Cathy Brown interview with J.B. Smith, Vaughn Calvin Saxon, Paul Brown, and Lovey Brown (part three)

The John Burrison Georgia Folklore Archive recordings contains unedited versions of all interviews. Some material may contain descriptions of violence, offensive language, or negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. There are instances of racist language and description, particularly in regards to African Americans. These items are presented as part of the historical record. This project is a repository for the stories, accounts, and memories of those who chose to share their experiences for educational purposes. The viewpoints expressed in this project do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the Atlanta History Center or any of its officers, agents, employees, or volunteers. The Atlanta History Center makes no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in the interviews and expressly disclaims any liability therefore. If you believe you are the copyright holder of any of the content published in this collection and do not wa
This is part three of a three part recording. At 00:20, the audio starts with Paul Brown playing the harmonica. When he finishes, Richard Brown asks how he learned to play and the origin of his interest in music. Paul Brown responds by recalling country dances that he attended as an adolescent at his uncles house, where they also listened to old records, drank homemade liquor called red-eye, and sang songs such as Little Brown Jug and Kacey Jones. At 6:50 Paul and Lovey Brown tell a ghost story about children traveling in a buggy who saw a woman dressed in white who tried to get inside the buggy. The horses ran off and the woman disappeared. At 08:30 Paul Brown plays the harmonica and Lovey Brown sings and plays the guitar to Hillbilly Dance Tune. Next Lovey Brown plays and sings a song her mother used to sing called If Brother Jack Were Here by Jimmie Rodgers. At 16:30, Lovey and Paul Brown play Two Little Orphans by Ernest V. Stoneman Trio, which originated in Ireland but multiple American folk artists popularized in the mid-twentieth century. At 19:46, Lovey and Paul Brown play Butcher Boy, first recorded by Kelly Harrell and later popularized by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Next Paul Brown plays Rosewood Casket on the harmonica and Lovey Brown plays Ship that Never Returned by Henry Clay Work, followed by Give My Love to Nell by Chet Atkins and Les Paul. At 27:12, they play Columbus Stockade by Doc Watson and then In the Pines by Bill Monroe. At 34:51, Richard and Lovey Brown discuss another ghost story that her grandmother told her about when Lovely Browns aunt visited her sister, who lived in an old stone house in Atlanta, Georgia. Whenever it rained, Loveys grandmother would hear a baby crying; while searching for the source of the noise, they found a babys skeleton. At 39:05, Lovey Brown tells another ghost story about a blind man who tapped his cane on her grandmother's house when it rained. In the next story, a little girl died of fright in an old graveyard while playing a game with friends. She also says that her mother decided not to move into a house because it was haunted by a young girl who died in a fire. At 48:28, Richard asks about a poem, Guilty or Not Guilty, which includes themes of class division, legal ethics, and the Great Depression. At 52:20, Lovey and Paul Brown play Theres a Little Pine Log Cabin by Albert E. Brumley. Next, Lovey and Paul Brown play The Burglar Man, an Irish and American folk song also known as Burglar Bold. At 56:20, Lovey sings Mother Queen of my Heart by Jimmie Rodgers, Cowboy Jack by The Carter Family, An Old Log Cabin for Sale by Porter Wagoner.
J.B. Smith (1881-?) was raised on St. Simons Island, Georgia. He attended school periodically until tenth grade, when he started working full time on lumber sawmills and oyster boats. He married twice and had one son. In 1967 he retired to Brunswick, Georgia. Vaughn Saxon (1912-1987) was born in in Union County, Georgia, to William Bennett Saxon (1883-1925) and Ella Saxon (1888-1925). During World War II, he served as a Private First Class in the United States Army . He married Bessie Ruth Saxon (1911-2003), and the couple had one child, Mary Lou Ashton (1933-2009). They retired to Cleveland, Georgia, in the 1960s. Paul Brown and Lovey Brown (1918-1999) were born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama, and then resided in Atlanta, Georgia. Additional biographical information about all interviewees has not been determined.
