M. Michael Boswell and Judy Sharon Pierotti interview with Mr. and Mrs. Paul Davis, Jerry Cox, Richard Quentin Conrad, Charles C. Cravey, Tom Kennedy, Eugene Crosby, Desaussure Gray, Dr. Barksdale, and W. Richard Parnell (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.
This is the first of a two-part interview. This part begins with Paul Davis telling a story about a man stealing silver dollars off a body he is burying that then haunts him. He recalls an odd breakfast with his cousins family and tells a joke about a myth that a lion will not chase anyone carrying a light. He shares a series of folk tales, including one about a mistreated wife who haunts her husband through her tombstone, one about the founding of Duke University on the grounds of an African American church, and one about Robert E. Lees mothers sleeping illness that caused others to mistake her for death. Mrs. Paul Davis tells a joke about the people of a town insisting that a new doctor change his sign multiple times before approving it. Next, M. Michael Boswell and Judy Sharon Pierotti interview Jerry Cox and Richard (Dick) Quentin Conrad. Cox tells a story about a man named John who frightened people and dogs in his hometown, then a series of stories about people being presumed dead when they are still alive. Richard Quentin Conrad share a joke about an Indian Chief riding a train and mistaking a toilet for a well; then Cox shares one about a teacher living with a family and not liking the food. Conrad then tells a series of racist stories, starting with one about a time his dad was frustrated with one of his African American workers and then tells jokes about African American cures. He recalls when one of his cousins was sentenced to death by the electric chair and how his other cousin, a preacher, reduced his sentence. Cox describes the local Baptist Primitive Church, including their songs and funerals, then tells a story about his father being scared away from the church. He recalls when one of their household workers, an African American girl named Peggy, had a child after denying that she was pregnant. He finishes this part of the recording by describing the process of tobacco production.
John Jerry Cox (1927-2015) was born rural Broxton, Coffee County, Georgia to George Cox (1899-1986) and Mary Ann (1904-1994). He graduated from the University of Georgia, received a business degree in accounting, and worked as the Payroll Supervisor in the Controllers Office at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He married Helen Buchanan (1932-2015) and they had two children, including Benjamin Joshua Cox (1959-1959). Richard (Dick) Quentin Conrad (1931-2008) grew up in Southern Georgia and held a masters degree in accounting. He worked as the Internal Auditor for the Controllers Office at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Charles C. Cravey (1890-?) was born in Telfair County, Georgia. Tom Kennedy (1903-1970) worked on the railroad system and lived in Lyons, Georgia, after he retired. Mr. Eugene Crosby (1900-1979) lived in Toombs, Georgia, with his wife, Beatrice Crosby (1905-2002) and their three children. Desaussure (Des) Gray (1888-1976) was born in Montgomery County to Osgood Andrew Gray (1849-1928) and Anna Eliza Virginia Reynolds (1860-1944). He married Letha Frances Williams Gray (1891-1950) in 1914 and they had one daughter, Sarah Virginia Gray Vann (1916-1985). Gray later married Amelia Zill Gray (1905-2002). Larry Barksdale (1939-?) was born in Auburn, Alabama, served in the United States Navy, and graduated from Medical School at Birmingham Southern College. He worked as a resident in Radiology at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. W. Richard Parnell was born in Columbia, South Carolina, and studied at the School of Radiologic Technology at Grady Memorial Hospital.
TAPE I; SIDE.l 238" skip. We left out an account of a txue hunting tale vtby Mx. Chaxles C. McCxay. A Tale #1 Mx. Cxavey: Duxing the intexview Mx. Cxavey kept looking away fxom the micxophone. Unfoxtunately this motion plus his p\ltting his hand ovex his mouth bluxxed the xecoxding. This made it extxemely difficult to txanscxibe and undexstand. Me and a niggax and anothex boy went a huntin, a bixd huntin suposed t'be. And this dawg would point squxxels. And he got atex a fox squrxel. And we heaxd him in the txee. And the ole niggax went down there to the txee, it wuz up a stump. And as that niggax 'ud go, he wuz a plum black niggax; he had his gun xite xeady and as he 'ud go xound that stump that squxxel 'ud go axound. 1 And I stood out thexe and 2 watched 'urn, I think it wuz 20 minutes. And that squirrel just, he didn't go climb'dit, jest a li'l above the niggar's head. He wudn't let that niggar around where he could shoot 'em. I wonted a Kodak so bad. That niggar he look't;* that thing was plain (fonny). E.J., you culdn't kept from laffin. That dawg, he'd come around--you know--and the sq~rel wuz .' more scared of that dawg than that,niggar. He had his shot- . gun set--you know--you could jes~ see the hair over (the top). * Mr. cravey's laugh blocked out parts of the rest of the tale. -------------------~ 96" skip. We omitted a story about a stupid tenant farmer .- . " who let h~s ox eat the oats he was going to plant. Tale #2 We were in the midst of a casual conversation when Mr. Cravey started to tell the following tale. We switched on the tape recorder and the only part which is missing is the fact that a woman was having a case of "hysterics" and said "she couldn't get up out of the bed." 3 .. you know you'all can hep 'em. The doctor cain't hep ya--you know--but naturally you have ta git de doctor Qown there--you know. And he'd had de doctor and had de doctor and had de doctor. (Didn't do) no good. De doctor told 'em, called em out and told em, says, "Now I'm gonna give you two little bread balls." And says, "They ain't no harm in em, but," says, "I'm gonna let her hear me tell you how ta give em to her." And says, "1i.ow they ain't no harm in em, but you be shore that you try t a get em in her ater you hear it." He examined her and stepped out ~nd to,ld him, says, "Come I 'er a minute." He says, "Yere two li'l pills," right out- s ide de doah" Says, "You give 'her oneo"f these and if she ain't dead in an hour, give th'other un and go on and get her mother," says, "she'll be dead by the. time you get back." ... He went on off. She's layin there in the bed, couldn't get I,... . up--you know. So he went on, the old man went and he got , .. a dipper of water and broughtAit in--you know--and tried to give her one of them pills. No sir, she wa',nt gona take it. He emptied it there (in the mud)--you know--and he jest went on and laid down. Directly he askt her if he could bring her directly she said, "Will you go get mama?" He said, "No, I a drink of water or 13ompen. (As it got later in de evening) 4 won't go get cha mother." Says, :'They ain't nothin the matter with you; you won't jest take your medicin." She had ta lay in there, couldn't get up--you know. He wouldn't give her a thing in the world but them pills, he'd give her them. And it wadn't no use ta give her nothin, she wouldn't take her medicin. She got up from there and walked two miles to her mamie's. That's the way he got her up. Motif: K1955.l. Sham physician cures people by threatening them with death. Tale #3 He come in there one time cedartown sewin--you know. He had a pair of trousers. She says, "Ah, (I mak't)." So he come in and he throwed them britches down; and he s~s, "Ah, how bout hemmin these up and pressin them fer me?" She says, "well," says, "I'm makin on my shroud now." "Oh, " he said, "forget that and get my weddin britches fixed." Tale #4 Ya want me to tell ya a tale bout a shore nough preacher? 