Samuel Young interview recording, 1995 June 22
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
Samuel Young | Well, my name is Samuel Young. | 0:02 |
Mary Hebert | Young? | 0:04 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. I was born 1922, the second day of February. | 0:05 |
Mary Hebert | Here in— | 0:13 |
Samuel Young | Clarendon County. That's right. | 0:13 |
Mary Hebert | —And now, is this Saint Paul, this community? | 0:16 |
Samuel Young | No. It's Rimini route. I'm on Rimini route. | 0:20 |
Mary Hebert | Oh. Okay. So you were born February, 2, 1922? | 0:25 |
Samuel Young | 1922. | 0:28 |
Mary Hebert | And February? | 0:28 |
Samuel Young | The second. | 0:31 |
Mary Hebert | Okay. | 0:33 |
Samuel Young | The second day of February. | 0:33 |
Mary Hebert | And what were your parent's names. | 0:33 |
Samuel Young | Well, my parents was Emma Young. That's right. Her husband was Jemes Young? | 0:36 |
Mary Hebert | James Young. | 0:47 |
Samuel Young | Jemes Young. | 0:48 |
Mary Hebert | Jemes? | 0:48 |
Samuel Young | That's right. | 0:49 |
Mary Hebert | And what did they do for a living? | 0:51 |
Samuel Young | Well, in that time, well, they'd farm. You know? All we did was farm. That's all I done, all my days, farm. I was farming for, when way back, I worked for $.50 cents a day. | 0:53 |
Mary Hebert | On the farm? | 1:12 |
Samuel Young | That's right. $2.00 and a half, a week. | 1:13 |
Mary Hebert | And who did you work for? | 1:16 |
Samuel Young | Well, I worked for the Colored person, right down there. Thomas Richardson, that's who I worked for, all my days. | 1:19 |
Mary Hebert | Thomas Richardson? | 1:24 |
Samuel Young | Thomas Richardson. | 1:26 |
Mary Hebert | Okay. | 1:26 |
Samuel Young | But the owner that this place is on. | 1:26 |
Mary Hebert | The man who owns this land still? | 1:28 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. He used to own all this land. | 1:29 |
Mary Hebert | And you said he was a Black man? | 1:30 |
Samuel Young | White man. That's his grand, who run the store there. | 1:32 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. Oh. Okay. | 1:36 |
Samuel Young | Uh-huh. Yeah. See, that's who raised me, in fact, who raised me. Right there, his granddad. | 1:36 |
Mary Hebert | His grandfather raised you? | 1:39 |
Samuel Young | Thomas Richardson. That's right. | 1:44 |
Mary Hebert | Did you live in the Richardson's house, when you were growing up? | 1:45 |
Samuel Young | Well, I lived right in that school, with Collin Richardson. It's about a house from the next up. You could have called him out his house. Yeah. All my days. | 1:51 |
Mary Hebert | Did they have the store back then, or is it new? | 1:58 |
Samuel Young | No. They—Well, he had to two stores then, but his grandson build this store lately. | 2:01 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 2:02 |
Samuel Young | But he had two stores. | 2:02 |
Mary Hebert | Where were they? | 2:03 |
Samuel Young | Right down there, the next house, down there. | 2:09 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 2:11 |
Samuel Young | It's that old brick house there. | 2:12 |
Mary Hebert | And that's where— | 2:13 |
Samuel Young | They ain't all brick houses, but they passed. You know? No one never lived in his son's. Well, his son was living in it, but they passed. | 2:14 |
Mary Hebert | —Mm-hmm. | 2:18 |
Samuel Young | So the housed go from children to children. | 2:21 |
Mary Hebert | Right. | 2:24 |
Samuel Young | Uh-huh. | 2:24 |
Mary Hebert | And your parents worked on his farm too? | 2:25 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. My parents worked there too. My mothers worked for them, years ago. | 2:28 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 2:32 |
Samuel Young | But they passed away, but I still been there. | 2:34 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 2:36 |
Samuel Young | See, my mother died, when I was young. | 2:38 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 2:39 |
Samuel Young | All my parents. | 2:40 |
Mary Hebert | Your father died, when you were young, also? | 2:42 |
Samuel Young | Well, no. No. I was a man, when my father died. I was married. That's right. But my father didn't live, but 44 years. | 2:44 |
Mary Hebert | So he died young also? | 2:51 |
Samuel Young | Uh-huh. And my mother died at 44 years. | 2:52 |
Mary Hebert | Your mother died at 44? | 2:58 |
Samuel Young | 44. And I was a boy, eight years old. | 3:01 |
Mary Hebert | You were eight, when she died? | 3:04 |
Samuel Young | That's right. Eight, when she died. | 3:05 |
Mary Hebert | Did your father remarry? | 3:09 |
Samuel Young | No. No. No. No. No. No. He didn't remarry. No. And, you see, in that time I come from, I work there for $.50 cents a day and a bag of rice was $.10 cents a quart. | 3:11 |
Mary Hebert | Rice was $.10 cents a quart? | 3:27 |
Samuel Young | $.10 cents a quart. Yeah. You had some was $.05 cents a quart, but that's the cheapest one. | 3:30 |
Mary Hebert | What was the cheap one like, did it have a lot of [indistinct 00:03:38]— | 3:34 |
Samuel Young | The little seeds. You had to pick some little seeds out of it. | 3:34 |
Mary Hebert | —Uh-huh. | 3:42 |
Samuel Young | Now, that was the cheapest one, but I didn't like that rice, I'll tell you. And meat was $.05 cents a pound, butt meat. | 3:42 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 3:52 |
Samuel Young | And I'd rather have that. That's right. | 3:52 |
Mary Hebert | And where would you buy it? Would you buy it from the Richardson's store. | 3:56 |
Samuel Young | Well, no. No. Just any store. Any store. It just was like that, all over. That's right. And I remember in '28, I was a little boy, that's the time it was storming so. It stormed a week, it didn't stop, night and day. | 4:00 |
Mary Hebert | A storm? | 4:19 |
Samuel Young | It stormed a week, night and day. And they had to take—Nobody couldn't even go across there. We had no place, like they got now. But, well, there was a big bridge across there. People carried across in a boat, to get something to eat, to get to Sunbury. Had to go across in a boat, to get something to eat. | 4:19 |
Mary Hebert | Did it flood? | 4:37 |
Samuel Young | Flood, that's right. Some boats was set on the hill, right next to the water, down there. Boy, they was carrying people across in a boat. | 4:38 |
Mary Hebert | To get across, so they could get food? | 4:44 |
Samuel Young | To put them across the water and meet them back. | 4:48 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 4:50 |
Samuel Young | That's right. It was a time, them times, I'm telling you. | 4:51 |
Mary Hebert | Did your house flood? Did you get water in your house? | 4:54 |
Samuel Young | Oh. No. No. No. My house and all didn't get water, you see. But what I'm saying, this house, right down this road there, they have water across there now. | 4:59 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 5:06 |
Samuel Young | Well, that's where you go. You see, this road there go all the way to Sunbury, but they changed it, they cut water on that now. | 5:06 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 5:13 |
Samuel Young | You got to go around to come into Sunbury. | 5:14 |
Mary Hebert | Oh. So you used to just cross [indistinct 00:05:19] the water— | 5:15 |
Samuel Young | That's right. I was trying figure how you run by Saint Paul? | 5:19 |
Mary Hebert | —I don't know how I— | 5:21 |
Samuel Young | You come in from Sumter? | 5:22 |
Mary Hebert | —Yeah, but I took the wrong turn. I turned too soon and I wound up—I passed by the Liberty Hill Church. | 5:24 |
Samuel Young | Oh. That's where you missed it? | 5:30 |
Mary Hebert | And then I turned right and went into Santee. And turned back, back-tracked, and then found this road, so that's where I missed it. | 5:32 |
Samuel Young | Oh. Yeah. I see. I see. I see. I see. | 5:42 |
Mary Hebert | Now, when you worked on the farm, when you were a child, what kind of work did you do? | 5:44 |
Samuel Young | Well, I plowed mule. We plowed mule. All I ever did. That's what we'd plow all his land with, plowed mule. And it wasn't— | 5:48 |
Mary Hebert | You plowed all this land around here? | 5:54 |
Samuel Young | —There was no tractor and nothing looked like a tractor. And we drained cotton, we picked that cotton by hand. Picked corn by hand, was no corn-picker. Everything, we do it by hand. That's right. [indistinct 00:06:14] to plant rice. | 5:58 |
Mary Hebert | They planted rice around here? | 6:15 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. Well, we planted some, one time, but we quit with that. That didn't work out too good. But they did, they'd plant—The last one, over there, they done planted and beat it a maul. | 6:16 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 6:28 |
Samuel Young | That rice was brown. | 6:29 |
Mary Hebert | Brown rice? | 6:32 |
Samuel Young | Brown rice, but they beat it with a maul. | 6:33 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 6:34 |
Samuel Young | That's right. | 6:35 |
Mary Hebert | So they had to get the hulls off? | 6:36 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. That's right. That's right. That's right. And blew it out. | 6:38 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 6:41 |
Samuel Young | That's right. It had a little hole on it. I seen all that. And that rice, you planted it in a low place with water. | 6:41 |
Mary Hebert | Right. Because you have to flood it? | 6:49 |
Samuel Young | Right. Right. That's the way the rice make it, in a low place. And we growing cane. The sugar cane, we ground that by the mill, you see? | 6:52 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 6:58 |
Samuel Young | Then they cook it, cook the juice, and turn it into syrup. | 7:00 |
Mary Hebert | Did you work for it, did you make the syrup? | 7:02 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. We'd do that. Yeah. I'd do all that. | 7:04 |
Mary Hebert | Was that all on this farm? Or this— | 7:06 |
Samuel Young | Well, it was right from me. [indistinct 00:07:14]. We'd carry the cane across the branch that it came off of. | 7:09 |
Mary Hebert | —Uh-huh. | 7:17 |
Samuel Young | And do that at the syrup mill. Well, a lot of people, you know, all these people didn't have a mill. | 7:17 |
Mary Hebert | Right. | 7:23 |
Samuel Young | They carried to the mill. And we'd take the mule and the mule would pull around and mash that juice all day. Take out one mule, hook another one in. | 7:23 |
Mary Hebert | So this was this big wheel in the middle, that would mash it? | 7:31 |
Samuel Young | That's right. Mashing that cane. | 7:33 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 7:37 |
Samuel Young | And a mule, steady pulling, going around and around. And we'd work one mule a half a day and put another one in that evening and ground it at night. | 7:37 |
Mary Hebert | So it went on 24 hours a day, the syrup making? | 7:42 |
