http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/behindtheveil  

 

     

 

Interview with Peter Carr

August 13, 1994 Transcript of an Interview about Life in the Jim Crow South Pawleys Island (S.C.) Interviewer: Sally Graham ID: btvct09080 Interview Number: 1008

SUGGESTED CITATION

Interview with Peter Carr (btvct09080), interviewed by Sally Graham, Pawleys Island (S.C.), August 13, 1994, Behind the Veil: Documenting African-American Life in the Jim Crow South Digital Collection, John Hope Franklin Research Center, Duke University Libraries. Behind the Veil: Documenting African-American Life in the Jim Crow South An oral history project to record and preserve the living memory of African American life during the age of legal segregation in the American South, from the 1890s to the 1950s. ORIGINAL PROJECT Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University (1993-1995)  

COLLECTION LOCATION & RESEARCH ASSISTANCE John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture

at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

The materials in this collection are made available for use in research, teaching and private study. Texts and recordings from this collection may not be used for any commercial purpose without prior permission. When use is made of these texts and recordings, it is the responsibility of the user to obtain additional permissions as necessary and to observe the stated access policy, the laws of copyright and the educational fair use guidelines.

Carr -

1

Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South Interview with Peter Carr (DOB 4/30/15) Genevieve Peterkin Pawleys Island, South Carolina August 13, 1994 Sally S. Graham Interviewer

Sally Graham: So your grandfather, he came from Brookgreen, a

plantation?

Peter Carr: Well I reckon you could call it that along then,

way back, way back.

SG: What do you call it?

PC: I call it Brookgreen Garden but it wasn't no Brookgreen

Garden then, just Brookgreen.

SG: When were you born?

PC: April 30, 1915.

SG: And where was your family then?

Carr -

2

PC: Brookgreen is all I know. Brookgreen, I reckon they

belonged to Brookgreen.

SG: For me not knowing the area, can you describe the location

of Brookgreen, how far away it is I guess from where we are

right now?

PC: How many miles it is from here to Brookgreen? I don't

know.

Genevieve Peterkin: The truth is the land starts right here at

the paved road, the road we came in. Brookgreen is to the right

as we turned left except that's just part of it. But the center

part is probably a mile down to where the garden is.

PC: Yeah, I'd say a mile I reckon or a little better.

SG: And when you were coming up what was your family doing?

Were they farming?

PC: Yeah I think so. I think they were farming, planting, what

they were planting? They were planting rice and a little corn,

sweet potatoes. That's about all I think.

Carr -

3

SG: About how many acres would you say?

PC: I have no idea.

SG: Was rice like the main, was most of the land used for rice?

PC: Yeah that was the main crop then, rice, but highland rice.

Well it was the same thing, the same rice but some growing, you

know. On Sandy Island they turned water on it and turn it off

but we didn't have that over here. Just depended on the rain

from up above.

SG: Tell me something about rice planting, when do you plant

rice?

PC: When they plant it? Got to ask her because I don't know

but I know we used to plant it. Over here too, since we moved

here but when I don't know.

GP: Rebecca grew up on Sandy Island so she would have seen it

all of her life over there.

PC: She might know when they plant it, I don't know.

SG: What were you doing as a child? Were you working in the

Carr -

4

fields?

PC: No, doing nothing. Didn't have to do nothing.

SG: What about school?

PC: Yeah, we went to Brown, Brookgreen School a little while.

SG: And what was the school like, the Brookgreen School?

PC: What it was like?

SG: Was it a one room school?hool, two room school?

PC: Yeah, one room.

SG: Can you describe it? Was it boards?

PC: Yeah, board. Board school, yeah.

SG: What was a typical day like? Like what time would you have

to get up to go to school?

PC: I believe the school used to open at nine o'clock. We

walked from here.

Carr -

5

SG: How long was the walk from here?

PC: Oh along then I'd say about thirty-five or forty-five

minutes right straight through the woods there. This was the

main road here see.

GP: Yeah, this old road was the main road. Though River Road

see, or the King's Highway?

PC: This one?

GP: Un-huh, was this River Road?

PC: No, no.

GP: The King's Highway.

PC: No, neither one.

GP: It isn't neither one?

PC: No.

GP: Well doggone, you surprised me on that. Between the two.

Carr -

6

This one fell between the two.

PC: The River Road is very...

GP: Near the river?

PC: That's right. And the King's Road was in between this road

and the River Road.

SG: So what were the subjects that you learned?

PC: In school? (Laughter) I didn't learn nothing in school.

Just was going just to be going to Brookgreen but when we went

down here to Reverend Forsyth...