5 The Mormons used to come through here. They'd come two together. Ah, I expeck anybody been round here remembers them Mormons that'd come around through walkin. They never allowed to ride. And they'd have one place out in the coun- try that they's sorta had 'eadquarters--you know. And ah, they'd have four or five old suits of clothes and things and they didn't stay but about (they stayed about) a year in a place. And they'd come through down at old Cobville and a fellow Hewlitt down there. There was three or four pair of um stayin there a while--you know--andithey'd go off and be a monk and come back and stay around a few days and then go back. Well it come time for them Mormons to go back to Salt Lake City, the home place up there--you know--that 'yit, of all the Mormons. I don't reckon any of y'all Mormon, if ya is though you know what I'm tellin you. Rite on. And ah, they all goin back; it's along in the Spring of the year liek. They's practically all gone. Bout the last uns uz comin through and spent the nite there fore they took back. Old man Hewlitt--he wadn't ole; he'w '~ bout 30,~or maybe 3. And he wuz goin to ah plow; he had to plow; it time to plow; gras wuz growin. He called his mule out and went on't plowin. Long bout nine o'clock, one 6 of them Mormons he come down there and rite way he went walkin on down. As he plowed a streak, Mormon said, "Why Mr. Hewlitt"--ole rail fence down there at the other end-- says ah, "I come down to tell you," says ah, "your wief she's jest had a comminicay wid de Lord a while ago. And ah, He told her to go inta Salt Lake city. She could do more good there than she could with you." Mormon followed him rite on, he got to the end and said, "Whoa~" Said, "What time was that she had that communicay?" "Oh, " said, "that I s been an hour and a half ago." He says, "I jest have had one with Him and He told me to get a damn rail and kill you." i:'ie grabbed the rail. That Mormon out run him. And him and his brother uz huntin him for two days on their hor.ses, but they never did find him. And they say he didn't come back that nite. Motif: Q252.l. Wife stealing punished with death. Tale #5 There's a fella come through up yonder. He called hisself Jesus the Second. He was a Holiness. And he told about how many people had tried to kill him, and that they 7 couldn't kill him. They'd tried to cut him; they,'d tried to shoot him; and they'd tried to do everthin. Well some of em took on to him. His hair and beard wuz long--you know. And ole man Coleman'd barn (laid) down there; he "I wuz purdy wealthy, but I reckon sompen wrong with m some way or another. Anyway he wuz crazy over dat Holiness religion. And him and Jesus the Second put em a big tent up. Coleman had the money to buy it with. And they preached around there five or six weeks and it got cold weather, they bund- led up and went ta Florida. Now coleman and the preacher and Coleman's wief and her children and all of em were along together. Finally come Spring of the year, time to start another crop. Coleman he had to come back up yere and make changes for his 12 or 15 men to run, build, and seed and fertilizer and stuff--you know--t'make a crop on. He come back and he wuz gone about a month or six weeks gettin all the farm straightened out where he could go back. He got down dere and dere orphan home truc~ wuz parkt up there. (Orphan home truck wuz what it wuz.) His preacher told em that ah Christ had come to his wief in a dream and told her she could serve the Lord better if them childreri wudn't there to divert her mind or anythin. And they were gonna ' 8 send them to the hospital where--to the orphan's home where she could devote her time to servin God. He s~s, "Uh," he says had a few words and he taken her and come back home at the ole Temperance up yonder, out from McCray down on the Ocmulgee River. He got down there and he had one boy that sold liquor down there rite in front of where the tabernickle WUZ, in a 'lil ole store. Naturally the boys had to find out--that wuz their second, ah it wudn't their mother; it wuz a woman he married ater their mother died; her chillen, she wuz a young woman. He said, "I wanta tell ya," he said, "He said, 'His name is Jesus and he cain't be killed.'" But s~s, "If I ever see him down yere, :says, "he's a gone son-of-a-bitch." "He says, 'His name is Jesus and that nobody cain't kill him. That done tried it.'" But if I ever see him down yere he's a gone son-of-a-bitch. And he wuda been too; that boy'da got him! Motif: Q252.'1. wife stealing punished with death. Tale #6 Mr. Kennedy: About 60 years ago I remember that a neighbor of mine 9 had a mule. And ah, at that time we had no bridges across the Ocmulgee River, and a man from over in Akron county came over to buy the mule as the mule would point birds. And the man was plowing the mule when he came over SO he followed him around and says, ~Come on there is some birds down at the other end of the field." And he did. And when he got to the other end of the field the mule stopped and pointed. And sure enough there was birds. So he gave him a quite a sum for the mule and was gonna take him back ta Akron County and across the Ocmulgee River on a ferry. And the man told him after he bought the mule, says, "You will never get this mule across the river." And he wanted to know why. He says, "Well when he gets on the ferry he will jump right off into the river." Says, "He's alot better fisherman than he is a bird hunter." Motif: N626. Ass falls into water and catches fish in his ear. F986. Extraordinary occurences concerning fishin. 194" skip. We omitted a true story by Mr. Eugene Cos.by and the beginning of Mr. Des Gray's life story and history of Lyons, Georgia as he related it. 10 TAPE I~ SIDE 2 Tale #1 Dr. Barksdale: Two very attractive young ladies have asked me to tell a few folktales about the state of Alabama and there is one I find of particular interest. This is ah a true occurrence which occurred somewhere around the turn of the century. It takes place in Gordon, Alabama, which is way down in south- east Alabama. It's about a mile or a half a mile from the Chattahoochie River. This story was told to me by my daddy and it was told to him by his daddy and I heard my daddy tell this many times and I frequently had doubts as to whether it was true or not. Subsequently I found out it was true. Somewhere around the turn of the century in the town of Gordon, ah a nigger passed through town who ah was sort of a fancy nigger cause he was wearing a suit~ and this was sort of unprecedented in that locality and at that time. Ah this 11 nigger was standing around town waitin on a train and ah the local law enforcement officers arrested him for loitering and took him before the jUdge there in Gordon. Ah the jUdge pronounced a ten dollar fine for loitering and the nigger gave him a hundred dollar bill to payoff the fine. The sheriff immediately, at least the judge sort of cleared his throat, slammed his gavel down, and said ah, sub, I made a mistake that'll be a twenty dollar fine. So he fined the nigger twenty dollars and gave him his remainder of his hundred. Well, be- fore the nigger got on the train, somebody got a hold of him and waylaid him and shot him and they found the nig~er float- ing in the Chattahoochie River. Now I said I doubted as to whether this was true, but several years ago my daddy and I were at The Little White House in warm Springs, Georgia, and up on the hill there's a museum. And we were walking around through the museum and we saw an old rusty pistol in a glass case and there was a little card under it which stated: that this was the gun that shot such and such a nigger (it gave his name) it stated about the time when this occurred and the nigger was found floating in the Chattahoochie River. So although I doubted as to whether this was true, this actually turns out to be true 12 and you can see this pistol at the ah museum at Warm Springs. Tale #2 bj Little short ~t of humor here: the latest one going around the state of Alabama concerns George and Lurlene: It is said that a couple of weeks ago, about ah twelve or one o'clock in the morning George calls up LBJ and he says, "Lendon, says "I have just done something that you have been wanting to do for four years." And Lendon says, "What's that George." And George says, "Lenddn, I've just screwed the gov- ernor of Alabama." Tale #3 Another little tale has been going around the state~ it ah went around Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, and probably Louisiana too. It concerns a ah nigger that they found floatin (at least was sunken in the river) and he had a bunch of chains tied around him that obviously pulled him down to the bottom* and as the sheriff pulls him up out of the river with the chains drapped all around him~ and the sheriff siiYs, "You know that's just like one of these old damn niggers to steal more 13 chains than they can swim the river with. * This portion of the tape was erased. From here to the end of this tale was taped over~ therefore the end of the story is not on the tape. we had already taken it off the tapeythougl1';; ' l.,(.., .. Motif: Q55l.2.3. Thief rendered unable to remove burden of of stolen goods from his back. Tale #4 Jerry Cox: There wuz this ole house cross the creek--ya know--and awl my lief I've heard weird things out of it. So one nite this man and his wief, they went to bed and she leftthe dishes And they had a big ~amily and the dishes were Ei'ssttipiled sky high. He k~Ptttrying to get her to wash em~ she wouldn't. So they went to bed and durin the middle of the nite they heard this helatious racket. Jest sounded liek the whole house wuz~ all the dishes broke--ya know. So they jumpt~ up and ran in there and there wudn't a dish out a place. Now ain't nobody says what happened, but in this same house these people had this piano and they'd go to bed at nite and some of the most bueatiful