703
Well I was
I was
Telling you about this rage of small pox over in Kingsland.
And they had a black
District or negro district
Out to itself
At the edge of Kingsland
And uh then they had the
The white people lived in
Another part of town you know
But my husband
Was working at this big drone mill
{NS}
That I told you about yesterday.
Just a
Young man
About eighteen years old or something like that
{NS}
Well he worked with a
A negro
{NS}
That day at the planting mill
And
That night he took the small pox and the next day he was dead.
So
He went and got tried to be vaccinated
Wouldn't take he was so healthy
{NS}
And strong he was vaccinated about three times he said it wouldn't take
{NW}
Said the last time the doctor just scratched his arm until it bled and he said now
If this doesn't take
{NW}
You're just immune from it that's all it didn't ever take on him but he never did take the small pox either.
{NS}
Husband said that
{NW}
That they put white men out there
{NS}
To watch
{NS}
They wouldn't even let a cat come out of that nigger district without they shoot it and kill it
Or a rat or anything
They was afraid it'd bring the germs over and the white people would get it
So by doing that they the white people didn't uh
Ever get it not anyone
{NW}
But being careful
They'd take food there to that certain line
And
Some negro that was well would come pick up the food.
{NW}
And uh
{NS}
But they kept that watch
That line to keep the cats
Anything they'd shoot them
If they saw one coming or across
And uh
By doing that the white people never did but the niggers just died
It seemed to kill them worse than it did white people anyway
{NW}
Just lots of them died.
Now then go back to what.
Well I've had two major surgeries
When I was young I had a
Surgery for uh
Appendix bad appendix
And uh
An ovary
Removed on the other side
And uh
Then
When I was fifty years old
I had uh
{X}
Took out and.
Another major sur-
Gery
When I had
Had the uterus and everything.
And that's the major surgeries I've had one or two minor but
Well I didn't go to any dances because my mother wouldn't let me
But she'd let us go to
What they called in those times play parties and
And uh
Oh just where they played games.
And I went to one what they called pound supper
Where everybody'd bring a pound of something
{NW}
To eat.
And uh
They'd uh
Had just kerosene lamps
And
{NS}
So
Boy and girl and
Walk around they'd all get out and walk around the house
And they'd they'd have big cake one big cake
{NW}
And uh
{NS}
They'd take that cake
And
You'd walk around the house
And you'd hold it as long as they'd let you and then you'd have to
{NW}
Hand it on to the next couple and the next couple around the house.
And then when they'd shoot a gun or something
And the one that was holding the cake
When that went off they got to
Keep the cake.
And oh yeah entertainments they had what they called entertainments that's where they just played.
{NW}
A little games uh
Of various kinds that uh
But uh
{NS}
She wouldn't even let us go to any
Any form of dancing
Not even the kind where they didn't have music
Where they just had what they called
The play parties.
Uh
Before I got married I did go to two or three of them
But uh
Oh
Violin and guitar
For that
No
They didn't well in the country out there have a piano.
There there was one man
My sister's
I mean my brother's wife
Her father and mother had a player piano.
Uh-huh
But they only had the organ at home so I
I couldn't
Play all the pieces that I had
Learned
But
{NW}
I could play uh
Religious music on the organ.
And mama
{NS}
Every once in a while that's the only kind of music we had in the home
Later on in life they had the
for big
Radio I guess.
But not
Early
There wasn't anything
Mama would ask me say Mildred go in there and
And play some songs play.
Said I want to hear you play
{NS}
And I would.
Because I could play those on the organ without
They had plenty of octaves for that but
But not for all the music that I
Took the lessons for for the piano.
Never did my husband said he did but we didn't have any never had any out there I didn't know.
And my mother never would let
My sister or I
{NS}
Well or Velma
Would come to live with us after my older sister passed away when we got older.
{NW}
She wouldn't let us go by ourselves anywhere.
Either one of the brothers had to go along or somebody
Some man had to go along at night.