Samuel Young | Oh. That's right. That's right. That's right. But if you needed to do it, you'll go night and day. | 7:49 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 7:51 |
Samuel Young | That's right. Well, in that time, you killed a lot of hogs. I don't know. But folks didn't do nothing for people then. But now, look how meat's hurting people. You eat all the meat you want. I thought I could eat it raw, at one time. Nothing didn't hurt me. But now, it's different. | 7:51 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. | 8:13 |
Samuel Young | That's right. | 8:13 |
Mary Hebert | But when you'd kill a hog, would people come from around? | 8:13 |
Samuel Young | No. We'd kill them and carry them on our shoulder. | 8:14 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 8:14 |
Samuel Young | We didn't even use a refrigerator. Just kill them in January. And we'd kill something like five or six in January, big old hogs. And maybe about March you'd kill some more and drive them to Sumter. Kill about two or three. Ran something like 100 of them or better and grind them up into sausage. | 8:20 |
Mary Hebert | Would you smoke the sausage? | 8:41 |
Samuel Young | Well, no. We ground them and you'd just cook it, it's all right. | 8:42 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 8:49 |
Samuel Young | You could smoke it, if you want to, but you just fry it. It's just like them sausages in the store, big links. | 8:51 |
Mary Hebert | Right. | 8:58 |
Samuel Young | Uh-huh. It comes in a link, just like that. We had a mill, how to grind them. Put them on this and spin around and took their guts on out. Mm-hmm. That's what we used to do. The time was rough, but I didn't know whether it was rough or not because I didn't know nothing that was too good a time, in them times. You know? | 8:58 |
Mary Hebert | Right. | 9:18 |
Samuel Young | I come up on the rough side. Yeah. Well, in the time I come, my mother passed, when I was a little boy. And I didn't have the chance to get the schooling, what I was supposed to get. I went to work, when I was young. | 9:19 |
Mary Hebert | So did you get to go to school at all? | 9:31 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. I was going to school a little bit. But I say, I had to stop, to plow. And that's why I put all my children in school. | 9:38 |
Mary Hebert | So all of your children went to school? | 9:46 |
Samuel Young | Oh. Yeah. I had 11 heads. All these. Some are grands. | 9:48 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 9:48 |
Samuel Young | That's right. I got about 40, about something like 30— | 9:53 |
Mary Hebert | 30 grandchildren? | 9:55 |
Samuel Young | —I know it's 36. | 9:55 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. That's a lot of grandchildren. | 9:58 |
Samuel Young | That's right. That's right. Five great-grands. | 10:00 |
Mary Hebert | And you had 11 children? | 10:06 |
Samuel Young | 11 children. I got them now, living. That's right. | 10:07 |
Mary Hebert | How much schooling did you get? How many years? Do you know how many years? | 10:10 |
Samuel Young | Oh. I don't know. I didn't even get to fourth. | 10:16 |
Mary Hebert | Okay. | 10:24 |
Samuel Young | I took third, at the time took and I went to plow. I knew something, but said, "Boy, I'm not even 12 with the plow. Oh, boy." Something like 10 years old to 13. And maybe 12, about the time I start plowing. And I ain't never stop. I'd leave the plow, go to Logan Wood. I been in Logan Wood 35 years. | 10:25 |
Mary Hebert | So you worked in the lumber industry for 35 years? | 10:41 |
Samuel Young | In Logan Wood. | 10:44 |
Mary Hebert | Oh. Okay. | 10:44 |
Samuel Young | And when I leaved Logan Wood, I went to the hospital, the one there in Charleston. | 10:50 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 10:52 |
Samuel Young | Construction. | 10:52 |
Mary Hebert | So you worked in Columbia, in Charleston? | 10:53 |
Samuel Young | Oh. Yeah. Built the buildings all. | 10:56 |
Mary Hebert | As a carpenter or a construction worker? | 11:02 |
Samuel Young | Well, I was carpenter's helper. | 11:04 |
Mary Hebert | Okay. | 11:04 |
Samuel Young | All the way through. Cement floor, windows, all that. I do all that. | 11:07 |
Mary Hebert | And when did you do that? Do your remember around the time, the years? Was in the '40s? Or— | 11:12 |
Samuel Young | Well, no. I ain't going to stop. After my health get bad, I stopped off the job. But I been on the job, all my days. Yeah. I stopped in something, like about—I quit working about seven years. | 11:21 |
Mary Hebert | So in the '80s you quit? | 11:30 |
Samuel Young | Something like that. | 11:35 |
Mary Hebert | Well, do you remember what time period you worked in Charleston, at Columbia, was in the 1930s, or the 1940s, or the 1950s? | 11:37 |
Samuel Young | No. It was in the 1950s. | 11:45 |
Mary Hebert | Okay. | 11:46 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. That's right. | 11:46 |
Mary Hebert | And did you live there? | 11:46 |
Samuel Young | What? | 11:46 |
Mary Hebert | Did you have a house there? Or— | 11:46 |
Samuel Young | No. No. No. I drove every day, right from there. | 11:52 |
Mary Hebert | You had a car? | 11:53 |
Samuel Young | Yep. Well, I didn't have no car. I ride with another man. | 11:53 |
Mary Hebert | Oh. Okay. | 11:54 |
Samuel Young | They hauled me for a year and a half, each way. | 11:54 |
Mary Hebert | And they lived in this area? | 11:54 |
Samuel Young | That's right. Around Summerton. | 12:08 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 12:08 |
Samuel Young | That's where we come from, Summerton. And Saint Paul, we'd go every day. I work all over this place here. I worked in Jamestown, Greenville, and Summersville, all through them places. We would work the farms. I worked with Georgia Pacific, three years. And that's a big job, you're all over. You'll see a sign all on these roads, all down in Florida. Georgia Pacific. | 12:08 |
Mary Hebert | Georgia Pacific? | 12:38 |
Samuel Young | That's right. | 12:39 |
Mary Hebert | That was a railroad? | 12:44 |
Samuel Young | The lumber, that's right. Yeah. Georgia Pacific. | 12:44 |
Mary Hebert | Did you ever work, outside of South Carolina? Did you go up to New York or down to Florida, or anything? | 12:44 |
Samuel Young | Well, yeah. I been to Florida, for a little while, working on an elevator down there, hauling rugs. Because that would be the furniture place I worked for. And then I was working on a house in Deerfield, building houses down there. Yeah. | 12:54 |
Mary Hebert | Where'd you work in Florida? Did you work in Miami? | 13:11 |
Samuel Young | Miami and Deerfield. | 13:13 |
Mary Hebert | Okay. And Miami was the furniture store. | 13:20 |
Samuel Young | Well, they were making furniture in there. | 13:21 |
Mary Hebert | Oh. They were making furniture? | 13:21 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. We had in rugs, we'd go out to different place, all up on the beach, carrying the rugs, stuff like that. That's the only place. I ain't never seen people throw away that much, in my life, when I was over there. I happened to be over there on a rug, and leave it at the wrong place. And I'd been over there at dinner time, they go and take a whole half a ham and they throw it in the garbage. | 13:22 |
Mary Hebert | So these were White people that were throwing away all the food? | 13:51 |
Samuel Young | Where we were hauling at? | 13:54 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. | 13:54 |
Samuel Young | Well, yeah. That's right. That's right. Well, nobody done live over there. Everybody was White, live on the beach, but the Colored people go over there to work. | 13:54 |
Mary Hebert | Did you work around or live around other people from Summerton, while you were in Miami? | 14:01 |
Samuel Young | Well, no. No. No. I never [indistinct 00:14:16]. I went from there, on a bus, to Miami. Nobody worked from Summerton with me, then. | 14:15 |
Mary Hebert | Okay. | 14:17 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. I catch a bus and went down there. | 14:18 |
Mary Hebert | But you didn't know anybody down there, when you went? | 14:21 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. I had some people down there. I got some people down there now. | 14:23 |
Mary Hebert | So you have some family that lives there? | 14:24 |
Samuel Young | Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I got some family down there, Miami. A lot of my family down there. | 14:26 |
Mary Hebert | And did you stay with them, while you were— | 14:31 |
Samuel Young | That's right. That's right. That's right. That's what I was doing. It's Nelson. Robert Nelson. | 14:34 |
Mary Hebert | —Uh-huh. | 14:39 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. Yeah. They got their own business now. They got a big store and everything. | 14:41 |
Mary Hebert | Down in Miami. | 14:44 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. Since I leave. I leave there years ago. So I decided I couldn't stay away, away from my kids, that's when I just started to stay home. | 14:46 |
Mary Hebert | So your wife stayed here, while you went down there to work? | 14:56 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. She stayed here, while I am, but she passed now. | 14:59 |
Mary Hebert | Oh. | 15:02 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. My wife, she was—Well, anyway, I was three years older than her. | 15:03 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 15:12 |
Samuel Young | And I'm 73 now. Yeah, 73. How old my wife was then? 60 what? 63, when she died. | 15:13 |
Mary Hebert | She was about 63, when she died? | 15:21 |
Samuel Young | That's right. 63. | 15:21 |
Mary Hebert | Do you remember your grandparents, at all? | 15:21 |
Samuel Young | Oh. Yeah. My grandparents was—My grandmother was Tina Issac, one of them. And the other one was Bessie Carpenter. Them my grandpeople. | 15:23 |
Mary Hebert | Did you get to see them a lot? | 15:42 |
Samuel Young | Well, I seen them, when I was a little boy. | 15:52 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. Well, that's what I meant. | 15:55 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. That's right. I seen them long enough to know them. Yeah. | 15:56 |
Mary Hebert | Did you go over there for dinner, or on Sundays, to visit with them? | 16:00 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. Yeah. I used to go an visit them. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. I used to go visit them. | 16:07 |
Mary Hebert | Did they live around here? | 16:09 |
Samuel Young | It was Silver, the last one. | 16:10 |
Mary Hebert | They lived in Silver? | 16:12 |
Samuel Young | Silver. That's where she passed. That's right. | 16:12 |
Mary Hebert | Do you remember anything about your grandmother's cooking? Yeah? What kind of things would she cook, when you'd go over? | 16:20 |
