1 50 4 https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/918b1ffafa4a2a9fe248bbb995492337.pdf de1b7557918f512ebb32acd029a18650 PDF Text Text AUH f Y-L This is an interview for the Appalachian Oral History Program with Mr. C. K. Morris of Meat Camp, North .Carolina. The interview is by Mike McNeely and today's date is June 11, 1973. Q. Alright, Mr. Norris, Let's start out with talking about your, the farm you were born on. When and where were you born? A. Right up at that old house. Q. What was the year you were born? A. Eighteen and ninety-one. Q. Okay. Uh, ya...ya daddy was a farmer, right? A. Yeah. Q. How many brothers and sisters did you have? A. I had three sisters and three brothers. Q. Sounds like your daddy had a lot of help on that farm. A. Well, right much. Q. Let me get something here. Uh, how big was the farm? A. Uh... Q. Acre wise... A. Uh, you might say it's only about, about forty acres now, till we added more to it. Q. And how much of that forty acres was used for farming? A. Well, I'll say about half of it. �AOH # 71 Q. What all did you grow? A. Crowed potatoes, corn,, cabbage, wheat, rye, buckwheat. And we had our own fruit, had ? orchard with plenty of apples. We kept cows, made our milk, made butter and cheese. Kept chickens for eggs and for the market. That's about all the farming. Q. How much of the vegetables and stuff that you grew, how much of that was used for the market and how much for your own, home grown use ? A. Well, it took right much to feed all them people. I'd say about half, about half a that amount. And that, the surplus was hauled to town. It was hauled to Lenoir, Hickory, and Morganton. We bought our salt and flour and what groceries we used then out of the store, we bought with surplus, and paid on taxes. We h?d to have enough to pay the taxes. And on this farm one time, the tax was only about $4, 00, Q. Was that with all the buildings and everything on it? A. Yeah, and now I pay a hundred or more. A lot of difference. Q. Did you have hogs on your farm? A. Yes, We raised our own meat, raised our hogs, raised a few calves for the market. And there wasn't so many cattle in the county then,. like there is now. Most every family had, oh, from three to six cows. And they milked 'em-a big family used a lot of milk. And they'd sell off the calf. A plump, good calf would bring ten dollars,, ten dollars to twenty dollars, A cow would bring about twenty-five. Mow ed, mowed the meadow with a mowing siythe. You know what th$t is. Cradle it, cut the grain with a cradle- you ever seen a grain cradle? Q. I'm not sure. You got one up in your barn? A". There's one a hanging right out there in the back of that shed. Q. You shew it to me pfterwhile, and I'll get a picture of it. I saw your cniltivstor, pnd you had & plow ?nd what else? �A. We had a lay-off plow and a cultivator. Where they cleared the land - where they cleared , now they'd go in the woods and clear , like that over there. 'That mountain, one time, was in timber all over this bottom. Go in there, and cut that timber and pile it and cut it, and saw it up, so they could roll it in big piles and burn it. Burn the logs and the brush. And if it was too bad, the first year they'd dig holes sndijilant their corn and beans. Dig holes with a hoe. And by next year, thye'd take - they used 9 lot of them, ole shovel plows. Just one plow like sort a like a. cultivator, you know, a lay - off plow. They used them a lot in gauching up the land. They used mainly the hoe in the steep land. A lot of land was used , farmed and never cultivated. I mean they just dug it with a hoe. Stacked their hay, mowed with a scythe, and stacked their hay out in the meadow. You've seen hay stacks, plenty of them. Q. There's not as m^ny now, though as there were. A. No, no body stacks their hay anymore. Very few really. Back on Cove Creek way, they.stack right much hay, back toward Mountain City. Q. Did you let your hogs - I was reading somewhere that a lot of people let their hogs run free back then. A. Run their hogs, and their sheep and some cattle - run 'em out in the range. Turn 'em out in the spring and go and, go and get what was left in the fall. And everybody had fences and some cattle just run out on the outside. They had stocklaw then and everybody had a fence back when I was growing up. All the fences were made out of rails. Made out a split rails, yonder lies a pile right now. Q. How was that meat from the cows and hogs that ran free around wag -fotfesin the woods? Was it any good? ' •w ^ A. Oh yeah. Well, they'd bring 'em in now, they drove - bring •em in and put 'em in pens and feed 'em corn a while before they killed 'env And they's a lot - now some of them, they's sjpme run out and was killed just off of the mash. Had lots of chestnuts and acorns, and them hogs would get just as fat , and that was the best meat you ever tasted. A lot of -'em noe, they'd bring their hogs in, they had 'em marked, every man, you know, they'd get together. And every man had a certain mark that he knowed his hogs. And then when they brought 'em in, they'd sort 'em out. Get "em in a pen, a lot somewhere, and every fella pick 'em out. A lot of 'em'd go wild. Once in a while, they'd never get 'em. They'd be wild hogs out in the mountains. �Q. When did ya'll have your - did you have an annual kill, or you ju$t kill 'em at different times during the year of what? A. Anytime, anytime, there wasn't no slaughter pens at that time My neighbors'd go in and help each other kill hogs. Sometimes they'd kill fifteen or twenty a day. A whole lot of hands go in, keep water in big ole pots and barrels and fill a barrel. And they'd kill their hogs and drag 'em in. I've helped kill as high as twelve of fourteen in a day. Kill, maybe one man' have two or three of half a dozen. Go in and dress his'n out whatever he wanted to kill. A lot of times, they's killed one or two at, a time. They didn't go in and butcher 'em all day long lik;rthey do now. •-/• And I never treated 'em or never really took care of 'em, just kill 'em and salt the meat in big ole barrels. And where they'd stay, well I've seen old buildings was good then like that one there and they's just hanging a;; over up stairs. Did they smoke a lot of it? A. Yeah. Q. Did they smoke it instead of salt it? A. They had to salt it, It'd take salt - they had to let it take the salt and then they'd hang it up and smoke it. They salted it in them barrels and lets see, there's about a month and a half to two months and then they'd hang it up, and then they'd put that smoke under it. Q. Did the smoke give it any flavor? A. Oh yeah, that smoke flavor's real, well, you can get this breakfast bacon that's got that smokeed flavor. It was more of a smoked flavor then, when we smoked it in the ole smoke houses than they did in this bacon you buy. Q. That's sorta like getting charcoal broiled hamburgers now, get the taste of it like that? A. Yeah. Q. Well, you didn't have refrigerators or freezers back then... A. No, we didn't have no freezers, and we kept the milk and butter in the , had the spring house. Built a house right up the spring. The water run in, and they have a big ole trough as long as that car that run that the water right from the spring in there and they kept their milk and their, all of their stuff that, they like to use a freezer now. All their pickled beans and kraut and everything that stayed in that water. And it was like that, it kept it cold. And they kept their butter and they salted and canned a lot of their meat. They canned that and salted as we do yet. And they salted and tender loined and all that stuff"now, they put in cans and it'll keep right on. Q. How about your vegetables? You didn't keep them in your spring house did ya? �A. No, nothing much. We buried the cabbage, the potatoes and rutabaga and all the root crops eventually we . And we buried the cabbage and they're burying a lot of times, burying a lot of them cabbage and use 'em all winter and the dig 'em up, and sometimes there'd be a whole big field of 'em. And in the winter, they'd haul 'em to market they didn't need to use and make barrels of kraut. I've seen them ole wooden barrels - the fifty gallon barrels of kraut. And they'd haul it to market a lot of it to sell it, oh, in a pint or a quart. Just measure it out. Used to haul it to Lenior, and them niggers, you couldn't fight 'em off: of the wagon. Q. How did you make kraut? A. Well, ya have that - hack that cabbage up real fine, pack it in a barrel, put salt on it. Put so much salt. And then they weight it down, put a plank on the barrel, put a rock and then they'd put weight on it. And it'd pickle that cabbage in only a little while. It didn't take it long to pickle it. And then you'd have kraut right on. Q. Was that kraut better than what you get over at Watauga? A. Two to one better! Way better. That old chopped really good. Take a dish of that kraut on a cold and put a little sugar and black pepper on it and it raw. It's good cooked too. I love it raw and It was really good. kraut was winter day just eat do yet. Q. Do you remember any days like Christmas or Easter or your birthday or anything? What was Christmas like back when you were a child? A. Well, we didn't have much Christmas. I gotta stick or two of candy and an apple or two, and a orange once in a while. We didn't have but way little Christmas. Most kids got a few sticks of candy. Didn't have no toys. Very few toys at that time. Q. Did you have a Christmas tree? A. Sometimes we'd have a little Christmas tree. Sometimes at the closing of school, they'd have a big Christmas tree and the kids would all getta, all getta a little package, a few sticks of candy, orange, apple or two, and that's about it. Baked ole molasses sweet bread for a cake. I love it now better than anything you can buy. Q. You ever make molasses yourself? �A. Oh yeah, we made our own molasses. Q. How do you do that? A. Well you grow the cane and pull the fodder off of it. Go in and top and pull the fodder off and run it through them rollers and catch the juice. Run it through a cane mill. You ever see a cane mill? Q. I think so, yeah. A. Two; big ole rollers, and you ground with a horse. Horse pulled it. Big ole pole round and it just went round and rounf. Stick that cane in and it squeezes juice out. And they had a furnace and a big ole boiler sitting on it. And they boiled that sown and made molasses. I've ground cane a many a time till I'd just about freeze. And then the kids'd come on and play on the cane stalks and have a good time. Boiling molasses, ah, nearly every family back then made their own molasses. Some of 'em made a hundred gallon or two. But the average family didn't make but twenty or forty gallon. And then they didn't have to have much sugar. Sweetened a lot - and they made tree syrup. Q. Maple syrup? A. Maple syrup - maple sugar. I can remember my mother sweetening her berries and fruits with the maple sugar. They'd have big ole dishpans full of it and just go and shave off whatever they wanted and put it in their fruit. Q. Mr. Walter was telling about a guy that still does