Georgia Bays interview recording, 1995 August 01
Loading the media player...
Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
Doris Dixon | And you said your mother didn't allow you to take any furniture? | 0:04 |
Georgia Bays | No. No money from nobody. Folks, my own folks, own brother, own nothing. Don't ask for no money. No. Didn't ask for no money. | 0:07 |
Georgia Bays | The first present I got from a boy, called and said, give me a present for a Christmas present. We used to wear women wear—I didn't 'cause Mama and Daddy wouldn't buy me this, but this is the way some of the children parents was buying them: short stockings and they had to be cotton and had garters, and had a little flower right there made on them. And they come to right here— | 0:24 |
Georgia Bays | Now this is some of the other people's where they was carrying they childrens. But I'm talking about how I was raised. | 0:58 |
Doris Dixon | Up on the knee. | 1:06 |
Georgia Bays | Theirs was up here. And the garters was up here. And that little bow here. | 1:09 |
Georgia Bays | And my boyfriend, the first little boyfriend I had, he brought me a pair of garters for Christmas present. And you know what my mama done? Made me give back to him. | 1:13 |
Georgia Bays | And she said, "Do not ever take no money from nobody, no boys. And don't ask folks for no money, no men folks. Don't ever." Wouldn't let me go to a dance. But my sister, when she come along, she was born and everything got girl, she went to little picnics. But I didn't in my time. This is my time, but this was in her time. This is my time what I'm telling you about. I couldn't go to a picnic just having no little picnics around. | 1:29 |
Georgia Bays | I could go to school when they're having a play or something like that, go to church Sunday school and things like that. But she wouldn't let me go these picnics. They'd have picnics under these trees and a thing built where you dance on. I couldn't go. | 2:14 |
Doris Dixon | You couldn't do that? | 2:32 |
Georgia Bays | Uh-huh, I couldn't go there. And if I went anywhere around, I know they go nowhere. But she was telling me, "Don't ever do it. Don't take no money 'cause if you take money, that's going to cost something else. Nine times out of 10 they do now." See what I'm saying? And all of this what I was taught, it looked bad in that day. But it's good. I can tell anybody it's good now. I'm glad it didn't. | 2:33 |
Doris Dixon | Now your sister was, your sister had a little different? | 3:09 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah. | 3:13 |
Doris Dixon | Was she younger? | 3:13 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah, she was my baby sister. | 3:14 |
Doris Dixon | How much younger? | 3:15 |
Georgia Bays | She was 50 when she died. I was the first baby. I remember you telling me about my other grandmamma that I was just born. And then my sister was born I guess five or six years. I don't know how many years. I just remember. | 3:20 |
Doris Dixon | But it was a little easier for her? | 3:46 |
Georgia Bays | But it was easier for her. They let her— | 3:46 |
Doris Dixon | Go out? | 3:50 |
Georgia Bays | A little bit. | 3:50 |
Doris Dixon | Why? | 3:50 |
Georgia Bays | I don't know. But that's the way the times rolling. | 3:55 |
Doris Dixon | Right. Exactly. | 4:03 |
Georgia Bays | You get a little weaker, little weaker and wiser, just a little weaker on up, on up. You just get a little—I don't know why but it's just that way. Now she went to little dances and would dance a little bit, but I never could. But I'm glad today that I wasn't that kind. I didn't get to do like I wanted to do. | 4:04 |
Doris Dixon | Tell me this about the way they had young ladies act. Do you remember saying, did you have anything something like a whistling woman and a crowing hand would surely come no good end and things like that? | 4:36 |
Georgia Bays | Yes. | 4:51 |
Doris Dixon | You've heard that? | 4:51 |
Georgia Bays | Oh yes. 'Cause I wasn't allowed to whistle. | 4:52 |
Doris Dixon | Why, what was wrong? I mean— | 4:56 |
Georgia Bays | Well, my parents, my mother didn't allow me to whistle. She said, "Or didn't nobody whistle but a boy." I wasn't allowed to whistle 'cause she said that was out of my place. That was a boy's thing to whistle. "Don't ever whistle, Georgia. And don't ever swear." That's what she'd say. And don't ever whistle. | 4:57 |
Doris Dixon | Were there girls who did whistle anyway? | 5:27 |
Georgia Bays | Huh? | 5:29 |
Doris Dixon | Were there girls who— | 5:30 |
Georgia Bays | It was some girls. They did whistle a little, but she just didn't allow me. It just your mother and different mothers just different things they allow the children to do. See what I'm saying? And so she just didn't allow me to whistle. But I sang, sang and holler or something like that. But I couldn't holler too loud 'cause see that's too ugly for me to get out there for a girl. | 5:30 |
Doris Dixon | You couldn't holler, you couldn't whistle, you couldn't dance. | 6:02 |
Georgia Bays | I sure couldn't. And get up dancing like the dancing like the—My sister and on up to now dancing, wish I might. I'm telling you, I ain't just telling you something. | 6:03 |
Doris Dixon | I believe you. I believe you. | 6:20 |
Georgia Bays | That's the way I came up. | 6:22 |
Doris Dixon | How much of that carried over to the way you raised your own children? | 6:24 |
Georgia Bays | Huh? | 6:28 |
Doris Dixon | How much of that did you carry over onto the way you raised your children? | 6:28 |
Georgia Bays | Well I tell you what, my own children I'm just tell you the truth now. Just like I first said, you get it a little weaker on up and on up. I'm sorry. | 6:30 |
Doris Dixon | That's okay. That's fine. There you go. | 6:48 |
Georgia Bays | And on up just like we do now. We get a little, just like the years go, the years. Every year caries different now, different things and different things happen different ways. And she taught me not to catch on to all of the ways, the different kind of ways. She said, "Georgia, if you ain't got a dress or you," I didn't have dresses to wear, she made my dresses out of flower sacks. We'd buy flower and these white big, long sacks and they'd be flowers sometime in years after years they would flowery. She'd make my dresses out of the old mill sacks and starch and iron them. Make them gathered all the way around. | 6:54 |
Georgia Bays | Little short sleeve, wouldn't mean no sleeve. Little old short around here, wouldn't be up here, around here. Be right along here. And little neck on them made a little collar, and had sewing on your fingers now and starch and iron them. You had to build a fire outdoors to heat your iron and all of this. | 7:48 |
Georgia Bays | And she starting ironing them little dresses and make my panties out of the same thing and my under skirts. And that's what I wore to the church. And she'd make them down here. And so see this, that's the way I dressed. And she'd tell me, yelled to come on. I wonder why I couldn't get what the other girls have. She said, "Well Georgia, let me tell you something," said, "we ain't able. And said, "Now you don't know what them parents is able or not. You don't know what them folks is doing to get hold of what they getting hold to." Said, "Learn the not the want thing that you see your neighbors and your neighbors' children wearing. And whatever they got and you ain't got it., Don't worry about them. Don't worry about them 'cause you don't know how in the world they getting they clothes." | 8:08 |
Georgia Bays | And so, oh, I lay around and cry. I thought it was the worst thing it was. I couldn't go to town and I couldn't have a pretty dress. And these girls would have—Some people were doing better than other during [indistinct 00:09:22]. And these girls would can't go to town every Saturday. And she said, "Georgia, you can't go." Said, "I'm not going to lie you to be running town everything 'cause you don't know what the children's are doing." And finally one day it come to an end. | 9:08 |
Georgia Bays | They all put them in jail at Calhoun City for stealing. She said, "Now I told you that," said, "That's how they get their powders and paint." I didn't have no lipstick, no powders, no grease to go in my head, but just lard out the bucket with to hog grease. | 9:40 |
Doris Dixon | Were these the girls you went to get school with? | 9:57 |
Georgia Bays | Huh? Yeah, I went to school with them. | 9:57 |
Doris Dixon | And they got caught for stealing? | 10:01 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah, I went to school with them. And that's what she was telling me. See, I see them neighbors' girl, though, they got pretty things and how come I can't get it? They go to town. It just different people would have children more than others. Well, my parents didn't have it and they parents didn't have it but they went and stole it. | 10:02 |
Georgia Bays | You know what I'm trying to say. But now Daddy wouldn't let me. The thing that I didn't have, I just had to wait, do without. And that's why I learned I can do without now. That's why I can say it ain't going to kill you. The do without. We don't need all what we getting now. We think we do, but it's nice just the way the world is going. | 10:26 |
Georgia Bays | But back in my time, if we didn't have it. And what I'm saying, I'm go back to it, I'm glad of it now. I can sit here and do without it. If I ain't got it, I just ain't got it. I ain't going to do nothing to get it. My neighbors or something come around, that's where Mama fed us. My neighbors said, "See, if she ain't got some meal or flour or whatever little something that she think had little, you this, you that. And go around and get a little something." | 10:52 |
Doris Dixon | Now you mentioned seeing the other girls with the things, were there a lot of fast girls in Calhoun City? | 11:30 |
Georgia Bays | Yes, yes, yes there was. Yes there was. And I tell you what. Them were my neighbor's children's. And they did that. And my husband was dating them, dating one of the oldest girls. And I just thought, well I was out with him 'cause I liked him, I loved him. The first sight, I loved this man. And wasn't but 14 years old. But I see this man, I loved him. | 11:34 |
Georgia Bays | And to show you that I loved him, the day he died three years ago in February, we had been married 76 years, 65 years. And I loved him. And I stayed with him through thick and thin, and it wasn't good all the time but I stayed there. | 12:05 |
Georgia Bays | But anyway, she told me said, "You just can't want everything you see. When you see other people with things, you don't know how they're getting it. You have to wear what Mama give you." I thought it was tough, but it's good now. Down through the years I found out it was good. | 12:24 |
Doris Dixon | Understand. Now, were there ever any of the young ladies who had babies before they were married? | 12:48 |
Georgia Bays | Yes. Yes. There was a few babies then. Bottom spot. Bottom spot because these same girls that I'm talking about, her sister had a baby when she was 13. And I didn't have—Mama told me about that. And her daddy, the man that I married to, was courting one of his girls. And he would come over there to my daddy's house and was set up and talk about after he found out my husband was, my boyfriend was courting his girl. | 12:54 |
Georgia Bays | And he wanted him to marry his girl. See what I'm saying? But somehow or another, my husband, I thought he was jumping more at the girl that all fixed up, you know what I mean? And had things and wore pretty clothes. I thought that was the way. But I found out that wasn't so. What brought me what I is now, what I'm is now, not bragging but just facts: my ways and action. | 13:34 |
Georgia Bays | And I ain't lost a thing. And I don't feel like I've lost nothing up until this day, at all the runaround that I had and how I was raised. I was proud that Mama raised me like this, this day 'cause she didn't know, I didn't know that I'd be living in this day. But how she raised me managed me to come on up in this day, see? To live a long time and come on up and can understand. And after I got married I was the same way. If I got a pair of stocking, my husband's fine if I didn't. | 14:22 |
Georgia Bays | And my daddy asked me when I got ready to marry him, he called me out, I was going to slip off from school. And my husband saw another boy in there after me. And I said, "Uh-huh, I'm not going." I said, "Now if he can't come up at this schoolhouse, get me, get me, I'm not going with you." And so my mama had taught me all about running around the house or getting off too far with boys. | 15:19 |
Georgia Bays | So I wouldn't do that. So my daddy found out I was going to marry. He said, "Georgia," said, "come out here, I want talk with you 'fore I go." And he said, "Do you know how to treat Otis?" My husband's named Otis. I said, "Yes sir." I was very speakily. I speak up, I little old fast thing. I said I was fast 'cause I would talk up, I would just talk what I thought. | 15:52 |
