Rebecca Earline Garrison Hornby

Partial Transcript: Rebecca introduces herself and gives a little background. She was born in Haywood County at her mother’s grandmother’s. At 3 weeks she was brought to Broad River.

Keywords: Broad River; Haywood County

Subjects: Background

Partial Transcript: Rebecca talks about where she was raised. She was raised in the valley on a farm. The river went right down the center. She knew how to do everything there was to do on a farm. They had pigs, chickens, ducks, and turkeys. They lived off what they raised. When she was six she decided she wanted to learn how to milk a cow, her daddy taught her. She was the oldest of eight they all worked together on the farm.

Keywords: big valley; farm; Mountain

Subjects: Farm

Partial Transcript: Rebecca talks about daily life on the farm. The river split the farm. Her grandma lived on the backside and Rebecca and her family lived next to the highway. After they got off the school bus they changed and got their milk buckets, milked the cows, and did all the other chores that needed to be done.

Keywords: cattle; milk cows; chores

Subjects: Chores

Partial Transcript: Rebecca talks about spending time with her grandmother. When she was nine she went to stay with her grandmother to help out. Her grandmother had been a teacher so she taught Rebecca how to sew, knit, crochet, and cook. Rebecca shares how she learned to cook and how she would get meals ready. Every morning, about 5:00, she would get up and cross the field to get ready for school

Keywords: cook; crochet; granddaddy; knit; sew; teacher; Grandmother

Subjects: Grandmother and Granddaddy

Partial Transcript: Rebecca talks about summertime on the farm. In the summer they were busy working on the farm hoeing corn. After a full day of hoeing the corn, they would do the rest of the chores that needed to be done. When it was time to mow hay Rebecca told her daddy she wanted to learn how to mow hay. So she did.

Keywords: buttermilk; hoe corn; mow hay; Summertime

Subjects: Summer

Partial Transcript: Rebecca describes the chores that were done in the fall of the year. They pulled the fodder off the cow to feed the cattle. The fodder was for the cattle and the corn was put in a crib for the pigs. The corn was shelled to make cornbread too. They raised wheat for all the flour. Her grandpa would cradle the wheat, take it to the barn, and stack it until thrashing. Her grandfather thrashed for everyone. After they finished clearing up the loft they did their daily chores.

Keywords: cornbread; cradle; sled; wheat; Fodder off the corn

Subjects: Fall on the farm

Partial Transcript: Rebecca explains about how they made molasses. It was stored in a big rock cellar in a five-gallon can. It was used to sweeten everything. You saved your eggs to buy a little bit of sugar, salt, coffee, and soda. Her grandma would pack a big biscuit and a duck egg for Rebecca’s lunch. They used cane to make the molasses.

Keywords: coffee; duck egg; sugar; Molasses

Subjects: Making molasses

Partial Transcript: Rebecca talks about winter on the farm. Rebecca describes how her brother would cut down trees for firewood and how they got it ready to be used. That was part of her growing up.

Keywords: cross saw; Wintertime

Subjects: Winter

Partial Transcript: Rebecca talks about how her grandmother died when she was sixteen. The doctor was coming out to look after her grandmother. The doctor taught her how to give shots and in later years she went into nursing.

Keywords: nursing; doctor

Subjects: grandmother dies

Partial Transcript: Rebecca talks about her nursing career. There was a young doctor in Batcave who started a clinic in an old schoolhouse. The community turned the old schoolhouse into a clinic. There was one RN and he took the local girls and trained them. When the patients were in bed the doctor took a book and a big board and he would teach the young girls. Rebecca had a problem learning to spell Streptomycin. She practiced until she got it. In 1955 the state opened a law that said if you had a high school education and worked for a doctor you could go to Raleigh, challenge the state board, and get your LPN license. Rebecca kept hers until she was 80.

Keywords: RN; Raleigh; penicillin; streptomycin; Batcave

Subjects: Becoming a nurse

Partial Transcript: Rebecca describes her nursing career. She worked at Camp Elliot for about twelve years. She also worked at a clinic, a TB sanatorium, and a doctor’s office. She figures she has taken care of half the community.

Keywords: TB Sanitarium; clinic; Camp Elliot

Subjects: career

Partial Transcript: Rebecca talks about having fun. They always had a good time while they were working. They jumped rope, “rassle”. They were ready for bed when it got dark. They got up with the chickens. They played a game called “aunty over” a ball was thrown over the house and the fella on the other side tried to catch it. That was one game.

Keywords: revivals; aunty over

Subjects: Entertainment

Partial Transcript: Rebecca describes the role the church played in the community. Everyone went to church because that was how you socialized. There were no TVs and you only got to listen to the radio on Saturday night, The Grand Ole Opry, you didn’t want to run the battery down. There was Church every Sunday and Sunday school. In the wintertime, church was at 2:00 in the afternoon because you had to walk. Rebecca explains how the whole community came together when someone died.

Keywords: Grand Ole Opry; TVs; community; radio; Church

Subjects: The church and the community.