GP: Oh, did you go to him?

PC: Yeah.

GP: Oh you did?

PC: Things changed then. You'd have to learn or leave.

SG: I see. So you had a choice between two schools?

Carr -

7

PC: Yeah. I went to Brookgreen School just to go there to

play.

SG: And the strict school, where was that one?

PC: Down near, what do you call it?

GP: Camp Baskerville. It was an Episcopal church school and a

black Episcopal priest came here more than fifty years ago and

he and his wife, they really were missionaries, weren't they?

PC: Un-huh.

GP: And Miss Ruby, his widow, only died about two years ago and

you know she was still teaching and she was way past eighty.

They had a wonderful school here through the years and a lot of

children went. I didn't know you went there.

PC: Yeah. You didn't play there.

GP: No.

SG: So you went to the school and decided you just didn't like

it?

Carr -

8

PC: I just quit. I just quit school and went on the farm.

SG: And how old were you when you quit school?

PC: I don't know.

SG: Were you like eight, nine or ten?

PC: I might can figure it out when I quit school. Maybe

thirteen or fourteen. Maybe, I don't know for sure.

SG: And what was your first job after you quit school and went

to work on a farm?

PC: After I went on the farm? Picking strawberries, cropped

tobacco, picked beans, do some of everything on the farm.

GP: Was that on Brookgreen?

PC: Oh no.

GP: I didn't think they'd have grown strawberries there.

PC: No, that was in Tabor City.

Carr -

9

GP: I wondered that. Tobacco didn't sound like around here.

PC: No.

SG: Where's Tabor City? Where's that? About how far away?

PC: From here? About eighty, maybe eighty miles.

SG: What county is it in, do you know?

PC: No, I don't know what county.

GP: Just over the line in North Carolina. You just leave South

Carolina.

SG: So how did you hear about this place up in Tabor City?

PC: People used to come down here to pick up hands to go there

and go to work and that's how I got into it.

SG: So did you go with friends?

PC: Yeah.

SG: You went with friends up there?

Carr -

10

PC: No, no. A friend of mine told me about it here and we went

up.

SG: How long did you stay up there, work up there?

PC: Oh, four or five years.

SG: How much money would you say you made cropping tobacco or

picking strawberries?

PC: Picking strawberries was two cents a quart.

SG: How long would it take you to pick a quart?

PC: Oh man, maybe if the strawberries were there maybe fifteen

minutes, might be fifteen minutes. But if you've got to hunt it

it'd take longer. You ain't making nothing, you're just

working. Get a plenty of work and no money.

SG: Where were you staying?

PC: Up there.

SG: On the place?

Carr -

11

PC: Yeah.

SG: And you came back to this area after like five years?

PC: Yeah after five years I came back and I went on the, first

I got a job with the man who built these roads here. A.C.

Lawrence I'd get a job with him. He's from New Bern, North

Carolina.

SG: And how long were you working with the roads?

PC: I have no idea but we built the road from, well we done

more than build roads. We built the dock to Brookgreen for the

boats to come in. You remember the boats used to come in?

GP: Un-huh.

PC: Visitors used to come in on the boats, we built that.

GP: You did?

PC: Un-huh.

SG: And where is the dock?

Carr -

12

PC: You got to go to Brookgreen and go down the steps if they

didn't tear it up. I don't know where it is now.

GP: It's still there but they have it blocked off. You can't

go out on it I don't think. But it's down behind what's the

public garden now on the Waccamaw River. I didn't know it was

built that long ago.

PC: Yeah.

SG: What kind of boats would go through?

PC: Visitors, visitors traveling.

GP: This part of the Waccamaw is the part, the inland waterway,

and yachts, even back in those days yachts came from the north

down to Florida.

SG: And when you were working the roads where were you staying?

PC: Right here. Not in this house, a house over there but that

burnt down.

SG: What's this area called?

Carr -

13

PC: Georgiaville.

SG: What about your parents, were they in this area also?

PC: Yeah Mama did but my father died before we left Brookgreen.

I don't hardly know him.

SG: Do you know his name?

PC: Yeah, Peter, Peter Carr.

SG: So you're named after your father?

PC: Un-huh.

SG: What was your mother's name?

PC: Evinda Inos.

GP: Mr. and Mrs. ( ).

PC: My last name?

GP: No, your mother's last name.

Carr -

14

PC: Evinda.

GP: And then the next name, did you say a family name there?

PC: Evinda Inos.

GP: Inos? That's a name I never heard. I never heard that

name around here.

SG: How do you spell it?

PC: I-N-O-S.

