Charlotte Abrams interview with Dr. Donald Kolberg; Dr. Gerald Holder; Carroll Glenn; Ralph M. Cooke Jr.; and Claiborne K. McLemore, III

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 starts with Dr. Donald Kolberg telling an animal folktale that his father, an immigrant from Norway, taught him. Next, at 1:20 Dr. Gerald Holder tells three stories. One is about his grandfather encountering something mysterious while sheltering from a storm, in a church, in North Carolina. The second, which he attributes to Scottish immigrants, is a local story about the devil that he calls The Devil's Tramping Ground. And the last is about a child hunting a bear that he learned from his father. At 8:13 Carroll Glenn, an accountant from Albany Georgia, repeats a family legend about his Great Grandfather encountering the devil while fishing. Then at 11:54, Charlotte Abrams recalls two family stories, one from Summerton, and the other from Charleston, South Carolina. One is about a mishap involving the lights on her uncles car going out. The second is about a local boy scaring himself on a walk. At 16:07 Claiborne K. McLemore, III, an Emory University student, tells a short ghost story involving a railroad in Lewisburg Tennessee. Glenn picks up his interview again at 17:01. First he repeats a racist ghost story he learned from his grandmother in Albany Georgia about a misunderstanding between two white men picking hickory nuts and two Black men walking by a cemetery. Then he tells one about an Alaskan settler who has to complete three trials to be considered a true Alaskan. To conclude the interview, at 21:56 Holder shares a story in which the accidental slaughter of hens led to a disagreement between his grandparents. Then he describes the invention of the cotton stripper in Western Texas. Donald Wayne Kolberg (1933-2005) was born in Bisbee, North Dakota. He served for four years as a meteorologist in the United States Air Force. Later he worked as a lecturer at New York State University and after moving to Stone Mountain, Georgia, as a professor at Georgia State University. He married Kathlyn Ann Anderson (1936-), and they had four children Cynthia (1956- ), David (1959-), Lisa Kay (approximately 1950- ), and Sarah (1962-). Kolberg died in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Gerald Leon Holder (1942-1991) was born in Sanford, North Carolina. He received a doctorate in Geography from the University of Georgia and became a professor at Georgia State University. In 1970, he married Ann Ray Hogin (1945- ), and they had two children, Matthew (1974- ) and Elizabeth (1977- ). After they divorced in 1986, he moved to Walker, Texas. Holder died in Farmville, Virginia Carroll Glenn (approximately 1942- ) was born in Albany, Georgia, and later moved to Chamblee, where he worked as an accountant for Life of Georgia Insurance Co. Ralph M. Cooke Jr. (approximately 1946- ) was born in Morganton, North Carolina. He moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he worked as a management trainee at Sears, Roebuck & Co. Claiborne Kinnard McLemore, III (1955- ) was born in Franklin Tennessee. He graduated from Emory University, then in 1980 from Vanderbilt University Law School. Subsequently he worked as a lawyer in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1987, he married Marie Suzanne Graf (1958- ), and they had two children, Claiborn Jr. (approximately 1980 -) and Elizabeth (1990- ). A COLLECTION OF FOLK TALES Charlotte Abrams Table of C'ontents Introduction page 1 Informants' lilliographical Sketches------- page 4 Collection of Tales ------------------------ page 6 1. The Bear and the Anuses ---------- ----- page 6 2. Slaughter in the Chicken House page 6 3. Development of Cotton Stripper ------ page 7 4"' G:r'anrJa in the Church .--------------=- page 8 5 * The Devil's Tram.:)ing Ground -------- 6. The Bear l-llcnting Boy ------ --------- 7. Grandaddy Glenn and the Devil ------- 8. The Hickory Nut Story ---------------- 9. The Alaskan Settler---------------- 10. The Brown Wountain Light----------- 11. The Ghost of Mako Station ------------ The Car Lights The page ps.gc page ,., ..... ,-.c>C,, l-''--'"6 '-' page pe,ge page po.ge 10 10 12 13 14 16 16 1~ ',7 18 i I did not realize when I began that this assignment would turn out to be one of the most interesting: and difficult assignments I have ever had to do. I am not happy with my results in so much as material returns, but I am glad to say that I have learned a lot about people and the things of the past that they hold on to. In addition, I got one extra reward. I have a friend whose family owns a house in @'resent, Gieorgia on the coast. 