Wayne Haggard and Shannon Haggard (H)
(5:40) The Haggards discuss what is done with the mussel meat that is removed from the shells. They also discuss some of their experiences while diving. This interview was conducted as part of a joint project of the Music Preservation Society and the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library. This proje...
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library
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Electronic |
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Oral Histories Collection |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
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Oral histories -- audios and transcripts |
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Oral histories -- audios and transcripts Wayne Haggard and Shannon Haggard (H) Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Oral histories -- audios and transcripts Mussels; Diving |
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(5:40) The Haggards discuss what is done with the mussel meat that is removed from the shells. They also discuss some of their experiences while diving. This interview was conducted as part of a joint project of the Music Preservation Society and the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library. This project focus was oral history interviews with area residents who had lived or worked on the Tennessee River.Florence- Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Wayne Haggard and Shannon Haggard
November 19, 2007
Waterloo, Alabama
Conducted by Patti Hannah and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 8 of 11
Patti Hannah: Oh what do they do with the mussels?
Shannon Haggard: Throw them away.
PH: Throw them away.
SH: Some of these, if there’s a hog farmer close by, once they cook the meat out it may be you know six inch on a big shell, six inch round we’ll say and once it , they cook it out it may be only two, two and half inches round.
Wayne Haggard: The meat, the meat is.
PH: Yeah.
SH: It’s cooked so to speak, but sometimes they give it away to some hog farmers or ah.
PH: Well what about, have you had any unusual experiences?
WH: I, I was crawling around over there in Bear Creek one time and uh, it was a ditch went off down, you know, you could tell it was heading somewhere in deep water, but I have never seen so many big shells. That’s where the, our big shells come from, in Bear Creek. Well, I got to picking those big shells up and I crawled going down this ditch and it got real dark and I tried to look up but my head hit a it was an old net that was hung in stumps across it. It was just like a bridge. And I had to back out about thirty feet. I had to crawl down this ditch and I was finding money you might say! [ laughter] But just use common sense and you’ll be all right.
PH: Right.
WH: Just ain’t like. And as far as unusual experiences, ever once in a while you’ll get in touch with a big catfish or you know something like that but it’s awful quiet, all you can hear is a few bubbles. [ laughter]
PH: What about you? SH: Well, I guess uh, we’ve run into all kind of situations. I guess the most unusual experience happened last summer. There’s about a ten- foot alligator laying on the bank and me and my buddy, we had to get dressed and jump in with him. Diving on the Alabama River, and uh it was on, uh, it’s about thirty miles upriver from Mobile Bay. And so, and there was some bull sharks in there, too. It’s the most aggressive shark there is and uh, anyway, we had to get dressed and go down with them. And log jams, it’s thirty- foot deep, with a light you could, probably you couldn’t see five or six inches in front of your face. You ‘ s basically feeling for the shells. There’s a lot of shells there, we made a lot of money but it’s just uh, uh, it was just a hair- raising experience you know.
Rhonda Haygood: Do you have to have a special license to do this job?
SH: To do the musseling?
PH: Un huh.
RH: Un huh .
SH: Un huh. It used to be sixteen dollars and fifty cents and it jumped to two hundred and fifty- one dollars.
SH: And this was uh,
RH: Is that per year?
PH: Per year?
SH: They went up when the mussel boom hit, so to speak. It’s about three hundred, around this area there’s probably about three hundred, maybe three hundred and fifty people that came in all at once. But, uh, that’s when they upped the license. I guess. Which, which, a lot of people quit after that you know.
PH: All right, about how many people do it around this area?
SH: Umm, there’s probably about fifteen divers left right now. You know, diving took a, a, of course since such a quantity of shells over there, it’s flooded the market so to speak. And then, uh, shell diving was declining a little bit there and then about ten years ago they had what, over in Japan they had what they call a red, red tide. It’s where a really bad typhoon come through and stirred the pollution off the ocean floor, which killed the oysters, which they, the oysters they implant the bead in that they cut from our shells. But, ah so, they had the oysters dying and China was having a, China was having economy problems you know so and the diving just, just, the diving just nosed off there. It’s steady been climbing back up.
WH: See it turn green. Put it next to your clothes and see it change colors.
PH: Yes.
WH: [ inaudible] PH: Oh how neat. It changes colors.
SH: [ inaudible]
RH: Oh, wow.
WH: Yeah, that’s a fresh water, that come out of a washboard. See, it’s flat on the bottom?
PH: Un huh.
WH: They called it a turtle- back. They put the flat bottom down and put the pearly part out. I found that one in a shell in 1985 I guess. We used to cook all of our shells out. And it got to where they bought them, we call green or live you know. But we used to get a barrel, we used fifty- five gallon drums, barrels, we’d get a barrel full, about twelve uh five gallon bucketsful and we’d sit there and we’d call the neighbors and we’d call my mother and daddy and her mother and daddy and we’d all sit there and we’d pick the meat out and we’d go through them and look for the pearls. And sort of like a family outing you might say. What it is, they get a piece of sand in there, a little rock in there and that sand goes to irritating them, well they’ll go to putting that it’s called nacre— the shinny stuff— they’ll go to putting that stuff on it and the longer it stays in there, the bigger it gets.
