Jay (James Richard) Hunter Jr. interview with Ann Crowder, Tom O. Crowder, Evelyn Crowder, and Dick Hunter

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. This recording contains an interview with Ann Crowder, the interviewers great aunt, with support from her family members. She begins by describing her mothers process of making lye soap and brooms, and her Saturday afternoon kitching scrubbing routine. At 3:35 Crowder describes her family home, located on Alabama road in Cherokee County, Georgia. Next she explains how her family made shuck mops and their laundry day routine. Then at 7:50, Crowder remembers her fathers blacksmith shop where he made scissors and hammers. Crowders grandfather was a Confederate soldier who was furloughed during the Civil War because of appendicitis, and her father discovered a dead Union soldier near Kennesaw Mountain during the Battle of Atlanta. At 11:45, Crowder looks back on her fathers knowledge of herbs for home remedies. Next she recalls attending a one-room school house. Then at 15:20, she details her familys weekly Saturday evening bath schedule. Crowder tells a story about her great aunt retrieving her stolen cattle from a Union Armys camp, and says that her family hid food from soldiers before they could raid the farm. At 19:04, Crowder shares memories of collecting mistletoe from the woods and attending community gatherings during the holidays. Next she recalls the first time she saw a car and picnicking with her siblings on a mule-drawn wagon. At 25:05 Crowder describes how she kept milk cold and how to smoke meat in the smokehouse. Next she shares memories of attending and hosting square dances and candy pullings. At 35:00 Crowder looks back on her hatred for rattlesnakes, a practical joke her brothers played with a king snake, and her mothers death from gangrene. Next she shares her memory of when her brothers hand was caught in their cotton gin, which inspired her to become a community healer. Anna Mae Ann Tyson Crowder (1893-1979) was born in Cherokee County, Georgia, to Obediah Hargroves Tyson (1852-1919) and Nancy Elizabeth Huey (1854-1938). In 1915 she married Thomas Crowder (1892-1976), who was born in Cherokee County, Georgia, to Thomas Young Crowder (1854-1927) and Mary Jane Smith (1852-1934). They had two children, Evelyn Crowder (1921-1999), who married and lived in Howard, Macon, Kennesaw, and Marietta, Georgia, throughout her life; and Horace Crowder (1916-1944), who died in combat during World War II. Anna Crowder lived in Woodstock, Kennesaw, Macon, and Marietta, Georgia, throughout her life. Richard James Dick Hunter Sr. (1923-1982) was born in Marietta, Georgia, to Frank Paris Hunter (1879-1950) and Minnie Victoria Tyson (1879-1948). He graduated from Marietta High School in Marietta, Georgia, and served in the United States Navy during World War II. He is buried in Kennesaw Memorial Park in Marietta, Georgia. Hunter married and had five children, including Richard James Jay Hunter Jr. (1946- ), who was born in Massachusetts. James Jr. graduated from Sandy Springs High School and Georgia State University; he married and moved to Decatur, Georgia, where he passed away. AHC Oral History Cataloging Worksheet File Information Cnuamtabloegrue Iv,s,() liDO?\, It), oS Source Field* (ContentDM) ~-~ Release form Yesor~~ Transcript Yes or No scanned: From Yeso~ 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) C ''iY, Description (bio on interviewee) I,A\() !~~\t1'0, C (Aili\ ") 0' 1 Creator (Enter either an individual's name or an organization) Collection Name (within the organization) -,2;C,}fY\("~", Burrison Folklore Class Georgia Folklore Archives Creation Date Exact Date (yyyy-mm-dd) (use only one) 1-:-:~~~~~~~~~~-+~-,----~~~~~~~~~~~~~--1 Year (if only the year is known) Iq Circa (4 digit year) Derivatives Access copy: Yes or No Recording clip Yes or No Object Type Media Format (VHS, reel to reel, etc Recording extent Time code for clip (h:m:s) Year Span Image_ Text Text and image _ Video and S~/d _ Sound only Reel-reel Hours: (') Minutes: II 5 " Beginning: ?X/I, 'f 'l~ From To Access copy format: Clip extent: 10 ' End: 7j'""A.6 Notes (interview summary) IAv), A,,') ,t'tpk( ",hu(' ..... eYYF>/q/ ~ ~\)'i2-o ~~>o{V\,<:_ -\.~)\ 1,1'1 -- v..\,\ \ 2 Recording issues (background noise, echo, static, etc.) Subject Information Enter information about the content of the object here: Subject Date Exact Date (yyyy-mm-dd) (use only one) Year (if only the year is known) Circa (4 digit year) Year Span From To Subject Who Last Name First Name MI ~ \ W,')';1 \C Hl'C,. rnA'') Ou (t\'(W1\ '~"'\.,,.J \, .'\ ~) \J \,;);)l ''Ii 10m 0 ' I , <> C) fHA 'Is";J Eo \-\-0V!~t) \:)\ ~V"\ Subject Country State County Town Local Name Location CJCl\; G~\ , f:f{ .. ,/, Subject What AHC Cataloger will complete this for you. (LOC subject headinas onlv) Keywords Burrison, John Personal names See subject who for additional names ( \ ..d, ; ..\ (f\ ).. ,\.',)\.'l""''("".'.,."l~"e"k! I""."".,' . ("c. '"'1 .... '\l'i,l ('1 (\ fV\\ C' I , 'j\)\'.i' , 'r\""+>: , \ \,J; (I ",) 3 Corporate names Geographic locations Topics ,(;j;) h[,;( Oft, 't')t'l'("''''-~'''tf\.('' \ ~ 'ltAt/\.