Tall Tales; Family history
,or .er either . individual's Burrison Folklore Class ,ame or an organization} Collection Name (within the Georgia Folklore Archives organization) Creation Date Exact Date (yyyy-mm-dd) (use only one) Year (if only the year Is known) I otL,=-l Circa (4 digit year) Year Span From To Object Type Image_ Text - Text and image_ Video and sound - Soundonly~ Media Format Reel-reel (VHS, reel to reel, etc) Recording Hours: extent ./ Minutes: tr+', 010 Derivatives Access copy~ or No Access copy format: DVa Recording clip l~orNo Clip extent: 0,6~g' Time code for Beginning: End: clip (h:m:s) N(inotteersview - II \'YIbvy \ VI oLl.As+~ Y\L/;tY !::>VtA V\.:)w\ elL summary) - \r-,I v"\ ch,"'j 0+ +v-AJ ?"A, - V\\; [" \Y'lJ I0 \ If:;,1: {,'{ I v\ d\,I.;:rt-l'~ '.' , , , . I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Corporate C1,1 ok~ ~\ VIe., names lGoecoatgioranpshic DYLAV\5lNL(/\Lt~) ) 6-\- SI VY\. WI s I ~JCiI lAtA ( (~ lA, ~ ~. I r (} Vv\ 611/111 IZ\,ft v Cbe,) Topics :rto I '/+t.l /'. i . 1\NYb-uv \'" V-..$+'I'\J (';i'lln oc",,4 S-+QYI'~/.5 \-\/ VI c,h "'\:) D(A V" l,i nj CJ U (jAh'lrVl AHC Oral History Cataloging Worksheet File Information nCuamtabloegrue 0.5 5 IDo:? ol. I I Source Field' (ContentDM) oJ, (./ l O\)3 O<Y}tll \ .P Iv Release form Yeso~ Transcript (~brNo scanned: From Yeso~ Default text: Contributed by an OR: Donated by individual: individual through <your org. name> Georgia Foiklore Collection through <your org. name> Object Information Enter .InformafJon about the PhllVS.lcaI 0 b)I'ect here: (Tinitlteerviewee MV :5. B. ~\tV\\.J~ \h-+t')r V\C\A), I "lCo':r name and date of interview) Description (bio on interviewee) FOLKLORE PROJECT Knglish 307 l'-'Ir. Bl.lrrison Novmm)er 27, 1967 Gathy Br01'm 'I'his recording was of Mr. J. B. Smith of Brunsuick. He is 86 and tells about the Hay life 'faS uh,m he Has grm-Jing up. Until the Heek before I recorded this, he had lived for a lonp: timo on st. Simons Island, out in the country. NO'f he and his 1;life are Ij_ving in a trailer in his son's trailer park in Bccuns1-1ick. He t.ells sevel~al of th(~ stories that he remembers being told to him. His address is: Mr. J. B. Smith Glen Acres Trailer Park Carteret Road Brlll1SHick, Georgia Q: Did you use to Hark on the old boats? No ma"J111. Never lvorked on a boat. Used to gather the oysters, tOHing oysters from the river. Worked the SaltT mill. Ub hlLh, tote 'em and sell t em. Hull and sell 'em open. Then we fished in Gilnathret for trout. '~,as in the Vlintertime. Couldn't fish in the summertime--too many crabs. And then I Hent to Horle at the mill. Brought a big mill here from Haleigh, North Carolina-- Hocky ~lount, North Carolina, I believe it \-Jas--and Hent to saw on cypress lumber and cut the logs on Altamaha and raft down to the mill. They s~Hed cypress logs. Band sm" mill. Terrible big logs. Q: \'Jas that over on st. Simons'! No, that .,as right on this other, right over by this ridge. I .,as raised right back over there yonder in sight of 17. I uas born and reared. Sm-md there for, I reckon, 20 years. Had to pile lumber on the yard. Couldn't ship it (shipped it -by l'1ater) couldn't ship it 'til U dried a :Tear. Had to dry a year before they could ship it. Driftod the logs up the river and had to truck the lumber baok d01ffi to the river to get it loaded on a vessel. Nules pullGd the trucks d01ffi there. Had lumber pilGd on them. Then Taylor (T8.y10r 8.: Sons) brought another mill from Ludington, Hichigan, dOHn and \'lent out in the marsh and drove piling and then they brought tho maohinery 'rolmd on a glider (they call 'om barges nowadays) and put the maohinery off and set up the mill and I-Tent to satling. Trueen the slabs and s8J,dust edgings and cypross bark and luade land out of it to pile lumber on. They S8.1"ed t,here for ten years. c-jJ)ross lumber. It I,raS a terrible big mill. Sal-lCd 75--anYHhere from 50 to 80 thousand feet of lumber a day. Q: Aro they still in businoss? No, ain't nei:t.her one of 'em. All done. Sold off all the logs, all the timber on the Altamaha. It's all done gone. Ain't hardly nOHhere. 