1 50 1 https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/fa8d8ef7f21a64c763c3201203e45c30.pdf efb8ee9d2d3f7ef22dc653d291e9021b PDF Text Text INTERVIEW WITH BOB GUY Bob: there. My grandfather and grandmother in Marion started two miles from And in order to get there, we had to get there on the Tweetsie Railroad to Johnson City and spend the night and ride the Clinchfield Railroad from there to Marion the next day. forty minutes used to take two days. we set our watches back. A trip th&t now takes about That's one thing and then of course Tweetsie in those days,..., we came down from Boone every morning about 8:30 and you come up from Johnson City in the afternoon at four. Interviewer: Bob: Did it go back behind the house? Yes, you could see it out the back door. Interviewer: Bob: It went right by the house. Would you talk a little bit about when you were born? About the time I was born we did'nt have any doctors in thi s county and my mother had to go to Marion where I was delivered on Christmas day in 1918. I was the third of seven children. Interviewer: She must have known when you were going to come home to make that trip. How many people were in your family? Bob: Two boys and five girls. Interviewer: Bob: Are most of them living around here now? I have one sister in Philadelphia, one brother in Raleigh, two sisters in Salisbury, the rest are here. Interviewer: Do you want to talk some of your father? �My father was born in Stanton, Virginia and raised in Salem, Virginia. HE came to N. C. when he was twelve years old. He rode a horse into Newland in 19]2 when the county was organized and started the Avery County Bank. Interviewer: What was your family life like? Was thenealot of emphasis on the "family"? Bob: Idon't recall that much about that because my mother was deaf and had seven kids. My baby sister was just a year old when she died. But mother could always read lips and she put a baby to bed. She always slept with one hand on the baby so that when it woke up she could feel it move without hearing. That's about the only thing I remember about my childhood. Interviewer: What kind of things did you do when you were little? What pastimes did you have? Bob: When I was little ther were'nt any cars around here, as I remember ther was one bicycle. ride it to the then; df.po't' We used to pay the boy who owned it a nickel to and back. That was our method of mobility back and swinging and fishing and trapping, and that was about it. those days we had alot o-f' chestnuts. Interviewer: Bob: You still have one in your yard. That's the black keeled-over tree. We used to have it in the backyard. Interviewer: Bob: Do you ever have any reunions? No, not a family reunion, is that what you mean? Interviewer: Of course you visit alot. Jane comes down. In �Interviewer: Was that the Dr. Sloop who founded Crossnore? Can we talk a little bit about h .m? Bob: I'd rather you get the information from him.or rather from Martha because she knows all that down cold. Interviewer: Bob: Do you see it any different now? Well, do you want me to describe my first game of post office? Interviewer: Bob: What was courting like then? All right No, that was about the limit of courting back then. Different people in the community would have a party maybe once a week and the romancing consisted of a game of postofficg, . Interviewer: Bob: Yes, it's alot different now. There wasn't any cars and you just had to find somebody's home to do alittle romancing in. Interviewer: Bob: Do you remember any outlaws around this area? We had murders all the time. attention to it. movie a week. When I was a kid, I didn't pay any We'd got to the show every Saturday night. It was a silent movie. There was one There was always a fight at that. There is something I remember - if we had a nickel extra, we'd buy a bottle of pop with it and you get an ice pick and punch a hole in "the top of it so it would blast out through the movie. Interviewer: Are there any superstitions you remember from when you were little or legends? Bob: Myifiother was the most superstitious woman in the world, I still see things around the house she'd be superstitious about Interviewer: Bob: Like what ? Like walking under a ladder, stepping across a broom- My mother was �terribly superstitious. Interviewer: Bob: What did she do if she did step across a broom? She'd put her kids to bed if she thought one of them was involved. She made us got to bed. Interviewer: Did you ever hear your father "talk about the civil war or anything? Bob: No, all his people being from Virginia, they were real southerners, but he never said too much about it. In this section of the country , the civil war is never discussed too much. Bob: I think that if you'll go back in history of Avery county, you'll find that the reason it is Republican is because the people up here supported the north in the civil war, Interviewer: they did not support the south. I've heard that and that the peopledown in the Piedmont were a little bit upset. Bob: That's true that's why it is still Republican. Interviewer: I guess one thing, they didn't have any slaves around here, did they? Bob: No, these people are still meek and Republican. Because there's no color conformity, people saw no reason to fight because there weren't any