Mother and Father

My mother was born in North Carolina in Mecklinberg in Henderson County.
I don't know when she came to Arkansas, and I don't know when she went
to Tennessee.

My father was born in Tennessee. I don't know the county like I did in
North Carolina. I don't know the town either, but I think it was in the
rurals somewhere. The white folks separated my mother and father when I
was a little baby in their arms. The people to whom my father belonged
stayed in Tennessee, but my mother's people came to Arkansas. It must
have been along in the time of the war that they come to Arkansas.


Dwelling

My mother lived in a log house chinked with wood chinks. The chinks
looked like gluts. You know what a glut is? No? Well a glut looks like
the pattern of a shoe. They lay the logs together, and then chink up the
cracks with wood blocks made up like the pattern of a shoe. These were
chinks, wooden things about a foot long, shaped like a wedge. They were
used for chinking. After the logs were laid together, chinks would be
needed to stop up the holes between the logs. After the chinking was
finished, clay was stuffed in to stop up the cracks and make the house
warm. I've seen a many a one built.

Wide planks were used for the floors. The doors were hung on wooden
hinges. The doors were never locked. They didn't have any looks on them.