WEBVTT 1 00:02.000 --> 00:09.000 I'm just going to ask you questions about your life, about growing up and so on. 2 00:09.000 --> 00:09.000 Yeah. Mm-hmm. 3 00:09.000 --> 00:11.000 How you doing? 4 00:11.000 --> 00:15.000 Hi. I'm just going to ask you a few questions about your life and coming up. 5 00:15.000 --> 00:16.000 Talk about coming up. 6 00:16.000 --> 00:17.000 Mm-hmm. 7 00:17.000 --> 00:35.000 I've been kind of a sickly boy all my life, but I've still worked—what my daddy's job had—was work, all of that, on the farm. I ain't never done nothing but working on the farm. All my life. 8 00:35.000 --> 00:51.000 Where was the farm that you grew up, where you grew up? 9 00:51.000 --> 00:59.000 Where I grew up at, old Mr. Luke Anderson's farm, that Mr. K. Anderson—It was K. Anderson's farm where I grew up on but he died when I was small, and then his son took over, Luke Anderson but he's dead now. 10 00:59.000 --> 01:03.000 Right. And where was their farm? 11 01:03.000 --> 01:05.000 Over here—You know where Kingtown at? 12 01:05.000 --> 01:06.000 I think so, yeah. 13 01:06.000 --> 01:27.000 Go on walk there, James Lawn stay back in there. Back in that there, where the farm was. Then left out of there and come down here on 44, down here over [indistinct 00:01:23] farm, he had acres over 44. 14 01:27.000 --> 01:30.000 Were your family sharecroppers? 15 01:30.000 --> 01:31.000 We were farming. 16 01:31.000 --> 01:32.000 Farming, okay. 17 01:32.000 --> 01:33.000 Farming on half. 18 01:33.000 --> 01:33.000 Farming in half. 19 01:33.000 --> 01:36.000 His land, but that's what my daddy was doing. 20 01:36.000 --> 01:39.000 What does that mean to farm on half? 21 01:39.000 --> 01:56.000 See, the man who the land belonged to, he furnished all the land. He'd give you half of the stuff where you'd make all the two horse crop. Half of that crop goes to you. 22 01:56.000 --> 01:58.000 Did you furnish your own mules and equipment? 23 01:58.000 --> 02:18.000 No, ma'am. The man that was the landlord, he furnished the mules, put some mules to the house for you to work. After my daddy died, he had his own mules. Two own mules. When he died, we rent the White man mules. 24 02:18.000 --> 02:21.000 Okay. Who did you grow up with? Who lived in your house when you were growing up? 25 02:21.000 --> 02:37.000 The oldest brother was named Ricky Boy, Richard. He's dead. And then Annamae, she lives in Scotland Neck. She's the next oldest. 26 02:37.000 --> 02:39.000 I'm from Scotland Neck. Yeah. When you say Annamae Bullock— 27 02:39.000 --> 02:44.000 You know her? 28 02:44.000 --> 02:48.000 I heard the name but— 29 02:48.000 --> 02:50.000 [indistinct 00:02:47]. You know where the old [indistinct 00:02:50] be in Scotland— 30 02:50.000 --> 02:51.000 Yeah, yeah. Right. 31 02:51.000 --> 02:53.000 Yeah. You'd be right there [indistinct 00:02:53]. 32 02:53.000 --> 02:53.000 Okay, yeah. 33 02:53.000 --> 02:56.000 In Scotland Neck. 34 02:56.000 --> 02:59.000 And holy [indistinct 00:02:56] you can hear that up from her house. 35 02:59.000 --> 03:04.000 Okay. Yeah. I'm from Scotland Neck. Yeah, I grew up down here. 36 03:04.000 --> 03:10.000 There's another lady and a girl interviewing back there, so you can take their picture whenever. 37 03:10.000 --> 03:14.000 So, you talked about your sisters and brothers. 38 03:14.000 --> 04:04.000 Yes, ma'am. I'm the oldest brother living and Richard, the oldest one, he's been dead. And Annamae, she's next to me, wanted to stay in Scotland Neck. And the next oldest one, he's dead, onto Annamae. And then my sister was the next oldest one is Rocky Mount. She [indistinct 00:03:42] neighborhood and the oldest one stayed out here [indistinct 00:03:44]. The two youngest ones in Rocky Mount. 39 04:04.000 --> 04:09.000 So, you lived with your parents and your brothers and sisters? Did anybody else live with you when you were growing up? 40 04:09.000 --> 04:16.000 No, ma'am. But my mama and daddy, they all lived. 41 04:16.000 --> 04:22.000 Can you tell me a little bit about the chores or the work that you did as a boy on the farm? 42 04:22.000 --> 04:24.000 How you worked? How you worked— 43 04:24.000 --> 04:30.000 Right. What your work was through the years that you had to do? 44 04:30.000 --> 05:15.000 In the summertime, around this time of year, you'd be on the plow to crop a whole bunch. And then be chopping and doing, chopping that whole god darn field, chopping grass off that row. When it got dry like that, they don't plow so much. But when it rained, we got that mule out and stay in the field with him plowing. Yeah. Sometimes plowing it with one row, one mule sometimes. Sometimes I'd have two mules pulling the [indistinct 00:05:04] go a lot faster with that. I liked that better than I did with one mule. Yeah. 45 05:15.000 --> 05:54.000 And then it got ready to put in that barn, because you knew you had to get out there, get ready to put in that 'bacco, that green tobacco because you had to go from one end of the row to the other stooping down, plowing that bar the mule got on that middle walking, take that bar and put it over there in that [indistinct 00:05:34] like that. Sometimes I'd have two rows and sometimes I'd have one row [indistinct 00:05:40]. Wanted to get that barn before the night. If we get two rows, go ahead and get it, and because when I get a barn, my daddy got more and knock us off. We done done a day's work. I used to love to do it like that. 46 05:54.000 --> 05:55.000 What did you love about that? Why? 47 05:55.000 --> 05:57.000 Why that? 48 05:57.000 --> 05:58.000 Why did you love it? 49 05:58.000 --> 06:04.000 Because when they got through priming that bog all day, next morning, you couldn't hardly get out of the bed. 50 06:04.000 --> 06:10.000 Because it was so hard. 51 06:10.000 --> 06:18.000 Yeah. Your whole back ached. You couldn't straighten up your back. You had to lower down your knees. Couldn't hardly walk. That was hard work, long days. 52 06:18.000 --> 06:23.000 Did you farm when they used [indistinct 00:06:23]. 