James Wray’s interview with Nellie Wilhoit and Geraldine Chambers

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 want it publicly available, please contact the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center at 404-814-4040 or reference@atlantahistorycenter.com. In the first part of this recording James Wray interviews Nellie Wilhoit. She starts by recalling her life at the base of Walker Mountain near Cleveland, Georgia. At 02:05 Wilhoit recalls home remedies her mother made to treat or prevent common illnesses such as pneumonia and typhoid fever with Jerusalem oak seed, sassafras, camphor, and turpentine. At 03:18 Wilhoit describes superstitions her mother believed about the moon's effects on agriculture, marriage, and good luck. Next, she recalls harvesting cotton as a teenager and playing games, namely: Fox and Geese, Town Ball, and hopscotch. Wray concludes her interview at 08:00, explaining how she mainly ate food produced on the family farm as well as her family's daily meal schedule. At 09:30 Nellie Wilhoits daughter, Geraldine Chambers, recalls her Aunt Huldies efforts to persuade her husband Alfred to stop drinking. Next, she tells a story about her grandmother sitting at the bedside of a dying woman who she thought was a witch, convinced that she would go to hell. At 13:34 Chambers retells a folktale about a ball of light that guided a woman and her child to an American Indian gravesite. Next, she recalls superstitions that were passed down multiple generations, some of which she continues to practice. Specifically, she never starts a project on Friday, because it will never be finished. Next at 21:26, she retells a story about her grandmother experiencing a vision of her grandfather, simultaneous to his admittance into a hospital in critical condition. Then she recalls several riddles that she learned as a child. One of these riddles, at 24:05, is racist, comparing African Americans to black watermelon seeds. At 24:38 Chambers describes games she played after her family moved to Austell, Georgia, such as Ol McDonald, dodgeball, marbles, and paper dolls. She also remembers attending events in her hometown, Gainesville, Georgia, including corn-shucking, candy-pulling, Saturday night singing, and ball games. On Sunday, however, she was not allowed to play games. At 27:37 Chambers explains that her grandmother believed their property was on the site of an abandoned gold mine. In an effort to find the mine, she allowed children to pan for gold. At 29:19, she retells a story about her grandmother healing her husbands hand after an accident. She concludes the recording by reminiscing on how she misses the family dynamics of living on a farm during the early 20th century. Nellie S. Wilhoit (1903-1998) was born in White County, Georgia to William I. Black (1873-1934) and Ruthie E. Palmer (1873-1934). She had one daughter, Geraldine S. Chambers (1924-2007). Additional biographical information has not been determined. AHC Oral History Cataloging Worksheet File Information Catalogue number ~v\}7;;b IG'C! ?). ()?),:;> d Source Field' (ContentDM) Release form ( ~~~No Transcript Yes or No scanned: From Yes or No Default text: Contributed by an OR: Donated by individual: individual through <your org. name> Georgia Folklore Collection through <your org. name> Object Information Enter .Informat'Ion about the pihlYSI.CaI ob>'Iect here: Title (interviewee Mr<:> Lkll;I!-' wlkoA name and date /vIr') , C:yt.i (,.jeft\"~~/ (j\1<\}.\~)e(c;;. of interview) Description (bio on h\cl\,( IJ\h\ ho,1 0'''') Me', CioN Lv,,) 'p 0(\ ,j. r~11 \ ~ 1;;:1 '.. , , interviewee) .' .: 1 Creator (Enter either an individual's Burrison Folklore Class name or an organization) Collection " Name (within the Georgia Folklore Archives organization) Creation Date Exact Date (yyyy-mm-dd) (use only one) Year (if oniy the year is known) Circa (4 diQit year) \q(Q't, Year Span From To Object Type Image_ Text - Text and image_ Video and sound - Sound only-p Media Format Reel-reel (VHS, reel to reel, etc) Recording Hours: Co extent Minutes: '~;:;ll'"') 31',1\ , "-i"",",~ Derivatives Access copy: Yes or No Access copy format: Recording clip ( ~~_J:)fNo Clip extent: )$ : 1\ Time code for Beginning: 11"-')(" End: /Cj' '57 clip (h:m:s) Notes 7-\d\;c) - \ \ (~_ l,~_, (interview '\Sc>~t\ \j\J; \ hOi\ ~ ~:ye:x,-,""'_- tI\i"~"" ", '\t!'.,k', '; -,-,~ _.