791: {D: Sausage.} cure my own meat. Smoke my own bacon. Interviewer: You bu- 791: I do all my own butchering I'll get my brother to help me when I got big hogs. {D: I think} I got big hogs out there now. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: About uh {D: sixteen heads of 'em.} And I'll keep those {NS} I'll just feed 'em. {NW} Interviewer: That's great. Because you know I don't know I've talked to a lot of farmers recently. Yeah. 791: Let me. Interviewer: Go ahead yeah. D- don't worry about it put. 791: {D: I was gonna} back up just a little bit #1 uh. # Interviewer: #2 Okay. # 791: Years ago I won't never forget uh one of the gentlemen's still living uh mr George {B} {D: out at} {D: Toro} {NS} his brother Wiley they were good good friends of ours and they had got ahold of a blue horse from one of my uncles. Interviewer: #1 A blue horse? # 791: #2 A # blue horse. And they had no one ever been able to ride him except my uncle's son. And he rode him about twelve miles after working him all day. But the blue horse ended up uh during that twelve miles why he kicked the soles and heels off of my nephew's shoes by trying to throw him. #1 He he # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm. # 791: pitched what they call a fence roll. He when he Interviewer: #1 Pitched a fence roll? # 791: #2 what started. # Pi- pitching why it was uh pitching a fence roll which they call the ol' ray of fence a zigzag motion. Interviewer: #1 Yeah. # 791: #2 Well # {D: the Willy boy} #1 bought # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 791: {D: these horse} the blue horse and they worked him in the river field all day that particular day. So that afternoon well they decided that they'd ride the old blue. So mr George {B} asked his brother Wiley said uh Wiley said which one gonna ride old blue first? And George said it uh it don't make no difference. But Wiley he said I'll just ride him first. Interviewer: {NW} 791: So when he did why George got on the horse. Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 791: #2 Well he # started bucking and pitching the fence roll. {NS} So Wiley hollered to George they had an old well there that they wasn't wasn't in use anymore. It was about twelve fifteen feet deep. So Wiley hollered at George said George said look out said old blue's headed for that old well. {NS} And when he #1 did # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 791: why George said that's all right said that's just where I want him. Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 791: #2 And # sure enough the old blue horse fell in the well. So when he fell in the well George got off of the blue horse and crawled out. Why nicely the horse fell in {NS} with his hind feet first and was in the well. And Wiley says now what are ever gonna do George? He said we gonna leave him in there 'til morning and he said when morning comes said we will dig him out. Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 791: #2 So # they left him in the well overnight. and the next morning they went down and started about ten or twelve feet out from the well and dug a trench down to where the blue horse could walk out of the well. Interviewer: #1 No kidding. # 791: #2 Oh yeah # mr George {B} still living {D: in fact of business I've} talked with him about a week or ten days ago. He's f- getting feeble but he is still living. Interviewer: {NW} Did you used to raise did I bet folks had trouble breaking horses did you raise or any or break any of your own #1 or? # 791: #2 Yes sir. We # we we raised our own horses and mules and and broke 'em. Interviewer: #1 Yeah. # 791: #2 I'll # tell another incident. My brother he's living out at {D: Toro at} the present but my father had uh a young mare and she brought a baby colt and the colt had got up about six or eight ten months old and they came up from out on the open range and my daddy put 'em in the lot. Give 'em salt and let 'em know where home was. So my brother {D: Dinky} why he goes out there and started playing with pony the little baby colt and decided to put a rope on him. And my daddy told him said son don't put the rope on that horse said you can't hold that horse. My brother was young he said don't put that rope on that horse said you can't hold it. He said yeah I can hold it. Well my brother went ahead and put the rope on the horse. And when he did it scared the little colt. The little colt began to run and when he got to the locked fence why the colt jumped the locked fence and my brother hanging on the end of the rope and my daddy #1 sitting on the porch telling him to # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 791: don't turn that rope loose. {D: With that} round that colt's neck and him outside {NS} so it my brother throwed his foot up and just as he hit the fence and he throwed his foot up and went over the fence Interviewer: {NW} 791: And he finally wrapped the rope around a persimmon tree and he got the rope off. #1 My dad didn't go and # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 791: help him he let him buy his own experience. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: So he didn't he wasn't too anxious to rope any more of 'em. Interviewer: We used we used to ride heifers at my grandfather's. My grandfather's house was built up off the ground. You know its kind of underneath and and the I rode I was riding a heifer one time and and the thing got around and got under the house on me and flipped me off before I got under the house and uh it b- busted up about five hundred dollars worth of water pipes in the #1 house. # 791: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: {NW} I got some stories about #1 riding those ones # 791: #2 {NW} # Interviewer: riding stuff like that too. But we used to ride cows we didn't mess around with uh with breaking horses cause that's a man's job there. 791: Oh we we broke we broke horses. {D: And.} Interviewer: Yeah. That's that's uh uh when we were kids uh you know you're when you get up and get some weight on you you might be able to do it but I I never took to it. Uh now uh your wife might uh what'd you call something you might keep flowers in? Uh one {D: cup} put 'em #1 in. # 791: #2 Vase. # Interviewer: Yeah okay. #1 Uh. # 791: #2 Flower # vase. Interviewer: Okay. Uh you said you had your regular utensils to eat with? The? 791: Right. Interviewer: {D: And that's what?} 791: Knives forks spoons. Interviewer: Okay. 791: Glasses. Interviewer: Mm-kay. Uh they were made out of what? Just regular old 791: #1 They was on chinas. # Interviewer: #2 pewter or? # 791: #1 China. # Interviewer: #2 China? # #1 China okay. # 791: #2 As the # dishes were. {C: thump} Uh of course the forks and knives and spoons were made out of aluminum or Auxiliary: Made out of. 791: stainless steel. Auxiliary: {X} {D: You wouldn't believe what it'd be made of just from looking.} Interviewer: Huh? 791: I believe it was zinc coated. #1 Yeah I believe that's what most of the. # Auxiliary: #2 {X} # 791: #1 # Auxiliary: #2 # It wasn't like it is now {X} and it wasn't like stainless steel. You had #1 to # 791: #2 {X} # Auxiliary: really be careful. {NS} Interviewer: ms uh {NS} ms {B} can I ask you where you're from and and uh? Auxiliary: I'm from eight miles south of Leesville. {D: Pretty close to where the lake is.} Interviewer: I see. Your your folks uh were they raised there or? Auxiliary: Yeah. My daddy was born and raised there. And but my mother came from Arkansas. {X} Interviewer: Okay. {X} 791: {D: Two fat dogs out there.} Interviewer: {X} 791: {D: So near Fort Polk out there.} Interviewer: Why is that? 791: People doing mischief. {D: Doing what} mischief. Interviewer: At Fort Polk? 791: Yeah. W- well from everywhere. {D: Where there's} all that much people in and out of there. Interviewer: Do you know what? 791: Alcoholic beverages {D: and they was using} dope {D: and and all that.} Interviewer: #1 Yeah. # 791: #2 Yeah. # Auxiliary: You can't hear anybody eating it on the #1 {X} # 791: #2 Its different here. We # Auxiliary: #1 {NW} # 791: #2 it's # different here we don't have to be that particular here. Interviewer: #1 Yeah? # 791: #2 I got # dogs who'll bark without {NS} {D: biting dogs.} Interviewer: Yeah. You know uh mr uh this old black man I interviewed mr Harold {B} lives up back over there on that road. He uh he says this is good town. 791: This is a good community here on both #1 sides. # Auxiliary: #2 Black # and white. 