53 06:23.000 --> 06:45.000 Yeah. I farmed by my daddy. My oldest brother, Richard, he used to plow [indistinct 00:06:29] my daddy told us to get one row, we'd go ahead and get two rows. Two row [indistinct 00:06:34] and we knock off. Wouldn't do none of that that day, if we get to the barn by 12:00. We wouldn't do nothing before that next morning. Just lay around home in the shade then. 54 06:45.000 --> 06:49.000 [indistinct 00:06:49]. 55 06:49.000 --> 07:04.000 Yeah. Get up sometimes 4:00 in the morning, go to the barn, take that bog out of the barn [indistinct 00:06:58] for the tobacco and pressed it off. I done that a long time. 56 07:04.000 --> 07:07.000 So, on the farm, did you only grow tobacco? 57 07:07.000 --> 07:07.000 Hm? 58 07:07.000 --> 07:12.000 Did you only grow tobacco? 59 07:12.000 --> 07:29.000 Mm-hmm. Yeah. Had to grow tobacco while we was on the farm. Yeah. Sometimes we'd have five acres or 10 acres like that. Then when they putting in bar work, take that and go to every stalk and break them suckers out of that stalk, tobacco like that. You ever know any boy do that? 60 07:29.000 --> 07:31.000 No. I've only ever taken suckers off of tomato plants. 61 07:31.000 --> 07:39.000 Yeah. Folks used to go wondering—they had long rows from here on down the highway, breaking them suckers off. I used to hate to do that. [indistinct 00:07:40]. 62 07:39.000 --> 07:48.000 There's a lot of new ways to get rid of them now. 63 07:48.000 --> 07:56.000 Yeah. Now they don't suck. They've got some spray to get suckers out of there. 64 07:56.000 --> 08:01.000 Did your family have any garden or livestock for their own use? 65 08:01.000 --> 08:24.000 We raised hogs. We raised some hogs, two milk cows, sometimes I'd milk them cows the morning before they go to field. Milk them and put that stuff in it. Didn't have no freezer. No deep freezer. They'd take that little—Do you know anybody that take a bucket and draw water out a well? 66 08:24.000 --> 08:26.000 Mm-hmm. 67 08:26.000 --> 08:48.000 They take that bucket and put it on that chain, let that milk and butter stay down in the bottom of that well, until that night, come back and that water—that milk be cold. Yeah. We were spoiled in that, and eating and drinking milk. 68 08:48.000 --> 08:57.000 Sounds good. 69 08:57.000 --> 08:57.000 Yeah. It was good. 70 08:57.000 --> 09:03.000 [indistinct 00:08:58] milked two cows all the time. Two cows all the time. [indistinct 00:08:58] before going to work. 71 09:03.000 --> 09:28.000 Remember daddy would get up in the morning, have to go to the hog pen to feed hogs, had five or six head of hogs. Yeah. In the fall of the year, when it turned cold, they would kill them hogs, go on and pick the hair on them, cut them up and put them in the smokehouse. Have a smokehouse, salt them down, pack them down. [indistinct 00:09:19] eat it. That was good. Little homemade sausage. Stuff that sausage in them guts. That stuff was good too. 72 09:28.000 --> 09:33.000 My daddy used to feed the hog twice. [indistinct 00:09:34]. 73 09:33.000 --> 09:36.000 When did your daddy— 74 09:36.000 --> 09:38.000 My daddy die? 75 09:38.000 --> 09:43.000 When did he slaughter hogs? 76 09:43.000 --> 10:20.000 He'd kill them at the house. He'd have a [indistinct 00:09:49] wood pile, have a great big old pot out there where he stored them in. Have a gallows up there high, hang them up on the gallows and gut them like that. That was something to look at, with them hogs hanging up on that gallows. Then the next day, they cut up that fat. Cut up that fat with potatoes, put that on that washboard to dry. Them cracklings was all kinds of good. Some sweet potatoes and cracklings, cornbread, that was good. 77 10:20.000 --> 10:24.000 Good. Did you have—Sorry, go on. 78 10:24.000 --> 10:48.000 Then they had to go and smoke all day, salt it down, rub it down and [indistinct 00:10:48] like that and salt. Pack it all down like that. All the same way. 79 10:48.000 --> 10:48.000 Right. 80 10:48.000 --> 10:48.000 Mm-hmm. And that was something to look at. 81 10:48.000 --> 10:48.000 Ain't much of that going on now here in Jackson. 82 10:48.000 --> 10:50.000 That man right down here, Richard Diggins, he kill hogs every year. 83 10:50.000 --> 10:51.000 Richard Diggins? 84 10:51.000 --> 10:58.000 16 minutes between here and Kingtown. 85 10:58.000 --> 11:06.000 Did your family have a celebration, or did they have a party or anything when they killed hogs? 86 11:06.000 --> 11:06.000 No, no. 87 11:06.000 --> 11:07.000 No? 88 11:07.000 --> 11:21.000 Sometimes they would, but all the [indistinct 00:11:11] kinfolk would come in and they'd help eat some of the meat. Some of them would help us [indistinct 00:11:19] give them some, I guess. 