music you ever heared come from that piano. Get up and go in there and ther wudn't be nobody there. well the house set back up off this hill, and ah so 14 rna daddy and his b~0thers, they were all the time goin by there. And yU'd, they'd hear things all the time~ people ~talkin--ya know--and they'd go over ta where they heard them talkin and there wudn't be anybody there. And over on the other side where they jest come from, they'd hear em talkin over there~ so they'd go back over there, and they wUdn't be anybody over there. Motif: E279.2. Ghost disturbs sleeping person. E402.4. Sound of ethereal music. E402.1.6. Crash as of breaking glass, though no glass is found broken. E402.1.3 Invisable ghost plays musical instrument. E402.1.1. Vocal sounds of ghost of human being Tale #5 One nite rna granddaddy, he wuz, they wuz lookin for him to die any minute. And he lived back up at the field. And then rna wlcle, who'd built this house, wuz buildin this house down close ta rite on the road. And so all the men were up there waitin on rna granddaddy ta die and all the womin wuz down here at rna uncle's house. Th'uz a big family and so ~wuz hot and they wuz sittin out on the front porch and all of a sudden here came this big racket. Nowadays imagine it'd sound, they'd a said it sound like a jet airplane, but back then they said it sounded like about 40 horses draggin 15 log chains. Rite through the middle of there so y'ere went the womin and all the youngins dey dove in de winders. run under de house and through de doors and everthin. One big ole fat woman she got. she got stuck in de door so she fainted. They wuz throwin de babies under the bed--ya know-- and they. here come all de men runnin down from where rna granddaddy wuz a 'bout ta die. They got down there and they ain't seen track one1 not nothin. ain't nothin there! Motif: E402. Mysterious ghostlike noises heard. Tale #6 And then'~ere's this light. And ah I'm bout de only person that lived here ta never seen it. But lota visiters and all of rna family: daddy and rna uncles. aunt and rna brothers and cousins and niggars and all of em1 they've seen this lite. T's 'bout so big--ya know*. And ah. bout two foot straight 'cross. And ah ~tOll jest chase cha and chase chao An it'll get rite up in yur face and jest bust. And there's several tales of why the lite exists. One that the man that owned the place--who was a Griffin --and the lite's named for him and they call it the Griffin lite-- was murdered and beried on the place. and that the lite rises 16 up from his grave. Now why it rises I don't know but that's what it's sposed, I mean that's where it comes from. And another un that he, that ole man Griffin buried a bunch a money. And the lite is trying ta get somebody to go there and get the money 'n' there's a third un, but 1 cain't think of what it is. well, that ends "the lite." * Description with arm motion as to size of light. Motif: E261.4. N576.2. N532. Ghost persues man. Ghostly lights frighten treasure seekers. Light indicates hidden treasure. Tale #7 And den ther's rna granddaddy. He decided one day he'd hook up de mule and wagon, go see his sister. She lived - back then it's bout a fer piece back - twenty-five or thirty miles or somethin like dat. So he rode and he rode:and he r rode. And, ah well, the reasen he wuz goin ta see his sis- ter wuz he'd heard she wuz sick. well that wuz back--ya know--forE! dey had telephones and mail and all that kinda stuff. So he got 'n' bout five miles of her house and there she stood side a de road. So he stopped and she got in wid him and they talked and she wuz sittin in the back end of de wagon and he wuz sittin up on the seat, him and another man 17 And he'd talk at her over his shoulder--ya know~- So when he got there she wadn't in the wagon. And he got 'n de house and she had died jest about de time that she got in de wagon with him and then. And that's a true tale. Motif: E332.3.2. Ghost rides in carriage, disappears at a certain spot. Tale #8 That's not the only case like that. Ah, what's the red headed man's name that ? Arthur Godfrey? The same thing happened with his daddy. He was out on the sea and he didn't eben know his daddy wuz sick and he woke up one nite at 'bout two o'clock and his daddy said "Good-bye, son." And he thought--ya know--I'm goin crazy. And he looked at his watch and rolled over and went back to sleep and the next morni.ng he had a radiogram that his daddy had died at two o'clock. Motif: E327. Dead father's friendly return. Tale #9 And ah then, me and rna whole family we believe in haints and ghosts and forewarnmngs and things like 'tho One nite I wuz laying in bed and I jest didn't feel rite. And so I look- 18 ed over at the winder. Well ole man John pridgen lived there hundred years ago or sompin. Anyway he died in this room. And I ain't ohly one whose seen John either. Well I didn't really see John. I jest knew John wuz there cause he wuz pUllin thE! winder shade up and down. And he jest, he'd jest pUll down and he'd turn it loose and it,d flop up to the top and he'd reach up there and pull it down again. Now I saw that: and that ain't no lie. I didn't see him I, he jest pullin the shade see, he was dead. He'd been dead a hundred a pullin a winder shade down years and he'd kinda rotted: but his ~pirit wuz jest up there Motif: E299.1. E281. 3. Ghost causes machinery to run unattended. Ghost haunts particular room in house. Tale #10 And t:hen one nite well rna grandmother she went in a comma on Sunday. And ah on Thursday nite - we lived in Fitzgerald, and then rna aunt and uncle they lived back on the family place there in Coffee county - so they came up to see ma grandmaw-- ya know. And they all decided, well she can't last much longer. She ha'nt eit in four days. Ya'll go home and git all the vittles ready: and tell all the neighbors ta start cooking. Granny's gona die. So, me and rna aunt and rna cousins, we 19 went back home to feed the hogs: and tell all da neighbors granny wuz gona die and get us somein cooked up cause we wuz a fixin ta go inta mo~nin. So we got jest almost to rna aunt's house: and there wuz the tenant woman, who lived on rna daddy's place, she wuz walkin down the road. So we stopped to chat her little bit and tell her to go in there and cook, start cooking, cause granny wuz a fixin ta die. And ah so I hap- pened ta glance out da winder across the fields and the woods and everthing, and there wuz this lite. And I said well looky yonder ain't da moon in a funny place. And rna aunt said well that ain't the moon, that's the moon;over yonder. I said, "Well what's that over yonder?" And it wuz a little lite jest about so big*. She said at's a bad sign: said, "Ya granny's gona die." And granny did die that, 'bout two 0' clock that mornin. ~onversation insert: Mike: Why does the light resemble death? Jerry: we don't know. But we jest do. And ah, n'l saw that too, 'n anybody says that's a lie is callin me a lier: and I don't lie:: Ni it may not have been placed there for no sign- ificant reason: it may have been somethin liek swamp gas or somethin liek that. But that lite wuz up there and my grandma 20 died 'bOut the same time; so I thank it wuz somethin. * Arm motion to indicate size of light. Motif: Dl322.2. Light moving toward cemetery in sign of death. Tale #11 And 1:hen rna granddaddy when he wuz a 'lil boy there wuz this well on the place. And they kept tellin him don't you look in that well. It wuz boarded over. Well he's lived there 'bout two or three years and one day he jest decided he wuz gona see what they didn't want him to see. So he went and opened up the well and there stood this man holding his head in his hands. But I mean wid his neck, by de neck-- ya know--i.t'd been kind a cut off liek--ya know. And ah, so I don'~ I assume the man had been standing there for four hundred years doin nothin but hold~n his head in his hands. Motif: E285. Ghost haunts well, prevents drawing water after dark. Tale #12 This preacher, he lived down at Waresboro. His name's Lamar MacDaniel. And he's a nise looking young man 'n he's got a real good imagination and ah he belongs to the Church of God. So He just uses ~en thousand illustrations in ever 21 sermon and ever one of urn's different. And he has this one he told one time. He had been called in to pray for this girl--you know-- so he went to pray for her and he was down and she had been a very mean woman or girl in her laife time. She had kissed the boys and she wore short dresses and showed her legs, she wore lipstick, cut her hair, shaved her legs - I mean she wuz jest a vile creature. And so he went to pray for her and try to get the good Lord ta take - well they figureJ she wuz goin to die, that's the only reason they called him - so they call'ed Lamar. And Lamar went to pray for her and asked da Lord to take her into heaben whenever, she went on, jest be kind and merciful and take this poor, sinful creature into heaben. So he wuz down a-prayin and he happened t~ hears da front door op'n. And he looked up to see who it wuz a comin in dere. So then the hall door opened and he did look up then. Then the bedroom door opened and in walked this big green thing - looked jest liek a dawg. It walked over to the~ girl and poor Lamar he's scared as I am of things--yaa know-- and ah he jest kinda stood there er knelt there in shock--you know. And this big green thing jest walked over to the girl laying on the bed and jest put his face right over hers and 22 took a deep breath--ya know--liek *...