791: #1 Black and white. # Auxiliary: #2 {X} # #1 {X} # 791: #2 We don't have 'em. # Auxiliary: {X} {D: My mother was just} no. She'd be insane. {NS} {X} {D: And she thought every one of them was the devils was off to dance.} Sheets off the bed quilt oh you'd just give anything who had {X} dry beans {D: you know you put them jam in.} And uh we we had five sacks of dried beans that had been whipped out and picked out and {X} {D: you need to safely take them out in the sun you know on a day like today} {NS} We brought 'em in. I put them in on the floor and they always put them at the end of the bed on the floor. Came back one morning {D: something like that I mean everything that that} {X} 791: This is one of the best communities #1 that uh anyone has ever lived in. # Auxiliary: #2 {D: We that's why I like this place.} # 791: because well you've noticed when you drove up I've got everything under the sun scattered around here in the line of tools and equipment and they just anything and uh I never lock up anything. I've never missed anything. They you you can't beat this community right in this area and at one time while we {D: uh we} just uh three quarter of a mile down the road there was a home broken into. {D: They were identifying new} people moved in here and uh they didn't like just a short period of time until they found out what type of people they were and they moved out. In other words people didn't put up with anything. #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # 791: But this is a good community right in here everybody keeps to their own business. They'll help you. They'll help you. And they don't bother nothing you've got if they need something why they'll come to you and ask sure if I need something I go to them and tell them I need so and so and you can {C: snapping fingers} get it. Anything you need just by asking. Interviewer: Yeah. #1 {X} # 791: #2 And uh. # Interviewer: {X} It seems like a nice #1 community. # 791: #2 It is. # Interviewer: {X} So you finished high school there in in {X} Okay. All right. Now uh after supper your dishes were dirty you had to wash 'em and? Auxiliary: {D: In a dishpan.} {NS} Interviewer: Yeah. 791: Wash the dishes Auxiliary: {X} 791: dishpan. Interviewer: #1 Okay. # Auxiliary: #2 Then heat # water on the stove. Interviewer: Yeah tell me about how you uh how you had to you know get your water cause uh. 791: Well you'd have to draw your water. Either out of the well or from the spring until later years. Later years you put a hand pump down at the spring and pump the water from out of the spring up the hill into above the ground tank. Now that was in later years that was up in the thirties. Thirty-seven thirty-eight. I'd pump water up into this large tank that was overhead and then that was in thirty-seven thirty-eight {D: while I was gonna} built a bathroom on. Interviewer: #1 Yeah. # 791: #2 And # Interviewer: #1 # 791: #2 # got the running water in the in the house. In in bathroom and in the kitchen. Interviewer: #1 That's good. # 791: #2 Then # course in later years why the water heater had come along. Auxiliary: {X} 791: Yeah. Auxiliary: {X} Interviewer: So um when you w- when you worked in a field they might bring something out to you uh what'd you call you know they might bring water out to you in a what? 791: Usually a bucket with a dipper. {NS} Interviewer: Okay. Auxiliary: {X} 791: But most of the time you would carry your water. You'd carry your water to the field with you and in a lot of instances your field wouldn't be right at the house. Your field possibly could be a mile from the house and you'd be {D: developed} and carry your water and {D: all the} tools you were gonna use that day or {X} and even you'd carry your lunch {NS} to the field. You wouldn't take time out to come back home to eat lunch. You'd take your lunch in a bucket with a lid on it. Interviewer: {D: Okay.} 791: And carry your water. Interviewer: Now would would it ever come in a container maybe that was had something for you know some sort of a thing that had a little thing you could turn to get the #1 water out of it? # 791: #2 No not # back those days we didn't. {X} had a spigot or a faucet on it. Uh. Interviewer: Really? 791: You just got a a water bucket or {X} Auxiliary: {D: Big George usually.} 791: {D: Big George's usually.} Interviewer: Okay. What do you call that uh what do you call that thing that you turn on the water now in the kitchen that's the? Auxiliary: Faucet. 791: Faucet. Interviewer: Faucet okay. Uh one out in the yard you might call that a? 791: Well then you'd call it a {D: dead} faucet. Interviewer: Faucet or? 791: {D: Dead faucet.} Interviewer: #1 Or a spigot. # Auxiliary: #2 It's outside. # Interviewer: Okay. All right. Now uh what would what do you call a cloth or rag you'd use to wash the dishes with? 791: Dish {D: rag.} Auxiliary: Dishrag is what we. 791: Dishrag. Interviewer: Dishrag. 791: {D: You'd use that to dry 'em.} Another one you might {X} Interviewer: Okay. Auxiliary: {D: He already knows that.} Interviewer: In your baby's face you might use a what a little old small piece of cloth. 791: Cloth? Interviewer: You'd call that a what a? 791: Washcloth. Interviewer: Washcloth. Okay. Now that's for babies what would you dry yourself off with? 791: Usually a towel. Interviewer: Okay. 791: Towels. Interviewer: All right. {X} And you might say if it got so cold last night the water pipes? {D: They froze.} 791: Uh back those days there wasn't nothing in the water pipes until later years. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: {D: Now what you} you you might have to break into the ice on top of the water of the bucket to get a drink. but in later years why they got to running water. Interviewer: Yeah. Okay. Um now flour used to come in tell me what things used to come in uh. 791: Well flour'd come in twenty-four and forty-eight pound sacks. Flour'd come in twenty-four and forty-eight pound sacks and then you could buy it by the barrel. Auxiliary: #1 {X} # 791: #2 Year # Auxiliary: {X} 791: Years ago whenever my father was growing up why you had to go to Alexandria to get a barrel of flower from here in a wagon. Interviewer: Yeah? Auxiliary: #1 One a year. # 791: #2 You'd go. # One a year you'd go drive their wagon and make one trip a year to Alexandria to pick up a barrel of flour. That was before there were stores like there is now. #1 At this day in time. # Interviewer: #2 Yes. # 791: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # #1 Speaking of # 791: #2 Make # one trip a year Interviewer: #1 to Alexandria. # Auxiliary: #2 And all the wagons would go. # 791: There'd be a bunch of wagons all go together. And pick up the different types of uh supplies that they needed to go about the year. Auxiliary: {D: They would go for a week.} Interviewer: Um. Well they used to sell everything what? Now they're selling everything in package they used to sell it? 791: In the barrels or kegs or {D: sixtels.} Interviewer: I see. Um now what did molasses come in maybe a? 791: Well you put it in uh gallon buckets. You made your own syrup back those days. Interviewer: I see. 791: My daddy had a syrup mill. Made his own syrup. Made it for all of the neighbors {D: all far and near.} Twelve fifteen mile radius. But my father made syrup for all of 'em. Interviewer: Now what was the difference between when I syrup and molasses or or was there? 791: It's same one and the same. Syrup or molasses. Auxiliary: Older people don't when asked if {X} we call it syrup. Interviewer: I say the consistency of it uh you you'd say what molasses? 791: Molasses is might be a little heavier. It might be #1 {D: thicker though.} # Auxiliary: #2 {X} # {X} 791: #1 I've # Auxiliary: #2 {X} # 791: I I think it's just according to the way that people say it. Uh the word syrup and molasses is one and the same as far as I'm concerned. Interviewer: Now did you ever make anything out of a hollow did you ever did get things out of a hollow log? To carry things in you know they did they ever use those? 791: Out of a hollow log? Interviewer: Yeah. Kind of a barrel or a it was like a barrel o-only it. 791: Well {NW} very very seldom a lot uh few uh farmers would uh take a hollow log and cut it off into sections and put a bottom in it and use it for a feed barrel. But most of 'em used it for a hog trough. They would take a hollow tree. {NS} And cut it off into four or five foot section. Then split it down the center. Interviewer: Okay. 791: And then nail a board across each end of the two halves and make two large feed troughs for either hogs or cattle and horses. Interviewer: I see. Um now uh what would you use to pour something from a from a big you know into a narrow-mouthed bottle any way it would? 