents? Uh. 533: Uh yeah most of 'em were you know dead before my time but I- I know 'em. And uh I know what they did and who they were before {NS} you know they married and {NW} uh {X} {NS} how far we go back and all this. you know we- we got some Indians some German you know just typical redneck mix you know Interviewer: Tell me about your mother's people where were they from? 533: {NW} {NS} Well they were from Calhoun County. Uh little bit further West than Calhoun County. Her dad's name was {B} which is weird. Yeah old man named Ruby guy- Interviewer: I interviewed a man named Ruby at a Union {X} 533: Yeah. {NW} Interviewer: {X} {NS} 533: {NW} Uh and he uh They were from uh a little community called uh Lloyd And Old Town over in there. L-L-O-Y-D Uh that's also in Calhoun County. And uh {NW} he was born in uh eighteen ninety-eight and you know He died in fifty-six of a heart attack you know what that fifty-eight years old roughly and um I mean what- what do you wanna know? His education that kind a thing? Interviewer: #1 Yeah. What did he do for a living? # 533: #2 Just you know. # {X} Well he was a farmer you know. {NS} Interviewer: Third or fourth grade you said? 533: Yeah something like that. you know nothing nothing special. Just enough to know how to sign his name and say woah. #1 you know. # Interviewer: #2 Sure. Right. {C:laughing} # 533: Like that town in Tennessee you know where they have all those walking horses. They uh. Sign at the red light says Woah on red No wait Yeah. Gee on red after woah. That's what it says. Interviewer: #1 In other words turn right on red after # 533: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: #1 Stop # 533: #2 Sure # Interviewer: #1 Gee on red after woah # 533: #2 {NW] # {NW} you know that that's about all you needed to know back then you know Interviewer: Right. 533: {NW} and my grandmother {NW} uh {NS} She uh was born in nineteen oh three {NW} and she was from you know the same area {NS} um. The Calhoun County area over there. {NW} Actually she was from uh {NS} Let me think of the name of the pl- Well she was from Old Town. {NS} Interviewer: #1 What was that? # 533: #2 Old- Old Town. O-L-D # {X} I mean T-O-W-N two different words yeah. {NS} Which is uh {NS} between {NW} Well anyway Interviewer: #1 nevermind # 533: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: #1 It's between # 533: #2 {NW} # Bull Mountain and Reid #1 but that don't # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 matter. # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 you know # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 gotcha # 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Exactly 533: {NW} Interviewer: #1 Is there # 533: #2 Uh you know and # and the typical thing you know. They get married and they have seven or eight younguns you know and one of 'em dies of pneumonia and the other one gets bit by a squirrel you know this kinda thing dies and {NW} She makes homemade beer and you know Interviewer: Yeah. 533: They farm grow a few taters. A few maters and #1 you know # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # {NW} 533: #1 have a # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: cow that they milk and you know {X} Interviewer: Yeah. 533: {X} typical lifestyle Interviewer: Was she a housewife or 533: #1 uh yeah you know just housewife # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: {NW} She was uh {NS} She had a little bit a {NS} Well we had a quite a bit of Indian and it really uh {NW} I know uh my dad tells a tale about {NW} uh you know one little while after they got married he had just warts all over his hands. Warts. I don't know what {NW} you know they may call 'em somewhere else. Warts. The compound W- Interviewer: #1 Warts. # 533: #2 thing you know. # {NS} Wart. {NW} Frog stuff Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 But anyway # Interviewer: {NW} 533: Uh so she was like I said I never knew her she died in fifty-one {NW} and uh but they always you know telling something about the grand- you know what they did and he uh he always liked her a lot she's always telling jokes keeping everybody witty-ed up Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And she said Huff. Uh that's what they call him you know his name is {B} but you know They called him Huff {NS} {NW} She said Huff I get rid of 'em warts for you boy and he was like you know eighteen or nine- nineteen I guess you know by the time they got married {NW} and he said well Alright miss. {X} any- anything you say and she said. Well I just want you to so do you just tell me that you believe that I can get rid a them warts. He said I believe it {NS} He said I believe you can do any thing you say you can do {NW} and she said alright I'm gonna get rid of 'em. {NW} so anyway Uh you know they They went back to their where they lived and a couple weeks they went back through the woods to see Mamaw and 'em you know and {NW} and his warts were gone you know I say a couple of weeks. May've been a month but anyway {NW} Here's what she did and I don't remember the exact recipe but it had something like this you know some crazy thing like this. {NW} So many feet like northeast of the well. This is all example and hypothesis. I mean it ain't you know really what she did {NW} but like you know five feet northeast of the well you dig a hole so many inches deep {NW} you put a certain kind a bean seeds in there and a certain kind a sticks you lay a certain way across those bean sticks to form something I don't know what {NW} And then you cover it with a certain kind a leaf. and then that with a certain kinda dirt and you put something on top of it you let it stay there so long and that's what got rid of his warts. Interviewer: This is the truth? 533: I- this is what got rid of his warts. #1 Now I mean # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: This is what you know she said do you believe I can get rid of the warts and he said yeah and that's what she did and and {NW} few months later or a few weeks later I mean his warts were gone. #1 So you know how that # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: #1 goes I mean you know # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: #1 But anyway that's you know just # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 regular old country # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 folks you know what I mean? # Interviewer: #2 Sure. # Sure. 533: you know chicken and dumplings #1 and # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: ch- you know chitlins and Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Um you know sow belly and hog jowls hog jowls we called 'em back then. {X} Interviewer: Is Mamaw what you call your grandmother? 533: Right that's you know that was Mamaw and Papaw you know that was And if you had you know like one on both side it was you know Papaw Neal or Mamaw Lutie and this kinda thing you know {NW} So uh Interviewer: What about your father's people? #1 Where were they from? # 533: #2 {NW} # Uh they were from um out there in the Thorn area you know Chickasaw County They uh my grandfather {NW} Alright well let me just say it this way. Well my great grandfather was {B} uh the best dang tale. He was an amazing man there's a few people around that remember him. {NW} Uh. He and my great grandmother. She was a I believe a Cherokee. But anyway {NW} Um. They had like six or seven kids {NS} and then She died of {NS} something pneumonia something like that. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know after having one of the kids. {NW} And the oldest one uh then great grand daddy died when he was like thirty-six years old you know. and the oldest child was a girl I mean I'm sorry. Was a boy and he was thirteen. The next one was a girl. She was twelve. {NW} And they raised each other in the old house that he built piece by piece ordering it from Sears and Roebuck It's still out there and it's still a beautiful house {NW} and people still live in it {NW} and he had a lot a land you know and he uh and he ran a little newspaper. You know he had a little newspaper you know {NW} But anyway they died and the kids you know they'd have to sell this off to stay alive and this kinda stuff you know and then. Before you know it they all had nothing and then were nobodies and one two was in California. One died in Virginia trying to save a woman from drowning. {NW} Et cetera et cetera et cetera. One joined a uh {X} 533: About rattling on anyway. Interviewer: No it's fine. 533: but uh anyway back to the to the great grandparents. You know like I said they died and uh there was um I believe six boys and and one girl and uh her name was {NS} Which being country got to be Beatrice Which was shortened to Beat. Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 Ya know uh so ya know # we called her Aunt Beat. Interviewer: #1 Right # 533: #2 Uh # Which reminds you of the little red thing ya eat ya know #1 that the Indians used to paint their face with. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: But uh like I said uh one uncle um he joined uh this gosh must a' been in the like early twenties ya know. He uh even before and uh before that. I guess World War One. Yeah. Been in the teens. Anyway he ya know they were all big ya know I mean like uh ya know. They they grew fast. And uh I saw this gentleman one time. We called him Uncle Eddie. His name was Harley. But anyway they explained how he got the Eddie business uh. Uh when he went into the navy at age fifteen and uh. They had a lot of boxing and wrestling stuff like in the navy then ya know that was entertainment. Wasn't much else going on. And he he was the world black heavyweight champion of the U.S. navy. Interviewer: {NW} 533: And he was going up against one of the big shots. That was back in the jay days of Jack Dempsey and that bunch. and he was going up. He was supposed to fight somebody. I don't know who it was. I got a booklet somewhere ya know that that he wrote all his junk down in. And uh anyway a little leaflet I mean. {NW} And so they ya know they they started digging up stuff on him to tell about him and where he came from and they found out that the booger was just seventeen years old then. And hell he'd done been in the navy two years so they see he couldn't ya know they threw him out. Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah. 533: They had to get him out of the navy and he couldn't fight. But anyway we got pictures of him ya know when uh in his navy stuff. Ya know his little navy shorts with the U.S. N on it and the little ya know the the anchor and the rope and his boxing gloves. #1 And uh # Interviewer: #2 That's great. # 533: Ah ya know just like I said typical family and uh he stayed out in California. And another uncle the baby of the bunch his name was Doyle and he was a boxer too and so they changed his name from Doyle to Tommy. Ya know it was back in the days uh ya know when they when they did that kind of stuff. And uh they stayed out there and and uh Uncle Eddie died last year out there with nobody ya know he had a wife no kids. Uh Uncle Tommy uh was married once had one child and uh he's still out there. He's been back here three times I think in my life time. Uncle Eddie came back once. His hands would make two of mine and I got pretty big hands for a little guy. I wear a size twelve ring ya know? Believe that? But his hands ya know would make both ya know like this. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: And I guess he must have been like sixty-five or seventy or something the time I saw him and I was maybe fifteen sixteen. I don't know. And he was showing me one time and and I thought I was tough 'course I was a squirty little guy but he hit me and knocked me clean across the living room just with a little {NS} like that ya know? So I had a lot of respect for him. Interviewer: Yes. 533: Uh but anyway that was that was my dad's background. And his daddy was one of the the footloose ones that uh uh ya know married a little while before the depression and uh after he was married awhile uh ya know like I said typical family they had a kid and it died of pneumonia. Then he had another one and another one and another one ya know and uh so ya know dad had to help make ya know help make the living. And uh. Ya know just a typical family I ya know basically education would range anywhere from grade one to five six seven and eight ya know in his ya know parental ya know his background. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Ya know something like that. Interviewer: Was your grandfather a farmer or? 533: Well no he was uh he was was really uh I I guess you would say 'course he did farm for a while ya know until the depression got so bad nobody could make any money at it. And then after that he went to um somewhere in in the North uh seemed like somewhere in Iowa ya know and was working at some kind of factory. I don't know probably some government thing ya ya know and uh sending what he could back which never amounted to much. Uh he wasn't what you'd call well he's not I don't guess he'd be the kind of grand daddy you'd look back on with a lot of pride. Uh I nothing basically wrong with him other than he just got used to being ya know working somewhere else and ya know sending the money home. Uh he wasn't a drunk or a ya know a thug or anything like that. He didn't he didn't have three or four families anywhere ya know nothing like that {D: I mean he's} ya know but um anyway even after my dad {X} was married must have been in the early fifties uh he and my grandmother got a divorce and uh years later she married again and had one more child who is ya know younger than me, my aunt. Beautiful girl. Uh she must be about twenty-three years old now. She's married. Has a child. Uh. Her dad was uh even had a little Indian in him too matter of fact more than the rest of us. And she's real dark-skinned. Has long heavy black hair and brown eyes about size of a piece of sausage ya know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: and uh the big mouth the high cheek bones the slick face and all of that. But anyway that's that's uh Interviewer: Sound like Rita Coolidge. 533: Well she's shorter than Rita. Rita's ya know she looks a lot like Rita except she's a little bit as they would say around here fleshier. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Ya know she's uh her her uh face is a little bit fuller. Interviewer: Mm. 533: And uh Like I said ya know just good ya know a tight body I mean oh strong arms ya know no flabby skin. Nothing like that. Interviewer: Yeah. And your grandmother was does she have a specific uh job was she 533: No she was a house wife ya know. Barefoot and pregnant. #1 Ya know what I mean? Yeah. # Interviewer: #2 In the kitchen. # 533: {NW} Interviewer: And you said education about uh 533: Uh I oh you know sixth grade would be a maximum. Somewhere along in there. What good grief she married when she was about fourteen ya know so she couldn't had much. Interviewer: Right. 533: Ya know how they did. Interviewer: Your grandfather bout the same correct? 533: Uh yeah I'd say fifth or sixth grade. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Just 'til he got old enough to tell his older sister that made him go to school that he wasn't going ya know? Interviewer: Right. 533: Um. Interviewer: Uh didn't ask you about your uh grandmother on your mother's side. What about her schooling. Any idea? 533: Uh. About the same ya know back then everybody was the same I I expect Interviewer: Sure. 533: ya know five six years. Something like that. Interviewer: Okay. Do you know anything about earlier ancestry? Where your people came from? Or 533: #1 Well uh yes # Interviewer: #2 anything like that? # 533: and and in the early eighteen I say early eighteen no it's like ya know in the er eighteen fifties or early sixties The Huffman crowd moved from South Carolina and ironically my mother's background did too. Uh my mother's mother was an Alexander. And if you'll shop around around here you'll find about six different sets of Alexander and they're they'll tell ya ain't no kin to him ya know. And here's the reason for that that um Well on my on my mother's side my probably be my great great great great grandfather Alexander. Um he was ya know they were living in South Carolina and his they had three or four kids and his wife died. So he married this other woman and they started moving South ya know. And uh anyway over the years ya know they stop here and live a year and move on and this kind of thing. They had three or four and his wife died So there he had like I don't remember the exact number but again it's one of my old great aunts has got it all documented somewhere. But anyway he had like six seven or eight kids ya know and he married again. Married a lady in Alabama. And they moved on over into this area. And uh she didn't live long ya know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know how it was is all this kind of stuff that went on back then. He may have delivered the kids. I don't know that could have been the problem. Uh but anyway they had a few anyway he had like seven or eight kids ya know by three different marriages and then he married a woman and they settled here in this area. And they had a house full so ya know he probably thirteen fifteen kids and you know {D: in his string} And and over the passing of generations now you've got like I said five six seven different sets of Alexanders around here that ya know really physically are not any kin anymore because it's all washed out. They had ya know the same original old daddy back there somewhere but that was five or six seven eight generations ago. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: {NW} And uh then one of his sons uh was my or some of the crowd anyway was uh ya know my great great my great grandfather {NS} and um so then my uh mother's mother was one of that clan. Interviewer: Right. 533: And uh. Now on my daddy's side they there was the same thing. Basically the Huffmans moved from South Carolina. Uh came into this area and the best that I've been able to collect it and I enjoy talking to the old ones ya know and finding out about this stuff. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Uh this Mr. Huffman or whichever one he was that came down had four or five sons and one went uh a little bit south of here down a place called {X} it's about forty miles away and settled in that neck of the woods. Uh another one went here another one went yonder ya know and that's uh. Huffman is not really a common name in. Ya know now there's a lot ya know maybe some Hoffmans and Coffmans. But Huffman H-U-F-F-M-A-N and and a lot of times when I'm talking to like an agency in New York or something. What what did you say your name was again? I'll say ya know Rick Huffman. And I I say it southern so that they can understand Huffman ya know. Uh and they say would you spell it and I say look it's southern for Hoffman ya know? Put a U in there instead of an O. And they ya know get a kick out of it and everything everybody lives happily ever after. But anyway they settled in different parts and there's there's still a few Huffmans over in the um uh Water Valley Mississippi area which is like sixty miles or so uh northwest of here. There's some down in the Webster county area I was talking about a minute ago which is forty fifty miles southwest. And uh there's about four or five different clans of them in Chickasaw County. And some of them I didn't even know until I was a grown married man. Interviewer: Hmm. 533: One lived down the road from me. This guy came down knocking on my door one night. Said let me use your phone. I said look kid I don't know you. You're not coming into my house. Ah hell you know me. My name's Buddy Huffman. #1 And I said I've never seen you in my life. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: I said you smell like a Huffman. That's about all I can give you ya know. And uh Interviewer: {NW} 533: But you know like I said eh They was ya know some of this parentage that moved off to Arkansas or something. {X} You know like I said I I don't know Same thing happened at a ball game one time uh. I had a handful of uh you know electronic ya know equipment ya know radio stuff and was going in and and uh ya know knowing the people there and the principal of the high school said said something uh to the this kid at the door ya know. I say kid. He was seventeen or eighteen. He said uh Ah you can go in. Let your kin folks in free. 'Course I was getting in fr- free anyway I was ya know coming in to do a broadcast. Make a presentation too. And the guy said yeah I guess I will And so I looked over to Shorty. This the principal of the school. They they call him Shorty. He's about six five and weighs about three-hundred uh which is typical around here ya know. Shorty. and I said Shorty who in the hell is that? He said oh that's David Huffman. What do you mean boy you kidding. And I said look I never laid eyes on that idiot in my life ya know? I said David Huffman? I don't know David Huffman. So you know you you have you have that and I always laugh and I say well I know everybody in the county except the Huffmans. Interviewer: {NW} 533: And I run across a new one every few days ya know and say uh I don't know you. Interviewer: {NW} 533: But you know Interviewer: Sure uh okay. Tell me something about your wife. Is she from this part of town? 533: Uh yeah. Right. Uh her um her dad is um ya know they've uh they've always been around here. Dad and her mom too. Ya know their their family's. One was from one side of the county and one from the other but ya know uh they've always all been from around here. The Fars and the Talents. Her mother was a Far. Her dad's a Talent. Interviewer: Okay. How old is she? 533: Uh Janie? She's twenty-five. Ya know. I was trying to think yeah. Interviewer: Okay. Is she a Baptist too? 533: Well actually she was born a Methodist. So you know you can just put Methodist down there for the record. Uh. {NW} Interviewer: Uh. What about her schooling? 533: Uh you know. High school. Interviewer: Is she in any sort of uh organizations or clubs? 533: No. Not really. I well I guess that's my fault. Ya know but I mean ya know. Interviewer: It's the way it is. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Ah she probably would be but she's kind of quiet and shy which is what I need ya know uh is is ya know energetic and and I'm not saying I'm outgoing but out into junk all the time as I am. I need somebody that's not in to so many things so that they can follow along with me and help me do mine and ya know this kind of stuff. Go to the meetings with me and and ya know be a part that way ya know be my wife instead of uh you know me having to take one of the kids or something to the meeting because mama had to go ya know do something else. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: I mean I'm I'm a family man. I think a family oughta be together. I think that's a lot of the a lot of the problem that we get into. 'Course I know you can discipline your kids and teach 'em everything you know and teach 'em even better things than what you know and you still have no guarantee that they're not gonna turn out to be a rotten egg ya know? Uh but you gotta try. I think a family needs to be close together because it it gives you a certain warmness and security some love ya know? And uh I think I think it's good to be dependent on somebody in in that sense. Not financially necessarily eh not even physically necessarily but I mean you know emotionally. I I think it's good. So anyway like I said I I'm a family I'm a family guy. When I go home at night I shut my door. And that's the end of it. I'll lay down the floor in my drawers and watch TV. Ya know uh light a cigar and uh ya know that's home ya know? And uh Interviewer: How many children do you have? 533: We got two. Yeah. Got a boy and a girl. And uh Interviewer: Okay. Could you describe these uh sketches that you did for me? #1 Just a little bit about both of them? # 533: #2 well # Well the old house uh the one that I did most of my growing up in it. 'Course back in in those days you know you'd live in one house while you know you rented a house and you know you'd move to another one or something but this is the one that that we lived in when we lived in the Vardaman area when I was between ya know four and seven or whatever it was years of age. Uh the reason that we moved back down there. My grandmother. My mother's mother. died in fifty-one. And uh she had ya know brothers and si- well sisters still at home. And then my grandfather. My mother's daddy. Died in fifty-six. And so there was ya know four girls at home. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: That somebody had to take care of. And My mother and daddy are good people they. This kind of thing always the ya know they happened to be the ones that have to take it up like Aunt Beat that I was talking about. Daddy's Aunt Beat. She's old now and she's by herself and you know she was just always by herself and he was having to go down there and check on her so we wound up building her a house up here by their house so that he can keep an eye on her. Uh I guess that kind of thing happens to you and you wind up with that responsibility when you're man enough to take it ya know. So anyway uh Mother had an older sister and an older brother and this kind of thing but mother and daddy wound up uh we moved into to my really what was mother's parents' house down there and took care of those girls. Raised those girls. Got 'em through high school and got 'em married and all this stuff ya know? So that's what we were doing down here. Uh my dad was twenty-four years old at the time. Had two kids of his own and and four teenage girls and his wife and he was making thirty bucks a week. Ya know. So we did alright. But anyway. #1 Uh # Interviewer: #2 How many rooms in that house? # 533: Let me see. One two three four about five. It was uh a fairly nice-sized house for the time. It wasn't a shotgun house or anything like that uh ya know it was a pretty decent house I mean Uh had the I don't know if you're familiar with what we call brick siding. Used to call it brick siding. Ya know it was just a rough uh asphalt really. Like uh I mean like asphalt roofing. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Ya know. {D: Sealed down step} Only came in rolls you know and it looked like bricks ya know and they stuck it on the outside of the house. Interviewer: When you say shotgun house exactly what do you mean? 533: Uh shotgun house uh basically is ya know just like if you laid those two pieces of notebook paper end to end It's just um uh a two-room house ya know? A front room and a back room. Ya know it it had no basic design. Looked like a cracker box. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Uh one of my uncles lived in one of those for a long time. Interviewer: Doors lined up so you could see right through the middle of the house? 533: No no no no that's that was the rich people's house. That was uh Interviewer: Uh-huh? 533: one you're talking about is ya know like the hallway in the middle ya know and rooms over here and rooms over there and a hallway in the middle with a well in the middle of the hall. Interviewer: #1 Yeah. They called it anything different? # 533: #2 Ya know. # Uh no. That was just just a house you know. Uh it's to my knowledge I never knew but one person that lived in one like that and we didn't get to go in her house very much. Had to play on the porch. Ya know because there was a a well in the middle of the floor in there uh where they got their water Cistern. Some people called them cisterns. Watch out don't let the baby fall in the cistern. Uh S-I-S-T-E-R-N I think is what that was but it was just a big well in the floor. But no a shotgun house is is just two rooms just like a cracker box and if you divided it and made two rooms out of it. Interviewer: I see. 533: But ours was not that. It was like I said it was a fairly nice house uh. On the front you know the the porch a couple of feet off the ground ya know you had a you had a porch and we kept it painted gray. You know it was a wood porch and it wasn't screened or anything but uh uh it was the length of the house. And of course it was covered by the the roof that went over the house. Uh kind of like a lot of people do now when they have a one-sided car port you know? Uh Interviewer: What are the different rooms in that house? 533: Okay you have um of course the living room when you went in. The house basically on the front had two front doors. Ya know? And uh back then you had you didn't call them locks. You called it a latch. And uh even before the latch you had a little thing called a thumb bolt. And uh you you thumb bolted the door I guess took a lot of time. Now I tell my wife I say hey don't forget to thumb bolt the door ya know And it was just a little thing. It's just what it was. A little bolt. You push it over your thumb. Ya know you thumb bolt the door. Uh So anyway had two doors there in in the front and you went in on the right side which was basically acceptable everywhere if you went into somebody's house and they had two front doors like us you went in the one on the right. Don't know why but you just did. Uh and it was the living room when you uh when you first went in and there for a while we used it uh as a as a bedroom too ya know for one of the girls. And um Then uh we had a fireplace there when you went in. Windows all across the front. And um you go past that room and uh you walk into the dining room uh which had a table and about four or five chairs and a bench. or a bench really but they called it a bench back then. And it was just a just a wood bench. And no back on it. Just a ya know two planks up and one plank across. And that's where the kids sat ya know. You get over put 'em all on the on the bench over there. And we had a had a bed in there one time too. One of the girls. And uh had a potbellied stove. Yeah. A heater in there. And you'd run a pipe out the window that kind of thing and then the next room on that particular side was the kitchen. And it was just that. We did have an elec- we had an electric stove and uh you know no sink or anything like that we drew our water from the well outside. Ya know drop the rope down in there and dodge the turtle and frog and get a bucket of water and pull it up Interviewer: {NW} 533: And a lot of people don't believe this because a lot of my friends didn't grow up that way ya know we get somewhere and we get to talking about it and they say aw hell Huffman you didn't grow up like that. But I mean you know we did I mean that's Interviewer: Sure. 533: that's the way it was. {NS} And uh then the other side of the house of course you could a' go you know from the uh from the dining room into into the one of the bedrooms and there was two full-sized beds in there. And uh. And then uh Then there was another room back up that you could a' go into from the living room. Uh there was a closet between those two main bedrooms and that was mother and daddy's room. In the front of the bedroom. There was a fireplace strangely enough there was a fireplace in in mother and daddy's bedroom and it was back to back with the fireplace that was in the girl's bedroom there ya know and you could #1 look like that ya know and see through ya know to the other bedroom. # Interviewer: #2 Right. # 533: But uh that's how we kept it warm and I can't never remember getting really bad cold. Ya know I mean I don't remember freezing in the winter. Ya know people talk about hey when I was a kid you could see holes in the floor well you could see holes in our floor now and then. We'd patch 'em up and it was it was a decent tight house ya know. Glass windows and the whole thing. Uh you know the little out house outside uh for lack of a better word. with a quince tree beside the outhouse and I don't know why but I always grew up thinking everybody oughta have a quince tree beside their uh you know manure parlor or whatever you wanna call it. {NW} Interviewer: #1 And # 533: #2 {X} # We had a back porch too ya know. And a and a back porch it was high off the ground and ya know you uh that's where you threw the water out of the wash pan. We didn't have a bathtub ya know and you took a bath especially in the winter time. And then a wash pan Interviewer: Uh-huh. 533: which is you know maybe like a gallon and a half uh container And you can still get 'em at some of the general stores way out in the country around here. And you know you warm some water and have some cold water in when you warm some water you take the water out of the well in the bucket and put it over in the pan and warm it up on the stove and you know all this. And everybody just uh kinda well let's take a birdbath ya know like you would if you'd you know if you'd uh been to one uh meeting ya know and you didn't have time to take a bath you'd come back ya know and just kind of rag yourself off ya know and and change clothes and {NW} put on some more deodorant another white shirt and go back to the meeting. And so that's kinda what we did especially in the winter. Now in the summer we'd go out to um ya know we'd go out to the pool for instance and get a number three wash tub and uh and fill that full of water that's that's the two boys and my older brother and my older brother wasn't there. {C: tape distorted} And he wasn't around then. {C: tape distorted} And we'd get in that tub ya know {C: tape distorted} We'd take a bath. {C: tape distorted} And uh {C: tape distorted} {X} Weird. {NW} But anyway I'm sorry. {NS} Interviewer: I was gonna ask you since you brought up the out house You ever heard people around here call it anything else #1 you mentioned out house and manure parlor. # 533: #2 Oh yeah # Oh I just made up the manure parlor I yeah I'm bad about making up words but #1 Well Johnny # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # 533: house. A lot of people called it a Johnny house. I know I had some friends that uh uh after I moved over here to Houston and they called theirs the Johnny house and they were laughing about Amanda and Sam were these twin cousins of theirs and one of them got stuck in the hole in the Johnny house ya know. And I thought what the hell's a Johnny house ya know? And of course I {NS} I knew what it was. But it just sounded funny. And uh we called it a toilet. That's what we called it. Ya know said uh ya know hey momma it's dark go with me to the toilet. And that's what it was was a toilet. And and still to this day now you know some things stay with you But I I don't like to use the word ya know toilet in reference to brute and old spice and ya know Interviewer: {NW} 533: Uh oh uh what is it shower to shower body powder you know because to me a toilet ya know {X} gross association ya know there was a Sears and Roebuck catalog out there from last year that you use and and uh you know people live longer now and I know why. Because we take care of ourselves better I mean like then uh uh God no wonder ya know people that're forty fifty years now have hemorrhoids. Ya know? Interviewer: Corn cobs. 533: Well you know corn cobs and uh wet corn cobs were good but dry ones were hell. And uh Interviewer: {NW} 533: Uh but you know I mean God rough newspapers and stuff like that and the way we ate uh ya know we ate uh we ate a lot of pork. Because you know pork grew a lot faster than uh than than beef did. Besides it didn't cost as much you can feed a pork uh a hog a hog as it was back then slop. We had a slop bucket. And it was by the it was over it was in the kitchen. Now which and if you were to walk into that house now if I was to go into that house if I could just you know take myself back now I'd probably gag. Because the slop bucket was a five gallon bucket that was over by the back door and in the summer it was outside the back door 'cause it got rank boy in the summer. But um and the dogs were the same way. But what you didn't eat off the table or you know the the uh peelings off the um uh potatoes ya know and cucumbers and stuff like this ya know and the coffee grounds and uh ya know the watermelon rinds. Ya know and the leftover corn bread. You threw it in the slop bucket. Well at the end of a day when you's feeding a crew like that ya know you'd have two and a half gallons of slop I mean you know potato peelings just junk. But a hog will eat anything. They say they're the smartest animal in the world. They probably are. But anyway they'd eat anything so You didn't really have to supplement a hog too much 'cause they could ya know as the old saying root hog or die ya know they go out there and root around and eat something. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: We had a pig pool. Everybody had a pig pool which was a slushy uh place down away from the house where the where the hogs got down in the mud to stay cool in the summer you know. Interviewer: Is that the same as a pen? 533: Well {NW} the pig the pig pen but there was a pig pool #1 which is just uh # Interviewer: #2 Just a # 533: yeah you know it's a little pool of water. Uh you know sometimes small sometimes large. That's probably very colloquial ya know pig pool. Uh Interviewer: #1 You ever heard of # 533: #2 Some friends # Interviewer: anybody around here calling a hog parlor? 533: Hog parlor? Yeah now hog parlor now well that had a connotation of being a uh dressed up place for a hog see. A hog parlor was like uh whenever you had clean hogs I mean you know you could you had a nice clean place for them to stay you know a barn with uh some type of floor in it ya know where they could come in and that was the parlor. That's a hog parlor. Interviewer: I see. 533: Uh a little bit cleaner than a you know the pig pen. Pig pen stinks. I'm here to tell ya. But anyway and for that reason we ate a lot of pork ya know I say not a lot but when we ate meat it was pork ya know we made our sausage ya know and this kind of stuff. We had a smoke house. You know you'd you'd hang the meat in a smoke house Put salt on it it'd sit out there and flies get on it and all this but anyway Uh pork you know is greasy and it ain't good for you. {NS} And uh {NS} Interviewer: Tell me about the house that you said you just moved out of. 533: Well actually it's it's been a little while. I sold it. But uh it was uh matter of fact the original house the idea uh a guy dreamed it up in Marietta, Georgia. You could probably go out there and see it. But um {NS} Um it had a Spanish design well I I don't have any Spanish and I don't know why it did. But um Along the front I said I do not want a house where people come in my back door. Around here everybody's ya know the basic Southern style is ya know y'all come on over. And everybody's you drive you car into the car port or garage which is the slick word and you get out and go into the door there that enters the house and ninety-nine percent of the time it goes right in to the kitchen. or dining room you know the kitchen area. Ya know? And uh Then after that you go on past the kitchen and take a turn usually and you go into the living room. And I no and you know a lot of people have a sidewalk from their from their driveway to the front door. But if you drive into the car port you gotta walk back to the front of the house and get on the sidewalk to go to the front door so everybody comes in the back door. I said I don't want that. I want one door. And I said I don't want any windows on the front because every time a car comes by there are lights going #1 front windows you know? # Interviewer: #2 Right. # 533: Look up ya know thinking somebody's driving up the yard. So I cross the front Uh it was the stucco type. Ya know. The uh the mortar hanging out of the white brick the whitest white brick. And uh with these um look like uh furniture legs. I guess you would say table legs in the window to make give it kind of a cell appearance you know kind of a jail cell appearance. Uh the uh I had one window on the front. I had a little uh sunken in ceramic design there to hang things on like at Halloween you put a witch out there you know Christmas a reef. This kind of thing. And um and a light on that. Uh but you came in to the yard uh down the driveway and here ya know you made a turn and you went into the car port. Car port separated from the house. Which I guess would make it a real true to life garage wouldn't it? But anyway Uh it was separated from the house in a sense um the slab you know came down a time or two on the way. A concrete slab. And uh you went you know through the door of the garage onto a patio. To your right there is a is a flower bed built up flower bed. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And uh the roof has got a you know there's a cut-out place there. To let the rain etcetera in. And uh then there's a concrete patio and you then you're you know you're walking into the door and when you went into the door I built it so that it it had a foyer. Uh with some of this Jefferson Davis floor stuff on it ya know just looked like puzzle wood. Uh because I didn't like ceramic ya know. Interviewer: Why do you call it Jefferson Davis? 533: Well that was the name of it. I don't know. Jefferson Davis was the particular style of it. Ya know the old wood put put together floors ya know? And uh {NS} Uh and whenever you came in take about three steps in to your right about a a three inch drop in the in the floor and there's a living room. And it ya know the Spanish archway you know in the living room it was uh Egyptian white walls you know kind of off-white. And uh and an off-white carpet. And then uh you know twelve fourteen feet away there was another arch and you stepped back up and it was a dining room. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Mm-kay? And uh now you could go back to the foyer and go straight on through and you'd be in the den. where the fireplace and TV and a black uh not black but old nasty looking oh uh paneling was. I said I want paneling looks like it just went out here to ya know Billy Bob Fender Bender's house and and and jerked wood off his barn and stuck it in my house. So ya know that's what. You back up against it and ya know in your underwear and you stick a splinter in your rear But uh Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah. Interviewer: {X} 533: And then still though you were still away from the kitchen. See what I mean? Because then ya ya know the kitchen the uh the cabinets came down on this side it was just a blank wall had some ya know old Spanish design thing there and and a little place where you could sit and eat ya know and the wife can hand ya stuff through Uh and then but to go into the kitchen you just kinda had to go around that little ya know that little bar-type area. Interviewer: Right. 533: Uh. Don't mean a bar like an alcoholic bar but I mean a like you know just a bar that you eat on. Uh and the reason I did that was I said okay if somebody comes over ya know? I don't like them having to sit there and talk ya know and sit at the table ya know when you're right over there three feet away ya know dropping a hamburger on the floor. Ya know? I I just don't like it I worked in a cafe I know how it is I fed a lot of not a lot of people probably in my lifetime ten hamburgers I dropped on the floor. {NS} Picked 'em up. Threw 'em back ya know on the grill put 'em back on there ya know? As long as they didn't have a hair on them they were alright you know what I mean? {NW} Uh Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah. But so ya know I did it that way and then I said well one of these days ya know when the kids they get grown they bring people over to have a good time you know? I said I don't like doors either. So I fixed sliding doors so that whenever you came into the house and if and if the den looked like hell which they will sometimes you can slide that door too see? And it'd look like the wall. And you set 'em down in the in the uh living room which a lot of people back in the old days would have called a parlor because it was the the fancy couch. I don't mean fancy in the sense of expensive but you know the rose floral design and this kind of thing you know the kids don't get on it you know? So uh I liked it that way. And from the other side if you were in the den you pull that too it looked just like the uh paneling you know just had a little indention there. Interviewer: {X} 533: And and uh to put the bedrooms back at the back so uh like I said I said well look one of these days I get to be an old man I don't want them over here playing Rod Stewart Records you know? Or whoever the star is you know in nineteen ninety. Uh I don't want to hear him in there ya know raising hell having a big time all night. I said I'm gonna get back here. And we'll insulate this thing and and scoot this room back so that I can go to sleep and they can sit in there and play records all night. Ya know? Or whatever it. Eh. They may be flying airplanes on the floor by the time ya know Whatever they're doing then they can do it. They won't be bugging me. {NW} And so that was the reason that was the reason that it was uh designed like it was and you can see there that the the garage see this is what you're looking at at the front. These had those um pipe-looking things hanging out. Looked like ya know #1 the Spanish fort you know the hacienda type thing. # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. Yeah right. Sure. # 533: Okay and I said well if we ever need to uh to build more onto it we can build back this way or over here and never affect the original look of the house from the front see because you know it looks like garbage when you got a house that you built onto you and you have to use the same brick but the brick it faded and this kind of stuff. {X} That's the that's the reason for that. {NS} And uh this guy came along and said I bet you wouldn't take fifty thousand dollars for it would you? And I said yeah. Interviewer: {NW} 533: And so he's got it and I ain't ya know. But anyway. Interviewer: Are you planning on building? 533: Yes something. Uh it won't be that I have uh I learned a lesson from that I think. Well I like it and and really and lotta lotta cases I wish that I was still in it. Um but I really don't I I want to go back to a to a basic simple dwelling. Ya know and we talk about this oh I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna build something. And it may look like a log cabin on the outside I haven't really decided yet but on the inside there's not gonna be any of this dining room living room den stuff it's gonna be a room. Ya know? Because of the family atmosphere that it creates. See I se- I separated too much here. Ya know of activity. I mean so what if uh if the kids uh are ya know playing ball and picking their nose on the floor sitting over there ya know five feet away from the table when you got ya know Bob Carol and Ted and Alice over and eating a steak with you ya know? I didn't mean that to be ya know {D: the rib} but I mean {NW} Ya know friends. Whoever. Uh because you know they got kids too usually and uh you know what? That adds a lot to it. I mean ya know that's family that's the way I am. There's no point trying to ya know be something else. So anyway the next one I build it'll have uh probably three bedrooms two maybe three bathrooms 'cause I got a boy and a girl and a wife and a me. Ya know you never can get in a bathroom. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: And uh and uh and a two-car garage and uh you know a patio and crap that's that's all you need. Ya know? So anyway that's that's what I'll do next time. Interviewer: {X} 533: Eh. Interviewer: #1 When it comes over. # 533: #2 Oh yeah yeah # I'm sure it will thank you. Interviewer: Okay we can get into #1 those. # 533: #2 Did you find any # words there that I use funny? Interviewer: I was just no I was just jotting down some things. 533: I saw that greasy now Interviewer: #1 Right. That's pronunciation. # 533: #2 Greasy, you know? # I had a friend. We used to call him greasy. Ya know? Interviewer: {NW} Okay. We can uh start these uh urban questions now. 533: #1 Okay. Right. # Interviewer: #2 I was telling you about. # Some of these that have to do with a particular city probably won't apply. in a place uh the size of Houston but I just want to ask them for the record. 533: Okay. Sure. Interviewer: Okay. Do people around here refer to sections of the town like North North Houston North side anything like that? 533: They're they're getting to a little bit of that now with uh with ya know new new editions. Branch banks you know the North Gate Branch. This kind of thing you know and uh But mostly it's not North Houston and South Houston or West Whitton. Around here it's mostly I live South of town. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Or North of town. Interviewer: Right. 533: Ya know or out West of town. Or out East of town. I don't know why but around here it's still up North down South out West and out East. Interviewer: Right. 533: And um that's uh I guess maybe that answers it there is. Interviewer: Okay. What about uh are there neighborhoods in Houston that you can identify? uh as wealthy? 533: #1 Sure. Mm-hmm. # Interviewer: #2 Or less well-to-do? # 533: Sure. Uh we've gotten away from uh from talking about the quarters. Ya know. If you'll pardon the French uh you know I mean back in the old days there was nigger quarters. Ya know? And that's where the black people in town lived. I mean you you know that's where they lived. And of course you know we've upgraded a lot of that. And um there's about three sections uh I mean uh well there's a there's a part of town uh nice housing area uh that a lot of black people live in in the South East part of Houston There's also uh must be twenty-five or thirty new houses. that's uh primarily black. Uh North East of town and then one Northwest. Ya know I say Northwest of town. I mean it's in town but it's in the Northeast quadrant or whatever you know. And one uh down around the middle school down in there. So you know it's it's really not as as divided up as it once was whenever it was ya know uh the quarters. Interviewer: Yeah. I see. Did you say that one area you could identify as well-to-do black? 533: No just well-to-do. Interviewer: Just well. 533: And then some black yeah right. Interviewer: Is there anything like that well-to-do black area? 533: Well uh not really uh A lot of the blacks around here are uh ya know factory workers and all so I mean they're ya know on par as far as uh standard of living with uh a lot of other people now. Uh I was telling you about that song and I don't even remember if it was on tape or not ya know about the why don't we get black together a lot of people get galled if you'll try to figure that one out. It galls me Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: and it galls a lot of people that uh you know some of these um and there's whites that do the same thing But they you know they work in a factory you know. Basic minimum wage Barely making anything you know hundred and twenty-five thirty bucks a week Uh but uh ya know they got house full of younguns. And um They uh the wife draws welfare. The kids get free school lunches. Uh they have a government subsidy house wherein they pay a certain percent of their income for the house payment you know for a hundred and ten years. {NW} I know someone's got a house their payment runs eighteen twenty-two thirty bucks a month you know this kind of stuff. They get assistance from the federal government on their light uh their power bills because you know the power bill is inflation area and nobody can pay it. Uh they also get food stamps. From the welfare department to buy their food and and in many cases uh I'll make a good salary uh here but uh above average for this area. Well above average but uh you go to a grocery store and you see some of these particular groups that I'm speaking of now uh with you know steaks upon steaks upon steaks you know and just gobs of great foods coming out of there you know and and I got the bare minimums. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: You know and uh I know surely that I must uh think more of my family than they do of theirs because I I try to ya know I spend more time with them and not out in the street. But anyway this uh Interviewer: {X} 533: So Interviewer: Galled is a good adjective. 533: Yeah well it does. It just galls hell out of me if you ya know pardon the French uh but that happens. And this is the same people that I was talking about on taxes awhile ago they ya know Interviewer: Yeah. 533: They're they're not paying uh their fair share of taxes and you know they they ride around they keep their Cadillacs clean and me I gotta you know uh a Grand Prix out there that uh that a black owned before I did. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Ya know and it's it's uh rusty and uh nasty and dirty but it's all I can handle man I I can't I can't do like I used to and go buy you know a new Oldsmobile every year. Um back when I was young and dumb and didn't know the difference. But anyway yeah there are there are sections of town that you can tell um you know uh who lives there what type of what category Interviewer: Right. 533: Uh I'm speaking economically. What economic category of people yes. Interviewer: What about re- uh middle class residential areas? 533: Uh there's several of those. Ya know which you would call your middle income Americans. Uh {NS} Uh several of those areas. And you can tell them too. They're nice they're clean they're they're close to the schools ya know this type thing and um um close to the major areas. Interviewer: Could you name off some streets? 533: Well South Wood Subdivision is what one of them started out to be and uh this one started like in the late fifties and early sixties and um it's um on uh basically Starkville Street which is the same street the school is on. Uh the elementary and the high school Not the middle school it's somewhere else the middle school is now what the used to be the black school you know. But um. And uh You know off Starkville Street down Carol Drive which is where {NS} this house was of mine. Interviewer: Right. 533: Um Woodland Circle. Evans Drive. Uh that area. Interviewer: Any that you would call lower class neighborhoods? 533: Well let's see. Yeah right uh Surveyor Street over ya know right in the midst of the factories and things like this you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Um basically though my thinking on that anybody that lives in a place like that now simply does not want to do any better. As my daddy would say they don't give a damn. Interviewer: I see. 533: They just sorry. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Because uh I mean we got twenty something industries in a town of uh in a county of sixteen thousand people. We must have forty industries. Interviewer: How did uh how did that happen? #1 Why is this area industrialized? # 533: #2 Just uh # Just because it's a good area to be from you know what I mean? Interviewer: Was it a cheap labor force? 533: Well yes that and and plenty of it and a good location see highway fifteen runs from one end of the state to the Gulf coast ya know. Runs from Tennessee line and go highway eight goes from uh the Mississippi River to the Alabama line. We got the good railroads here you know? And it's just a it's just a good area. Interviewer: Right. 533: People are willing to work. {NW} For the most part. {NW} The workforce anyway. Is willing to work. So uh you know people that live in those areas uh they just are destined to be there because they wanna be. They they have no desire Interviewer: Mm. 533: Uh either that or just rather spend their money on something besides living. Interviewer: {NW} Is there a black business district? #1 um # 533: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: Like 533: No. Not really. No I know what you're talking about like in the delta of Mississippi they have uh there's there's lots of different dis- because you have the Chinamans. Over there you know as they call 'em. And you'll have the Chinamans area and then you'll have the um Uh the black area where you know the blacks go and buy and the blacks run the stores you know? And you'll have the the middle class and then you'll also have some places uh some of the Eisenbergs and Rosenbergs and things like that where you know a plantation owner's wife buys her stuff. {NW} But around here you don't have much of that. Uh very few black businesses Uh at all. And even so they're small. There's some independent contractors and things like this around here but you know as far as black business Zero. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: You know or almost nil anyway. Interviewer: We've been talking mostly in terms of black and white. Are there any other ethnic groups at all? 533: Not not right here. In in Northeast Mississippi. Now a few miles South of here you got Choctaw Indians. But that's basically reservation and as I said over in the delta you got you know some you know Chinese. You know and this kind of thing. And uh the further South you go you get you know a few Spaniards. Uh you know a few French. But around here it's basically black and white. Really is. And we get along just fine. Everybody around here gets along fine. The blacks and whites. The only time there's ever a problem is whenever some glory-seeking idiot comes in from somewhere else. And uh you know and creates something. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Uh there's a big smell going on now in the town of Tupelo that started out because two policemen over there were accused of beating a black man while he was in jail. Okay. Well beating a man while he was in jail. First they didn't even tell he was a black. Personally I've got nothing against that. Because if my brother or my daddy gets drunk and goes out somewhere and raises hell which they won't because if they do I'll beat their brains out. But I mean uh if they did and then if somebody took 'em to jail trying to restore order and treat 'em like a human being and they continue to disobey and raise hell slap him naked. And straighten him out. That's what he would do to me. And uh So anyway but anyway this thing started you know and so the blacks started protesting The blacks in Tupelo did not protest. Your big wigs came in from somewhere else. It goes back just like it was in the in the um Civil War days to an extent you got the the scalawags you know all this you know. So the big wigs they come in They drive their Lincoln Continentals down you know from wherever. Or up from wherever. And they start you know poking the fingers and such Hey look what he did to my brother ya know and they get out making speeches and uh and so uh after that they you know they they were saying they were protesting because they wanted the men removed from the police force. Period. Okay? So cool man they moved him from the police force and put him on the fire department. So next they started raising hell about get him off the city pay roll. So they got 'em off the city pay roll. Put the two guys out of business. Put 'em out in the street. I mean I don't know ran 'em off. Whatever they did. So then after they accomplished that the blacks are still protesting and when you say why they say uh it's an economic boycott. We want more blacks hired in this area. Well I challenge you to go look and count it up and it's uh basically thirty percent black area and it'll probably figure better than thirty percent. and plummet. And uh and the people hire blacks every day and just like they do whites there's blacks and whites both and and they they'll work a couple of weeks and quit. Just long enough to draw unemployment. Or to say well I tried to work over at {D: Boy} but I just couldn't do that ya know? And uh they you know just {NS} Like that and so now they're they're protesting uh something else I can't even think now what it is. Interviewer: #1 There was something to do with the Klan you know # 533: #2 But it # Well okay but see. See the Klan see the Klan has to show their face see. To save face you know I mean this is the South ya know and hey whoopee whoopee ya know So the Klan comes in and burns a cross and they have a peaceful meeting but it's not ya know the Klan around here ya know I don't know a soul that's in the Klan. And I know everybody. Around here. And I I do not know one that is in the Klan and I know that if a lot of them that if they were I'd know about it. But I don't know anybody that is specifically I mean any of my you might say neighbors you know I'd say within a in a five or ten mile area that are Klan members but the Klan men that came were from Louisiana. The Imperial Wizard see. He came from Louisiana. And he raises you know hell over here. Ya know? {X} No problem. No trouble. It's a peaceful you know protest. But none the less he's there see and it makes us all look like dummies to the rest of the world. And these uh the black group that came in they're not from here. They are not from here they've come here from somewhere else. And okay these uh and and a lot of it is personal economics. Because For- you know Ford Foundation and people like this give money to to the United League of North Mississippi to promote better racial relationships. Okay? But and I I you know I can't document this and if you ever print this you know I'd be in jail I'm sure. Interviewer: Don't worry 'bout it. 533: But I mean uh we're just talking you know buddies here {NW} These guys are gonna take a lot of that money and go buy that Lincoln Continental with. They're getting all the publicity. You know this one spokesman and I'm not just speaking of the case in Tupelo I'm speaking of any case you wanna talk about of this nature that has happened around here. Okay? One somebody gets all the publicity. Just like {NS} You know? He gets all the publicity. Uh we had it happen uh back in uh the early sixties whenever uh uh a gentleman by the name of {NS} I don't even remember now. I was just a kid then. But anyway he died. Fighting for Civil Rights. Whether or not he was uh shot by a policeman I don't know. But if he was shot by a policeman you can bet that he probably just threw a bomb into somebody's store you know? But anyway his brother {NS} jumped on the bandwagon. And uh you know just uh you know leading the protest marches and all this stuff and all this stuff just kept on and on and all time {NS} was in the news for about seven or eight years there. Every day. Every time you turned around. Well he was elected the first black mayor in Mississippi in the town of Fayette. The city of Fayette which is a uh a Houston would make it look like a you know a big fat zero because ya know it's nothing there. I mean it's it's like Vardaman. Ya know it's maybe six hundred maybe a thousand people okay? Maybe. {NW} And it's in a solid black area. There may be five ten percent whites there. Just roughly guessing. I've driven through it once. But now see {NS} was a nobody at the time that he started riding the waves of fame and protest but now he he's the mayor of the town he owns the shopping center the car wash the service station. I'm talking about the main ones. The hotel. Okay? Interviewer: Goodness gracious. 533: And ya know it's his. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: And not to mention I don't know what else you know. There's something else there. Like a community center. That he owns. See? Okay he owns all of this. He's run for governor. He' has run for representative he's run for this. Because he got all of this free publicity. And this is what I told a black guy a friend of mine the other day. I said you watch I said you and I will live long enough to see these dudes over here do the same thing. See. National exposure man. You couldn't ask for it better. I mean it's just like Ted Kennedy. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Now he don't have to do anything good or bad and even if he does it'll be overlooked because he's a Kennedy and it's the same way with this type thing down here. To me that's all it is because we all can work out our problems by ourselves. Nobody goes out treating anybody bad. Uh I mean your civil rights stop when you infringe upon mine. And uh I mean uh that's just the way I look at it. And uh I I'm I'm a redneck basically. Uh I think that if if Ya know it it caused national they'd called the National Guard in and and uh President Carter probably come down and give us {D: one of them there} speeches like he does ya know? Interviewer: {NW} 533: Jimmy Carter? Interviewer: {NW} 533: Um Interviewer: {NW} 533: But if you just go over there with about five twelve gauge shotguns and just line yourself around the city and shoot out in the crowd and probably hurt nobody but by God everybody'd go home. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And you wouldn't have any more protest. Anyway I believe in an eye for an eye you know Interviewer: Yeah. 533: I think that uh I believe maybe it was Thomas Jefferson that said uh {NW} You'll you'll lose the whole thing whenever you start sacrificing liberty for justice. #1 Yeah # Interviewer: #2 I think the whole system # could stand to help inject #1 some common sense # 533: #2 Yeah. Yeah. # Well I do too ya know we got too many judges up there. And I'm not knocking them just because they're eighty-five years old but I don't think any one man in any capacity except Jesus Christ and he's not a man anymore has uh should be able to say okay ya know everybody in Georgia Alabama and Mississippi you can't do this because I say so The president can't override it the ya know the congress won't or can't Uh I just don't like it. And uh because of things like that are going on around here now we find our find ourselves under a bunch of crazy laws of the civil rights act as enacted in nineteen sixty-four that you know Like Pontiac, Michigan you remember the the fracas they had up there a few years ago about busing? You know and making the blacks go to the white schools and whites go to the black schools? We were sitting down here going God #1 What's the big problem you know? # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: #1 Y'all came down here and laughed at us you know? # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: #1 John Chancellor came to Greenwood, Mississippi you know and made a big deal # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: you know and you came down here and and and and dug up our graveyards #1 Just to make prove point you know? # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # Yeah. 533: And I said hey we're fine and y'all are up there protesting you know? #1 Eh so you know it it was funny and it still is funny you know # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: to think that those people have shoved it right down our epiglottis you know and and uh and then they're up there thinking {X} Interviewer: {NW} {X} 533: That's the only difference. Interviewer: Alright. Uh 533: But uh how in the world did we get off on that? Interviewer: {NW} 533: We got off on #1 the uh ethnic groups # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. Right. # The neighborhood. Well what about the the oldest businesses? Where are they located? 533: Yeah you mean in Houston? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Uh well you know you've had a generation turnover. Uh in the last ten years. But the the oldest businesses are basically located in still in downtown Houston. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Ya know. Downtown. Because we hadn't yet uh mall-ized. Ya know? Larry Gross had a song. We've Been Mall-ed. You know? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Uh well we hadn't been malled around here yet so Interviewer: I see. 533: So it's basically still downtown. Around. On the square. See the courthouse is on the square and they call it the court square. And uh you know kids on on the weekends they ride around the square you know? Interviewer: Right. 533: Um it's kinda like sun riding down the strip you know? And uh so it's basically {X} oriented around downtown. Interviewer: You said that's where the banks are located too? 533: Mm-hmm. Right. Main banks. You're uh drug stores you know this kind of thing. They're all. We got. What? Three corner drug stores in town you know? The old corner drug store. Interviewer: Yeah. {NS} 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Alright. Okay. We'll just let this tape #1 run and we'll call # 533: #2 yeah # Interviewer: {X} 533: #1 Doesn't matter. Don't matter. Don't matter. # Interviewer: #2 {X} # Okay. Uh What uh are there any kind of local landmarks around here with any historical significance? 533: Well there are there are quite a few and for some reason uh we haven't had the foresight or even the hindsight in a lot of situations to uh to captivate an audience with them uh ya know there's Indian mounds around here. Uh Hernando de Soto's men uh when they were coming across uh to discover the Mississippi and all uh you know they spent the night up here you know uh well matter of fact I own a piece of land where some of them are buried you know one that died. You can dig down in the ground you know and find the uh you know the old pieces of metal and stuff. Interviewer: These mounds on private property? 533: Uh there are some mounds on private property around here but the particular ones that I'm talking about now are in the hands of the Federal government on the Natchez Trace Parkway And they're just there's just a sign there see they don't really promote it you know. Uh it's just there. Interviewer: Nothing like you ever been to Moundville, Alabama? 533: Mm-hmm. And uh there's some in Tennessee also. Ya know it's a big deal you know and private enterprise all around you know selling Davy Crockett hats and uh you know arrow heads really you know? Interviewer: {NW} 533: #1 Well but I mean, but that's you know free enterprise # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: that's that's the way it oughta be. Um Andrew Jackson when he was coming to fight the Battle of New Orleans or New Orleans Interviewer: Right 533: as they sing it in the song uh spent the night in a brick hut that was built by the Indians about eight miles through the woods up here. In the northeast. Northeast of where we are right now. And everybody knows it. And there's a natural spring there. Part of the old brick hut see back then the one of the presidents or somebody sent a some men down to teach Indians how to make bricks Interviewer: Hmm. 533: And the uh Chickasaws were the first some of the first ones to catch on and and to do this and they built a place there and that's where Jackson stayed. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And uh you know Eh I could get my boss to run ya up there and show it to you. A matter of fact it was on uh it's you know a few hundred yards behind where he grew up. And uh it's on more or less on the old Natchez Trace. You know the old horse trail Natchez Trace. But uh nobody's really captivated on 'em. Ya know I guess If that answers your question that gives you both a yes and a no I guess. I sound like a political lawyer. Interviewer: {NW} 533: But um Interviewer: Any parks around here? 533: Um. State Parks? No not right in this area. Mm-mm. Interviewer: Say if an airplane were going to make a landing around here. Where would it land? 533: Now we have a we have a nice airport for a small town like Houston. Houston Municipal Airport. Three thousand foot runway. It can handle a Lear jet if the Lear jet uh pilot knows what he's doing real well. Matter of fact one has landed out there before. Uh Tupelo has uh got a pretty fair airport but it's uh they run commercial flights in there but it's a non-controlled field. which well that means that they don't have a control tower. Interviewer: Oh. 533: Eh? Interviewer: Mm. I didn't know that was done. 533: What? #1 Non-controlled field? Yup. Yes sir it sure is. # Interviewer: #2 Non-controlled. # 533: #1 Columbus # Interviewer: #2 Landing directions or anything? # 533: Well yeah you know you can say ya know Tupelo UNICOM Interviewer: #1 UNICOM? # 533: #2 Yeah. You know. When I fly # You know I say Tupelo UNICOM Cessna one six five nine Quebec uh five miles out uh twenty-five hundred feet. Uh you know uh give me an advisory. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And a guy'll come back on {NW} Uh ain't no other planes 'round here. You alright. Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 We using three. You know and uh # But it's modern. I mean you know it's it's modern to the extent that I mean I'm not uh meaning to make it sound like it's backward because it's it's super modern it's beautiful it's nice but it's just a non-controlled air field. It does not have a control tower. Columbus does. But uh you come up here and uh you can call Memphis uh after about ten or fifteen miles be on Memphis radar see. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: You know. So anyway but they can land in Houston I mean you know if you wanted to bring over a bunch of business men. You know no problem. They come in here all the time. Interviewer: I got an airplane story I'll have to tell you. 533: Uh. Interviewer: Uh if you were coming into say uh Jackson, Mississippi 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: What would you probably be traveling on? 533: Uh from here or the Natchez Trace? See the Natchez Trace went straight into Jackson It's uh you know you can catch it about four miles out of town here. Or you can go south thirteen miles and catch it again because it runs south for a while and then east for a while. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: And I mean south awhile and west awhile. But I can go down I go down the Trace. Interviewer: What would you call something like fifty-five? 533: Uh. The interstate. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: The interstate. Interviewer: Yeah. Uh ya know so-and-so went to Memphis. How'd y'all go? On the interstate. Because that's the only one. Right. 533: Um There's a lot of them over here that oughta be. Highway forty-five should be. Highway fifteen should be. It goes from uh you can get on this highway right out here and go to Jackson, Tennessee in two hours. Ya know? Or I can make it a little faster than that. But ya know I'm not supposed to. Uh and it runs to Gulfport, Mississippi. Hell it oughta be a thoroughfare it oughta be a four-lane you know? And it would be parallel to fifty-five. Take some of the load off that. Highway eight runs from the Alabama line to the Mississippi River. It you know really uh the only other one uh you got you know twenty down around Jackson you know and you got forty-nine at Vicks uh Pattysburg and fifty-nine at Meridian and things like this but around here it's the interstate you know? Fifty-five that's what you're talking about. Interviewer: You ever hear people say superhighway? 533: No. Or turnpike. No. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Never do. I heard an old black lady one time call highway eight interstate eight. You know Interviewer: {NW} Whatever. 533: Ya know because I thought interstate was a four-lane ya know? Interviewer: Right. 533: There was an old guy and his name was Eddie Conettus and uh oh his his term was like when uh you know say some federal commissioner or somebody that you knew had gotten to be such a uh high faluter you know that that you never saw him anymore or that you know he wouldn't drive out to your house because you lived on a rock road and he had a Cadillac. He'd say hell he's done gone four-lane. you know. Interviewer: {NW} Right. 533: But he's the only guy I ever heard use that. Interviewer: Sure. What would you call a place along an interstate where you could stop and rest maybe go to the bathroom? 533: Mm. Rest stop. Picnic area. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Is there a 533: Now a a road like that goes out to my mother and daddy's house they live on a on a gravel road. Rock road. dirt road actually is what we call it. Live on a dirt road. Uh but For instance the the road between here and Thorn is called a blacktop. It's a blacktop road. Actually what it is it's a paved road you know. It looks just like a highway only it's uh what they call actually uh the the legal definition is a low road. In other words a low weight limit on it ya know. Uh you know uh you can't not what you would call commercial. That's a farm-to-market road. That would be the term. That they'd use. You know. Everywhere in the southeast. Interviewer: Right. 533: Farm-to-market road. But uh we call it blacktop road. You know. We used to ride our bikes and mom would holler don't y'all get out on the blacktop. Ya know? Interviewer: Are there places in Mississippi when you cross the state line there may be a place where you could stop. Get tourist information. 533: #1 No. No. # Interviewer: #2 That kind of thing. # 533: Mm-mm. No sir. Uh there's uh usually a sign and one picnic table and a garbage can. You know it says welcome to Mississippi. Mississippi welcomes you. You know uh Alabama's not much different. They got one that says George Wallace smiling up there you know it says George Wallace welcomes you to Alabama. Interviewer: {X} 533: I think George Wallace is a great man. He's uh he he's matured a lot. And um he's a good politician. #1 You feel like # Interviewer: #2 I was wondering if he was gonna run for senator. # 533: Uh you know what he could have done it would really it would have turned a lot of wheels I was thinking maybe and really in the back of my mind hoping that he would uh appoint himself to fill that unexpired term which would make Jere Beasley governor and save him a lot of sweat. and all of this running see it'll make him a shoo-in for the you know. But anyway that's that's in another statement. Interviewer: Think he's already pointed out why. 533: Uh right uh-huh right well that's I guess kind of a courtesy. You know she wanted it. He more or less had to. Interviewer: What so you don't have things #1 signs? # 533: #2 No. Tourist information center? # No. Interviewer: Do you ever hear it called a welcome station? 533: Only in Texas. {NW} Uh Tennessee has uh Tennessee information. Ya know. Whenever you cross a line there they got 'em you know? But around here? No. Interviewer: Okay. What about the things that're painted right down the middle of the road to keep you in your own lane? 533: Stripes. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Center stripe. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Now say I'm on an #1 interstate # 533: #2 or yellow line. # Interviewer: Yellow line? 533: Yeah. {NW} Don't get across the yellow line. Interviewer: Do not cross the line right? The center line? #1 Or whatever. # 533: #2 Yeah. Yeah. # Interviewer: What about say on the interstate when you've got uh traffic flowing in both directions? Maybe you've got oh uh concrete sort of thing in the middle or grass or some sort of metal? #1 Steel? What would you call that sort of thing? # 533: #2 Mm. # Interviewer: #1 Right smack # 533: #2 What the uh part in the middle? # Uh median. Ya know. Um Like I said around here people weren't associated with that kind of thing. For you know median you just saw it on the sign said well that's a median you know? Interviewer: Uh-huh. 533: Um Boulevard never used around here. You know the word boulevard. Interviewer: Does that mean anything at all to you? 533: Well it does uh since uh you know in my lifetime I've been to New Orleans I've been to Hollywood I've seen what a boulevard is you know uh But you know I just done call it a street hell it's a street I mean you know uh Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Um Interviewer: What exactly is a boulevard in uh 533: #1 Oh to my my conception of a boulevard? # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. Yeah. # 533: A wide street with something in the middle. You know what I mean? Uh Interviewer: Sure. 533: You know like a What's the street? Well St. Charles. New Orleans. You know they got the trolley in the middle. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And to me uh that's that was a boulevard. You know something in the middle. A lot of times it's dressed up a little bit. Interviewer: Well say if you were driving along the interstate and you have to get some gas or something like that what do you call the thing that you get off the interstate on? Auxiliary: By golly! Interviewer: You swing off #1 to the right. # 533: #2 Oh exit? # Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Uh just you know an exit. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: A lot of people call it ramps. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Off-ramps. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: That's a that's a little bit more four-lane term I guess. Interviewer: Okay. 533: {X} Interviewer: And what about getting back on? 533: Just entrance. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Okay. Um are there any streets in town that you can only get on or get off in a particular place? Uh that traffic flows only one direction down? 533: No. No. {NS} Uh because of the fact that eight and fifteen are two major thoroughfares and they cross in downtown Houston they they pretty well keep traffic flowing in all directions see because because of that. Now Calhoun City {NW} and Bruce, Mississippi is two cities two towns over in Calhoun County on their court square you can only go one direction. You come up you know and there's a stop sign and you gotta go all the way around if you're coming to the store right here on you left see. Interviewer: Right. 533: That's crazy. {NW} Interviewer: What are the main streets in town? Well highway fifteen is uh Jackson Street. North Jackson and South Jackson and the north and south designation starts at highway eight which is Madison. Mm-hmm. 533: You know it goes east and west and fifteen goes or Jackson goes you know north and south Interviewer: Yeah. 533: And uh they're uh basically around here it's you know uh Jackson and Madison are the two main drags. You got Jefferson and Monroe. Uh then on down you got Huddleston. I don't know where they got that. He wasn't a president. And uh Pontotoc Street. Um then on out now that we've expanded you've got Westpoint Road. Uh Old Highway Three Eighty-Nine South. You know. Which even before that was Old Highway Fifteen South. Interviewer: Mm. 533: And that's a shortcut to Westpoint. Old Highway Eight uh runs out through the country. They call it Aberdeen Road. Because used to that was the way you went to Aberdeen. Um It's a. But Jackson and Madison are your main your main drags. Interviewer: Uh. 533: And Jefferson. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. What about some of the streets in your neighborhood? 533: Uh what do you mean the names of them? Interviewer: Sure. 533: Well you know there's typical stuff. Walker Drive. Uh Carol Drive uh. Woodland Circle. Um Evans Drive. You've got uh Bell Fountain Street. You know things like this. Just typical stuff. And the other the other residential areas uh it's about the same way. You know. You got Oak Lane drive. Meadow Lane. Um Hillcrest Drive. Susan Drive. Which was named after uh the guy that owned the land originally. His daughter no doubt. Interviewer: Right. 533: And uh you just you don't have any uh Escatawpa Boulevards. Or anything like that around here you know. Stone Mountain Road. Interviewer: Right. I doubt if you have a place like this around here but in some towns uh a place you have a railroad you wanna cross. 533: Mm. Interviewer: So maybe you have the tracks going over the streets so you could go right on through. Did you ever heard that called anything in particular? 533: Trestle. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Mm-hmm. Trestle. Uh {C: tape distorted} The uh railroad trestle was usually um around here it's like a bridge. The railroad {C: tape distorted} you know is a bridge in itself. You know and it goes over a creek or something you know. {C: tape distorted} We used to play down around {C: tape distorted} you know the trestle. {C: tape distorted} Interviewer: Right. Does overpass underpass? 533: #1 Uh underpass # Interviewer: #2 uh mean # Interviewer: How're we doing here. 533: Hey test one two three four five six seven eight nine One two three four {X} It does that sometimes. I don't know why. But it some of these mics pick up a little Interviewer: Okay well we were you were distinguishing for me yesterday between 533: Hold on a second. Yeah. {X} Month or two ago and he told me that whenever he was a kid in grammar school that word was difficulties {C: pronunciation} Interviewer: You mean difficulties? 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Difficulties. 533: Mm-hmm Difficulties. {C: pronunciation} And instead of English they studied elocution. Interviewer: Ah. 533: You know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: So you know a lot of times we we use words like it around here you know listen hey you having some kind of diff- difficulty {C: pronunciation} you know? Interviewer: Right. {NW} Well my grandmother says that you know severe pain down here you call that an attack of. If you have your appendix out you might have an attack of. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Oh you know. Sure if somebody had their appendix out they might have had an attack of? 533: Appendicitis. Interviewer: Sure. 533: Oh yeah. Interviewer: My grandmother said it was used to be quite normal. Quite uh common to call it pronounce it appendicitis. #1 You ever heard of that? # 533: #2 Mm. No. # Where was she from though? Interviewer: Alabama. 533: Yeah? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Everything's different in Alabama though. Interviewer: {NW} 533: It's a nice night for a {X} #1 You know? # Interviewer: #2 Right. Okay. # 533: Anyway what what were we doing? Interviewer: You were distinguishing between overpass underpass and viaduct. 533: Oh yeah. Well like I like I was saying. Around here you know you tell a guy if he says where's the uh Chevrolet dealership you say well you go down to the to the stoplight. Well they say red light. Go down to the red light. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Uh you know it's also green and yellow but everybody calls it a red light. You go to the red light. Intersection eight and fifteen and uh go under one more red light. Then you'll go past. You'll go under the underpass. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And uh that's that's what it is around here. It's an underpass. Viaducts is not used that much. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: In news stories it might be but uh Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Uh kinda like a communique you know people wouldn't know what you were talking about You know if you's at a news conference uh it'd be different you know? Interviewer: Right. True. 533: Press release. Interviewer: Okay. We're talking about driving and cars in general. Could you tell me about some different types of parking that you do with a car? 533: Well uh basically just a {NW} parallel parking. You know and um and I don't even know what you would call the other regular parking. Pull in and park next to the curb you know? Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: #1 Does that all. With the curb right. Mm-hmm. # Interviewer: #2 So parking with the curb where you parked would be parallel. # 533: Right. Interviewer: Say in a shopping center where the stripes are kind of set at an #1 angle? # 533: #2 mm-hmm # Interviewer: Have you ever heard any name for that kind of parking? Where you just have to swing it in. 533: #1 No. # Interviewer: #2 Not straight on? # 533: Yeah I know what you're talking about. Where they if you're driving this way they're pointing this way? No. Interviewer: Angle parking or 533: No. Never had a name. Just just parking place. Interviewer: Mm. Okay. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: What about perpendicular with the curb? You just come right on in. Any particular name for 533: No. I've I've never had the occasion to park that way. No. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Okay. Let's say uh a place maybe in a larger town where you could park your car uh for a fee. You usually have to go up several levels 533: Oh yeah. Interviewer: leave it there. 533: Uh just a parking lot. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Even though it's a building? 533: Right. Interviewer: Multi-level. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Ever heard parking deck or ramp or 533: #1 No. Mm-mm. # Interviewer: #2 garage? # 533: Other than when I read it on the sign you know. Deck three. This kind of thing. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Uh Interviewer: Okay. Uh what would you call a a a very large office building? In a city? Maybe like Jackson or Nashville. Some place like that. One extremely tall. Anything in general? 533: Well there's not enough of of that type thing uh in this neck of the woods to use the word skyscraper so it's just generally you know an office building. The Sillers Building the the Jefferson building you know the Wilson building. This kind of thing. Interviewer: Yeah. Would you ever call a very large apartment building a skyscraper? 533: No. I don't think so. I when I think of sky scrapers I think of New York you know. Interviewer: Right. 533: Um Hollywood really doesn't have I mean uh Los Angeles doesn't have that many Interviewer: Right. 533: sky scrapers. Now Dallas you know Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: But but still that {NW} that's uh Interviewer: Not common. 533: Not not common. Not a common word. Interviewer: Yeah. Do you have any kind of general name for a very large apartment building? 533: Well uh Condominium. Everybody I think pretty much knows what that is. Um. Condominium uh in a sense. But to give you an idea. I know these two old gentlemen and one of 'em had never been out of the c- one of them's really not that old I mean uh Maurice was. They live in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. He's about sixty now. But for a long time he'd never been out of the county you know. And he and this guy named {B} who had a son named {B} but anyway Interviewer: Oh no. 533: Uh yeah. And everybody just called him Hickey. Uh hey Hickey. Well anyway #1 they they were # Interviewer: #2 Thought they were girls. # 533: Yeah right? No they were too tall and ugly. But uh they uh these two gentlemen were going to um going to Jackson Mississippi one time and I the best I remember it was to see a friend of theirs that was in the hospital or something you know and so they got on the road and took out you know driving about twenty-five miles an hour you know. Took 'em all day long and all this kind of thing and they'd never been anywhere and neither one of them had ever been there. And so they had you know rode and rode and rode. And finally one of them said by golly I think we done passed Jackson. You know well anyway so there was this little black kid on the road about fifteen years old you know. They pulled over and stopped and you know rolled down the window and said hey boy you tell us where Jackson's at. He said yes sir say it'd be about thirty-five mile back yonder way you done gone past it. Interviewer: {NW} 533: And he looked out he looked across the car and he said hell I told you we done went past Jackson I told you I saw the Empire State Building. Interviewer: {NW} 533: #1 You know. And they were serious man just just serious as cancer. Yeah. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # Oh that's great. 533: But uh you know apartment building. Office building. You know parking lot uh we probably leave the I-N-G off parking lot. You know. Parking lot. But um basically that's it you know uh Interviewer: What about high rise? 533: No. Interviewer: Don't use that. 533: Mm-mm. Interviewer: Okay. Yeah. A passageway between office buildings downtown you just call that 533: Alley. An alley. Interviewer: And what about a place in town maybe where a building's been demolished or burned and nothing's uh replaced it? 533: Uh just a vacant lot. Interviewer: Sure. 533: Mm-hmm. Vacant lot. Interviewer: Could you have something like that in a residential area? maybe a place where nothing's ever been built? 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Where kids might play? 533: Yeah. Still considered just a vacant lot. Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. Say if you were in a public building like the courthouse and you were thirsty. You wanted a drink of water? 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: You would get that where? 533: The water fountain. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Would you call it the same thing if it were out in the open? Like in a park? 533: Oh yeah. Mm-hmm. Same thing. Interviewer: Okay. Uh what about some different names in general for as many kinds of cars and trucks that you know about? Nothing specific like Ford or Chevrolet but 533: You know like sizes? Interviewer: Yeah. or 533: You know like flatbed. Half-tons. Mm-hmm. Uh Four-bys. Stuff like that? Um. Generally. Probably uh some areas of the state are are of this state are more influenced by uh national advertising. You know than than what you might think. Uh some of your older people would use words like you know uh four-bys and stuff like that. But you know it's four wheel drive. You know. Or well of course a four-by or a six-by is you know a big truck you know. Like a national guard thing. Interviewer: Four-by? 533: Uh you know a four Interviewer: Four wheel drive? I'm not familiar with that term. 533: Well uh it that has been used you know. In other words you know a four-by-four. You know some people call 'em that. But uh generally I think that term uh like a four-by or a six-by uh deals with you know like I said like an army vehicle. You know with uh front wheel drive you know six wheels you know to haul soldiers. Uh a flatbed would be um for instance a pickup or well a little bit bigger than a pickup like a ton-sized truck. What they call a ton truck. With just a flat bed. With just a plank bed that you would haul your potatoes or whatever on you know or your hay. You wouldn't have any side planks or frame on the on the back part you know? And uh Uh one with uh a beam bed on it you know uh uh a metal bed to haul your soy beans to the mill that'd just be called a bean truck. You know. If you say bean truck everybody knows what you're talking about. Uh a bob truck um is a is another thing. Uh a lot of people call a bob truck a like a tractor. You know a tractor trailer rig without the trailer. You know {X} driving a bob truck. Bobbed truck. Runaround bobtail. And uh I I guess that's about all you know of course there's jeeps and things like that but Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know? Interviewer: What about these uh little trucks that you see more of nowadays that the drugstore or some sort of they might use it 533: Mm. Like a delivery truck. Yeah. This this'd be a delivery truck. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You wouldn't call it a courier or anything like that I don't believe or a dray. Just a uh dray would actually be what it is you know in technical terms but uh in a sense. But um just a delivery truck. Delivery wagon. Interviewer: Sayings that are pretty popular {NS} 533: Watch the chair. {NW} Interviewer: Yeah. That uh. Well people have them customized. They 533: Mm. Yeah. Like a van? Interviewer: Sure. 533: Yeah. Just a van. You know. Bobby Lee got him a new van. No kidding. What's it look like? You know well it cost fourteen thousand dollars so you know it's pretty sharp you know. Interviewer: Yeah right. 533: Ridiculous. Interviewer: Is there any difference between a van and a panel truck? 533: Well panel truck was the old connotation. I used to call 'em panel trucks. But that was uh back when uh Chevrolet and G-M-C used to make well Ford made some too back in fifty-three and fifty-four you know. And um um it was the same idea as a van. You know of course it would the roof uh the ceiling had no uh headliner in it you know. It was just a big hot hole. Interviewer: Mm. 533: It was hell to ride in too I tell ya. Uh my uncle had one. It was just his old panel wagon. You know. Panel truck. Panel wagon. And uh. No. I don't think uh anybody would call it a panel truck anymore. I think if you said panel truck now uh I doubt if anybody'd even know what you're talking about. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Now ten years ago they would have. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: But you know not now. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Okay. What about general types of cars? Like maybe according to the how many doors it has or 533: Well uh it's I think now uh I mean just in my association out uh talking to people you know it's four door. You know uh not so much as who I believe my wife asked me what a sedan was Interviewer: Yeah. 533: the other day. Uh somebody was advertising something like uh you know they put all these garbage advertisements you know buy a a Grenada Ford. You know sedan model of this that and the other for forty-two hundred dollars you know? You go to the Ford place down here and it's seventy-three hundred you know because they happen to put hubcaps wheels and wind shields on it you know? Wipers and seats. But anyway um she said uh and sh- my wife is very plain spoken she'll just come right out and say What the hell is a sedan anyway? You know she just uh she talks real soft you can't hardly hear her. And I got to trying to explain what a sedan was and I've realized that maybe I wasn't really sure that I knew. But uh it's a four door. It we don't talk about hard tops so much anymore. Um you know the hard top model. The no post in the window model you know? Interviewer: Right. 533: It's um it's a four door Ford. Or a four door Chevy or uh you know an Olds or whatever. You know. Interviewer: Mm. Yeah. 533: And uh Interviewer: You ever see the type of car that you could uh you know lift the top all the way back? 533: Um yeah let me see what you're not talking about a convertible you're talking about like uh that Ford Crown Victoria they had in fifty-seven that had the hard top on it but you could take that hard top off. Is that what you're talking about? Interviewer: I was really talking about a convertible. 533: Oh a convertible? Yeah. Interviewer: Sounds interesting. 533: Oh. #1 Yeah you know uh. # Interviewer: #2 {X} # convertible crown? 533: Yeah it was it was a hard hard top convertible is what it was. It had a real um hard sh- hard shell top on it kinda like a Corvette but you could take that top off you know. And I believe it was a Ford Crown Victoria. Something and other. Funky color. It was a pea green and black you know. That kind of stuff. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: They made a couple in fifty-eight and a very few in fifty-nine. Um that had a name too but I can't remember. For the life of me I don't know what {NW} Interviewer: Well what about a car that's uh good for large families? #1 It has the tailgate. # 533: #2 Mm. # Now wagon. Station wagon. Interviewer: Have you ever heard any slang names? Or joking uh derogatory names for very large uh expensive maybe pretentious automobiles? 533: Uh douche wagon. You mean something like that you know? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Uh Interviewer: Why would it be called that? 533: Be- well I think basically because it uh I heard that from a guy in Nebraska. Never heard that around here. I have a friend of mine. Nebraskan. And um you know it's got everything in it but a douche bag. You know? That was his you know Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 calling it the douche wagon. Uh # Interviewer: {NW} 533: Uh not really. You know just big shots. Big shot cars and things like that. #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 Anything that # maybe that had anything to do with the energy crisis the fact those things burn a lot of gas? 533: Oh hog. Gas hog. You know. Sweat hog. Uh sweat hog though is when there's no air conditioner. Interviewer: Right. 533: Uh but you know. Gas hog. Gas drinking. You know. Interviewer: Pimp mobile. 533: Well you don't hear that too much. You might hear it in uh you know some circles but not too much. But that's uh there's a lot of pimp mobiles around when you get to talking about the caddies with the uh or the deuce and a quarters. Which is a Buick electric two twenty-five for all you dealers out there. uh You know with the extra heavy padded uh what do you call it vinyl top you know and uh coon tails hanging from it you know and Interviewer: White sidewalls. 533: You know the yeah the fourteen inch white sidewall tires you can't see the hubcaps. Interviewer: {NW} 533: And you know fourteen antennas hanging off of it you know and no radio whatsoever in it. #1 You know. # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Okay. Say if uh you were flying in to to Jackson. What about some transportation that you might get from the airport? 533: You'd have to get a lease car. um Rent a car. Lease car. Probably probably rent a car. Interviewer: Any kind of transportation that the airport might provide? 533: Well uh limousine service. Shuttle service. Uh which a lot of people call scuttle service {D: by the time they bounce there} Interviewer: Right. 533: But uh but a limousine service. And uh the first time I ever used a limousine service I thought you know there's limousine service available to the uh Conrad Hilton you know? And I thought damn I'm not gonna ride a limousine. It costs fifty bucks. You know? Interviewer: Uh-huh. 533: But um no I'm sorry wasn't in {NW} Conrad Hilton it was in uh uh Hollywood Florida but that's where I thought you know because all these people getting off you know they had on forty-nine ninety-five neck ties you know? And there I was and uh course I was doing my best to look the part but um when I they said limousine I thought jeez you know. You know Aldo Moro is gonna come by and pick us up you know? Uh but it was a it was a panel wagon I mean you know it was a van and you know we got in there and {NW} sound Interviewer: Right. 533: But uh limousine service. You know. Uh I thought you were talking about you know if if you had to land in Jackson and drive to Vicksburg or something like that you know. Interviewer: Mm. 533: Be more or less of a rental car. Interviewer: Okay. What about kinds of uh. Do you have any public transportation here like that? 533: No. Not here. Um they have gotten some in some parts. Tupelo and over there have the Lee county transit authority but uh uh Jackson is not even uh as heavy with it as places like Memphis you know. City bus lines and things like this you know. Just catch a bus. {C: thump} Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. I have some parts of a car. What would you call the {NW} where you have all the instruments of your car like speedometer uh #1 Clock. Whatever else. # 533: #2 Well # instrument panel's probably the right word. But it's a dashboard. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Dashboard. You got a dashboard and a floor board. Now a lot of this stuff uh you won't find out of a lot of people around here. More as much as you will me because like I said it uh lot of people you know grew up closer to town than I did but it's a dashboard and a floorboard. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Uh my dad used to tell me keep your feet off the dashboard. Interviewer: #1 Right. # 533: #2 You know. # And if I say dashboard now my kids get to looking for a plank in the floor you know? uh Interviewer: What about the thing usually all the way up on the right that uh has a little latch or lock? Put things in it? 533: Oh. Interviewer: Maps or #1 something # 533: #2 car pocket. # Interviewer: Mm. 533: Glove compartment. Interviewer: You ever keep gloves in it? 533: No. Interviewer: Okay. 533: I never owned but one pair of gloves. And that's when I had a dune buggy you know? Interviewer: Right. 533: Um {NS} car pocket. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And uh the part that you put the spare tire in back there where it came from I don't know but a lot of people call that a turtle. Interviewer: A turtle? 533: A turtle in the turtle of the car. Interviewer: Heard it called a cooter hole? 533: No. Never heard it called a cooter hole. Heard of Cooter Brown. Interviewer: A what? 533: Cooter Brown. You know Drunken Cooter Brown. It's just an old saying you know. Interviewer: Ah. 533: I saw Jane Lee uptown and someone's drunker than Cooter Brown you know Interviewer: {NW} 533: Uh Interviewer: {X} get drunk? 533: Yeah just slap-legged knee-slapping you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Rubber-legged. Interviewer: Right. 533: But uh yeah they call that a turtle. Interviewer: Alright. 533: Man you know it's a trunk. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Uh li- what a what #1 what do the other people # Interviewer: #2 There's something going there because # cooter hole a lot of people use the word cooter to mean turtle. 533: {X} I don't know. No I we called it a turtle until I was you know half-grown. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah keep it in the turtle of the car. And everybody knew what you was talking about you know? And I got to thinking one day why why are you calling it a turtle? I guess because it's the part that's always behind. You know dragging along behind. But a trunk. Interviewer: Yeah. Okay. 533: Uh-huh. Interviewer: What about the thing that you press down to make the car go faster? 533: Gas pedal. Accelerator. But gas pedal basically. Interviewer: And the thing up on the column that you use to change gears? 533: Shift. Interviewer: Would it make any difference what you called it if it were say in the floor 533: Mm not really. Just uh might change the connotation a little bit. Stick you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Move the stick to the D position. But um shift lever. Interviewer: Okay. What about these things. I don't know if you have any in town but sometimes around parking lots. These little elevated things that force you to slow down otherwise you'll shake 533: Speed breakers. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah we used to have a lot of fun taking those up. Interviewer: Oh really? 533: Yeah you know. Interviewer: You mean for a prank? 533: Uh well just because uh well this was back in the days when I was sixteen or seventeen. Paying for my own car. Paying the insurance. Trying to keep the wheels lined. You know and the tires on it that I spun off. People don't peel off like they used to and squeal off like they used to. You know? For good reason. I was looking at a brand new seventy-eight uh Ranchero the other day with a four barrel and a four hundred engine. Sucker was some kinda tough. Took it out on the road stomped it all the way to the floor and it ain't thrown up a rock yet. Interviewer: Well. 533: And I went down to the used car place and they had a seventy-one Ranchero with a three-fifty-one uh Cleveland engine. And no it wasn't a Cleveland. It was a Windsor. Which ain't supposed to be as hot as the Cleveland. Took it out on the same road mashed it to the floor and it didn't quit spinning until it came out of gear and went into seventy miles an hour you know? So but you know people don't peel off like they used to but anyway I was I was um you know paying for my own car and you you go around uh the mug which is the local hangout you know like the A and W that Jesse Winchester sings about. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah right you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: And uh uh you hit a speed breaker. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: You know? Speed. And it {C: thump} just. It'll knock your wheels out of line. Especially you know in the days of mag wheels and Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: chrome reverses and baby moons. It'll knock your baby moons off. Interviewer: {NW} 533: And it would uh if you hit it hard enough it'd knock your fender skirts off. Or drag your mud flaps off and this kind of thing you know? So yeah you know it's a just might as well go to the house. Interviewer: Sure. 533: And uh so you know we'd arranged for a guy to have a flat and park across that thing and we jack his car up and take a sledgehammer and a and a chisel. And uh or a wedge really. And and knock it loose and load it up in the back of his car and take it home. Interviewer: {NW} 533: You just and right break it up in pieces. Interviewer: Yeah. Public service. 533: Yeah. Speed breakers though. Interviewer: Right okay. What about this thing uh that I had around here that I had wrapped around my microphone you know well this thing? 533: #1 What? # Interviewer: #2 Right here? What would you call # 533: Oh. Rubber band. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Uh. Interviewer: What about the little metal wire thing that you use to hold papers? 533: Paper clip. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: {D: Mm-hmm.} Interviewer: You ever heard that called anything else? 533: Mm. Possibly but I have Interviewer: Gem clip? 533: No. Interviewer: {X} Okay. Alright uh Again talking about vehicles. What about some different kinds of vehicles used by the fire department and the police department? 533: I just. It's a firetruck. Firetruck. Interviewer: That's just a general term 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: for any kind? 533: It's a firetruck. Interviewer: Mm. 533: Uh you know if you're out on a highway and you know you're telling somebody about it. It's an emergency vehicle. You know? Interviewer: Hmm. Yeah. 533: A ten thirty-three you know but {X} It's it's a firetruck. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: The guy that calls on the fire line. That's. We have a volunteer fire department. And it's been cited to be the best in the south. Several times. Interviewer: Here is in {X}? 533: Mm-hmm. And uh some beautiful equipment. Got uh about you know two of the newest best trucks you can buy. A couple of uh well one three quarter ton pickup and a small pickup and a volunteer fire department and the way that works is whenever the fire alarm sounds uh we have uh we have three men on duty at all times. Uh I mean not on duty but they alternate on shifts. Eight hour shifts you know. Interviewer: Right. 533: And uh he's the fire marshal. Or whatever you wanna call it of the town. You know. The fire chief. And he'll answer the fire phone and he'll punch a little button and it'll make a recording and it says you know and this is the way he talks. There's a car on fire. Down there by the west end grocery store. And it it just repeats you know. It's a repeating tape. And everybody that's on the volunteer fire department their phone rings. Uh a real quick little {NW} And you answer it and this thing is constantly telling you in case you pick up in the middle of it or something you know. It's uh car on fire you know John Smith's house. And uh so everybody just hops in their vehicles. Turns on their red lights. And you know drives to John Smith's house. Hops in their you know their hot suit. Puts their boots on and goes in there and fights the fire. You know. Because by that time the trucks are already there. You know and they hook up. You know it's fantastic. It's amazing. Interviewer: Sounds like it. 533: But uh it's a it's a firetruck. And a lot of people that's the way of saying it. Interviewer: So you don't make a distinction say if it's a truck that pumps water or 533: #1 No. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. # Interviewer: #2 or one that has ladders? # You don't say pumper truck? 533: No. It's a. If you see it coming it's a firetruck. Interviewer: Or hook and ladder? 533: No. Interviewer: Have you ever seen the type that's designed to fight fires in uh 533: In buildings? Yes. Right. Well well one of these one of these is you know you can you can hook the boom and bucket to it. Yeah. Well it's just a Interviewer: Just a firetruck. 533: Just a firetruck you know? Interviewer: What about snorkels? Are you familiar? 533: Nah. A snorkel to me is what you put on your {NS} face when you go in the water and wanna breathe you know? Interviewer: Okay. 533: Yeah? {NW} Interviewer: Uh what about this type of thing that uh you see going to {D: pump} in a cardiac case? Maybe a van that's wood-paneled? 533: That's just a it's just an ambulance. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Mm-hmm. You know. Interviewer: You have anything like that? 533: Uh we have 'em and uh you know they're they're equipped with everything now uh we have I can't think of the real name of it but it's some type of it's an ambulance service you know and people on duty at all times. And they have all of the C-P-R equipment and everything in there you know uh. But of course you don't need equipment for CPR except two people right? One in some cases. But I mean they have everything in there to to keep you in as good a shape as possible until they get you to the hospital. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: But around here it's just an ambulance. Uh colloquially it's a meat wagon. Bone wagon. You know. But it's it's an ambulance. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Okay. If the fire chief drove to the fire he'd probably drive up in what would you call that? 533: Mm. Nothing in particular. He'd probably be in the firetruck. Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 Yeah. {NW} # He's he's gonna be the first man there you know? Interviewer: Right. Wouldn't have the chief's car? 533: No. Uh-uh. No. Mm-mm. We're we're not that aristocratic. You know whatever. Interviewer: Okay. Just in general what about the cars that the police drive? What would you call that? 533: That's police car. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Mm. Interviewer: Okay. Anything like cruiser or 533: Nah. Interviewer: Oh. That sort of thing. 533: Nah. Paddy wagon no. It's just a just a police car. Interviewer: The paddy wagon. What is that? 533: Uh well that would be the one you know that that if they had to pick a guy up you know and put him in the. You know you've seen 'em on the TVs you know where they the SWAT team has to bring in a a you know a local idiot you know and they put him in the paddy truck you know so he can't get out. Interviewer: Right. 533: Uh Paddy wagon #1 you know. # Interviewer: #2 Okay. # 533: #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 What about this uh # flying uh vehicle with the rotary blade. What do you call that? 533: Uh that's helicopter. Interviewer: Any other names? Besides 533: #1 Well # Interviewer: #2 helicopter you might use? # 533: Chopper. You know? But basically a helicopter. You know? Actually it's a gyro. Yeah if you wanna be technical. But anyway uh Interviewer: Is that the blade? 533: That's uh you know there's gyrocopters {D: in on this that and the other but it's a} it's a helicopter. You know. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Hoppy clopter I mean everybody's got their own little thing you know but. Interviewer: Right. And you call the man who fights fires that's uh 533: Uh it's fireman you know. Interviewer: Any joking or derogatory terms you've ever heard for firemen? 533: Hmm. No. Interviewer: Okay. What about the man who enforces the law? That's 533: Ah that's the fuzz. You know cop. Interviewer: And when you say fuzz how would you mean that? You mean that jokingly? 533: Yeah that's you know you know you know here comes the fuzz. You know that's just kind of a well you know the old joke is one hippie asks the other you ever been picked up by the fuzz for doing that and he said no but I bet it hurt like hell you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Uh Interviewer: {NW} 533: No that was just. That that that kind of went out with you know pig and fuzz you know and all of that but eh. Pig never did get too big around here because you'd somebody's slap you you know if you said watch out here's the pigs you know? Interviewer: So that was definitely an insulting term? 533: Yeah it was you know. but I don't know. It shouldn't have been. Pig is one of the smartest animals in the world like we discussed about eating out of the slop bucket. You know. Yesterday. Uh but you know the fuzz. The cops. The you know the heat is not really used around here that much you know. But he's a cop. And I always probably figured that was derogatory. You know? Until I heard one say me and this other cop you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: He said it that way and I thought well you know. Not so bad. It's like saying me and another nigger. You know uh. Interviewer: {NW} If you're saying it yourself it's not derogatory you know and uh. Because around here uh There's a there's a good deal and I it's probably the same everywhere. I know in some parts of the country it varies. But there's a lot of uh you know your Anglo-Saxon four letter words you know. Get the damn car out the way you know. And you're just kidding. I mean you know you don't mean it seriously and uh now somebody else say that to you other than a friend you know you probably bop his brains out you know? Clobber him. But uh you know that's that's just part of {X} 533: Yeah it's just a stand up where you know uh teachers used to tell us it's because you you don't have enough brain to think of the real word you wanna use so you substitute that you know. And I said well hell you're probably right. Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 you know. # But uh Interviewer: Yeah. 533: This Interviewer: Since you mentioned it uh used the word of nigger why 533: Yeah. Interviewer: when you used it you said by yourself is it a completely neutral term? 533: Well you know uh it's it's derogatory to a sense. Like uh you know somebody might say redneck. But no I've heard uh you know blacks when they you know fussing with each other. I mean I you can be uptown not often but now and then and you hear a mother say I I'm gonna whoop me some little nigger soon as I get him home. You know? Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And uh and I've heard 'em call each each other you know that. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know? But uh I think it's mostly just a consciousness. You know? And uh that you you wouldn't say nigger you know To a nigger. You know unless you know we're just real close friends but then he'd probably turn around and call you one too you know? Interviewer: Right. 533: Uh and the word honky is not really that offensive you know. But uh Interviewer: For white? 