> ~, summary) ~\ ,e (:1,) I\-e.jj,\,~v\'~' o~ h'\~-~ (s""v,O 0-" ov"""- ~t~~ff''''\, ' - , .' . '. . . , , : . . Recording issues (background noise, echo, static, etc.) Subject Information Enter .InformafIon about the content 0 f theob)'Iect here: Subject Date Exact Date (yyyy-mm-dd) (use only one) Year (if only the year is known) Circa (4 digit year) rq(p'i Year Span From To Subject Who Last Name First Name MI Subject Country State County Town Local Name Location l/:A G11'\ Whd" 1((\. i-WI e\e~l_) Subject What AHC Cataloger will complete this for you. ~\ (LOC subject headinns onlY) Keywords Burrison, John Personal names See subject who for additional names 3 Corporate names Geographic locations Topics .5(>'(1'1:,,\\,1,W \ ',:> ~.Ck"< c) 'i <: ~:> e,y\\C,')'H'Ve',,:,\ 0' <,,>,'1\ :;\'\,A~" "',\4, (' I' j\\\,', p,c.k,,'::\'S eI/i ft.f'~~ -," 1\'1 tl. (~'''t.';'.{ ", '~1~1\ 'fit..I\" h"IUI' "J~ \ o -d..l\r-.t_' 'flf>.tH_,,~.t \'<\ ~.t._ i)( II j dlJ,1(\C, bl'\\ I ~,~\~,.j\li"4F}'~> '~O"'i, \\ SCt}'l 1'-1 'S \\ '\li-S (;,1 f\ I) J\C~';' COLLECTING PROJECT Prepared for: MR. JOHN BURRISON By: James M. Wray GEORGIA STATE COLLEGE ENGLISH 307. May,17, 1968 Introduction Because the two people that I collected folklore from are my wife's Mother and Grandmother, and now reside in Atlanta, it was not necessary for me to travel out of town. My wife's Grandmother, Mrs. Nellie Wilhoit, resides at 2013 N. Ridgeway Road, Atlanta, Georgia. Ridgeway runs off of Briarcliff about one-half mile from the Briarcliff and Clairmont Road intersection. Originally, Mrs. Wilhoit was born and grew up around Cleveland, Georgia, in White County. Through numerous conversations wlth her about her early childhood, I feel that I have obtained a fairly good idea of life in the North Georgia Mountains in the early 1900's. From these conversations, a number of impressions about the old timey way of life have been made on me. In a period before radio, television, theatres, and the automobile, the family had to find ways to amuse themselves. They also were strongly religious and worshipped and worked together. The result was the family as a self-sufficient economic unit. The family supplied all physical and psychological needs. Although times back then were harder, and life was a struggle to survive, they had something which we miss out on today. That is, a closeness and fellowship of human relationship, which no T.V., or Movie can ever replace. My wife's Mother, Mrs. Geraldine Chambers, lives at 2323 Desmond Drive in Decatur, Georgia. Desmond runs off Clairmont Road about one-half mile from the intersection of Clairmont and North Decatur Roads. Mrs. Chambers is even more superstitious than her Mother. She is also a firm believer in visions and super-natural powers. Her Grandmother told her many of these superstitions as a child and forced her to obey them in many cases. Because of the strong influence which her Grandmother had upon her, Mrs. Chambers was an excellent source of old superstitions 1 and beliefs. Today, she is a living testament to the major role which superstitions, visions, and super-natural powers played in the life of the old Mountain Folk. Time, education, and City living have failed to eradicate the superstitions and super-natural nature of Mrs. Chambers. In my interviews with Mrs. Wilhoit and Mrs. Chambers, I have attempted to cover many aspects of Folk life without emphasis on anyone particular area. I have tried to shed some light on the way that they played, worked, ate, and, to some extent, the way they thought. Throughout my interviews and conversations with them, I have received a deeper and more personal insight into a fast dying era and heritage in American and Georgia history. 2 Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Wilhoit Mrs. Wilhoit is a small woman, about five feet, two inches tall with gray hair. She was born and grew up in White County, not too far from Cleveland, Georgia. At age 64, she is still active and loves to work around the house, when not working at her full-time job as a sales lady for Rich's. She grew up in a frame farm-house, which set upon pillars made of a sort of slate type rock. The ceilings were high and the windows often were very long and stretched almost to the floor. Her Father was a farmer and grew the major portion of:their food. The family made almost everything they needed. As a girl, her Mother spent many hours spinning thread from cotton to be weaved into cloth. Life was hard, and it took the cooperation and work of the entire family to make a living from the land. Religion was a strong influence and power in the life of these simple Mountain Folk. These people were very strict and moralistic. For example, store bought games were thought to be sinful and were not allowed in the house. Transportation was by horse or mule-drawn wagon over dirt roads. Mrs. Wilhoit related that she was a girl, in her teens, before she saw her first paved road in Gainesville, Georgia. At the time, she likened it to seeing the streets of Heaven. Recreation consisted of going to Church, cotton pickings, corn shuckings, home-made games, and religious singings. The family unit was the motivating force in the lives of these people. The closeness of the country hill family was a relationship which brought satisfaction to all, and is missed out on by many modern families. 