Samuel Young | Well, they used to cook—They liked to that stuff, farm peas and stuff. You know? And they cooked a lot of meat in it. They cooked their meat in humps. You know? Them little ball pieces. | 16:24 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 16:43 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. They put them big pieces of meat in it. That's the way cooked it. They didn't slice it thin. I remember that. Yeah. They'd cook a lot of meat in it, kept it real rich. | 16:43 |
Mary Hebert | Did they ever tell you stories about when they were growing up? | 16:52 |
Samuel Young | Well, not too much. Not too much. They'd tell me different things has been happening. Now, my mother told me, I know this was the truth, because she was to the house one time, that she lived in Sumter then, after the old parents passed. And had a brother. Her and her brother were living together. And her brother was kind of [indistinct 00:17:25] and lazy like. [indistinct 00:17:28]. And she said, one day I said, "A man come to the house with two suitcases. And looked around and set them right to the step. And he was far up on the step and dropped the suitcase, put the suitcase up on the porch. And said, "Lady, now, just let me stop here for a while. Just getting tired now, give out, stop by for a little rest." | 16:56 |
Samuel Young | So really, he really took her nerve, but I couldn't say no. And see, that guy, he came up on the step first. After a while, he crawling all up on the porch and letting to ask a few questions and find out who lived there. You know? Had them two big suitcases, put the suitcase up on the porch. And he sat there and set and looked at his feet. And he stayed there until the sun run down. And she wouldn't tell him who lived there. And this boy didn't come. And she wouldn't tell him all and something of stayed there, but two of them lived there. | 17:55 |
Samuel Young | And this brother didn't come. This brother didn't come, look like he ain't never coming. And so when night come, she tell tell him, he said, "Give me a basin, let me rest my feet," so that's what he told her, "No. I'm not staying." She give him a basin because she was already scared. And "Give me a towel, let me wipe my feet." And she just keep walking around. And so then when this brother come, this brother comed that night. He turns around, "I don't leave here tonight, anyhow, until the morning." Then had her scared. And she fried a lamb's leg and had a hog or two. And she put him in a bed down there. And there was no light because [indistinct 00:19:21]. | 18:30 |
Samuel Young | And so she was nervous if her brother come and heard him snoring in another little room there and heard her steady walking around. And fellow get in that bed and he snore and snore hard, like he's sleeping. And wait and let her see him and lit the lamp and blew the lamp out. And heard her make a little noise and he jump back in the bed. And [indistinct 00:19:44] he jumped back in the bed, her slipped in there and touch her brother and shake him a tell him, "You better get up because this man's fitting to kill us. He went and blew the lamp out. Go get the law right now," and she slipped him out, toward the back door. And he liked harass her, just walking around the house. He there snoring, like he trying to make them think he was sleeping, but he didn't know she had done sent him for the law. | 19:21 |
Samuel Young | And so the law took so long, the lights they finally see the house, light up, round and round, they coming in from both ways. Four cars are coming at the same time. And why is he in there, like he's trying to sleep. That lawman had to bust around, all the doors around it. And her brother said and say, "Yeah. He's in there. He done blow the lamp out." So they make him, they said, "Get up, fellow." And they didn't do him so bad, until they seen what's in the suitcase. And he had one suitcase that they all say he had a lot of money in there. And in the other one was nothing but daggers to kill people with, all kind of bloody knives and some guns. So he had some of everything it took to kill somebody with. And then they see that, so they got to kill him there. He said, "Lady," he said, "You can go back to bed and sleep sound. You'll never see him no more. We'll guarantee you'll never see this one no more." They take him away and she ain't here no more from him. | 20:07 |
Mary Hebert | Do they know what happened to him? Was he— | 21:07 |
Samuel Young | Well, they take him on to jail. You know? I don't know what they done with him, but they haul him down there. They didn't let him get away. | 21:12 |
Mary Hebert | —Mm-hmm. | 21:18 |
Samuel Young | No. | 21:19 |
Mary Hebert | And did she tell you this when you were a little child, your mother? | 21:21 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. Uh-huh. That's how you know I grew up to know her, besides that, but that's true. | 21:22 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 21:22 |
Samuel Young | That's so. So that just show you [indistinct 00:21:32], I'm glad she told me, because I ain't never forgot that. | 21:29 |
Mary Hebert | Right. | 21:35 |
Samuel Young | That's right. That's right. When he make out he was tired, falling, just fall down on the steps, because he was tired down, just give out. | 21:35 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. And he just wanted to get into the house? | 21:44 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. That's right. And after she went and gave him some of the secret, tell them they're the only two that lived there. And her brother ain't been there, you see. [indistinct 00:21:55]. And he figure he'll do it them in that night. So that's just the way it is, you got to watch for that. | 21:49 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. | 22:04 |
Samuel Young | That's right. | 22:05 |
Mary Hebert | Do you have brothers and sisters? | 22:10 |
Samuel Young | Well, I'm the twelfth child. I have one sister living now, that's Mary Lawson, and she's in New York. She's in a wheelchair. On the walker, at least. | 22:14 |
Mary Hebert | So you were the youngest? | 22:26 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. I'm the baby. | 22:27 |
Mary Hebert | Did they get to go to school, your brothers and sisters? | 22:29 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah. All of them went to school. They went to school. And some of them, most of them died while young, to tell you the truth, about six. Minnie and Maggie, Katherine, Dorothy. About six of them lived. Five. | 22:33 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. And the rest died when they were children? | 22:51 |
Samuel Young | Yes. Young. All kind of things happened to them. This is what they tell me. Now, I wasn't born yet, I didn't even know them. | 22:53 |
Mary Hebert | They died before your were born? | 23:00 |
Samuel Young | That's right. | 23:01 |
Mary Hebert | Who all lived around here in your neighborhood? I mean, who were some of the families that lived near you, when you were growing up? | 23:04 |
Samuel Young | My family? | 23:13 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 23:13 |
Samuel Young | Well, JP Issac, Maggie Issac, Maggie Regan, and Loutina Barman. All of them my aunties, when I was growing up. | 23:18 |
Mary Hebert | So y'all were related to just about everyone who lived around here? | 23:31 |
Samuel Young | Well, I got around here, they're all down the street down there. Alice Gibson. All them my people down there. Dorothy Regan. That new house, past that new house, down there, on that corner down there? | 23:34 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. Yeah. I saw that. | 23:44 |
Samuel Young | That's my cousin. All of them be. | 23:44 |
Mary Hebert | Basically your family in this area? | 23:44 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. That's right. That's right. | 23:52 |
Mary Hebert | Would you go over and play with the kids, when you were growing up? Or you didn't have much time for play? | 23:55 |
Samuel Young | Oh. Yeah. That's all I would do, play. That's all I used to do, play, in my time. Well, in that time, I started shooting marbles and they'd laugh at me. They thought I was crazy, shooting marbles. | 24:03 |
Mary Hebert | Marbles? | 24:12 |
Samuel Young | Old marbles, they weren't resin then. We'd shoot marbles all the time. | 24:12 |
Mary Hebert | Were you good at it? Did you lose your marbles? | 24:12 |
Samuel Young | Oh. I was good. I was good at it. I was good at that marble shooting. | 24:18 |
Mary Hebert | Would you win all the other kids' marbles? | 24:23 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. I used to win them too. That's right. I used to win them. Yeah. And that's the thing, if a someone won all my marbles, that would hurt me like they take my money. That's right. | 24:26 |
Mary Hebert | Would y'all buy marbles? And then— | 24:43 |
Samuel Young | Buy them. That's right. We used to buy them in a bag, a bag like that. You could buy them in the prettiest color. Oh. It was something for children to play with. And there wasn't all this music and stuff, we didn't have nothing like that. I remember the first picture show I ever went to, I said, "Picture show? What does that mean? What is a picture to me?" They get that thing hooked up and had it at the church up there. And I looked at it and I said, "Ah." I looked back and I looked out at that [indistinct 00:25:16] and I said, "I can't figure that out, to save my life." I mean, the children, going to school, and all different things. And I [indistinct 00:25:25]. | 24:44 |
Mary Hebert | —How old were you, when you saw it, do you remember? | 25:24 |
Samuel Young | Well, I was about, I'll say 13 or 14 years old. | 25:31 |
Mary Hebert | And you said they showed it at the church? | 25:38 |
Samuel Young | That's right. Yeah. | 25:38 |
Mary Hebert | Liberty Hill? | 25:38 |
Samuel Young | No. Sumter Baptist. It was October, I never forgot that. Yeah, man. That was something. | 25:45 |
Mary Hebert | Do you remember what movie it was? | 25:50 |
Samuel Young | What? | 25:51 |
Mary Hebert | Do you remember which movie it was? What movie— | 25:52 |
Samuel Young | No. You know? I was too young to know where they thought it up, but that was something. I like that. That's right. | 25:54 |
Mary Hebert | —Did you ever get to go to other ones, after that, when they had the theater in Summerton? | 26:07 |
Samuel Young | Well, I didn't crave it, no more, still, after I grow up. My children used to go out to them kind of things. And after I grew up, I just stayed at the house. But I married young, too, I'd be home most of the time. | 26:12 |
Mary Hebert | How old were you, when you married? | 26:28 |
Samuel Young | Well, I was 19. 19. And my wife was 16. Mm-hmm. | 26:31 |
Mary Hebert | Did she live around here? | 26:38 |
Samuel Young | Right by me. That's right. Always. We was right together. That's right. | 26:39 |
