1 50 2 https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/7955776b936911d510652d48df4bdfc7.pdf 88316902588f76fe8dea2556b50fc363 PDF Text Text Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, Tape 74 Interviewees: Mr. and Mrs. Jim Greer Interviewer: n/a Date: 11 June 1973 Transcriber: J. McTaggart Interviewer: This is an interview with Mr. and Mrs. Jim Greer for the Appalachian Oral History Project in Triplett on June 11th, 1973. Okay, first I'd like to have your names and ages, please. Jim Greer: Mine's James Calvin Greer and I'll be 65 years old on the fourth day of September. I: Oh okay, what about you, Mrs. Greer? Vera Greer: Um mines Vera Greer and I'll I was 61 the first day of May. I: Oh and where were you born? JG: I was born around here at the community center. I: Wereya? JG: Yeah, just around the road there. VG: Yup right at the community, yeah. And I was born in Caldwell County. I: Have you lived around here all of your lives? JG:No. VG: No. I: Where have you lived? JG: I lived in [inaudible] state gone for four years before I come back. I lived in Caldwell County, Wilkes County. VG: Who's that? I hear another car. JG: I don't see it. Some folks bought that place up here. I: Why did you move from here? JG: Well, my mother moved to Wilkes County to my sister's and my daddy he left when I was four years old. Mama had to keep me and my sister up 'til I got big enough to work. And I had to help her 'til I got grown. We left here when I was about nine years old and went on up ahead the creek where Ralph Greene lives now; got roots and herbs and gathered barks and stuff to get our groceries and clothes with. Mama made all my clothes she just bought the cloth and made it. And uh you couldn't get no work �nowhere; there was no work to do. And I wasn't big enough to work and mama she'd wash around here on [inaudible] branch all day for 50 cents. [Inaudible] not too big a washing for 50 cents. I: How would she wash 'em? JG: With her hands and washboard, paddle board. Stand on big ol' banks and she had the paddle and she'd beat the dirt out with the paddle. It was rough going, I'll tell you. I: Were there just you and your sister in your family? JG: Yeah at that time, the other had three. VG: She was married twice [inaudible] the first time. JG: She was married twice, my mother but the other two was married and gone. Last, my daddy was being an [inaudible] sister. I: Is she older or younger? JG: She's younger than I am. Daddy [inaudible]. I: What was your father's occupation? JG: Well, he worked for people, dug ditch and anything you could get do. VG: All of these cleared fields on top of the mountain up here he cleared them. JG: On top of the mountain up here, he cleared them. When you first go out up here them fields out there when you first go out old man Tom Greer's mail [inaudible] on top of his up there. All them fields my daddy cleared back there. I: Well, how did he do it? JG: Ax, chopped 'em. I've seen him cut trees down four foot through with an ax, chop 'em down. I: How long would it take him? JG: Well, it'd take him three or four hours. I: And how much would he make? JG: Well, he got when he did get anything it was 33 and 1/3 cents a day was all he got out of his work. Killed himself at work and people living off his labor right now, enjoying it. I: Did your mother work or was she just around the house? JG: She worked around the house and whatever she'd get to do for people, haul corn and stuff like that. Wash and things like that; we'd walk way up here to the creek, three miles down here [inaudible] the branch and do a little washing. �I: She would just do the neighborhood's washing? JG: Yeah, mm hm ol' lady [inaudible] and uh Minnie Hayes' mother, yeah. She'd come on out of there and work all day and get by the time we had a cow, she'd take it up and fodder. You know, top fodder of corn. She'd give it about five or six shucks of top for a day's work. And she done carry them out from around there [inaudible] Creek here in about three miles. And I'd come and meet her in the evening and take part of the load off of her and carry what I could. I was little I couldn't do much, 'bout five or six years old something like that. And me and her would get out in the woods and gather herbs and roots carry it little up here to [inaudible]. [Inaudible] that big brick house up there on the right of the road there used to be a big ol' store right there where that there cloth place is now. And old man [inaudible] McNee run a big store there and we'd carry our herbs up there right up there mountain 'bout I guess we'd go three miles. And the mountain we'd climb all the way 'till we got on top. I: So you would sell your roots and herbs and things? JG: Yes, maybe get up there and maybe have a dollar's worth with all we can carry. I: Mm. JG: Some of 'em were a cent a pound; some were a cent and a half some two cent, three cents. You couldn't get nothing for more than that. I've had hard all my life and the highest I ever made a working was the furniture factory [inaudible] 36 hours. I worked all my life, raised my family, worked for my mother and sister 'till I was 21 years old. I helped on that highway that goes down the mountain to Wilkesboro; I helped build that bridge from the bottom to the top. I: Really? JG: Yeah, see it's about four miles to do that, no way around it [clears throat]. I: Goodness, what do you do now, what kind of work? JG: Nothin' I've been disabled for about 16,17 years. I: Oh. JG: My [inaudible] to the heart [inaudible] won't let me. He tell me last year not even to put out a garden. The digging might have a stroke or something. I: Mm, did you have a garden when you were little and growing up with your family? JG: Yeah, me and mama gardened every year and raked. You went through the houses sits up here and you start up the mountain and you leave this old house down here at the foot with the rock crusher. The two little houses sits on the right on the holler. Now this field right here above the road me and mama made our bread on that hill there. [Background noises] �I: Made what? JG: Made our corn bread when I was a little boy. We had corn all over that hill. We had a third of it for raising. We dug holes and plant the corn with a hoe then dug it out and hoed it when it come up, made our corn up on that steep hill. It's straight up and down now. I: Goodness, I don't see how you could hoe like that. JG: You couldn't hardly stand up on it. You'd slide down and fall; we worked it 'til we got our corn worked out. We made corn out of it two or three years on that hill. It's growed up now they've been timber cut off it since me and mom worked corn on it. I: What other kind of crops did you raise? JG: Well, just beans and cucumbers and maters, Irish potatoes stuff like that. I: Did you have any livestock or animals? JG: No, well we generally kept cow most of the time. Dm, I've eaten boiled Irish potatoes for months at a time for bread. We didn't have no bread and we didn't have no bread to eat. We'd boil Irish potatoes and eat them for bread and butter. That's what we had to eat. You tell people that this day and time they wouldn't believe it but it's so. I: Hm I guess you were glad to get that though. JG: Oh Lord yeah, I was glad to get it. A lot of times we didn't have potatoes. And I've eaten water gravy a-many a-times just made out of flour and water and a little grease, you know. Maybe ol' strong meat skins or something fry the grease out of 'em and make cream gravy. [I'd] eat that many a mornin' for breakfast. I: Hm. JG: Mama made all my clothes. Here, here maybe I'll show you here. I've got a picture if I can find it when I was a little boy. Where is that picture? VG: There's one right up here. Yes sonny, they're right up here where I hang it! JG: No, not mine! VG: Yes! You're too! JG: Did I put it up here? VG: [Inaudible] I know you did! JG: I'll show you this so you know I'm telling the truth. There it is. That's me and my mother there. I: Aw. �JG: I was 21 years old when that was took down at far end of that high bridge I was telling you about. I: That's a good picture. JG: There's another one just like it. [Inaudible] my other picture. VG: Well, I don't know what you've done with it, honey! JG: Let me see. I: Your mother made these clothes? JG: Mm hm, made my clothes. VG: No, not them. She's talking about the little picture that he had. I don't know what he's done with it. JG: Here it is! Here it is! I'll show you. I knew I had this. VG: Damn, I thought that was ones he had...that is him and his mother. I: You were 21 here? VG: Yeah. JG: Mm hm. I: That's a good picture. VG: Now, right there's where... JG: That's where [inaudible] year old when that's took. You see, the homemade overalls and the shirt. You see the buttons on it. Now that pictures way old, it's about 60 years old I guess maybe more. I: Oh. JG: It was took when the old picture was crackled up you know and you couldn't