'llhis friend knew of a good source for my tale gathering so a trip was made to Cresent. As it turned out the person she knew of had recently had pneumonia and was unable to even speak a full sentence without gasping for breath. So I gave that source up and assumed the trip to be a total loss. Then the reward I spoke of occurred. l'l!y friend also knew of a doctor who lived nearby who was ninetyone years of age and had spent twenty-five years in ' China. He did not know any folk tales., cbut we spent four of the most interesting and delightful hours I have ever spent talking with him and looking at his treasures from Cnina. I would have never had the pleasure of this visit had it not been for this assign., ment. So I returned to Atlanta empty handed. I began to ask urofessors and persons at work if they knew any . folk ta,les ~ E:veryone had to have a definition of what a folk tale was before they could then tell me, "Oh, my grandmother use to tell stories to us, but I've forgotten them all." 2 With some difficult prodding I have managed to gather these few tales collected here, but all of my sources said they had heard many more as children and simply could not remember them. I think I left everyone that I contacted with regrets that they had not retained this valuable piece of their past in order to pass it on to their children. All of my informants are professional people who speak before large groups often, but when they were confronted with a mike and a recorder they all became less at ease. One informant had told me one of his stories earlier without the recorder. When I taped the same story it was much less exciting due to his unease. Another informant actually had to write his stories out the way he wanted to say them before he would consent to record them. s:till another would not record at all and would only dictate his stories to me. I probably did little to put my informants at ease with the recording situation. I felt myself ill at ease as the collector and when I recorded two tales I had heard as a child on the tape I also had difficul I found very little in my search for tale typ.es motifs. Tale type 1920, contest in lying, is perhaps applicable to the story of Grandaddy and the devil. Motif C.'752.1.5, graveyard casting, is suitable to the story of the cemetery and the hickory nuits, and a bargain with the devil, M210,perhaps also is related to the Grandaddy and the devil story. 'll'he light mot'if found in "'l'he Brown Mountain Light" and "The Ghost of Mako Station" is a familar motif and E'530.l may best fit. I have given names to most of the stories myself to make it easier to list them in the taile of contents. "Silaughter in the Henhouse," "The Devil's Tramping G;r>ound," "The Brown Mountain Lights," and "The Ghost of 11[ako S:tation" are the only titles originally given by my informants . 3 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES Dr. Donald Kolberg 4222 Teakwood 0rt. Stone Mountain Georgia Occupation: Professor, Gleorgia State University Age: 40 Place of birth: Bisbee, North Dakota Dr. Kolberg heard his story of the Bear and the anuses from his father as a child. His father came to the u.s:. as a yountji child from Norway the tale related is from Norway. Dr. Gerald Holder 3681 N1 Decatur Rd. Decatur, Georgia Occupation: Professor, Georgia State University Age: 33 Place of birth: On a farm near Chapel Hill, N. t:. Dr. Holder's stories of "S-laughter in the Henhm,E;',' Granpa in the church, and the bear hunting boy were all family stories related to him as a boy. The or:i.gin of the story of the development of the cotton stripper is unknown to him and he does not remember how he acquired it. "'The Devil's Hunting Ground" was a lo tale he learned as a boy . l!J'arroll Glenn 2934 Appling Way Chamblee, Georgia Occupation: Accountant, Life of Georgia Insurance (l:o. Age: 32 Place of birth: Albany, Georgia Mr. Gllenn heard the stories of G:randaddy Glenn and the devil and the hick~ry nut story from;_ his grandmother in Albany as a boy. He said she use tell the children numerous stories, but these were the only ones he could recall. Ke does not recall the origin of the Alaskan settler story. Ralph l'I!. @:ooke, Jr. 4883 Roswell Rd. Atlanta, Georgia Occupation: Management Trainee, Sears, Roebuck & c:o. Age: 28 Place of birth: Morganton, N.C. Ralph Cfooke related the stories of "The Brown Mountain Light" and of ''The Ghost of Mako Station" to me, but he refused to tape them. He said that he felt very uncomfortable taping anything and would only dictate the stories to me. They are both local areas stories from his home town. I have also included two vague rememberences of stories told to me by uncles as a child. I doubt thP. truth of either one, but to a childthey proved enter~ taining, both to myself and the teller . 