that, when he makes pis molasses, he just boils it on down to sugar, cakes it up, and goes and sells it to the stores. A. Oh yeah, there's a few that still makes that tree sugar and tree syrup. Q. Did your mother use that much in her jellies when she was making it? A. Well,,1 don't know whether they used it much. They didn't make much jelly at that time. I don't know whether they used any in jelly or not. They could have, I guess. I guess it would really be better flavor than the white sugar now. I can remember when you could buy brown sugar. They got it in big barrels. I've got some barrels now. Four hundred pounds of brown sugar and you could buy it for $20.00, five cents a pound. And the white sugar was a little bit higher. And they weighed it out in, from a pound on up to whatever you wanted. Dipped it out with' a scoop and put it in bags. Q. Yeah, its already bagged up. A. Yeah, it's up to four hundred pounds usually in a bag. And a, and the first fertilizer that ever come to this county come in barrels. Two hundred pounds in a barrel. �Q. What did you use before fertilizer, before it came in the barrels? A. We didn't use it. We didn't have it. We just planted without it. Q. Did you use any, like cow manure or anything? A. Yeah, we used what manure we had. We used manure, and the earth growed the rest of it. Q. How about the feed for the animals? Did you just feed them some corn that you grew or did you go buy some of that or grind it up... A. Well, we ground into, I had it ground, some of 'em fed the biggest part of it just whole. Feed your cattle whole. They had some ground. They'd have the buckwheat and rye, they had the small grains ground, but most the corn was just fed whole. Wasn't no hammer mills. Just a flour mill and a corn mill was all the mills there was then. There wasn't no thing as a hammer mill. All water power. Back yonder all the mills in this country was run by water. Big whole water wheels, you've seen 'em. Q. Like down at Mr. Winebarger's mill? A. We take wagon loads of grain up there, of buckwheat, raised buckwheat, and go and have it ground and then use a lot of it for flour. And ole buckwheat cakes are good. And then they haul it. They'd have that flour ground and put in ten, twenty-five pound bags and haul it to Lenior and all down south, Lenior, Morganton, Hickory, Statesville. And sell to the stores. Swap it for wheat flour and we bought our salt. We'd buy a hundred pounds of salt for sixty cents ($.60) then. Q. Wow! A. In Lenior, that's what it cost. Q. Did you truck it down the mountain in wagons? A. Oh yeah, there wasn't no trucks. Done it all in wagons. Q. How were the roads? A. Muddy a lot of the time. Real muddy. Sometimes there'd be a row of wagons as far as from here to the creek, right along together. And they'd all camp out of the night, tie our horses and cattle up and feed 'em. Lot of time we got to make our bed on the ground under the wagon. After we'd get a load off - after we'd get a load off the wagon, then we'd have hay and stuff we'd fetch on our load for our produce, you know, and then we'd sleep in the wagon. And it was fun when the weather was good. I'd enjoy it now. But it was rough going, when it was pouring rain or snowing. Q. You had to go in the winter? �A. Oh yeah. We'd go when it was cold weather. Oh, we had a lot of apples then. Haul apples, potatoes, chestnuts, beans, shale wheat, buckwheat flour, meat, butter, and stuffed hams - people then sold a lot of hams. The farmers have more meat than they could use, and they'd haul them and sell them to the stores. And you didn't see much loaf, well, in this part of the country they didn't. Very seldom did you see a loaf of bread in the store. They didn't - well down in the bigger towns you could get loaves of it some places. And you go in and you could buy sausage and beef and . We done our own cooking. It was fun. Build a fire outside and cook potatoes and cabbage; we didn't take time to cook beans. Fried taters and onions. Tie our team up and feed 'em and while they were eating, we'd get supper or breakfast. Fry eggs and meat. And hit was they was a lot of fun in it. Whole lot of hard work and hardships too. Q. Do you remember any incidences where a wagon didn't make it all the way down? Where there any that ran off the road? A. Well, not much. There's a woman or two got killed, run off the road on a wagon, way down at Blowing Rock Mountain. And once in awhile they'd be a team run away and tear up everything. But not hardly ever hear tell of any. Once in awhile you hear tell of a train running over a team and killing them. And it took about four days to go, four or five days to go to Lenior and back, sell your load out. Took about two days to go and get your load off and get back home - and two more to get back. And if it was slow selling, it took another day Sometimes you'd see twenty-five or thirty wagons in town selling produce. They peddled a lot; they'd go from house to house, done a lot of peddlin'. And sometimes they'd buy half a bushel of potatoes, apples, bushel - bushel of potatoes, maybe, and a bushel of apples. Oh, the next house, maybe they didn't want nothing, maybe the next one you'd go to would buy something. That's the way we got rid of a loy of it. Q. What was the price of farm products back then? A. Well, potatoes was a dollar or less a bushel. And apples sixty cents to a dollar a bushel. And cabbage was seventyfive cents to a dollar a hundred. Now we didn't get eight or ten cents a pound back then like they do now. Q. Did your mother, here at the house, did she bake a lot? A. Yeah, they baked corn bread and biscuits, fried buckwheat cakes , made light - homemade, light bread, baked pies, cookies, sweet bread, that ole molassey bread. And that was all done in an ole skillet by the fire. Q. When did ya'll - ya'll get a wood stove? �A. Finally, I can remember. I helped work out money to buy the first wood stove my mother ever had to cook on. Q. Which did she like better, working on the fireplace or the cookstove? A. Oh, it was much better to have a cookstove. Easier to do the cooking, than it was by the fireplace. But that ole cornbread and light bread baked in them ole skillets, it would melt in your mouth. It was the best cornbread I ever eat. She had a great big ole oven she baked light bread in. Loaf bread, they call it now. A great big thing. And she'd mix her - make up her yeast and get her dough ready, put it in that big ole oven and she just heated it real slow, barely warm, you know. And it'd rise a way up - just puff a way up there. Be that thick. And then she'd put coals under it and she had a lid to fit it, a cast iron lid. And it'd rise up there, and she put the coals on that thing, heat it slow and after a while it'd just finally turn - when it got done, there'd be a good brown crust on it. And it was really good. A lot better than this bread you buy now. Q. How often did she bake? A. Oh, only once in a while. Maybe every two or three weeks, to make that light bread. They didn't bake it every day. They made biscuits and I can remember when most people, they eat cornbread for breakfast and biscuits every Sunday morning. You wouldn't believe that. Q. I believe it. I love cornbread. A. I do too. I eat it, most the time, twice a day. They didn't have wheat flour to make biscuits every day. And you used eggs and shortening on the old cornbread, and it like you do biscuits and it was pretty good. Q. Did you ever have corn fritters? A. Yeah, I've seen my mother bake corn sweet bread. Bake it like they did the ole molassey bread, put molasses in it and it was good. But I'd rather have that old molassey sweet bread now than to have any you could go to the store and buy. They baked what they called gingerbread. Great big, thick. They baked it in cake, make them cakes to fit the skillet. It was really good. Put ginger in it and that ole gingerbread was hard to turn down, when you're hungry. Q. Your mother had to buy a lot of spices at the store didn't she? A. Yeah, they bought the grain spice and ground it. �10 Q. Really? Did you have one of those things like a pepper thing that you ground? A. Ground the coffee - ground the coffee in the bean. They bought that coffee green and they parched it, parched that coffee and they - seen my mother a many a time parch that coffee in a one, them ole skillets. And they had a coffee mill. I've ground coffee - you seen them, hadn't ya? Q. Yeah. A. Hold it between your knees, grind that coffee. The coffee then, now you got real coffee then. There wasn't no dope in it. Q. Did they do the spices the same way? A. leah, done the spices the same way. Pepper. Gosh, that ole pepper. You get it in the grain and grind it, you didn't have to make anything black to taste it. Ah, it's a gettin' now, you can make your egg black now, and hardly taste it. Q. How about, did they dry a lot of stuff? A. Dried berries, fruit, dried berries, apples, cherries of all kind. Beans, dried beans, dried pumpkins, they dried a lot of stuff. I can remember when my mother didn't have more than two or three dozen cans. Dry that stuff and cook it. And them ole dried beans, they was worth it. Q. I've heard of drying apples - I've seen people drying apples and beans and all. But I've never seen 'em dry cherries or blackberries. How did they do it? A. They used to dry lots of blackberries and cherries. And they didn't do too much canning and they didn't have no way of freezing it. Q. How did they do it? Do you remember? V A. Well, they had grates, and they had good, big crates they'd put 'em on. And when the sun shined good, they put 'em out on.... Q. The apples they'd slice up and cook.... A. Slice up and dry it out. They dried the bigger part of their fruit at that time. Dried sweet potatoes. My daddy used to grow a lot of sweet potatoes. He didn't grow 'em for the market. He'd just grow 'em to have plenty to use. They cooked them and sliced 'em up and put 'em on crates. And when it rained, they'd take 'em in and set them around the fireplace, so that if they ever stayed out in the weather, they's spoil. You had to keep them dry. Q. Back then you had the spring houses, right? So that's where you got your water. When did you build your well out here? �XX A. Oh, it's been about forty-two years or longer. Q. Where was your spring house located? A. We didn't even have a spring house here. There's a spring down under the bank there that we used - we just had a box down there. And we kept pur milk and stuff to keep it cold in there 'til we dug the well. I was aiming to pump the water from over yonder, but the spring went dry. And the people built way up on the hill somewhere and they carried their water up the hill. Why, they'd carry, some families would carry as far as from here to the hog house over yonder. Didn't think about a well or a pump. No, carried their water from the spring/ Q. How often did you take baths back then? A. Well, once a week, and you're lucky to do that. Q. If you had to carry water that far, you wouldn't take it very often. A. Didn't have no bathroom in the houses. Outside toilets. They wouldn't such a thing as