slaves. Interviewer: this area. One thing, we think is important is about the depression in I want to ask you if you noticed any shortage of food or any hard- ships from the depression at all Bob: Not personally, I don"t - I remember the way people worked. work all day for maybe .75 or $.80. They'd But to me, I couldn't conceive of any- thing being wrong with it at the time because I was just a kid and $.80 to me then was a tremendous amount of money. �Interviewer: Did you ever have a garden? when I was a kid. We had corn, potatoes, and we had gooseberries until they had the blight. bushes down. Oh, we always had a garden Then , of course, we had to cut our gooseberries We had grape arbors - everything that you have on a farm; cows, pigs,.,. Interviewer: Bob: Then you never had a scarcity of food or anything. Oh no, we always had plenty of food - just common food, grits, potatoes and eggs Interviewer: You talked about when you went to school. Where was the school? Bob: I went to grammar school and through highschool at Newland. I went to college at the University of Alabama and University of North Carolina, spent five years in At lanta and got out of the army in '46 and haven't been back since Interviewer: Was the school real small? What was it like? Was it particularly like elementary school? Bob: The thing I remember most about it was that I went to second grade and third grade in one year and third and fourth grade in one year because you didn't have the teachers that you Interviewer: do now. Did you find yourself having alot of teachers for a couples of grades in a row? Bob: We had the same teacher maybe two or three times. Interviewer: Do you see any difficulty in the schools nowadays? �Bob: Reading, writing, and arithmetic- Interviewer: Bob: with a hickory stick[ So you went into the army after college? Yes Interviewer: Do you remember having an active religious life when you were young? Bob: No, it's just been a normal protestant Presbyterian life all my life. All my people are Presbyterians. Interviewer: Bob: Ive been brought up that way. Have there been alot of get-together s with church? Well, I've always thought of our family as a religious family Interviewer: Do you see any difference now in the church from the way it was ? Bob: No, I think it still has the same basis it always had. Interviewer- Do you know how Newland got it's name? Bob: From the Lieutenant Governor W. G. Newland from Lenoir. Lt. Gov. of the state fron 1912 to 1915. Waightsill Avery. He was the The county was named for Col. The county agent, his descendant,..., his name is Waightsill Avery. Interviewer: Do you want to describe Newland a little bit... the way you remember it? Bob: Well, all there is to Newland is a courthouse, a bank, and it runs 3/8 of a mile from the courthouse. Interviewer: Bob: Well, when I grew up, they were dirt streets. Interviewer: Bob: This has been paved then Now they were paved. Have alot of people moved in around there? Oh the people are entirely different. �The old people are gone or deceased. Interviewer: Bob: There is more or less a new breed now. How are they different? Well, most of the people that used to be here were mountain neighbors. Now folks are here from all over the country; Charlotte, Florida, New York, anywhere, you can think of. You have people who aren't natives of Avery County Interviewer: What were the mountain people like, you know that was diff- erent about them? Bob: Well, the only thing I can say about the people from here is that they were strict, hardworking, honest, religious, and just fine people. Interviewer: Youve talked a little bit about this and I guess there's a pretty big difference now . Do you notice any change in politics or government? Bob: It is still three to one Republican. Interviewer: You have talked some of the railroad. when the first cars came in? Bob: I think it'll stay that way. Do you remember Did they change the area? The station master at Tweetsie Railroad had the first car that I ever remember. It was a 1918 Ford. The first Car my family had was a 1928 Stoddard as I remember. Interviewer: That's funny that the station master had one. Who'd have thought he'd be against them. Bob: He drove the mail from the depot to the post office. Tweetsie. But that's curiosity. It came in from The railroad wasn't called Tweetsie theft. It was named that after it was washed away. Interviewer: Bob: What did thgy call it? The kids called it " Eat taters and we<jr no clothes" Interviewer: Do you remember any mountain crafts or cust oms you were involved in yourself- H aoamn^i ^ t J-"«*xHi2 *f*ii"riniT o 9 *-ui. J.HEJ . .T WR-air"! »-»i"» O " ••'^civj.ii^ i . r*hQ-i-K.