| Summary: | (4:36) Mr. Lacher talks about the decline of mussel diving in the local area and some of the diving conditions he experienced. 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 Tony Lacher
November 19, 2007
Waterloo, Alabama
Conducted by Patti Hannah and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 4 of 5
Rhonda Haygood: What do you think has influenced the decline of the mussel harvesting?
Tony Lacher: I, probably the pollution and die offs, you know. There’s, there’s a world of dead shells out there now. I figure it’s pollution that’s killing them out.
RH: There’s just not, not enough for the people to make it worth their while.
TL: Uh huh, yeah. If they hadn’t of got them out, the way it looking now, they would have died anyway, if they hadn’t have caught them out, you know. You can still find a lot of shells, but they’re just more scattered and just a lot, lot harder work than it used to be.
Patti Hannah: Yeah
TL: I would say mainly it’s the pollution was what, you know, if it wasn’t for, wasn’t for the pollution it’s just like anything else. They would replenish their selves, you know. And you could harvest enough of them, you know, to probably, you know, without destroying the species or whatever you call it.
PH: Right, yeah.
RH: Uh huh
TL: But, ah, the way it is now, I know before I even, even before I quit diving I found several beds just big shells that was just already rotted. Just deteriorated in, just had holes eat in them where they had just laid there in the water, you know. Just find whole beds of them dead.
RH: Hum
PH: Oh, my goodness.
TL: But, I didn’t find any, while I was diving, I didn’t find any new beds that was dead. But I’ve heard of some people that has since then. You know that’s died that they could still sell. In fact they had up there at Seven- Mile Island that’s the mussel refuge. And they actually opened it up there and let them, let them dive. Ah, last year, year before last? Hadn’t been too long. I can’t remember how long it’s been. But they let them dive up there to get the dead ones out that was dying, you know, to keep them from just ruining, you know. They let them dive so many days up there.
PH: Yeah RH: How long would you stay out when, when you would go out? Like during the day, what time would you go and what time would you get home?
TL: Depended on how hard I wanted to work [ laughter]. I have, I have left by six or seven o’clock in the morning and carried my dinner with me. Of course, I always carried something to eat anyway. But most of the time I’d dive until the sun went to going down and it went to getting dark in the afternoon, you know. Now one day I went, went out there when the water was muddy and I lost track of the time. And got down there and there was a bunch gathered around down there waiting for me to come in. They’s afraid something had happened to me. But the water was muddy and I just lost track of time and didn’t come up and come home. But they’s worried about me. Was a lady who lived over there where I had my boat. She called my wife [ laughter] and wanted to know if I was all right, you know. But I, I actually just sometimes I get down there by myself like that and you know, and I just sing and hum and just keep a working. And that day I just lost track of time and it got dark. Caught me out there after dark.
PH: Oh, no
TL: But I think it was about an hour after dark before I come up.
PH: Oh, no.
RH: So how did your wife like this?
TL: She didn’t, didn’t appreciate it too much [ laughter] She was worried about me. She was worried about me but-
PH: I bet she was
TL: Sometimes I put in a pretty long day.
RH: Yeah.
TL: If the wind is blowing real hard and stuff, though it, your boat pulls you so much. Some days about four or five hours wears you out there. That’s all you wanted you know. You got that boat tied to your lead belt, on that snap on the lead belt and it’s just rocking you. Them waves hitting that boat and it’ll just pull you up sideways and you trying to crawl and feel for shells and it’s, it’s very tiresome.
PH: Oh, I bet.
TL: Yeah, I usually wore about forty pounds lead weights around my waist. That is what it took to keep me down. I was pretty heavy.
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