When we went
Because we walked mostly
In the summer time to those things
{NS}
And
Maybe
The brother
That's next to me
Would
Go
With us
But he was young and he didn't like to go too much
Then when my husband and I started dating
Why
Velma'd go with us
In the buggy
He had a
Pretty horse and buggy
And she'd go with us
And uh the boy that she finally married.
{NS}
He didn't have anything he was just a farm boy
And uh
{NW}
So he
{NW}
He'd meet her there and then he'd walk her home
Or walk her back to the buggy.
And just be with her
At the
Party or entertainment
And at that time
We only had
Church
Or that is preaching
About once a month because there wasn't any preacher who lived
In the community.
And it was hard to get someone from Camden I think this man
Came from Camden up there once a month.
Part of the time and preach
{NW}
Then we'd hold they'd have our bible service in summer time for a week or
Or more
But uh
And uh
But we'd meet together at the church just the same.
{NS}
Some
Sometimes they'd set set it in the morning
Then they decided to change it in the afternoon maybe it'd be the time of year
And uh
We'd meet and sing and pray and
And have a bible lesson.
Whether we had a preacher or not
And we'd take the Lord's supper.
Well having dates
Can't remember any
I didn't really call it courting I do now.
{NS}
But I just say that I have a date
For this afternoon
{NW}
And my husband
{NW}
To be
Had this horse and buggy I said
{NW}
And he'd come after me a lot of times on Friday afternoon
{NW}
See he'd shift lumber from Rison Arkansas.
By the car load
He had a
Man that looked after it
Uh
{NW}
And all.
But uh
Still
He he was down there too quite often
And
Sometimes he'd come down there on business and then he'd come
{NW}
Around and pick me up after school
And
Take me home
And then sometimes
{NW}
It's what he had to do on Monday
But if he needed to go back uh
Go
To
{NW}
To Rison on Monday
On business
Why we'd wait to
Get up and get up
Kind of early
And he'd take me back to school on Monday morning
But now sometimes he'd take me back Sunday afternoon.
With his horse and buggy
And uh
Come Christmas time one time and he had gone home
To see his people
{NW}
His
Mother
Sisters his father had been dead
I never saw his father
Since nineteen nine
And uh
Then he'd gone on down to Magnolia where he worked down there and boarded with these people
He'd had an invitation from this girl that he'd dated down there
To come down there and eat Christmas dinner with them .
{NW}
Um
I
I missed him so much
In fact
It he I thought he was kind of peeved at me
And uh
Because I hadn't seen him since first of December and that was
When he brought me home
And you know those
By that time how short the days were getting
And it'd be after dark when we'd get home
Especially on those bad roads
And uh
{NS}
I really didn't think my
Husband to be
Was uh serious
He was older than me
And I just thought that uh
I'd call it flirting.
I just thought that he was just going with me to
Be going and flirting.
When he'd tell me he loved me I didn't believe him
And that night
When he quit when I didn't see him from December until
Between
Christmas and the
{NS}
New Year's
See we'd get off a week when I went to Rison high school we'd get off just one week for Christmas
And uh
We'd gone around
Another way
Because the roads were so bad either way you went
And uh
This
{NW}
Man that lived on papa's place had told him to come around
Another road that was better
Well he knew it
But my husband had to be had never been on that road
And it got dark so quick he couldn't
Even see how to keep the horse in the road
And he got out and later
And we got lost in that old bottle
And uh
He had on his best some of his best shoes
And through that mud and everything
And
He didn't say anything
Scarcely
Until we got inside of home we could see the lights
Our home was up on a hill
{NW}
And as we were going up that hill he reached over and took my hand
And I said
Uh
Let my hand alone will you please
He said I thought that uh
{NW}
Your hand was my hand and your hand was
Mine you'd be you were mine
I said well that's news to me
I hadn't heard that
Kind of sarcastic like
And I didn't see him anymore then
Until
After Christmas
That's why then I had to come home by myself
{NW}
{X}
Was teaching out there
Now this is a repeat at at at my father's and mother's
And they told him
That he could take the horse and buggy
And go home of course he wanted to go home for Christmas
And I wanted to get back home for Christmas
And
He said uh
It took him eight hours
No it took him four hours
To go that eight miles.