89 11:21.000 --> 11:29.000 Were there other times during the year when people got together to have a good time at home? 90 11:29.000 --> 11:54.000 The only time they had a good time at home, they'd have a prayer meetings and things. Like the old people used to have prayer meetings, singing and drinking wine at night. Yeah. Preaching and doing. They call that the old baptist preachers. You don't know anything about those baptist preachers? Preachers, folks used to call them old baptist preachers, didn't you? 91 11:54.000 --> 11:56.000 Mm-hmm. 92 11:56.000 --> 12:03.000 They didn't have that long then. And that type of folk would be long, live for a day or more, and that singing [indistinct 00:12:06] more important. Yeah. [indistinct 00:12:11]. 93 12:03.000 --> 12:03.000 [indistinct 00:12:12]. 94 12:03.000 --> 12:13.000 Okay, all right. 95 12:13.000 --> 12:15.000 Well, you're just working on for state old 44. [indistinct 00:12:18] Red Hill Church. You come up along then, didn't you? 96 12:15.000 --> 12:25.000 I'm not sure— 97 12:25.000 --> 12:38.000 It's a really small label [indistinct 00:12:28] Red Hill Church yard, but we [indistinct 00:12:32]. You were sitting there [indistinct 00:12:35] and two of them asked me how did I like my doctor. I told them—One them smaller than you, but I told them— 98 12:38.000 --> 12:38.000 It wasn't me, I don't think. I don't think it was me. 99 12:38.000 --> 13:14.000 I told her, "Look, you're the same one—" You was in that [indistinct 00:12:52] small one there. And she come down to Dr. Hughes was my doctor [indistinct 00:12:57]. I told them I still go to Dr. Hughes right on. Been going to him on [indistinct 00:13:03]. 100 13:14.000 --> 13:17.000 Could I ask you a few more questions about growing up? 101 13:17.000 --> 13:22.000 Mm-hmm. 102 13:22.000 --> 13:24.000 Did you do any public work when you were growing up? 103 13:24.000 --> 13:25.000 I never done that. 104 13:25.000 --> 13:25.000 No, never? 105 13:25.000 --> 13:30.000 I ain't never done none of that. That's my only farm. 106 13:30.000 --> 13:32.000 Did your daddy ever have to do that? 107 13:32.000 --> 13:35.000 No. He didn't do no public works. 108 13:35.000 --> 13:38.000 No? 109 13:38.000 --> 13:43.000 No. My oldest brother who's dead, he done public works. 110 13:43.000 --> 13:44.000 Why did he leave farming? 111 13:44.000 --> 13:47.000 Didn't need him on the farm. He public works. 112 13:47.000 --> 13:53.000 Okay. Did any of your brothers and sisters move north? 113 13:53.000 --> 13:53.000 No. 114 13:53.000 --> 13:54.000 No? 115 13:54.000 --> 14:00.000 Mm-mm. All been in this county since we've been born. 116 14:00.000 --> 14:14.000 Mm-hmm. When you were growing up, did you have electricity in your house? 117 14:14.000 --> 14:15.000 Mm-mm. 118 14:15.000 --> 14:15.000 No? 119 14:15.000 --> 14:22.000 No. Didn't even have a TV. 120 14:22.000 --> 14:22.000 No? 121 14:22.000 --> 14:37.000 The first thing I know [indistinct 00:14:23] had in the house play was an old radio. A radio that had a [indistinct 00:14:30] back of one, you know anything about that? 122 14:37.000 --> 14:38.000 Yeah. Uh-uh. 123 14:38.000 --> 14:39.000 That's the only thing [indistinct 00:14:38]. 124 14:39.000 --> 14:43.000 What was it like when you got electricity in your house? Was your life a lot different after that? 125 14:43.000 --> 14:44.000 Yeah. A lot different. 126 14:44.000 --> 14:45.000 How? 127 14:45.000 --> 14:57.000 Could see better. Yeah. The casting lamp was so dull at night, then electric was bright, could see a long way. 128 14:57.000 --> 15:07.000 When did that happen? How old were you when you got electricity? 129 15:07.000 --> 16:07.000 I was old enough to plow good. I know if there's a bad storm come up in July that time. Folks were working out there in that brick house, up on the field—that brick house right over there. Man was plowing on a riding plow, or gangplow by two mules, and the man said he wanted to go to [indistinct 00:15:26] that Monday night in Rocky Mount. And we were sitting on the porch, me and my mom and daddy, and sent the oldest brother to go to grand daddy, get some apples then I'll come back at night, fry some apples for supper. When he went out the door, he kicked the mule out on the lot to get on the mule's back. [indistinct 00:15:48] we looked across the field out there, come a hard clap of thunder, it was loud and right sharp. I got up, I went in the house. In the morning, [indistinct 00:15:53] sitting on the porch, man sitting out there on that gangplow—riding plow. He was burning his mule laying down dead. The lightning done killed the mule. 130 16:07.000 --> 16:10.000 So, the lightning killed the mule? Was that— 131 16:10.000 --> 16:16.000 Mm-hmm. It killed the mule and man both. Yeah. We weren't too [indistinct 00:16:13] at the house. 132 16:16.000 --> 16:24.000 Okay. But it wasn't your mule, your family's mule— 133 16:24.000 --> 16:25.000 Mm-mm. No. The man from [indistinct 00:16:25] working for, the landlord there. 134 16:25.000 --> 16:28.000 Now, did you say you owned your own mules when you were growing up? 135 16:28.000 --> 16:45.000 No, but my daddy owned two before he died but the mule didn't live too long before he died. Then the mule died. Daddy was old. 136 16:45.000 --> 16:55.000 What made a good mule growing up? What kind of mule did you want to have on your farm in order for it to be— 137 16:55.000 --> 17:06.000 A good mule, a solid mule, you got to beat him along, and make him go. Don't care what [indistinct 00:17:03] get out there in the field and just go along. 