get the crackles out of it. VG: Took it from an old picture you know. JG: A boyfriend of mine had a creek up there in little Triplett and his grandfather's back here behind. I tried to take 'em both off but didn't get 'em both. I: Who took these pictures? JG: [Inaudible] Greene took them way back when [inaudible]. VG: She lives at uh... JG: Spruce Pine. �VG: Spruce Pine! JG: She's dead now. How come you get that now she's around at Minnie Hayes's and uh asked her and she didn't have one of my old pictures when I was a little boy. And she said yeah, she did she took it with a little bitty Kodak just made little bitty pictures about 2 by or 2 by 3 or something. And uh she kept it all this time and I asked her if she'd let me have the picture. She said when I'm dead, says you can have it. I says well I might die before you go [chuckles]. So she died and her daughter had some made, some smalls made and sent me two of 'em and I took them and had 'em enlarged like that so they could be a little bigger. I: Aw, that's a good picture. JG: I was about nine years old when that was took. I: Aw, I bet you're glad to get that. JG: Oh yeah, I wouldn't take nothirt' for it. I: Goodness. JG: I wouldn't. I: Mm. JG: I had on a little black hat you see it? You can see it. VG: That was up here on [inaudible]. I: How long would it take your mother to make a pair of overalls like that? JG: It would take a month. I: Did she have an old sewing machine or would she make 'em by hand? JG: No, she made 'em by hand. I: Oh and she, where would she buy her cloth? JG: Go to Eller McNee's (?) store on top of the mountain. I: Oh yeah, do you know how much it would be back then, the cloth? JG: Well, it run sometimes 10,15 cents a yard according to what... VG: Well, you can't put the [inaudible]. [Inaudible] he had surgery on his back twice, got hurt at the shop. He dropped his [inaudible]. I: Did your mother make her clothes too? �JG: Mm hm, you had to make your clothes then couldn't go there was nowhere to buy 'em. l:Hm. JG: She make 'em [inaudible]. I stayed barefooted Christmas. I never got no shoes 'til Christmas then got these ol' brogan shoes, ol' yellow shoes with brass rivets in 'em here and brass toes on 'em 'cause if you're...hard as a rock you couldn't be in 'em, skin your feet all over. You'd have sores all over your feet and your ankles. I: Goodness. JG: It was rough going, I'll tell you. I: How far did you have to walk to school? JG: Oh, it's about three miles on the way up there to Howard's Creek where Ralph Greene lives, left at the rock crusher, and right on up the creek as far as you can go. I: Oh, really? JG: Mm hm. I: How much schooling did you have? JG: Well, I went to school to the fourth grade but I never did learn nothin'. The [inaudible] didn't have no dad either I'd look after him. These Tripletts down here all of 'em have a big head and queers(?). They beat me half to death at school and do things at school to get the teachers to beat me. And uh I couldn't help it 'cause they'd just double up on me three or four get on me at a time and beat me half to death 'till I got big enough to take 'em apart. I beat two of 'em nearly to death after I got up big enough. And I broke them and the rest of 'em ain't bother me anymore. I: They've learned their lesson [chuckles]. VG: They broke once [inaudible]. JG: So uh I was [inaudible] off the road by all the young'uns up them days when I was growing up. Everybody had well... I was the same about the same as orphans, you know. My daddy's gone, my mama had to work all the time she couldn't be with me all the time. I wasn't mean; I didn't do nothin' to nobody. And Stewart Shimens(?) around here can tell you all about my life. He knows everything about it, knows how people treated me, all these old people around here. And I was treated like a dog, what you might say all my life. I have been and since I've been married, same thing. People took off me and beat off of me and you know the same three men got [inaudible]. I: Mm, why do you think they treated you like that? JG: Well, just 'cause they could get something I had, you know, might [inaudible] borrow it and never pay it back. Things like that. I've been too easy with people, let 'em go. I ain't doing it anymore, I can't. �VG: We got a son-in-law that... JG: Owes me a thousand dollars right now. VG: Just about a thousand dollars in money now. And we will not I bet you we never as long as live see every dime of it. They done, you seen that car sitting out here when you was here before. That blue car that's pushed off down there and I told you that's my son-in-law's. Well, that's the one bless your heart and they come and got it Saturday. I: They did? VG: He told us that his daddy borrowed the money for him and paid cash for that car. And honey, it was through the American Credit right up here. JG: He borrowed the money from American Credit. VG: And went back and borrowed $75 on it besides. JG: And he's not gonna pay for but he come and got it [inaudible]. VG: But you can tell her to get back on you how you used to walk ten miles a day and work. JG: Yeah, I walked ten miles a day and worked ten hours and back home, after I go back home by moonshine. I: To moonshine? JG: By moonshine. I: Oh. JG: In the woods, you know. Go to the woods, carry wood out, and cut it up-and stow in the woods. In the summertime, work ten hours and walk five miles this way, I mean ten miles this way. I: Mm and what were you doing when you were working? VG: He worked in... JG: I worked in the furniture shop [inaudible] furniture with my mom. I lived way down on Lenoir Creek... VG: And then when we was in the Depression though we, we had a terrible time. One of our children was born. JG: Me and her during the Depression dug roots and gathered herbs to buy our clothes and groceries and the baby's clothes. VG: ...buy our first baby's clothes. I: Really? �VG: I went to the mountains this is as long as I could walk. I: Goodness. JG: ...crossing the mountains with me, we'd dig roots and gather herbs, sang and stuff. I: 'Bout how much could you get for that? JG: Well, it was cheap. VG: It was cheap then. It wasn't much... JG: You couldn't get over five cents a pound now for what we had. VG: No. JG: And I had to carry it three miles down [inaudible] in the summer. Down the mountain all the way and carry it two sacks at a time on my back. I: Was it very heavy? JG: Pretty heavy, yeah. [Inaudible] I get there. I: I bet it did [chuckles]. How many children do ya'll have? VG: We've had nine but two of 'ems dead. JG: Seven living, six girls and one boy and got two boys dead. I: You said you had a child during the Depression. VG: Yes [both talking at once]. I had one good dress and one old ratty thing I'd put on 'till I washed my good one. JG: I didn't even have clothes to change in. I wore her overalls [inaudible] my marriage and she could wash mine. And I dug the ditch and worked the hill and cut the wood for 50 cents a day and had to take it to mill our flour and a piece of meat or something like that. We couldn't get a dime to [inaudible]. Nothin'... I: So, uh did ya'll have like a farm or something during the Depression? VG: No, we just lived in what they called a little sawmill shack. You know where they built shacks through the mountains, you know, to work a sawmill. And Jim worked the sawmill some after our first baby is born and then it got down to that Depression. And uh when the next baby come along, and I'd saved her clothes. If I hadn't saved her clothes [inaudible] went naked 'cause we couldn't buy none. JG: Two hours a day at the sawmill [inaudible] and saw carrying green lumber and [inaudible] out for 50 cents a day. �10 I: Mm and was this every day? JG: Everyday 50 cents a day. That's [inaudible]. You can tell these young people about what it was like [inaudible]. I: I know it. I've heard too many people say the same thing. JG: [Inaudible] I couldn't go through it again. VG: We'd go to people's houses for the raced your own hogs and they'd give us meat skins to season what little we had to season. JG: Fry the grease out of it and season your potatoes and beans or something. I: Oh would, uh were people friendlier during the Depression? VG: Yeah! We had a few good friends not too many. JG: The town built her uncle [inaudible]. VG: And then after my baby's born, my aunt give me clothes so I could wear her clothes after the baby. I: Oh and your uncle what gave you the hog skins and stuff like that. VG: No, it was another one. JG: Yeah, he gave us some. VG: Yeah, he gave us some but there was another one. What was his name? JG: Dave Frasier gave us some. VG: Yeah, yeah. JG: [Inaudible] VG: We sure had it rough, buddy. And he worked my doctor bill out at 80 cent a day. JG: Paid half of it on the doctor bill... VG: ...and half of it to get something to eat. JG: I stayed away from Blowing Rock for a long time [inaudible]. I: And where was this? JG & VG: Down in