a bathroom in the house. No where in this county and its not been many years so there wouldn't a bathroom in none of the houses that are here, in this part of the county. Q. How big was the house you were born in? A. Oh, it had about four, four to five, five rooms, I guess. And some places, they just had one or two big rooms, old log houses. Three or four beds in one room and the kids slept in little beds you pushed under the big ones. Q. Yeah, tumble beds. I've seen those. A. And they didn't have a whold lot of room, like they build houses now. Wasn't a bedroom in every little corner. Q. Did your mother have to make all your clothing? A. Bigger part of it. Weave, she had a loom and she'd weave the cloth, weave clothing - made our clothing. And they made shoes. There were men had shoe shops round and made most of them, wore homemade shoes - men and the women. They had a few shoes in the store, but the bigger part of the farmers wore homemade shoes. A lot of the women - the women's dresses drug the ground. And they wore button shoes up about that high. You never seen them, did ya? �JL/C Q. I've seen pictures of them. A. And the dresses drug the ground. Q. Did they go to the store and buy the cloth to make their own dresses? A. Well, they went to the store and bought some, but the most part was homemade. Wove at home. My mother had - she'd card the wool and spin it. She had them spinning wheels and then she had a tig ole.Toom that she wove that cloth. I've wore homemade clothes many a time, many a day. And they'd make their underwear. They didn't wear much underwear, like they do now. They'd make their pants and coats and vests and all like that out of homemade - outa wool. That old wool'd get next to the hide, it'd just scratch ya. It'd rip you to death. Wool and they knit your mittens and knit our scoks, outa that homemade wool. Q. She didn't have a sewing machine, did she? A. No, my mother never had a sewing machine in her life. Q. She did all of it by hand? A. Did it by hand. My aunt done a lot of sewing for people. She had a sewing machine. Lived up the road here. But my mother done all her sewing by hand. And the bigger half of the women did it. Made their own dresses and their men's clothes and everything by hand - sewed by hand. Q. They made their quilts too, didn't they? A. They made their own quilts. Wove their own blankets. Old yarn blankets. Now that old wool blanket, it'll keep you warm. Q. Scratch you to death, but keep you warm. A. They was really good and they'd last for years and years. Had feather beds. They kept geece, and picked your feathers out of them and made bedx. I sleep on a feather bed all year round now. We've got two or three feather beds. My mother made it in her life time. And I still sleep on it. Q. Was the church really important in this community? A. Well, more than it is today. About everybody walked to church And ole timey preacher. And they got up there and preached, we sat on ole benches. Had four legs on 'em shaved out of a round piece like a chair post. No back. Hardly a few of 'em had benchs of this - seats made out of plank. But back as Ion as I can remember they sat on them old split logs. And they all went and they enjoyed the meeting, they enjoyed the sermon. And sometimes the preachers had to walk four or five miles. And he's get maybe fifty cents or a dollar for two sermons. And they all - and the preaching was over and they all walked out and ever - out this road they all walked together. Where �13 one or two would drop out, and they'd stand and talk and they enjoyed themselves, much more than they do now. Q. How often did you have meetings? A. Well, they had it once a month, a lot of churches. Just have it once a month, two services. Then they'd run a week or two of revival, sometime during the year, usually in the fall of the year. And they'd have a - have a real, live one. One of 'em get happy and they'd really have a time. Q. Was the preacher a hell-fire, brimstone preacher? a mild one? Or was he A. Well, they - sometimes there'd be one preacher for eight or ten years before they change. And then maybe they'd set a new one amd maybe he'd serve a good many years. Now they have to have a new one about every twelve months, don't they? A lot of churches. They change right often. Q. Did the preacher - what type of sermons did he preach? Did he tell the people what they were doing wrong or did he tell 'em something they wanted to hear, like... A. Ah, he went to the Bible for it. Told 'em their wrong doing. Q. What church did you attend? A. Meat Camp. Right over here. I went ot differnet churches. Went to Howard's Creek. You know where Howard's Creek is? Went there part of the time and went to the Rich Mountain to that church. Sometimes we'd go way down yonder to Fairview way down toward the river. People wasn't too selfish where they went to then. Now they have to - there wasn't so many churches as there is now. Built a lot more as time passed by. Q. Were there a lot of community activities centered around the church? A. Well, not too much. Not like it is now. Q. Did ya'll have any square dances then? A. No, they wasn't no - wasn't nothing of that kind a going on in this part of the country. Q. What did ya'll do for recreation, when you weren't farming? A. Well, we'd go a fishing or squirrel huntin1 or something of that kind. Q. What did you do when you were courtin'? A. Well, we walked out there to our girlfriend, whereever she might be. Sometimes we'd go to church, sometimes we'd walk out and pick cherries in the summertime. Sometimes they'd have a candy pullin'. Gatherin' in all and have music. Not too much dancing. There wasn't many people could dance. �Q. Did they "flatfoot" a lot around here? A. Well, not too much. Q. What type of music did you have? A. Had a fiddle and a banjo. Once in a while a guitar, French harp. My daddy and a neighbor, they went lots of places and made music. My daddy was a fiddler and my neighber was a banjo-picker. They'd go to the closing of the school, sometimes to a neighbeor's house, make music - a few of the neighbors would come in. They'd just set and enjoy it. Close of the school, they usually had 'em come in. They'd give 'em a dollar or two at the close of the school. Q. Tell me something about the school around here, like the size of it, and the people in it? A. Well, these old school houses where they walked, I've known teachers to walk five or six miles to teach school. And there wasn't too many One teacher was all they had, and they teached up to about the seventh grade. And then they had to go - they went to Boone then to finish up. The eighth or tenth grade, something like that. Go to Boone - go to town for the rest of it. Q. Tell me about life during the Depression. A. Well, we got enough to get by with, but it was hard going, we just had to work a day or two to get a little chew meal to help. And we're lucky to get by with it. People didn't have enough to eat. They got by, but Their clothes were pretty bad, hard to get a day's work. Dug roots and drained the wood and dug roots and gathered herbs to help keep clothing and something to eat. Q. How about - were there a lot of moonshiners? A. No, not much. There's never been - oh there's a few around. Right many in Wilkes County. And if they had to get something to drink, they went to Wilkes and got the most ot it. I can remember when you could buy corn whiskey for sixty cents a gallon, and it was pure corn. And they was - there was one man that made it, I'll never - my mother got some for my grandmother once, take it back here between here and Todd, on the Big Hill. He had a bonded outfit and they come around and check 'em once in a while. Gaugers would come around they wasn't allowed to have so many barrels, you know. He'd come around and they always knowed when he was coming, then they would get it down to where they wasn't in no trouble. And theycould sell - I don't know how much they's allowed to sell. I was too little to know much about it. �15 Q. Do you remember any government programs? the CCC? Such as the WPA and A. No, no, well, I remember when the WPA worked here. They bought 'em a lot of mules to farm with. They were army mules that was brought here when the war was over with Germany. And they had people take 'em and work 'em. Farm 'em too, try to raise 'em something to eat. And they worked 'em on the road. They worked a whole lot - the WPA worked at a building that highway , They let 'em work ehm mules, to farm with and, I don't know, they all just gor old. Last one I ever knowed of, well it had a picture of him. An old white mule and man a following the plow. And they said the best they could estimate his age, he was fifty-five years old. He was a relief mule. Q. Oh, the mule was fifty-five years old. A. He was fifty-five years old, the best they could estimate his age. H<=: was still a pulling the plow. I never did get one, I didn't use 'em. Had my own work horse. We plowed it off a lot, plow, harrow with 'em, seen'a few worked a mowing machine. But they was too slow to do much more with a machine Most of it was with things like that out there. Pitch fork, I've seen 'em use. I've seen 'em use old hoemmade pitchforks, three-prong, I've got one. I'll show it to you. I've got one that I guess is two hundred years old. Q. You've given us a lot of information. I've just got one more question. What's your philosophy of life? Do you have one? A. No, I don't think I have one. Q. Why do you think you've lived as long as you have? getting along pretty good here. A. Well I just worked hard all my life. day, eat cornbread. You're Drink lots of water every Q. Molasses bread too. A. Molasses bread and I get along pretty good. Q. Have you got anything you'd like to add to what we've already talked about? A. No, I couldn't think of anything more that would be of any interest to you. Q. Well, thank you very much. � 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 Scnajet 8200 Scan date 2014-02-24 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 C.K. Norris, June 11, 1973 Description An account of the resource C.K. Norris was born in 1891 in Meat Camp, North Carolina where he grew up on a farm. Mr. Norris talks mostly about growing up on the farm, such as raising crops and livestock. His family would haul their produce to Lenior, Hickory, and Morganton to be sold. Mr. Norris talks a lot about food throughout the interview including how to dry fruits and vegetables, make sauerkraut, use spices properly, grind coffee, salt meat, and make maple syrup. He also describes other aspects of his childhood including church, school, and the Great Depression. Mr. Norris also talks about WPA's affect in the Meat Camp area. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McNeely, Mike Norris, CK 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_tape71_CKNorris_undatedM001 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Meat Camp, NC Subject The topic of the resource Norris, C. K.