Lullabelle Capps

Partial Transcript: Well, my name is Lullabelle Williams Capps. I was born and raised on Sugarloaf Mountain. I was born at home with a midwife. My mother was considered one of the people that helped out with child birthing and deaths at our young age. And that's when they brought the corpse home, and everybody set up all night with them. So we learned at an early age, I guess, how to help one another and the beauty of family and friends and our church.

Partial Transcript: Well, my mom and dad met in Gloucester in Transylvania County. My dad was working with the—

Male Speaker 1
—tip Lumber Company.

Lullabelle Capps
Lumber company up there. And my mom was a cook in the kitchen. And they met, and they walked from what's now the Fish Camp where they grow all those fish to the courthouse in Transylvania, in Brevard to get married. And her dad walked with them. And they came by horse and buggy, horse and wagon, from Brevard to Henderson County. It took them two days. And my dad had a brother who had a cow up there, and he him wanted to bring it home so they tied it to the back of the wagon and brought it home. And sometimes it helped them get out of mud holes because they got stuck. They'd hook the cow to whatever to help them get out. They came to Mud Creek, and they had a camphouse on the edge of Mud Creek on 64. And they camped there overnight, and they went to Sugarloaf Mountain the next day. So that's—that was in 1921. So—

Partial Transcript: My dad was a jack-of-all-trades. He was the local veterinarian; he farmed all of his life, and growed apples. And he—during the war he bottomed everybody's in the communities shoes with bicycle tires. He had a cobbler's stand, and so if anybody wore their shoe leather off, he put a bottom on their shoes. And he also sharpened saws, and he had a blacksmiths shop. So he was always doing something for somebody 'till he died. He was 91 when he passed away. His name was Amos Williams. And I wouldn't take nothing for how I grew up.

Partial Transcript: My mom, oh, she was very frugal. She canned constantly. Whatever was in season, that's what she canned.

Interviewer
Tell me some kinds of the things she canned.

Lullabelle Capps
Oh, she canned tomatoes and peaches. And she made lots of soup.

Male Speaker 1
Beans.

Lullabelle Capps
Soup mix and green beans and tomatoes.

Male Speaker 1
Cabbage.

Lullabelle Capps
And she churned her own milk to make her butter. We always had butter. Lots of milk. We had two cows all the time. And fortunately I got to go milk the cows every morning and every night. We had a huge barn. We horses, teams of horses, and dad had apple trees so in the fall we picked apples. For like two weeks we was out of school picking apples. The principal didn't have to know where we were. I mean he knew where we were when we weren't at school. We was working. So he never had to worry about us missing school because if you stayed home you had to work.

So mom put up all kinds of fruit. We dried the fruit on top of the brooder house because she raised chickens. And she put down her nets and put it on top of the brooder house and you'd have to get up and turn it during the day and take it in at night. She always had lots of jars of peaches. The boys would sneak down into the basement and set a jar out the window if they were going hunting. And in the summertime when she picked blueberries, she'd find her jars all in the woods. (laughs) That way she knew that they were taking her peaches. And she'd get onto them about that. (laughs) We dug grub root. Most people don't even know what grub root is.

Interviewer
Tell me more about it.

Lullabelle Capps
It's a root that grows wild. And you had to dig it up and dry it, and then daddy would bring it in to Thompson's on Seventh Avenue and sell the roots. And he might trade it for whatever they needed at that time, some kind of a commodity.

Partial Transcript: Um, to me, I had a good life. Some people probably wouldn't think so. We worked hard. When you come home from school, you had about an hour or two hours to work in the fields before you got to rest. Or, you know, we picked beans during the summer for the local people that grew beans. And they paid you like a quarter a bushel. And that's the way we bought our clothes. My mother attended the Curb Market. It's known in Hendersonville, and she was one of the ones that started the Curb Market. And she stayed with the Curb market for years. And she lived to be 95, and she still had her faculties. And we at night we would shell peas or break beans, or she used to work for Pete Green. He's a builder and his later years, but he had a place down on King Street that it was yarn shop. And he would give you big bins of yarn, and you had to wind that yarn. It was all tangled up, and you found the piece and you had to sew it together if it comes loose. And you balled it up, and then you took it back to him. And they made pocketbooks and all kinds of things out of that yarn, covered coat hangers, and things like that you did at night. So we were always busy at night.
No TV until we were—I was about fifteen years old—and Daddy bought one of the first TVs that come out in that area. And we had a gas refrigerator because we didn’t have electricity. And we had a kerosene crank washing machine. After—before that, they did it all by hand down by the—by the—

Male Speaker 1
Creek.