Mary Hebert | And when y'all were courting, would you go over to her house in the evening? | 26:45 |
Samuel Young | Well, I'll tell you what, I was sporting another go, going out to her house all the time. And come back and I'd go right home, that's what was happening. Yeah. That's right. Right on. | 26:49 |
Mary Hebert | So you were seeing someone else, but you married the one who lived next door instead? | 27:03 |
Samuel Young | No. That there, I never did. Talked to her too. And I'd go and come back by, stop. We was just friends, until I married her. That's right. | 27:06 |
Mary Hebert | Did y'all get married in Saint Paul? | 27:18 |
Samuel Young | Well, we married in the courthouse, in Manning. | 27:19 |
Mary Hebert | In Manning? | 27:21 |
Samuel Young | It was a Monday morning, [indistinct 00:27:28]. | 27:21 |
Mary Hebert | Did anyone go to the wedding or was it just you [indistinct 00:27:30]— | 27:30 |
Samuel Young | Well, no. See, we was married—The same man that I told you raised me. | 27:30 |
Mary Hebert | —Mr. Richardson? | 27:37 |
Samuel Young | That's right. He take me down there to the courthouse. And see, they had to be 21, if you didn't have someone with you, they wasn't going to marry me. | 27:37 |
Mary Hebert | So— | 27:46 |
Samuel Young | But they turned around and say, "Well, I know that boy around 21, so we'll marry him by the judge," so they done and marry. Yeah. | 27:46 |
Mary Hebert | —And did Mr. Richardson give you a place to live on the farm? | 27:49 |
Samuel Young | Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had a place. Yep. I would come back and live in the house. | 27:50 |
Mary Hebert | How many rooms did your house have? | 28:06 |
Samuel Young | Well, in that time, I ain't had but—Well, I think, ain't but two rooms. But, in that time, it was two rooms, the house I was in then, when I married. That's right. | 28:08 |
Mary Hebert | And I've heard people describe the cracks in the ceilings and the cracks in the floor. | 28:25 |
Samuel Young | That's sure the truth, it had big cracks in it, I'm telling you. You're sure right. That's right. That's right. In some of them houses, you're going to see the chicken outdoors walk right in. That's right. That's the truth. But once I could get up and go up, I learned to do some kind of work myself, too, you know? | 28:27 |
Mary Hebert | So you fixed the cracks? | 28:53 |
Samuel Young | That's right. That's right. Now, you take, right now, you know I was a carpenter's helper, I'd buy that wall on that house, there, and cut it myself, and put it up myself, on the trailer. | 28:54 |
Mary Hebert | And so you learned how to do all of that stuff with the carpenter? | 29:07 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. That's right. Yeah. I can do that kind of work. Now, I could do this whole trailer over. You know? When I get straightened out. | 29:12 |
Mary Hebert | How many acres of land did you work, after you got married and you had your own little house? Did you have so many acres that he gave you to farm? | 29:19 |
Samuel Young | Oh. I done farmed them 25 acres, right over there. You see, I used lived across the road. I farmed them [indistinct 00:29:35]. You know, that place across the road, [indistinct 00:29:38]. I reckon I stayed there 19 years, on his place. | 29:27 |
Mary Hebert | 25 acres? | 29:38 |
Samuel Young | 25 acres. | 29:38 |
Mary Hebert | And how much of a crop did you have to pay back? | 29:38 |
Samuel Young | Well, no. I was renting, you see. | 29:46 |
Mary Hebert | You rented? | 29:48 |
Samuel Young | Every time I'd pay my rent, it'd be something like $300.00 or $400.00 and I'd pay that and that's it. | 29:52 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. And the rest of the crop was yours [indistinct 00:30:03]— | 30:02 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. It was mine. It was no sharecrop. I don't pay out. Everything else go to me. | 30:02 |
Mary Hebert | —So you rented your land? | 30:06 |
Samuel Young | That's right. | 30:07 |
Mary Hebert | From Mr. Richardson? | 30:08 |
Samuel Young | No. No. | 30:09 |
Mary Hebert | Oh. From? | 30:09 |
Samuel Young | The Belzers. | 30:10 |
Mary Hebert | The Belzers? | 30:10 |
Samuel Young | That's right. The Belzers. | 30:11 |
Mary Hebert | [indistinct 00:30:15] | 30:13 |
Samuel Young | And then, when I moved back, I just get my own place. | 30:15 |
Mary Hebert | Did you buy your own land? | 30:19 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. This is my land. | 30:21 |
Mary Hebert | This is yours? | 30:21 |
Samuel Young | That's right. | 30:23 |
Mary Hebert | I hear a lot about went on during lay by time. Did y'all have any special things going on, during lay by time, here? | 30:27 |
Samuel Young | Well, we'd have our crop. We didn't have do nothing, then, but just go up to the swamp and fish and do what we want to. That crop going to be a while, before it get ready, you know? | 30:33 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 30:45 |
Samuel Young | To gather. | 30:45 |
Mary Hebert | So y'all would fish? | 30:47 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. We'd fish. We lived by it in July. And August is when we would start picking cotton. | 30:48 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 30:57 |
Samuel Young | That's right. | 30:58 |
Mary Hebert | How many pounds of cotton would you pick in a day? | 31:00 |
Samuel Young | Well, I could pick 200. I could pick a little better than 200. All my children pick, some of them pick around 200, and some of them pick right at 200. All of them could. Anytime we pick two a day, or we'll pick two bales. Yep. | 31:02 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. Your wife worked out in the field, too, picking? | 31:24 |
Samuel Young | Oh. Yeah. She was a worker, too. She picked just as much as me, or more. | 31:28 |
Mary Hebert | She did? | 31:28 |
Samuel Young | Oh. Yeah. She could pick. | 31:28 |
Mary Hebert | When did y'all start bringing your children out to the field? How old were they? | 31:28 |
Samuel Young | Well, we'll bring them out there the time they get, I'd say, about seven, eight years old, they in the field, picking cotton. We'd get a little sack on them, they'd hang it on their shoulder, they would swing it up, they'd be in there picking. And that's how they learned. | 31:42 |
Mary Hebert | That's how they learned? Yeah. | 31:53 |
Samuel Young | That's right. | 31:54 |
Mary Hebert | But you did say they went to school? | 31:54 |
Samuel Young | Oh. Yeah. Yeah. They go to school. And they stay from school, nary day, not for no work. | 31:56 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 32:02 |
Samuel Young | Not none of mine. | 32:03 |
Mary Hebert | Was the school year set up, so that they could pick the cotton, and then start school afterwards? | 32:04 |
Samuel Young | Well, yeah. They'd start after, you see? They'd start after with the picking cotton. That's right. Yeah. | 32:09 |
Mary Hebert | And who'd take care of them, before they got old enough to go out with you? Was there someone around here that would look after them during the day? | 32:19 |
Samuel Young | Well, no. No. See, my wife would do that. My wife do that. She already taken care of the children. And that oldest child— | 32:28 |
Mary Hebert | Was old enough? | 32:34 |
Samuel Young | —Yeah. Yeah. Old enough that she'd take care of all the other ones. | 32:34 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. Okay. | 32:34 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. She'd take care of all of them. | 32:36 |
Mary Hebert | Is that what your oldest sister did, when you were a little kid? Did you have a sister that took care of you, when you were really young, like that? | 32:40 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. Yeah. I had a sister. I had more than one. | 32:42 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 32:42 |
Samuel Young | That's right. | 32:42 |
Mary Hebert | And they had to take care of the younger ones? | 32:42 |
Samuel Young | That's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah. I remember they used to—Because I remember my sisters would wash my face, then [indistinct 00:33:14]. I'd stand up there, like a [indistinct 00:33:19] and they were washing my face. Girl, I looked good. They let me go with them then. Yeah. They'd take me with them. Well, [indistinct 00:33:20] there ain't enough to mess around, everybody walking there, like they know where they going. You know? There was a few people that had buggies. Or if you had a buggy or a horse, you ain't getting served, or something like that. Ain't nobody out there got none of all that. All this road there, have been dirt roads. | 33:01 |
Mary Hebert | Right. | 33:35 |
Samuel Young | That's right. I remember [indistinct 00:33:40], that's the dirt road. | 33:36 |
Mary Hebert | Did Mr. Richardson have a car? | 33:43 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. He had a car, coming up. We come from a T-Model, that was the first thing he get. Then he get a Chevrolet. It was a '48 Chevrolet, something like that. Yeah. And just go right on down, '34 V8, and just keep right on moving on up, like that. And then he'd just keep a car, from then on. Then, after that, he started buying trucks and stuff too. | 33:45 |
Mary Hebert | When did they start using tractors? When did you start using tractors and stuff on your farm? | 34:19 |
Samuel Young | Well, it started after I leaved the farm. | 34:21 |
Mary Hebert | Okay. So you were off working? | 34:21 |
Samuel Young | And, see, I was farming, right from them, right over there, then, when he get the tractor. So my niece been working for him, riding a tractor. | 34:29 |
Mary Hebert | But you never used tractors on your farm? | 34:36 |
Samuel Young | No. No. No. No. I ain't never used no tractors. Or the tractor come outside and leave. | 34:42 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. Do you remember when The Depression hit in the 1930s? | 34:46 |
Samuel Young | Depression? | 34:50 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. During Hoover's time and Roosevelt's time? | 34:50 |
Samuel Young | Oh, man. Yes. | 34:56 |
Mary Hebert | What was it like here? | 34:56 |
Samuel Young | Oh. It was rough. It was rough. I seen people go out there to get the flour, give them a 25 pound bag of flour, out to Sumter, the government. And them poor womens go out there and stand up all day long, until near sundown, and they still wouldn't come and wouldn't give it to them. And mean man sit up there and when them people come by, they wouldn't give them no flour. Close up. They go back the next day, walk to Sumter. Still another whole day, before you get one sack of flour. And that flour's fresh. It didn't have like this flour here. It was fresh. | 35:00 |
Mary Hebert | And the government would send the flour in packs? | 35:39 |
Samuel Young | And you know what they done, keep that flour in a big warehouse and throw it in the woods. | 35:40 |