533: Yeah. You know. What the heck? You know? Proud to be an Okie from Muskogee that uh you know uh Interviewer: {X} 533: Uh blacks. You know I mean uh you know when some of them that works here you know we talk and I say {NW} and there's a lot of difference in um in some things like the way they do their funerals and stuff like that you know. A guy dies on Saturday you know they bury him the following Sunday. You know I mean not not this Sunday but I mean eight days away you know? And there's an always an old joke where they um they well they embalm him and put him in a freezer you know and let him lay there. Because the reason for that I guess is to let all the kinfolk that done moved up North rent a car and drive down here and look impressive. See? Uh they do that. You know? Interviewer: They do up these funerals pretty. 533: Oh man yeah they well uh they you know they get together on Saturday night. Look at the body for an hour you know and then get drunk and have a party. {NW} Oh what the hell I mean you know and really you should it According to the Bible it should be a celebration you know? Going on to better things but you know us white folks we have to sit around and squall you know and all of that. And we talk about I'm I'm pretty open pretty realistic about stuff like that and I you know I I say something a lot of people go God don't talk like that I say look when I'm gone I don't care you know I mean put me in a pine box zip it up and chunk me off in a river. I mean I don't really care. I'm not gonna I mean you know I don't need that junk you're throwing away. If I did I'd take it with me. And uh you know my see it doesn't really matter. You know when you're gone you're gone and uh you know. Wherever you're going you're gonna be there. You know pretty fast and uh but you know they you know they tend to play on people's sympathies. Especially in this part of the country you don't have uh you seldom hear of a cremation. I think uh once in the last five years I've heard of somebody you know being cremated but they usually do that somewhere else and uh you know unless you know if you drown or burn or get mutilated bad in an accident they won't uh you know look at the body. But otherwise you know a guy just dies they you know glue him up and fix him up and he looks pretty and he lays there and everybody walks by and sheds a few tears and uh you know yeah that's P-U-R-D-Y. Pretty. {NW} But uh {NW} anyway that's I don't know I like I said I get off on some weird tangents. #1 {D: It's a problem.} # Interviewer: #2 You mentioned # honky. Are there any other joking or insulting terms that blacks might use in reference to the whites that you 533: Well peckerwood used to be one. Uh you know I had a little black guy call me peckerwood one time I you know I just thought peckerwood. Well must be like nigger you know? Uh but not really. Interviewer: Cracker? 533: Nah. Interviewer: Redneck? 533: Yeah redneck. Whitey. I call some blacks redneck. You know? They do something silly you know and I say ah come on redneck. Interviewer: What exactly would you mean by redneck? 533: Uh redneck is uh is a term strangely enough that came from in my in my best ascertainment the word came from somewhere like Virginia. Up in there. You know? Uh where you got you know some definite you know shifts you got some definite changes in population you got you got metro areas and uh and uh you've also got you know out in the country like Waynesboro and Staunton and Stuarts Draft and places like that you know. And uh redneck uh in a sense now is used as a proud you know a proud term like hillbilly you know people are proud to be hillbillies because they know what it's like to eat pork and beans and you know turnip greens and sowbelly and uh yeah I'm proud of the way that I grew up. And I guess everybody is. And uh well we still call people from the North Yankees. People that talk you know you know they have a little {D: brog} you know and they talk like this? Uh they're Yankees. You know they don't know what corn bread is. They think it's cake. Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 You know # they pour molasses on it and uh and uh syrup or something weird. That's a Yankee. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: And uh I don't I don't think that they uh refer to us as rebels. Interviewer: Hmm. 533: Uh necessarily but you know hell they're Yankees and they just can't help it you know? Interviewer: {NW} 533: And uh Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah. But I don't think uh I I can't think of a term that you know that a black would use Interviewer: Okay. 533: You know. Interviewer: What about whites that uh aren't too well off? Maybe haven't had much of a chance at education. But more importantly are kinda lazy. 533: Don't care. Sorry. Yeah sorry. That's not sorry. Like you would be if you stepped on my foot. That's sorry. Interviewer: Sorry as in 533: Yeah just sorry. And uh scum. But basically sorry. Interviewer: You ever hear of white trash around here? Poor white? 533: Uh not so much. Uh because uh well there's a lot of white trash you know in your five story in your five story houses driving four Cadillacs and you know driving sixty miles to the daycare centers you know. Interviewer: So you mean 533: It's a different Interviewer: something to do with it feels moral? 533: Well it's a little bit more moral than it is uh uh you know the fact whether or not he takes a bath three times a day. You know? uh because uh you know that old saying anybody can afford water. You know and uh so the uh the dirty part is really not you know. Now uh nowadays the way I see this thing is uh I mean hell if anybody wants to be clean and look decent they can. And if they don't want to then they're sorry. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Uh it's not a matter of oh we just can't afford it because everybody can afford it I mean you know the people sitting at home doing nothing uh so what if they got ten kids that they have to feed? It's not coming out of their pocket. You know. Like it like it was at one time. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: You know. And even back in the fifties if people just wanted to they could have got commodities. They call 'em then. It was the same thing as welfare. They brought around dried cheese. Dried eggs. You know had peanut butter in a gallon bucket and this kind of thing. But um Interviewer: Is trash a white people's term or blacks be just as likely to use that? 533: {NW} Uh yeah about the same. They they would use it about the same. You know because you know trash is trash. Black or white. Indian. Dago. Chicano. Spic. Interviewer: What's a dago? 533: A dago? {NW} Well hard to say. A lot of people have different ideas of dago. Uh in my opinion it's something like uh uh that that that was created back uh that's what you see on T-V most of the time. Dagos. And we were talking the other day. I said I'm so damn tired of turning on the T-V and all you see is dagos and niggers. You know and I'm not being derogatory because I love basically all people. I don't trust anybody but you know I mean they all have their place in the world. And but what I mean is you know your your people like you know on your Kotter show you know. Yeah. Um Epstein you know. He's a half breed of some sort. Nobody really knows what. It's it's some {X} and maybe a little bit of a you know uh I don't know. Jew. You know he's got some Puerto Rican he's got some uh you know this kind of stuff. He's a dago. And I don't know what. Nece- Interviewer: Would that be a derogatory term for Italian? 533: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah now Charlie {D: Deshara} went to school uh went to college with me and uh he was a dago. {D: But Deshara} that's Italian right? I think so. And uh you know little bitty short stumpy black-haired guy you know? Dark skin big nose you know? And uh if you really wanted just to kill him {D: it's alright} dago shut the door you know. And it's derogatory. It is like calling you nigger. You know? Interviewer: Is a spic Italian or? 533: Uh no a spic would be uh you know like a south of the border. You know. Jerry Ortega. Gerardo Ortega. Hernando uh Alvarez they were spics you know? A chink uh. You know. The Chinese type. It's a difference in the eye formation you know? {NW} Oh yeah. Interviewer: Okay. 533: But anyway you know uh a a dago would be something like a don't ever let anybody hear these tapes I may be calling names they hear. No. Uh you know like {B} Um like a {B} and Charlie's a super guy. Love him. He's a good fellow. But I mean you know that's that's kinda what it is. Um and like you know these these Italians you know. Interviewer: What about uh people from the country? Sometimes when they come into town they might be made fun of. 533: Eh hicks. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah hicks. Interviewer: Do you ever hear anything instead of hick? 533: Uh well it all would amount to about the same thing. Hicks. Hillbillies. Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 533: #2 Yeah. # Interviewer: Country hoosier Do you ever hear 533: Nah country hoosier that's a that's an Oklahoman term I think I best I can figure. Interviewer: What about the word podock does that mean 533: Yeah podock holler. You know that's kinda like plum nearly. You ask a guy where he lives and he don't know you and he say I live plum nearly. Say what do you mean? Well uh plum out of Chickasaw and down near out of Calhoun you #1 know. Something like that. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: Uh yeah podock holler. {NW} That that that's kind of a reference to you know right out there where the Earth fixing to square off and if you go any further without making a U-turn you'll fall off into the {D: ether} you know? Interviewer: Right. 533: Uh but uh yeah podock holler. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: What about a working class white man? What would he call the man who works for? That's his 533: Hmm that's his boss. You know. My boss. Interviewer: Would it be any different for a working class black man? 533: Well not so much is is what you would call a working class now. You know there's none of this master business you know? Mm. Interviewer: Have you ever heard any terms of address blacks would use 533: Oh yeah. Captain. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah. Captain. Yes sir captain. Mm you know I mean I call some of them captain. You know? Um Interviewer: That wouldn't necessarily be some an employer though? 533: Uh not especially. You know you just meet him on the street. You know how you doing Joe? Doing fine captain how are you? You know that's just uh uh I don't know respect joking uh just something to say you know it's like how you doing? You doing all right? Well yeah you know and of course they know you're lying. You're dying of cancer. But I mean you know. It's just something to say. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. What about a child that's born to racially mixed parents? What would you call him or any names you've heard? 533: Well {NW} course bastard I guess would be the term because nobody'd claim him you know? Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: But um. Half-breed. You know. Uh according to how white he was he might be an albino. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Um high yeller. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know if he's real light colored. I don't know where they got high yellow. Uh I mean you're yellow low yellow and high yellow is yellow you know? But you know he's a high yeller. You know? Interviewer: Do you ever hear hear the the term bright used to describe a black that's uh especially light colored skin? 533: Blacks? Yeah they would use that. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: And he's kinda light. You know. You know him. Interviewer: Bright? 533: No. Light more so than bright. You know. They might say he's got bright eyes you know. Bright hair. Instead of you know {NS} red hair but you know I get talking to them sometimes they say hey you know {B} and I say uh well I know Eddie and Joey. See that Steve but he's kind of a light one you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And I almost want to say wonder where he got that light #1 you know? # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: Do like a. Who is {D: Godfry.} {B} Yeah you know they took a bath in milk for a year you know and like they turned white. Interviewer: {NW} 533: You know that? #1 You know? # Interviewer: #2 No. # 533: Yeah he put himself in a cast and all that. Well anyway Interviewer: Whatever. 533: But there's a lot of 'em around that that somehow are getting light. You know there there's some type of formula they're rubbing on. #1 You know? I don't know what it is # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: but I mean it seriously you know that Interviewer: Oh that's weird. 533: It's weird. Interviewer: Well what about 533: Like I keep trying to tell them. Look you don't want to turn white. You're gonna have to start to work. You know. Interviewer: {NW} What about mulatto or quadroon {X} any of that? 533: Nah. I mean I've heard it used in like a you know anthropology or sociology. You know. Discussions. Things like that. But Interviewer: Okay. 533: Yeah but you know {NS} my daddy still don't believe they went to the moon. You know what I mean? So you couldn't talk to him about a quadroon. Interviewer: See this movie that's out now. What's it called. 533: Yeah I saw the uh the advertisement. I told Janie my wife I said I'm gonna have to get daddy to go see that because you know he said well whenever they first went he said son oh he was sitting there ah hell you know kept up letting him smoking his camel reading the paper and I said Daddy don't you believe that? He said son when I was twelve years old I could pay eleven cents and go see flash Gordon walk all over Mars. He said hell if they could do it then they can do it now you know? Interviewer: {NW} 533: So anyway uh Interviewer: Sure. You mentioned the the word bastard. Would you ever use that to mean an illegitimate child? 533: Well uh yeah. You know I mean if I was in a serious discussion with somebody. You know if you get to talking and they say hey do you know about old you know Leroy? Uh and I'd say well I know he's a bastard if that's what you mean. You know that way. But I mean you know uh a guy you know throws a bottle out in your yard you know riding down a road you you hey you bastard you know it's a it's like son of a bitch you know? Interviewer: {NW} 533: Some of these others uh Interviewer: True. 533: Uh your {NS} reverend professor is probably going to get you about this tape huh? But anyway uh you know that's that's a that's a term you know just like any term like that is. Interviewer: Have you ever heard any other terms besides bastard to mean the same thing? 533: No. I don't think so. Interviewer: {X} 533: #1 Nah. # Interviewer: #2 Nah. # {D: child} 533: Nah. Interviewer: {X} 533: Nigger in a woodpile. Interviewer: You're right. 533: That kind of stuff. Yeah. Well that's that's get uh yeah I've heard that used before you know. I've used it myself. I have of course in some cases I use it white man in a woodpile you know just to kind of be funny. Interviewer: Right. 533: Uh and I I'm bad about uh expressions you know. That I guess that I make up myself you know like uh well you about the cutest white girl I ever seen. You know stuff like this. Interviewer: {NW} 533: And uh you know it's you just you just get in the habit of doing that kind of thing. You know just making a making a joke #1 and uh # Interviewer: #2 That's # awfully white of you. 533: Yeah you know. Stuff like that you know. And uh we'll be sitting around here doing something and I'll say boy that's that's the best pot I've seen a white man ride all day you know well I hadn't seen a black man or a green man ride one either but it's just you know it's just an expression. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Or you know hey daddy how's that look? Well pretty good for a white boy. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know and {NW} and I really shouldn't. You know because I find myself doing it you know with three or four blacks sitting around you know and they look around and think {NW} What the hell he be talking about man? And I say hey. You know. Then uh Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Well what about say if a man had a little bit too much to drink and he got uh all binge and nobody would make bail for him. He's probably going to spend the night 533: In a tank. You know. Interviewer: What is a tank? 533: Uh well I think that the tank you know that a lot of people call it the D-T-s. You know. Hey well so and so boy he got to bed. He had the D-T-s. You know? He's in a drunk tank. Interviewer: Hmm. 533: Uh the tank is just uh oh it just look like a tank. You're just in there by golly it ain't nothing in there. You just gonna have to sit and sweat off the booze you know? You know the tank. The clink. Slammer. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know. He's in the tank. Interviewer: Yeah. What about #1 thing that # 533: #2 used to be called a # the uh calaboose. Did you ever hear that? Interviewer: We talking about the drunk tank or the 533: Uh well we're talking about the jail. You know? Used to be called a calaboose. Interviewer: {X} 533: Uh the calaboose uh was a a little one cell jail in Vardaman you know? It was the it was the calaboose. Interviewer: What would the big house be? 533: What? The big jail house? Interviewer: Or have you ever heard of #1 the big house? # 533: #2 Oh the big house? # Eh Not the jail. No. Interviewer: Okay. 533: If I heard somebody say that I'd think they was talking about the pen. Uh the penitentiary you know? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Parchman. Yeah. Cummings prison farm. Interviewer: Right. 533: You know. What's that one in Atlanta that keeps all the women? Always wanted to break in there you know and die there. Interviewer: {NW} 533: No I not really. I'm just kidding. You know. Interviewer: I don't remember. 533: Get a hacksaw blade up your nose or something you know? Interviewer: No kidding. Yeah. Well what about things that a policeman would carry with him for protection? 533: Billy club. Nigger stick. You know. Uh that the kind of thing you're looking for? Interviewer: Sure. 533: #1 Yeah. # Interviewer: #2 What about # uh 533: Well that's pistol. Revolver. His gun. Basically. Interviewer: You ever heard it called his uh sidearm? Piece? #1 Circuit revolver? Any of that kind of stuff? # 533: #2 Nah. Nah. # Nah if you ask a cop for a piece he'd think you's a homo and send you to {X} you know? {NW} Uh no it's it's his gun. Pistol. You know and people that have been to the national guard call it a weapon. Huh. Yeah. Interviewer: What about some different names for prostitutes? 533: Uh whore. That's about it. You know. Lot of people don't know how to spell it. But you know. You hear women sitting around whispering about the H-O-R-E. #1 You know it's # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # {NW} 533: Uh Interviewer: {NW} 533: slut. You know that's a Interviewer: Street walker? 533: Yeah street walker. Yeah. Interviewer: Would you distinguish between a a street walker and a call girl? 533: Well I wouldn't. I wouldn't. Uh now uh realistically the term whore can be used in a lot of ways. Friend of mine. The w- guy I was talking about being from Nebraska you know. Talking about his you know uh the douche wagon. {NW} Uh he was I was talking to him {NW} I don't know. A few months ago. And he'd gotten out a radio. Running a ski resort in Colorado. And I ask him I said why? He said well I got tired of being a whore. Interviewer: Hmm. 533: And to him that meant you know he felt like he's being used all of the time. You know. Hey man come work Sunday midnight to six you know? When he gets ready to leave work two to nine tonight you know? And uh he got tired of being a whore. And uh Uh yeah. I got another friend that uh he'll call you a whore you know. You do something. You say something funny. He'll say ah you silly whore. You know. Um he called a girl that one time. He you know just he let it slip you know kind of like saying hey you know like a white saying something about a white boy you know. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah and uh she was he was over at her house you know stopping there on the way home from work or something you know anyway and she said well let me fix you something to eat and uh she's a beautiful girl. And uh so she did something. He said ah you whore you. {NS} Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 You know and # And she wouldn't speak to him you know. He's he got up and left. Went back a couple of weeks and you know to apologize but Yeah whore yeah you know. Interviewer: What about a manager of prostitutes? 533: Well uh course there's not much of it around here you know. Not not that. I know of one that you can go and buy. Uh two. One that you'd well neither one that you'd want. But anyway Uh the man you know. John. Pimp. If you say that people will know what you was talking about but there's you know none of it. Not enough. Interviewer: And you would use John to mean pimp or client? 533: Uh yeah well sure. John's the client you know. Interviewer: Mm. 533: Uh but I mean like I said. People would know what you were talking about. But it it's not a common #1 not a common thing. # Interviewer: #2 You said pimp. # You think of him what being black? 533: Basically. Yeah a little squirrelly black guy with a pink hat on you know and goose feathers in his hat. You know and rings hanging off his thing. Probably an earring in his ear you know with a Christ symbol on it of all things. Interviewer: Mm. 533: Uh high heel shoes like I wear. And uh {C: laughing} Interviewer: Like the the rooster on Baretta? 533: Yeah yeah yeah like a huggy bear. You know. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: {X} You know. Uh basically that. Yeah. You know he's got a white caddy with a padded roof you know and uh fuzz all around the mirror. Interviewer: What would you call a building where several prostitutes were? 533: Well that's a whore house. You know. Interviewer: Anything besides that? 533: Well you know blue light you know something like that but nah it's whore house. Interviewer: You ever hear cat house? 533: Yeah. Cat house. You know. The cat house is you usually call that because all the men hang around there you know? Interviewer: Oh. 533: That's probably just you know one or two of the ladies of the evening in there. Soldier of the streets I call. Well princess of the pavement. The man'd be the soldier of the street. Couple of songs I wrote one time. Nobody knows about now but me and you. Interviewer: Okay. 533: But um yeah cat house. That'd be where all the guys go and cat around. You know what I mean? So Interviewer: What about a fellow who just hangs around the street 533: Yeah. Interviewer: {X} 533: Ah you mean you know like a bum. Interviewer: Sure. 533: I don't know. {C: thumps} You know? Probably. Uh hobo. That's not around anymore. It's just a bum. Interviewer: Hobo. You mean one that travels 533: #1 Yeah you know. # Interviewer: #2 a whole lot? # 533: Uh the last of the great hobos was a guy named Marvin {B} Everybody always thought it was Marvin {B} something you know but that was his last name {B} and the gentleman. Matter of fact he was on route sixty-six one time with Todd and Buzz. Interviewer: Hmm. 533: Uh they Ah well Yeah we wouldn't make it go Well anyway uh Back to that the uh the guy and he was he was just a bum. And uh his name anywhere just about anywhere in the state of Mississippi you went uh especially in the north part of the state you know everybody if you said Marvin {B} they knew you were talking about and uh he'd spend the night in somebody's barn. Spent the night in this old man's barn out close to our house one time. mr {B} barn and saw his boys were out there playing one day playing horses or cowboys or something and we found a bag full of nickels dimes and quarters. And uh had intentions really I guess of leaving it there 'til we made up our mind you know that it was okay if you stole it from him you know. You know if you got it because you found it in the barn even though you figured it was his. Well anyway we went back the day or two or something and it was gone. So he came back and got it that's how he made his living. You know just going around and you know and picking and {X} bumming nickels and dimes and quarters and eating out of garbage cans and Uh he had seems like maybe a sister and brother and you know and some relatives and left 'em a good deal of money. But um Yeah mm-hmm. That's that's where we were I believe you know you know. uh Anyway he would be a drunk you know. One who drinks would be a drunk you know. No winos no no distinction no distinction in particular about what kind of drunk I mean if he's a drunk he's a drunk. Ah well like you said it's not that not enough of those cheap hotels you know crash houses or anything like that around here to to to really know what you're talking about but a dog house you know. {NS} Uh you know flat. Oh yeah yeah right. Be sure to go by and go by the court hou- I mean the the county jail down there which is you know like a block and a half south east southeast of the square. Get a look at the {X} Uh you know it's it's it's a real sharp when it was you know modernized and the way they caught the guy he's been doing it for a long time. But and you know it's not the first still that they got around here. But um That they you know that they found but most of the time they'll find a still way back on the back of somebody's old old farm property you know and nobody's around they just find the still and they approach the farmer about it or whoever and he'll say man I don't know anything about it I haven't been back there in five years. So you see they get the still and nobody ever but this guy had bought like a truckload of sugar you know and it's used to make the stuff and they traced it you see and they just followed him you know and he went out there and when he took the sugar in they caught him. {X} So they probably get some federal time for that you know. Uh but anyway it's it's a dandy. You know. Interviewer: {X} 533: The stuff they make in the still? Uh you know of course uh moonshine. Moonshine whiskey and uh uh white lightning and as I said home brew. Home brew is basically uh would be the kind that you would make at home for your own personal consumption. Sometimes it is {NW} Mm tough. But it's not Mountain Dew. uh I've never been intoxicated in my life on anything except my own ignorance you know uh stupidity. Natural high I guess you'd call it but Interviewer: {NW} 533: But I've tasted you know a lot of this stuff and uh Matter of fact most of it made a little bit myself you know only just playing around you know muscadine wine and when it's made right it is excellent. Uh not that not that very intoxicating well just a little Japanese friend of mine he was half Jap uh Jimmy Jap. And uh we made some strawberry wine one time and uh we put too much yeast in it. And uh whenever we want we put in gallon jugs with tinfoil around the top you know rubber band {X} when we went back in a couple of weeks it had eaten the foil off. So we decided we didn't want none so we poured it out in the grass it was right in the middle of an old uh watershed house and uh and we poured it out in the grass and the grass went {NW} you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: So it would've probably burned our drawers off you know if we would've swallowed any of it so so we didn't. {NS} You know. Interviewer: {X} 533: Oh yeah. Uh hurricane Camille that was just that would just be a hurricane you know just a a terrible storm. Most of the time it uh goes under uh the distinction of storm uh hurricane or um you know tornado. Uh some some people might call it a cyclone. But um yeah I was in Camille I was in New Orleans uh. And couldn't get out you know and the wind was doing about two hundred outside the window but eh you know I mean if you're there you're there you know if you're in the {D: towering in the front oh} you might as well make the best of the twenty-sixth floor 'til it falls you know. Cuz it's going. But we were lucky uh we didn't didn't get hurt. Uh couple of my friends that went to school with me down there you know one uh guy piano was pushed up against his sister you know in the house you know and cut her leg off and but uh yeah it was just uh just uh hellacious storm I mean you know it just terrible. Interviewer: {X} 533: Not really. Mm not not that much um with uh of course when it's winter around here it's winter you know it gets cold and you may have some sleet and snow. Uh you know which would create slush on the highway but I mean uh nothing nothing like that. No. We had an ice storm one time uh back in seventy three I believe it was. But that's what it was it was an ice storm you know. Trees fell you know houses mashed in uh antennas knocked down you know simply due to the weight of ice. Power lines something like this but it was an ice storm. And sometimes we have a little dust storm believe it or not. You get a dust storm rolling out Oklahoma Texas and it'll blow dust in here you know. But not real heavy it's just a uh Interviewer: {X} 533: Well uh dope you know it {D: still makes you think well there's} a lot of it around here it's it's more than you would think and more than I'd like to think. Uh but you know course grass everybody knows what that is. And uh you know uh I've heard of speed. And I think I saw a guy one time after he'd been using some because he kept you his his top lip seemed like it was numb and he kept rubbing it. I always heard you know that that a spre- a speed freak you know uh {NS} messed up like that. Uh but you know not much coke or cocaine or whatever you want to call it around uh that I know of but it's around here it's mostly grass you know. Uh I heard somebody mention the word Quaaludes one time don't know what they are but to me it sounded like a horse pill. You know uh. Big plastic round thing or something I don't know what it's supposed to do. But uh you know dope is dope. You know this nicotine I'm smoking here is probably dope but at least uh the the effects are not immediate. You know not injuring anybody else you know or don't have the possibility of injuring anybody else just because I fire one up. You know. Yeah. Weeds you know they used to call a cigarette a weed you know give me a weed that was before though the the marijuana thing came along. Uh cancer sticks. You know. Coffin nails. That's C-O-F-F-I-N. Not C-A-U-G-H-I-N. Uh but you know that's about it. Ready roll yeah ready roll they used to call them that. Ready roll you know because Well yeah you know it was back in the days when a lot of people still rolled their cigarettes themselves you know and they'd say hey you know give me a ready roll. You know. You know and Interviewer: {X} 533: Mm well like I said not that I know of I'm not too hip on that stuff you know I uh I I guess was lucky enough to come up in the time uh like I said I graduated high school in uh in seventy. And uh very few of my friends at that time you know maybe one or two you know fiddled with that stuff a little bit. And uh we more or less embarrassed them you know or made uh made 'em feel awful bad about it. Now though I'd venture to say even though most of my friends are grown and married uh I'd venture to say that ninety percent of 'em have tried it. You know uh in some form or the other. And uh people don't believe when I say that I hadn't because even a cousin of mine one time well you listen to me on the air you know and you gotta sound you know happy bright lively and I do and like I said to me it's natural hell I just you know That's just the way I am. But you know people think you have to be zonked out on something you know in order to uh to have a good time or to uh sound pleasurable or to uh enjoy what you're doing you know and it's just really not true and I try to prove this to people you know. That you can uh You can do just fine without some kind of stimulus you know. {D: Uh I don't} But anyway that's that's one goal I have in life to try to maybe uh show people that you don't have to be out of your mind to uh you know to have a good time you know. And uh but anyway uh no I don't I don't think of anything else you know uh pills. You know uppers downers uh red devil stuff like that I've heard of a lot of it like I've said you know. I don't know I even heard of angel dust uh not long ago. Which is something like some kind of horse medicine I don't know. Yeah kinda {D: mighty} I cannot imagine y- people doing that. No you know I I don't mm-mm. Interviewer: {X} 533: Green. Uh you know uh you know yeah you know I I'm a little bit short on green. Also the word jack you know it takes a lot of jack. {NW} um Bucks. You know. And uh you know corn. You know. You know I'd bet that cost you a hunk of gold you know {D: pot of gold.} And uh You know just stuff like that mm. Interviewer: {X} 533: {D: Worn.} Hmm. {D: Worn.} No I don't think so I might uh it might ring a bell you know if somebody said something I might know what they were talking about but I Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah not especially no. Interviewer: {X} 533: You know {D: rebel yeah} {D: Valley high} you know Uh yeah ripple you know everybody knows what that is you know ripple. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah pawn shop. {D: Now we got one} right here it's not it's not much there's one in Tupelo but around here people make a lot of money out of pawn shops I don't know how you know. Maybe they're {D: fencing} or something but you know they they uh maybe {D: fencing} really. But they they you know they got Cadillacs and you know uh Continentals and stuff like this you know. {NS} I don't know. I don't think too much of the place because I figure there's something crooked going on there. uh I bought my kid a watch there one time. Eight dollars I think I gave for it. uh Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah you wouldn't let your wife drive through it you know. Yeah. Well yeah no particular name. just uh you know you just don't go there it's not like you know the Bronx {D: or high up street} or you know {D: Watts Avenue} or anything like that you know you just you know. Interviewer: {X} 533: No. Mm-mm mm-mm. North side south side no. Me I'd go through there you know. Uh I'm just crazy enough to I mean I wouldn't if it was terribly bad if they were having a riot or something like that but I mean uh I wouldn't be scared to drive through a place. Matter of fact uh esp- if uh if I was by myself somebody told me one time said hey there's some guys out there you know that'll throw a bottle into you when you go past the sunflower food store and I said you know what I didn't much pay any attention to 'em after a while and I said yeah they will. And I said well I can give 'em a fresh clean windshield. Because if they blow my if they knock mine out it'll be the last one they knock down. And uh I said you know I'll just plead insanity. Self defense. Hell I'm a redneck I don't Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah well y- yeah right. But um I don't know it's somebody was just and somebody might've actually thrown uh a bottle into somebody's window but it was probably a personal fracas you know. Probably went out with his girlfriend or something and he went by and he threw a rock through the window or a bottle or whatever it was but Yeah you know. I don't know. {NS} Interviewer: {X} 533: Well that's just actually the theater. You know adult theater you know. Not many of those around here you know yeah. But I know what you're talking about like on uh what street is it maybe Peachtree in Atlanta you know. Yeah mm-hmm. 533: {D: Uh skin flicks.} You know. Interviewer: {X} 533: That's a mailman. Interviewer: {X} 533: That's the garbage man. You know. Yeah yeah. Just garbage man. Interviewer: {X} 533: Got a lot of pull. Got a lot of pull. Interviewer: {X} 533: My most of 'em yeah. Interviewer: {NW} 533: He's a politician. Interviewer: #1 A politician. # 533: #2 Yeah. # mm-hmm. uh Be a you know or a you know I don't know what term it is uh you know maybe a bum. Basically is what I'd call it. Interviewer: {X} 533: No. Interviewer: {X} 533: No. Interviewer: {X} 533: mm-mm. Interviewer: {X} 533: Right mm-hmm. Interviewer: {X} 533: I'm going to the grocery store. You know. Which one? The warehouse you know. The grocery store. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah. Yeah part you know supermarket. Grocery store it all carries kinda the same connotation. Supermarket is a bigger place. It's a super huh market you know. But a grocery store and a supermarket could be you could be a grocery store and a supermarket but you wouldn't hardly be you know a supermarket {D: and a quote grocery store.} Interviewer: {X} 533: Like a deli. Mm-hmm deli {X} Food counter. You know. Interviewer: {X} 533: mm-hmm. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah condo mm-hmm yeah. Lot of people around here though would get mixed up and think you were talking about {D: prophylactics} #1 you know. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: Hey man give me twelve condos you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: uh {D: You know it's what the kind you want {X} uh Yeah you know it's That's something that you read about. You know and people around here are basically are are fairly well read. They have opinions on every you know thing like that. And they watch a lot of tube David Frost uh Johnny Carson and uh and lot of 'em call him Bob Snyder Tom Snyder. Did you hear him the other night when he was talking about Dorothy Parton? Yeah he meant Dolly you know he said Dorothy Parton. He said well he said yeah. Good well he didn't apologize you know and that not then I didn't see him the next day he mighta come back and apolo- you know #1 Tom. # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: Yeah that was Snyder. I love Snyder. Interviewer: Did you 533: #1 well he's from # Interviewer: #2 say that {X} # 533: Georgia you know? Interviewer: I didn't know that. 533: That's where he started out was in uh Savannah I believe in radio. Interviewer: Have you ever seen Danny Aykroyd's impression of him? 533: {NW} Yeah. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: {X} 533: Aykroyd. Yeah he's he's okay. Uh like I said when he was doing somebody else. Interviewer: What do you mean somebody else? 533: When he's doing Jimmy Carter. Interviewer: Oh. 533: You know. Tom Snyder. Uh {NS} Nah. His Nixon's not any good. Rich Rich Little's the only one that can do mm-hmm. Rich Rich Little's the only one that can do Nixon. You know he he really is. {NW} Uh And uh Rich Little does the best Johnny Carson too. He does that about as good as Carson himself. Interviewer: {X} 533: Uh yeah. I'm gonna be in Memphis too. Not too long from now. Sure. Mm-hmm. He was also a radio man. Interviewer: Rich Little? 533: Rich Little. In Canada. Yeah. And uh you know Dick Cavett Johnny Carson and um and the other guy. What's his name? Anyway. All those guys were from Nebraska. Which is weird. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah. Every one of 'em. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah. Interviewer: What about a a small store that uh opens early? Stays open pretty late? Do you usually 533: Mm like a seven eleven? Interviewer: Sure. 533: Which wouldn't be early around here. It'd need to be at like five thirty to eleven you know? That {NW} Interviewer: Do pe- do people around here use that term in general? Instead of like if they're 533: Well around here it's junior food mart. Interviewer: Yeah. You know. Right. It's a junior food mart. You know. Convenience store. Uh you know. Well you just. Around here you going to the store. You know I was in Atlanta one time. Spending a day or two with some friends and uh they said something about going to get something. I said well you know anyway I I I made mention of the fact that we were going to town. You know and they laughed. Ah ha ha ha ha. They lived out at you know Decatur out there on a uh off of Shallowford you know. Two eighty-five. You turn off there at Shallowford and go down uh uh there are some of those apartments you know? I said we was going to town. Well hell you know they live right in the middle of quote town end quote. You know? {NW} 533: Town for a hundred and fifteen miles there you know? Interviewer: {NW} 533: Uh But you know they they got a real big kick out of that. Yeah you know. Look hey ma I'm going to the store. You know. That kind of thing. Interviewer: What would you put some uh something we'll say food if you wanted to heat up some food something you could put it in if you didn't want to have to uh fire up the oven? 533: A boiler. You know. Frying pan. You mean you know like if you're warming up the peas? You know. Frying pan. Boiler. Skillet. Interviewer: What about 533: #1 uh # Interviewer: #2 something # that's uh electrically operated? Like a skillet? What would you call that? 533: Uh. Electric skillet. You know. Uh. You know. Generally uh all the slow cookers and things like that you know they're uh uh what do you even call 'em? I forgot now. You know the crock pot you know. Interviewer: Sure. Yeah. 533: And um Interviewer: what about these things that heat very quickly? 533: Hot plates. Interviewer: Or. Well they're they're relatively new. And actually a little oven. 533: Oh yeah well that's just you know uh they got a lot of different names but you know basically just a warmer. #1 You know? # Interviewer: #2 Same thing as # these T-V {X} 533: Yeah. mm-hmm Interviewer: #1 Microwave? # 533: #2 Microwaves. # Yeah. You know. It's all a microwave. 'Course there's only one company that makes 533: Yeah well you know it's like the deep freeze Deep freeze is a brand name. I don't really remember which company it is say again maybe G-E. It may be Frigidaire but it's one of the old line companies you know and they they had the patent on the deep freeze. And uh on the rest of them especially when you're advertising it has to be called like a whirlpool food freezer. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 533: You know You- you've heard 'em- the carefully selected words you know. Come get your whirlpool food freezers now on special {X} you know uh and the same thing with the word bush hog. But you know uh you think uh course a lot of people don't know what a bush hog is but you go out and you know clean up your whole pasture with a- with a mower behind the tractor and it's a bush hog. But there is a company there is a bush hog company. And you couldn't say uh for sale a John Deere bush hog because there's no such thing it's a John Deere rotary mower or rotary cutter or you know pasture clipper anything you know but it's but a bush hog is a bush hog, you know. Interviewer: Uh 533: Deep freeze is a deep freeze. Probably somebody somewhere had the patent on air conditioner. You know. Probably Lennox you know Dave Lennox I don't know but anyway. You know. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: What about a coin-operated laundry what would you call that? 533: Laundry mat. Laundry mat. or to the laundry you know I'm going to the laundry you know. Interviewer: You ever hear people actually say wash interior? 533: Uh well yeah if that's the name that's written on the outside. You know if it's shorty's wash interior then you go to the wash interior and if it's a laundry mat you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm okay. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: What about a thing that you buy ahead in the basket until you put your dirty clothes? 533: What do you mean like a dirty clothes bucket? Dirty clothes pail? Interviewer: Sure. 533: Dirty clothes dirty clothes basket you know. Interviewer: You ever call it a hamper? 533: Well if it was a hamper. See some of them are shaped like garbage cans and it's a dirty clothes basket you know and if it's a hamper the type that's got the flip back top, well then it's a dirty clothes hamper. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know you're storing the dirty clothes you know that kind of thing. Interviewer: And the thing at you would use to uh clean your rug? 533: Vacuum cleaner. Interviewer: Sure. 533: That's a vacuum cleaner. Interviewer: What about the bag or whatever it is that catches the dust and dirt what would you call that? 533: That's just a bag vacuum cleaner bag. Interviewer: And if you had to mop this floor the container that you keep your detergent water what? 533: Bucket mop mop bucket like slop bucket you know. Interviewer: {NW} Okay and these things that some people have in their kitchen to reduce the bulk of the garbage? 533: Mm-hmm trash compactor. Mm-hmm Interviewer: Okay and the big container where you would put trash? 533: Garbage can trash can Interviewer: I don't recall seeing one around here but maybe uh at a shopping center on of these great bigger? 533: Oh yeah the county has those right yeah. Well it's just a garbage can. You know uh I don't really know what you would call that. They got a name you know. It's a- I think it's probably the nastiest thing America's ever done. They set those things out in the middle where people come out to throw their garbage in. They oughta leave those things for Goodwill industry. Paint 'em a different color and let you throw your old clothes in here you know because they're sit on the side of the road and they got two for like fourteen families you know. And hell, a thing would be full you know they just come by to pick 'em up third day garbage all over the road you know dogs cats breed there you know. God almighty Ah you know it's just beautiful. I didn't see anything wrong with it everybody taking it out in their back yard and dumping it you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: I mean you know nobody had to look at it except them right. Yeah it's just garbage can. {X} Interviewer: The dogs {X} 533: No. We use to have junk piles you know kind of a community junk pile you know like over in the woods somewhere and everybody took their took their garbage you know that was the big thing used to hey mama let me drive the truck to the junk pile you know. Eh huh Interviewer: Okay. What would you call a man who is in charge of a funeral home? 533: {NW} Well undertaker you know. Funeral director I guess is kinda like being a disc jockey la la radio announcer you know or a you know air time personality or something like that. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Uh funeral director you know. Interviewer: Where do you {X} the same as managing and preparing the body? 533: Around here most cases you know not most cases you know theres kinda around here things are a little bit they're not so categorized you know. You don't have a a uh general manager, commercial manager, operations manager. There you don't have a director, subdirector, embalmer et cetera you know. Uh they all get together in there you know and they fix the guy and glue his lips together and paste his eyes down and you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Yeah like said I'm realistic maybe I'm stupid about that stuff, huh? Interviewer: You ever call it a mortician? 533: Yeah mortician not really. You know I had a girl tell me one time I was like a mortician you know I just wanted a feel of her body, but Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 she she was just kidding you know so I got her back though I got her back. # On air one day you know when I played take me home country road you know I said this sound like what so and so said to me the other night. Interviewer: {NW} 533: You know Interviewer: Wait while you in the room? #1 {NW} # 533: #2 Yeah. # Or in the mud Interviewer: It's whatever. 533: Why don't we do it in the dirt? Yeah. That was Beatles wasn't it? Why don't we do it in the road yeah Interviewer: What about the vehicle that takes the casket to the cemetery? 533: It's a hearse. You know? Interviewer: What about any names for a building where someone might be interred above ground? 533: Well not there's not a lot of that around here you know uh. What do they call them mausoleums you know excuse me call 'em mausoleums but uh. You know Elvis was buried in a mausoleum and everybody was thinking God I thought he was a Baptist. You know? {NW} Interviewer: #1 Whats that? # 533: #2 mausoleum # Interviewer: #1 {X} # 533: #2 # Uh Interviewer: {NW} 533: Mm-hmm yeah. You know it's a casket you know you're in a casket you know they put you in a graveyard. Uh There's West Point casket company you know I mean. {NW} Interviewer: You ever the other names for graveyard? 533: Yeah cemetery. Mm-hmm Um Interviewer: Skull orchard? 533: Uh skull orchard no. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Memorial Park you know that's when you you know that's when you live in town wear a tie they bury you in Memorial Park and if Interviewer: Perpetual care? 533: Yeah mm-hmm. Like John Denver you ever heard that song? uh Oh lay me down in Forest Lawn in silver casket {C: singing} Interviewer: {NW} 533: With golden flowers over my head in a chromium basket {C: singing} Interviewer: {NW} 533: You oughta listen to it's a it's on a ah it's one of his first albums Poems, Prayers, and Promises maybe. Beautiful he sung it on Johnny Carson one night you know after he guest hosted about the tenth time. You know I've been to Forest Lawn. It's a joke. But anyway the song was about you know uh uh this little uh you know have a little man standing in the grass who will tip his hat when mourners pass {C: singing} Oh won't you lay me down in Forest Lawn in a silver casket {C:singing} Uh said uh the army will come over in a parachute and jump out and do a twenty-one gun salute you know and all that stuff. Eh it's making fun of the rich people getting buried I mean like I said what the hell? Interviewer: That sounds like it has a little bit more age to it then what I usually associate with John Denver but I'm not every. 533: Well he was yeah that's what he said after he got- he- he'd been on there several times and he said well I've been on here enough that I'm familiar enough people that I you know know I am going to offend some folks but he said by golly I'm going to sing it anyway. You know how he is I love John Denver. He may be a little weird I don't know but I think he's fantastic. I was digging John Denver and Kris Kristofferson and people like that uh I was going around like uh in sixty-five, sixty-four singing uh you know stuff like uh Ruby don't take your love to town. Interviewer: Hmm 533: That Mel Tillis wrote and uh uh loving her was easier than anything I'll ever do again and me and Bobby McGee and this kind of stuff. Roger Miller was recording some Kris Kristofferson stuff more or less his fillers on his album Can't Roller Skate in A Buffalo Herd #1 you know and uh # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: Engine Engine Number Nine and I really loved it and that was back uh when Janis Joplin came out with me and Bobby McGee and my h- my feelings where hurt course she was dead already you know by the time. um I really was because I thought God you know she butchers it you know because it's such a beautiful song. Kenny Rogers does the best version that ever done. How did we get on music? Jesus. Oh yeah singing songs about #1 funerals yeah graveyards okay. Man, I can get off on some dealings. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # What funeral even Grace Slick likes John Denver that really surprised me. 533: Yeah well Grace Slick likes any man bout three times a week yeah mm-hmm Interviewer: #1 Alright # 533: #2 So she said. # Interviewer: Have you ever heard uh say a room in a house that is specially designed to receive a lot of sunlight can you name it now? 533: Oh you mean like the porch? You know. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Yeah the porch uh uh parlor you know a parlor we don't use that I don't know. It might use it jokingly you know take a girl by the arm and would you go with me to the parlor my dear? {C: impersonation} You know? But uh that was used you know on like especially like in the delta you know when they gotta house that's got you know eighteen rooms you know and downstairs reception area's the parlor you know. Uh Interviewer: I was thinking something like ah you ever heard of just a sun room or sun porch or 533: Yeah, there's sun porch but that's uh a little bit more modern now, you know. People will build a house with a sun porch and you think damn, he must be making twenty-two thousand a year you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Uh nah It's a porch you know its a back porch. Interviewer: Florida room? 533: Nah. When I think of a Florida room its one for the big black lady that plays on J-J you know? Interviewer: Oh. 533: You know the Florida room? No. Interviewer: Okay. What about a informal room of the house where you can just sit around and relax? 533: That's a den. A little guy in school one time his teacher asked him said uh you was asking about do you have a den do you have a den and he said no I don't need a den said my daddy just growls all over the house. You know he was thinking about lion's den. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: But uh yeah a den. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know family room uh has a different connotation you know. That's uh where the pool table is you know and this kind of thing but it's a den. Interviewer: What about uh room or bathroom that just has a sink and a toilet? 533: That's a half-bath. Mm-hmm Interviewer: What about things well the equipment you would use to heat and cool your house what would you call that? 533: Hmm. That's a central system you know uh depending on what it is air conditioner. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know s- you know central. You know people would say has it got central you know air and heat you know. Course when I was little central meant you know fire place in the middle of the house. Interviewer: Mm-hmm 533: You know and like uh it's just central heat, air conditioner, heat pump you know that kind of thing. Interviewer: How would uh the cool air or the heat be circulated? 533: Uh by way of ducts with a T like quack quack or #1 see a bunch of little ducks out there flapping their wings # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # Do you remember 533: Yea right. Interviewer: Were there? Okay. 533: Mm-mm. Interviewer: Uh Have you ever heard talking about different styles of houses uh a house may be with two big rooms that are completely separated from each other probably old-fashioned? #1 {X} # 533: #2 hmm # Interviewer: stay out in the country or something like that just uh completely separated by a 533: By hallway? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah I know the kind of house you're talking about. I don't know if it had any particular names uh you know. But you know like there'd be you know a kitchen and a bedroom over here and a bedroom and a living room over there and a hallway in the middle you know. Well like I said yesterday with a cistern and you know a well in the middle of the floor or something like that you know. Interviewer: Have you ever heard of a dog trot house? 533: No. Never have used that one. Mm-hmm Interviewer: Have you ever heard of a hall and parlor house or a flying L? 533: Nah uh Interviewer: Like the elongated 533: #1 yeah I know what you're talking about yeah it turns off yeah mm # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: Nah. Interviewer: Are there any other distinctive styles for- for houses that you- come to mind? 533: Well you know um Like I said there used to be you know and I- and I despise when people say you know Joe's got his home for sale. I think my God you know his wife and his kids. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: You know because to me home was an atmosphere a house is what you live in. Uh but a house you know used to there were shotgun you know and there was farm house and uh you know tenant house. Tenant house was a little bit less of breed you know it was a low breed. You know. They had absolutely no paint you know no screens no porch you know and dogs running in and out you know that was a tenant house shotgun house you know farm house. Outhouse {NW} Interviewer: Right. 533: Chicken house and smoke house was another one you know but that's where chickens lived and where you smoked the meat but no particular. Whenever you say house you know of course somebody's got a nice house you say a big house it's I- I don't believe I've seen any particular distinction here that you would be looking for. Interviewer: Have you ever referred to a apartment a house or a apartment building as a tenement? 533: No. Interviewer: Does that mean anything #1 to you at all? # 533: #2 No. # Uh not really because tenant house is someone who lives on your place and helps you work the farm you know. But a duplex you know would be you know what a duplex is? That's just a duplex. But no that's an apartment house mm-mm. Interviewer: Does flat mean anything to you? 533: Uh flat to me uh kinda refers to like what we were talking earlier where a guy can go any crash you know you can get a cheap place that you and the lady that works at the other office can meet at {D: loon noon} you know. No flats around here. Interviewer: Uh 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Does row house mean anything? 533: Nah. Mm-mm Interviewer: What about a man who works in an apartment building who does minor repair work maybe electrical? 533: Maintenance man. Interviewer: Mm-hmm what about what one who cleans up? 533: Uh clean up women you know. {NW} Maid whatever. Interviewer: And the man who collects the rent? 533: Uh landlord, landlady whatever the case might be. Interviewer: mm-hmm What about a few things that you have uh to take care of your garden and yard with? 533: You mean like a hoe? Interviewer: Sure. 533: Rake, shovel We're not too much on spade you know a spade is a spade you know a spade's a black man. Interviewer: Right. 533: Uh and you call a spade a spade I sound like that daddy on that show that comes on Sunday morning you know. You ever seen where you know the guy takes a word you know and he'll say you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm yeah. 533: Well like row hoe. Row hoe is the name of a famous rooster you know but you can't hoe a row. Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 but you can't # hoe a row. I mean you can't row a hoe you know anyway uh yeah. But uh you know rakes, hoes, water hose uh and then you you moved to the other side of the street and mi- a man might call it a garden hose. Interviewer: Mm-hmm 533: You know and- and uh and spade, but it's a rake and it's a hoe and it's a water hose. Interviewer: Mm 533: a tiller you know um a plow. Interviewer: Mm-hmm mm-hmm. What about something you cut the grass with? 533: A mower. Interviewer: Would you distinguish between one that's #1 small? # 533: #2 Uh # a riding mower or a push mower. Mm-hmm Interviewer: Now a push mower can that be like gas operated or 533: #1 oh yea it's just a- It's # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: a mower you have to push you know man power you know. Interviewer: Right. 