Carol Jean Holland Grisham (A)
(4:26) Carol Jean Holland Grisham discusses her summers spent growing up on the banks of the Tennessee River. 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 a...
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| Format: | Electronic |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library
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| Online Access: | https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/oral_hist/id/224 |
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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 Carol Jean Holland Grisham (A) Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Oral histories -- audios and transcripts Domestic life; Tennessee River |
| description |
(4:26) Carol Jean Holland Grisham discusses her summers spent growing up on the banks of the Tennessee River. 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 Carol Jean Holland Grisham
March 4 2008
Cherokee, Alabama
Conducted by Freda Dailey
CLIP 1
FREDA DAILEY: We’re in Cherokee, Alabama this afternoon with Carol Jean Holland Grisham and we are going to talk about her growing- up years and what she remembers about her dad, her family, and especially on the river.
CAROL GRISHAM: Well, we spent most of the summers, well when the first dove hollered we’d go to the river because Daddy fished for a living then and did mussels. And there was no road down to the river where, where we lived. There was a dirt road off of Willingham Hill Road. It was gravel to what, to who we called a Big Man Willingham. But at Big Man’s house that was the end of the road that was graveled and the rest of it was just dirt road. And Daddy would each spring cut out the bushes so he could get through there with his what he called his “ skeeter . It was an old cut- down car really is what it was. And we would go to the river and he would put up tents, too. I was so afraid of snakes , I always had to have one with a, that had a bottom in it. And he and mother slept in one tent and my sister and brother and I slept in the other. And the river was our bathtub.
FD: You used the bushes.
CG: Yes, we didn’t have water and electricity at home. I didn’t have electricity until, gosh it was probably, well it was ‘ 48 or ‘ 49. Didn’t have a bathroom until, gosh, it was probably ‘ 50. I know it was ‘ 50. And the water was sulfur at that. And it was terrible, like rotten eggs. But anyhow, back to the river. We had a bar of lye soap, that mother, well, we made it. We’d get a bar of soap and dive in the river and that’s where we bathed. So, we swam and these children, or these kids now that have these fancy surfboards and all, Daddy made us an old surfboard out of just really slabs and an old rope and that was our surfboard.
FD: And did he have a boat?
CG: Yes, Daddy had a boat. First he had just a little old flat, uh, bed boat that he fished. He put out trot lines. I don’t know whether folks now do that but, he’d have maybe if it was what he called a short line would be about 50 hooks on it. Do you know what a trot line is?
FD: I do, but other’s might not.
CG: Okay, it’s a line with hooks on it, on about a twelve inch string, I mean about ever twelve inches apart and it was about, of course that would be 50 feet. But then, you, he anchored it at the end and pulled it under the water and it floated under the water. I don’t really know how deep. He controlled that with jugs. And he peddled his fish out of an old box that he built that was right at the edge of the river. People came, and then on Saturday’s he always took his, what fish he had left into town and sold them. They were really cheap, just really cheap I’ve forgotten. But anyhow, that how he fed us.
FD: Various kinds?
CG: Mostly catfish. Now he did sell some carps, but mostly the black folks bought the carps, they liked them. So those he would keep separate, but mostly catfish. And he caught, I’ve got a picture of him somewhere or Pricilla has, he caught one that weighed, that was humongous.
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Carol Jean Holland Grisham (A)Domestic life; Tennessee River(4:26) Carol Jean Holland Grisham discusses her summers spent growing up on the banks of the Tennessee River. 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 LibraryCarol Jean Holland Grisham; Freda Dailey2008-03-04sound; 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 Carol Jean Holland Grisham
March 4 2008
Cherokee, Alabama
Conducted by Freda Dailey
CLIP 1
FREDA DAILEY: We’re in Cherokee, Alabama this afternoon with Carol Jean Holland Grisham and we are going to talk about her growing- up years and what she remembers about her dad, her family, and especially on the river.
CAROL GRISHAM: Well, we spent most of the summers, well when the first dove hollered we’d go to the river because Daddy fished for a living then and did mussels. And there was no road down to the river where, where we lived. There was a dirt road off of Willingham Hill Road. It was gravel to what, to who we called a Big Man Willingham. But at Big Man’s house that was the end of the road that was graveled and the rest of it was just dirt road. And Daddy would each spring cut out the bushes so he could get through there with his what he called his “ skeeter . It was an old cut- down car really is what it was. And we would go to the river and he would put up tents, too. I was so afraid of snakes , I always had to have one with a, that had a bottom in it. And he and mother slept in one tent and my sister and brother and I slept in the other. And the river was our bathtub.
FD: You used the bushes.
CG: Yes, we didn’t have water and electricity at home. I didn’t have electricity until, gosh it was probably, well it was ‘ 48 or ‘ 49. Didn’t have a bathroom until, gosh, it was probably ‘ 50. I know it was ‘ 50. And the water was sulfur at that. And it was terrible, like rotten eggs. But anyhow, back to the river. We had a bar of lye soap, that mother, well, we made it. We’d get a bar of soap and dive in the river and that’s where we bathed. So, we swam and these children, or these kids now that have these fancy surfboards and all, Daddy made us an old surfboard out of just really slabs and an old rope and that was our surfboard.
FD: And did he have a boat?
CG: Yes, Daddy had a boat. First he had just a little old flat, uh, bed boat that he fished. He put out trot lines. I don’t know whether folks now do that but, he’d have maybe if it was what he called a short line would be about 50 hooks on it. Do you know what a trot line is?
FD: I do, but other’s might not.
CG: Okay, it’s a line with hooks on it, on about a twelve inch string, I mean about ever twelve inches apart and it was about, of course that would be 50 feet. But then, you, he anchored it at the end and pulled it under the water and it floated under the water. I don’t really know how deep. He controlled that with jugs. And he peddled his fish out of an old box that he built that was right at the edge of the river. People came, and then on Saturday’s he always took his, what fish he had left into town and sold them. They were really cheap, just really cheap I’ve forgotten. But anyhow, that how he fed us.
FD: Various kinds?
CG: Mostly catfish. Now he did sell some carps, but mostly the black folks bought the carps, they liked them. So those he would keep separate, but mostly catfish. And he caught, I’ve got a picture of him somewhere or Pricilla has, he caught one that weighed, that was humongous.
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Carol Jean Holland Grisham (A) |
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Carol Jean Holland Grisham (A) |
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Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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