Document text
Project 0613
Helen Shuler
ColuMbia, S.C.
December 11, 1938
SOWN CARCLIIA WRITERS' PROJECT
LIFE EMORY
TITLEI WATTIE HAIrAriD HARRELL
Inegro)
Date of First Writing November 12, 1938
Nano of Person Interviewed Nettie Hammond Harrell
Place Blytheuood
Name of Writer -Allearthnler
Name of Reviser State Office
A dirt road, turning off the highway, leads across a cotton
field, through a pine grove, over a stream of clear running water and
up a *mall hill to the clearing. Here is the home of Wattio Harrell.
The five room house, with a poroh across the front, is neatly whitewashed,
and the yard, swept clean, has bright fall flowers blooming along the
front and side borders.
Booauss it was letmrday, women and children were out in the book
yard getting the work "done up" so that they could go to the little village
in the afternoon. Nettie, the mother, a short, stout, ginger.00lored Negro,
was doing the week's washing. Wary, the older girl, was preparing a big
wash pot of food for the pigs in the pen. The other daughter was washing
empty fruit jars and putting them away in "the store room." Four little
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"grans", Hary's 'Children, were helping with smaller tasks. All were
eager to finish their jobs so that they oould go "to town." They look
forward from one Saturday to the next to this weekly social occasion.
Grown folks meet their friends; children get to. cream cones and bags of
candy.
Hattie has always lived on a farm. Her parents owned a place near
Eastover, South Carolina. As a child, she attended the little one -room
school until she had completed the fifth grade and progressed easily, for
she "took to learning." At recess time the pupils played the usual games
of baseball and the ring plays such as, pussy in the corner, drop the hand.
kerchief, and marching on the level. The latter was the most popular, as
they are a people who love to sing and to keep time with the rhythm of the
music. In this game the players clasp hands and fora a circle, leaving
one player in the center as "It." Then they begin marching around and
singings
"We're marching on the level,
We're marching on the level,
re're =robing on the level,
for we have gained the day."
Raising their clasped hands, they continue singinp while the player in the
center :-:cres in and out of the circle, passing under the joined hardsr
"Go in and out your windows,
Go in and out your window*,
Go in are out your windows,
For you have gained the day."
Then as the player enters the last windows
"Go forth and face your lover,
Go forth and face your lover,
Go forth and face your lever,
For you have gained the day."
"It" uses his arms as a measure and the players sings
"I measure my love to show you,
I measure my lay, to show you,
I measure my love to show you,
For you have rains(' the day."
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Both "101-alid "the lover" kneel.
"I kneel because I love you,
I kneel bemuse I love you,
I kneel because I love you,
For you have gained the day."
Rising, they continues
"I rise because I love you,
I rise because I love you,
I rte because I love you,
For we have gained the day."
As the song ends "the lovers" change places and the song and marching
begin avian.
On Sundays the families attend Sunday School and "Preaching," being
conveyed to these services by a mule and buggy. One Sunday Matti* and her
sister were alone, and, after the meeting, they sere turning the mule and
buggy around to leave the church yard when the steels of the buggy became
locked and they were gradually being overturned. A young man, coming to
their rescue, turned the mule and thus released the wheels. Later, when
*LUSA, was twenty-three years old, she married this young "Loohinvar."
The couple moved to near Horrel Hill and beoame "shareeroppers" on Dr.
Tompkins' place, planting ten cores of land. Here they worked hard and
usually were abler to "pay out" in the fall. The boll weevil had not yet
come into the State to destroy the cotton orop; and, as this was their
main source of income, there was, some years, a little surplus money that
they could use to buy a necessary piece of furniture. In their five year.
of married life, three children, a girl and two boys, were born to them.
This was an added expense, ts there was several months of each year that
Mattis was not able to help with the farm work. Then her husband died, and
she and her children went beck to her father's to live. They helped with
the hoeing of the crops and with picking the cotton.
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The well was located near the road, and people traveling along the
road often stopped for a drink of cool water. Ons,day, a stranger was
passing and stopped to ask for a drink. Nettie took the "kitchen dipper"
out to the well to him. He lingered awhile and went with her to rest on
the porch. It was not many weeks until they, were married and he took his
bride and three step children to live an a farm several miles away. Sines
this second marriage, they have moved only four times and have lived on
the farm they are now on for six years; There are now three more children.
The stepfather found that he could not live peaceably -with the older Loys,
so he moved to North Carolina and is living with a sister.
Nettie's daughters went to school and were "real smart," but the
boys wouldn't study, so she kept them at home to help on the farm. Mary,
the oldest ohild, a quick, intelligent young woman, is married and has
four small children. 'Lary, her husband and ahildren, all live with Mattis
and help wlth the formwork. After the crops are gathered, Mary gets
extra work, as washing and cookingeror some white family in the community.