Georgia Bays | And I put my little hand on my hips. I say, "Yes sir, I know how to treat him." He said, "You don't know how to treat no husband." I said, "Yes I do." He said, "How?" I said, "Do Mama know how to treat you? I do like Mama done do you." | 16:26 |
Georgia Bays | And you know what he done? He had a hankie in his pocket, went back there and got it, and he walked off from me wiping tears. He said, "Georgia, you don't have to go nowhere. Mama can cook you a little old dinner." It was that long about that Monday. And I'm married that next Sunday. | 16:41 |
Georgia Bays | Mama sat at that fireplace had fireplaces. She sat at that fireplace that whole week. Wouldn't say I was, wouldn't do nothing but get up and cook for us and get back in that chair, by that little old fire and this away and that dress down here. Wouldn't say a word to nobody. Just get up and cook, get back in that chair. | 17:01 |
Georgia Bays | Finally, one morning I got up, I was pretty smart in the house. I was smart in the house, cleaned up the house and fixed my little old room. Didn't have nothing in there, little wooden table or something. And I said, "Mom, what's the matter with you?" She said, "Nothing." She never would tell me. | 17:24 |
Georgia Bays | So on a Saturday morning she got up, cook breakfast, and she went to stirring up them old cakes, killing them old hands, making stews, potato pies, cakes, and things for my wedding that day and the coming day. And then my husband came down, met Sara Dean or whatever that week, and asked me what did I need to wear. | 17:46 |
Georgia Bays | And I told him I wanted a pair black slippers, pump slippers with the heel just about that high and a pair of stockings and a dress. And it was wine colored and trimmed and it was silk and wine colored and trimmed in white. And he got me that to marry in. And so Mama cooked that dinner, rode and cooked that dinner and he was years, years to come after I got some children come to leaving before I know what was she was worried about and wouldn't talk about, wouldn't even talk to us. | 18:19 |
Georgia Bays | Didn't say a word like she was stuttering. But I thought she was praying. She was sad 'cause she knew I was crossing over in another world. See what I'm talking about? | 19:03 |
Doris Dixon | Yes, ma'am. | 19:15 |
Georgia Bays | And I never found that out 'till my first child. Then I know mine comes, "Now this is what your mama was worried about, was praying about, you marrying at a early age." But they didn't even try to keep me from marrying. They fixed me up and sent me off. | 19:17 |
Georgia Bays | And then after meeting and my husband, we had several little rounds after being, after got married. And I came home and I walked in. Papa said, "What's the matter, Georgia?" I said, "Otis hitting me." That's my husband. Said, "All right. Go sit down." | 19:37 |
Georgia Bays | Next morning he talked to me. He said, "Georgia," said, "I ain't going to tell you to stay, I ain't going to tell you to go, but my door is open," and walked out. That's all they ever give me. And no, wouldn't have nothing to do with nothing me and Otis done, nothing. | 20:06 |
Georgia Bays | Well, I was a little jealous of Otis 'cause they cared more but looked like they cared more about Otis than they did me. They was crazy about that man. They never wouldn't have nothing to do with us without little ups and downs. All they would tell me, he would tell me, they said, "Door is open, I'm not going tell you to stay," and wouldn't have nothing else to say. None of them. My folk didn't have nothing to say. Maybe that's the reason I stayed with them. They didn't like it. But that's the way it happened. So that's just the way things went in my life. | 20:26 |
Doris Dixon | When did you all leave the hills of Mississippi? | 21:09 |
Georgia Bays | It seemed like it was in '40, somewhere in '40 I think when we left. | 21:23 |
Doris Dixon | Where'd you go then? | 21:28 |
Georgia Bays | When we left the hill, me and my husband? We moved down here. We went to Drew then when we left away from up back. | 21:30 |
Doris Dixon | You were talking about Drew earlier, was that you lived on plantation in Drews? | 21:36 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah. And we lived on plantation in the hills, but we left the hills along in '40 I think it was had in '40, 'cause Essie Lee was born in '40 I believe. No, Bonnie was born in, Jesse was born in '40. I think that's way it was. But anyhow, we moved to Drew, and this is where we stayed with the White man that the little boy jumped on and all that. | 21:43 |
Doris Dixon | And how long have you been in outside of Clarksdale in this subdivision? | 22:15 |
Georgia Bays | Right here? Right here? | 22:20 |
Doris Dixon | Yes, ma'am. | 22:22 |
Georgia Bays | In this house? | 22:22 |
Doris Dixon | Yes, ma'am. | 22:23 |
Georgia Bays | About 20 soon. We moved here in '70 and yeah, we moved here in '70. 'Cause my mama died in '70 and I was going to bring her home 'cause they didn't have running water up there and we didn't have running water over here on the Mullins. No bathtubs or nothing. | 22:24 |
Doris Dixon | That's where you were before here? | 22:51 |
Georgia Bays | We moved to Drew when we come up in. | 22:53 |
Doris Dixon | How long were you at Drew? | 22:57 |
Georgia Bays | How long was we there? Me see, I had paper there. Paper was about, I don't know how old she was, but she wasn't very old when Robert Denny wasn't very old. I had them and Robert Denny and Nathaniel. I had them four down there. Then I had these two, Catherine and Vivian, up here on the Mullins place. That's my last children I had up here was Mullins place, them two. And I went to hospital with them two. And well I was telling you about that, I went to hospital them two, but the rest of them, them other, Essie Lee, Nathaniel, Robert Denny and Joe, they was born in Drew. But Catherine and Vivian was born out here in the hospital. Them the last two I had, I was 50, think I was 50 something when I had Vivian. That's my last child. She was. | 22:58 |
Doris Dixon | How long were you at the Mullins place? | 24:15 |
Georgia Bays | I really don't know. Let's see. Well, as far as I can remember, I had Catherine, Vivian over here on the Mullins and we moved from the Mullins up here about 20 something years ago. And them girls is around in they 30s, they 30 some years. | 24:22 |
Doris Dixon | What was that place like? | 25:04 |
Georgia Bays | Over here on Mullins? | 25:04 |
Doris Dixon | Uh-huh. | 25:05 |
Georgia Bays | Well, it was pretty rough there in a sense because when we moved there, the David Mullins was living now, that was his daddy place over there. His daddy run it, and I say it was good. | 25:05 |
Georgia Bays | It was really good in a sense 'cause it taught us a lot. Taught us, me, and my husband a lot and my boys was some of three, two of them, three of them was almost grown then. It taught us a good yield. He put us on this basis. He didn't keep no books on us. The old man Mullins didn't. He didn't keep books on us. He let us do our own thing. | 25:35 |
Georgia Bays | We worked and he paid us good. Now, that where we come into, when we stayed on Arbor Place down the Drew, Mr. Arbor had different rules. You work, he let you have a whole lot of money. What we call a whole lot of money [indistinct 00:26:44]. When we want money we could get it. All of this and that. He was nice, but he was more goody there. But when we come on up here, he was is a whole lot different. | 26:22 |
Georgia Bays | We had to learn to do that. This old man, he wouldn't keep no books on us. He would pay us good and we had to save that money and do our own thing. He didn't lend no money and there where we got us started, where we learned to get on our own. See what I'm saying? | 26:59 |
Doris Dixon | That's where you start saving money. | 27:25 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah, that's when I started doing my own thing. | 27:26 |
Doris Dixon | What was your own thing? | 27:30 |
Georgia Bays | My own thing when I was on the other places, well when I wanted a thing I just asked the White man something. Let me have such and such amount of money, I'll go and get it. But over here he would pay us good. | 27:32 |
Doris Dixon | So you were sharecropping over there. | 27:51 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah, we were sharecropping. | 27:56 |
Doris Dixon | You still have to give up half your crop? | 28:01 |
Georgia Bays | What we done, you see, we share crop, but what I'm talking about, we share crop and then what we made or we clear that money. Then they turn around and give us a bonus or something like that. And we learned over here to save and do our own thing. We had to pay our own bills. And over here, we worked and didn't have the money, didn't save the money to pay our light bill, things like that. Why, we could go to the man and get—Let's say this. I work this week and I want to do something else with my money and not pay my bills. I'm just coming in with the plain thing. I know Mr. Arbor's going to let me have it. | 28:03 |
Georgia Bays | That's the way we did. When we got over here, it was different. We had to save our money. They paid us good, but we had to save it. We work a whole week. Mr. Mullen pay us good price more than he did anybody the people on his place, he was real nice. But we at first beginning we couldn't stand. We thought it was something. But after, well, I tell you who brought us into recognize got our mind straight about it. | 28:59 |
Georgia Bays | This Leila May that you just come to her house. She come there and she called after this man daddy died. She called her son what we living with. They had a talk and she told him, he told her to let them, let her daddy and brother do their own thing. See a lot of them don't want you to do it. They want to, well want you to come to them. | 29:36 |
Doris Dixon | Right. When you say do your own things, does that mean you were renting land from him? | 30:21 |
Georgia Bays | No, we was working on haver. But still we want— | 30:25 |
Doris Dixon | You want your own things for your home and all that? | 30:33 |
Georgia Bays | Well, we wasn't saving, we wasn't into it. We wasn't into during our own thing. | 30:35 |
Doris Dixon | Okay, I understand. | 30:42 |
Georgia Bays | We was looking, if we didn't pay a bill out of the money we were clear to work with, we could go to the White man and get it again. Get it and pay it. Well, all this was cut out, and it was good for us. See what I'm saying? | 30:44 |
Doris Dixon | Yes ma'am. | 31:00 |
Georgia Bays | Just like you pay all what I owe you. You pay me good and I don't do what I supposed to to my home and buying, doing different things and keeping my lights and everything going. Being a responsible for my own thing. Well, we didn't believe, just the White man just want me get out, we just get it work, we get it. | 31:02 |
Georgia Bays | But this man would pay us for everything we done, even to the children on Christmas and on holidays and birthdays. All what the children need he would bring it to that house and give it to us. And he didn't have to open my gate and nothing. And he'd [indistinct 00:31:44] my children and other children on the place and wasn't nobody children on the place but mine. And he was really good though. Got to say it. | 31:22 |
Georgia Bays | I enjoyed where he had to do it. And he save my children from going out. He'd give them a job picking up rocks and pay them good. And when they hear him coming them dirt road, they'd beat it to a gate and nothing but gates over there at that time. They'd open the gate for him so he could go through back and forth. 'Cause all he did was ride through on his place. | 31:55 |
Georgia Bays | And when I was pregnant with these two children, what I was talking about, he told Otis he wasn't going to have no midwife. | 32:26 |
Doris Dixon | Midwife. | 32:33 |
Georgia Bays | And told him to—I'd been used to going to the field pregnant, and after I got so far, he wouldn't like. And he told my next daughter to Otis to let her stay at the house with me and said, "I notice Ms. Bays and if anything happened I'm always riding." Said "I'm got them going to the hospital with him." | 32:34 |
Doris Dixon | I understand. But you said now at first it was pretty rough there. | 33:00 |
Georgia Bays | Not him. | 33:04 |
Doris Dixon | But trying to say it was rough. | 33:06 |
Georgia Bays | Not him. It was rougher 'cause we wasn't used to the way his rules, we wasn't used to that rule. We were used to, if we didn't pay a bill, we could get the money to pay it. But this man didn't care that way. He would pay you good and you have to do your own saving and be your own boss. You get what I'm saying? | 33:08 |