GP: Inos, I never heard that. Now I declare, that's amazing to

me to hear a family name I've never heard, you know, here.

SG: Were their families also from this area?

PC: Their family? Yeah, Brookgreen. My daddy's people were

living right here.

SG: Do you remember any of your grandparents?

PC: Yeah I remember Grandma. She used to stay right over there

Carr -

15

right across the road there a long time ago. I remember her.

SG: What kind of memories do you have?

PC: Of her? Nothing. My older sister and them used to, now if

they was here they could tell you about her because they used to

stay with her see. They had to walk from Brookgreen every

afternoon to come to stay with her and go back in the morning.

SG: So when did you start working with the gardens?

PC: I should know. Maybe I could ask ( ). Maybe he'd know

because I know Todd once put it down. But for me I couldn't

tell.

GP: Did you start when Mr. Huntington was building the gardens?

You did didn't you?

PC: No.

GP: Oh you didn't? It wasn't that early?

PC: No.

GP: But you was there when Mama was there wasn't you? Now Mama

Carr -

16

went there in 1938 and I believe you were already there when she

went there. I think you might have been. Slim Thompson and Ed,

they were there.

PC: Yeah. I just couldn't tell.

SG: What were your first jobs at the gardens?

PC: Cutting grass and cutting wood. Do some of everything.

Plant, rake, hoe.

SG: Did you do some of the carpentry work?

PC: I used to help the carpenters when they had anything to

build. I mean to repair, you know, they always sent me with

him, with Henry Jenkins sometimes. But when I went there I cut

wood. Remember we had to have enough wood to heat that house on

the beach.

GP: Oh yeah, good Lord.

PC: And we'd get out there and cut wood.

GP: It's big, Mr. Huntington built, it's like a Spanish

fortress over on the beach and every room had a fireplace.

Carr -

17

PC: Every one. There were sixty-five.

SG: Sixty-five fireplaces that you personally cut enough wood?

PC: Oh no not me, the whole crew. (Laughter)

SG: So how many people were on a crew?

PC: Oh maybe about ten or twelve I reckon.

SG: So you all worked together?

PC: Yeah, all worked together.

GP: I sure didn't know there were sixty-five fireplaces.

PC: I took time one day and counted them.

GP: I don't remember that.

PC: And we put sixty-five gallon of pent in there every year.

Mr. Huntington used to come and see we pent half this year and

the next year pent the other, every room.

Carr -

18

SG: So how often was Mr. Huntington down?

PC: He come down once a year.

SG: And when was that part of the year?

PC: In the winter. What time I couldn't tell you. But it

would be in the winter when he come.

GP: I'm sure it would be as late as October or November and

stayed until about March and leave.

PC: It was in the winter.

SG: Did you help with all the plants in the gardens?

PC: Yeah I helped with all of that, yeah.

SG: As like the, I guess eventually the head gardener decided

what plants?

PC: Well along then see we didn't have a chance to go in the

garden. They had the garden crew you see, Rubin and Ed. They

were in the garden but we didn't have time to go in there along

then. We had to stay out there and we used to rake the road in

Carr -

19

the woods out there, them old roads. People would go out there

you know and set a fire. I know because master's don't walk by

themselves. Somebody have to set it so we had to rake them old

roads.

GP: To try to keep the straw out?

PC: That's right, keep the fire from going.

SG: Was there a fire?

PC: Yeah people used to set fire one time. You don't remember

that do you?

GP: Not really, Pete, not that I thought that they were ever

set. You think they set them on purpose?

PC: I know they did now.

GP: I don't think I really remember that.

PC: You could take a match and set it down there and it would

stay right there. It'll never light itself.

GP: (Laughter) No it won't light itself. You're right about

Carr -

20

that.

PC: We had a fire one time from the River Road to 17 out there.

( ). I know what it was back there, somebody had to been

setting it.

SG: How did people put out fires back then?

PC: Had a can, can on your back and you'd pump it like that,

filled with water.

SG: Was there like a fire team of people that got together and

put it out?

PC: No, just the Brookgreen hands.

SG: Why do you think some of the fires were set?

PC: Why do I think so - I know so.

GP: Did they resent Mr. Huntington? They wouldn't have

resented him, would they? I mean they wouldn't have done it on

purpose to give him trouble.

PC: No.

Carr -

21

GP: I wouldn't think so.

PC: No not him. They might have give ( ) trouble.

GP: Oh, ( ) the manager. Now that makes sense. The man who

was manager of the gardens was never loved at all or liked. But

I think Mr. Huntington did so much for the people that I

wouldn't think they would have done that just to torment him.

