Monday, September 28, 2009

Carl Bishop: 19 and 26.

I remember Daddy and Annie Hudgins married after we moved to Acworth. She always loved the kids. She was always good to me, and I tried to be good to her. I was eight when she and my daddy got married.
She already had a boy, Clarence. He was 10. She didn't make no difference between me and him. In fact, sometimes she leaned to me more than she did Clarence. She'd sit up with me many, many a night when I started smothering from asthma. She'd stay up with me and give me coffee. Rub me with salve. Fan me. Sit there with me until I'd go back to sleep. Anything she could do to try to help me.
When we moved to Acworth, I remember, we lived near Highway 41, which goes through the town, and it wasn't even paved at that time. It was dirt. When winter come down there, the roads would get pretty rough. The police -- the black and whites -- they had a team of mules. They'd go down there in that hollow and they'd pull them cars out when they got stuck outside the house. They’d get 'em going again. But boy, them northerns, they would cuss every time. They could get through the ice and snow, but they couldn't do nothing with that mud. Next.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Carl Bishop: "We Didn't Have Nothing to Play With"

We didn't have nothing to play with. No toys or nothing like that, you know.
Well, we played out in the yard. We played in the sand. We played with blocks. You know, pushed blocks and made trails with them. Like cars were running. 'Cause you know cars were very few, at that time. We'd make little trains. Hook the blocks together and make them look like a little train. Somebody would fix it for us, you know, Daddy would.
We'd get under the house and make trails and go all around on our knees. We'd play under the house a lot. They weren't underpinned like they are now. They was up off of the ground. Next.

Tela Shedd: "We Used to Make Rag Dolls"

Tela Shedd remembers when she and her sister Etta would make baskets and clothing from grass and leaves and broom straw when they were little girls. Listen. Next.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Carl Bishop: "Mama Stayed Sick For About Three Years"


I don't remember too much about her. I remember her being sick and I remember when she died.
I remember some things that happened while Mama was a-livin'. Like when we were going from Douglasville up to Haralson County and having flat tires. It was a crazy thing. We had a flat tire one time and there was a big old buzzard sitting on the fence, right there on the pasture post. I thought that was the dangdest thing. Daddy went and thrown something at him that made him fly.
See, Mama stayed sick for about three years. Doctor said it was pellagra. Of course, I don't know. It could’ve been cancer, far as I know. Back in them days, you know, they didn't know too much about diseases. Back in 1924.
That's the year she died. I remember when Omie-Florence was born on the 14th day of March, 1924. We lived down there in Grandma's house. It snowed that night.
Mama died that summer. Next.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Carl Bishop: "Smotherin'"


I was born in Douglas County, Georgia in my parents’ home on April 5, 1918. Dr. Claude Van Zant delivered me.
The first thing I remember is the first spell of asthma I ever had.
I was three years old. It was in the summertime.
I remember that we was eating supper. They used to have the children stand up at the table with the chairs turned backwards. I was standing up like that and I started smothering.
I got down and laid in front of the door, looking for air. Of course we didn't have no screens or nothing, back in them days.
Mama run over to me and my oldest sister Bernice run down the street and got the doctor. He didn't live but just a few houses below us.
He come back up there and worked with me a little bit, and said, "Well, he's got asthma. Maybe he'll outgrow it."
But I still have it today. Next.