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Forms to be Filled out for Eacn Interview
FORM
Circumstarces ef
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Dorothy West
NMXIESS 131 West 110th St. New tork
DATE November 2, 1938
SUBJECT INTERVIEW WITH MRSt EMMA AYER STORIES
1. Date and time of inter,T±ew
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
November 2, 1938 12-3 P. M.
2. Place of interview
Informant's home (when in city. She works upstate and comes in
once every two mmk weeks.)
3. Name and address of' ipfomanl.
Mrs. Emma Ayer
2524 Seventh Avenue
4. NaTe and address of person, if any, yua in
toucn with informant.
None. Known to interviewer.
5. Name and addres of erson, any, accompanying you
None.
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
Rear of informant's beauty shop. Informant accompies her daughter
to the latter's place of business when in the city, and if the shop
is not too crowded, she sits in the shop. Interview was held in a
small ante...room of UTO shop. The room was furnished with two straight
chairs and one wicker chair, a wicker (munch and a coat rack.
(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
NEW YORK
FOPN
Personal h1 toy of Informant
NAME OF vouvl Dorothy West
DDiTSS 131 West 110th St. New York
A
MUT
November 2, 1938.
STJ8JECT INTERVIEW WITH MRS. EMMA AYR STORIES
1. Ancestry
American Negro parentage.
2. Place and date of birth
Camden, S. C. 1891
3. Family
FOLKLORE
NE' YORK
To married daughters and two single daughters, and one 7randchild,
all living in New York City
4, Places in, with dateL
Lived in Camden until she was seventeen, then married and moved to
Charleston S. C. where she stayed until six years ago when she came
to New York
5.
6.
Education., with dates
Grammar school
Occupations and accomplishments, with dates
Domestic work
7. Special skills and interests
Her children and church are her main interests.
8. Community and religious activities
Lack of time forbids her activity in church organizations. Formerly
active member in Methodist church.
9. Description of informant
Average height, ruddy brown color, wavy dark brown hair straight
features, soft face, weighs about 140 lbs.
10. Other Points gained in interview
1 speaks with a trace of the "Geechee" accent.
STATE
New York
NAVE OF WO:AER.
FORM C
Trxt of Tritcrviow (UnoliJJ-0,)
Dorothy West
ADDRESS 131 West 110th Si.. New York
DATE
SUBJECT
New November 2, 1938
INTERVIEW WITH MRS. EMMA AYER STORIES
FOLKLOBE
NE w YORK
Once or twice a year, around where I lived, most women with
families would pack up for three or four days and go blackberry picking.
My mother had some distant relatives in a little place called Ninety
Six, not very far on the train from Camden. I remember the first time
she took me to Ninety.Six when she went to pick berries.
We -she did- started getting ready about a week before we loft.
She boiled her Mason jars (heavy glass quart jars for canning) and
boiled the rubber collars (heavy rubber bands which were put on before
the cap is screwed on the jar to make the canned goods air -tight), and
she boiled the cape to fit on the jars. Then she packed about fifteen
jars and collars and caps in a bir, basket and in suitcases so she could
carry them without much trouble. Clothes didn't matter much. You had
two or three gingham dresses and a pair of shoes and two pairs of socks
and that was about all.
The first time I went, my mother just took me. She left my
brother and sister at home. I was the youngestand she thought she had
to take me, and she didn't want to take the others because she didn't
know how much room the lady where we were going to stay had. I was
about seven then.
We got on the train and I glens we rode two -three hours
trains went slower then than they do now. Ninety -Six is a little
flag station and when we got there, the woman's husband where we were
going to stay met us at the station (it was just a little shed, really)
with a horse and buggy. He lived about three miles from the place
where the train stopped.
When we got there, there were two other women with their
children. It was always like that. More than one woman came to
stay at a house during picking time. This time you went to this
place, the next time you went somewhere else. And your relatives
and maybe one or two of your best friends were the ones who came to
pick berries together. This time I'm telling you about, there were
two other women and their children. I believe (she stopped to
count) there were twelve or thirteen children in that house at one
time. Miss (Mrs.) Mary (her hostess) herself had seven children, I
made eight, and one woman had two children, and the other one had
two or three. I can't remember exactly.
We didn't 40 anything but play that first day. The grown
folks got their jars together in the kitchen, and collected big pots
and pans to put the berries in when they picked 'sm. I guess they
talked the rest of that day since maybe they didn't see each other
more than once or twice a year. When we got ready to go to bed, the
girls were put together in the parlor on pallets to sleep, and the
boys were put in the dining -room. I know there were five of us girls
sleeping on a pallet on the floor once. I don't know where the grown
folks slept. I don't remember whether they slept on pallets or not.
I guess not since the children .rave up their beds and slept on pallets.
