Oral History with Irene Harper

              ( First Draft)
DeSoto County Oral History Project
Interviewee:
Interviewer:
Date:
Location:
Irene Harper
G. B. Crawford
October 26, 1983
Horn Lake, Mississippi
GBC: I am speaking with Irene Harper, Horn Lake. Today is
October 26. Mrs. IIarper, can you tell me a little about
your family background -- your parents, your grandparents?
IH: Well, my grandparents lived here and as I have said,
I was born there, and then .•.
GBC: At your grandparents' house?
IH: At my grandparents' house. My father was a railroad man
was a foreman on the railroad, and so, I really don't
~
know where we went ,\ when they carried me away from here,
and then I grew up -- later I lived at Coldwater -- lived
at Neshoba, Mississippi, and then after I graduated from
high school, I went to Memphis and went to work for the
telephone company. So you see, I was not around here.
GBC: lYhere was your grandparents' house?
IH: Not very far from right here where
and about 200 or 300 yards down.
GBC: From your current house?
across the railroad
Irene Harper
IH: Uh huh.
GBC: vfuat were their names?
IH: Campbell.
GBC: Campbell.
Page 2
IH: He was Samuel Campbell. They called him S. P., I guess;
I don't remember.
GBC: And your other grandparents?
IH: They were named Horn and my father's father died when he
was a -- weli, I believe he told me nine months old, and
then his t'lother married a man named Walter Vest and he
was a doctor and he -- they grew up around Pope, Neshobauand
down in that section of Mississippi.
GBC: How did your parents happen to be drawn away from DeSoto
County? tVhy did you move?
IH: I assume because of my father's job. I believe that he
was here. Hell, I know he was, when he met my mother and
then they married and apparently he was transferred some-place
else and they moved there.
GBC: What were your parents' names? ~
0ifl L ~ I
IH: Horn. William Boyd Horn and ~ Bion Horn.
GBC: So your family moved away and you stayed away until 1938?
IH: Yes. And I was married at that time to Hardy Vincent and
came back here because he liked to farm. He was a railroad
Irene Harper Page 3
man, too. He was an engineer; ran from l1emphis, Tennessee
to Canton, Mississippi and he wanted to farm so we moved
down here and farmed the land that my father had and then
he rented land around and farmed it. So, he'd work on the
railroad every night and then corne in and farm during the
day.
GBC: How did you meet him?
IH: Well, I had known the family a long, long time. I met him
in Memphis, but I had known his family because they were
raised down around Hernando. So, I really don't remember
just meeting him as is. I just knew him and we -- well,
I guess we met again in Memphis and started to date and
married.
GBC: And, what were you doing in Memphis? You graduated from
high school in Mississippi and then moved to Memphis?
IH: Yes. I moved to Memphis and went to work for the telephone
company and I worked for the telephone company for ten
years and then quit.
GBC: In 1938?
IH: Yes. I quit in the early part of 1938.
GBC: Did you visit DeSoto County while you were livinr, in Memphis?
IH: Yes. My grandparents were dead, but going back and forth
-- my mother and them lived at Coldwater and then at
Batesville and then we drove back and forth and I had
Irene Harper
relatives
Page 4
he had relatives here too.
IH: No.
GBC: Are there any impressions · of the county that you remember
feeling or seeing during those years?
IH: No, I don't remember any. The only thing I remember --
since we have good roads now, we did not know they were
not good roads then. They were gravel · roads and when it
rained they were awfully muddy, but we would go back and
forth on them.
GBC: The main highway was crooked, so crooked at times you had
to follow it through city lanes; isn't that right?
IH: Well, it was crooked. It sure was.
GBC: So in 1938, you and your husband moved to this place or
around Horn Lake and he farmed -- he bought a farm?
IH: No, it was -- it had belonged to my father and then I
inherited it from them. So we had that and as I say,
he rented some land.
GBC: Did your husband work at two jobs -~ for the railroad
and ••.
IH: Yes.
GBC: ... farming down here? l~ at kinds of things did he do on
the farm? Did he grow commercial crops or food crops
or both?
-- Well, we had a garden ~) He grew corn and cotton.
About the time -- he died in 1957 -- so about that time
Irene Harper Page S
soybeans was getting started pretty well. I don't re-member
whether he ever planted any soybeans or not. If
he had it was just in the last year that he farmed, but
it was mostly cotton and corn. We qidn't raise any
vegetables for market or anything like that; just for
ourselves.
