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MR . & MRS • ALLEN TOWNSEND
(Note.
Q:
Here the answere are from Mrs. Townsend)
What do you first r emember about the Depression?
How did you lmow it had
starte ?
A:
Well, food always- got so high .
It looked like you didn ' t have enough money
to go cwound, I guess , and you just got the notions of things like that .
Q.
Were you not liVli:ng somewhere w
here you could make your own food?
Did you
have to but it . ?
Ai
It's been for a few years that now at first we raised our own food and , you .
know, we had our own chickens and raised our own meat like that , but then we jus t
couldn 1 t do that so we 1 d just have to have money to buy it .
to work .
I ' ve worked myself to death .
Then Allen got unable
You know, with young ' uns you just can ' t
get out to do.
Q:
Was there anything besides the high prices that you knew that the Depression
was starting?
A:
Well, I re
ot .
It was just everything, you lmow , seemed different and a
shortage of everything .
Q:
What were sane of the things that you, that were hard to get, find , or buy?
A:
Well , I just don •t lmow.
Se emed like that we didn 1 t have much of anything
or couldn ' t get much of anything or something .
Back then there just wasn ' t much
work for anybody to do and we lived in Ashe County at that time .
awfully sick
just coul
1
t
d she had double pneumonia .
.. d1y g t to the doctor .
My mother was
She was going to die and , you lmow,
At that time it was hard .
daddy worked , on a school .gym at Fleet wood and he had to walk .
He worked ,
It ' s four miles
�2
there and
our miles back .
o ' clock in the mornin
~o
That's ei
t
Ue
get there in time .
got back and he was always so give out .
a
and he had to leave at four
It was alw
after dark when he
We young ' µns woul
ork in the crops
So , we cut wood ta make hea:b
around there at hane and we had to cut firewood o
and bad to carry our own water, for a right smart ways .
They couldn ' t hardly
make enough to buy soap and Mama would make ho.memade soap ; make it in a big
kettle to wash our clothes with .
Q:
What kind of crops did you raise?
A:
W
ell, we raised about everything that they could raise .
We raised potatoes ,
corn, cabbage, and we'd make corn bread out of the corn that we raised and we ' d
make what you call himiney out of it and then we canned a lot of stuff .
we dried apples .
Then
I can remember Mama drying a pumpkin, cutting it in rings and
hanging it on sticks over the fireplace to dry.
Q:
What did she do with them .
A:
Take it and cook it .
Make pumpkin pies for us to eat and dry apples and make
dried apple pies .
Q.
So , did you have enough to eat then at this t
A:
W
ell, we had plenty to eat, I reckon, and the way we managed it , you know,
'l
had to do the same thing .
Q.
Did you have to buy anything?
Was there anything that you had to buy'l
Well, there were a lot of people that raised wheat that made their own flour ,
but we ddidn ' t raise any wheat, so we had to buy our own flour , you know, and sugar .
The salt and stuff, fix something to eat and they used to be something like
chicory that people would raise to be a plant .
It would grow in great long roots
�3
and they called it chicory and people would dry that and grind i t up and make
coffee, chicory coffee .
They call it coffee, but it really wasn ' t .
They ' d
take it and percolate, or boil it in a pot like they did all their c offee .
Bout everybody in our neighborhood would raise that and make their own coffee .
There would be a lot of young people now that never heard tell of that .
They
wouldn ' t know what I 1d be talking about and you might not .
Q:
No , I never heard of it .
fas the flour and the sugar and all that hard to
find during the Depression?
A:
Yes , it was .
Q:
Where did you get the money or how dfri you get it?
A:
Well, a lot of times we gathered herbs .
How did you buy it?
Dried herbs like cherry bark and
we 1d pull big wood leaves and skin bi g
ood bar •
thing else to do he would go out in t.
woods and mountains , you know, and cut
When Daddy couldn ' t get any-
the cherry poles and those big wood poles and the closes t one would bring them
home and he ' d chop them up into firewood lengths and we ' d burn them , skin them
in the house of the night .
dry that .