~,;", \flJ'( ':\'((--_:') C/lAoilS 4 COLIECTION PROJECT FOR FOLK 300 as submitted by James R. Hunter, Jr. Collector: James R. Hunter, Jr. 921 Myrtle street, NE, #B-211 Atlanta, Georgia 30309 Informant: Mrs. T. O. Crowder 128 Fairoaks Avenue Marietta, Georgia Present at the recording were: Mrs. T. O. Crowder Mr. T. O. Crowder Miss E. Crowder Dick Hunter Jay Hunter Aunt Ann Uncle Tom E. C. D. J. SIDE I AA: You can just say, eh, you want it as Aunt Ann. J: Eh, that's all right. AA: Just put it Aunt Ann if you want to. J: All right. You're 76 years old? AA: Uh, well, lIm nearer J: How about AA: Well, you say 75, uh J: 75 AA: Cause I am 75. J: Okay, fine, 75. Okay, well, okay tell me about how they used to make lye soap then. AA: Okay, well they had a big ashhopper. About five foot high and they'd fill it with a hickory ashes and uh for a few weeks and a then they'd go to pourin' water, on it and it dripped down and, uh, a container and, uh, to get 3 or 4 gallons of lye and then she'd take her meat scraps and, uh, old grease of any kind she had and, uh, put in a washpot, build a fire around it and mix it with her lye and she boiled, she boiled that down until it made thick soap. And then when she'd take it out, why, she put in a jar and it'd be soap that you couilld just cut out and use as kind of a brown lookin' soap. J: Did it come out in big cakes and things? AA: Uh huh. J: That you just chopped up? AA: Uh huh. J: Oh great. AA: Yeah, uh, and, uh, so it really was fine soap, that's the way they made lye soap. J: (laughter) Okay, start now. AA: We'd go out and gather brooms age and, uh, bring it in and, uh, take a fork and, uh, strip all the a husks, off it and then we'd have us a good stout cord and make us a broom about six feet long and boy did it sweep. J: laughter AA: Six feet, uh, that was the way we made, uh, 1 J,f What did you use for handles? AA: And we gathered broom straw we'd gather it in big bundles and store it through the winter so that when one broom wore out, we could make a new one. J: How long did they last anyway? AA: Oh, they'd last about two weeks, I guess. We'd have to make a new broom. J: Two weeks (laughter) AA: Yeah. J: Would you use the same ... AA: Yeah, that's what they swept the, the house with. As far as having, uh, any other kind of broom why they didn't know what they were. J: Yeah. AA: straw brooms is what they used. J: Yeah, uh, tell me about, you on the floor and everything. I were saying something about the shuck-mop Saturday nights. AA: How's that? J: Saturday nights when you had to clean the floor. AA: Oh, yes on Saturday afternoon we always had to scrub the kitchen and we put white sand on it and a little soap with a big shuck mop and we scrubbed the kitchen and rinsed the floor just as clean. And it would be, we knew nothin' about polish or anything like that to put on floors in those days and we had a clean kitchen it had to be done every Saturday afternoon too. J: Uh, where did you go to get the sand now? AA: We'd get the sand we'd go down on the branch and get white sand and bring it up to the house. And then too we'd, when we wanted to clean our fireplaces, we'd go down on the branch and get white mud and make up white wash and whitewash the fireplaces real nice, and, oh, they'd be just as pretty and clean inside and all, you know, and whitewash all around, well, yoU good housekeeper if you, if you done that. (laughter) J: Where was the house at, Aunt Ann ... whereabouts was the house located? AA: It was up in Cherokee. UT: Up in Cherokee on the old Alabama road. J: Alabama road? AA: The old house is still, yeah UT: Next to woodstock. 2 J: Next to Woodstock. Fine, how old is that house, anyway? Do you know Uncle Tom? UT: Well, she'd, she'd possibly know. Howald's house? AA: The old house? It seems UT: Part of it. AA: I was born there, I'm 75. UT: There's part of it there. I guess around it's a hundred years old. AA: Well, no. The old parts been torn away. Oh, I imagine it's about 80 years old. J: AA: J: D: About 80? Nuh huh .... now Good Lord. How the shuc,k mops was made. J: Uh, well, yeah, I guess you would, yeah, shuck mops. How'd you make those? AA: The shuck mops, uh, wel~ they's you'd have a board about a foot and half long and, uh, and you took a auger and bored big round holes and then you took, uh, corn shucks and stuffed in those holes. J: stuffed where? AA: And made a real good mop. J: About how many holes would you have in the mop about four or five? AA: Let me see. They'd be about four 'or five holes. UT: About six or eight. AA: They'd be two ply Ie's see, there'd be four, about eight holes, four on each side makin' and then put a handle in it and you had a good scrub. It'd sbrub things clean, too. D: Ask her somethin' about grandpa's old forge. J: Yeah, do you, what do you, remember what did he use to make down at the forge down there most of your pots and things, er? AA: Let's see, well, would you want to know about Monday wash days? J: Sure: 3 AA: Well, on Monday, we had a big iron wash pot. And, uh, we'd fill it up full of water. We'd draw it out from the well. We'd draw it up, you know, with a bucket. And, we'd fill the pot and then we'd build a fire round it and get our water hot and then we had three big washtubs. One we put warm water in and put all the clothes in and if they were too dirty, we had watch ya' call a battlin bench. And a big long a paddle bout' 5 foot long and when the clothes were real soiled we'd put em' up on that bench with some soap on em' and boy we'd beat the very life out them. (laughter) and then we put em' in a pot and boil em' and then we'd rinse em' through three or four rinse waters and the last rinse water we put bluin in it to make the clothes clean and nice you know. J: What would you make the bluing out of or did you just buy that? AA: We'd,~uh, we'd buy the bluin, I don't know. I don't know just what its made~of, but it was we'd get little boxes of bluing about six inches high and that'd last us a long time. Mother bought that at the store. And used the lye soap and we had clean clothes when