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 this two-part recording, Bunt Hood looks back on his varied life and work. To start the interview, Hood recalls his career in aviation, specifically charging passengers, when he crashed his airplane, and participating in airplane shows. At 5:23 he recalls safety precautions he implemented after crashing, such as bringing extra supplies. At 7:38 he recalls noteworthy car accidents in Alabama and Georgia, as well as the train accident in which actress Jayne Mansfield died in New Orleans. At 13:10 Hood talks about owning a sailboat in 1949 on what would become the East Lake Park Golf Club in Dekalb County, Georgia; he charged passengers to sail around the lake. At 17:30, he talks about his experience with Italians while working on a strawberry farm in Chicago with his mother, specifically the macaroni and other meals they cooked. At 21:03 he recalls Casey Jones, a freight and passenger train conductor who died in a train accident. At 25:05 Hood describes trains that transported the produce that he and his mother picked. Next at 27:36, Hood remembers when he worked in a circus juggling, doing acrobatics, and assisting hypnotists. Switching subjects, at 33:53 he talks about getting married and his job as a sign painter. At 36:00 he remembers working with car mechanics in Birmingham, Alabama, including F. H. Bartlaborn. At 41:50 he talks about selling medicine for Dawson-Northington Drug in Dawsonville, Georgia. Next at 44:45, he recalls attending a sign-painters convention in Toronto, Canada, where he saw the famous lawyer Clarence Darrow. He concludes the interview by remembering his trip home from Canada, specifically going through customs.
Bunt Hood (1890-1977) was born in Birmingham, Alabama, to Isaac (1859-?) and Sallie Hood Bunt (1870-?). As a child, he worked with his mother picking strawberries in Chicago, Illinois. He married Celeste Hood (1894-?) in 1910 and had two children, Dorothy (1911-1994) and Bunt Hood II (1916-1933). In 1920 Hood moved to Bozeman, Georgia, then in 1930 to Columbus, Georgia. He was a sign painter, advertiser, aviator, and boater. Nathan Patterson (1897-1972) was born in Dale, Alabama, to Allen Patterson (1866-1920) and Sarah Ann Jane Phillips (1871-1951). He moved to Jefferson, Alabama, in 1916 and became a Brakeman. He married Mattie Lou Arnold (1898-1974) in 1921 and had one child, Evelyn Patterson (1923-2012). In 1942 he returned to Carnegie, Georgia, and was buried in Dale, Alabama.
THE REMINISCENT MONOLOGUE A Brief Study Collecting Project for !VIr. ,John Burrison Folklore JOl by ,John H. Ballard Georgia State University Spring, 1970 Contents IN~IH()DUGTI0N/j" & El oJ lil 9.0 (,)., ". & & B". Q II II It e e e e G. /j " It II II e It & I) e. e 1 THE TRANSCRIPT. e. III 1&." If. e e" ell" 8 8 III 1\1. It It 9'. III e 8.0 eO' I). II" e Lr.... 23 Barnstorming Gettin Right Accident In Alabama .Jane Mansfield Yet Another Acciden;t Sailing Good & Bad Eye-talians Casey .Jones More on 1l rains Juggling A Hypnotist's Act Painting Signs Adjusting Automobiles Selling Patent Medicine And More I.; 6 7 88 9 11 12 14 15 16 18 19 21 23 SYNOPSIS" e $; III 111 0 0.8 I)." e I) e" 8 II o. e 8 {I It It. 8" e & e. e (11" If I) 8 .24 COMMEN'rS0 8. fl 0 00 $ 8 8 It It 0 & III 0 8 It 9 0 If e 8 e 0 to If e e. 0 e 0 It 026-32 The Reminisoent Monologue, A Brief Study Introduction Having had my firGt expoGui'e to folklore aG a discipline in thp. past two months, I was cxcited over the proGpec'~ of exploring this genre of American memorabilia, Pondering the folIc-hero and the story-tp.ller, I naturally thollght in terms of my homc1 town, Columbus, Georgia. A conversation with a friend inBpired me to get in touch with onc of thc mos'(; colorful men in Golumllllfj, Bunt Hood. Ii'or half a centur'y he has made himself loeally oonspicuouB by hiB erazy anticB, provoking one stir after another, He seems to be a man who haB done cverything at 1(~aBt once, workine; a.t variouB jobs, .juggling, traveling, and once flying an airplane under a bridge conneeting Columbus, Georgia) and Phenix City, Alabama. The thought Btruck me at once that here was a folle-hero in the making, thn.t within three generations folks around ColumbuG would be telling Bunt Hood star'ies comparable to local taleB in other partB of the eountry, 'I'hiB did not prove to be the case. People with whom I talked either didn't know him, or knew of him too little to relate a story, or lmew him well and difll:Lked him. I only found one man who talked nbout him 8.t any length, and his information waB gleaned from a televiBion interview with Bunt that he had seen a few years ago. When I saw and heard Bunt Hood, however, I felt he was worthy of preservation,popular opinion to the contrary not~withstanding, When I played the tape for friends, my suspic ions wer(~ confirmed; the response was immediate approval. Bunt Hood is a veteran talker and a captivating entertainer. His acoounts of practically nothing, told in a very irregular manner, are simply good entertainment. In the folklore context, he would be classified as a yarn-spinner or tall-tale teller of the urban variety, working in a memorate medium. He relates possibly true personal experiences which are designed to make him appear somewhat bigger than 1:i.fe. Perhaps a.n apt name for the Bunt Hood type would be "reminiseent monologue," Organi 7.ation ~'he problem of transcribing and punctuatin'] a fifteenpage sentence is probably not unique. I have chosen to divide the transcript according to thoughts, rather than visual or verbal clues from the