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STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
Forms to be killed out for Each Iptervpaw
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview
Dorothy West
New York City
September 21, 1938
Interview with Mrs. Mayne Reese.
1. Date and time of interview
September 20, 1938 1-1 PM
2. Place of interview
Informantts home
3. Name and address of informant
Mrs. Mayne Reese
1 St. Nicholas Terrace
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant.
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
Nicely furnished bed -living roam in a five room apartment. Room is furnished
with a studio couch, a covered trunk, 3 chairs, one straight and two arm chairs,
a chest of drawers, and a cabinet radio.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
STATE NewYork
NAME OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
FORM .0
Personal History of Informant
Dorothy West
New York City
September 21, 1938
INTMVIEW WITH MRS. MAYNE REESE
1. Ancestry
Both parents were American Negroes
2. Place and date of birth
Charleston, S.C. April 7, 1881
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
3. Family
Is living apart from 2 married sons and 1 single son, and a married daughter.
4. Places lived in, with dates
Charleston, S.C., Newberry, S.C., and New York City.
5. Education, with dates
Grammar School Eduogbon
6. Occupations and accomplishments, with dates
Always been a housewife only.
7. Special A*112mximmixinterests
Weekly out-of-town visit to grandchildren
S. Community and religious activities
Member of a woman's auxiliary at St. James Presbyterian Church.
9. Description of informant: Color of a roasted almond,
eyes (mire glasses). Large woman; speaks with a trace
the Geeohie (Gullah) dialect, Has a sense of humor and
in movies and the church as outside activities.
10. Other Points gained in interview
gray hair, black
of what is called
is interested only
STATE NewYOrk
NAME OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedited)
Dorothy West
New York City
September 21, 1938
mcnunnmrliam MRS. MAME RRRRE
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
I can't remember what games I played when Imes a girl off -hand like this.
Ganes and songs I'll have to think about it and tell you the next time you come.
We played almost the same games the children play today some of them about the
sane, some of them different.
Did you ever hear about quiltin& parties? We used to have quilting parties
at least twice a year. One time we would meet at one house and one time at another;
you'd keep on that way until the quilt 'was finished.... Well, say there'd be three or
four ladies who were good friends. If I was making the quilt, I'd set up the frame
(quilting frame) in my house and the other two or three ladies mould come to my house
and spend the day quilting. I'd have it all ready for the quilting to start Maybe
I'd have been sewing scraps together for a year until I got the cover all made. Than
when my friends would come, the cover would be all ready and there wouldn't be anything
to do but start working on the padding. If there were four ladies, each would tde
an end. (Gestures) I'd take this end, the other two would take the ends over there.
You'd decide before haw you were going to make the stitches. If you were going to have
a curving stitch, you'd sew one way. If you were going to quilt block fashion, you'd
sew that way. (Make the stitches in the pattern of a square of a size decided upon.)
The ladies who mould cone to help you, would come as early in the morning as they
could. Sometimes you all had breakfast together. If you didn't you had dinner
together and a little snack off and on during the day. If it was at my house and nobody
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mast oomirg early enough for breakfast, I'd put something on the sideboard the
buffet that everybody could reaah if they got hungry before time to sit at the
table. Sometimes there'd be sweet potatoes, some smoked pork, bread, maybe some
syrups and things like that. Then when you had dinner, there'd be the regular
things everybody had at home. If somebody came way in (from the country or a town
8 or 9 miles away), they'd have supper and stay all night.
Depending upon haw many quilts you needed a year or just wanted to make, there'd
be that many quilting parties for ladies who were intimates. If none of my
friends were going to make quilts in a year, then they'd keep coming to my house
maybe twice a week until we got it finished. If you worked right along and didn't
stop to talk 'course most of the time we stopped to gossip a little you could
finish a quilt in a day or two. All that depended on the pattern, too. If some-
body else was making a quilt, we'd go to their house and exchange labor 'till they
got their quilt done.
Whenever we had a quilting party, the men -folks had to look out for thamselves.
They ate cold food if they cane in hungry in the day and if we finished working
some enough, they'd get their supper on time. If we didn't, they just had to wait....
They didn't mind. If they fussed, we'd remind 'em 'bout keeping warm in the
winter.
In the fall when they had the county fairs, sometimes we'd take our quilts
out to fair -grounds for exhibition. Each lady picked out her best quilt the
prettiest color, the prettiest pattern and the best stitches aid took it to the
fair to try to min the prize No, it didn't make any difference if your
prettiest quilt had been quilted by three or four other people. You see you
already had the pattern and you'd already put the pieces together so that much
was your own idea. And that counted more than the help you got and the results
you got when you were putting it on the frame. Sometimes a church club mould make
a quilt and enter it in the name of the church. Even if they put it in the club's
name, the club mould give the money to the church if they won Once I won the
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prize for my own quilt and once I was one of a group that won. The prize was
most often five dollars. Sometimes it was ten. One year they couldn't get the
money together and they gave the winner some prize preserves, some pieces of fancy-
work and something else that had won first prize in other contests instead of the
money I don't remember if that was one woman or whether it was a club. 'Course
you'd rather have the money than that stuff 'cause everybody could can fruit and do
tatting and crocheting and things like that and they could make their awn things.
But you couldn't act nasty about it. Anyhow, it didn't happen but once as I
remember it.
Sometimes rich white women would hear that such and such a person had von the
prize for pretty quilts and they'd come and ask that person to make them a quilt.
Sometimes they'd make it and sometiaps they wouldn't .If they did make it, they'd
get around five dollars Sometimes they'd furnish the scraps and sometimes
they wouldn't. Most of the time, though, they'd buy pieces of goods and give it
to the person who was making the quilt to out up. They'd get different colors
and they'd say what pattern they wanted.
Sometimes they'd have quilting parties in some of the churches. Of course
not every church did that. But those that did had quite a few woman members
who went to quilt they'd get some little boys to take the quilting frame to the
church in the morning and then they'd go in the afternoon. I guess they'd quilt
for two -three hours. Most of the time when they did that, they'd be making the
qailt to sell to raise money for the church.
Things like that were nice. Sometimes I wish I could go back to that kind
of life for awhile but times have changed so. They won't ever be like that
again. But I guess it's just as well. Nowadays, there are other things to
occupy people's minds.
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
FORM
istra Comment
Dorothy West
NewYork City
September 21, 1938
INTERVIEW WITH MRS. MAYNE REESE.
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
The informant was very friendly to the interviewer and readily agreed
to a second interview sometime in the future. She apparently has a very
excellent memory and seems willing to reminisce. At the time of the interview,
however, the informant had recently moved to her present address. It is the first
time since her marriage that she has not had her own home and she was obviously in
the midst of a period of difficult adjustment. Although the interview was a long
one, most of the informant's conversation dealt with her own problems.
Although the informant spoke with a vestige of the Gullah dialect, the
interviewer could not take it down because it was not phonetically distinct
enough to note the variations. There was no trace of the "Geechie manner of
speaking so far as transposition of word order was concerned.