Wilkes County. I: That's where ya'll were living during the Depression, in Wilkes County? �11 VG: Yeah. I: Did it affect many of your neighbors as far as food and things? VG:Huh? I: Did the Depression urn affect many neighbors as far as food and things? VG: Oh yeah, just about everybody. I: Did the people not have enough to eat? VG: I don't know but we didn't. JG: There was a lot of 'em didn't have enough to eat. We didn't make [inaudible]. I was eating, I was telling you about walking ten miles and working at the furniture shop. I eat oatmeal for breakfast and worked on it 'till 12 o'clock and maybe make a sandwich, a peanut butter sandwich at dinner time, cold Cola and work on it 'till night and walk on home. I: I don't see how you could stand it, could take it. JG: Well, people couldn't stand it. VG: People, people at this time now is much as uh we you know have now. JG: The people... VG: If it'd come now I don't believe could live. I: No I don't think so. JG: Well there'd be a many of 'em starve to death if the government didn't take care of 'em it wouldn't work. You couldn't get people out here and work for 50 cents a day to save your life now. They wouldn't do it but I had to do it or starve to death I didn't like the stuff. I: Did you ever hear about any of the government projects during the Depression like the WPA? JG: No, well yeah we did too. They give away stuff a lot at Wilkesboro. We never could get nothing of it. VG: Yeah, we did. We got some blankets and things one time. JG: One time, yeah one time. I'm talking about food and stuff we never did get that. VG: We didn't get no food. JG: And my brother in law, he's [inaudible]. He's got his own farm and he worked for the WPA. And I signed up don't know 50 times I guess that the WPA and they never would give me a call to work. I: Hm, I wonder why. �12 JG: I don't know why they didn't but they didn't... I: I thought they would let... VG: I think they just had their picks... JG: Yeah, just certain ones that would work three days and then the other ones would work three days. And I finally [inaudible] to call Will and I didn't have any job at the shop. I finally got on a contractors job up there building that highway to Morganton and Lenoir. I got on that and worked I get to work three days... VG: And off three days. JG: ...and off three days. I think it was a dollar, a dollar and half a day [inaudible]. I worked on that till they cut me off of it and I finally got me a job in the shop between... VG: 27 cents an hour. JG: 27 cents an hour. I: What were you doing then? JG: I was working shingling with working with [inaudible] hanging the shingles things like that. Just anything about if you wanted to know, [inaudible] cut off saw, planters, sanders, two jointers, things like that. 27 cents an hour and I worked there for nine years. Well for nearly nine years before I ever got a raise. VG: Halfway left 'till September we've been married uh, 44 years. I: Really? VG: We ain't ever been apart a day in our lives. I mean he's went off to work but what I mean you know get mad and separate or something. JG: And since then, people get married and they don't get along. VG: We don't even quarrel now maybe one of us be a little nervous and might smack one off, you know. I've got bad nerves. When I was in that wreck, I took I had the epilepse [epilepsy]. I: Oh, have you ever worked any jobs? VG: Uh uh, nothing only when I was little, I dropped corn and beans and stuff like that for people. And I take it and butter and milk and take it home to eat for all of us. I: Yeah, how many were in your family? JG: Bernie and James. �13 VG: Yeah but honey, that was after mom married the next last time. JG: Six of 'em the last time, Carl, Will, Lance, Marie, and Horace. That's six. VG: Yeah but they wasn't born when I dropped corns. JG: I know, well there was just three of you. You and James and Bernie. VG: Yeah there was just three and we had a step dad and he was a terrible man to us. Lord, he'd beat us for nothin' just beat us like beatin' a dog. I: Hm, could your mother not do anything about it? VG: No, she'd try to fight him but he could outdo her. I: Did ya'll have a farm where you lived? VG: Yeah. I: Did you have to work on the farm? VG: Yeah! He'd give us, if he couldn't find nothin' else for us to do, he'd give us about acre of land to pick up rock of the bay and we better have that done when he come in or he'd whoop. I: Why would you have to pick up the rock, where would you put the rocks? VG:Take 'em off you know pull 'em off the land where was cleared you know. He'd just have us do that 'cause he couldn't think of nothin' else for us to do. And I'd have to get all the wood and carry all the water. I: Were you the oldest? VG: Yeah, yeah I was the oldest. I: Hm, do you remember... VG: Pulling drag woods out, drag wood out of the mountains and I'd have to chop it and carry it in. I: Do you remember any good times when you were little and growing up? VG: It was a dire some place. I: You were what? VG: It was a dire some place. We went out to play, he whooped us. I: Really? �14 VG: Yeah! He let one girl, one of our girlfriends, come one time. Asked him if we could goto her house and play and he told us yeah. We didn't know no better we ain't never went nowhere you know before. And when we come back, he told us how long to stay, two hours. When we come back, he said you march right to them woods and get a hickory. I: Why? VG: He whooped us for going! I: Did he tell you you could go? VG: Yes! I: Goodness. JG: He was mean, he was just an old drunk and [inaudible] 'em. I: Oh, that's just awful. JG: I'll tell you how we treated my daddy. You know, this white house on the bank down there as you go out the first one right there. Up on that hill, well Will Willy live there now and he got my daddy to cut wood for him one time when that hill was there. And my daddy was cutting wood and a log coming through down hit his shin and [inaudible]. You know what that man done? My daddy went in the house tied it up to keep it from bleeding. Come over here son and poured on his shin on that skin place and he had a sore on his leg as long as you [inaudible]. VG: Eat it up! You know carbolic acid will eat you up! l:Ew. JG: [Inaudible] And he poured that on his leg and it skinned up like that on my daddy's leg 'til a man could cure it up. And he had a sore on his leg when he died over there. I: Goodness. JG: If I had been big enough and got hold of that man, I would kill him. That's how they treated my daddy. He worked, the people would work him and they wouldn't pay him for it. They'd say I'll pay you next week or next day or two or something like that and that'd be the last of it; maybe workin' a week at a time all he got was what we were eating. l:Hm. JG: You couldn't get no 33 and 1/3 cents a day you know what you get out of a day's work then for ten hours a day. He dug a ditch for people, cut wood, cleared off lands, cut logs for people and roll 'em into hollers, and burn 'em and everything else, clean off their land for 'em. All these big mountain fields on top the mountain when you go out, he done the most of 'em. �15 l:Hm. JG: People treated him awfully dirty but there's another day coming... I: Yeah. JG: ...when they get their part and it hits you. I: Why do you think they... [END] � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews Description An account of the resource In 1973, representatives from Appalachian State University (ASU) began the process of collecting interviews from Watauga, Avery, Ashe, and Caldwell county citizens to learn about their respective lives and gather stories. From the outset of the project, the interviewers knew that they were reaching out to the “last generation of Appalachian residents to reach maturity before the advent of radio, the last generation to maintain an oral tradition.” The goal was to create a wealth of data for historians, folklorists, musicians, sociologists, and anthropologists interested in the Appalachian Region. The project was known as the “Appalachian Oral History Project” (AOHP), and developed in a consortium with Alice Lloyd College and Lees Junior College (now Hazard County Community College) both in Kentucky, Emory and Henry College in Virginia, and ASU. Predominately funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities, the four schools by 1977 had amassed approximately 3,000 interviews. Each institution had its own director and staff. Most of the interviewers were students. Outgrowths of the project included the Mountain Memories newsletter that shared the stories collected, an advisory council, a Union Catalog, photographs collected, transcripts on microfilm, and the book Our Appalachia. Out of the 3,000 interviews between the three schools, only 663 transcripts were selected to be microfilmed. In 1978, two reels of microfilm were made available with 96 transcripts contributed by ASU. An annotated index referred to as The Appalachian Oral History Project Union Catalog was created to accompany the microfilm. The catalog is broken down into five sections starting with a subject topic index such as Civilian Conservation Corps, Coal Camps, Churches, etc. The next four sections introduced the interviewees by respective school. There was an attempt to include basic biographic information such as date of birth, location, interviewer name, length of interview, and subjects discussed. However, this information was not always consistent per school. This online project features clips from the interviews, complete transcripts, and photographs. The quality and consistency of the interviews vary due to the fact that they were done largely by students. Most of the photos are missing dates and identifying information. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1965-1989 Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Scanned by Wetmore, Dana Equipment Hp Scanjet 8200 Scan date 2014-02-26 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Mr. and Mrs. Jim Greer, June 11, 1973 Description An account of the resource James Calvin Greer was born in Triplett, NC in 1908. Vera Greer was born in Caldwell County in 1913. Mr. and Mrs. Greer both recall very hard childhoods and growing up in the Triplett area. Mr. Greer worked at the local sawmill during the Great Depression. They recall collecting herbs and bark to pay for groceries and clothes. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Weaver, Karen Greer, Jim and Vera Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a title="Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/195" target="_blank">Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright for the interviews on the Appalachian State University Oral History Collection site is held by Appalachian State University. The interviews are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Appalachian State Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989, W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Any commercial use of the materials, without the written permission of the Appalachian State University, is strictly prohibited. Extent The size or duration of the resource. 15 pages Language A language of the resource English English Type The nature or genre of the resource document Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 111_tape74_Mr&MrsJimGreer_1973_06_11M001 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Triplett, NC Subject The topic of the resource Greer, James Calvin--Interviews Greer, Vera--Interviews Depressions--1929--North Carolina--Watauga Watauga County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-06-11 barks Caldwell County Great Depression herbs Jim Greer North Carolina roots sawmill sawmill community sawmill shack Triplett Vera Greer Wilkes County https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/f3905df2ba703c574ba8227640ecbad0.pdf 444744f7916455869455aa54a4b58318 PDF Text Text AOHP #73 Page 1 This is an interview with Mrs. Elizabeth Hartley^ and her son, William, by Karen Weaver for the Appalachian Oral History Project in Triplett on June 11, 1973. (in this transcript Mr. Hartley and "son" are the same person) Q: First I'd like for you to give me your name and age please. A: Lizzie Hartley, Elizabeth Hartley and I'm 73. Q: Where were you born? A: ABout Q: Did it have a name? a mile over up this holler. Did it have a certain name for the area? A: Arnold's Branch. Q: Arnold's Branch? A: Yeah, Arnold's Branch. Q: How many children were in your family? A: Seven. Q: How many brothers and sisters did you have? A: I had four sisters and two brothers. Q: What did your father do for an occupation? A: He farmed and worked the sawmill. I've never heard of that. �Q: The sawmill? Was it around this area? A: Yeah,rail around this area. Q: Did your mother-was your mother just a housewife? A: Yeah, my father was a carpenter. Q: Was he? A: Built houses. Q: So you had a farm? A: Yeah, yeah we had a farm. Q: Did the children have to help with the work around the farm? A: Yeah, the children helped with the work. Q: What did you have to do? A: Oh, we hoed corn, made a garden, and all such things as that, What did he make? Building, he worked at a carpenter's trade. Is that where you get most of your food from? raised cattle, chickens and hogs. Q: Was it hard work? A: Yeah, it was hard work. Q: How long did you have to work everyday? A: 'Bout twelve hours every day. People worked form sixvo1clock till six o'clock for 60£ a day0 �Q: So you rteally felt like you'd earned that, didif'^. you? A: Yeah and most everybody lived in a one roomed house. Q: The vtiole family? A: Yeah, amd we were raised right here in a little ol' log cabin with-it had three little rooms. One big one and two little ones. There wasn't hardly anybody that even had a stove to cook on. They cooked on fire. Q: You had to cook all your food on fire? A: Yes. There wasn't anybody, only just- I bet there wasn't half a doxon in our community that owned cookstoves. Q: Really? Who were some of the families that had stoves? A: My grandmother had one and Mary Carroll had one. That's the only two I know of in the whole community at that time. Q: I bet living in a small house, did you have alot of fights with your brothers and sisters? A: No, no. I's the oldest girl in a family of seven and I took care of the other young'uns. Q: Oh, so that's mainly what you had to do? A: Yeah. �Q: Did your brothers have to help around the house with the housework? A: No, they didn't do no housework. Q: They just farmed. A: Yeah and fixed wood and things like that. Q: Have you had any jobs? A: Nol Q: lfc>u just lived around here on the farm all A: Yeah, and people used to gather all kinds of herbs and dig roots your life? and all for a livin1. Q: Did you all used to do that? A: Yeah. Q: How much would you make? A: Oh you couldn,'t make nothing hardly. You could a lots a kinds of roots you could dig 'em and dry them and sell 'em for 2$ a pound, and people would dry fruit and sell it for 2C a pound, corn 50£ a bushel and coffee IOC a pound and sugar about 4C a pound, cloth about If a yard. Q: Really? Some of that cloth now is two and three dollars a yardl �A: Yeah. Q: What kind of roots and gerbs did you gather? A: There way May Apple, Blood Root, Black Cohosh, Blue and Stone Root, and Quill Root. Q: Quill Weed? A: Quil Weed, yeah. Hydrangeas, something that is on the root list, hydrangeas was then. Gather pine tips to make Christmas roping and skin white pine bark. Q: What were some of these used for? A: Oh, it was all used for medicine. Q: Can you still sell them today? A: Oh, yeah. It was 2C a pound. (Mrs. Greer's neighbor) Beadwood leaves are 15C a pound green now, 30C for dry. Q? What are they used for? A: Medicine Q: Any particular type of medicine? A: (Mrs. Greer) No, don't know what kind. (Mrs. Hartley) It's Oxblood that they use for heart medicine, they sell it up here at Boone, that medicine for heart trouble made o : of oxblood. u| It had a little purple bloom on it. Star root and Gensang and �lady's slipper, wild cherry bark, "sassyfat" root bark, that's a tree. Q: What is lady's slipper used for, do you know? A: Some kind of medicine, I don't know what. And Beth Root and Indian Turnip, sprigmint and angelico. Q: I've heard some of these, but some I've never heard of before. Like I have heard of ginsang and things like that. They pay a pretty good price for tinat, don't they? A: Dollar an ounce. (Mrs. Greer) get hardly nothing. (son) Pepper drinks that you but. Q: A: It wasn't back then, you didn't You take now, you know these Dr. That's wild cherry flavor. It is? Yeah and this here root beer drinks that you buy? That's sassafras flavor. Q: It is? I didn't know that. So they use some of these herbs for those drinks too?v> A: (Son) I think so. (Mrs. Hartley) Sassafras and you never see no drink made with Beadwood do you? Q: Is that a herb or root or something? A: A little branch. (Mrs. Greer) just pull the leaves off. That's �what we's telling you was 15C a pound, green now. we are talking about spicewood.. (Mrs. Hartley) Mo, Them there are beadwood leaves, they are called witch hazel on the list. Q: Yeah, I have heard of that. Did your family used to use any of these for medicine, like when you could'nt get hold of a doctor? A: Oh, yeah. Make tea out of them and catnip, catnip tea. TMey used to make catnip tea and boneset and lemon balm and another kind we gathered, bugle weed, and wild horse mint. What people hepatitis 'now, wild cherry- tea from wild cherry bark will cure that in two or -three days. (Mrs. Greer)- Lord a mercy, yeah. I took my, one of my young'uns had it one time, had that for I don't know how long and I took her to the doctor time after time and she didn't get no better, just laid there like she's dead or something. Little girl came up and she was-well her and Mizelle was A'sout the same age I