narrator. Since one of his attention-holding devices is telling unrelated stories end to end, dove-tailing one with another deliberat~ly, any division of the transcript into segmentG is almost arbitrary. On close examination the transcript reveals several trains of thought which are not apparent on the fil'st hearing of the tape. These general sections are titled for oonvenience and are listed in the table of contents. Since most of the talking is done by Bunt Hood, 2 his name has not been repeated at the beginning of each section or paragraph. Parenthetical notes make clear who is speaking; unless otherwise noted, it is Hunt. Dots are not meant to indicate pa.uses, for he rarely pa.uscs in the expected places, but are an attempt to clarify the sense of the aecount by indicating unfinished sentences and ideas" 3 "Barnstorming" (I'm) Bunt Hood (from) Columbus, come over hyere in, uh, 1912, and uh, just been ever-where since. Had been everwhere in Birmin'ham at age six in eighteen ninety ninety-six, I made a pair of wings. I don't know just exactly what the workmanship on 'em was but I didn't fly I got up on the barn and started to the. ground, and I broke my right foot. That uz my first flight. In 1896, age six years old, heh, and it was, uh I made a good landing: I didn't walk away from it, but I crawled away from it. (H)and from them on, why, I've been busy most of the time, uh,I'm interested in flying I barnstormed. and wife Wesley, she went along, and barnstormed with me-- and we land in various places, and the first landing there was never anything about, uh, where was the next meal coVlin' from. l,and in a cornfie ld, and by the time we go t, uh, landed, Why, and was f.i..xin' tuh hoof it in town,why, the congregation would be out there and they'd be a-fight as to -w-h-o, (h)was gonna -fe-ed- us. (H)and so, heh, heh, food or grub, huh, huh, was not any, huh-huh, was not a problem and down in Bainbridge, I recall that-uh, uh, flew over there and they rang the fire-bells, there, they'd never been a plane there before, and uh, Wesley and me, and my copilot -- Charley IV/eyers, a little shrimp about a. hundred pounds, and he could eet, uh, he could get the ,Jenny of of a., just any, any kind of a little spot you had, you understand that was his, his, uh, point in it -- and so just, it was one, one flight after another. Now hyere in C'lumbus, why, in carryin' passengers, fifteen dollars for ten minutes, why, they just, uh, just land where ever you could and you know about what a ninecourBe golf course is? Well, I covered that, I b'lieve in the beBt time's ever made in the Country Club, hahah, and earried paBsengers offa there -- jUBt when you got off the ground, why jUBt float on down to town yOU'B way above it, and, yh, it (was a) profitable business, hah, h-until they, huh, run me off, haJ:l., I's flyin', (h)I's ploughin' up the field, huh-huh, with the tail-sldd. Huh Can you turn (wantB to turn off the tape recorder, but the collector interrupts.) (Colleetorl) Ever do any tricks? (Bunt&) Well, uh, the propoBition was, my line-up waB, that a hundred and fifty dollars was an exhibition flight. You did a few loops, a tail-spin, and just cavorted 'round in general. And that was a ... that waG a, uh, cost ... besides drawing passengers at ten do1-, at fifteen dollarG for a ten-minutes' flight. If you was in a hun'y, just make a few turns like that and cut it down to five minutes, hah, huh-hUh, It was all fun but then, uh, uh, had to have a kit along -- you never knew where you's gonna land (cough) and, uh, uh, damage your wings ... have, uh, extra canvass, dope, r' ;J tacks, and I've got some of the tacks now, huh, fuh tackin', heh, huh, h-tackin' the thing back together with parafin (h)and so on . and, uh, uh, flyin' is ,just, uh, that's the best way to get from one place to another. I have uh (Collectorl) Did you quit flying? (Buntl) Huh? (Collector:) Did you quit flying? (Bunt understands the question as "Do you still fly?") (Bunt.) only when I get a chanch Gettin' Right But honestly, I don't go up by myself now, for this reason: that, uh, I can in some way get a cramp in a foot, and I'm I'm just hep-less. Well, now, in uh, flyin' why if you've got, uh, uh flat ten-mile area, why it don't matter which control goes out, if your rudder goes out why just take your ail-rons and manip'la.te right on down, but, in ,iust straightflyin' you must be in a position to to, uh, maneuver yourself down right. And for years, after the after, uh, all this barnstormin', worrin' about where you'd get right, now this comes, uh, uj safety feature ... that, uh, after you, uh, worrin' around gettin' right, now I after the final crash and we, uh-uh, crashed and just uh tm'.2":::~ the Jeimny, why, that waB the end ... that was ... PERIOD. Hah-hah. wadn't anything left, a.nd BO in ... for years, in-nh, uh on passenger trains, and even in a car, why you's forever looking for a wel- "I could get down there," and so on. AlI'19ht. Now. You c orne the po int that 6 ... any time that you are in a !:ar:., be ... sure to take in the territory. Look for a possible place that I'll s:rfl,,!1.. Now. I've, uh, told, uh, ,j us t untold number of people that same thing: "Look for a place to crash" but I neglected to tell my j;htrd 9_ousin Accident in Alabama and this happenc~d in Weedowee, Alabama uh, oh 'bout a year ago-- cain't keep up with the exact date -- it happened ... and Tony (cough), his father, Leroy ... Lee, and, uh, beautiful wife, Mary and uh, two of Tony's ch.i.ldren. And Tony was in the back seat, and uh, Lee was, was drivin' and his wife