138 17:06.000 --> 17:07.000 Right, right. 139 17:07.000 --> 17:19.000 Sometimes they're so tough, you hit them, they won't move. Yeah. A little old mule, you just hit like that, it go right along. It would go down the field and work. 140 17:19.000 --> 17:23.000 Did you ever have a mule that wasn't so good? 141 17:23.000 --> 17:38.000 Yeah. I had some good mules but the boss man we worked for—farming with. He put him on some young mules down there, how to work. We'd run along there. They were good mules. 142 17:38.000 --> 17:41.000 Did you ever have a bad mule, didn't work so well? 143 17:41.000 --> 18:00.000 Yeah, but I still worked him. Yeah. I still worked him. Worked with a [indistinct 00:17:49] mule like that. Put the plow in the ground deep, he wouldn't move and it would break him down, he'd calm down like the other mules. That's the way they used to do. 144 18:00.000 --> 18:04.000 What did you do for fun when you were growing up? Were there children to play with? 145 18:04.000 --> 18:29.000 Had children to play with, yeah. Was working. Lay around the house and play and walk around the fish pond, catch fish and stuff like that. Doing that, watching around the ditch banks, picking barberries and huckleberries [indistinct 00:18:23] for the cook. Yeah. Times were good then. 146 18:29.000 --> 18:33.000 Were there other people living close to you? 147 18:33.000 --> 18:33.000 We had [indistinct 00:18:35] lived by the corner, that wood, they do the same down there. 148 18:33.000 --> 18:33.000 Right, right, right. 149 18:33.000 --> 18:48.000 And sometimes we'd go and help them put in the barn and they would help us. 150 18:48.000 --> 18:49.000 And these people were working on halves as well? 151 18:49.000 --> 18:51.000 Yeah. 152 18:51.000 --> 18:51.000 On the same man's land? 153 18:51.000 --> 18:55.000 Yeah. Same man's land. Yeah. 154 18:55.000 --> 19:00.000 What other things did you do to help each other out, these two families? 155 19:00.000 --> 19:06.000 Just like that man over here now, he need some work doing, and us ain't got nothing, and us crop [indistinct 00:19:06] we'd go down help him, and if his crop get grass, he'd come help us. That's the way you'd do. 156 19:06.000 --> 19:19.000 Did you help each other out in other ways? 157 19:19.000 --> 19:22.000 Just like if he didn't have nothing to eat like that? 158 19:22.000 --> 19:24.000 Right, right. 159 19:24.000 --> 19:33.000 Like if he didn't have no hog or something to kill, we'd let him have something to eat and he'd do it the same way. Yeah. 160 19:33.000 --> 19:37.000 Did you get into any trouble with your family, with your parents when you were growing up? 161 19:37.000 --> 19:38.000 Mm-mm. 162 19:38.000 --> 19:39.000 Did you ever get into any mischief? 163 19:39.000 --> 19:39.000 Uh-uh. 164 19:39.000 --> 19:40.000 No? 165 19:40.000 --> 19:58.000 No. Had to be good and do what they tell you. They'll get them a brush broom and whoop you with it. You had to do what mama and daddy was saying. They'd send you somewhere, you don't come back before the sun go down. They about kill you, wish they had when they got through with you. 166 19:58.000 --> 20:03.000 So, you had to get home before the sun went down? 167 20:03.000 --> 20:18.000 Yeah. I had to get there. Sometimes I wouldn't get there but I wish I had got there, but they won't get you until you're getting ready to go to bed that night. They'd wait until you get your clothes off, and [indistinct 00:20:19]. He would tear you up. 168 20:18.000 --> 20:18.000 Boy, I said don't let the sun [indistinct 00:20:23]. 169 20:18.000 --> 20:18.000 Yeah. 170 20:18.000 --> 20:18.000 Better be back before sun— 171 20:18.000 --> 20:27.000 Better be back before night [indistinct 00:20:26]. 172 20:27.000 --> 20:29.000 Why did you have to get home before the sun got down? 173 20:29.000 --> 20:55.000 Because the folks out there is mean, starting to get whooped or some of that, be somewhere you're not supposed to be. Yeah. Go to town, to [indistinct 00:20:42] to the store, Jim Harbor, he was a White man. We'd go down there and get fresh fish on time with [indistinct 00:20:51] and getting money to pay him money. Go to his store and get anything you want. 174 20:55.000 --> 20:56.000 Mm-hmm. 175 20:56.000 --> 20:58.000 That man about 100 years old. 176 20:58.000 --> 20:59.000 Matt Harbor. 177 20:59.000 --> 21:01.000 Uh-huh. 178 21:01.000 --> 21:08.000 Yeah. He was a good man too. He'd let you have something. If you ain't got the money, you get the money and go pay him. 179 21:08.000 --> 21:15.000 Right. Were there other store owners who weren't so good? 180 21:15.000 --> 21:38.000 Yes. Some more stores down there, I had a first uncle down there in Leggett. He was named Johnny Bullock. He was just tight with that. He was tight with that. You couldn't get nothing from him no money. You had money, you could get it. 181 21:38.000 --> 21:40.000 You wouldn't have credit. 182 21:40.000 --> 21:56.000 No, he wouldn't credit you. If you get money, you get anything. Then when he'd weigh your stuff like that, he'd put stuff up there on his little scale and weigh it for us. You ain't watching, he got his fist up there weighing this stuff like that. 183 21:56.000 --> 21:57.000 Uh-huh. So he was putting more weight on— 184 21:57.000 --> 21:58.000 Mm-hmm. Yeah. 185 21:58.000 --> 22:00.000 Okay, I see. 186 22:00.000 --> 22:00.000 He was tight. 