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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 129
he'd help Momma tote buckets of water. She didn't have to ask him. Uncle Tom loved my baby brother and helped Momma out with him until she died. Momma fed him [Tom Hatchett] just like she did her family. Momma cooked for four or five hands. Uncle Tom rode a horse to church. Every Sunday morning he'd brush that horse. He'd let us kids ride it. Tom had part of a foot cut off in the sawmill. Uncle Tom's grandson and great grandson live in Harvest. Uncle Tom had a boy named Clarence. The researcher identified a telephone number for the great grandson in Harvest; however, calls were not returned. Sharecroppers and Crops Marcy said her father was hired to oversee the sharecroppers. Bentley Young gave him orders for the sharecroppers and hired hands. She said, “The sharecroppers got to keep 50 percent of what they made. If they didn't work their crops, then Daddy got to take out of their crops.” Marcy said, “We'd put the cotton on a three-deck, two horse wagon. We'd go down to the old courthouse with the cotton and hook up to a big chain outside the old courthouse. Then Daddy would take us to get an ice cream at the drug store.” Life on the Farm Cooking/Food. Marcy said they cooked many vegetables. They grew their own vegetables on the farm. They had chickens and pigs. Sometimes when her father came back from town, he would bring home a crate, half oranges and half apples. She said, After the crate was empty, Daddy would put straw in it, for the chickens. One day I went and sat on one of those crates, and there was a snake under the straw. Snakes will wrap their head around a pole and then shake themselves to kill a chicken. Mrs. Eliff cooked for the hired hands in the bunkhouse as well as for her family. After she died, Marcy cooked for them. Marcy said her mother taught her how to cook, because she knew that she was going to die. Marcy said her Daddy would kill seven 200-pound hogs at a time. Each one rendered about 50 pounds of lard, two hams, and two shoulders. They had a big iron kettle for rendering; they stirred it with a big paddle, which they used to dip out the cracklings. 129 - (4162)