on the, uh, right-hand side and, uh, the two babies between, an' they were comin' from, uh, from Halfin to Weedowee. And a big truck rounded and they went... underneath that truck I got the message through a friend of mine that lived over there -- and, uh, Lee uh, Tony was ,just dazed. Him and his wife Tony was ,just dazed. He was ,just -- crazy. And at that time he lost a fatrwL and a mother., and uh, !wo children WHEREAS, with this tremendous di.esel truck, comin down the hill, if he if I hadda told Lee he could-uh any-time you meet a car on the wrong fndn, have your placed picked that you can dive into it. If it's a creek, or if it's a ,junkpile or anythang, anything beats And, uh, the if message -- I hoven' t been to Weedowee since --, but the was that, uh, they were s,o badly mangled, they didn, '.t '" OPIH] the coff).n, at :the burial. '7 Jane Mansfield And re-ca11 another case, Jane Mansfield, and we gain' to Texas ... and they's a bad bend. right there. Now. our point in goin' to Texas w~) di' wanna go through Nyorleans, and so we take off, ninety alter-nate, and you bend around its a bad bend, right there. Well. I alwa.ys go under control. Go under control and you're right. And so the thing was that poor ole .Jane had been out playing the supermarkets (?) She hada, llh, her so-called boyfriend there and her two children. And, uh, uh. maybe -- I might be wrong, c'rect me, that ... uh, anyway. shc was gonta ... uh, uh, they were gonna take and she was uh, uh, had a showin' there, in Nyorleans, and take the causeway back into Nyorleans. Well, it just clipped their heads off. Nothing left. You know of tha- , of that case. So that, uh, that point is, uh, uhl Go under control. Look for a place to land. And in,uh, case of takin' off from ... on a runway, don't never turn and go back. Yet Another Accident If you've got enough speed tuh turn, you've got enough speed to keep goin and a friend of mine here in At--, in C'lumbus, uh, pretty good aviator, why, he waS up in in At--, Atlanter an' he took off up there he had-uh twist the wires together to get off -- he didn't have a switch on it. And, uh. he, uh. didnt have gas'line, an' he took an he went against the rules and tried to turn, and his fa.ce now is thoroughly burned ... d isfigured, .. and what could be a ha.ndsome young man is, is, uh, disfigured for life. fl SO, go straight ahead -- if its a junkyard, a graveyard or regardless, don't ever try to turn. You can do that if you-uh, got enough pow'r, and so on and so I might say that, uh ... I like flyin I learned-uh. I learned-uh sail a boat, huh, h-without any coachin' (cough) Sailing This goes back to East I,ake Park, and around nineteenfour or five a mile and about 200 Yards around the lake and. uh, I run the little min'ature locomotive, the Lake Shore Limited fifteen h-inch tread, hah-hah, hand carried 32 passengers around hu-that h-lake. Well, that-uh that little remnants of that-uh, little-uh, miniature, hahah, Lake Shore Limited is in Auburn now just remnants of it and my good friend, Professor Walter Clemons, had got a regular mu-seum over there, includin' that engine h-andanything in the way that I could-uh, donate 'n' anything that he pick could pick up an' ever-thing and that location is nine miles -- he's a professor at the University of Auburn is nine miles from-uh. from Auburn uh. goin', I guess, uh, towards-ee towards uh freeway to, uh, Montgomery 'n' Atlanta, see And-uh, so that little-uh that little-uh miniature or the remants that little miniature engine is over there. And so in runnin' the engine there at Ea.,st Lalce Park, why, we had two styles of-uh, sangle two oars, and the other was-uh uh, double, four-oar proposition, 'n' it had a rudder 9 And the Gasina went out over the lake, and it WEt[), uh (cough) whore they put on summer shows, and so on, and so forth, and so on and-uh, I got SOf/l(' ole scenery there an' I JI:new what a little, heh-heh, oneFsail, hUh-huh, h-sailboat looked like... And so I got it rigged up on h-there, and at the uh, not the lower it was the loWer, but the deepest part of the lake why, at first, I run out on the bank there. But I soon I soon learned how to handle it h-and h-I sailed allover that lake. Just pull against yUh pull against your rudder an' hold it just an far as you can, h-and that makes it there. Ha-huh-huh they's-uh, thoy's-uh uhlot to lifo if you take ad\i-antage of it, see (Collector,) Carl said you used to be in a circus. (Bunt!) Oh yes, yes well-uh experience in the ole showboat Minsissippi showboat Ha-hah heh, carnival h-circus, hahah (Collector!) vlhat did you do? (Bunt!) Huh? (Collector!) What did you do? (Bunt I) Well, I te 11 you whn:t ... huhuh.. An a showboat I was, uh ... I was just-uh, uh ...uh,'kid. 'I's 'leben ycars old. And-uh, I was more interrested h-in fishin' for erawdads You know what a crawdad is? (Collector!) A little crawfish. (Buntl) Well, crawfish. Well, uh, craw -- crawfinh, and-uh and-uh.