GBC: Did he hire workers to help him?
WV
IH: Yes. ~ had one tenant house on the place and we had
- J~ a.
another tenant that lived in the back yard; , t e man that
milked the cow and did thinr, s around the house for us and
that we paid 4ay wages to.
GBC: And the other tenant worked shares?
IH: Worked shares, uh huh. He sure did.
GBC: How long did your husband have these tenants?
IH: Well, for a long time -- not the same ones -- I expect
during that time from ' 38 to'S7, we probably had three
tenants. One tenant -- most of them were black, but one
time we had a white family. We kept them about two years,
I think.
GBC: How was that -- working along side the farmers who were
white?
IH: Well, I think we'd have rather had the blacks.
GBC: Why?
IH: Well, I really don't know, but it seemed that that worked
Irene Harper
out better for us.
Page 6
GBC: So, you arrived in the late 30' s after Memphis had begun
to recover from the economic depression. Did DeSoto
County show any signs of economic hardship when you got
back here?
IH: No. You know this area, to my knowledge, there are people
out of work even now but to my knowledge it has never shown
the poverty that we hear about and see on T. V . Maybe when
you're driving around you see it, but I have never seen
it. But it seemed to be -- nobody had a whole lot of
~ oney, but everybody had what they needed . Of course, our
wants were not very much. But, then, it was j , U: St fine.
t
GBC: Well, you had a unique perspective in that you could com-pare
what you saw in Memphis to this area. Was there one
major thing you noticed here that was quite different from
Memphis -- one thing that a quick observer wouldn't see?
IH: No. Other than closeness of e people.
GBC: Closeness. What do you mean by closeness?
IH: I mean that your neighbors were there when you needed them
and they were in Memphis to a great extent -- your next
door neighbors or the people that you knew, but not like
it was here. Here even now the people who know you
there's a closeness there. It's just different. I think
we have a -- something that a lot of parts of the country
don't have. I can't penpoint it and tell you what it is,
but ...
Irene Harper
GBC: How didpe6ple treat each other here?
Page 7
IH: Real well. Real well. Everybody was neighbors and if
needed anything, if you knew about it, you saw that
they had it. If anybody was sick, they were always there
with food and helped , and it's that way even now and if
anybody dies, there's always food and people there to
help them if they need help. I mean, all they have to
do is let you know. Sometimes they don't do that because
we were in Memphis at the time that they had soup kitchens
and things like that and we -- I had a neighbor -- I thought
was a real close neighbor and after it was over, she told
me that they went without food fo r-~~ three days one
time and I told her, I said, " Why didn't you let us know?
We didn't have much, but we would have shared it with you."
And, that's the way it was here. Everybody shared. If
you knew they were in trouble , like if the men got sick,
the men went and helped them. So, I just think we have
a -- the garden spot of the world.
GBC: Did you notice very weal thy an d very poor people in the city
of Memphis when you were there. In other words, did you
<:> J(
see extreme wealth and poverty?
IH: Well, I guess you did -- I'm sure there was, but we lived
in an area that nearly everybody were railroad people and
had about the same income and so, you know, we just didn't
Irene Harper Page 8
know -- we didn't know that we were poor and we knew we
wasn't rich, so, I .•.
GBC: So when you came back to DeSoto County, did you notice
. any difference?
IH: No.
GBC: Everyone seemed to be in the same boat?
IH: Yes. Even though we knew that there were some here that
probably had more than others, but, we didn't know it --
there wasn't any difference.
GBC: Did you - ever hear the word " Planter", applying to upland
folks?
IH : Maybe. I don't remember it - - not using it in the sense
that they had more than anybody else. No.
GBC: That would be used only for someone in the delta with a
large number of tenants ...
;;~
IH: ~ large plantation, yes. ~
GBC: ..• and large acreage. You mentioned that people help
each other if they were in need. lvere people in need a
lot -- that is aside from economic considerations -- did
they get sick often?
IH: Well, not anymore than now. You know, there was always
-- then your mother and your grandmother and all that were
elderly -- they didn't have nursing homes and they lived
in the homes with their children. So, if they got sick,
Irene Harper Page 9
sometimes there was the need to nurse; sometimes it was
a need to sit up with them at night or to be there with
them and there was always people there, but you don't
do that anymore, we have the nursing homes, so the elderly
people are not kept with the family quite as much.