533: Um Interviewer: What about one that has no motor at all? 533: One of 'em {NW} things like that. Interviewer: It's actually a lawn mower but #1 it's really actually a twist # 533: #2 Yeah, yeah, I know that kind you're talking about. # Uh uh just a mower you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm 533: Mm-hmm Interviewer: What about something that you get uh down have to get down on your knees to use something with a handle and maybe tapered down? 533: Clippers? Interviewer: #1 {X} # 533: #2 Yeah you know. # Oh you mean um a little shovel? Interviewer: Sure. 533: Yeah I don't know. Just a shovel. I think of a- of a sand box whenever you're speaking of that but you're talking about a little flower bed shovel. Eh it's just a little shovel. Interviewer: What if you've ever seen one that had maybe three little prongs on it? 533: Yeah. I don't know what they are. I've used 'em, but I don't know what you call 'em. Interviewer: #1 And what was that? # 533: #2 No. # I don't know. Interviewer: Okay. 533: You mean that little rake with the blue handle you know. Interviewer: #1 Right. # 533: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: And if you had some hedges you wanted to uh shape up? 533: Eh you'd trim 'em, prune 'em. Interviewer: You would call the thing that you use? 533: Uh a hedge-trimmer mm-hmm or uh hedge clippers. Interviewer: Let's say if the tree had fallen down in your yard and you wanted to get it cut up there 533: #1 Mm-hmm # Interviewer: #2 very quickly. # 533: I'd use a chainsaw pop saw. Interviewer: Pop saw? 533: Yeah a pop saw or a power saw. Pop saw and a chainsaw and a power saw yeah it's just you know {NW} Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 You know? # Pop saw you know McCullough Homelite Interviewer: Yeah if it gets you crazy go for the chainsaw. 533: What's that? Interviewer: Well I'll tell it to you. 533: Okay. Interviewer: Ready for this? 533: Eh. Interviewer: Uh what about some different cuts of beef that come to mind? 533: Mm T-bone, sirloin uh You know. Chuck roast you know. Or shank when you get talking about you know shank portion, butt portion. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Ham Shoulder Interviewer: Talking about pork now? 533: That was you know that was pork uh but you know like steak say you got you know porterhouse. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know uh T-bone, sirloin, rib eye so you know about it. Interviewer: Okay any other cuts of pork beside ham and shoulder? 533: Uh well not really like I said the butt. Interviewer: Mm-hmm 533: The shank. You know uh well there's hog jowls, hog brains people eat brains, ears, feet, hog tails, chitterlings. Interviewer: Mm-hmm 533: Uh but as far as you know distinguished cuts you know distinguished cuts uh let's go eat a t-bone. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Or bring me a sirloin. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: What about lamb? 533: Eh no lamb around here I've never eaten lamb in my life. Interviewer: Not anything? 533: Nah. {NS} Interviewer: Say if you were going to fry 533: Guy asked me once how I was I said I guess not bad. {C: pronunciation} #1 But anyway um # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # Right if you were going to fry a chicken you'd tell me to go out in store and buy a? 533: Buy a chicken. Oh or a fryer. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: You know but a chicken. Interviewer: Mm-hmm 533: What are we gonna have for supper chicken? Interviewer: #1 Mm-hmm are you buying # 533: #2 you know U-S-D-A # Grade A fryer's forty-five cents a pound but everybody says oh we'll get one of 'em chickens. Interviewer: Right. 533: You know. Interviewer: Anything different if you're going to broil it or roast it? 533: Eh not especially you know. Interviewer: Would you say broil or roast? 533: Well As I said technically they would if they were giving you the market reports you know broilers. You know Interviewer: Mm-hmm 533: Forty-five cents on an estimated slot of a million five hundred hit but you know- you know what that is but it's still a chicken. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: You know and if it's a turkey it's a turkey. Interviewer: Mm 533: You know. Now I don't know why because you don't go to the store and say hey give me that piece of cow over there you know. Interviewer: Right. 533: Or you don't say give me that you know that that uh cow roast. Interviewer: Mm-hmm 533: Which you would say chicken breast? Interviewer: Mm-hmm 533: {NS} I don't know weird. Interviewer: What about something that you would eat at a baseball game? 533: Hot dog Interviewer: Mm-hmm 533: Apple pie and Chevrolet Interviewer: {NW} {X} 533: Mm #1 Yeah # Interviewer: #2 so # 533: Hot dog dogs you know um peanuts popcorn {NS} Interviewer: What about something that you would drink if you along with your hot dog? 533: Basically Coke. That's the general I think internationally accepted soft drink hey give me a Coke what kind you know. #1 Um # Interviewer: #2 Right. # So you use that term generally? 533: Yeah right you know. Interviewer: If I gave you a Pepsi then it 533: That don't make any difference you know you go to a place and say oh you know two hamburgers and two Cokes. All we have is Pepsi and I said hell give me a Pepsi I mean you know. It you know uh Interviewer: Give you an orange? 533: That ain't a Coke that's a orange yeah. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Not a lot of kids you know give me an orange Coke. You know my kid used to I say you want a Coke she said yeah daddy but I don't want no brown one. You know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Give me one of them green ones. Interviewer: Right. 533: Uh but if you want something specific you know do you have a Doctor Pepper that that type thing Mountain Dew. Um and usually um like in situations where you know like I'm heading up a- a refreshment stand at a ball game or a rodeo or something I say look I sell Cokes. You know maybe a Sprite maybe an orange for somebody that's allergic but I don't think anybody is this allergy business is like uh you know hysterectomies. Doctors do it because they know they make money out of it. You know. Uh But uh you know these people oh I can't eat that I'm allergic to flour. I say god darn. Allergic to flour then you're going to be allergic to candy you know and you know a lot of things you know bread, everything oh but all I need is wheat bread well that's got flour in it. Interviewer: Mm-hmm 533: Wheat flour but anyway uh uh thats what I I say that because you know people are gonna come up say you know give me a hamburger and a Coke. Interviewer: Yep. 533: And if you have to stop and say we don't have Coke we have Pepsi, grape, Sprite, Tab and Mister Pibb you know that takes up you could already have it poured and sold and had 'em out of the way. Interviewer: #1 Mm-hmm # 533: #2 so you know # Coke. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: You know. Interviewer: Mm 533: And for that reason I drink Coke the small six-and-a-half ounce thing is the only real Coke the other's are watered down you know it to me. Interviewer: For sure 533: Eh it tastes that way to me. I don't know. A real Coke isn't it's- I'd rather pay twenty-five cents for that little short Coke. The old original American Coke. Then I had to do uh you can pay the same price you know and get a twelve-ounce can but it's got too much carbonation in it and I I say good morning {NW} how you doing {NW} You know so uh yeah right. {NW} I got a tiger in my tank yeah. Interviewer: Can you explain tearing for beer you were? 533: So it's you know beer eh you know thats about it. Interviewer: What about a big sandwich with several different types of meat in it? 533: A dagwood. Yeah a dagwood. You talking about a po' boy you know and long you know with a po' boy to me uh carries the connotation of that big stupid bread you know. It takes you five minutes just to bite through the bread you know {C: music begins playing} one hunk of bologna in but yeah a po' boy. You know but eh a dagwood is kinda like when you make it at the house you know two slices, bacon, a piece of ham, mustard, peanut butter, jelly, cheese you know. Yeah you know just anything go on it that's a dagwood yeah. Interviewer: What about different things you could find at a bakery? 533: Eh donuts, cakes. Uh generally pastries you know uh these uh éclairs and all that kinda stuff I just say give me one of them you know. Interviewer: What about any special names for donuts made will jelly or something or some kind of thing? 533: Jelly donut I mean you know I don't know is there a special name? Interviewer: Oh well stuff like the long johns I think you say? 533: Nah. Interviewer: Bars? 533: Long johns is what I wear in the wintertime. Interviewer: Right. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah I know what they are yeah a cruller. You know they got the little you know funky swirls you know they come around look like a mickey twist used to a kinda chewing tobacco you could buy that was shaped like that you know twisted tobacco. Interviewer: Mm-hmm mm-hmm. What about the sweet stuff you might spread on a donut what would you call it? 533: Glaze. Interviewer: Yeah what about on a cake? 533: Frosting. Interviewer: {X} 533: Mm-hmm frosting's thick. Interviewer: Mm-hmm 533: A glaze would be like what you put on top of a uh- a say for instance a well I don't know like a fruit cocktail cake you know. You just put a little glaze across you know it's a sugar glaze. Brown sugar and cinnamon glaze or something like that. But a frosting would be you know like it reminds of you chocolate or coconut you big thick hunks of fattening stuff you know like I like. Interviewer: What about a hot frosting icing? 533: Well you know um I don't know it's about the same. I don't know. I guess it would be the same you know if I if somebody said hey you want to lick the frosting off or the icing off I don't know. Interviewer: What about these things you can get a McDonald's now they're a type of pastry? 533: Turnover. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah, apple turnover you know. Interviewer: What about a sweet 533: Or a danish. Yeah a danish. I says give me a danish and they usually say which kind do you want you know pecan or cinnamon. Interviewer: Mm-hmm 533: Apple or you know uh see and really I'm a guy oughta be hard to please really. I read an old philosopher said that one time said a guy that that that uh neither prefers neither red nor blue should therefore have neither. You know and uh you know and I guess that's been one of my problems. So somebody say you know you want a- what do you wanna drink I said hang on I don't know just you know pour me something you know Coke anything that's why- as long as it's not a Tab or a Diet-right oh almighty you know send the drink manure and sugar. But um Interviewer: Are you familiar with coffee cake? 533: Yeah but not so much you know its you know a coffee cake uh usually doesn't have a good taste to me cause I like coffee. You know I do not like sugar and cream in it I don't like that I like coffee after a meal. I go to a restaurant you know and I say you know the lady comes around and says do you care for anything else I say yeah coffee please. So if you don't mind waiting a couple of minutes we're making a fresh pot. I say no give me the old one. You know because I like it to taste like coffee um anyway. Interviewer: What would you call that ring you're wearing? 533: Wedding band wedding ring. Interviewer: Any of the names for different types of rings {X} 533: Uh well Uh you know like I have a shrine ring, class ring, you know father's ring you know. Some people have a ring in their nose. {D: Some people have a ring around their collar.} And uh I mean uh Interviewer: {X} 533: Huh? Interviewer: {X} has one in his ear. 533: In his ear? Yeah. Oh well Interviewer: What about uh shorts mens or womens shorts that come down right about to the knee. What would you call those? 533: Well if it's a women I would call 'em pedal pushers if it were a man I would call him a sissy you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Pedal pushers that's what they used to call them you know. Uh Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah you know I don't know why you know they came down just a little bit below the knees and you know women rode bicycles in 'em. They were called pedal pushers. Weird term no body uses it I came in back with hula hoops you know and bobby socks and ponytails and you know high collars. But uh shorts, men cut-offs you know everybody calls 'em cut-offs now. Cut-offs goes from everything for blue jeans I wear cut-offs and when I get home I take off what I got on and I put on my cut-offs no shirt. You know I have to sometimes change drawers because the kind I got on now you know you just you know hang all out at the end of the- But uh Interviewer: Sure. 533: Eh which happened one day and I was mowing the yard you know I was on the riding mower had my little nephew there with me and uh you know had on a pair of cut-offs and some of those baggy drawers you know some people call 'em argos, baggies The kind your daddy wears you know. Interviewer: Right. 533: And he kept hollering wig, wig look and I remember looking and there I was you know half of me hanging out I put god what if you know somebody had stopped and was sitting there and talking to me you know I didn't know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: But anyway yeah cut-offs. {C: radio} Have moonie shorts I think that was in the days of uh well moonie shorts were kind of half-length. You know they came down covered up the wort you know on your thigh you know where the muscles overlap. But um I have some moonie shorts I know what you're talking about but that's the kind my daddy would've worn you know in nineteen fifty-eight you know not anymore. Interviewer: {X} 533: Short-shorts you know. Interviewer: {X} 533: Uh not really. You know not so much a question of you know women shouldn't wear 'em men shouldn't either you know that kind of thing but it's short-shorts. Interviewer: What about take uh clothes you have inherited from a older brother? 533: Hand-me-downs what I wore all my life you know. Interviewer: Would you call it any different say if you got it {C: radio} 533: Yeah its just one year older than you and all of that yeah hand me downs you know that makes sense. Interviewer: Ever heard of the {C: radio} 533: Yeah you know you know like stud clothes you know yeah uh yeah lot a lot a of terms high fashion. You know. You know uh I don't know it just depends on what you're talking about you know. Maude that used to be the word you know you were maude if you had {D: cannot find the word maude} a paisley print shirt and a funky little hat. Interviewer: Do people still say threads? 533: Yeah you know threads uh-huh. Interviewer: What about if you were going on a trip a type of bag that you might carry your clothes in? 533: Suitcase. Interviewer: What about one you know like you want to put a suit in it? 533: Uh fold over bag, hanging bag you know suit bag. Interviewer: Mm-hmm alright and a type of bag that you might store clothes in a closet you know during the winter? 533: Yeah uh storage bag you know. Interviewer: What about one that you get back to the laundry? 533: Well same thing its just a a laundry bag I mean you know on a coat hanger. Interviewer: Mm-hmm okay. What kind of a a what you're wearing on your feet what would you call those? 533: Just boots well they're dress boots I think, but they're just boots you know. Interviewer: Any other boots? 533: Zip-up boots you know. Interviewer: Distinctive styles for mens shoes? 533: Uh you know cowboy boots, insurance shoes you know what those are? Interviewer: Mm-hmm 533: You know the the old saddle Oxford or you know the old stable saddle Oxford for like your insurance man, your funeral man, your banker wears you know. You know they got the little holes punched in them you know. Interviewer: Oh yeah. 533: Insurance shoes you know you buy one pair when you're twenty-five and don't throw 'em away until you're forty-five you know insurance shoes. Yeah. Interviewer: What about womens shoes? 533: Oh yeah high heels you know. Claudes uh clogs and you know wedges and you know just anything straps, heels. Interviewer: What about mens and womens hair styles? 533: Ah not so much as it used to be back in the days bouffant and all that stuff but eh you know flattops. curlies, frizzies, uh afros you know. It's a big joke when a white guy gets an afro you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Uh. Interviewer: Its like a blow-out. 533: Yeah right mm-hmm but a lot of people don't use blowout cause they afraid somebody will think it's a blow job and then you get all messed up you know. But uh yeah uh you know afros curly you know frizzy like Mac Davi- Mac Davis has got a curly but uh uh Gabe Ka- Gabe Kaplin I guess you would say has either an afro or a frizzy. I don't know. Interviewer: What about any names you've ever heard say uh a man who has womanish ways. What would you call him? 533: A puss you know. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Queer you know. Interviewer: Wouldn't that necessarily make him say queer. 533: Well you think homosexual is what you think someone who has you know tendencies to you know desire to be close to a man more so than a woman. But ah weird, weirdo you know. Uh. Interviewer: Any names 533: Sissy. Interviewer: for a male homosexual. 533: Uh just queer you know. Interviewer: Fag, fairy? 533: Yeah fag, fairy you know all of those you know. Interviewer: What about a female homosexual? 533: Well the the difference is I think that in- in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred and two they're harder to detect you know what I mean. Butch you know not a bitch but anyway. Eh you know. There's a lot of that around I said a lot, but you know there's equal amount I'm sure but everybody knows what a lesbian is but you know it's not as easy to spot one as it would be the guy in purple pants prissing down the road holding a cigarette high you know with his keys hanging out of his pocket you know. Anyway Interviewer: Yeah. Right. 533: A fairy. Interviewer: Would you ever say for a women nympho nymphomaniac? 533: Yeah. You know. That's uh in my opinion someone who never had a real man. Cause if she ever got a hold of one You'd stop that shit you know what I mean. This would be a- a woman who's a sexually overdriven or something like that life I said if she ever got ahold of a real man long enough she'd stop that stuff and say hey I believe I'll take you home with me. Uh you know but anyway. Interviewer: What about a man who like that uh sexually overactive? 533: Whoremonger you know. Uh I don't know. #1 not not as well # Interviewer: #2 Can you # names at all that that have anything to do with like somebody who is who thinks he's very uh 533: Oh yeah. Interviewer: Efficient. 533: Yeah who thinks he's good mm. Interviewer: He likes to sleep around. He doesn't care. 533: Cute-ass. No he's cute-ass. Thinks he's cute you know. Uh. Has uh No regard just so long as it's a woman you know. Like I told a guy one time I said well so-and-so had propositioned a snake you know. You'd hold it's head. But uh. And there's- there's- there's a lot of that around sure is you know I got absolutely no use for 'em. And uh. I don't know. My wife said something about somebody one time when I said well I just want to tell you that if he ever so much as looks at you you know he'll wish that he didn't. I just don't like a guy like that everybody he sees you know he's sizing 'em up as a sexual object you know. Uh. I mean because he's got a wife and three kids at home you know. How's he gonna like it when people do his uh daughter that way or his wife that way you know. {NW} But you know. He's a cute-ass. Actually everybody's got their own different names for it, you know. Interviewer: Any names for a woman who's kinda like that. Sleeps around? 533: Mm whore. You know. I mean you know. Kinda like being a nigger. I mean you know. You are who you are you know. Interviewer: Have you ever heard of any slang terms for very ugly boy or man? 533: Hmm. Nah. You know I mean you know I'm always saying something you know so- so-and-so looks like he caught in a fire and got beat out with a baseball shoe you know. Having reference probably to his terminal acne or something like that but um. Nah just ugly you know. Interviewer: No nouns though. 533: Nah, not- not especially you know. Interviewer: Well what about for a girl or a woman? 533: Hag. Snag-lightning. Uh. You know gag a maggot Stuff like that she gag a maggots you know. mm Interviewer: What about a dog? Is that still good? 533: Yeah dog, pig, hog. You know. That old saying a dog is a man's best friend say can be taken anyway you know. She ain't going to tell nobody she just proud to have a handsome rascal around you know. Uh Interviewer: Alright. What about a very attractive girl or woman? 533: She's a beaut you know. She's a real beauty. Fox. You know chick. Uh just everybody's got their own you know. Interviewer: Very handsome boy or man? 533: Um. I don't know. Just depends you know. {NW} Women you know what- what a man would comment Interviewer: It's either. 533: Eh a dude you know. The women would call him a fox you know and uh stud you know. That's what I'd call him you know. Interviewer: You ever heard of hunk? 533: Uh Yeah in in a sense of you know that's a mighty hunk of man there you know. But uh not so much as being a you know mister handsome as just being simply being a hunk you know. Well he's a hunk you know six, six-and-a-half and got a thirty-inch waist you know. He's a hunk. Probably also a meat head you know. Uh. Interviewer: What about the names for a very bookish person? 533: Book worm. Uh stuff like that you know nothing in particular. Interviewer: What about 533: Feel sorry for 'em you know. Interviewer: What about one who's always very anxious {X} teacher always thinking? 533: Brown-noser. No no no that's a different kind. Eh a brown-noser's the kind of guy who you know comes and say hey teach you looking good today. You know and he gets an A. Uh Or just happens to be sweet to the teacher so they happen to like him maybe he's handsome I don't know he would be a brown-noser. Uh I don't know. Teacher's pet. I mean you know that kind of thing. Mm-hmm Interviewer: Okay. What kind of fence would you say you usually find around {C: radio} 533: Chain link. Chain link fence. Interviewer: And the building around the school where you play basketball? 533: That's the gym. Interviewer: What about a place {C: radio} 533: Uh restroom basement. I think it got the connotation of basement cause back in the old days the bathroom was on the lower floor you know. And uh you know even like when I was in third fourth grade the they uh did a one floor structure that you went to the basement. You know. That was cleaner then saying I got to go to the toilet you know. Interviewer: You every hear it called {X} 533: Mm not so much. No. Now you know you get up where you going going to the john. The head. {C:radio} Interviewer: {C: radio} 533: Yeah. Interviewer: {C: radio} 533: Uh yeah in general you know half-breed or you know chink mm. You know Chinamen whatever the case was Jap you know Interviewer: Alright you ever heard of anything for Vietnamese? {C: radio} 533: Well yeah chinks and charlies you know course it's depending on where you are if you're directly associated with 'em or if you're talking about 'em from three thousand miles away you know. But that was- that was you a lot of that came from {X} You know a chink. You know gook and a gong you know. Mm-hmm. Right no that's kinda the Vietnamese you know they were gooks and Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Okay. What about current {C: radio} 533: Yeah well You not talking about holy rollies are you? You know a holy roly is far from a Roman Catholic though Interviewer: Well I mean either. 533: Yeah. Oh yeah. I see what you mean. {C: radio} Uh. Roman Catholic uh you know {C: radio} You know. Not having much there. Holy roly like my grandmother you know. Uh You know dresses down below their- their knees. Uh Hair up on top you know this kind of stuff but if I said need for having a mustache you know that I've had all my life Uh but she hasn't cut her hair since my dad was two years old you know. Uh they'll they'll fuss about you know somebody wearing makeup but they have false teeth. You know and they'll fuss about a woman wearing pants but they have on pantyhose and high heels. And they'll you know whine about somebody wearing excessive jewelery but they dye their hair. You know so what they're gagging and {D: mat-swallowing} a camel you know- you know what I mean. At least that's what I tell 'em you know and uh they say something about this that or the other you know and whether is mall or whatever and I say well you know uh and they used to think that I was just trying to be a smart-ass but I was trying to make a point. You know that's- they- they pick out something that you do and I say well uh grandma, you had nine kids. You know. You were married to two different men. Uh you know I mean so I mean uh you know if we're going to hell you'll burn just as hot as I do and if you're going to heaven then you're going to be just as far back in the crowd as me. You know so uh you know like I said I everybody has different opinions on things uh you know basically if it's right, it's right and if it's wrong, it's wrong. You have to answer for yours and I have to answer for mine. Methodists uh I pick at 'em. You know and everybody's always talking about well I'm just like a Baptist I get on the back seat you know. But um basically ah you know they're all going to the same place and looking for the same man you know uh for the same reward. And uh if you get in a serious conversation I just challenge 'em I say okay Methodists show me in the Bible where you sprinkle you know and I say show me where they baptize and I'll sure do it you know. Oh yeah. And uh sure I know that the Bible says that women should not uh ordain their hair and all this stuff and men should cut their hair and look slick and all this uh You know But uh you know that's old testament stuff. And uh people get all carried away on uh what Paul told the Corinthians you know. He told them you know about not to marry and all this kinda stuff but if he was got to take into context that he was a telling a specific people a specific thing. UH you know which to deal just like Martin Luther King telling the blacks not to buy from you know the Jews or the you know the crazed department stores. This was a specific instruction to accomplish a specific purpose and it doesn't mean that everybody from now until the end of time is supposed to try and not to get married but it's better to marry than burn you know. You know if you get horny, get married you know that's about what a lot of people take it to mean. Uh {C: radio} and that was you know to a specific people that was having a specific problem I mean like I said a lot of people get all carried away so you have to I think take it and read your little footnotes and go back in Romans and read and see what it says there and then come back over to you know. Uh but anyway fundamentalists they're holy rollies. Dang I can get off on a subject you know. Interviewer: {C: radio} 533: None of the Jews you know. No there's not that many of 'em around here. Interviewer: What about ah Germans? {C: radio} 533: Krauts. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah. They're Krauts. Germans are Krauts. Or {X} You know. Uh. That's a Kraut. Interviewer: {C: radio} 533: Yeah. Mm-hmm. {C: radio} Mm {C: radio} Nah not really. Like I said it's just so occasional around here you know. Interviewer: {C: radio} 533: Yeah. Interviewer: {C: radio} 533: {D: Yeah a Polack} {D: Polack} {D: Polack and you know people make jokes about the Polacks.} Mostly because they don't know anything about 'em. That's the way you do you make jokes about people you or things you that you do know about or things that you absolutely know nothing about. {D: Uh not enough Polacks around here to worry about there's no} {D: Raseiniskis} around here or anything like that. You know {D: Deboradnie} is about as hard as it gets around here. Otherwise it's Smith, Jones, Huffman, Davis, Dindy, you know. Interviewer: What about Russians or uh Czechs? 533: Nah. I mean a Czech's a Czech you know. But um not particular distinction unless they talk funny. Interviewer: Mm-kay. 533: You know. Interviewer: Lithuanians? 533: Yeah I don't know. They they really are something you know eh. Interviewer: What about Englishmen or Irishmen? 533: Nah. I mean you know the Irish or English, you know. Interviewer: {X} 533: Nah. Mm. Mm. Interviewer: What about Scots or French? 533: No not particular. Interviewer: Louisiana French? 533: Well you know that's a- that's a Cajun but eh where that came from really it wasn't French it was uh the Arcadia Province and course I'm sure you know about that. And uh when I got mixed with a southern drawl you know the people from Arcadia {C: radio} they were Arcadians. {D: But it's like Injuns you know Indians and } {D: Injuns} You know and uh let's say he's a Cajun he's an Injun you know and people shorten it to be C-A-G-S-C-H-A-U-N. And a real French uh kid went to I mean a little Spanish kid to him and one time and said what the hell is a Cajun. {C: pronunciation} You know C-A-H-U-N. {D: I mean C-A-J-U-N you know like a got a little hagwares and drive like gel} And he wanted to know what a Cajun {C: pronunciation} was but Cajun. Interviewer: What about Coonass? 533: Yeah Coonass. That's what they call themselves that's you know that's a pride name like hey I'm a hillbilly hey I'm a redneck hey I'm a Coonass you know they got bumper stickers Coonasses do it better But they also got 'em you know uh rodeo-er rodeo-ers do it in the dirt you know uh you know coonhunters do it in the dark. Interviewer: Divers do it deeper. 533: Yeah mm-hmm right. Truck drivers do it better you know faster. Interviewer: What about uh uh French or Greeks? 533: Nah. Interviewer: Mm-kay. Cubans, Puerto Ricans? 533: Well you know that- that now started mixing it up with dago you know. You know. Interviewer: Which one or both? 533: Well just according to how they're mixed you know but a Cuban you know a spic Interviewer: Uh Mexicans? 533: Well spic uh has to do with anything that that speaks more or less Spanish you know and you know has a Spanish connotation spic somebody south of the border. Huh? Interviewer: Ever wetback? 533: Well wetback yeah but there's not that many you know. Not- not a big thing around here. A wetback around here would probably be a terrapin you know for a water turtle. You know beaver, mink or something like that. Interviewer: What about Scandinavians or Canadians? 533: Nah I mean a foreigner you know. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: You know a foreigner. {C: pronunciation} Interviewer: Right. 533: But um Interviewer: Eh what would you call somebody who comes into town nobody has ever seen him before? 533: Well stranger you know. Interviewer: Would you ever use that word foreigner to mean uh somebody not necessarily from a foreign country? 533: Uh not especially uh the foreigner would be used for somebody who you know would have a very strange ah dialectical you know form, that is something that's weird around here course you know we can handle the Yankees and you know and an occasional Chinese But uh you know somebody that was you know that's totally foreign to us you know. Which uh I don't think would involve you know you know um the Virginians talking about the outhouse. {C: pronunciation} And uh the Oklahomans saying I'm going to town for {C: pronunciation} breakfast you know. Uh but um I'm talking about someone really foreign you know. Yeah, super foreign Interviewer: We can get through and be done with the questions in a few minutes. Uh what would you call members of the two major political parties in this country? 533: Democrats and Republicans. Whigs and Tories. #1 {NW} # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: No. Interviewer: Joking, right? 533: Yeah, Democrats and you know Republicans you know. Interviewer: You mentioned in the conversation uh hippie um are there are there still such critters as hippies around? 533: Uh now and then you know uh Extremely long hair, greasy, dirty looking. Uh the only thing they've changed a little now they don't wear flowers anymore they wear earrings. Interviewer: Right. 533: You know. Look like they're spaced out you know it's not so much a hippie anymore you know. Interviewer: What about when you were growing up a- a friend of yours member of the same stakes you that you were very close to you'd say that's my? 533: Buddy. It's my friend, my pal. {NS} Interviewer: Have you ever heard any names for uh a surrogate parent? Like uh growing up who really who's spent a lot of time with the child although it's not his own? 533: Its like Uncle Tom you know I mean Interviewer: Do you just have a general word that you use 533: No I mean you know but ah you know just uh you know. Mm-hmm Interviewer: Well maybe not even a relative. 533: Mm-hmm. Well that's what I mean a guy that you know he maybe he wasn't married and he'd come over and he'd took you fishing and stuff like that you might get in a you know a habit to call him Uncle Rex or you know Uncle Bob. You know uh This is you know basically family orientation not you know and a lot of people you know their- their grandparents are Pa-paw Tom Pa-paw Neil, Papa John you know uh. That kind of stuff Granny Sybil you know. Interviewer: Have you ever heard of anything like a play-mama or play-daddy? 533: Uh you mean like nannies and stuff like that? Nah. Mm-mm Interviewer: Okay. What about maybe when you were growing up a group of fun that you associated with regularly and you considered yourself a group? 533: You mean like a gang being part of the gang no not really This is just me and my buddies you know what I mean? No we didn't have gangs uh now we might speak of a gang of boys meaning you know like eight or ten guys you know out doing something you know just a whole gang of 'em but we'd also use {D: passel} and slew. A whole slew of 'em. {D: Whole passel of 'em.} The whole kit and caboodle you know. Interviewer: Okay. Maybe in your neighborhood was there ever anything that a new kid who moved in had to go through before he was accepted into the group? 533: Uh maybe it was but it was no set of rules you know what I mean. Usually I took up with the new kid in a hurry because uh you know I'd been a new kid myself at one time and I had to you know take up with myself you know. {C: radio static} And like I said I just walked into the third grade class and started being you know part of the bunch you know. I got paddlings you know I told jokes. Uh I had the lead part in the two school plays that year you know. And so I knew how it was to be a new kid and so I just wanted them to feel comfortable you know. But there were no particular set of rules that they had to go through. Uh after a while you know they got to be friends with somebody you'd go spend the night with 'em. You know. Interviewer: But no kind of initiation? 533: Eh no initiation no. Uh-uh. Interviewer: Okay. Have you ever heard of any kind of of a verbal game that involved one person kinda without insult and the other one be with insult and this one and this one comeback and try to top it. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: And that might have been a fight? 533: Mm-hmm. Just arguing. You know proving a point. Interviewer: Okay. Have you ever heard of ranking the plays that doesn't? 533: No. Just hassling somebody. Black people calling it meddling. He's meddling with me. You know. Interviewer: What about kinds of games you play when you were a child. Maybe like hiding games or running games? 533: Eh. Hide-and-seek. Yeah hide-and-seek and of course we played war and we played cowboys and Indians you know and cops and robbers. We played hide-and-seek and chase. Chinese chase that's when somebody they touch you you've got to put your hands on the spot they touch and run until you catch the next guy you know. If they you know like a- you know they reach and get you from behind you know and just barely touch you on the tail you know and you got to put your hand on your hip and run around you know one-handed like. And the real fun part was you know to uh to have to jump and touch somebody on the ankle you know he'd have to run around holding his ankle that he caught. That was Chinese chase. Uh and we played tag and you know we had bases. And uh you know just stuff like that. Interviewer: Any kind of game that you ever played maybe when you had a line of kids? 533: Uh you mean like eh red rover red rover send Tommy right over yeah. You know we played Annie over which was you know one kid got on one side of the tin top house and one get on the over you know you hollered Annie over and then threw the ball over and I forget how it goes now if it went over it was something if it didn't go over it was something else. Interviewer: Any games with marbles? 533: Oh yeah we played marbles you know man all the time you know we couldn't they wouldn't let us play for keeps you know that was kinda like gambling you know if you if you play with a marble and a guy beat you you know you could keep that marble you know that the- the marble that you beat him with yeah you keep his marble. Uh but we played uh you know four-hole uh four-hole marbles you know five, ten and fifteen. Uh well the first hole didn't count cause you was there anyway and then it was a five-point hole, ten-point hole you know and fifteen-point hole was way over here and you made the first hole, the second hole, then the third hole {C: radio} then you had to come back without missing and then when you got the first hole again you legged for the hole that was way off and you got fifteen points you know. Interviewer: Any games with a knife? 533: Uh stretch we played stretch. Uh it's you know two guys standing face to face they pull out their pocket knives you know and you- you um you throw the knife out there away from his leg and he has to stretch to the point where the knife stuck up in the ground if the knife didn't stick then you didn't have to stretch. And then you'd get him you'd get him straight out like that see and as far as he could go if you throw it between his legs and it sticks up you have to turn around so he can throw the knife backwards. And uh you know that kind of thing. And you know you play chicken and if he was going to throw the knife into the guy's foot you know and also you you play chicken with you know cigarettes you put your arms together and you drop a lighted cigarette on your arm you know and the guy that chickened out first you know. Just crap games you know its stuff like that. Interviewer: Were there any particularly rough games that you'd play? 533: No you know just sports you know. Roughhouse was a kind of football when everybody was against everybody which uh more or less amounts to uh naked soccer I guess you would say everybody was against everybody you know they when they tackled you well then you uh everybody got behind you in a wad kinda like a huddle and you just threw the ball straight up over your head the man that got it- got it and everybody else went out to tackle him beat the hell out of him or whatever you know. And I enjoyed that one I- I still like the play roughhouse it's a lot of fun because you know it you're you know you and me against- you and the football against the world. If you got the ball son uh you know you're the target And uh But you know nothing in particularly rough uh you know we had you know our little wars you know with corn cobs and uh you know cow piles and stuff like that you know. But no particular you know real dangerous hellacious games or anything like that we you know. Interviewer: Any ring games you ever play? 533: Hmm? Interviewer: Ring games like black ring you know? 533: Uh no we used to play those at parties like you know uh spin the bottle you know boys and girls get in a circle you know and you put the bottle on the floor and you spin it and the one it landed on you you had to take 'em around the house you know Interviewer: {NW} 533: Uh-huh which wasn't even any fun until I got about seventeen Interviewer: {NW} 533: Uh you know. Yeah mm-hmm. Interviewer: What kind of parties do you have 533: Ah you like somebody's birthday party you know this kind of thing you know. And uh uh that was about it and then the occasional birthday party you didn't have birthday parties every year. I don't even know if I had one in my childhood but I don't believe I did. Might have my brother had one one time. That was kinda girl stuff you know- you know girl have a party. Interviewer: Any kind of party that you had when you were in college? 533: Uh I never was much of a party guy you know because uh I'm an individual in this because everybody's at parties yeah they used to have 'em you know eh graduation parties and now this one guy's daddy had a lake you know and a bunch of lake houses and we'd go down there and have a party and everybody got zonked out of their minds and I'd go in and I'd just didn't you know I didn't like to get drunk I mean you know I said well if I'm going to do something enjoy it or not I at least want to have my own mind about me so the more I can say damn I won't do that anymore or hey boy I like that I want to go back and do that again. Uh yeah but you know just parties beer partied you know whatever. Interviewer: Uh yeah did you call it a beer bus? 533: Nah just a- just a party. Yeah just a party. Interviewer: What kind of music do you listen to? 533: I like it all. Uh you know I- I can stand you know Chopin and stuff like that a little Mozart every now and then but um you know country and western uh some classical. Uh rock uh all different kinds of music I'm really I like it all you know there's certain parts of all of it that I don't like as well but you know I can- I can dig any of it. There's a degree of satisfaction in all of it. Uh I like good lyrics I really I'm a lyric nut I love lyrics and uh by that I find a lot in songs that other people don't ever find you know. I said oh that what that thing's saying? God almighty. You know uh but you know I like it all. I like I especially like to dig out the lyrics you know and and uh- and see what it means to me I don't try to guess what the guy was thinking necessarily but you know. Because uh a fellow can be super happy and look back on a time when he was not and write a song like uh you know Sunday Morning Coming Down. Kris Kristofferson wrote one one time that probably nobody amount to anything ever heard except close friends of mine I'd bring 'em around I'd say listen to this listen at the pain he remembers you know The song is uh it was wintertime in Nashville down on music row when I was looking for a place to get me out of the cold to warm the frozen feeling that was eating at my soul and keep the chilly winds off me and my guitar. You know? And uh you know So we stopped I can't remember now I'd have to go back and do the whole sequence over but Anyway Um with a pocket full of empty uh with a stomach full of empty and a pocket full of dreams I dropped my pride and stepped inside a bar. Actually I guess you'd call it a tavern cigarette smoke to the ceiling, sawdust on the floor and friendly shadows And actually the devil was- he met up with the devil there you know there was an old man sitting at the bar and in the mirror I could see him checking me and my guitar and he said come on up here boy and show us what you are and I said I'm dry so he bought me a beer. Anyway he goes on telling about you know the conversation they had and uh He says the old man was stranger but I'd heard his song before back when failure had me locked out on the wrong side of the door and no one stood behind me but my shadow on the floor and lonesome was more than just a state of mind So you could still hear me singing to people who don't listen to the things that I'm saying and praying someone gonna hear Uh you know like I said uh I- I know- I know where he was. You know he was he had finally come to the realization that that uh he had met up with one of his hardest times and and he beat it- the name of the story is beat to beat the devil. And he said well I ain't saying I beat the devil but I did drink this beer for nothing. And then I stole his song and then he goes back into the song that the devil So anyways like I said I'm- I'm a I'm a lyric writer {C: radio} Interviewer: Why don't you go ahead and mention a few of those those albums? {X} 533: Yeah well you know we were talking about shoes that You mentioned what do you call- you said what do you call those that you have on and I said boots you know which is a stupid thing to say I mean you knew they were boots, right? {NW} But then I got to thinking well there's a lot a you know different kinds of shoes you know slippers and loafers and you know sandals and things like this that everybody knows but we used to have plow shoes. Plow shoes. Excuse me I'm smoking a pipe I get that junk all over me. But um But a plow shoe was like a what you might call a- a A not-so-fancy brogan you know brogans what you call a little baby's white shoes or something you know that they wear comes up to to about the ankle and a plow shoes were uh kinda a rough hard leather Uh Flexible but you know sturdy and they had a the regular eyelets up to you know about six or eight of them and then on up uh to the toward the ankle they had uh these steel eyelets you know metal anyway and you didn't lace into them you just kind of- it was a wraparound thing Anyway you know everybody wore plow shoes they had a they were durable as the dickens you know and you could wear 'em and pass 'em down to your kid brother et cetera et cetera. So you know Course moccasins you know we had moccasins and tennis shoes T-E-N-N-Y {C: pronunciation} not tennis shoes you know tennis shoes. {pronunciation} Yeah well you know it was tennis shoes I {C: pronunciation} I never knew Why they called them tennis shoes. {C: pronunciation} until I realized at some ripe age probably twelve or fourteen that there was a game called tennis and it was tennis shoes you know. But anyway on to greater things. Interviewer: Alrighty. Have to do uh some things that have to do with greetings and uh. How would you greet somebody about {X} 533: Morning. Howdy. How are y'all something like that. Interviewer: If you said morning what would be the latest time of the day you would say that? 533: Uh just before twelve noon. You know After that it's uh afternoon course not a lot of people Uh just cause I do it that way doesn't mean everybody does but You know you ask somebody say you know what time does um the Beverly Hillbillies come on they say this evening. And this evening means you know something like three oh clock you know Uh Interviewer: So there's no clear distinction? 533: No there's no distinction between say this afternoon and saying this evening. We were talking about out here and in the office today and somebody said Said something about What do they mean this afternoon? In the summer time is at six oh clock because in the winter six oh clock is dark and that would be considered this evening. You know and he was writing an article he said should I say this afternoon at six or should I say this evening at six tonight at six today at six. And uh so it is you know and people around here you know they say hey won't y'all come over for dinner some day? And that means be there at twelve noon ready to eat. Uh Then some other areas someone says why don't we meet for dinner that means you know see you at seven. You know we'll eat at eight. Uh So it- it varies you just it's kinda it's colloquial to the point that you have to know who you're talking to I mean it's- it's not a confusing thing but you just uh you can perceive for the most part what they're- what they mean. You know when they say this evening or This evening. {C: pronunciation} This afternoon tonight you know. That's kinda the way we do it. Interviewer: What would you say if you were leaving somebody for a period of time? 533: I'd just simple stuff uh you know bye see you later. You know something like that uh. If you were being proper uh good afternoon Okay. You know something like that. Interviewer: Would you ever say good day? 533: Uh yeah. Possibly you know Good day Pull the old Paul Harvey trick you know? Good day. But um Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah right right {NW} Interviewer: What about {X} good night? 533: Uh probably just good night or goodbye. You know. See you tomorrow. You know. Uh no uh good evenings uh If I were doing a newscast you know come on with that you know the heavy stuff the loud Jeffery Hendricks approach you know. Uh I'm Jeffery Hendrick W-L-S news good evening it's nine fifty-nine. {C: impression} You know this kind of thing but otherwise Good night you know. Interviewer: Uh 533: Good night is kind of a sign off I mean you know if you say good night that's it and a good evening you know has a connotation either way you know either bye bye or hello you know. Interviewer: Right. 533: Good evening. Interviewer: That's where about what I want to get to. If a farmer went out to work very early then I say he went into the field before the sun? 533: Four A-M. Right before the sun came up Interviewer: {X} 533: Risen nah but If I was out there working before the sun come up you know. Interviewer: #1 Okay. I just # 533: #2 You know. # There's an old joke about golly you must've got up before breakfast you know. Interviewer: Sure. 533: Which of course you had to do but that having reference to say you know four three or four oh clock in the morning. Interviewer: {X} Or a man might say this morning I saw the sun 533: Come up Or rise yeah. Saw the sun rise. Now the sun rise is really the sun rise in other words a noun you know something that you are looking at it is a thing or a happening as the case is. If you see the sun rise uh around here it would be you see the sun come up. But if you're going to go out with some chick and lay on the beach until the sun till you see the sun rise you're waiting to see a particular object you know. Interviewer: Right. 533: So Interviewer: And yesterday I saw the sun 533: Set Mm-hmm Interviewer: Or yesterday at five oh clock the sun? 533: Yeah the sun rose. Mm-hmm right. Yeah yeah excuse me. I am you are he is essential. Interviewer: {X} 533: Conjugations Interviewer: What about this expression say if somebody came to see you not the past Sunday but the one before that you would say? 533: Sunday before last A week ago Sunday you know Interviewer: Okay. 533: Two Sundays ago Interviewer: Right. 533: If it was on If it was on Monday or Tuesday you know you would say two Sundays ago. Ah some people get it all You know they bundle themselves down with 'em they say ah around here they say you know a week ago this past Sunday. But it's confusing sometimes when they use that because they'll say a week ago Tuesday. And you don't know if they meant the Tuesday that has just passed you know like if its on Thursday or Friday. You don't know if it was the Tuesday that just passed or you know the be a week ago from the coming Tuesday so you know. You know. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah. Interviewer: What if he is coming to see you like this coming {X} 533: That's Sunday after next. Yeah. Interviewer: Sunday week? 533: Uh yeah. Sunday week they still use that and a lot of people on Sunday. You ask 'em you know are- are you going to Jackson soon? They say yeah first of next week. Which means Monday morning bright and damn early but here it is Sunday afternoon and they're saying You know first of next week. uh You know my mother and daddy used to use that you know I'd say well you know next week we'll do so and so and you do it on Monday. You know and I thought well is Sunday the start of the week or is Monday the start of the week but You know That's next- next a week That's N-E-X-T-A-W-E-E-K Next a week Interviewer: Right 533: Like after a while. Interviewer: Right. Okay. Has somebody 533: Hey Doug. Nah he's got a program he's going to the other side. {NS} Interviewer: House from the first of the week you said he's stayed about 533: Couple of weeks A while really is what I'd say. Cause if anybody stayed at my house two weeks I would soon forget how close a friend he was probably you know. Interviewer: What kind of {X} 533: Uh right I'd say uh bye. Interviewer: {NW} 533: You know. Interviewer: Right. 533: We call that wearing out your welcome. Interviewer: Sure. {X} 533: Mm Interviewer: {X} 533: Mm Interviewer: Does anybody around here use fortnight? 533: Not really. The only place I've ever the use of the word fortnight is on channel two And I watch educational T-V you know I Interviewer: {X} 533: Ah well you know Barnabas Collins You know sucking blood out of some broad for a fortnight you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: A fortnight I always thought to be an Indian term when you went to the forest and spent the night you know. Mm-hmm right. We're coming up on a fortnight. You know. Interviewer: Okay you say Wednesday is today you so Thursday is something 533: Tomorrow Interviewer: Alright and what would you say if you wanted to know the time {X} 533: Hey what time is it? Yeah. Interviewer: Say if it were fifteen minutes later than ten past ten what time is it? 533: Quarter to eleven Ten forty-five Interviewer: What if it were midway between seven and eight? 533: Eh. Seven thirty half past the hour is really not a a common thing around here but it's you know it happens uh Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know. Uh mostly seven thirty. Basically the simple approach I guess you know. Interviewer: Say that you've been doing something for a long time you say I'm been doing that for what? 533: Quite a while Quite some time um Yeah. Interviewer: And now the weather 533: Yeah. Interviewer: What if I go outside and I say well I don't like this cause it's dark? 533: Clouds. Interviewer: Okay. What if it's 533: Not everybody you know this you know s- According to who it is but they have different words for it you know- you know? Uh clouds you know the dark skies some people just call it the sky you know they don't distinguish between the clouds and the you know there is a cloudy sky. I don't like the cloudy sky. You know this kinda thing but uh basically it's just cloud you know. Billows yeah that stuff you sing about in church you know. Interviewer: Right. {NW} 533: But um it's just plain old clouds. Interviewer: Okay. Say if it's a day like today maybe a few clouds, sunshine the kind of day you like. You would say it's what kind of day? 533: You mean in reference to the sky? I mean you know like partly cloudy? Interviewer: No not even kind of weather. 533: #1 Well it's a nice day. Yeah mm-hmm. Yeah, it's a nice day. # Interviewer: #2 Sure. # 533: Now beautiful day is when there's no clouds. Interviewer: Okay. 533: You know. And a gloomy day is when there's all clouds you know. Interviewer: Alright. 533: Or nasty uh there's a certain kind of Indian summer you know an Indian summer is kind of uh the sky it's uh hazy you know hazy low hung clouds you know this kind of thing it's- it's maybe it's warm maybe it's humid but it's a it's an Indian summer day. And a dog day. It's one that's hotter than hell. You know I mean it's just hot son I mean it's hot. A few clouds hanging in there low and it's humid you go outside and you're sure suddenly it's not secret you know. And uh Interviewer: {X} 533: {NS} Right you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Uh You wished everybody used dye on that. Interviewer: Okay back at weather 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Well it's just uh the clouds are getting thicker and darker and figure you're gonna be having some rain what would you say the weather is doing in a situation like that? You'd say it's kind of? 533: Mm-hmm. Huh I don't know weather's changing you know. Fixing to have a storm I mean you know. Just um Interviewer: It's threatening rain? 533: Yeah. Threatening weather Mm-hmm and now that's if you are you know you're gonna have a storm that's threatening weather yeah. Interviewer: Kay. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: What would you say it's it's doing if it's like that where the clouds begin to pull away and the signs 533: Breaking off. Interviewer: Sure. 533: Breaking off breaking off back up in the north you know Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Now and then- after it breaks for a little while it starts clearing off Interviewer: #1 Right. # 533: #2 see. # But it's gotta break off before it can clear off. Interviewer: Do you ever hear of faring off? 533: Yeah it fares off you know. Uh faring off is kind of like you know you get up in the morning and it faring off Interviewer: #1 Right. # 533: #2 Hey you know. # {NW} Interviewer: {X} 533: Because you didn't know you didn't know there was a lot of clouds are doing at night so you don't know that it broke off. Interviewer: Sure. 533: You know and uh You can't swear that it cleared off you just know that it fared off Interviewer: #1 Alright # 533: #2 you know. # Yeah I never thought about that. That's kind of strange you know. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Hey it fared off last night you know. Interviewer: {NW}. 533: Sound like somebody playing uh you know golf you know. Faring off teeing off. Interviewer: Yeah. Sure. Fare away why not? 533: Yeah. Interviewer: What would you call a a lot of rain just in a short while maybe a couple of inches in an hour? 533: Uh Interviewer: You say you had irregular? 533: Gully washer. {NW} Yeah. Frog strangler. Uh you know a flood you know. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: But I would say gully washer yeah downpour same thing. Everybody has their own little terms you know? Cow pissing on a pole bridge you know this kind of thing. {NW} Interviewer: What? 533: Pole bridge. Interviewer: Pole bridge? 533: You know bridge made out of poles. Interviewer: Oh. 533: You can imagine how it would run through you know just whamming or straight through right okay. Interviewer: {X} 533: Or a flat rock is the same Interviewer: #1 Yeah right. # 533: #2 thing though right? # Interviewer: God I've hear that before. 533: But that splatters a lot but the pole bridge son it goes straight through it just in hard streams you know so that was you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: There's a difference in the flat rock they're in a pole bridge {D: seriously.} Interviewer: Is it raining pitchforks and needles? 