Carole E. Hunt interview with Grace Earnest, Emory A. Hunt, Edward (Ed) Woodall, and Homer Goodwin (part one)

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. Note: This recording contains feedback noise throughout. This is the first recording in a two part series. Grace Earnest, the interviewers grandmother, starts by describing remedies her mother used to cure pneumonia, cuts, boils, and heart trouble. At 2:48 she explains how her mother made homemade lye soap with fireplace ashes and fat from meat. Then Earnest states the best time of year to hunt hogs is in November, on a clear and cold day. At 4:08 she lists remedies for colic, sore mouth, and springtime blood purifiers. Next Earnest sings songs her mother taught her and recites jump-rope rhymes and riddles. Then at 10:32, she explains a few courting games, including spin the bottle and crossed questions and crooked answers. Next Earnest lists ingredients to make clothing dye and shares a superstition her father believed in about planting watermelon seeds before sunrise. Emory Hunt, Carole Hunts father, starts his interview at 14:00 by telling a folktale about two of his uncles going bear hunting. At 17:18, Hunt talks about his fathers sawmill business. His family moved frequently, and after each move his father would build a three-room shot-gun log house, the process of which Hunt describes. Then at 24:20 Hunt lists where in Georgia he worked as a woodcutter. Next Emory Hunt lists additional remedies that her mother used, including castor oil for colds and beef gall for splinters. Hunt then tells a story about his mother removing a pine splinter from his foot that is interrupted by loud feedback at 27:10-27:56, 28:43-28:50, and 29:30-29:35. At 32:3 Hunt shares more home remedies for sore throat, sore muscles, blood tonics, arthritis, and swelling. Emory Alonzo Hunt (1914-1985) grew up on Lake Allatoona in Georgia. He married Ellie Ruth Earnest (1918-2005) and they had one daughter, Carole Elese Hunt (1944- ). He worked as a wood cutter in Cherokee County, Georgia. Carol Elese Hunt (1944- ) graduated from East Atlanta High School and Georgia State University. She lived in Roswell, Georgia. Grace Clack Earnest (1896-1974) was born on a farm in Norcross, Georgia, to David Crenshaw Clack (1874-1932) and Etta Jane Lloyd (1876-1957). In 1912 she married William Edgar Earnest (1889-?) and had five children. Earnest lived in Monroe County, Georgia, at the time of her death. Edward (Ed) D. Woodall (1879-1974) was born in Bartow County, Georgia, to Thomas Jefferson Woodall (1832-1904) and Martha Pendre Woodall (1848-1918). He married Margaret Melinda Abernathy (1884-1931) and had eleven children. At the time of his death, Woodall lived in Canton, Georgia, with his daughter Ester Woodall (1917- ) and son-in-law Homer Goodwin (1913-1983). Homer Raymond Goodwin (1913-1983) was born in Cherokee County, Georgia, and lived in different family members homes as a child. He married Elther Woodall (1917-?) and had two children. During World War II, Goodwin served in the United States Navy. He lived in Roswell, Georgia, when he died. AHC Oral History Cataloging Worksheet File Information Catalogue number IUS:, I ()")::::z" I0, cl Source Field* (ContentDM) Release form Yes t(No .~) Transcript Yes or No scanned: From Yes orcfJ~~ Default text: Contributed by an OR: Donated by individual: individual through <your org. name> Georgia Folklore Collection through <your org. name> Object Information Enter information about the Title (interviewee name and date of interview) \ \ Description (bio on interviewee) 1'(' \'J, 10,~'c{ , fG~i>;fd t),'\ a. 1 Creator (Enter either an individual's name or an organization) Cl\ \0 Burrison Folklore Class Collection Name (within the organization) Georgia Folklore Archives Creation Date Exact Date (yyyy-mm-dd) (use only one) f--:--:~ -+---'----"--"'-=------+!Ll-=----...i..-'--=----...i..-'-_--'-- -I Year (if only the year is known) Circa (4 digit year) Year Span From To Object Type Image_ Text Text and image _ Video and sou9d _ Sound only,j Media Format Reel-reel (VHS, reel to reel, etc Recording Hours: \ extent Derivatives Access copy: Yes or No Access copy format: Recording clip Time code for clip (h:m:s) Yes or No Beginning: O()'0()\,) q 0 Clip extent: End: !jq: l~YV\ fc) \ (" >1 (:,.f I) ! ,-" \,~,. (Y\ I),\I\,,{, \ \ ,M, () li\ '=-() 3 Cllk)/Y\ill WOI ,> -to\.f.N\ , 'C'- I '/0 h00( ~) C\ },AI\'0) , \ ()\ \' t()~-,\,e -' \Cf: ( ("''' \<0\M)~,)(') .--"",,":~-:: - HOi ' \ Notes (interview summary) Recording issues (background noise, echo, static, etc.) Subject Information Enter information about the content of the ob'ect here: Year (if only the year is known) Subject Date Exact Date (yyyy-mm-dd) (use only one) Circa (4 digit year) Year Span From To Local Name MI Town lJ\q\) See subject who for additional names I \J"\' , 1\ ' Burrison, John Last Name First Name f~\ , 0~\.:'~ \!'-\ () (.)tJ() \ \ ~oci)lI:)\ AHC Cataloger will complete this for you. Country State County \)f:Jv\ Personal names Subject Who Subject Location 3 Corporate names Geographic locations / Topics ~ ,t()I.