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<titleStmt>
<title>Interview with Hilda and Earl Jefferies</title>
</titleStmt>
<publicationStmt>
<authority>Union County Historical Society</authority>
<publisher>Special Collections/University Archives, Bucknell University</publisher>
<date>19 November 1976</date>
</publicationStmt>
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<recording>
<date>November 19, 1976</date>
<respStmt>
<name>Jeannette Lasansky</name>
<resp>interviewer</resp>
</respStmt>
<respStmt>
<name>Hilda Jefferies</name>
<resp>interviewee</resp>
</respStmt>
<respStmt>
<name>Earl Jefferies</name>
<resp>interviewee</resp>
</respStmt>
<respStmt>
<name>Karl Amylon</name>
<resp>editor</resp>
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<text>
<body>
<div>
<head>Interviewees: Hilda Jefferies and Earl Jefferies</head>
<byline>Jeannette Lasansky (11-19-76)</byline>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Maybe we could get started on the one room schoolhouse, what it was like to
go there...?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>I went to school in a one room schoolhouse, my mother and my dad both did,
my sisters and brothers did and it was located about a mile and a half from
where we live now, (Carroll). It was really interesting. We had from the
first to the eighth grade one teacher, as high as 28 youngsters at a time,
and really we had no trouble. It was more like the open classrooms today,
but there was discipline. Not everyday did their own thing, like they do
today. And I walked from the Tea Spring Lodge or the Sand Fun Lodge, which
was 4½ miles one way and almost 5½ the other, when I went to school for most
of my school years. My sister - she did the same thing and my brothers too.
And I boarded with my aunt when I was younger, when I first started school,
who lived just about a half a mile from the school, but the latter part of
my school years, I did the walking - through the woods - never even saw a
bear - and there were bear in this country at that time. I saw deer, grouse
which always scared the daylights out of me. Our teachers were very good, I
mean they gave you more than just the three R's. They taught us things that
are worthwhile for the rest of your life. We had especially three of them,
the Schwank people, Charlie Schwank who later was a teacher in the Jersey
Shore High School and his sister Anna and their niece Ada Dowdy, and I've
kept in contact with these two people, the younger ones ever since they've
taught our school we've been good friends. They taught us a lot of things
besides what was in the book. It was very good. I loved the school, hated to
miss it, but I did get snowed out once in a while, and had to stay home for
maybe a week at a time when our roads were snowed in, couldn't get out, and
I guess that's about the most important. Sometimes we had pretty big boys,
who became a little bit obnoxious (chuckle) but normally everyday got along
pretty well.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Did the fellows come back who were maybe older than a normal eighth grade
age?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Yes, yes, they did. They used to, not so much when I went, but when my
sister and brothers went. They went 'til they were 21 years old sometimes,
because there wasn't any local high school at that time. Most of them
finished up their entire schooling in a one room schoolhouse, first to
eighth grade school.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>When would you start?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>We'd start in September and end in April. It was an eight-month school year
instead of the nine which we have now.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Was that because of farming, maybe, in part?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>I think so. I believe that had a lot to do with it, and some of the older
boys and girls would take jobs. The girls would go out and do the housework
on the farms and the boys would be hired, and I think that was the big
reason. And all schools, even the town schools didn't have nine months at
that time.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>How long did this school keep on going as a one room schoolhouse? Do you
know when it closed?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Our youngest daughter who is going to be 28 years old, she had her first two
years there.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>That would be about 1947.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>'52 or '54 is when the school closed and then it was used as a residence for
a couple years, and then a group of men bought it for a hunting cabin.