GBC: Did people use patent medicines or did they go to physicians?
IH: I think they went to physicians. I guess I wouldn't know
about that because my grandaddy was a doctor and that's
what w had. So, I -- naw, I don't believe -- maybe they
used ~ l in imen t -- Watkin's Liniment, but I don't believe
so.
GBC: How about moonshine -- did that help kill pain for some
people?
It may have, I don't know. I don't believe -- I'm sure
U;'
IH:
some in our family used it, but not~ h .
GBC: Did you ever see or hear about country doctors or herbal
doctors among blacks or whites?
IH: Well, I
heard of
I never did see them, but I've
that used them, but I never was around
one that knew it -- that I knew did it. I don't just
remember what they used .. Have you run across anybody
that has?
GBC : Yes. A couple.
IH: No. I don't believe I have.
Irene Harper Page 10
GBC: Tell me about your daily routine once you got settled
here. What did you do each working day of the week --
you and your faMily? How did you start did the day
begin before sunup?
IH:
re w05 ~ rr::
Only in the summer time when the~ sun was/ tgOing up. and
then, as I say, my husband was gone every other day on the
railroad. He'd go out at night and then he'd come in the
next night and then be at home then the next day and
if he was there, I didn't have to get up until I got
ready to get up, which I always did get up around between
6: 00 and 7: 00 o'clock and then -- but in the summer time,
when I had to go get somebody to chop the cotton, pick the
cotton and all that, well, I had to get up at 4: 00 o'clock,
and I was the one that went and picked them up most of the
time. SoI would have to call them to get up, but it wasn't
too much difference then than it is now other than there's
more people. I had to do more because I had more in the
family.
GBC: You think people worked harder than they should have?
IH: Naw, I don't believe work ever hurt anybody. Now, I can't
believe work ever hurt anybody. There may have been some
that worked long hours -- had to -- no, I don't think so.
GBC: Well, what was social life like here for a young married
couple; what -- did you go to dances or to card playing
games?
Irene Harper Page 11
IH: Had dances and e played cards. My husband liked to
dance. I never like~ to dance and then here in Roosevelt's
administration, when they started to celebrating his birth-day,
they always had dances then. There was a big dance
down at the school.
~ / -- ~
GBC: ~ that Horn Lake High School ~ w?
IH: Well, it was the school; that's was it -- it was from
first grade through twelfth grade -- one building, so, I
think when my daughter graduated in 1958, there was 27
graduated -- I think about 1,000 graduates now.
GBC: Was it easy for both of you to crack social circles here?
IH: No.
" GBC: Why not?
IH: I didn't see any social circles. No. "
GBC: Did people stay to themselves?
IH: Not too much, no. Everything -- you know, when we came
-- when we started going to church right off the reel, we
were always church goers and you'd go to church and you'd
meet everybody in that church and then you visited the
others -- there's usually -- back in those days there was
more than two churches to a community
was about two churches to a community
back then there
Methodist and
Baptist -- once in awhile, Presbyterian, but, naw, we were
kept pretty busy. But, you know, when you work at home,
Irene Harper Page 12
when night comes, you don't care about partying very
much. That was a Saturday night deal. And, we still
~
had friends in Hemphis. ,;. ae-- y came out and we went up
to their home and we played cards and we'd just go and
just visit, so, we just never did have time to get lones~ e
or anything like that.
GBC: Or bored?
IH: No, no, I was never bored in my life. No. I had a hrothe~-
in- law and two children -- three altogether and sometimes
four that lived with us for about eight years and, of
course, they were
plenty to do.
they kept me busy. So there was
GBC: Did Saturday bring a crowd to the Horn Lake stores?
IH: Maybe a little more than during the week but I doubt that
it was. Once in awhile they sat on the front porch at the
stores and mostly in the afternoon. You could come down
and there was one store across the railroad here, where
this car Pla! e~ now.
GBC: West of your house?
IH: Uh huh. And, then the other one on down the road and
they had benches out in front and in the afternoon well
you'd see some of the men sitting around on the benches
talkintJu ~ f the women went, they would be inside the
storehouse, 0, I don't think it was anymore on Saturday
than any other time. Usually, at that time, you know, it
Irene Harper Page 13
was easy to get to Memphis -- everybody had cars, so,
usually you went to Memphis on Saturday you went and
bought groceries and you shopped and so we didn't sit
around much.