~< S~J)\\ 4 Informant: Mrs. W. E. Earnest 110 Factory Shoals Road Mabletown, Georgia Collector: Carole E. Hunt Folklore 300 (5:15 MWF) John Burrison Mrs. Earnest was born in 1896 and is 72 years old. She was raised on a farm, living there until she married. The farm according to Mrs. Earnest was in the area of Norcross-Tucker. MRS. E: My mother used to go out in the woods and get sweetgum a good cough syrup that she fed to bark and wild cherry bark and mullen root and button willow root and boil it and then she added honey and cooked i-c down and made &-( all her children when they /I had coughs. Then if we would step on a nail or something and hurt our foot bad, she would put some turpentine and sugar on an old wool rag and set it afire and ler us hold our wounded place over rJ-,t' th~ smoke and it killed the poison because we didn't have anything like a tetanus shot at that time. CEH: What did she do for peneumonia? MRS E.: For pn~monia she would put a red-onion poultice on or ~ ~ a tar, a coaltar poultice on. She would take a lighted knot then run the tar out of the wood and make a poultice and put it on our chests. CEH: MRS. E: You said she used octagon soap and sugar for something? Sometimes if we had a boil, she would put octagon soap and sugar together and work it up nice and smooth and make a poultice out of it and put it on the boil. It would draw it to a head. CEH: Did she use anything else on boils? MRS. E: There was other things she used. Sometimes a biscuit ~ soaked inhmilk with a lot of salt on it would make a good poultice. CEH: What did she do for heart trouble? MRS. E: Well there was a weed in the woods that you call fox glove and she would get it and it is the samething as you get now in digitalis and she used it for heart trouble and heart dropsy and things like that. CEH: MRS.E.: You told me there was something you used rats'bane for? Rats' bane was what she gave her cow if it got sick. You go in the woods and get Rats' bane and dry it and put it in fifo)' her feed ~ if she had a sick cow. My mother saved the ashes from the firl~:::~iallY oak /; and hickory ashes and put them in a big hopper, it was like a big deep trough and put water in there and it run down lye to make our E",~,('it_1 i''J{ soap. She saved all the meat skins and fatty meats from the hog h killing and then she put them in with some water in it and poured Made homemade lye soap. a pot and let them come to a boil ~'C th lye in there and made her soap. CEH: MRS. E: You told me about what you did for colic and sore mouth too. We had sore mouth from eating too many sweets or something ~~B4P~we had fever blisters and things like that. My mother would go on ~ cree~and get yellow root and make a WiR and we washed our mouth out with and it cured us. tea out <_I ff1\-.J:niJJ~J of it CEH: MRS. E: What did you do for colic? Let me see now. There was a weed in the woods and we had some that growed in our yard and they called it mayapple and we would cut off a piece of that mayapple root and eat it. It was aWful bitter but it was good medicine. CEH: What did you do in the springtime? MRS E: My mother used to make sassafrass tea and we all had to 1ftii" drink some sassafrass~to purify our blood. They thought it was good blood medicine .. MRS. E: My mother used to sing to us. When we were children our ny"J.\I!k. A(().I mother used to sing us the silliest songs f\ us: sometimes. She would sing (I~I COME BROTHER GABLE de,1 (1) Oh, come brother Gable, (2)And if you don't Go down to the stable5 And feed my horses some corn. Your captain will whip you As sure as you are born MRS. E: She also sang us about: One day while in the lonesome grove, Sat o'er my head a little dove. , \ For her lost mate she began to coo And made me think of my mate too. Oh little dove you're not alone For, I like you am oh so forlorn. I onae like you did have a mate, But there like you, I'm desolate. (the informant not remember. later said that this song had other verses she could She said it was a very sad little song.) MRS.E: (not on tape) "This is the spinning song". SPIN LASSIE, SPIN Spin, Lassie, spin The thread goes out and in, Growing like your yellow Since we' 11 ~~(dfrom t::~ Spin, Lassie spin. hair, \f:;~IJJV to t~eJ?e. CEH: Hew about some of the jump-rope rhymes. I think you told me about a couple of them. What's the one about your mama's feet? MRS.E: As we skipped rope, we always jumped to different little rhymes and one was: As I set under the apple tree All the apples fell on me Make a pudding, make a pie Did you ever tell a lie Yes you did, I know you did You broke your mother's teapot lid She whipped you up, she whipped you down She whipped you all around the town. MRS. E: CEH: MRS.E: CEH: MRS.E: And another one was: Little John, Big Jo~, Ole John Baily, Had a wife and six little babies. Two in the corner, two in the cradle L~nefl two in the mush pot up to his naJ'el What was the one about your mother's feet? Mama, Mama, I been thinking What would keep your feet from stinking 1% CA.