Document text
ED AND IDA GRAY. F. EiS
Federal Writers* Project
Paul Diggs
akeland„ Florida
garch 17,19e
Gray, Eu Ida
Be-svii Flori
Six miles south of Plant City, locdted on the Knee -614th
head, now 'enter construction by the i F A, is the sme.ii farm
of Ed and Ida Gray, In th,s neighborhood there is located
about forty smeLi Negro farmers, with tracts of land ranging
from five to one hundred acr,,s. In front of this farm is
located the N Y A and. H Club camp, ThOi ca L,p a.$5 constructed
by the N Y A boy*6 out Tampa. This, tract consists of
twenty acress‘with one large building and one small building
used for cooking. A f,umdation is laid for a second building,
This camp .is supervised by giss Floy Britt of Tampa, Florida.
A large portion is cleared for.caing purposes. The majority
of the farm L-Ild in this area is eleared for for farmIng; the
rest is in timber cotle,rising cypress and pine. The houses are
built out of weather -board, pine and cypress, gost of the
farm houses are built out ,4* roughly cut lumber from the 1,,nd
th.L.t w -s cleare,_1.
The tract where id is f,rwing is roiling and sandy loam
soil, with o few orange trees at the western end of the fLrm,
-rk-rs can be se,n in the fields in all directions, picking
strawberries and pl_ntng new crops. in-mest cages whole fam-
ilies go into the fields.
To enter Ed is farm, vu enter the yard from the highway,
-ad sitting in front of the entrance is a tin to log c,.bin 0
that is sett.Lng high off of the ground, and surrounded by high
oaks. In froLt of the house in large.ots are flowers. On
26020
the west is an inclosed chicken yaru* with el,nty of
chicken in them. The een house that was once.burmeel still
stems. in the rear of the beuse is a euwe near the kitchen
doer. To the east near tee house is a large elle of lois,
used for fire wood. Under the ',lige oek tree -en the reel' of
the cabin is a steed built for a wa,taitz,44d, Three large tuba..
and a water bucket sit on it, Thirty feet frem the 'cabin is
a shed built out of old lumber USi to ssort and eeck straw-
berries in,
In this shed Beseie* Rosa Lee end Ed's wife Ida were
working. As fast as Ida could wash the etrawberries* Be. sie
end Lose Lee weuld each them in tint boxes. Over 4:reek was
a graeme sack stretched to allow the w ter to drip to the
ground, When the berries were dueeed on them* Bessie s. id*
n we pack thirty eix eint to the crate,"
Ed came up from the field anti remained aroend the shed
awhile. During this. ..nteriude* the dogio'n Seoton was busy
barking. They celled to hie* end be quickly walked away wag-
ging his tails In his retreat be made for the cat n Toesye who
mated/stance Spot in their raoe an ran up one ef the tall
oak trees
ee said* II I beve e large rawilee They all do not live
eith me, The ones tilt are in ey house* Bessie over there*
age 19; Rosa lee* age 2b; Fennie Young* wbo lives about a mile
fro her fathers bow.; („ksr childrenewas playing around the
shed) eerneetine* age. 9;.Junior. ego 8; aria Jane age 7;'The
other chilaren away fre home are Note* age 49; and George, age
eeig, George lives in Lakeland Florida* fle is eweloyed by
Dr. John 0, Lester* lbee e. Feorioa Avenue, George is warried.
My children work hard on our plLce, This is their only
source of incows,P
Ed is very intelAgent, PIa well looking man, very
in cola lexion, ure..sea in ovorils, and wide brim
hat was sitting back on his heLd.
Ida is very stout, mu_l to in color, DIU]
or
gingh, dress
A.th white fivers, An apron, cov_red part of it, and an old
straw it was perched on her head,
Rosa Lee is very .L.rge, .ith dark complexion, he was very
quiet and' did not hot' very much to say.
Bessie said, n we are fortunate to have strawberries on
hand yesterdy we receiveu l'57,& a box for the berries, We are
busy nAsi try rig to get some of them ready for the market,
have lakge market in Pint City, supposei'to be the largest
iurket in the world. Alen we take the .;:,,trawberries'to the war-
ket, all we have to do is drive right t k and they give you your
price right now,
Juring this comvers,tion Ed 116.6 gone back'to the field and
soon returned with his mule P. Jack" hitched too sled,. On the
sled were several boxes of str wberries, n It iz; easy to et the
berri,s In -from the field this ILI. The s ed does not ruin the
grounds." Jack is well trained, ax h after Ra Lvd unloaded the
strawberries, walked over to thwater iAimp Ald -topped, Ed
b-gan to pump a tub full of. water, Jack drank until
be be ELA satisfied himcielf. Then he stood perfectly ,iuiet while
R:b barked and ju,Aped up after him.