Doris Dixon | I understand. And did you work in the plantation house there? | 33:46 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah. | 33:53 |
Doris Dixon | You got paid there? | 33:54 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah. | 33:55 |
Doris Dixon | How much did you get paid there? | 33:56 |
Georgia Bays | I worked with his daughter, his son, and his wife then. | 33:58 |
Doris Dixon | They had a house on the place, too? | 34:05 |
Georgia Bays | After he died, his son run this place. He run this place. Mr. David Mullins. It hadn't been too long quit working for him and they just as nice as his 1, 2, 3. And he ran the place, but he didn't run it quite like his daddy did. And that's why we got off of balance. He would do things for us, but he didn't pay us the best. He paid us, but he didn't do like his daddy did. | 34:07 |
Georgia Bays | If we made a mistake about buying something, he would cover it up. He would let us have the money to do it with and keep going. But his daddy didn't do it. He let us be our own boss like that. Save our money. 'Cause he didn't keep no books on us. If you owed him a penny, he was going to take it out. You take that penny out of there. Care how much he made you, how many you make $1,000. And if you owed him a penny, you going to pay it. And if he owed you a penny, he was going to pay you. | 34:48 |
Doris Dixon | Did he pay you anything for working in the house? | 35:28 |
Georgia Bays | Yes. | 35:28 |
Doris Dixon | Because that's how much? | 35:28 |
Georgia Bays | I never did work for his daddy at the house. But I worked for Mr. Mullen, his son. | 35:33 |
Doris Dixon | So while his daddy was still alive, you didn't do housework then? | 35:39 |
Georgia Bays | I didn't do housework for him. All I did— | 35:43 |
Doris Dixon | Were you doing housework elsewhere or you just working in your own house? | 35:45 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah, I was mostly working. I was making in my own house then long in them years. I was working at my own house until after he passed and his son taking it up. I worked in the field and worked at this hit house. 'Cause when I wasn't working in the field, I worked over at his son's house. And this is where I quit work at. When I quit working the other day, two ago I quit working for them. | 35:50 |
Doris Dixon | But by that time, by the '70s when you moved here, you just stopped doing field work [indistinct 00:36:18] '70s? | 36:13 |
Georgia Bays | Yes. I was still doing work in the field. | 36:19 |
Doris Dixon | You were? | 36:22 |
Georgia Bays | When I left Moianna, I came over here and I had the same jobs that I had over there working around White folks, working gardens, Mr. Lane, all these White folks, older White folks worked in the gardens, worked in the field chopping cotton. Not care a lot of these boys didn't have school clothes. And the man asked me could I get some boys to come chop with me? And I told them I could and I got them, got a gang of them and they said, "Georgia," said, "You [indistinct 00:37:03] all these boys?" I said, "Yes, sir. I'm going to take them 'cause they need to go to school." Because the parents wasn't able to get them blue jeans and things. And we was talking about that other day. A boy was telling me about it. He said, "I never will forget how you done us." And the peoples around here thought I couldn't handle it. But they mind me. They mind me. They sure it did. | 36:23 |
Doris Dixon | And this was into the '70s. This is more recent. | 37:27 |
Georgia Bays | This is on up here | 37:28 |
Doris Dixon | In the '80s, '70s? | 37:28 |
Georgia Bays | Well, yeah. When I first moved up here, that's what that was. Sure was. So that's just way it was. That's part of my getting by coming up 'till this time. Well, a whole lot of things happened right then. But them the most particular, how I was brought up and everything and how my life was. And I enjoyed it. And I don't see nothing wrong with it today. I enjoyed what I did. I just quit work here about four months ago for David Mullin over here. | 37:34 |
Georgia Bays | And I enjoyed it. After years pass up, after I come from now all that back stuff, hard stuff, it wasn't hard to me. But it's look hard now the way I done. After I got out here coming lifting up, I got more, I could get more pay, get a little money. These folks pay me good. I got into this day a little bit and made me a little money, and I worked up here at the school reckon after I moved up here. I cooked up there and had some trouble up there a little bit. | 38:20 |
Georgia Bays | Not too much, but I was raised and not to stab back so much and everything. And I was good cook. And the teaching thing, they loved the way I worked. I didn't only cook, I kept a good kitchen and everything. Cooked good and everybody liked the way I cooked and the way I carried myself. | 39:06 |
Georgia Bays | And she asked me, she said, "Georgia," Ms. William, she said, "the only thing I care about you what you should do, you should take up for yourself more." I said, "No, Ms. William," said, "I'll be all right." I said, "We don't want you to leave," said, "you ought to speak up." But see I was thinking about this. | 39:33 |
Georgia Bays | I had a lot of children and I didn't want to be up at that schoolhouse saying things and into it with nobody. 'Cause I got to live for my children. I can make trouble for my children if I want to. See what I'm saying? So as I can tell them everything and some of them think they might not like, they might go see people. So the girl that I got, we got into it, she was a young girl, pretty girl. | 39:59 |
Georgia Bays | I was about 50 something years old at the schoolhouse. And I would help her just like I would help children, my daughters and thing good to them. Do all the work, helping them cook. They wouldn't help me. I'd make up, I had to cook roll and 500 rolls on Friday. I wouldn't have a bit of help. | 40:39 |
Georgia Bays | I was about 50 or 60 years old then. And she was staring at me. She had been fooling with me, and she was sitting on one side of the table and I was sitting on this side. And the other two men was sitting on the end and I just happened to look up and she was looking this way right at me. And I just got back, I got up out of the chair. Slid my chair back, went over toward the sink, and this is the devil, nothing but the pure D devil. | 41:03 |
Georgia Bays | I done all the washing the dishes. And I know where everything was laying right there where I can get it. And I said, if I have any trouble, I'm going to have to use it. I got back, even put my chair back to the table, got back against that sink where washed dishes. And I stood up there and I told her, just like I would tell my children, I said, "Look." I said, "Girl, you so pretty." And she was. I said, "You sit there with your long hair and young like you is and you talk about me don't need to be up here." | 41:40 |
Georgia Bays | I said, "Honey, this is my job. This is what I was raised to do. Washing, scrubbing, cooking, scrubbing the walls, scrubbing the kitchen and everything. Cleaning the yard and everything. This is what I learned to do." | 42:21 |
Doris Dixon | Yes, ma'am. | 42:39 |
Georgia Bays | I said, "Now is the time you ought to be down there not somewhere in Clarksdale or somewhere in school or teaching school or at some desk or another." I said, "Now I didn't get none of this." I said, "But now you doing what I'm supposed to do." And I said, "You too pretty to even be up here." I said, "You sticking your hand where you say I'm too old. What you doing sticking your hand down all this old water and stuff and getting down on your knees like I did scrubbing the wall?" And I did in that school. I said, "Now what you doing doing that?" I said, "You ought to be down there or something at Clarksdale and got you a good job. Knowing that time you can get good jobs." | 42:41 |
Georgia Bays | Young people. I said, "You the one is acting up." I said, "You ought to be down yonder at Clarksdale with your job under teaching school or something." | 43:22 |
Doris Dixon | She thought you were too old to be working? | 43:38 |
Georgia Bays | Too old to be up there. | 43:41 |
Doris Dixon | Why? | 43:41 |
Georgia Bays | Cooking and going on. | 43:42 |
Doris Dixon | What you think you should be doing? | 43:44 |
Georgia Bays | Well and some girls, some women like that, they think you too old to be up here around us or something like that. Well there was another lady there about my age. But I think she was just a little jealous of me. | 43:48 |
Georgia Bays | 'Cause the way I did, she could come to the school house with a white uniform on, ain't ironed, spots all over it, and everything. When I was brought up, I had done cook. I had done cook and been around I guess where she hadn't been around, White folks and everybody, parties and everywhere. | 44:07 |
Georgia Bays | And I was taught to be clean. And I wasn't wearing nobody's uniform with spots and everything all over it. I was clean. And I was smart with it and I was intelligent with it, and I had respect with it. It didn't go to my head. And I think she got little jealous of it. | 44:49 |
Georgia Bays | Well anyway, me and her, I had to go to the store and I didn't have to go that [indistinct 00:45:15] store, I didn't have no car or nothing like all of them did. And I'd go to the store and get me something to eat and bring it back, have boxes on top of my head coming on. | 45:08 |
Georgia Bays | So this particular day she said, "Ms. Bays, you going to the store this evening?" I said, "Yes." I said, "You want to carry me?" She said, "Yes ma'am, I carry you." Me and her went on up there and it was about 20 minutes before we got out of the car and I went to talk to her again, just like she was my daughter. And she sat there and she cried and I cried with her. And from then on, every time she see me, I wasn't nothing but her mama. | 45:26 |
Georgia Bays | I didn't fuss her, sell the words to her. So that's the reason I quit cooking up there because I had too many children to be standing up there into it with somebody, and I could make my living without being all jammed up with something, this kind of stuff. So I went to work back at with White folks and I made more money then and I made cooking up there. | 45:57 |
Georgia Bays | And that's when Ms. William was telling me about that they wanted me up there and I didn't take up for myself. But Ms. William didn't understand that I had children and I didn't want my children here and tell them, "Mama was up to schoolhouse there and her and so, so got into it." I didn't want to be into it no young folks, all of that kind of— | 46:27 |
Georgia Bays | I was born, I'm going to wait. I was born the 17th day of August, 1914. | 0:00 |
Doris Dixon | Where were you born? | 0:18 |
Georgia Bays | At a little place, it was called Dentontown. | 0:20 |
Doris Dixon | In Mississippi? In the hills of Mississippi? | 0:30 |
Georgia Bays | Right. | 0:32 |
Doris Dixon | And did you grow up there? | 0:35 |
Georgia Bays | I growed up there and I married there. I married in 1928. | 0:36 |
Doris Dixon | Could you tell me some of your earliest memories of growing up in Dentontown, Mississippi? | 0:53 |
Georgia Bays | Well, as growing up, I enjoyed the life I was living. It was good then and well, you might say it wasn't good back there, but I see now it was. We had a hard way of going. We didn't get what we wanted. That was good. And since these times, these years have passed, is coming on further and further and things is happening, it was good in that time. And if we would go back to some of those things, some of them, if we could go back and have some of those things where we was having then, we'd be fine. I think we just having too good a time, forgot everything. | 1:00 |
Doris Dixon | Who were your parents? | 2:23 |
Georgia Bays | George Denton. Lela Denton. | 2:24 |
Doris Dixon | And were they in relation to the people who the town named was after? | 2:30 |
Georgia Bays | My grandmother, my daddy's mama, her name was Tippi Denton. She was a slavery. Though my mother's mother was not. | 2:37 |
Doris Dixon | Okay. | 2:54 |
Georgia Bays | But my daddy's mama was a slavery, I got those pictures there now. So back in her days, it was. In her younger days, it was slavery. Sure was. | 2:54 |
Doris Dixon | Did you know your grandmothers? | 3:16 |
Georgia Bays | Oh yeah. Oh, but my mother's. | 3:18 |
Doris Dixon | You didn't know her? | 3:20 |
Georgia Bays | My mother's mother. I didn't know her because my daddy and mama, they are married and I was born little before she passed. | 3:21 |
Doris Dixon | Okay. | 3:33 |
Georgia Bays | She had four sets of twins. And long in that time she had the two sets of twins, she got them in. I got them on that picture now on my bed. One was a bright baby and one was a dark baby. Well, the White people at that time, in them days, they didn't believe that this could happen, you could have a bright baby and a dark baby. See what I'm saying? | 3:37 |