791: A funnel or a fruit jar filler. #1 You've got # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh. # 791: two different objects there. Your fruit uh funnel is small for pouring uh liquid and a fruit jar filler is more for pour pouring larger stuff into the mouth of a jar. Interviewer: Okay. Now if you bought fruit at the store the grocer might put 'em in a? 791: A paper paper sack. Interviewer: Okay. Paper sack uh did do #1 {X} # 791: #2 Back # those days there wasn't that much fruit bought. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: You raised your own fruit. Most of it. Apples. Peaches. Pears. Plums. About the only thing that would ever be purchased would be uh bananas or coconut at Christmastime or some type of nut at Christmastime. Interviewer: I see. Uh how would sugar a large quantity of sugar come packaged up? Or maybe #1 {X} # 791: #2 {X} # you could buy it in six pound sacks or a hundred pound sacks. Interviewer: I see okay. Folks wouldn't call that a {D: poke} or a? {X} ever heard of 791: #1 Yeah I've I've I've heard of # Interviewer: #2 Poke sack or? # 791: calling it a poke. It it mean it's nothing more than a br- brown paper sack #1 this # Interviewer: #2 What # 791: day and time. Interviewer: What what would you call the amount of corn you might tell me about when you put the corn in the mill? Uh did you ever did you do that? #1 Uh. # 791: #2 I've # had corns and mills whenever I was too too small to do anything else. My daddy put me on the horse and put me a sack of corn in front of me and tie it to where it couldn't fall off and when I got to mr Billy {B} why he would help me and the corn down off of the horse. Interviewer: Go ahead. 791: mr Billy {B} he he had a grist mill and in the later years why mr {B} he had a grist mill that we carried the corn to and had made into meal. Interviewer: You'd call what uh d- did you ever the quantity of corn you might take to the mill at one time you'd call that a? 791: A sack of corn. Interviewer: Sack? 791: Sack of Interviewer: #1 corn. # 791: #2 Really? # Interviewer: {X} 791: #1 Pardon? # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # Yeah okay. Never heard that. Um what did you call the bag you you might uh that potatoes would be put in or or uh meal or or seed or something like that. 791: Well if you if you were carrying uh potatoes or something like that why you'd call it a grass sack. Interviewer: Grass sack? 791: Right. {C: thump} Now if you're just carrying something like corn or meal why you'd carry it in a a cotton cloth sack where you wouldn't get the grass fuzz on it or in it. Interviewer: I see. 791: And #1 for as little # Interviewer: #2 Go ahead. # 791: as little as you might think why even though all all of those years have passed well I never buy meal. It would be a a very rare occasion now for me to buy a five or a ten pound bag of meal {C: thump} because I I make my own corn. I shell it now with electric sheller. Interviewer: Yeah? 791: I have at least three or four gallons of cornmeal. Fresh cornmeal. In the deep freeze now. In other words right now I can show you three or four or possibly five gallons of glass jugs with cornmeal in it. And which is enough to do me from now till my corn's dry and ready to have more made for another year's supply. Interviewer: Now I saw those over there what do you call those things uh that they were shelling them? You'd I mean they were doing what? #1 They were? # 791: #2 They was # shelling butter beans to put in the deep freeze. They was shelling butter beans. Interviewer: I see. 791: I haven't sold any butter beans and everybody wanting to buy butter beans but I've I have plenty to put in my freezer. Interviewer: Yeah. Um. 791: Baby limas most people call 'em. {D: My} wife says there's a difference between a butter bean and a baby lima cause uh baby limas don't runt. It's a bush type and she calls butter beans the runt the runts. Interviewer: #1 Uh-huh. # 791: #2 And they're usually # spotted or a large larger bean than the little baby limas. {D: Bunch bigger.} Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 791: #2 Much. # Interviewer: What type of beans do you have? Uh. 791: We have the baby limas. That's our that's our only type we #1 have. # Interviewer: #2 I see. # 791: Baby limas. Interviewer: Yeah and the and you got the butter uh #1 b- butter {X} # 791: #2 That that's the # same as {X} #1 A lot of people # Interviewer: #2 Okay. # 791: call 'em butter beans but it's a baby lima. Interviewer: Okay. Uh well uh you call that grass sack. What was that uh it what can you describe it? W- was it like a brown? 791: Just it's just a brown grass sack. They uh feed came in 'em. Most of 'em they now at this day and time why they ship {D: and cost in} uh all types of nuts. Coconuts and almonds and {C: thump} all the different types of nuts from Brazil and everywhere in the same type of grass sack only they're a little heavier. They're made out of burlap A lot of people call 'em burlap sack. Interviewer: #1 Or a croker you ever hear of a? # 791: #2 Yeah. # croker sack. {C: background voices} Tow sack. Lot of people call 'em tow sack. {C: background noise} Now I think the reason they got the n- name tow sack is because you usually would tie a strap on 'em and carry 'em on your {D: head.} Put the strap around your head and and on you'd let it rest on your shoulder. And you'd pick peas or beans or cotton in it and you'd be a kicking it every time you {D: made a step} with your toes and that's the reason that a lot of people call 'em tow sack. Interviewer: You think most folks refer to 'em as tow sacks or or grass sacks? #1 {X} # 791: #2 Grass sack. # Interviewer: Grass sack. Okay. Now wh-what would you put in a uh your potatoes in when you're picking 'em in the field you might? 791: You'd put 'em in any type of old container. Uh like uh an old tub that had a hole in it that you couldn't no longer use for a wash tub. Why you'd carry the old tubs to the field and dig your potatoes. Pick 'em up and put 'em in the in the tub and then set 'em in the wagon or on a slide. Lot of people used a slide where it was {D: close to places.} Hard to access with a wagon. Why you'd have a homemade slide built on runners and {D: floors} that one animal would dr- pull Horse or a mule. You'd set several tubs or baskets on this slide and you'd haul 'em to the barn in wash tubs or any type of containers. Interviewer: Can I ask you a favor? 791: Yes. Interviewer: Something you might carry your clothes in a clothes? 791: Basket or? Interviewer: Yeah. Did you ever use that? 791: Yes sir u- use that but #1 most # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # 791: time it was just in uh they'd do the clothes up back what years ago why they'd lay down a dirty sheet and pile all of the clothes that was to be washed that particular day on this sheet and then bring all four corners up together and tie it in a knot and carry it to the {D: for it} whatever type of wash area you had either spring or a well. Interviewer: Okay. Now tell me how you let your your uh you checked your you know? At night how you got the house lit and things like. Did y'all have? 791: You had kerosene lamps. Interviewer: Okay and you burned in them what? You burned? 791: Kerosene. Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 791: #2 Burned # burned kerosene in your lamps. Interviewer: Any old names for that? Folks they would call it? Anything else? 791: Not that I know of. Kerosene or coal oil. #1 I've heard some # Interviewer: #2 Coal oil? # 791: people did call it coal oil #1 by product. # Interviewer: #2 Okay. # All right. What might you call maybe a makeshift kind of lamp that you'd make out of just uh wood splinters you know light it or or something or maybe uh you'd put coal oil in a bottle or something and put a rag on the end of it? Like that? 791: Oh well we ne- we never did do that because uh it would create so much smoke. Interviewer: #1 I see. # 791: #2 And then it would # set up Interviewer: #1 Well that's what I mean # 791: #2 now. {X} # Interviewer: something you might use out of doors #1 or. # 791: #2 Oh # yeah you could use uh out of doors. Why we'd use splinters. Take {D: ripped lighter} splinters and make 'em real long out of real rich uh splinters. Pine. And that's the way you'd do your hunting or going to run you {D: your} trotlines or your hooks. Why you'd have these long rich splinters and let that hot tar get on you while you was carrying the splinters if you had didn't hold it just right why this black tar that was red hot would drop on you and burn you. Interviewer: {NW} 791: But. Interviewer: You'd call that a what a a? 791: Just you'd uh just call it a splinter light or. Interviewer: A torch #1 or? # 791: #2 Torch. # Interviewer: Uh did you ever hear the word flambeau? 