- turned around and walked out. Well by the time they could recover there wits and feel the girls pulse and see whether she wuz still alive or not, she wuz dead. So apparently dat wuz da devil come and got her, carried her off. * For sound effects he took a deep breath. Motif: E752.2. T317.3. Tale #13 Soul carried off by demon. Repression of lust through preaching. Now talkin 'bout the lite and rna grandma dyin--ya know. Well this is a good way that stories liek that arise. Now there is this~ory down ther at home: the negro community in this one section of the county, the white people they.' re great-great-granddadies owned ther great-great-granddadies and they all j est one big t\appy :ljiil~ilY. And when one of ah de niggers dies all the white folks they jest git together and bury em jest as quick as they could so dey wouldn't smell the house up. And ah so rna daddy-in-Iaw one uf ther niggers died and he went and he helped them git the grave dug and the coffin built. And dey carried da nigger to da cemetery and had him settin over da grave--ya know--had the polls laid across the 23 grave and had the coffin on it. And so da preacher he got up ther and jest preached him right straight into Hail. right at the grave. Well all uf a sudden here come a gust of wind and slam the casket shut. So they opened it back up and da preacher started again and 'bout da time he got started good y'ere come another gust of wind and slam de lid shut. Well nobody had payed too much attention to it. so rna daddy- in-law he got off and after the funeral wuz all over~he said. "Ah--ya know--I'd shore hate to be in that preacher's shoes. " And these ole niggers say. "Why? ' Say. "Ya notice ever time he start preachin him right into Hail." said. "Casket door'd close." Said "Dat wuz da good Lord doin that." said. "He di'nt want that preacher doin that. He wuz tryin to tell him to shut up." And that's the tale that's told. And this poor preacher he had to go outa business and start running a shine liquor cause none of da niggers would go to his church and he wuz starving to death. Motif: F403.2.3.2. Spirit gives warning. Tale #14 Well. this is the way you kill hogs. Ya get up early in da morning. And before the days of cold storage it had to be 24 freezin :before you got - I mean before hog killing. Sometime right around the first of January. And you'd take the .22 pistol and yUd go out and yud have the hogs all shut up in this little pen and yUd jest go over there and * "put" rite between the eyes, "put" right between the eyes, "put" rite between the eyes rite down da line--ya know. And they'd squeal and turn over and kick--ya know--and then ya drag before ya went to kill the hogs yUd go over to the big ole sugar kittle and build a far under it, and have da water jest scaulding hot and ya drag the hogs over there and take and throw 'em in the sugar kittle and turn 'em over back and to and git 'em real hot and wet--ya know--and then yud yank 'em out and scrape all the hair off of 'em. Then ya take and ya let me see - ya wash 'em off real good. And then ya take and cut ther heel strings. No 'fore ya do that, ya have to hang 'em up and let 'em bleed. And that's when ya cut the heel strings. ya let the far git a little bit hotter between the time you shoot 'em and the time ya scrape 'em. Ya cut the heel strings and hang 'em ~p on this pole and then cut thet~ throats and let 'em bleed' no that i'nt ' Conversation insert: Dick Conrad - You've already skint 'em and then ya do that. 25 Yeah you cut their throats after you skin 'em, you scrape lem, but cha gotta do that real fast cause if the blood--ya know--startstto congeal in there, then the meat ain't no good~ it's got that bad taste ta it. So then ya take and ya hang 'em up and ya cut ther throats and ya take and cut from one end t'other, hun, all the way. And you jest peel their in_ sides Olit: inta a tub. Well ya take the iUb over yere to the womin and they take and they pull 'em apart--cha know--and then they hold 'em up and ther'll start at one end with ther fingers ~', but cha take and ya hold it up by one end over this little ~hole ya're dug and ya jest strip down wid ya fingers and all t:he insides go down in this little hole. And then ya take amd ya turn 'em wrong side out and ya wash and ya scrape and all. And you can either make - use these chitlins to make - to stuff--ya know--ya stuff the ground up pork in t~ere and make sawsage or ya can plat em up in little plats and batter em and fry em or jesYboil 'em. And when ya cook 'em they jest stink tohhigh heaben and back. And ah the liver and the liteS - now the lites is a term that nobody uses anymore, dats the lungs - they take that on inta the h house jest as soon as they git it out if its any good to the wief and she makes a stew out of it, fer dinner. 26 Conversat~on insert: Mike Boswell - How do you tell whether it's any good or not? Jerry Cox: Cause if its bad its got little blue, the liver's got little blue spots allover it: And the wief she makes a stew for everbody out of that liver and lites. And ah so then they wash the inside out good and take and take the hog down and cut it up and cut the shoulders off and ya hams off and the sides off and ya strip the back bone out and ya cut the feet off and the tail off and the head off. Conversation insert: Mike Boswell - What's cha have to say before about the tail? Jerry Cox: Ya can only eat da tails wid the left hand curls on 'em. The ones wid the right hand curls aren't any good. And den ya take and ya bFoil the pig tail in rice with, ya have da pigtail boil - that with rice. And then ya chop l"c..hes the backbbneeup inta either pieces about four ~ong to have with rice later on or else you slice it and make poke chops out of it. -";,,,1'-. And ya the head and ya boil it and ya bile it and ya bile it and ya bile it~ until all of the meat come out. Course ya cut the Nose off and pull the eye balls out and you jest throw them away, but the brains ya take them out 27 and ya scramble them wid eggs. And the head itself after ya take the brains and the eyeballs and the nose off, ya leave the ears on, and then ya take and ya pUll the meat off and you put in sage and all kinda seasonings and stuff and ya put it in a bg and twist it real tite and that drains all the juice out, out of it and ya hang it up and ya let it cure for two or three days. Well your hams and your shoulders ya take a long needle, its about six to twelve inches long, ya fill it up wid salt and its put right in der to the bone. And then ya put cha sugar curing and ev'vything on it and ya hang it up in the smoke house, course ain't nobody got no smoke houses no more, but cha hang it up in the smoke house and ya build a little bi"tty fire in there and ya cover it up with oak or hick- ory or somin like that and ya cover that over with pine tops so it can't burn up--ya know--and it jest smokes fer three or four days. N'oh its got the best flavor and ya got cha sawsages hanging-don't cha know... ;:,:Arid ah then the pigs feet cha pUll 1them and ella pUll the toe n~s off 'em and ya throw them away and ya boil 'em and ya have them with beer. well not really beer, home brew. Pickled pigs feet--cha know. And ah, oh the hog mall, some people call that tripe, ya take and ya batter that and ya fry it jest like country fried steak. 