3 Interview , 1i'5 Q. l'm talking with Mrs. Nellie Wilhoit. Mrs. Wilhoit, where were you born? A. I'uz born in White County, and it wasn't close to any Town, it was so far out in the country that our breath even smelt like cordwood. Dh, I think Cleveland must have been the closest Town, but we didn't go to Town, it wasn't, uh, I never thought about town. There weren't many people, it wasn't thickly settled, and when I went to school, when I was old enough to go to school, I had to walk about three miles, but we didn't think anything about that. Over muddy roads, barefooted, and Q. Was it, uh, rugged country, lot of mountains around Cleveland? A. Yesss, well we had, uh, Walker Mountain 'n Long Mountain 'n Skitch Mountain was in below us a ways, but I never did see that like I did Walker Mountain. I been on top of Walker Mountain, and I used to love to clime the mountains, and I'd ramble through the woods, and that was real wild life. I enjoyed it. Q. What, -- do you remember any "home" remedies that you used to use, uh, for any kind of cure of illnesses or ailments, or that sort of thing? A. Well, not really too much, I never did think much about that because Mama took care of that. About the only thing I can remember, we made our own homemade syrup, uh, on the farm an' she'd make, in the Spring of the year, uh, in the Summer when she could get Jerusalem Oak seed, she'd make a syrup candy and put that in there and she'd say, "Oh that'll take the worms out of ya". Q. What other, can you think of any more "home,' "home remedies" you used to use? 4 A. Yeah, she always made us, uh, drink Sassafras tea in the Spring, she said that'uz a, uh, good blood remedy and, uh, also in the Spring, and when the Polk Salit begin to come up, she'd say, "Now we've got to eat as many as three messes of Polk Salit and you won't have any typhoid fever". Another remedy was, uh, for colds and cough an' and sometimes break up the case of pneumonia, she'd take mutton tallar an' a little lamp oil an' four or five drops of camphor an' about ten drops of turpentine an' about a fourth teaspoonful of quinine, melt all of this together an', while it was hot, she'd take a flannel cloth an' soak that all up in it and put it on our, the lower part of our neck and chest and that'ud really put you to sleep. Q. Was it, was it real effective? Did, did it seem to work? A. Dh yes~ It never failed to work. I have known cases of pneumonia broke up w1th it. It'uz even better than a mustard plaster. Q. Can you remember any old superstitions or proverbs, or old-timey sayings that your Mother and Father used to tell you? A. Well --- not a lot of 'em, I can remember some they used to say, if it'uz red in the West, tomorrow'ud be a fair day, an' if it's red in the morning in the East, it'uz Shepherd's Warning. Shepherd's 'ad better get their flock together cause it'uz gonna rain in two or three days, and I noticed that's a good sign, too, it usually turns out like that. And, uh, then, uh, at night they'd say if there's a circle around the moon, if you looked at the moon, if there's a circle around the moon and there wasn't any stars in it, you might know it'uz gonna rain right away, but if you'd count the stars, uh, you'd know how many days it'd be 'fore it would rain and it's not all the time that you'd see a circle around the moon, but you do sometimes and that usually works out true, too. An' another thing, too, 5 was the about the leaves on the trees, when you see 'em begin to put out in iH1~ Spring they'd be s8m~ and you'd think, oh they'd just would never get out, but an old saying was that by the tenth of May every leaf would be full grown. And I've noticed that along through the years, I'd think sometimes they wouldn't make it, but they always do. Well, time went by --- I'll tell you when I married, and married in a family that a woman was very superstitious an', uh, she kinda laughed at me for not being, but one night I picked up the broom, it'uz just an old country fireplace and a log fire, and I was gonna sweep the, sweep up the trash around it so it'd look clean, "Oh, No~" she says, "don't pick up that broom~" I says, "Why not?", says, "Why if you sweep the floor after dark, if you pick up a broom after dark, you'll sweep your fortune away!" An' then another thing she say I couldn't comb my hair after dark, says, if you comb your hair after dark, you'd comb sorrow to your heart. I used to hear my Mother say a good old saying, I know I can't say it word for word like she did, but she, I -- I've heard her repeat it lots of times that'if there's any good that I can do, or anything that I can do , for any body, let me do it now, I