6 The K~ar and Anuses The animals of this village had always had harmonious conditions, One day the bear noticed that the butter was disappearing from the kitchen butter dish. This sort of behavior could not be condoned. To find the guilty culprit the bear invited all the animals to attend a meeting at his home. Upon their arrival, he instructed all animals to hang their anuses on the hooks provided and them to proceed into his home where he would meet with them later. When all animals were comfortably seated he proceeded to examin all the anuses, found the one which appeared to be greasy, matched it to the fox, determined the fox to be the guilty culprit, and therefore, all animals banished him from the community. Collected from Dr. Donald Kolberg Slaughter in the Chicken House The story has to do with uh elderly couple, namely old granpa and uh my granmother. A:nd, uh, my grandfather had been known to drink a little whiskey in his day, And my grandmother always said she could tell when she knew that she could tell when he was about half crocked, cause when he came home he inevitably would strip nude, otherwise he would sleep in some kind of undergarments. But in the interurn, uh, my grandmother had always, uh, raised a lot of chickens and uh,. sold eggs and whatnot. A:nd she'd been having some trouble that some kind of varmit had been killing her chickens at random at night and she was very concerned about it. llm.d as the story goes, one nights granfather came in and he was about half crocked and stripped off and climbed 7 into bed. ~nd by the time he to sleep, uh, a terribl.e commotion arose in the hen house, scawij__ing, screaming ehickens, and my grandmother jumped1 up and was pounding my granfather to wake him up to get outs.ide to see what the hell was going on in the chicken house, 11\Ild he woke! up with a start, forgot to put any clothes on, grabbed the double barrel s' hotgun out of the closet, a lantern and out the door he went. 11\Ild he approached the chicken house, pushed the door open very carefully, holding the lantern out in front of him in one hand and holding the shotgun at ready in the other hand. And as he was peering around trying to find out what was after the chickens, uh, his old hound dog by the name of Major came up behind him, Aind I don't have to say where old Major shoved his cold nose. And with that grandfather cut loose with the shotgun and murdered fifteen chickens who were sitting very peaceably alsleep, uh, in the coop. And uh, it almost caused a divorce after forty-five years of marriage. Collected from Dr. Gerald Holder Development of C:otton S,tripper This story uh, actually, uh, has some historical basis to it in terms of a technological development in the cotton industry. Uh, out on the western high plains of Texas, called the Llanos Estocados by some, uh, they have a different kind of cotton harvester. Uh, a typical one that we're familar with in the Southeast actually picks the cotton, uh, bowl right off the cotton plant, but out there they strip it off. It goes through and just sort a tears leaves and cotton bowls and everything off. A;nd there's leaves, pieces of stem and everything in the cotton, but that doesn't make any difference in terms of uh, market for their cotton 8 And the story goes that the way the insite that provided for the development of the so-called cotton stripper occurred when.back in the 30's a man was plowing with a mule. A:nd uh, as everyone knows, mules are very individualistic uh very uh sometimes very onery creatures. And the old country adage is that "if you can get along with a mule, you can get along with anybody." But uh, he was out plowing with his mule and uh, spmething spooked him, piece of paper flew up, and the mule bolted, ran away dragging a plow behind him. Went through the back yard and slammed the plow into a picket fence and jerked down about a twelve foot