most as hard as they used to be.

"I am a Christian. I belong to Shiloh Baptist Church in North Little
Rock. I helped build that church. Brother Hawkins was the pastor."

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Lillie Williams, Madison, Arkansas
Age: 69

"I was born some place down in Mississippi. My papa's papa come from
Georgia. He had a tar kiln; he cut splinters put them on it. It would
smoke blackest smoke and drip for a week. He used it to grease the hubs
of the wagons. We drunk pine tar tea for coughs. He split rails, made
boards and shingles all winter. He had a draw-knife, a mall and wedges
to use in his work. He learned that where he come from in Georgia. He
sold boards, pailings when I can recollects. Grandma made tallow candles
for everybody on our place in the fall when they killed the first
yearling. They cooked up beeswax when they robbed bees. When I was a
child I picked up pine knots for torches to quilt and knit by. We raised
everything we lived on. I pulled sage grass to cure for brooms. Grandpa
planted some broom corn and we swept the yards and lots with brooms made
out of brush.

"Grandma kept a barrel to make locust and persimmon beer in. We dried
apples and peaches all summer and put chinaberry seed 'mongst them to
keep out worms.

"If we rode to church, it was in a steer wagon (ox wagon). Our oxen
named Buck, Brandy Barley.

"Grandma raised me, two more girls, and a boy. Mama worked out. Our pa
died. Mama worked 'mongst the white folks. Grandma was old-timey. She
made our dresses to pick cotton in every summer. They was hot and
stubby. They looked pretty. We was proud of them. Mama washed and
ironed. She kept us clean, too. Grandma made us card and spin. I never
could learn to spin but I was a good knitter. I could reel. I did love
to hear it crack. That was a cut. We had a winding blade. We would fill
the quills for our grandma to weave. Grandma was mighty quiet and
particular. She come from Kenturkey. We all ploughed. I've ploughed and
ploughed.

"I had three little children to raise and now I have nine grandchildren.
I got five here now to look after when their mother is out at work. I
have worked. We farmed in 1923 up till 1931 and got this house paid out.
(Fairly good square-boxed, unpainted house--ed.)

"My mother-in-law was sold in Aberdeen, Mississippi on a tall stump. She
clem up a ladder. Her ma was at the sale and said she was awful uneasy.
But she was