expect to pass this way but once. Q. Can you remember any more old superstitions, or things of that sort? A. Well, I don't know, uh, whether it'd be superstitious or not, I can remember Mother was a good cook and I'uz usually around helping her and they used to, uh, she'd make good old chicken gravy and I cou1dn'd stand to see a bit of it go to waste, I'd go to the kitchen and start sopping the skillet with a piece of biscuit an' they'd say, "Oh, don't do that, you'll be an old maidl", but I didn't pay any attention to 'em, I didn't care if I'uz, uh, gonna be an old maid. Then if they'uz 'round sweeping the floor or the yard or something, they'd say, "Don't sweep under your feet, you 6 won't never get married~" I'd hold my feet up an' let 'em sweep under my feet. I wadn't a bit afraid an' sure 'nuf, it didn't have anything to do with it, cause I been married twice: Q. Do you remember any games, or parties, or festivals and occasions around Christmas and all, you used to, you used to do? A. Oh, yeah, that reminds me, I uh, well we didn't have much places to go, there wadn't no such a thing as of a Show heard of back then, or I didn't know about it, and the only entertainment we had, even after I come up in my teens, we'd have Cotton Pickings at night. We'd pull off the old Cotton Bolls and we'd sit around the fire and pick 'em at night. A gang of us 'ud get together and then we'd have Corn Shuckings an', uh, the regular . ~ U games we really played when we'uz a ch~ld was Fox and Geese. I'an remember that. We couldn't afford to buy anything, so Daddy drawed us off one on a board an' we'd take corn for our Fox and Geese an', and whoever would jump one, we'd have two Foxes and a whole lot of Geese, and whoever jumped the most would win the game and then we played what we called Town Ball, it'uz kinda like I'd guess you'd term it as a Soft Ball now, but we enjoyed that. An' Hop-Scotch. An' I believe they still play some of that now. Q. What did you used to eat, back in the old days? A. Oh, we seldom ever went to the store for anything. We grew our own things, we had, uh, always had somethin' growing in the garden. Any time of the year, Mother could go to the garden and get stuff, an' we raised our own chickens an' they'd go rabbit huntin' in the Wintertime, kill rabbit, oh I love fried rabbit. And that would be a rarety, we'd have that for our breakfast of a morning. Usually, though, just as an everyday meal, for breakfast, we had our own cows and our own good old country butter and Mother would make good old homemade biscuits and we'd have that hot biscuits and butter and that good old Sorghum syrup we'd make on the farm, boy, there 7 ain't nothin , as, that's that good this day and time. But, we usually, most of the time, had our heavy meal du-, in the mid-day, because at night we didn't want to overload our stomachs and go to bed. We worked on the farm hard and we'd have a light supper, but our, our heaviest meal was our noon-day meal, what we call, now, as, "brunch". 8 Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Chambers Mrs. Geraldine Chambers, the daughter of Mrs. Wilhoit, also, for the most of her life, grew up on the farm. She was born in Gainesville, Georgia, July 30, 1924. Mrs. Chambers is even shorter than her Mother, about four feet, eleven inches tall. She spent the early part of her life in Austell, Georgia. After her Father received a crippling injury, while working for the railroad, they moved to her Grandmother's place near Lula, Georgia. After spending about two years there, they moved to Pea Ridge, which is now part of the Tucker, Georgia, area. Here her Father started to farm. Times were hard during this period, due to the great Depression. Although the family was poor, they always had plenty to eat. Mrs. Chambers can remember working many a day out in the fields, or helping her Mother with household chores. Although not as self-sufficient as her Grandmother and Grandfather were, they still made many of their clothes and other items. Mrs. Chambers wore many a dress made from "feed sacks". Even though the family was very religious and went to Church every meeting, Mrs. Chambers remained superstitious due to the influence wh~ch her Grandmother had over her while they were living in Lula. Today, she is still superstitious about many things. Like her Mother, most of the recreation which Mrs. Chambers enjoyed as a child was in the form of religious activity or family life. Times became easier after World War II broke out and everyone was able to obtain employment. But, like her Mother, she misses the closeness and fellowship of the Mountain Folk people. 