Lullabelle Capps
spring. So for years, we carried water. Then my daddy bought a ram that pumped the water from the spring to the house and it run all the time. So we were really fortunate to have all of those things that other people didn't have in our area. I don't really remember when we got electricity, but I must have been fourteen or fifteen. And then we got the telephone. It was an eight party line.

Male Speaker 1
(laughs)

Lullabelle Capps
And no matter when you wanted to talk, somebody was on the telephone. If you got on the telephone, everybody listened to what you had to say because they didn't—sometimes didn't have nothing else to do but listen on the telephone. So anyway, my brothers was doing something else one day, and dad needed to spray the apples. He said, "Sis, would you drive the tractor for me while I spray." And they did the hand spray. And I said, "Oh!" I was tickled to death to get to drive the tractor, and we grew up driving vehicles. And we had filled up the spray, and I went up the bank and I hit the wrong—I hit the wrong pedal, and it tossed me over the bank. The bank caved off and I went under the tractor, but every time it raised up—because it was still on—I put my hand up to keep the tractor off of me like it was going to help. But anyway, my dad finally got the tractor cut off and got me out from under the tractor. And they put linseed oil on my hand. I never went to the doctor, and I never had a scar from my hand, and I was burnt like severe burnt on the hand. But we done what we had to do.

And my dad was always helping the neighbors. And he was down at the neighbor's house one day plowing 0:16:18.6 (s/l Hobert and Iller Moore's garden, and he backed up too far and the tractor went into the creek. Well, they put a rock under his head to keep him from drowning till help got there. And this is things dad did. He was always helping somebody. And then he turned a tractor over once before that, and it rolled over on him. And his shoe lace got caught in the tire's way. He couldn't get out of the way. And he broke his pelvic bone and hip. And Doctor Falvo took care of him. And I never will forget Doctor Falvo said to us, he said, "You're daddy's a tough man." He said, "I told him he probably would never walk again." And he said, "He looked me straight in the eye and he says, 'You don't know what you're talking about.' "Well dad walked, and he never had a limp and went on to drive the tractor many more years. But Doctor Falvo couldn't get over how strong my dad was.

Partial Transcript: For fun? Mostly our church work was fun. We had a lot of youth because everybody in the area had lots of children. Some of them had six, some of them had eight. My daddy and mom had eight. And the Moores had seven or eight. And the Martins had seven or eight. And a lot of times we would have parties and one another's house and just play and have a good time. We popped popcorn and made Kool-Aid and whatever and play kick the can. And the parents would always join and help us do different things. And mostly our church family was the big issue in our neighborhood was the church, Mountain Hall Baptist Church.

Partial Transcript: My sister—my dad bought the piano when the church bought a new piano. My dad bought the piano. And my youngest sister, she was always pretending she was playing the piano on the sewing machine. And my dad could pick out different things, but he would never—if we went from the house, a lot of times when we got home we would hear him playing on the piano, but he quit as soon as we come in. But he gave us a dollar a week to take piano lessons at school. Well, my sister was playing up a storm. She could just sit down and play about anything. She could hear it on the radio and play a song. Well, I was going every time to the lessons, and I just decided I was retarded. I couldn't—couldn't play the piano. And I still don't know music to this day. And she still plays for Zion Hill Baptist Church. But I honestly thought I was retarded, and it was just a gift to her.

Partial Transcript: Well, um, I think what the children are missing today is a foundation of church and home. We had discipline. If you got a spanking at school, you got a spanking at home. And there was no running down to the teacher and criticizing or to the principal. If they thought you was wrong and you needed a spanking, that's what they thought you deserved. And kids don't know how to work today. They—everything's handed to them, just take money and go to a movie or play your video games or whatever, but the joy of just being able to be on the farm and gather eggs at night. Most kids don't even know that the hens lay the eggs and to take care of them.

Partial Transcript: Well, in the fields you did the—especially the corn—my dad or my brothers would cut the top out of the corn stalk and put them up in big—

Male Speaker 1
Shocks.