The roads were so bad
And uh
Said as he started to leave said my father said
Go pick up
Said I had to go by and pick up Miss
{B}
She'd
She was the uh
{X}
And uh
Said I imagine she'd like to go home for Christmas too
Frank said if papa hadn't said that he'd guessed he'd never thought about Miss
{B}
But it took him until
After dark to get in there that night
And
Then I was to take the horse and buggy and start back home the next morning over those roads
And
Because as I said my husband to be had gone to Kingsland
He said that he didn't have nothing to do
{NW}
He he never did say he was peeved but I know he was because he
{NW}
He said that
Well
That he had tried to tell me he loved me
And that I would never respond to it
And I
Cut him off something like that and said he had decided that
That if I loved him
Really cared anything for him
Why that I would uh write and ask him or didn't touch him in some way and ask him to come back
To see me
And which I did.
And uh
If I didn't why then
He I really didn't care anything about him and he was just wasting his time and he just left
Quit coming to see me
And
But I I was so stubborn I wouldn't have written a letter if it hadn't have been for my mother
and I told her what I said to him about my hand
She said why Mildred
Said
No wonder
He's not coming to see you said
Any man would get
Mad or wouldn't like a thing like that anybody would
And that was something for my mother to say as strict as she was on us girls.
But uh
{NW}
And they and she
{NW}
Her and papa both asked me to write that letter I wouldn't have written.
I just wrote a little note down there
Put it in the mail
And
Then he sent
One of his men that worked at the mill
Up on on a horse we called Dutch
{NS}
And uh
With a note and said I'll be up there in a night
That's how anxious he was to get back to see me.
And uh
So
{NS}
From then on then we never had anymore trouble.
{NW}
I mean he never stopped coming to see me anymore
{NS}
And uh
{NS}
We got engaged
We'd gone together
{NS}
Or dated
On Easter Sunday
March the twenty-eighth
And we got engaged
In April
The next year
And married in June the next year.
{NS}
He went with me thirteen months before he ever kissed got to kiss me one time I would not let him.
Put his hands about me
I wouldn't let him even hold my hand
See that's what
That was about he reached over
Took my hand when we got inside the
Where we could see the lights there at home
{NS}
And uh I wouldn't let him hold my hand or anything.
When he'd go to take me out of the buggy
{NW}
Course
I
He
There was just one step
And
It's hard to get out by yourself but you can you can do it but
{NW}
He'd always reach up and take me
And he'd put his arms around me and he'd squeeze me then
And I'd make out like it I I didn't know what he was doing
Because I had to get out of the buggy.
{NW}
I started to say then
Uh
We'd been to a funeral
And he'd ridden
Old Dutch
And I'd ridden a horse down there
{NS}
To the cemetery
To a funeral it was on Saturday afternoon I I come at home you see
And uh
So uh
Wasn't any of the other pe- papa or mama any of them going
So I just uh
Mama'd let me go anywhere like that in day time.
She'd let me go see sick folks or anything even let me go into pneumonia it's a wonder I had my
But I was so healthy in those days
{NW}
And uh
So uh
I rode the horse down there and
He rode
Dutch down to to the funeral
And uh
So
Then when we started back
Why he uh
He rode back with me all the way
There on home.
And we went in the
{NS}
Living room
What we called
Living room
And
Were standing up in front of the mirror there just standing there
Where there was a dresser
As I told you we just didn't really have a living room just a ni-
{NW}
Refers to the nice bedroom.
Fixed up bed
And with the lace curtains and things that they had in those days
And uh
Mama had a special place back there in one of those rooms that she'd put them.
No not at that time
{NW}
Just a little uh kind of a side room built on.
So we were standing in there in front of that mirror
{NS}
Talking
{NS}
Just
Because he knew he wasn't going to stay long he didn't even sit down.
Because
He was
{NS}
It was in
March or somewhere along there
And uh
He reached over
Commenced to
And put his hand that way and commenced to try
Pull me over towards him and my face over towards him
I pull back
I pull back
Finally he
He was stronger than me and I reckon I weakened some too
And he pulled me up and he kissed me on the cheek
I said now you've done enough dirt go on home.