Partial Transcript: Rebecca talks about when her granddaddy died. He died before her grandma did. It was during the war. He was sitting on the bed patting his feet and talking about Hitler. At about 3:00 in the morning he died. Between her grandma and granddaddy that was the beginning of her nursing.

Keywords: Hitler; war

Subjects: Granddaddy dies

Partial Transcript: Rebecca talks about people who might be practicing medicine using wild plants and herbs. They may have people but she didn’t know of them. They did get bones and make bone set tea to set bones. They would get spruce limbs and boil that for colds. They were homemade remedies that everyone knew about.

Keywords: old homemade remedy; spruce pine limbs; Bone set tea

Subjects: Homemade remedies

Partial Transcript: Rebecca talks about what they had for entertainment. People would sit around and talk or play horses. Most people were so tired they would sit and talk about what they had to do the next day. In the winter they cut timber for the sawmill. Her parents had a sawmill so in the winter they saw milled.

Keywords: cut timber; saw mill; Play horseshoes

Subjects: Wintertime entertainment

Partial Transcript: Rebecca shares a story about one time when she started school. It was in 1943 and it started to snow at about 10:00 am. The principal decided to send the kids home. They got halfway up the mountain. Soldiers could ride the bus back then. There was a young boy on the bus and they sent him back for help. They pushed and shoved and by 3:00 pm no one had come. They walked down off the mountain. All the people who worked at Beacon Manufacturing were stuck too.

They put the kids on a bus, turned it around, and took them to the Monte Vista hotel in Black Mountain. They stayed one week, there were eighteen of them, nine boys and nine girls. They played hide-and-go-seek, ran up and down the halls all kinds of stuff. They weren’t used to a bathtub and hot water and they took a bath every night. They had orange juice for breakfast and all kinds of fancy stuff. On Thursday the streets had gotten open enough so they could walk up to the theater.

There were nine girls on the second floor and nine boys on the third. Rebecca talks about the boys locking the Czechoslovakian in his room. Those boys giggled and laughed about that.

Keywords: Beacon Manufacturing; Black Mountain; Broad River; Czechoslovakian; Monte Vista Hotel; Snowing

Subjects: Snow storm

Partial Transcript: Rebecca describes what a visit from her aunt and uncle from Florida was like. They would come up in August and her uncle would take as many kids as he could to the revival in Ridgecrest. When they came back through Black Mountain they would stop and get an ice cream. They really looked forward to that. They never got ice cream unless it was snow cream. Something special was a fancy cake made with sugar.

Keywords: Ridgecrest; revival; Florida

Subjects: Relatives visit

Partial Transcript: Rebecca talks about the food that they had on the farm. In the wintertime, they would kill an old chicken and have chicken and dumplings. In the summertime, they would have fried chicken because they had some young chickens. They saved most of the chickens for the eggs. They had to sell the eggs. They killed a hog. There was a little house they hung the meat in. Rebecca explains how they smoked the hogs. They saved all the ashes out of the kitchen stove to bury the meat in. When Aunt Letty and Uncle Eric came they had good ole smoked ham. They saved every bit of the hog. Rebecca describes how to make chitlins.

Keywords: chitlins; Sunday dinner

Subjects: Nothing was wasted

Partial Transcript: Rebecca describes the other ways they preserved their food. They canned everything. In the summer there were beans. Rebecca talks about canning beans and how they did it. They also pickled beans, kraut, dried apples, and canned berries. In the spring the first greens that came out were poke salad. They had mustard greens, turnips, and potatoes. Potatoes were stored in the cellar. Rebecca explains how you could save potatoes if you didn’t have a cellar. You could also keep apples the same way. They did not pickle eggs. There was no refrigeration, they used a spring box. Rebecca describes a spring box. Carrying the water and wood for the stove wood box were chores done every day. Flour was kept in a big barrel. They made their own bread and biscuits, and all kinds of bread.

Keywords: spring box; Canned everything

Subjects: Preserving food and making bread

Partial Transcript: Rebecca talks about the activities and the community. At pig-killing time everyone would get together and help. It had to be cold enough, usually around Thanksgiving. It was a good life.

Keywords: pig killing; Activities

Subjects: Good times

Partial Transcript: Rebecca talks about her momma. She was great. She had eight children all born at home. She was raised on a farm. She hoed, had a garden, and cooked. They never had any problems. They knew what to do and if they didn’t they knew where the switch was. Rebecca shares the story about her sister being switched and her Aunt Daisy coming down to find out what was the matter.

Her mother was born in Clyde, on Hyder Mountain. In the summer they would go out to her grandma’s house to pick cherries. She had big sour cherry trees. They stayed about two weeks picking and canned cherries. It was fun, they got to meet their cousins.

Rebecca’s mom went to the Haywood Institute in Clyde. Her dad went too but in 1917 he caught the flu and dropped out. Her mother finished school and became a teacher. That was how they met, at Haywood Institute. They were 25 when they married.