791: #1 No sir I don't believe I ever heard it. # Interviewer: #2 Do you? {X} # All right. Um now uh nowadays you got electric lights and when a when a light burns out in an electric lamp you have to put in a new? 791: Bulb. Interviewer: New? {D: Buckle.} 791: L- light. Interviewer: Light bulb? Uh what runs around the barrel? What used to run around the barrel? The hole or? The wood that stays in place that was old? 791: Sta- uh rim. {NW} An old stave a wooden s- stave. Barrel? Interviewer: Yeah. 791: That was uh. Interviewer: It was a metal uh? 791: A metal band. Interviewer: #1 Would uh call that a hoop or a? # 791: #2 {D: Metal or.} # Interviewer: Hoop. 791: Right. Interviewer: Hoop? Hoop. {C: pronunciation} 791: Hoop. Interviewer: Uh-huh. #1 Okay. # 791: #2 Metal # hoop. Interviewer: All right. Um now in the top of a bottle you might put a? 791: Cork. Interviewer: Before they had. 791: Cork or stopper. Interviewer: I see. So before they had uh that's what you had to use didn't you before? 791: Right. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 791: Course now they they've been out for years I have one. I have it right in the bottle. Uh bottling machine that you could uh. Interviewer: {NW} #1 You have everything. # 791: #2 Buy the bottles. # In other words you could bottle uh ketchup. You could make your own y- you made your own ketchup back those days. Why you could take and have your bottles and you could pick up uh bottle caps that {D: on the} places where they had the cold drinks you'd had usually had to get 'em. Course that's been several years ago that was back in the thirties and forties. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: But I have a regular bottling machine that I could I could {C: thump} bottle up anything right now. In in the line of uh ketchup or anything like that. Course I hadn't used it in twenty-five or thirty years. Maybe longer. But. Interviewer: Hmm. 791: But I have one. Interviewer: Uh now a little instrument that kids would play or {X} folks would play what do you call those? #1 You'd call 'em? # 791: #2 French harp. # Or juice harp. Interviewer: For uh oh both of them? Jew's harp you'd? 791: Right. Interviewer: {X} 791: Right. Interviewer: Okay can you tell me about the parts of a wagon? You you remember I'm sure you remember. 791: Well you had a one horse and a two horse. If you had a one horse wagon why it had a pair of shafts in it. They called it shafts. And uh you'd have {X} shaft. Back the horse {C: thump} in and hook him up to the wagon and do the shafts up on the hames. {X} Interviewer: What would you what would you say when you're getting the horse into the {NS} into the wagon like that what would you tell him? You'd? 791: U- usually why you'd just tell him to back up. And he uh horses were #1 trained. # Interviewer: #2 So back up? # #1 The word back up? # 791: #2 Yeah. Yeah. You'd # back up. And the horse would back up and you'd hook him up then. In a two horse wagon why you had a a one tongue and then you had the breast tree which had a chain on each side that you could fasten to the horse's or a mule's collar. (C: background voice} Fasten to a mule's horse horse a mule's collar. Interviewer: Yeah? 791: And uh then you had a different length bed that you could let out. In other words the wagon the bed was the same. {D: It was} same length but you could take the bed off and you could uh use the {D: cup and fold} why you could uh extend it if you wanted to haul something long why you could extend it out several feet. Interviewer: #1 Uh # 791: #2 And # if you wanted to haul extra long timbers or anything why you could extend the frame of the wagon out like uh just modern day log trucks {D: you trail away} you can extend them or shorten them. Interviewer: I see. Now uh the the wagon between the wagon you had the what? The part that went between the horses that was the? The tongue? 791: Tongue. Interviewer: Tongue? And uh the the tr- thing the traces come back to in order to hitch up? 791: Singletree. Interviewer: That would be singletree? 791: Or doubletree where it was a double double horse wagon or where you're using two animals it'd be a doubletree. Interviewer: Mm-kay. All right. Now the the wheels would fit onto the? 791: Hubs. Or spindle. Interviewer: Oh what was the hub? 791: Well that's the hub is the {NW} inside of the wheel. Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 791: #2 And the # spindle is the object gets picked out that you slip the hub over. The spindle is the in other words the {D: bag.} Interviewer: Uh what do you call the metal part the? That um the metal part on did you have a metal part on the outside of a #1 wheel? # 791: #2 Well that # held the uh wooden spokes in? Interviewer: Yeah. 791: Just called it a metal rim. Interviewer: A rim? Okay. All right. Um now the wheels fit onto the what the? 791: The spindle. Interviewer: Y- yeah the spindles fit onto the? 791: The hub. Interviewer: The hub? 791: Right. Interviewer: Yeah okay. I mean. This held the wheels together? The two wheels together? 791: Oh axle. Interviewer: #1 Yeah. # 791: #2 Axle. # Yeah I thought I meant what you meant. Interviewer: Okay. {NW} Tell me about uh what what did you use to break ground with in the spring? Uh. 791: Well uh uh usually a turning plow. Some people would use a middle buster. Interviewer: #1 Uh-huh. # 791: #2 But we'd # usually u- uh use a turning plow. Interviewer: Okay. 791: {D: Either flat break it or bed it up.} Two furrows or four furrows. Interviewer: #1 Uh-huh. # 791: #2 If you want to # bed it all the way out you'd bed it out four furrows. You just wanted to throw two furrows up and leave a bulk why you'd two furrow. Interviewer: I see. Um. Now you uh uh you what would you use maybe to to break something up even the ground up even finer a? 791: {NW} {D: Dixie?} Interviewer: #1 Disc it? # 791: #2 With # a horse drawn bit. Interviewer: Okay y- you'd say you're doing what you were? 791: Leveling. Interviewer: You. 791: You've ditched things up to kill the grass. #1 Or. # Interviewer: #2 Okay. # 791: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # Yeah before a disc did you have any did you maybe drag a uh bedsprings across the field? Some folks used to do that didn't #1 they? # 791: #2 No sir. # Not years ago. Interviewer: #1 Yeah. # 791: #2 {X} My # my dad never did and I didn't when I a boy growing up. Course now this day and time I've have section harrows and I've used even a chain uh piece of chain link heavy wire. It will do a neater job than section harrows or anything as far as leveling your ground and breaking up the clods. A piece of heavy chain link wire will do a better job than any of it. Interviewer: Really? 791: Yeah. Interviewer: Huh. 791: But uh my daddy would always just two furrow to four furrow it even when I was a boy growing up and started plowing why I'd two furrow to four furrow it out. And then if I wanted to bed back I'd break the little bulk out and then bed back on {X} how many furrows I wanted to to plant. Interviewer: Hmm. Can uh can you tell me about the road type roads you had here. Tell tell me all about the #1 {X} # 791: #2 Well they # Interviewer: #1 # 791: #2 # th- there was just a plain old road and there wasn't too many gravel roads back them days until the the state started graveling and the roads but most of 'em were just plain uh roads beat out through the woods from one place to the other. And what will back years ago they weren't even graded. Uh the worst if they would get impassible and in fact some of 'em get impassible for a wagon. And they weren't even graded back a lot of 'em the main roads might be but uh years ago why if a place got bad enough why they'd go in there with the poles and runway it. And uh which here four years ago why {NW} I can uh I can show anybody some of the old poles and runways that was put in there years ago because the {X} kept blading the roads down flat 'til the all of the road beds gone and the water's running down the center of the roads. Now this day and time now with all the modern equipment. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: And uh #1 And # Interviewer: #2 Well if you # well first you had what you had? Just regular? 791: You used to have a dirt road. Interviewer: #1 Dirt road. # 791: #2 That wasn't # maintained or or anything. Interviewer: Then you got gravel and? 791: Well then you got a a road that had ditches or was shaped. And then you begin to get gravel roads. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 791: And in later years the blacktops and concrete. Interviewer: But it wasn't nothing to come to a to a road sometimes and there'd be a log across the #1 you know? # 791: #2 No sir. # Interviewer: They were. 791: Trees fall across it have to go around it or carry a ax with you all the time if you was in a wagon Why or you could chop a tree out of the way. Interviewer: You'd get a get a horse and tie a rope to the log and #1 you'd go? # 791: #2 Drag # him out of the way. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: Drag it out of the way. Interviewer: Did you have to do that much? 791: Not n- not a whole lot. Very very seldom. Interviewer: Okay. You'd say we we did what we tied a rope to the to the log and we? 791: Drag it. Interviewer: #1 Drag it off? # 791: #2 Out into the # woods. #1 Out # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # 791: out of the road. Interviewer: Yeah. Now I {D: asked Wendell} and he seemed to remember when there were times here that uh that uh there were just you just uh trails back through the woods uh. #1 {X} # 791: #2 Well that was. # Interviewer: #1 # 791: #2 # Interviewer: Yeah. 791: They's still some. {D: Now what they} still roads just not maintained by uh parish motor patrol or anything. They's roads just not maintained at all. Interviewer: I know that but {X} 791: #1 Yup. # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 791: Yes. Interviewer: {NW} #1 I know that for a fact. # 791: #2 I I carried them # butane since nineteen fifty. I carried them butanes from nineteen fifty up to fifty-eight. Interviewer: Yeah. Oh yeah. 791: #1 I've been there lots of times. # Interviewer: #2 {X} # You know the roads. 791: There's very few places I haven't been in Vernon Parish. If I worked with {D: three W} Butane Company. And then I also work with {D: Moser, Spence, and Owner's} company for eleven years. So there are very few houses I haven't gone to at one time or another in Vernon Parish. Interviewer: How would you say the roads are around here? 791: Some of 'em is good and some of 'em is very {D: proofed.} Interviewer: Yeah. Uh well um talking about uh you know most of the main roads around here are? What? Are what kind they're? 791: Most of the main roads are blacktop. Interviewer: Blacktop. Okay. They're made out of what? #1 Uh. # 791: #2 Asphalt # and gravel. Interviewer: Tar? 791: Seal with oil and tar and gravel. Interviewer: Okay. All right. Um now speaking about roads what would you call maybe a a little road that went off from the main road? That was a? 791: Side road or. Interviewer: Side road. Mm-kay. 791: Or a cost cost coun- cross country cross country road or a dirt road. Interviewer: Okay. 791: That left the main highway. Interviewer: All right and it would go back to uh somebody's property #1 maybe or? # 791: #2 Property or # to a field or farm or. Interviewer: To a but your little {X} a road like this that I came up to get to your house that would be a little? What the just a? 791: #1 Well it'd just be # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 791: more or less a driveway or a private road or in other words it dead ends Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 791: #2 here at my house. # Interviewer: All right. Um Auxiliary: We'd say a lane too. Interviewer: A what? Auxiliary: A lane. 791: Lane. Interviewer: Mm. #1 Okay. # 791: #2 That's # Interviewer: #1 # 791: #2 # usually why a road would especially a road that's fenced on both sides is called a lane. Interviewer: I see. Okay. Um what would you call a a place where your cows would go down through the woods you know they'd always cut a place? #1 You know your cows? # 791: #2 A trail # or? Interviewer: Mm-kay. 791: Yeah. Trail. They usually always go the same path. And they'll cut it out of the woods to be a w- well beaten out trail. Interviewer: Mm-kay. Um now uh something along the side of the street in town that folks walk along you'd call that the? 791: Sidewalk. Interviewer: Sidewalk. Okay any other names? Banquette or do you ever hear folks call that a #1 banquette? # 791: #2 No. # Interviewer: Mm-kay. That's #1 something they did in New Orleans. # 791: #2 Uh sidewalk # or walkway is about all that I. Interviewer: The pavement #1 and? # 791: #2 Yeah. # Interviewer: Okay. Uh did did now if there might be a little grass strip between the sidewalk and the street. Did you have a name for that? Did you ever know what what folks call that? 791: Well some people call it a terrace. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: Where they keep it mowed. Interviewer: Okay. Um now I wanted to get into uh some of the designations you had for land and that sort of stuff around here. Um can you can you kind of just give me a rundown on the types of soil you might have in in you know in regards to elevation and how good the soil is that sort of thing you mentioned black lands uh what was that? Uh. 791: Well it's uh it's a type of soil that is uh extra black. And it's usually rich. Black land is rich. Now there's a difference between black land or just plain gumbo or yellow gumbo. A black land is black and it's usually rich and it's uh hard to work as far as farming because there's lot of the old timers said that the only time their black land field ever got ready to work while they've gone to lunch to eat. They are going to lunch. In other words yeah it's either too wet or too dry to cultivate. And they old timers say that mine got ready while I was going to lunch. Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 791: #2 And that that's fact. # It's it's either too wet or too dry. And its texture {NS} it sticks something terrible when it's wet and then when it gets dry why the ground opens up and it's hard as a {D: brick back.} Interviewer: #1 {NW} # 791: #2 So. # It's it's either too wet or too dry. You I mean you gotta be on your tiptoes to catch it when it's just right. But it will make stuff if you get it right. Interviewer: Yeah? 791: The right seeds. But then you have the gumbo that uh it's a poor type gumbo it won't grow anything and you can't pick it. You can't shovel it. You can't dig it. You can't hardly do anything with it. And then you have the deep sand. Sand hills. And then you have uh stiff heavy dirt. Which right here on my particular place why its two hundred yards up here there's a black g- uh black land. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: And then right here in my four acre field why you got a heavy dirt. And then you got a a deep sand. And then you got a extra heavy sand. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 791: And in in farming this past year why {D: them blow} places the heavy dirt {NS} would be just as wet as it could be. You could tell that the soil was completely wet. And the sand would be dried out. It would be black spots and white spots all over the field. Where there was a sandy place it'd be white. Where it was a heavy dirt why it'd be dark. It'd be. {D: And as I could tell} some of 'em my neighbor mr {B} down here his is all sand. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: And when when it's too wet for me to plow here in the spring in the year his is all blowing away. It's sand. Dust. But here why it's too it's uh heavy and it's wet natured. Extremely wet natured. A dry year I can make better stuff than I can in a wet year. Interviewer: Oh really? 791: Oh #1 yeah. # Interviewer: #2 Well you # you'll have a you'll have good crops this year then. #1 You'll have a good. # 791: #2 I # no it r- it rained just a a whole lot here the first part of the year. So I'd say round uh first day of July. First day of well we got rain here now there were certain areas up here no further than seven miles there's Anacoco. People's crops was burning up and here it was so wet I couldn't get in fields to plow. Interviewer: Really? 791: My Interviewer: #1 {D: There's been fire right far I thought across.