-.whadda you eall it, uh, the big red? 10 7 (Collector,1 A lobster? (Bunt II Lobs:j:;,et'? ~'h(~y:r.e all the same. Hahah, and of course-uh, I get-uh wo had plenty crawfish, I've spent many a h-day fishin' for h-crawfish, a.nd then put'em in the pot, huhuh-cook-em so on, and so anyway, that-uh that was mostly, uh, the fun down there. Good and Bad Eye-tali.ans And-uh, pick strawberries; the finest people in the world is-llh Eye~talians. And the meanest, lowest-down, sorriest are, also, Eye-talians. Now take it out. Now, the daughter, Dot she says that-uh that-uh she'd rather live in It-ly, outside of this country, than any country that she knows of, and she's travoled quite a bit. And-uh, the, uh, small businessman there and you wanna know the direction, why, he'd just close up business and carry you there ... and that's just the kinda people. Well down in [,oosiana there why, there was, uh, uh, Eye-talians from Sicil,Y. That's the poor island down below, down't the foot yeah, the heel, or whichever yeah, it's foot, there and uh we pick-uh strawberries, 'es: strawberry trains 'ere, you see, and-uh uh, it just a produce to supply Chicago an~-uh, make-uh maccaroni. Did you ever. see any maecaroni made? Well they made the maccaroni and they had the, uh, mud ovens out in the yard the finest people you ever saw h-and fan the maccaroni, you see, there ... and-uh ... boy, it was awefu.l good there, and-uh, my job and my mother -- we had we just-uh, we worked, you understand hard always worked, whole family and-uh 11 we packed strawberries. It was ten cents a case, and-uh, tell h-how the public is gypped, paekin' strawberries, why you emptied now it wadn't these little pints, it was gre1l:t big quarts and you emptied 'em out, and you put the little ones under the bottom, and the big ones, hahah One day I was in-uh ... in thH storH, you know, gettin' some-uh, some bread. uh uh just a little odds and ends, and the lady spoke up (?) in other words, thO dinner for the packin' shed h-and the best h-the best meal you can eat, h-is good biseuits and great big fat strah-straw-bherrieshuhuh. It's-uh, it's-uh life And-dHy give you an idea about the good and bad Eyetalians, the EyH-talians all had a stamp there, you know, for the-uh, produce houses, see, uh, whatever you Ball it, the middle men, up-there in Chicago and-uh, they'd-uh they'd go-uh, uh, carload, a passenger fast train carload of strawbHrries to the commission merchant up there, and prob'ly arrive in good shape, and get the news back tha,t, uh, they waS spoiled So that's the good and the bad Eye-talians. Casey ,Jones And-uh that's, uh, that's what they did, now t~llin' you about goin under control why, you~ve heard, of course, of Casey ,Tones? Alright, Casey ,Jones was-uh his name wasn't Casey, you understand; he, he, uh run uh, made the run from Casey, Kentucky to lVlacomb, Mississippi. 12 uh he was a fast one, and he uz behind time and (cough) What happens on a freight train ... 01' on any train... is, that they's a, uh, triple value and the, the air for that tl'8.1n is already under each car and by reducing the pressure in the car, or if you cut the hose, the conductor can pull the cord and reduce the) pressure, then you put on brakes and he'll do it gradually. And so Casey wan gain' there, I'd say, I'd say the track was, ull ... oh,oh ... upwards of a mile long, fmd the engine in front there was just ready to move out as soon as Casey cleaned it, but there waS several t}w caboone and neveral cars out on the main line... Well he waS rlot--in--control. The proponition gain' controlled now 'a1;'s what myoId engineer at East I,ake Park taught me ... He nez, "Kiddo," Sez, "always be in control," sez, "you're nafe ... about safe if you're in control ... " Well Casey wan doin'just the highest speed he could with thone large driving wheels, making up that time he's way behind time, and no he what happened with Caney was, that he cleared the little, fairly-short train pasnenger.train cleared the engine, engine pulled out, and a couplin' broke, and it put brakes on everything, and Casey plowed into that, and his-uh his-uh fireman jumped. H(1 give him a ch--, uh had a chance to jump, but that wan the lant of Casey. And I I've seen the Cannonball, I lived right on the Ameet City, I,OoBi'Hln.... thoy call it Ameet, Amite now, Ameet now, or whatever it might be and, uh, the Cannonball come through, it didn't even slow up. It come through there highballin' Now' at wadn' t Casey, but that was another fast man 'at would open 'er up and let 'er go. And make it to Nyorleans, you see. Well, uh, that.,.uh",that, uh uh Casey would ' ave gone. He'd uh h8.d his time made up and he eould've took that few seconds for that and n(~V(Jr gotten there but been safe. But, uh, he didn't do it they's, uh they was no cure for the other. The only thing there well they's .iust no cure for the trcdn; you have to drain out every ear if you're around a yard you'l.l. see 'em drainin' out a car. Well now that's the proposition about goin' under control. (cough) More on Trains And what we did there in Ameet was, uh ... it wa.s strietly, uh, paekin', uh, uh, produee of different kind~~o~,. f~r, Chicago. And the Cannonball an', uh ... it would, uh, uh ... it would hit a. cow and, uh, the shape of the coweateher, they call it, throw it up. And it was a case right down below Now that was at, un, just a short turn that I lived at Galatte, one mile from Ameet City Galatte. And, uh, that was where, uh, a gin works was located. And, uh, the propof3i~;i.on was that our house just faced the, uh, Illinois Ccntral the fence come on 'round, and ever-thing was fenced,tJlit and :thc:;y h(1.d, uh, guards, they had saw-teeth things on the crossties, an' th~ railroad was fenced in there, and Uh.eflUh, they was no stoclc law, and-uh down below, will, uh, uh good distance, why, the, uh, seetion hands had tuh get a cow offa the off 0' the, uh, te legraph wires. And then at one time, uh, uh, car come through, leakin, uh, corn and ooohl at the pigs they killed. 