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January 27, 1039
Rieh and Licla Uray (Negro)
South Florida Turpentine Corporation
Oastese, Fiorito (Near Lakeland)
Nigro Turpentine Foreman
Paul Diggs, writer (Negro)
Veronica N. Huss, reviser.
nzan LULA '1'
A maU Cosa-aola sign, tasked to a shack at Carters,
Florida, and bearing the name of -Lula Gray, led mo to the
quarter house of the Negro samp foreman, Ricoh Gray. Rich
works for the south Florida Turpentine Corporation. Lula is
his wife. Their well home onse served as a home and store
eomblned. It Is reaehed from the main highway by planks
over ft diteh.
RUM was not at home, but Lula invited ma to come up on
the littln vine covered porch and wait for him. :he told ms
that he cams In from the wood every day for his noon meal,
and as it was near that time, I accepted the invitation. I
sat in the swing and shoved the ono rocker on the porch with
the toe of my Shoe. Lula was busy in the /citation eookinc„ so
1 didn't have much time to talk with her, but I managed to
ask her where she woo from.
"I'se from tinna,south Carolina," she said, "and I'm
37 years old. Tut of °aurae t14a yere age what I Jost give
you haint what ny Insurance NIP isi"
I asked her to explain.
"-ell, the reason is that hit doen_eest us so muSh It
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we's younger."
The shack housing the Osai's is one of 40 dilapidated
quarter houses furnished turpentine laborers. situated
on old highway 17, seven miles froill Lakeland, the oamp is
one of the oldest in the vieinity.
7eather-beaten and almost bleak, the majority of these
pines -board shacks are not even equipped with shutters and
porches. They are built on the low flat lands beneath tall
pines, and the spacious yards are flooded during the rainy
season. The sandy streets of the settlement are deeply grad-
ed on either side, to aid in drainage during wet weather.
Lula showed no their three room house. The interior
was not coiled but it was clean and neatly kept. ivetty cur-
tains hung at the few random and the cheap furniture was well
arranged. The kitchen was also clean and I noticed a bright
oil cloth on the table.
In the baokyard there wore a few ohlokens running about.
The out -house, about thirty feet back of the house, was crude-
ly built of old lumber. Next to it was a chicken coop built
of rough pine boards. Therd inn no fence around the place.
Rich Gray, astride a light -brown, high-stepping horse,
oale toward the house through the pines. tall, lean man
in his early fifties, he was warmly dressed in heavy work
°loth's, with hickory -striped trousers tucked into high -top
boots. :Tie slouch sombrero shaded his stern features. He
spied no immediately, as I caae down off the ,orche and
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spurred his horse on to meet me.
•he aro yoW" he snapped, as he broueht his mount to
a standstill before the oabin door, and swung to the ground.
I told hi my name, but before I eould make further ex..
planations, he questioned: And what's yaw business: LAP
have rules !tad regulations in this yore camp, and bein as
how Poe foreman, Ihnve to know all the business what acmes
around hereiT
After this sudden outburst I explained my presenoo as
-best I Could and asked his sooperstion. .Yor the time being
he :maned appeased. Lula had °owe to the door by this time
and was watohing interestedly. I -noticed then that she was
muoh younger than her husbnnd, and had a rich ginger..eake
'color and straight black hair.
'rio you're nnother of them government fellerel' eon
tinned "One oome here jest last week about that no.
oial esourity business. Wawa a government inspector shock
ii;, and asked all Undo of questions; now you cone along
and want to know about my life.' I had to answer enough
question:, last wee."
le went in the house, after tying his home to a near-
by post. Alt he came right out agpin, dragging a ehair
be-
hind him. !Le told me to aft d'iwn 41 it, while Luba sat in
the rocker and he made himself comfortable on the steps.
In an effort to break the tension I ask Rich where he
obtained the fine looking horse he was riding, He said:
"Zoo? Ho belong to the company. but Vim been ridin him tor
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the whole five years I'se been yere. He's one good hoes."
Zoe, on hearing his name, pawed the earth with one
forefoot end whinnied*
*That's a good lookin saddle he's got on tool"
"Top, it ain't bad. Hit's Galled a 12 ineh saddle*"
"About how mush territory do you eovir eaeh day?"
"I Xivers from 20 to 30 sere a day*, he said. "I
wateh out for fires, and see that the sup doan run ova. 1
also *hocks looations far supplies of turpentine what's
ready for dippin.
"We works aroun 40 peoples on this still. tolme is
shippers, and they work in the woods. We only uses trees
what's nine inches in diameter. The life of a tree is from
four to five year, in this business.
"Clay °ups is used on the trees, and they holds anywhar
from one quart to onfo.half gallon. Ve tries to empty them
nighfton to ever three week, when the imp in runnin. There
ain't were mush to do in winter, but work pieks up in spring
and miumma•"
Amazed at his own sudden willingness to disouss his
every -day life, he stopped as quickly as he had started. His
tomer attitude returned, and again he questioned no on the
reasons for my visit., Alt I soon reassured him and he eon..
%blued: "I see that the men chip and dip properly In the
woods. Boma of them receives anywhar from fl..25 to ,71.50 a
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day; it's all a000rdin to pries received for the turpentine
on the market. flame of my mons, dip by the thousand, they
get 900 a thousand. The good ones averages 1500 a day.
"The turpentine is brought from the woods in barrels.