} # 791: #2 {X} # Yeah it it has in certain areas but right in this particular area now I've got I got a rain that you wouldn't believe it but I got a big rain a week ago yesterday. Interviewer: Yeah? 791: And of course that north wind and that sunshine. {NW} It got it fast. One day. You couldn't tell that it had even rained. But we've had extremely large amount of water here. This this spring and summer. Interviewer: Okay. 791: Uh.{C: thump} Interviewer: Well what about the types of lands you have? Now a land maybe that was say that was {D: maybe} late in the spring you know you didn't dry out until late in the spring. It was usually overflowed and you had to plow it later or? Something like that? Uh what would you call that type of land? 791: Uh you mean in uh years ago or #1 or now? # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # Or well any day yeah. #1 Yeah. Years ago and now. # 791: #2 Oh you. # Well you just uh you got certain spots of land that you can't plant 'til late. You got to wait till it dries out and uh a lot of people uh waits 'til long in June to plant. Interviewer: #1 Mm-hmm. # 791: #2 For this # is wet natured ground. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: You wait 'til June to plant which I've got a bunch of it it's wet-natured. #1 And. # Interviewer: #2 Would it be # lowland #1 or? # 791: #2 It'd be # lowland or you can't call it bottomland cause there's no creek or anything just a little broken drainage. So you can't call it bottomland now if it's uh in a creek bottom or swampland, river bottom why you can call it a bottom field or a bottomland. Interviewer: I see. 791: But uh this is this is just a low wet wet natured place. Interviewer: What would you call a place that was so low or or the soil uh you couldn't grow anything there other than maybe grass or alfalfa or something like that? Would you have a? 791: I don't know. I don't know if what was what you would call it uh. Interviewer: What about a meadow? You ever hear it what would #1 would you ever use it? # 791: #2 Well uh # meadow a meadow don't mean uh that you can't grow anything there uh H- a hay meadow is a hay meadow it can be on top of a big sand hill. In other words you you can have a hay meadow on top of the biggest sand hill in Vernon Parish or you can have a hay meadow down in the Sabine River Swamp. #1 You. # Interviewer: #2 I see. # 791: Yeah there is there are. Interviewer: Well a meadow is that a place where you w- w- where you could grow you know crops or #1 or you? # 791: #2 Not # necessarily no sir. It'd be it'd be a place that uh you could grow hay or graze or farm either one. You could do either one of the three. A meadow. Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 791: #2 That word it don't # necessarily mean that you couldn't grow anything else there. Interviewer: Now you talked about a marsh what would that be? Is that? That would be? 791: Well that'd just be a baygall or a branch head or something in other words so wet and boggy that uh you you couldn't grow anything there. In fact it wouldn't even be suitable for a pasture or or cropland or anything. Interviewer: A baygall? 791: That's what they call a baygall is a place that's on the slope of a hill Interviewer: Uh-huh. 791: where the water seeps out of the hill and runs down into they call it a baygall because it usually it's bay bay trees that grow there. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 791: And the gall is baygall is just because its a low the head of a a small drain or something. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: But that's what uh most people call the baygall because it's uh where water's seeping out of a tall hill and it's so wet that you can't ride a horse through it. Cattle are bogged down in in in normal rain. Why. Interviewer: Huh. 791: Cattle are bogged down or a horse you can't ride horse. They they's areas right through here where them uh couple three four hundred yards that you got to be careful riding a horse if it's a rainy season. Bogged down. Interviewer: Now uh a bay you'd call a um {X} What uh the bay trees drop a what? You'd call that a? They leave all their stuff on the ground? 791: They drop their leaves and then they {NW} bay uh burs that's got their red seed in 'em. Interviewer: I see. Did you ever let the hogs eat out in the out in the um woods or something like that? About down in the they'd eat down in the bottoms usually? 791: Oh yeah yeah. #1 Hogs # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 791: it was open range and hogs roamed everywhere there was hogs roaming everywhere. Interviewer: You'd call that a what? The stuff they'd eat all the acorns and the #1 stuff they gonna? # 791: #2 Acorns # and mash. Interviewer: Mash? 791: #1 Mash. # Interviewer: #2 {D: What's that?} # 791: Well that that included all of it. That included acorns, hickory nuts, beech mash. Interviewer: #1 I see. # 791: #2 In other words # mash was it that that's pretty well mash you'd hear the old timers #1 say that there was good # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 791: good crop of mash this time. #1 Well that covered everything. # Interviewer: #2 {X} # Yeah. Okay now uh any other types of land or um let's see well uh what about uh a place where okay type where water would flow? You'd first you mentioned a small uh creek or something like that didn't you? #1 Maybe from? # 791: #2 Creek or # branch. Interviewer: Branch. What would a branch be small or? 791: Yeah a branch would be small. In other words a branch wouldn't have a name. If it's any sized creek at all why it has a name. You got {D: Tolo creek} Prairie creek. {C: pronunciation} Or Anacoco creek. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: Say uh uh you take this side of {D: horn} back you got two prongs of what's called Anacoco creek. you got uh north Anacoco creek and west I mean north and south. Interviewer: #1 Uh-huh. # 791: #2 Because # you have two prongs and they both come together in Lake Vernon. Interviewer: I see. 791: So you have two prongs of Anacoco creek. This is Prairie {C: pronunciation} creek between here and Leesville. Interviewer: Why do they call it Prairie? {C: pronunciation} 791: I don't know where Prairie {C: pronunciation} creek got its name. #1 Uh # Interviewer: #2 mr Webb # told me they called the land down there prairie. Or Prairie or something like {C: pronunciation} #1 that. # 791: #2 Prairie. {C: pronunciation} # Interviewer: #1 # 791: #2 # Interviewer: #1 Oh. # 791: #2 I don't know # Interviewer: #1 How do you spell that? # 791: #2 I don't. # Interviewer: P-R? 791: P-P-A-R Auxiliary: P-R-A-I-R-I-E. Interviewer: How's that? Auxiliary: P-R-A-I-R-I-E. {NS} Interviewer: Yeah that's yeah but okay. 791: {D: Prairie creek.} Interviewer: Prairie okay alright. Um now so uh a creek would be um anything larger than a creek uh? 791: Be a river. Interviewer: River? Okay. Any what would a slough you said a slough you mentioned a slough? 791: A slough is a a bod- a body of water that doesn't run. In other words it's what you {NW} people now this day and time call lake. But a slough is a natural. In other words it's not man made a slough is a body of water. It's usually where a creek or a river has changed its course and cut off. Interviewer: Yeah? 791: Made a new channel that leaves a body of water that doesn't run and the only time that slough gets water in it is when it rains a whole lot and just fills it or else when the creek or the river overflows and gets high enough to refill the slough again. {NS} But it doesn't {C: phone ringing} it doesn't run. {C: phone ringing} Interviewer: Well we were talking about a slough. Uh uh any any other names for uh something any other bodies of water? Uh what would a cou- did you ever hear of a coulee or? 791: No I never heard of a coulee not in this country. Interviewer: Okay. What was a bayou? 791: Bayou is just #1 a b- # Interviewer: #2 Okay. # 791: a body of water. Uh. I'd say that a bayou is r- a running body of water. Interviewer: Yeah. Auxiliary: {X} 791: They're they're stale down still waters down there. Interviewer: Okay. Now you said a prong of a what of that thing was a? Was that? 791: A creek? Interviewer: Yeah that was it. 791: You got a west uh s- north prong and a south prong. Interviewer: Okay. Now you were talking about uh when you had dirt roads the water would {D: worn} like cut a little plank across the road uh what what would you call #1 that? # 791: #2 Washout. # Interviewer: Washout? 