Finally when the Shortway or Foute 80 came through,it was completely
demolished. The interchange is right where the school had been.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Now what was it like in the classroom?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>It had a pot-belly stove right in the middle and it used hard coal to keep
it warm and it was very nice and warm, always felt comfortable. Mornings,
sometimes before the fire came up, it was chilly, but otherwise it was quite
comfortable. And we had a water cooler, a little faucet in the bottom where
we got our water. Previous to that it used to be just an open bucket with a
dipper in it. That was before they were conscious of sanitation, I
guess.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>You didn't have separate cups? You just had the one?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>No. You did if you took them. Otherwise a lot of the families didn't think
of it.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>And you'd bring your lunch?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Always brought our lunch, brought our own lunch. We had no hot meals and
very few had thermos bottles at the time. In fact they didn't have them when
I went but then later when our children went to school there, then they had
thermos bottles and we'd send along in them warm chocolate or milk, or
whatever.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>And was the time about the same that the children go to school now?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Well, we started school at nine and ended at four, had an hour off for lunch
and 15-minute recess in the morning and 15 in the afternoon.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Were the texts the same that had been used for a long time or had they been
changed?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>If I remember, they had the McGuffey Reader at first, the reader which there
had been quite a lot of talk about that in the last few years, as you
already know, and we had, I remember, when I was in the eighth grade, about
eight books, eight different books. I've even forgotten what 'em all
was.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>There was mental arithmetic. We had grammer, a little bit of English. In
grammer class, each class would be called to sit up in the front row and
recite or be called on, or if it was written work, we'd go to the board and
write it. It was kind of nice. (Chuckle)</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>When you went up, did you go with all the different grades at once?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>No, each grade went up of his own accord and they'd call you. They' say
"rise" "pass" and "be seated", - that's the way. Everybody rose at one time
of that particular class and they might be scattered all over the room
because they didn't have them sitting, one grade here, one grade there.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Did you have your own choice where you sat?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Usually it was like that in the fall, you picked your seat and then you kept
it for the rest of the year unless you had some problem, then sometimes the
teacher would move you. (Laughter)</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>What does "pass" mean?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>That would be when you got up from your seat, and then you marched or walked
up to the front of the room, and that would be “pass”. And the same reverse
step when you'd go to the back of the class.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Was the front on a platform or raised?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>The teacher's desk was a trifle higher but that had large legs on it and was
up a little higher.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Did the teachers stay for very long?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>They'd teach as much as two and three years at a time before there'd be
another teacher, when I went. Now, I don't know about earlier than
that.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Do you know why the teachers stayed for that long? Were they going on to a
different school?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>In the township, they would be changed around from one school to another by
the school board. Whenever they had difficulty with any school, some¬ times
they'd transfer them in the middle of the term, but not as a rule. That
didn't happen often.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Were there certain choices in keeping the school up?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Yes. Each one would take his turn at the sweeping job and carrying in the
coal. The boys would do that and bring in the water to fill the water
cooler. Each person had his chore. They just assigned usually two to do
this. Somebody would be cleaning the blackboard in the meantime. It was
really nice. You can't imagine how nice it really was.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Earl: </speaker>
<ab>Hilda, tell them about where they got the water.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Oh, they got their water from a little natural spring. It was about an
eighth of a mile wide, possible. We'd get it there. Nobody seemed to have
any difficulty with bugs or anything in those days. Today, they do though.
Now that spring was down below where the old schoolhouse sits.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>What about the discipline? You said it was quite disciplined. What was that
like? What happened?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Oh, yes. When the teachers needed to paddle somebody, they did. And if they
disobeyed on a minor thing, they'd stand on the floor for so long, sometimes
with their face in the corner. Sometimes you'd just have to stand and face
the whole school depending what the teacher wanted, depending on what his or
her method was.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Was there a paddle that was prominent on display?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Usually up above the blackboards or the maps. Sometimes it was just a piece
of a yardstick or something like that, never anything too much. The kids
were usually pretty good.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>But it was fairly disciplined?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Very much disciplined. Now you know today with the open school, everybody
talks or moves or does what they pretty much want to. You couldn't talk out
loud during school session. If you wanted to know some¬ thing, you held up
your hand, the teacher'd call you by name and ask you what you wanted. If
you needed to go out to the outside pottie, you'd raise your hand and ask