9 Interview Q. I'm talking to Mrs. Geraldine Chambers, and she's the daughter of Mrs. Wilhoit. I believe you told me some, that your Grandmother used to tell you some, uh, tales and superstitions and riddles and things. Can you recall some of those? (A long sigh) A. Yes, I recall a few. Grandmother had an Uncle and an Aunt that she particularly told me tales about, Aunt Huldie and Uncle Alfred. They lived up in the North Georgia Mountains and, uh, Uncle Alfred made whiskey, like all the mountaineers did back in those days, and he drank excessively. Uh, it seems to me that he was always, uh, the "sot" of the family, and Aunt Huldie, who was his, uh, his wife, would get so provoked with him that uh, she cussed like a sailor, so they say. One particular incident, Aunt Huldie was always trying to break him of the habit of drinking, one night he came home drunk and, uh, everybody was in bed asleep, of course, and he came in and he was hungry, so he went to the old wood stove and there was sOme fried meat that Aunt Huldie had left on the side of the stove there, so he ate it. And not until the next morning did he realize that it was rattlesnake meat that she had fried, some, uh, old granny woman had told her that this was good for her rheumatism, so she had fried it out to use the grease on her rheumatism. Naturally, this made, uh, Uncle Alfred quite ill. Another time, when she thought that she'd break him from drinking for sure, he came in drunk one night and, as, uh, usual, went right on in to his bed and lay down and went to sleep. Passed out drunk, actually. So she decided that she'd go in there and she'd give him a whipping like he'd never had before. So, she took the sheet, she wrapped him up in it, 10 she got her some strong cord and a needle and she sewed him up in this sheet, where he couldn't get out. Then she got a broom and she for-evermore whaled the daylights out of him. Grandmother tells me he continued to drink anyway. Q. I believe you told me that your Grandmother also told you some, uh, scarey tales and some superstitions and something even about an old witch up in the mountains? A. Yes. The old witch, as I remember was, uh, they thought she was really and truly a witch. They were convinced that she was Witch. She was an old woman and she was very, very mean. Everything she did was mean and ornary, and hateful and, uh, just caused problems. That's the only way I can describe it. As Grandmother told me, she was just a wicked woman. Anyway, they lived miles apart from each other, but, uh, after this woman became, uh, fairly old, she got sick and, uh, it was the, uh, tale around the mountains there that she was dying. Well, when people died in the mountains, generally some of the neighbors, uh, would go in and sit with them and,uh, until they were deceased and lay them out, because they didn't have Undertakers and what have you. Grandmother was one of those that wasn't afraid to go over. Most of the people were afraid to go when they did believe that these people were witches. She went over this evening, uh, the evening that the old lady died and they were sitting in the room there, all around in the room, around what they referred to as the "death- ~W.A bed". (Humm-m). They, ah, Grandmother said she, they were convinced that this woman died and went to Hell, because just before she died, one of the open windows, that had shutters, not windows, of course, uh, some stray horse came up, stuck his head in the window and neighed, and then wandered away. And, shortly after that, this old woman died. So, they were convinced from this that, uh, she was Witch and that she had gone to Hell. 11 And some of the scarey tales that, uh, I remember her telling, one of them in particular, was about a light that they saw one night. Uh, they were walking along the road, uh, having been out, uh, to visit someone, or maybe late coming in from the field, and it was dark and this little light suddenly appeared. I believe Grandmother was walking with one of her sons at the time, one of her little boys was with her. Thfu little light appeared, uh, the way I remember it, about the size of a golf-ball, some distance up the road in front of them. And it just rolled along the road. Well, naturally, uh, they, it frightened them a little bit, but they wondered what it was and they tried to catch up to it, and when they'd get close to it, it'd just seem to, uh, get a little further away from them. But they followed this little light, going on the road home until it came near an old Indian graveyard, wh1ch was OVer in the field. And this little light, uh, took off through the field, across the field and up to this cemetary and they followed it, even up there. And, when it got to the cemetary, it, uh, rolled across one of the graves and it just went out, or disappeared. Now, my, it was my Grandmother's belief that there must have been gold, or treasure, or something down in this, uh, that was buried in this grave with this Indian. Probably it was an Indian, because it was an Indian Graveyard. But, uh -- but, anyway, they never did really know whether there was gold or anything in here, because, naturally, they wouldn't dig up a human grave. Some of the superstitions that's been handed down is, uh, if you hear a screech-owl at night and you can't, naturally that keeps you awake, but when they are howling out in the night and, uh, in order to stop it, you get up, tie a knot in your shirttail, or your gown, whatever you happen to be sleeping in, tie it real tight and it's said that this knot chokes the owl to death. And it's true, the owl will stop screeching. 