Georgia Bays | But they all came from everywhere, so they told me, to see these two babies because one was Black, curly headed, one was bright and nappy headed. And they said come from everywhere, along in that time, looking at that baby. "Whoo," you know. | 4:12 |
Georgia Bays | So at that time, that's the way they believed. But they forgot about her husband, had Black Indian. Had Black Indian in him. Had Black and Indian in him, Indian in her and in him. And she had what you might call, she had some other blood in her. She was bright, and that caused them two babies to be like that. But my father's mother, she was dark and old. She was 96 when she passed. | 4:31 |
Doris Dixon | Did she tell you about slavery? Did she tell you about her growing up in slavery? | 5:26 |
Georgia Bays | Well, I heard her talk right smart about it. But as I said, as the years gone by, I may have missed out on a lot of things, what was done back then in her time. But I know she, or back in those times she said when they prayed, they had to put the head under a wash pot. | 5:32 |
Doris Dixon | Really? You had to put your head under a wash pot? | 6:06 |
Georgia Bays | When the Colored peoples prayed, they have to put their head under a wash pot. | 6:12 |
Doris Dixon | Okay. | 6:22 |
Georgia Bays | Now the White peoples did not know that Jesus Christ is, you can't outdo Him, I don't care what you do because He works in here. And the Colored folks didn't know at that time. Now you can be killing me, and I can be praying, and that's what they missed out on. The White peoples missed out on knowing that you could pray. I don't care what was coming up, God fixed it that way, see? And that's the way they would have to do. She said that's the way they would have to do. | 6:25 |
Georgia Bays | And they had to do a lot of things, a lot more things than we had to do, way younger. But after all, they made it. And she was 96 when she passed, and she told me a lot of things, I just can't remember all she didn't say. But I know she was a lover. She was a good old dark lady. She was my grandmother and I loved her so much. | 7:16 |
Georgia Bays | And that's the first time I ever had gray hairs. I sit and after she passed, I just sit and think about her. Every time I start thinking, I start picking in my hair and when I was young, I had gray hairs thinking about her all the time. But I found out one morning I went to, my husband went to field, and I was sitting on my doorstep in the hill and that's where I'd go to cry every morning. And something came to me and said, "Georgia, you got to give up. You can't live with them, the dead." So I got right on up and went to doing my housework. But anyway, that's what it was. | 8:06 |
Doris Dixon | You said you cried every morning? | 8:58 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah. | 9:00 |
Doris Dixon | Why? | 9:00 |
Georgia Bays | I was thinking about her. Thinking about her. I missed her so. | 9:01 |
Doris Dixon | After she died. | 9:07 |
Georgia Bays | I missed her so much. I missed her. | 9:08 |
Georgia Bays | And you ain't asked me this question, but I'm going to tell you a funny joke. I loved her so well and she had a little old pocketbook that some lady made her named Ms. Reinold. That was they neighbor in that time? | 9:12 |
Doris Dixon | Yes, ma'am. | 9:38 |
Georgia Bays | And Christmastime, they would give her little pieces of, little blocks of cheese. They came in hoops then day and time, they'd give her a slice of cheese, some peppermint candy, and apple and oranges. | 9:39 |
Georgia Bays | And I married along in that time and she would save me—it'd be a good while before I came over there. But she'd saved that, the cheese be done dried up, apple and everything. She said, "Sister, look up there and you'll find your apple and cheese in that pocketbook." (laughs) | 9:56 |
Georgia Bays | I'd go up there and I'd eat it. It was all crumbled up but I'd eat it. | 10:15 |
Georgia Bays | So I'm going to tell you this. After she passed, in them days, we didn't have no hospitals. Well, they had hospitals, but White folks had them, you know what I'm saying? And we'd have to, when people die, we'd have to, they had people, men folk would go somewhere and get some lumber from somebody and make them a— | 10:23 |
Doris Dixon | Casket? | 10:57 |
Georgia Bays | Casket, and cover it with different color of cloth, most of it was black. Just like men now, but then you hear them nailing and fixing on them casket, you know what I'm saying? And then when you'd pass, the peoples around, the neighbors around, they come to your house and clean your house out. We'd die at home, clean your house out and fix everything, hang out everything. And ooh, and your house would smelled so good, smell better than they do now. | 10:57 |
Georgia Bays | And they would put these peoples on two boards and put a saucer of salt right here. And maybe they go get some turpentine and put a bottle here and a bottle there to keep the, you know what I mean, the germs from spreading so they said. So that night as she passed, they done all of this and carried her out and the women came there and bathed her. And when a man died, the men folks come bath him and shave him and do him up and put the clothes on him. | 11:39 |
Georgia Bays | So they put our beds back in this room, long in that time, Colored folks didn't have nothing but maybe two rooms or three rooms and have two beds in there. And she died on one. And my Aunt Judy, she slept on the other one. So this particular night, Aunt Judy would, she went out and bought things to have for me and the rest of the children to eat and snack around, and didn't have, she had an itty bitty old radio. And so I just wouldn't eat a thing, I was worried about her so much, and they talked to me but I seen they didn't pay no attention. And my grandmama had, she had a old cat, just about as old as she was. Ms. Reinold, what I first telling you, she gave this cat to her and that cat was just about as old as my grandmother. She was old, she was blind. | 12:27 |
Georgia Bays | But anyway, we all was crazy about that cat, and you know she was too. And so that night, we was all sitting there and we went to bed. I slept with my Aunt Judy, I was married then. | 13:36 |
Georgia Bays | And so well in the midnight, I had dozed off to sleep and the old cat jumped off the table and made a noise, and brother, that scared me to death. I got up, and Aunt Judy had to throw her arms around me to keep me from running. (laughs) | 13:57 |
Georgia Bays | I thought that was Granny, I called her Granny. I thought it was Granny, but I didn't want to see Granny. (laughs) I thought I wanted to see Granny so bad. But that cat jumped off. I thought that was her coming back. (laughs) No, no boy, that night. And she said, "Honey, that ain't nothing but the cat." I said, "All right then." | 14:20 |
Georgia Bays | So that's the way we did, like that happened. But anyway, as my time come on, as the time I've been around, it's been very good. Well, my time, I really enjoy it. If I live to see next month, I'll be 81 and I've enjoyed that time because my mother and my grandmother all raised me. And I'm not bragging, but just facts. Facts, just facts. And I'm proud today that they did me like that because out of the all bad time, I'm still here. | 14:42 |
Doris Dixon | Your mother, Mrs. Lela Denton. What kind of woman was she? | 15:44 |
Georgia Bays | She was just as sweet as peaches. She was just, my mother was so sweet that it was pitiful. She endured everything. She was really a nice lady. She worked hard and she mostly, and she didn't have but just us, three childrens, two girls and one boy and I was the oldest one. She was a church lady and she worked in the field and her biggest work was around White peoples, helping them. During phases, it wasn't that way. And I remember one time about her, she was working for a White lady and the White lady had some boys and they said something to her and was teasing her about something, about a snake or something. And she was always scared of a snake. And she told that boy, that boy came in there with a old play snake. And she didn't like that. | 15:50 |
Georgia Bays | She said, "If you don't get back, I'll kill you." Now my mother was good, but let me tell you something. She meant what? She said she didn't bother nobody. But that's just, that was mama and every White and Black was crazy about my mama. And he laughs, "Oh Lela, this ain't nothing but a old play snake." Now, the boy was named George and called him George. Said, "Now George, you know I don't play. Don't ever do that no more. I hate to do something when I ain't got no business, and I don't like when nobody play with me no snakes." But that's just the way things went. | 17:27 |
Georgia Bays | And my daddy, he was a nice man. He drank whiskey, he would get drunk but he never did bother nobody. But back in then them days they wasn't like now. When they drank, we wasn't nowhere around and the neighbors' children wasn't nowhere around. That's the different in men folks today. Now my daddy and his company dranked, but we didn't see him. We didn't hear, I never, they hear my daddy cuss, and my mama either. | 18:15 |
Doris Dixon | If you didn't see them, how did you know they were doing it? | 19:01 |
Georgia Bays | Well, I'll tell you the reason why I knew it. Children is children, they sneak sometimes and they peep sometimes and see what we're doing. But let me tell you, you didn't let them see you sneaking and you didn't let them see you peeping. And nowadays, you can't even hardly push your children. I got whoopings. I got whoopings. Some children didn't get as many whooping as others. See what I'm saying? But nowadays, if you push one and somebody see you, they just have it fit over. "Oh, you see her push her children?" She knows what she doing, she ain't going to push that child enough to hurt him. And that's supposed what's the matter with us today. We just done quit. How can we raise them? Bible said bend the sapling while it's little, can't bend it when they get grown. And that's most what we trying to do now when they get grown, we start trying to bend them. Well, they cut all the way out. Why? Why did they cut all this out, that we can't even spank our children? | 19:12 |
Doris Dixon | So you were ever disciplined as a child? | 20:41 |
Georgia Bays | At a child? Yeah. Yeah, I was. Everybody raised me. | 20:46 |
Doris Dixon | How so? | 21:01 |
Georgia Bays | Huh? | 21:02 |
Doris Dixon | What do you mean by everybody raised you? | 21:03 |
Georgia Bays | Well, if I went to your house or anybody's house, that was my mama. See what I'm saying? If they said, "Georgia, you sit down," I better sit down. And if I didn't, when I come home, my neighbor didn't go over there and tell mama. She just took her time, and when she got ready and when she tell my mama what I done done and what I said, no more talk. They ain't ask what you did you do and how did you do it? They'd whoop you. You got two whooping and half the time you wouldn't tell it. | 21:05 |
Georgia Bays | Now, we had neighbors, and that's when I was a kid. We was living by some White people who had a whole lot of children. And so me and the children, little girls was playing with our dolls. We had dolls. My doll house was up under my house, up under my mama's house, and she was up in there cooking dinner. And my White neighbors, they went to church and her little girl had little more pretty things than I had. | 21:59 |
Georgia Bays | So while they was going to church outside, while mama was cooking dinner outside, I decided, didn't live far, go over there and get some of her things. I took my little dress tail up and went over there and filled it full, toted in dress tail, that was all the sense I had. Come back and put them under my house, the front in my playhouse. I imagine mama knows what I was doing, but she just took her time. Well she got dinner done, she come on out. She said, "Georgia, what you doing?" I said, "I'm playing mama." She stepped out and looked up on the house. She'd seen what I had. She know that I didn't have it and where did I get it? Well the people don't do that now. | 22:36 |
Doris Dixon | All right, what happened? | 23:32 |
Georgia Bays | She didn't say another word when she saw all this up in the house. She got through with her stuff and sat down on the porch and saw these White peoples. Now, you might call that rude. I thought it was rude. I thought it was the worst thing my mama could do, because I had a good reputation. Why did mama want to ruin it? Why did she want to take me over there and take that stuff back? But today, I know. They came from the church, she waited till they come from the church and had company and carried me on over and told me to go in the house, get that stuff and put it in my coattail. I carried on over there and she told, and the lady was named Ms. Violet. She said, "Ms. Violet, Georgia came over here and got some of your girl's things." She said, "Oh, Lela." | 23:33 |