«^i r I, or �things like that ? Bob: No Interviewer: Bob: Did you know any craftsmen? Oh, I knew some. Beech Mountain. Interviewer: Bob: At They were at the CrossnCfe School and over in that still goes on but I was never involved in it. What kinds of things do they do? Crossnore, it's handweaving, And over in Beech mountain, they make different kinds of toys. Interviewer: Bob: Did you ever play with any of those? Oh yes Interviewer: Do you remember making things like molasses, apple butter and things like that? Bob: We called it sorghum, It was molasses. Everybody made that and most people made home brew because you couldn't buy any alcoholic beverages so people made wine and homebrew at home. Interviewer: Bob: No, I am not sure. It's a homemade beer. Interviewer: Bob: Do you know what home brew is? Do you know how to make it? I know how to make it but it's illegal. Interviewer: Iguess not. Do you remember af\y I'd better not discuss it. cures your mother used on you when you got sick? Bob: There was always castor oil, as well as I remember. Interviewer: I guess you didn't like that too much « Bob: The doctor always came to see us and there was some wh)te oil that he gave us and I didn't know what it was but my mother always thought maybe it was like castor oil for whatever ails you. �Interviewer: Bob: We always have in this counrty, especialy the ones who are farming still Interviewer: Bob: Did alot &>{-• PE°ple have to rely on their gardens? I guess then that there wasn't that much poverty. I don't think that there was any hunger because everyone was more or less self-supporting. I think there's been more hunger during a snow- storm than there was during a depression. Interviewer: Bob: Do you remember any particularly bad snow storms? One bad one we had was wh .n they had to fly helicopters in with food for the people, I have pictures where the snow was higher than the automobile/ Interviewer: Bob: When was that ? I don't remember but I believe it was in 1940. I think that was the year that it snowed every day all winter. Interviewer: I remember Bill was talking about the snow of 1936. They had to keep the store closed about a week. Bob: It could've been that year, I am not sure. It was before I went into the service. Interviewer: Did you ever have any large calamities or fires or anything like that in Newland? Bob: Newland's burned up completely twice. Interviewer: Bob: What happened then or do you remember? One of the first times it burned up, second time, I was home. I was in Asheville. The The whole block down here burned down and the wholeblock behind the bank. That was about in 1958 and 1959. Interviewer: Bob: I guess there was alot going on Then, of course, he flood in 1940 washed .way all the railroad and we were without any, you couldn't get to any of the highways for about two weeks. It washed all the raods, railroads, and the highways out. �Interviewer: And what did they do to help this situation? Did the state send people ? Bob: Well, the state of course sent all the equipment up here that they could and it was opened up as soon as they could but the railroad never was. Interviewer: Were there alot of people out trying to help people that had been put into hardship Bob: Oh Heavens, yes. There were many houses washed away The redcross were around for about two or three monthes. Interviewer: Bob: didn't know it had hit this area that bad. Oh, it was terrrible, especially in Pineola when the lake washed out over there. Interviewer: It washed out a whole community over there. I was thinking that it h it lower areas. Down in Deep Gap for instance, I know they had a really bad time down there. Bob: We had it as bad as anyone here. Interviewer: Bob: Is Ngwland,... I guess you'd call this a valley, right? It was old Feim's Cove that's what it was called. Then, it was named the town. It was an old Indian settlement There are still Indian graves around here. Interviewer: Bob: You know of that? We used to play around them when we were kids and dig around arrow- heads. Interviewer: Do you remember seeing any Indians up here? Interviewer: Bob: No Interviewer: I guess they're all down in Cherokee now. Bob they were probably here a hundred or two hundred years ago. � 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 2014-02-14 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 Robert Guy, March 12, 1973 Description An account of the resource Robert Guy was born on December 25, 1918 in Marion, North Carolina. He attended school in Newland and continued is education at the Univeristy of Alabama and the University of North Carolina. Mr. Guy was also in the army and was realeased in 1946. Mr. Guy talks a little about the Tweetsie Railroad during his childhood. While describing his childhood he also talks about courting, schooling, and superstitions. Mr. Guy also mentions the Great Depression. Mr. Guy describes the history of Newland, North Carolina and compares the current conditions of the community to that of his childhood. Mr. Guy talks about local crafts and traditions including homemade remedies and house gardens. Mr. Guy concludes the interview speaking of past natural disasters such as snowstorms, fires, and the flood of 1940. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource White, Pam Guy, Robert 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> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 3/12/1973 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. 10 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_tape36_RobertGuy_1973_03_12M001 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Newland, NC Subject The topic of the resource Newland (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century Depression--1929--North Carolina--Newland Community life--North Carolina--Newland--History--20th century crafts Great Depression homemade rememdies Newland schoolhosuse Tweetsie Railroad