"May I go out, please?" and she'd tell you to go. You knew enough to come
back in time or she came out and got you.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>No dawdling?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>No dawdling.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>What about helping each other?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Now you see all the classes were listed as A. B and C class. Beginner were
under the C class, or the primer class, and if the older ones were finished
with their work and other ones in the class needed help, you were allowed to
help, but ask the teacher first. We always respected what the
teacher...</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>And do you think that sort of helped?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Oh, I think it did.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>What was the feeling of going into a school room where you have eighth
graders and you're a first grader? Do you remember emotions?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Oh, not exactly, I don't, because I did a little studying before I went
because I had spent my first year in school when I was nine years old. I had
gone a few months when I was eight years and I didn't go a full term until I
was nine years old, and I was kind of acclimated to it, and I usually got
along pretty well with people, so not too much trouble. One cousin and I
used to scrap like the dickens, we just went on...today we're both up in
years and we still don't see eye-to-eye. (laughter) She was more or less
boisterous and I was just full of pep and life, but not in the same
way.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>The texts, they would coordinated with things like maps?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Yes, in geography we used maps a lot. And you'd have your assignments out of
your own book. Everybody had their own book.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Did you pay for your book and keep it?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>No. no.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Was that passed down?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>That was passed down. And when you were finished, you turned it in when the
school term ended and it was passed on the next year. Lots of times you
would get a book somebody had had maybe five, six years before, and when
they got too badly used, why they'd get new ones.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Did the books basically remain the same in the period you were in
school?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Pretty much the same, I would say for the years that I went to school. Not
too much change in the years that I went. I went from the time I was nine
until I was sixteen. Then I was through with grade school. Then I went to
high school for a year. I started the second year and dropped out. I was a
"dropout", but not literally like they think now because I felt my parents
needed me more than I needed to go to school. To try to drive eleven miles
in a Model-T Ford and go home and help do chores in the evening and hurry to
get up early in the morning, this was too much of a job. And I've never been
sorry because my dad and mother really needed my help and needed my being
there with the car and everything.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>And why had you started late?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>That was, I guess, due to the fact that I was living so far away to get to
school. I had to walk alone because I was the last one in the family. I
didn't have anybody to walk with. I had to go two miles through the woods
before I picked up my companions. And that was one of the reasons.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Pretty good walk.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>I don't know, maybe I was retarded, I don’t know. (Laughter) But I don't
think so. I did study for it. You know, we were studying a little bit
before. We had a friend who came hunting to our house for maybe, oh, 20
years before that time and he decided that he was going to give me books
before I ever went to school. That helped a lot. My mother and father was
learnin' all the things. Got along pretty well.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Was there distance between you and your brother...?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Fourteen months, fourteen years between my sister and myself. I came along
late in life.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Now you were saying that a lot of what you learned was not in books. What
kind of things?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>How to treat your fellow man and just a general Christian back ground, not
that they taught any particular denomination or anything. The one man was a
minister and his sister and niece were both Christian women. I think that
all the children that went to school under that program ended up with a
pretty nice -- they were just good kids, people, that's all.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Would there have been anything else that you would have learned that
wouldn't have been academic?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>No, I don't think so.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Was this their sole profession until they retired?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Yes, that was their profession. And then I had other good teachers who
dropped teaching after a few years of it and went to farming and got married
and did other things like that. I think there were three who stuck with
teaching until they retired.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Was it well paid?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>That I really couldn’t tell you.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Was it a respected profession?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>It was a respected profession but as far as paying is concerned, I don't
think it was very high, not at that time. (Question directed at E) -I think
you saw some of the old books? Who showed those to you?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Earl: </speaker>
<ab>I forget what it amounted to but it wasn't much though.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>$50.00 a month or something like that.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>(F)</speaker>
<ab>Oh, it wasn't that much. I think it was $30.00.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>And you had to furnish your own transportation or board at the nearest home.
One, this Mr. Schwank, he used to ski for his home was over at Eastville. He
used to ski through the woods along the old railroad grade down to school.