533: {X} yeah right Mm-hmm. Interviewer: {NW} 533: And I used to sit there and imagine you know when I was a kid like four years old you know and I would sit there and imagine you know I could look out there and I could see that like when it hits the puddles you know when it comes up in little spears and all that luck Yeah oh yeah it is pitchforks you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: But I've seen it rain so hard uh that you know you could go out in the yard and find a little fish. You know a little menace goldfish you now. {C: radio} Ah {NW} Mm. {NS} No. Got some kind record on it probably over driving a little bit. {NS} {NW} {NS} That's a thunderstorm. {NS} Well electrical storm yeah you know right but uh around here you usually get some rain you know. Interviewer: Right. {X} 533: Oh yeah the devil's whipping his wife. {NS} Hey {NS} Interviewer: {X} 533: Mm-hmm. Sorry {NW} Yeah Well they we when see when- when you flip a mic on an air see it- it opens these up in here too see. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Gonna switch it back. Yeah you know the devil's whipping his wife uh you know this kind of thing. {NW} Interviewer: Uh {NW} {X} outside of the line the wind came along and {NS} 533: Blow 'em down. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Now Blow 'em off you know it's quite a which one that did you know if it blew them blew 'em down or blow 'em off. Interviewer: Alright okay. 533: Blowed 'em away. Interviewer: Right. 533: Is really what you were looking for I guess. Interviewer: I would say the wind has? 533: That's blown them d- you know. Interviewer: And the wind will? 533: {NW} Will continue to blow you know right. Interviewer: What is the uh the wind that's coming from the {NS} {NS} 533: Southerly. Interviewer: {X} {NS} 533: Blowing from the south you know. Interviewer: {D: that way} 533: And northerly. Interviewer: {X} 533: I mean you know northeast was {X} yeah. And this {NS} Yeah northeasterly southwesterly you know southeasterly northwesterly yeah you know. {NS} East-west. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Uh {NW} {NS} you know {NS} you say {NS} It's a westerly wind you're meaning the course that the wind is from the west you know not blowing to the west. {NS} And if you start trying to explain it people go What's he talking about you know? {NS} You know right wind blowing from the west to the east at about you know {X} hell if it's west, it's west you know. So {NS} Interviewer: About a a rain it's bound to get wet in. 533: That's a drizzle. You mean like a sprinkle? Or drizzle? You're- Interviewer: Are they about the same? 533: Well uh a sprinkle is simply that you know just drops. Just drops occasional drops but a drizzle is a light very slow just almost a a uh. What would you call it? Let me see. Well just- just a little bitty rain Interviewer: #1 Mm-hmm. # 533: #2 Just a # tiny rain you know it just- just drizzles a little bit you know? Um but a sprinkle is just drops. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Drip drip drip you know? Interviewer: Do you ever hear of people say it's misting outside? 533: Yeah well a misty yeah. Misty and a drizzle. A drizzle I think is a little bit heavier than a mist. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know a mist is just that. It looks like a mist but a drizzle uh is just a light light rain. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know. Interviewer: Mm-kay. What about this stuff that you might drive into in a in a {NW} a in a low area dangerous to drive in? 533: Fog. Yeah mm-hmm. Interviewer: And you would call that what kind of day? 533: Mm. Foggy day yeah. Low lying fog. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Or as they say now there's fog. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know. Interviewer: What about if you don't for a couple of weeks without rain? and you'd say you're having? 533: A dry spell. Interviewer: And if it gets more serious you'd be having? 533: Mm-hmm. Well you'd be having a drought really but it'd just be a serious dry spell. Drought I think is more or less a westerly term you know it's out there where the ground cracks open and that kind of thing. Around here it just gets dry. I know. {NW} Interviewer: Say if the wind has been very gentle but it starts getting stronger. 533: Hmm. Interviewer: What would you say? 533: Kicking up. Wind's kicking up or picking up you know uh. It's about basically that Actually what it's doing is becoming you know uh more of a weather factory you know more intense and uh. It's picking up. Interviewer: Okay What if it's just the opposite? It's been strong but it's getting more more gentle? 533: Hmm Well winds are you know getting calm you know. Becoming calm or nearing nearing calm. Um backing off it's you know it's coordinated if you're if if you're doing in a an informative manner or if you're just chit-chatting with a buddy you know. Man that wind is backing off and maybe we can go flying today you know. But if you're on the air or making a report of some type you know then the wind has you know eased to two miles an hour this kind of thing. Breeze. A light wind would be a breeze you know and a a wind uh ten to fourteen miles an hour would be a you know you might say a short gust. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know. Interviewer: How would you describe {NW} weather maybe like on an early fall morning it's a little bit on the cool side but? 533: Nippy. Interviewer: comfortable 533: Crisp. Yeah. Kind of crisp or nippy. Mm-hmm. I use the word nippy you know. Chilly things like that. It depends. Interviewer: After you go outside and you have a light coating of white on the ground you'd say you have a little? 533: You mean snow or dew? Interviewer: Snow but. 533: Hmm. Interviewer: Something else kind of ice? 533: Sleet yeah. You know like sleet? Interviewer: Or? 533: Frost uh yeah frost yeah okay. Interviewer: #1 Sure. # 533: #2 Alright. # Interviewer: Are there different kinds {NW} or more severe? 533: {NW} Well there a heavy frost you know light frost uh and there's just a plain frost. It depends uh the light frost you know they kind of start with a heavy frost because you know you had seen one in six months you know. And it looks heavy. And then you'll have a light frost. Then you'll get accustomed to it and it's just a frost you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Uh It's kind of like the old bit about a dash of salt or dab of salt you know? Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Or a smidgen. Uh believe it or not there's you know there's differences you know. Interviewer: Right. 533: Like you know Interviewer: {NW} 533: A smidgen goes a smidgen is how much you can hold between your you know your thumb and your forefinger and a dash is just a dash you know. A dab is a maybe couple of dashes and a and a smidgen. Interviewer: {NW} 533: And uh you know Wise man told me once and I said how- how'd how'd you do it? He said this time this that and the other and a dab dab in a half two dabs of this you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And so you know. That's that's the weather's a lot the same way it depends on how you look at it. Interviewer: Right. Somebody might say it got so cold last night that the lake? 533: Yeah, it froze over. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: And if it gets much colder the pond might? 533: Eh it will probably freeze over too. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: But uh freezes over but it falls up. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Right. Interviewer: Right. 533: Actually I- I think that it would probably fall down but they say it fall up any way. Interviewer: {NW} Okay {NW} has 533: Thawed up. Interviewer: Or? If it's a process of freezing? 533: Iced. Yeah it's just freezing yeah. Freezing over you know. And it's frozen over. Interviewer: Right yeah. Okay. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Do you have any any uh term for the uh for say jiff just the edges or the ponds are freezing? {X} Say it's? 533: Uh you know. That would I guess be in a state of freezing over you know. Icing up you know. Icing up around the edges I mean that's just that's just about what it we call. Interviewer: You ever skimmed over or something like that? 533: Uh well skimmed over that would be just a light light you know where you couldn't even really you couldn't see the ripples in the water you know. It's just a little skim over it yeah. Just kind of a like in an ice tray when it's been in the refrigerator you know five minutes you know it's got a little yeah. Interviewer: Okay. 533: {NW} Interviewer: Um alright we'll get into things that have to do with the house. {NS} 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: I- I remember you mentioning the the living room {NS} {X} Is that kind of a fancy term? 533: Well uh I think the parlor would uh carry connotation of a you know of a big house Uh not to me in my mind When I think of a parlor I think of a you know uh big house with a separate room for you to come into. You know like off the screened porch yeah. You know you come into the parlor you know where it's Maybe like a sun room. You know or something like that you know on the south side of the house. Uh quiet and away from everything else. I also think of you know an old man and an old woman that live by themselves you know and they they have a parlor you know where they you know bring their little great nephews and things like this in to play and keep 'em off the the place in there where they got the nice china you know? Put you in the parlor. Interviewer: #1 Right. # 533: #2 You know. # But uh I don't know of anybody uh anybody that I know in the last ten years that just built a house put a parlor in it. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Unless it was a you know a sauna a health parlor you know? Or a bar parlor. Interviewer: Right. 533: Yeah. Uh there mostly announced mud rooms you know {NW} Well the guy comes in from hunting the old lady said Why don't you take go back out there on the porch and then you come in you know. Interviewer: Right. 533: Uh So mud rooms would be the probably I guess the next parlor. Interviewer: Are there any houses around here that have the extremely high ceilings? 533: Mm-hmm. Oh yeah. Interviewer: Just roughly off the top of your head about high how would you say? 533: About ten feet. Are you talking you know interior yeah sure ten feet. And uh some even taller up you know. I've seen 'em where that uh they're probably twelve. Depends on you know the house if it's a you know an uptown estate you know they might have a twelve foot ceiling. You know. I never really understood why because back then surely they knew that pete rose Uh you know but anyway yeah there's some- there's some around. Interviewer: Uh the house that you grew up in did you have a fireplace? 533: Mm-hmm. {D: And that was all.} Yeah that was that was that was the heating. Matter of fact had a one two three fireplaces you know. Interviewer: What did you call the thing at the top of the house made out of brick maybe that smoked? 533: Well back then I called it a chimney. {C: pronunciation} That's C-H-I-M-L-E-Y. Interviewer: Right. 533: But you know it's a chimney right. Interviewer: What about at the tall tank? 533: Might be a smokestack you know a chimney. Same thing yeah. Interviewer: Well inside a fireplace what do you call the the big pieces of wood that you burn? 533: Logs. you know. Interviewer: Ever heard of back log or back stick? 533: Uh yeah that's the big one yeah. That's the one you put on a back you know that you just kind of get getting hot in it kind of smokes and smolders all night long you know. Burns slowly the back stick. Interviewer: What about the type of wood that you would use to start a fire? 533: That's kindling. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Ever heard that called uh that lighter or light wood? 533: Nah. That's kindling. It kindles the blaze you know starts the blaze. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Kindles the fires kindling you know. Interviewer: Is that usually pine or? 533: Uh not especially you know dried just dried feathered wood. I mean you know anything you can chip up small. Hickory's good. Uh you know if you get the right kind of hickory or if you get some old good dry hickory but you don't try anything wet. I mean or green. Interviewer: What's so wrong 533: #1 The oak # Interviewer: #2 with it? # 533: bark you know stuff like that will burn fast you know. Especially when it's got moss on it you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And the things that you set the logs across inside? 533: Dog irons Yeah. Or just the irons you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And you stir the fire around with a poker. Interviewer: What do you say is left when the wood's all burned? 533: Ashes. Interviewer: Yeah. What color are those usually? 533: Uh gray. Uh I would say gray the color of ashes. They're an ash color you know what I mean. Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: And and the black stuff that forms inside it? 533: Soot. Yeah. Interviewer: What about the thing that's over the fireplace that you might put photographs? 533: Mm that's a mantle. The mantle. Interviewer: Do f- do you just say mantle or mantle piece mantle board? 533: No, just the mantle. You know we'll put the alarm clock on the mantle you know. Interviewer: And the open area in front of the 533: That's the hearth. Yeah. I dropped my kid brother on there at one time. Interviewer: {NS} Dropped him? 533: Dropped him. Interviewer: You mean when he was like a baby? 533: Like he was uh three or four months old yeah you know maybe maybe three months old and had one of those little {X} he kicked a little thingamajigger at the bottom of the side go {NW} you know. And everybody else was eating supper you know and uh And that had his hearth by I mean had his hearth had his bed setting on the hearth way and they you know closed off the uh fireplace #1 here. # Interviewer: #2 Right. # 533: And of course the fireplace on the other side I mean on the o- in the other room which joined that one so you kept it warm but you know they had its own hearth. {NS} Any who everybody was carrying the baby around and I wasn't the baby anymore and so hell I was just gonna reach in and wag him around see what's so special about this stud and you know I dropped him. And {NW} I got at least four whippings. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah. You know just tore up my little rear up. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: But hey I didn't drop him anymore ran over him with a bicycle you know {X}. Interviewer: You were good to him. 533: #1 But I didn't drop him. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: No more dropping yeah. Interviewer: What do you call the uh belongings several people can sit on in the living room? 533: Well couch. Interviewer: {D: Same size there?} 533: Uh not really you know I say sofa in advertising but it's a couch Hell it's not a davenport. A davenport is a is something like my old great aunt Beat would have you know it uh you know the swirled back and the and the designs that look like a lion's head or a lion's well that's a davenport you know you know ornate. Interviewer: {X} 533: No I Interviewer: {X} 533: Oh it sound like a love s- a davenport love seat huh. Yeah I can picture them. Interviewer: {NS} In your bedroom 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: something a piece of furniture that you with a {NS} 533: Dresser. Chifforobe uh maybe yeah. Interviewer: Dresser and chifforobes the same thing? 533: No. Uh you could have a dresser but you know then you could have a chifforobe too. I had one. Interviewer: Wasn't there 533: Oh the chifforobe uh was tall you know you couldn't put any of the things you put on top of it you stored out of the way you know what I mean? Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know like your football things like this Uh he was tall and on a on a one side on on on either of the two sides maybe only on both sides they had a mirrored door. you know and it unlocked with a key it it didn't have a pull handle you had to unlock it with a key. {C: radio} And uh then at the top center you had a small mirrored door like that you know that unlocked with a key when you kept your super valuables you know what I mean? It had about six or eight drawers down the middle you know Chifforobe I had not a lot of them {X} A dresser usually has a mirror {X} on the middle or something like that you know. {NS} and the flat part's like a tabletop and then you know two or three lights go over the {X} Some smaller drawers you can put jockstrap socks things like that you know you know stuff that doesn't have to be laying in order you know what I mean It's stuff you can wad up and chuck in a little drawer. Interviewer: Yeah uh {NS} the thing that you mentioned the same as a chest of drawers? 533: No. Uh-uh a chest of drawers we call it a chester drawers C-H-E-S-T-E-R chester drawers. Uh no a chester drawers had about you know like four if it was you know medium-sized about four long drawers in it. you know uh I'd say you know nine ten inches deep and twenty-five to thirty-six inches long you know something like that and uh that's all it was and it was about you know breast-high something like that and you could put you know a picture on top of it or set your books on it you know but it was not a dresser and it was not a chifforobe. It was a chester drawer. Right. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Uh you know we had all three. Interviewer: What do you call that's built in part {X} 533: A closet you know. Interviewer: Used to did you have {X} in a separate piece? 533: No not really. You know you could do that in a chifforobe you know little bitty small you know stuff that you know mama wore once every five years and that stuff was kind of stuffy on the chifforobe we did not have a uh what do you call that? I know what you like a gallery type. I know what you're talking about. I can't think of the word. But no we didn't have one. I've seen 'em. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah a wardrobe that's what I was trying to think of gallery yeah. But anyway Interviewer: Do do you use the word gallery {X} furniture? 533: No no not really uh I was thinking there was a friend of mine one time that had uh he was a little bit uppity you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And they used words like that you know. Like they would um algebra you know. Interviewer: Huh just throw 'em. 533: Yeah with a spell uh-huh. Yeah. Interviewer: Just to impress people. 533: You know about the old story about the guy that went to- went to Chicago you know. To go to school and came back and his granddaddy said well tell me what you learned. Said well we learn a little French and Italian. I mean you know uh French and Latin uh. Learned to uh you know speak a little Spanish learned some algebra and said well speak me some that algebra. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Lay some of that algebra on he said pi r squared and he said hell I knew I was wasting my money. Pie is round and cornbread is squared you know so. Interviewer: {NW} 533: {NW} Interviewer: {NW} 533: #1 Yeah # Interviewer: #2 That's funny # {NW} 533: So uh you know. That's uh some people did that you know it just you know they impress you with the Instead of saying you cute they say quite impressionistic don't you think so {X} You know and Interviewer: {NW} 533: I thought shit boy. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Uh which which out the um the things you would put over your windows to to keep out the light. 533: Huh blinds sort of what it was that's curtains there. We would call 'em drapes. A drape was something you would see in a in a gallery you know. Uh no drape was something like uh course we had a picture window that's what we call it uh. I don't know what they call it now I guess still picture window. It looked like you know like this what we are looking at into right now you know. Uh more or less uh about a six by four window you know. Uh But we just had uh bamboo curtains across it you know. And uh had drapes was to me at that time it meant something like the velvet with the uh with the tiered sheers and things like that now that was a drape you know. And uh drape was something you also did with a long coat. She was going to put it over your head when it was raining. You know you draped it across your noggin and ran out in the water. But uh it was a curtain. Interviewer: I would 533: And we had blinds and shades. Interviewer: Now the shades are the things you 533: Yeah shades you pull down. Blinds you know you work the little string and open them up you know. They kind of wink at you when they go through. Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 533: #2 Mm-hmm. # Interviewer: What about a place like uh uh storage space. 533: The attic? {NS} Well the loft was the word. You know. What'd you do with that old box of Christmas stuff? It's up in the loft. Interviewer: It's in the barn. 533: Yeah you know it's just got to be I guess that's where it came from. It's up in the loft. {NS} And uh {NS} sounds weird I guess now you know. Interviewer: What about 533: But an attic to me is something that is big enough you know that you could go up and you know walk around in sit down have a playhouse in whatever you want to call it you know an attic. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Oh it was kind of like a basement. I mean under the house it was under the house you know and up in the loft was up in the loft. And that was different from an attic. Yeah. Interviewer: Have you ever seen any houses round here where the kitchen was built away from the main house? You had to walk outside to get to it? 533: {NW} One or two I could show you one. And I- and I used to ask my daddy I said daddy is that where the slaves used to live? You know it's a little house uh about five times the size of a a toilet you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And it's got windows and doors. but you know just one or two not many of those around here. Interviewer: And {D: do you remember that thing?} 533: Uh Well not really except for this particular family that I know of. They own a couple thousand acres you know and I figured you know get the heat away in the summertime out there and let the old black women cook you know and bring it to the house. You know that's just kind of my thought. I really don't know. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Uh Interviewer: What about a room 533: People ate chitterlings and things like that back then you know I wouldn't wanna smell 'em you know five feet from where I was going to eat either. Interviewer: Yeah um 533: {D:Stumped whooped} you know eh Interviewer: {NW} 533: They get kind of rank, but you know anyway. {NW} Interviewer: What about a room uh built right off the kitchen where you might keep extra dishes canned goods {NW} 533: Yeah uh I had an aunt that had one of those. Swear I can't think of what she called it. But just a storage room you know. Back porch you're talking bout like a cellar really uh in a- in a sense. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: #1 Mm-hmm. # Interviewer: #2 Would you ever # call it the pantry? 533: Yeah. Not what I guess you would. A pantry I always thought of was the same thing a cupboard. Or a cabinet you know. Keep it in the pantry. Uh Interviewer: {X} 533: No I- I wouldn't. No {NW}. Interviewer: What would you call maybe a room or a separate building where somebody can keep all their accumulated junk? 533: Junk room. You know a shop you know. After after everybody had to be a big shot it's a shop you know? Interviewer: {NW} 533: And now it's a storage building or utility building you know. Interviewer: What would say a woman does say she gets up in the morning kind of putters around the house and dusts a little bit here and straightens something there you say she does what? 533: Eh she's cleaning the house. You know. Straightening the house depends on what she's doing if she's cleaning or straightening you know. Interviewer: Right. 533: She ought to be cooking breakfast what she oughta be doing. Interviewer: {NW} We're hungry huh. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: And the thing she would be sweeping with would be called? 533: It's a broom or you know a dust mop like I said But a broom. A dustrag if she was wiping off the top of the piano you know. Interviewer: Alright. 533: It's uh uh what is it now some kind of cloth no but it was a dust rag. Back then it was you know um Dustrag dishrag washrag. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: But now it's washcloth bath cloth you know. Interviewer: Right. 533: Hand towels. You know face towels. But it was rag. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: R-A-G just any use that's what it was. Interviewer: Right. 533: Just a damn old rag you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: {NW} Nothing cute about it. you kn- Interviewer: Hand towels and bath towel that's when you're taking a bath? 533: Yeah you know mm-hmm right. Interviewer: And the dishrag that's for 533: Eh that's washing dishes yeah you know. Interviewer: What about the one you use when you're drying them? 533: That's a drying rag. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: This is difference it's a different thing. A washrag is just a thin- it could be like a piece of a flour sack you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Uh just something to wipe instead of with your hands while you're washing the dishes you know and then you rinse 'em off which at that time was called ranching 'em off. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Uh And you you know put 'em up on the other side and you had kind of a fluffy you know towel type thing you know. Almost potholder status sometimes you know just thick soakable you know and that was a drying rag. Interviewer: Yeah. What about the big one that you dry off after a bath? 533: Well that was a towel. Interviewer: Yeah. {NW} 533: A towel. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: I have a friend uh that's real funny I mean of course you know I- I can't I laugh I don't really laugh. It amuses me. And sometimes we laugh together. But you know I mean we used to talk like it was a towel give me the towel. And uh the this friend of mine married a girl from Missouri. And she still you know says towel and flower you know. That's a flower towel Interviewer: Oh yeah. 533: It's got flowers on it. You know and uh we'd just get so tickled you know and the- the funny part is I'm not- I'm laughing at the fact that God you know that that we all used to do that you know and it's why don't we do it anymore you know? Hand me the towel. Alright well you know you just went to school or something you know you're just around uh different words and that's all that amounts to. You know if you'd grown if you'd been born in Spain you'd speak Spanish you know. And as they say around here the Romans. Interviewer: What about if a woman has a bunch dirty clothes accumulated. {X} she needs to do her? 533: Do her washing. Mm-hmm. We wouldn't say laundry. Surely we're not on the air. Interviewer: What now? This? 533: {NW} Interviewer: {X} 533: Hang on a minute. Fire up my pipe. {NW} Where were we? Oh yeah about flower towels. Anyway Interviewer: {NW} 533: It's kind of like wire pliers you know. And uh barbed wire. {NS} And a car tire {D: and a cartoon} Yeah you know. It's just- it's just strange when you start thinking about it. I probably already said that once you know. {D: in recent sessions} or whatever. It- it does it amazes me. It really does. Interviewer: What about uh say you were walking up the uh from the yard to get to the porch. The thing you go up {X} 533: Steps door steps. Interviewer: Now what if you're inside and you're going to the second story? You walk up the? 533: Well if you had stairs and uh you know. Interviewer: Up the stairs inside. 533: Mm-hmm. Alright, steps are on the outside stairs on the inside you know. Interviewer: Okay. Have you ever heard anybody call the porch any of it uh anything else? 533: Hmm. I don't know for instance I mean Interviewer: Gallery veranda? 533: Nah. Interviewer: {X} 533: Nah. No. Mezzanine {NW} Uh Well mezzanine hangs over something. There's another one besides mezzanine what is it? It kind of means the same thing you know. Hanging {X} Uh I can't either. Interviewer: I can't think of it. 533: Hmm. Interviewer: What about a porch that extends out around both sides of the house. Have you seen those? 533: Yeah mm-hmm right. Interviewer: Any special term for it? 533: Just a big porch you know. Interviewer: Okay yeah. Say you owned a framed house with the porch on the outside that overlap each other kind of like that. You ever heard that called anything? 533: You mean the name of it? Interviewer: Like any kind of boarding or something like that. 533: Um I mean I maybe I'm missing the question. Interviewer: Boarding black boarding. 533: Oh yeah yeah mm-hmm. Black board yeah yeah. Interviewer: You call it what? 533: Black boarding yeah well you know so much black I mean you know it's uh uh you're talking about before the house is finished before they put the brick up? Interviewer: No I 533: Is that what you mean? Interviewer: No I was talking about after it's done. 533: Oh okay. Interviewer: The wooden boards that are 533: Nah. Interviewer: Nothing like that? 533: No particular terms just a plain house you know I mean. Interviewer: True. 533: Yeah. {NW} Interviewer: What do you say you do uh uh well nevermind that. What about the signs on the edges of a roof. Those things that carry off the rainwater. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: What would you call those? 533: {NW} Rain pipes. you know. Interviewer: Okay. What about say you know a house that has different slopes in the roof. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: The place where two slopes come together. 533: A gable. Is that what you're talking about? Kind of like the gable into the house? Yeah. Interviewer: Have you ever heard of a place where two slopes meet called a valley? 533: No. Interviewer: What about gutters what would they? 533: Eh well a gutter is like the rain trough a rain pipe you know. Rain trough is really was the was the word for that particular type of thing you were talking about. I was thinking you know comes through the trough and comes down the pipe you know. Um no. No not really. Interviewer: What about a small building you might have in the back of the house sort of if you were on a farm maybe where you keep um stowed wood or I keep tools something like that. 533: Ah well tool shed. You know it depends like I said it depends on what it is you know. It could be a smokehouse. You know where they uh smoke the meats things like this could be a you know. Tractor shed. Uh you know we're basically similar. If it was a tractor shed it was a tractor shed. If it was a tool house it was a tool house you know. You kept the saws and then you know the hammers and the uh stuff like that you know in the in the in a tool house. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And uh meats in the smokehouse. Interviewer: Right. What would be some of the buildings you'd find on a typical farm around here? 533: Well you'd uh you have tractor shed and you'd have a shop. You know. Uh might even have a tool shed. You'd have a uh a couple of barns you know this kind of thing. Uh Interviewer: Would there be a separate building where you store grain like maybe corn or? 533: Well There might be a building inside a building. For instance course there's corn how much you got if you just you know small timer you'd have a crib. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: You know like a corn crib that's where you it was an elev- it was elevated. The floor was higher than regular parts of the barn you know to keep away you know rats and crap like that. The ceiling was lower you know. It was tighter. That was the crib. Well you know actually it depends. But I mean if you had a you know like a fifty by fifty barn you probably had a twenty by ten or twenty by fifteen. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Maybe fifteen by fifteen crib you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Yeah. 533: Course you could have the hay in the loft and you had stables down under see. Interviewer: For the horses? 533: Mm-hmm. I'd have cows horses whatever right. Interviewer: Do you ever call it the stable stalls? Would that be right? 533: Well {NW} A stall was uh just an area you know to stall them in you know. To me uh is a place where you you kept 'em you know in a holding. She put 'em in the stall you know. Like maybe when you went to lunch. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: But the stable was you know more or less like a living quarters. Interviewer: Yeah. Would people ever heard of having a separate building for cows? When they were would they say cow barn? 533: #1 Mm-hmm. # Interviewer: #2 Something like that. # 533: Mm-hmm. Well you know you might have a pig barn. Cow barn you know. Sure. Mm-hmm. Especially dairy farmers you know the cow barn does this you know. Interviewer: Sure. We were uh talking about the corn crib. Would people round here ever heard to something like a granary or granary 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: A place for storing grain? 533: Nah uh-uh. That sounds Kansas. Interviewer: Right what about silo? 533: Well silo yeah. You know but that's where you kept your silage. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Uh say if a farmer has just cut the hay off of his field uh and he's not going to bale it. He just might pile it up and get a big 533: Uh haystack. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: But around here it's not well it's getting back to a little bit of that now because everything's so expensive. But you know I thought at first you were gonna say wind rows you know. Interviewer: And what is that? 533: They rake it up you know after they just cut it and it's just laying out there in grass. You know just grass all over the place. And they roll it up into wind rows. Interviewer: Kind of like small 533: Yeah. You know just like a it's like a roll. Interviewer: #1 Yeah. # 533: #2 You know # just to maybe you know two feet wide but it will be a you know half a mile long. And then you see 'em coming along with a baler see and picking up more uniformly that way. Interviewer: Right. I noticed that. I never seen it done but they have these big rolls of hay. 533: Right uh-huh right. Interviewer: Roll it up like you would a rug. 533: They have several different kinds now yeah. They have 'em uh just the old conventional haystack but they're a little bit different there. You know scientifically it's designed so that the water'll run off and all that mess you know. Interviewer: Right yeah. 533: And you'll lose about ten percent you know hay because certain part get wet and rot you know with the rest it will be okay. Interviewer: Yeah. Do you have any of these shelters outside that you might put your hay in under it. It's really nothing more than about four poles and a roof and that's about it. 533: Mm-hmm. Hay yeah hay shed. Interviewer: Hay shed hmm okay. What about a place where a farmer would milk his cows? What would that 533: That's a milk barn. Interviewer: You would have one. Would that'd be a specialized kind of building? 533: Oh yeah milk barn you know. It's a somebody might call it a milk parlor. You know uh and that's where you get into parlor see. Uh in a milk barn you'll have a holding parlor where the cows come in you know that that's the next two or three that's gonna be milked you know. They specialize you know they automatic machines yeah. The shower. Interviewer: How often do you do stuff like that? {D: speaking engagement?} 533: {NW} Quite often you know. That's you know I guess this is same with already because they think hey this guy loves to talk you know hey. Auxiliary: He used to be in the {D: war crowd} 533: {NW} You know and uh But ninety nine percent of the time in a place like this you do it for nothing see. You go to places like Atlanta and Memphis and and knew a guy in Memphis you know. He made like a I don't know twelve or thirteen fourteen hundred dollars a month on air you know working a shift on the air. And then he had a special thing he did one day a week. For like some women's club and they had a thing at Goldsmith's. And he got a hundred dollars you know every time he did that you know. And he had a couple other things on the side you know so he could mess around and make thirty forty fifty thousand dollars a year you know just {C: radio} {NS} on stuff that I give away. {NS} You know but you can't go to a club you know with thirty-five local yokels you know and they say. Uh would you come speak to us you say sure you know. Well they don't expect they might get you a cuff link you know and hope you'll come back next year and get the other one. {NS} You know uh Interviewer: {NW} 533: So I don't know uh. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Too too often really you know to make it pleasurable because I've done everything from forestry forest-y queen contest rodeos uh election rallies uh God you name it. You know bicentennial programs uh. I've spoken on everything that I don't know about. {NS} Uh. Interviewer: Do you speak is it gravely or? 533: Most of the time yes Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: {X} {NS} {D: every speech every time} 533: Yeah. Interviewer: For many 533: Well the trick is don't speak the same club twice you know. {X} And if you do change it a little bit you know. Well you know the typical jokes {X} but once. You know about the old guy who tuned harps and cords and all that crap you know. And about thirty minutes later two or three people will laugh and they'll catch on on the opportunity knocks but once then you know. {NS} Uh you know and according to the crowd if you're in a bunch of men you know you can tell about the black girl who went to Chicago to see her cousin you know and {NS} she never been out of town and you know well out of the country. She went to see a ball game you know and she finally caught onto the baseball game and this guy got three strikes and they threw him out you know and another guy hit the ball and let him run all the way around and you know and everybody yelled and a man walks up and {NS} probably Willy Mays or somebody you know and they walked him on purpose you know. She jumped over the fence screaming and hollering and said hey man now what you mean? Just- just letting that guy that's all the way around there and didn't have to do nothing. He said look lady he had four balls on him. She said well good God almighty anybody with four balls deserves a little consideration don't it little special treatment. So you know it depends on your crowd you know you just. Uh that's a sports crowd and it's a bunch of old men and you know you can tell that. Uh photographers you'd tell one about uh you know the {NS} The uh {NS} uh the same routine you know. The black girl she went to town to see her cousin. And they went to the county fair walking around looking at all them things and the {NS} this guy went into this booth and put this thing over his head you know {NS} and said we gonna get our picture took and said okay when the guy got back you know put the black thing over his head and he was turning the knobs you know. She come says hey what's he doing said he's getting ready to focus. She said both of us? Interviewer: #1 [NW} # 533: #2 You know # So uh you know yeah. You know just little dumb stuff like that you can change it around any way you want to you know. So it don't matter. {NS} But anyway yeah we do that a lot. You know all of us. Interviewer: I guess you have a set of jokes that have to do with your audience {X} 533: Oh yeah just you know anything'll do there you know. Um you know at a ball game one time a {NS} Uh A guy from Ole Miss and a guy from Mississippi State were in the bathroom you know and uh. They were both standing there over the latrine you know just letting it fly and after they finished well they uh the guy from State zipped up his pants and started out the door you know. And that guy from Ole Miss Yeah {NS] {X} {NS} What were we talking about the Ole Miss thing? Oh yeah anyway they're in a bathroom you know {NS} And so the guy from State he zipped up his pants and started out the door. And the guy from Ole Miss you know he was over washing his hands in the lavatory. He said Hey uh Don't they teach you at Mississippi State to wash your hands off after you take a piss? And the guy from State turned around and said well don't they teach you over at Ole Miss not to be pissing on your hands? You know so you know just {NW} you know. Course you know there's light stuff and there's heavy stuff you know it's Uh there was one about a about a raccoon from Mississippi State and that raccoon from Ole Miss. That means the real live animal type not the you know the coon. You know and uh they were running out through the woods playing one day you know and the dogs got after 'em you know somebody was coon hunting so. And one of 'em got caught. They got caught in a trap {NW} you know. And they were sitting there and they looked at each other and the dogs were getting closer and closer you know {NS} One was on a trap on this side of the ditch and one's in a trap on the other side you know they're hollering back and forth. So what are we gonna do he said. I don't see anything left except chew a leg off and get free. {NS} So the little guy from you know State he li- you know the little raccoon from State chewed his leg off and went three legged out across the bushes you know. Just to running away you know. And uh after a little while he looks back and he didn't see his old pal from Ole Miss. {NS} So he just couldn't help it he had to go back so he three legged it all the way back you know. And he got up there and said what's wrong man what's wrong what's wrong come on come on they're getting close. He said well man I did what you told me. I chewed a leg off and now hell and then chewed off three and I'm still in the trap you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: So Interviewer: {NW} 533: Oh wow. Interviewer: Great. 533: Yeah {D: kidneys} {NS} Anyway {NS} How did we get on that? Interviewer: I don't 533: Boy, we get on some dealings. {NS} Don't you wish I was one of those guys that said yep. Nope. Interviewer: {NW} 533: I hate those kind of interviews you know you interview a guy on the air and said well coach how's the season going this year? Fine. How do you expect 'em to win a lot of ball games? Yeah. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Same defense as last year? Nope. You know I hate those you know. We- we try to after we get those one time we we try to learn 'em a little bit you know. And then we get to where we say This is Coach Noah McCorder of South {X} Cougar High S- you know and hand him the mic and he talks for fifteen minutes now. Well okay thank you- thank you coach and butt in and grab a mic from him and say well let's that's the end of the halftime show you know. Oh. But anyway yeah. Interviewer: In the days before refrigeration what did people around here do with milk butter stuff like that? 533: Well uh it depends on how long before refrigeration is talking about? You talking bout like with an ice box? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: You know and that was uptown folks, though. So uh generally if you had a pail of uh milk you'd put it in a you uh had a you know it the milk cans that you probably don't remember but they had uh handles on both sides. And a hard to put on and to take off top. With a shoot on it. Then went {NW} way down in the bucket see. You know sealed it real tight. And you could run your chain through those hooks and over the top through the handles and over the top into the other handle and clip it and then drop it down in a well. See Interviewer: Yeah. 533: They used to do their beers the same way you know. Interviewer: #1 Was there ever # 533: #2 Whatever. # Interviewer: a place where people in stores save their potatoes {X} 533: Uh well yeah it it depends like you said on on a lot on the people but you know a lot of people do that in the basement. Under the house in a smokehouse you know Excuse me in a warm spot you could put it under the house close to the hearth you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Close to the bottom of the chimney really. Uh you know because it was gonna be warm from you know about October to the first of March anyway. Interviewer: Um okay. What would you call an area maybe a round barn on a farm with animals to be free to walk around. 533: Barn yard. Is that what you mean? The lot. The lot I wanna see you could be got 'em out of the pasture and put 'em in the lot you know. And uh after you had 'em in the lot you know you caught 'em and all that kind of stuff. Interviewer: So you with the pastures around here be fenced in? 533: Mm-hmm. Yeah no ranges. Interviewer: {X} 533: No open range. Interviewer: And do you remember when I guess well that must have been 533: When uh what when it was a {X} Never can remember it around here. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Uh really I can't you know. Some of the wildlife areas you know but. Not really no privately-owned property was always you know fenced in. Interviewer: Right who kind of fences are these? 533: Barbed wire mostly. Which was then barb wire. Interviewer: Any other kind of wired fence? 533: Well hog wire. Uh hog wire was uh well the weave in hog wire was about four inches square. And it's a heavy durable wire. Uh and that there's a one section if that is about four feet high three-and-a-half four feet high forty inches whatever that is. Okay and uh And then on top of that I mean above that you had that from the ground up. And uh then after that you had you know a couple of strands of barbed wire on the top. That's also and electric fence you know which is {D: one little bitty thin string} trailing like a piece of nylon but it was actually metal you know and you had a battery operated or electric {NW} uh you know to keep your mean black angus bull in. um but that was about it not many rail fences. The rail fence had to do with uptown slickers you know. If it had a white fence around it you already make it look like a ranch house you know. and everybody giggled when they went by and said poor fool couldn't milk a cow you know. Interviewer: What about a fence that uh the top of it came to a point. Might have it around your garden or have it around your front yard. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: {X} Usually painted white. 533: Well like a picket fence you mean. Yeah but that wasn't it wasn't many of those around you know. Like I said Interviewer: Okay. 533: It was something to be read about you know. Kind of like condominiums. Interviewer: {NW} Does the expression to chop {X} 533: Mm-hmm. Ah you're thinning it out really you know you're chopping the grass down away from it and you're chopping out the the superfluous stalks I guess you would say. You know they're thinning it out really for what you're doing chopping cotton. Interviewer: Do you pick what kind of grass uh? 533: Uh Johnson grass crabgrass you know you're nut grass things that would uh they that suck up the the nutrients and grow fast and you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Therefore dwarf the cotton plant. Interviewer: Hmm. 533: Uh-huh. Interviewer: What would you say corn grows in? It grows 533: Stalks. Interviewer: #1 Well # 533: #2 What do you mean? # Huh patch? A patch. Corn patch. Interviewer: Anything bigger than a patch? 533: Field You know field's bigger than a patch. Interviewer: Right. 533: You know you have a a garden a patch and then you know a field. Interviewer: Can you have a patch of anything or is it restricted? 533: {NW} You know patch of anything tomato patch potato patch you know uh corn patch pea patch butter bean patch. You know. Dog patch. {NW} Interviewer: {NW} 533: No, it's in Arkansas, right? Interviewer: Right. 533: But anyway. You had a bar patch had you know a lot of those. Interviewer: If you're putting up about our fence 533: Mm-hmm {NS} Where are we anyway? God, we lost a lot of time we're back on fences. Interviewer: We can uh read through 533: It don't matter just sock it to us. Interviewer: Okay. The things that you uh dig holes for 'em and you put up a 533: Post. Fence post. Interviewer: And if one is a? 533: Is a post. Interviewer: #1 Okay. And a fence or wall made of loose stone or rock? # 533: #2 A fence or wall made of loose stone or rock. # Interviewer: #1 # 533: #2 # Brick wall. Interviewer: {X} 533: Oh yeah in North Alabama they have you know they get these things out of the river bed you know the rocks flat on the bottom cause they washed a lot but You don't have a lot of that around here. Uh you know stone walls stone fence you know I don't know. Interviewer: Okay. And {D: who wrote the bit about} the egg made out of China we call that a? 533: A China egg, but I have never heard of a China egg. Styrofoam egg uh you know plastic eggs for little kids you know at Easter. You know when you put the little doohickeys in 'em or something for 'em to play with. Interviewer: But you're not never heard of nest eggs for like kids? 533: Well uh a nest egg yeah. You know Uh which would be just an egg or maybe a. We used to to call 'em rotten eggs you know because you break 'em up and they you know they smell like hell you know. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: We used to get a big kick out of coloring those at Easter you know and then we'd always get in an Easter egg war. You know throw them at somebody you really didn't like is you throw the ball- the rotten egg at 'em. God and you talking about awful. Oh I gag thinking bout it. What could be worse than a rotten egg? I was hit in the face with manure one time during a barnyard war. But uh Interviewer: {X} 533: It did. It was hard you know and it had to be hard for him to pick it up and throw it you know. You could just sail 'em like a mud pie you know. {NW} you know. Interviewer: {NW} Okay. And the thing that you would carry with you to milk a cow? 533: Bucket. Milk bucket. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: You know it's uh not a milk pail. Because pale like I said is the color you turn when you're about to puke. You know. Interviewer: Anything that you would fry eggs in? 533: A frying pan and a skillet. Interviewer: Okay and uh you boil tea in in a spout. 533: {NW} Huh tea pot. Tea kettle. Most the most you know most of the time it was just boil it with a boiler you know. In a boiler. Interviewer: And a container to put cut flowers in? 533: Cut flowers? Vase. If you're from Nova Scotia that would be vase wouldn't it? Interviewer: I guess so. 533: {X} Crosby Still's a national you know uh power house. You picked the flowers you know. Interviewer: Yeah there's a lot 533: Yeah they say vase you know. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: And common utensils 533: Uh fork spoon knife knives forks spoons uh what else did I say? Toothpicks you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Match stems. Interviewer: And what you say you do to the dishes when they? 533: You wash 'em. Interviewer: Uh uh and the thing over the the sink. Water comes out of it? 533: That's a faucet. Just a water faucet. If it's you know outside it'd be a hydrant. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: And what about all the portable containers? 533: Well you know I don't know is spout you know maybe but it's still uh a faucet of sorts. But you know the water spout. Interviewer: And the word spicket or spigot 533: Well spigot is used sometimes you know by some of the older you know folks but not really. A water spigot I think of anything that sticks up or down out of the ground or out of a wall or something and brings water to you as being a spigot you know. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Could you say it was so cold last night that the water pipes? 533: Froze. Interviewer: And maybe they? 533: They busted. {NW} They grew tits you know they busted. Interviewer: {NW}. 533: No. {NW} But you know it busted. Busted open. Interviewer: Okay. And uh a container used to show flour in or packaging flour in? 533: It's a flour barrel. Interviewer: Right. Okay something smaller than a barrel? 533: It would be a keg. But that would be like a well like a nail keg or a whiskey keg you know. Interviewer: Okay. And uh what uh a fair amount of molasses or lard would come in? {C: pronunciation} 533: Come in a bucket probably a gallon bucket. You know there was you know lard bucket molasses bucket. {C: pronunciation} Uh that's molasses {C: pronunciation} S-E-Y Uh But you know it was different you know. Flour bucket lard bucket. You know slop bucket. Which we've already covered. Interviewer: And you weren't familiar with stand? 533: No. A stand of lard no. That's a a live hog would be a stand of lard right Tanner? Interviewer: And is the thing that you put in a small mouth bottle that prevents uh 533: A funnel. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Kay. What you crack around horses to do? 533: That would be a whip or a whoop. You know. Depending on how loud it was. Interviewer: Right. And the thing that the grocery boy would put your purchases in? 533: The uh you know just a sack. Grocery sack. And uh you know in some areas it might be called a poke. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Made out of? 533: Um hard paper I mean you know something between uh uh a heavy grade of notebook paper and a light grade of cardboard. You know. Interviewer: Okay. And what made out of heavy coarse rough material? 533: That's a toe sack. Burlap bags is a toe sack. Interviewer: And you haven't heard croker sack? 533: Mm croker sack? I've never heard There's there's some croakers that live around here you know like the one on the Telly Savalas's show. Man croaker you know. But not croker. One who croaks is one who dies you know. Interviewer: Right. 533: So you couldn't be a croaker. Right? Interviewer: {NW} And the amount of corn a farmer would take to the mill to be ground? 533: Huh No no particular designation as you know I mean maybe a ton a wagon load you know or something like that but no. Mm. Interviewer: That'd be amount of firewood you could take it at one time and move and move your arms. 533: No that's just a arm load. You know just a arm load of fire wood. Interviewer: Yeah. And you 533: Yeah Interviewer: And they would turn and cool? 533: No. Mm-mm. Yeah. Sure not now a court of wood you know is four by four by eight you know in a measurement but uh I don't know. I don't how much can you carry? I guess it depends on how big your arms are. You might you know hell you might carry a quart if he's a whopper you know. Interviewer: {X} 533: Hmm. Interviewer: And there 533: Paul Bunyan. Interviewer: Sure. An electric lamp burns out the thing you replace? 533: The light bulb. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Okay. And you uh carry out the clothes hang 'em up in a? 533: In a hamper. Clothes hamper. Which actually usually amounts to a basket of sorts. Interviewer: Okay. And something that you put at the top of a bottle? 533: Huh. Oh like a cork uh a stopper. You know rubber stopper cork stopper. Interviewer: And an instrument you play like {X} 533: Uh French harp. A mouth Not a mouth harp harmonica you know. Harmonica is what they play if you're in Carnegie Hall. French harp's what you play if you're in Nashville you know what I mean. Interviewer: Right. 533: And a boing boing that's a mouth organ or a Jew's harp. It's hell on the teeth if you don't know what you're doing. {NW} Interviewer: {X} 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: What about the thing that you got now playing? 533: Claw hammer. Interviewer: Okay. And on a wagon the long piece? 533: The tongue the wagon tongue. Interviewer: And on {NW} 533: Yeah well shafts you know. Interviewer: And the outside edge of a window? 533: The rim the wheel. Interviewer: Right. 533: Is that what you mean? Interviewer: Yeah and you said you hadn't heard of {X}? 533: No. no no. Interviewer: Just make sure there's a couple spokes 533: No uh-uh. Interviewer: {X} 533: Well see I never did see much of that because it was only like one or two of the wood wood tired wagon wood wheeled wagon or you know metal wagons uh metal wheel wagons around at that time. Uh boy this must be a visitor today who is this? I don't know. Interviewer: {X} 533: Uh yeah and probably get a dime back. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Huh no one who's taking him through. But anyway uh I'm going to have to take a break for just a second okay? {NS} {NW} Interviewer: Alright uh okay the thing that uh traces {X} 533: Single tree {NW} Or a- or a doubletree. But you know instead of basically a singletree if you had a ton on it you ain't got a horse on each side so he's a single yeah. Interviewer: Right. 533: We also used to use a singletree hanging up on the side of the smoke house. That after you killed your you know your yearling your beef your calf whatever we call 'em yearling a bull yearling year old calf. Shoot him in the head with a twenty-two. And then uh drag him out to the smoke house. And take a pulley and pull 'em up and hang 'em up on a singletree. Interviewer: Hmm. 533: Eh you know you cut him open and gut 'em and that kind of stuff you know. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: So you know it had multiple uses for everything back then you know what I mean? Interviewer: Sure alright {NS} okay that word {X} that you used just then. You would say yesterday I? 533: I drug him over here yeah. Interviewer: And I have? 533: I have dragged him I have drugged him you know really it's Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Okay. {NW} What about the thing that you would use to break up ground very fine after you plow it? 533: A harrow. Yep. Interviewer: Mm-kay. And 533: First I'd use a middle buster. Well first I'd use a turning plow and then I'd use a middle buster. Interviewer: That's another type. 533: Yeah right two different types of big plows. You know. And uh then I'd for all of that all for that I guess I'd risk it. Break it up. Depends on if it's new ground or what. Interviewer: New ground you uh mean that the land has just been cleared? 533: Yeah land that hadn't been farmed very much you know maybe you know if it hadn't been cleared very long. But then once you call it the new ground it's always the new ground you know what I mean? Interviewer: Right. 533: You cleared forty acres off in the back that's new ground and hell it'll probably be new ground till the day you die you know. Go on over to the new ground. Interviewer: Right. Okay. And the the thing that you wheel the wagon down to? 533: Hmm the axle. Interviewer: Okay. And the wooden frame that carpenters use? 533: Saw horse? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah. Right. Interviewer: And the one that's x shaped? 533: I don't know. That's a yoke I guess. I really don't know. Interviewer: You haven't heard it. Let's talk about {X} 533: Nah. Interviewer: And on your hair you use a? 533: Comb or a brush. Interviewer: Right you say you're going to a? 533: I'm gonna brush my hair you know. Interviewer: And the thing on the barber's chair that you sharpen your? 533: That's a razor strap. Right. Interviewer: The thing that we were going around with about the tape thing. 