reckon and she said, "I had that stuff and Momma made me some wild cherry bark tea," and said, "It cured me". So I said wouldn't j^t, no harm in trying. ANd I went down here and got me some and fixed her some and in three days she's well. Q: Did you tell the doctor what you had done? A: No, they wouldn^tbelieve you. it. He'd say some of his medicine done �8 Q: Wild cherry bark, is that what it is? A: Yeah (Mrs. Hartley)' and Balm of Gilead buds you pick them. I picked eleven pounds one time and took them to Boone and got eleven dollars for it. Q: Really? Do they fix. them in town or do they send them off somewhere? A: They ship them. Q: Did you mother or grandmother used to have any home remedies, like for Wtan4lvLkids were sick? A: Oh yeah, Catnip tea and wild cherry tea, boneset. If I had to die or drink boneset , I'd have to die because I couldn't swallow that. Q: A: That is a bitter thing, oh nasty. (Mrs. Greer) Corn silk tea's good for your kidney's if you can get it ciown, but getting it down. (Son) Have you ever tasted any Quinine? Q: I have heard of it, but I have never tasted of it I don't think. A: (Mrs. Greer) Well they used to give us quinine when we was little for a high fever. Q: Really? Did it cut it down? �A: Yeah, but it would run you crazy. (Mrs. Hartley) was assifidity, you buy it at the drugstore. That there You can put that in a- put that in some kind ofaicokol, it is awful good medicine for your stomach. (Mrs. Greer) Yeah, for babies for the cholic. (Mrs. Hartley) Now you can tell her what you make. Q: (To Sofl) What do you make? A: Well, few dancing dolls,-and churns, buckets, and lamps. Things of that nature. Q: How did you get started in doing these things? Making these things. A: Making them? Q: How did you get started making them? A: How did I get started? Q: Why did you get started making them? A: I picked it up myself. Q: You just wanted to start making them? A: Yeah, well in fact I think I must have been gifted to work like that because that is what I like. Q: You sell these to craft shops? �10 A: Yeah to different places. There's not alot to be made at it because there is to many in it. Ocaasionally I build a little machinery once in a while for woodwork as the drill, lathes, grip saws, ^B^rfLuS. a"d things like that. Q: What kind of instruments do you have, do you own that you play? A: I have three right now, two guitars and a harmonica. Q: You have a dulcimer, don't you? A: (Mrs. Greer) Yeah, he's gonna build him one. one to build him one. (Mr. Hartley)) not mine, I borrowed ri.t. He borrowed that The dulcimer , that's I got it and I'm gonna get the pattern off of it to build one for myself. Q: Oh, how long do you think it'll take to build one? A: Weil, now I wouldn't have the least idea, because I ha^re never built one of those. Q: Well that makes sense. A: Well, no, I just work around home. craft work. Do you have a certain job you work at? I do garden work, I do some Well, occasionally I'll work away from home <X livrl^j help somebody finish a house of something like that, but not very often. Q: Oh, so you just stay around home and work mainly and carve all this �11 stuff? A: Well, I have been playing the guitar and other instruments like that. I reckon I been where I could play an organ ever since I coiald walk because they was an organ in the home when I was born wasn't there? Q: Who played it? A: The whole family. Q: Where did you get it? A: (Mrs. Hartley) (Mrs. Hartley) Yeah. Roebuck then. Ordered it fro'm Roebuck, Sears. (Mr. Hartley) I am gonna show you. It was Sears I have something in a few minutes It is a 1908 Sears catalog. Q: Really? Is it an original one? A: (Mrs. Hartley) Yeah. Q: Is it one that you all had? A: (Mr. Hartley) I found it advertland and I bought it. In a few minutes I'll get that out and we will go through it. Q: Okay. What can you remember about the Depression? A: (Mrs. Hartley) Well, I don't remember anything unusual that happened, Alot of people suffered for something to live on and you would see people- we lived in Tennessee part of the time at that time and you would see whole wagon trains going down there and stop �12 everywhere a wanting potatoes or something to live on. We made it pretty good through the Depression, but a lot of people suffered. Q: So it didn't affect you all as far as food? A: No, as far as food was concerned it didn't bother us. Q: Did any of the children leave home during the Depression to find work? A: No. Through the last Depression, now we went through two- one ±>out 1916 and one about 1930 and the first on I believe was the worse than the last one. We skinned pine bark and gathered stuff and bought food we had to have and o£ course we always put up a lot of food at home. (Mr. Hartley) Well the way it was, I remember just a little bit about it because I was very young, but the pBople that owned right much property and owned their own home where they could farm it, they made fairly wellthey growed allftheir own foor, but the people that rented or depended on jobs- they suffered. Q: Were neighbors helpful to each other during this time? Did they help each other out a lot during the depression? A: Oh yes. Some did- them that had anything divided with them that didn't. (Mr. Hartley) Well it was about the same way then I think it is now, there as some people that wouldn't work regardless, (Mrs. Hartley) and we helped Virgil folks down here out. had a big family. They �13 They didn't have - they owned their own home, but they didn't make much. We helped them out a lot. We always kept hogs , we killed hogs every fall, had plenty of meat, kept cows and had plenty of milk and butter and things like that. And then we growed a lot of corn and potatoes and beans and all kinds of stuff like that. Q: What about -this first depression? in 1916. A: I had never heard about it- What can you remember about it? I don't remember to much about that. remember that at all can you Vear? But these people- you can't It was hitting pretty hard on them, at that time, them that didn't have nothing to live on. And we gathered pine bark and all such things as that in order to buy the the things you can't raise like sugar and coffee, salt and stuff like that. (Mr. Hartley) Made no difference what you took to the store when they ran out of herbs at regular how much, you never got no money for it. If you get enough you get it all up in groceries or whatever you needed. They wrote out what they called a due bill. Q: A what? A: (Mrs. Hartley) A due bill. not a penny. Wouldn't never give you no money, People couldn't hardly get enough money to pay their taxes at all. Q: What did they do when they couldn't pay their taxes? A: They just let them go until they could pay them. �14 Q: Just let it pile up kind of? A: Yeah, our tax never did. We never did have our property advertised for tax, but the last paper we got there's two whole pages people's land advertised for tax. Q: They advertised it for sell for their tax. A: So they could pay their tax they were gonna sell their li'.nd— A: Mo they had to pay it with that. Now a lot of people owns enough that they pay their tax and never miss it, but they don't want to you see. (Mr. Hartley) What's the matter with times now they're taxing people so high and they're getting sick of it. (Mrs. Hartley) They will tax them so high that they CQiA't pay it hardly. Q: You said that your father had a farm. Did he ever take any of his products into towns to sell? A: No not much, well they used to. Used to take a yoke of oxsns and a load of Irish potatoes to Lenoir. Take them about three days to go «Iown there and back and they would take them a load of Irish potatoes down there to town and sell them and bring back a load of flour. Q: How would he get it? Would he get his flour like in A: Iibags just like it's bought now, cloth bags. back a thousand ppund6 at one tirae. I have seen him bring �15 Q: A thousand? How long would it take you all to run through a thousand pounds of flour? A: Oh, we didn't use it all. He let other people have alot of it. I would ruin before we could use a thousand pounds. Q: What else could he get besides flour? When he took his produce in what else could he bring hack? A: Well he never did bring anything , but flour. Q: Is that all? A: .Yeah. You see they had a little grocery store round here just below the church and there's one down on the creek and you could get all things like that, well we could have got flour, but I remember Wivius_ 4iu/ju. wasn't no flour in the stores, nor no meal either, Q: Why not? A: They just didn't sell it then. the flour mills to but flour. They'd have to go to Lenoir to the (Mr. Hartley) We raised wheat, lot of wheat, had to take it to the mill and have it ground. Q: Did you have a lot of wheat? A: No, not too much. Q: Just enough to live off of? A: Yeah, we raised wheat and rye, cut it by hand. �16 Cut it with an old-fashioned cradle. I bet you've never seen one one of