Fenne who had gone in the field and ap_eared again in the
she-. FSTIVIle said,n I come over to help father yok hs straw-
berries, we h vs a small plot plAated over to our pica.n
Fennie is much smaller than her other to sisters, and, brown
in doiexion. She had on brmn gingham ures, iiLd a straw
hot. Silt, 6alat 0 I like tc. work on the frii. e h ye a smkA_i
log c bin over on the fills de abut ie i1e fro., here. YOU
can see our cbin if y u stek around this sl,te of the shed.
We reach it by the k;_,Ah across the fieide ,n thrce acres e try
try to raise food for.ourseives to sell. ost of the tie„
my husb-zad works for other leokie when be is Lot
j2,d st,ted,* I was born in ioactisons Floriva, January 15,
1876. .1. lived ar,und Live Gaks Florida, nearly eighteen years.
I came to Hillsborough County during 19-42. I s,ent. a few years
in ?ant City before coming out here in 11. I have tWo bro-
thers livinL in Tamka, F,_orius- James aul Henry Gray.*
hen I first cawe to this lace it w,s a wiluernes. The
rou y u came over was just a tr /1, and now it is not much x.
better, They al'. ixek,ring it for hard surface. T.0 couldlnt
see thits distande :.:hen I first (1,_e out here* in fact y,u could
not see as f -r as ,Ly house which is about fifty feet to the
road. It was all thicket. I cleared every sot in this klace.
I still have kienty to do from the looks of ail them stumks
standing uk in the field, I ex„ect to blow them out this
summer, I remeAber when the C p Thats the Floriiia Central
Peninsular Railroad than ran tiluough here* It is now the-elant
System.
They call it the A C L. e old timers only know it
as the lant system* There were very fewbegro fa,Alies settled
out here when I came* Only in the last few years have they settle
s,ttleu.*
n _4y wife was born in ..auis,n, Florida. She ,-:005 not
know her birth -date** Bessie can tell you. Bessie said,* mother
was born in lbw, We 11,..ve to keep up with ,,lother's age bc;,..
cause the soon forgets, All of her people were born arouve
madison, Florida. She dosen't know any too much about her
pe-ple.. Pa and Wa were old slaves and married in that section."
..1:O said, a,I w,s educated in Live Oak feloriea, I went
as far as the 1 th grade. All of my children went as far 6.1;
the 1rth and 10th grade, Bkissie went as far as the 10th grade,"
Bessie sAd0 I had to ,;o to school in a car with others
children weo :went to i'lLiat City. Thy don't live a sceool
bus repring out here, becuse there is not enough chileren
to have one. We have a ;,mall -school don the road which only
goes as high as the eigith grade."
n I s,ent some time in Florida Agricultural ano eechanical
College. I was one of the girls of the thirteen chosen to go
to the College selected by the N Y A to take a four aellth
course in Howe Ecnomics.. All of our expenses were paid by the
N A. I like that kind of work, anl I am.pianning to go back
in the fall 4,nd try to Guile:lets the course."
Some day Y hoke to t._ch the subject. We bore e little
course in our schol in lant City. Our little school out here
begin their term in -pril and closes in ecember. They so that
to ailow the parents to us their children in the field to pick
str-wberries. Solue work out or others una wake money for the..
s
Ed said, 9 while we are taking about educations I do
read a little at times. 4 Instruction is that education and
religion are the two greatest powers on earth.n
-,ieligion should be first, and the rest will costs, I be.
long to the Aisionary Baptist C latcch at Antioch. We have
service twice a Lionth4. Our pastor comes out from Tampa, le.ortia.
_
We look for his Sunday to comes becau e we have such good services,
We -hardly thiss our church. -rvice, because we feel that God will
bles you if you w.rship him. I (tuft like the way sow, things.
are handled in this worlds and especially the people whom I
considered to be so religious. 6ometimes they play with religions
and tut is somethin that you shAllaInt play with, I don't be.
lieve in playing withrthe Lordis vurks.'
When I first settled lures there was no churdd out here.
More raiuilies kept coming and soon we had a small church going.