Then burn the wood part of the day and you ' d have to
Some times it would take about a week, you know, to dry the bark and
the leave •
Q.
What did urou do with it?
A:
There was a lot of sang in the mountains .
called it .
I reckon it still grows .
They called it ginseng is what they
I haven ' t seen any in a long time , but we
were always •••• Now there was something you gathered mullen and when it began to
get dry it would stick you up .
bath .
Q:
What was it?
You just had to change your clothe s and take a
�4
A:
I don't know .
It was a little old fuzz or something, you know, and it would
get on you and just itch you to death .
Q:
Was there anything that you can think of that was good about the Depression?
A:
No , I think that everything was bad .
Q:
Well, what was the worst thing about it?
A:
Well, in clothes and food you just didn't have the money to buy it with and
you really couldn 1 t get it because it ;just wasn't there .
Q:
Well , did you or your mother make, your own clothes?
A:
Mama went and made our own clothes and she didn ' t even have a sewing mach-
ine.
She had to sew
with her fingers, or maybe there would be a neighbor some-
where around that would have a sewing machine that didn 1t mind, but usually people
just didn ' t have time for a neighbor to come in, sit down , and stay all day and
sew .
So , she would sew with her fingers and make our clothes and they would
make long dresses that really took more .
so hard .
I guess that was the reason times were
It took more to make the clothes because the dresses were way down to
your feet, you know, had big collars to them .
It really took a lot of material
to make clothes , now you can take a little bit just so your legs are had in it.
Q:
Where did you get the cloth?
A:
Well, thake and but it in
have now .
the town, city.
They didn't have cloth like they
What you could get, it was awfully hard to iron .
then, you lmow.
I wonder what we did make it out of .
varieties of material, you know, like they have now .
I didn 1 t notice it
They didn't have different
A lot of people that raised
sheep would make their own wool, you know , to knit socks and sweaters and things.
Q
:
What do you think caused the Depression?
�s
A:
Well, I just. don ' t know .
Q:
Did you hear any people around blaming any certain people for the Depression1
Ai
No , I don ' t remember if they did .
He was the Republican pres dent .
A lot of people blamed Hoover, you know .
A lot of pe9ple blamed him, because I heard
them say that he had a lot of grain thrown in the ocean that the poor people
could have usedo
It would have made it more plenti'ful, you know , wheat , in the
community.
Q:
They said he threw grain in the ocean?
A:
Instead of giving it out they did that , you know, to make the prices go up .
Q:
Did they, was that true or was the just what the people used to tell?
A:
W
ell, now ! don ' t know if it was true , but that is what they all said .
They
said what made the meat prices go up , they killed a lot of the animals when they
were little .
They didn ' t have feed to feed them.
I think in something like that,
if they managed it right, try to help everybody get a start to have sanething,
because it ain ' t everybody that is poor because they want to be .
Qa
So , did the local, what were the local at titudes towards the leaders of the
government?
A:
W
ell, I just don!.t remember much about them then , because we always lived back
from anybody else and didn ' t have much .
Then young ' uns didn ' t pay any attention
to what they. . . _-_ _ •
Q:
How were the farmers, what was their situation during the Depression?
Do you
thinlc they felt any differently than the people who didn ' t farm?
A:
Yes , because if they that farmed really fared better because they didn ' t have
to buy, you know, all that stuff o It really made a difference all the way around .
�6
Give the farmer some of his money back and give the people , you lmow, something
to eat that they woul dn ' t have had .
Q:
Did you ever sell any of your crops other than the herbs that you collected?
A.
No , not too many, because we were always renters , had the farm on the shares
and usually our part, it would take it, for us to eat .
was the farm that you were on?
Q
:
How big
A:
Well , it would just be small farms that we would be on .