12 Another superstition that's been handed down, that I've heard all my life, is a picture falling off the wall is a sure sign of a death in the family. I can't help but, uh, let this bother me a little bit, superstitious or not, myself. There was one occasion that I remember, as a child, where a picture did falloff the wall, these are pictures now, photographs of, uh, big pictures of people, not painted pictures, that I'm referring to, and in this particular incident, I was a small child, and remember it did falloff, I remember being frightened from having hearing the ta- he-, having heard the tale all my life, and really and truly, shortly after that, some member of the family did die, but I've forgotten, just at this moment, how close to the family it was. Not the immediate family. . A superstition that's been handed down that is, uh, I carryon still in my generation, is never to start sewing on Friday. Any thing that you start on Fridays will never be finished. I've done this, it's never been finished. I've made it a practice for many years now, if I have to sew, I do not start any sewing on Friday. Other superstitions that's been handed down that, uh, one in particular that I know, I've see-, I've witnessed and seen it happen, is, uh, when the farmers needed rain, or when you need, when it's dry weather and you need rain, or you wonder when rain's going t-- finally get here, if you look at the moon on a moonlit night and there's a big circle around the moon, if you will count the stars within that circle, between the moon and the outer circle, the number of stars that are located w1thin that circle, it will be that many days before it rains. And another tale about, a superstition about, uh, rain, is if you kill a snake and you hang it up over a limb of a tree, or over a fence, or a gatepost and leave it there, it will rain, it's sure to rain in three days. 13 Q. Are you superstitious yourself? A. To an extent, I am. If I accidently spill salt, for instance, I take a pinch of it and throw over my left shoulder. Also, I've always heard it was bad luck to walk with one shoe off and one shoe on. I never walk more than a step, uh, when I put on one shoe to put the other shoe on. If I happen to put a garment on wrong-side-out, I wear that all day just the way it is, because I've always heard that it's bad luck to, uh, change. Also, I've always heard that it was bad luck to sing before breakfast. That means that you will cry before supper, so I never sing before breakfast. (A word or two indistinguishable). If your right eye itches, it's a sign that you are going to cry. I always say "rabbit's foot", this is supposed to change your luck. And, of course, we've always heard that it's seven years bad luck if you break a mirror. I'm always extremely careful in handling mirrors. Also, another superstition that I've heard all my life was that if you look into a mirror, in the dark, if you are about to be married, you will see, uh, your intended spouse, the face of your intended spouse, or if you're c1- near to death, you'll see your coffin. I always made a point neVer to look into a mirror in the dark (a slight laugh). Referring back to some of the old remedies of my Grandmother's day, and this is a superstition also, I'm sure. I was staying with her when I was a child, less than ten years old, and I had mumps. And, uh, she believed that in order to keep the mumps from falling on a person, you could tie a black ribbon around their neck, and the mumps would not fall. For the number of days that I was sick with the mumps, while I was staying with her, I wore a black ribbon around my neck constantly. There was a little 14 step also that led from the, the bedroom, or the front room that, uh, they, we lived in mainly, into her kitchen and when the rest of the family ate, I was not allowed to step down that one little step, or back up, to get my meals. They always handed me my plate through that doorway. My Grandmother used to claim that she had visions, and she often told us tales and stories about the visions and occurences that have happened in her lifetime. I come from a very religious