Uen I first came out here folks said I was crazy* but who is
crazy now, One thing I havint been on relief since I have been
out here, and hope never to go on. I manage to make enough to
take care of myself and family. Somehow the Lord has helped me to
to make a livinb out of it.'
0.0y biggest crop is strawberries and beans* I grow baby limas
peas,- irish totatoess sweet t-tatoeas corns petters, cucumbers*
o-ras tomatoes* and other vegetables for the table. I hated to
plow up two acres f strawberries to ke room for my spring crops
ana just t the time strawbervi,s are bringing good kricese
I sometime have eLough Inez:A to carry me thr ugh from one
butchering to another. You saw my hogs with those fine pigs
coming on.- Up at the tnd of the field t he edge of the orange
grove".. there is a crude hog pen. built. A large hog with five
pigs. 4re busy rutting away. We have chickens who are good layers.
Some times we take. the eggs to town and swap them for flour and
meal. The most we 11%43 to look for is clothes, and we only need
them on Sunday. I can make out with overalls. Mats all a fellow
4
needs when he is farming. We are not so' far from towns and
you .can bit the hard road one mile either way. It only takes
ten minutes to go to town, That's why I keep that old T-4odel
Ford. Its a li.425 model. I use it to haul my berries to
I am sorry to leave you, I must take this load of berries to
towns I will sum be back,"
(Alyea, he said while cranking up his cars I have a
large tact of sugar cane growing down there near the ditch.
I Also raise peanuts 1 u_to them mostly to fatten my hogs. n
Be was off down the dirt roads all you could hear was the
Jugs jug, of the ford hitting -and missing,
Bessie said, we Aianage to keep pretty healthy around
here. Our nearest doctor is located in klani City, en0 we bay,
a few midwives here," Ida said, n that's all I bad when my child-
ren were born, A pretty healthy looking bunch ain't they? If
we get a cuts just get .some old axle grease aul rub it in. good.
If the out is too deeps get some cob -web and that will stop
the blood from running* In olden time people didint know what
a doctor was. Every time you turn a round now, it has to be
a doctor for this and a doctor for that. They cut you open for
the le- st little kain I don't see no sense in its no I don't,*
Bessie said, n I-wouldInt 1 ve .n the City, it is too
crowded, lf I dAiint own a bone I wouldInt live there. I like
to farilis it is not crowded, Y wean have all the freedom you
No 6me to look into your back door, n
ide'had liunt the children to the little store down the
read for kerosene 0 •so she could cook their dinner, Aar walked
to the fence to se if they were comiAgs having mut a large
-a..
towel over her shoulders, and still had very little to sE*,
Ed, had returned from Plant City, and seeed pleased over
the krice he received for his berries, stating that they 114,d
given him l5 for his str;berries. And thank goodness I still
leme more in the fieldon
Ed was asked if he ever voted, BO sti,ted„ n I have never.
voted any place, I hEve always been a ian to atteri to mY own
business and leave other keoples alone, In some klaces it is
bard for a colored an to vote 0 I have never troubled my elf
ai„out it. I su„ose all of this voting business is what hul-ts
some rices on what you raise, I sometime get a hold of newskers
and read them. And sometime arourei the Market I hear the follis
ta_k_ng about kolitics„ and the war, Do you think we will ever
fight again? I hope not. The next war won't be like the last one,
Bessie, who showed interest -in the int,_rview said, n what
I learned in, school has helped me a lot around here. We have a
canning center out here in this settlement. We take oer kro
visions up to the center and can them. See the boxes stacked
next to the kitchen cabinet, They ere full of capne-
gOOdsr
We can them and ,,ack them back into the boxes, and keek in a
c ol klace. -ee wake our oen syrup too, Sometimes have to
have flour, but we exchange eggs for Wii)at we ',ant."
n I .1.so learned how to make sweet things wh,.le in school.
Some Sundays I .try put mai,ing s,}411etkeLng sweet for dinber.°
Rosa Lee le_.s busy in the house, walking aruzIL .n sing-
ing some old t ims song. Latci- she donned her straw biA _joked
uk a hoe Sitting next to the ki-6chen does ante wl.i_ked to the
field and b.gan hoeing the corn while he sang
.9_
The interior of the home w,s rustic ami was ,artia iy cell-
ed, iAing logs ran across tho ceiling, and the tin roof couly
be seen, The roo,,..os were ,etitioned off with rough cut lumber„
with creto,me curtains banging at the dos, The front roe
used for a sitting and bed room, The furnishings consisted of
a douele bed, an old trunk, a urebser, and one chair and rocker,
The other bed room was very skaclouso consisting of three be so
and a dresser, There were curtains at the windows. The kitchen
furniture consisted of a. three hole briliero a large kitchen.
cubinet, a lLrge round dining root table, 1;: sevral chairs,
L little roo,... was adjoining the house, next to the aitchen
door which ..as ones used as a kitchen, Bessie stated.