533: Uh it's just a tape. You mean like you know like tape cartridge? I don't usually hear that. You know. Uh cartridge I don't know why but cartridge in in that sense reminds me more of the cassette type. You know. Because it looks like you know the cassette type of cartridge you know. Or the other is just a tape. Eh they're all cartridges but it's {NW} you know it's what you get used to talking about I guess. Tape is a tape. You know. Adhesive tape Scotch tape you know. Tapeworm I don't know {NW} Interviewer: Okay we're back on {X}. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Uh something that you played on when you were a kid. While one kid was one one end the other was on the other and they like 533: See-saw. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: {X} 533: I'm seesawing. Yeah I'd- teeter-tottered to me was something that you might do on the porch with your pants unzipped you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Teeter-totter damn uh. Interviewer: Okay. What about the ones that went around? 533: Uh that was a merry-go-round. Interviewer: You ever heard that called the flying Jimmy? 533: Well not really. Flying Jimmy I always thought uh course that was back in the days before me. But a flying Jimmy I thought tilted a little bit when you You know when you did that you know. Interviewer: Yeah. I see you still haven't 533: Yeah it- it still went around rotation but it- it tilted you know. Which gave it an effect of flying you know {NW} if the guy was heavy you know. And you could you could put like a wedge in you know on one side or something you know and whenever you got to that spot {NW} you know it'd bounce you a little bit. Makes you feel like you're flying. Interviewer: Okay. Ever heard of a word {X} 533: Yeah we used to do that across the pond you know. But uh don't reckon we had any name for it. Interviewer: {X} 533: No. {NW} Interviewer: Okay. 533: A jump board is what I called a diving board until I went to my first concrete pool you know. Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. 533: I knew a guy once that uh got thrown out of a hotel for for wetting in the pool. Interviewer: {NW} 533: And uh they're- they're real country like this you know and that's supposed to stay down there about Monday you know and they come back on Sunday and uh this guy asked him said uh Willard why did you uh why did you come back so soon? And he said because sissy over here got thrown out for wetting in the pool. And he said wetting in the pool? And he said yeah man but everyone wets in the pool why'd you get thrown out for that? He said yeah but hell everyone don't do it from the high dive you know what I mean. {NW} Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah right. {NW} Oh anyway you know so. That was a jump board to me. Jump board was a diving board. Interviewer: Okay. What about a thing suspending from the limb of the tree? Seats uh 533: Oh that's a swing. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: If a person had a coal burning stove what about a container you might keep next to it for cooling it? What would you call that? 533: I don't know. Interviewer: Ever heard cold scope? 533: No scuttle no. Coal bucket yeah but I mean you know. But um You had an ashy bucket. That you put your ashes in. We uh I don't know where you get all this stuff you know. Interviewer: Okay. What about the pipe that runs out the back {X}? 533: Stove pipe. Interviewer: What's that what does that go into? 533: Well usually goes into the wall which connects with another pipe and an elbow you know and go straight up through the ceiling you know. Interviewer: What's the {D: glue}? 533: Uh kind of like a damper. {NW} Interviewer: What the hell is that? 533: {D: Naw a flea} you know it's where it goes out the damper is a little there's a if you ever If you've ever seen one of about half way up the stove pipe there's a damper. There's a little doomajigger sticking out there that looks like a uh there might be a screw driver with a funny looking wiry head on it and you can turn it see and close it off. In other words cut the supply of suction off the oxygen off so that you can keep the heat down do you know what I mean? To build the fire up low and then you can {NW} let it out like that you know. Kind of like on top if you barbecue grill. You got a little thing you slide back and forth you know it works the same principle. Interviewer: Okay so what is it that you would use in yard work that has {X} might put a sack of concrete or something in it or wherever you're going with it. 533: Hmm. Interviewer: You know. 533: Yeah Interviewer: {X} 533: Oh yeah wheelbarrow. Well I was trying to think of a you know one of them little doomajiggers that you you know put the stuff out with you know like we used to line the football field with you know. Like a dolly. Yeah. Interviewer: {X} 533: {NW} Well we always say you know stuff around here like man you know get away from that you don't know nothing about wheelbarrows and other heavy machinery you know. Interviewer: That's good. 533: Yeah. But it was a wheelbarrow {C: pronunciation} Wheelbarrow {C: pronunciation} B-A-R-R-E-L. wheelbarrow {C: pronunciation} It's fun to play with too you know. It was hell to try to hook 'em to a bicycle and try to pull 'em along that was fun. You know tie 'em up high enough that uh that their elbows wouldn't drag the ground you know. And they were going {NW} like that Weird, man. Got them going so fast that the- that the wheelbarrow would run over the bike you know and scoop the guy off. It was weird. It's a wonder we didn't all get killed. Some of us did. Interviewer: Okay what about a stone or rock that you could use to sharpen a knife? 533: Well we call it a wit rock. But actually it's a whit rock. I'm sure. But it was a wit rock. Interviewer: What about something something bigger that turns around and you might 533: A grind rock? Yeah. You sharpen your ax with. Grind rock. Interviewer: Say if I start a car started started squeaking. I might take in to the station and ask the guy to put it up on the rack and do what to it? 533: Grease it. Interviewer: And if you do adjust it you say? 533: He greased it. Got my car greased. I wouldn't say lubricated. Interviewer: Right. 533: That reminds me of the jelly you use on your honeymoon you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Nah I'm kidding. That was a bad joke. I never used any of that yeah. Cause I was afraid somebody put you know a hypodermic in it and fill it full of Novocaine or something. Uh but anyway. Interviewer: That's true. 533: Yeah wouldn't it be hell? Oh lord. Interviewer: You get this grease on your hands you say your hands are? 533: Greasy. Interviewer: Right. Okay. 533: Probably G-R-E-A-Z-Y. I don't know. Greasy Interviewer: If you're from the south. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Um And if I had my in stage I might ask if he'd look up under my hood and check the? 533: Oil. Interviewer: What about old fashioned lamps? Before they have electric lamps? 533: Coal oil? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah kerosene really was a you know technical term but it was a coal oil lamp coal oil. Which was one word. Interviewer: Have you ever heard of a makeshift lamp or a temporary lamp you could make with the bottles coal oil something like that? 533: Yeah I've done that. I don't know what you would call it uh You know I know what you're talking about. No. We just call it you know you know African lamp or something like that you know. Nigger rigging. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: What about the inside part of the tire that inflates? 533: Inner tube. Interviewer: And say if a man has a new boat and wants to check it out and takes it out of the water. When he's putting it in the water you say he's going to? 533: Launch it you know. Interviewer: What about it? That kind of boat you would use out on the pond out here that you had to oil? 533: Like a john boat? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Paddle boat. You know. Interviewer: Is a John boat the same as a row boat? Have you ever seen that? 533: Well I don't when I think of row boat You know I think of uh you know the the uh the Roman slaves out there you know Row row row your boat you know. Ten or fifteen of 'em. Yeah you know ten on one side ten on the other. Look. Look you know. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah. By the way I think row row row your boat you know really. Uh there's a canoe and there's a boat you know and that's about it. Then there's a yacht. A yacht. Interviewer: A yacht. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Right. 533: A lot. Interviewer: Say if a woman wanted to make herself a dress. If she went to town to by the material by taking a little square piece. What do you call that? She's taking a little 533: I don't know. Sample. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Tear. No. Terry cloth. Interviewer: What about {X}? 533: Prettier. Interviewer: Uh-huh and uh {X} 533: That's the prettiest. Interviewer: Okay. And something that you tie around your waist in the kitchen? 533: Apron. Interviewer: Yeah. Okay. And this thing right here is an ink? 533: That's a pen. Mm-hmm. Ink pen. Interviewer: The thing that you use to keep the baby's diaper together? 533: A diaper pin. Interviewer: Okay. Uh a type of metal maybe uh rooves of old houses you see out in the country. 533: Tin. Interviewer: Okay you say a dime is worth? 533: Yeah ten cents. But that's ten and other is tin. Interviewer: Right. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: What about a man's three-piece suit? You would say that consists what? 533: The vest pants and a coat. Interviewer: Any other word for pants? 533: Eh trousers but I had asked one of the ladies out front what trousers were the other day. And uh Trousers are the dressier britches you know like with a suit you actually get trousers you know the baggy crotch and all that stuff you know. That's trousers. And I hate trousers. Because uh I wear my pants about four inches below my navel you know. And uh trousers I can pull up right under my breasts. You know I no need to wear a shirt just wear a big tie. Interviewer: {NW} Sure okay. 533: But yeah you know trousers uh britches britches That's what I called them all my life. You know. Interviewer: The farmers used to uh wear a light {X} 533: Overalls. Mm-hmm some people call 'em overalls depends. Interviewer: Say if a if there's something around here I need I might ask would you please do that? 533: Get it for me. Interviewer: Or? 533: Eh bring it to me. Bring it to me. You just say fetch you know. Interviewer: Alright. 533: Fetch it for me. Interviewer: Yesterday I 533: Yeah, you brought it. Interviewer: Or I have 533: Uh brought it or brung it. Interviewer: Say if I'm trying on clothes say a coat I might say well that coat won't fit this year but last year. 533: It fit me yeah. Interviewer: And if my clothes are getting old and I need something to go to church in I'd say I need to go to town to buy me a? 533: Sunday suit. Interviewer: Or it's not an old one but it's a. 533: Oh a new suit yeah. Interviewer: Okay. And if I put a lot of things in my pocket. My pocket would begin to? 533: Yeah bulge. Poke out. Interviewer: Okay. And if you put a shirt that it's too hot for it it will 533: Shrink up. Interviewer: Yesterday you did 533: Yeah it shrunk. Interviewer: And? 533: Or it shrunk up. Mm-hmm. Shrunk. It had shrunk before. Interviewer: Say if a girl was getting ready to go out on a date. And if she's spending a lot of time in front of the mirror. 533: Primping. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: He's p- Interviewer: {X} 533: He's still primping. Interviewer: He's primping too? 533: Yeah. Which is you know puss technology. Boys don't primp. They shave wash their hair and you know comb their eyebrows but a girl primps you know. Interviewer: What about the thing a girl carries all those things around in? 533: That's a purse. They made that mistake one time and printed that wrong in a newspaper here. Left out the r {NW}. But anyways things like that happen. Interviewer: Okay and so 533: The same editor was also writing a story about this guy These two guys that lived on a lived there their property line was the county line And anyway one of them killed the other. Over something you know and So they never could settle this property thing and I and both of them drank all the time you know. I don't know maybe they both had steels and you know just typical old country stuff you know. {X} And uh So and they couldn't even decide if they should try the case. Because the man shot crossed the county line and killed this neighbor you know. And it down by the fence. And uh And uh the story was hyphenated went onto another page anyways And uh it said Mr. Will should have crossed the county line. {NW} And boy it was just fantastic it He got a literary award you know for the blooper of the year. It was fantastic. you know I just love it you know. Interviewer: Oh man. 533: You this is probably gonna be one hell of a interview you know what I mean. Interviewer: It's great. Talking about a thing a woman would want to wear around her wrist? 533: That's a bracelet you know. Interviewer: The thing around her neck? 533: A necklace. Interviewer: A collar uh something anything else besides a necklace? 533: Well you know chain depends on what it is. You know but a necklace of course a brooch goes on her shirt. You know a necklace Well beads if it was beads. yeah but I mean a necklace can be a necklace without it being beads. Mm-hmm and the beads beads can be a necklace. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: But this a different kind you know. Interviewer: Sure. What about these things made to use to help uh pull up their pants? 533: Galluses suspenders. Interviewer: Right. Okay. It's something that you would use to keep from getting wet over your head. 533: Umbrella. Some people call it a parasol and we used to jokingly call it a parabrella and an umbersol. You know just for the heck of it you know. Interviewer: Right. Does parasol {X}? 533: I think so I. Parasol though I think of uh you know the little bitty cute thing that the lady in Greenwood carries in the summer time you know. Ta ta ta. Right mm-hmm. Interviewer: If you're making up a bed the last thing that goes over the bed 533: That's a Bedspread. Interviewer: What about a very heavy thing you use in the winter time? 533: Uh quilt. We use those in summer too. I mean you know for the most part keep on the bed in case it gets nippy or chilly. Interviewer: Right. {NW} 533: Right. Interviewer: What about the you rest your head on? 533: The pillow. Interviewer: What about have you ever seen something a good bit longer than a pillow? 533: Hmm like a comforter? I mean Interviewer: Something like a pillow. 533: Well you know there are comforter pillows You know actually the comforter is the part the kind of covers it's got under. I don't cushion? Interviewer: Yeah. Have you heard of both? 533: No Bolster my ego now and then. You know but Interviewer: Something that you would make up on the floor for a kid whose 533: A pallet. Interviewer: This adjective if a farmer says we expect to get a big crop this year because the soil is very? 533: Rich? Interviewer: Okay {X} 533: Well, fertile? Interviewer: Sure. 533: But you know rich. Interviewer: What about uh land that {X} that might {X}? 533: Bottom. Interviewer: Yes. 533: Uh delta. You know. Round here it'd be bottom. Seventy miles west of here it'd be delta. Uh-huh. #1 Or prairie. # Interviewer: #2 Do people around here # 533: It depends you know. Like I said. Interviewer: What would people around here call a grassland? A {X}? 533: Pasture you know. Interviewer: Would they ever say another word? 533: No. Interviewer: Down here 533: Don't hear meadow. Mm-mm. Interviewer: What about land that's got water on it all the time trees growing out of it with beavers. 533: Slew. That's a slew. Marsh. Slush. Basically a slew. Interviewer: That's same as swamp? 533: Uh yeah but You know swamp is real real thick like the difference between a farce and a jungle you know. Interviewer: Different types of soil Have you ever heard anything like loam? 533: Sure there's uh I was talking about the delta seventy west uh thirty east you got- you got loam. You know black loam. It's weird. The scientists never figured it out. Why loam like out in Kansas what it's doing in a {X} 533: Since Franklin Roosevelt in my opinion. {NS} {NW} No I'm I'm a Gerald Ford I'd vote for Richard Nixon if he'd run again. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: I think he was as far as being straightforward and and helping the American people I think he was the best. {D: He got called by} being too easy with the people that work for him. You know. But anyway I s- I like him. Interviewer: What would you say uh you were doing if you had a piece of land with some water on it to cultivate to to getting water off you'd say you were? 533: Trying to drain it. Yeah. Interviewer: And the thing that you would do to take the water off? 533: Drainage ditch. Interviewer: Okay. What about a little bit of fresh water flowing along. You call that a? 533: What now? Your spring? Interviewer: Okay. 533: You know. Interviewer: Anything besides that maybe? 533: Um creek. Interviewer: Sure. 533: Yeah you know. Interviewer: Creeks around here have names? 533: Sure every one of 'em. Even the smallest and the largest. Tell you a funny one. {X} Uh Chickasaw County has got two county seats which is weird. Uh Houston is a county seat Oklahoma's a county seat. There's twenty-five thirty miles separated. There's a couple other counties that's got that Tallahatchie has for one. Uh but the reason being basically the same. {NW} This {X} Creek separates the county you might say. It's cuts the county in half. It's not a giant creek it's just a creek you know. But back in the old old old old old days the creek would get out. {C: warped speech} You know. In other words stay flooded and you couldn't cross it with your wagon or with your horse you know for like two three months out of the year. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: And so they had to build a courthouse in Oklahoma in order to you know carry on business over there too. So uh {X} I have my own definition of where the name I mean my own idea where the name came from. The word {X} is a Chickasaw Indian word that means hog corn. And I just got a mental picture of Hernando de Soto and this man coming along you know and there's a Chief Thunder Cloud or whoever down there you know {X} which means red breasted bird or robin. Uh but anyway Standing down there you know when he stops the Spaniards and they go {X} you know what is that? And a chief looks down there and there's his hogs down there eating corn in the creek bed you know he says Eh {X} #1 And they you know # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: from that day forward call it {X} you know what I mean? Yeah. Uh because {X} means hog corn you know. So I just kind of figure that's where he got its name and there's a lot of dumb things like that around here you know. Like uh but anyway. Uh yeah Mud Creek Four Mile Creek uh you know {X} Creek. {D: Uh Golver} Uh Long Creek Cane Creek Gordan Creek Red Sand Creek Uh {X} Creek right up here. And uh Pettigrew Creek right you know hundred yards north of where we're sitting. Uh Let's see how about some famous creeks? Well I don't know you know just all kind of names. Interviewer: What about the rivers in the area? 533: Well Not a lot what you'd call rivers uh. They all start out as creeks. Um they're all named though. Tombigbee. Uh Pearl River you know. Just a slew of 'em. You know. {X} River Interviewer: What would you call a say a place that's been gradually eroded by falling water maybe till it's ten feet across ten feet deep. 533: A gully. Interviewer: Okay. 533: #1 Ravine. # Interviewer: #2 Do people around here # 533: A lot of 'em you know. Interviewer: Right. 533: But Interviewer: Right that's what I was gonna 533: No. Interviewer: Would a ravine be the same thing? 533: Well it'd be the same thing. I think of a ravine though as being at the edge. You know. A ravine is what you might see that your car would run off. of you know besides a road whereas a gully is what you might find out in a pasture you know. Interviewer: Right. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Well what about around the ocean. What would you call a bit of water that flows in and out with the tide? 533: {NW} Huh I don't know I don't understand. Interviewer: A whole slew of water. 533: No. Interviewer: Any of that? 533: Nah not really. I mean you know if it just hung around in a- in a low lying area you know like say in grass and frogs and stuff like that. It's slew. You know. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Back water. Interviewer: Right. Okay. What if you were a slight elevation in the land? 533: Something {X} Go ahead. Interviewer: Um slight elevation in the land you would say you were on a little 533: Grade. Rise. Knoll. Hill. There's a difference in all of those. Interviewer: What? 533: Well a grade would be just a just a slight inclination. You know. Just a grade. Uh a knoll is when you're standing back here looking at a little knob of a hill over there that's a knoll. You know right over there on top of that knoll. A hill uh would be something that you have to gradually go up and it's a pretty good size. You know and uh that's Interviewer: You said a knob of a hill. Is a knob a part of a hill? 533: Uh well a knob is you know what you see sticking up you know like if you're over here and and you look out across there and there's trees and stuff you know but there's a little knob of a hill sticking up you know it look like a a bald head or something you know. A knob of a hill. A crest. You know. Point. Interviewer: Talking about here in the mountains what about the rocky side of a mountain that drops off sharp what would you call it? 533: Cliff. Interviewer: Yeah the plural too. 533: Yeah. Cliffs. With an F-S. Interviewer: Right. 533: Like a cliffhanger of a ballgame you know. Interviewer: Yeah. So you're the old gun firer so every time they've shot a person they would carve a? 533: A notch. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: What about a place where boats would stop on 533: That's a dock. Uh-huh yeah. Interviewer: They're called a wharf? 533: Well Uh the dock is where you tie the boat the wharf is what you walk on right? Going to the boat. Or going away from the boat. I don't know anyway that's the way I saw it. I can have {D: bass ackards} You know Who knows. Interviewer: Say a place in the mountains where water falls the longest that you 533: Waterfall. Interviewer: Huh okay. And uh what about the uh the road surfaces around here uh the stuff out there called uh whatever extension of Jackson what area what would you call that that surface? 533: What do you mean? Blacktop? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah. The highway. It's just a highway. Interviewer: Okay. 533: The surface is you know asphalt. It's a blacktop road. Interviewer: And the sticky stuff is? 533: {NS} Uh tar really. Yeah. Interviewer: What about uh say something that the cows always walk down from the pasture but they're coming in from the 533: Path. Cow path. Interviewer: Okay. Have you ever heard any word for a strip of grass between the street and the sidewalk? Maybe in residential areas? 533: Like a right of way? Is that what you mean? Interviewer: Uh you know you just got the street here 533: Or Interviewer: Sidewalk along it and it's just a strip of grass. back between the sidewalk. 533: Eh not especially no. Interviewer: Do you know where I'm talking about? 533: I know what you're talking about we don't have a lot of that around here because You know it's concrete roads and all and they just the sidewalk the street to side with side. What do they call that? Interviewer: {X} 533: Nah. Uh-uh Interviewer: Um Say if a dog jumped out that scared you you might pick up a 533: Stick. Interviewer: Or a 533: Rock. Interviewer: And 533: Chunk it at him. Throw it at him Interviewer: Right. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Chunk it. 533: Well actually it probably should be chuck. You know. You upchuck. Right {NW} Me I vomit. Interviewer: Right. 533: But uh chunk Actually a chunk is- is a is a description of you know how big it is like a chunk of wood. But you can also chunk it at him you know. Or throw it at him. A lot of people say throw it. {C: pronunciation} T-H O Throw it at him. {C: pronunciation} So Interviewer: You vomit uh Is that a neutral term for you? Or is it does it have any kind of joking or derogatory connotation? 533: Well There's different classes of the word actually. {D: Uh I don't know if there's any claim to what it say you know.} I have an upset stomach well I don't know if that means you know. Uh have diarrhea or if they're throwing up. You know. Throwing up is probably the uh the clean slick way of saying but uh puke uh has a connotation of being putrid I think of Pepto-Bismol and you know yuck. Interviewer: #1 Alright {NW} # 533: #2 You know when I think of puke. # Uh something totally totally unacceptable you know I say ah I puke. You know. Uh vomit. Um Interviewer: What about barf? 533: Well I've heard that but you know. That's what people say after they've had college for two years you know. I thought I'd barf. You know like a barf being a dog {NW}. Interviewer: {NW} 533: You know. Interviewer: Did you say you upchuck is that? 533: Well no I heard that. You know. Time or two you know. Thought I'd upchuck. But I basically- I vomit. You know I throw up. Interviewer: Have you ever heard flash used like that? 533: Flash? Interviewer: During that you had to go flash. 533: No. If I had too much to drink and went to flash that means I showed my genitals to some lady in the hall you know what I mean. Yeah I flashed 'em {NW} you know. {X} You know. Interviewer: Toss your cookies? 533: Yeah no. Interviewer: Where's that? 533: No or get your cookies but that was what a woman was talking about one time you know. Interviewer: Okay. Uh. Alright. Uh if somebody if you're in the yard and someone comes um looking for uh she wants wants to talk to your wife and she's cooking say well she's 533: She's in the house. Interviewer: Specific? 533: Nah, she's cooking. Interviewer: What room she's 533: Uh she's in the kitchen. Interviewer: Okay. Uh {X} if you like your coffee uh with nothing in it say you? 533: I like it black. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: I don't Interviewer: Typically you like it milk? 533: Cream and sugar you mean? Interviewer: Just kind of 533: With milk? Interviewer: Just put a little Alright. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: No milk you'd #1 say I like it you know # 533: #2 Yeah mm-hmm # Interviewer: Just a 533: Without milk. Interviewer: #1 Sure okay. # 533: #2 Yeah # without. Interviewer: Any other terms for um I don't know if we talked about this or not for for uh coffee without anything in it? 533: No uh-uh we haven't Interviewer: Yeah what would you what would you call that? 533: Black coffee. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Anything else? 533: Uh straight. Interviewer: Sure. 533: Plain. Interviewer: Kay. 533: Just coffee. Interviewer: Ever heard barefooted? 533: No uh-uh. Interviewer: Uh if somebody is not going away from me you would say he's coming right? 533: Towards you. Interviewer: Okay. 533: T-O-R-J Towards. {C: pronunciation} Interviewer: Right. {NW} 533: #1 Coming at me. # Interviewer: #2 So sure. # 533: You know. Interviewer: Sure okay. Um somebody that you met. You weren't looking for 'em. You say I just sort of ran? 533: I run into him. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Okay. And if uh? 533: Run across him maybe. Interviewer: Sure. If a girl is given a same name as her mother and you say that the parents named the child? 533: Named 'em after you know. Interviewer: Okay. If you wanted your dog to get after another dog what would you say? 533: Uh sic him on him. Sic him. Interviewer: What if you wanted him to cease hostility? You want him to stop. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Come back to you. 533: {NW} I'd whistle at him I guess. {X} Bastard {NW} I mean you know just to get his attention you know. Interviewer: Say anything. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Right. What about a dog that's not a pure breed. They sell different types? 533: Mongrel. What you're looking for we call 'em sooners. Interviewer: Sooners? 533: Yeah. {D: Russian sockers.} {D: A Russian socker.} It's kind of like a sooner you know or a see more. Well {X} rush up to something and sock her nose in it before she look you know and she didn't have sense to know you know. {D: A Russian socker.} A sooner eh just sooner you know sooner eat than hunt. And um you know see more you can see more of his tail and ears than anything. You know. Uh just a mutt. Really a mutt. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Mm-hmm. Half breed you know. Interviewer: {X} {X} 533: Oh {NW} Yeah That's kind of like sooner I guess. Interviewer: Yeah what about a little tiny noisy yapping dog that always gets to be a nuisance. Can you general word for a dog like that? 533: What you mean a derogatory term? Interviewer: Well it 533: You mean like a chihuahua feist? Yeah you know like a feist he's feisty. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah you know My- my I used to be feisty and still am I guess it's part of the you know. Interviewer: {NW} Okay. Uh you might say you better watch out for that dog it might? 533: He might bite you. Interviewer: Yesterday he? 533: He bit a man. Interviewer: He has? 533: {NW} Bitten a bunch of them before. Interviewer: Alright. And uh herded cattle what do you call them? 533: Bull. Interviewer: Can you remember a time when that wasn't polite usage in mixed company? 533: The bull? Well if you were talking about a you know a farm animal uh you could see some of the {NW} ladies you know turn their head a little bit. Uh but I don't know why. They wouldn't- it shouldn't bother them. unless they been out of the barn and looked at his nuts hanging down you know. Uh I mean he's a bull. I mean a bull yeah. Shouldn't bother them if I talk about it unless they look at mine hanging down. {NW} You know. I don't believe in all this you know uh uh what do you call it acquired innocence. I mean if you are you are. If you're not you're not. If you're black you're black. You're white your white. There's a few shades of gray but you know not many. But yeah I- I can remember that. Now bull when you said aw bull you know. Um Interviewer: Aw baloney. 533: Yeah baloney crap. You know. Interviewer: What about these animals big burly animals that would be plowing? 533: Ox? Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: What if you had two of 'em? 533: Mm we call 'em oxes but you know oxen I think is Interviewer: Would you call that a something of oxes? 533: Team. Mm-hmm. But you had a team of mules. Team of horses. You know team of dogs. Interviewer: Sure. What about if you have a cow that's expecting a calf you say that cow's going to? 533: She's springing. She's going to freshen in a few days. Is that what you mean? Interviewer: Yeah sure. 533: You know a horse you would say she's going to fold. Interviewer: The cow is springing? 533: Springing. Yeah I mean you know like we run an ad sometime for you know um uh eight hundred pure bred cows some springing some with calves inside When they're springing in others words uh you know put- put these three fingers in their ribs you know you tell if they're springers. You know it the the the calves inside springing up and down you know I don't know. She's fixing to freshen in a few days so. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah. Uh well no just freshen Fixing to have a {D: calf I mean now} Interviewer: What about the male horse? 533: Uh stud. Well if it is a stud. Actually horse Well is it a horse or is a mare? You know. Right. You know. {D: Like a bull or a cow horse or a mare?} Interviewer: Were you going to say stallion? 533: Uh stallion would have the you know Like uh my friend that drug a stone some stallions you know he gives eight thousand and nine thousand dollars a piece for 'em gets a seven hundred fifty dollar stud fee. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: You know that's a stallion. Now a stud is just like me and you you know. He just hangs around a pasture and takes what he can get you know. {NW} Interviewer: Okay. {NW} What do you say you do on a horse you get on it? 533: You ride it. Interviewer: Yeah yesterday you? 533: He rode him. Interviewer: And you have? 533: You have ridden him you have rode him you know. Interviewer: Okay. If you can't stay on a horse you say you fell? 533: You fell off. He bucked you off. Interviewer: What about a kid who wakes up in the morning on the floor you can say my goodness? 533: Golly I fell off the bed. Not off from or off of. One of they- a lot of people say I fell off of the bed. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: You know. Double prepositions. Interviewer: What about the things you put on the bottom of the horse's feet to protect? 533: Shoes. Interviewer: You ever play a game with them? 533: Sure horseshoes. Interviewer: What about part of the horses foot they go on? 533: That's the hoof. Interviewer: More than one? 533: Well hooves. Hooves. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Should be hoof really I guess. Horse hoof. Like a house roof. Interviewer: Whatever you say. 533: Babe Ruth You know Interviewer: {NW} Babe Ruth. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: What about the male of a sheep what would you call them? 533: Well ram. You know. Interviewer: What about a big ram? 533: {NW} Third grade teacher might call him an ewe {C: pronunciation} one time. {NW} Interviewer: Really? 533: Yeah. {NW} I said and of course we don't have sheep around here you know. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: I said boy you are a dummy. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Heard about the sheep herder that went to take his driving test and the man and the patrol man ask him if he can take a U turn. Interviewer: {NW} 533: You know. {NW} Interviewer: Oh lord. {X} 533: I guess just for the hell of it I really never saw much use in it. No no kidding you know they got the wool. Uh you know of course it's I guess it's good meat I've never had a leg of lamb. You know. I had a little leg in my time. But no. Really I- I never had I- I wouldn't know. You know if it's any good. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah. Yeah I've heard about that they saw the meat. Yeah. And {X} But anyway. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah. Yeah. Well you know the you know the you seen the old movies the sheep herder come into town and the cowboys wouldn't sit close to him you know. {NW} {NW} Oh man yeah. Interviewer: Okay what would you call a male hog? 533: That's a boar. That's just a hog. You know they had it's a hog and a sow. You know. Interviewer: What about an unbred female? 533: Well shoat I mean you know. Interviewer: You ever heard of guilt? 533: Yeah. Guilt Farrows barrows and guilts you know right. Interviewer: You mean when you say barrow you mean? 533: Well uh a barrow would be the boar hog that has been {D: castracized.} Yeah he's a boar. I mean you know. and a barrow. Interviewer: Now that you mentioned what about a very a little one? 533: That's a pig. Piggy. Interviewer: And a little bigger than that but not quite adult size? 533: Uh still a pig. Interviewer: Would you ever use shoat? 533: Well you know shoat. Yeah shoat would be kind of the size you know. Piglet you know if you're got on your white shoes and your gloves. Interviewer: Right. 533: You know that'd be piglets. But a litter they come in litters you know. Interviewer: Yeah okay. What about these stiff hairs on hog's back? 533: Bristles. Like the brush the boar bristle brush? Interviewer: Right. What about their long teeth? 533: Tusks. Tusks {C: pronunciation} you know. Whatever tusks. Tusks {C: pronunciation} Interviewer: {NW} 533: big teeth. Interviewer: It's going to be a goody to transcribe. 533: Yeah. {NW} yeah. Interviewer: What about the thing that you pour feed in? 533: Trough. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah troughs. Hog trough. Interviewer: What about a hog that's got {X}? 533: That's a wild hog. Interviewer: There's a razorback there? 533: No that's Arkansas. Yeah. They take a lot of pride in that. Not many of 'em either you know. It's kind of like rebels. There ain't many of them. Ain't have a lot of bulldogs either. {NW} Or Bengal tigers for that matter. Interviewer: Okay. What about the sound a calf makes maybe if it's hungry? 533: She's bawling Interviewer: What about a cow? 533: Huh she bawling too. You know. A mule brays. A horse neighs or sn- or nickers or snickers. {NW} You know. But um Interviewer: Okay. What about if you got 533: What- what do you call it that- that the donkey does? {NW} You know. Snort yeah. I guess yeah. Interviewer: {X} 533: No but you know have you ever heard 'em? You know a jack ass? {NW} Interviewer: You do that well. 533: A lot of practice. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Had to entertain yourself somehow you know. Interviewer: Sure. Uh what about animals like cows mules or horses you say got a lot of? 533: Well you know a lot of livestock. Huh farm animals. Interviewer: What about feathered animals ducks? 533: Fowl. Well they're fowls but it's just you know {NW} Birds. Interviewer: What about a hen on a nest egg trying to hatch out something? 533: {NW} Um setting hen. Yeah. Interviewer: And a place for a chicken to live? 533: Chicken house. And they stand on a you know uh we used to have 'em. The thing had a like poles you know like a tree you know a little bitty light tree and he bent it over and went up this way and he tacked it to the top of the chicken house. And then you tack these things on top. I think it's a roost you know. Chicken roost. Interviewer: {X} 533: A coop. A coop. Uh that's something that you know put two or three in usually to put two and you give up one at one end and one at the other you know and it was built you know from the middle out the little straps That's something you gotta take 'em over to grandma's house and yank their heads off and cook 'em for Sunday dinner you know chicken coop you know. Interviewer: What about a piece of the chicken say if you're frying it? The kids like to get something? 533: Pulley bone? Interviewer: Sure. Yeah. What's {X} to the story there? 533: Uh let me see now you put it under the table and make a wish and then you jerk it and the guy that gets the shortest part you know gets the wish. You know. There's variations on that. Some people say it's the longest part. Interviewer: Right. 533: I say hell eat the chicken and shut up. I don't care. I {NW} Interviewer: Okay um have you ever heard any general term or comprehensive term for the inside parts of a hog that are edible? You might not eat it but they are edible. 533: Chitterlings? Interviewer: Okay. 533: I mean you know. Chitterlings that's hog intestines yeah. And it Interviewer: Are these harder to taste? 533: Yeah but you know. Interviewer: Yeah. #1 Have you ever heard # 533: #2 Guts # Interviewer: {X} 533: No. Interviewer: #1 {X} # 533: #2 Uh-uh # Around here see especially well a lot of people then eat they eat the brains. They eat the ears. They eat pickled pigs feet. They eat pig tails. They eat chitterlings. Yeah you know knuckles man damn. {NS} Sausage about all I can handle and a little ham now and then. {NW} But uh #1 but here we go yeah. # Interviewer: #2 Hogs # 533: Whole hog sausage you know what that means? They even got the feet in there man. You know whole hog sausage ears eyes. Well you {NS} like that a lot when you're eating it too you know. {NW} And then the heart spots out you know. Interviewer: {X} What about uh this expression that farmers Say if it's getting a little late. you might say well like it's not so late it's right on the 533: Sundown. Interviewer: Or it will say these animals are carrying over because they're hungry. 533: Right. Feeding time? Interviewer: Sure. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Hey you ever heard a farmer call his cattle {X}? 533: {NW} Mm-hmm Interviewer: That's the cow. 533: That's the cow. The hogs it's a {NW} Don't know why but it is. Interviewer: To get 'em to come to you? 533: Yeah. {NW} You know like that. They have a hog calling contest. Had a uncle a great uncle who one time won. I believe it's held in Missouri. They also have a bear calling contest. Interviewer: #1 It's called a bear # 533: #2 Uh # Interviewer: {X} 533: I don't know just bare necessity I guess. Interviewer: {NW} 533: But you call a horse like this {NW} That little soft whistle {NW} That way. You know. And uh you know. Interviewer: Would you call calves any different way than cows? 533: S- calf. You know just a bit lighter. You know you you call the word calf. Well I don't know I guess it's just what they get used to like teaching a kid language. A girl like said you said you- you whistle like a dog. {NW} But a horse {NW}. Interviewer: Hmm. 533: I don't know. But uh You try to go to the pasture and get one of my horses just come out there going {NW}. And they'll look at you like Hey fool I'm eating you know. They just won't do it. It's what they get used to. Interviewer: You got into this the other day uh when you were talking about making a turn in town but what you would say to the horse when you are turning your plow? 533: Well if you want to go right you say gee. If you want to go left you say ha. If you want to stop you say whoa. And uh your mule especially any of that you know you didn't have to Gee. {C: prolonged} {NW} gee you know. And they just eased to the right. Just a little bit you know to get off the top of the road. And uh you know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm yeah. What if you were riding a horse and you wanted to get him started? 533: {NW} Get up. You know. Interviewer: Mm-kay. 533: Or come up. Get up was when he was on and come up was when he was buying him driving him you know. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Come up Interviewer: You mentioned a call to get pigs to come to you. What if you want them to scatter? 533: Sooey. Sooey pig. You know. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Why I don't know? That's weird. Interviewer: {NW} Have you ever heard people kind of talk to their pigs when they're feeding 'em? 533: Sure. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Pigs are smart. Interviewer: Would they I mean you know something that might say uh 533: Bullshit {X} Interviewer: Do you do that kind of thing? 533: Here piggy piggy piggy what's going on you know and just you know. Interviewer: Would you only say that when you're feeding them? 533: Uh no you can get 'em to come to you that way you know. Here piggy piggy piggy piggy. You know. And uh Interviewer: What about chickens? 533: Uh What do you mean how to call 'em? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: You can just cluck. You know. Interviewer: Sure. 533: Cluck 'em. {NW} chick chick chick chick Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Course you know we we can do all of the sounds you know. {NW} {NW}. You know and uh you know. {NW} And you can call snakes. Yeah call snakes many of them. Interviewer: Call snakes? 533: You can call a snake. Interviewer: Oh. 533: Different ways. Interviewer: {X} 533: No there's a different way. {NW} I don't know. Snakes you know like chicken snakes and all you know they eat rats and they eat you know rabbits and all you gotta do is you know just {NW} Like that you got to be where you know the snakes are you know you gotta be in the barn down in the slew or out there where you used to throw the old rubber tires you know they're there anyway. It takes a while because snakes are pretty slick man. Well there are more ways than one. And you you know you can smell you can smell 'em. Interviewer: Right. 533: Yeah uh-huh. Interviewer: {NW} 533: For a guy with no ears they're pretty slick do you know what I mean. Interviewer: Okay {NW}. What about if you wanted to get your horse ready to go somewhere? Put on the bridle and uh the uh saddle and that and say you're going? 533: You're saddling him up. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Uh what about if you were going to get him ready to {X} 533: Well are you still hooking him up? Interviewer: Well the harness? 533: Well you harnessing him up. You know. Interviewer: For the buggy are you? 533: Yeah you know mm-hmm. Sure. Get him ready to plow you know. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: That kind of. Interviewer: What about the kinds of things you hold in your hands when you're riding the horse? 533: The reigns. Mm-hmm bridle reigns. And of course if you're plowing it's plow lines. Interviewer: Plow lines damn. What about what you put your feet in? 533: Stirrups. Which rhymes with syrup. You know which means you better stick to it you know? Interviewer: {NW} 533: Mm. Interviewer: {X} 533: Oh man You know there's uh this uh this old city lady went out to the farm one time and uh and this farmer asked her said you want a saddle with a horn without a horn? She said well hell it don't seem to be much traffic out here I'm guessing I can do without one. You know. {NW} Oh wow. Sorry about that I know you didn't come here for fun and games. Interviewer: Oh no {D: It's a treat} What about {X} If you had two horses hitched to a wagon anything in particular that you would call the horse on the right? 533: Call 'em you know like lead horse? I mean if if well but that would if you had like four horses you know. You know something like that you know your lead side. Interviewer: Or which one exactly is he the one? 533: Well usually you have your pick. Yeah he is where most people put them because right's the strong side. Right I mean it's the old genealogical theory of {X} ego I don't know. Crap on Freud I don't think he knew what he was doing. Sat around and played with hisself all the time. Interviewer: {NW} 533: But um Uh You know you had old red or old Jim or old Nig Nig was the black one. You know. You got that yeah. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Uh Interviewer: Okay. Say this expression if something is not right here or at hand you say it's just a little over? 533: Mm-hmm. It's a little far over. Interviewer: Okay. 533: What do you mean? Interviewer: Just a little way ways? 533: Yeah just a little ways over. Over yonder. Yonder is a big word. Interviewer: Say if you've been traveling and you're not yet finished where you going. Say you gotta go to- to Nashville and you stopped in Jackson so you still gotta? 533: If I was going to Nashville I'd stop in Jackson I went the wrong way you know. Yeah. Interviewer: {X} 533: But any way yeah I know what you mean uh. You know say I got a little piece to go you know. Interviewer: Sure. 533: It's the old joke of the guys. Wife hollers where you going say I'm going down the road for a little peace. Interviewer: {NW} 533: She didn't know right yeah. {NW} Pulled a gun and said you {D: said I bet you do you ain't going nowhere.} Interviewer: Okay something that something very common you don't have to look for it in spatial place you say you can find that just about? 533: Just about anywhere? Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Or anywheres. Interviewer: Alright. 533: {NW} Interviewer: If I fell down and fell that way, you'd say I'd fell? 533: Frontwards. {C: pronunciation} Forward. Interviewer: Okay and that way? 533: Backwards. {C: pronunciation} Or backwards. Fell back. Interviewer: Uh 533: They used to now they say you know uh were y'all going summers? {C: pronunciation} Which was short for somewheres. You know. Interviewer: Uh 533: Summers. Interviewer: Say if you been fishing just had miserable luck. And the first thing somebody asks you is say how do you do? What would you probably say? 533: Not too good. Had a bad day. Interviewer: You ever heard people around here say anything like {X} 533: Yeah mm-hmm. Nary a one. Mm-hmm. Well a lot of times now we use that kind of stuff kind of a joking like manner. You know what I mean. I say man I ain't seen {X} Well you know I would say that around anybody you know. But uh they know exactly what I mean. This is the funny thing about like I was talking about with my Spanish friend a while ago. We started talking about that uh to give you an idea of how many how we Americans use words you know we got forty nine dozen words that mean the same thing. And uh {D: Benny Peacock} came up in uh {X} who was from Honduras. And I wish I could see him he was a great guy. Um had a crush on Marsha she was cute. Man she was cute. Well Benny Peacock was the kind with his hair three inches over his ears that glasses looked like the bottom of a Coke bottle. You know I mean it would've looked alright is he had combed his hair different and wore a different kind of glasses I mean you know no shame he just needed a you know look at hisself and saw ah I'm going to turn this around a little bit. His pants were up to high over his ankles you know high waters and white socks and the funky shoes you know. {D: Clodhoppers} And he said you know they played cards they played spades and setback and all that crap. I never did have time for that you know. and chase abroad chase abroad going to work go to work you know. Hmm. But um So he asked Marsha. He said hey uh play a little cards do you have a deck? And {X} come unglued. And he started to jump on Benny Peacock and I grabbed him. {NW} And I pulled him back over and say what's wrong? He said but Rick that son of a bitch know I don't have no woman have no deck. Interviewer: {NW} 533: You know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Woman don't have no deck. {X} No deck. Interviewer: {NW} 533: And uh Interviewer: {NW} 533: So oh you know and he he missed it just a little bit. Interviewer: {X} 533: But I mean you know around here you know like I said we we have our words. You know and if I say I ain't seen high in hair that booger well you know uh they know that they that means I hadn't seen him. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: And they you know if the question is have you seen Bill man he said high in hair that booger. That means tan him out to uh-uh. No. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Kind of like David {X} and Johnny Carson you know in- in Philadelphia they say Uh gee no Jew you know. Interviewer: {NW} Sure. 533: Did you eat? No did you? No. Gee no Jew. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Uh we do that kind of kind of stuff. You know and they do everywhere. And I guess that's what makes it caused difficulties right? {NW} Interviewer: Right okay. {NS} What you call the trenches that are cut out by a plow? 533: Row. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Some people call 'em furrows. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 533: Huh. Interviewer: Okay. If you have a big yield you say you raise big? 533: Good crop. Interviewer: And if you got some land with bushes and trees on it you wanna put it in cultivation. What do you say you do to it? 533: You gotta clear it. Interviewer: Okay. 533: You know push it off it depends um what it is you actually gotta do you know. Interviewer: Say if uh if a farmer just cut his hay off and when it comes back again a second time what do you call that? 533: What do you mean it comes back to do what? Interviewer: Well if it's just gonna just grows again? 533: Oh he's just gonna clip it. You know. Cut it. {NW} Interviewer: You call that a second crop? 533: Oh it's a second cutting. Yeah mm-hmm. Interviewer: What would you call something that uh comes up in a field even though you didn't plant it. 533: You mean like wild grass? Interviewer: No what say if gotta a field of beans a cob of corn comes up that you didn't plant. 533: Well. It's- it's still considered a wild just came up wild you know. Interviewer: Ever heard it call it volunteer crop? 533: Yeah. Volunteer tomatoes and stuff like that yeah. But you know volunteer is like you had a whole row or something. You know I mean Uh wild would be just an occasional you know and a forty acre patch you had one stalk of corn and counted three soybeans you know. Interviewer: Right. 533: That would mean some idiot down at the feed mill you know {NW} messed up on the shipment you know right. Interviewer: I don't know if you ever grew wheat around here. 533: No. Interviewer: Say you cut wheat. You would gather it and tie it up and cut up into a? 533: Uh a stack I guess. I think they call it something else when it's wheat. like a a sh- not a shook. Shank? Shack? Shock okay shock yeah. Shock around here reminds you of pancakes. {D: You know Shockleys.} Interviewer: {X} 533: Well I don't know like I said didn't have much wheat around here. Interviewer: Okay. Very roughly how much corn an acre did you say you could yield? 533: A good yield? Well depends uh you can get to seventy-five hundred bushel something like that. If you're sharp. Interviewer: What would you say you did to oats separating the grain from the {X}? 533: I what do you mean? Kind of like thinning out you know chopping cotton? I don't know. Interviewer: You say thrash? 533: Yeah you- you could trash it you can thrash wheat thrash oats yeah. Interviewer: Okay. Some pronouns I'm going to ask you about. Say we're not using names we gotta do a job together you would say that and have to do this. 533: Well it depends on if I was using the prepositional type you know subject uh you and me. You and I. Interviewer: Sure okay. 533: Him and I him and me. Interviewer: Alright what about a girl? 533: Me and her. Us and y'all. You know. Interviewer: Okay. Uh What if you say that job's not for one of us but it's for? 533: Both of us. My daddy would say both. Interviewer: Okay. Say if you were going to identify yourself. Again without using your name you knock on the door. 533: Hey it's me. Interviewer: #1 Sure. # 533: #2 Yeah. # Who is it it's me right. Hate that don't you? That's about as hello who is this? Who the hell you wanna talk to? You know you called my number you tell me who I am. Interviewer: Say if you were identifying another adult without using his name. You would say that? 533: I'd say Who him? Yeah. Yeah that's him. Interviewer: Okay what about? 533: Well actually that is he. That is she. But uh I'd say yeah that's her. Interviewer: What about several peoples' names. 533: Yeah that's them. Interviewer: Okay. 533: That's the Hatfields. You know. Interviewer: Right. Comparing how tall you are. You say he's not as tall as 533: He not as tall as me. Interviewer: Okay or the other way around I'm not as 533: I'm not as tall as him. Interviewer: Okay um 533: I realize that's improper but in casual conversation you know yeah that's yeah. Me and one of my asshole buddies that's how we talk. Interviewer: If something belongs to me you say that? 533: It's yours. Interviewer: Alright it belongs to both of us? 533: Yeah it's ours. And some people say {X} That's {X} There's an old man in the hospital one time he's about eighty. His old nurse come bouncing in you know and he'd been laying there three days just barely knew he was in the world. She come in good morning Mr. Jones. He said how you doing? She said I came in today I want some urine. He said man damn I been kind of wanting some of urine too but I scared to ask for it. You know {NW} Interviewer: {NW} 533: {NW} So you know it's uh different generations say different things you know what I mean? Interviewer: Uh 533: {NW} Interviewer: lord. {NW} 533: We're not getting much anywhere are we? Interviewer: Oh no we're doing fine. {X} Uh we've been talking about y'all. What about the possessive of that? 533: Y'all's. That's y'all's house. Interviewer: Sure. 533: That's y'all's car. Interviewer: Do people around here say y'all's? 533: Uh not so much. That's y'all's We don't say that any much. That's kind of like {X} You know. Interviewer: Okay. 533: {NW} Interviewer: Say this is a question if I had been to a party you didn't get to go and I was telling you about it afterwards and you wanted to know who's as the party what would you ask? 533: You know who was there? Was they there? Interviewer: Okay. 533: You know. Bill and Tom was they there? Interviewer: #1 Sure. # 533: #2 Yeah. # Interviewer: Now if I if I had been to your speaker. And you didn't get to go out and I was telling you about it you know if you wanted to say what would you ask? 533: You know how'd he do? You know. Interviewer: Or? 533: Or what did he have to say? Was he okay? What about him? Interviewer: Sure do you ever hear people around here say who all was there and what all did they say? 533: Yeah uh-huh right. Right. Interviewer: Could you say that for me? 533: Yeah who all was there? You know. What all did he talk about? Interviewer: Uh 533: Was that wrong? {NW} Interviewer: No. 533: Oh okay. Interviewer: Oh that's a 533: Nothing is wrong. There's no wrongs and no right, right? It's just like I said if- if people know what you're talking about it's right you know. Interviewer: Okay. Um this reflexive if if no one else will do it for him you say he's gotta do it? 533: Hisself. Interviewer: Uh would you ever say anything different for him? 533: Uh by himself. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Alone. You know. I despise the use of the word myself. You know when people say uh uh you know myself and Bob. Interviewer: Oh yeah. 533: That ain't right. That ain't right. That's just like saying me and you. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: That's shit I don't like that. Interviewer: {NW} 533: You know I mean this is people like people Walter Cronkite and Tom Snyder you know it's a Well as for myself. Well sure it's for yourself. Idiot. I mean you know as for me for me. Myself uh Interviewer: What would you have 533: It does it just {D: gull tail} out if me I You know I mean I think people in that position uh there's some words that I don't like and like I said home you know hey he sold his home. How can you do that? You know you sell your wife and kids and. You know as for myself. Well what other self do you ask for? You know. Uh as for me I mean that's a proper use of the word it's prepositional. It's the object of the preposition. It joins the phrase ah you know. As for me I just don't like when you say that. Interviewer: We associate the black usage that uh irritates you. 533: What do you mean? Interviewer: What it is. 533: Oh yeah what it is T city. Yeah well you know that's just crap. You know that's just talk. Hey brother you know. You know and I you know I carry on with 'em I put up with it. But if they get serious and say uh listen brother I say look motherf- you ain't my brother. And don't be coming and giving me that shit. Uh yeah yeah what it is you know how y'all you know and hey I don't- I don't know. you know you see that stuff I think they just see that stuff on TV and they just all accept it right quick. I don't you know. It's alright. It's ignorance. Interviewer: You know something else. What about the different types of bread that come to mind? 533: Hmm loaf bread. Which a lot of people call light bread or white bread. Sliced bread. There's cornbread and loaf bread. Rolls buns biscuits and a roll and a biscuit's different. And you know and uh And a canned biscuit is different from a biscuit biscuit. Interviewer: {NW} 533: My mother made cat head biscuits. who which you know we just call biscuits but you know she just mixes out flour passes it out of her hand {NW}. Throws it in a bucket I mean throws it in the little flat thing you know. And you know and cooks it and whenever it finishes cooking it's got little knots on it you know little places where the flour overlapped you know. Looks like a cat's head you know it got little eyes there some shut some open some dark. Uh never had a green eye but anyway. Interviewer: Right okay. Something to say that they basically there's just two types of bread. There's type you made at home. That's homemade bread. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: By the store that's? 533: Mm-hmm store bought bread I guess. Bought bread {NW} But then there's day old bread. I don't know. Interviewer: Okay. Talking about cornbread what would you call the stuff made with corn meal? In round spheroids with onions and particularly with fish? 533: Uh hush puppies. They're not necessarily round. They can be oblong square flat. Interviewer: Sure. 533: Ugly yeah right. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Hush puppies. Interviewer: Yeah. What about uh Does hoe cake mean anything to you? 533: Hoe cake? I tea cake is what I think of. We used to call 'em tea cakes. Uh It's just a sometimes you know made with a peanut butter and flour base. Sometimes it's just milk sugar flour. Interviewer: Right made with corn meal. 533: No well that's a fritter. Oh that kind of hoe cake. Oh I know what you're talking about now. You're talking about a muffin. You talking Yeah uh {NW} Alright the cornbread muffin. Looks like a blueberry muffin but it's made out of cornbread. Okay? Interviewer: That's a fritter? 533: No that's a corn that's a muffin. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Alright now fritter is cornbread like you might fry on the grill you know you you know you uh you can you fry fritters. You know it's just a little bitty thin- it's like a pancake but it's made out of cornbread. Okay? Uh hoe cake That could go under the same thing I always thought of a tea cake. Which is a sweet you know something for a kid you know. Tea cake uh cookie. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: You know. Homemade cookie. Interviewer: Do people around here talk about corn pone or a pone of corn? 533: No that's what Yankees call 'em when Do you have any corn pone? You know it's corn bread. Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 533: #2 Yeah. # Interviewer: Have you ever heard of a corn dodger? 533: No. Interviewer: Never heard of that. 533: No. That sound like a a drunk baseball player. A corn dodger. {NW} Interviewer: #1 {X} # 533: #2 Right. Yeah. # {NS} Interviewer: What about {X}{NS}? 533: Well A Johnny cake I thought of you know tea cakes too. You know just like I said a little cookie homemade cookie. Actually the raw yellow dough is much better than the finished product. {NW} Interviewer: Alright okay. 533: {NW} Interviewer: We were talking about pancakes have you ever heard them called anything else? 533: Flap jacks. Mm pancakes a lot of people call 'em waffles which they ain't. But you know flap jacks pancakes. Interviewer: Hot cakes? 533: Yeah hot cakes. Short stack. Interviewer: {NW} right. 533: You know the stack. Interviewer: About how much garbage would you take out {X} 533: Mm {NW} five pounds. Interviewer: {NS} Okay. And two words for an egg there's? 533: The yolk and the white. I mean the yolk and the yellow. Or the white and the yellow. Interviewer: Okay. What about different ways to cook an egg? 533: Uh you can fry 'em. Basically I eat 'em scrambled on my lap but you can fry 'em over easy soft hard you can boil 'em poach 'em. You know. Interviewer: Okay what would call a piece of egg that you boil? 533: Streak of lean {D: Sow Billy} Fat back. Interviewer: {D: Sow Billy} fat back. 533: Well yeah you know. It's just a term you know it's the fat part under the sow you know with within the sow's belly where there's a lot of fat you know. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Fat back. Interviewer: Meat that you might slice thin to eat for breakfast? 533: Bacon. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: What about a man who sells meat? 533: Yeah butcher. You know basically. Interviewer: Okay. Thinking about a lot of bacon {NS} without having it sliced? 533: You mean a slab? Interviewer: Sure. 533: Yeah that's good too man. Most time though that's coming to the term of streak lean because it's got one of those streak lean down the middle of it you know. Streak lean. Interviewer: You ever heard that called middling? 533: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Same thing? 533: Mm-hmm. Yeah roughly. You know you would not uh not that much difference in 'em you know. Uh Interviewer: Could you say that for me? 533: What middling? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah it's kind of like streak of lean. Interviewer: Uh what about if you slice some bacon off a slab? You'd probably want to cut that tough part off. 533: Yeah. Skin. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah rind. {NS} The hair in 'em {NS} Interviewer: Say if you kept meat for too long you'd say it's done what? {NS} 533: Got old. I mean {NS} old meat. {NS} And depends on what it is. Some of it can sour. Some of it can turn green. I mean I have a Interviewer: Little rank I suppose. 533: Yeah. Rank. You know it's rank. {D: Asphalt burnt} Interviewer: Okay. 533: You know. {X} ruins. It ain't no good if it don't ruin. Buttermilk has to ruin before it's buttermilk see. Interviewer: {NW} What about butter it's that way? It's gotten bad. 533: Hmm well uh butter you would just say you know uh ruined. Now milk that gets that way is blinky. Interviewer: Blinky? 533: Right blinky milk is the kind you had when you milk the old one cow and she ate bitter weeds. Or wild onions. The milk tasted blinky. I mean it's like having bad breath from eating lasagna right? {NW} Interviewer: Have you ever heard anybody say that butter's got a funky taste to it? It's got a funky? 533: Yeah funky but that's that's a new term. Interviewer: Yeah what does that mean? 533: Just anything that's away from the norm. Tastes funky. Uh My pipe has a funky smell. You know. So I guess I'm fixing to get funky because I'm fixing to fire that heifer up. Interviewer: Get down. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: What about what could you make with a meat from a hog's head? 533: Hmm I don't know. Interviewer: {X} 533: Oh well we don't fool with that kind of stuff. Yeah sow's I've heard of it. Sow's meat never knew what it was. Is that was it is? Hog brains? Interviewer: Well not exactly the brains but the 533: Ears eyes? Interviewer: All that. 533: The inlets and outlets. Interviewer: {NW} Sure. Anything that you could make by cooking and grinding up hog liver? {NS} 533: Cooking and grinding up hog liver? Yeah hash I guess I mean you know. Interviewer: What do you think like 533: Mix it up in with your turnip greens. You know what I mean. Interviewer: Liver sausage uh? 533: No liver cheese. #1 Yeah # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: No. We wasn't that fancy. His liver hell is liver you know. Interviewer: You ever heard of anyone around here making a thing with the blood from a hog? Blue pudding white pudding? 533: No. I mean I've heard it but I mean you know just in talking but I've never known anyone to really do it. Knew a guy one time that drank duck's blood. Supposed to have some type of super effect and you know he still weighs about a hundred and four. Ugly. Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah. Uh then well his brain is what needed it. If he had poured it between his ears it would have been alright. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Fill up that hole you know. Interviewer: Have you ever heard of scrapple? 533: Yeah it's a game you play on a table. You know and you make up words. Interviewer: #1 Scrapple? # 533: #2 Oh. # Scrapple nah. No. Interviewer: What about fixed sour milk that women would keep on hand in the kitchen? 533: Buttermilk? Clabbered milk? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah clabbered milk. Uh clabbered milk's good. Lot of times what we used to call buttermilk which is clabbered milk you know. There's a difference in the buttermilk and clabbered milk. Slightly but {NW} You know. Interviewer: What about that white stuff that people go on diets eat a lot? 533: Cottage cheese? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: And say if you just milked your cow something you could do to the milk to get some of the impurities out? 533: Oh you could pasteurize it. Interviewer: Or? 533: Or you know boil it really. Interviewer: Or pouring it through a? 533: You could strain it oh like we used to. Yeah we used to strain it through an old shirt. {NW} strain it. The guy that came in and and uh wanted to take a milk bath and he said make sure it's pasteurized. You know. Damn that's a lot of milk. Interviewer: What about a 533: That's your eyes but anyway. Interviewer: A dessert you could make in a deep dish say with apple slices or peach slices and had a thick crust? 533: You mean like a pie? Apple pie? Interviewer: Not exactly a pie. 533: Maybe not a pudding? Uh you talking about a you know like Interviewer: It kind of goes all the way through. 533: It's It's more or less fried and real sugary like a cobbler? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah a cobbler okay. Interviewer: This expression someone that has a good appetite you say he really likes to put away his? 533: Grub. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Ever hear vittles? 533: Yeah vittles uh Vittles is you know kind of like terms grazing fat back. Grub is just a anything that goes under {X} crosses table you know what I mean. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Right. {NW} Interviewer: What about a sweets uh liquor you might pour over a pudding? 533: Sauce. You know. Sweet sauce. Interviewer: Food that you eat between meals you call a? 533: Snack. Nibbling. Interviewer: Okay and at seven o clock in the morning you say you breakfast? 533: Ate. We don't say ate. Interviewer: {NW} You have? 533: I have eaten. Interviewer: And I will? 533: I'll eat again. By golly. Interviewer: Uh If you want your thirsty in the summer time you might just go in the kitchen and pour yourself a? 533: Glass of tea. Interviewer: Mm-kay. Uh 533: From the pitcher. Interviewer: Right and if you do like so with the glass it will probably? 533: Uh it'd break. Interviewer: Yeah okay. You did that and it 533: And it broke. Interviewer: You have? 533: Busted the sucker all over the floor right. {NW} Uh yeah you've broken it right uh-huh. Interviewer: And if you're very thirsty I might ask you how much would you? 533: Drink. Interviewer: Well yesterday I? 533: I drank a lot. Interviewer: {X} 533: Drinking all my life. Interviewer: Or you have? 533: Drank. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Uh I have drunk. Which I never did like yeah {NW} you know. Interviewer: Say if you had some friends over for a meal. Uh they're all standing around the table and you don't want them to continue standing so you go ahead? 533: Y'all have a seat. Interviewer: Or down. 533: Yeah sit down. Interviewer: So they went ahead. 533: And they sat down. Interviewer: They have? 533: They have sat there all day. The food ain't ready. {NW} Interviewer: And if uh You don't want to wait until something's passed to them 533: Y'all just reach and get it. Make yourself at home. You know. Interviewer: Or yourself? 533: You know I'll pass it to you. You know. What you mean? Interviewer: Go ahead yourself? 533: Go ahead and help yourself yeah. Right. Interviewer: So I went ahead and? 533: And they helped theirselves you know. They've been helping themselves all day. Right? Helped themselves. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: If somebody passed you something that you didn't like what would you say? 533: No thank you or don't believe I do. Pass it on. Interviewer: What should we say if you were among close friends or you were at a formal? 533: If it's at a formal or something like that I would go ahead and eat it. Interviewer: Oh okay. 533: Yeah. You know. Interviewer: Right. 533: There are very few things that I just simply can't stand. Uh but but then there's also an equal number of very few that I totally despise. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Among which would be dumplings and boiled okra. Interviewer: Did you say despised? 533: Yeah totally totally just can live without if they never make any more. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Boiled okra have you ever eaten boiled okra? You know I have to cross my legs man I start {NW} Right down you know. Interviewer: What about {X}? 533: Uh it's alright I ain't crazy about it. You know. Suits me. Interviewer: Alright. Just talking about food in general. {X} What do you call food that's been uh heated and served a second time? 533: Warmed up. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Warm up the peas. Interviewer: Yeah what do you call the food that {X} 533: Yeah supper dinner I mean whatever the meal is you mean peas butter beans? Interviewer: Well like leftovers. 533: Oh yeah leftovers yeah you're right. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Okay. And you say you put the food into your mouth that you can give to? 533: Chew it up. Interviewer: What about something like cornmeal or boiled water if you add a little salt kind of soupy stuff. Anything done like that? 533: No like dumplings? Course that would dough it wouldn't be meal. Interviewer: Yeah not exactly dumplings. more like mush or cush. 533: Nah. Mm-mm. Mm. Interviewer: {X} 533: That's goulash. Interviewer: Goulash. 533: Yeah but I mean I never eat that. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Uh thinking like peas beets carrots stuff like that they are all different kinds of? 533: They're vegetables. Interviewer: Okay. And particularly with southern food white ground up corn typically? 533: Mm what do you mean? Uh Interviewer: Well it's just ground up corn. It's white you have it usually it's just 533: Oh like oats? Interviewer: {X} 533: I mean oatmeal oh Grits. Interviewer: #1 Sure. # 533: #2 Yeah. # I was thinking quite ground up corn Interviewer: What about whole kernel? 533: {NW} Interviewer: You used to boil it and wash it. 533: Hominy. Interviewer: Sure. 533: Yeah. Don't like it. Interviewer: Don't like {X}? 533: {NW} Tastes like chewing Styrofoam you know? Interviewer: {NW} Okay. And the starchy food that's growing in flooded fields in Louisiana? 533: Oh rice. Yeah. {NS} Interviewer: Say sugar when it was sold straight out of a barrel before it sold packaged it. How would you say it was being sold? 533: Hmm that's Out of the sugar barrel. Mm-hmm. yeah. Interviewer: Would you ever say it's been sold in a B-U-L-K? 533: Bulk Interviewer: yeah 533: yeah. Bulk. My daddy would call it he said bulk. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 533: Uh yeah mm-hmm. But I think of bulk to mean uh you know like giant containers. Interviewer: #1 Right. # 533: #2 You know. # Which I guess uh {NS} you know that would be but I thinking of like a whole bin full you know. Interviewer: Okay. And uh condiments that everybody has shakers for. 533: Mm salt pepper. Interviewer: #1 Sure. Okay. # 533: #2 Mm-hmm. # Interviewer: Say if I had a bowl of oranges and apples and uh offered it to you. You might say well I don't think I care for an orange but 533: Give me an apple. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Okay. Um What would you say that the opposite of rich is? 533: Poor. Interviewer: Okay. And what would you call a lot of fruit trees growing together? 533: Orchard. Interviewer: Alright. {NS} What about the inside part of a cherry? The hardest part. 533: Uh the pit? Yeah. Kind of like an olive. Interviewer: What about a peach? 533: Oh that's a seed. Interviewer: Do you distinguish between peaches say the meat of the peach is tied against the seed. Do you have to get in there and cut it out? Whereas in some other peaches 533: Just snap it open. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Nah. Interviewer: You don't 533: {NW} Interviewer: say use the term clear seed? {X} 533: Nah. Interviewer: No to any of that? 533: Well around here peach is just a peach you know what I mean? It's a {NW} just a no uh-uh. They all come from somewhere else except for the few that's grown on the delta you know? So a peach is a peach. You can have little peaches you know the dwarf looking things but good peach and a bad peach but it's a peach. Interviewer: Mm-hmm okay. Do you wanna stop? #1 What about the part of the apple that's # 533: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: left after you 533: It's a core. Interviewer: Okay. Uh do people around here ever slice up fruit like apples or peaches and let 'em sit out and dry? 533: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Interviewer: What did 533: It's just you know just dried apples. Well uh you can use 'em for a lot of different things uh some people you know make pies out of 'em you know and jellies and they squash 'em up. You know after they've dried a while. {NW} But um And some people uh not in large quantities but they just uh {NS} you know cut 'em up in a like that for perfuming reasons you know. You know you can put 'em in like a pantry or something like that you know. If you're gonna let 'em dry you know make the place smell good. Interviewer: Right. 533: Also draw flies and neighborhood kids. {NW} Interviewer: Have you ever heard of {X}? 533: Mm-mm. Interviewer: For dried fruit? 533: No. I thought you were talking about a disease like diarrhea. You know Interviewer: {NW} 533: It's got a little {X} Yeah. Interviewer: What about uh different kinds of nuts that grow around here. 533: Well A hicker nut is a nut that grows on a hickory tree. and you know us Southerners a hicker nut. We had to shorten it a little bit. People kept talking about a hickory nut. Uh yeah you have chestnuts uh also acorns. Course scaly bark uh really they call them scaly barks but it's a type of tree. It's a some breed of a the hickory and the bark is scaly. It's a scaly barked tree. And it has a nut on it just like a hickory nut but we call 'em scaly barks. Them suckers man they got a hard shell. You can take a sack of 'em and run over them with a car and they won't break and you just have to beat the devil out of them. But they're good you know. Just make scaly bark pies and all that stuff. Interviewer: What about nuts that grow on the ground? 533: Oh you mean peanuts? Oh goobers yeah. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Have you ever heard it called ground peas around here? 533: No. Ground peas? Man. Peanuts and goobers. You know? Interviewer: Any walnuts? 533: Uh well yeah yeah if you want it's not your English type you have the still black hard walnuts you know black walnuts and uh they're pretty good. If you can get all of the pieces of the whole out of them. Which you usually can't but uh you know. That kind of stuff. Interviewer: What about these nuts the squirrels are bad about eating in front of the trees. 533: Acorns? Interviewer: That or uh uh kind of a O shaped oblong You know they make pies out of 'em. Eat 'em salty. 533: Oh you mean pecans? Interviewer: Sure. 533: Yeah well squirrels and pecans around here it it mostly you know it- it's acorns you know. It's not- not really enough pecan trees. It just took me a while to figure out what you're talking about. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Uh hmm. And uh I was trying to think of another kind of nut. But anyway. Interviewer: Okay what do you call this kind of nut that I believe a candy bar is made out of? It's called a 533: Almond? Interviewer: #1 Yeah. # 533: #2 Yeah. # Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. And the citrus fruit that that grows in Florida and California? 533: Orange. Why can't blacks say that? They say orange. Notice OJ Simpson doing this advertisement for {D: Real Sweet} They only use the word orange one time. because it's you know a black just can't say they say orange. But it orange. drive that orange car. Interviewer: Right. 533: You know and they can say other words perfectly but orange they cannot say orange. Interviewer: And the plural form you'd say? 533: Oranges. Yeah. Interviewer: What about uh okay a few types of vegetables this small red colored root vegetable. Kind of hot? 533: Radish? Interviewer: Sure. 533: Yeah radish. Radish. Interviewer: What about the plural form of that? 533: No Radishes. Interviewer: Okay. These uh do you have any of these small variety of the uh tomatoes around here that don't get much bigger than about that? 533: {NW} Well around here you can grow just about anything like that you know but uh I don't it don't ring a bell other than Interviewer: Cherry tomatoes? 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Tomatoes. 533: Cherry tomatoes you know. Interviewer: {X} 533: Mm And cherry tomatoes yeah you know you can see 'em in a place in like Bonanza You know when you get a salad you know they got a bucket of them . Don't really like 'em you know. Interviewer: Okay. What about a couple of different types of potatoes? 533: Well there's sweet potatoes mashed potatoes you know. Interviewer: Every heard of sweet potatoes called anything? 533: Yeah spuds yams you know. Poot roots. Yeah. {NW} Interviewer: What? 533: Poot roots. Uh Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah I mean you know this this that old saying an apple a day keeps a doctor away but a potato a day keeps everybody away you know. Uh I don't know why it's supposed to I guess uh probably not medically but uh a lot of raw sweet potatoes are you know supposedly gaseous to some extent I don't know. Interviewer: Yeah first time I heard that was in Arkansas from a a variation of {X}. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: for the same reason. 533: Fart fruit. Uh you know the same thing. {NW} Uh Interviewer: Sure. 533: But anyway sweet potatoes you know the sweet potato capital of the world is only ten miles down the road from here. Vardaman Mississippi. Population five six hundred maybe. Interviewer: {X} 533: Mm-hmm. And uh they grow more there than anywhere else. You know of a course a guy can plant forty acres of sweet potatoes you know. Have a good crop get two hundred two hundred fifty bushels for the acre. Damn I mean you know. And they whole sale them for three dollars and half a bushel you know. Grocery stores get seven. And uh so the {X} But most of 'em got more than forty acres you know. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Couple hundred acres and a couple hundred acres of soy beans. Couple hundred head of cows and you know twelve kids. Can't beat that. Three percent government loans damn. {NW} Interviewer: {X} You got this thing that uh when you peel it and it makes your eyes water. 533: Oh that's an onion. Interviewer: Yeah. What about the small variety that has the long stalk to it? You see these in salad bars. 533: Oh you know that's just a green onion. You know. Interviewer: Okay. Say if you left an apple or plum in the hot sun it would dry up. 533: Yeah. Wither I guess uh. Interviewer: S-H an adjective beginning with those letters. 533: {NW} Interviewer: S-H-R-I-V E-L? 533: Oh shrivel up? Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. What about leafy vegetables that come to head. 533: You know lettuce cabbage yeah things like that. I guess cauliflower. I don't know. Cauliflower's is foreign to me. Interviewer: Okay. 533: So is broccoli and a lot of other things but Interviewer: What about a few different types of beans? 533: Mm Butter beans peas course there's forty different varieties of both there's uh long stem limas and the climbing butter beans and the bunch butter beans and Uh peas you got purple hulls and purple hull crowders and six week peas and English peas which I hate. And uh Course then you get snap beans or string beans and a lot of people just call them green beans. Call 'em strap uh snap beans uh because you snap 'em. You know {NS} you know throw 'em in a pan. {NW} String beans because they usually look stringy you know when you cook 'em. But in- in fact are green too so you know they go by several names. Interviewer: So you have to do to butter beans to get 'em out of the pod? 533: Oh you shell 'em yeah. Shell peas also. And some people have the audacity to shell snap beans. {NW} Interviewer: {X} 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Um if you wanted me to go to the store and get some lettuce you would tell me to go get two? 533: Go get a couple of heads of lettuce. You know. Interviewer: Ever heard anybody around here say they had uh five boys five girls refer to the fact they have so many heads of children> 533: No. Not really no. We raise our kids like we raise our crops you know. Should be rearing 'em I guess. And usually rear is where they get the most attention but uh I don't know no. Never had five head of kids. Interviewer: Okay. 533: No. Interviewer: Uh talking about an ear of corn. What part did you take off the outside covering you call? 533: Um that's a shuck. Or a husk. Interviewer: Okay. What about the stuff that grows out the top? 533: Tassel. Tassel we used to when it dried and got real black we'd roll a little piece of white paper and smoke it you know. Interviewer: Fine stuff. 533: Ah well Kind of like smoking a grape vine you know it's just do it for the hell of it. I guess if we'd went {NW} like that we'd probably would have blowed our brains out you know what I mean uh you see these people okay you know uh I I dare anybody to take a Camel cigarette and do that. You know? I've never done it you know with anything I don't dope ain't my bag but uh {NW} I had a friend one time uh he was always talking about You know man do you have any You know he knew all this stuff. And so uh this other friend pinched the uh filter off a Salem and you know crushed it up and made it look like a you know a homemade roll or whatever and uh Sean {X} And David handed to him and said here man here's here's you some you know marijuana. {C: pronunciation} And he took about two drags off that Salem and {NW} like that and fell back into the closet. {NW} Flung back into the closet and we laughed you know and I thought aw come on man he's just faking but then I got to thinking you know you take a long hard drag of a Salem or something like that or cigarette when you're not used to it any way because this guy didn't smoke {NW} And it will make you kind of eh eh in the head for a second you know. Just kind of make you a little wiggly. Or you can do it with a pipe or a cigar or anything. And he took a couple of long hard drags and it sucked it out of his anus you know. Hit the wall man he just {NW} As Bob Dylan says could not find the door. {NW} Couldn't even see the floor but anyway Interviewer: That's funny. 533: Yeah corn tassels are good to smoke. Interviewer: What about the stuff you brush off the ears the stringy stuff? 533: {NW} I know what you're talking about yeah just you know. Interviewer: Ever call it the silk? 533: Yeah it's the corn silk. Corn hair you know. Interviewer: Okay. What would you call corn that's tender enough to eat right off the ear? 533: Hmm. You mean like a roasting ear? Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Yeah okay. Roasting ear Interviewer: {NW} 533: Roasting ear. Interviewer: I have this thing uh cards thing that you make jack-o-lanterns out of 533: Oh that's a pumpkin. Which turns a nickname for a lot of people pumpkin. You know. Interviewer: What about a yellow crook neck vegetable? 533: A squash? Interviewer: Yeah okay. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: And uh different kinds of melons? 533: Uh there's watermelon mush melon. Uh Well some people would debate whether or not a cantaloupe and a mush melon were the same thing. Other people would say a mush melon is actually the uh What is the sweeter variety what do they call that? The uh Not a cantaloupe but a Aw hell Interviewer: Kind of like a honeydew? 533: yeah honeydew melon. Yeah right. But anyway to me they all smell like {NW} yeah you know I just don't like 'em. My mother used to bring 'em home from a grocery store in the car and I used to say mom please stop let me walk. God I can't stand it. I don't why I just you know just the smell of a cantaloupe just irks my essence you know {NS} Interviewer: {NW} 533: That's about it you know watermelon mush melon. Interviewer: {NS} What about these things that grow in peoples' yards that look like umbrellas on 'em? {NS} {X} 533: You know mushrooms? Interviewer: Sure. 533: Yeah mm-hmm. I always heard those things were poison. Yeah and a few years year or two ago I heard about some guys {NW} making uh mushroom wine or something. You know out of these things I don't know this this was the same guys that'll try angel dust and you know all of this stuff you know. Uh but mushroom wine I don't know. I always Interviewer: Guy was psychedelic. 533: Yeah that's what I there used to be something that grew in the yard Uh it was just a little- like a little puff on the ground. It looked like a mushroom with no legs or something. You know and they called it devil's snuff. And you stomped it you know {NW} blow junk all over the place. But uh you know they always said that's poison you know. Interviewer: You ever heard a mushroom called anything else? 533: Hmm not right away I don't think. Yeah or a toad stool mm-hmm. Sure. Well I don't really know. Like I said uh you see 'em in some areas around here. I figured a toad stool's a little bit bigger. You know stronger so a toad can stool on it or whatever Interviewer: {NW} 533: I don't know but yeah you know it was a toad stool. Interviewer: Alright. 533: Toad frog. Interviewer: This expression somebody offers to do you a favor you might say? Well thanks but I just don't want to be? 533: Obligated. Interviewer: Sure. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Or obliged. Interviewer: Uh Say if a small boy is trying to dare trying to do do something. 533: Mm-hmm? Interviewer: Walk through a graveyard at night uh he might say something like well I'll dare you to do that but I bet you? 533: bet you're chicken? Is that what you mean? I bet you'll chicken out? Interviewer: Is there any do you ever do you ever find yourself {X} I'll dare you to do that but I bet you turn a dare into a negative. 533: In other words I'll bet you can't? Interviewer: Well like dare? 533: Bet you won't? Interviewer: Dare don't dare do that 533: Yeah yeah yeah No don't you dare do it. You know. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Uh None of this {X} stuff Interviewer: Right okay. Say if a m- uh someone's mother is really getting on her kid 533: Yeah. Interviewer: or something she might say something like well now you're not doing what you're? 533: What you ought to do. Interviewer: Okay. Or the boy got a whipping you might say he did something he? 533: he hadn't oughta done. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Or shouldn't oughta done. Interviewer: And in refusing to do something in a strong way you might say {X} 533: I just ain't gonna do it. Interviewer: Okay. Alright uh few birds and animals. What about this bird that can see in the dark? 533: What the bat? Interviewer: Well bird really um I don't I don't think bat's a bird. 533: A bat can't see anyway can they they fly in the dark hell they're blind. A bird that can see in the dark. Probably a hoot owl I guess yeah. Interviewer: Are there different types around here? 533: Well you know different colorings. But I mean an owl a hoot owl uh there's a hoot owl and a screech owl. Interviewer: Right. 533: And a hoot owl {NW} but a screech owl's got a {NW} to him I don't know sound like a you know sort of a panther like almost Used to have a lot of fun when we'd quote camp out Actually what we'd do is get a quilt and go out in the back of the woods you know and sleep you know it's just no air conditioning nothing was no big deal. And uh you hear a screech owl we often in distance {NW} you know. I don't know why. Interviewer: What about a bird that drills holes? In trees? 533: That's a pecker wood. Or a woodpecker. Interviewer: {X} 533: Um yeah. Red headed {C: voice distortion} well if he's a red-headed pecker wood Interviewer: Right. 533: You know. But if it's just an old black woodpecker I don't know why. Interviewer: What about a Interviewer: {NW} 533: uh you know turtle girdle you know {NS} Interviewer: {NS} alrighty yeah an animal with a white stripe would be like smell pretty bad 533: that's a skunk Interviewer: yeah 533: yeah polecat polecat and a skunk's the same thing it's a skunk I guess if you see it a polecat if you smell it you know Interviewer: {NS} 533: damn I smell a polecat I doubt if a lot of people know what you meant when you s- if you said a polecat now though but it used to you know we'd go through a holler uh you know riding somewhere in a car and somebody would have probably an hour before a s- run over a polecat you know or a skunk and my daddy roll the window up damn smell that polecat you know uh Interviewer: a polecat 533: yeah that wouldn't be too good, dead polecat, in the middle of the road stinking to high heaven Interviewer: {NW} 533: Loudon Wainwright Interviewer: you ever hear that they'd call them a uh wood kitty 533: nah Interviewer: anything round here called a civet cat 533: a civic cat Interviewer: civet cat 533: oh no uh-uh Interviewer: {X} 533: no Interviewer: uh animals that would be bad about uh raiding the farmer's hen roost killing his chickens what would that 533: fox bobcat one or the other Interviewer: what about a general time like that say somebody get me a shotgun so I can take care of those 533: moochers Interviewer: mm-hmm 533: no Interviewer: okay do varmints do that 533: yeah varmints Interviewer: do people say that 533: yeah maybe you know in some instances yeah I I could be a varmint you know what I mean Interviewer: yeah 533: you know 533: some people varmint when they get sick {C: both starting to laugh} Interviewer: {NW} 533: #1 you get sick enough to varmint you know # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # {NW} right okay where were we uh what about different types of squirrels out here 533: well there's a gray squirrel and a fox squirrel and a flying squirrel and uh well that's about it you know Interviewer: is the red squirrel there different 533: well #1 uh # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # 533: the fox squirrel is the red squirrel I mean um in some instances they're you know a little bit bigger they're they're they seem to have bigger bone structure but as far as being Interviewer: #1 yeah # 533: #2 {NW} # more delicious or anything like that they're not you know it's just different variety and the flying squirrels are cute but I hadn't seen any since I was twel- well I'm about two or three times in my life is the only times I've ever seen flying squirrels not a bunch of 'em I don't know you know it's kind of a bastard bunch or something I mean I don't know what the deal is Interviewer: right have you ever heard of a squirrel called a boomer 533: nah a boomer is when you kick the football you know for sixty yards or something like that you know Interviewer: {NW} uh do you have the uh 533: yeah Interviewer: You have a thing around here kind of like a squirrel that is small and stays on the ground most the time has a big bushy tail 533: you mean like a chipmunk Interviewer: sure 533: no not really there aren't many chipmunks Interviewer: what are some of the common freshwater fish that'd you go fishing for 533: catfish, bass brim perch most people don't go k- fishing for perch they just usually wind up catching 'em you know there's nothing else biting {C: interviewer laughing} uh that's about it around here you know there's not many trout you gotta get into get Arkansas to get into the trout really the white river over there uh so it's catfish and then there's a channel of cat which is different from a regular cat sort of like the red fo- the red squirrel and you know and the gray squirrel Interviewer: what about these things people are talking about eating them half shell 533: oysters oysters {C: pronunciation like oys-chers} people who say crystal {C: pronunciation like crys-chul} chandelier would also say oysters {C: oys-chers} you know but it's oysters Interviewer: and these little fantails out here also come from the ocean 533: What do you mean shrimp? Interviewer: sure 533: yeah Interviewer: you would say one shrimp to 533: shrimp Interviewer: these animals that you hear around water make a croaking sound 533: frogs bullfrogs Interviewer: around water 533: yeah Interviewer: okay 533: mm Interviewer: what about those on dry land 533: nah it's just a frog there's a rain frog and a tree frog and a frog you know Interviewer: what's a rain frog or a tree frog 533: well a rain frog and a tree frog is probably about the same thing but I don't why sometimes after a a heavy rain you know there'd be a little bitty frog up against a tree you know {NW} {NW} {NW} you know Interviewer: you ever say toad toad frog 533: yeah toad frog uh there's a difference I know in a toad and a frog but toad frog that's what we used to call them as a kid you know Interviewer: uh talking about people going fishing if they were going to use live bait what would they use 533: worms or minnows {C: pronunciation like minners} minnows minnows {C: pronunciation like minners} you know like minnow cheese sandwich {C: pronunciation minnow as minner} yeah Interviewer: do people ever say around here ever say earthworm or 533: yeah earth worm mm-hmm but it's mostly just worm people are saying earth worm now since they came out with a special not too long ago about earthworm cookies and all of that stuff you know but there's earthworms and there's grub worms people use grubs you know sometimes #1 uh # Interviewer: #2 yeah # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # 533: grubs are awful squishy you get 'em on the hook and this yellow stuff starts running out of them you know an earthworm just wiggles or wriggles Interviewer: right 533: all the way through Interviewer: you ever heard of a nightcrawler 533: a nightcrawler is a certain kinda earthworm I mean there's red worms and earth worms and Interviewer: yeah 533: but uh nightcrawler is supposed to be about the best for catching catfish with him other than catfish Charlie #1 that stuff stinks man # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # 533: mm Interviewer: they kill me I was trying to fish for catfish with that stuff and I couldn't can't keep the stuff on the hook I try to mix flour with it 533: #1 Well I guess I could pack it on # Interviewer: #2 keep it in the refrigerator # and everything well I had sack of flour with that stuff and it was still flying off the hook 533: did you have a hook with a spring on it you know that you st- Interviewer: yeah 533: yeah Interviewer: all that it felt like nothing was working there was a black dude down out a little ways and he he was using that stuff straight out of the cup I mean you know doesn't mind if I had catfish 533: #1 yeah # Interviewer: #2 {X} # he just grabbed a a handful of that stuff slapped it on the hook pew it stayed on 533: #1 I don't know # Interviewer: #2 what in the world # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # 533: maybe the constituency of your hand #1 oil didn't do it # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # 533: uh they use chicken liver around here too you know Interviewer: yeah 533: mm-hmm #1 fishing # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # 533: mm-hmm #1 and uh # Interviewer: #2 what about the # 533: I have fished with bacon Interviewer: bacon 533: you know a piece of fatback yeah when I was a kid we used to take you know fatback and uh you know used to especially if your worms were a little bit dry you'd s- chew you know we'd chew tobacco all our lives you know just a little and uh spit a little bit of that cannonball on it {NW} make 'em sweet you know and drop 'em in the water Interviewer: yeah 533: catch a fish every time Interviewer: {NW} what about this uh a kind of turtle that stays on land 533: mm just a turtle you mean like a terrapin Interviewer: yeah 533: yeah ah well terrapin would be the that kind you know and then there's a mud turtle that stays in the water you know and there's just a plain ol' damn ol' turtle I mean you know just a turtle Interviewer: have you ever heard of a turtle around here that really stunk stinking shell 533: no Interviewer: {X} 533: I know snapping turtles you know Interviewer: you ever hear people call a land turtle a cooter or a gopher 533: nah a gopher is a gopher Interviewer: gopher is a gopher 533: yeah Interviewer: {X} 533: yeah mm-hmm mm-hmm gophers a kind of match you use you know you get a gopher a pack of gophers from the bank you know they used to give away matches we call them gophers Interviewer: why 533: yeah well cuz in when you try to strike one you might as well go for #1 another one you know it's # Interviewer: #2 another one # {NW} 533: but I'm always you know hey man you got a pack of gophers on you you know I {NW} Interviewer: I heard a Twinkie called a gopher gopher this gopher that 533: oh yeah mm-hmm right Interviewer: what about out there in the woods that's got claws, looks a little like a lobster and stays in freshwater streams and swims way back some people use them in the bay some people eat 'em special 533: a crawfish oh yeah Interviewer: something like that 533: crayfish {X} crawfish {D: I have crawfish though} some people call them crawdads no Interviewer: alright a few insects these insects that you see a night that like to fly in circles around light any idea what they are 533: well there's a lot of them like that you know like candle flies Interviewer: yeah 533: yeah candle flies uh mostly course then you have um you know fireflies we used to call them lightning bugs Interviewer: right 533: {NW} #1 and uh # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # 533: we'd Interviewer: one 533: #1 catch # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: 'em and put 'em in a coke bottle you know put a whole bunch of them in a coke bottle and put a stick in the top of it a stopper put 'em in the closet you know watch the closet light up {NW} you know Interviewer: a light show 533: yeah right Interviewer: okay now what about one that eats holes in your clothes 533: nah that's a moth mm-hmm Interviewer: in the plural form you'd say 533: moths you know it's like you know the story some- I can't even remember it now something about some old lady and you know the snake skin and a mothballs you know and they say I know you lying now a moth ain't got no balls but anyway I can't remember but it's something like that you know {C: interviewer laughing} Interviewer: at least you got the punchline there 533: yeah {NW} Interviewer: what about insects that got a long thing body that have length 533: snake doctor Interviewer: sure 533: yeah I don't know what they are devil's horse snake doctor #1 what are # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 what are they # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # well dragonflies 533: yeah dragonflies yeah okay Interviewer: you ever hear people around here call them mosquito hawks 533: nah they eat mosquitos or something Interviewer: Some people claim they do 533: they look like a an old-timey unmodified helicopter you know Interviewer: {NW} 533: 'em gyro bugs you know Interviewer: what about insects that sting 533: eh a wasp, yellow jacket, bumble bee honey bee sweat bee sand fly, nit fly shit fly Interviewer: what about the ones that have a vicious sting and build paper nests 533: no that's a wasp red wasp Interviewer: well these these things build I mean sure enough big paper nests in trees 533: like a yellow jacket Interviewer: alright but they'll follow you you know they'll got after ya 533: oh yeah a yellow jacket they're just like a moccasin boy them sumbitches tough Interviewer: {NW} 533: that what you talking about oh you talking about a #1 hornet # Interviewer: #2 yeah # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # 533: oh a hornet mm well hornets not so bad right a- the only thing is they g- you know they go in droves you know a yellow jacket is just you know he's a real braggart you know he'll jump out there and get you and go back to the house but uh well well yeah but hornets you know they'll they'll come and get you usually the problem is that somebody'll knock the hornets nest down you know and it's the whole shit pot full of 'em that'll get you know what I mean and they can kill you you know that can really mess you up Interviewer: what about these insects that are a bad about burrowing under your skin make the skin itch 533: the red bugs chiggers yeah mm-hmm far as I know red bug and a chigger you know when you was little you know you'd s- that's the daily routine uh you go in the house and pull your clothes off and mama or daddy one of 'em you know scratches the red bugs out of your crotch you know Interviewer: {NW} 533: I mean you know it sounds silly but it was true because you know if you left them in there you'd you know you get raw and you scratch them and they bleed and the next thing you know you'd have impetigo and um everybody think you had smallpox and nobody'd come see you right Interviewer: {NW} what about different kinds of snakes around here 533: you got just about every kind in the world around here uh you got some real funny snakes you know you got chicken snakes and rat snakes and king snakes and garden snakes and garter snakes and you know none of which are poisonous they're all s- you know scare the shit out of you uh friend of mine got bit one time he was at home by himself which lot of us were back then uh you know parents worked then now uh he got bit by a snake and he immediately ran out toward the road and we lived on a road where you know if somebody was out there they were either going home or going to town I mean you know it wasn't just high traffic you know going down through there so he run out to the road and this old man that drives about twenty happened to be going down the road and he hollered and got him to stop and he took him to the hospital doctor said what kind of snake was it and he said "man I don't know it must have been a chicken snake cause when he bit me I ran" you know Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 uh # but th- some of the most poisonous snakes in the world are right around here too the moccasin the water moccasin or a cotton mouth moccasin whatever you want to call 'em uh they are something else man you can smell 'em if you're sharp I mean you know if you get in an area where there's a lot of 'em and a couple of times in my lifetime I've known guys uh you know they go out in the country and they find an old pool and they build a s- you know jump board a b- a s- diving board and you know they get up there playing and they dive off in it and they land in a bed of moccasins and uh mm-hmm yeah and this one guy over close to Okolona must have been about twelve fourteen years ag- longer than that I guess yeah about fourteen years ago and he dived off out in an old pool and and jumped in a bed of moccasins I mean they just weave together you know it's just like just like earth worms you know and they just groove around in the water and uh and they just you know attacked him and just bit him all to pieces I mean just every part of his body was snake bit and you know almost immediate death uh because one of 'em bites you and if he really gets a good hook into you got about thirty minutes you know if you don't panic and of course we got rattlesnakes and we have rattlesnake pilots uh a rattlesnake pilot is kind of like a uh well it's a rattle snake but it doesn't have rattlers there is another name for 'em what is the other name for them um I can't think hmm I mean uh the scientific name yeah we call 'em rattlesnake pilots why I don't know they don't fly around or nothing and uh course there's black racers uh and a black racer is what it is just a black snake and uh and he's scared of you snakes are basically scared of y- you know anything and anybody and uh {NW} the black racer though if y- you know a lot of people see a snake and they'll take off running well that snake just happens to have n- just barely enough sense to f- chase you and he'll get right behind you boy just a getting it you know I guess he's thinks you're running away from whatever it is he's running away from you know and he comes with you and um but a chicken snake they'll eat an egg they'll eat a rat you know and uh king snakes uh eat other snakes you know and um lot of 'em are colored the same there is a spreading adder a spreading adder which we call a spreading adder and they're poisonous to an extent uh I came upon one in a ditch one time on my bicycle and uh I saw him and I stopped and when I did his head just flattened out it's you know kinda like a cobra in a way his head will just flatten out and you can hear {NW} {NW} like that and he'll jump up there and get you I mean you know um snakes let's see what other kinds of snakes I mean that's that's about it there's some coral snakes around but they're mostly in south Mississippi and I'd hate to come up on one you know uh there are some yeah what is it red on black black on yellow he's a nasty fellow I don't know if it's a snake stomp that son of a bitch that's what I you know I don't care right Interviewer: what about these insects that are some are green some are black they hop around in your yard 533: grasshoppers yeah katydids Interviewer: you ever heard any other name for a grasshopper 533: mm probably uh {D: gonna} come right off the top of my head Interviewer: what if I turned around and said bug grass 533: no well I've heard it but I mean you know it's just don't use it Interviewer: these things that um not insects or anything this stuff that gathers in the corners 533: spider web Interviewer: yeah is that like the same thing you see outside or between two bushes 533: yeah it's about the same they call 'em cobwebs when they're up you know in the house or something like that you know cobwebs Interviewer: is that the same 533: yes well it's done by the same type of folks you know spider Interviewer: what about the part of the tree that grows close to the ground 533: roots Interviewer: you ever heard of any medicinal uses of that stuff 533: oh man yeah lots of it uh well I think I told you about my grandmother that buried some kind of roots and got rid of warts you know then there's a sassafras root sassafras tree I don't know if you're familiar with that but you can make tea out of it sassafras tea which is pretty good you ever chew the tea berry gum you know the tea berry shuffle alright that's made out it's got a sassafras taste and um um you know they used to say you could rub that on drink it you know it's kinda like uh I don't know it's some type of medicinal use mostly I think it was uh {NW} {D: alamanic} in meaning that it had uh w- a drawing effect you know kinda like persimmons you know looks to me like you could bite a green persimmon rub it on a leg where a snake bit it and it'd suck all the poison out you know {NW} #1 but I guess it wouldn't # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 yeah yeah but you know it # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: should Interviewer: {NW} 533: worth a try it's makes as much sense as bleeding George Washington get all that bad blood out of him kill that sucker you know Interviewer: what about the kind of tree that you keep to preserve 533: a maple tree you know no that's what Maine you know Vermont #1 New Hampshire # Interviewer: #2 what would you # call a number of those trees growing together 533: be a grove yeah or a thicket {D: it's according to} uh there's a pine thicket you know if you got a bunch of little bitty trees and they're real thick you know it'd be called a pine thicket but if it's big trees it would be a grove you know a grove of elm trees and you know uh Interviewer: what kind of trees they got growing around here 533: well you have oak you got all the varieties of oak white oak post oak water oak pin oak you know red oak black oak {NW} um you also got hickory and uh scaly bark you know pine loblolly pine long leaf pine short leaf pine white pine uh you know a few cedars uh a catalpa or two the one that grows horse apples that's a catalpa tree isn't it yeah um you know walnut trees you know locust trees they got big stickers on 'em and of course mulberry uh you know plum eh just lot of those but you don't have you have a few silver leaf maples and a few elm trees uh Interviewer: what about the state tree of Mississippi 533: hmm Interviewer: state tree of Mississippi 533: oh the state tree I thought you was talking about you know stay free I uh didn't know they grew on trees uh state tree's a magnolia you know and you have a few of those they're beautiful man it's really nice course you have mimosas and sloppy mimosas and weeping willows and uh you know the willows that grow down by the creek and that kinda stuff you know and uh Interviewer: did you have any sycamores 533: not not many no we got a few now and then but I don't know why Interviewer: can you say that for me 533: what sycamore? yeah in the sycamore tree {C: singing} Interviewer: what kind of bush grows out here crawls on the walls maybe 533: well there's a laurel tree you know and uh there's a Laurel Mississippi and I don't know if that's where it got it's name I doubt that Tupelo got it's name from the tupelo tree you know but uh there is a certain that kind of tree but I'm not familiar with it you know I wouldn't know if I walked upon it hey that's a laurel laurel is what I'm sitting on right now know you know uh that's all I know you know {NW} Interviewer: you heard of rhododendron 533: I've heard the name but it's mostly in flower shops that I've heard it you know little sprigs you know Interviewer: what about uh what about the type of tree that is in Washington you know 533: uh that's a cherry tree yeah Interviewer: you ever heard of a bush around here called the sumac or shumac? 