| Summary: | (8:57) Ms. Sharp describes her experience the night her mother had a baby.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Artie Sharp
September 20, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Rhonda Haygood and Patti Hannah
(Also present are: Lee Freeman and Mrs. Sharp’s son, Jack Sharp)
Clip 10
Artie Sharp: Have I got time to tell you about my, I didn’t know where babies come from? It’s not a dirty story. It’s not a dirty story. Anyway, my mama got so big with my little brother and I’m twelve years old and I kept watching Mama get bigger and bigger. And we had, she had another baby and I was rocking this baby and Mama’s out sweeping the yard and she looked to me like she was as wide as she was tall. She had big pones on her hip and her stomach hanging a way off down here. And her brother had come over there one day to visit Mama and she was in the kitchen cooking and he went in and he said, “Pearl, for God’s sake. What’s the matter? Is it gonna be a horse? What’s it gonna be, a horse?” I didn’t know what they was talking about. And Mama said, “Oh, shut up. Get out of here and shut up.” And we wasn’t allowed to say nothing about, you know we didn’t know, people told us they brought babies in black bags and some may sprinkle sugar on stumps and they slipped up to lick the stump and we grabbed them and brought them home and, and all that ol’ stuff. And one woman told us that there’s a big bird comes over and it’s got a baby in the blanket and said it’s tied up in there and it come by your mama’s house and it’ll drop that baby every so often. Well, we’d get out and look in the sky for a big ol’ bird to come over to bring a baby. And so we’d look—my brothers and me, too, we didn’t know where babies come from. And so, Mama kept getting big and big and I’d get bored sitting around the house and I’d say,—my grandma just lived over in the big holler from me—“Mama let me go over at Grandma’s and stay a while.” I just loved her. And she’d always give us butter biscuit or meat and biscuit or something to eat when we’d get there. We was always hungry. “Mama, let, let me go to Grandma’s.” “Well, you’re not going.” And it was a hot summer day, you know. Sun was shining and everything. “Can’t I go to Grandma’s, Mama?” “No, you’re not going to Grandma’s. You got to stay here. You got to go to the spring. You got to carry water. You got to scrub the floor. You’ve got to take care of this baby.” Well anyway, when I said that to Mama, I was so puzzled. I’d look at her and I’m sitting in the door and looking and I’m like, ‘My God. What’s the matter with Mama?’ I got up. I took the baby I was holding and I walked out there and I said, “Mama, what’s the matter with you?” I said, “You just about as wide as you are tall, long.” I said, “What’s the matter with your belly?” And Mama turned around and she let me have it backhanded. I’m standing behind her, kindly, and she hit me right in the face with that forearm and hand and knocked me clear back to the steps where I was sitting. About broke my neck. And scr—, scratched me up. And I was trying to get up and knocked the baby a way over there. And I got up, went back over, she’s hard of hearing you, had to scream at her to get her to hear you. “Mama what did I do? What did I say? I didn’t do nothing. Why did you hit me?” And she said, “If you ever say anything else to me like that again, I’ll beat you to death.” I said, “Well Mama, what did I say? All I said, ‘What was the matter with you? You ‘bout as big as you—‘bout as wide as you are long.’ I don’t understand what’s the matter with you.” I was afraid Mama’s gonna die, you know, and leave me there with all them kids to cook for. And so, I shut my mouth. I didn’t say nothing else. Well, one night it come up a bad, bad storm. I mean a storm out of this world. And it just pouring the rain, thundering and lightning and Daddy come in there and said, “Get up and get your clothes on, Artie. Get them kids ready. We’re going to Grandma’s.” And I said, “Going to Grandma’s? It’s coming up a storm, Daddy.” And he said, “I know that, but we got to go to Grandma’s.” Now we got to go down a steep hill. If you turned this trailer upside down twice it’d be taller than that and that steep and we got to go down rock steps to get down to Grandma’s house. And, “Daddy, what do we have to go to Grandma’s? It’s raining, it’s storming.” Mama’s in there saying, “Hurry, honey, hurry. Hurry, honey. Come on and hurry. I can’t wait much longer.” Well I go in there and, “Mama what’s the matter? What’s wrong, Mama?” “Get away from here and shut up. Don’t, don’t bother me.” She’s walking the floor. Daddy said, “Get on some clothes. Get them kids dressed. We’re going to Grandma’s.” Well, I was just so puzzled. I’s mad at everybody. “Well, Daddy, we can’t, we’ll get soaking wet. Mama always said don’t get out in the rain and it coming up a storm, lightning’ll strike you. I said, “Well, we’re liable to get struck by lightning.” “Well come on we ain’t got time to worry about it. Let’s go to Grandma’s.” And we go downhill, uphill, oh, it’s awful. That was five kids. And we got to take them to Grandma’s at midnight. And I’m crying. Nobody’d tell me nothing. We got over there and I just hated Grandpa. And we got over there and as soon as we got there Daddy told Grandma, got her up, knocked on the door and said, “Get up.” Said, “Come on, you got to go back to the house with me.” Well, Grandma knew what it was. They was looking Mama to have her baby, see. And Grandma said, told me she said, “Go on in there and put the kids to bed. I’m going to your house.” “Grandma, what are you going to my house for? I come over here to visit you.” “But I got to go to Mammy’s house, your mammy’s house.” “Grandma don’t go off and leave me. I don’t like Grandpa. I just hate him.” “Well, you got to, you got to stay all night and I’m going back to your house.” Well here I was, all them little sisters and one brother and all and I’m crying and Daddy and Grandma have gone up the hill. Oh, what in the world. Well, it rained all night long and stormed all night. And I stayed awake all night. Okay, daylight come. It’s still raining and looked and seen Grandma. I kept watching for them. There come Daddy and Grandma walking. And I run out to meet Daddy. I was anxious to see him. I didn’t think about Mama having no baby or nothing. And, ah, got out there and he said, “Come on. You got to go to the house. You got a pretty little brother over there.” “What? A brother?” “Yeah, you got a little brother.” He went on; he had to rush back to Mama. I brought the kids and climbed hills and got up there and I was running and asking, “Where’d I get a brother?” “You got a little brother.” We, just little girls and said, “My God.” Got over there and I run in, you know and Mama’s in the bed. Daddy went ahead and pulled the cover back. I smelled medicine when I walked in and I said, “What is that?” It was Lysol, but you know that was a disinfectant. And the doctor’d been there, you know, and delivered the baby and washed up everything with Lysol. Went on in and I had the little girl on my hip and I run on in and Daddy throwed the cover back and he said, “Take a look at your little brother.” Little ol’ fat baby boy laying there in the bed. And I looked at it and I looked at Daddy, “Well Daddy, where’d it come from? Where did Mama get a baby?” “The doctor come last night and brought it in a black bag.” Well I believed him. And I went on about my business, you know. He said, “Get in the kitchen and start cooking.” And I said, “Well Daddy, why would a doctor bring a baby in a black bag and last night and it storming like that?” “Never mind. You just go on and cook breakfast.” I was used to cooking. And so anyway, I went on and I’d look at Mama, I looked and she didn’t have that big ol’ stomach. Daddy throwed the cover way back where I could see the baby. It was nursing. And I said, “Mama, where’d you get that baby. Mama, what happened to your belly? Where’s that big ol’ belly you used to have? You don’t have it no more.” And she said, “Shut your mouth and get in the kitchen and start cooking breakfast.” That’s all the explanation I got. And I didn’t know no better till I grew up and learned better. I just went on and took care of the baby and I thought he come in a black bag and I was perfectly satisfied, you know. But, I learned the hard way.
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