section of the picket fence. And then the mule took a circle out in the cotton field. And, of course, it was just stripping all the leaves and the cotton off the plants. As the story goes out in that part, uh, that provided the insite for this man to develop, uh, the mechanical cotton stripper. collected from Dr. Gerald Holder Granpa in the Church My grandfather, who back at the turn of the century, uh he was a saw mill man. He had his own saw mill and he cut wood, timber, all over the state. And he was a. hundred miles or so from home when he got word that one of his children, who incidently was my father, was very ill and tlhat he should come home. And so, uh, he rode a horse and uh, he sl;arted out early in the morning. Jmd uh, it would teJrn hi1'1, uh, a good long while to get home, And sure enough, b3 h,s got home it turned night, And vh, this horrendous ntorm was comirig up_, typi v uh, sort of ev1nmertim;,;; thunderstorm. And uh, it looked so bad that he happened upon a church. 11:nd he decided he'd uh, stop over in the church until the storm passea.. So he put 9 his horse outside, but uh, he did take with him a picitol, horse pistol, that he normally carried with him when he was riding 2.lone. He went in the church, he and the pistol, and uh, he lay down in a pew, a~Jpearently dropped off in a rather sound sleep, because when he woke up the storm hs.d passed and the moon was back out. And as he started to pull himself up out of the pew he looked towards the front of the church and there v1arJ this great white object standing in the door which, needless to say, terrified him end uh, he lay back down and he thought for a few minutes about uh, how he was gona get out of the church* And he cid.ed, finally~ the only- th.ing to 'NB.f.~ to take a shot Ei.t thir; .,,,_,htte object, shoot over it out the door, and perha.ps in the ensuing panic he could get out. And so that ''s what he did, but at the crack of the pistol appearently every pew in the church turned over and soared him half to death. And he jumped through a window and drop,}ed his pistol and was running for his life through the churchyard and he ran over something and he fell do111m and he was scrambling around on the grouml., struggling with this sort of furry thing. And then he realized that uh, it was a sheep .. And then he sort of caught his senses and he realized that wha.t had. happened was that uh, after he hacl gone into the chu.rch the ram had brought a herd of sheep in the church. And the d1eep had. come in ancl they'd lain down under the pews. &'1d what he had seen in the door was the old ram, and uh, of course when he shot the pistol a.11 of the sheqi that were under the pews jrnnped up, distroyed. the chu.roh, anc1 damn near distroyed my gre.ndfather. collected from Dr. Gerald Holder 10 The Devil's Tramping Ground In the area of North Carolina thtt' s my home, uh; originally it was settled by a large number of Scot Hig:hlanders, They're accused of carrying a lot of legend and lore with them and telling stories of spirits and so forth. lrnd near my home there's an old Scotish settlement 11;alled KumKnock, and it's near Deep River, And very near Kumknock along the river there's a very strange place that's called the Devil's Tramping Ground. It's a large circular area, uh, appearently no vegetation will grow in grow in. And there's vegetation in the center of the circle and there's kinda this path around the vegetation. Of course, the legend is this is where the a.evil paces arouna_ between midnight and dawn thinking up evil things to do to people. Uh, it probably, though I'm not certain, it probably originated from the early Scot settlers, uh, who inhabited this area, but as far 8$ the actual source of this tale, uh, I'm not at al} sure. B\.tt it's one commonly related to - children in my part of the country., Collected from Dr. Gerald Holder The Bear Hunting Bvy As a young lad of eleven or twelve I had my first gun and I was consistantly and consta_ntly restering my f:ather:li who was a. farmer and h2.d other thingB to do.; to take me hunting.. every afternoon when I got home from school. He frequently could not do this and so I began to pester him about going by myself. And, of course, he was very ap;orehensi ve about th&_t for any number of reasonr,, but uh, he related .t,his tale to me about what ha_ppened to E young boy who wouldn't listen to his father and he went off into the f;v1amp hunting by himself . 