'I \'lent to Hark there Hhen I l-JaS 13 no cypress lumbor nOVI f~ years old. 30 cents a day, -2- worked 11 hours, less than 3 cents an hour. Q: Vn1at kind of work did you do? stacked shi','lgles in the shingling department. I made then 75, 50 to 80 cehts a day, but I had to 1'Jork for it. shingles 'lito 1!'7~ ~ J hl:mdrsd. then and I l,ent "- lie had lot# of cypress A ' to stacking shingles by the, by contract, 8 cents a Never got to go much school, didn't, get much to school. Dad died, I mean malaria fever. Didn't get much schooling. Sick mighty near all the time. That Has out about 3 miles and a half from Brunswick. On 17, Hhere 17 is nOlo/. That's Hhere the mills ,'mre. My father sold the mar;shland out there to Taylor to put his mill on. Taken the road mud and roll the marsh mud up on ','IheelbarroHs to make the road go out there. Uh huh, no other Hay to get there. Then when I 1o/ent there, Hhen I Hent to sa1o/ing of course there l'IaS sawdust and slabs and blocks and things on that road and made it hard so that you could drive an automobile or anything else on it. They sa1;ed there for years. 'Til the tidal Have come and blOl'Ted all that lumber back dOlm in the woods. \-Ie had to haul it back doun there. Q: And I'Then ,Jas the tidal Have? \{.hen'd you sa1o/ it Has? 1898. Q: And Hhen did you 1000rk on the oysters'? In the 'Tintertime. After I Has, long after that, most of tho time. Used to go to st. S:ilnons. Had to go over there on a boat. Cheaper. 'THas no other Imy to get there. And a long time ago used to be 6treetcars here in Brunsvrick pUlled by Ij,ttle mules. 11'0 little ole mules at a time. They goes loping, loping and pUlling that streetcar dmm, all up and dOlm the city. That's on a track that run 'Hay out in the marsh t01o/ard St. Simons. People l:i.ved on st. Simons take ,the boat and come over there and tie their boat and get on a streetcar and come up to BrunSl'Jick. And Hent back, go that Satne Hay. Stay at our house; our place over here and He could see ,n1en they come out. They come out through old Mansfield Street there in Brunswick. -3- Q: Did any of the passenger ships ever come to Brunswick? Yes, ma'am. 'I'vTO of 'em used to come, twice a Heek. The, uh, Clyde Line and I don't knoH nm" can' t recall the other name. They used to come here tMice a Heek and bring passengers and freight. One come, one dock in here about I Monday and ,the other one don't go out 'til Friday. Bring a load and carry a load. Carry crossties and resin and things back. Q: Where did they come from? NeH York, yeh mostly. Boston. Q: \fhat is phosphorus on the water? Phosphorus on the water? It 1ms, it sparkles in the summertime. The salt ,rater 1,Till sparkle like everything. Thousand little sparkles on it. It's real pretty in the smmnertime. Dark night, hot weather, hit that Hater and see a thousand sparkles. You can see fish fight far a'Tay in t he summer. Q: Do you lmo" ghost stories'?',e~'~I~f ~ ~ tifl-~ No, raa'am, I never. Niggers are too scared of ghost stories. There "as tHO niggers hung over here, over here by Hhat they cal.l Taylor's Chapel Church out here. '1'1'0 niggers hung there one Saturday night. Lynched lemand that day ) my mother and I and my brothers Has coming out there and another lady Has coming, going out there to church. Before He r;et to church we see people coming up the road just like they do noj", ya knoH, thick. Used didn't be not many people much on the road. NOVT mother said, "Must be gonna have a big church today Hith the people coming up there." Got up there and right past the church 1,Tere tlvo niggers hanging up there on the tree. (/-M'1Av.) Q: \Vbat Here they doing on the tree? Lynched 'em. Shot' em to p:Leces. One of, they Has both the niggers raised by Hhite people, one raised by Mr. Club and the other by Mr. Lamb, John Lamb. And they taken an old man out. Freed 'em, when they turned 'em loose, they wasn't, they "asn't slaves, but "hen they got too big to Hark, be bossy and all, and -11- they 'lent out and killed that old "hite man up here ,;ith lightning knots and robbed him of his mone;y. And they caught 'em and lynched 'em. Lynched on Saturday night. Q: Did you have many lunchings? No, that's the only ever 1 lm01,red about in thi.s vicinity. Q: You mean this ,JaS Ij.ke the unorderly thing HHhout the 1m; involved? Yea, they boat the old man Hith linghtning knots and killed him. The;y taken 'em out and lynched 'em. Q: ilhen Has this? Pardon me, Hhere 'las 1? Q: hlllen? 