533: I've heard of it yeah but uh sumac yeah no hmm I figure some kind of funky flower that grows in the yard like a crab apple bush or something like that you know Interviewer: what about the stuff you can get into to make your skin break up 533: poison oak poison ivy we always called it poison oak you know and then somebody invented the word poison ivy same thing grows like ivy and it looks like oak and it will make you itch like a booger boy ain't nothing that'll help except calamine lotion tell you a little story about a cousin of mine you know me I'm Tell you all kind of stories but this is true the same one who hit me in the face with a cow pile uh when we was having uh yeah when we was having a war {D: out there} in around the corn cobs you know he hit me in the face with a dried cow pile it sailed you know {NW} and hit me right in the face god I gagged you know but anyway uh you know like I said we didn't have everybody didn't have bathrooms and we were out in the woods one day playing and it was nothing to crawl up in the yoke of a tree and drop your pants you know and splatter the ground and uh so we were out somewhere you know and his time came and uh and so uh he just grabbed a handful of leaves to wipe himself clean with you know which wasn't uncommon either and as luck would have it and I think maybe he was about five or six and he got a handful of poison oak and oh that kid had the itch his poor little ass oh man it was awful I mean it was bad he couldn't wear any clothes you know he just had to lay in the house with his rear in the air you know jeez it was weird {D: but yeah} Interviewer: what about different kinds of berries grown around here 533: we have strawberries blackberries bull- uh p- mulberries blueberries and uh you know course strawberries you know possum grapes new grapes you know wild grapes possum grapes are good you got muscadines a lot of people call 'em scuppernongs I guess there may be a difference in a scuppernong and a muscadine I think something about {NW} uh the time of year that they mature you know but um muscadine wine is some kind of fine it's muscadine but we call it muscadine {C: pronunciation like musky dime} you know kinda like a {D: enkidime} I guess Interviewer: huh okay what about a raspberry 533: I don't think I've ever seen a raspberry bush a mulberry is uh is a lot like a raspberry {NS} and of course dewberries which are a lot like new grapes that they just grow on the ground possum grapes are real good if you ever get a chance to eat some possum grapes used to have a possum grape vine in the front yard in an old tree they're kinda tangy but they're little bitty you know now there's some roy- uh boysenberries and there are also some poison berries uh growing some that look like a poke salad vine but they're poison and uh that's what I always thought people was talking about poison berries you know instead of boysenberries {NW} {D: yeah} Interviewer: getting into something a little different uh say if you went somewhere with your wife someone asked her who you were she would say that's 533: that's my husband hmm Interviewer: okay any other names you have for 'em joking or otherwise you have for that a husband that's 533: well that's my old man you know that's my old lady that's my old man that's my husband that's my man that's my lady you know Interviewer: what about a woman who's husband has died what do you call her 533: well she's a widow yeah Interviewer: any term you've heard for a woman whose husband hasn't died but he's just gone he just left 533: hmm {D: well} yeah a lot of names for it cause I figure I got a reas- uh he had he got a reason for leaving you know but uh not in particular I mean just common stuff you know Interviewer: what about grass widow 533: nah no unless thats why he left you know too much grass {NW} Interviewer: so the man whose raised you that's your 533: that's my daddy and uh older people call him papa but it's daddy we don't use the word father this is my father somebody does that I think eh you know been to college huh Interviewer: what about mother 533: yeah that's mother mama #1 and a little bitty guy say # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # 533: yeah hardly ever use the word father I don't think I've ever called my daddy father uh and I wouldn't I just I don't like the connotation that goes with father you know Interviewer: that a reading process 533: well I don't know father you know I I'd just as soon call him sire you know if I was gonna call him father {D: you know} I wouldn't call my mother damn but I might say damn mother you know if she did something but Interviewer: uh-huh 533: but uh mother uh yeah we use that some but mama Interviewer: say a name that a child is known by just within the family you would say he has a 533: he's got a nickname yeah which is ridiculous #1 I mean # Interviewer: #2 you mean the # concept or 533: well you know like uh these people in the in the church here you know they had had a kid not long ago and I don't know what the name was but it was named like and he was just born and he already had a nickname you know it was like James Robert Johnson Junior in parentheses tubby or chubby or funky or monkey or something like that you know I thought shit why don't you name him that you know what I mean uh I hate these people that uh that name their kids you know uh John Bartholomew you know Stevenson and they call him you know Franky all his life that's w- stupid man you know that they would give me a complex of course my name is Ricky Joe you know and I use Rick just for simple you know to be on the air with you know and people call me Rick but uh uh it bugs me to go somewhere and people say no I mean what's your real name and I say Rick Ricky Ricky no I said no I mean you know Richard uh you know say hell no it ain't Richard if it was Richard you'd call me Richard you know um I mean whatever I name him that's what I'm gon' call him you know if it's uh you know stud blood that's gonna be his name you know {NS} because I mean you know when a kid goes to college or even when he first starts to school you know that's what they are gonna call him and uh you know Charles Michael and all their life they call him Mikey and when he goes to college or he goes and gets in the armed services it's gonna be Charles M you know so he might as well get used to it from the start name him Michael Charles if your gonna call him mike David Charles you know Interviewer: what about the thing you can put a baby in and lie down it has wheels 533: bassinet #1 a carriage # Interviewer: #2 um yeah # 533: stroller Interviewer: uh-huh 533: yeah Interviewer: what would you say you gotta do with the baby in the stroller and go out 533: mm-hmm stroll around take a walk you know push him around really is what I'd be doing {NS} Interviewer: talking about if you had to use the 533: {NS} Interviewer: word the term growing up here it's like Matt has three children uh ones twenty ones fifteen ones ten 533: mm-hmm Interviewer: talking about in terms of being grown up you'd say one who's twenty is the 533: uh oldest Interviewer: or if you had to use grown up in there 533: hmm well the one he's the grown up one yeah yeah yeah he's got grown younguns you know right Interviewer: fine okay talking about a woman who is pregnant have you ever heard of any other term for that she is 533: uh she's expecting you know P-G uh got knocked up swallowed a watermelon you know Interviewer: those would be joking 533: yeah you know it's I'd say eh did you see Gladys Fae she swallowed a watermelon {D: you know and it was ripe} but yeah pregnant expecting uh you know this kind of thing Interviewer: what about a woman that might be called ill or delirious woman with a doctor 533: uh a midwife mm-hmm Interviewer: you say if a boy same eyes or same hair color as his father would you say their nose are a bout the same 533: he took after his daddy the man marked him up real good you know mm-hmm Interviewer: would you say anything 533: {NW} {NS} Interviewer: if the boy inherited his father's bad ethics 533: well he got that from his daddy you know and just took it natural mm-hmm got it honest that's another one {NS} Interviewer: say uh this this adjective you might say Jane is a loving child but Peggy is even a lot 533: a lot sweeter you know a lot sweeter a lot nicer #1 a lot more # Interviewer: #2 how would you # 533: loving Interviewer: sure 533: yeah Interviewer: alright now if a child lost both of his parents you'd say he what 533: hmm lonesome #1 probably huh # Interviewer: #2 well # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # a noun for it he's a 533: he's an orphan I guess yeah Interviewer: what about the adult appointed to look after him 533: eh guardian foster parent #1 yeah # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # alright a few proper names one for a girl beginning with an M Washington one would think 533: uh Martha Interviewer: what about a woman's name that begins with an N uh in the song goes way to the sunshine hear it every time you 533: uh Nelamie {C: interviewer laughing} Interviewer: {NW} it's short for Helen uh 533: I don't know Interviewer: alright 533: #1 nah # Interviewer: #2 N-E # double L Y 533: Nelly Interviewer: okay 533: uh Interviewer: just wanted 533: #1 thought that was short for # Interviewer: #2 pronunciation there # 533: Nelda you know Interviewer: maybe what about a male goat you call that uh 533: that's a ram Interviewer: alright what kind of goat 533: billy goat #1 here yeah # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # 533: billy goat and a nanny goat Interviewer: alright and a man's name begins with an M that Matt would be short for 533: Matthew Interviewer: mm-hmm whats the name 533: {NW} Interviewer: what the name begins with S wife of Abraham in the bible 533: Sarah Interviewer: yeah 533: yeah Interviewer: yeah what would you call a woman who teaches school she's a 533: now she's a teacher not a schoolmarm yeah Interviewer: what is what do you when somebody says schoolmarm do you think of anything in particular 533: well I think of an old old time you know when one woman taught a bunch of kids you know Interviewer: yeah old country 533: yeah one school one room school I mean Interviewer: yeah what about uh American author wrote the in mid eighteen hundreds his name is James Fenimore 533: Cooper Interviewer: yep how would you address a married woman who had that last name 533: mrs Cooper or Cooper depending you know I guess uh Interviewer: how do you tell? 533: well you know how they different people for different #1 {D: things you know} # Interviewer: #2 yeah # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # 533: some people around here you know their kin folks one's a Peaton the other's a Peyton you know you just have to know Interviewer: yeah okay so yeah a preacher who's not really trained to be a preacher uh does something for a living really and is really not very good at it you ever heard any names for him 533: hmm yeah but probably not what you're looking for Interviewer: you ever heard of jackleg 533: {D: yeah} jack- jackleg preacher I've heard of that yeah I didn't know what they were talking about I just figured it was a guy who you know got his leg blowed off #1 or something you know # Interviewer: #2 okay # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # 533: jackleg preacher 533: the reverend mr black that type of thing right Interviewer: right say if my father had a brother named William he would be my 533: your uncle Bill probably yeah Interviewer: or if using his full name it would be 533: uncle William Interviewer: what about one named John 533: my uncle John uncle John's outhouse {D: yeah right} Interviewer: {NW} 533: that old saying you know Interviewer: uh Robert E Lee's rank in the army he was a 533: he was a general wasn't he Interviewer: okay and the guy that pushes Kentucky fried chicken he is the 533: colonel Sanders Interviewer: and the man who's in charge of the ship he is the 533: admiral I guess or captain Interviewer: and someone that goes to school to study he is the 533: student Interviewer: right and a woman who does photography and filing and that sort of thing 533: mm secretary pornographer no I mean stenographer you know {C: interviewer laughing} Interviewer: okay uh a woman that appears on the stage you call her a 533: actress {NS} Interviewer: say if it's uh you are at a party and you look at your watch and it's eleven thirty or so you might say well uh we better be getting home it's 533: it's getting late getting close to midnight about midnight Interviewer: lets see 533: if I was joking I'd say pertineer you know Interviewer: say if it's winter and the side walks are iced over you might say something like well um I managed to to keep my balance but two or three times I 533: #1 uh # Interviewer: #2 fell down # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # 533: almost slipped down like to slip down Interviewer: if we're going somewhere {NS} uh I call up you aren't you ready yet 533: mm-hmm Interviewer: you might say well I'll be with you 533: I'll be with ya in just a minute yeah Interviewer: and talking about the number of times somebody does something might go to town might ask well how you do 533: how often you go Interviewer: right 533: how many times a day you make the trip mm-hmm Interviewer: now some parts of the body what do you call up here 533: that's a forehead some people call it the forehead and they get it mixed up and call it the forward Interviewer: {NW} 533: that bugs me you know right there on my forward Interviewer: the forward 533: you know the only thing I'd poke s- forward other than my finger you know you don't need to be seeing anyway so you know it's a forehead yeah Interviewer: okay and if I let this grow out 533: yeah beard yeah Interviewer: this is my 533: that's your ear Interviewer: which one 533: uh that's your right ear yeah left ear some people say year of corn Y-E-A-R #1 you know # Interviewer: #2 yeah # 533: been washing your years? you know Interviewer: and uh I got a mouthful 533: yeah teeth Interviewer: but one 533: tooth Interviewer: okay the pink part 533: that's gums Interviewer: alright this is um 533: fist Interviewer: make two 533: yeah fists Interviewer: what about this part of the hand 533: palm Interviewer: when people get old they complain they get sore in their 533: elbow mm Interviewer: any place where two bones meet 533: oh joints yeah Interviewer: okay now that part of a man's body 533: chest Interviewer: and if it's broad 533: yeah shoulders uh Interviewer: okay that's my right 533: foot Interviewer: okay what about this part right here 533: that's your shins back of that's a calf I guess right Interviewer: what about this part 533: uh what your thigh? Interviewer: yeah 533: yeah Interviewer: say if a kid was gonna scare me like by getting behind the couch 533: mm-hmm Interviewer: jump up and scare me say he'd do what to conceal himself 533: hide Interviewer: or 533: you know slump down Interviewer: yeah 533: yeah scoot down yeah squat down I guess maybe it's according to how it was Interviewer: you ever heard anybody say hunker down 533: oh yeah uh-huh hunker down though is is kinda like if you was getting down on the ground you know just hunkering down you know not really putting your feet down you just squat down and you're you know like whittling talking chewing tobacco you know with the old man you know you #1 hunker down # Interviewer: #2 oh # 533: you know Interviewer: kinda like a catcher 533: yeah yeah a catcher hunkers down you know he keeps actually he's still on both feet but he just got his tail hanging down to about his ankles you know what I mean Interviewer: right 533: yeah that's a hunker Interviewer: you ever hear somebody in these parts called the hunkers 533: no that's your laurels ain't it you know we was talking about laurels a while ago right {C: interviewer laughing} Interviewer: {X} hold onto 533: yeah haunches I've heard that you know back on his haunches Interviewer: okay 533: yeah Interviewer: now if this expression if somebody gets sick you might say well um so its the gout but he still looks a little bit 533: mm looks a little bit pale feeling poor puny you know looks a little bit puny Interviewer: okay now if a man was able to lift heavy weights you would say he 533: stout strong {NS} Interviewer: what about a man that always goes around he's got a smile on his face and all and nice to say about people you say he might 533: {NS} friendly cordial yeah good-natured {NS} light-hearted {NW} Interviewer: a boy 533: {NW} Interviewer: when he reaches a certain age sometimes he moves around he does things tripping over his own feet 533: #1 mm-hmm # Interviewer: #2 you'd say he's # mighty 533: clumsy Interviewer: what about a 533: lanky sometimes you know has to do with Interviewer: right what about a person who doesn't seem to do things that make any sense you say he's just a plane 533: idiot dummy dumbbell Interviewer: {NS} what about fool just plain fool 533: nah fool has to do more with your decisions I think you know you know if you decide to go down this road doing a hundred fifty mile an hour knowing that you know there's tractors mowing the side out there then you're a fool #1 yeah # Interviewer: #2 is that a # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # were you ever taught that that was a 533: #1 you do not say fool # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # 533: you do not say fool the bible says you'll go to hell for saying fool if you call your brother a fool not necessarily meaning your blood brother but you know yeah what did I think that means you know you putting yourself in the seat of judgment saying hey you know I'm big chief and uh you a fool you know I think that's what's basically it I don't my kids say that and I thump their head and I can put the thump on 'em Interviewer: {NW} that size twelve ring {D} 533: mm I just do it with my finger kinda rattle their brain a little bit wife don't like that but it works Interviewer: what about a man that has a light 533: {NS} Interviewer: likes to hang on to it you say he's a 533: miser tightwad stingy Interviewer: say if I said this uh talking about somebody oh so and so's just as common as he could be what would you take that to mean 533: well just a regular fella I mean you know he uh just like just like everybody else {D: tryna} keep public just you know regular guy Interviewer: did you ever take 533: {NW} Interviewer: say something derogatory like I were talking to a girl and she's calling me {D} 533: no I would think of homely in that sense I wouldn't think of common property or nothing like that you know Interviewer: yeah 533: common whore now that would be something different you know Interviewer: say a person uh an elderly person maybe uh in his nineties but still able to care for himself and you'd say well I don't care how old he is he's still mighty 533: feisty uh peert pert spunky yeah uh-huh Interviewer: okay say if uh the children are out later than usual uh one might something like well I'm not gonna say anything wrong but I can't help feeling a little 533: worried Interviewer: mm-hmm you wouldn't say she felt easy about it 533: #1 nah she kinda # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: feels uneasy yeah Interviewer: say your talking about somebody who uh isn't afraid now you might say well she's not afraid now but she's 533: eh she probably will be Interviewer: or talking about the past 533: or she used to be Interviewer: sure 533: yeah Interviewer: what about uh the opposite of that you'd say well I don't understand why she's afraid now she's 533: she didn't used to be Interviewer: sure uh somebody that needs a lot of money thats lying around in plain view if the doors open you say he's always 533: that's stupid or he's you know trusting but really I'd say dumb I mean you know #1 you wouldn't do # Interviewer: #2 if he's not c- # careful about it he's 533: nah he's careless Interviewer: say if I have uh-huh uh this I might say about her well there's really wrong so and so suggesting every now and then she acts a little 533: yeah I know I have some of those too you don't really have to say anything else right {C: interviewer laughing} uh I don't know depends on how what #1 what are you # Interviewer: #2 talking # about well just odd 533: mean mentally Interviewer: eccentric no not necessarily peculiar behavior um a little unorthodox 533: eh weird you know a little spooky Interviewer: would you ever us the word queer there the word queer 533: well older people would you know uh just like uh sometimes the boss will write a write a uh commercial here about the gay colors of this that and the other you know uh you know but peculiar queer they call it queer you know boy sure is queer Interviewer: but the word required of 533: yeah they've acquired a nasty connotation now you know people don't use them anymore you know Interviewer: yeah reserved for homosexual 533: #1 yeah right you know # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # 533: queer is a queer I mean you know he could be unusual and not be a queer #1 but he # Interviewer: #2 right # 533: couldn't be a queer and not be unusual you know Interviewer: somebody who makes up his mind and refuses to change it 533: #1 hard headed # Interviewer: #2 {X} # yeah 533: stubborn bull headed Interviewer: what about someone you can't joke with without him losing his temper 533: touchy touchy Interviewer: and someone whose like that and you don't want him to lose his temper you just say now hold on 533: simmer down calm down I don't think you can simmer down that's like thawing up I mean you know uh you got the th- you know Interviewer: talking about a person being tired an extreme case of it you'd say 533: wore out tuckered out petered out shot Interviewer: uh some body you hear is in the hospital and I said well uh that's funny there wasn't any 533: got sick took ill Interviewer: say if you were going somewhere and your not in any particular hurry to get there you might say uh well get there 533: sooner or later you know just moseying along you mean taking it easy after awhile Interviewer: you ever hear people say by and by 533: yeah not really that's in songs mostly g- directly we used to work directly don't worry about it we'll get there directly you know Interviewer: what about somebody who got very hot uh outside work and came into uh air conditioned room and chilled so if I started ordering you probably say he's doing what {NS} {X} 533: took a chill Interviewer: or he talking about the combination 533: uh he got a cold you know he took a cold and he got l- laryngitis sore throat Interviewer: now he's a little bit 533: hoarse mm-hmm Interviewer: if he {NS} does that he's got a 533: he's got a ma- a cough yeah hark hark thats when you {NW} {NW} that's harking #1 yep # Interviewer: #2 okay # 533: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # 533: my daddy uh used to do that a lot still does my mother was on the tenth floor of the baptist hospital in Memphis I was about ten years old you know and I kept you know she was laying there semiconscious and she said well daddy'll be here in a little while I said why and she said listen I didn't hear it I said well she said I just heard him harking and sure enough you know she got up there and he he said um he got up there and she said I hear you harking before you got come in the building he said yeah you know Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 yeah you know # Huffman trait I guess Interviewer: {X} 533: yeah Interviewer: toward the end of the day I might say well I better go now I'm feeling a bit 533: weary tired sleepy Interviewer: but it's six o'clock in the morning I'll 533: wake up Interviewer: talking about somebody else who might be sleeping you might say so and so still in bed you better go 533: wake him up yeah Interviewer: say if you get some medicine uh next to your bed and you can't quite tell 'em well how about you 533: why ain't you taken it yeah probably say why you didn't why'd you not take it you know he hadn't took it yet Interviewer: somebody who um that has trouble hearing you say he's just about stone 533: deaf my daddy says deaf {C: pronunciation} mm-hmm Interviewer: and if you've been working out in the hot sun all day you might bring in your wring it out and say well who can I 533: sweated that's when you're wringing wet wringing wet with sweat Interviewer: {X} 533: Did you ever get sweat beads around your neck and under your arms? Interviewer: yeah when I was young but I don't get those anymore 533: #1 I don't know # Interviewer: #2 I don't know why # 533: well now we take a bath about twice a day, you know back then we didn't you know Interviewer: Yeah 533: I mean you know, really we didn't the thing that you did at night you washed your hands before you ate and you washed your feet before you went to bed the hell with the rest of it you know and was a good thing there wasn't many ticks around back then you know, we'd all die but you know we used to get sweat beads, that's what we called 'em Interviewer: {X} 533: yeah Interviewer: what about uh these things you might get on your arm in big 533: wart Interviewer: or something with i think 533: oh you mean like a rise in Interviewer: yeah 533: eh, some people call 'em boils in Louisiana they call 'em boils that's a rising Interviewer: can't quite step through all that 533: pus goop you know if it's uh got a core in it then you call it a core uh you know the hard part Interviewer: you ever heard one with a lot of heads called anything they got one with multiple heads 533: I've never had one of those Interviewer: carbuncle well I've heard of the word carbuncle, I never knew what it was um if you have a blister a what about the side and all that 533: yeah uh I don't know just you know pus Interviewer: {X} 533: yeah you know {D: skiff is a} water blister you know yeah you can call it you know what is the other word um aw hell used to be a word I can't think of it but I use it all the time yeah corruption got corruption in it mm-hmm Interviewer: say if a bee stung you in the hand and it got bigger and you got to save my hand 533: swelled up mm Interviewer: or it has 533: has swelled up {NW} Interviewer: {X} 533: no Interviewer: might 533: might swell Interviewer: if uh a man got an accidentally shot or stabbed you take him to the doctor so the doctor could treat him 533: wound mm-hmm we had an old preacher one time who called it wound yeah the wounds Interviewer: It was wounded 533: it was wounded Interviewer: {X} 533: I don't know Interviewer: say if a wound doesn't heal cleanly you might get a kind of granular flesh growing around it 533: scar Interviewer: okay you ever heard it called any particular type of flesh brown flesh 533: no nuh-uh no Interviewer: can you say it for me then 533: proud flesh that's uh somebody that was you know they had a couple of million bucks that his daddy lost it all in gambling you know but he's still proud flesh kept walking high and wearing his good suit you know he didn't let it get him down Interviewer: Do you ever use that word? 533: yeah I mean on proud flesh she wouldn't give it to everybody she was proud flesh {C: laughter} Interviewer: what about this brown liquid you might put on for an infection 533: brown Mercurochrome merthiolate that's red iodine iodine Interviewer: what about a white powder that's supposed to help with malaria 533: I don't know I've never had malaria mer- Oh quinine Oh yeah, I didn't know they took it for malaria they used to take it for everything you know quinine turpentine {NS} sometimes you taste of something, God, it tastes like quinine Interviewer: mm-hmm yeah say now talk about someone who died have you ever heard any say they didn't they felt uneasy about saying died 533: uh passed away passed on Interviewer: Right 533: you know he uh he's now deceased you know Interviewer: Is there anything that you think of that is distinctively black? black usage 533: passed on passed just passed you know Jojo passed I say well Ronnie passed uh you know {D: a rotten I mean um} you know a kidney stone so what yeah they pass Interviewer: {X} what about joking terms for that somebody you don't like whose old 533: he conked out you know croaked kicked the bucket you know gave up the ghost you know Interviewer: talking about somebody who died you might say well he's been dead for two weeks now but nobody's figured out 533: what he died from Interviewer: a place where you bury people you call that 533: graveyard, cemetery Interviewer: would you make any mistakes if you say it were a a little one out in the country private on private property 533: not anymore so much used to you know way out in the country it was- it was a graveyard and up town it was a cemetery you know Interviewer: what about the people dressed in black at the funeral you say that they're in 533: mourning yeah {NS} Interviewer: if somebody asks you on an average day how are you doing 533: doing fine doing alright Interviewer: uh say the children are out late and the wifes getting a little excited the husband might say well it'll be alright just don't be 533: don't be worried about it Interviewer: what about the disease with joints that makes people annoyed 533: gout rheumatism Interviewer: yeah 533: arthritis rheumatism Interviewer: right is there any difference between arthritis and rheumatism 533: oh yeah arthritis I think has to do with the uh maybe with the muscles you know the way the muscles connect with the bone the rheumatism has to do just simply with bone against bone or something like that Interviewer: okay 533: yeah Interviewer: what about a disease that makes your skin and eyeballs turn yellow 533: {NS} jaundice yeah yellow jaundice Interviewer: you heard of a disease that children used to get they'd suffocate because they'd get sores in their throat won't be able to breathe throat closed up 533: yeah diphtheria Interviewer: yeah 533: yeah my daddy had that yeah yeah Interviewer: say if uh {NS} a person that has severe pain down here they must of had a severe attack of 533: appendicitis Interviewer: and uh say a boy keeps going over to a girls house pretty regularly folks think he's getting serious about her say he's doing what they spoke of 533: he's courting her sparking her got the hots for her you know it's- it's all in whether it's your brother that's doing the talking or your mama and daddy you know {NS} he's courting her a little bit owning up to her Interviewer: Is sparking used? 533: not so much call it more of less a joking term sparking who you sparking you know Interviewer: and you would call him her 533: {NS} boyfriend you know Interviewer: {X} 533: girlfriend no- no more of this suitor stuff and beau and brummell and all that crap Interviewer: say your little brother had been out all night and he came back with lipstick on his collar you'd say no how about 533: he's been smooching you booger you Interviewer: {NW} 533: yeah parking probably {NW} Interviewer: say he asked her to marry him and she didn't want to you'd say she 533: turned him down you know put him off jilted it really is that what you would say well when you jilt somebody just when you just you know you just jilt 'em well you just rid of 'em you know Interviewer: Right 533: they think they- maybe they just think you bad in love with 'em and you jilt them Interviewer: what about a wedding what man stands up there next to the groom 533: best man Interviewer: mm-hmm. What about the woman? mm that's the maid of honor if she's not married, matron of honor I think if she is or something like that {NS} around here have you ever heard of anything going on after the wedding except the couples might go away a lot of people might follow them back to their house and get rowdy as all get out 533: like a serenade Interviewer: yeah 533: Yeah, well we used to do that at Christmas time you know it's- they don't do that anymore they don't trick or treat like they used to and they don't serenade used to at Christmas time they'd go around you know under the auspices of singing carols you know or something like that you wind up blowing fire crackers at your girlfriend's window you know my daddy had a big time one time he had you know like six kids some of 'em teenagers when he was twenty-four I mean you know how that I told you about that, you know he's raising my mother's sisters and uh a bunch a kids come up there serenading and uh they were outside it was dark God it was dark and we had a camera which a lot of people didn't have flash attachment on it {NW} he went outside and {NW} flashed that camera you know behind an oak tree boy and they shit and left Interviewer: {NW} have you ever hear that called a sugarier 533: no Interviewer: serenade 533: no Interviewer: uh say if uh say if a group of kids got together and hired themselves a band they might say they were having a 533: throwing a party yeah Interviewer: and when they get out and start moving around on the floor 533: and dance mm-hmm {X} Interviewer: different types of dance 533: in Bruce Mississippi they have dances Interviewer: dances 533: but over here they have a dance {NW} different types of dances you mean what do you mean uh Interviewer: any kind old kind new kind nowadays 533: what do you mean like a barn dance Interviewer: yeah 533: or something like you're not talking about a specific style of dance are you? Interviewer: yeah 533: oh yeah Interviewer: {X} 533: I don't know if it's a dance uh you typically think of teenagers getting out on the floor and getting funky but you can have a barn dance and a square dance uh I guess stuff like that street dance used to have street dances Interviewer: yeah 533: yeah Interviewer: this expression say in the summer time school is not in session or in the end of the summer somebody might have the end of school 533: start Interviewer: #1 yeah # 533: #2 mm-hmm # yeah {NS} Interviewer: say a kid who leaves home supposedly to go to school but don't get there on purpose say he did what 533: he run away skip school yeah Interviewer: When you- 533: played hooky Interviewer: #1 you know # 533: #2 Yeah # Interviewer: #1 # 533: #2 # oh you mean uh- I was thinking of somebody leaving home to go to college you know you don't let somebody play hooky Interviewer: sure 533: yeah Interviewer: what would you say- would you say anything different talking about a college student say he didn't want to go to class 533: mm well in college you don't so much play hooky because it's of your own you know your own volition whether or not you go to class you have the right to choose you know you screwing off you know not going to class Interviewer: you ever say cut class 533: yeah he cut class uh-huh Interviewer: and uh alright if you build a drum or want to check out a book you go to the 533: library Interviewer: alright 533: which is also known as the library Interviewer: right 533: yeah Interviewer: and if you wanted to see a play or a movie you'd go to the 533: theater {NS} Interviewer: and if you were in a hospital the woman who comes to take care of you is takes care of you she's the 533: nurse Interviewer: what about if you wanted to catch a train 533: go to the depot Interviewer: anything else 533: a train station you know no Interviewer: don't call it the railroad station 533: no not really B-J Thomas did in his song you know been there at the railroad station you know in Saint Paul you know what is that Interviewer: Where- 533: think I love you most of all you know that song sitting outside of the railroad station here in Saint Paul thinking that I love you most of all anyway Interviewer: B-J Thomas does something like that I think 533: B-J's gonna be in Grenada, Mississippi July first he's coming back you heard him yeah I wish I could hear him sing Brick Yard Blues that song Three Dog Night had on hard labor he got his head straightened out I think he got Christian you know which is good cause he was about to die Billy Joe Thomas Choctaw county Texas good I like him you know Interviewer: Yeah 533: but anyway {NW} Interviewer: okay uh talking about buildings downtown say one or {NS} right here and one right here so this ones right across from this one if you look at it like so talking about the relationship with this one 533: nah I'd say right across what do you mean across the road? the catty-cornered Interviewer: Yeah 533: yeah okay catty-cornered yeah Interviewer: you ever heard of people use antigoglin antigodlin like that 533: nah Interviewer: catty-cornered mm-mm say if you were riding on the bus you would tell the driver the next corner is where I want to 533: get off Interviewer: and here's where you have the courthouse in Houston the 533: square Interviewer: or the 533: the county seat Interviewer: sure 533: yeah the county seat mm-hmm Interviewer: the police in town are supposed to maintain 533: law and order Interviewer: alright and before they had the electric chair you'd say murderers were 533: hung yeah Interviewer: and talking about somebody's suicide you'd say he went out 533: hung hisself yeah Interviewer: okay alright so names of the cities and states just for pronunciation 533: yeah Interviewer: the state where the biggest city in this country's located 533: New York yeah Interviewer: {X} 533: uh New York New York that what you mean Interviewer: {X} from the city you would say 533: New York state Interviewer: sure 533: yeah Interviewer: and Baltimore's in 533: that's in Maryland Interviewer: and uh Richmond 533: Virginia Interviewer: Raleigh 533: North Carolina Interviewer: the state right a little bit 533: South Carolina Interviewer: okay Atlanta 533: Georgia Interviewer: Miami 533: that's in Florida Interviewer: and Montgomery 533: Alabama Interviewer: New Orleans 533: Louisiana Interviewer: Louisville 533: Kentucky Interviewer: uh Nashville 533: Tennessee Interviewer: Saint Louis 533: Missouri Interviewer: Little Rock 533: Arkansas and some people say Missouri you know and some people also say Cincinnati Interviewer: right 533: but anyway I never heard anybody huh I don't know people uh the people from Missouri call it Missouri you know cause I have two friends here in town well I'm going back to Missouri this weekend Interviewer: somebody need to write and article to sort that out 533: yeah you know what really pisses me to see someone abbreviate Missouri M-I-S-S thats ignorant man yeah sure saw a guy with a truck with you know and its you know john steel trucking company you know they'll have MISS sure you know Interviewer: uh lets see and we are here in 533: Mississippi Interviewer: and Dallas is in 533: Texas Interviewer: and Tulsa 533: Oklahoma Interviewer: Boston 533: Massachusetts which is Massachusetts you know really yeah Interviewer: what about all the states from Maine and Connecticut together you'd call them the 533: eastern sea board what do you mean new england yeah new england states yeah Interviewer: uh a big city in Maryland that 533: probably Baltimore right or Rockville {NW} which is Washington D-C {D: a la} anyway Interviewer: what about a big city in the north 533: ah Saint Louis Saint Joseph Kansas City Interviewer: and the sea port in South Carolina 533: sa - uh Interviewer: go ahead and say it 533: I started to say Savannah Georgia but I mean you know Savannah South Carolina sea port I don't know Charleston is that on the sea I'm trying to think now Interviewer: what about the biggest city in Alabama 533: Birmingham I guess Interviewer: and the capital 533: north of Alabama it's Montgomery Mobile yeah Interviewer: and the big city where Capone is from 533: Al Capone I don't know where was he from Interviewer: it's a city in Illinois 533: mm Chicago Chicago thats what a lot of people say Chicago Illinois {C: pronunciation Chicago} yeah Interviewer: talking about Mobile what body of water would you say that it's on 533: ah the gulf of Mexico I would never say the Atlantic ocean {NW} or the Caribbean sea no uh Interviewer: what about a few little cities in Tennessee 533: you got Nashville Knoxville Chattanooga Memphis um I don't know how big do you want you know yeah Gatlinburg probably the most famous union city probably the least Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: what a a resort city up in the mountains of western North Carolina that Thomas Woods was from 533: Cherokee Asheville yeah you can say where the inspirations core tent was from which is talking about it or the uh well uh they're from Bryson City actually it's not the inspirations it's uh ol' fat boy whats his name Kingsmen they're from Asheville North Carolina yeah Interviewer: okay and if it was in Georgia that would be 533: uh Atlanta Interviewer: okay and what about the city that is close to fort Benning hmm it's the second largest 533: Columbus yeah Interviewer: and 533: I was thinking of Marietta Tucker Decatur you know around Interviewer: {NW} its where the auburn brothers are from 533: uh yeah Capricorn studios Macon home of the w a b g fifty thousand watts on line forty yep offered me a job once yeah uh they said one hundred and seventy-five bucks a week don't make me giggle it wasn't bad it was you know like midnight to three a.m. you know hell a hundred and seventy-five bucks a week uh or ten to one or something like that I don't know I was like I'll do your early morning for twenty thousand a year so yeah Interviewer: what about a big city in Louisiana 533: New Orleans I guess Interviewer: and the capital 533: what is the capital baton rouge yeah I want you to say Wilson has would you say has did it I say no how about has done it he said okay has done it again Interviewer: {NW} 533: they're trying to get so proper they'll be like thank you I appreciate that coke yeah Interviewer: {NW} oh man 533: come over man yeah we be singing all day Interviewer: can you tell me what the capital of Louisiana was 533: uh we did that one uh Louisiana baton rouge Interviewer: okay and the first place you see in Kentucky 533: hmm where is that Louisville yeah now we have a Louisville Mississippi spelled like the same way Interviewer: yeah heard about that 533: yeah got a Huffman in Alabama too not a bad place {NS} full of rednecks just outside of Birmingham out there sort of like you go into Leeds you know Huffman Alabama yeah yeah its out there you know Leeds and Huffman Forestdale {NS} Interviewer: {X} 533: France where the woman wear no pants you know Interviewer: {NW} {X} 533: mm-hmm I hadn't watched um Interviewer: Moscow would be in 533: Russia Interviewer: okay and Dublin 533: that's uh Ireland right yeah I was thinking of Moscow Tennessee when you said Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: alright now this expression now if somebody asks you to go somewhere with and you're not too crazy about the idea you might say well I just don't know you know 533: I don't know if I want to go Interviewer: and if you talk about somebody a friend of yours that's very sick and he probably won't get any better you might say well uh it just seems he'll never pull through 533: yeah it seems like he'll never make it yeah Interviewer: you were asked to go somewhere to look after your wife you might say well 533: {NW} Interviewer: I just wont go 533: I just won't go without if she don't go you know if she can't go Interviewer: I won't go if she goes 533: I won't go unless she goes yeah Interviewer: uh say you've been doing some work and somebody just standing around looking at you 533: yeah Interviewer: you might say well uh why didn't you uh why'd you just sit around without helping me 533: instead of helping me yeah Interviewer: in church you say the preacher preached a fine 533: sermon Interviewer: and uh 533: but you go too preachy mm you know hey whatcha all dressed up for well we going preaching you know Interviewer: you ever hear people call a sermon a mass 533: uh yeah but a sermon and a mass is just different a mass is what you get in a methodist church and I'm not knocking your university of Emory so uh no but you get a hellfire and brimstone sermon if you went to the holy rollies or you know independent baptist or something you get a message in you know because you know the Methodist they usually tell us a story related to something totally irrelevant sprinkle a few and go home you know pass around the grape juice yeah right I kidding I'm just being asinine but you know a message I consider lite you know a sermon you know is delivered you know yeah Interviewer: what is the being that is supposed to be the enemy and opposite of god 533: hmm the devil yeah the booger man Interviewer: right 533: mm-hmm Interviewer: is that the same today 533: yeah the booger man {NW} you know when you're little you know the booger man get ya you know thats uh I don't know if you help that better with your kid you could Satan you know the devil you know Interviewer: what about things that people see around graveyards and are scared of 533: ghosts spooks haunts {C: pronunciation} yeah Interviewer: what if they get in the house and they say the house is 533: haunted or haunted its a haunted house {C: pronunciation} Interviewer: say if its a and in the winter time you might say well uh better put a sweater on it's getting chilly 533: kinda sorta Interviewer: okay or if somebody asks you to go somewhere you say well I'll go if you insist but I 533: I'd rather not go rather Interviewer: if you ran into a friend of yours you haven't seen in years what might you say to um say proof 533: golly I haven't seen you in a long time that what you mean where you been yeah Interviewer: you ever hear people around here say anything like proud to see 533: yeah mm-hmm mm-hmm proud to see you um nice to see you kinda goes the same way glad ya'll got to see me yeah that's typical joke when you're leaving well I'm glad ya'll got to see me you know specially if they don't come to the door to tell you bye Interviewer: say if a man owns a thousand acres of land talking about quantity you'd say so and so are sure 533: a lot of land Interviewer: people around here would they say so and so 533: yeah mm-hmm sure would Interviewer: use it like that 533: mm-hmm well right smart you know how often do you go to town well right smart you know it means a good deal frequently a big quantity you know often {NS} picks his nose a right smart Interviewer: okay uh say if uh you were walking around downtown and you say somebody you knew you know you met them a long time ago what would you say to them in greeting 533: hey how are you doing you know Interviewer: would you ever say something like that to a person you'd never seen before 533: yeah mm-hmm sure Interviewer: what would you say 533: probably the same thing hello how are you Interviewer: how would you greet someone around December twenty-fifth 533: a merry Christmas you know Interviewer: anything else you say on Christmas day {NS} any other greeting 533: uh happy holidays you know it just depends uh merry Christmas mostly Interviewer: you ever say Christmas here 533: nah not unless I'm giving somebody that yes yeah I've heard people say that I think you dumb a Christmas gift happy yule you know Interviewer: #1 what about around here on January the first # 533: #2 you know # yeah a happy new year you know you know they could take uh don't you burn a yule log at Christmas you dye eggs in easter you think they put 'em together you could dye a log you know Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 533: #2 be nice wouldn't it # I did that once going into a song dialog by Chicago we can make it happen we can make it you know Interviewer: you know one those guys in Chicago blew his brains out 533: uh blood sweat and tears was it was it Chicago yeah was he with Chicago or blood sweat and tears i don't remember they got a new song out you know now take me back to Chicago hey I guess it was written in his honor you know uh tired of all this tired of it all take me back to Chicago and lay me down you know it ain't really good Interviewer: what about uh something you might say in appreciation not sure how much 533: much obliged had an aunt once that said much a britches you know this you know been joking you know appreciate it you know appreciate it they make fun of Roy Clark and Glen Campbell and John Denver when they get on Johnny Carson you know much obliged I appreciate it Interviewer: {NW} okay what about the Interviewer: Okay. If you need some things from downtown, you say you have to go downtown to do some 533: Shopping. Interviewer: Okay, and 533: And if you was actually gonna buy something. If you're just looking, you're just pilfering around. Interviewer: Pilfering? 533: Yeah. Interviewer: #1 Yeah, without actually pilfering. # 533: #2 Yeah. # Yeah, yeah, I mean you're just pilfering around, yeah. Interviewer: Okay. Uh, and if you buy something, you'd say that a storekeeper took a piece of paper, and he 533: Wrapped it up. Interviewer: Yeah, when you got home you 533: You unwrapped it. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Uh, if a storekeeper's selling something for less than what he paid for it, you say he's selling 533: Hmm? Interviewer: He's selling it 533: Wholesale? Interviewer: What about L double O L-O-S-S? 533: Uh, selling at a loss? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. 533: #1 Which they usually don't, you know. But they make you think that, yeah. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # Only sell it at fifty percent profit. 533: Mm-hmm. Interviewer: What about uh if you see something that you like, you might say, well, I'd like to buy it, but it just 533: Just costs too much. Can't afford it. Interviewer: Okay. Or if you really have to have it, you go to your banker to see if you can 533: Borrow some money. Interviewer: You might say, uh well, I'm sorry, but money is money. 533: Tight. Interviewer: Or 533: #1 Mm. # Interviewer: #2 Seems to you just # 533: Yeah. Scarce. Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 533: #2 Mm-hmm. # Interviewer: Say, the first of the month. You would say that the bill was 533: Mm. Due. Interviewer: Yeah. If you were at a club, you have to pay your 533: Dues. Yeah. Interviewer: Say if you run off a 533: By the way, people say people would say news. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 533: Anyway {C: voice distortion} Interviewer: Say what? 533: You know, stay tuned for the news. Interviewer: News, yeah. 533: {D: Now} Interviewer: News. 533: It's news. Huh. Just like, you know, blues is blues. You know? {NW} Interviewer: #1 Oh. # 533: #2 They get this stuff all mixed up. Yeah. # Interviewer: What about uh if you run off a spring board, go in like so 533: #1 Yeah. # Interviewer: #2 Say you're going to # 533: You're going to dive. Interviewer: Yeah. Did it yesterday, you 533: Mm. You dived. I guess dove is probably the right word. Interviewer: Or you have 533: Have dived. I wouldn't say diven. Interviewer: {NW} It's uh it's mighty tempting to 533: Now you sit on a divan, don't you? Interviewer: {NW} Then, when you get in the water, you begin to 533: Swim? Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah, and you yesterday, you 533: Swam. Interviewer: And you have 533: Swum. Interviewer: #1 Yeah. # 533: #2 You know? # Swum all over that place. Interviewer: Right. 533: Uh. Interviewer: And if you get in water that's too deep for you, you might {X} 533: #1 Yeah. # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # Yesterday, so-and-so 533: Drowned. Interviewer: {NW} And so-and-so has 533: Yeah, he drowned. Two times. Interviewer: Yeah. Yesterday. 533: Yeah, he drowned. #1 Yeah. # Interviewer: #2 Okay. # Uh, if you dive in the water, and you land flat, make a pop, it 533: It's a belly buster. Interviewer: Yeah. Say if a kid were playing out in the yard, and he tucked his head down between his legs and kicked out his feet and went over the one 533: Somersets. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. Uh. If you went in to pay off your bill to the store, maybe the store keeper gave you a little something for paying off your bills for free. {D: What would you call that?} 533: I don't know. I don't do that. Interviewer: Mm. Have you ever heard the word lanyard? 533: No. #1 Gratuity, you know. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: I thought that was something they put on my steak, you know? So I left her a tip anyway. Interviewer: {NW} What would you say a baby does before it's able to walk? 533: Crawls. Interviewer: Okay. And if there's something up a tree I need, I have to 533: Climb up it. Yeah. Interviewer: Yesterday, I 533: Climbed up. Interviewer: And I have 533: Climbed. I have heard clumb. Way he clumb that tree. But you know, that's not, that's not too Interviewer: {NS} Say if a child uh right before he goes to bed that he's gonna say his prayers, 533: Mm. Interviewer: you'd say he 533: Kneels down. Interviewer: Or the past form, he 533: He knelt down. Interviewer: Okay. Uh somebody who's sick, you might say, well, he couldn't even sit up. He just in bed all day. 533: Laid. Interviewer: And uh 533: Which ain't a bad idea, you know? Interviewer: #1 {NW} Oh. # 533: #2 Good feeling. Go home and get in bed all day, now. # Interviewer: {X} So you begin to 533: Dream. Interviewer: Yeah, last night I 533: Dreamed Interviewer: And I have 533: I have been dreaming. Or I have dreamed. Interviewer: Uh, I was dreaming about such and such, but all of a sudden, I 533: Woke up? Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 533: #2 No? # Interviewer: If I brought my foot down real hard on the floor, you'd say I 533: Stomping. Interviewer: You you met a girl at a party, and you wanted to make sure she got home alright, you would ask her, may I 533: Take you home? {C: voice distortion} Interviewer: {X} what would you say when you're walking her in a car. 533: {D: I I don't know. May I walk you home?} {D: You know, may I drive you home or} {D: Let me take you home.} Interviewer: Alright. 533: {D: By way of the country road.} {X} Interviewer: {NW} Okay. If you had to carry something very heavy like a heavy uh suitcase 533: Huh. Interviewer: three blocks, you'd say, I'm {X} for three blocks. 533: Carried. Toted. You know? Interviewer: Does toted necessarily imply something that a real burden? Something heavy? 533: Uh, not especially. You know, he just toted it across the room, you know? Interviewer: Yeah. Okay. Say if uh the wife's in the kitchen, and she's cooking something. The children wander in, she might say, well now, that stove's hot, so 533: Get away from it. Interviewer: Or. 533: Stay away from it. Don't touch it. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: If uh you needed something that's here in the room, you might ask me, well, go me that. 533: Bring it to me. Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. And uh if I throw you a ball, you're supposed to 533: Catch it. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: I threw it. You 533: Caught it. Interviewer: And you have 533: Caught it. Interviewer: Okay. If we're supposed to meet in town, I might say, well now, if I get there before you do, I'll 533: I'll wait for you. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Wait on you. Whichever, I mean, you know Interviewer: Alright. Somebody who is uh a pretty cheerful person, you might say, well, so-and-so seems to be in a good 533: Mood. Humor. Interviewer: Humor? 533: Awful good humor. Interviewer: Okay. Uh, talking about a person who really doesn't know what's going on. You say so-and-so doesn't know what's going on. He just 533: Thinks he does? Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Or like he knew it all? 533: Well, you mean uh like he thinks he knows it all? Interviewer: Okay. Alright. Acted like? 533: Yeah, acted like. Pretended. Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 533: #2 Mm-hmm. # Made out like. We use that sometimes. He made out like knew all about what a stock Interviewer: Right. Uh, you might say, well, I'd forgotten about that, but now I 533: I remember. Interviewer: Mm. Okay. Uh, if you wanna get in touch with somebody, you might sit down and 533: Write 'em? Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Yesterday you 533: Wrote and Interviewer: you have 533: written. Interviewer: Okay. And if you write him, you expect to get a 533: Answer. Interviewer: Alright. Mm-hmm. Uh, after you write the letter, you take the envelope, you do what? 533: Address it. Interviewer: Yeah. You'd say, well, I'd like to write so-and-so, but I don't know his 533: Address. Interviewer: Okay. Uh, what about a child who goes around telling on the other children, you'd call them a 533: A storyteller. Liar. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 533: You know? Interviewer: Tattletale? 533: Oh, oh, oh, oh. I see what you mean. Yeah, tattletale. Mm-hmm. Tattletale. Tattletale. Run around the house sucking a bull's tail, you know? Interviewer: {NW} Hadn't heard that one. 533: #1 Yeah, a lot of people did alright, you know? # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 533: #1 Things that you do around here on national news, you just think it's common all over the world. Get to be about half-grown, you know? # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # Oh. Can you tell if there's any difference between tattling and gossiping? 533: Yeah. Gossiping you're just telling what you heard. Now, tattling is when you're actually telling something on somebody, you know? Uh. Interviewer: Okay. Say if you have uh some flowers growing out in the yard, and you want to brighten up the room. You might say, well, I think I'll go out in the yard and 533: Pick me some flowers. Interviewer: Okay. And this thing that a child plays with, you say, it's a. Or a child, he's got a room full of 533: Toys? Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Play pretties? Interviewer: Sure. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. If I have something that you need right now, you'd say, "Give me that 533: Hand it to me. Interviewer: Or 533: Give me that. Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 533: #2 Yeah. # Interviewer: Alright, but already 533: You already gave it to me. Interviewer: And I have 533: Given it to me. Interviewer: Okay. Uh, might say, you might get outside well, I'm glad I got my umbrella with me because I hadn't gone a block before it 533: Started raining. Interviewer: Started to rain. 533: Started to rain. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Began. Interviewer: Alright. It has 533: It has begun to rain. Interviewer: And it might 533: Might begin to rain again. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Uh, if you need to get somewhere in a hurry, you don't just walk, you begin to 533: Run. Interviewer: Yeah, yesterday you 533: Ran. Interviewer: And have 533: Run. Interviewer: Okay. Uh, if you don't know where somebody is from, you might ask, well, where does he 533: Where does he live? Interviewer: Or what is he from? It's 533: Where's he come from? Not where does he hail from? Interviewer: Or I come from. #1 {NW} # 533: #2 He hail everywhere he is, you know? # He hail all over. Interviewer: Right. And the the past form is that yesterday 533: He came from town, yeah. Interviewer: And he has 533: He has come a lot of time. Interviewer: Alright. Uh, if you're trying to get through somewhere, somebody might tell you, well, the highway department's got all their machinery out there, and they got the road all 533: Blocked. Interviewer: Well, if they're working on it. 533: Got it all torn up. Interviewer: Sure. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Yeah. Uh, if you get your wife a bracelet for her birthday, and she's just sitting there looking at it, you might say, well, don't just look at it. Go ahead and 533: Try it on. Interviewer: Or 533: Put it on. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Used to have a guy here who said putt. Interviewer: Putt it on? 533: Yeah, he was from Cave City, Arkansas. {NS} I'm gonna putt that thing on the floor. Interviewer: Right. Talking about unusual things that you've heard, you might say, well, I never heard of of 533: I never heard of that. No such things. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Never heard of such. Interviewer: Uh, somebody who did something say hit a {X} with it. Say, he didn't do that wasn't an accident. He did that 533: He done it on purpose. Interviewer: #1 Right. # 533: #2 Yeah. # Interviewer: Correct. Uh, if you need to know something, I might tell you, well, I can't help it. You better go 533: Check with somebody else. Ask him. Interviewer: Right, and yesterday you 533: Asked him. Interviewer: And you have 533: Asked him. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Blacks say ax. Interviewer: Right. 533: I don't know why. #1 Ax. # Interviewer: #2 I don't either. # If uh a couple of boys get irritated with each other, they might begin to 533: Start a fight. Interviewer: Or they would each other. 533: Hit each other? Mm-hmm. Interviewer: Well, same word except for form uh 533: #1 Hitting? # Interviewer: #2 Start a fight. # They would each other. {NW} 533: Oh, started to hit each other, right? Interviewer: Fight each other. 533: Yeah, started to fight each other. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: And yesterday they 533: Mm. Started a fight. Interviewer: Or yesterday they 533: Uh. Fought, yeah. I see what you mean. #1 Mm-hmm. # Interviewer: #2 And they have # 533: They have fought. Like that. Interviewer: Uh, take a knife and you do that to somebody, you did what to 'em? 533: Stab him. Interviewer: Any particular names for big knives? 533: Well, you got a like a buoy knife. Interviewer: Hmm. 533: Jack knife. Scalp knife. You know, hunting knife. Interviewer: Yes. Okay. Say if a teacher comes in the room, and there are a lot of uh peculiar pictures on the board in her likeness, she might turn around to the class and say, who 533: Who done this? Who drew this? Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. And if you need to get a heavy weight up on the roof of a house, you might rig up a block and tackle and caught yourself doing what to get it up there? You got a 533: Pulley? Interviewer: Up there. 533: Pull it? Interviewer: Okay. Or? 533: Hoist it? Interviewer: Sure. 533: Heist it up. Interviewer: Right. Okay. Uh, this expression uh might say, sometimes you feel you get your good luck just a little bit at a time, but it seems your bad luck comes 533: All comes at the same time. Interviewer: Or it comes 533: In bunches. Interviewer: Or all at 533: All at once. #1 Yeah. # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # Uh, alright. Okay, just for pronunciation, would you count for me kinda slowly from one to fourteen? 533: One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen. Interviewer: Okay. And the number after nineteen? 533: Twenty. Interviewer: And after twenty-six? 533: Twenty-seven. Interviewer: After twenty-nine? 533: Thirty. Interviewer: After thirty-nine? 533: Forty. Interviewer: And after sixty-nine? 533: Seventy. Interviewer: And after ninety-nine? 533: One hundred. Interviewer: After nine-hundred and ninety-nine? 533: A thousand. Interviewer: Okay, and ten times a hundred thousand one 533: Million. Interviewer: Okay. The day of the months that day of the month that the bills are due, that's usually 533: Uh, the first. Interviewer: And after that it's the 533: Second. And third. Fourth. Fifth. Sixth. Seventh. Eighth. Ninth. Tenth. Interviewer: Okay. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: And 533: Must have been looking for seventy. Interviewer: {NW} 533: Seventy. I heard a national newscaster the other day saying nineteen seventy-six. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: S-E-H-E-N-D-Y. Seventy. Interviewer: It stands out. 533: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. And the months of the year? 533: January. February. March. April. May. June. July. August. September. October. November. December. Interviewer: Okay. 533: And national newscasters blow February, too. I don't know why they can't say February. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: But anyway. Interviewer: And the days of the week. 533: Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. Friday. Saturday. And Sunday. Interviewer: Ever heard Sunday called anything else around here? 533: The Sabbath. Interviewer: #1 What does that mean? # 533: #2 Mm-hmm. # Uh. The holy day, you know? Day to go to church. And Saturday is sometimes called Saturday. Interviewer: Yeah. 533: Mm-hmm. Saturday. Uh-huh. {X}