Mary Hebert | Rather than give it to the people? | 35:46 |
Samuel Young | Rather than give it to the people. That mean man done it. | 35:47 |
Mary Hebert | Do you know who he was? Was he from here? | 35:53 |
Samuel Young | He was from there. Yeah. I know his name. It was something like Howard Karrigan. That's what I think his name. But he was a mean man. Set up in there and know because the people out there was standing up like that, just all day night, cold waiting. And still wouldn't come back home with no goods. | 35:53 |
Mary Hebert | Hmm? | 36:12 |
Samuel Young | Waiting on something from [indistinct 00:36:16]. It was rough. It was rough. | 36:13 |
Mary Hebert | What about your family? Did you family suffer during that time? | 36:19 |
Samuel Young | That's right. They been in that group too. That's what I'm saying. | 36:23 |
Mary Hebert | So did your wife go out there? Or— | 36:33 |
Samuel Young | No. No. No. No. My wife didn't do it. | 36:33 |
Mary Hebert | Your sisters? | 36:33 |
Samuel Young | Nope. Not my wife had to do that. When I married her, I take care of her from then on. She ain't never had that problem. That's why I say, I stay on the job, all the time. As soon as I leave the farm, I go out on the job. | 36:34 |
Mary Hebert | Is that around the time where you went out to work, outside of the farm? | 36:45 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. I'd go to the job, when I'm through the farm. But I gather that farm, before I go out. You know? I go out on the job and I stay down there, until Christmas. And around January morning, I'll come back and start the farm. And that's how it works. | 36:53 |
Mary Hebert | So after the crop came, then you would— | 37:11 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. And then, you see, I'd get some boys, from my sister's children, and then they'll plow for me and I stay on the job. And I ain't never leave the job no more, until I quit. That's right. But I worked all over this place, on the job. And I been to Logan Wood 35 years and people getting killed so fast, and I'll tell you the truth, I decided I'd give it up. | 37:12 |
Mary Hebert | —The work was dangerous? | 37:39 |
Samuel Young | Oh. It was dangerous. The boss man get killed. | 37:41 |
Mary Hebert | How did that happen? Did something fall on him? | 37:42 |
Samuel Young | Well, yeah. Yeah. But he was coming up in there, pretty fast, cutting timber. And been in a thick place and that tree get loose and he couldn't run, he couldn't get out the way. See, you got to know right where that tree going, if you got to start running. And he went up in there and didn't know where the tree going. | 37:45 |
Mary Hebert | Hmm? | 38:02 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. It's one of them Martin boys, there. When one of them tree hit the ground, he'd say, "Get that in there. Get down in there." That tree hit the ground, he'd get in there, just like that. And that was one of the days. One of the days. We had one fellow there, I know the one fellow there, right there, from down the road, Herbert Jr. He was made to load. He'd work all his day on loading wood. And he had done got up in age, where he put him, just go ahead and made him load. And he run back, the man, to get in the truck with a load of oak load, truckload. And he dropped, the man [indistinct 00:38:44] to back up. He ran back to get the [indistinct 00:38:46] and the man backing up and something catch his foot and he fall. And that load of logs backed straight down on him. | 38:06 |
Mary Hebert | Oh. | 38:54 |
Samuel Young | I didn't been there. I saw him that morning, when I was going to work to Charleston. And I come back to Saint Paul, the same day he passed. I remember, still, that man come and said, "That was sad about Herbert Jr." And I said, "What happened?" He told me, "He get killed today." And Hebert was staying next door to me. | 38:54 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 39:12 |
Samuel Young | [indistinct 00:39:13] ain't nothing but like a [indistinct 00:39:14], so I know it went straight down on him. I don't think I'd want to see. | 39:13 |
Mary Hebert | Gosh. It does sound like very dangerous work. | 39:18 |
Samuel Young | Oh, man. It was rough. And so, the sheriff tell that man to get out and see what he'd done. One of the foremans went back over him, told him he had to run him down. That's right. | 39:22 |
Mary Hebert | Wow. | 39:35 |
Samuel Young | And he look and see, he messed that man up. That's right. And he had young children, a young wife. They live right on Saint Paul, now, you passed right by their house, there. | 39:35 |
Mary Hebert | I'm sure I did. | 39:48 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. It's a blue house, coming around, back toward Liberty Hill Church, it'd be on the right, going on in to Saint Paul. Yeah. You passed right by his house. | 39:49 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. | 39:56 |
Samuel Young | That's right. | 39:56 |
Mary Hebert | And so you didn't work in the logging for that long? That being, because it was so dangerous, you quit afterwards. | 40:03 |
Samuel Young | Well, I quit, but I'd been in there 35 years, that's long enough. | 40:08 |
Mary Hebert | Oh. That's a long, long time. | 40:12 |
Samuel Young | It was time to quit. | 40:13 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. | 40:13 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. It was time to quit. | 40:14 |
Mary Hebert | What did you do, when you working on it, did you cut the trees? | 40:15 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. I cut trees, that was my main job. And hooked load too. I'd do some of everything. But I really a timber cutter, all my days, cutting trees. | 40:18 |
Mary Hebert | And you still had the farm, at that time? | 40:30 |
Samuel Young | That's right. That's right. | 40:31 |
Mary Hebert | And so you— | 40:31 |
Samuel Young | That's what I'm saying, I'd farm. When I'd leave the farm, I'd go around to Logan Wood. | 40:32 |
Mary Hebert | —Oh. Okay. | 40:39 |
Samuel Young | See, that's the way I raised all them children. | 40:39 |
Mary Hebert | So you'd divide your time? | 40:39 |
Samuel Young | That's right. That's right. I had 11 heads. And, I mean, I'd feed them. | 40:41 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. Is that how you kept your family going through Hoover's time? | 40:41 |
Samuel Young | That's right. That's right. | 40:49 |
Mary Hebert | [indistinct 00:40:51] and you worked two jobs? | 40:50 |
Samuel Young | I'd keep them right. That farm and that logging job, that'd take care of them. They didn't have to go nowhere, to nobody's house, to get a piece of bread. They eat. | 40:53 |
Mary Hebert | Did y'all have other people in the community who lived nearby? | 41:04 |
Samuel Young | Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have other people, a lot. And they didn't pay us right, though. Yep. Everyone else gather this farm, my wife used to—People would pay to pick the cotton. You know? Gather cotton. They'd make a lot of money like that. | 41:07 |
Mary Hebert | Picking other people's cotton? | 41:21 |
Samuel Young | Oh. Yeah. All the children. See that cotton, once you get so the cotton, you'd pick more than 100. You know? | 41:21 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 41:27 |
Samuel Young | One time, this [indistinct 00:41:33], but they'd run it up then. $2.00, a hundred, all that. | 41:29 |
Mary Hebert | $2.00 from 100 pounds? | 41:38 |
Samuel Young | Uh-huh. | 41:40 |
Mary Hebert | And so your wife would do that and your children? | 41:42 |
Samuel Young | Oh. Yeah. Yeah. They did. They'd make good money like that. | 41:44 |
Mary Hebert | Did you have a farm, too, that— | 41:48 |
Samuel Young | Oh. Yeah. | 41:50 |
Mary Hebert | —What did you grow? | 41:50 |
Samuel Young | Well, I just grow some of everything in the gardens. Yeah. I had sweet potatoes, some of everything. Beans. I had all kind of beans. Lima beans, green beans. I probably had some of all. Now, that's right now. [indistinct 00:42:04]. I probably have something, there, down in my garden there, just now. But I used to have a garden. | 41:53 |
Mary Hebert | Would you sell any of the extra stuff? | 42:13 |
Samuel Young | Well, I ain't never try to sell no goods, I'd just give them away. | 42:16 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 42:22 |
Samuel Young | I know I carried a lot of sweet potatoes down to Sumter, one time, to be selling. And the people done haul them there so fast and I had to go back and pick them potatoes right up out of them crates. You know? I ran back and get them. I tell them, "I ain't going to let them sit there and rotten up." They had a time set for them, the people, to come by and pick them up and they didn't come, so when back and load mine up and bring it back. | 42:22 |
Mary Hebert | They would let them rot? | 42:46 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. Because I had a lot of hogs too. You know? Yeah. I was raising a lot of hogs, so that's it. | 42:47 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. I had another question and it just flew out of my mind. | 43:02 |
Samuel Young | Hmm? | 43:02 |
Mary Hebert | Oh, well. I have more. Did your family go to church? | 43:02 |
Samuel Young | Oh. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. | 43:08 |
Mary Hebert | Which church did they go to? | 43:08 |
Samuel Young | Saint Paul, right there. | 43:08 |
Mary Hebert | Saint Paul? | 43:08 |
Samuel Young | Saint Paul. That church right there. | 43:08 |
Mary Hebert | Oh. Right here. Yeah. | 43:10 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. That's my church. Yeah. That's all the day is. | 43:12 |
Mary Hebert | That's the only church you ever went to? | 43:17 |
Samuel Young | You know? I'd go to other, different church, but that's our church, there. | 43:18 |
Mary Hebert | That's your church? | 43:22 |
Samuel Young | That's right. All our people buried there. And I believe some of them die, they will come back. | 43:23 |
Mary Hebert | I need to turn this over. | 43:29 |
Mary Hebert | Who was the pastor there, when you were younger? | 0:02 |
Samuel Young | Well, we had different, but we changed preachers so fast. We had Reverend Mitchell. We had Brother Green, and we had Reverend Gaston, and we had Reverend Johnson. Oh, just different one of them, and— | 0:11 |
Mary Hebert | Were they leaders in the community? Were they— | 0:31 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, right. No, some of them in Charleston, now—Those preachers come from Charleston now. Well, I've been having us preachers come from Charleston now, for about the last 10 years. | 0:31 |
Mary Hebert | So he drives up from Charleston every Sunday? | 0:44 |
Samuel Young | Oh yeah. That's right, that's right. All of them come from Charleston. | 0:46 |
Mary Hebert | Were you on the church board or anything like that, or a Deacon, or did you hold any kind of office in the church? | 0:50 |