Sometimes it would
be about fi'fteen acres of corn , and then maybe five acres of potatoes , or something like that .
Well , by the time the owner of the land would get his share out
of i t , we wouldn ' t have too much to sell.
We usually always had same potatoes and
beans , to sell .
Q:
How did you think the tenant system worked?
A:
W
ell, you could rent a place and you ' d get house rent .
of the stuff, they ' d give you half of what you made .
If you furnished half
If you couldn't affarEl to
pay for farming equipment, they'd pay for it and you could just end it .
That's
a preetty bad thing, because you had to work a whole lot to make all that .
would taice all your time to aake it .
It
Then , however , it was havested and divided
you didn ' t get much by getting a tmird of it .
So , if ycu were a big family,
you'd have to be careful to make it go around , you know , to do until it was raised
again .
thl~
Q:
Were there very many people doing
A:
Yes , there were a lot of people doing that .
during the Depression?
SeliU!lea to me like that there just
weren ' t too many people that did own their places .
all thouMt was wealthy.
It would be sanebody that we
Maybe there would be two or three tenants on one farm .
The one that did the renting, that owned it, he really come out pretty good , having
�7
several different people .
Q:
Did he sell crops?
A:
Yes , he would sell.
Q:
Did he sell maybe part of the CI'9PS that you harvested really?
A:
Yes , and take it off, maybe to the cities , the town .
were just small and maybe one or two stores .
could take .
Back then the
to~ms
They ' d but everything that you
Then the people that didn 't have it, would come and but it fDom them o
Q:
.Ih you remember any of the work proje cts that were started?
A:
Yes , I can renember that but not until I grew up and got married .
I had t wo
twin brothers so everything was gettin pretty well organized when they got up ,
you know , old enough to work .
Do you remember any of the things that these people on projects did?
A:
I don ' t .
Q:
Were there any other efforts that were made to help recover from the Depression?
A:
I think that what came out when there wasn ' t anything mcuh .
Now what was thi s
Democratic President after Hoover? What was his name?
Q:
Roosevel.t ?
A:
Now it seemed to me like whenever he got in, things began to change .
~an
to build these buildings for schools .
to good .
They be-
That gave people jobs but it didn ' t pay
They ept on until ••• I think they just changed the nam .of it about
the same time .
That was baxk when they started it , that building the gymnasiums
and bigger schools , different room.
Now, back when I went to school , it was
just a one room school building arJI they went from the first grade to seventh .
�8
O
.:
W your father on one-. of the work programs?
as
A:
Yes, that was where he had to work to walk eight miles a day.
miles there and four miles back .
He had to leave at four o 1 clock and cane in at
I don ' t know what time it was .
dark .
It was four
He was so far away, he had to take a light
of the morning to see how to go and we live in Ashe C
omty and that was down at
Fleetwood, you know, where tmy built .
Q:
What was the nome of it where they worked?
A:
It wasn't W . A.
.P
husban
used to
e
They had that going on when I was grown and married .
My
r k on i •
?
A
t
Yes , when me and him were married and then he quit after we got married .
Q:
Was the Depression about over by then?
A:
rle~ ,
yes, pretty much, because everything got to working around until there
was a right smart of work going on and it has been ever since .
Q:
·11e11, what kind of work did you do , Mr. 'l!ownsend?
A:
On thew .
ed buil
a
A.
He worke
hospital ~.
on it some clearing the roads, you know, and he help-
That was up there in town, well, she don ' t know where it
is but they had the old one .
�9
because there were just two brothers .
They was twins so everything
was getting pretty well organized when they got up , you know , old
enough to work .
Do you remember any of the, the t hings that these proje ts, any
of the work that was done on them, wh t they did?
A:
Q:
No, I don't.
fore there any other efforts that were made to help recover
from the
A:
ression?
I think that what came out when there wasn ' t anything much , ••• ow
what was this Democratic President after H
oover?