PC: No. I don't think so.

GP: But yeah, I can see how that would have happened. Mr. ( )

never was loved.

SG: What he was like, the manager?

PC: What was he like? He was alright I reckon in his way. You

know the will of every man seem right you know. I'd get along

with him alright but one thing, he didn't like to pay you. But

of course a lot of that right on that is.

SG: What would he do when he didn't want to pay you?

PC: He'd give you a little something but he didn't pay you what

Carr -

22

you ought to get, you know.

SG: Did he treat all the hands the same?

PC: Yeah.

SG: And how long was he there as manager?

GP: He was the first manager and Brookgreen was open to the

public around 1930 and Captain Frank probably didn't, he

probably didn't quit until up in the 1960's and his nephew came

and took over. So we've had two ( ) and neither one was

loved. The other one is just retiring this September, the

nephew that came forward. But no, they really neither one of

them were ever liked by the black people or white people at

Brookgreen.

PC: They're all for self.

GP: The nephew, the old man Captain Frank ( ), he grew up

in Georgetown and was local but his nephew grew up in Michigan

and he had a notion that all of us southerners, black and white,

were just lazy and good for nothing. He really has had a bad

attitude toward the people.

Carr -

23

PC: I ain't seen him in a long time. You seen him?

GP: Un-uh, not lately.

PC: I ain't been down there in a little over two years.

GP: Really? You need to go back and see the gardens. You

don't have to see him.

SG: When did you leave the gardens?

PC: 1983.

GP: I can't believe it's been that long because I was at your

retirement party. I can't believe that.

PC: Yeah, I retired in 1983.

SG: What are some of the plants that are in the garden?

PC: Some of the plants in Brookgreen? I don't know, Dear.

They had so much there.

GP: Just about anything that grows in this area, native plants.

Peter, you told me when you were a young man working at

Carr -

24

Brookgreen, the older men kind of taught you about the different

roots in the woods and things.

PC: No, I wasn't working at Brookgreen then.

GP: You weren't working there then?

PC: Un-uh.

GP: I thought you were. Was that in Tabor City then?

PC: No that was on the...

GP: On the road work.

PC: On the fire line. You remember the fire line?

GP: Un-huh.

PC: Right where the side road is now was the fire line. We had

to clean that up and then I learned some of the roots.

GP: He said some of the older men would see things that they

knew were medicinal and gather them and he learned from them.

Carr -

25

SG: So what did you learn?

PC: Nothing much, just about white root and black root and red

root and prince delight and ( ) and wild salts, black root.

See them fellahs used to could find them and they'd know them

and they'd go and dig them up and I watched them see. They was

way ahead of me, you couldn't go in older people's conversations

then.

GP: Un-huh. Kato Singleton said that. He said that if the

older people were talking you couldn't butt in.

PC: No, you'd better not. Like I see these kids now, I start a

conversation with you and they'll come right in and sit right in

the middle of it.

SG: So what kind of root was the black root? What was that

for?

PC: That was for backache.

SG: How did you give it to a person with a backache?

PC: You boil it. It has a little root in the ground you see.

Some people call it rabbit tobacco. But it's got a little knot

Carr -

26

on the bottom like a sweet potato and you boil it.

GP: The life everlasting?

PC: No, it was black root.

GP: Rabbit tobacco is not life everlasting?

PC: They called that rabbit tobacco too.

GP: I thought so. But it's not the same thing you're talking

about?

PC: No.

SG: Did the rabbit tobacco have like the red part on the top?

PC: Un-uh.

SG: Kind of high off the ground. Do you know about that?

PC: Which one?

SG: The rabbit tobacco.

Carr -

27

PC: I've been in company where they've called both of them

rabbit tobacco, the black root and the life everlasting.

SG: And what does the life everlasting look like?

PC: Life everlasting, it's just a weed grow up.

GP: Is that the one that the leaves kind of curl and are silver

underneath?

PC: That's right.

GP: That's what I call rabbit tobacco.

PC: That's the life everlasting, un-huh. Leaf shiny, kind of

silver underneath.

SG: And when they were teaching you about the different roots,

that's when you were on the River Road?

PC: That's was on the fire line.

SG: The fire line?

PC: Yeah.

Carr -

28

SG: So were you making a road on the fire line?

PC: No, no just cutting a place to keep the fire from going

over.

SG: So like a fire line, fire break, so ya'll were doing that.

How old were you?

PC: How old I was, oh I couldn't tell you, Dear. I must have

been about eighteen I reckon. I reckon, I don't know.

SG: This was after you came back from North Carolina, Tabor

City?