~- Go~the river and go in~ sinking And that would keep your feet from stinking, Riddles? A few old riddles that I remember was: tr'&~ Four legs and four eyes, can't see ~nff can't walk. And that would be a cook stove. CEH: What was the one about the churn that you told? MRS.E. : That would be big at the bottom, and little at the top, and a thing in the middle "~ goes flippity flop. That would be a churn. CEH: Tell me the one about the wagon? stuck out. And that would be a This, would go on, up and down the roads and go all day Iv"" home h and come with its tongue MRS. E: wagon with the wagon tongue stuck out. CEH: Now games. Did you tell me about a courting game that MRS.E: you used to play? We would play spinning the bottle and /1-fiAA\/ whoeverAthe bottle turned to then the boy would get to kiss that girl. And also we v,i",! whoever caught it~the played post office and whoever spin the pan At: boy get to kiss th girl. Just old silly kissing games. :5 We alsoAdance~ and played "crossed questions and crooked answers". That is a game where you choose sides and somebody told one side the question and '(1'6 ...c-o-r;<),-4-~ and you didn't know which /I the other side they told the answer to t;,f2I! was which. And you'd ask this boy the '\ It was a lot of fun. question and he'd give you the answer that somebody told him and vU\A I\J"Q sometimes they W~ wf~rd. CEH: What waq the one about Sally Walker? MRS.E: Yes, we played, Little Sally Walker: Little Sally Walker, sitting in a saucer; Rise Sally, rise; wipe your weeping eyes Turn to the east and turn to the west And turn to the one that you love best. And always you pointed out one and they 1k"(~/i,,,_/ ~)t"".,,,} ~'t'V\.Jl,", middle of the circle~and you saJg the whole thing would be in the over. ON HOME-DYED CLOTH: MRS.E: We would get walnut, black walnut hulls and boil them and make dye. It dyed a beautiful ~de~~"':iJbrown color. ~ And t~ere was a weed in the woods that you got that was called dye weed and it dyed yellow. Also we got red mud and dyed and it made a dye that was kind of a reddish brown. We dyed ouru-i-l1:~ftE!)thread and different cloths we were making quilts out of. There was a maple bark that you could rv:J- 19'se and it dyed a different shade of brown to the walnut hulls. It died a kind of yellow brown. CEH: You said something about a time your father planted watermellons. MRS. E: There was one superstition item my father had and it was he always planted his water mellons before the sun come up in the morning. He had his seed and his hills How did he plant them? MRS. E: fA I . L) t..,-- . JU O~,~A{], tk flUe N " (J ready~before and that morning he would get up and go plant them before sun-up. CEH: This informant also showed me some quilts that she had made that were in the traditional patterns such as the "bow tie","windmill" and "morning sun". The patterns are traditional as she learned them from her mother, but she no longer pieces them in a traditional way as she sews the pieces together on a sewing machine, rather than by hand. Informant: Emory A. Hunt 610 Brownwood Avenue, S. E. Atlanta, Georgia Born 1914, 54 yrs. old. Collector: Carole Elese Hunt For Folklore 300 (5:15 MWF) Mr. Burrison 11,-- Mr. Hunt was brought up in the area around Lake Altoona. ~ His father was a sawmill man and moved about taking the mill to the timber. When they moved they set up camp and lived out of wagons until the house was built. His family also did some farming and ran a cane mill. The informant had told the following tale a number of times before this taping and believes it to be absolutely true as far as I can tell. Yet each time he tells the story, some of 7 ;J,I; [, D . "'\ the details change as I will point out. ' f -~ca(V'~. ~,' EAH: 1 Two of my uncles was going bear hunting. One of them, (Uncle Ed) knew where this old mother bear had some cubs in a hollow snag, an old hollow tree broken off above (10 or 12 feet above) the ground, with no opening at the ground. She had to (the bear in order to get to her cubs) had to climb to the top and then back down on the inside. Well, they carried their rifles with them in case the old mama bear was at the den and it was old muzzel style rifles where you put in the cap and the powder, and the packing and ball and packed it 1In several other tellings of this story, the informant was the second member of the party. again. One of the uncles (they were teenage boys about grown - 17, 18, 19 years old) was going to stand guard in case the old mama bear came back to surprise them, they would have a guard outside with a rifle. He would be able to shoot before the bear could hem the other one up inside. But the uncle that climbed the snag to get the cubs had just gotten inside when he heard a rifle crack and about the time that the rifle cracked he heard the old mama bear hit the snag and he didn't know what in the world he was going to do. Because if the bear got inside to him, she would kill him. And so he just stood there. He had his bowie knife, bowie style knife in his belt. 2 He grabbed that knife; it was all the weapon that he had. As the bear backed down the snag, (She climbed the snag and turned around and started backing down through the hollow opening) he reached up and got the bear by the tail and he begin to work on her hind quarters with the point of that knife and made her pull him back up the snag. When he got to the top, why he turned loose and jumped and she went back in to see about her babies. I imagine the guard got raked over the coals about being a poor shot. 2 Every other time I have heard this story, the knife was just a little pocket knife. EAH: Daddy was a sawmill man and they moved the mills to the timber rather than moving the timber to the mills. He would buy a timber track and go to about the center of it and then log the timber section out and cut all the timber and snake it to the mills with the old teams. He used both steers