--Interviews Farm life--North Carolina--Watauga County--20th century Depressions--1929--North Carolina--Watauga County Watauga County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century United States--Work Projects Administration Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-06-11 C.K. Norris cane mill church dried beans dried fruit farming Great Depression Hickory hogs Lenior livestock Meat Camp Meat Camp Church molasses Morganton North Carolina sauerkraut spices spring house wagon weaving WPA https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/1c66d72668d6d0c5f779ce2f7e9251cb.pdf e3dad0bbf507b013c86bf8dd2a5afb62 PDF Text Text �•u. A / A Ao{ �1 I -.T Jl^tM. 3 �TT, " —>'-"iTW/ -/ ^¥ "~>n4~P ' -ryf ^2wt_v2_jvj -i-vt^-S Y^*^tf- ���\ '" �/V , .^ v /• /^rfr^l<J ^y ~Y*-^-iY\) ""->, y & T" ' •:^V^^T^y /, ��-7 7"A' •^-^Y'f • ^ > - 'e^^^f^uf ^ . ^vjW,^ - ,7 * ' c^-TO^Sb —>^i*~e—si^u 7 -i^>-fn ' L^^rr-rii/^T-f A^Vt "~*~f f M -^^ Tl �' , /V y T}S*l~M .^x * _y*-~i^utsusis1t) -v»--^^va^-V '**'#' h .1.4 y / (i V •# ^ _^V -^^<*£--v ' j^u rYt^m^f / . r —7 c^_ j -suf 'J /> 'J �(IxIf^U y •*-U->(-l&*^~ I �22 s***/- Ft3/is-**-tJL- t*.* £<*^ f ^-i^t-tXl ./V, _ QA^^— <9 / /T" V /7-29«-'V , / __ r / / ^o-i-—tX. )^?T, /nx-<- , }~$ *i'' •&-JL. d»- —-fi—»t—i-^-vK><L r I", 'A' �-fit a'. 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When the Orioles first arrive the males are in the majority; they sit in the, spruces calling by the hour, with lonely querulous notes. In a few days the females appear, then the martial music begins, the birds' golden trumpeting often turning to a desperate clashing of cymbals when two males engage in a combat, for "the Oriole has a temper to match his flaming plumage and fights with a will." t This Oriole is remarkably familiar, and fearless of man, hanging its beautiful nest upon the garden trees, and even venturing into the street wherever a green tree flourishes. The materials of which its nest is made are flax, various kinds of vegetable fibres, wool, and hair, matted together so as to resemble felt in consistency. A number of long horse-hairs are passed completely through the fibres, sewing it firmly together with large and irregular, but strong and judiciously placed stitching. In one of these nests an observer found that several of the hairs used for this purpose measured two feet in length. The nest is in the form of a long purse, six or seven inches in depth, three or four inches in diameter ; at the bottom is arranged a heap of soft material in which the eggs find a warm resting place. The female seems to be the chief architect, receiving a constant supply of materials from her mate. Like human builders the bird improves in nest building by practice, the best specimens of architecture being the work of the oldest birds. The eggs are five in number, and their general color is whitish pink, dotted at the larger end with purplish spots, and covered at the smaller end with a great number of fine intersecting lines of the same hue. In spring the Orioles' food seems to be almost entirely of an animal nature, consisting of caterpillars, beetles, and other insects, which it seldom pursues on the wing, but seeks with great activity among the leaves and branches. It also eats ripe fruit. The males of this elegant species of Oriole acquire the full beauty of their plumage the first winter after birth. The Baltimore Oriole is one of the most interesting features of country landscape, his movements, as he runs among the branches of trees, differing from those of almost all other birds. Watch him clinging by the feet to reach an insect so far away as to require the full extension of the neck, body, and legs, without letting go his hold. He glides, as it were, along a small twig, and at other times moves sidewise a few steps. His motions are elegant and stately. / � https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/ac25cbf609ea771b812b47b3f2c568b7.pdf 0ebb2add535e3bc6c7d8531bd08ad326 PDF Text Text ������������������������������� 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 Andrew Jackson Greene Collection Description An account of the resource The Andrew Jackson Greene Collection consists of more than 160 diaries written by Greene who describes Watauga County's education system, including Appalachian State Teachers College, cultural and religious life, and agriculture from 1906 to 1942. <br /><br /><strong>Biographical Note.</strong> Andrew Jackson Greene (March 2, 1883-August 12, 1942) was a life-long resident of Watauga County, North Carolina and instructor in several Watauga schools including Appalachian State Teachers College (A.S.T.C). Greene worked as a farmer, public school teacher, and college professor. Greene was an enthusiastic diarist maintaining regular entries from 1906 to the day before his death. He also recorded A.S.T.C. faculty meetings from January 9, 1915 to May 3, 1940. He married Polly Warren, and they had three children, Ralph, Maxie, and Lester. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Greene, Andrew Jackson, 1883-1942 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/190">AC.105: Andrew Jackson Greene Collection</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1906-1942 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">No Copyright - United States</a> Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. 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 Diary of Andrew Jackson Greene, Volume 7 [May 1, 1911 - January 31, 1912] Description An account of the resource These diary entries are from May 1, 1911 through January 31, 1912. This notebook was damaged and several pages are missing. Greene recorded his daily activities and interactions with his friends and places such as Miss Nancy Hagaman, and Henley Greer, and Zionville and Mabel. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Greene, Andrew Jackson, 1883-1942 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a title="Andrew Jackson Greene Collection, 1906-1942" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/190" target="_blank">Andrew Jackson Greene Collection, 1906-1942</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1911-1912 Extent The size or duration of the resource. 33.9 MB 53 pages Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 105_007_1911_0501_1912_0131 Subject The topic of the resource Watauga County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century Baptists--Clergy--North Carolina--Watauga County Teachers--North Carolina--Watauga County Greene, Andrew Jackson, 1883-1942 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">No Copyright – United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Diaries Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. <a title="Andrew Jackson "Greene collection" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/39" target="_blank"> Andrew Jackson Greene collection </a> Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Watauga County (N.C.) Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. <a title="https://www.geonames.org/4497707/watauga-county.html" href="https://www.geonames.org/4497707/watauga-county.html" target="_blank"> https://www.geonames.org/4497707/watauga-county.html</a> Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1910s A.J. Campbell Beaver Dam Boone church Cove Creek Academy Cove Creek Church drought Farmer's Union Forest Grove G.H. Thomas Henly Greer Henry Norris Hugh Hagaman Hunting J.C. Davis J.F. Eggers J.F. Oliver J.J.T. Reese John Sherrill Lee Swift Mabel measles molasses P.C. Younce Reverend L.C. Wilson Robert Garland Roy Eggers School Fire schoolhouse sermon Silverstone Singing Sunday School Teacher's Institute The Farmer's Educational Cooperative Union trial W.F. Reese Zionville https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/d960bd540c9a561f709dea5159dfde84.pdf eb41702a544e117e9e0b80be93290a29 PDF Text Text �I l^T t n '^>v UAS ^V--f^n~J~ y~i-f~ ]rH^r ^>hid4~ fi irr / ' m •f*l£tt*1~~ / L<6 , —'i*~t*t>-+A*4tj 7 ^ �I I �£*—1-u-^Vt-* t_^.^*!=±±*4- c>-rJ^t^'-^t*-i»-i. /"~ ' ' j^ ^S-ZU-<-*-t- ^x £*-l*-&t-^ / fin a^~ <x^ -^~> ^{L~<t~<>£^l ^^z>J- &£^ ^ /4^L-^> h r£- (^u4^U^-t^L t/k ^^*-^jL**-^^j~-*^ <?<" —^rt^0—-t^tA/, V— £* / >*_ - ^^--?Tx^^^31^^' *~ /%^ —-fXr*-*- ^ ^U0^^> ***~ tfij#L (sV-^-rf~**^-«-~*---t^~- �«- -p-ey ^<?ws <f ' - -k-vdt' V W< /^^-2><1 ^ T'TT-**'!-*'^—XT--*-^'' , �T - f, fl j — "/ ja ;&. ^si^^UK, $li*s»*~ . /Xc- CS&T' s v~^ —^t-^- tt^^t^Ct^g/! f^*—)— f^a. .^#L<-4^^- }-i<&W~ �4^rt J -^ ^ l V U a/* fl^u**siS~ / ' ft 4^^^^ , (SL^ct^ri^ /fe J) yJ^t4/f ~ ^4^4- h~-v-<^^ _ *^nsT^rT~>r , £ J&-ust*>L^l cAo*^ — f �/ *^-ir& ls ' ~ ^ ^ ^ 1 - - &s-^-*<j * �^JL •?// - ''T / CU*4< I y ^ _ / / 7^i^-~W<—-^ U/t^. 2,~ </ fcuirpjj-' idht^h. %^rr*-*—- - l^<t-~frX-~- pv~- t>~*A. .-*<I-^I-**M_-. ?riv^v-d*>-y ^ ^ �rr A sr^v-»~>^^^^^ ^/??7sA^~is<s X' .^^ IA/^— <— 2--^-^-v>-ix_^^£/ - (f^/k,^,^^ - - . ^ KV- ^ - - - /^^-Z^i^^^^/ -> �Iff ^r^^r (A^UJ, )7>,- LXU>-V^ ixtA-t—z^-tA W , L ^ -• r^ ...^rf^r..tj2. :-J^ Cf—& -7-7'T-*' s ^UT_-V^\ �K/">u-t^- "\^Uw ~-f*~tr*' A J . l^f/~C' «-<-«c f^^r^i^T^<j , ~> 't l/^sw^4 P) fas' &4AS-' - •tJ-. ^ ^is^i/ytJ-v J' , J> . /^L-£-z*-^~ £&~ £A^li^4-^c£' /%^ ^U^e^^/^' Ct^r^ -^t&<3 Mo^AtX-^v-T-T---^ iL^J^it^ I ji^-^-^^*1^1^- ^ �A^£>£-^-~-^// £*rr tp ' /- / ^Mi^OL^f^t^-tA-' (/ (f J> ^Is-lt-ySL / /> 0 . <£o-^~-<- —1>-<+-*2^. r - >-^^^ - n * . <fe> #u �^*Lx^6^^-L^ I ^- / VL^ ' o / &?**?_„ l^^^i^y^^^^- (^—J �_--v2_/--ty / p "-vyj// I S^rfo •</••-*& ffwfi ^ - '/ �(ML -^d^t<---i-MX^W> £/K^-v~^- Ik V^h^t-C. 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V &--i*Ui-j!L*s&& i J i/r~ / ^-7 i^t^^rt^- ^MSW^t&A— �ff h/XX^W 9<3> i 4^tr-^-tX T-ff fy^^—J^t ..