PC: Yeah, un-huh.

SG: What about deer tongue? Like some kind of tobacco they'd

roll up and kind of smells like vanilla kind of.

PC: What do you call it deer tongue?

SG: What do you call it?

PC: I don't know what you're talking about.

Carr -

29

SG: What about four leaf tea? Did they make a four leaf tea or

queen's delight?

PC: Yeah I know queen's delight.

SG: What did that one look like?

PC: That's the things we went hunting with.

GP: I've tried to learn and Kincaid and I have walked the woods

hunting that but we haven't found any.

PC: It's kind of like that bush right there, that camellia.

The only thing the leaf is much smaller.

SG: Is it bright? Is it a bright color? Does it have like a

flower on it?

PC: It has a little flower.

SG: And what part of that do you use?

PC: The root.

Carr -

30

SG: The root? Was all the roots, do you boil them?

PC: Un-huh.

SG: What about for toothaches and things like that, what did

people use?

PC: Toothache? I know the bush that they used but I don't know

the name of it.

GP: They call it toothache bush. It's prickly and it numbs

your gums if you put it in your mouth.

PC: It's a stinking bush.

GP: Mama called it cool and easy but I don't remember what it

was named for.

PC: I don't know either but it was a stinking bush wasn't it?

GP: Un-huh.

SG: So is that what you used?

PC: They what they've got. I ain't never used it.

Carr -

31

SG: So when you were coming up was there someone in your family

that would give you teas or something like that?

PC: Yeah. My mammy. Had to drink that every morning before we

had breakfast.

SG: What kinds of things did you drink in the morning?

PC: Snake root.

SG: Snake root like black snake root.

PC: No they called it ginger but I called it snake root. We'd

have to drink that and ( ).

SG: What did it taste like? Was it bitter or did you take it

with sugar or honey?

PC: It was bitter. I tried not to drink it but I had to drink

it if I wanted to eat.

GP: Every morning?

PC: Every morning for awhile.

Carr -

32

GP: Like in the springtime?

PC: Yeah.

SG: About how old were you when she give you that? Like a

child, five or six?

PC: Something like that, yeah.

SC: What about ( )?

PC: ( ). When are you coming back down here?

SG: (Laughter) Why? Do you want me to take you in the woods?

PC: Yeah. (Laughter)

SG: I'm just here today and tomorrow.

PC: You teaching school?

SG: No, I'm a student.

PC: I wish you'd come down here in the winter.

Carr -

33

SG: Is that when you'd get the roots?

PC: Yeah, in the wintertime. You should come back this winter

if I be alive.

SG: Are you planning on checking out?

PC: No, I'm not planning on it. (Laughter)

SG: Okay.

GP: No you look too well. I don't believe you're going to do

that anytime soon. I sure hope not.

PC: You come back in the winter.

SG: Here's another one, what about ( ) root?

PC: ( ) root?

SG: Yeah.

PC: I don't know if I called it.

Carr -

34

SG: Maybe you called it something else.

PC: Maybe. ( ) that used to grow in the woods?

SG: I think so.

PC: A fellah told me to dig him up some in the field. All I'd

find is in the field, in the open field. That's not ( ), is

it? You know people have got different names for things.

SG: Right, right.

PC: That must be something else.

SG: What's the one that grows in the field, what's that one

for?

PC: That's for ( ). That the same thing?

SG: Yeah I think so. What were some of the ones that were

common that everyone used? Was there someone in the family that

would know about the different roots?

PC: In my family? No.

Carr -

35

SG: Just like the women, like your mother?

PC:PC: That's right, she's the only one. After her that

other one don't care nothing with it.

SG: When you were learning about it did you teach anybody?

PC: No. They don't want to know.

SG: What did you think about the men that showed you the

different roots?

PC: They didn't show me.

SG: They didn't show you? Well, how did you know about the

different roots like on the fire line?

PC: I'd listen at them out there talking see and I didn't ever

forget it. Some of the main roots I didn't ever forget that.

An old man told me that, me and him was coming out. We was

walking in the woods back yonder and he showed me a root. He

told me what it was good for. That's been years ago and I

didn't ever forget that root. I remember that one.

SG: Can you share that one with us?

Carr -

36

PC: No. (Laughter) No.

GP: He will tell Kincaid some he won't tell me.

SG: What about do you know what they'd give a young child for

worms or something like that?

PC: Yeah.

SG: Were there different roots for that?

PC: Yeah, what I call the ginseng weed.

GP: Oh yeah and the smell of that thing. (Laughter)

SG: How often would the child have to take it?

PC: Well, two or three doses and that's it. I had to take it.