GBC: Did you feel that people -- most people here -- spent as
much time in Memphis as they did here when they were free
from work and other responsibilit~ es?
IH: Well, like Saturdays, yeah. I think everybody shopped --
the stores didn't stay open on Sunday, so, you had to get
what you was going to get during the week on Saturdays,
which is a good thing. I wish they would close the stores
on Saturday -- Sunday now~ I help keep them open because
I go shopping.
GBC: Were there ever any sources of friction between the
Baptist and the Methodist here?
IH: I don't think so. No. The only thing you'd ever hear of
would be friction among themselves -- not among one another.
Naw, I don't think so.
GBC: What about politics; did that energize the local people?
IH: Oh, yes, a lot more than it does now. People got maybe
hostile during the election. They don't do that now.
GBC: Republicans were almost extinct sa you saw a Democratic
fractions war against each other, didn't you?
IH: Well, we didn't call it Democrat and Republican. Mississippi
Irene Harper Page 14
didn't have two parties to what -- two or three years
ago. We just -- you were just running for office -- what-
IH: Yes, sir. They surely did.
GBC: And individuals could be nasty in a campaign, couldn't they?
IH: Well, they were and then the people that was voting. It
wasn't the ones in the campaign;
fO~ against them.
as the ones that was
in fights about it.
GBC: They would get in fisticuffs at rallies?
IH: Yes, yes. Sure did. And, that was a big day when you
had election day. Usually, it was held down here at the
school and along in later years different -- maybe the
church group _ or somebody wouldserve-- s. andwiches . or drinks
and sell it to make some money for whatever they were
doing it for and that was an all day thing, you went when
it started and you didn't leave til 1: 00 and 2: 00 o'clock
in the morning when they finished counting the votes, be-cause
they were counting it by hand. So, now, we can
j17n ~~ r~ Ugh voting here and take them to Hernando and.. a­~
m1nut e s later, you know who won. That was a big,
big day.
GBC: Why do you think everyone was so enthuastic about election
day and the campaign speeches and rallies?'
Irene Harper Page 15
IH: I don't know. I don't know why. Do you think we're
just indifferent now? I just don't know.
GBC: Do you remember what kind of things noliticians would say
to try to make an appeal to voters?
IH: Wel+, they -- naw, I really don't. They always lambasted
the other party the other man, nearly always, and, of
course, I don'tremeflber. I believe it was a little more
personal then than it is now, though sometimes they get
pretty personal now.
GBC: Were the people who stood for office then better or about
the same as the folks you see now?
IH: Oh, I think they was about the same. People don't change
much. People are the same people really the world over,
they may have a few different customs, but people are just
people.
GBC: Do you remember any black people voting in this part of the
county before . t he Civil Rights Acts were passed in the
mid 60' s?
IH: There used to be a few but never very many.
GBC: How did they get that privilege when other black peo~ le
couldn't?
IH: They usually came with some white man.
GBC: And, he spoke for them?
IH: Yes. But, not very many which was sad. It shouldn't
have been that way.
Irene Harper Page 16
GBC: Do you recall any reason why one white man should act
as a patran for a particular black voter and not for
another?
IH: I assume because they were afraid to. It was just --
well, they just couldn't do it.
GBC: Do you recall any racial violence in the 30' s here in this
part of the county?
IH: Naw. There never has been too many black people right
in this area of Horn L~ and the most of them owned a
little spot of land ~ their own land and some of them
still do out east of here and we just didn't have a lot
like they do in the cities and other states maybe and in
parts of Mississippi, I'm sure, but right here we didn't
have a whole lot and I don't know, I guess they were dis-couraged
from coming to vote or afraid to vote or something,
but I just didn't hear anything about it.
GBC: Did you hear of any instances of election fraud?
IH: I've heard of it, but I never did know that it happened,
but I've heard that it did. Yeah.
GBC: If you wanted to get something done and you needed the
support of local government, was it common practice to
'\ f\ cvn+, v~
hand out a bribe or some other in8eft8: t: i:~ e to get a local
official to help you?
IH: I don't believe there was any bribes. I think if you
Irene Harper Page 17
wanted your driveway graveled or something like that,
you went to the Supervisor and Y011 usually got it, but,
I don't believe there was any bribes to , i t . I don't be-lieve
we ever paid any. If we did, my husband didn't
tell me about it. Maybe he promised to vote for him the
next time. I don't know. Nof, I don't believe there
was. I don't believe there was' too much of it anyway. If
there was very much, it would have been generally known.