You go home
{NS}
And he laughed
And said no
I'm not going home until you give me a good kiss
And on the lips
I said well you'll be here a long time then
Because I don't intend to let you kiss me on my lips
No
You've got I've said you've done enough dirt
You got all the kiss you're going to get
But he just stood there and laughed and didn't seem to make him mad
{NW}
Until finally I let him kiss me on the lips and we had been going together thirteen months.
Dating
But it was just a little smack it wasn't
One of those
Big loving kisses
But that satisfied him for the time being because that's the closest as he got to my
Face.
After that I let him hold my hand
Wasn't quite so.
{X}
{NW}
And
Then we were going to school on Monday morning he was taking me to school
And he said you know why I quit coming to see you
About those three
{NW}
Sundays
I said no
I
Because when he came back I asked him I said did I make you mad are you mad
About anything
No
No he wasn't mad at anything
No
{NW}
And he brought me
The first present he had ever given me
A pretty
{X}
And
With real pearls around it
It's the daintiest little thing
And Mildred Dean wore it at her wedding
And I wore it at my at our golden wedding
And uh
That was just before he started to leave that night
He pulled it out of his pocket
And before he had gone to Kingsland and on to Magnolia that Sunday he'd gone
Got on a train and come to Pine Bluff
Get me that present
And he got a box of candy for the girl that he had
Had invited him to come down there and eat Christmas dinner with him
And he
So I was trying to
Put it around my neck
And he said here let me fasten it back here
And
I let him fasten it because it was such a dainty little thin chain it was
{NS}
At least as small as that.
And uh
So I never
At that time
I was so happy about him coming back I knew he would have
Going to come back
Or he wouldn't have
Spent that money on me wouldn't have had that present for me
And it made me so happy because I really did love him but I just
Didn't think that I thought he as I said just
Flirting with me because he had gone with a lot of girls you know he was older than me.
And hadn't married him yet
And uh
{NW}
So uh
After I was married I told him after we were married I told him that uh
I said
I wanted to kiss you on the cheek that night for that
Pretty
Present you brought me
He said I wish I'd have known that you'd really got one good kissing.
But said I was afraid to try it
{NS}
And I wouldn't do it I
{NW}
Even though I wanted to I didn't.
Then we went together about thirteen dated about thirteen months more and got married.
{NS}
And then the next time the about a month's time there was another funeral
There in the community
On on Saturday
And I was home
And that time
He took the horse and buggy
Down there
I rode the horse
And he
He took the horse and buggy
Because
He thought that I might since I had been at the other one
And he got one of the hands that worked for papa
To to ride my horse back home
And he took me and the buggy back home.
Well
We just lived at the mill where he
Owned it
Owned part part of it he and E R Buster
Of Kingsland.
Were a partnerships
{NS}
And it was just a
{NS}
Three room house we had a bedroom
A dining room and a kitchen.
{NS}
And we had an extra bedroom in the dining room the rooms were
Large
And uh
We had an extra bed in there for company.
{NS}
In the dining
And we had nice furniture
{NS}
For those days
Great big round oak table and
A dining that would make uh
Had so many leaves it would make
{X}
Good size table
{NS}
I've always hate
Hated I got rid of it it was solid oak.
Yes had a had a cabinet.
Which was something most people didn't have
In the bed we
{NW}
Just had a
Nice bed
{NS}
I got a piece of the table
after yonder
{NW}
I kept it out on the front porch oh that it ruined it I shouldn't have done it.
It was a pretty round table
We set it in the middle of the room and put the lamp on it
{NW}
And uh
No
We just had a bed
Nice bed
And a nice dresser with a
Mirror that
Uh you
Full length that you could see yourself all in it was one of those beveled edge
Mirrors.
And uh
{NW}
This little table
And then he had a
Oh well we had
We had rocking chairs
And then we had
Six chairs to our table that was solid oak.