they dried, too. J: I guess so, yeah. EC: You want to tell him about the community telephone? AA: Ah, yeah, we had (ha,ha) we had us a telephone back in my day, too, and it uS up on the wall and le's see, how did that thing look, now. Oh, I know you had to you had to ring you had a to crahk it you know ring so many rings for everybody had so many rings for everybody had so many rings you remember, our old telephone, don't you, Dick, and everybody'd get on the line and listen at you (laughter) if you'se a talkin'. J: Did you have things like .. AA: Sure, if I got to talkin', if I got to talkin' to my boyfriend why every little old gal got on the line and distunbed me in spite of everything. (laughter) J: Let's see, I was trying to think of something. AA: Let me see, and then EC: Tell him how you laced Tay's corset up. AA: Huh? EC: Laced Tay's corset up. AA: I didn't understand you. EC: Laced Tay's corset up (laughter) AA: I never did understand what you said. EC: ~h never, let it go. J: Okay (laughter) 4 AA: I'm a little bit deaf. J: Oh, let's see. AA: Let me see if I can think of any other old things that we used to do that they don't do now days. D: Well, grandpa had that big old, had that old blacksmith shop down there. AA: Oh, yeah, daddy had a blacksmith had, and when I's a little kid I uh, what did you call it? shop and he had loved to git up (&'i bellouses that you and he would let me, D: Pump those bellows. AA: Pump the bellows? When he was sharpening plows he'd let me pump the bellows and he'd call me come to the shop and I knew exactly what he wanted me to do and I'd pump hishbel.., and he'd sharpen the plows on that big ole' anvil, yeah, that's one thing that they don't do any more, and uh, J: What kind of things did he use to make down at the forge Aunt Ann? AA: Beg pardon? J: What kind, what kind of things did he make down at the forge? Did he make tools or what? AA: D: AA: D: AA: D: AA: D: AA: D: J: AA: -5') Oh~ He'd makeAdaddy could make most anything he'd take a notion in, in the old shop. He'd sharpen his plows and he'd, and make ... Oh, I don't know what all he did do. I just can't remember. Scissors, Yeah. Scissors and uh, uh, hammers and Oh~ He made hammers. He made a lot of hammers cause I remember him making me a tiny little hammer when I was a little girl so I could hammer and boy did I love to hammer. (laughter) and nobody better not bother my hammer either cause daddy made me a little ham... , a little claw hammer that I could pull nails out with. Yep, I remember he made one for Herbert. Yeah, He made me a hammer And, uh, I, I just have to get to thinkin' back because that's been a long time. Do you remember, turn it off just a second Jay. Okay, yeah. Well, it was about .. 5 J: How old was he again? AA: I guess it's about 10 miles from there to the mountain, wouldn't it be? (laughter) UT: You've got to talk loud to her, Jay J: Okay AA: Yeah, they would ga .. they'd gather up old things off the mountain the boys would an he made him a truck wagon out of the, out of the, uh, the things that he'd pick up off of the mountain and I remember he said he come up, him and some boys they come up on the mountain and, uh, he saw a fellow leaning up against a tree, and, uh, hit was a dead yankee and he touched, they touched him with a stick the toe of his shoe and his leg rolled down the mountain. I remember daddy tellin' us that, and, and uh, they would carry those things, they would walk 10 miles and he got enough stuff to make him a big truck wagon out off, that was in civil war days, and I've heard him tell it so many times J: Well, what about the time you say he went to get his father who'd been shot. AA: Yeah, uh, well no, uh, that didn't kill grandpa. He come home he had, uh, they called it, oh, let's see UT: Furlough AA: He come home on a furlough, yes, but it was, urn, what they, they call it we, we would call it appendicitus now but that wadn't what they called it then. I think they called it cramp cholic then. J: Cramp cholic? AA: Yeah. J: Uh huh. AA: I don't know what it'd be but I think that's what they called it then c and he, he died at home when on a furlough and I remember it's ~ut on his tomb up there now the last words he said. He said, uh, "The good fight's fought and the victory's gained". And daddy had that put on his tomb up there in field you, you'll find it if you's ever to go up there. And he wasn't but 12 years old and, of course, he had to help uh, his, uh, mother raise the little ones and they had~pretty rugged time and I think that's the reason daddy's life was so short because he worked so hard when he was young. Let me see if I can think of .. EC: How about your daddy and his herbs. He went to the woods to get herbs, medicine. AA: Oh, daddy knew every, everything ,grew in the field. Cause when I's a little tyke I'd go a ramble with him in the woods and he'd tell me the names of different things such as samson snake root an, an, uh, let me see now, what all . J: Whai would he do with something',ilike samson snake root? What, what could 6 make with, uh, the snake root? AA: Well, he would say, uh, butterfly root, he said that was good for fever. J: Fever, okay. AA: Yeah, and, uh, samson snake root, oh, I forget what they used that for and then they had pluck's root that would . J: Pluck's root? Uh huh. AA: J: Pluck's root what which I have, uh, I've drunk some of the tea, uh, uh, your bowels was badvthey give ya' pluck's root tea, and that I 'IoU knoui, if, AA: Would check em' and, uh, then a Indian pink root, I forget what they used that for an then they had what they called cold's foot J: Cold's foot. AA: Grow on the branch and then mullen and daddy use to drink mullen root tea and I don't know what he, what it was for, for his asthma, I reckon. J: Huh AA: And he would tell me the name of ever herb that grew in the woods. He knew! Cause he had a big, uh .. EC: Medicine book, didn't he? AA: Yeah; book there he studied. He'd tell you the name of everything that grew in the woods and it was right interesting and .. J: Did people ever come by to get these, uh, these, uh, these herbs from him? AA: Oh? J: Did he ever give em', uh, you know, give em' to people for things, well, you know, kinda' like a doctor? AA: Well, uh, I know they use to grow kapnips. They'd give babies make kapnip tea for babies I bet you've drunk some. D: Probably have. AA: I'll bet ya' have. (laughter) Yeah, yeah, kapnip they, we used to have kapnip growin' at home there isn't any up there now, an I know the women'd come their little babies and get kapnip to make the babies tea and, uh, EC: Did they have aspedity or something like that for colds? AA: Oh, yeah, everybody back in my day used to wear, ..,when I was a little girl goin' to school why I wore a big wad of asptdity on a string around my neck to keep from catchin' diseases but I don't think that helped any. (laughter) but I had to wear it anyhow cause now if I 7 didn't my mother'd say don't you leave that off now you, you're liable to catch so and so, and I wore .. J: Where did you use to go to school? AA: That big wad of aspidity around my neck all the time when I's a little girl (laughter) J: What, uh, wha you say you went to school? Was, was there a school house up there? AA: J: AA: Uh huh. Did you just meet at somebody's house? The old school house is torn away. Yes, we ha~,a v~~y' nice school at ( oA:--f\J!/Vj Bascomb. We had some good teachers. All of our,was, uh, from Walleskl and I remember the first day I went to school and I carried your dad to school the first day he went and he wouldn't sit with nobody else but me. (laughter) D: Is that right? (laughter) AA: See, I'm just 7 years older than Herbert. EC: Before you, Dick. (laughter) AA: And, and I took Herbert to school an UT: You all you talkin' about, you said his daddy. AA: I mean his brother, your oldest brother, Herbert. (laughter) UT: Yeah, I's just wonderin' what you's talkin' about. AA: Yeah, no I meant Herbert. I's thinkin' cause' Herbert's so much older than Dick. (laughter) And, that little tyke he, he had to sit in the desk with me. (laughter). Why, I petted that young 'un. I use to paddle him, too! He laughs about it now. He can. (laugher) Chasin' 'H'l: ",em:' up trees when he'd stay up there. I haven't seen old Herbert now in a long time. EC: Every Satu~day didn't you fix the water for, for your baths. Your Saturday night bath. AA: Um, yeah, we'd get big ole' washtub an warm our water an boy that's all the bathtub we knew anything about. Get in the kitchen in the wintertime we'd build up a big log fire and put the tub, '';'Illl, front of the fire an get in it. in J: What did you just heat the water on the stove? AA: Saturday night bath that, uh, we, uh, we, uh, knew nothing about a bath through the week. It was a Saturday night bath. J: Yeah, vh. (laughter) 8 AA: ah, let's see, I wish I could think up a .. EC: How about that story about Aunt Janie, Janie, uh, uh . AA: ah, I can tell you a real old story about, uh,my great aunt during the war. J: Yeah, I'd like to hear it. AA: Well, uh, during the war it 'us my mother's aunt, Aunt Jane Wilson, she, uh, they, they come an took all the cows. Well, she went to the Yankee~~, where they were and she got old bossie and she drove her home and said the, uh, the uh, men just died laughin' at ,her they said was,!";Jister, you sure got your nerve, and said she says yes I hav~ and says I've got m\little nieces and nephews that needs milk andt"l",'y} "bu're not gonna' slaughter our ole' bossie and she, she went to their camp and drove that, in where the men were and drove her back home and mother said she remembers when the Yankees come through an said, uh, her mother had baked a big chicken pie on the fireplace in a big iron oven, you know, an said there's a big ole' Yankee come in an says "sis, what you got there" and she said "mother made a chicken pie" an he said, "Yl~ll, said, "let's eat some'rtap.d mother said, II I , t kfi, '.',J!'),."",_., was a little girlO'ahd I went and got us a fork~tthe others was out gatherin' up all 6f our chickens and just takin' everything, you know", and said "that ole' Yankee really did feed an then they grabbed up", I've got the jar in there now that where, uh, where, uh, they took a black molasses an, uh, A~nt Jane took that away from em' off'n the horse. (laughter) An she said, "Now you're not gonna rob these children of everything there is to eat here and they hid their meat, they buried it~the ash hopper an the Yankees didn't get their meat and they had their corn up in the, they called it the loft of the house then you know, and they'd put the corn up there and the Yankees didn't go up in the loft an they saved their corn. They didn't get; everything. But they tOOK everything go;Ln' an comin' from everybody as they come through that they could find to eat. Hit was interesting to hear mother and daddy talk about the war, you know, and so I guess that's the reason that the southern people have been so long a feeling very good towards the north. But, I think that's all about to blow over now an everybody feels about the same. Northeru,people they, they just talk a little different from us a little faster~somethin'. They haven't got that nice long southern drawl like most people