After it reaches the still, i's loaded on the platform you
sees over yonder, and dumped into the still under heat. Do
ye see that pipe runnin into the 'vat? Well, this is run off
into the barrels; we don't waste nothin. After hit run into
the barrel, it gits hard. The barrels holds 5..15 and 5..20."
I asked him what ho meant by 5-1.5 and 5-20 and he told
me: "Green barrols weigh from 40 to 50 pounds, and after
this Night has been deducted from full barrels, then they
will run from 450 to 500 pounds of turpentine. 74e kin go
over there to the still after T eats and ta:o a look at hit.
7annaT" I admittpd that I would be only too glad to go. Then
he and Lula retired indoors for their noon meal. They invited
no to join them, but I detained.
,ater T asked Aioh what foodstuffs he favored most. He
told me he preferred meat and vegetables, and added that there
was plenty of wild game in the vicinity which he obtained
while riding the woods.
-hen he returned from his meal, we walked the few yards
down the settlement road to the turpentine still. It was
located near the main highway. ,Akarby were numbers of gals
Vunized barrels used for shipping the turpentine. The still
was substantially built, havinc, a large kiln and condensing
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vat. The water supply Onmo from a tall weter-tower operated
by an electric pump. Near the kiln, on a raised pletf 46m„
were many barrels used in the transportation of the turpentine
from woods to still. A long shed, connected with the still,
was used for the tool house and storage plum for maehinery.
A small, open shed opposite the barrel stand is used for the
distribution of the turpentine. On another side of the still
werL the refining works and a large pair of mulles for weigh-
ing the barrels.
Jn our way bnek to Rich's shack, we stopped at the lit..
tle weather-beaten school and °burgh eombined. /t was of the
same construction as the houses and appeared to be poorly
)quipped. kiddie Webb, the teacher, reported an averle at-
tendance of 20 pupils. On Bundays, the little school IS con-
verted into a church. The Da Sista use it one ::,unday and the
Methodists the next.
nen we arrived at the house and seated ourselVes *oar
fortably on the front porch, he told me his life history.
"I, was Darned to Mac and Betty Grey in HoberteVille,
South Carolina, :larch 0, 1080. My parents is now dead. I
had eight brothers and six sisters; some of them is older
than I is, and T haint seen none of them in years. I at-
tended sohool in Robertsville, but I had to stop when I
reached the tenth grade.
"I useter live in Lakelan, and I still owns nearly a
half blink there an euinoy street, with houses on it too.
I haint gonna tell ya nothin about that though, my boss done
tole me I doan hatter tell nobody that; nor how mush I makes
often them neither."
With this, Mich rose and went inside again and when he
same out he onrried a piece of oarbon papal' in his hand.
"Here," he said, "take .this yore plees of paper and put
hit 'Worn them papers you'se written on. I still dean take
much stook in what you're doin and want proof about hit
when I tells my bosesaans You gime the other copy for to
keep.
"I shore would be up agin hit iffen I couldn't read nor
write on this yore job, cause I have to report everting; my
boss man tells me not to talk.
"I been workin in this camp for five year, but 1 been in
the turpentine biz all my life, follered hit from clamp to sump.
I Oow keeps all the records belongin to the oompany and make
out my rep ,a4 to the boss -man.
"lentionin turpentine camps though, makes me think_a
Lakelan, a.way bfAck yonder. I oan remember when hit =Limit
nary thing but jest a turpentine comp itself, and hoy they
come out yore to this seotion and out and toted away the pines
for to build thet town.
"110, we doan awn our house yore, we's only allowed to
stay yore an lone as we work for this company. But we gets
to stay free of ohargn. rJne of us Pak. pays any rent.
ome of ther fellers has been workin hers ter a lonc tine,
ever alacc hit first stArted.
"I prefers livin out yore, as to bean in town. tAt's
tree out yore, and bein ns how I haves what want, why not?
rhy worry about town some folks kin worry about the tuna.
niest things I ever heard about. Desides, they haInt noth..
In in town. has regmlar work here and makes aroun 0450
a day and sometimes more.
"As for votin, thet'P another thing ..C.haint up to neither,
lio mint I dont d,:) no votin: A man has to know what We
doin when he goes votin or dealin with pollytlos. Lots of
fool folks goes otin ,41d don't knw what they're votin ter.
aint aimin to fool with Ut myself. Uncle etia knowed what
everybody lc a—doin, and if you stiek your ringer in the fire,
yor shore to git burned.
'To all goes to ehureh here. I am a lissionary naptis#,
but 1 doan go na often an the rest of the folks. doar
no offioe in the ohurch neither. The folks here goes -pretty
regular, but not me. That's all there is to do here, to go
to allure?' and drink shine.
"But drinkin shine keeps the mon well, especially when
they gotta work out in then woods in the -'water, they just
gotta have somethin hot in them. Tilt esens to keep them from
gittin sick too. it eourse Men any of usiune gita sick,
the eompany plays for hit and we kin eall whatever dootor we
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wants. This here is ehookod out of a speoial fund wo carry..
Tut this place is -"retty healthy, in spite of the low land.
T guess hit's on account of the high pinos all aroun us
There's few of the workers what's ever sick, inoludin me and
Lula. I taint been sick in yeers. Of course some its sick
now and thou, but not often.
"well T reckons hit's about time for me to be goin on,
Joe and me dotte lot of work to do this afternoon. now about
oomin book when wo 4.Lits to distillin the turpontineT You'll
like thet."