Q:
As
Roosevelt.
T
Jhat was his name?
l oosevelt?
ow it seemed to me like whenever he got in , things began to change ,
because they began to build, these buildings for the schools, and different
schools ·
1hat gave the pe ople that didn ' t have anything much to do or
to live on, it give them a job, but it didn 't pay too good at the time
being, 1 hey kept on until. •• I think they just changed the name of it
about the same thing is going on now only they raised it up , and gave
it different names •
11
t was back when they started it, th t building
the gymnasiums and bigger schools , different rooms .
Now, back when I
went to school , it was just a one room school building and they went from
the f irst grade t o seventh.
Q:
las
your father on one of the work programs ?
A:
Y
eah, that was where he had to work or walk eight mi les a day,
I.k-
�10
was four miles there and four miles back .
Had t o leave at four o ' clock
arrl cme in at dark j I don ' t know what tbne it was ,
He was
so far
away, he had to take a light , of the morning to see how to go and we
lived in Ashe County and that was down at Fleetw ood, you know , where
they built.
Q:
lhat was the name of it where they worked?
A:
Oh .
Q:
. • p • A•?
No , wasn't ·•• P .
and married .
A.,
because they had that going on when I was grown
y husband used to work on it .
He did?
Yeah , when me and him
~as
married and then he quit after we got married .
at year did you all get marrie ?
'38 .
Q:
W the Depression about over by then?
as
vell , yes , pretty much , because everything got to working around
till there was a right smart of work a going on and it has been ever since .
Q:
· ell what kind of work did you do , M . Townsend?
r
It was •••
Q:
On the work program?
A:
On the
1• .
P . A. he worked on it some
clearing the roads , you know 1
H.e built , helped build, you worked on a hospital, , , what ever hes pi tal ,
the old one , you know, where the old hospital was?
That was , up there
in town , well , she don ' t know where it is at , but they had the old one .
�1Tt.
11
I
(Jc.
He helped work on it and some of them back •••
( ote:
r . Townsend and Jane Efird have been carrying on a
short indecipherable conversation .
Q:
It will be picked up here . )
rlhy don 1 t you tell, talk into there and tell us about working on
the
• P. A., what you remember?
(Laughter)
Q::
ow , you just talk , go ahead and just tell us then .
ou said you
worked on the roads , what di d you have to do?
A:
ell, we fixe d the roads , fiXed the roads down in places ,
places , for people to get in and out .
0
fferent
W hauled dirt and rocks and we
e
fiXed the places so people could get in and out.
Trim the roads , keep
the road , trim the road of bushes and things like that, so people could,
roads would be open .
Q:
.
.
A:
Did you work on that before you were married or after?
Yeah , I worked before I married •
( rs . ·"Townsend)
You just worked before , when we was married and
quit right after .
Q:
at did you do at the hospital, what did you say you helped build
that?
I hauled cement and brick and mortar blocks , I mean cinder blocks .
(Jane Efird speakfng to Janice Young)
during the Depression
(} rs . Townsend)
he could
If they weren 1 t married,
tell something about it .
If you could get him to talk till he'd understand,
he don't seem to remember much.
Q:
(Jane Efird speaking to Janice Y
oung)
aybe if you could let
�12
her ask him .
( Janice speaking to Mrs. Tmmsend)
You could ask him
sane questions that yav. know he would know about .
A:
(l rs . Townsend speaking to
school house at
A:
Q:
A:
You helped build that
alle Crucis didn't you?
(Mr . Townsend)
eah .
• P. A. in that?
(M . Townsend )
rs
( r . Townsend)
Q:
• Townsend)
Yeah , the •T. P . A.
Y , the
eah
•
P . ~A .
built it.
Before you got married , where you living on the farm or · with your
parents?
W
ell, we just had a garden , that' s a ll .
Q:
~ as
it hard to get food then?
I
o, it wasn't so hard .