Georgia Bays | She said, "Uh-uh, I wanted you to see it." And you know what? I put that stuff down. She didn't have to whip me, she just talked to me. And from that day to this one, I don't bother people's stuff. That broke it up. And you see, people don't even whoop their children now before nobody. We don't. That's disgracing the children. But this is where you want to do it at. I'm talking about you don't do it when they get being grown, you do it now. | 24:26 |
Georgia Bays | We have the church at church preaching and going on, the pulpit would be full of parents with the folks that have children. See, they'd go to sleep, they came up in that pulpit and lay them all down. All the children be up there sleeping and the preacher be— | 25:03 |
Doris Dixon | Pulpit? | 25:24 |
Georgia Bays | In the pulpit. See pulpit, up there where you preaching. Pulpit sitting here, children back there on pallets. But let me tell you something, they was some good old days. | 25:24 |
Doris Dixon | How long did that go? And when did they stop doing that? | 25:37 |
Georgia Bays | Well. They stopped doing that. As the years go by, different things happen. Now, my husband's been dead going on four years now. And when he died, things were [indistinct 00:26:00] like it is now. | 25:40 |
Doris Dixon | Well, what I mean is, wait, how long did he die? When did you say he died? | 26:02 |
Georgia Bays | Soon be four years ago in February. | 26:08 |
Doris Dixon | Oh, okay. I mean when did they stop letting children make pallets in the pulpit? | 26:10 |
Georgia Bays | Well, on years to come. Maybe years come on, come, they quit doing that. As years pass on, something new every year, that's what I'm saying. | 26:15 |
Doris Dixon | Okay, I understand. | 26:27 |
Georgia Bays | Things that was happening when my old man was living, it's new things happening now. | 26:29 |
Doris Dixon | Right. | 26:35 |
Georgia Bays | And it's hard for peoples like me, as old as I is, you can't enjoy it, the way people's living now. When I came up, I can go anywhere I want to, sleep anywhere I want to. You know what I mean? Wear anything when I wanted to. | 26:37 |
Doris Dixon | You could sleep anywhere you wanted to? | 27:02 |
Georgia Bays | Yes. | 27:03 |
Doris Dixon | What do you mean? | 27:03 |
Georgia Bays | What I'm talking about here, if mama want to make me a pallet out there when it's hot like this, and there wasn't no fans. | 27:04 |
Doris Dixon | Right. | 27:12 |
Georgia Bays | Use paper, build smokes in the house on dish pads and things for the, smoke the mosquitoes out and your window's all hot, your door is all over. That's the way I came up. But she'd make me a pallet out on the porch. Ain't nobody going to bother me. No, no. People cared too much about one of them. | 27:13 |
Doris Dixon | You said that everybody in the neighborhood could tell you what to do. | 27:42 |
Georgia Bays | Yes. | 27:49 |
Doris Dixon | Were there certain people's houses that you couldn't go in? | 27:50 |
Georgia Bays | No. | 27:54 |
Doris Dixon | Everybody, you could see anybody. | 27:55 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah, I'm telling you the truth. | 27:56 |
Doris Dixon | I believe you, ma'am, I just. | 27:59 |
Georgia Bays | Show the truth. Everybody around in my neighborhood, well, the times was that way, even in town or whatever, I didn't go too much. My town was at Calhoun City, my daddy's town. I didn't go, we didn't go no town. They went to town twice a year. Christmas, maybe Christmas, and they went in the spring. That was going to town. And Granada, after years passed, they was giving things down at Granada. I never did go down there, my daddy went down there and all. But the way I came up, to hear me tell it, you couldn't live that way. But I'm still here, ain't I? No brag, but just facts. Come through some hard times. | 28:00 |
Georgia Bays | When I wanted a dress or anything after I got married, I had to shell corn and get me a dress. And get a dollar and half a bushel for it, corn. Pick cotton and get a dollar a hundred for the cotton and I'd pick 400 and 500 pounds of cotton myself. And that's all I did. And they had cloth in that day and time. When you want a dress, you had to buy the cloth, 10 cents a yard, you'd get your three yard and half I think for 35 cents. And if I wanted anything to wear to church, like a dress, a hat, anything like that, my husband could give me $10. And I'd go to [indistinct 00:30:16] and give me a hat and a dress and a pair of shoes. And I don't say I could have done it, but I have done it a many times. Sure did. It's just the way, come up on the rough side. But that's all right. | 29:15 |
Doris Dixon | Now, when you were married, how did you all make a living? | 30:31 |
Georgia Bays | Worked in the field. We chopped cotton. We lived on a man's place by the name of Hemplewoods after we got married. And my first baby, I didn't have no nurse. The man would have us a field. They got the fields that big now, he had about a 10 acre block and that's all we could work then, 10 acres. And so my husband didn't have to go yonder that field and that field, he plowed mules. And so we had this baby, and he'd taken some planks and built four legs to that little pen up off the ground, just about that high. And then put a bottom in it. | 30:34 |
Georgia Bays | Well, I had it up about that, and two planks. It was just like this, enough for him to turn around and play whatever. And then it had then two, four sticks coming on up here. And I'd put a sheet or quilt over there and put it right in the middle of that field, that 10 acre block. So me and him could be passing him all the time, see what I mean? And we could holler at him and we could step across there and look at him, watch after him. And then when quitting time come, I'd go home at 11 o'clock and cook dinner, and he come out at 12, we'd eat, and I'd have my baby diaper tied up in another one. Wasn't no diaper. It was old sheet, my mama done give some old sheets, and I done sat down and hemmed them. | 31:39 |
Doris Dixon | Right. | 32:47 |
Georgia Bays | Now, Lela Mae Keys, that's my oldest daughter, where you just come from. I didn't have, that's my first daughter, my first girl. And my first boy was a boy. And she, well, Bill didn't have nothing but that old sheets and stuff. That was a boy, we had made all his clothes. But Lela Mae, she was the only one that got changed that I started, that's what I was telling you a while ago about times keep claiming something new every year. So I was able, the White folks wouldn't give us, you talking about Johnson Baby Powder, Johnson Baby Oil, you know what I'm talking about, don't you? They wouldn't sell it to us. | 32:49 |
Doris Dixon | They wouldn't? | 33:50 |
Georgia Bays | No, they wouldn't sell it to, they had it but White folks got it for their babies. And Lela Mae was the only one. And you know how come she got that? I couldn't buy it at the store. I had a Sears Roebuck catalog and my husband gambled and he went on win some money and I got that catalog and I ordered her some Birdseye diapers and some Johnson Baby Powder and all of that, and that soap to bathe in. Well, my first baby had no soap, no Johnson Baby Powder. Castor oil is what I used on him. Sure was castor oil, he's 60 years old now. So that's the way I raised my children. | 33:52 |
Georgia Bays | And well, the rest of them, as the years tilled over, you could buy because most of the time when I raised them, my family, my boys, I had chickens and they would get eggs, carry to the store and buy them a little candy, something like that. Didn't have nothing. But I said, look at them today. And they got grown and that shows me we can do without a lot of things that we said we can't. | 34:40 |
Doris Dixon | Were your children born at home? | 35:22 |
Georgia Bays | I had all of my children at home, but two. Three, but three children. When I first came down here to the Delta, I lived at Drew. Two. Robert Denny was born. Yeah, Robert Denny was born in Drew. [Indistinct 00:35:25] was born in Drew. Bill and sister, Lela Mae was born in George, and Jesse Bays, they was born in the hill. Jesse was two years old when we came down here. And then we moved, we moved it. (phone ringing) | 35:25 |
Georgia Bays | Answer the phone, Audrey. | 36:16 |
Georgia Bays | We moved to Drew and them three children, Georgia Mae. | 36:16 |
Georgia Bays | Come answer the phone, Audrey! Answer the phone! | 36:26 |
Audrey | I got it. | 36:26 |
Georgia Bays | Georgia Mae, Catherine, Georgia Mae was born down there. Robert Denny was born in Drew. Them two was born in Drew, and had a midwife there. When I came on up here. Moved over here on Mr. Mullin's place. He didn't allow no midwife on his place. | 36:33 |
Doris Dixon | He didn't? | 36:55 |
Georgia Bays | He said that that wasn't right because if something happened to me, I'd still have to go to hospital. And that was good because I had all of my children just went for them heal on down here just like midwives. And you know what they cost me? Three and $4. Three and $4 with a midwife. And so anyway, when I came to Drew, he wouldn't have no midwives. And I went to down here at this hospital, Catherine and Vivian, yeah, them the last two I had. But Joe and Nathaniel were born in Drew. I didn't have no, I had them right home because the doctor come to my house and I had them, and come on up here with the Mullins, Catherine and Vivian, them were my last two and I had them. | 36:58 |
Georgia Bays | And this man wouldn't allow no midwife on his place, and they carried to the hospital, they cost $80. And when Catherine was born, they carried me down there. And they wouldn't let me have my babies just by myself because they wasn't used to me or something like that. And I had done, the things that I was telling them, I was, they asked me questions. Well, how I would do when I be pregnant and all through that. And I was telling them about it so they just put me to sleep. And when I woke up, here was the baby, I enjoyed that because I had been having all my children. I thought I didn't. | 38:14 |
Doris Dixon | Was childbirth hard in those days? | 39:00 |
Georgia Bays | Hm? | 39:00 |
Doris Dixon | Was giving birth hard in those days? | 39:00 |
Georgia Bays | Woo. Just like the Bible said. You know the Bible say you go through death, I think six times, and that's right. And my first baby, I was two days and a half having him. | 39:14 |
Doris Dixon | Wow. | 39:29 |
Georgia Bays | And the others, day and a night, all like that. Sure did. And child, I can tell you a lot about that. | 39:31 |
Doris Dixon | Would you tell me something about it? | 39:41 |
Georgia Bays | Back then, my first baby, my first boy was a boy. I got sick on a Sunday night with him. And that baby wasn't born until on Tuesday, I think. But that midwife I had, she said I was all right. Said I just had to learn. And that's what I did. Had to learn. Stayed sick two days and a night. I mean, having hard pains, and they had to stand and hold my hand. But that midwife knows what she was doing. | 39:44 |
Doris Dixon | She said you had to learn. What did you have to learn? | 40:26 |
Georgia Bays | Learn how to bear pains. | 40:30 |
Doris Dixon | Okay. | 40:33 |
Georgia Bays | See, they was teaching me. They would teach me how to have the baby. And of course I wouldn't mind them. She was telling me, don't do this way. If I do this way, hold it. | 40:33 |
Doris Dixon | Hold the way you breathing? | 40:51 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah, the way you breathe. That's the way you push the baby out. See what I'm saying? You go down this way, you hold it. You don't just give up and start crying and going on. See, that'll make you longer. And that's true too because if you pushing something, you got to keep pushing until it's over with. And sometime it's just like that, if you hold it enough. And then some of the— | 40:54 |
Doris Dixon | Who was holding your hands? | 41:20 |
Georgia Bays | My mother and maybe my auntie or something be holding my hands, holding both my hands, and the midwife be there telling me how to do. "Georgia, give me that long breath, now hold it. Hold it. Just hold it." And then they give, sometimes they give you a snuff bottle. We used to buy snuff in a bottle, you know what I'm talking about, and let you blow in there and that'll make them pains. And they would give you some kind of something to put them pains to come on. | 41:22 |
Georgia Bays | And then I had pretty good time with Lela Mae. She came pretty good. And along that time they was having service up there at the church. And the ministers was coming to eat dinner, supper, something like that. And I remember my husband and this minister, they were sitting down eating. I was sitting at the table and having pain. And boy, I wanted them to hurry up and go to that church. So they got through and my husband told me, he said, "Georgia, I'm going. If you happen to start having pain, you turn this porch light on." Had a porch light on my porch. That's when we first started having lights. It was a long time before, years before I had lights, no radio, no nothing. | 42:09 |