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| title |
Wayne Haggard and Shannon Haggard (H) |
| titleStr |
Wayne Haggard and Shannon Haggard (H) |
| author |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
| author_facet |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
| id |
FLCPLoral_hist220 |
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https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/oral_hist/id/220 |
| thumbnail |
http://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getthumbnail/collection/oral_hist/id/220 |
| _version_ |
1782468788570030080 |
| spelling |
Wayne Haggard and Shannon Haggard (H)Mussels; Diving(5:40) The Haggards discuss what is done with the mussel meat that is removed from the shells. They also discuss some of their experiences while diving. This interview was conducted as part of a joint project of the Music Preservation Society and the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library. This project focus was oral history interviews with area residents who had lived or worked on the Tennessee River.Florence-Lauderdale Public LibraryFlorence-Lauderdale Public LibraryWayne Haggard and Shannon Haggard2007-11-19sound; textaudio/mp3; text/pdfEnglishIs part of the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library CollectionContact the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library for permission to useFlorence- Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Wayne Haggard and Shannon Haggard
November 19, 2007
Waterloo, Alabama
Conducted by Patti Hannah and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 8 of 11
Patti Hannah: Oh what do they do with the mussels?
Shannon Haggard: Throw them away.
PH: Throw them away.
SH: Some of these, if there’s a hog farmer close by, once they cook the meat out it may be you know six inch on a big shell, six inch round we’ll say and once it , they cook it out it may be only two, two and half inches round.
Wayne Haggard: The meat, the meat is.
PH: Yeah.
SH: It’s cooked so to speak, but sometimes they give it away to some hog farmers or ah.
PH: Well what about, have you had any unusual experiences?
WH: I, I was crawling around over there in Bear Creek one time and uh, it was a ditch went off down, you know, you could tell it was heading somewhere in deep water, but I have never seen so many big shells. That’s where the, our big shells come from, in Bear Creek. Well, I got to picking those big shells up and I crawled going down this ditch and it got real dark and I tried to look up but my head hit a it was an old net that was hung in stumps across it. It was just like a bridge. And I had to back out about thirty feet. I had to crawl down this ditch and I was finding money you might say! [ laughter] But just use common sense and you’ll be all right.
PH: Right.
WH: Just ain’t like. And as far as unusual experiences, ever once in a while you’ll get in touch with a big catfish or you know something like that but it’s awful quiet, all you can hear is a few bubbles. [ laughter]
PH: What about you? SH: Well, I guess uh, we’ve run into all kind of situations. I guess the most unusual experience happened last summer. There’s about a ten- foot alligator laying on the bank and me and my buddy, we had to get dressed and jump in with him. Diving on the Alabama River, and uh it was on, uh, it’s about thirty miles upriver from Mobile Bay. And so, and there was some bull sharks in there, too. It’s the most aggressive shark there is and uh, anyway, we had to get dressed and go down with them. And log jams, it’s thirty- foot deep, with a light you could, probably you couldn’t see five or six inches in front of your face. You ‘ s basically feeling for the shells. There’s a lot of shells there, we made a lot of money but it’s just uh, uh, it was just a hair- raising experience you know.
Rhonda Haygood: Do you have to have a special license to do this job?
SH: To do the musseling?
PH: Un huh.
RH: Un huh .
SH: Un huh. It used to be sixteen dollars and fifty cents and it jumped to two hundred and fifty- one dollars.
SH: And this was uh,
RH: Is that per year?
PH: Per year?
SH: They went up when the mussel boom hit, so to speak. It’s about three hundred, around this area there’s probably about three hundred, maybe three hundred and fifty people that came in all at once. But, uh, that’s when they upped the license. I guess. Which, which, a lot of people quit after that you know.
PH: All right, about how many people do it around this area?
SH: Umm, there’s probably about fifteen divers left right now. You know, diving took a, a, of course since such a quantity of shells over there, it’s flooded the market so to speak. And then, uh, shell diving was declining a little bit there and then about ten years ago they had what, over in Japan they had what they call a red, red tide. It’s where a really bad typhoon come through and stirred the pollution off the ocean floor, which killed the oysters, which they, the oysters they implant the bead in that they cut from our shells. But, ah so, they had the oysters dying and China was having a, China was having economy problems you know so and the diving just, just, the diving just nosed off there. It’s steady been climbing back up.
WH: See it turn green. Put it next to your clothes and see it change colors.
PH: Yes.
WH: [ inaudible] PH: Oh how neat. It changes colors.
SH: [ inaudible]
RH: Oh, wow.
WH: Yeah, that’s a fresh water, that come out of a washboard. See, it’s flat on the bottom?
PH: Un huh.
WH: They called it a turtle- back. They put the flat bottom down and put the pearly part out. I found that one in a shell in 1985 I guess. We used to cook all of our shells out. And it got to where they bought them, we call green or live you know. But we used to get a barrel, we used fifty- five gallon drums, barrels, we’d get a barrel full, about twelve uh five gallon bucketsful and we’d sit there and we’d call the neighbors and we’d call my mother and daddy and her mother and daddy and we’d all sit there and we’d pick the meat out and we’d go through them and look for the pearls. And sort of like a family outing you might say. What it is, they get a piece of sand in there, a little rock in there and that sand goes to irritating them, well they’ll go to putting that it’s called nacre— the shinny stuff— they’ll go to putting that stuff on it and the longer it stays in there, the bigger it gets.
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