I just staye d hane an
(lielpe ) my
folks , my daddy and mammy and my brother was all there were of us , so
me and him just stayed there and helpeJ them , looked after them .
Q:
A
:
W
hat di d your father do f or a living?
Tell , he used to work on t he railroads till after he got disabled
till he couldn 't do anything , - couldn't work .
He used to carry the mail, too , didn ' t he?
used to carry the mail.
He kindly ••• ( rs . Townsend)
(M . Townsend)
r
Yeah , he
He carried the mail for several years and he
used to work on the railroad tracks .
Q:
What did he do ?
Y mean on the railroads?
ou
Q:
A:
\
Yeah .
He ftel{)id raise til es , I mean cross ties and things like that .
�13
Q:
Bid you have enough money during the Depression?
A:
Q:
ell , we kindly
made out .
\ ere there any things that were hard to get that you needed?
A:
ell, groceries and things like that weren't as high as they are
now .
There was more and seemed like they were cheaper back then than
there was now .
Oh , we did raise mostly our own stuff from the garden
and things like , we always had corn, corn and potatoes and stuff like
that .
Always had plenty of app les and things like that to live on.
· as there anything that you needed that you had to buy?
ell , we bought some stuff
that we needed such as flour ,
and stuff like that at the store that we needed .
Q:
A:
ere did the money come from to buy the stuff that you needed ?
ell, that was when I was working for that
r.
P . A. business and
then my mother she drew a check every month .
Q:
A:
t kind of check?
County check , they give her a county check , her
and my da dy, a
county check that way every month .
Q:
That was during the Depression?
A:
Y .
eah
Q:
What did they give it for?
A:
They all got it and, they all got rations and things like that with
it .
It was kind of what they called the 01
Age Pension .
I think he is mixed up, th t was just before they died .
(M . Townsend)
rs
�14
Q:
A:
How did you get started on the
• P . A. ?
ell, I just got out there and signed up f or it to give me a job,
something, a job t o work , so I signed up .
I worked up there , I worked
up there the whole time before I was married .
Q
:
~as
it hard work?
· ell , some days it was pre tty hard and some days it wasn ' t .
I
'blilt fires whenever it was col d weather , whenever it was cold why
again they built , kept fires going, to keep warm and everything around.
The bossman always told me , give me the job always keeping fires and
things like that .
Q:
How much did you get paid ?
A:
I couldn't tell you now , how much, it has been •• •
Q:
as it enough?
A:
Huh?
Q:
W what you got paid, was it enough to buy the tllings you needed?
as
O yeah , we ma e out, I made out alright .
h,
Again , I'd get stuff
on credit at the store and then I would soon pay up.
Q:
as +,he pay enough f or
people
t o live on or not?
A:
W
ell, a lot of those ot her peopl e they had rad i os or anything, but
they always paid out, took and got groceries and stuff like that with that .
Q:
A:
D d anybody else in y CfUI' fami l y work on any of those proj ects?
i
o, nobodyA but me worked on i t .
�15
Q:
as it hard to , to get on with work programs ?
A:
o, it wasn ' t so hard to get on and I signed up , up here at Boone .
It wasn't so hard to ge t on .
Q:
A:
Q:
D d people make fun of the people who worked on work projects?
i
o, they never di d, nobody never di
say anything about it .
W
ell, were a lot of people around in your neighborhood workin g
on the project?
A:
Y , there was a lot of people around over there where I lived
eah
that worked on it .
(EN
OF PA_T III )
�16
TAPE .u2 SIDE B PA. T IV
Q:
1
1ell, like over in, I was reading a book that said over in
Kentucky, people that worked in a coal mine •••
A:
Uh, huh •••
Q:
They had it real bad, couldn't get money, couldn't ge t food .
d
you all know people like that?
A:
No .
e never di d have •••
(· rs . Tmms en ) M
ost of the people were , th at would work , a few
people around that wouldn't work , no m tter what kinds of a good job
they had to help them out and they have it pretty rough.