Oh that came from
{B}
Home
And it came I believe uh they told me that
She got it from her brother's home
Uh uh Franklin I can't think of his first name
But uh
Called it a
Yes I did
I call this a
A couch or
Or sofa.
I believe they call it a sofa don't they?
{D: There's some they call devinettes you know}
I don't know
But that one up there that Claire has will open up make a bed.
No it wasn't de- in those days
I don't know what they
We had one over there that we got rid of when we moved here.
{NS}
That made opened up
Made
Uh a bed
Just like
That big one that she has in her
Her den back there you know.
{D: Well I guess you call that devinette}
But that was a sofa I believe that that
And it came from grandmother Griffin got it from her brother's home.
{NW}
Had it all those years
I don't I don't know
I ever saw that
But anyway
Uh
My husband
Had made a a nice box
To put his
Because he down at the mill before we we married
He built him a room on the side of the commissary.
{NW}
And uh
Because he didn't like to sleep with those
Men
{NS}
At the commissary and they'd have to I mean at the boarding house
And so he built him a room
On the side of the
Commissary
And uh
He built this box
Keep his
He had ever so many blankets
Nice blankets
For his bed
And he built this nice box and painted it
{NW}
And I've still got it out yonder.
I don't have no place for it in the house
But
We did at that time
{NS}
No
Not at that time
Well
We just had uh
A corner
{NW}
Of
With curtains in the dining room.
We hung our clothes
{X}
In the dining room
Well had the dresser
The dr- and the drawers
And we had our trunks in those days everybody had trunks.
Thought they had to have a trunk because if they went anywhere on a train or anywhere
Why you
Packed your clothes in a trunk.
Did I have any uh
{NS}
No
{NS}
Later on in life we did when we lived here in Pine Bluff we did.
Can't think of the term
Part of it was book case and part
Place to hang your clothes.
Yes
Mm-hmm
{NW}
Yes
{NS}
That's all we had here in Pine Bluff.
When we lived there
And you know the houses back in those days
Yes a wardrobe was a chifforobe and a wardrobe
A wardrobe
{NS}
Was
Now grandmother Griffin had a big wardrobe.
In her home that her husband had built.
Out of
Looked like walnut or some sort of nice wood
And
It had two doors
And it was nothing but just to hang up clothes in
On one side and put your linens and things on the other
And the chifforobe
Had a place to hang on one side and drawers on the other side of the mirror.
Up over it
That's about about the wardrobe.
{NW}
Well
{NW}
I was the youngest girl
That went to Rison high school
And
The
Won
{NW}
Nearly
Won
It'd be nearly every Friday afternoon
Our superintendent
Would uh
Give out words
To
{NW}
See how they could spell because we weren't
Teach you know we weren't
Uh studying any spelling in high school
{NW}
And
I had studied
{NW}
Out at home
And the blue what they called the old blue back speller
The blue back speller
And uh
So I was better speller than most of them because it really had hard words in it
And
One
Friday afternoon he was giving out this word
I can't think of what it is now nearly can't
And
He'd point out this one in the room and that one in the room and none of them could spell it
Went around
I was toward the last and he pointed me out and I spelled it
Course they thought then I was so smart because I could spell that big word
But
Ordinarily I can
When you want to you can
And then
{NS}
The
Last year I went to
School down there
He told us all
It was the same
Man uh Mister
{B}
Was the superintendent
And he told us that we had to write an essay
{NS}
And uh
A great long one.
Well I I I was always good in English
But now essays was else something else
I'd never written a real essay I'd written stories about this and that
Evangeline
And things
And when I first went to Rison
{NS}
I hadn't had enough books to read out there
In the country
And uh not uh
The uh
Papa while he was director he had bought
A
Whole
Bunch of books and uh
And a case.