^S^VK. Y-^1 ff-l^ ^^^-*^-»^<z. ^* U ju^ . V WsJiM^^ fr~*> —t^ A T 'l/l^^C^t'l^ / ' �v\T^t, w -yi '*~*M^ 'i*f%''**n S*^ ^^ • <+ V -7^-Z> -Jtf^^D '-rW\M �A. -^>TXU3 -"KZ-^^-T^-v^- —-'KL-Z»-O ^_^*U-<_-£--Z^-T— yt - fy^is—is-ir f / ^ (ynXMxM/ �J-° f / Hid $rr« CM*-™ j » i 3L £X 9 �(if'" THE: EUROPEAN KINGFISHER. E Kingfisher occupies the whole continent of North America, and although migrating in the North he is a constant resident of oiir Soxithern states. The illustration on cover shows the European jMngfisher, formerly found in England and portions of Europe in great numbers, but irow rarely seen, owing to an unwarranted persecution by game keepers, and also by collectors who are always on the lookout to capture this beautiful bird. The habits of European kingfishers are identical with those of the American bird. Like most birds of brilliant plumage, the Kingfisher is a very timid bird and prefers a quiet and secluded haunt. It loves the little trout streams with wooded jid precipitous banks, the still ponds and small lakes, the sides of sluggish rivers and mill ponds. Here in such a haunt the bird often flits past like an indistinct gleam of bluish light. Fortune may sometime favor the observer and the bird may alight on some twig over the stream. It eagerly scans the shoal of young trout sporting in the pool below, when, suddenly it drops down into the water and almost before the observe^ is aw?re of the fact, is back again to the perch with a struggling fish in its beak. Sometimes the captured fish is adroitly jerked into the air and caught as it falls. Fish is the principal food of the Kingfisher, but it also eats various kinds of insects, shrimps, and even small crabs. It rears its young in a hole, which is made in a bank of the stream it frequents. The nesting hole is bored rather slowly and takes from one to two weeks to complete. Six or eight glossy eggs are laid, sometimes on the bare soil, but often on the fish bones which being indigestible are thrown up by the bird in pellets. The Kingfisher has a crest of feathers on the top of his head, which he raises and lowers especially when trying to drive intruders away from his nest. The plumage is compact and oily, making it almost impervious to water. It is said that few birds are connected with more fables than the Kingfisher. The superstition that the Kingfisher when suspended by the throat would turn its beak to that particular point of the compass from which the wind blew, is now dead. It was also supposed to possess many astonishing virtues, as that its dried body would avert thunderbolts and if kept in a wardrobe would preserve from moths the woolen-stuffs and like contained in it. Under the name of " Halcyon," it was fabled by the ancients to build its nest on the surface of the sea, and to have power of calming the troubled waves during its period of incubation ; hence the phrase, " halcyon days." � https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/d1ea57cc443f24c75c191cf27b832928.pdf fa2d9f88479191a1ff0581ba01cd84f6 PDF Text Text ��������������������������������� 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 Andrew Jackson Greene Collection Description An account of the resource The Andrew Jackson Greene Collection consists of more than 160 diaries written by Greene who describes Watauga County's education system, including Appalachian State Teachers College, cultural and religious life, and agriculture from 1906 to 1942. <br /><br /><strong>Biographical Note.</strong> Andrew Jackson Greene (March 2, 1883-August 12, 1942) was a life-long resident of Watauga County, North Carolina and instructor in several Watauga schools including Appalachian State Teachers College (A.S.T.C). Greene worked as a farmer, public school teacher, and college professor. Greene was an enthusiastic diarist maintaining regular entries from 1906 to the day before his death. He also recorded A.S.T.C. faculty meetings from January 9, 1915 to May 3, 1940. He married Polly Warren, and they had three children, Ralph, Maxie, and Lester. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Greene, Andrew Jackson, 1883-1942 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/190">AC.105: Andrew Jackson Greene Collection</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1906-1942 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">No Copyright - United States</a> Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. 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 Diary of Andrew Jackson Greene, Volume 9 [July 1, 1912 - January 31, 1913] Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Greene, Andrew Jackson, 1883-1942 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a title="Andrew Jackson Greene Collection, 1906-1942" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/190" target="_blank">Andrew Jackson Greene Collection, 1906-1942</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1912-1913 Extent The size or duration of the resource. 34.7 MB 52 pages Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 105_009_1912_0701_1913_0131 Description An account of the resource These entries range from the dates of July 1, 1912 through January 31, 1913. In this diary, he included poetry, which is not featured in his other diaries. A.J. Greene recorded his daily activities, details about the weather, details about his work, politics of the time period, and many details about church and The Bible. He writes of several local places including Mabel, The Appalachian Training School, and Bushy Fork. Subject The topic of the resource Watauga County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century Baptists--Clergy--North Carolina--Watauga County Teachers--North Carolina--Watauga County Greene, Andrew Jackson, 1883-1942 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">No Copyright – United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Diaries Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. <a title="Andrew Jackson "Greene collection" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/39" target="_blank"> Andrew Jackson Greene collection </a> Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Watauga County (N.C.) Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. <a title="https://www.geonames.org/4497707/watauga-county.html" href="https://www.geonames.org/4497707/watauga-county.html" target="_blank"> https://www.geonames.org/4497707/watauga-county.html</a> Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1910s Appalachian Training School B.B. Daugherty Baltimore convention Bible quotations Boone Brother Wilson cherry picking Christmas tree church corn Cornhusking Experiment Station Farmer's Union farming Forest Grove Fork Ridge Governor Charles B. Aycock Henly Greer Henry Norris J.C. Davis J.F. Oliver J.J.T. Reese Jacob Norris Jethro Wilson John Norris Justice of the Peace Lectures Mabel mill molasses Report on Education Road Superintendents schoolhouse Shakespeare Singing Sunday School Teacher Recertification Teacher's Institute Three Forks Association Zionville https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/c0fda66486b11b32e32cefae4864f3fa.mp3 da32e4a686b13e86c5ca44db2778b99f https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/5344c91deed430f25c6ddcfaf3733297.pdf cc47525b342044c703215c0f6e88d073 PDF Text Text Oral History Transcript Appalachian State University • Collection 111, Tape 214 Interviewee: Charles Bolick Interviewer: Barbara Greenberg 21 June 1974 CB: Charles Bolick BG: Barbara Greenberg BB: Charles Bolick of Blowing Rock, North Carolina interviewed by Barbara Greenberg on June 21, 1974 at his home. Well, Mr. Bolick, Charles you… CB: Charlie, that’s my name and that’s Libby, my little darling over there. BG: You want to start out by telling me a little bit about where you were born and your family. CB: Oh, well…its just about ten miles from Blowing Rock over in Caldwell County. Mulberry Valley, a good farming community. BG: And did your parents own their land there? CB: Oh, yes. They owned their own home. BG: How much land did they have? CB: Oh, I think it was 150 acres in that place. My mother had a couple of hundred somewhere else. And, we just lived…that was all there was to it. We had to work. We had to do this, that, you know. And go barefoot, summer time us kids did. And we would get so danged tired playing, that if we stubbed a toe over a flint rock…the sparks would fly, that’s for sure. They would, we could light our way after dark by stubbing our toes. BG: How many people were in your family? CB: There was one little girl that died, I don’t remember her, I wasn’t even born yet. But there would have been eight had she lived. There were seven of us. Five boys, two girls. BG: What did your father do? CB: He was a farmer, just a plain homesteader. He had to be, like most of the people back those days. They had to be. They just had to do what they had to do and there was not much, as I understood it, not much money back in those days. The people, but yet the old timers they had to have cash to pay their taxes. And he told me that his father, my granddad, old granddad 1 �Abner, he had his own still. He used to make whiskey and he sold it at ten cents a quart, 40 cents a gallon, in order to get money to pay his taxes. That had to be in cash. Otherwise they could barter you know, the barter system. If we have something we have a little surplus of, we could swap to our neighbor who may have had something we needed. You know that’s the same as cash and sometimes I think maybe it was better off that way than it is today. The only thing we’ve got that isn’t worth anything is our dollar. Everything else is worth something today. BG: Especially the land. CB: Oh, Lord yes. Even the barrel box cost you 25, 50, maybe 100 dollars. Well, it’s a homestead; okay you got it from now on. We had to think of those things too. That’s permanent, to pay taxes. Those are the two things that will last right on through. BG: Till the end. CB: Yeah, just right on and on. BG: Well, when did you start farming? CB: When? Oh, I was about knee high I guess. Kept clearing new ground. We burned a lot of good wood, just piled them up, you know new ground. Logs, brush, everything. But farming, that is the way we grew up back in those days, we had to. BG: How did you decide how much of each crop you should plant? How did you know how much you would need for the next year? CB: Well, that was just a matter of what folks knew, it was experience. They would just plant what they thought and hoped they needed with perhaps a little surplus, you know. It was just that way. Sow turnip seeds, you know, when we were laying the corn by. They lay corn in the new ground we would sow turnip seeds, then pumpkin seeds. And maybe fill up an old hollow chestnut stump with turnips in the fall of the year. They’d keep maybe, if we covered them over good. Haul them out by the sled load, you know, and pumpkins, they’d break loose from a vine and go rolling just having a big time down the mountain. BG: Do you farm as much now as you used to? CB: Oh no, we just to a little gardening now. Just a little gardening and the better half does most of that right? I don’t see my way around too good any more. BG: were there ever any times when your family didn’t grow enough food and when you were hungry? 2 �CB: Oh yeah, we went through all that. We just had to make do without. The only things we bought back in those days was sugar and coffee and once in a while rice if we wanted to be real fancy, we would buy enough of rice for breakfast. But the rest of it we just grew on the place. And we raised our own hogs and killed a beef in the fall of the year, salt them. You know, we didn’t have all that fancy stuff, it was just plain salt. And some of the best eating. We made kraut, we raised cane, I mean the kind you make sorghum out of it. Well, we just had to make it or else we didn’t have it. BG: Did you have chickens and cows? CB: Chickens? Yes, and turkeys. BG: How were the chores divided on a farm? Did the boys do certain chores and the two girls do other things or…. CB: Oh, a whole lot like now. The girls did their share of the chores and the boys of course worked outdoors like gathering corn and hoeing corn and digging potatoes. And the girls were more interested in quilting or making their clothing. BG: Helping your mom in the kitchen? CB: Cooking, yes, exactly. And Lord knows the mothers had plenty to do back in those days. Besides raising a bunch of little heathens that we were. BG: Did you give your mother a hard time? CB: No, she was always our best friend. BG: That’s great. Did the Depression have very much effect on your family? CB: Well yes, it did to me. I wasn’t here then, I was out in the western country, but Lord it did hit out there. The Depression? Do you mean that 1928, ’29, ’30 Depression? It was tough. And it must have been rough on other people, because I was single then. I hadn’t been exposed to marriage at that time. So no responsibilities other than, well…I was working on this construction camp, and this friend of mine, Old Smiley Thomas, he said, “You know something?” I said, “What Smiley?” He said, “The times are getting better.” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “They are making the hotcakes bigger and thicker.” Every morning, we were living in this boarding house; the hotcakes were bigger and thicker. Oh Lord, is that thing on? BG: Tell me, when you planted your crops in the spring of the year, did you know whom you were going to sell your crops to? 3 �CB: Oh, no. We were just growing them ourselves. BG: There was no cash crop? CB: Well, whatever we might swap with a neighbor for something, if they had a surplus of more that they needed. I’ll never forget one time my mother sent me over to old uncle Will Green’s. He’d always butcher a yearling, take down to the Grove Store and sell it on Election Day. That was usually in early November, the 6th I believe. And my mother said, “Charlie, go up there this morning and get us a good mess of beef. Your dad, when he goes for live beef, he always brings back part of the neck; the brisket they call it.” She said, “Get something better.” Well, I bought ten pounds of steak, 50 cents for 10 pounds, or five cents a pound. Well, I got back home with it and my mother balled me out for buying such expensive meat. Can you imagine that? She did. She said, “Charlie, I didn’t mean for you to buy such expensive beef.” I’ve thought of that time and again. Five cents a pound for good steak, just a yearling beef, you know not an old or a tough one or something. BG: Good eating wasn’t it? CB: Yeah, it was. But I couldn’t quite get over her kind of balling me out about buying such expensive meat, it was five cents a pound, ten pounds was 50 cents. And you know how I made that 50 cents? I used to help my dad run his still. BG: Did your dad run his own still? CB: Oh yeah, copper stills back in those days. They weren’t government inspected. We had a lot of fun. We talk now how to make apple brandy. BG: Tell me how you make it? CB: Well, you just grind up the apples and set them in wooden barrels and when it ferments and gets to the proper stage, before it turns to vinegar, you just boil it. Just distill and boil it. And that’s all it and you get something. It’ll be brandy tomorrow. And two or three sips, you could make a rabbit walk up and spit in a bulldog’s face. BG: Well, tell me…you don’t have to put any sugar in it? Just… CB: No, we didn’t then. We were not that smart. No, it just made more. It produces more. Like this old farmer was telling me about his corn crop this year. He said, “I’ll calculate that it will grow about 60 gallons to the acre.” BG: What do you mean 60 gallons? Did you mean 60 bushels? CB: No, we get two gallons to the bushel. So he figured it in gallons. Except one fall of the year, 4 �some of the neighbors got worried because he wasn’t going to their revival meeting at night. You know those country folk…back in those days; I guess here and there they’re still that way. My dad said, “Charlie, some of the neighbors are wondering why you’re not attending. Maybe you would better go down to the Bryant’s and sort of wash up a little bit and put you on a clean pair of overalls. Just shut the still down and go on to the church. That will take the pressure off.” Well, it did. It worked. BG: What was it like (running the still)? Did you have to hide this still a lot? Did you have to hide the fact that you had this still? CB: Oh yes, that was all way back in the cove, the little burner. Otherwise you would get “chopped down” as they called it then. The revenue agent, the IRS, the same outfit that collects our income taxes. They are something. BG: I hear they are bad people. CB: Well, we had a lot of fun. It was rough growing up in that time and day, but we did enjoy life, just like people do today. Just a little different style and manner that is all. We were ourselves, and they were themselves. Like the old saying out west, “Well men are men, and women are glad of it.” That’s the way it was then, down here at home, right through these hills. I wouldn’t mind living through it again, knowing what I know now. It was rough, but that was only what we had, so we had to live it. BG: That’s right. Do you think life today is harder or easier than it was then? CB: It’s much easier, but it’s too fast. Everybody’s in a hurry today. Back in those days you just didn’t rush through like they do it now, it’s the way I see it. Somebody asked me not long ago, “How did you do it? How did you hang on so long to life?” My answer is by not hurrying. The only time I ever got in a hurry in my life I was trying to stop. Just one time I got in a hurry. BG: Well what happened? CB: I had straddled a danged riled horse and he was running away with me. That was it. The next thing I knew I was sitting there looking at the other mountainside, blinking my eyes like a frog in a hailstorm or something. And didn’t know who I was or where I was. Two arms, one collarbone busted, and my head and neck bruised. They made me a trough to eat out of, I couldn’t feed myself. Well, I still like horses now, if you can imagine that after that one near beat me to death. It was a little two or three year old stallion. The horse was as gentle as a kitten, but he just decided he was going to have his fun, and he did. BG: How old were you then? CB: About 17 or 16. I was old enough to have known better. 5 �BG: Really? CB: When I look back at things like that its sort of amusing and, you know, if you didn’t have a sense of humor you wouldn’t have much. At least I wouldn’t. I sort of like that idea of taking things lightly, you know. Don’t be too serious about things and don’t get in a hurry. BG: Yes, you get by a lot easier. Talking about getting in a hurry, did people go visiting very much when you were a boy? CB: Not very much. Well, they did on Sunday. That was church day, you know…Sunday school. And that was the chance they had the whole week to see their neighbors. People would have this church group where they would get together and get acquainted again. And do a little gossiping sometimes on the side. But it was interesting. That was the only thing that we had to look forward to. There were no picture shows, no little league baseball. The only place where kids could go. Sunday morning we could put on our clean shirt and go to church without asking mom or dad, “Can we go?” That was understood, that was a part of life. They knew where we were going. We knew where we were going, there were no questions asked at all on Sunday morning. Do as you please, as long as you go to church. Well, sometimes as little boys we would always go to Sunday school first then church. Sometimes we would prefer the swimming hole that was about a half mile below the church. We would play “hooky,” I believe they call it. We sure did, but it was fun. Once in a while we would have to kill a water snake or something. BG: Does the water stay pretty cool up here all summer long? Is it warm enough to go swimming? CB: Well, this was down in Caldwell County about 2,000 feet lower than Blowing Rock. Down in the valley, John’s River Valley and Mulberry Valley, which was just under the mountain three or four miles away. Yes, up here the only way I would go swimming is to fall in and hope that didn’t happen. It’s too cold up here. BG: Pretty chilly. What about your schooling? Can you tell me something about your schooling? CB: Yes, ma’am. If I can remember. We had a three-day rain one time, way back in the teens. That’s a little further back than you remember I’m sure. It washed the foot-log away, and we were living on the wrong side of the creek. The schoolhouse was on my side. So I had to go to school for three days before they go the foot-log put back. BG: That’s the only schooling you ever had? Those three days? CB: Yes, that was it. Except for just reading the Boone Almanac and a few newspapers. BG: Where did you learn to read? 6 �CG: At my home by firelight. Preacher Savage used to be the Episcopalian minister here. I think that he was raised over somewhere in Allegany County. He gave me a book; the name of it was Treasure Island. I started reading it on Christmas morning, that was my Christmas gift, and I finished reading it about midnight. I just had my head buried right in that thing. First in my bedroom, then I had to go out on the porch, then upstairs. I was so danged scared I called my mom to show me to my bedroom after reading that book by firelight. The house was a bit crude, it didn’t have things so modern back then. That is, not compared with today anyway. Its like those old timers used to say it was “root hog” or “die them days,” and hogs didn’t root them like they do now. BG: What do you mean by that? CB: Well, hogs would just stick their nose in the ground and start walking. Now these days they have smarted up, they go “hunching along.” I’m sure that is going to be interesting now. BG: Go ahead. CB: Pardon? GB: I just said go ahead and tell me some more. CB: About what? BG: You’re doing just fine. CB: Well, thank you. I hope it will not create too many red faces. But, just thinking of things back those days like they were then and like they are today, there is really no comparison. Back in those das when I was a young fellow, we just had one-track roads. It was either a buggy or a wagon or a sled. Just right of the river. Most of the roads followed the creek bank, through the farm area. Back in those days farmers were what kept us alive and they couldn’t afford to give valuable level land, it was with corn or wheat or something for a road. That had been unheard of. BG: Doesn’t the way people used to utilize what they had, taking advantage of the land and misusing it? CB: Well, they just had to do it. Yes, we used to make molasses like I told you a while ago. Boil molasses, you grind the can round with an old cane mill, horse or a mule, or an old steer or something. That used to be my job. Pulling that thing, pushing him along, grinding candy. It took one complete circle for the horsepower to equal one turn of the cane mill. So it was a slow process. And it was just a toss up which one of us got dizzy first, going around and around. And lots of times we would have to take one out when it would fall. Put in a new one that wasn’t so disturbed, or something. 