GBC: Mrs. Harper, can you tell me something about the area near
Stateline and U. S. 51 in those days -- in the 1930' s; what
IH:
was that like?
well,~ was just farm land. As late as the 50' s and then
people began selling the land off for this new development
that came in. I don't know who bought that land in South-aven.
+ don't First DeSoto didn't -- First DeSoto
bOUght~ through Horn Lake, but after I was Post Master,
Southaven was Horn Lake delivery, you see and we delivered
to Stateline so that land was just sold off when the
development ca~ e in in the late 50' s I guess it was.
GBC: But, up until then, that was all open?
IH: farm land. Most of it was farm and dairy. There was
a man that owned several hundred acre~ 1~ ece up the high-way
-- well, both sides of the highway. Now, Maud Davis,
you was talking about her -- that family owned 200 or 300
acres and then another Davis up on north owned 200 or 300
Irene Harper Page 18
acres and then across the road, and I can't think of --
the Perry's owned about 200 acres or better.
GBC: Did people at Horn Lake visit areas south of here very
often?
IH:
GBC:
IH:
Well, Hernando's the county seat. Of course, everybody
tJ~
went to Hernando/~ other parts, I don't know.
ae; 6; ble to fZ>( ks
So, Hernando was the prineipal up here?
Uh huh.
GBC: How about Olive Branch?
IH: Well, I don't believe there was too much going to Olive
Branch. Ther. e wasn't any reason unless you had people
there or knew people there to go. I don't believe there
was any business done back and forth.
GBC: Did you have any impression of Olive Branch?
IH : No.
GBC: How about Hernando?
IH: Well, I visited Hernando most of my life so I knew quite
a few people there ~ I've forgotten some of them's names
now• .1 did know them.
GBC: And, the items people might use to read; what would they
read here -- nagazines, books?
IH: Well, they'd buy books like I did, and, of course, everybody
took a paper.
GBC: · The Memphis paper?
Irene Harper Page 19
IH: Hemphis paper, uh huh, and a county -- the l1emphis paper
came on the train -- the train stopped here every morning
and the paper came out on the train and it's been so long
I don't remember when the Ld. b r a'ry came in. Of course, it
came to Hernando first and we used to go there, but, I
came here with a library card from Memphis and used it
for years and years. In fact, I think I just threw it
away not too long ago, becaus 2 I don't have -- for several
years I went to the Whitehaven Branch and got books, but
then after we had one come here, I haven't done it very
rnuch.
GBC: Did you 1! leet many illiterate people in the 30' s here?
IH: Not too many or if they were I didn't know. · Of course,
I'm sure there were some because there's some now" but I
don't believe there's that many.
GBC: It's hard to tell them apart from the rest of the folks?
0> 1--'
IH: Yes. The ones now unless you ad some dealings with them,
you would never know it. They wouldn't let you know it and
there's no reason right now because we have this program,
you ~ ktlow,;, : t o l 1. t e a c h them, but they don't always take advan-tage
of it, but I guess maybe if I had lived all these
years and couldn't read, maybe I wouldn't be interested
enough now to do it. I know of some who are not as old as
I am but up in years that well, one in particular --
that I suggested that she go take this course and she
Irene Harper Page 20
started but she didn't go but about twice, but nobody
would know she didn't do it unless you had had dealinBs
with her.
GBC: Did the radio substitute for reading?
IH: It doesn't for me.
GBC: But, did ~ any people listen to the radio here in the 30' s?
IH: Oh, yes. You know, they had programs and those serials on
that everybody wanted to see. L~ and Abner for one --
everybody had to hear that. Now, you don't know - any t hi ng
about that ...
GBC: No.
IH: ... but that was a favorite one. Yeah. And, then when T. V.
came in, everybody got a T. V. and, of course, that was
real interesting.
GBC: lfuen you got here, the situation in Europe was steadily
deteriorating. Did people here follow what was happening
there through the papers and radio?
IH: Yes, yes, very much, uh huh.
GBC: t{ hat kinds of reactions did you get when you talked with
people about it?
IH: Hell, everybody was very upset when things would happen,
just kinda like we ar noUwM and I had a brother -- there was
1\
just the two of us that got sick during that time and
was in the hospital and died, but I know I went up there
Irene Harper Page 21
and he was in Baptist Hospital in Memphis, and he said,
" Sister, what's Hitler doing?" And, he was even then
-- as sick as he was -- interested in what was going on
then. Of course, we hadn't gotten into it right then.