But
They were
Not what you'd call
Classical
Literature
So I'd
When we'd have to write about uh
Write up something on this
Why I maybe I'd have to go buy the little book and read it in one night
To be able to
Write about it or tell about it the next day
{NW}
About Romeo and Juliet and Caesar
Things like that it was really classical literature
And uh
Then he told us we had to write this essay
Well
A lot of the
Girls
Or some of the girls
They just
Wouldn't make an effort
To try to write the essay
And uh
They'd borrowed they'd go borrow one from
Someone that had been to college
And written a essay
For college like
{NS}
Now you have to write a thesis see for a master's degree or something or you're doing this
{X}
For your master's degree Ann wrote a great long
Book
For her master's degree
And uh
{NW}
So uh
I
Said well I've got to I've got to
{NW}
I went to a
Lady down there that
Had been a teacher
{NW}
I couldn't even think of a subject
To write on and she said
Why not monuments
Write about monuments
I said uh
Well I'll try
So
There was a Mister
Farrow
{NW}
That had a room
Not quite as
{NW}
Big as this
Full of books he just had
A real library where the
School itself didn't have very many books
So I'd go down there after school in the afternoon
And uh
He knew my husband because my husband had
Him had worked together they had a mill at Kingsland
and my husband had worked for him there when he was just a
Just a teenager
Then he'd come on over to Rison and work for him over there
{NW}
And uh for a while
Well
{NW}
So he knew us
Knew me knew
{NS}
My husband to be
At that time
{NW}
And also
I was in the
Same grade with one of his sons
And uh
{NW}
The daughter
I knew her
Next oldest I knew her
So I went down there to ask him
Would he care for me
Going in his library
{NS}
And uh
Looking up things in his library in the books
And I had that writing the essay he said no just go right ahead
{NS}
And uh
So I'd go down and just knock on the door
Come through the door and I'd just go right on in through it
Library
And
So I wrote this essay it was three or four pages when it was typed.
About four I think
And I got the
Medal for it got the gold medal.
Mm-hmm
{NS}
See
Uh
Mister Baker our superintendent he sent them off
Some place to have them judged
He didn't have anyone at Rison because they might be prejudiced you see.
{NW}
And he sent him where they didn't know
Any any of them that were sent
{NW}
Sending them in
And when he got them back I was the one that had
Gotten the
Written the best essay they said
And I got a
Little gold medal
The
S I A they called it then
School Improvement Association
Had this
Said they would give
A gold medal
For that
And uh
So uh
When they got it back
I di- I never expected to win it I just never thought about it
I just done what he told me we had I had to do
{NS}
And uh
Soon as he got it back
And uh
He found out I was the one
That won it
Why
He uh
He just come right straight down to where
{X}
Complimenting me and said he knew
Mostly I was going to win it
Because I he knew how hard I worked well I let him see it once
And ask him
{X}
Better have it
Copy it over before I had
I had to get somebody to uh
Use the typewriter and type it you see
{NW}
But I first wrote in long just in
Long hand
And uh I
Let him see it and
Asked him about what he thought about it
I thought a lot of him and he did of me
And uh
So
He knew
I I think he knew all the time that
Thought in his mind that I'd win it but he didn't tell me so
Until
Got it back and I had
He said that that was the best one
{NW}
And he just come down there congratulating me
{NS}
Congratulating
And another one of the teachers Miss Margaret Mosley
She came here she come
Said congratulations and hold her hand
I said what about what have I done
To be congratulated
{NW}
You won the medal she said you won you wrote the best essay.
No not
Especially I was glad of course for the hard work I put in
But
Not
Especially
Excited and you know where that is
It's in the vault here in Pine Bluff.
Huh
Well my medal and the essay too
Is in the vault
And the it's getting so old and dry I would like to have it typed again
{NS}
For the children to
Keep and read.
And
Every once in a while when I go to the vault
I'll take it out and read it again
And wonder how I got the much out to write about monuments
{NW}
But I did
{NW}
{NS}
Before grandmother Griffin passed away
{NS}
Well I didn't have anything else of her pictures
And she
{X}
And uh
Then
When I done the
Needle point on my chairs in the dining room
Then I wanted to
Put some
Well they said I should have pin pointed it
Well I never could find anything even got my sister in Cleveland Ohio to try and find me some
{X}
It just couldn't be found
{NW}
Small enough to go in there.
Finally
I went to a place that Claire.
{NS}