28 And ah well the bacon ya can either salt it. jest put it in this barrel and jest pour buckets and buckets of salt on it or you can smoke it. And I liek it both ways. I liek it some --ya know--to vary your diet. Conversation insert: Dick conrad - And don't forget the nose. Jerry cox: The nose we threw away. Dick Conrad: Yea, but cha gotta squeeze the oink out of it. Jerry Cox: And that's about how ya use a 30g. * For sound effects he made the sound of a pistol being shot. * Seven inch skip Tale #15 Now this preacher down at Alma, his name is Lee Walder. No notat Alma at Nichols. His name's Lee walder. Now I've never seen this, but I've heard it from a good Baptist preacher. And Lee Walaer, he's a Church of God. And oh he can pray the loudest pr.ayers and run the longest winds of prayin and swing from the rafters, and run the bench back liek you ain't never seen and never miss a bench. And ah this Baptist preacher says thathe has seen him walk up to an ole wooden stove--ya know--and say brethren I'm gonf to do this in the name of the Lord and reach in there and grab up a handful of hot, red hot 29 coals and put 'em in his hand liek that * and throw 'em down and it ain't blistered nor nothin. * For visual effect made a motion of clutching his fist. Motif: Q22. Reward for faith. Tale #16 Well we had this boxer bull dog. And ah we were buildin us a new house an~o, the boxer he wuz rna daddy's dog, ever where rna daddy went the boxer went. But because he slobbered so much we wudn't let him in the house. well fer about a week before rna daddy died Beast, that wuz his name, he wanted to stay in de house. And he wuz big enuff and looked ferocious enuff that cha didn't argue wid him and if ya did try ta argue wid him he'd bite cha and he wuz the best dog - he jest didn't bite. And he) in the house he jest - he wudn't bark he'd howl. And so 'bout, rna daddy died on a Monday, I believe it wuz, and lye had the maid over dat mornin. well she left be- fore twelve o'clock that day and they wadn't no holdin her she jest had ta get away from there by twelve o'clock. So daddy came home, he eat dinner, and went back ta work on de house. ~ld so 'bout one o'clock he came inta de house and said he ~lZ sick and Beast wuz rite with him. So I tried ta 30 git him ta de doctor well he drank him a cup a coffee and he felt real good, laffingand cuttin up. Beast still howling. So 'bout three o'clock he came ta the house and I went ta the back door, I knew he must feel worse and wantin ta go ta de doctor. So I stepped ta the back door and he motioned ta me ta come git in de car. So I went out and got in de car and he died rite then. He got in and fell overon me and wuz dead. 'N Beast hadn't bothered us gettin in de house any more. Motif: B521. Animal warns of fatal danger. 31 TAPE II; SIDE 1 245" skip. This is a Golden Arm tale by Mr. Paul Davis that we put at the end of the paper. (See Appendix II) Tale #1 Mr. Davis: There a myth which goes around this country which says that a lion will not chase you if you are carrying a lite-- l-i-g-h-t--lite. You could have a splinter, you could have a ~erosene lantern, you could have electric light, you could have any kind of light cha wanted. The big game hunter from Ame:rica was over in Africa huntin game. He asked his gun bear.=r, he said, "BOY, is it true that if you carry a torch a lion won't chase you?" He says, "y'a suh, dat depends on how fast cha carries it:" Tale #2 32 In the Hines Baptist Church Cemetery in Emmanuel County about three miles to the south of Milledgeville which is jest aCI:OSS the Ogeahee River in Burk county) There is a grave which is an unusual grave; at least the marker there is unusual, to say the least. Alledgedly a man was very mean to his wief. She passed on to he,r reward and was enshrined in this grave, intured in the ground; and the marker was put up. The marker was smooth. It was made of ah marble. As we came back, as the years went on, a discoloration in the ston~ apparently it was a discoloration, came. It had the outline of a mother, holding a baby, in her arms. tile.. The folklore has it. Legend has it that because f man was mean to his wief, she died and went on to her reward. This discoloration, this figure, came on the tombstone to haunt him the rest of his natural born days. And so far as anybody knows today, this happened, it actually did haunt him the rest of his days. I could show you this tombstone if you had time to go look at it. Motif: E22l.5. Dead wife torments husband who has let her die of neglect. E425.1.4. Revenant as a woman carrying baby. 33 Tale #3 Legend has it that at the founding of Duke University, which was established b1 the Duke family--they alledgedly had plenty of money. I think Dun and Bradstreet would tell you today that the family heirs still have plenty of money.-- They wanted to establish Duke University and the location at which they wanted to place it, the property was available. They either owned it or could buy it with the exception of a one acre plot on which stood an~ A. M. E. Church, an~i African-Methodist-Episcopal-Church. One of the Duke boys went to the colored bretheren, he said, "Ah, Bretheren, we need this piece of land." He said, "suppose we give you ten acreS' on another si'tie." To wh~h the Negroes replied, "No sah, us don't wanta sell." Later on he came back, he offered them fifteen acres and ten-thousand dollars to build a new church on the new side. To which the Negroes replied, "No sah, us don't wanta move." One of the other Duke boys decided he'd take things into M~kt" his own hands and on wednesday;\when the Negro Church was having prayer meeting--back then churches had two doors; they had a big back door and a big front door. The back door was just immediately behind the pulpitt. The preacher could come late and slip in the back door and step upto the 34 the pulpitt and start speaking.-- On this Wednesday nite when the negroes were having prayer meeting, the Duke boy put on the Duke University Mascot uniform which is a shiney, reddish-bluish devil uniform with horns on the head and a forked tail. He carne down to the church and jest about the time the Negro preacher began speaking, he started to emoting some, he got to aomping his foot, and banging on the pulpitt with his fist some, and about the time he raised his hand to make a point; the Duke "blue devil" stepped in behind him, held his pitchfork over his head and waived it around about three times. Needless to say the other door accommodated almost everyone in the buildin as they left rather hurriedly; but there was one exception to this. There was one big fat Negro woman who weighed about 350 pounds and as she waddled down the isle she got hung in the back door. The Duke "blue devil" danced down the isle with his pitchfork punching her in the posterior region litely, as she flinched at every lick. After a while she said, "wait,~a minute, Mister Devil. Wait a minute, Mister Devil. I wants you ta know dis." She said, "I's been a member of dis church for 40 years." She said, "I's been a superintendant of de Sunday school for 25 years." She says, "I's been a 35 member of the W.S.C.S.for 20 years, Mister Devil," she says, "bu,t I's been on your side all de time." Tale TYf~: 1745 Parson Sees the Devil. The parson denies the existence of the devil. The bear-show-man lets the bear climb up the pulpit. The parson thinks the bear is the devil. 60" skip. Mr. Davis tells a true story about his brother and friends at a cemetery. Tale #4 Legend has it that in the case of one great American, Robert E. Lee; he was born several months after his mother er was int~red. This is legendary but I have read it in print, I cannot quote the source. The way this story goes--and this is told for a true story in the print where I read it, whether or not it is true I do not know--Robert E. Lee's mother had sleeping sickness. She was judged to be dead by her family and placed, after the proper funeral service, in the basement of the house in apparently a wooden box of some sort which was not air tite. The family went on through their so,rrow. And after de funeral service, after several days, one of the Negro slaves was down in the basement cleanin 36 up, sweepin up, cleanin out. The story said that he heard a moan and went for help.--You and I can imagine how rapidly he sought that help.--He came back; the body was disint~ed. A pierod of three or four months later Robert E. Lee was born. And his mother lived for some 16 or 17 years after this period of time. This is supposed to be a true story. whether or not it is I do not know. Tale Type: 990 The seemingly Dead Revives--The woman gets a ring stuck in her throat. A man enters the grave to steal a ring from the finger of the dead. The woman wakes up and goes home. Motif: S123. Burial Alive El. person comes to life. T581.2.1. Child born to an apparently dead mother in her grave. Tale #5 Each Spring in south Georgia there is a folktale that goes around. Some time this gets more credence than at other times. Usually you quote somebody from one of the neighboring counties that it happened to them that one of your fri,ends had a friend who had a friend who had a friend who knew the lady personally. And the way the story goes: 37 She was out fishin. While she was fishin she became thirsty. She got a drink of woder from the creek, or riber, from the, stream in which she was fishin. Several months later, the lady who possibly had passed the child bearing stage, started ah getting bigger. Someone asked her if she weren't pregnant. She said n~she didn't guess so, she had passed that stage. But she became larger and larger. She went to the physician and he explained to her that she had swallod in the woder a snake egg, that the snakes had hatched out, inside; and that she had a poisonous snake inside her. Of course ah this tale ends by sayin this: that the physician couldn't operate. If he operated and the snake bit her it'od kill'er; if he didn't operate ah she had a terrible malady for the remainder of her lief with all the snakes inside. So you can imagine what this does to the people who are afraid of snakes as this story is repeated year after year as it corned along in south Georgia. Tale Type: 285B :make Enticed out of Man's Stomach. Patient fed salt. Animal com~ out for water. The patient is fed salt or heavily salted food and allowed no water for several days. He then stands with mouth open before a supply of fresh water, o~er a running brook. The thirsty animal emerges to get fresh water. 