family. My Mother and Father were, and, of course, my Grandmother before them. There have been some incidences that I vividly recall that do deal almost with the super-natural. For instance, when I was a child, about eight or nine years old, my Father had a very serious accident. We were living in a small town, just outside of Atlanta, and when this accident occurred, it just almost killed my Father, he was broken all to pieces. They took him into a hospital in Atlanta. And my Mother didn't drive at that time, but, in order to go to the hospital to see him, she either had to get a, a neighbor to drive her there, or she'd take the train. There were three of us little girls at home at the time. And one evening, during one of my father's most critical periods of his illness, she had returned hom~to stay with the three of us girls in the evening, and during the night, after we were all asleep, my Mother heard my Father knock at the back door and call her name. So she got up immediately and walked to the door to let him in. This was, uh, not an uncommon thing, because my Father worked a lot at night and he frequently came home when all the three of us girls and my Mother were asleep and he came to the back door and knocked and called her by name. And on this particular evening, she had already walked to the door, unlocked the door, and realized, saw there was no one there, when it dawned on her that my Father was actually ill, back in Atlanta, thirty miles away in the hospital. 15 This bothered her for the balance of the night and, sure enough, when she got back to the hospital the next day, it was told to her that at about that same hour that she had awaken to hear him calling her name, that his heart had stopped beating. This was years ago, before, any, my knowledge of open-heart surgery or things li-, of this nature, and they had given him a shot of adrenalin to bring him back to life. Q. How about some riddles? Remember any riddles you used to hear when you were small? A. Oh, yes. Do you know what is, first it's white, and then it's red, three days old and then it's dead? (Pause). It's a cotton blossom. White as snow, and snow it ain't. Green as grass, and grass it ain't. Red as blood, and blood it ain't. Black as ink, and ink it ain't. What is it? (Pause). It's a blackberry, from the time it blooms until it's ripe. Over on the hill is a little green house (informant left out the - following words: "and inside that little green house"), is a little white house, and inside that little white house is a little red house, and inside that little red house is a whole lot of little black niggers. Do you know what it is? It's a watermelon. Q. Do you remember any games, er, in particular that you used to play as a child, that you used to, uh, enjoy? A. One of the games that we used to have a lot of fun playing was Old McDonald's Farm. This game you played with a group of children, like dropthe- hankerchief, and you formed a big circle, holding hands, and you put one child in the center of the circle, who just stood in there. We called this Old McDonald's Farm, and we sang the song. The child in the center of the circle, of course, was Old McDonald. We'd all go around, circle around him and we'd sing: "Old McDonald had a farm, E-I, E-I, 0, and on his farm he had a wife, E-I, E-I, 0". And then he'd take his wife. He'd 16 reach in the circle and, uh, choose his wife. This would make the circle shorter. Then we'd start on the next one: "Old McDonald had a farm, E-I, E-I, O. And on that farm he had a dog, E-I, E-I, 0". And then Old McDonald would reach out and get, select his dog out of the group and made the circle even smaller. We did this the same on and on until there was just no circle, only one person left. Other games that we played, when I was a child was dodge-ball, marbles, and, uh, one of our favorite past-times was paper dolls, which we cut out of catalogs and magazines and paper, newspapers. Prior to this, in my very earlier life, when We lived up in the mountains near my Grandmother, the entertainment that they had, or the parties that they had was Corn-shuckings and Candy-pullings and, of course, the entire family joined in on these. There was not a lot to be done out on the farm, in the way of playing, we worked so much, but we did have picnics and, uh - ah, all day Singings, Saturday night Singings. This was old religious songs that the family got together and sang. Some people played banjos and guitars and mostly it was by Organ or Piano. On Sundays, we were never allowed to go to Movies, or to attend Ball Games, or to play Ball Games. This was considered sinful and so we were just not allowed to participate in anything like this. Q. I believe you also told me that there was a legend that there was a gold mine on your Grandmother's