187 22:00.000 --> 22:00.000 He was tight. 188 22:00.000 --> 22:15.000 Yeah. He dead and gone now. 189 22:15.000 --> 22:19.000 Did you have a good—The man on whose land you worked, was he a good man? 190 22:19.000 --> 22:21.000 Yeah. He was a good man. Yeah. He was good. 191 22:21.000 --> 22:28.000 What made him a good landlord? What made him a good landowner? 192 22:28.000 --> 22:38.000 His daddy was good. His daddy was good too. They were good to you. He didn't bother you about work. 193 22:38.000 --> 22:40.000 Now, did other land owners bother people about work? 194 22:40.000 --> 22:45.000 Some of them did, but I ain't done no work [indistinct 00:22:45]. 195 22:45.000 --> 22:50.000 Uh-huh. How would they bother people? How would they bother you about work? 196 22:50.000 --> 23:04.000 Tell you that you ain't doing what suit them. Yeah. [indistinct 00:22:56] like that. But this one [indistinct 00:22:59] Mr. Luke Anderson, he would deal with good folk. 197 23:04.000 --> 23:09.000 Was it fair—When you settled up, how did you settle up with the landlord? 198 23:09.000 --> 23:18.000 See, he'd have [indistinct 00:23:10] sometimes, or he'd settle up and bring your part around to the house and settle up with you right at the house. 199 23:18.000 --> 23:21.000 Was that fair always? 200 23:21.000 --> 23:38.000 Yeah. Always fair. Yeah. I've been one place, Sam Adams would work you hard, harder than a dog. And he [indistinct 00:23:33] every time I would tell him, pull apart and pull apart and you got to do this, got to do that. 201 23:38.000 --> 23:45.000 [indistinct 00:23:43]. 202 23:45.000 --> 23:54.000 [indistinct 00:23:46] go to him [indistinct 00:23:47] piece of money, oh partner, oh partner, money is scarce. Money is scarce. Yeah. Along this time of year, you couldn't get no money from him. 203 23:54.000 --> 23:55.000 Right, right. 204 23:55.000 --> 24:04.000 So, if you didn't get it in the summertime, you wouldn't get none the end of the year, because he'd pack that money back. You couldn't get it. 205 24:04.000 --> 24:06.000 I worked with a man— 206 24:06.000 --> 24:09.000 No, you couldn't get it. He was tight. 207 24:09.000 --> 24:15.000 Yeah. You can't get it, right. 208 24:15.000 --> 24:18.000 Did you ever have any cash during the year? 209 24:18.000 --> 24:18.000 Cash? 210 24:18.000 --> 24:19.000 Mm-hmm. 211 24:19.000 --> 24:21.000 No, ma'am. 212 24:21.000 --> 24:26.000 None at all? So, you buy everything on credit? 213 24:26.000 --> 24:40.000 No, sometimes we had some food stamps. When the food stamps got out, you would go down to that store, I'm talking about Jimmy Harbor, get stuff on time and pay him when you get some money. 214 24:40.000 --> 24:44.000 Did you have to go to his store to use the stamps? 215 24:44.000 --> 24:52.000 No, but you could get sell them and get rid of them in Tarboro. Go to Tarboro. We went to the closest place, closest store, the cheapest place. 216 24:52.000 --> 24:56.000 Right. Were these government food stamps? 217 24:56.000 --> 24:58.000 Yes, ma'am. 218 24:58.000 --> 25:05.000 What about before they had food stamps? What did you do then? 219 25:05.000 --> 25:05.000 It was tight. It was tight. 220 25:05.000 --> 25:06.000 Okay. What did you do? You went to the store? 221 25:06.000 --> 25:19.000 Yeah. And get it on time. Sometimes we'd raise enough hogs and take one [indistinct 00:25:15] and take that money, go to the store and get [indistinct 00:25:19]. 222 25:19.000 --> 25:24.000 Okay. And did you have to—Before there were food stamps, did you have to go to a certain store to buy things on time? 223 25:24.000 --> 25:25.000 No, ma'am. You could go to any store. 224 25:25.000 --> 25:29.000 Any store? 225 25:29.000 --> 25:39.000 Any store. Yes, ma'am. When you got them food stamps. Now, I don't get but $10. You can't buy nothing with $10 worth of food stamps. 226 25:39.000 --> 25:42.000 Right. Right. 227 25:42.000 --> 25:58.000 And then I got [indistinct 00:25:44]. The little old security check I get, that ain't nothing. 228 25:58.000 --> 26:02.000 Yeah, that's hard. 229 26:02.000 --> 26:03.000 It's hard. Takes about $60-70 [indistinct 00:26:03] every month. 230 26:03.000 --> 26:06.000 Yeah. Were you able to go to school when you were growing up? 231 26:06.000 --> 26:42.000 Yeah. I went, the folks, their children had to walk to school. They had to walk about a mile. Ma and Pa sent us to school, and it got hot and got to raining. We went in the woods and stayed, wouldn't go to school [indistinct 00:26:25] walked to school and they wouldn't send us no more. They sent us in the field, on the ditch bank, with a swoop blade cutting them ditch back like that. I didn't go to school no more. They put us on the ditch bank and work on the farm. Yeah. I wasn't learning nothing in the school no how. 232 26:42.000 --> 26:43.000 Why weren't you learning anything? 233 26:43.000 --> 26:44.000 Huh? 234 26:44.000 --> 26:45.000 Why weren't you learning anything? 235 26:45.000 --> 27:02.000 I'm talking about reading. To go to school, you had to have a book to read. I couldn't learn none of them books. I couldn't—(laughs) That I couldn't. I would've been home working on the farm, went to school. 