Doris Dixon | When you were living on the plantation? | 43:19 |
Georgia Bays | Uh-huh. So anyway, that night, he said, "I'm not going in church. I'm going to be around outdoors and I'm going to be watching for this light." And sure enough, that night I taken sick with sister, Lela Mae, and I tipped out there and turned that light on in a little while the, what you need? | 43:20 |
Georgia Bays | I'm sorry. | 43:48 |
Doris Dixon | That's okay. | 43:48 |
Georgia Bays | And so he and the midwife didn't stay too far from the church and he came by and got her. Walked, didn't have no ride. And they come over there and Lela Mae was born the next day. Taken sick that night and she was born and they stay. So I had a grandfather always come to see me all the time, that was my mama's daddy. And he passed there while I was having Lela Mae. Road come by my house, and I could peep up and see him passing. I said, "Don't go grandpa. Tell him to come and see about me." | 43:50 |
Georgia Bays | Mama went to the window and said, "Papa." | 44:34 |
Georgia Bays | "Huh?" | 44:36 |
Georgia Bays | Georgia said, "Come and see about her." | 44:39 |
Georgia Bays | "Nope, she going to be all right." | 44:41 |
Doris Dixon | He kept going. | 44:45 |
Georgia Bays | Kept going. No mens. Nobody come around. And women in them days, honey. | 44:48 |
Doris Dixon | Where did the men go when the women were having babies? | 44:56 |
Georgia Bays | Outside somewhere till they need them. The husband of the house didn't go too far. But he wasn't around in there unless you called him for something. Something like that. And my grandfather didn't come to see me. Oh, that baby, Lela Mae was a month old when he come. And them days, I didn't go nowhere. When I had a baby, I didn't go nowhere until that baby got a month old. A month old, I didn't go out of the house. So I went out the house. It was around the house. Take me a walk around the house, come back in the house. That's the way they trained me, and washing my head. | 45:00 |
Doris Dixon | You couldn't wash your hair? | 45:50 |
Georgia Bays | No. And wash my body, no. No way in no tub. Didn't get wet when it raining. It was six months before I ever, before any water, any rain caught me. I had to go to field, you understand? But when it come up that rain, I has the boss man to know, and he know I done had a baby. I wasn't supposed to get wet. | 45:52 |
Doris Dixon | For six months? | 46:20 |
Georgia Bays | Yes. | 46:21 |
Doris Dixon | Now was this just with Lela Mae or for all of them? | 46:23 |
Georgia Bays | Well, I practiced it then. | 46:26 |
Doris Dixon | For how many of them? | 46:26 |
Georgia Bays | I think it's about four of them. | 46:31 |
Doris Dixon | Okay. | 46:33 |
Georgia Bays | About four children. But after then, I practiced what I had done. See what I'm saying? I never got in a— | 46:35 |
Georgia Bays | And iron pots. But tin tubs. | 0:01 |
Doris Dixon | Tin tubs, right. Excuse me. | 0:03 |
Georgia Bays | And we bath in them tin tubs. Sometime on years come we had the other kind of tub. We had a little hounds tub. But these other times we had wash pans and tin tubs. And when you want to take a good bath, we get in that tin tub. But when we had these babies and thing, we'd just get that rag and our little soap. Nine times 10, we didn't have no soap. We made lot of soap and we bath, we do around with it. | 0:05 |
Doris Dixon | You like wash up? | 0:46 |
Georgia Bays | Wash up, we'd wash up and no washing no head. No going outside. You don't be around nobody. So when we did. | 0:47 |
Doris Dixon | This is common? Was this just in the hills or in everywhere? | 0:58 |
Georgia Bays | Well, everywhere that I knew. | 0:58 |
Doris Dixon | But people did that in the hills? | 0:58 |
Georgia Bays | People did that in the hilly part. I don't know what they was done in other places. But that's the way affairs was done up in them hills. That's the way they did. And you couldn't get, I never did get wet with my children. | 1:09 |
Georgia Bays | You see nowadays women at the hospitals too, you get in the tub. You get in the tubs, you shower and everything. And you know what? We ain't living long either. We didn't smell. No, we didn't. | 1:25 |
Doris Dixon | What kinds of things did you put on? | 1:46 |
Georgia Bays | We didn't do nothing but use water. Water and soap. You get what I'm saying? | 1:47 |
Doris Dixon | Yes ma'am. | 1:58 |
Georgia Bays | Water and soap. But we used that. We washed off good with that. We know how to, and that's what we done. They didn't get no tub. Especially when they had the baby, until the six months was up. Never did wash my head, nothing like that. Wouldn't get wet six months or so. Then I go where I want to. I go out, watch people, go to church. And that's the way I was taught. | 2:00 |
Doris Dixon | Now see what would happen a lot? Now didn't a lot of women have babies like real close together? | 2:35 |
Georgia Bays | Mm-hmm. | 2:39 |
Doris Dixon | Would happen then? They would just start it all over again? | 2:40 |
Georgia Bays | Well if they had babies, my babies was kind of close together. 'Cause I was a mother of 14, but I lost— (car horn honks) | 2:43 |
Georgia Bays | Hey, your daddy! | 2:56 |
Georgia Bays | And we just—I just—well, it was enjoying things to me—and others, that was the way we all lived. See that's the way we all lived. Lord have mercy. | 3:14 |
Doris Dixon | Tell me about when women were had their monthly time. | 3:30 |
Georgia Bays | I'll tell you what, I had a time myself. I cramped, I cramped, I cramped. My mother, when I first started, my mother helped me, she did carry me to old doctor and he give me, told her to give me some Wincardia. And that's what she give me. A little Wincardia. | 3:33 |
Doris Dixon | A little what? | 3:59 |
Georgia Bays | A medicine in a bottle about that tall called Wincardia. I can't, you know, that's what it was. It was just like vinegar but kind of like dark vinegar. | 4:00 |
Doris Dixon | Nasty? | 4:16 |
Georgia Bays | No, it wasn't nasty. 'Cause that's what my mama used to take all the time for when she started. See it's good, it was good then for women to take. All the women was taking that. So when they changed life, it wouldn't hurt them. See what I'm saying? | 4:16 |
Georgia Bays | That's what my mother done and other womens are doing. And so I didn't get that for, I didn't take too much of that. She gave me a little turpentine, and that was the biggest thing I take. 'Cause she taught me not to take nothing. | 4:40 |
Doris Dixon | So just to deal with, to bear it? | 5:01 |
Georgia Bays | Not to be taking nothing. 'Cause I didn't know what to take. And so I just had to kind of bear with it long and after so long time I quit. And so after I got married, I married when I was 14 and my husband was 22. What'd you think about that? Wasn't I fast? I wasn't fast. | 5:05 |
Doris Dixon | That was pretty common wasn't it? People get married that young. | 5:33 |
Georgia Bays | Well yes it was in that day. 'Cause you can marry when you get ready. And the way I did, I was going in them days, we had a little country little schoolhouse off in a little break or somewhere, and that's where the girls would slip off, call themselves flipping off married, married. And boys would slip out in the woods and send their partners up to the schoolhouse to get them. And so when it come time for me to, my husband asked me, he says one day when we first met, me and my brother went to the well. | 5:36 |
Georgia Bays | We had a well about two houses from here, and you draw water. And my mama would send me and my brother to the well. I was the oldest, and she kept plenty of water then, 'cause when I saw this man that Sunday walking up to his brother's house, that's where the well was. | 6:22 |
Georgia Bays | And my brother said, "Oh Georgia, who is that gentlemen?" I said, "I don't know brother, but he sure looks good to me." I said, "Look at them mustaches." Black man, tall, slim, hair fixed back. | 6:47 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah, just 14 years old. Hadn't stopped wetting in my drawers. But anyway, that was when I first met him. So mama didn't have no more trouble out no water, getting me to go get water. I remember one day that she was trying, before he ever came, she said "Georgia, come out and see and we'll cook dinner," and had to get some water. This off? | 7:07 |
Doris Dixon | No. You need to turn it off? | 7:39 |
Georgia Bays | Be careful of me doing something. | 7:44 |
Georgia Bays | And so she said, "Go get me some water." I said, "Mama wait a minute." My auntie had a guitar and oh I was in there playing that guitar. Oh boy. I was in there playing it. "Oh Georgia, come go get that water so I can finish your daddy's dinner. He be here directly." "All right mama." And before I knowed anything, mama got that, had a switch that's about that long and come in there and that guitar went upside the wall and everything. And I grabbed that bucket and went onto the well. But after this man, I saw this man, boy she didn't have no trouble about me getting water then. (laughs) | 7:46 |
Georgia Bays | But anyway. | 8:30 |
Doris Dixon | Now you said after you got married your time was, what about you were going to tell me something about the time was harder then? | 8:35 |
Georgia Bays | Talking about living was hard? | 8:44 |
Doris Dixon | No, you said something. You were talking about your time, your monthly cycle before you started. | 8:47 |
Georgia Bays | Oh, my monthly cycle got better. See what I'm saying? | 8:54 |
Georgia Bays | He had my minister to talk to him about my life. And generally men like that in them days would tell men folks how to do their wives. And after me and him got married, it was a minister told him to how to do me. I was young and he told him how to do and when to do. Now you believe it or not, but he sure did, and he did it. | 8:56 |
Georgia Bays | He wasn't, I say, no church member. I can guess he about as good as anybody else. But he done more good than he did bad. 'Cause I believe he was saved when he passed and he obeyed. | 9:37 |
Georgia Bays | He was at 96 and said if you obey your mother and father that your days may belong with the Lord. Now God give it thee. 'Cause your time is out when you hit 73 scores and 10. That's all God promised you to live. But you live over that, you living on somebody else's time. | 9:57 |
Georgia Bays | So anyway, he obeyed him. He took care of my body. See what I'm saying? It's a way a man can take care of your body. And I never have seen a rough day in my body. I ain't bragging but it's just the fact no matter what today. I never have seen a rough day in my body. Having just ain't no count. My back, my stomach never had worried me. And ain't bragging but it's just facts. You know the truth got to come. You know it just don't look like it but truth, you know. | 10:18 |
Doris Dixon | You said you've learned this back in your day? | 11:03 |
Georgia Bays | Yes. Learned all that back in my day. | 11:04 |
Doris Dixon | Who taught you? | 11:06 |
Georgia Bays | My mother. My mother taught me this and then her neighbor, just like I first told you back yonder, everybody raised me. But you can't let everybody do it now. All around my neighborhood and everything, and I go to church or school, everybody raise me. I better obey. | 11:10 |
Doris Dixon | Now could you take a bath when you were on your monthly time in those days? | 11:36 |
Georgia Bays | No. They didn't allow me. My mother didn't allow me, wait till I got through. Like I told my daughter, my granddaughter now, I said y'all bath too early. You bath all time when your monthly period is on you. Even now your water is right. And most of the time you don't ever get through from month to month. You don't ever get through. They saying, you know you've got cancer or something else. And I could go head on, but anyway. And you might say that was a tough time, but that was a good time to me. I enjoyed it. | 11:47 |
Doris Dixon | What was good about it? What was good and what was tough about it? | 12:31 |
Georgia Bays | Well I would say I thought it was, well I didn't think it was tough then 'cause that's the way we lived and we couldn't go nowhere to better it. And that's what we lived to do. | 12:34 |
Doris Dixon | Were you ever hungry? | 12:54 |
Georgia Bays | Well we get a little hungry sometimes. But we didn't let that—Now look, when I was coming up, we had neighbors. Everybody was neighbors. Far and near was neighbors. | 12:56 |