Haywood Institute was a little place in Clyde. Rebecca has gone back and saw that some of the rocks are still there.

Her mother walked everywhere. Rebecca talks about her mother getting her little basket and going to her Uncle Taft’s store.

Keywords: 1917 flu; Clyde; Hyder Mountain; Haywood County

Subjects: Rebecca’s Mama

Partial Transcript: Rebecca describes her daddy. He was just a farmer, one of eight kids. He lived next to his mommy and daddy on the farm. Rebecca talks about her dad’s family. One brother was killed when he tried to help start a boiler for the neighbors. Uncle Joe died of pneumonia early. Her grandpa homesteaded the land and he had hundreds and hundreds of acres. The land was divided up among the family. Her daddy was just an easygoing somebody.

Keywords: homesteaded; Farmer

Subjects: Rebecca’s daddy

Partial Transcript: Rebecca’s granddaddy played a fiddle and her brother still has it. He would sit by the fireplace and play. He had curly hair and a beard which he would trim in the spring. He kept a big fire in the fireplace and they would put rocks on the hearth when they were warm they would wrap them in newspaper and put them in the bed. It was so cold one winter Rebecca slept on the straw tick and under the feather bed.

Keywords: feet warm; fiddle

Subjects: Rebecca’s Granddaddy.

Partial Transcript: Rebecca tells the story about the time she woke up; looked at the clock and thought it was five after seven. It was actually twenty-five to one. Her momma said, “Aunt Daisy’s rooster ain’t crowed yet get back in the bed”. At seven her momma got up and fixed breakfast. Rebecca described the breakfast her mother cooked every morning.

Keywords: loaf of bread; molasses; Breakfast

Subjects: Breakfast before school

Partial Transcript: Rebecca talks about the clothes they wore. Her momma didn’t sew but her grandma taught the girls to sew. The boys wore overalls. They wore underclothes made from seed sacks. Her grandma taught them a lot of things.
Their clothes were made, most of the time, out of feed sacks. Once in a while her aunt in Florida would send material to make plain little ole dresses.

Keywords: feed sacks

Subjects: Making clothes

Partial Transcript: Rebecca talks about the items they couldn’t grow themselves and how they got them. They saved the eggs and sold them for sugar, coffee, salt, and soda. They had lard and butter. You didn’t buy anything like asparagus you raised everything. The raised beets ate the tops, pickled beets, and made pickles out of cucumbers. They also made chow chow. You didn’t need to buy meat because you had it. They killed two big hogs each year.

Keywords: Coffee; salt; soda; raised everything

Subjects: items they had to buy at the store

Partial Transcript: Rebecca was born during the Depression. They raised everything. Everyone seemed to be happy.
Her granddaddy had a government still that he was licensed for. For money, they sold timber, boards, and two-by-fours. That was how they came by a little money. They paid taxes if there were taxes back then.

Keywords: government still; money; taxes.; whiskey; Depression

Subjects: The Depression.

Partial Transcript: Rebecca says the kids have lost out on a lot of learning by not having some of the experiences she had. She has been telling her great-granddaughter how she was raised and everything they had to do. They don’t know how to do any of this stuff and she wonders if they will ever have the chance to learn. They are not prepared. If they can’t buy it at Ingles what are they going to do?

Keywords: Lost out

Subjects: What this generation has lost

Partial Transcript: Rebecca says it is going to have to be the parents that will have to teach the kids traditional skills if they know how. She is thankful her boys know the traditional skills. Their daddy taught them how. One son took horticulture in school so he knows a little about farming. He could survive. He is trying to teach his grandkids. His wife grew up on a big farm and did everything Rebecca did growing up.

Keywords: Traditional skills

Subjects: Who will teach the kids

Partial Transcript: Rebecca says kids have lost a lot of good fellowship with their neighbors and friends. The lesson Rebecca has learned is how to get along in life. You need to learn to give and take.

Keywords: fellowship

Subjects: What have kids lost?

Partial Transcript: Rebecca shared a few stories. She talks about the little store her brothers and sisters would walk back and forth to. She was raised on the upper end of the river.
The government came in and was going to help the community raise chickens. The community got together to learn how to make chicken houses and that is how she met her husband. He went to Lake Lure School and she went to Black Mountain School. She has lived where she is now for sixty-five years.

Keywords: Black Mountain School; husband; Lake Lure School

Subjects: met her husband

Partial Transcript: Rebecca explains why it is important to remember history. How can you pass it on if you don’t remember it? If we don’t it will be lost. All the kids around were raised the same as she was. They were all in the same boat. Rebecca talks about when she was in the seventh grade and she washed dishes for her lunch. They had little oyster crackers, she had never seen them in her life.

Keywords: Black Mountain; Broad River; lunch room; oyster cracker; History

Subjects: important to remember history

Partial Transcript: Rebecca closes by saying the kids today need to sit down and listen to how the old folks were raised. They need to get off their computer and listen to a few people.

Keywords: listen

Subjects: What do we tell kids today?