And she is an excellent servant. The two older boys, aged twenty-six and
twenty-seven years, work at the saw mill, when the farm season is over, and
come home over the weekends. The two younger boys are working at odd jobs
for the farm owner. All of the children manage to bring in a little cash
money each week.
This year they planted twenty acres of land in the following crops:
cotton, ten acres, corn, with peas broadcast in the rows, sight sores;
reset potatoes, one acre; and one acre in millet. The entire group pro.
duced five bales of cotton, a "peart" oorn crop, some peas, a "good chance"
(three banks) of sweet potatoes, and ten gallons of syrup. Five shoats
have been raised for butchering during the winter. Thee* will furnish
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meat until April. They have also a cow and a flock of chickens. Matti*
does not own her mules, as the farm owner furnishes the stook for his
tenants. The oldest son has bought a second.hand Chevrolet automobile.
A winter rarden supplies turnips and collards. During the summer, a garden
supplied a variety of vegetables for daily use, besides oroqh to can
fifty.four quarts of a soup mixture, which was made of tomatoes, *mend
corn. Peaches, pears, and blackberries are usually canned and preserved
for winter use, but a short fruit crop this year prevented much canning
and preserving. Several acres are planted in wheat for next iOnter's
supply of flcsur.
All the members of the household must work, yet their days are not
entirely without some amusement, and recreation. The boys have their dogs
and enjoy huntinr coons, possums, and rabbits. On one ocoasion, a crowd
of them were treeing a coon on a Friday night. Twice the togs had treed
the animal, 'hut each time they shook the coon out of the tree, it fought
the dogs and got away. For the third time the coon was treed, shaken out
of the tree, and the third time it fought the dogs and got away. They
declared, "Dat warlt no coon, dat was a evil. You mustn't ever hunt coon
on Iriday night."
Burinr cool autumn nights, they attend "sugar cane grindings." nil*
the kettle of syrup is cooking, the young folks play such games as "tag,"
"drop the handkerchief," and "there ain't no bears out tonight." for
refreshments, they drink the cane juice and chew the cane.
In the "lay-by" season, their church, Round Top baptist, has a pro.
treated meeting which culminates in August with a special day they call
"Big August." On this Sunday, the "Reverends" come from other churches
to preach the sermons. In the old day*, they sang usoh song* as "Swing
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Low Sweet Chariot," but now the "choir master" comes from Columbia and
teaches them to slng the more modern hymns by note. They bring great
baskets of food and serve the picnic dinner under the trees.
Mattie is a good praotioal nurse, helping whites and Negroes. Some-
times she gets paid with money, sometimes it's a "mess of potatoes," and
sometimes just a "thank you." But she never refuses to go when needed and
is happy in being able to help her neighbor.
Then their cow gets sick, they know she has the "hollow tail." So
they cut off her horns and split the tail just below the joint until it
bleeds; then they pour in some salt and popper and tie up the tail with.a
rag. When she loses her cud, they rqvc her a greasy dishrag to chew.
Should the "rooster -chicken" craw in front of the door, immediately all of
the women folke !lst luey to put "the big pot in the little pot," ecause
company is sure to come before the day is over. As soon as the baby chicks
hatch they pull the "pip," the little hard growth on the end of the bill, so
they will be sure to grow.
Mettle believes in her almanac and follows the phases of the moon for
planting her garden. She very seldom fails to have a E,00d one. Her hogs
are butchered on the "shrinking moon," because, should she kill when the
moon is full or 1.owing, the meat mould just swell up and the crease would
not come out into the vemetalles when boiled. One must always butcher on
the waning moon, so that the moat will season the vegetables.
Very often, after the evening ohores are finished, the family rather
around the back stoop. One of the boys plays the mouth organ and some of
the other children dance the biz apple. "But they cannot tarry too long,
as their day begins early in the morning with the 'first cook crow.'"
The interior of Mattie's house is very neat and tidy. There are
three bedrooms, dining room and kitchen combined, and a small room used as a
store room and pantry. The floors are scrubbed clean, and small raG rugs
lie beside the beds. A new range, just bought by the older boys, is in
the kitchen, and an the dining table is a red and white checked oil cloth
cover. A corner cupboard holds the small store of dishes and kitchen
utensils. Six split -bottom chairs are arranged around the sides of the
room. Or the walls, which have been papered with newspapers, hang several
°slender* advertisinr the filling stations and stores in the village. As
the house does not boast of any closets for clothes, a corner has been cur-
tained off for this purpose.
The whole place rives the impression of cleanliness and thrift. The
yard has been swept; the wash pots and wood pile are at one side out of the
ways the chicken coops, the pig pan, and other out -houses are further baok
from the house. lAthin the house, the floors are clean, beds are neatly made,
clothes are picked up and the snail amount of furniture is neatly arranged.
Each member of the family is busy and glad to be "a good neighbor" when the
occasion presents itself.