and mules. One of the first things he would do when he moved into a new cut would be to build a house. He would clear a place for the house, cut the logs and he for some reason (he never saw a house pattern) he built a log house and he always built a threeroom shotgun, one room directly behind the other. Shotgun. I reckon you derive the name, you could shoot in the front door and out the back without ever hitting anything. The logs were cut and notched with a saddle notch and the notch was turned down. As you layed each log, why it would hold the one under it in place. It locked them down. And building the log house like that, you built it up to the top of the doors and windows solid; just like there was going to be no doors or window. Then he would nail a piece of timber or a slab against the side of it to hold the logs in place and mark his doors and windows and then cut them out with a crosscut saw. After the doors and windows were cut out, then you took and placed them with sawed board. That's nailing a board against the open end of the log. He usually used a 2 x 8 and used about an 8 inch log to build out of. And he used the 2 x 8 to face his doors and windows. The windows was just a hole cut in the wall and then we made shutters. There wasn't any glass. The doors was homemade too out of rough sawed timber. He stacked the 1 x 12's side by side and then he nailed them together with a piece across the top and a piece across the bottom and what they called a "z" brace. Then you go on with your side walls and up as high as you needed to. Daddy always built 16 x 16 rooms with a 12 foot ceiling with a gabled roof. He used the notched log for the ceiling joists too to keep the pole that run across the house right at the bottom of the gable wall to wall. If he ceiled it, the ceiling was nailed on the under side of that. The bottom of that ceiling joist was hewed flat. They always hewed the side of the logs that the inside walls were built from. After the walls were built, the next thing he put on; he put on a roof. The roof was made out of split boards; usually split whiteoak or cyprus or cedar. Usually it was white oak. Well they used some chestnut too for that I believe. (I'm not sure about the chestnut. I know he used chestnut for something, but I think he split some chestnut boards.) After the roof was done, but before the floor went on, they would go back and chink the side walls. That was done with white clay or white mud. You go down to the creek bank and find where the white clay was and dig it out. It was made up, wet down. They'd dig it out and if it was wet he'd dry it. Then he would work wheat straw into the mud. That would make a daubing or caulking substance that, when baked out in the sun, was almost as hard as cement. It would withstand the weather for years and years and years. The floor joists was hewn and put in and the floor was put down and that was just about the type house that you would find through that section of the country. It was back up here where Altoona lake is now. I helped cut timber off of a great deal of that land around Hickory Flats, Canton, Cherokee Mills, Lovengood's Landing (it was Lovengood's Bridge then. It was an old covered bridge); and around Victoria on back into the piney woods. Iused to know my way around there until I grew up. CEH: Why don't we talk about some of the cures used on y'all since there was no doctor. do for chest colds? your mama What did she EAH: Castor oil was getting pretty popular about the time that I came on for colds. We always -- that's the first thing when you sneezed -- you got a big dose of castor oil and another piece of Astfidity hung around your neck. crn: EAH: What is astfidity? I don't know. It's some compound and it's about the stinkingest thing you have ever smelled. CEH: EAH: What did she use for poultices? Well back to the colds, then we always got turpentine (about three drops on a spoonful~of sugar) and if the cold was severe enough you got turpentine. When yo~chest begin to tighten up, then she would make a mustard plaster and put it on our chest and back. She would have to watch it and when the skin begins to turn pretty pink you'd have to move it, because if you have ever had a sun burn, a severe sunburn, then take that and multiply it about ten times and you've got a mustard plaster burn. CEH: EAH: Did she ever use a pinetar poultice on you? Yes, after the mustard plaster came the pinetar and then after that they put you in a straight jacket that you could hardly breathe in to keep the pinetar off the bed. The thinking was good; it is still good and one of the best home cold treatments I reckon that you can have. CEH: You told me about something that your mother used to draw a splinter out of your foot one time. EAH: Oh. She used a beef gall. I was cutting kindling one night for the fire. We always had our night work that consisted of bringing in wood and water. We didn't have plumbing and we would have to go out to the well and draw three or four buckets and set them in the kitchen for the next morning and bring our stove wood in and cut our kindling to kindle the fire with the next morning. Well, we had a big load of pine knots piled up and I was cutting a pine knot for kindling. If you have ever cut them you know how bad your ax will glance and splinter off splinters from it. I was just a