them. Q: A: I don't know whether I have or not. Oh they had a blade that long and then a little bitty fingers on it about- they's little bigger round than your finger and I guess they was about 40 inches long. You'd just take that cradle, swing it around, get you a bundle and just pour it off of it. You'd get about a bundle ever lick. and rye both. I've bound wheat Go along behind the cradle and tie it up in shocks and let it dry and then stack it or thrash it- stack it and then the thrashing machine come and thrashed it, after there got to be any thrashing machines. A lot of people thrashed it out by hand. Q: How would you do that? A: Fixed them a thrasing floor and spread that our on it and just beat that grain out of it. Q: Oh, I ' l l bet that was hard work, wasn't A: Yeah. it? Then you could hold it up and the wind was blowing it'd blow every bit of the chaff and trash out of it and you just had clean wheat. Q: Isn't there something in the "Bible about the wind blowing the chaff away. �17 A: Yeah Q: With all the work around the farm, when did you all find time to play? A: When you were children? Oh we didn't play none. I was having to tend to the young'uns till I got too big to play. Q: So you never got to play? A: No, No. Q: Did your brothers and sisters ever have any little games that I didn't play none. No. they used to play? A: Oh yeah. Played ball and once in a while I could get time to jump rope or something. (Mr. Hartly) Q: What would you do? A: Veil, we'd get out and maybe we'd go somewhere there's a big a big whole of water- go swimming, or we'd get out in a good cool place in the voods, set around and talk, find us a good grapevine to swing on and played with that. Then after we ' <' learned to play music we'd get together some of us over the weekends, get back where it was cool at. Maybe a whole crowd of us gather around, play sing, and dance. sometimes keep as many as four cows (Mrs. Hartley) We'd and it's whole lot of trouble to take care of youTmilk and keep it clean. �18 Q: How would you go about doing it? A: Well, you'd just milk the cows and then strained your milk and diurn, make butter. And we kept four or five old hogs all the time and we'd feed the hogs milk and now give $1.;35 a gallon for milk. Q: Did you have any kind of ice box or something to keep your milk and stuff in? A: No, but it kept in the spring. Kept a race below the spring water ran in it all ihe time. Q: Oh, I bet it kept a lot colder, too, didn't it? A: Yeah, it kept it good and cold. We had a spring box down here when we lived here and we kept our milk in the water. (Mr. Hartley) The way we'd do-that we'd get some kind of good wide board, make a box* Make it waterproof. Go right down below the spring, we'd dig out a space in that branch there that would fi>^ it so the water would stand about eight inches deep in the box -and the W^W- hjojld, flow through that box all the time and that's what kept the milk and butter cold. Q: Looks like after a while the water would start to rot the box or something. A: Oh, it won't run under the water at all. �19 Q: What the box. wouldn't be under water? A: No, not under water, no. Q: How long did you have to use it like this before you got an icebox1 A: I guess about my whole lifetime up until about thirty years ago. Q: Really? A: About thirty of thirty-five years old. I guess I was thirty-five, maybe forty before we ever got refrigerator. our first refrigerator in '55. five years old then. (Mr. Hartley) We got (Mrs. Hartley) Well,X was fifty- (Mr. Hartley)) Well, you see we didn't get ttie electricity until '54, then '55 we got the refrigerator. (Mrs. Hartley) We didn't have no electricity till about '54. Q: Iteally? A: (Mr. Hartley) They didn't nobody around down in here have no electric til right up around '53. (Mrs. Hartley) Electric wasn't down in here til that time. Q: Wasn't that hard not having electricity? A: Well you never was used to it, you wouldn't miss it, if you never knew nothing about it. But now if you were to go back and didn't have electricity it would be rough. It would be bad now. never was a car down here til about '22, 1922. down here. There Not even one car �20 Q; Really? Do you remember if that is that the first time you had ever seen a car? A: Oh, no. I had rode in a car before that time. Q: Wiat did you think about the car when you first saw it? A: Oh, I didn't think much about it. First car I was ever in was Charlie Watson's, when Roxy and Deity, my two sisters went to Boone to lave their tonsils out. and I rode in that car. taken out. That was nineteen and eighteen I went with them to KuVt- their tonsils But the first car that was ever down in here was Seymore Carroll's car and they never was a car down in here til '22. Q: Why not? Just nobody down here had one? At No they couldn't get in and out of here. There wasn't no road. Couldn't get in and out, no there wasn't no road they could drive on. Q: So that's how you traveled before you had a car? A: Yeah, walked. I walSed. I could walk then. First time I ever went to Boone I was eighteen years old before I ever went to Boone. Q: How long would it take you getting there wilking? A: Oh not long, not too long, no. Deerfield, that way. Went up to Jake's mountain through �21 And the first time I ever went to Boone I went up there to my mothers sisters, walked up there. We got back home about two o'clock. Q: Did you? And that is the first time that you had been to Boone? A: First time I ever went to Boone I was eighteen years old. Q: What did you think about it? What did it look like when you were eighteen, what did the town look like? A: I don't remember. cThere wasn't too many buildings there. I remember Roby Blackburn's, went into see him, she-her son had died and she went up there to, have , be appointed administrator. Roby Blackburn up there and he asked me how old I was. And I saw I told him I was ei ghteen and he said I was old enough to begin to court just a little bit but I wasn't old enough to get married yet. Now most all the buildings that was up there at town, I would say fourteen years ago, was torn down. Q: Really? What kind of buildings were up there? A: Well, there's some of them was dwellings and some of them was for business purposes. Now up at the place where I bought my first Gibson guitar I ever owned was tore down. the theater is at? You know that parking lot just above it? Right there. Q: You know where That is where it was? The store? �22 A: Yeah, it belonged to Richard Greene. Q: Richard Greene? A: Yeah he owned it. He owned the store? He had his music store in the basement of his house.' Q: And it/s torn down? A: He is dead now. Did he go into another business or what? I have got the guitar now yet, the one I bought from him. Q: The very first one you bought? A: No, it is just the third one but it is the first Gibson. Q: Oh, -that is the kind that my brother has. I think it is a Gibson. When'did you get your first guitar? A: The first guitar I got was in, the first one that I ever owned I got it in 1936. Q: Who did you get it from? A: Sears and Roebuck. Q: Did you? A: Uh huh. Do you still have it? I wished I had kept it. A guitar like it today costs $32.00 and that one costs four dollars and thirty-nine cents. �23 Q: What kind was it. A: Silverstone. Q: Prices have certainly changed. A: (Mrs. Hartley) You could get a good cow for $15.00 but you had to work thirty days to get that $15.00. Q: WMit, just doing any kind of work? A: Any kind of woirk that you done you just got 50C a day and you had to go to work at 6:00 of the morning and work till 6:00 of the evening, for 50C. Q: That is the most you could make was 50£? A: 50C, 50C a day, and people got so they could get a dollar a day for work and they thought they's going to town. Women, when they worked they got 25C a day and the woman would do just as much a« the man, they got, a man got, 50C a day and that wasn't fair. Q: What kind of jobidid the women have to do? A: Oh, they would get and work in the fields hoeing corn and working out like tbat. Q: What about the men, what did they do? A: They would do things like that too. Worked in timber and the saw- �24 mill, cut timber and logs, and I worked in the sawmill. They wasn't no way to get lumber out of here only haul it out with,* team. Couldn't get in here with a truck. Q: Either oxen or horses? A: Oxens or horses. Q: Didn't you say that your father worked wi-fk the sawmill? A: Yes Q: Would he just cut up the lumber? A: He usually logged. Q: Logged? A: Pull logs into the sawmill out of the mountains. What would he do, what do you mean by logging? He'd pull them with teams and he done a lot of carpenter work, too. (Mr. Hartley) He helped build every house that was built in the neighborhood, until he died. Q: He was probably a pretty \\&rd worker then, pulling all that stuff. A: Yeah Q: How long has it been since you have made a quilt? A: I ain't been too long. four years. (Mrs. Greer-neighbor) It's