11 And this lad apparently had been pestering father and so finally, one day he decided he sould go by himself. And his father he.d told him that there were vicious bears in the swamp and that a young boy shouldn't go off by himself b,,cause the bears would get him, but neverthol ess, uh, he took his gun and o to the swamp he v1en-b. He was h2.ving a fine old day of hunting and, all of sudden, sure enough, as fate would h~sve it, he encountered ithis rather uh, disgruntled bear. And the bear scared him to death. And the first thing he did was to, uh, throw his gun down and off he went hard as he could go. And the bear after him and the chfi.se vm.e on. And they went through the swamp. And, uh, in the meantime, uh, as the;;r say back at the ranch or the farm, uh, the fe:ther was out in the yard and he heard way off in the distance thie, "Help, help," and it would oome louder and louder, ,And he looked and he i:aw his boy coming and then he se.w the bear. And so, the old man went back to the hom::e 2,nd he opened the door u~d the buy c,hot through the door '"'nd he circlAd the room, And the beer came in behind and the boy went out the door and closed the door leaving the bear in the house with th,:, fa,ther, And as he was out in th8 ya.rd the father raised the window and said, "Hey, son, what do you want me to do with this bee.r in the hou,.;e?" And he said, "You skin him, B,no ther one <l' H collected from Dr. Gerald Holder , while I go get 12 Grandaddy Glenn and the Devil It seems that great-grandaddy Glenn, Will G'hmn, deputy sheriff of l,h tchell County at the tirne, belonged to a very conscientious Baptist family at the time and the church life was the moc;t important function of their lives, outs; de their jobs. But my great-grandaddy had a very strong lust for fishing you might say, and very often he would skip social functions and church functions to go fishing. B'ut one Suno_ay morning, it was in early IIJay, it was in the late 19OO's, I mean late 18OO's or early 19OO's, grandaddy elected to go fishing inste2,d of going to church that Sunday. So he went fishin' s,nd had a very good dny of fishin', but during the ds,y it began to bother hi, conscience somewhat that he had skipped church and he knew that the family would be upset with him. He was a little concerned with what God might think of him too, I believe. But anyway, toward dusk he was beginning to wrap up his fishing trip. He heard something behind him and ho turned around and there was the devil, himself, starrding ri,sht behind (lrandaddy. Well it st2rtled him tremendously 8.nd the devil s.:}Oke to grands,ddy and told him that, uh, because of his skippirrg church that he wew going to take him with him to hell this very day. Well, this upset Grandaddy to no end and_ of course he began to plead for his life and for the devil not to take him with him. But the devil sEdd, "No," that even though he Nas a good Baptist he had now broken his faith with the Baptist 0hurch by skip ,iing church and going fishing and he was gona take him today. Grandaddy again pleaded more and more and, uh, finally the devil decided that perhaps, uh, maybe he might 13 bargain with him. So the devil told Grandaddy that he would enter e, cor.:.test with him an.Ct the winner'ffi if he ,Non, he would not have to go to hell with him. Grandaddy asked what the contest might be ana the devil told him th2.t the contest would be who could tell the biggest lie. So the devil said, "I'll tell the first lie since I'm a expert a,; lying arn1 deceiving," and Grandadciy agreed. So the devil said, "OK, my lie is that I caught a fish today as big as the -.1,-orld .. 11 l'Ty grandaddy thought that this was a lie th2.t c o1.L1c.',, n t b e t oppeo' ., b u t he thought for a :Bew minutes and then retort ea_ with his answer. He said, "That's a good lie, but I have a frying pan that will hold two fish the size of the one you caught." This of course was a bigger lie than the devil told so the devil allov;ed grandaddy to go on home and not have to go to hell. Collected from Carroll Glenn rhe Hickory Nut Story This particular story has to do with the cemetery and a hickory nut tree. It seems that there wa,o a )ath beside the side of the cemetery that was frequently used by the local peo1ile in the vicinity. And in the cemetery was a hickory nut tree which was heavy with hickory nuts. And, as you know, hickory nuts fall with a large black cover or husk around them. And v1hen the nuts were ripe