small fellow (6 or 7 years old and I hit that pine knot a whallop with the ax and the ax glanced. It went one way and and the pine knot went one way and the splinter went in my ankle just above the ankle bone. The splinter was just about the size of your thumb nail and it cut a gash. I still have the scar. I went in the house and picked at it an hour or so. I thought we got it all out. Mother and Dad did too, but the place just stayed a running sore just about all winter. Daddy killed a beef. He cut the gall off the liver and hung it up and let it dry. Well when a beef gall dries there is a spot on the tip of it that will be black, just about 3/4 to 1" where the gall dries in the bladder and when that dried, mother went out and got it. It takes a couple of days. She went out and got that beef gall and cut the black tip off. She poured her some boiling water into our wash pan (which was our sink. We didn't have sinks; you used a pan to wash). She poured that boiling water, scalding, boiling water into that wash pan and dipped that beef gall in it. She came in and put it on my ankle and she started to bind the ankle up with some white cloth (a piece torn off an old worn sheet or something). Anyway she had started to tie it up and as soon as that gall touched it, it was like a knife inside me cutting. It hurt so bad I couldn't hardly stand it. Being the little fellow that I was, I was squirming and wiggling, but before she finished tying it up, I just grabbed it and jerked the bandage off of it and I grabbed the beef gall and jerked it off and there was a piece of that rich pine splin~er sticking to the beef gall, cutting its way out. It had pulled it out. The cutting pain that I had felt was that splinter coming back to the beef gall, cutting its way out just like it cut its way in. We pulled it out then and the place healed up and I never had anymore trouble. Some more of the home remedies were for gum boils, fever blisters and what-have-you; sore mouth. We would dig up and wash yellow root and chew it and sometimes mother, for a sore throat, and all she would make a tea out of it. Another herb that she used a lot, I don't remember what it was for, but I've drunk a lot of mayapple tea. Always in the spring for a month or more, we all would get sassafrass tea and we had it so much (it was supposed to be a blood tonic). I've had it so much I learned to like the darn stuff. It's a right good drink. CEH: Howabout rheumatism and sore muscles? EAH: For rheumatism and sore muscles, they'd dig this polk root and make a tea out of it and they used the tea to drink and massaged muscles with it and then they would take the pulp of the root and make a poultice to go on sore muscles. It was supposed to have been a good rheumatism medicine too for swelling. I think people had some arthritis then but didn't know what it was. Everything was rheumatism then. Another rheumatism remedy that you used a lot was to go out in the pasture and they'd get mullen. That's a plant with a broad leaf, as wide as your hand or wider. It's kinda like velvet when it's young. They'd put that mullen in a pot and boil it and get it good and hot and then put the leaves on the swollen joint or muscle. It was supposed to have relaxed it. CEH: EAH: How did your father take care of the farm animals. Well, he was his own vet. He had a standing treatment regardless of what was wrong. He would get some rattle root and put the (h'd chop it up) and put it in the feed. He fed it to mules and cows alike. CEH: You told me that your daddy told you some yarns about snakes, different superstitions about snakes. Wasn't there one about the whip snake? EAH: ah, the whip snake or coach whip is what we know as the black racer. And this is something I still haven't settled in my own mind yet. I knew my daddy to be a truthful, honest, god-fearing man. Whenever he told you something, you could depend on it because it was gospel. But I have heard him say too that he had seen a coachwhip or that he had plowed up a coachwhip out of the ground and it would wrap itself around the mule or the horse and whip it with its tail, which we know to be a fairy story. The only explanation I can think of for the coach whip is since daddy said he had seen it was that he had plowed up a snake. If you have ever had that experience (and it is an experience) that snake will come out of the ground wiggling and trying to coil and rolling with the dirt being turned back from the plow. Someway, it got around the mules heels and thrashing and trying to run, that the tail and the head --- well, they're whipping with both ends. Unless one end is held it is just a wiggling squirming mess and it is just possible that the snake struck the mule with its tail. Because I'm sure that dad would not make up a yarn like that to tell it. Either that or else he had heard it from the time he was a child on up until it had become a reality. Now, that is another possibility, but I can't believe that Daddy would just make up a homemade yarn. I can't believe that. Another one though that makes me kind of lean to the idea that he had just hear it so much until it had become a reality was another one that he told about another type of snake called a hoop snake which is a ficticious reptile. The hoop snake is supposed to roll itself up like a wheel and stick its tail in its mouth and roll