1 don't lmo'l. \!lhat year, yo. mean? No, 1 couldn't tell ya. H's belen a long time, though. I don't reckon I 1'1as only 'bout? or 8 years Old, if that old. '{eh, I didn't SeJe it, but Ilmo'l, I lmm.r it 1'laS done. I can't L'emember anyGhing that happened yestiday now, Q: Did you toll stories on the oyster boats'? No, \-Iasn't but one, one man to one boat. There Has three of us and all U1ree had a separate boat. He go out and tOl'led the oysters and 102.d 'em up. No, He !12,d tongs like tHO rakes. Como together, had long handles on 'em and they come together and the oysters in betHeen. Q: Do you like oysters no,,? Yes, ma'am, I like 'em yet though, but you can't hardly get 'em nOH. He used to sell ~!;3 a barrel, nml it takes 3 dollars and a half a bushel. 'fakes t1"O bushels and a half to make a barrel. Oh, just one tide we go out ,-rhen the tide's going out tmrard the oyster bed. Hhen tide get 101-J then He come back. Had to pUll the boat, didn't have no motor. No engines in the boat then. Had to pull it b;y oars. Pull against tide. Yea, about llr or 16 foot boat. One of my brothers had an 18-foot boat. Barrel boat. He Has, he took on Hhole lot more than the rest of us. Better 'n that. It Has hard 1,-lOrk. He got a dollar -5- a barrel and made money. But we couldn't get then but 75 cents to a dollar a day. Worked 11 hours. OVer on the river be~1een here and St. Simons. The first one you get to. That's the one 1,rhere, up the river. hard I don't knoH yhat else i10 tell you that'd be interesting.,. ~'Iell, $<Yt>'-Q~~>,4'l'AQf!J summers.~ C~osed do,m in the winter and for a Hhile for repairs. I Horked Then I had to go to Washinr::ton, but I didn't, I didn't oyster much for regular. I just go out, sort of to fill in while the mill Has shut dmID. No. Yea. Other work, so much I don't knoH. First one thing and then another. Q: lrlllen did you meet ;jmur uife? I come up one day, road up yonder, vrorking at the shingling building and met m;l first uife. He and her got married. After she died Hhy I met her (speaking of his present uife), 'bout 2 or 3 miles difference, I reckon about 5 milos difference, but I'd never seen her before, 'til just before we married. That Has a quick courtship. Never did court much, He just 1vent together 2 or 3 times. Go to church, carry 'em riding, smnething like that. In August Hhen they had that meeting, wasn't it? l"here I Hent and I lmoHed her father and brother and they asked me to eat dinner and she was coming up there, her and another girl, uhile He lvaS eating and I hadn't said nothing to her. N.3ver thought about her. 'rhere Has an old maid there Hith her and I \'Jas trying to go Hith her, but I ask her if she could ride home Hith me and she said she uouldn't go and so I didn't go either. Hasn't long before Ifsk ::er to marry me. Used to go to dances a ,nlole lot. Dances, square dances. Q: Were you real good? I reckon so. l!1ent to 'em.!M"f"4 A Q: Do you play an instrlunent? No, I had to call figures, call sets, "Honor your partner, Second to lady on the left, Slving your paxtner, Promenade", and all that. All night long. I Horked all day, 11 hours, and lwlked 10 miles to dance. Danced all night, come back, changed my clothes, ate breakfa.st, didn't even put my clothes, just left -6- my clothes on the bed. Q: HOfl J~ong did it take to Halk all that Hay? C'jt"'t<>- ~'t1 Oh, 'bout hour and a half. ~ No, I ain.t either. Not many people that can outHalk me. NO\'Jhere round here. Q: ~~ere Here the dances held? People's houses. Jy father didn't raise no girls. He'd give a danco, to, take h:i.s mule and I,agon and go haul 3 or L'_ girls up thore for us boys to danoe Hith. Q: Did you live in the countl"? IJell, it Has all oountry here then. 