'rhey killed hogs comin' and again', there. And I guess that's about enough of that (At this point, the tape recorder was turned off, at Bunt's request, for about twenty minutes. He wanted a chance to r(~member what he wanted to tell and go over it so he eould tell it well on tape. He did, in fact, remember a great deal, but very little of it did he repeat for the taped record. His remembranee was but a continuation of the monologue, rich in detail and lucid in style.) (Bunt was once a juggler, performing in circuses and on stage, even appearing at one time, he said, with W. C. Fields. This many-sided man also had nine years of piano lessons at some point in his eighty years. ~'he next two aeeounts relate to those partieular abilities.) JUGGI,ING (Colleetor I) First, tell, just how did you start ,juggling? (Buntl) Well, I just, uh, uh, just started out kept working. , and I tried my -be-s-t to get some Side-kick, some um, uh, friend you know, boyfriend of mine or a buneh of 'em an' just have a regular jugglin' act , But they'd never, ! they'd never make headway on it. juggled, uh, jllst kep' increasin' (Gough) t'; e II tn' I liust\! uh lt an' doin' a little better, an', uh, 'h'uh meantime, uh ... unicycle (pronouneed " yoona-sl".ck.]..e ,,) ]'."8 one-whee.1 bl'CYC 1e. I une, uh , I.. use juggle 'at .,. had it, uh, on a wire 'n' jugglin', :1$ 'at hahah, huh, on a loose wire, an' uh, just one thing after another. 'rhat was uh, uh just, uh ambition to be a great juggler with a great act an' uh large number I wanted tuh , the boys to pass it from one side, ,just mixed up.,.what you commonly see now on, uh, stage outfit. And-uh, just, uh, kep' on. I's jugglin' five balls, uh, fine."uh, doin' well",an' then three in either hand, three balls".that made six,.,and was workin' when I finally just, uh, got on to something else, you know."dropped this juggling. Now". (Collector:) Tell about the hypnotizing, A Hypnotist's Act (Bunt.) Uh, well, uh, I was 0orkin' at a IiI ole planin' mill out beyond on eight--, on Nine-teenth or Twentieth street it wa on twentieth street I'm just about sure ... and, uh, I's workin' in a little ole planin' mill. raised up in one (cough) over by the Frisco yards (7) there in Birmingham. And, uh, I didn't uh, wash up; I's just dirty as I could be clothes greasy, just what you have foolin' round a planin' mill with old machinery and so on ,So I come up by the, uh, theatre, there on ~rwentieth street, and, uh the,y was a bunch of kids out front, and, uh ... and, uh-hypnotist out there ... he was all made up 'ere fine. I finally got in on the conversation, and. uh, I dec ided maybe I'd help him out. And after the regular fun of his, uh, outfit there got in there got in there, why, I told him that, uh, that, uh.,.just, uh, call me, not to stick any pins or make that rooster-crowing thing ( the standard repertoire for a stage I' hypnotist included rendering the subject insensitive to pain or having him behave foolishly; henee, the dramatic devices of sticking pins into a subject or having him crow like a rooster.) but, just uh, uh, make me a great musieian; have me go down and play the piano 'fore that tremendous aUdienee, and so on. And so that suited him fine he , course he wanted assurance that I could do it, 'n' I told him (cough), in a professional way, that, uh, that was safe. And so he saved me ." looked like to the audience that he was just gonna overlook me. And so he finally discovered me over there and brought me out, 'n' to1--." asked me, se z, ; "Do you play a,violin?" I just shake my head or say, It NO '" II "Do you play "he went over line of instruments, you know. and, Uh, I'd either shake my head or say "No." and uh." "po you play a piano?" "Oh I shook my head to beat the baml , .. "NO. Po s.i.:tivel,Y, No," h-and so he procedcd to hypnotize m", and he he got me pretty w01l hypnot:i.z,ed, He had, uh , he told me, uh, after I's hypnotized, that I's one of the grea.test in the world: tremendous. ,. tremendous audience out there, wai tin' to hear me. Hah, so, B.t-uh as he was gorma lead me down, he had my arm, you .know had to lead and it was (Bunt's voice trails to a mumble, then abruptly and elearly to his wife in another room:) Hon0y, what was that theatre on Twentieth street? (Long pausH.) 1'( (Mrs. Hoodl) Nickleodeon? (Buntl) No well, anywa.y, uh,he was leading me down to that little pit (orchestra pit in front of the stage) and, uh, there was a piano in there and tuh make the act more genteel, why, I stumbled. I dinn't fall down, but I stumbled I was so thoroughly hypnotized that he h-had to, huh for the time being he had to take charge of me. He set me down there, and by that. time 1.' s pretty well wound up. I had a good line, the old "IVIaple [,eaf Rag" was the that's the one I won my h-wife h-with, hahah, and, uh ,just. uh 8ee various ones, I give the piano thc worlw got the applause. Everything was lovely. (((",.);) And, uh show waS over went out. That professor hypnO'Ust just bcgged me to go again, but I dared not, 'cause I knew there's be (some people from that audience who might see another show and pick o\.rt the staging.) (the tape ran out just as Bunt finished this story.) Painting Signs Look, all you want don't give a damn how much uh, how many mistakes I make all you want is I'm not, uh, on a witness stand and, uh so the Been married a month and went down to Sylacauga (Alabama) on, uh for the City Delivery Company of Birmingham, to paint signs. I always painted signs when I was a little kid I painted signs and went down there to paint, uh, signs there was, uh, just, uh ordinarily, why, it wadn't much more than just, uh, over-sized icebox, and they's it would hold a freight car load of ice. And City Delivery ].