He can't work,
couldn't pay taxes, and has lost his land.

He was paralized five months, helpless as a baby, couldn't dress
himself. An herb doctor settled at Green Grove and used herbs for tea
and poultices and cured him. The doctors and the law run him out of
there. His name was Hopkins from Popular Bluff, Missouri.

Charlie Vaden used to have rheumatism and he carried a buckeye in each
pants pocket to make the rheumatism lighter. He thought it did some
good.

He has a birthmark. Said his mother must have craved pig tails. He never
had enough pig tails to eat in his life. The butchers give them to him
when he comes to Hazen or Des Arc. He said he would "fight a circle saw
for a pig tail."

He can't remember any old songs or old tales. In fact he was too small
when his mother died (five years old).

He believes in herb medicine of all kinds but can't remember except
garlic poultice is good for neuralgia. Sassafras is a good tea, a good
blood purifier in the spring of the year.

He knows a weather sign that seldom or never falls. "Thunder in the
morning, rain before noon." "Seldom rains at night in July in Arkansas."

He has seen lots of lucky things but doesn't remember them. "It's bad
luck to carry hoes and rakes in the living house." "It's bad luck to spy
the new moon through bushes or trees."

He doesn't believe in witches, but he believes in spirits that direct
your course as long as you are good and do right. He goes to church all
the time if they have preaching. Green Grove is a Baptist church. He is
not afraid of dead people. "They can't hurt you if they are dead."

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Ellen Vaden
DeValls Bluff, Ark.
Age: 83

"I am 83 years old. My mother come from Georgia. She left all her kin.
Our owner was Dave and Luiza Johnson. They had two girls and a
boy--Meely, Colly and Tobe. My mother's aunt come to Memphis in slavery
time and come to see us. She cooked and bought herself free. The folks
what owned her hired her out till they got paid her worth. She died in
Memphis. I never heard father say where he come from or who owned him.
He lived close by somewhere.

"My mother cooked. Me and Dave Johnson's boy nursed together. When they
had company, Miss Luiza was so modest she wouldn't let Tobe have
'titty'. He would come lead my mother behind the door and pull at her
till she would take him and let him nurse. She said he would lead h