7 �And chestnuts, the forest full of chestnut trees then. It was a lot more fun to pick them up and road them in front of the old molasses boiler furnace. That was made it worthwhile was roasting chestnuts. BG: I don’t think that I’ve ever eaten any chestnuts. They are just not around anymore. When was it that the blight hit and wiped out all of the chestnuts? CB: When? Well, it was some sort of blight. It got all of tem. All of our original, now they are what they call blight resistant Chinese chestnuts. They are not too good either. I planted a few of those. They are a very poor substitute for what we used to have, our original chestnut trees. BG: When did this blight hit? Do you know what year that was? CB: Oh, it started when I was a kid. My granddad had a big old field he called his chestnut orchard. Great big old chestnut trees that were three or four feet in diameter and he would go out there and pick them up. He would just fell for them, but they started dying. I was probably ten years old, that’s a little while ago. Life was really interesting back then. It still is for that matter, but people are living so different today. Too much hurry. Too much, well just we’ve got to get there or we don’t, these days. And I don’t see where it quite, I don’t know…maybe it’s a wholesome life. That’s all people know. The young people these days, is what they’re living. Just like we did. The thing is its just different for us old timers. But yet its all the young people know. This is their life. And some of them are living it up a little bit. BG: Way too fast. CB: That’s what I would say. It’s no use hurrying through. It’s too short anyway. I’m not mad; I don’t know whether they quit. It just doesn’t work that way. BG: You’ve got a real good attitude. CB: Well, thank you. I have been that way most of my life. Like I say, if you didn’t have a little sense of humor, you wouldn’t have any sense. It all goes together. It works together. It’s about what you make of it, is the way I see it. But the main thing, don’t get in a hurry. Even thought it might be a lot of fun, don’t get in a hurry. Just go along in the agony. I’m going to tell you a little shady joke or two. You would be better put that on another tape. BG: All right. Can you tell me what a typical farm day was like? What time did you get up in the morning? CB: Sunrise or earlier. BG: And what was the first thing that you did? Try to remember one, a particular day and just 8 �tell me every detail about it. CB: Well, the first thing we would usually have breakfast. Mom would get up and cook breakfast. BG: What did she usually cook for breakfast? CB: Just whatever there was. Eggs, bacon, ham; we usually grew our own hogs and our beef. Just whatever there was. And turkey, once in a while we would have a stuffed turkey or something at Thanksgiving. But it’s just a plain country family. Get up and work after breakfast. Hoe corn; dig taters, whatever there was to do. BG: There’s always something to do. CB: There sure was. If nothing else we could on rainy days, we could get out there and straighten up old bent nails with a hammer. Straighten nails they call it, because you couldn’t afford new nails or anything. We made our own fence rails. We made our fences. We couldn’t afford buying barbed wire, it was called barbed wire. So the cattle and cows and everything they just roamed around through the pasture and the woods. And we would in the evening, our job as kids was to go out and round them up, bring them in for milling. Just plain country life. BG: What time would you come in to eat? CB: Before dark. We would usually be in by dark, after supper. Bread and milk for supper. It was wholesome, it was right good eating. And one time, I’ll never forget this. We had something different for breakfast. Usually it was cured meat, ham, and stuff like that, maybe salted bacon. But one morning, it was in wintertime, sort of cold. And mom left her old oven door open, this old range stove. Back in those days we used to have a cat hole in the door. Have you heard of that? A cat hole so the cat could come in or go out as he pleased. And some of them, before they got sort of wised up they would cut a little hole for the kittens. But by and by they found out the kittens could go through the same hole the old cat could, so they just cut one hole, a big one. Mom left the over door in a range cook stove. Two or three cats in there. It was cold, wintertime. They decided they would keep warn in that oven. Well, we got up way before daylight always every morning, and she closed the oven door and started the fire going. It was a wood burner, and by and by she heard this awful yowling. She started looking for the cats, they weren’t anywhere in there except in the oven and they were baking. That’s one time we came right near having a baked cat ham for breakfast! Well, mom opened the door. They left there so fast and both hit the cat hole at the same time and they jammed up in it and then they got in a fight. The hair was scorching plum in the woods! But we nearly had cat ham for breakfast that morning. 9 �BG: But they made it all right? CB: They pulled through it. They didn’t come back too soon; they stayed away a little while. BG: Wondering what these strange people are doing to them? CB: Well, this was just old country stuff you know. That’s all. Just like people used to live. BG: After you ate supper at night, did your family sit around together and have any sort of a family entertainment? Did anybody play a banjo or fiddle? CB: Well, there were not many musicians in our family. Two or three of the youngsters could kind of plunk on an old guitar. You know, just one at a time. But generally at that time of the day we were so tired we just went on to bed after supper, as soon as we could. Back in those days we had those old rope beds. They called it a corded bed. Instead of springs, we used just rope. BG: Were those pretty sturdy? Were the rope beds pretty sturdy? Did they hold the mattress firm? CB: Well our mattresses were “ticks” as they called it. Straw ticks. Filled with wheat straw. Well, by and by then they wore out we hat to put new straw in it. And the old bed, it could be any style shaped bed and ever so often those ropes had to be tightened up. My brother and I bunked together. One particular evening we got to bouncing around, the danged thing collapsed with us and the old headboard came over and caught. We were in a spot I’m telling you. Hollering, “Help! Help!” Mom finally had to go, she just died laughing, she had to come and lift the danged headboard off of us before we could move. I reckon we would have been there yet if somebody hadn’t moved. BG: What was the headboard made of? CB: Wood, it was all just old wood. BG: Were they all hand carved by somebody in the family? CB: Well mostly, yes. But there not so many factory made stuff back in those days. It was just you do it yourself you know. BG: Everything seemed to last a lot longer like that too. CB: We have an old one in here, but its modernized. It got springs and what not on it. Used to be in the family when I was a kid. You can see it after a while. BG: All right, great. I’d like to see it. 10 �CB: It can’t talk to you. If it could I’d touch a match to it I believe! BG: Don’t want it to tell any stories? Any old stories? CB: I don’t believe I would, don’t believe I would. Lib can tell you some stories. Now, any other questions Miss Barb? I’m just taking up a lot of your time? BG: Oh, I’m enjoying it. Its great. This is great. I want you to tell me some more stories, like the beds. I didn’t know about the rope beds. What was something else that is so different now than how it was? I don’t know like…rugs. Did your mother weave your own rugs? CB: She had some of those old wool cards they called it, you know…spiked things? And a spinning wheel and what not. I think couple of old spinning wheels as boys; we tore them up trying to make a sawmill out of it. Or tried to. If we had them today they would be worth something. But as kids, anything we could, we would tear up cloth and make a sawmill out of it. Just anything, kids, crazy. When the brains were passed around I reckon we just reached over and grabbed a bag of nuts, or fell out of the high chair or something! BG: Did your mother make all of your clothes? CB: Most of them. BG: What did she make them out of? What kind of material did she use? CB: They called it factory cloth back then. It was just plain old white cloth. The same kind of stuff they made covered wagons out of, the white stuff. BG: Canvas type cloth? Was it thick? CB: Well, it was made by a manufacturing company. It was thick and heavy. Well, that was the only cloth that I ever knew of, other than the overalls. Overall cloth could be bought then in the bolt. She would make overalls for us and shirts. And that factory cloth was the coldest underwear I believe. Even an Eskimo would have shivered if they put on a pair of drawers made out of that stuff! BG: Did they keep you very warm in the winter? CB: Well, after you finally got them warned up you would stay warm. They were all right, but golly they were cold to start with. BG: What about your shoes? Did somebody make your shoes? CB: Oh, we would get a pair a year. If we wore them out, we were out of luck until the next year. There were shoemakers back in those days, but my dad didn’t make any. His dad did, my 11 �old granddad. He used to make all the shoes and granny made all the clothes for all the young ones. BG: Did you know your grandparents very well? Did they live… CB: I remember my granddad real well. He died when I was about; I think I was eleven years old when he died. He was 90, somewhere in the nineties. I went to his funeral. BG: What was the funeral like? CB: It was country graveside; they just dug a hole and planted him in there. That was all there was to it back in those days. My daddy used to worry about that. He told Momma one time, he say, “We’ll, you know it would take a 100 dollars to bury the family.” There were seven kids and he said, “It will cost that to bury our whole family.” One hundred dollars, think of that. Well, an undertaker wouldn’t even sneeze at you these days for $100. BG: And then you would be buried anywhere you wanted. Is that correct? CB: Oh yes, family burying ground usually. Just anyplace on the hillside where it wouldn’t do to grow corn. Just plant them (people) there and they would stay. No questions asked. Nothing. BG: Did a lot of the neighbors come to the funerals? CB: Oh yes. Everybody for miles around. That was another one of those get together, like going to church on Sunday. But they were all there if you needed help. They would come and sit up with you and everything. That’s one think we don’t have that much anymore, very much. We still have friend s and neighbors, but back in those days you just had to do things. That was part of life, you know. BG: Showing each other. Kind of showing each other how you felt, helping them out when they were having hard times. CB: Oh, yes. It was just being neighbors and friends, that was all. We either stuck together or else we were gone. That was the way it was. Help each other. And sometimes I think its pretty nice way to live. Pretty good way to be friends and neighbors. Its still that way, but a little different…too speedy these days. Say, “Good morning” to somebody these mornings and then the next morning they say, “Oh, go to hell!” or something. Its just different than it used to be. Please excuse my language. BG: Oh, it’s quite