have. (laughter) But, all the Northern people I've ever met has been very nice. J: What did you use to do on holidays an things would everybody just come over to one house or, uh, say like Christmas or Thanksgiving? AA: ah, we celebrated Christmas when I was a girl. We'd go out, uh, about a week before Christmas we'd gather all the mistletoe we could find in the woods and we'd hang it over the door an all squealin' and yellin' an the little gals would have it if they's to get under the mistletoe an the boys to grab em' and kiss em'. ah, boy, they's a runnin'. (laughter) He ain't a goin' to kiss me! (laughter) We'd always, we'd always have parties we did now when I's a girl we had a party~lmost, every night somewhere in the community we'd go 6, 8 miles1drive in the sno~ or anything. I remember~night I nearly froze to death it snowed almost all the way back in that ole' open buggy and horse an it was so cold when we got in but we went to parties, yeah, we really did Some. We had pound suppers. Everybody carried a cake and a: the boys 9 usually brought candy and the girls'd carry a cake and we'd put candy and cake allover the table and boy we'd just eat candy and cake to beat the band. (laughter) I don't remember us, uh, ever having anything, any punch or anything like that to drink then I, I don't think we did have anything we just had fruit and I know we girls decorated the table we'd take stick candy and we'd build like a rail fence all around the table an, oh, boy, our table was pretty. (laughter) We all had a good time though. J: Sounds like you did. EC: Excuse me, mother, how'd first car? AA: The first car? EC: Uh huh. ya'll react when you first saw, first saw the AA: The first car I ever saw was, um, let me see, it was, um.. EC: I've heard you tell it. AA: Oh, why can't I think. He was here in Marietta. D: Perkins. AA: No, Ne'1!t was their a Neli't. UT: Morris. AA: Ne~t Morris, yeah, Neut Morris' car come up. We heard it, your dad was livin' at the old, um, Gaily place. You know what we used to call the Gaily place, of course, it don't look like that now. Everything's been torn away and I think two or three houses put up there. Anyway, we heard an awful noise comin' the Kennesaw road an we run out there. I's down there at your mother~ and we saw that thing a comin' about 10 miles an hour. Boy, was it going fast. (laughter) And they's four men in it. It'us Neut Morris' car from Marietta and that was first car I ever saw and I remember it just as well if it were yesterday and it was really a show to see that car come chugging along you know. They didn't have tops on em' then. and going 10 miles an hour right there. Now, he was really goin' fast. (laughter) J: Oh, let's see what was that something I wanted to ask you about. AA: Well, I'd have to think back a lot to think of back when I's a kid an everything what we did an all. Which of course, nowadays two horse wagons is a, is a thing of the past. I don't suppose little children, you know, would know what a two horse wagon was. D: A lot of themiiwouldn't. AA: No. J: Yeah. 10 AA: At's the way we use to go picnicking. Brother Will had, uh, had, uh, four mules and, uh, he'd hitch four mules up to his big ole' two horse wagon an we'd load it up with girls an boys and we'd go up on Cherokee mill and, uh, carry lunch and we'd have the best time and I remember one time that, uh, there's a grapevine and the boys could hold it and swing way round over the river. And I said if ya'll can do it I can,~nd I got up on the side of the hill and I held that grapevine, I went around over the river and I shore did hold to that grapevine cause if it'd broke, it'd been too bad cause I couldn't swim a lick. (laughter). 11 SIDE n AA: She, uh, she spun, uh, thread on a spinnin' wheel and knit all our socks until we's great big kids. J: The great, uh, one of the regular spinnin' wheels. AA: M-hm, on spinnin' wheel. You know what brother Ed, he took that spinnin' wheel and just cut it up for kindlin' wood and I'd give anything in the world if I had that ole' spinnin' wheel now. D: Yeah, a lot of the old things like that went. AA: I know it. J: Did you have a churn, I guess? Did she have a churn, a butter churn, at one time. AA: Dh, yes! Definitely. J: How'd she, how'd she make butter in that? I've never seen one work. EC: Had the kerosene lamps. J: I've never seen a butter churn work, how do you work one? AA: You don't know how to make butter? J: I don't know how. AA: Dh, boy you got to get you a pig ole' churn, she had about a five gallon churn, I guess, she usually had about three gallons of milk to churn and you'd have a dash~r put in and you'd just turn it up and down thisaway and you just ~fturn for an hour or two and finally you'd raise the lid up and you can see that the butter begin t9gether and then you'd take your, your dasher and just wind it around that way and lift the butter up on the dasher put it over in your pan and then take it, mold it up, I molded a many a pound of butter. All that, uh, seems so long ago. (laughter) J: Well, did you have any special way to, uh, you didn't have refrigerators, I don't guess. AA: Dh, no, definitely not. The way we cooled things we'd put our milk in a big glass jug and sink it in the well - keep cool milk. J: What would you do with, uh, things like meats. Did you just dry em' out or smoke em' or what did you have a smoke house? At: un, smoke, uh, hang em' up in the smoke house, uh, we didn't know what a refrigerator was and after we heard of em' we didn't believe they'd work. (laughter). EC: Let's see, how did you cool the milk? Put uh, buckets of... AA: Dh, the way the milk was fixed you see, uh, afore you'd turn it you would, urn, let .it clabber. EC: I mean how did you cool the milk to drink it after it was, uh, after the cow would .. 