I 'm a having it ri ght now .
Just like
(laughter) A it h s been a couple of
nd
years that I ain ' t been able to work .
The young 'uns helps me out some .
(M . Townsend ) A while back I used to work in the furniture shop
r
down in H
ibriten .
I was down there f or a year or two .
Y
eah, Allen did work in Lenoir at Hibriten some back in
( rs . Townsend)
' 43,
he worked
at H
ibriten.
( r . Townsend)
ibriten and at G
reer's Herb
I worked down there at H
ouse, where they had herbs and things like that you know .
H
I worked
both places down there .
Q:
That was after you got married that you were working down there?
(Mrs . Townsend )
Uh, huh , because what makes me remember it, my
little girl was born while he was working down there and he ha to
stay a week at a time.
�17
Q:
Oh, you didn't live down there?
(M . Townsend)
rs
o, we lived up here and he ' d go down there on
the mail of the first of the week and then he ' d come back the next
weekend .
(He ) Stay a week at the time and I went to my sister's .
They lived over in town and I stayed when my little girl was born.
Q:
D you ever hear of anybody making moonshine during the
id
pression to pay for things ?
Io , I didn't, but I want to tell you sanething my da dy- in-law,
A
llen's father , said that his mo her , the family that she stayed with
that raised her , that they made it and that was on up above where they
lived , and Mr . Townsend said that was why he married
randmaw .
It was
to get her out of the furnace , you know, she was hel ping them make •••
Q: M
oonshine ?
:
Q:
A:
0:
Yeah .
D you remember, during the Depression, the banks closing?
o
o, I don't remember too much about that .
How were businesses affected?
D they lose trade ?
id
ell , I just can ' t tell you , ju t didn't know much about it , you
see , he ' s fifteen years older than I am .
Q:
Did a lot of people move out of the mountains during the Depression
looking f or work?
Y , they did .
es
Q
:
There was a lot of people left, trying t o find work .
D they come back or what happened to them?
id
�18
A:
ell , I don 't know , some of them after so long a time , would
come back , but they waited, I reckon , till sanething,
better and , up here where it opened up .
eems like
ot a little
~it
took
me a long time to remember , I mean, since now , seems like that I
just can't remember back too far or something .
I mean, how things
went or , about business .
Q:
D you remember any women working on any of the Federal ·brk
o
Programs?
A:
The first that I remember about
working, I don ' t remember
wh~t
women
kind it was .
It was at
; ~st
Jefferson
and , it was , now, I ' ve knmri women th t , to be work in the stores , with
merchandi se .
They went and shipped an awful lot of cattle over there
at · rest Jefferson and I don ' t kno
1
where from, I guess it was from
everywhere and they had a stockyard over there and they would kill
them and fix them, give them out, to the people that needed them,
poor people
that.
and it was a job for , some of the women, to help do
To help
to give it out or fix it up , to the ones that
needed it, it give them a job, like people would .
Q:
A:
Q:
A:
That was during the D
epression?
eah .
And it was free?
eah, it was free , to the main people that didn 't have nothing at all .
�19
Q:
· ere there a lot of people like that around?
A:
\· ell , there were several big families , maybe where the families ,
the mother wasn't able to work , well there wasn't work then for .the
women, it's the first I knew women working except , maybe once in a
while , in
st~res
or something or school teacher .
they had great big crowds an
Q:
But -
where
the man, ju t couldn't provi de for them .
•ell, di d you know people like your father who didn 't want to
take things free?
There
was
a lot of people that just wouldn't want to take
things
like that .
Q:
A:
Thy?
ell, I don' t lmow , I guess that made them feel a little bit help-
less or something .
Q:
ell, were the schools affected by the
epression?
ell , back then they didn't have any lunch rooms as I can remember,
anything to offer them at school, they ha d to take their own lunch, those
that didn't live close enou gh , that they could
to eat .