SG: You had to take it?

PC: Yeah and that's a nasty thing but it does the work. Yes

indeed. The first time I ever tasted it I'd get it from Dr.

Flagg.

GP: Mama gave it to us and I can taste right now and almost

feel sick thinking of the smell. The smell more than the taste.

PC: It's nasty now.

SG: What about the tansy? Is that one? Maybe it's a different

Carr -

37

name.

PC: I don't know that one. I've heard the name but I don't

know.

GP: I've got some tansy in the yard, a little bit.

PC: What's it good for?

SG: I'm not sure. I've just heard about it. I don't know, I'm

asking you.

GP: I have read that if you have it it helps to keeps bugs

away, mosquitos, if you put it around your porch or something

you know. That's the only thing I know about it.

PC: I don't know. What do you call it tansy?

SG: That's what I call it. When you were coming up did your

mother have a garden or plants around the house?

PC: Herb garden? No.

SG: Any kinds of plants or flowers?

Carr -

38

PC: No flowers. Nothing but corn and sweet potatoes. I had to

go in the woods and get them.

SG: How far would you have to go?

PC: Not far, right back of the house there. For the snake root

right back there but the ( ) and life everlasting they'd grow

out in the field.

SG: And would you get those during the wintertime?

PC: Un-huh. In the Fall, you'd get the everlasting in the

Fall. Get it before the frost fall on it.

SG: Were there any that you would get during the summertime?

PC: Yeah if you'd find it. If it was something you, you could

get a hoe around. All everlasting if you need it in the summer

you could get it in the summer. But if you're going to get some

to save it'd be best to get it before the frost fall on it.

SG: How would people save it?

PC: Just let it dry up good and hang it up or put it in a bag.

Carr -

39

SG: And when you were coming up did your family have like a

smokehouse, cows and that kind of thing?

PC: No.

SG: Chickens?

PC: Yeah. Hogs.

SG: Did you ever participate in the killing of the hogs, the

hog killings?

PC: No, not along then but I did afterwards. Since I've been

to Brookgreen I used to raise hogs. You remember Sammy

McKenzie? Me and him used to kill the hogs. He was good on

that.

SG: So would ya'll come together and make a day of it?

PC: No, no.

SG: How would you do it?

PC: No, don't make a day of it. Since ya'll was here he'd have

done cleaned about three.

GP: Good Lord!

PC: It don't take long. I used to let the water boil. He said

Carr -

40

that's the wrong thing to do. Don't let the water boil.

GP: Really, just come to steaming hot?

PC: He'd drag his finger through the water.

GP: Mercy.

PC: He said don't let it boil.

GP: Well I sure didn't know that.

PC: I didn't either. He said when you let it boil that would

set the hair on the hog.

GP: Good land have mercy!

SG: Do what?

PC: Set the hair, make it tough to come off.

SG: So you scraped the hogs first?

PC: Yeah, take off their hair first.

SG: What about hunting? Did you ever do any hunting or

trapping?

PC: Hunting, yeah I did.

SG: What kind of things did you hunt?

PC: Deer. I didn't have to hunt that much.

SG: You didn't? Did you like it?

Carr -

41

PC: Yeah. Along then when I had some good choppers I used to

like deer meat. I used to go out on the fire line out there and

sit awhile and it wouldn't be long before two or three would

walk out.

SG: How would you know about the deer?

PC: Well I'd just go out there and set on the edge of the bank

until they come out from the other side see. They'd come out on

the fire line and you pick out the one you want. I'd pick out

the one I wanted and shot him.

SG: How would you choose the one you wanted?

PC: Well, there were some big ones and I don't want too big of

one, they're tough.

SG: How would you cook the meat?

PC: Cut it up and put it in the water and let it soak, salt

water and let it soak overnight. Rebecca tended to that. I

used to love it.

SG: Did you share it with other folks?

PC: Yeah. They could get all they want. I didn't want too

much of it.

SG: What other kinds of things did you kill?

Carr -

42

PC: Catch coons, set a trap. I'd set the trap and then go back

in the morning.

SG: Where would you set a trap?

PC: Right back there, right on the edge of the field down

there.

SG: Near a tree? How would you know where to set the trap?

PC: Because they traveled there. You'd see their tracks.

SG: Who taught you how to look for the tracks? I mean a coon

track as opposed to a possum track?

PC: Oh yeah you can tell the difference. I reckon me and a

fellah that used to trap on the beach. He learned me a lot of

that.

SG: Was he an older person?