Georgia Bays | Now if my daddy didn't have a hog to kill, didn't make no difference with my neighbors. If he didn't have no hog, then he didn't, they didn't tell him "No, I ain't gone give you nothing. You ought to been have you so and so. You ought to been have you this, you ought to been done this." No, nobody do that. If you didn't have no meat, no hog to kill, they didn't say what you ought done done. Here come the buckets. And raising my oldest children's and put them here that way now to me. That's the way you lived, that's the way you die. | 13:18 |
Doris Dixon | When you were raising your children. | 14:04 |
Georgia Bays | When I was raising my children. | 14:05 |
Doris Dixon | People were sharing skills. | 14:07 |
Georgia Bays | Yes. Still sharing. | 14:12 |
Doris Dixon | Still share today? | 14:12 |
Georgia Bays | Today in my neighborhood. The way you live, that's the way you die. The way you live, respect and obeying ain't a better home in it. If a person mistreat you, don't mistreat him back. 'Cause everybody got to die for theirself. | 14:15 |
Doris Dixon | And what if somebody tried to hurt you? What if somebody tried to hurt your children? | 14:38 |
Georgia Bays | Hurt my children? Well just like in them days, we had them kind of people we didn't have as many of them kind of people. No, uh-huh. | 14:42 |
Georgia Bays | Children fight a little bit, but if grown folks got into it, nine times out 10 you hear tell one of them killing one another. You hear what I'm saying? | 14:54 |
Georgia Bays | And honey, before I married and come out them hills, if a person got killed, ooh! White and Black. It was just surprising. But you ain't surprised now. | 15:07 |
Doris Dixon | Oh, so you said nine times out of 10 today, people will kill each other? | 15:25 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah. | 15:29 |
Doris Dixon | But not back then. | 15:30 |
Georgia Bays | No. | 15:30 |
Doris Dixon | What would happen if people got didn't get along back then? | 15:30 |
Georgia Bays | They got along back then. | 15:34 |
Doris Dixon | But somebody had not to get along. Everybody got along? | 15:36 |
Georgia Bays | Well most everybody kind of got along. But I'm saying every night then you could hear tell a person getting killed. And when he did get killed, he was definitely pushing. People didn't go and just do something. See what I'm saying? You know what I'm trying to say. | 15:38 |
Doris Dixon | I do. | 16:00 |
Georgia Bays | Back in them days, you sure would have to do something. You'd have to push yourself. And that that's the reason it was so surprising and was so upsetting when people get killed back and then, honey, everybody's upset. Well nobody ready to fight. Nobody want to go and fight and do nothing. Well they was punishing people then when they do things like that. They'd go to penn and stay. And on back there, they was electrocuting or doing something to them. But it wasn't too much of that done in days when I was coming up. | 16:04 |
Doris Dixon | But I've heard tell that people had a lot of guns and knives to protect themselves. Is that true? | 16:49 |
Georgia Bays | Well I tell you what, my daddy, when we was coming up, when I was coming up, my daddy never did have a gun in his house. I'm saying now, back in them days, you didn't have to have a whole lot of weapon. Some people had one or two guns maybe, and some I don't think too many had no guns. Wasn't no guns, nobody had a gun but White folks. | 16:53 |
Doris Dixon | People didn't have guns for hunting maybe? | 17:24 |
Georgia Bays | Little bit if they hunt a rabbit and squirrel or dog. See what I'm saying? Wasn't no big time nothing. It was just dogs, sticks and things like that. Now people done little things but it was so [indistinct 00:17:46]. You hear me say you could go anywhere, any way you want to. You send your child anywhere. That was good time. You didn't have to watch them. | 17:26 |
Doris Dixon | Now the area, you lived on the plantation in the hills? | 17:57 |
Georgia Bays | Yes. | 18:00 |
Doris Dixon | Were you their White and Black sharecroppers? | 18:01 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah. | 18:06 |
Doris Dixon | And how did they get along? | 18:06 |
Georgia Bays | Talking about the White peoples in there? | 18:08 |
Doris Dixon | The Black people. | 18:09 |
Georgia Bays | Black people, they got along fine. | 18:10 |
Doris Dixon | Poor White people [indistinct 00:18:15], right? | 18:14 |
Georgia Bays | Mm-hmm. They get along. We all get, the White people and the Colored peoples back in that day, you find a few White peoples, mighty few, had this little thing. And he had to use that carefully, mighty carefully. 'Cause the other White peoples, they didn't want them to know what they was doing. See what I'm saying? And White people and Colored people was good. They got along. They got along good. They was good White people then. Up in that day I'm living in. Now back in slavery when I tell you about my grandmother, well tight then, but it loosen up on up in my day. And it's double time looser now. See what I'm saying? It got looser a little bit up in my time. And as far as the time I know, the 80 years I've been here, it's been a few little things happen amongst White people. But I learned this. It's two kinds of White people. | 18:18 |
Georgia Bays | It's a kind that don't care, just like it is Colored as far as I can see. And most of the White people, they done come off of that. They done come off of that prejudice and all of that kind of mess. Back in my time when I was a girl coming on up, we all shared together, walked together. And when them people, children got out of place while some of them they'd whoop them and some wouldn't. But somehow or another, the parents got there and they done something and we went right on. 'Cause my children, I played with White children and it was just all on how your parents was raising you. How they was raising you. I was raised the give and take. You just cannot live in this world and not take nothing. You got to give and take. Take something, give something. It's a give and taking world. That's what it is. | 19:55 |
Doris Dixon | So now back to those days, the White people that you hung around, they were what kind of way? | 21:31 |
Georgia Bays | They were nice peoples to me. Just like I first said. And it's kind of that way now. If you be good now, I'm say it this way. If you have respect and they got respect, you get along. But my mama taught me if you run across somebody didn't have it, leave him alone. Stay around them. Said Georgia, you can love them but you can't be with them. It was a White person up there had some children that would pick at me. She wouldn't [indistinct 00:22:33]. We had to walk, we had to go through the woods and everything. But if these peoples know they children was doing that, they would whoop them. | 21:39 |
Georgia Bays | I had a little old man's place with one of my boys. The little boy stayed up at my house all the time eating and going on. Every time I cooked, they was there eating. I fed him, and I had a little boy now, but he's grown. He got into it with one of the little White boys. And the little White boy did get out of his place and he thought he could do it before his daddy, I was milking a cow. And the White man was there feeding his hogs or whatever. And I had my boy there and his boy came up, and he'd done something to my boy. And the little boy thought 'cause his daddy was there, that he could do what he want to do. | 22:46 |
Georgia Bays | But my boy, it didn't make no difference. When he hit him, he run him down. He run between his daddy's legs. And I was standing up there, oh, just about to faint. Just shield him. 'Cause my boy went in between his daddy's leg and pulled him out there and went to beating on him. And I was scared of them. But there was good White folks. "Forget it Georgia," that's what they told me. Said, "When they get enough of y'all, they'll stay away from around you." But they never didn't get enough of us. They kept coming. Said that's the way we lived. And then my oldest boy, we lived on the place where his son, my boy was crazy about his hat. And he didn't let nobody put off his hat. I bought him a little old hat to wear on his head. | 23:37 |
Georgia Bays | So this White boy, he grabbed my boy's hat off his head and my boy just whooped him good. And he come home and me, I was helping her every day. And me and her was standing out there in the yard, here he come hollering. He said, "Mama, Bill done something." He just had scratches all over his face. "Mama, Bill done hit me." And so and so and so and so. And I'm standing up there just, oh I was so scared honey, I didn't know what to do. And come on up there, and he crying. And she said, "Oh so happy what you do to Bill." Said, "I know you had to do something to Bill before he hit you." And finally he told her, he said, "I got his hat." He said, "Uh, huh. I told you, come on here and wash your face." That's the end of that. | 24:32 |
Doris Dixon | You said you helped her every day? | 25:20 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah. | 25:20 |
Doris Dixon | What did you do? | 25:20 |
Georgia Bays | Clean the house. That's all I ever did. Clean house. | 25:27 |
Doris Dixon | So this was the plantation owner's home? | 25:29 |
Georgia Bays | Uh huh. Plantation where I had my baby was fresh born. I had in that crib. This was the place. | 25:32 |
Doris Dixon | Was it the owner or another worker? | 25:38 |
Georgia Bays | No, he was the owner that my boy was into it with, her little boy. See, they played together like that. | 25:40 |
Doris Dixon | And so you cleaned house? | 25:49 |
Georgia Bays | I cleaned house and cooked. That's all I ever did around White folk. Clean house and cook. | 25:50 |
Doris Dixon | How much did they pay you? | 25:58 |
Georgia Bays | Back in them days, wasn't no money. They didn't pay you No money. No money period. No money period. 'Cause some of us Colored people didn't have milk cows. Didn't have hogs like I first told you. Some of us didn't have hogs. And when we did have hogs, we beat them, eat the meat up and everything. And when we work around White folks, this is all what we got. That's what we worked for. We worked for them. I worked for them for my extra meat and sometimes lard, little sugar. Little meal. You didn't get no sugar. It wouldn't go that far. 'Cause that was, you know, and flour, uh-uh. You can get some meal. | 26:01 |
Doris Dixon | So you would work for this lady? | 27:10 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah. | 27:11 |
Doris Dixon | And she would give you a little meat, a little [indistinct 00:27:16]. | 27:12 |
Georgia Bays | Ham bones. Some of them would give you more meat than others. | 27:15 |
Doris Dixon | How many days a week would you work for her? | 27:21 |
Georgia Bays | All the time. | 27:24 |
Doris Dixon | Every day? All day or just part of the day? | 27:25 |
Georgia Bays | All day. | 27:25 |
Doris Dixon | You'd work for her all day? | 27:26 |
Georgia Bays | All day just working for her. Leave home that morning, come back that evening when I wasn't in the field. | 27:30 |
Doris Dixon | I don't quite follow you. | 27:39 |
Georgia Bays | When I wasn't in the field, that's what I did. And sometime when I— | 27:40 |
Doris Dixon | So during laid back time or something? | 27:45 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah. And then when I was going the field, I'd get up and go and milk the cow or churn. I'd have churn for White peoples early in the morning. Get up early in the morning before I go to field. I had to get up early. 'Cause go to field at six o'clock. Had to be in field six o'clock 'cause if you wait and went when the sun got up, the boss man, seven something. So I managed, me and my husband managed. | 27:46 |
Doris Dixon | So you got up and worked for them. | 28:22 |
Georgia Bays | Got up and went and churned. And got me some milk, old ham bone or something like that. | 28:24 |
Doris Dixon | That's how you got paid? | 28:30 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah. | 28:33 |
Doris Dixon | Every day? | 28:33 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah if I went to help them, this is what I got. | 28:34 |
Doris Dixon | But I'm just trying to figure out when did you go to help them? How often? | 28:38 |
Georgia Bays | Oh, all the time. I stayed on the plantation. This is what I done. | 28:41 |
Doris Dixon | This was in the hill? | 28:47 |
Georgia Bays | In the hill. I'd help her all the time. All them spare times. | 28:50 |
Doris Dixon | And when would you have time to do for your own family? | 28:52 |
Georgia Bays | Well, on Saturday and maybe at night, I'd do most of my work. See, I know what I had to do the next day. See what I mean? If I had to go work with her the next day, I'd do my work what I was going to do at night. 'Cause I wasn't going to bed no how early. Nothing but the children going to bed early. Us women, she said, "Georgia, I want you to wash for me in the morning. I want you to churn for me in the moment." | 28:54 |
Doris Dixon | You couldn't say no? | 29:32 |