'I-Jay dOlm yonder 'fore you got to t01m. Then He go back up this 1'1ay to danoes. Used to Halk up there olose to the blimp base up there .. Q: 1",fere you a good horsemEn? He didn't have no horses, had one horse, too many of us ,mnted to go, viC' d turn and 1J8.11(. ~Jasn't a horse and buggy. It Has mules. THO little mules, I think. They go, I recleon, about an hour and they change 'em and hitch tHo more. Q: HO\'r many people could they pull? Just about as much as it k,kes nOH to go on one of these big bus. Yea, it ,/as on a railroad track, ya kno,r, just a little track like a railroad the car I,rent on. \>lent to a dance one time, picnic, li'ourth of July, and uh 1;1e got there, that Has the Altmnaha. Got there about 11 o'clock and Hent to dancing, danced 'til about 2 0' clock and had dinner and "ent back to dancing. Danced' til about 6 o I clock and he.d supper and Halked around a i'lhile. That 1-r:".s on l'ourth of July. Then '-J,lilt to dancing and danced all night. "fell, did stop about 2 0' clock and drink coffee and eat somethine; or nother. I got home that morning, 81m Ims shining and I didn I t intend to go to ,Jerk. I hired a horse auel buggy to carqr me and my [;irl up there and uh 1'Ihile I ';las eatin"; breakf8.st boss man come and talk f\mny. Said, "Joe, ready to go to I,ork'i Let's (;0 to Horle." "No, man, I -7- I can't go." "Yea, got to have ya." "No", I said, "I got a horse and buggy, got to carry uptm'ffi first before I can go. 'Hhen I get back I'll go to Nork." Brother George Has sitting there. He said, "I got to go to tm'ffi. I'll carry it back. II I coulda knocked him over, 'cause I didn't lvunt to go. That's one time I didn't ",ant to go to Hark. So I had to go on and go to ;rork. Noontime I 'ras so sleepy I didn't Gven go home to eat any lunch. I just sat right dmill and went to sleep. Q: Diet you "rork in the SUl1111ler and go to school in the ,rinter? No, I started in the swmner and Harked. J~ mother was rlmning a boarding house a Hhole lots to tho mill people. She got in bad health and my father Has in the Civil \liar and he Hans't able to Hork much. 'raken all of us to get. \']ell, the fact of it is she l,rent in debt and the debt and rumling a boarding house. taken all of us to M ',Ie didn't have 5, A go t a 1'101'], to pay up 8 months school. When I first went to school didn't have but three months. Then the nl3xt Has') and then 8. That's' the most I ever l'rent to school. And all children ',JaS in this one room just about as big a.s this here, about 15 or 20 of 'em. Yea, ABC's and I don't thid, I went above ninth grade. \Ve had one girl in there, she Has in tlmth grade \Vhen I quit. I'Ihen I quit. I Hent in history, no arithmetic. GeogI'2.phyI Hen-G fifth grade. Rc~ading and spelling I clidn1t f{et out of second grade, 'cause that's one thing I could never do. I can't yet. I can't read out. I can read to myself all right, but I can't read out. Never could. One school tea,cher toJ.d me it H8.S 'cause I stuttered and another told me it l'1aS 'cause I diCln't learn my JIBe's. Said I Houldn' t ever learn 'em, to say my ABC's in order. So I don't ]<110>1 Hhich, but I kn01'/ I hai(l't learned to read out yet. Yea, all the children, all the schooling I got in one little classroom. After '\;he tidal llave I Hent a fo," months, 2 or 3 months, I 1J3.S 18 years old thGn and. " That Has the only thing He h8.d to go to school in. erNrded and. The mill had to do a Hhole lot of repair l,rork. And the school treacher come and ask me to go to school, so I \'lent for about 3 months." Very IEM, very IeH. I never got to . (~1,1 -8- tenth grade. I got about fifth or sixth grade in geopgraphy and history and arithmetic. I Has good at arithmetic. But I never, reading and spelling I never could. Then He used to have a grammar, I never could get that either. 