| Summary: | (5:21) Carol Jean Holland Grisham discusses river activities such as fishing and cooking fish, mussel harvesting, and swimming in the 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 2
CAROL GRISHAM: It was close to 100 pounds, it was a humongous fish, just really, really big.
FREDA DAILEY: And did y’all eat it or sell it?
CG: He cut steaks. I can’t eat fish, lived on the river all my life and can’t eat fish. I was the only one that was allergic to fish. I eat all the condiments. Daddy fried fish for I guess about everybody in Tuscumbia and Sheffield, too. They never knew, never knew how many people they were going to feed. And they say it was awfully good, I don’t know. He would start frying fish and this one would come down there and another one would come there and they’d go into town and tell that Daddy was frying fish and before you knew it you’d have a whole flock of folks there.
FD: Come after it.
CG: Uh huh.
FD: What did he cook them in?
CG: Cooked them in lard, back then.
FD: In a pot?
CG: In a great big ole pot. And he was the only person I ever knew did hushpuppies, not round, he had a little board that he put his hushpuppy mix on, of course it wasn’t any mix it was something he made up himself. And he’d lay it out on this board, and then he’d take a spatula and just cut it off. And they were about the size of your finger. They were delicious, they really were. But that’s and Mother would make them. She would drop them in by the spoonful, but Daddy, that was Daddy’s
FD: method, huh?
CG: Uh- huh.
FD: You said something one time about mussels and I wanted you to go back to that and how he did it and what he did with them when he got them.
CG: Well, it was some sort of contraption that he made. The ones that they use now you know are fine and that’s what they’re made for. But Daddy’s were home- made and there were on both sides of his boat. And his boat was, it was one that he made, that was wide. They had tentacles on it some sort of metal wires or something, I was too young
FD: Hooks?
CG: Yeah, and he let down to the bottom of the river and drag and then pull them up. And then when he got all that the boat would hold he’d come in. And if they were, if he was in a good place, he’d go back before he opened them and get another load.
FD: Just pile those on the bank?
CG: Oh, yeah, he’d pile them on the bank. And then when he got a bunch he would open them up and the smell was awful, it really was, it was terrible.
FD: What did you do with the meat that was inside?
CG: He’d just do away with that.
FD: He was just after the shell?
CG: He’s after the shells because he had, I don’t, it was some company, some button company or some man that bought the shells for them. And every now and again he’d find a pearl. Every now and again he would.
FD: Got any?
CG: No. Beth might have one, might have one. But, and Mother had some but I don’t know. Mother probably gave them away, more than likely did. But they were different colored. Some of them were pink the inside, some of them were pink and some of them were light blue, very pretty. And some of them were white. But used to be lots of mussels in the river, I don’t know whether there is now or not. But our recreation was swimming in the river, back and forth and back and forth. We were pretty good swimmers, all of us. And I swam the river three times. The longest I’ve ever swum in the river, was I swam it three times and started back the fourth time and Daddy made me come in.
FD: You could push yourself too far.
CG: Yeah, he thought I might push myself too far. And then he was he was particular about his boats. I took his boat one day. He knew that I was going. I told him I was going. I liked to ride the waves behind the paddle boats that came up and down through there. I got in behind one and, it was, the waves were too big and sort of swamped the boat. And Daddy’s motor was a new motor and I liked to drown because I was trying to save his motor. And he was really angry with me about it. Because, just let the motor go, take care of yourself that all he was really angry with me when I got back on the bank. And there happened to be a boy scout group from Haleyville saw what were, was happening and they came to me and helped me. I must have been probably thirteen or fourteen years old.
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