12 AA: We'd just pour it, we'd just draw water out of the well and pour it in a big, uh, we had, in big ole' wash tubs. We'd set our jars down and we'd change, uh, the water, uh, oh, about twice cold water you see, we'd pour it out and about a hour before dinner why we'd go draw fresh water and put around to cool our milk for dinner. That's the way we had cool milk an' we used to pu~rin the well bucket and sink it down in the well alot and cool it. J: Did you ever see em' dig a well? When they were diggin' out there? AA: What, han? J: Did you ever see them make a well? When they dug one? Do you remember how they used to do that? AA: Now, let's see ... J: I know you have to line it a special way around the bottom, don't you? You don't have to line it? I thought you had to line it. AA: Oh, I guess if I could just think, Jay, back I could think up lot more stuff that we'd do. EC: Did you tell them how, how, how.... AA: Did, we had us a horse and we'd hitch ole', we'd catch ole' Sam out in and gerry him up just like a man, hitch him up to the buggy and then we'd go in dressed and go to church we'd always hitch our horse up first though, and hitch him to a hitchin' post and then we'd go in dressed and then we'd go to, go to church come back home. We'd, uh, unhitch the horse and put him up. We'd didn't ask the boys to help us do anything like that. J: Did you have to scrub him down, curry him all that? AA: Yeah, I remember one time my brother was drivin' the horse and, uh, he's goin' over the big hills what they used to call as green hills you know, well, we thought those were deep cut, and, uh, uh, another boy was with him-that was brother Bud and old Ja ... Old Sam he's perfectly gentle ,but, um, this boy had a pistol and he just threw the lines down in the buggy and shot the pistol. Well, Sam come home andA1~Jft them in the buggy (laughter). They, they had to pull the buggy in and ole' Sam come on home. He tore out of that harness he give such a ~lunge it scared him so when the pistol fired; and daddy was scared to death he come in he said what in the world said what in the world is happened to Bud. And they come pullin' the buggy in and they says ole' Sam just tore out, I remember that (laughter) Oh, boy. EC: Tell em' how you put, uh, uh, roast a possum, bake a possum with it (laughter) AA: Oh, well, that, was nothing for us to have possum dinners. Boys would catch the possum and . UT: That's nothin' antique, they still have that. 13 AA: Yeah, that's nothing antique about possum, everybody likes possum. J: What's it taste like? UT: Possum? J: HJn? UT: I never tasted one, don't never want to. AA: He won't taste, they're good. J: UT: Are they good? (,ti"B'(!te,;,~ 'le" She's ~ta;yted-4t-.- eaten one. t; I wouldn't eat one. AA: My, uh, brother Ed used to catch em' and he'd put em' up an fatten em' and I remember one time when Beatrice and Crane come up there an' Crane he enjoyed that dinner and I cooked it and I, I never had cooked a possum myself, course Mother had a lot a time but she told me how to cook it. I parboiled it was right tender, you know, and then I put it in and gashed it and poured vinegar on top of it and pepper and put in, put sweet potatoes all around it and let it brown right brown and, and, that, uh, course they're so fat, you know, and I seasoned the potatoes it's really good dish. J: That's good. AA: He said he wouldn't tasttit, make no difference how many we had. As far as Christmas used to come, uh UT: I won't eat no possum and I won't eat no chitlins (laughter) AA: Well, I don't care for them, neither. And he doesn't like oysters anymore, uh, Dick, in the spring we went to Daytona Beach with his nephew and his wife. Oh, well, let's see I don't know just ... J: Well, let's start off there was, er, horse and buggy, right? AA: Yeah, we'd go in the horse and buggy to ole' square dance they had and, uh, we'd always have fiddle and a banjo -H'- somebody played a .f;iddle and a banjo and, and, uh, we'd dance square dances. I used to go 'it.~my brothers Will and Ed tri'e:'S~~s square dance they'd want me to go with em.' and Tay she was really a good, she's really a good dancer and she loved square dances and it was a lot of fun. And I think it was good, clean dancin'. There's I don't, I honestly, I neVer could see any harm in it cause we always just bounce around (laughter) have big time. Just so we thought we's havin' a big time that's all that mattered. (laughter) J: Would you decorate the barn or anything or . AA: Uh, we didn't ever go in the barn, is always in somebody's house, we'd clean out a room, you know. J: Yeah. 14 AA: And uh, clean everything out of a room and, boy, we'd just dance until uh, 12: 00 as late as", daddy used to let us have dances his house but uh, he wouldn't let~m' stay any longer ~n~ twelve they all had to go home at that time and everybody liked to go to a square dance. J: Uh, how, how, uh, would you have one, say, what once a month or, AA: Well, naw it's just, oh, I wouldn't know, ever ... UT: In the wintertime Yllight have one ever week. AA: Ever now and then we'd have square dances and that was about, uh, the biggest amusement we had in the wintertime was square dance. Maybe candy pullins' . J: What were those like? AA: Uh, uh, well, uh, I it's been so long, Jay, I forgotten really what we did do. But, uh, and pound suppers . J: Pound suppers, yeah. AA: Which, of course, I told you about and that was just about it out in the country. J: What would you make the candy out of? AA: Syrup candy, we just make it out of soggem syrup. Boil it down an' then we'd have to pull it you see til it, oh, we'd just pull it til it'd get hard and make candy. And then we used to have tacky parties, too. Everybody'd go dressed just as tacky as we could and maybe the refreshments would be, uh, baked potatoes4rcrab apples, something like that (laughter) just something tacky. UT: I didn't have to dress for the tacky parties cause I always looked tacky (laughter) AA: Oh, yeah, but we had, we had fun. J: Oh, (laughter) yeah, it sounds like you did. AA: Yeah, that was real fun.