Samuel Young | Who, me? | 0:55 |
Mary Hebert | You. | 0:55 |
Samuel Young | Well, no. I just a regular church man. I ain't no leader or nothing like that, yeah. I'd go down a section one time, clean up the church, and I'd ring the bell and so— | 0:56 |
Mary Hebert | So, you did that once in a while? | 1:14 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, yeah. I'd just do that, yeah, back. But I quit and turned it over to someone else. | 1:15 |
Mary Hebert | Do you remember any controversies in Summerton regarding race relations and that kind of thing? I'm thinking mostly about the Briggs case, the school desegregation, and all of that. Do you remember when that happened? | 1:22 |
Samuel Young | Yep. | 1:29 |
Mary Hebert | That was in the '50s, so you may not have been here. | 1:30 |
Samuel Young | In Summerton? | 1:40 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. | 1:40 |
Samuel Young | No. Well, I couldn't place it, not right now. | 1:44 |
Mary Hebert | That could've been when you were working away for a while. | 1:47 |
Samuel Young | Yeah that's what I say, something could've went by. Yeah. | 1:49 |
Mary Hebert | What did y'all do on Saturday afternoons for fun? I mean, didn't you get off like at noon on Saturday from work, and— | 1:54 |
Samuel Young | Well, we'd just go out and play ball. | 2:01 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 2:02 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, play baseball. | 2:02 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 2:03 |
Samuel Young | We'd done that all day. Yeah, I played baseball after I married, you know? | 2:06 |
Mary Hebert | Y'all had a team? | 2:12 |
Samuel Young | Oh, yeah. We'd go up to the river, and go across 76 up there on the— | 2:13 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 2:17 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, we'd play ball all over to St. Paul, and different places. | 2:18 |
Mary Hebert | Was Mr. Flood on your team, John Flood? | 2:22 |
Samuel Young | Flood? | 2:25 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. He was from St. Paul. He was telling me the other day about playing baseball and— | 2:28 |
Samuel Young | John Flood? | 2:30 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. | 2:31 |
Samuel Young | No, no, no. He ain't been on my team. See, what we'd do, we'd go to play different games. See? That why I missed him. Down there at that pool in Lawson, we done played that game, too. | 2:32 |
Mary Hebert | Pool? | 2:46 |
Samuel Young | Down yonder, the pool, there's a place down here, the Lawson place there? | 2:46 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 2:48 |
Samuel Young | Fellas come from all over to play down there. All across the river, different games. [indistinct 00:02:57] long about—We'd come from Remington. We'd go up to Remington and play, and the brothers come down there and play from Remington. Different places. | 2:50 |
Mary Hebert | And y'all would have a lot of people go and watch? | 3:10 |
Samuel Young | Oh, yeah. It's a lot of them used to be there. | 3:11 |
Mary Hebert | Would they have barbecues? | 3:14 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, barbecues—No one would have barbecue. When we'd go up to Remington, them folks would have a hog up there. When they done played ball, they just give it away. | 3:14 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 3:22 |
Samuel Young | And we'd come down and do the same thing. | 3:24 |
Mary Hebert | So, y'all would just have a hog for everybody to eat? | 3:30 |
Samuel Young | Well, yeah, once the boys done played ball. | 3:31 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 3:31 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. Make sure the ones were playing ball eat all they want. | 3:32 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 3:35 |
Samuel Young | That's right. That's the way we used to do it. And everything's run all lovely. No fighting or nothing. No rile. That's right. | 3:35 |
Mary Hebert | Y'all would go up in somebody's car? | 3:45 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, a truck. We had a truck to go up there to—See, that truck would carry the whole team. Yeah. | 3:47 |
Mary Hebert | So y'all would ride in the back? | 3:50 |
Samuel Young | In the back. It'd be loaded. Loaded. Might be three in the front or four. | 3:54 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 3:59 |
Samuel Young | That's right. But we'd rather ride in the back, that's where all the fun—Yeah, they had some kind of party on it. Yeah. | 3:59 |
Mary Hebert | So you had a party on the truck? Y'all had fun? | 4:11 |
Samuel Young | Oh, you had all the fun you want on that truck, that's right. Yeah. That's right. | 4:11 |
Mary Hebert | What about the Negro Baseball League? Did you keep up on that, the professional league? | 4:17 |
Samuel Young | The baseball? | 4:23 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. | 4:23 |
Samuel Young | Well, no, I used to pitch one time, and when I quit, I just quit everything. | 4:24 |
Mary Hebert | But did you keep up with the professional teams, like the professional teams on the Negro Baseball League? Would you listen to them on the radio or read about them in the paper? | 4:30 |
Samuel Young | No, no, no, no. I just quit, really. I just quit, really. | 4:42 |
Mary Hebert | How did World War II impact life here in— | 4:46 |
Samuel Young | World War II? | 4:51 |
Mary Hebert | World War II. | 4:51 |
Samuel Young | Well, they had called me. That's when they called me. But I missed it. | 4:55 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. So you weren't drafted? | 4:59 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, they drafted me. No, I didn't say—I didn't pass. They let me come back, and I come back to the farm. We had four mules to plow, and it ain't but two of us back there to plow and four mules and so I come back and— | 5:03 |
Mary Hebert | So they needed you to work on the farm? | 5:21 |
Samuel Young | Oh, yeah, yeah. This man had went down and tell them and say, hey, you done take all our—he ain't had but two fellas on the farm, and see could he get them to hold a couple of us for that— | 5:25 |
Mary Hebert | So they held you back in and someone else—? | 5:38 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, me and Tone saved his farm. These boys went, two of them went, and you know both of them boys went in the Army and come back, and they done died. | 5:39 |
Mary Hebert | After they got back? | 5:51 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, they went to live a long time after that, but now they died. | 5:51 |
Mary Hebert | They died? | 5:51 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, that's the one who got the house right up there. | 5:59 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 6:01 |
Samuel Young | Mm-hmm. | 6:01 |
Mary Hebert | Well, the other day when we came by, you were making fishing traps. Who taught you how to do that? | 6:03 |
Samuel Young | Well, I learned that from one of the boys. I learned a lot of things, you know? | 6:06 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 6:11 |
Samuel Young | And I'm still doing them things. I can do a lot of things. Cement finishing, all that, I could do that. | 6:15 |
Mary Hebert | Did you being able to fish a lot help your family during Roosevelt's time and Hoover's time? | 6:25 |
Samuel Young | Oh yeah, that's what I do. That's what I done. | 6:29 |
Mary Hebert | You were able to bring food in that way too? | 6:30 |
Samuel Young | To survive, too, that's right. Yeah, I fished a lot. And I still doing it. That's right. I used to catch 40 fish in the morning and 40 in the evening. | 6:34 |
Mary Hebert | My goodness. | 6:45 |
Samuel Young | That's right, 40. | 6:45 |
Mary Hebert | How would keep them? Would y'all cook all of them or salt them? | 6:50 |
Samuel Young | Well, no, they didn't cook them all. I'd let other people have some of them, you know? Because I'm going to catch them every day. You want them fresh from the water. I don't use them all myself. But now since we've got all these deep freezers and stuff— | 6:53 |
Mary Hebert | You can keep them— | 7:11 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, I could keep them. Put them in bags and bag them up. | 7:13 |
Mary Hebert | Did y'all have an icebox? Did someone come by and sell ice to y'all? | 7:16 |
Samuel Young | Well in time, in way back, you didn't have no icebox. You could put them on some ice. We had a man used to come see, he'd bring 50 pounds of ice in blocks. Called Boswell. And he used to only bring the ice on Wednesday. | 7:21 |
Mary Hebert | So you'd get ice on Wednesday? | 7:36 |
Samuel Young | A big truck was running, but you'd get 50 pounds. If you knew how to keep it—Now, you could put it in sawdust and keep it. It'll hold the ice. Sawdust. And cotton'll hold it too. | 7:37 |
Mary Hebert | So you'd wrap cotton around it? | 7:50 |
Samuel Young | That's right. It'll hold it. Cotton'll hold it a week. I don't know why, but cotton will hold it a week. | 7:53 |
Mary Hebert | It keeps it cold for a whole week? | 8:00 |
Samuel Young | The ice would be right in that cotton. That's right. | 8:00 |
Mary Hebert | I didn't know that. | 8:00 |
Samuel Young | It sure will. | 8:00 |
Mary Hebert | Cotton. | 8:00 |
Samuel Young | Cotton will hold it. You put that ice in that cotton, that ice will be in that cotton a week. Anything'll hold it hot? It'll stay right in there. | 8:06 |
Mary Hebert | Huh. | 8:16 |
Samuel Young | Big block of ice. That's right. That's right. | 8:18 |
Mary Hebert | I remembered the question I wanted to ask you earlier. Where would you go to sell your cotton? | 8:23 |
Samuel Young | Well, we'd go to the gin, they'd take it to the gin and they'll give me a certain amount there, and then they'd go sell it. They load it up and take it to Charleston. They'd pay you for your bale of cotton, then they could take it to Charleston and they'll get more for that bale. | 8:28 |
Mary Hebert | Did you shop around? Did you go from gin to gin to find out who had the best price? | 8:44 |
Samuel Young | Well, see, the buyers would be there. | 8:50 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 8:54 |
Samuel Young | The buyers'll be there, and they'll cut that cotton and examine it, and see an example. And that's who'd give you the best price. That's how I let it happen. Yeah, that's how it'd go. | 8:54 |
Mary Hebert | Who owned the gin? Do you remember? | 9:07 |
Samuel Young | Well, McLeary had owned one, and old man Anderson had owned one. That's right. | 9:09 |
Mary Hebert | How'd you get your cotton to the gin? | 9:18 |