The floors were bare Lrl.d nearly wa,te fr-A scrubblng.
The interior of the house as nlean an neatly x.ranged in
site of tn. crude furnlabings.
Jurlag all this time Ewa ke,:t busy moving back -and
forth fr.m the field, Be said, u now I rest awh le and .talk
to y,u some Aore. u Be at on tha d,or sill. IL;Jai trying t
kut-in my skring crop. If we could ohly get scAlie rain we vliuiu
get °of to a gou st-rt, You noticed how dry verything is
neeu r,ii 15dly. If I 11,:td e.ectricity I c.uLd tell zhat the
_eather-&,n is avying over the r dio. Then I cuid own a r dio.
The best we can dekend upon now is to lookk at the shy and w....A.ch
F
the mon,u
Fammllig is nice when you have every thing to farm with.
One tango we can borrow fr.m one another here in the settle-
ment, A po r colored man sees a hard time on the farm, Oh
well I guess a poor everybody ha it hard, Bich fo•ks buy up
acres of land and put folks out to farm,. the,t makes it bard to
gift hold of land I need twenty acres more; but I have no way
to stretch out, I was lucky when I got hold of this piece of
land."
n Now you want to know what I do when I am not working.
Well I work all the time that whould be hard to say. YHu see
when a felow works from sun up to sun down there* is nothing
for hiw to do but go to bed, His bones will Avka him do that,
be will not feel like frollicking. I do go to church when we
have service, .Bessie said, I i.ke to go to the movies, we
have woving pictures out here every Fkiday night, A White
man brings his talking machine out, They show mostly 'Western
Actures, and Eay the kids are crazy about them. They
the kids in for a nickle under twelve years Old, The grown up
we have t, .pay 2.4, Sometime I go into Plant City, to the kic-
tures and to dances. Yes _I like to dance, when they have good
Ed continued, n -I take my children to church with we,
There is nothing better than religious training. I Soiutizne
think that is the trouble with the world tod,y -Ail have left
God out of our program. Ike need to get closer to him. He
wade this world and still A.11 have a band in running it. It
looks 1i an is trying to take it awe, frow hi,u, but he has
his. day set to het him straight. God will let. you go so far
and then he knoi.TE bow to stop you.. It pays to keep. OD the
Loras side* I pray h.rd for my tawny and to hail's good crops,
sofar I believe be has answered my prayer'.
Some afternoons af,er some of the boys finish work they ,:cAlle
Over and chat awbil Rosa Lee and mother they are home bodies,
Th,,y r.iver go very much Ally to church. Sole time well: to
the next farm to ee oae of the neighbors* thatts abcut all
we can do besides work out here, 'We are happy when BrIttp
u,en up: the cam-i„ over yonder, we have someth.ng tt: gu t) every
night when tnc re out. I exkect ty will have iont:er
suiler :4,as the first ti it opeed.
interrup,t oi.. in the intervie was caused by the ca ling
of to nsurance
„lien. They akologive and kroceedeu in their
task, ,ne agent thr ugh hi s sale talk enc,uraged Bessie to
tare uu, a IILIW policy. This she did am: sine! the alication
blank. fter they ha,, gone Bessie siidp I can 1-,ake care of it
throuGht the winterpbut it io hard to keel, up, in the
Ida stated ,"yes y,fu neeu insurncep but I d,-ntt e rr need of
taking ny more than y u can carry. 1;e have inzurance on all
a.eddiers of th,: family. That is the only protection e can get
uut herc. There are no Aore 'Negro Fraternities to join. You
have to I,ouk :ut for tilt dying days, V:e can take care of them
sick days,n
Night Las coming on, and 3isaid well I must r. cd the'
st c1 I have to c,rry oi to the hogs anu look after eld
Jack. Be exttnaidd and Invitation to cowe out t his larm
any ti.e. The hoic family gather -6 near th, door to say
guL,d bye,