791: Or the road washed in two. Interviewer: Okay. 791: Which after that's even modern this day and time in these modern days you've got that same thing. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: I fail to make my bus run {D: due to} water over the road over this east Hawthorne road. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 791: {NW} This past year. Interviewer: Yeah? 791: In other words yeah you got to you have that this day and time why water cutting the roads in two in this country. Interviewer: I see. Uh what i- now did you have a place maybe a deep, narrow valley that had been cut by a by a stream or or water in the woods or something like that? Uh it would be something you know something maybe ten feet deep and ten feet wide or something. Did you ever have any of those? 791: Not not not down where we were at. Now they was places in these sandhills uh extremely tall sandhills where it would wash out that bad. And. Interviewer: I see. 791: but they well they'd call 'em valleys or different #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 Okay. # What well what was a gully? #1 {X} # 791: #2 Yeah. # Yeah. I they've been called gully. Interviewer: #1 {X} # 791: #2 I've # heard 'em called gully. Interviewer: Okay. Was the um was a gully a a a thing that uh you know? Did you ever handle anything like that you know maybe where a stream had changed its its course? Or and uh and it had gone another way? Was that a slough? You know part of a slough where you know the ground was all eaten away or something like that? Uh. 791: Well I'd I'd say it was just a wash wash place or Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 791: #2 or a washed # out place and uh. now a slough if you if there's no water in it you wouldn't call it a slough. In other words a slough would be a body of water that's still. It may even dry up but it's still called a slough because its {D: filled} holds water. Interviewer: #1 I see. # 791: #2 And. # Interviewer: #1 # 791: #2 # Interviewer: Now if you had some land maybe a bit swampy and you wanted to put it under cultivation what would you do you'd say? What would you do to the land to get the water off? 791: I was in uh the last two police {D: jury races.} Interviewer: Yeah? 791: I got them to I was in {NS} {D: thrown} in a runoff both times. Interviewer: You've been in a? 791: This past December I was in a runoff with Senator Poston's brother. Interviewer: Yeah? 791: And I mean uh {D: Lee McConough} in this past December I was in a runoff with {D: Lee McCon- McConoughfield} the incumbent. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: He's been in there sixteen years. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 791: And I was in the runoff with him and then four years ago I was in the runoff in the second primary with Senator Poston's brother #1 {D: Charlie.} # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # 791: M- O- Poston. Interviewer: I see. 791: I got beat both times in the runoff. Interviewer: Oh. 791: I didn't have enough money. #1 In other words they bought their way in # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 791: #1 And I didn't have the # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. # 791: money or If I'd had it I wasn't gonna buy my way I told people that I wasn't gonna buy my way and then if I was elected why I'd owe 'em. Interviewer: #1 That's the police? # 791: #2 And then # Interviewer: #1 # 791: #2 # Police jury. Police jury. In other words maintenance over all the roads and {D: that's.} Police jury's what makes all your parish laws. They are the governing body of the parish. The police jury is. Interviewer: Okay if you'd have won that you would have been on it? {NS} 791: Pardon? Interviewer: You would have been on it? If you'd? 791: Yeah {D: if I had} if I had been elected why I'd be one of the police jury men. {NS} Interviewer: Now uh I would be I was talking about marshes when you wh- how do you get the water off? Do do you ever do that? Did would would folks ever try and get the water off the marsh or? 791: {NW} Not other than uh years ago not other than uh maybe digging or plowing a big ditch. Interviewer: Yeah? 791: To drain the {D: loaf lakes} #1 before # Interviewer: #2 Right. # 791: the water would drain on out. Before the ground would dry up #1 early. # Auxiliary: #2 {X} # {D: You'd dump them out again.} Interviewer: What would you call uh a small rise of land uh in the land uh? Something like uh if you're it's just a small rise in the land? You'd call that a? 791: Mound or a lot of people call 'em #1 mound. # Auxiliary: #2 Hill? # 791: Hi- Auxiliary: {X} 791: Well a hill {D: you're getting up a hill is a} a tall one. A hill is next to a mountain. Interviewer: You get a knoll? You you ever #1 heard of a? # 791: #2 A # knoll or a knob. Interviewer: Okay. All right. And then um the rocky side of a mountain that drops off sharp you'd call that a? 791: Cliff. Interviewer: Cliff? Okay. Uh now up in the mountains a little where a little road would go through a low place you would call a? 791: A pass? Interviewer: A pass okay. Uh did you ever hear it called a notch or? 791: No I never heard of calling it notch. Interviewer: Okay. 791: A pass. Interviewer: All right. Wh- where what would you call a place with boats docked and and freight would be unloaded? 791: Docks. Boat docks. Interviewer: Docks. Okay. Um now did you ever see y'all will have do y'all have places where water would come over and fall along {D: this here} or? 791: {D: We're not} too foreign to it till we'd been to {D: down here.} {D: Ville.} Interviewer: Okay. And you'd call that a? 791: Waterfall or. Interviewer: Okay. 791: We've had small ones where they had uh {NW} water operated grist mills where they've made meal that was operated by the w- water falling. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 791: In other words they'd have a grist mill with a big paddle wheel down at and the water'd be flowing over this little levee Interviewer: #1 Yeah. # 791: #2 and then hitting # the paddle wheels and in turn why when it would turn why it would turn the grist mill to grind meal. Interviewer: Um now uh what did you call the X shaped frame that you might lay a board across and cut it or something like that? You know? You'd lay a board across them like like this uh make the X shape. And you'd lay a board across them. Do you have a name for those uh? 791: If we did I don't remember. #1 I don't know what # Interviewer: #2 {X} # X shaped #1 frame. # 791: #2 Yeah. # I know what you're #1 talking about. I did it. # Interviewer: #2 You'd lay a board across and # saw it. 791: You can lay a log or a pole in there, saw it but I I don't I don't know what you'd {NS} I don't know what kind of name you'd call it. Interviewer: Okay. Um. 791: But I do know #1 what you. # Auxiliary: #2 We call # 'em boardwalk. 791: Did you have a did you have maybe an A-shaped one that you'd you'd use to build a table with of some sort? You know at a church on a picnic or something like that. It'd be a little A-shaped frame with uh you know two A-shaped frames and a piece of Auxiliary: #1 wood? # 791: #2 Yeah. # I've saw the- saw #1 those but I don't know what they's called. # Interviewer: #2 Would you call them horse or sawhorse? # Have you ever heard of that? 791: No a sawhorse has got four legs and uh is straight across just one piece across the top. Interviewer: #1 So # 791: #2 A sawhorse uh. # Interviewer: Wait is it kind of an A-shaped frame that sort of thing or? 791: #1 No. # Interviewer: #2 Planted. # 791: No you've got four legs on it. You got two uh on one end and two on the other end with one timber across the top. Interviewer: Right right. Auxiliary: {X} 791: That'd be two A shapes. Interviewer: Two yeah now that's well that's what I meant yeah. Which I was looking at it the diagonal you know sort of crossway. 791: Yeah. Well that's a sawhorse #1 But now there's a # Interviewer: #2 Okay. # 791: difference in a sawhorse and what you was talking about making a cross and fastening two of 'em and then taking a a log and laying it in there to cut it in two with a saw or or to hew it with a ax or anything like that in other words you got two different uh pieces of equipment there that you Interviewer: Huh. 791: you're using. Interviewer: Okay. Now do you straighten your hair with a brush and a? 791: Comb. Interviewer: I mean a comb and a what? A comb and a? 791: Brush. Interviewer: Okay. You'd say you did what you take a brush and? 791: {NW} And brush your hair. Interviewer: Brush your hair? Okay. Now did you did your father ever have a kind of leather #1 thing? # 791: #2 Leather # strap? Interviewer: #1 For sharpening razorblades? # 791: #2 Right. # Interviewer: #1 He'd also # 791: #2 Right. # Interviewer: sharpen your? 791: He'd sharpen you with it. #1 He # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # 791: #1 he'd make you sharp. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # {NW} 791: #1 Keep you straight. # Interviewer: #2 {NW} # Yeah. What uh what did you put in guns? In a revolver you'd put what the? 791: Bullets. Interviewer: Bullets ammunition you'd call that a what? 791: Shells or? Interviewer: Car- uh #1 {X} # 791: #2 {D: Cottards?} # Interviewer: A what? 791: {D: Cottards.} Interviewer: Okay. All right. Now did you remember ever playing with a playing when you were a kid what what kind of things would you have to play with uh? When you were? 791: {D: Baseball. The} time when you're when I was a child growing up why you'd made your own toys. Interviewer: Yeah? 791: You'd have a lid off of a bucket and made it on a stick on the end of a stick and rode it or make you a wagon out of four little blocks of wood sawed off of a black gum log. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: And make your axles {D: here like} a big wagon and put your wooden wheels on it. Interviewer: Yeah? Did you have maybe a a 791: #1 Yeah? # Interviewer: #2 uh # some little plank that was thick in the middle and you'd go up and down on it like that? 791: Yeah sees- seesaw. Seesaw. Interviewer: So you'd 791: Springboards. You had a swimming hole why you'd have you a springboard that you'd. Interviewer: What was that? 791: To dive off of. Interviewer: #1 I see. # Auxiliary: #2 And the grapevine for swinging. # #1 Don't forget about that. # 791: #2 And the grapevine. # Interviewer: Swing? 791: Right. Interviewer: Did you ever have a board maybe with sticks in the at both ends and in the middle you could bounce up and down on it? 791: No we never #1 did. # Interviewer: #2 Never # had that? Okay. Auxiliary: That's a {X} we used to do that too. Interviewer: Balancing board? Auxiliary: #1 You you # Interviewer: #2 Okay. # Auxiliary: had you'd put a log in between {D: bend over a log} and you want to get over without going running. Interviewer: Yeah. Auxiliary: And I I {X} Interviewer: Did you have coal here? 791: No sir. {NS} Well it uh I say no sir they had it at the depots. The railroad depots. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 791: And uh in town they had coal but there was no coal delivered out to the country homes. Uh where they everyone heated with uh wood until butane came along. Interviewer: Talking about uh uh the stove what what do you call that part that runs from the stove to the chimney the? Auxiliary: {D: Attic.} 791: Stovepipe. Interviewer: Stovepipe? 791: Stovepipe. Interviewer: Okay. Uh what's the difference between the stovepipe and the flue uh? 791: Well most most times the flue is made out of brick. It's uh made out of brick to be fireproof. Interviewer: #1 Okay. # 791: #2 And your # stovepipe go runs into your brick flue. Interviewer: Oh okay. All right. 791: That's to keep from burning your house if you just run a straight pipe all the way from the stove to the through the roof or through the wall why it would get too hot so you have a flue for it to go into. Interviewer: Okay. Now what would you sharpen a scythe on or or sharpen a ax on? 791: Grind rock. Interviewer: Grind rock? 791: #1 Grind rock. # Interviewer: #2 That was one that went? # 791: Round. #1 Now. # Interviewer: #2 Did you have one that you'd # use on a knife? 791: Yeah whetrocks. Interviewer: Whetrock? Okay. Uh now nowadays you drive a what a? 791: {D: Scooter.} Interviewer: Well you drive a uh everyone drives? 791: Car? Interviewer: Car okay. Yeah. You know what you ever folks ever call it anything in the old days? A different name for it? 791: Not that I know of. Interviewer: Motorcar? 791: {D: No everything} far as I know my daddy always said car or truck. Interviewer: Okay. 791: It was either a car or a truck. Interviewer: Now uh you used to have to keep the axle well? You had to oh? 791: You had to grease it right. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: {D: To keep it from} burning out. And to make it to where it would roll free and easy. Interviewer: Yeah. I see. You had to put what on the axle? You had to put #1 axle? # 791: #2 Axle # grease. Interviewer: I see. Now if you got that on your hands you'd say my hands are? 791: Greasy. Interviewer: Okay. Um when you had a door hinge that was squeaking you got to do what for it? You have? 791: Oil it. Interviewer: Oil it. Oh now if uh if the door was open and you didn't want it that way you'd say? 791: Slam the door or shut the door. #1 Shut the door. # Interviewer: #2 Shut the? # #1 Okay alright. # 791: #2 And if the # wind blows too you'd say the wind slammed the door. Interviewer: Mm-kay. Um uh toothpaste now comes in a tires used to have what they used to have #1 {X} # 791: #2 Tubes. # Interviewer: {D: Air} tubes. Mm-kay. Uh what what what kind of boat would you use here boats would you use to maybe go fishing on a small lake? 791: Usually a flat bottom aluminum boat. Interviewer: Flat-bottom? Okay. Any other types uh would you uh like a hollowed out log or? 791: No not this day and time. Interviewer: Yeah? 791: Th- there's still a few uh people got wooden boats made out of either hard cypress or {C: thumping} {NS} marine {C: thumping} plywood. But most of 'em is aluminum. Or fiberglass. Interviewer: Was there did did you ever hear it called a pirogue? 791: Oh yeah years ago. Interviewer: What would what was the? 791: It would be out of a log. {C: background speech} A log hollowed out. Interviewer: Okay. That was a? 791: That was a pirogue. Interviewer: Okay. Now you'd say if you just built the boat you're gonna do what we're gonna? We're gonna do what we're gonna? 791: You mean build a a wooden boat? Interviewer: Yeah you'd say well we we just built the boat today we're gonna? 791: Go fishing tomorrow? Interviewer: If it was a brand-new boat you'd say we're gonna what? 791: Paint it? Interviewer: Lau- uh. You'd say you know you you usually know the big boats that'd be over in New Orleans haven't you? 791: Yeah. Interviewer: They have a big ceremony when they? 791: Oh yeah a christening or. Interviewer: Chri- christen it before they? 791: Launch it. Interviewer: Launch it okay. All right. Uh now if a woman wanted to uh to buy a dress in a certain color she'd take along a a piece of cloth maybe as a? 791: Sample. Interviewer: Sample okay. So uh #1 and it's? # 791: #2 To match. # Interviewer: Yeah. Now if she sees a dress she likes it very much it's very becoming she says my that's a very? 791: Attractive? Interviewer: That's a what a pr- #1 uh. # 791: #2 Pretty? # Interviewer: Pretty dress but this dress is even? That dress is pretty but this dress is even? 791: More attractive? Or. Interviewer: Well using that same word. That dress is pretty but this dress is even? 791: Prettier? Interviewer: Prettier okay. What what would a woman wear over her dress in the kitchen a? 791: Apron. Interviewer: Okay. Uh now to sign your name in ink you use a? 791: Fountain pen. Interviewer: Fountain pen. Okay. And uh a dime is uh a dime is worth what? A dime is worth? 791: Ten cents. Tenth of a dollar. Interviewer: All right. Not much anymore. {NS} 791: No. Interviewer: Now you the dipper you used to dip from you said it was aluminum or maybe it was made out of before they had aluminum? 791: Porcelain. Auxiliary: A gourd. #1 {X} # Interviewer: #2 The the # gourd or it might've been made out of what? 791: Porcelain. Interviewer: Porcelain? 791: Porcelain. Interviewer: Did you ever see one made out of tin or? 791: Yeah. You saw tin drinking cups. Interviewer: Yeah. Now to hold a baby's diaper in place you use a safety? 791: Pin. Interviewer: Safety pin. Okay. All right what what would folks wear in those days? Uh can you tell what was really different or? 791: Yeah most most people back in those days wore wore overalls and a blue denim shirt and some of 'em in wintertime wore a blue denim jumper. Interviewer: Yeah. 791: And blue jeans. Interviewer: Now you go to church you might put on a three piece? Uh. 791: Suit. Interviewer: Suit. What what features would it have? Uh. 791: Pants a dress and a coat. Interviewer: I see. Pants you'd call them any other name? 791: #1 Trousers. # Interviewer: #2 {X} # Trousers? Uh I think.