Lullabelle Capps
—in big shocks at the end of the fields or the center of the fields. And then we had to pull the fodder, which is the leaves that show on the bottom—before—below the corn. And then you tied—you got a big bundle and you tied them up and put them back up on that stalk. And then later they would come along and pick up that fodder and put it in the barn. And then they'd come and pick up the corn, and we had a corn crib. And they put the corn in the corn crib to dry.

Male Speaker 1
It was less than quarter inch wide.

Lullabelle Capps
And it was—

Lullabelle Capps
It was a wire building that you could put the corn in. And I know one year my brother was getting corn out of the corn crib and wasn't paying any attention, and there was a copperhead in there, and he got bit by a copperhead. And I guess I need to tell you before that. When I was six years old we were chinquapin. It's like a—it's small,

Male Speaker 1
Chestnut.

Lullabelle Capps
—small chestnut. It looks like a chestnut, but it's smaller. And it's called chinquapin. And we were picking chinquapin and it opens up just like a chestnut bur. Well, I stepped over a log and got rattlesnake bit. And they rushed me to the hospital, but before we got to the hospital, Doctor Sally was in his office on Seventh Avenue. And my dad stopped there. And he had the venom. And he gave me the venom for the rattlesnake bite, and I survived of course. But that was a hard time for my family because they thought I was already gone when they got me to that point.
And then when we were seven years old—seven—? Seven or eight, I can't remember, we had a bad bus wreck. And there were I think thirteen of us on the bus and we rolled over five times and a half down this mountain. Well around the curve from where we were, it was a very narrow road, and wasn't supposed to over that road, but those seven or eight kids that live behind there and they would allow the bus driver to go over there to pick them up because they had so far to go. And when the bus went over the bank, it landed on a fence post and you could hear the fence post breaking. And I can sound today. And then off we went down the mountain. And it was one of those that had the center seat, and you sit back to back on the seat on the old school bus. Well anyway, the people that were sitting out cabbage plants around the curve, they just happened to be there and had like three or four, maybe four or five vehicles. And they come and got us out and one of the girls was Maxine Moore that landed beside of stump, and she could see bus coming down on her, but the stump kept it from crushing her. And we had like three people they laid out for dead because they thought they were gone, but they put all of us in those vehicles and took us to the old—what was the hospital's name?

Male Speaker 1
I can't remember.


Lullabelle Capps
Anyways, the old hospital. I can't think of the name of the hospital. And put us in the halls and everywhere else and was sewing them up, but my brother and this one other guy wasn't hurt. They didn't think they were hurt too bad so they went—walked about seven or eight miles to tell the families where we were. And I remember when my daddy got there, I said, "Please take me out!" because everybody was screaming and crying because they were sewing them up and everybody was really hurt. But nobody died, but we had—I think it was—three people with head injuries and today they're all gone.

Interviewer
You defied death many times in your life, haven't you?

Lullabelle Capps
Yeah, and you know, I don't know why God keeps me here, but I've had three heart attacks. I broke my neck. I was coming up the steps with the laundry, and I had the laundry in my hands and there was an ant on the third step up from the landing, and I wanted to kill it. So I stuck my foot out and I lost my balance. And I fell backwards into the landing and broke my neck. So they had to put in a donor bone.

Interviewer
Wow.

Lullabelle Capps
So I really have cheated death a lot of times.

Partial Transcript: Why is it important? Well, I don't know, I think mainly because kids today don't know what it's like to get out and climb a tree and enjoy climbing a tree or just being on the farm to goof off if you want to goof off. And we never did anything to harm people or destroy people's property. It just taught you—I guess you got it the hard way so you took care of it more. And you appreciated everything that you had. And we always had hand-me-down clothes, but we was always—we always had plenty of clothes, plenty of food, and I know during the depression, my mom and dad would trade what they grew for sugar and flour. They always had corn for their—they took their corn to the mill to be milled. So they had plenty of food. My dad's brother owned a grocery store so they could trade out some things that they couldn’t get, the coffee. I laugh because my mother said she never liked coffee until it was rationed. (laughs) And then she liked coffee. It was funny because she said, "I never cared for it until it was rationed." And then she—but we had the privilege of taking care of my mother for fourteen years before she died. And it was a joy.