two young men decided to harvest them for themselves. They shook the tree good and all the hickory nuts fell in the. cemetery except two rather large hickory nuts vii th big black husks e,round them which fell outisde the fence by the path. By the time the men h,id finished picking u"; the nuts it \VS,s dgrk end they decided to divide them noltv~ And they counted them out by the "you one, me one" method. Unbeknovm to them, two Negro men were walking beBide the cemetery on their way to town. i,s approached the cemetery it vms almost totally cept for moonlight , a.nd it vvas by the way v a the they dark full 14 path exmoon night. , they heard the counting from the cemetery snd concluded ther,s 'Nf:,S the dev.,i1 and his associates di vi ding up the sriri ts of the d,::,3,d with the ''you one me one; you one, me one." This alone almost frightened the Negro men to death, but the idea of the devil in the cemetery intrigued them eo much they v1ere comp1lled -t;o r8main cmd listen forwha t was going on. In the mee,ntime, the men dividing the hickory nuts were almost completed. As they finished one man said, "Well thG.t takes care of all of them except the two black ones across the fence by the path." With that remark the tvn Negroes turned with an icy white in their eyes, started running, a,nd they may still be rur1ning toda,y collected from Carroll Glenn. The Alaskan Settler The young man back in the days of early settlement of Alaska moved to alasl,a to go join in the gold rush and to se his forune in klaska. He heard about the tough Alaska men. He was very strong to be faCCeJ:ited among the men as being a tru.e Alaskan. Well, he ended up in the bar there one night. It was a cold icy night and he 1cas talking with the men ancl drinking a lot of beer and having e, good time. ,And he began talking with the other men there. He was telling them how he wanted to be accc, 1ited e.s a native, true Alaskan. Well, the men decided!. that they would cha11angc him to uh, a little contest and if he could suce,:ced the parts o:f the contest he would indeed be acce:rted as a true /clashan 15 So the young man just e2.ger to ple,rne cmd. 0,ager to be a.ccerJtea., just e.sk:ed them to just name vihat it is he had to do~ So they i temi.zed three tl1ings for him~ First'lJ of G.ll he: ba.d. to cl.rink a gc.11lon of '\Jvhi te lightn moonshine. Second, he h2.d to, 1)h, wrestle uh Alaskan grizzly bear. And third, he had to rape an Eskino v1oman .. Well, that old boy, he decided this was not so terribly bad and he was wil1i.ng to take on these challanges. So he took the gallon of white lightning and turned it up and just guz ea. the whole thing a.own. And this just about killed him and he was stoned to the gv.t. And he said, "OK, I'm off now to do the second part of the challenge." So he marched out the door, went out into the icy Alaskan territory. It was about three hours later, the men still sitting in the bar around the roaring fire. In the door crornes staggering thir:: you:ng man.. His othes were absolvtely in shreacls. His arms a.no. legs scratched heavily,, his face scratcht~d.. H'e really 1.11as a mess,. And he marched, held his head up high, poked his chest out, marched right up to the other men, He said, "Ok, now where's th&,t Eskino girl you Viant me to wrestle., ? 0 collected from 0arroll Glenn 16 The Brown Mountain Lights This is the story of the uh, Brown l!Iountain light. Brovm J\fountain is near r,rorge,nton 2,nd Blowing Rock, North Carolina. This occurred nes,r the ti.me of the Civil War. The master, who owned a small farm, and his slave had gone to work across Brown IVIoun-tain. When lunchtime came their 1Nork was almost finished so the nw.ster told the sla,,,re to go on home c:tnO. he'd finish UJ and follow later. , night came and ffi<""J.ster hadn ~ t rt::tJJYned so the slave took a lantern s_.nd ,,vent to look for him over Brov?n :Lot.u1tain* AnC1- the master's wife v1s.tched him go by following the 12.ntern light. She sav.1 the light crossing the mountain, but then the sl:::-1.ve was never r::-~een again either .. The light C8,n still lie e.een on Brown r.lountain of the slave looting for his master Uh, after sunset the light rises off the ridge of the mountain and noves back ana. forth. I've seen it and have even tried to take a picture of it, but it doesn t show up. The Ghost of Mako S.tation In the early 1800's the longest single stretch of railroad track 'ti,,.s from Wilmington to Weldon, North Carolina. There was this freight train traveling from Wilmington to Weldon. One night the engineer saw a light behind the train. He ssnt 2. man to the b2ck of the train with a lantern to see what it was. It was a pastJenger train that vva.sn't even sup;.:Josed to be on same tre.ck and the m2,,n tried to flag it down v,1ith the la.ntern, but they never saw him and he 1gas killed, decapatated."' 