chilen. While I was turned to one, the other would get off. When I
looked for that one, another would be gone. Then they would whip me all
day for it. They would whip you for anything and wouldn't give you a
bite of meat to eat to save your life, but they'd grease your mouth when
company come.


Food

"We et out of a trough with a wooden spoon. Mush and milk. Cedar trough
and long-handled cedar spoons. Didn't know what meat was. Never got a
taste of egg. Oo-ee! Weren't allowed to look at a biscuit. They used to
make citrons. They were good too. When the little white chilen would be
comin' home from school, we'd run to meet them. They would say, 'Whose
nigger are you?' And we would say, 'Yor'n!' And they would say, 'No, you
ain't.' They would open those lunch baskets and show us all that good
stuff they'd brought back. Hold it out and snatch it back! Finally,
they'd give it to us, after they got tired of playing.


Health

"They're burying old Brother Jim Mullen over here today. He was an old
man. They buried one here last Sunday--eighty some odd. Brother Mullen
had been sick for thirty years. Died settin' up--settin' up in a chair.
The old folks is dyin' fas'. Brother Smith, the husband of the old lady
that brought you down here, he's in feeble health too. Ain't been well
for a long time.

"Look at that place on my head. (There was a knot as big as a hen