PC: Yeah. Used to go on the beach. You could walk anywhere

back then. See there wasn't nothing back there but alligators

and snakes. So we used to go over there and set traps. We'd

catch foxes, possums, or coons.

GP: Did people eat fox?

PC: Did I eat fox? Yeah.

GP: I didn't know they ever eat fox.

Carr -

43

PC: Yeah I tasted it one time. This old man that used to live

up there, somebody cooked him some and he told me what it was

and told me to taste it and I did. It tasted good but that was

the first and the last.

GP: Daddy never shot those.

SG: How did they cook a fox?

PC: How did they cook it? I don't know.

SG: What would they serve with it? Would there be like sweet

potatoes?

PC: I don't know. Someone give this old man a piece and he let

me taste it.

SG: So it didn't convert you to being a fox meat eater?

PC: I didn't never catch one. This other fellah used to catch

it but my trap would always have a coon or a possum.

SG: What would you put in the trap?

PC: Nothing.

SG: Can you describe a trap?

PC: Steal trap.

SG: Did you make them?

PC: No. You've never seen one?

Carr -

44

SG: I've just seen different kinds. I was just curious if you

made yours.

PC: They'd come together like that and a spring on each end.

Push it down and then it would gap open. Then they've got a

lift ( ) in the middle. I'll show it to you before you left

if you want to see it.

SG: You still got your traps?

PC: Yeah.

SG: Do you still trap?

PC: No, no.

SG: You just have one?

PC: Yeah I put them in the grape arbor. The possums go in

there.

GP: You do put them in there, Pete?

PC: Yeah, I caught two possums in there last year.

GP: My Lord.

End of Tape 1 - Side A

PC: ... grape off the tree but I don't have no other choice.

SG: When you were coming up did ya'll have the grape arbors

Carr -

45

back then?

PC: No, we didn't have grape arbors.

SG: About how old were you when you went out with the man that

showed you about the tracks and about the traps?

PC: I'd say about maybe ten or twelve, something like that I

reckon. I don't know.

SG: Did you sell the fur?

PC: No we didn't ever sell the fur. We'd just tear it off any

way we could just to get the meat. The only one we'd throw away

is the possum and he throwed away the fox. But the coon, that's

some good eating.

SG: How did you like it?

PC: Raccoon? That's good man, that's good. I'd rather have

that now than to have deer meat. Cut the ( ) and let her

draw, man.

SG: What do you like to eat with your coon meat?

Carr -

46

PC: What part?

SG: Or what other kinds of food did you eat?

PC: Well we ate wild turkey, duck when we could get it. Coon

and deer.

SG: Were there a lot of turkeys around here?

PC: Yeah. I didn't ever kill them but it was different ones

killing them and would bring one to me once in awhile.

SG: What about birds?

PC: No. I raised some one time and quit with that.

SG: Like a quail?

PC: Un-huh.

SG: Why did you quit raising them?

PC: They were getting too close to me, you know. When I'd open

the door they'd run to meet me.

Carr -

47

GP: Then you don't want to eat them.

PC: Yeah. I had about thirty head and I quit with it. I raise

chickens now.

SG: When Mr. Huntington came down did they hunt? When he came

down did he hunt at all?

PC: Did Mr. Huntington hunt? No. No he won't come to the

house until his chauffeur come.

SG: Was the chauffeur from around here?

PC: Yeah, Georgetown.

SG: What was his name?

PC: I didn't ever know him.

SG: What about courtship, when you met your wife? What was

courting a girl like back then?

PC: It was nice, man. Yes indeed, it was nice. I couldn't ask

for a better life.

SG: So how did you meet her if she was from Sandy Island?

PC: Meet her up at Eason's. What's his name?

GP: Eason's store.

Carr -

48

PC: Un-huh.

GP: Eason's store. It was the only general store in Murrels

Inlet for a long time.

SG: And what was she doing when you met her?

PC: What she was doing?

SG: Un-huh.

PC: She was cooking there.

SG: So you'd go there and she'd cook you meals?

PC: No. (Laughter) I'd go there til she was off. I used to

come from Tabor City to see her.

GP: Really Pete? Good land.

SG: So how would you come? How would you travel down?

PC: By car.

SG: By car?

PC: Yeah. A friend of mine, Nathan ( ), he had a car and we

Carr -

49

both used to work the same place and he used to go with a girl

up there, Emma Tillman. You know Emma.

GP: Yes.

PC: He used to go with Emma and Rebecca and Emma were friends.

GP: Well I declare. It's a wonder they ever caught ya'll if

you were off there at Tabor City. I mean that far off it's a

wonder. It's a wonder they came back.