17 And noN a light can still be sr:::en today moving ur:: and down thor~e trc-:,c1:s$ It's su:oros:ed to be the brcckeman v,;ho lost r.~is head ana_ is still looki.ng for it,. I 8 Ve seen it 2,nd tried to :::et close to it, but it always moves "The Brown )'fountain Light" and "The Ghost of Mako Station" were both collected from Rali)h C'.oolce. The Car Lights One night my uncle's grandfather e.nd a friend were traveling hom8 from the city, Columbia, where they had. been that day. They had meant to leave for home earlier, but one thing sort of lead to another and they got a late start which put them on the road after dark. Well, roads at tha.t time were j:;oor and unpaved and cars weren~t much better so they were trB-veling along and all of a sudden the lights on the oar vi8nt out and it got so de.rk neither rn:m could see in front of him;;, There v-as some discusf)ion e.mong the tvvo c\s to what to d.o in this situation. It vre.s finally decided that they would go on very slowly so 2,s not to run off the road and so the.t they wouldn't be hit by another car that would not see them, what they'd do was they would pull off the road v1hen they saw the other car's lights approaching. Well, they went along slov1ly for 1/ihat seemed lH:e hours until suddenly the:J:1!' was a crash. Both jump eel out to see what they had hit and found that another man had lost his lights also and V78,s doing the same thing as they were" ...LL personal recollection 18 The Scared Boy One night this boy had gone to see a scarey show ana_ he vvas still sort of scared ":Nhen he went "Go catch the streetcar fbr home. He sort of considered the dumb boy of the neighborhood. They livc:d out from the Gi -'.:;y on an old dirt roe,d.. The streetcar line only went to v..chere the dirt roe.d began and there v1c.<s still a con~11clerT,ble piect'.0 of territory bei?Ufien the end of the line and their hou,rns with nothing but voods in betv,;een Well, when this boy got off the streetcar and started dosn road, he began to feel spooky and the wind start ,2d to blow. He began to look from de to side and he rt feeling like someone vvas h.ehind him and chills \Here on the bad<: of hi_s neck. He began to k fc,ster s.nd the v,ind blew hara.er, making hin ropookier. Suddenly, a boney hfincl seiz d him on hiic bcwk and he began to run while grabbing at his brcck with his h,ind .. this point he discovered what hiJ.d grabbed him was a tree branch ths,t the wina_ had bl own at him. A personal recollection My aunt, another source of this story that I have found, attributed this entire happening to my uncle as a young man"' A PDF transcript exists for this recording. Please contact an archivist for access. Professor John Burrison founded the Atlanta Folklore Archive Project in 1967 at Georgia State University. He trained undergraduates and graduate students enrolled in his folklore curriculum to conduct oral history interviews. Students interviewed men, women, and children of various demographics in Georgia and across the southeast on crafts, storytelling, music, religion, rural life, and traditions. As archivists, we acknowledge our role as stewards of information, which places us inaposition to choose how individuals and organizations are represented and described in our archives. We are not neutral, andbias isreflected in our descriptions, whichmay not convey the racist or offensive aspects of collection materialsaccurately.Archivists make mistakes and might use poor judgment.We often re-use language used by the former owners and creators, which provides context but also includes bias and prejudices of the time it was created.Additionally,our work to use reparative languagewhereLibrary of Congress subject termsareinaccurate and obsolete isongoing. Kenan Research Center welcomes feedback and questions regarding our archival descriptions. If you encounter harmful, offensive, or insensitive terminology or description please let us know by emailingreference@atlantahistorycenter.com. Your comments are essential to our work to create inclusive and thoughtful description.