Partial Transcript: Okay, we had a—we had a wood stove. We had a water tank on the side of the wood stove that kept the water hot and a fireplace, and the boys always had to get wood for the fireplace. I always said you've never had a good cake of cornbread if it wasn't cooked in a wood stove. That was the thing that the preacher would come home with us, probably once a month at least, to have dinner with us because my mother always planned a head and she had plenty of food. So it was always if you don't have nowhere to go, come on over. And so I think, I think really what the kids miss today is a foundation, bringing up a child in a Christian home. They learn good values and how to improvise. We had a kerosene lamp to do our work by. We had an Aladdin lamp that really was the thing of the day. It was an oil lamp. And we ironed our own clothes with a smoothing iron. And we always had two or three. One hot and used till it got cold and get another one. And most kids today don't even know what that's like. It was a lot of work, but work don't kill ya.

Partial Transcript: Lullabelle Capps
Well, we lose—we lose a lot of the integrity, humility—

Male Speaker 1
Independence.

Lullabelle Capps
—and helping others. Most people don't help others today. It's you do your thing and I'll do mine. And I hate the phrase of—oh—''I'm going to do my thing," because you've got to think of others because every human being deserves respect.
Male Speaker 1
Space.

Lullabelle Capps
And kids today, most of them don't know what respect is. They just go about their life without considering the other people.

Partial Transcript: Okay. When my mother was a teenager, her and her sister were walking down the road in uh—

Male Speaker 1
Gloucester.

Lullabelle Capps
— Gloucester township in Upper Transylvania County, and most of the area around there the Vanderbilts owned. And one day they were walking down the road and they heard this noise coming, and it was an automobile. And they had never seen one before. It had a chauffeur in it. And I suppose Mister Vanderbilt, I'm not sure, but my mother's dad and their families lived in a house that was owned by the Vanderbilts. And my mom said—she wore a big hat all the time—but every Christmas she would come and bring them gifts for the family, and mom said she was just a kind person. And one time we visited the Biltmore Estate, and when my mother saw her picture, he recognized her and said she was really kind. They lived on the place, and they charged them $6 a year to live in the place. And they had to walk everywhere they went because at that time—as I said—there was no automobiles. They had to make their own fun things to do. And when they had the logging company up in Pisgah Forest, they would ride down the flume lines on Sunday because they wouldn't be cutting logs, but once in a while there'd be a log come down and they'd have to jump off. She said it's a wonder they hadn't got killed. (laughs)

Partial Transcript: I don't think so. Her dad was Sherman Morris. And he had a brother named Monte. And we have never found out anything about them, and mom thought they were from South Carolina, but—oh gosh—I should tell them the story about Uncle Sammy. (laughs) Mom's brother was in the army. Do you want to hear this?

Interviewer
Sure.

Lullabelle Capps
He was in the Army, and he had married this girl. I think they got married like when she was fourteen and he was—

Male Speaker 1
Sixteen.

Lullabelle Capps
—sixteen, but he had lied about his age and went in the Army. Well anyway, they had—they had, (whispers) one, (whispers) two, three children. They had three children, and over the years of course. And he come home—they said come home one time and found her with somebody else. So he left and never went back. And he married this other lady. And he kept his marriage a secret for years. And the young boys, his name was M-o-r-r-i-s. Well, when he left, he changed his name to M-y-e-r-s. And his wife, her name Mary, when he would get mail or anything from the family, she would take it and not let him see it to keep everything a secret. So one day, one of the oldest boys that was a minister started doing the genealogy thing. Well, he found out that his daddy's name was Sam—Samuel Morris. So he confronted his dad. And oh, they swore him to secrecy. Don't tell it, don't tell it. Well, it just got to his wife, and she just couldn't take it anymore so she called the boys. They had five boys. They called the boys, and they met and said, "I want to tell you something about our dad." Now one of them was a school teacher and one of them was a preacher—

Male Speaker 1
Stockbroker.

Lullabelle Capps
Well anyway, they were all educated well. Anyway, they couldn't believe that could happen to their mom and dad because they had taught them the values of the truth and all this. Well, it so happened that their dad had, had a stroke. And he couldn’t talk—I mean they couldn't understand him at all, but Aunt Mary who was—who had kept the secret all this time—they finally told her that they knew what happened. And the boys had a sister lives in Transylvania County—

Male Speaker 1
Half-sister.

Lullabelle Capps
—now, both boys went into the military. And they all flew here to meet their sister, their half-sister, because they'd never met her or didn’t even know she existed. Well one of the boys said, "Well, I expect Oprah Winfrey to walk in any time." (laughs) So it was a funny story.