'i'aught to the rule of a hickory stick. I'le played, recess ",e played marbles a \"lhole lot. I HaS good on that and then He played mostly the ",ho~e hour, played drop the handkerchief. Q: Don't tell me you never put a girl's pigtail dm-ffi an inl"",ll. No, ma'am, didn't have no inkwells. Q: Did you have chalk boards? Yea, had that. We used to play drop the hanillcerchief. Me, me and my best girl ",ent aro,u1d that thing, oh, a thousand times. She'd chase me and I'd chase her. All gone nOH. Q: Did you have men or Homen teachers? No, I;omen. Hell, they most all of them married. That's, that's the trouble Hith them. They all thought too much of me. They petted me. That's the reason I didn't learn nothing. That's the truth. I U8.S teacher's pet, every one of lem I ever had. Vh huh. Never, I n,wer had no sisters. Had 8 brothers and they all had 8 brothers. Devil of a family, "18.sn't it-,? No, 'we never did. Did you catch llhat I said? I had 8 brothers and they all had 8 brothers. His daughter: Tell them about the goose. Huh? Oh, goose setting e101m 'sielo the fonco, the gravo yard fonce. A felloH Irent by theI'e one day and he and uh, the old gander he taken after hj.m anel Then t.here "ere t.uo fellas ,rent. fishing one night and u11 they Hent., got dovm to t.he graveyard and uent to elivide the fish and they say, "You take thj.s 'un and t.alce that. 'un." "I'll talce this one and you take that one and" Let's see Hhat come up thore nOH. Oh, I forgot Hhat it \-Tas. lind somebody out in the graveyard said, "Oh, y'all leave that 'em, leave that" One of 'em says, They left 2 fish on the post at the gate, that's right, anel one said, "I'll take the -9- ,\ tHO fish at the gate and the old fello1'l in the graveyard said, "No, that one's mine." ~rhey got scared and left I em alL That's just a tale. Q: Did you travel much? No'm. Didn't have time. l'ly mother run a boarding house over at the milL Held to help cook and 1JB.sh dishes and peel I~sh potatoes. All had. Yankee boarders and they all had to have I~sh potatoes for breakfast and. pancakes. I cooked I bet I coolwd a truckload of pancakes in my life. Put' em on one plate, one on top of another, 'bout that big around and Hhen a fella take his fork and stick it in and put lem all on his plate. Had to tlJT tem all. Taylor's }lill when he built a boarding house out ther'e on the marsh and "e lived right at the edge of the marsh Hhere I \'Jas ra:Lsed and my mother w'nt dm'll and had to run the boarding house there. And it's just a big ole long room upstairs, just a big long room little bit wider'n this and had that full of beds. Had about 20, 25 b,:ds up there and then of course dOiJnstail's they had cut up in rooms. Dining room had tHO long tables, long near as that mess there, people sitting on each side of it. She got, lost her health dm'll th81'e and. quit Horking so hard. He couldn't get no help. Space 1ms. Heatherboard Hith tin and in the sunmlertim~it Has so hot you couldn't hardly stand it. Couldn't e;et nobody to stay clmm there. So she kttJ\M'v lost her health and Hent back home. Heatherboarded with tin. No, all in one house, all in one house, kitchen d01Jn back at one end 3,nd the oin.ce at the other end and the dining room betHeen the tHO of 'em, the liVing room back dmm next to the kitchen, Hhere they live. Q: !file"'e did you go to church? \'Ihat they call Taylol"s Chapel Church, back, Hell, I can't tell you .trom here. Back over in here somel'There. Hight back over here some1'lhere that I s Vlhere I "18nt to church. I remember the first time I Hont c,o church. There Has an old fella, Tread,.mll, liverl on the road betHeen Hhore He lived and Hhere He go to churCh and he Has a prea cher and uh Hhen I got back and he hollered 'md Have his hands and holler and holler. Got back home and my brother told me, he -10- says, "HOI'T'd you like the preacher?" Said, "I didn't hear no preacher." He said! "Didn't the man preach?" I told him that man Has drunk. He 'Javed his hands and hollered. No, didn't have church but once a month. No, I barfoot, barefooted. No, I Hear shoes. Yea, shoes cheap, though) ~, Then that's about aU I can tell ya. \'Ihatchamacallit. She got all the infonnation. Didn rt get nothing Hhen ya got through. Q: Do you remember high top shoes? \Ihen me and her married, her shoes come up to here. Q: Did you like bustles? Oh, good God, no. Th9.t I s the terriblest looking t.hing I ever seen. Q: HUI they be coming back into style? Bight be. I Houldn't be' surprised. I uS.3d to, I kno1'J people, girls ,leal' ],ong dresses. I knoH I1'Jent to a clahce one time. A schoolteacher at the