[) Company shipped it out to all the mining towns around, uh, Birmingham Sylacauga was one and, uh, ;iust covEJrcd the town. And as a kid, why, a neighbor man got me started,,0W <p..,. it (cough) and, as a, uh avorage, I'd get about, uh, twenty-fivc dollars for paintin, uh, one of those ice-boxes. Ano., uh, I, uh, savoup, get two or,.thvee of em had three one time to collect seventy-fivc dollars. And Mr. Woodrow VI (It a nice young gentleman--Mr. Rushton waS his father-in-law RU8hton was a gx'eat icc plant and coal called Rm.,hton, uh "For a full toni Rush-ton" and, uh, so anyway, Mr.Woodrowl IIOOOttl sez,llyou're gonna break us!" and Doh me$QajlAst as a kid, you know, I just say: "Oooh, hah, hah, I done got too many on me; I better collect on everyone, if I don't get fired on t.hiG " Adju8ting Automobile8 ... but anyway, I' s down a.t Sylaca.ugCl., and that job there ... I had to pa.int indi~e of it a.nd, uh, nothing on the roof, and it 'mounted to thirty-five dolla.rl1. And it had a good bit of rainy weather. And they it's a. Jew and a Gentile worked at the bank that got a got a, uh, Pullman car as thc Birmingham NewB pri7,c that they had on various, uh, largcr townB around Birmingham to ihcreaBe cirCUlation (cough). That's real nice car. And I was just wuahin' up, uh, rHady to leave, go home ca.tch that evenin' train gHt on < back to Birmingham where I blongHd.T tholle;ht .. ,and (cough), and Blanchard Brown come along with that, uh. Pullman, And it was hHatin a retarded spark, And back in those days you worked both of em. An accellerator was unknown. (Early ~bdel 19 cars had two manually-controlled devices on the steering column! the "gas" and the "spar-k." Bunt's terminology about "retarded spark" and "regulating the platinum point" is a.iCcurate. From his account, the year should be 1910.) And, uh, if you had it retarded, why, it would heat and it had no power. And if you advanced it, why, it give it power and worked fine, but you had to regulate the vaccuum point the, uh, platinum point r regulated those. And the, uh, two owners of that Pullman wanted to go to 'raledega Springs; a long cross-country level road for twelve mi-h-iles, just 1")'( a little nice, smooth'/llevel path. And so I told him,. ,got that fixed r, I told him, "You're just as s~fe here as in this as you would in a new car, prob'ly safer, beca.use this is adjested, 'n' you would have to a.djest a new' one ,justlike this one was," So uh, muh wife, Wesley, and me went down there with the ... with the, uh, uh, non-Jewish man, heheh, the Protestant. And, uh, he probably had a side kick in there". I don't re-eall right exaetly.;.and so that put me in business in Sylacauga. They was a !VIoline, made by the !VIoline Plow works in !VIoline, Illinois. And, uh, they was two thirtY-horsepower Buieks, and, uh", ,then that Pullman, and, uh, a little IVlaxwell. And I made a trade with those men r just dedided to move down there. I made a trade with those mem... with one, a.ndthe .. ,one or two indueed the others that r'd do min"~ lnjustments, a.d justments on those ears I the Im'ger thirty-horse power ears for ten dolla.rs a month apiece,.,that was forty dollars a month I'd get, not to cover a mecha.nieal job",and then 20 the baby Maxwell.. b'longed to a local doctor, waS, uh, five . .\I:,.'.H' . dollars. GIVC him a reasonable price (cough). So we made it there In the meantime, why, P. H. Bartlaborn, uh, had the Palace Drugstore, and he was the only authority in town on automobiles. He had a ~ip10ma to show it, and a little small-size Hudson, two-seat roadster. Hahah. And, so, anyway, he wanted to race me on there un, he wanted to race me, you know. I told him I .just thought about, uh ... 1 thought about, uh, uh, whatch-callem and, uh, you know ,what I mean; (?) ~nd, uh,so I to1d'him I'd dope that thing up, and, uh you can eliminate this tol' him I'd dope that thing up and he didn't have a chance so he says, "What if the clutch slips?" Well, when I got that that Pullman adjusted right, why you eou1dn't crowd it too much until you got good speed, 'cause it'd sl~p the clutch. And so P. H that uz what he's known by F. H uh, said, "What'11 you do if the clutch slips?" 1 say, "Dh, I'll just piss on itl" Hahahah Selling Patent Medecine And so anyway the, uh Dr. Andy's a great doc tor even give away money he was the greatest thing, ever vl{\ thatilne waS comin' to town. And, uh, when he'd leave a town he worked, why, he'd been workin' Birmingham and 'round there why, DaVIson-Northington Drug, wholesale drug company, he'd 21. load them up with tho Great Andy's Remedies, cure-aIls. '((,\ {. And so, uh, P. H. told me and he ordered a bunch ofAGreat Andy's big dollar-a-bottle dollar would buy more beefst-- round steak than you could tote, in those days and so, uh, I rna/Ie a great big sign. Now 'member ... money didn't .mean anythingl I didn't eharge anything for any of it and so I got me just a reg'lar ole market basket, uh. Gettin' baek to Dr. Andy's, ..he had, uh, had this carriage, you know, and the plug hat on, and, uh .. ,J'd say upwa:rds of, uh, maybe fifty or to a hundred dollars in penneys, niekels, dimes, quarters, halves, and some silver dollars and he'd go up the street h-there and he had his, uh, uh, music of some kind~ I don't recall, guitar prob'ly and, uh, uh, throwin' that money helter-skelter. Oh, he's just sawin' the town with money. So he got down there and, uh, he had a good distinct voiee and he'd get somebody some, uh, d.""good ole ,\,Nigger man that had hard trouble hear in', you know he'd, uh, he was just losin' his ear well, he'd take some of the famous remedy. He'd, uh, work it in his ear (energetie gesture here to illustrate.) Well, that kind of opened his ear naturally, and he'd talk with that I' \1 distinet voieel "Do you hear~better now?" and talk fairly loud "Yessah, yeBsahl" Hah, and that's the kind of things he's workiYl~'tl We" 11 in the meantime, I put on some kind of a shindig 22 S11it, 'n' dabbed my face, huh, with huh, with, hahah, diff(~rent h-colors h-I don't know what it was, but, huh, I was the Indian. Hahah. Indian Kickapoo Medicine was a big thing then, you know, and so on. And I went down there, and I's makin' more sales than he was, huhuh outta that (cough). He sez, '''J'hat is not !:!1X medicimJl" Hahaha ... Huh .folks was leavin' him pretty well," that is not !:!1X me d!.Ie'l.ne "II And-uh, I said "NO. It's mine. Pa:ld for,"hahah (with great animation), "but it's put out with your name on it, and come from Dawson-Northing1;on Drug Company in Birmingham, if it's not yours." H-and I busted his show up ... Well paid, huhuh well done thou faithful servant. (?) And More (Bunt. looking at the tape recorder:) How much room have I got? (Collector,) Oh, you've got about 25 or 30 more minutes. (Bunt,) lih-huh. And how long have I been? (Colleetor,) Oh, about ten. (Bunt:) Oh, w(~ll I got plenty... and, if any oj:' it you don't like, why, I ain't sellin' it to you. Hahah END OF VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT.. 23 With that, he proceded to talk on to the end of the tape, but the acoount is more a series of running aneodotes than longer stories. He tells of going to a sign-painter's oonvention in Toronto, Canada in 1930 where the delegates took up the entire ninth floor of the Royal York Hotel. Booze flowed freely and floor shows were the amusements of note. At the banquet he made a little girl happy by telling her how to eat chicken best, using the fingers. As they were leaving he tells of seeing Glarence DarTOW in the lob,by, dressed "in an old, flimsy, faded tan, uh, khaki some kind of a buff color " suit. "We waS in high oompany." He bemoans the dearth of good Chinese food in Toronto, adding that the best is to be had in a certain resturant in Birmingham where he and his wife happened to be wellknown. Returning from Gana.da, he and his son tried to drink all the liquor they had since Prohibition in effect in the U. S, They ate apples to keep from getting too drunk, The reference to liquor brought to mind another trip to Detroit in 1927, when he secured a permit to buy whiskey but apparently not import it. He was able to get through customs, however. without being searched, by making his Southern accent very evident to the customs officer . 'rhis time he must have gotten drunk, for his daughter offered to drive for him. He proved his sobriety, however, by describing in detail '~he seenery along the highway. In Canada they saw a, spectacular fireworks display over Niagra Falls. Upon their return, they went to a camp in New York, pitched a teemt, and went on a wild shopping spree in New York City, only to discover at one point that they had left all their cash in the tent. (This sounds typical since Bunt own a I'llhi to IJaq uar whie h he bought in gurope, replete with a small bar.) As the tape ran elose to the end of side two, he saw me looking down at the recorder and asked, "How is it?" "About run out," I replied. "Well, Ijll declare. Now ain't that a shame? And I thought I had more time than I Had." GommHnts On the advice of my friend Carl Hirsch, who was once an employee of Bunt Hood's, I went directly to Bunt's home without calling first. He lives in a neat, brick home on the outskirts of Columbus, with his wife and widowed daughter. He ind his wife will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary in June. He was not at home. lVII's. Hood answered the door and was very cordial, but preparod me for a possible rebuff from Bunt because he is prone to make instant judgements and hold strong likes and dislikes. He returned as I was leaving. I introduced myself and explained my purpose, and right a.way we were fast friends. I made an appointment to see him that afternoon, and it was during that visit that tIl'" .htjJe. transcribed above was made. He was quite comfortable with a tape recorder; if anything, it made him more animated. I put the microphone in his shirt pocket and we began recording, sitting in his living room, smoking cigarettes. (He smoked about three c igare ttes from his ever-present cigarette holder whi.le I smoked nearly a pack as he talked.) The transcript in only a part of Bunt's conversation that afterrmon but it contains a number of styli.stic elements that characterize his monologue. He seems to tell stories intuitively, not reliving the pcwt as so many people do, but conjuring it up for enjoyment in the present. Without quentioning the credibility of hin account, and some of it 26 seems questionable,. it might be noted that he has a remarkable recall of minute details that keep his stories lively. The coherence of the whole is at times surprising. ,Just when he seems to hewn lost the tr.a.in of thought, he returns to the main idea and knits a conelusion. From long years of praet:tee, he instinotively uses a number df deviees for holding the listener's attention. Mention has already been made of dove-tailing unrelated stories in sueh a way that the listner is never sure when one aeeount is finished and another has begun. 