38 Motif: F929.2.l. Person unwittingly swallows snake, which kills him. Tale #6 Mrs. Paul Davis: Paul, did you switch it off? I hope ya did. This new doctor came ta town ta hand out his shingle. And on his shingle he had "Homosexuals 'n' Hemorrhoids." well the people in town jest really went up in arms cause they didn't waunt any such sign out liek that. So they told the doctor he jest would hafta git a new sign. So the next day the doctor hung out his sign. And on this sign he had "Queers and Rears." That didn I t suit the people either. They told him he jest must get another sign that they just co~ noic have that.in their town. So the doctor did so. The next day he hung out another sign. On this sign he had, "Odds and Ends." 7 .5" skip. 39 Tale #7 MJ:. Jerry Cox well now--you know--the colored brethern, the Ethio- pian section of the united states, they--thern--I mean everbody knows the'r suspicious and superstitious. But I'uz tellin ya bout John pridgen* I know that wuz John there, jest as good as I know my own name. That wuz John pullin that winder shade down. And I never did tell any- body about that, you bOgt the first or second person I've ever told about John cause most people think you'J:e crazy as Hail. But John wuz there and John pulled that winder shade d~~n. And ah, these ah, after we moved out, some more people moved int, and they moved out and some more peolpe moved in, and 'they moved out and finally we turned it inta ah- ah tenan't house for; and the colored family lived there. And they sw~ore, and I believe em too, that their dawgs ud be off in the woods or sompen--you know. And all of a sudden here the:r come; just as hard as they could, not barkin or anythin, but jest yelpin, jest liek somethin ud scared em real bad. And it'd chase em all the way around the house; jest round and round and J:ound the house. And now jest as shd they believed it'uz John and I believe it'u~John. Nobody else won't eveJ: believe it'mLJohn, but I do! And th'old 40 colored man that lived there, he said he had talked wid John many, many times. Most ever Sunday they'd have a conversation. (They'd) talk bout oh, the weather and how the crops were doin and how the families wuz gettin along, how they liekt his house.** He always wuz mean as the devil. Drank, ran around and thins liek that. * See Tale #9; Tape I; Side 2. ** Omitted some conversation. Motif: E26l. Wandering ghost makes attack. Unprovoked and usually unmotivated. E545.7. Ho~y man converses with entombed dead. Tale #8 Oh, here's anoder good un. Well now this is another true tale; it's not a ghost tale nor nothin liek that, but it's a interestin storie. Ma great uncle, he had some kinda fever and the doctor told him, said, "Now you better not eat no watermelon," it wuz in de summer time. Well he decided he jest believes he mite have him a 'lil watermelon~"Damn doctor didn't know what he'uz talkin about. "--So he ate him some watermel\on. And this wuz back fore de days of embalmin. So he ate him 41 some watermelon and he died, jest liek de doctor said he'uz gonna do, he died. Family said,"Well he had better sense. We'll jest bury him~' So they laid him out on this board-- cha know-- so he'd be straightend when de put him in the pine box. 'N' he got good and stiff, liek a good dead person should. They laid him in the pine box 'n put him on the wagon, and carried him to da church and preached his funeral'n'--back then and still do, especially in that section, we liek to have these open caskets funerals--you know--where everbody goes by and squalls and cries 'nd has a good time and enjoys the thing. 'N gits some spirit into the thin9 and not jest set there liek the whold audience 'uz dead too--you know--(Mike: "Well it is sad.") No it's not. The Bible sez to weep at de comin in and rejoice at da goin out; and that's what we try ta do. All except the immediate family; the ones that ain't gonna git no more money outa da dis poor ole man and they gonna haf to get out and work fo~ a change insteda spongin off a him.-- Well, the preacher preached rna great uncle's funeral, and then they open- ed up the casket and all the family wuz a marchin by lookin at him--ya know--and one good ole sister saw him bat an eye. And she fainted. And so they jest drug her outa line and let 42 the rest of em walk by and took him on out ta cemetery. And bout that time this other relative, whatever she wuz, she come to and they wuz fixin to let em down in the cemetery. And she said, "Cha cain't. Cha cain't. He's de ...--I mean he's alive. He's alive:" So they thought she'd lost her senses--ya know--and they uz gonna go ahead; but she stopped em. And they got him out and got the doctor over there and brought im back tao And the funny thin about it wuz he uz conscious all this time. He knew everthin that wuz happenin. He heard his funeral preached and all. And he sawall these .:_people walkin by. And it wuz some kinda catatonic, I think, state that he went into and ah back during those days this must of happenedalot because ah there wuz some family--I've forgotten who they are, I could findout but this really happened.-- Ah, some member of their family died way up North and they shipped em down home to bury em without embalmin em. And ah so t'got there and his mama wanted ta see em, make sure that wuz her son--ya know--and they didn't want her to cause they just knew he wuz rottin and stinkin and he'd been dead two or three weeks, not embalmed.--So Wal, rna granddaddy, 43 he wadn't embalmed and he bagan smellin in two dayS.--But anyway they opened the casket up and ever bit of the linin wuz torn out of it. They wuz spliners pulled off of the wooden part of the casket where he had tried to git out of it. And he ~1Uz not dead until he got in that casket. Tale TYf~: 990 The seemingly Dead Revives--The woman gets a ring stuck in her throat. A man.enters the grave to steal a ring from the finger of the dead. The woman wakes up and goes home. Motif: S123. Burial Alive Tale #9 Jap McCalin, he's the funeral director, wuz the funeral director there at Douglas. He's a big shot. So. One time he got him a niggar. Layed him out on the marble slab--you know--and took the hose and hosed him off liek a good niggar funeral director should do and scrubbed him up--you know--'n' so he'd make a purdy corpse and everbody ud walk by ud say. "Ain't he purdy "* So ah the corpse come to while Jap wuz adjustin the dials on the ah pump that pumps the embalmin fluid in. And he ope'd his eyes up and he looked up and he recognized Jap and he jumped up and 44 started gettin the Hail outa there. And apparently this had happened to Jap before cause his meat cleaver uz jest to handy. And he reached up and grabbed that meat cleaver and took out after da corpse runnin down the street. He said, "No sir, you black sons-of-bitches. It took me forty years to get choo in dere, you ain't gettin away now."** No. He would have if he could ah caught him, though. * Conversation with Mike. ** Mike asked, ['Did he kill him?" Tale Type: 990 The seemingly Dead Revives--The woman gets a ring stuck in her throat. A man enters the grave to Bteal a ring from the finger of the dead. The woman wakes up and goes home. Motif: lEI. person comes to life. JE80.L. Rescusitation by bathing. Tale #10 Dick Con:rad: The comment just made about soaking your head in a commode :reminded me of a joke. It goes back to the days out West when trains were just in vogue and this Indian chief wuz ridin on the train one day and he got thirsty. 'nd he askt de conductor where he I. 45 could get some water. The conductor told him to go down to the end of the carl into the little room where the lavatory wuz. well the chief ambled on down, went down and opened the door and looked in the little room and shook his head and closed the door and came back and sat down. Conductor asked him if he found it alright. He says, "Yes, but I couldn't get any. There's a big fat white woman sittin on da well." Tale #11 Mr. Jerry Cox: well we had this professor--don't cha know--in high school. 