dance had to talco and tu:cn her dress around and pin it to keep people from stomping on it. Pull it off of her. Near 'bout do it. Yea, she pin it around somehoH another. I don't knoH han it Has. She get it off from dragging on the floor. One of my, D1Y sisters-in-1BM, she told me had a dress one tliue noarly as long as that chair there dragging behind her. ':.Jhen the yelloci fewer come t'1 St. ,Simons Hasn't but '(MO people to die, but they all had to get out of Bruns1iTick. No, not unless somebody clone had the yelloH fever. If they done had it, like my father had had it, it had, the first time they had yellolJ fever. That Has Ifore iras born. He could go to tOHn, but anybody that had never had it coulon It go to tovrn. Q: Do you remember "hat year that 1'Jas? No, I Has a small fella and uh \'Tasn It but tHO, a fella Harris and a n:Lgger believe it Has. No, both of them 1'Jere ,'hite, fella Harris and I don't remember the other man's name n01ol. They died of yellOlJ fever. Vlell, uh, they tell me it started over in the Philippine Islands. Yea, caused by mosquito. Uh huh. Used -11- ~ to, ya know "hon ships come in, used to~lots of sailing vessels and 1111 and steam ships como into BrunsHick and they quarantine 'em out before they get to Brunswiek. Inspect 'enl 'fore they let 'em come to dock and they had a quarantine station dO'Om there right by, right close to Hhere this Lanier Bridge is now, right along there. Take' em and dock 'em then and get the doctors and inspect 'om and search the ships 'fore they let 'em come to tovm and in that instance somebody that they didn't catch it, didn't catch that they had the yellow fever. Take 'em back, back to the yard and quarantine 'em if found a disease on 'em, smallpox or yellow fever. But they didn't catch that one, let it come into BrunS1'lick. '1'his fella Harris Has, crosstios load I think it 'IaS, he wont on the ship. After frost, though, they could go back, after frosh frost. :,}hen it got cold enough fOl' the frost to fall they go back to tOl'm. You could go in t01Vll in the middle of the day, but you couldn't stay there more than a, couple of hours. But you couldn't go in and stay. They "ouldn't al101' you. Yeh, 0 Lord, yeh, yeh. \o]ell, she never, my mother never did cook much loaf bread. She cooked biscuits. She waS a better biscuit maker there ever \'/8.s. Yessir, she's a biscuit maker. Q: Do you rember the old irons? Un huh. Had to heat on a stove, one a fireplace, eithe:c one. a towel, nap~in, table napkin and sheets myself. til"'" I iron many ~ Huh? start to iron? Oh no, the mills. One nent to I'wrk at five o'clock and the other at 6. Yeh. Yep. Used to be, llhat they call the Altamaha Mill, the first to come in, cypress mill, had a big Hhistle you could hoar for 10 miles and bloH at h 0' clock every morning and 1rake up ever;ybody. Yeh, no hurt feolings. Yep. The tunes 011 this tapo 1'101'0 played by 1'11'. Vaughn Saxon on the "fiddle" and his "ife on the guitar. Hr. Saxon is about fifty and had lived in Union County until he moved to Cleveland four years ago. He learned to play the fiddle by himself "'hen he Has about t1,enty and just picked up the tunes. His brother, Comer, "ho lives near Blairsville, plays the banjo. Mrs. Saxon doesn't play by herself, just accompanies him. His address is: J'flr. Vaughn Saxon, Route Ll, Cleveland, Georgia. Titles of songs: 1- Katy Hill 2. Lee Higlmay Blues 3. Ricketts Hornpipe 4. Orange Blossom Special 5. Kill tho Old Red Rooster 6. Haiden's Prayer 7. At'kansas Traveler 8. Cackling Hen 9. SHott Bye tn Byo 10. Vlha.t a Friend 'Je H8.ve in Jesus n. Flopearecl Hule ! '.f'!'~ Lei','" C,,~) (j
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Professor John Burrison founded the Atlanta Folklore Archive Project in 1967 at Georgia State University. He trained undergraduates and graduate students enrolled in his folklore curriculum to conduct oral history interviews. Students interviewed men, women, and children of various demographics in Georgia and across the southeast on crafts, storytelling, music, religion, rural life, and traditions.
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