Samuel Young | We carried in the mule wagon and some of it in the truck. We carried two bale on some things, and one on one. And sometimes, we carried three on the truck, just like that. At least three and two and one. The three of us and all this cotton. The bale would weigh something like 500 pounds, or 1,200 for each bale. I mean, you pick 1,200 of seeded cotton, that'd bring a 400 big bale of cotton. You put 1,500 of seeded cotton, it'd bring a 500 big bale. | 9:21 |
Mary Hebert | Oh, gosh. | 10:00 |
Samuel Young | Uh-huh. Is that right. | 10:01 |
Mary Hebert | You got to bring all that to market at the same time? | 10:03 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, that's right. It's like the seeded cotton, when you pick out the pod, you put 1,200 in there to bring a 400 big bale. That'll be a light bale. You put 1,500 or 1,600, it'd bring a 500 big bale. And then they'd give you so much a pound for that cotton. It adds up. When I stopped, we'd been getting 200, a little bit under $200, when I quit farming. | 10:05 |
Mary Hebert | Per bale? | 10:32 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, but then after that, them getting about $500 for a bale of cotton. You know, since I quit. But now, let me tell you, they cause so much poison they got to put to it now to make cotton. The weevil'll eat it up. You got to poison it and it causes—A little farm wouldn't be nothing, no need to fool with. | 10:33 |
Mary Hebert | So you had to have a real big farm so they can spray the cotton? | 10:57 |
Samuel Young | That's right. They got to spray that cotton. You might got the airplane now to— | 10:58 |
Mary Hebert | Spray it? | 11:01 |
Samuel Young | To spray it, that's right. Otherwise, they ain't going to make it, these insects eating it up. | 11:01 |
Mary Hebert | Did you have a lot of problems with the weevils and eating the cotton? | 11:08 |
Samuel Young | Well, certain time. Certain time, and sometimes they didn't used to do nothing with it. The army worm might come to—One time, the army worm come, and the cotton had grown up so thick, and them army worm come and clean it in a half a week. Clean the leaf off it, and them bole, one of them boles, shot out, maybe one of them boles. And you're talking about make cotton— | 11:13 |
Mary Hebert | So when the army worm came— | 11:38 |
Samuel Young | If them army worms didn't come, I'd've been messed up. That's right. Them army worm cut that leaf off it, and that sun gets to them bole, that cause them boles to open. But then them boles are rotten. Had to fertilize so heavy, and it's raining, and the cotton grows so tall. And them army worm come and clean that leaf off it, and that's helping. And we come out good, so that was it. It was good. Now, that's happened. I mean, I ain't talking about anyone say that's happening. | 11:43 |
Mary Hebert | Right. | 12:12 |
Samuel Young | That's right. Them army worms cleaned this man's field right next to me, and crossed the road, and crossed over into my field and in two or three days time, he knocked mine out. Cleaned it. You could hear them cutting just like that. | 12:13 |
Mary Hebert | You could hear them? | 12:18 |
Samuel Young | I mean, night and day. Clean it. And when they done cleaned that field, they lay in the road and turn to butterflies. | 12:19 |
Mary Hebert | Really? So the worms went to the road? | 12:36 |
Samuel Young | Turn to butterflies. | 12:38 |
Mary Hebert | Huh. | 12:39 |
Samuel Young | That's what they do. | 12:40 |
Mary Hebert | So, you had a lot that year, huh? | 12:41 |
Samuel Young | I'm telling you. Made some cotton. The worm done it. | 12:44 |
Mary Hebert | When you went to the market, when you had to go to the market, where would you go shopping? Would you go all the way out to Summerton, or would you shop in St. Paul? | 12:50 |
Samuel Young | That's Summerton. Summerton. That's my main shopping place, or Manning. We more now go to Manning now. But, we go to the Piggly Wiggly for quickness. | 12:56 |
Mary Hebert | Right. | 13:06 |
Samuel Young | Sumter or Manning. That's where us go now, since we got cars. | 13:06 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. But before that, you'd just go to Summerton? | 13:10 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. Yeah, Summerton. | 13:14 |
Mary Hebert | Whose stores would you shop in? | 13:15 |
Samuel Young | Well, different stores been there then, you know? | 13:18 |
Mary Hebert | Would you shop with Mr. Davis? | 13:24 |
Samuel Young | Mr. Wells store. Mr. Wells. That's where used to really trade, now, Mr. Wells. That's my main store. | 13:27 |
Mary Hebert | What about Mr. Davis? Did you ever do any business with him? | 13:34 |
Samuel Young | Davis, um— | 13:36 |
Mary Hebert | He owned a store too, didn't he? Bill Davis, I think his name is. | 13:37 |
Samuel Young | Bill Davis? No, I ain't never do no trading with Bill Davis. Bill Davis, that name familiar to me. There's something else he'd been doing too. | 13:40 |
Mary Hebert | He was Head of the Citizens Council in the '50s and '60s. | 13:54 |
Samuel Young | I thought it so. I thought so. I know that name familiar to me. That's right. | 13:59 |
Mary Hebert | Did you avoid him because of that? | 14:03 |
Samuel Young | Huh? | 14:04 |
Mary Hebert | Did you avoid him because he was President of the Citizen's—? | 14:04 |
Samuel Young | No, no, no, no. No, I just say, I know it was something he was doing. That name was familiar to me. Yeah. | 14:13 |
Mary Hebert | What kind of things did he do as a President? Do you remember? | 14:18 |
Samuel Young | No, I don't remember what he do. | 14:21 |
Mary Hebert | If you had to borrow money during that time, who would you borrow it from? | 14:25 |
Samuel Young | Borrow money? | 14:30 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. Did you ever borrow money from anybody during that time, for your crop, or to buy fertilizer, or—? | 14:31 |
Samuel Young | Well, no. What happened, I'd send a man to Columbus. | 14:35 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 14:38 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, he'd send it. | 14:39 |
Mary Hebert | Oh, okay. | 14:41 |
Samuel Young | Tell him what you want. | 14:41 |
Mary Hebert | Okay, so you didn't have to deal with any— | 14:43 |
Samuel Young | No, no, no, no. And see that, he'd take it out on the— | 14:44 |
Mary Hebert | At the end? | 14:48 |
Samuel Young | That's what he send. He'll send a list of what your bill would be even, take it out at one time. That's how it worked. | 14:49 |
Mary Hebert | So, he'd send you money, you would settle up at the end of the year? | 14:59 |
Samuel Young | That's right, the end of the year. That's how he'd do it. If you want a mule, you tell him to go down to the stable and get a mule, and you'd pay for them cash. And I'd pay for them at the end of the year. That's right. | 15:01 |
Mary Hebert | Would he provide the seed for you, too, for the farm? | 15:16 |
Samuel Young | Oh yeah. Yeah. We had a warehouse up there to get all the fertilizer. All we'd go up there and haul it. A big warehouse been there right up there in the field. That's where all the fertilizer, you'd come down there and you'd haul it in. | 15:17 |
Mary Hebert | Now, you had to put the fertilizer on manually. You didn't have the planes and stuff to fertilize. | 15:30 |
Samuel Young | No, we had strippers put it on the mule. | 15:35 |
Mary Hebert | Mm-hmm. | 15:36 |
Samuel Young | That's right. I'd put it onto the mule. And we'd make up bags with plows. We didn't use no tractor at all. That's right. | 15:36 |
Mary Hebert | So when your sons got big enough, they helped you plow the fields and stuff? | 15:52 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. I could've go to [indistinct 00:15:59], then. | 15:56 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. | 15:59 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, that's what I'm saying. | 15:59 |
Mary Hebert | What about, where'd you buy clothes and that kind of stuff. | 16:02 |
Samuel Young | Well, we had a place in Sumter to buy the clothes. I'd trade them some dumas, [indistinct 00:16:12] and the black-eyed garden there. His son run that drug store. That's right, I'm saying [indistinct 00:16:25] that's where I used to buy my clothes. | 16:05 |
Mary Hebert | So, would your wife make some clothes for the children, or— | 16:27 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, my wife used to sew too. She'd sew. And then certain things, she'll have it made, somebody else. But she can sew her children clothes. Yeah. | 16:30 |
Mary Hebert | What about a barbershop? Did you go to a barbershop, or would someone around here— | 16:46 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, well, we'd go to the barbershop. We got a barbershop up there in Sumter now. I still go to the barbershop. | 16:50 |
Mary Hebert | Did you go to Mr. Richburg? | 16:56 |
Samuel Young | That's who cuts my hair. | 16:59 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 17:00 |
Samuel Young | That's who cuts my hair, Richburg. We got a few more people around here that cut hair, but there ain't much around here. We ain't got nobody in our town. | 17:01 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 17:11 |
Samuel Young | I told the boy the other day, I said, "You really need to have one haircutter out there to do good." | 17:13 |
Mary Hebert | Out in this area? | 17:19 |
Samuel Young | If there was one person cutting hair, he'd make good money. | 17:19 |
Mary Hebert | Now, you told me that you lived in other places. How did you get, say, to Miami from here? Would you go by bus or train? | 17:20 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, I went by the bus. Yeah. I caught the bus into Sumter at 2:30, and I got there at 6:00 the next morning. | 17:29 |
Mary Hebert | 2:30 in the afternoon? | 17:38 |
Samuel Young | And I got to Miami 6:00 the next morning. | 17:38 |
Mary Hebert | Now, when you rode the bus, did you have to ride in the back, of a segregated bus? | 17:43 |
Samuel Young | Well, in that time when I went down there, yeah. Ride in the back. That was a long time. Yeah. Yeah. | 17:48 |
Mary Hebert | Did you ever go on trips by car? On long trips? | 18:02 |
Samuel Young | Well, I went to New York, you know, in a car. | 18:06 |
Mary Hebert | In a car? | 18:08 |
Samuel Young | Oh, yeah. My boys carried me up there a couple of times. About two or three times. | 18:09 |
Mary Hebert | That must've been a long ride. | 18:22 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, it's a long ride. It ain't much different in Miami and New York. It's a draw between it. | 18:22 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 18:22 |
Samuel Young | A draw between it. | 18:22 |
Mary Hebert | Now, this was after segregation had ended, when you went up to New York? Was it—Did you have problems stopping at restaurants or to put gas in your car, to go to the restroom and all of that? Did you have—Was it after the '60s that you went up there? | 18:26 |
Samuel Young | After the '60s? | 18:43 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. | 18:45 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. | 18:45 |