And
rtm
back in a few minutes
so , about something like that I don't remember , the parents
had to buy the books , and the paper and everything that the child used,
see they had to , just buy that and the going to school, it didn't cost
them anything but, the books and the paper , the pencils , stuff like th8t ,
the parents had to pay for it .
Q:
~ell,
do you lmo
they didn't
:
anybody that had to quit because of that , because
ve enough money?
•Jell, they couldn't quit .
They wouldn't allow them to quit .
�20
If they didn 't have it and c
ldn't afford it now I guess it
was maybe scmeway from the school , to give them paper to do
their homework on .
But, it seemed like they didn 't do as
much , as , like they do now .
'·Tere the churches affected in any my?
A:
No, I don't think that they was .
i-. ell, what were , I guess you had people talking about it ,
what were their i deas or attitudes like durine the Depression,
were
they worried about it?
es , about everybody was woITied, afnaid that they cruldn 't
get what they needed, they were going to have to do without, things
that they needed and a lot of them did do without a whole lot and I
guess about everybody did to a certain extent.
Q:
Di
they feel like maybe it wasn't going to en ? W
ere they
afraid that it was going to keep on like th t?
r
ell, I don't know , but I imagine that they do because , now
things that happened, we feel like it .' s going an forever .
Q:
How did they get out of the Depress ion , how did the co1IDtry
get out of the
ression?
·Jell , I reckon everybody must have got together , and worked in,
something to give everybody scmething to do .
Q:
i
at, how did you know it was over, how did you know that the
Depression had ended?
A:
· ell , I guess when everything got better till people could make
it alright .
�21
Q:
A:
o you think that the work programs arrl the federal programs helped?
Y , that helped .
es
f hey gave jobs , but what else do you think helped
Q:
them out?
A: : ell, I don't know , I guess it gave people more ideals , till
they could, could go on and do more , to keep more going , more to do
and causing to be more,
' cause see I reckon it takes talents
and knowledge , to keep it up an
the more that they try to do, the
more you know how to open up , s omething else and I
ess , that's the
way everything got started and to make people feel better anyway and
eally did better .
It's been for a few years , seemed like everybody's
been doing pretty good , but they have to wo k .
Q:
D d you see any l asting effects caus ed by the Depression?
i
o.
Q:
'"ell, do you think , how would you canpare the
~ression
of the
'JO's to the way things are today?
A:
ell , there's been a lot of difference , but there's a lot of
similance (similarity).
H
ere about a year ago , when they began to
close down sane shops and things like that , that reminded me , what it
used to be way back yonder , they wasn ' t nothing open, to do .
Q:
at about family life? Has it been, could you compare the way it
is now as to how it was
A:
uring the Depres ion?
o, I think life goes on pretty well the same .
�22
Q
:
at about prices ?
A:
, ell , there's a difference in prices .
Q:
There are di fferences ?
.
Yeah, there are , there 's a lot of differences , well, everything
i s higher n
than it was back then, but you see , if the prices are
~
low and you don ' t get pay an money, ah , they ain't much difference
in whether you c
make a lot more and the prices are high, than it
i s when you don 1 t get anythin
anything .
0
and you don 1 t have to pay much for
So, it's just as hard, back then when prices were low ,
you didn ' t have anything to buy it with , you couldn ' t get any more
than enough , it's just like it is now , it's just hard life , I reckon ,
'
just you get a whol e lot of money, you have to pay a whole lot and if
you don ' t get much money, well, now if you ain ' t got much money you
have to pay, but then you didn t hav. . to .
Q:
Is there anything else you ' d like to tell about the D
epression,
anything you remember?
· ell, there ain ' t nothing really that I can remember .
Q:
fuat about you M . Townsend , i s there anything you' d like to add ?
r
A:
I don ' t know of anything.
Q:
0.
• , any more questions ?
