Carl Bishop: The Storm of 1931

I come down through it. Trees were falling in front of me and behind me. It was sleet that fell on the trees, and it pulled trees down that were that big around. I had daddy’s old shotgun. I come down there at the creek. It was out. I throwed the gun across the creek. It hit the ice across the trees. Came back and stuck up in the mud in the water. I crawled on across a foot log and I got my feet wet going across and I hit it and went on across, and I pulled this much of the stock sticking out; reached down got hold of it and picked it up. And my brother Denver has still got that old shotgun I pulled out of the mud.

U.S. Census -- Acworth, Cobb Co., 1930

Carl Bishop: Fishing and Swimming in the Tallapoosa

We used canes to fish. We’d cut ‘em off the bank of the creek. We used a line, some kind of a line. We dug our worms. Earth worms, mostly. There were no red wigglers at that time. We’d fish for mud cats or whatever kind was in the river. The first creek I ever fished in was the Tallapoosa.
And, oh yeah, we swam in that creek. We frog gigged and we’d turtle hunt. We’d make a three-pronged frog gig and we’d go along the bank and see their eyes and take that frog gig and gig it. We’d eat the frog legs. We’d cut ‘em off the frog, get the skin off of them and wash them real good. Mother would wash them real good, skin ‘em, then batter them in flour and drop them in hot grease. Next.

Carl Bishop: "We'd Play Mostly at the River"

We moved back to Haralson County in 1931.
We’d play mostly at the river. That was our playground. Oh, Good Lord! We fished. We played in the water. We had an old boat, any old boat we could find. Anything we could find to get in the water with, that's what we done.
One day out there we was under the bridge, about four or five of us on an old boat, standing up, holding onto the bridge. It was in March. And Ralston Wheeler, one of the boys, he went and messed around and fell off into the water. All you could see was his hat, lying there on top of the water! He climbed up, and we had to build a fire to get him warm. We done that a lot of times, built a fire to get warm with, when we went in the creek or something or other where we'd have to get some heat. Next.

Oscar and Annie Bishop

Next.

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.

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.

Bernice Bishop: "Now Mother Wasn't A Healthy Person"

Bernice remembers. Next.

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.

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.