“Sometimes they would get big rocks and put them inside the fireplace to take the place of bricks.  You could get rocks in the forest.

Furniture

“Used to have ropes and they would cord the bed stead.  The cords would act in place of springs.  When you move you would have a heap of trouble because all that would have to be undone and done up again.  You have to take the cords out and them put it together again.  The cords would be run through the sides of the bed and stuck in with pegs.

“They used to have spinning wheels and looms.  They made clothes and they made the cloth for the clothes and they spun the thread they made the cloth our of.  They’d card and spin the thread.  There’s lots of other things I can’t remember.

War Memories

“The Yankess used to come in and have the people cook for them.  They’d kill chickens and geese and things.  The old people used to take their horses out and tie them out in the woods—­hiding them out to keep the Yankees from getting them.  The Yankees would ride up, take a good horse and leave the old worn-out one.

“There never was any fighting round where I lived.  None of my folks was soldiers in the war.

Right After the War

“I don’t remember just what my folks did right after the war.  They were field hands and I guess they did that.  My mother worked in the field that’s all I know.

Life Since the War

“I have been in Arkansas a long time.  I have been here ever since I left Mississippi.  My first marriage was in Mississippi.  The second and last ones was in Arkansas—­Forrest City.  My second husband had been dead since 1921.  I don’t know that I count Reese.  We married in June and separated in September.  He’s dead now, and I don’t hold nothin’ against him.

“I am not able to work now.  I do a little ’round the house and dig a little in the garden.  I haven’t worked in the field since way before 1921.  I don’t get no help at all from the Welfare.  My daughter does what she can for me.  I always have lived before I ever heard about the old age pension and I suppose God will take care of me yet somehow.

Cured by Prayer

“I’m puny and no’count.  Aint able to do much.  But I was crippled.  I had a hurting in my leg and I couldn’t walk without a stick.  Finally, one day I went to go out and pick some turnips.  I was visiting my son in Palestine.  My leg hurt so bad that I talked to the Lord about it.  And it seemed to me, he said ‘Put down your stick.’  I put it down and I aint used it since.  I put it down right thar and I aint used it since.  God is a momentary God.  God knowed what I wanted and he said, ’Put down that sick,’ and I aint been crippled since.  It done me so much good.  Looks like to me when I get to talking about the Lord, aint nobody a stranger to me.