Hubert Barnwell on His Aunt’s Pot

Partial Transcript: Well my Aunt Ollie, which is my daddy’s oldest sister, she is…. She was, oh, right 1900 or a little after. And anyhow, she said that after the flood and everything, they went down to where they’d been washing the clothes and said they couldn’t find the wash pot. So she and grandpa went looking for the wash pot and they found it up in the tree. All they could find was just a short rope was all they could find, so he climbed up in the tree to get a hold of the wash pot to let it down and the rope was too short to let it down. She was too little to get a hold of it too. So anyhow, that’s when they dropped the wash pot down and it cracked a little ___ in it. And up til a couple year ago it hadn’t really opened up that much, but I guess for over 100 years old it’s about time for it to start cracking open little bit or something. And we’ve just had it in the shed. But Aunt Ollie was one that she could really tell you … she had a real good clear mind and she could remember. That’s one of the things I wished I was one of them that could do that. Remember like she did. But she remembered all the stuff about going to town, back and forth and everything. And said they couldn’t go nowhere, everything was just blocked off.

Partial Transcript: Over on Battlecreek, at Horseshoe. That’s where they’s living out at that time. They lived from there and then they lived up there at Blantard ‘round Horseshoe a good bit. They were raised there, growing up and everything. She was the oldest one of the clan. They’re all passed away now. But the older generation now, I’m in the older generation of the bunch now.

Partial Transcript: She said just everybody was just washed out. Said the roads was washed out and it was just hard to get anywhere or anything else when they were trying to go anywhere.
Interviewer 2:19 Did she say what Hendersonville looked like after the flood?

She said it was just a mess. Said everywhere around was just a mess.

Partial Transcript: This is the one it was. She said it was up in the tree. The rope was too short so they tied it to this side. He was letting it down. The rope was short and when it fell it hit this here and there was two cracks. Like I say, just to here a few year ago when they started opening up more. But like I say, its over 100 year old so you know its…
3:22 Do you know what they used that pot for?
They used it done their washing and all in it. They had it down next to the creek. And she said they rendered lard with it from the kill hogs, they rendered lard and all that. Matter of fact, I remember us when I was growing up using it to render lard in. Washed it out real good and then when you’d kill hogs you’d take and render your lard in it. We always had a pot to render it out in and that’s what it was.
3:56 If that pot could tell a story…
It’d tell a lot of them, I tell you that.