like a hoop and it had a thorn in its tail and when it struck, instead of striking with its head and fangs, it would strike with its tail and drive the thorn in its tail into whatever it was striking. And the yarn went along that it struck at something and missed and struck that thorn in a tree and the tree died and dropped its leaves. There was another one that was even wilder than that, about the joint snake. Its method of protection was when anything cane around, it would just lie quiet until somebody seen it and picked up a stick or rock to throw it, strike at it and no might have just coined the name or given it a name. They were called town-ball and catt-a-'pat. The way it was played, you had two batters, two pitchers and two catchers. The pitcher and the catcher were the same person. You had two bases 40 or 50 feet apart. The batters stood facing each other. By the way, when we played ball our bats usually consisted of a maddock handle or we'd go to the wood pile and find a piece of round wood, small enough that we could reach around it and hold it for a bat, or go to the wash place and get the battling stick or something else that we could find to swing. The batters stood facing each other and the pitchercatcher stood behind the batter and pitched to the other base. They pitched the ball and you had to pitch it over the base, between the shoulders and knee, pretty much as baseball is played now. The other catcher-pitcher was the -- if you was pitching to him, he was the catcher, or pitching to the batter, he was the catcher. But you got three strikes and if you hit the ball, you ran from the base where you were standing to the other base and then you bat from that position. The man that fielded the ball, he didn't have to tag you with it. He would just wind up and throw and hit you with it just about like dodge ball. You had to be a good runner and able to dodge too in order to stay on. Sometimes that would go on for an hour or more, until everybody got run down. Another game we played with a ball was called Hand-Me~Over. But we always played that with a softer ball. Usually a rubber ball of some kind or a soft thread ball that we had wound up out of a bunch of strings and threads. The way we'd choose sides and have three or four people on each side. We would go on opposite sides of the house or building and throw the ball over. If you caught the ball before it touched the ground, you didn't say anything, you just ran around the house and you would throw it at one of the members of the opposing teams. That was another combination of dodge ball and fielding. Then another way that we amused ourself when we were not working. You'd go out in the woods fairly close to the house and cut us a tree. We cut it off anywhere from 3-1/2 to 4 feet high (stump 3-1/2 to 4 feet high) but we would cut the stump to where it was smooth. What we would call a cut-off lick and a notching lick. A notching lick as you cut was a slash down and then the kind of triangular cut lick and the cut-off lick was a parallel. But it would leave you a stump, if you had a good ax, you could cut it about as smooth as you could with a saw. Then we would go to the, usually to the slab pile, and get a heavy slab usually 14 or 15 feet long, the longer the better, whatever length you could get. We would measure it and go to the center of it and make us a hole in the center of the slab and set it up on the stump that you had cut off and drive (usually we would swipe us a harrow tooth and use it for a spike) and drive it through that slab into the stump and make us a flying" jenny. We put a boy on each end of this, about the same weight, and it was a type of merry-go-round, you have it. You would run behind it pushing it till you got it started and then just stag~er it around every 10 or 15 feet and as the end would pass, you give it a swirl. We would get up some pretty wild rides on it. Every once in a while somebody that was pushing it would raise up too high and the end of the slab would peel the top of his head as he came around. But all in all we had a lot of fun and we didn't kill anybody. Informant: Ed Woodall Age 89, born in 1879 Bartow, County, Georgia Collector: Carole E. Bunt Folklore 300 (5:15 MWF) Mr. Burrison ED: You'll just have to ask me what you want to know and if I know it I'll tell you. CEB: ED: CEB: ED: CEB: I know you will. Uncle Ed, Bow old are you. I'm 89. Where were you born? Bartow County Now you told me that you had a yarn to tell me about coon hunting? ED: Yea, where should I commence at? With the dogs to start with. Well, we had three coon dogs and some fellers went with us you know and we kept catching coons every summer. There was one feller that was coon hunting and he had six dogs and he run up on this old coon and it whupped all six of the dogs and run them off and we hunted for that coon over a year off and on and we found him one time and we got hold of him (the dogs did) and there was one dog (our lead dog) killed that coon by himself. CEB: ED: One dog, by himself? Yea, it chewed his ears off though and he just left him an old stub there. I went in and watched them. They was in a sort of hole and that dog (they always caught them right by the brisk in here and smothered them) and I went in there and he had hold of that old coon and the old coon got hold of his ear (it flopped