all right. Well, you were talking a little while about the roads being just onelane roads. Do you remember when the first cars came to this area? CB: Oh, yes. They were those old Model T Henry Fords. You would crank one of the dammed things till the water boiled and maybe they would start. You know hand-cranked? Lord have 12 �mercy. The hardest work I have ever done in my life was trying to crank up one of those damned things. And then you would usually end up with a broken arm! The car would backfire if it ever did fire. That’s what this old Frenchman told me. He said, “I cranked the danged thing until the water boiled.” He was French Canadian. I said, “Dan, wouldn’t it fire at all?” “Hellfire, it wouldn’t even backfire!” he said. But that was your Model T’s. That was way back in the 1920s. BG: Did the coming of the car have much of a change on life? CB: Oh yes, it changed everything around. But it took a little while to do it. You know we still had plenty of chestnuts when they first came out. And beans and corn and there was no blight, there were no bugs. We didn’t have to spray, or dust or anything for our crop back then. But I reckon the Model T’s changed all that. They brought the bugs with them or something! BG: The pollution I guess it was. CB: Could be. I don’t know if this was so long ago. It’s hard to put everything together again, you know just at once. But sometimes I think maybe we would have been just as well off if we would have stayed with a horse and buggy. I can’t help but think of it that way. At least it suited me. And those were the good days if you didn’t mind sitting behind a horse. You could have a lot of fun on a date. Just as much fun as it is these days. If you didn’t mind sitting behind a horse. BG: What was courting like? CB: Courting? Just like it is now, I reckon. BG: Where did you go? What did you do? CB: Nowhere. You just go call on your date. You would sit at her house for an hour or two and then head for home. A little bit milder I reckon than what it is these days. I would say quieter. And you had to act respectable they called it back in those days. You had to be known in other words. If your date’s parents didn’t like you, you just didn’t date. That was all there was to it. You had to be a good neighbor and a good friend in order to have a date with whoever it was. BG: Did you have to ask the parent’s permission or did you ask the girl? CB: Well, that was usually understood. You knew if the parents didn’t approve of you, you wouldn’t be there regardless of what the girl said. But otherwise the courtship I would say was a little more modest back in those days. Less, what would you call it these days? permissiveness these days? 13 �No, that was unheard of back then. If a girl made a mistake, she was through. And they all, it seemed to be understood that way. They just very seldom ever made a mistake until they were married. And then of course, it couldn’t have been a mistake. End up in a divorce court, but very seldom. BG: Did they have many divorces back then? CB: Oh yes, the same then as now, but you were downgraded if you even though of a divorce. That was something unusual. People jus didn’t go for that. They just have to if they made a mistake. Well, they would sweat it out. Just tough it out. Rather, they were thinking of the kids. Family life in other words. Rather than degradation. BG: That sounds good. CB: Whatever it was. They just didn’t go for that back in those days. Nothing, they wanted to be on the “up and level” you know, keep going ahead. And it wasn’t a bad idea, I reckon. BG: Kept people closer together and family life more of a family. CB: Yeah, more of a close-knit family life. Rather than, I think these days that, I don’t know but it seems to me that the parents say, “Okay kids, just go ahead.” Without supervision or anything. Just to get rid of them, get them out of the house. “Go on, do what you want to do.” Well, they do. Especially if they have a sporty vehicle. Back in those days if we had a four-legged horse and a four-wheeled buggy we were, lucky. A buggy would be like a Cadillac today. BG: Were your parents very strict with you? Did you consider them to have been strict? CB: Well, they sure laid it on once in a while. I knew exactly where they were hitting too. BG: Is that what they would do for punishment? CB: Well, they would talk a little once in a while. But usually they were too dang busy trying to make a living that they didn’t have time to talk too much. But when they did decide to punish, they knew exactly where they were spanking. BG: What did they spank you with? CB: Oh, a paddle, broom handle, anything that was available. Just whatever was handy that would be it. Usually he palm of the hand. BG: It seemed to hurt the most I guess. 14 �CB: Well, like you said, I knew exactly where they were spanking. BG: Did your family dig roots too? CB: Dig roots? Oh yes, we used to dig ginseng. “Sang” we called it back then. S-A-N-G. Ginseng. That’s supposed to be a mysterious, great herb that the Chinese like so well. And then star root, and then we would also pull Galax. BG: Did the people use ginseng around here at all or did they just sell it? CB: I don’t know of anyone that used it, juts just one of those things. Maybe a few people do. I’ve found it. I’ve dug it up from time to time, but I don’t see that anymore. BG: I’ve got a few plants at my house. Got about four of them. Only one is getting a little berry on it. What do you do with the very if you want to say, increase your crop? CB: The seeds? BG: Yes. Are there seeds inside the little berries? CB: Yes, like holly berries. Same color exact. The ginseng is a pretty plant really, its just three leaves. And the seed part after they grow to a certain age, the seed comes up in the middle of he pant with al little flower, a little group of red berries. Those are the seeds. BG: Do you replant each of the red berries or is there just one, or several of them? CB: No, there are several in a little pod right in the center of this parent plant. And the birds sometimes plant them, or you can if you want to. And if a mole or something doesn’t get them, it’ll come up. My daddy used to have three or four old big hollow chestnut logs full of red soil that he grew ginseng in where we used to live. But the cultivated kind never did do quite so good as the just out in it s natural state in the woods. Well, the time it rained for three days, my dad’s old ginseng patch washed away. Those old hollow chestnut logs, they went down the river putting him out of the business. He said, “Well, I’ll just leave them where they are from now on, out in the woods in the cold.” Back in 1916, it rained so much that is caused a flood. Nearly washed everything thing down. The word got passed around, back at this time there were no telephones, but the word spread from one place to another. This old timer, our country church preacher got people together to pray at our little church for this rain to quit. He said, “Pray for the flood to stop.” It was really a rip-snorting flood! BG: Was it worse than the flood of 1940? 15 �CB: Yes, it was. I remember that one too. But in ’16 it was a little rougher. Well, it was rolling boulders half as big as this house down the little creek here. It just shook the earth, like an earthquake. Most of the foot-logs washed away. Finally one of the brothers said, “Well, looked like no more of us are going to get here. We might as well go in and start praying.” Then the preacher said, “We can go in and pray, that’s all right, but it ain’t going to do a bit of good as long as those clouds are coming from the north and from the southeast. It wouldn’t do a bit of good!” BG: Well, did you say it rained for three days? CB: Three days and nights. There was no let up to it. I was beginning to wonder what old Noah felt like. BG: Who felt like? CB: Old Noah, you know, the ark. I was beginning to look for a little mountain to climb onto. But the branches were all so full of water. I couldn’t think, or get to the mountain. One little branch of the creek above the house where we lived, it dried up every summer and it got so deep I couldn’t even wade. I was 19 years old and couldn’t wade in the creek because there was too much water in it. Rock, driftwood, everything coming down. BG: Did that hurt a lot of people for that year? Was it in the springtime? CB: It washed a lot of crops away. Corn and wheat, ruining so many farms down there in the valleys. A lot of the farmers they were do discouraged. They would have sold out if they could have found anyone to buy their place. But by and by they came accustomed to the change. Where rich level fields had been, it was nothing but rock. That creek was running everywhere. No sir, the bottomland as they called it. Nothing but rock. End of interview 16 � 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 Sound A resource whose content is primarily intended to be rendered as audio. Artist Bolick, Charles (interviewee) Greenberg, Barbara (interviewer) Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:26, Making moonshine 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 Charles Bolick, June 21, 1974 Subject The topic of the resource Bolick, Charles (1891-)--Interviews Farm life--North Carolina--Caldwell County--History--20th century Distilling, Illicit--North Carolina--Caldwell County Caldwell County (N.C.)--History--20th century Caldwell County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century Description An account of the resource “Charles” Wesley Bolick was born on August 15, 1897 in the Mulberry Valley community of Caldwell County about ten miles from Blowing Rock, North Carolina. His parents were Emanuel (b. October 24, 1852 - d. August 16, 1926) and Mary Vienna Sherrill Bolick (b. April 1860 – d. August 27, 1934). He had four siblings and was married to Elizabeth “Libby” Gomer Bolick (b. October 7, 1881 – d. January 16, 1983). Charles Bolick died on April 29, 1996 at the age of 98. During the interview he talks about his parents and siblings, selling whiskey, making apple brandy, living off the land and making everything the family needed. He reflects on the Depression, and attending school. He also discusses making molasses, sleeping on a rope bed, courting, digging for ginseng, and the floods of 1916 and 1940. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bolick, Charles 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 21-Jun-74 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. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MP3 Extent The size or duration of the resource. 16 pages Language A language of the resource English English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant <kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.0"><Folder><name>OpenLayers export</name><description>Exported on Thu Oct 24 2013 14:08:22 GMT-0400 (Eastern Standard Time)</description></Folder></kml>||||osm Caldwell County (N.C) 1916 flood 1940 flood Blowing Rock Caldwell County car chestnuts cooking courting Depression farming herbs molasses moonshine Watauga County N.C. Whiskey