He skied when we had a lot of snow. He'd drive his horse at other
times.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Would students ski in?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>No. no.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>That was unusual.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>That was an unusual thing. He was the only one locally who had skies at that
time.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Were they things he made himself?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>I think they were.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>You had mentioned the tea that we'll be having at lunch?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>That used to grow very profusely on the tea knob which is south of the Sand
Fun Lodge. We'd gather it by the armsfull when I was a little girl, 10 or 12
years old. My daddy and I would go for tea in late September. That was when
you would pick it because then the danger of snakes would be a little less
than earlier. He'd take me with him and we'd get armsfull of it: strip the
leaves off.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>This is the goldenrod.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>This is the goldenrod or Blue Mountain tea as it's known and that's what
we're going to have for lunch today.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Now you used all leaves?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Just the leaves, not the stem. Just strip the leaves off and dry them, put
them in a can and keep them indefinitely.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Does this have to be dried in the sun?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>No, it can be dried in a room or any place where there is an air
circulation. In the bedroom you might do it, on papers or on cloth; when
it's dry, you put it away. It dries easily and quite fast.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Did you use it because it had a particularly good taste or did it have the
qualities...?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Yes, yes, it had a particularly good taste. It had sort of an anise taste
and most people like it, but you didn't use that exclusively. We'd have
store tea which we liked. We'd have that every now and then. I think you
would get tired of it if you had it too often.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>It's nice to have it just once in a while. Were there any other kinds of
things in terms of foods, that you'd gather and treat specially?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Oh, yes, brackens, the three-fork fern that grows and comes up to a
fiddleneck. We'd get that every spring. That's a must with me now. It isn't
spring without that. I'm like Euell Gibbons - have to have that bracken
every spring.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Now what do you do with it?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>We cook it in salt water, drain it, put a little browned butter on, salt and
pepper it and it's delicious. Our children grew up with it and they all love
it. It's like mushrooms. You have to know what fern you're picking because
you could get the wrong thing. And of course I've learned to cook lamb's
quarter. They grew that in the cornfields and in the gardens. Of course
everybody knows about dandelion. That's nothing unusual.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>For lamb's quarter, what do you do?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Same procedure, just like spinach. You can freeze or can it. You can use it
like spinach and very few people know the difference.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>The dandelion you use in salads?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Yes, dandelion's a must. And there's poke but I've only learned to use that
in the last 20 years. You use it when it's about 5 to 6 inches tall, never
any taller than that; and you cook that and you could put a sour vinegar
dressing on it or you can butter it. It's very good. But after that, it
becomes quite poisonous. Those "burries" are poisonous.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>When does it become usable?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>In May, the latter part of May is when the poke comes up for use. The middle
of May this bracken is ready to be used.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>And then in terms of the poke, you have a very short time in which to pick
it?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>That's right, I'd say about a week or ten days, maybe two weeks at the most.
By that time it shoots so fast you just don't take any chance on it. And
it's sold in the market. Even Harrisburg has it on their market.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Are parts of the poke poisonous?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>The whole stalk after it gets to a certain age is, and the the "burries" are
extremely poisonous.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>The leaves may or may not be?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>I'm not so sure about that. I've always been told never to use it after a
certain stage, and I've gone along with that.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Can you tell in looking at the size?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Yes, I think I can. I never pick it when it's more than about that
high.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Five or six inches.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>It has a very nice yellowish, reddish, crisp look, something like asparagus
at the base. Is there anything else that I use? Oh, yes, sour grass. That
makes a delicious salad. Do you know what sour grass looks like?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Earl: </speaker>
<ab>Looks like a cloverleaf.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Looks like a closer but the middle leaf is much, much longer. If you gather
that and put one of these dressings that you mix up, you know the "nice and
easy" or something like that, it's delicious.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Do you know anything about local herbs?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Just the ones that grow in the garden, like rue and parsley and fennel, but
I don't grow too many of them. talking about going to school and living in
an isolated area, back in 1923, my father was six or seven weeks in bed. He
had drank water when he was overheated and that apparently gave him a case
of gastritis. Well, he was in bed for seven weeks and my mother took care of
all the barnwork and took care of him at the same time. And then my sister
came home. She had been married by that time and she came home. We were
going to our next door neighbors, who lived two miles away from us, to get
our mail,and we took our old saw horse who was way up in his twenties at the
time. We hitched him to a cutter; there was snow on the road at that time,
and we started for the mail. We got about one half the way and we saw that a
big tree had crossed the road. We didn't know how we were going to get the
horse or the cutter across this tree. We unhitched the horse and led him
around and he stood still while we lifted the cutter over - hitched him up
and went on and got the mail. When we came back from getting the mail, we
did the same thing all over again.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>What is a cutter?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>A cutter is a sleigh that you can put two seats on like a spring wagon. You
know what a spring wagon is, don't you? This cutter has a long runner and
comes up in a sort of a curl like that in front and has a dashboard on it
and two seats. You hitch one horse to it at the shaft and that's what's
called a cutter.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Do you know how it got that name?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Well, the only thing I can think of is because it cuts through the snow.
It's not like a sleigh. It's different.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>What do you use it for?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>You haul your groceries in it, things like that. I think that it's a handier
thing in a way than what a fancier sleigh because you had very little room
with a nice fancy sleigh except where you put your feet. Then you'd have to
pile things on top of them. We always used the cutter. My dad had a large
bobsled too. That was two sections of sled which had a big wagon box on it.