down) and it chewed his ear off down to his head. He chewed it up and the meat worked out between his teeth just like sausage. But he killed that one by himself. CEH: Did you have any other adventures coon hunting. I imagine you did quite a bit. ED: Yes, there was a good many, but that was about the biggest one we ever did catch. I caught 30 some odd one year. Caught lots of ground hogs too. CEH: ED: CEH: ED: CEH: ED: CEH: ED: Wild hogs. Have you hunted wild hogs? Yea, I've caught lots of them. Did you ever have any trouble with them. Yea, a whole lot. Do you want to tell me about it? Well, it wouldn't be interesting to you. Oh, yes it would too. Well we had some dogs that would just hunt whatever we told them to when we started. We'd go wild hog hunting and get us up some ropes and wrap around us to tie them with. We started out and we'd holler, "sewie" at the dogs and they wouldn't run after a thing but wild hogs. They run them way up on a clift and one of them would take off the clift and there was a big rock away off down there. They barked about twice, but we were in hearing of it though. The other dogs was scattered over the woods and they got there before we did and run in there barking at the old hog. It walked out; it was so fat it couldn't run and he just went walking down, hunting a hole of water to get in. And that one jumped in a hole of water nearly waist deep. There was a log across that hole of water and the old hog he got in there. My oldest brother went down there and said, "I believe I can catch him behind those "tushes" and turn him around before you boys can get in there and get a hold of him and drag him out of that water and tie him. He went and cut him down a hickory and took and twisted the top of it and walked out to that log and he (the hog) was looking at the dogs down here. He just eased that hickory in his mouth behind the tushes and twisted it up and caught him and got up to sling and fell backwards in there. Two boys went in there and got him (the hog) by the hind legs and drug him out of the water. They were holding his head with that wythe and dragging him out and got him tied and drug him up to a tree there (a good big tree) and got him tight with the ropes. They were going to make me stay there and watch him to see he didn't get away. The dogs stayed there with me but I got sort of scared and climbed a tree. I wouldn't stay on the ground with it. The rest of the folks went home and got the mules and wagons and cut out a road down to the hog and they all got hold of him and loaded him on the wagon and took him in. They went to kill him and its pretty dangerous too. They put him in a crib. We wanted to get him in a good humor before we killed him. My older brother he had a gun and he went down there to kill him. He just lammed away and killed him and the old hog just dropped down and never said a word. We thought he was dead and we got in there to fooling with him and he jumped up on his feet and just shook himself and said "ooh, ooh, ooh". Boy we just fell out. Boy, we had to go and get a bigger gun to kill him with. He weighed 400 pounds. EAH: Tell her the year about Uncle Jake telling you he'd back off 30 steps and give you a shot at him with his rifle. Said it wouldn't shoot true. ED: Yea, that was my older borther, my half brother. He had been shooting around, Jake had. He got to where he could kill birds pretty well. That was when he first comenced shooting. John, he was making fun of him saying he couldn't hit anything. Jake said yes he could too. He (john) said I wouldn't be afraid to let you shoot at me from ten steps. No, he (jake) said, By God I'd kill you too. He said no you woulddt. So he loaded his gun, put in his powder and his wadding and poured his shot out. He told him (Jake) to go in the room and get him his shot gourd. He got him his shot gourd and he just turned it up and poured a big load of shot in the gun. He says now go set them back up. John, he said to run put them back. He (Jake) run back in the other room to put the shot up. John, he turned the thing up and shook it and poured all the shot out he thought. They went out and he (John backed off lOsteps and held his coat around him and said, "alright pour it to me." Jake said, "Johnny, I'll kill you shore as the Devil". John says "Ha you can't hit me." He was slow about shooting and John he just turned that away to look back to see when he was going to shoot and just as he turned, Jake he pulled the trigger and the gun went off and there was two shots he didn't pour out of the gun. One of them went in his lip, between his mouth and nose, and the blood just come pouring out and the other shot went in his back. He turned around and started tofue house with the blood pouring and Jake said, "I told you by God, I'd kill you." CEH: ED: Did he recover? Yea, it never.:.h\Cl:tt.him much. But the shot lodged right along there stayed in his head as long as he lived. ED: They could just turn up and roll, take their tail in their mouth and roll down the hill. CEH: What was that now? ED: A hoop snake. He had a thorn on his tail alDut that long (inch). He'd come around and get where he was going to hit you. He'd just turn loose and slap that old horned tail. It would go through your britches or anywhere. CEH: Was it poisoness. ED: CEH: Yes it was. How about the joint snake, can you