'nd his nam'uz Mr. McCallum 'nd he usta tell bout the days back when he'ud jest started teachin and they boarded around at the different placed. This family ud take car,~ of em for a while and they'd pay em a 'IiI bita money and he'd wear out his welcome there and another family ud take him in. So he went to this one house and the first nite there they had chitlins and dumplins and syrup. So} well) he said,) he always had liked chitlins and he always had liked dumplins 46 and he always had lieked syrup; oh yeah, they had some biscuits too; but he never had had em together, but he reckoned they'd be alrite. So he took him out jest a big helpin of em, piled his plate high and dug in on em. And he said, "Da more he chewed da bigger dey got." So th'rectly he poured him a 'IiI syrup on em and that didn't help thangs atall. It jest sweetened up the stu~. And he said he uz makin prudy good head-way until one a de boys yelled across the tabl,=, "Hey, maw, found a grain uh corn." Said he jest did make it to the back door in time. Tale #12 Ma daddy had dis ... Back when he uz a little boy, ther wuz this nigger lived on the place. This nigger wuz the sickess nigger you ever seen in ya lief. Evertime ya saw him he had a different ailment. So rna daddy--he wuz about 12--'nd him and his brother, they jest got tired ah hearin all bout this sick nigger. Evertime they'd go around all that nigger ud waunt a talk about wuz his ailments. So. They went out and they filled em up a bottle full of goat pills. Now for t:he e-literate, goat pills are little round balls 47 which ah represent the waste products of a goat after he has finished eatin. And they filled up this little medicin bottle full a goat pills and took it to de nigger and they told him, said, "Now Iiaddy went to town and h~uz talkin to the druggist about your ailments and the druggest said for you to take one of these three times a day." So da nigger did and done him more good than all the rest of the medicin he'd eve;r takin in his whole lief. And for bout three years after then rna daddy had to supply the nigger with his medicin which was nothin but goat pills; and it kept the nigger in perfeck health . Tale #13 The niggers, now they got cures for everthin, cause they cain't afford ta go ta de doctor--don't cha know. So one of their cures is to take and wrap a copper wire around their wrist. 'Nd it's gotta be the rite wrist. And that cures all heart trouble. And then a bag of aciphidity--and for the e-literate, a bag of aciphidity is about the loudest smellin stuff you've ever smelled in your whold lief--and that cures any respiratory 48 ailment cha got. And a rope around the neck cures a nigger from stealin-- permanent liek. Tale #14 Ma cousin, his name was Royals--I forgot his--carth. Hfwent over to his daughter's house one weekend to get da grandchilren to spend da nite wid em. So on the way home him and his buddy, they pulled off down by the creek and they chopped the grandchilren in de head wid da ax. And de poured gasoline on em, and set fire to em, and burnt em up. And then they went on hom. And then the sheriff come and got him and carries him away and they had this little tr~l and sentenced him to de electrick chair. And then I got thiS other cousin who married a preacher. And his name was Henry Sears. Now Henry, he wuz a preacher what is a preacher; They'd start way up in the evenin and have church til twelve o'clock at nite, two o'clock in de mornin. I mean he'd jest preach all nite long. He never stopped for periods and commas and things liek that. The only time he stopped wuz when he ran out uf breath and he'd go 49 "Hah." And ah he preached at de top of his voice. And so Brother Henry he didn't feel liek poor 'lil ole Carth ought ta go ta da electrick chair. So he... Now Henry he had a lot of influence cause he buried 90% a da people who died; and he married bout 50% a da people who got married. So, I mean everbody had alot of faith in Brother Henry. Well Brother Henry he went up ther and told his story ta da govinor and told him, he didn't think Carth outht ta die. So the govinor he agreed with him and he got him a new trial and got him sentenced to lief. Well Henry 1est couldn 't: pixture his poor 'lil ole wief's cousin a settin in the c:hain gang the rest uf his lief; so he went and told his story to da goviner again and got im out. And dear Carth, he's settin around drawin welfare somewhere rite now. Tale #15 There's this religion down in sou/th Georgia and it's called da Primitive Baptist. Now de Primitive Baptist they have this--thefreunique among the Baptists. They chewed tabaker and dipped snuff and smoked cigarettes rite in the church. And they got there little spittons settin allover 50 the church. And when they bury somebody it's most interestin. They stclrt about eleven 0' clock in the morning, (so I'm told), and all of em carry lunch. And they have, they funeralize til about one o'clock. And then their all take out, nd leave de body settin in the church, and then they all go out a.nd have lunch. And then they go back in and they funeralize some more, until about four o'clock. And then they bury the body. And ah have some of the best vitals you ever tasted in your whole lief. And them ole (sisters) they can cook, and they wear their bonnets rite on. They don't have lectricity in the church. There singin is somthin out this world. They have only four notes,-~I believe it is-- four or six notes, I've fer .. it's not the eight notes that we know. And all the men sing in falsetta--you know-- and its a cross between regular singin liek "Amazin Grace How Sweet Cha Sound" and the ole method of singin lief: by roun notes--you know--liek "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do." Call it shape notes--don't cha know. And they switch back and to and I never figured out what method they all know to switch from "Amazin Grace How Sweet Cha Sound" into "DO, Re, Mi, Fa:'; but they do. And its all in this high high pitched thing and its about four notes up. That's about 51 rite. And it's dyin out and there's not many of em left. Tale #16 One time rna daddy; he's bout twelve, thirteen, and his daddy took him to Holy RollezhChurch. And his daddy wuz settin up there in the "Amen" corner wid all his friends. So this big ole fat man, he weighed about 300 pounds, oh da Lord jest moved on him and he wuz shoutin and swingin from the rafters and runnin them bench backs and runnin round da isles--you know--I mean da Lord wuz wid him that nite. And he got up on these bench backs and he wuz jest a tripsin along liek a'lil fairy--you know--then all of a sudden he yelled, "Oh, Glory~:" and jumped rite straight up n'the air and he landed rite ; stradled rna daddy's neck and jest about broke it. well ever since, from t~n on, rna daddy he jest didn't liek ta go ta church too much. And if he did he made danm certain he sat rite on the back seat wid his head lent up against de wall. I don't care if he'd gone to a Catholick Church, you wouldn't a caught him out where nobody could give a hoot 'nd a hollar and land a stradle a his neck. 52 Tale #17 We had this nigger, her name wuz peggy. And we all jest thought the world uf peggy. And peggy's stomach started ta grow. So peggy, she'd had young ins before, and ah course she wadnt married; ah we jest assumed Peggy wuz fixin to have another youngin. So we'd kid her about it, bout when her youngin wuz comiil. and she'd say, "Naw suh," say, "I ain't had no boh friend since rna last youngins wuz born; and dats been 22 months." Say, "I cain't be havin no youngin." well this went on for long time. So ah , It'ventually it got to the point w'll ever time she'd go to the doctor, doctor'd say, "You pregnant." And she say's, "Naw suh, I cain't be, I ain't had no boh friend in 22 months since rna last baby wuz born. I cain't be havin no youngin." She'd get mad and indignant; oh, sompin terrible. So docto.r' s say, "well, if ya not pregnant, cha gotta fast growin tumor in ther." So all the other niggers ud say, Yeah," say, "bout nine months you gonna see Tumorlee.come."* So it rocked on and rna daddy he got kinda concerned about it and he uz fixin to send her to Augusta, ta the university mornin I went over there, brite and early one mornin, I always went over and chatted em on Sunday. So I walked in Hospital. So he decided he'd wait a'lil while. In one 53 there, and Edna was the girl's aunt and Edna had raised her, and so Edna met me at fr ont doah. And she say, "Come in y'ere, Jerry. Come in y'ere." So r said, !