236 27:02.000 --> 27:06.000 Right. Did you ever stay home from school to work on the farm? 237 27:06.000 --> 27:17.000 Yes, ma'am. Sometimes, there'd come a week you couldn't work. The rain, you had to stay that next week, had to stay home on the farm and work. 238 27:17.000 --> 27:19.000 If it was a fair day, you couldn't go [indistinct 00:27:19]. 239 27:19.000 --> 27:19.000 No, couldn't go. 240 27:19.000 --> 27:21.000 I couldn't go. 241 27:21.000 --> 27:30.000 On a fair day, you weren't able to go? 242 27:30.000 --> 27:30.000 Mm-mm. You had to be in the field working. 243 27:30.000 --> 27:30.000 Right. 244 27:30.000 --> 27:30.000 Come a little rain [indistinct 00:27:31]. 245 27:30.000 --> 27:30.000 Yeah, go to school. Yes. 246 27:30.000 --> 27:38.000 When you went, you would've missed a lot of the lessons if you hadn't gone to school. How did you learn your lessons? 247 27:38.000 --> 27:44.000 I didn't never learn none. I never learned none. 248 27:44.000 --> 27:47.000 Were your sisters able to go to school more regularly? 249 27:47.000 --> 27:47.000 Yeah. They went. All my sisters went. [indistinct 00:27:52] my oldest brother. Yeah, all my older— 250 27:47.000 --> 27:47.000 Some of the youngest girls went. 251 27:47.000 --> 27:47.000 They went and learned good. 252 27:47.000 --> 27:47.000 Right. 253 27:47.000 --> 27:47.000 One brother, me and him, couldn't go. Had to work. At that age, you had to work. Rain a little bit, you could go. Sometimes they'd come to the schoolhouse and get you. 254 27:47.000 --> 27:47.000 If it got fair and then they'd— 255 27:47.000 --> 27:47.000 Yeah. [indistinct 00:28:12] we'd come and get you. Yeah. Cutting barn wood and everything. I didn't go to school [indistinct 00:28:12]. 256 27:47.000 --> 27:47.000 Mm-hmm. 257 27:47.000 --> 28:12.000 All my younger brothers got some learning, good learning. 258 28:12.000 --> 28:36.000 Why were they able to go and you weren't? 259 28:36.000 --> 28:36.000 Huh? 260 28:36.000 --> 28:38.000 Why were they able to go? 261 28:38.000 --> 29:22.000 Well, me and my other brother, where I'm next to, these young ones, they had a chance to go. We didn't. I had one brother lost one arm and he couldn't do [indistinct 00:28:57] other brother. I had one named George, before was—I had my oldest brother, he and my daddy got to talking about farming, daddy [indistinct 00:29:12] cotton, and he just wanted to get some for a side crop. When he got his money, he said, "Dad, I ain't farming no more." (laughs) That was my oldest brother. 262 29:22.000 --> 29:22.000 Right, right, right. 263 29:22.000 --> 29:22.000 Yeah. He didn't farm no more. 264 29:22.000 --> 29:22.000 Mm-hmm. 265 29:22.000 --> 29:30.000 Went up north, come [indistinct 00:29:31] worked shipyard. All my brothers worked the shipyard, most of them. 266 29:30.000 --> 29:49.000 Mm-hmm. Mr. Bullock, what were the teachers like at the school? Did you like them? 267 29:49.000 --> 29:51.000 I just went to look at them teachers. 268 29:51.000 --> 29:51.000 You went to look at them. 269 29:51.000 --> 29:57.000 Yeah. They were looking so good. I went to look at the teachers. 270 29:57.000 --> 29:58.000 These were women teachers? 271 29:58.000 --> 30:11.000 Yes, ma'am. And then they had one man up there. I didn't go nowhere that man was. He was mean. He was a mean man. [indistinct 00:30:09] I quit going, [indistinct 00:30:11]. I went up there just to look at the teachers. 272 30:11.000 --> 30:14.000 Uh-huh. Uh-huh. 273 30:14.000 --> 30:16.000 I didn't try to learn. 274 30:16.000 --> 30:23.000 Right, right. So, the man was a teacher and he was mean? 275 30:23.000 --> 30:25.000 Yeah. He was a teacher too. 276 30:25.000 --> 30:26.000 How big was your school? 277 30:26.000 --> 30:27.000 [indistinct 00:30:27]. 278 30:27.000 --> 30:29.000 Yeah. 279 30:29.000 --> 30:30.000 A big school? How big was the school? 280 30:30.000 --> 30:31.000 Yeah. Did it have more than one room? 281 30:31.000 --> 30:44.000 It had two big rooms over here [indistinct 00:30:39] and the first little school I went to, it was something like a little one room going there. 282 30:44.000 --> 30:46.000 One long room. 283 30:46.000 --> 30:46.000 One long room, some over there, some over there. 284 30:46.000 --> 30:46.000 [indistinct 00:30:47]. 285 30:46.000 --> 30:46.000 And were all the grades in that one room? 286 30:46.000 --> 30:46.000 Yes, ma'am. 287 30:46.000 --> 30:47.000 Uh-huh. 288 30:47.000 --> 31:25.000 I went to that one. I didn't go to that one over there much. Once or twice, four or five times. But that one [indistinct 00:30:48] long one room, I went to—When I could go, I went to here. It's been a long time too. 289 31:25.000 --> 31:28.000 Where did your family attend church? 290 31:28.000 --> 31:30.000 Bethlehem. Bethlehem church. 291 31:30.000 --> 31:30.000 It was a baptist church— 292 31:30.000 --> 31:42.000 Over here. It was missionary. It was missionary. Right around over there where those [indistinct 00:31:39] at. That's mine. 293 31:42.000 --> 31:45.000 Can you talk about, what was your baptism like that? 294 31:45.000 --> 31:45.000 What's that? 295 31:45.000 --> 31:45.000 Your baptism? 296 31:45.000 --> 31:49.000 [indistinct 00:31:49]. 297 31:49.000 --> 31:51.000 Were you baptized? 298 31:51.000 --> 32:00.000 Yes, ma'am. I was baptized one time, Ruben Clark. His name was Ruben Clark. 