tell me anything about what he looked like. ED: He had stripes on him lenghtwise like these old things that runs around in the field. And you go to kill one --- I don't care if it wasn't that long. Just hit him anywhere you wanted to and he would fly into pieces about that long (inch) and them pieces would just flounce. The end that was his head would just go on. That part would flounce around until you get out of its way and he'd come on around back there and connect all of that up again. CEH: How did he connect it up right without getting his tail where his head ought to be? ED: He went to hooking it back up here. His last part, his head part was bout that long (3 inches) and he was broke up there till he was just right at it. He could go around there with them pieces jumping everywhere and catch one ever no and then and they went together and locked sort of like that, but when you hit them they come apart. CEH: snake. ED: ? ED: I surely would love to See one. Tell me about a whip A whip snake? A coach whip. Oh well I seen lots of them. Informant: Homer Goodwin, Age 54 Born in Cherokee County Collector: Carole E. Hunt Folklore 300 (5:15 MWF) John Burrison The informant told me that he once played the 5-string banjo and did a lot of singing at gatherings in his community when he was younger. He said that he knew a lot more songs but at the moment he could not "recollect them". He named songs like the "House Carpenter", "Wreck ofthe Old 97", "Barbara Ellen", "Mary Fagan", etc., that he knew and would sing for me if he could remember them sometime in the future. Mr. Goodwin seems to be a perfectly traditional singer to me and although he had a cold and was not in good voice, you will note some ornamentation in his style. THE BLIND CHILD'S PRAYER They tell me father that tonight, you wed another bride That you will clasp her in your arms, where my poor mother died. And she will lay her stately head upon your manly breast Where she who now lies low in death in her last hours did rest. They say her name is Mary too, the name my mother bore But father is she kind and true like the one you loved before. Or is her steps as soft and light, her voice as meek and mild, BLIND CHILD - cont'd Please father dear do you think she'll love your blind and helpless child. Her picture's hanging on the wall, the Bible lying near And hark chair. one fingers touch and there's her vacant The chair whereby I used to kneel to say my evening prayer May God a hand go with you both through life's long wary way. And as they turned to leave the room, one joyful cry was given They turned to catch the last glad smile, and his blind child was in heaven. They laid it by its mothers side and raised a marble fair And on it were inscribed the words, there'll be no blind ones there. THE SOLDIER'S SWEETHEART I used to have a sweetheart, A sweetheart brave and true, His hair was dark and curly, his darling eyes were blue. He used to come and see me when the evening sun was low One day he came to see me and said that he must go. He promised that he'd write to me, his promise he kept true The first few lines I got from him, was I'm coming back to you. I read it with a joyful heart and with a bowing head Before I got the letter read, I heard that he was dead. THE SOLDIER'S SWEETHEART (cont'd) It was on a German battlefield, my sweetheart met his doom It was a German rifle ball that laid him in his tomb. I shall always keep his finger ring and all his letters too I shall always live a single life, for the boy who was so true. The informant told me that the following were just funny sayings he learned as a boy and used to have fun with at parties. HG: HG: Can you say this? Did you ever see a small, tall, rawboned boy about the size of a common man, walk away tomorrow, fast asleep upon a seat, enough to make the devil laugh to see the pudding creep, riding a stray heifer with a straw bridle, Sheepskin shirt, and a poplar bark coat and it allover dimity fashion. And this? Well good morning this morning, its a pretty morning this morning. If it's as pretty in the morning as it is this morning, it will be a pretty morning in the morning. HG: HG: This is another one: If you and your folks love me and my folks, like me and my folks love you and your folks. If you and your folks, love me and my folks, like me and my folks love you and your folks, we'd all love folks, like folks ought to love folks. RIDDLES: Once there was a man who had no eyes. He went out to view the skies. He saw an apple tree that had apples on it. He didn't take any apples off or leave any apples on it. This riddle may pose a question. Well may I give you the answer. The man only had one eye, the tree only had two apples, he taken one off and left one on. HG: HG: Here is another riddle; see if you might guess this. Old mother twitchit, she had but one eye, she had a long tail, that she let fly; every time she went over the gap she left a bit of her tail in the trap. Now if you are wondering what the answer might be, it is a lady a sewing with a needle and thread. Let me ask you what this riddle might be? What is round as a biscuit, as deep as a cup, all of the kings horses cannot pull it up. The answer to this riddle is an old fashioned country well. 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 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.