'l'his segue teehnique exploits eourtesy to prevent possible interruptions. Other teehniques inelude the use of eharac teristic expressions ("the proposition was ~~ "why", "and so forth"), inflection, coughs, broken phrases, and timed pauses. All are contrived to give him time to compose the monologue as he progresses, as well as to hold the listener's attention. At least nine coughs appear near the beginning or end of a "storY~i which would indicate that they were more a narrative punctuation than a physiological necessity. At times he obviously knows what he is going to say, as evidenced by the absence of "uh's" and huh's in parts of the transcript. At sueh times, the pace slows as he appears to be groping for words, but he knows ,just what he is preparing to say. In contrast, the pace increa.ses as the ideas aTn Inss clear. 27 88 The word "why" is almost rythmic in its repetition, and connotes an obviousness or credibility a,bout whatever follows. "Proposl, t'J.on,,':LS one Buni;' s .f'avorl' "I,e war'ds, t.haugh he doesn'"I. over-use it. It smacks of sophistocation and objectivity, both of which are needed to make the marvelous more acceptable. Bunt's gesturen are rar<~. He seemn to have complete confidence in the ability of his spoken word to make a point. Hin is ntrictly a verbal medium which needs no visual amplification. Hin long years as a sign painter have sharpened his powers of observation regarding dimension light, and color. His spoken descriptions are comparable to an impressionist canvasS in their effect on the 1istnerobserver. Listining to his descriptive montage is like looking through a kaleidescope. This paper has dwelt on Bunt Hood as a story teller, but story-telling is but one of his several abilities. He takes an active interest in current events and keeps busy physical.ly. When I visited him the first time, he was in the process of planting vegetables allover the front yard of his suburban home. In the past he has mastered welding, carpentry, plumbing, and who-knows-what other practical skills. He showed me an iron table and chairs, and some little blown glass what-nots that he had made. He spoke of bombarding the electrons from a neon tube and wanted to know what millimeter my camera was. Bunt Hood isa jackof- alI-trades who has lived and learned more than most men, and thic: experience provides an artesian well for his story telling. 30 This paper has dwelt on Bunt Hood as a story teller, but story-telling is but one of his several abilities, He takes an active interest in current events and keeps busy physl.cally, When I visited him the first time, he was in the process of planting vegetables allover the front yard of his suburban home, In the past he has mastered welding, carpentry, plumbing, and who-knows-what other practical sldl,ls, He showed me an iron table and chairs, and some Iittle bJ.own 'glaBs what-nots that he had made, He spoke of bombarding the electrons from a neon tube and wanted to know what millimeter my camera was, Bunt Hood iB a jackof- alI-trades who has livBd and learned morB than most men, .. y and this experience provides an artesian well for his story telling, Jo Future collecti.ons should concentrate, then, on his past. And the subject of politics should bc avoided at all costH. Bunt's politics arc extremely right-wi.ng, and he can spend as mueh time deseribing the eommunistis that abound on the American seene as the events of 1927. If he begins talking politics, it would be advisable to interrupt him with a question about the pa,ste In Columbus, he is regarded as a craek-pot, at least, or a tr'ouble-maker, at worst; he has made enemies of almost everyone. Folks there did not appreciate his tFaring up the new baseball field with his piek-up truek a few years ago (He opposed the name "Yankees" for the Columbus baseball' team, he felt that ulterior motives - namely the sale of beer - were behind the building of the ball park, and he was eonvineed that the city eould find better places to spend tax money. For his protest, whieh did several thousand dollars worth of damage, he spent some time in jail.). F'ew people sympathiz,ed with the vitriolic attacks he launched on prominent loeal citizens, in the form of editorial signs, prominently displayed on the front of his sign Ghop. (C ity Officials tri(~d to quiet him but he got the last word by waving the flag of free-speech and enlisting the services of a competent criminal lawyer, after which he cooled a bit.) But Bunt Hood continucs to be staunchly independent. He tells of a way of life now rclegated to the past and represents an individuality that iG rare in any age. 31 Date of transcriptl April 18, 1970 11! II I, InfoX'lJlant: Collector: Bunt Hood 3025 Vulte8 Drive Colwnbus, Georgia 31904 John H. B"Uard 1229 StillY/Gel:. D!'ive, NE Atlanta, GBorgi&l. 303c6 32 .:... "~:r . ;. Da"be of 1;r;mser:lp"b: April Ie, 1970 InfOl'Ulant : Gollee"borl Bun"b Hood )025 VuUeo Drive Co1wnbus, Georf,ia )190lr J o\\n H. 13 "'JJ.ard 1229 S"billwool!. Ddve, Ng fl:Uml"ba, Georgia 30)c6 32
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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.
As archivists, we acknowledge our role as stewards of information, which places us inaposition to choose how individuals and organizations are represented and described in our archives. We are not neutral, andbias isreflected in our descriptions, whichmay not convey the racist or offensive aspects of collection materialsaccurately.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 languagewhereLibrary of Congress subject termsareinaccurate and obsolete isongoing. 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 emailingreference@atlantahistorycenter.com. Your comments are essential to our work to create inclusive and thoughtful description.