299 32:00.000 --> 32:00.000 And when was that? 300 32:00.000 --> 32:03.000 I was about like that. 301 32:03.000 --> 32:05.000 Uh-huh. Do you remember that day? 302 32:05.000 --> 32:05.000 Yes, ma'am. 303 32:05.000 --> 32:23.000 Could you tell me about it? 304 32:23.000 --> 32:24.000 It was on a first Sunday. One first Sunday morning. One first Sunday morning, August. There was a Bible meeting going on at church. I remember [indistinct 00:32:20] down here in the branch creek [indistinct 00:32:24] down in the creek. 305 32:24.000 --> 32:26.000 Right, right. 306 32:26.000 --> 32:30.000 I remember that good. 307 32:30.000 --> 32:34.000 What else went on that day? Was there a big celebration? 308 32:34.000 --> 32:54.000 Yeah. When they got out of the water, we had went home and put on dry clothes and go to church, and then go back to church here sit down here preaching and singing. Long day. I remember that good. 309 32:54.000 --> 32:59.000 What other things did you do at church that were— 310 32:59.000 --> 33:09.000 See, some of them had to [indistinct 00:33:01] park cars around church [indistinct 00:33:03] park. Yeah. 311 33:09.000 --> 33:11.000 Did you enjoy going to church? 312 33:11.000 --> 33:13.000 Yeah, I enjoyed it. 313 33:13.000 --> 33:13.000 Why? 314 33:13.000 --> 33:29.000 Because I just loved to sing and do. Loved to have some good old singing and doing. But you've got to sit there so long before they start singing. Just like you go to school. Go to school, you've got to sit there as long as [indistinct 00:33:30]. I get taught sitting and waiting. You ever been fishing any time? 315 33:29.000 --> 33:29.000 No. 316 33:29.000 --> 33:29.000 I go to creek, go to fishing. If the fish ain't got to bite, I get taught. I get taught, I go and move somewhere if I don't catch nothing. Then if I don't catch nothing, I get up and go on back to the house and lay down in a cool place. 317 33:29.000 --> 33:29.000 Right, right. 318 33:29.000 --> 34:01.000 I get taught sitting down waiting, fishing and doing like that. 319 34:01.000 --> 34:03.000 Would you meet your friends at church? 320 34:03.000 --> 34:06.000 Yeah. Yeah. We'd meet them at church. 321 34:06.000 --> 34:10.000 Was there anywhere else where you met with your friends? 322 34:10.000 --> 34:15.000 No. [indistinct 00:34:12]. They ain't around here now. 323 34:15.000 --> 34:17.000 There was no gathering place? 324 34:17.000 --> 34:17.000 Uh-uh. 325 34:17.000 --> 34:20.000 Okay. Did you go to town very much? 326 34:20.000 --> 34:29.000 We'd go even sometimes three times a month, down there to get the medicine down at drugstore, [indistinct 00:34:29]. 327 34:29.000 --> 34:34.000 Right. What about when you were growing up? Did you go to town much? 328 34:34.000 --> 34:43.000 My daddy [indistinct 00:34:36] stay home on the farm, my daddy and mama living. Yeah. If you go away, you had to be back before night. 329 34:43.000 --> 34:46.000 Right, right. 330 34:46.000 --> 35:01.000 Mm-hmm. The only time I went to go into town—my own man. Yeah, my own man. [indistinct 00:34:57] I got ready. 331 35:01.000 --> 35:04.000 Right, right. Were you glad when you became your own man and were able to do that? 332 35:04.000 --> 35:07.000 I sure was. I sure was. 333 35:07.000 --> 35:10.000 What was it like at home? 334 35:10.000 --> 35:15.000 [indistinct 00:35:10] a better time home, when my mama lived and she would let us go and come back. 335 35:15.000 --> 35:19.000 Right. So, your dad was stricter? 336 35:19.000 --> 35:30.000 Yeah. He would stick to [indistinct 00:35:21] my ma and dad were living, I would have better times. Sure would. 337 35:30.000 --> 35:37.000 Yes, sir. My mother [indistinct 00:35:35] living. 338 35:37.000 --> 35:40.000 When you were growing up, who was the boss at home? Who— 339 35:40.000 --> 35:46.000 My daddy. My daddy. He was named Blair Bullock. 340 35:46.000 --> 35:49.000 Right. And how was he the boss? What decisions did he make? 341 35:49.000 --> 36:07.000 Well, he'd make, you got to do it. Yeah. He'd make you go do it, or guess what. Yeah. Yeah. He'd tell you what to do, you go do it. 342 36:07.000 --> 36:09.000 Who took care of the money at home? 343 36:09.000 --> 36:09.000 My dad. 344 36:09.000 --> 36:10.000 Your dad? 345 36:10.000 --> 36:16.000 Yeah, but he [indistinct 00:36:12] my mama took care of it. 346 36:16.000 --> 36:19.000 Did your mother ever do any work off the farm? 347 36:19.000 --> 36:23.000 No, ma'am. No, ma'am. 348 36:23.000 --> 36:24.000 What did she do? 349 36:24.000 --> 36:38.000 She stayed around home, in the field, chopping, pulling tobacco and cooked. She [indistinct 00:36:36] stayed around home and cooked for all of us. We were big eaters [indistinct 00:36:40]. 350 36:38.000 --> 36:44.000 [indistinct 00:36:41] It's 18 of us. 351 36:44.000 --> 36:47.000 Well, when you're doing field work all day too, you get hungry, I'm sure. 352 36:47.000 --> 37:00.000 Sure would. And then we raised a lot of vegetables, cabbages to go home [indistinct 00:36:55] cabbage and cornbread up there. But dammit, that stuff be good because that was home made meat. 353 37:00.000 --> 37:00.000 It sounds good. 354 37:00.000 --> 37:08.000 It sure was. Take that cornbread, put it inside the old wood stove, cook it like you do best. Cut it off with a knife. That stuff was good. 355 37:08.000 --> 37:08.000 [indistinct 00:37:08]. I used to fight. Give me a [indistinct 00:37:08] piece of the ham meat [indistinct 00:37:08]. I'd put some wood in the stove and go out eat, come on back for more. She said, "You ain't getting no more before suppertime [indistinct 00:37:08]." 