We'd take that to parties. We'd load the neighbors up and go to oyster
suppers and dances and things like that.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>And what are oyster suppers?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Well, we'd get a whole bunch of people together and have fried oysters,
oyster stew and crackers, and bread and butter, and that was about it. They
used to be called cyster duppers.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Where would they get the oysters?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>They got them shipped in from the bay by train. You see we had a train going
through here.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Oh, from the Chesapeake?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Yes, they'd come in by the gallon, fresh shucked oysters.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>And that was sort of a major social event?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>That was a major social event for the winter time, plus square dancing, yes,
quite a few square dances. And they'd meet and square dance in the homes.
Sometimes they'd rent a hall like an Oddfellows Hall. My dad used to be a
fiddler. He never took a lesson in his life, and he had a violin. In fact,
he even made a violin which I still have. But he had another one that he had
bought and used to play for these square dances. He and a cousin of my
mother's used to play together. My sister used to cord along with them on
the guitar. My brother did too sometimes when he'd be home.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Do you know about the songs he played? Is there anybody doing that
anymore?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Not locals, there isn't. I used to play the "Arkansas Traveler". That was
more of a dialogue that we'd go through. That was more of an entertainment
feature of a dance or when one had guests for supper, he would be called
upon to play this "Arkansas Traveler". Recite with it, that was
interesting.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Are there songs that are very local?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>No, I really don't know. I think they're used in other places too, the same
type of song, because I know when they'd visit in Danville, they'd learn new
tunes. They'd come home and bring them up here.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>So the tunes travelled?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>They travelled.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Were there other kinds of dances other than the square dance?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Not when I grew up.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Like a polka?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Not too many were done then.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Was the schottishe played?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>My daddy used to play it but they didn't do the dance with it. My grandma
did. She was very good. She could do a schottishe and she was an extremely
good waltzer. She was born in Germany and she could waltz very well.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>What was the schottishe like?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>It was snappy, sort of a quick, I would say more like the polka but
different, I didn't do any of these.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Were the dances done by older people?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Only the older people did the schottishe at that time. But then about, I
would say in the late thirties and forties, some of our local girls learned
to polka and they did the polka then, but I never learned to do that.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>What other kinds of things would be done in the winter to get together?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Quilting bees. They did a lot of quilting. The women would get to mingle a
little and get together and quilt and have a nice big meal with it.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Would they have done the piecing before?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Oh, yes.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>How would that go? Would people bring separate pieces?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>No. usually each person who was going to have the quilting, would have it at
her home from a quilt that she had already finished, ready to guilt, and
then the other ladies would be invited in and they'd get it done that much
quicker. And they were very fussy about quilting. Sometimes they did it
along each seam of each patch on each side and that took lots of time.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Double the amount.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>They doubled the amount. They didn't do it like they do today.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>What if somebody didn't quilt up to par? (Laughter)</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>They weren't invited back the next time. If they made too many big
(Laughter) stitches, they weren't invited back.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>How long would a quilt take to be done?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Oh, it took weeks in the wintertime if you did it yourself. There's only
about four people that can work on a side of a quilting frame comfortably.
They do maybe a half a quilt in a day with that many working on it, and then
maybe they'd have another one another time or the owner of the quilt would
finish it.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Would many quilting bees occur in a winter?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Quite a number, maybe six or eight in that little colony (county?). When
people came to our house they had to drive anywhere from six to seven miles
to get there. And the same way when my mother went to quilt, she'd have to
drive to get there.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>So it was as much a social...?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>It was pretty much a social function.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>...as well as getting something done. The men would not be in the house at
this time?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Not usually. They went about their own business and came in to eat, of
course, at noon. Then men whose wives went to the quilting usually stayed
home that day. (Chuckle)</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Would a man ever quilt?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>Not that I know of, but I did have a neighbour who did a lot of crocheting,
a man, and he was very good at it. Incidentally he became a jeweler. That
was Harry.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>Can you remember any of the patterns and the reasons why they were called
what they were? I know you have something like "The Drunkard's Path"
and...</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>
<ab>"The Drunkard's Path" and “The Bear Paw” and ”The Nine Patch”, and a lot of
different ones. They got to appliqueing quilts too, later on. They were very
pretty. Two were called "The Wedding Ring" and "The Flower Garden". I still
have a "Flower Garden" ready to put together. (Chuckle) I never know how
I'll accomplish it.</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Jeannette: </speaker>
<ab>In the middle, what kind of filling would they use?</ab>
</sp>
<sp>
<speaker>Hilda: </speaker>