That was -- he died in ' 40, so -- what -- it started in
' 41 and we got into it in ' 41, something along there.
GBC: ~ Vhat did most people think of Hitler?
IH: . Thought he was terrible. Just thought he was terrible.
GBC: ~ Vhat did you think about the Soviet Union at the same time?
IH: No, I don't think so. I think
then when the Soviets~ ll
then it was all Germany and
the allied forces out, that
went aBainst them right then but it wasn't long until we
were against them and have been ever since.
GBC: Other informants have suggested that along around December
of 1941 many farmers in this area installed their sons as
dairymen for reasons of draft evas Lon , ..
IH: To keep them out.
GBC: Did you notice any of that?
IH: No. I guess I didn't think anything about it, if they
did. I . didn't have a son, so I ~ dn't know anything
about it, but they probably did and I expect if I'd had
one, I'd have been doing the same thing. Yeah-, . I'd keep
them out. I've got a grandson right now 15 years old and
I'm just hoping all this is over before he gets grown
Irene Harper Page 22
because I'd do anything to keep him out. Now, if it
happened here at home -- right here in our country --
it's going to take everybody, but I'd be willing to go and
do whatever I could and let then go or anything, but not
over there.
GBC: Do you think many DeSoto Countians had that attitude in
1938?
IH: Probably did if they had sons. Now, I don't know. I
don't remember any discussion about it.
GBC: Was there any sign that young people questioned decisions
made by officials?
IH: Not that I know of. They probably did, but not that I
know of. Young people back then didn't know, I don't
believe, quite as much about what was going on in the
world as you do now because everything is so out in the
open and you hear it, but back then you ~ ore or less heard
it -- read it in the newspaper. Of course, it was on
T. V. some, but ...
GBC: Was that because the information wasn't available or
because young people didn't make the effort to learn?
IH: Well, it wasn't available like it is now and naybe the
people didn't discuss it. As I say, I didn't have any
boys. I had a daughter born in ' 40 and the children all
stayed at my house, but I don't remember us sitting down
Irene Harper Page 23
and discllssing national things, you know; I guess we
just didn't.
GBC: lfuen you did sit ~ down to dinner, what did vou talk about '
as a family?
IH: lfuatever happened that day I guess.
GBC: Just recounted the day?
. IH: I don't remenber -- uh huh. I just don't remember.
GBC: Were holidays special?
IH: Yes. They surely were. Families got together. You had
more food, just like we do now and the house was always
full of people and you were so glad to have them. Yeah, it
was a big thing.
GBC: What was your favorite holiday in the 30' s?
IH: I think Thanksgiving and Christmas and I guess Christmas
is now because that's when we're all together. We seem to
have a good time, but every holiday we all get together.
GBC: ~ Vhat would you do for Thanksgiving0then?
IH: Just have the family together and have a
GBC: And the celebration would just last for the day itself?
IH: For that day. And, nobody -- we didn't have room -- we
had so many in the house -- everybody came and went the
same day, you know, nobody stayed over. They lived close
enough to go home.
Irene Harper Pap; e 24
GBC: Do you think people were more aware of the religious
significance of those two holidays than they are now?
IH: No. · I dor-' t think so. Everybody went to church for
Christmas and, of course, there was always a Thanksgiving
service and the same thing now, so, I don't think so.
GBC: How about secular holidays; did you have fun on, say,
Washington's Rirthday?
IH: Well, that was just about another day~
GBC: How about Halloween?
IH: Well, that was usually a lot of fun because you got things
ready and all the children came to yOur house.
GBC: For trick or treat?
IH: Uh huh, and you could always plan on them. You cooked
cookies and candy and we didn't go to the store and buy
it like we do now and they would come all dressed up. I
never did dress up. We had sorne that dressed up as witches,
you know, for them, but I di0n't. And, I always had a lot
of cookies . and candy and things like that for them.
GBC: And, this was good fun?
IH: It sure was.
GBC: How about July the 4th; what did you do then?
IH: Well, a lot of times the community had a picnic and a lot
of times that was a family gathering tiMe.-- dRy. lve would
families who were quite a piece away would all gather
Irene Harper Page 25
in a certain spot and have a family day too.