~yerybody, uh, the boys the only way they'd be tacky maybe turn their coats wrong side outwards, you know, but we girls we might make our dresses, they, were, if we wore long dresses in those days we'd make em' a little shorter, you know, however, we never did get em' to mini skirts (laughter) Never did get em' quite that high, Jay (laughter). J: That's good. AA: So, uh, we would, we'd dress and comb our hair, you see, right tacky and different from what the style would be. J: Just hair would stick allover? AA: Yeah. 15 EC: You used to we&r r&ts in your hair, too, didn't you mother? AA: Oh, that was quite stylish in my day to put a rat in your hair. Put a rat on and comb your hair back up o'er it and it'd just puff so pretty all the way aroun', you know. One night I remember he and I going to church &nd it rained and we was in an open buggy and we'd just drenched when we got home, I had a rat in my hair and, uh, course Tay brought the ole' kerosene lamp to the door when she let us in and, uh, my hair h&d fell down and my rat was just layin' across my he&d (laughter) T&y, Tay said then, she said well, she said I don't imagine if Tom got & look at you then he'd ever w&nt to look at you anymore. (laughter) Lookin' like that. (laughter) J: Oh .. ct AA: Oh, oh, uh, he was, shuckin' corn intcrib, now I don't remember that I was too small or I wasn't born, I don't know which. He was just quite a small boy, and, uh, they was a doctor that used to, you know, where, uh, Uncle John Hunter used to live, well, they used to be a store there and a doctor had his office there and they said if they hadn't had that doctor there now they said he lay all night and he would lick out of his tongue just like & snake will, you know, and, and he come pretty close, come pretty close killin' him, he was just a boy, bit him on the left arm. J: What kind of snake was it? AA: It was a rattlesn&ke, a pilot. And he'd kill every snake as long as he lived he'd kill every snake except a king snake and I tell you what he done one time. Now in mother, she, she h&d a little ole' side room that she kept her flour bin, kept that full of flour and, uh, she had a big, um, tr&y, wood tray that's over th&t, you see, that she m&de her dough up in. Well, they was a cat hole in that little where the kitty used to go in out keep the mice in th&t little, uh, side room they could go in out when they wanted to. A sn&ke come in there and uh, it was a king snake and he got under t~ft bread tray.~ell, uh, Tay and me we~re one Monday morning we were~~~ht at the washtub washin' and, uh, oh,~were talkin' about wh&t happened on Sund&y c&use we go to these all d&y singins' you know, and who we saw an' who, uh, wh&t boy we met and thus and so, you know how young girls and boys t&lk &bout and how he looked at me or how I looked &t him (laughter), you know, so, um, brother Bud he, uh, he come down, he w&s married then and he come down and, uh, mother started to make bread for dinner. She went to pick up her tray and there l&y that snake. He'd been in there after mice, you see, and, uh, he just picked it up brought it out there and wrapped it right around Tay's ankle and it, it just sc&red her, she's fell over on the ground she was scared nearly de&th which w&s a dangerous thing to do. And he just died laughin'. He loved to, he loved to do something, played pranks on us girls he'd rather do it than to eat. But I never will forget, the, a, a, and then he just let it crawl off. He wouldn't kill a, he wouldn't kill a king snake at all butfany other snake they'd never get away from him. {lObI J: Well, why wouldn't he kill a king snake? AA: And, then, uh, uh, a rattlesnakes pilot bit my mother one time, you.. 16 UT: A King snake's not poisonous. AA: Huh? UT: They won't bit you, anyway. King snakes not poison. They won't bite you. AA: EC: AA: J: AA: He says they wouldn't bite uh, mother went out under the big horse appletrees to gather apples one evenin' (laughter) and she's thought it was a snake bit her on the ankle, I mean she thought it was a wasp bit her on the ankle and she looked down an' it was a big ole' snake. That's was 'fore I was married. I was livin' in Macon then and, urn, she saw this snake and she says I better get to the house and the boys were/Will was workin' at the gin out there and a neighbor come roun' the corner of the house at the time and, you know, what they done? She told em '-"she said go gather a chicken and just split it open and says don't kill it just, just split it open and lay it on that bite. And they did and she wouldn't let the boys call a doctor. That's 'fore brother Will married, and, urn, but that, that snake bite,that leg affected her as long as she lived. And, uh, a few days they had to call the doctor because it formed a big sack o~ right at the snake bite and the doctor E~lis come up and lanced it. And he said Miss Tyson, said you all but have blood poisonin', and she had to sit with her foot elevated to ease the swellin'. That's afore Tay married. And