~What's wrong?" She sah, "Guess what come last nite?" r said, "What?" "TUMORLEE::" r said, "Well r thought sompthin, I jest about knowed it." She said, "I knowed it all da time too." Say, "Last nite I wuz layin dere and I heard dis youngin squallin, " say, "I didn't know which youngin it wuz, so r'cided I'd git up an go see which one it wuz, an what wuz wrong wid it, and git it back to sleep--you know." Say, "Iwalked in dere sat peggy up in bed. Dat black bitch, she wuz a settin up dere a holing dat youngin." She say, "I never been so mad." Say, "I say, Peggy, why didn't you call me?" Say, "You know r go'up and heped you. r helped ya all dim oder times." Say, "peggy, she look up at me. She say, 'well, Edna, I didn~t know it wuz a comin til it poked its head out and looked up at me.'" * Jerry is explaining that "Tumorlee" is the name of the "growth" inside Peggy. Tale #18 54 We wuz poh folks. we didn't have,but one 'baka farm. well your first croppin wuz your lugs; and that's rite on the ground and sandy. You jest got to jest load't with sand. And dependin on your alotment you got two, four, Six croppers; one on each (side). And you got a sled runnin down the middle of the cropper and a sled's jest a box lookin affair drawn by a mule. And ah, you'd ah, the croppers they'd break off these leaves, one leaf at a time. Well you kinda go around and you'd get bout three leaves at da croppin and its gota be jest a particular shade and ya hadn't got time to dily-daly over whether it the rite shade or not; cha gotta look at it and know jest lieg that*. All day long you gotta decide and if you start sendin in three or four green leaves ever 'IiI bit, you git cussed out rite fast. And ah, if you leave many leaves you get cussed out the next week for leavin sa much. And its real, it rite preC;;ige. And no ya jest do it the rite way. You get the rite leaf at the rite time. And ah, so you crop these lugs and put them in. Ya start about six o'clock in the morn in and then late tha"t afternoon or first thin the next mornin ya fire up-- not fire up--fare up. That means ya turn the heat on in the .. barn . U4ike asked, "Turn the heat on? How do you turn the 55 heat on?") Well used to you'd jest throw logs under the furnace and build a fire. And then you had these big round pipes about 12" runnin all the way around the perimeter of the barn and then two rl1nnin down the middle of it. And that spread the heat and you had to keep that fire regulated so that heat didn't go over, say first two days, over 900 to 1000 ; 24 hours a day. Now they've got automatic fur- naces, oil and gas and lectrict~ty, that you cure it with. And y'ud, 'n'then after it's cooked at that, y'ud go up on ya heat and y'ud go up to about 1200 and let it stay there a'lil while. Then ya go up to high heat and that's bout 1800 and ya wind it up on about 1800 . And then the next you cool down your barn. Say Monday wuz yere puttin in day, well ya'd cool down on your barn about Sunday morning maybe and pray that the weather wuz, had alot uf humidity to it; cause if ya didn't ya tabaka would jest be dry and crumbly. And then bout twelve o'clock Monday morning, y'ud git up and ya'd go take that barn uJ baka out; and then ya'd go back horne and eat breakfast. Oh, them wuz the bestest breakfasts you ever had in your lief; grits and ham and eggs and biscuits and sausage, coffee. Ohhhhh, them wuz good~ A~~ you could eat. And then you jest work liek a pure 56 son-ofa-bitch from then till twelve o'clock. And then ya go home and hav the biggest dinner ya ever seen. And then ya take a siesta fer about fifteen or twenty minutes. And then ya go back and you work liek another son-ofa-bitch til you finish. And after a sled comes from the field--don't cha know--well somebody gotta bend over in that sled and pick these leaves up and ya cain't break em either and they lay in on this bench. Then ya got two or three stringin crews and you have the stringer and two handers. And the handers, they pick up three, four leaves and hand to the stringer and she wraps a string around em on this stick And then ya have this stick-off boy, and he sticks it off Qj1 DDtroPt inta the barn. Somebody in da barn, they hang itAtheAtear poles. .I\nd then when you get that sled strung, two or three go in the barn. And barn's bout twenty foot tall, and sombody crawls rite to the top. And its jest scalding hot o up there, 120 sometimes. And they stick those sticks straight up, forty to sixty pounds they weighed. I weighed 104 pounds and I stuck them forty or sixty pound sticks (up there). y'it wadn't easy I'll jest assure ya. And ya .hang those sticks of tabaka up. And then ah, ya go through the curin process . And then ya take it out and take it to the pack house 57 and ya stack it. And stackin yer tabaka is an art. There's no way to explain it. You jest have to stack it jest so or the stack'ull git so high and then it'll tumble off and tear yel: leaves 'n all up. And ah then long tords the end, things git a 'lil slacker and everbody goes in thar and takes off the tabaka. And ya break off ya string and cut cha finger on the string. And then ya jest pull it off hand full by hand full, forty hands to the side. And ya git cha hands jest as full as ya can and then ya walk over yere and lay it down. And ya go back and ya pull and ya pull and ya pull.. And ya do that on thousands and thousands and I thousands of st_cks uf tabaka. And used to den after ya done f I. that ya had to go through and sort out le~ by leay. And there's 11,000 plants uf tabaka to the acra. And there's 35 ot 40 leaves on each stalk uf tabaka. And y'ud have six to twelve acres of tabaka. So you can see the volume yer talkin about. And ya have to sort out leave by leave ....** * Jerry snapped his fingers for emphysis. He repeated this motion several times. ** Continued on Tape II; Side 2. 58 TAPE II: SIDE 2 (And ya had to) separate it inta good and better and best and then trash. And the youngins, they got the trash and you better believe there wadn't a whole hellufa lot of that left. (Trash is floor sweepin for cigars, in'it? Filler. When you get through in a tabaka season, they have a couple buyers that they'll got through and sweep the floors up and then they'll have the last two baskets come through and jest all this stuff; cigar butts, cigarette' butts, trash, floor sweepin, dirt.)* And make snuff out of it. (Snuff. It's got all the broken leaves and everything hut its got a lot ah tabaka in it and they'll pay so much a pound for that too.)* Ten to fifteen cents a pound. And ah, then yo. got four croker sacks, and a croker sack to the e-literateis a gunny sack. An' ya have four croker sacks sewed tagether and you have a'lil hole bout maybe six inches in diameter at the bottom. And that's so air can circulate through there and won't get hot and rot. 59 And ah, then you stack it in a circle. And that's another art. And you jest bring it in til it's a beehive lookin affa~. And then you tie it up in little knots. And ya take and throw it on the track and carry it to the ware- house. And they line it up in rows. And then the buyers they all jest: march up and down. And ya cain 't understand the auctioneer unless you listen real real closely. He puts it in, is it half dollars or quarter dollars ?** He I seither 1k sayin 5~ or 56~ or sompin liek that. And then buyers, ya II can never tell who is biddin on what. One man may bat his eye, another man may do liek*** or scratch his head, but the auctioneer now he knows exactly who is biddin at what price. And the auctioneer is talkin her~ and there is, there may be fifteen men on each side of that row of tabaka. And then followin behind him is a man who is writin down the price of this tabaka. And he is thinkin that far ahead at all times. As far as many baskets as is between him. He has to keep up with what that sheet of tabaka brought between him and the auctioneer and he never makes a mistake. And then jest as soon as the tickets are written up, they give jest a few minutes for the company district man to come through, 'n call em circuit riders ,too, and check some 60 a de prices to make sure that their buyers are not payin too much fer the tabaka. And then those tickets are run by a runner up't the office and they calculate em out and write cha a 'IiI check. And that's it. * Both times there is a single star, and other times we did not star, indicates that there was a break in the context by either Mr. Dick Conrad or Mike to ask a question or interpose a suggestion. *** Indicates a motion by one of the buyers. 51" skip. There is more discussion about tobacco that did not seem to be pertinent to his story. That is the end of this side of the tape.
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Professor John Burrison founded the Atlanta Folklore Archive Project in 1967 at Georgia State University. He trained undergraduates and graduate students enrolled in his folklore curriculum to conduct oral history interviews. Students interviewed men, women, and children of various demographics in Georgia and across the southeast on crafts, storytelling, music, religion, rural life, and traditions.
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