Wayne Haggard and Shannon Haggard (K)
(4:49) The Haggards discuss diving equipment, water conditions of the Tennessee River, the man-made canal that runs from Waterloo to Muscle Shoals and the cost of the license to harvest mussels. This interview was conducted as part of a joint project of the Music Preservation Society and the Flore...
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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 (K) Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Oral histories -- audios and transcripts Diving; Canals ; Tennessee River |
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(4:49) The Haggards discuss diving equipment, water conditions of the Tennessee River, the man-made canal that runs from Waterloo to Muscle Shoals and the cost of the license to harvest mussels. 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 11 of 11
Shannon Haggard: Did you tell them about the ah the lead belt?
Wayne Haggard: No, not really.
SH: When it’s winter time, we have to use, uh, uh, I use about seventy pounds in the winter time, to hold you down on the bottom.
WH: [ inaudible] I think I use thirty- eight.
SH: That’s the summer time but not wearing no neoprene just street clothing.
WH: Yeah, we have to wear the,[ hits belt] that to keep us down, you know, crawl around on just, you need just enough to keep you about what your weight is standing on bottom down there. If you don’t wear that, you’ll just [ sound effect] float up.
SH: Float up.
Patti Hannah: Hum.
WH: I’ve never found a shell floating. [ laughter]
WH: Them boys go out there, the younger ones, when he first started and he come back with a, a suntan or blistered you know. I said you ain’t a going to get no shells if you get blistered cause you on top. [ laugher]
PH: Oh, no.
WH: But it’s, it’s a lot of fun. You ought to try it. You’re, you’re actually, I dove in Bear Creek for five years and I hadn’t seen the bottom yet. Like I say, it’s, it’s a junk yard over there. But it’s also dingy, muddy, this and that and the other. You can’t see, well you have to hold your hand right there to see it. And if you’re on the bottom see, you’re this far from it. It’s muddy, nasty you might say, but that’s just, just the way it is. They don’t have enough flow to wash that stuff out.
Rhonda Haygood: So does it get clearer as you go lower, because like when I look at the Tennessee. SH: It’s clearer in the winter time.
RH: Okay, in the Tennessee River it looks like it’s just muddy.
PH: Tennessee River.
SH: It’s pretty much the same all the way down. Say if you’re in twenty foot of water, if it’s dingy on top, it’ll be dingy on the bottom. It just gets—
WH: Darker.
SH: — it gets darker and harder to see. That’s why we got the lights, you know. But ah, yeah the darkness takes over once you get so far down. It makes it harder to see.
WH: We got places we dive like, you’re, you’re familiar with the old canal, the man- made canal that goes from Waterloo to Muscle Shoals? Used to be the only way they had to you know, they used mules to pull the rafts when they first started. Or their, I guess it would be small tug boats. I don’t know what they was made out of but that, that man- made canal, it comes down, flattens out here. And that’s where they used mules to pull them things up the river. What they pulled them with. And, uh, that starts here at Waterloo and goes plum up to Muscle Shoals. But up there along Wrights, there’s a big rock bluff that comes down and it’s a man- made wall down there. It’s about three foot wide and you can get up on top of it and you can just walk as far as you want to walk. But it’s made out of concrete and rocks.
RH: Oh.
WH: And that’s a place, you know, where they didn’t have the option to dig, dig it out. It was too deep there so they had to build a wall up in order to have the canal. And you get on up there, it’s its pretty deep holes here and yonder. But I prefer, like I say, I’ve got thirty feet of hose and uh once I get to the end of it, that’s it. Safe up to that. And I even went to, as far as, I took diving lessons or I got me a card you know to certify and I don’t know of anybody, I don’t know of anybody else that’s got one, do you?
SH: I got one.
WH: You got one?
SH: I’ve got one. I’m certified.
SH: You don’t have to have license.
PH: Oh, You don’t have to have a certified license?
WH: No.
SH: You don’t have to be certified to dive, mussel dive. PH: Okay.
WH: And our, and our, one thing I might mention is our license. We have to buy a license to harvest our shells and when we first started they were sixteen dollars and stayed that way for ten years. And then all of a sudden somebody in Montgomery voted and they are two hundred and fifty- one dollars right now.
PH: Is that good for a year or?
WH: Yeah, good for one year
SH: We buy the Tennessee license and that, how much was that? I think it was a thousand dollars.
WH: Yeah, you did, I didn’t.
SH: Yeah, last summer because of the shell kill up here we went down right below Pickwick Dam and dove some down there. Right above Pickwick Dam and below it was ah, their, their out- of- state or non- resident license is a thousand dollars.
PH: Whoo, How much is their resident’s? Do you know?
SH: Ah, I really don’t know. I think, I think it’s right around two hundred and fifty, kinda like our residents.
PH: Yeah.
SH: I think that’s right.
PH: Oh, my goodness. Oh well, this has been so fascinating.
RH: All righty, Yes, it has.
PH: It has.
WH: Yeah, that thing’s smoking. Turn it off.