PC: When it was time for him to come to see Emma he asked me to

ride with him one time so I did and I met her.

SG: So you met her that trip?

PC: Yeah.

( ): Excuse me. Pete, when did Mama die, 1942?

PC: Yeah.

SG: What church was your family church?

PC: Brookgreen. Brown Chapel.

Carr -

50

SG: Was that a Baptist?

PC: Un-uh, Methodist.

GP: It's United Methodist. We do have AME here but that's

United Methodist.

SG: And that was the church your family went to?

PC: Un-huh.

SG: What were your earliest memories?

PC: My earliest memory? What age I was?

SG: When you was going to church.

PC: I was going to church when I was that high I reckon.

(Laughter) Just going there. I'd just have to go.

SG: Did they sprinkle for baptism in the church?

PC: Yeah.

SG: Do they still do that?

PC: I reckon so. I don't belong there now. I belong to Mount

Zion.

SG: Is Mount Zion Baptist?

PC: Un-huh.

SG: When ya'll got married did you start at Mount Zion?

PC: Un-huh.

Carr -

51

SG: What year did you get married?

PC: What year I got married? 1939.

SG: 1939.

PC: December 23. That's before you were born. Before either

one of you were born.

SG: Many years.

GP: No, I was eleven years old when you got married.

SG: So what was your wedding like? How was that?

PC: It was just fine.

SG: Was it at home?

PC: Yeah.

SG: Who was there? Did you have a best man?

PC: No, no. We went to town. You married I reckon in the

Carr -

52

courthouse. I was too tight for knowing anything else.

(Laughter)

GP: Oh Pete, you weren't. Were you?

SG: So did you ask her father for her hand and that kind of

thing?

PC: No.

SG: How did you ask her to marry you?

PC: No I didn't ask nobody. Just told him we were going to get

married and that's all.

SG: Well it looks like it worked.

PC: Yeah that worked fine.

GP: I would say five more years and ya'll will be married sixty

years. That's a darn good record. I hope you both make it. I

believe you will.

PC: Yeah. I wish I could call some of them days back.

Carr -

53

GP: Un-huh.

PC: Could you hand me that Bible down there please? I don't

know her name.

SG: My name? Oh Tunga?

PC: Thank you ma'am. I can't find it now. She asked me when

my Mama died.

SG: Mr. Carr, what do you remember about voting when you were

old enough like maybe in your twenties or thirties?

PC: What do I remember voting? Not much. I don't know.

SG: Is that your family Bible that's on your lap?

PC: Un-huh.

SG: How long has it been yours?

PC: How long it's been mine? No, this is mine. The family

Bible burnt up. We had two houses burn down.

SG: When were these?

Carr -

54

PC: One burned down, let's see where I was working. I believe

one burned down when I was in Tabor City and the other one I was

here.

SG: You were here when the fire?

PC: When the other one burned down.

SG: So you were married by the time your house burned?

PC: Un-huh.

SG: What happened.

PC: One of the boys found a wasp nest under the eaves and he

went to get a wad of paper and put on it to burn the wasp nest.

SG: Was that a boy from the neighborhood?

PC: No, my sister's son.

SG: Did anybody back then eat alligator or snake?

PC: Snake no.

Carr -

55

SG: They ate alligator?

PC: Yeah, I ate alligator.

SG: What part of the alligator?

PC: The tail. That's good eating.

GP: I never have tried it. My brothers eat it.

PC: It's good. Better than pork chops.

SG: Where were you when you first ate the tail?

PC: First I ate the tail at Brookgreen. They killed one.

SG: Were you working at Brookgreen Gardens?

PC: Un-huh. They killed one and I asked ( ) to carry it and

put it in the refrigerator and he did and I come in and skinned

him, skinned that tail off and cut it round, make a stick out of

it and put it in salt water and soda and let it draw. Man, what

you talking about. That's some good eating.

Carr -

56

GP: That's what I've heard.

PC: Yes indeed.

SG: What months would you trap the coons?

PC: That would be in the winter, winter months.

SG: Did you ever eat coons like during the summertime?

PC: In the spring if it was a bull coon.

GP: You wouldn't get the others because they might have babies.

SG: And the same goes for possums?

PC: No I don't eat possums.

SG: You don't eat possum at all?

PC: Un-uh, no. You mother said that's the best.

GP: Did she?

PC: Said possum is better than coon but I ain't never eat it.

Carr -

57

SG: Why don't you eat possum?

PC: I don't know.

GP: Don't possums, aren't they kind of scavengers?

PC: They carry their young one in their bosom.

SG: You don't like that.

(transcribed by Cathy Mann)