been about (Mrs. Hartley) I guess it has since we made one. But I've got some more to make cause I have got some to quilt. �25 I ain't got nowhere to put them up to quilt. Ain't got room in here and it is too hot upstairs in the summer time and too cold in the winter time. Q: Where did you used to quilt them? A: We'd quilt them right here but we didn't have as many things in this room, (Mrs. Hartley left the room to get a quilt to show me so I talked to Mr. Hartley about school until she got back.) Q: How much schooling did you have? A: I went to the fourth grade and then I got sick end had to quit. Q: Do you remember your first year of school, the Very first day of of school? A: Yeah, I didn't like it. Q: You didn't like it? A: Well, I didn't like my teacher awfully good. Q: Where did you go to school? Ai It was down here. Why not? I tell you, you know down yonder where come down, you know where the church is around there? Well, you know where you come on down to that road you turn left to come straight on down this way? Well you remember after you got on down, you �26 remember that house that's setting over that creek? Right there was where the school house was at. Q: Really? How long has it been since they have torn it down? A: They te.d the last school house there at the '40 flood. (Mrs. Hartley returned with her quilt) Q: Oh, this is beautiful! When did you make this one? A: It ain?.t been too long since we quilted this one. Q: Is this a certain pattern? A: Star. (Mr. Hartley) If she wants to make a certain design in her quilting, I help her figure her patterns out. Q: Do you make up the patterns? A: Yeah Q: I knew that there were some certain patterns to go by but I didn't know that you all had made these up. pretty. A: Oh, these are Now, do you do these by machine or hand or what? (Mrs. Hartley) I can do it by hand or by machine or either one, It is quilted by hand. Q: Are you ging to go back to quilting? A: I don't know. I don't know whether I could or not. I've got �27 I ain't hardly able to do nothing. A: (Hr. Hartley) People used to talk about seeing such hard times back then, I don't wonder at it. Took everything they could rake and scrape to buy buttons with to go on the clothes aad they was made of brass, and brass never was cheap. (Mrs. Hartley) Well, people back then didn't know how to have nothing. The land vas worth three times as much as it is now and -they planted about four hill of corn to the acre. (Mr. Hartley) They would plant •the corn four foot apart each way. Q: They just didn't know? A: (Mrs. Hartley) Didn't know hosr to do it. take you right now and show you a farm. (A\r. Hartley) I can It is in Ashe County and it is a beautiful farm too and way back, it is a great big farm about 300 acres was sold for one old hog rifle. Swapped for one rifle. Q: Really? Whose farm'-is it? A: Cooper's, Cooper's farm. (Mrs. Hartley) People used to buy all all the land the land they wanted for $4.00 an-acre. (Mrs. Hartley) Sell any kind of old bluff for $2.00 an acre. Q'i Why do you think their has been such a drastic change in the prices of land and everything>else? A: Well I don't know. People has just got to be bigger dogs than �28 they used to be I reckon. (Mr. Hartley) and what's run the prices of land up here in the mountains so much is the people from Florida and also from the North coming back here, and what I think has really happened is people has made so much money they either have a farm or a lot that costs just so they got it. See they could buy that land cheaper than they could pay their income tax. Q: What do you all think about all these people coming from Florida aid like from the North coming in and building houses and all these condominiums and things on top of mountains? A: (Hrs. Hartley) Well, I don't exactly approve of that, do you? (Mr. Hartley) Well, I will tell you what I think about that. I think we should hold that more or less for the people in our own state. a home. Now say for instance,say you wanted to go buy you How much more would that home cost you on that account? A 30, a $25.000 and a $30.000 home now ain't worth over $45.000. And they will burn you. up building it. And'the labor costs on a home now is more than the material to build it. people wfisn^t work like they used to did. Because And most of the contractors when you build now, they build you a house at costs plus 10%. Well they don't try to save nothing on that building material. They don't try to save nothing on the lot. Now they don't care how long it takes them to build it, why the more they are going to make. self. (Mrs. Hartley} Well, built our house practically his He cut every piece of framing in it but three. it his self. He built �29 Q: How long did it take you to build it? A: Well, in getting my^timber out and having it sawed, it took me a little over a year. See, I cut my own logs and had them sawed. I built this houee for a little less thafa $22.00. I am thinking about, I don't know whether I will or not, I been thinking a little bit about building me another one. Me and a friend of mine are going to buy a sawmill, in fact we are going to build us one a piece. Yeah, we are going to cut our own timber. Q: Where would you build it? A: I would probably build right around here somewhere and my friends gonna build one about a quarter of a mile on up above here. Right there's where I was born and raised. Q: You said awhile ago when I was talking to you about school. Do you remember any experiences that you had in grade school? A: Well, not but a very few of them, Matter of fact, what I liked about school, only it was different than it is now. We run up with a problem then in school that you didn't know what to do with, your teacher, she would come to your seat and sit with you and explain dt to you and help you, or my teachers would. She would work with the whole class like that as long as we had her for a teacher. learned in school and learned and learned fast. And my favorite subject was arithmetic, but today we call it math. Q: How much schooling did you have Mrs. Hartley? We �30 A: They just, when I was growing up they was just three months school. Maybe I would get to go two or three days during the whole term. never went to school none to amount to nothing. I (Mrs. Greer) She can out read any body you ever seen. Q: Did you teach yourself to read? A: Yeah. Q: You did? A: Well, •-! just got to reading every little thing I could come across. How did you know how to teach yourself? (Mrs. Greer) there? Q: You see all them books and things stacked up across She reads everything in the world. That is really good. What about your brothers and sisters, did they get to go to school? A: Oh yeah, they went to school. Q: Did your parents go to school? A: Yeah, both of them could read and write. Q: How many years did £hey go? A: I don't know. They didn't have no school much. Back then children didn't get to go to school, they had to work, and their wasn't no compulsion school laws then. Q: I never went to school none hardly. Do you know what they used'to do Hor discipline in the schools? �31 A: Used to whip them. stand up. Sometimes make them slay in. Sometimes make them I was going to school in an old log cabin, and one boy, they made him stand up and he fainted. He was a grown man just about, Granville Tripplett. Q: Who was it? A: Qranvilfc Tripplett. Q: Do you say you went to school in a log cabin? A: Yeah. Q: Was it one room? A: fust one room and they didn't have no glass in them, just open He is dead now. windows and a big old fireplace, they kept a fire in it, big old chimney, kept a fire in. Q: Who would keep the chimney supplied with wood? A: Well, the students would. Yeah, they was woods all around it and and they would cut the wood. Q:, About how many students would be in the classroom? A: They would be about. I've got a group here of pictures taken, maybe I can find it. Q: What did they used to do for discdpLine when you went to school? A: (Mr. Hartley) Well, sometimes they would use a switch on them, �32 sometimes a paddle or they'd rnark a ring out in the center of the floor and make them stand on one foot for a certain length of time. Q: What if they would fall? What would the teacher do if they lost their balance? A: Send them back to their seat. Then alot of times they would make them mark a ring on the floor and make them hold their arm up like that for a certain length of time, ot again go up and put a dot on the board and make them stand on their tiptoes with their nose in that dot on the chalkboard. Q: Just anything they could think of to do. A: Yeah. But I will tell you though, the teacher I had was good to them but she kept them under control. Q: Was she a strict teacher? A: Well, the same teacher I went to was my first grade teacher, second, third and fourth grade as the grades come up for me, why she got up, she come up and started teaching higher grades., Q: Who was she? A: It was Ollie Triplett at that time, it is Ollie Thompson now. Q: So she would just move up with you all in the grades? As you would move up to another grade, she would move up? A: Well, see she would go to school herself when school was out. She �33 would build herself up to it,. She'd teach around here and -then when school was out she would go to college. Q: Well how would the teacher go about teaching if you were all different ages? A: Would he teach you all at one time? No, they had certain classes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th grades. Q: Would they all be in the same room? A: Yeah. Q: What would the other ages be doing when he was teaching another age group? A: They was, they'd just call them up to class and have them recite one class at a time. Q: What would the others be doing though? A: Be studying. (Mr. Hartley) I believe folks back then days too Wis alot stricter with their younguns than they are now. Back then it is a possibility that they were too strict with their family andnow it is a possibility that some of them are not strict enough. Don't you believe that a lot of this doping that has got dnto the college and many different places, don't it start at the students homes? Q: I couldn't really say. �34 A: (Mrs. Hartley) No, I don't really believe parents, if they know that, I don'tAtheir parents would allow it. Of course alot of the parents are dopes too. (Mr. Hartley) Yeah, what I mean, I think alot of times I believe these things begins at home. Q: Probably so. Probably has the roots of it at home. A: Or at least in the hometown. You see, the students that go to college up there are from all over. some cases their from other nations. All over the nation and I don't know you might not agree but I think in America, I don't think they should allow anybody in Boone to have schools but for theJAmerican students. And you know that as messing up our nations too much and that is giving other nations the chance to learn too much about our affairs, Q: You think they should stay in.their own nations and country and go to their own schools? A: I think that we'd be better off. Q: That is interesting. A: This United Nations"4Keu have got I don't think too much of fchat. Because we are paying for all of it and the other nations are paying for none of it. Q: We are paying all the expenses. You don't think that it is helping keep peace or something with other countries or anything? A: There^ is no way to keep peace with other countries because we have �35 done found, looks to me we've done found that out. All they are doing now, just trying to get everything out of us that they can and we are giving it to them. Now I have had people that stayed in i Germany for three or four years andhow I had a cousin, her and her husband stayed ovet there for four years and she told me that the German people had any love for Americans they did not. they hated our guts. fact. (Mrs. Hartley) She said that And I wouldn't doubt it that ain't about the Now I think that our government authorities is just doing the American people awful wrong. They are taxing them out of all reason in the world and then sending it to them people over seas now that is not fair. I don't think they should do that. (Mr. Hartley) Well, now you know when they settled this here peace treaty there in Vietnam, whenithey went- and signed that peace treaty and they wanted to i give North Vietnam so many million dollars, two and and a half million, I think, and South Vietnam two and a half million , I agree with you that isn't fair, it isn't fair. Q: What, to give them the money? A: To give thm the money to build back with. They was the ones that started the war and they were the ones tho^" tore up everything. Vfty not let them fix it back themselves. Q: Where would they get the money to fix :it back? A: (Mrs. Hartley) Where did they get all the money to buy all that equipment for the war? �36 Q: Well, that is right. A: (Mr. Hartley) I think to let them whup theirselves, that would teach them a leason. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews Description An account of the resource In 1973, representatives from Appalachian State University (ASU) began the process of collecting interviews from Watauga, Avery, Ashe, and Caldwell county citizens to learn about their respective lives and gather stories. From the outset of the project, the interviewers knew that they were reaching out to the “last generation of Appalachian residents to reach maturity before the advent of radio, the last generation to maintain an oral tradition.” The goal was to create a wealth of data for historians, folklorists, musicians, sociologists, and anthropologists interested in the Appalachian Region. The project was known as the “Appalachian Oral History Project” (AOHP), and developed in a consortium with Alice Lloyd College and Lees Junior College (now Hazard County Community College) both in Kentucky, Emory and Henry College in Virginia, and ASU. Predominately funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities, the four schools by 1977 had amassed approximately 3,000 interviews. Each institution had its own director and staff. Most of the interviewers were students. Outgrowths of the project included the Mountain Memories newsletter that shared the stories collected, an advisory council, a Union Catalog, photographs collected, transcripts on microfilm, and the book Our Appalachia. Out of the 3,000 interviews between the three schools, only 663 transcripts were selected to be microfilmed. In 1978, two reels of microfilm were made available with 96 transcripts contributed by ASU. An annotated index referred to as The Appalachian Oral History Project Union Catalog was created to accompany the microfilm. The catalog is broken down into five sections starting with a subject topic index such as Civilian Conservation Corps, Coal Camps, Churches, etc. The next four sections introduced the interviewees by respective school. There was an attempt to include basic biographic information such as date of birth, location, interviewer name, length of interview, and subjects discussed. However, this information was not always consistent per school. This online project features clips from the interviews, complete transcripts, and photographs. The quality and consistency of the interviews vary due to the fact that they were done largely by students. Most of the photos are missing dates and identifying information. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1965-1989 Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Scanned by Wetmore, Dana Equipment Hp Scanjet 8200 Scan date 2014-02-25 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with William and Elizabeth Hartley, June 11, 1973 Description An account of the resource Elizabeth Hartley was born in Arnold's Branch, North Carolina in 1900 and lived on a farm where her only job was to collect herbs and dig roots. William Hartley is the son of Elizabeth Hartley. Mr. and Mrs. Hartley both talk about growing up and childhood activities such as picking herbs, but they both agreed their childhoods were mostly hard. Mr. Harley talks about playing instruments like the organ and his interest in music, while Mrs. Hartley discusses her hobby of quilting. They both reminisce about what it was like living through the Great Depression and such as using electricity for the first time in 1953 and seeing their first car in 1922. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Weaver, Karen Hartle, William and Elizabeth Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a title="Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/195" target="_blank">Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright for the interviews on the Appalachian State University Oral History Collection site is held by Appalachian State University. The interviews are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Appalachian State Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989, W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Any commercial use of the materials, without the written permission of the Appalachian State University, is strictly prohibited. Extent The size or duration of the resource. 36 pages Language A language of the resource English English Type The nature or genre of the resource document Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 111_tape73_William&ElizabethHartley_1973_06_11M001 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Triplett, NC Subject The topic of the resource Farm life--North Carolina--Watauga County--20th century Watauga County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century Depression--1929--North Carolina--Watauga County Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-06-11 Elizabeth Hartley farming Great Depression herbs homemade remedies instruments Quill Weed quilt making quilts roots sawmill schoolhouse Triplett William Hartley