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Wayne Haggard and Shannon Haggard (K) |
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Wayne Haggard and Shannon Haggard (K) |
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Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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FLCPLoral_hist223 |
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https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/oral_hist/id/223 |
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http://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getthumbnail/collection/oral_hist/id/223 |
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1782468788587855872 |
| spelling |
Wayne Haggard and Shannon Haggard (K)Diving; Canals ; Tennessee River(4:49) The Haggards discuss diving equipment, water conditions of the Tennessee River, the man-made canal that runs from Waterloo to Muscle Shoals and the cost of the license to harvest mussels. 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 11 of 11
Shannon Haggard: Did you tell them about the ah the lead belt?
Wayne Haggard: No, not really.
SH: When it’s winter time, we have to use, uh, uh, I use about seventy pounds in the winter time, to hold you down on the bottom.
WH: [ inaudible] I think I use thirty- eight.
SH: That’s the summer time but not wearing no neoprene just street clothing.
WH: Yeah, we have to wear the,[ hits belt] that to keep us down, you know, crawl around on just, you need just enough to keep you about what your weight is standing on bottom down there. If you don’t wear that, you’ll just [ sound effect] float up.
SH: Float up.
Patti Hannah: Hum.
WH: I’ve never found a shell floating. [ laughter]
WH: Them boys go out there, the younger ones, when he first started and he come back with a, a suntan or blistered you know. I said you ain’t a going to get no shells if you get blistered cause you on top. [ laugher]
PH: Oh, no.
WH: But it’s, it’s a lot of fun. You ought to try it. You’re, you’re actually, I dove in Bear Creek for five years and I hadn’t seen the bottom yet. Like I say, it’s, it’s a junk yard over there. But it’s also dingy, muddy, this and that and the other. You can’t see, well you have to hold your hand right there to see it. And if you’re on the bottom see, you’re this far from it. It’s muddy, nasty you might say, but that’s just, just the way it is. They don’t have enough flow to wash that stuff out.
Rhonda Haygood: So does it get clearer as you go lower, because like when I look at the Tennessee. SH: It’s clearer in the winter time.
RH: Okay, in the Tennessee River it looks like it’s just muddy.
PH: Tennessee River.
SH: It’s pretty much the same all the way down. Say if you’re in twenty foot of water, if it’s dingy on top, it’ll be dingy on the bottom. It just gets—
WH: Darker.
SH: — it gets darker and harder to see. That’s why we got the lights, you know. But ah, yeah the darkness takes over once you get so far down. It makes it harder to see.
WH: We got places we dive like, you’re, you’re familiar with the old canal, the man- made canal that goes from Waterloo to Muscle Shoals? Used to be the only way they had to you know, they used mules to pull the rafts when they first started. Or their, I guess it would be small tug boats. I don’t know what they was made out of but that, that man- made canal, it comes down, flattens out here. And that’s where they used mules to pull them things up the river. What they pulled them with. And, uh, that starts here at Waterloo and goes plum up to Muscle Shoals. But up there along Wrights, there’s a big rock bluff that comes down and it’s a man- made wall down there. It’s about three foot wide and you can get up on top of it and you can just walk as far as you want to walk. But it’s made out of concrete and rocks.
RH: Oh.
WH: And that’s a place, you know, where they didn’t have the option to dig, dig it out. It was too deep there so they had to build a wall up in order to have the canal. And you get on up there, it’s its pretty deep holes here and yonder. But I prefer, like I say, I’ve got thirty feet of hose and uh once I get to the end of it, that’s it. Safe up to that. And I even went to, as far as, I took diving lessons or I got me a card you know to certify and I don’t know of anybody, I don’t know of anybody else that’s got one, do you?
SH: I got one.
WH: You got one?
SH: I’ve got one. I’m certified.
SH: You don’t have to have license.
PH: Oh, You don’t have to have a certified license?
WH: No.
SH: You don’t have to be certified to dive, mussel dive. PH: Okay.
WH: And our, and our, one thing I might mention is our license. We have to buy a license to harvest our shells and when we first started they were sixteen dollars and stayed that way for ten years. And then all of a sudden somebody in Montgomery voted and they are two hundred and fifty- one dollars right now.
PH: Is that good for a year or?
WH: Yeah, good for one year
SH: We buy the Tennessee license and that, how much was that? I think it was a thousand dollars.
WH: Yeah, you did, I didn’t.
SH: Yeah, last summer because of the shell kill up here we went down right below Pickwick Dam and dove some down there. Right above Pickwick Dam and below it was ah, their, their out- of- state or non- resident license is a thousand dollars.
PH: Whoo, How much is their resident’s? Do you know?
SH: Ah, I really don’t know. I think, I think it’s right around two hundred and fifty, kinda like our residents.
PH: Yeah.
SH: I think that’s right.
PH: Oh, my goodness. Oh well, this has been so fascinating.
RH: All righty, Yes, it has.
PH: It has.
WH: Yeah, that thing’s smoking. Turn it off.
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