( END OF
APE)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
In 1973, representatives from Appalachian State University (ASU) began the process of collecting interviews from Watauga, Avery, Ashe, and Caldwell county citizens to learn about their respective lives and gather stories. From the outset of the project, the interviewers knew that they were reaching out to the “last generation of Appalachian residents to reach maturity before the advent of radio, the last generation to maintain an oral tradition.” The goal was to create a wealth of data for historians, folklorists, musicians, sociologists, and anthropologists interested in the Appalachian Region.
The project was known as the “Appalachian Oral History Project” (AOHP), and developed in a consortium with Alice Lloyd College and Lees Junior College (now Hazard County Community College) both in Kentucky, Emory and Henry College in Virginia, and ASU. Predominately funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities, the four schools by 1977 had amassed approximately 3,000 interviews. Each institution had its own director and staff. Most of the interviewers were students.
Outgrowths of the project included the Mountain Memories newsletter that shared the stories collected, an advisory council, a Union Catalog, photographs collected, transcripts on microfilm, and the book Our Appalachia. Out of the 3,000 interviews between the three schools, only 663 transcripts were selected to be microfilmed. In 1978, two reels of microfilm were made available with 96 transcripts contributed by ASU.
An annotated index referred to as The Appalachian Oral History Project Union Catalog was created to accompany the microfilm. The catalog is broken down into five sections starting with a subject topic index such as Civilian Conservation Corps, Coal Camps, Churches, etc. The next four sections introduced the interviewees by respective school. There was an attempt to include basic biographic information such as date of birth, location, interviewer name, length of interview, and subjects discussed. However, this information was not always consistent per school.
This online project features clips from the interviews, complete transcripts, and photographs. The quality and consistency of the interviews vary due to the fact that they were done largely by students. Most of the photos are missing dates and identifying information.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1965-1989
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Townsend, Mrs. & Mr. Allen
Interview Date
9/25/1975
Number of pages
22 pages
Date digitized
9/18/2014
File size
10.2MB
Checksum
alphanumeric code
c08dbee4015362a0037fdd0be79ab830
Scanned by
Tony Grady
Equipment
Epson Expression 10000 XL
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright for the interviews on the Appalachian State University Oral History Collection site is held by Appalachian State University. The interviews are available for free personal; non-commercial; and educational use; provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Appalachian State Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records; 1965-1989; W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection; Special Collections; Appalachian State University; Boone; NC). Any commercial use of the materials; without the written permission of the Appalachian State University; is strictly prohibited.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
AC.111 Appalachian Oral History Project Records; 1965 - 1989
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
111_tape335_Mrs&MrAllenTownsend_transcript_M
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Mrs. & Mr. Allen Townsend [September 25, 1975]
Language
A language of the resource
English
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Document
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Townsend, Mrs. & Mr. Allen
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a title="Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/195" target="_blank">Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Mountain life--North Carolina--Ashe County--History--20th century--Anecdotes
Depression--1929--North Carolina--Ashe County
Ashe County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century
Townsend, Allen
Townsend, Allen, Mrs.
Description
An account of the resource
Mr. and Mrs. Townsend talk about the Depression and how it affected their families. He explains: "It was just everything, you know, seemed different and a shortage of everything." Farmers were the ones who fared the best, because they didn't have to buy in order to support themselves. His family worked on a farm during the Depression, but they didn't own the farm. Most people in Ashe County, because they "lived so far back from everybody else" didn't know much about the political situation, or why the Depression was happening. He remembers that when Roosevelt things changed, and schools started to be built in his area. His father was assigned to a work program and had to walk eight miles a day to get to work.
Allen Townsend
Ashe County
crops
dried herbs
farming
Federal Work Programs
Fleetwood
Franklin Roosevelt
ginseng
Great Depression
Greer's Herb House
Herbert Hoover
herbs
Hibriten
Jane Efrird
railroad
work projects
Works Progress Administration
WPA