I do know that sometimes as many as four women slept toL;ether in
in one room.
We got up early in the morning and had breakfast as soon as
it was light...We had salt pork and hominy grits end hot biscuits
and maybe one or two other things. Then the boys helped the women
take the pans out and pile 'em on the wagon. One of the boys drove
the mules, and two women sat on the seat of the wagon and the other
two sat in the back with as many of the children as could oo. Some—
times the other children would want to go, and they'd hang on to
the side of the wagon or behind it. If you didn't have room to go,
you'd just walk along behind the wagon.
You'd take food along to eat in the middle of the day because
you stayed all day. Everybody would pick, the women tmd the children.
You didn't put the berries in any special basket. You figured out
how much everybody would get after you got back to the house. And
everybody always got the same sha,:f. When you filled one big pan,
you'd start filling another one, and you kept on 'till you'd picked
as many as you could. 'Course the children ate more than they picked,
and sometimes they'd run off and play.
I remember once, I had on shoes end everybody else was
barefooted. They called me a city chap, and they played tricks on
me. Once they ran off from the grown folks and I followed 'en. We
came to a little crick and they ran right on through it to the other
side. I wanted to follow 'em but I had on a nice little gingham
dress and shoes. They had on overhang (overalls) and no shoes so
it was easj for them to LAt wet. I stood on the side for a minute
just looking at 'em and trying to make up my mind about getting over
to the other side. They got tired of waiting on me, and one of the
bi7 girls came back over and threw me in the crick. Then she ran
on across and they all ran and hid. When I finally got out of the
water, I couldn't find 'em anywhere. I stood there cryint and
yellin' and finally it seemed like hours to me- they came back
and got me.
When the grown folks got through picking -they always carried
enough utensils to bold enough berries to keep tem picking 'till
sundown-, if the children had strayed off playing, they'd holler
for the children. Then going back* more had to walk or hang on
because the pans would almost fill the wagon.
That night we wouldn't do much. Everybod7 was tired, and
we'd have a big, hot supper, one. taen go to bed. Sometimes the
children would make e lot of noise since so many of them were
eogether and the grown folks would have come in and stop the fuss,
but most of the time the whole house was quiet by nine o'clock and
everybody was sleep.
Then, the next morning the canning would stf,rt. They would
put the wash pots out in the yard and start a fire under going
Most women had at least two wash pots, and some had three and four.
They were heavy old iron* black pots about two f eet deep, and they
stood on three squatty le 3 about six inches tall. Tall enough to
make a hot ire under, the women used them to boil their clothes
in to make /em white on wash -day. They'd fill these wash -pots
with water and put the mason jars in again to boil. Sometimes they'd
let the big children take the jars out on long sticks. You see,
when they boiled their clothes, they had a wooden stiCk-most often
a broom handle.that they stireed the clothes with. They'd use this
stick to put in the mouth of the jar and lit it out. When they got
through sterilizing the jars, they'd pour the water out and put some
more in, and then put in the berries. They used the pots for different
things. I think they made jam in them and started the wine in them,
but I think they made the jelly in the house in the kitchen. I don't
remember that very well. They worked almost all, day. Then when
they were ready to divide it up, one woman would 0,11 a jar, then
another one, and so on 'till everybody had one je'r Tull. Then they'd
start again and keep on 'till everybody had two jars full. You kept
that up 'till everybody had ns much es everybody *Ise. 'Course if
there was a little left over, you'd eat as much of it as you could
that night for supper and the rest you left to the woman whose house
you were in. You didn't give her anything for lettin' you stay there
except that everybody would give her three or four quarts of jelly
or jam or whatever you made.
Nobody ever went home the nit they finished canning. They'd
sit around and talk, and maybe decide where they'd go to can the next
time..,It was only berrories or maybe watermelons if were going
to make watermelon rind preserves that you went out like that to pick
and can. Peaches and ap-Jes and plums and things like that, you
cannot at home by yourself becf:use you last bought whatever you
wanted to put up.
The next day you went back home. I remember when we went,
we were the only folks who came on the train. The others came in
horse and wagons. They would leave early in the morningiiind most
of the time we were the last to leave because we had to wait for
the train.
STATE
New York
NAME OF vORKER
131 West 110th $t. New York, N.
ABDPESF.
Dorothy West
"OW:
PATE
SUBJECT
Y.
November 2, 1038
INTERVIEW WITH MRS. ErrA PZIR STORIES,
FOLKLORE
CPA
The informant seems to have a wealth of interesting stories
about her childhood, and she has promised to allow the interviewer
to come for material as often as possible when she (informant) in
in the city, She wants very much to return to the South where she
has a home. Despite the fact that her children are all in New York,
she feels that the would be happier in her own home in South Carolina,
and it is very likel7 that she will return as soon as her yougest
child is married.