she was in Atlanta visitin' a uncle of ours and, urn, so uh, she just, she had to sit there that way, the neighbors come in and cooked for her, you know, and, uh, when she died, why, gangreen set up in that foot in that big hole and that's what killed mother, and I expect that snakebite always affected her as long as she lived. So that's one thing I can't stand is a snake. Excuse me, you know, Jay, about when Uncle Will got cut up in the gin. Oh, I was just a kid of a girl then when he , when he got cut all to pieces in the cotton gin. It was the 18th of October and I forgot what year now and, uh, we had company at the house some of the neighbor girls was there and I heard him holler. I, uh, had long hair then and it was done up but when I got out to that gin house I run so fast, Dick, believe it or not every hairpin was out of my hair and my hair was down roun' my shoulders and I run up the steps and they'd just taken him out a the gin. Then's when, you know, his crippled hand. Yeah. That.hand was cut all to pieces and, uh, his head was jerked down on the t "~ seeket's)bear and a gash cut across and his nose was just layin' flat on .j;'li'J;"side of his face, and they brought him out and they laid him down on the front porch and he lay there until well, uh, a doctor got there. We called three doctors, one in Macworth, Woodstock, and Kennesaw and, uh, Doctor Rhodes in Woodstock got'there first. And everybody said that the, that saw Doctor Rhodes come they said well, they said I didn't know Doctor Rhodes drank but says that man was drunker-I've never seen ,'npbody drive so fast in my life. Said he just hit the high places. (laughter) Well, he got there because he, he knew Will and he was afraid that he might bleed to death or something you know, and that's the reason why he come so fast but everybody was tellin' tales aroun' about Doctor Rhodes drivin' so fast, and then, uh, 17 They all wanted to amputate his hand and he wouldn't, he wouldn't hear to it. We laid him out on,I don't know whether you remember that ole' long dining room table that mother used to have or not but they laid him out on that table. I held the ole' kerosene lamp so help me, Dick, for Doctor Rhodes to sew his hand up and he, it was between a 75 and a 100 stitches in his hand , and, course his arm was broken here and they didn't take anybody by the hospital in those days, you know, and, um .. EC: It seems like they didn't have hospitals back then. AAL I, I held that ole' kerosene lamp and they sewed his hand up and Will would just lay there and he'd draw this hand up and down but he held that just as still and they couldn't give him anything to put him to sleep or anything to do it because they said his nose was broke~they'd straighten it up it would, uh, the blood would strangle him to death and he had to endure that now without, without any antiseptic of any kind or anything he had to endure that hand and he just lay there and prayed:save my hand. Well, now the three doctors said it'd have to be amputated he said give it a chance and, uh, doctor, there's Dr. Lester, Dr. Bailey, and Dr. Rhodes and they said well, we'll, we'll see how he gets along for a few days said but we are~ quite sure-they told daddy that his hand'll have to come off. But it didn't and Dr. Lester come every day from the 18th of October until a few days afore Christmas he turned it over to me and, uh, of course, I dressed it until i~s spring before his hand healed. ~i;'0Lester let proud flesh get in it. I burnt alum and took all that off .~Bix' I dressed his hand and I'd worked with it and, uh, every day, um, uh, he'd go then twice a week to the doctor to look at it and he said well says hand's doin' a good job. He said and I, I really took care of Will's hand and he begged me, he begged daddy then to put me in trainin' for nurse which I always wish he had. But daddy wouldn't do it because young girls in those days didn't leave home, Dick, because that was somethin' they just couldn't do, they couldn't go out in public, why no, they, they wasn't supposed to, supposed to stay at home and make quilts and prepare to get married, and raise'a family (laughter). They couldn't go out and do anything that way, and every mornin' when doctor come, I had to help dress his hand, I held Will's hand up. I, thisaway so Dr. Lester could dress it, you know. Tay couldn't stand it. It made her sick, she'd get nauseated every time. She couldna stand the sight of blood. And, Will to this day always called me "little gal". He'd tell you "little gal" helped saved my hand. And he got so ... EC: Today, it's stiff, idn't it mother? AA: Oh, he can Gat wood, he can use it yeah, well course it's a[;little stiff of course, it bein' broken and we just had to lay it on a splint we couldn't put one on top and bottom, too, we just had to lay it on a splint and it slipped and that's the reason there was a knot there on his arm. Oh, I took care of Will. .He, he couldn't hardly stand me to, I}}~dto have company on Sunday or anythllJg. If I went off for an hOJlrc,or two,'lle ' s miserable cause he wanted me there he said I could fix the pillers. I could make him rest. Said mother'd pat him too muc4. I, I just, just kid him in a haphazard way, course I tried to be gentle with him, you know. But, uh, we saved his arm just there at home, and, of course, nowadays, a course, they put you in the hospital and you get all the attention and 18 it would be more apt to it wouldn't a been so hard. But I, I still believe I'm a pretty good nurse. 19 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. 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