356 37:08.000 --> 37:39.000 Who whipped you if you got in trouble? 357 37:39.000 --> 38:19.000 I remember my daddy whooped me before my mama whooped me. My mama whooped me, she ain't going to stop whooping until you see some water crying. You going to cry. And I'd cry a little bit later, and I'd cry a whole lot. She going to whoop me all across the shoulders and everywhere. [indistinct 00:38:01] with old brush brooms. Take one down and put you in that room there, she'd beat you good. My daddy would be standing in the door, you can't get out. My daddy whooped me, he got to get his old belt and whoop. I'd make like I'm crying, then he'll stop whooping me. 358 38:19.000 --> 38:23.000 So your mother was—You didn't want to be whipped by your mother? 359 38:23.000 --> 38:23.000 Mm-mm. 360 38:23.000 --> 38:23.000 No, huh? 361 38:23.000 --> 38:37.000 No. My mama would knock you down anytime she get a hand on you, telling you don't do—what to do and talk back to her. Yeah, she'll do it. 362 38:37.000 --> 39:04.000 Could you tell me what the happiest day of your life was? Was there one day that was the happiest of your life? 363 39:04.000 --> 39:41.000 The happiest day of my life. I don't hardly know. I did know that day. We would go home and the happiest day of my life, I'd be going somewhere and come back home and to have something good cooked, and not even know you got cooking. Yeah. That stuff would be good too. Sometimes my mama cooked cakes and stuff like that, some barbecue, ice tea and stuff, we wouldn't be expecting it. That stuff was good. Eating that stuff [indistinct 00:39:33]. We'd eat that stuff and then go out there on the porch and lay around, sit around, get hungry again, go back in the kitchen get some more in. 364 39:41.000 --> 39:42.000 Get some more. 365 39:42.000 --> 39:42.000 Yeah, and that stuff was good. Sometimes my daddy used to kill a hog, we didn't know he was killing. You'd dig a hole in the ground and cook a hog. 366 39:42.000 --> 39:42.000 Right, right. 367 39:42.000 --> 39:42.000 They'd cook the hog, that barbecue [indistinct 00:39:46]. And that's happy day too. Mm-hmm. 368 39:42.000 --> 39:45.000 Were there ever times when you didn't have enough to eat at home? 369 39:45.000 --> 40:17.000 Around this time of year, folks would have something to eat all the time [indistinct 00:40:11] when they're raising the garden and chicken and things [indistinct 00:40:14] and hogs in the garden. 370 40:17.000 --> 40:19.000 So there was never a time when you were hungry? 371 40:19.000 --> 40:23.000 No, ma'am. Didn't never get hungry. [indistinct 00:40:23]. 372 40:23.000 --> 40:30.000 Were there people who didn't have enough to eat? 373 40:30.000 --> 40:58.000 Some of them didn't have enough to eat, and folks used to have a great big watermelon patch then. Sometimes we would slip in other folks watermelon patch. [indistinct 00:40:40] but us would never tell my mama and daddy about it, they would find out. And my mama and daddy would tear us up. The folks at the watermelon patch would see us [indistinct 00:40:52] to the home and tell [indistinct 00:40:55] watermelon patch, they would tear us up. Yeah. 374 40:58.000 --> 40:58.000 Uh-huh. 375 40:58.000 --> 41:08.000 Them watermelon, old mush melon were good. Had to get them out of [indistinct 00:41:05]. 376 41:08.000 --> 41:13.000 Were there any places that your parents told you you could not go around here? 377 41:13.000 --> 41:14.000 Mm-hmm. 378 41:14.000 --> 41:15.000 Where was that? 379 41:15.000 --> 41:25.000 They didn't want you to go to Leggett, this little piccolo joint, a little old piccolo joint. They serve beer and whiskey around there. No, we wouldn't go that place. 380 41:25.000 --> 41:28.000 Did you ever go? 381 41:28.000 --> 41:50.000 No. Uh-uh. But in that one time, they had an old record player, and the man that run the store told my daddy about it, and he whooped us. We didn't ever go there no more. 382 41:50.000 --> 41:53.000 These planes are so loud. And they're so fast. It's an Air Force? 383 41:53.000 --> 41:54.000 Uh? 384 41:54.000 --> 41:57.000 Air Force? Is that what it is? 385 41:57.000 --> 41:57.000 [indistinct 00:41:58]. 386 41:57.000 --> 42:00.000 I ain't never been up in there. 387 42:00.000 --> 42:02.000 Right, but that's where the plane is from? 388 42:02.000 --> 42:08.000 Yeah. You ever ridden an airplane? 389 42:08.000 --> 42:10.000 Yeah. Have you? 390 42:10.000 --> 42:10.000 Mm-mm. 391 42:10.000 --> 42:10.000 Never? 392 42:10.000 --> 42:16.000 I ain't got no business up there. Got no business that high off the ground. 393 42:16.000 --> 42:19.000 Did you ever travel away from this area? Have you ever gone any place? 394 42:19.000 --> 42:31.000 I've been to Georgia, the other side of Georgia, but I ain't been on an airplane. I'll go on a bus. I've been to New York and places on buses and things, no airplane. 395 42:31.000 --> 42:35.000 When did you go to New York City? 396 42:35.000 --> 42:40.000 Two or three years ago. I got a half sister that lives up there. Half sister lives in New York. 397 42:40.000 --> 42:43.000 Did you ever go anywhere when you were a young man? 398 42:43.000 --> 43:04.000 No, ma'am. No, ma'am. I didn't never go nowhere. No [indistinct 00:42:51] and Rocky Mount. And the Rocky Mount. Yeah. I got some folks [indistinct 00:43:07]. 399 43:04.000 --> 43:04.000 Morning. 400 43:04.000 --> 43:11.000 [indistinct 00:43:08]. 401 43:11.000 --> 43:16.000