Georgia Bays | Yeah, I could say no. But that was what I wanted to do. | 29:34 |
Doris Dixon | Because you needed that little extra. | 29:38 |
Georgia Bays | I needed that. And this is the way I made it. And this is the way I did. Just like you, if you want an extra piece of money, you get up and go make it. See what I'm saying? I get you. And they had it, I didn't. I didn't have a cow, I didn't have butter and maybe egg, or maybe she give me most dinner things. Something left over from done cook today. They done had for they dinner today. "And I had this leftover, Georgia, yesterday for dinner. Do you want it?" "Yes ma'am." Put them in a bowl or whatever. Bring it home, feed my children. We have a big dinner on the table. | 29:39 |
Doris Dixon | And so people tell me back in those days they worked from sunrise to sunset. It was more than that for women, right? Or was it more? 'Cause you working more than sunrise and sunset, you working before sunrise and after sunset. | 30:34 |
Georgia Bays | Well that's when I got to work for them. And I got something special that I got to do. Just like I'm going go to work in the morning at six o'clock. Well that night before, after I come out the field, I'm going to get my greens and my peas or whatever I'm going to borrow for my children, my family to get ahead of myself the next day so I can work for this. I pick it and I wash it and I put it on while I'm running around there skying up this and skying up that. And doing other things in the house for my children to enjoy when they—And then when I get up the next morning, all this is done. My dinner's nearby done. Well I run down to this White woman's house and churn that milk many morning, and get that butter and that gallon of milk and that pound of butter and bring it back home for my husband get up out bed. Well I got that for dinner. Then I have me some, well sometime I get paid off molasses. | 30:48 |
Georgia Bays | So most the time I didn't have eggs, and give me a egg, two eggs or things like that. And when they come I'd have a big dinner. I wouldn't have that at home. See I wouldn't have all of this at home. I wouldn't have these little things at home. And so my dinner be nearly done. So when I get back for my husband got up out of bed and my baby wake up or something like my children wake up. Well I be done fix them a little something, made me some thicken gravy. If I done run down to that and you know how to make, we call it thicken gravy. The flour, pepper, and pour the water in. Sometime I didn't have nothing but salt, no pepper. | 32:08 |
Georgia Bays | You think I'm telling a story, and a little old taste of sugar. If I had a little old taste of sugar, I'd take it and brown it in a skillet, put some water in it to make it look like syrup. And feed them. If I didn't have no biscuit, fine. Cook that cornbread on top of that stove and give it to them. And they enjoyed it. So then I'd be ready to go to field. See and dinnertime come. I come out at 11 o'clock and my vegetable almost be done. By the time my husband get there at 12, we ready to eat. And then when he get through eating, we blow a little bit. And me and him get ready to go to field. Come out at six o'clock, cook a little supper, do what I have to do so I wouldn't be caught under the snap the next day. That's the way I done. Done so much of it with the whole family. | 32:54 |
Doris Dixon | Did you have daughters? Did your daughters help you? | 33:58 |
Georgia Bays | I didn't have, well Lela Mae, she was small. She was nothing but a little girl. And Essie, just like I said, this was the time that they wasn't even born. This was the time my fresh child was born. And my second one and my third one. And my third child times come to picking up a little bit more. I have just a little more. I didn't have to do quite as much, just like now. I just stopped working this past year. And I had plenty of time. See, time done got better. I got paid. I didn't need no eggs. I could buy my own eggs. | 34:00 |
Doris Dixon | Now tell me this then. How did things change over time? At first you had to do all of this because you didn't have much. How did things change as spent over time as you got a little bit more and a little bit more? | 34:57 |
Georgia Bays | Well it must have ran into the government making things happen, a little more freedom. It's just like it is now. This year we get something and next year we might get a little something better. And that's the way that time was. Time just ease on a little bit further. And the last children I had, things was picking up. I didn't have to do these things. | 35:12 |
Doris Dixon | Did you get some help? You ever get any help from the government? | 35:52 |
Georgia Bays | No. No help. Period. And I can tell you another thing right now. It ain't much better now. You hear that? | 36:03 |
Doris Dixon | I hear you. Why not? | 36:06 |
Georgia Bays | I don't know why the government don't do that. | 36:11 |
Doris Dixon | Oh, okay. You said [indistinct 00:36:14]. | 36:12 |
Georgia Bays | What I'm saying, you didn't get no help. You didn't get no help from no government. No nothing. We wasn't getting no checks or nothing. We was going from this. I was going from this. | 36:13 |
Doris Dixon | Your hands. | 36:29 |
Georgia Bays | Yes. What we made, we worked for. I work hard. Not saying I work hard as those people back younger, but I have worked hard. And White people was nice to me because I was really nice to them. I hadn't had none of them to mistreat me. I had a few little talks. | 36:30 |
Doris Dixon | What happened? | 36:58 |
Georgia Bays | I had a few little peoples maybe said something that maybe hurt a little bit. | 36:59 |
Doris Dixon | You had to tell them about that? | 37:06 |
Georgia Bays | Well I didn't tell them, but in a way they was told. | 37:07 |
Doris Dixon | Could you tell me one of those incidents? Could you share with me one of those times? | 37:13 |
Georgia Bays | Well, so back in them hills, it was a lady that I was helping and I don't know what she said to me, but she said something to me and it hurt me real bad. Something that it really was, I don't know what it was, but it was something about helping her. Maybe about what I just have to do. I didn't work for none of them didn't mistreat me in my day. And this 80 something years, they treat me nice. In where I help but maybe one of two might have got out of the place just a little bit. But see, I worked over there. | 37:19 |
Doris Dixon | What do you mean you worked over? | 38:11 |
Georgia Bays | Well sometime as I said, a lot of time it don't take quitting. It just take something that God give you to make a person do. When he find out, he fooling with the wrong person, something will overtake him and tell him that Georgia ain't, you can't fool with her. She's nice and let's don't do it. Something like that. | 38:12 |
Doris Dixon | So say you'll be working for a lady and she would ask you to do more than you thought you should do. Is that what would happen? | 38:51 |
Georgia Bays | Well no. Not exactly. No, because in those times, like I said, this woman, it was something she wanted me to do and I couldn't do it. And she wanted to push it and I wouldn't let her. But I talked to her real nice and told her I couldn't do it, and I couldn't help her no more on kind of these things. So she come to her head. She asked me for forgive and all of this. They was nice to me all down through my time. And I made them nice to me. | 38:59 |
Doris Dixon | How you make them nice to you? | 39:43 |
Georgia Bays | 'Cause I was nice to them. And if I couldn't be nice to them, I just let them alone. | 39:48 |
Doris Dixon | So you never had to put anybody in their place? | 39:51 |
Georgia Bays | No, I never did just stand up and just tell them what I thought of them and all of that. Now if you mistreat me, I'm not going to stand and just talk to you funny. I'm going to talk to you like a daughter, like you my child. And that's all. And so if you don't heed to it, I don't know. So we just won't deal together. And finally we'll come. When we do come together, we just like sisters. | 39:54 |
Doris Dixon | Now what about the men? Did they ever overstep the line? White men? | 40:43 |
Georgia Bays | No. I never did have it. | 40:47 |
Doris Dixon | But you've heard of it? | 40:49 |
Georgia Bays | I've heard of it. And nine times out of 10, I said, now the way you live, that's the way you die. It's a certain way you can act around peoples, tell them something. See what I'm saying? There's a certain way you can act around peoples and it tells you what not to do and what to do. What to ask and what to say. So I always kept myself not thinking myself better, flesh no better. But my ways and action was. I acted my place and you better stay in yours. | 40:50 |
Doris Dixon | Right. I understand that. Are you not saying though that there was some women who didn't carry themselves and that's why something might happen to them? | 41:39 |
Georgia Bays | Right. | 41:49 |
Doris Dixon | Do you think that's why? | 41:50 |
Georgia Bays | That's exactly right. And that's today too. That's the reason things happening so much today. 'Cause we don't walk right, we don't talk right. And that's the way I'm figuring it. That's the way I have felt myself. | 41:51 |
Doris Dixon | I understand that. What did your mother or the neighbors or whomever tell you about carrying? What did they say about the way you carried yourself? About the way you hold yourself up? | 42:10 |
Georgia Bays | They told me. They taught me how to. | 42:21 |
Doris Dixon | What did they teach you? | 42:23 |
Georgia Bays | Obey. My mother, father would do some teaching. But that mother wouldn't do her teaching around people. It'd just be a family thing. Course I failed to do it sometimes earlier. But my mother and my grandmother and my auntie and other women's, other neighbors' children going to school, passing folks house. They tell me to stop and tell me how to do, how to carry myself. How to do boys, how to do girls. Anybody. Well I had take a heed to it, I would listen and I learned to do it 'cause I was taught at home. Everywhere I go, they was teaching the same thing. So I couldn't get by. And if I didn't, somebody would know it. They'd tell it. They would get together. People would get together in them days. Parents, the lady peoples would come together and join together about these children. All these children belong to all of us. That's the way you were raised. Wasn't no getting by. If I go to my neighbor's house, I just wasn't being home. 'Cause I was taught right. You hear me? I had to act right. | 42:25 |
Doris Dixon | So now what did they tell you about how to act around boys for instance? | 44:06 |
Georgia Bays | Well they tell me what to say and how to do. Sit down, don't flirt. Keep—I'm not going to tell you that. | 44:10 |
Doris Dixon | Tell me, please. | 44:22 |
Georgia Bays | Don't sit this way. Course I sit that way sometimes, far I can get my leg up. Don't sit this way. I was taught to sit this way. I'm taught to sit down. When I sit down, my dress was going to be down anyhow. See, my dress going to be down here, below my knees, better not get up here. Below my knees right on here. "And when you sit down Georgia, do this way," and put them legs together. | 44:26 |
Doris Dixon | So you couldn't sit with your knees crossed, your legs crossed with the knees? You had to keep— | 44:58 |
Georgia Bays | Uh-uh! | 44:59 |
Doris Dixon | —your knees together. | 45:03 |
Georgia Bays | Yes! (laughing) You think I'm telling you a story? | 45:04 |
Doris Dixon | Actually, I repeated it so the people on the tape—people listening to the tape couldn't see you doing that. That's why I repeated it. | 45:13 |
Georgia Bays | That's the truth! I'm telling you the truth. I had to sit this a way. If my mama caught me sitting this a way, ooh! | 45:17 |
Georgia Bays | And had company around here in the house. And that was everywhere you went. And it wasn't only at home. And if you had company, they didn't say nothing, they didn't ask for nothing. And you better not come through here. And you better if you come through, you better keep straight on out and say where you going. And you better not go nowhere. I ain't worried about you going nowhere. You going out there to play. You get what I'm saying? | 45:25 |
Doris Dixon | I hear you. | 46:03 |
Georgia Bays | And you better sit right. And you better not sit that way. You sure better straighten up when you sit around boys and men folk. All gapped over. That's what mama said. "Uh-uh, Georgia. Close them leg, put that dress down." | 46:06 |
Doris Dixon | Did they ever tell you not to act woman-ish or things? | 46:22 |
Georgia Bays | Yes. | 46:28 |
Doris Dixon | What did that mean? | 46:29 |
Georgia Bays | That mean— | 46:31 |
Item Info
The preservation of the Duke University Libraries Digital Collections and the Duke Digital Repository programs are supported in part by the Lowell and Eileen Aptman Digital Preservation Fund