Mary Hebert | Okay. | 18:45 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, it was after the '60s, yeah. | 18:45 |
Mary Hebert | What would you do when your children got sick or if you got sick? Was there a doctor around here? | 18:50 |
Samuel Young | Got sick? | 18:55 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. | 18:56 |
Samuel Young | Oh, yeah. If you got sick now, we'd take them to the emergency room. | 18:57 |
Mary Hebert | But what about back then? Was there a doctor you could bring them to, say in the '30s or the '40s? | 19:00 |
Samuel Young | Well, we ain't have but two doctors there in Summerton. | 19:06 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. | 19:07 |
Samuel Young | And that's where you'd need to take them, to Summerton. | 19:10 |
Mary Hebert | So was there a root doctor around here? Someone who, you'd buy herbs and cold remedies and that kind of stuff? | 19:12 |
Samuel Young | Well, it's a few people. Well, them older people used to have different remedies to drink, but you're some of them are good on it. They make medicine theyself, and it really used to help. Yeah, we had one man out here, but he passed, Bill Hutchin, he could make all kind of medicine. | 19:20 |
Mary Hebert | Would you bring your children to him if they were sick? I mean, rather than go into Summerton for a doctor? Is that something they could take care of? | 19:46 |
Samuel Young | Well, no. I would never do that. | 19:54 |
Mary Hebert | So y'all went into Summerton. | 19:56 |
Samuel Young | I'd rather take them to the doctor. Yeah. Because we had one doc there, Dr. Stew, he was good on children. Like I said, he was good on children. | 20:01 |
Mary Hebert | Some people were telling me about chain gangs that worked around here. Do you ever remember seeing them? | 20:08 |
Samuel Young | Oh yeah. I'm been having them that mule on the road, not no machine. Mule, twelve mules. Fella been on there, his name was Governor. Had twelve big old black mules pulling out that road block. | 20:15 |
Mary Hebert | So they would make roads? They would— | 20:23 |
Samuel Young | That's right. Making the road. That big blade be usually cutting out, that road digging, about that deep, that blade cutting. Twelve mules pulling that thing. And a man that'd turn the wheel, just turn the wheel, picking that up and letting it down. I was just a little boy then. | 20:23 |
Mary Hebert | And you remember that? | 20:23 |
Samuel Young | I remember it. That's right. | 20:23 |
Mary Hebert | Did they make these roads out here? | 20:23 |
Samuel Young | That's right. They make all that road there. | 20:23 |
Mary Hebert | Did you watch them? | 20:23 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, I was watching them. Twelve big old black mule pulling. And they'll stop by a certain place and pull up under some shade and feed them mule them twelve, and put them right back out there. And they would knock off in time enough to get the mule back where he came. So that mule had to come from Manning. That's where that team is coming from, Manning. I know the man, Governor. He didn't want me turning that wheel. Big old fella. | 20:27 |
Mary Hebert | And he turned the wheel? | 21:34 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, picking that blade up and letting it down. Certain places where he would spin that wheel. That blade'll cut deeper and then pick it up. He doing that all day long. Yeah. | 21:35 |
Mary Hebert | Do you remember the first time you voted? Can you remember the first time you voted? | 21:50 |
Samuel Young | That I voted? | 21:54 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. | 21:54 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. | 21:54 |
Mary Hebert | What year was it? Was it in the '60s? | 21:54 |
Samuel Young | I know it been in the '60s. Yeah, that's right. | 22:04 |
Mary Hebert | Did you have to take a test? | 22:08 |
Samuel Young | No, I didn't take no test. | 22:10 |
Mary Hebert | Was it registered? | 22:12 |
Samuel Young | That's right. That's right. | 22:13 |
Mary Hebert | Was there any opposition to you voting, you know, to— | 22:15 |
Samuel Young | No, no, no, no. No. | 22:16 |
Mary Hebert | Do you remember the first car that you saw? | 22:22 |
Samuel Young | Car? | 22:24 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah, first car? | 22:25 |
Samuel Young | Yeah— | 22:27 |
Mary Hebert | Was it Mr. Richardson's car? | 22:29 |
Samuel Young | A T-Bone. A T-bone. That's right. A T-Bone, and then it went from that to A-Bone. Yeah, and that's how it was. | 22:30 |
Mary Hebert | How long did it take to get electricity out here? Do you remember when they finally wired this area up with electricity lines? | 22:41 |
Samuel Young | Now that's one thing I just couldn't place it. | 22:52 |
Mary Hebert | Uh-huh. Was it after, say, Hoover's time? | 22:54 |
Samuel Young | But I know that thing had to have been, let's see. When they be to put them light. Because back then, see, everybody had a lamp. | 23:02 |
Mary Hebert | Your kerosene lamps? | 23:14 |
Samuel Young | Kerosene lamps with shades. That's right. And I just don't know when, yeah, I can't place it. | 23:16 |
Mary Hebert | You can't place it exactly? | 23:26 |
Samuel Young | No, no. | 23:28 |
Mary Hebert | Those are all the questions I have. Do you have anything else that you want to add that I didn't ask you about, or—? | 23:29 |
Samuel Young | Well, I think that's about all. That's about all. Mm-hmm. | 23:35 |
Mary Hebert | Okay. | 23:37 |
Samuel Young | That's about all. | 23:37 |
Mary Hebert | Okay, well I'm going to stop this in a minute. First I have to have you sign this release form that I printed out. | 23:40 |
Samuel Young | Okay, okay. | 23:46 |
Mary Hebert | And then I have to ask you some questions about your family and growing up. It's just kind of, who your parents were, who your brothers and sisters were. | 23:46 |
Samuel Young | Uh-huh, uh-huh. | 23:53 |
Mary Hebert | Okay. This is the release form, and all you have to do is sign your name right here. | 23:56 |
Samuel Young | Right here? | 24:02 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah, right there. Can you sign? | 24:03 |
Samuel Young | Oh yeah. | 24:05 |
Mary Hebert | Okay. | 24:09 |
Samuel Young | I'm signing on this one. | 24:09 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. Right on that line for me. | 24:09 |
Samuel Young | Okay. | 24:09 |
Mary Hebert | Okay. Thank you. Okay, now, the rest of this information, like I said, it's just about your family and where you grew up. That kind of stuff. What's your address here, first? | 24:34 |
Samuel Young | Route One, Pinewood. | 24:44 |
Mary Hebert | What is it? | 24:54 |
Samuel Young | Pinewood? 404. 404. | 24:54 |
Mary Hebert | And the zip code here is the same as Summerton, or do you know if that is different in Summerton, you know—Okay, so your name is Sam? Is it just Sam Young, or is it Samuel? | 24:56 |
Samuel Young | Sam Young. You could make it Samuel, but it—Yeah, it's Samuel, but you can call me—Either one'll work. | 25:09 |
Mary Hebert | Well, you wanted it Sam on this tape. | 25:18 |
Samuel Young | Samuel, let's put Samuel. | 25:20 |
Mary Hebert | And what, do you have a middle name? | 25:24 |
Samuel Young | No, no. Samuel Young. | 25:27 |
Mary Hebert | Okay. And you were born February 2nd, 1922? | 25:30 |
Samuel Young | That's right. | 25:35 |
Mary Hebert | And what's this place, is it Pinewood? | 25:38 |
Samuel Young | Pinewood. | 25:41 |
Mary Hebert | That's all I need to know, I just need to know Pinewood. | 25:47 |
Samuel Young | Okay. | 25:48 |
Mary Hebert | And you're a widow, a widower. | 25:48 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, I'm a widower now. | 25:51 |
Mary Hebert | And what was your wife's name? | 25:52 |
Samuel Young | Mary. With a grin [indistinct 00:26:00] | 25:53 |
Mary Hebert | Okay, and do you remember when she was born? | 25:59 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, the second day of February. No, no. September. The 2nd of September. September? | 26:06 |
Mary Hebert | That's okay, and she was two years younger than you— | 26:23 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, that's right. | 26:23 |
Mary Hebert | —so she was born in before 1924? | 26:30 |
Samuel Young | No, I born 1922, she born '25. | 26:30 |
Mary Hebert | '25? Okay. And when did she die? Was it 19 [indistinct 00:26:44] And she was born here, too, right? | 26:33 |
Samuel Young | That's right. | 26:47 |
Mary Hebert | And she just worked on the farm with you. She didn't have any other jobs. | 26:53 |
Samuel Young | That's right. She worked on the farm. | 26:54 |
Mary Hebert | And your mother's name again? | 27:02 |
Samuel Young | My mother? Emma. | 27:04 |
Mary Hebert | And what was her maiden name, before she married my father? | 27:10 |
Samuel Young | Before she married my father? | 27:17 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. | 27:17 |
Samuel Young | She was, her mother was Macy Carpenter. | 27:17 |
Mary Hebert | Carpenter? | 27:19 |
Samuel Young | That's right. | 27:21 |
Mary Hebert | And she died when you were eight? | 27:24 |
Samuel Young | Eight, that's right. | 27:26 |
Mary Hebert | And was she born here in Pinewood, too? | 27:29 |
Samuel Young | That's right, that's right. | 27:30 |
Mary Hebert | And she worked on the farm. | 27:34 |
Samuel Young | That's right. | 27:36 |
Mary Hebert | She didn't have any other kind of job? | 27:37 |
Samuel Young | No, ma'am. | 27:38 |
Mary Hebert | And your father's name was James? | 27:43 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, James. Young. | 27:49 |
Mary Hebert | Do you remember when he died? | 27:52 |
Samuel Young | No, no. No, no. | 27:54 |
Mary Hebert | And he was born here also, right? | 27:55 |
Samuel Young | That's right, that's right. | 28:01 |
Mary Hebert | Was he a sharecropper? | 28:04 |
Samuel Young | Who? | 28:05 |
Mary Hebert | Your father. Did he work the land? | 28:06 |
Samuel Young | Well, I wouldn't know. I didn't know. | 28:07 |
Mary Hebert | But he was a farmer. | 28:10 |
Samuel Young | Yeah. | 28:10 |
Mary Hebert | Can you remember some of your sisters and brothers names? | 28:15 |
Samuel Young | Yeah, Catherine, [Dortia 00:28:27] Young, Maggie Young, and David, Bridgette and Queen. Them all I can remember. | 28:17 |
Mary Hebert | Okay. And the children. | 28:57 |
Samuel Young | And—Who children? | 28:59 |
Mary Hebert | Your children. | 29:02 |
Samuel Young | Oh, my children? | 29:03 |
Mary Hebert | Yeah. | 29:03 |
Samuel Young | Oh, Doretha. Well, I'm start from the older one. Mary Lee. No, Junior the older one. Samuel, he named at me. And Mary Lee. | 29:05 |
Mary Hebert | May Lee? | 29:19 |
Samuel Young | Mary Lee. | 29:20 |
Mary Hebert | Mary Lee. | 29:20 |
Samuel Young | Doretha. | 29:20 |
Mary Hebert | I got her. | 29:20 |
Samuel Young | And Loretta. | 29:20 |
Item Info
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