property. Is this correct? A. She believed that there was. As a matter of fact, she died thinking that that old farm that they owned up in the North Georgia Mountains would someday make her rich. And it seems that when she and Grand-daddy were young and bought this acreage that there was a story told to her somehow about how they had mined gold right in that area, on that particular property and that due to a change of hands of the property someway, the men 17 who were mining this gold were either run out, or it was sold out from under them, and because they had not finished the mining, they blew the place up, or hid it in some fashion. My Grandmother actually believed that there was a gold mine there and when we were children and would go to visit her, we spent many days going up and down the old creek, looking for the gold mine. She even had (humm) pots and pans that they used for mining gold, and it was fun as a child, really, because she'd scoop down into the sand and then come up and wash this, ah, off -- pan for gold, they called it, and occasionally she got a few gold flakes. She had little bottles that she kept in the trunk where she did find some gold -- little gold dust in the creek up there, but as far as the gold mine itself, it never was uncovered. It never was proven to be a fact, however, she died thinking that she did own a gold mine. Q. You also told me that your Grandmother could conjur, or heal. Dh, would you tell me more about that? A. On one occasion that I remember in particular, my husband, this was in my early marriage life, and my husband had cut his hand. We lived out on my Father's farm at that time and my Grandmother had come down to stay on the farm. He cut his hand so badly that it was bleeding real profusely and I had small children, so I called Grandmother from her little house and asked her if she'd look after the children while we saw a doctor. We didn't know, hadn't taken any steps toward stopping this bleeding, so she comes out and she sees what's going on and she says, "Wait just a minute and let me take a look". So she takes the wrapping off that we put on his hand and she stands over it. She's very quiet as if she's concentrating real deeply and she's looking at this bleeding hand. I was nervous and I wanted to hurry to the doctor and I had no idea, really, what she was doing. She tells me to be quiet and not interrupt her and she stands over this hand 18 for a while and then she tells us to go on our way, don't say a word to her, don't thank her, and just not say anything more to her and go on our way. And, as I recall, the bleeding had slackened considerably and had stopped by the time we got to the doctor's office. Q. Do you think today's children miss a lot of the old timey way of life? A. I certainly do. They miss family togetherness. As far as the Cornshucking, the Candy-pulling, if a baby was too small, it slept in the corner. Any child that could stay awake, it was a family affair. Today, our teenagers, and even our younger children have their own interests and go their ways and Mothers and Daddys have their own interests and go their ways. The family togetherness is all gone. (Pause) By the way, I've just remembered that one of the games that I gave you previously, I gave you the wrong title to. I said it was Old McDonald's Farm and it was actually a game called The Farmer's in the Dell, and it was played just as I described it, only we sang The Farmer's in the Dell song. Maybe this was because we used to sing Old McDonald's Farm along about this same time, too. That was one of our favorite songs as children. 19 /JU ' f}Pf,pg,l/ IJ6 Clf?&{ f'-; 0: I!J " 300.50 A PDF transcript exists for this recording. Please contact an archivist for access. 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. As archivists, we acknowledge our role as stewards of information, which places us in a position to choose how individuals and organizations are represented and described in our archives. We are not neutral, and bias is reflected in our descriptions, which may not convey the racist or offensive aspects of collection materials accurately. Archivists make mistakes and might use poor judgment. We often re-use language used by the former owners and creators, which provides context but also includes bias and prejudices of the time it was created. Additionally, our work to use reparative language where Library of Congress subject terms are inaccurate and obsolete is ongoing. Kenan Research Center welcomes feedback and questions regarding our archival descriptions. If you encounter harmful, offensive, or insensitive terminology or description please let us know by emailing reference@atlantahistorycenter.com. Your comments are essential to our work to create inclusive and thoughtful description.