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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 174
The researcher told Georgia that Hodie McGraw (a relative of Felix) told the researcher that people smoked tobacco in a pipe for a toothache. Hodie said she had tried it once, but never again. Georgia said she knew of this remedy, but that was not how it was done as far as she knew. You had to take the stem out of the pipe and get the amber out of the stem. (Georgia said that amber was the brown substance that collected in the stem as a result of saliva and strong tobacco.) You put the amber down in the tooth that ached. (Either there were two beliefs involving a pipe or Hodie hadn't got the details right when she heard people talking about the remedy.) Christmas. At Christmas time, the women in Georgia's family would start cooking a week ahead of time. They baked sweet potato pies, and cakes. They might have a turkey, guineas, a goose, or duck. They'd cook more than one kind of meat, and “you would pick the one you wanted.” Georgia said that people would go from house to house to enjoy eating with their friends and neighbors. When asked about Christmas gifts, Georgia said, “It wasn't like it is now. You got simple things from the 10 cent store??"gloves, a sweater, or shoes. You were glad to get anything then. The church would have programs at night.” Georgia and Felix Lanier: Most Families Did the Same Growing Food. Felix and Georgia both said their families grew “cotton, corn, peanuts, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, watermelons, string beans, crowder peas, black-eyed peas that we dried out, English peas, every kind of peas, sugarcane, and tomatoes.” Felix said his grandmother was a great cook and would can everything. She used to talk about how her daughter Mamie “put stuff on exhibit” at the State Fair in the 20's and 30's. In a later interview with Georgia's first cousin, Elnora Lanier, she said her family grew the same vegetables named above, and added cantaloupe to the list. Both Georgia's family and Felix's family had hogs. Georgia said everybody had hogs. They'd kill the hogs and salt the meat to hang it to cure, and they made lard from the fat. Everybody had chickens. Georgia's family had ducks and guineas. Cotton. Felix said farmers got 5 cents a pound for cotton, which came to $5 for a hundred pounds or $25 for a bale. A bale was about 500 pounds. That was in 1931-1932. Then, Felix said: One year, maybe ‘32 or ‘33, there was an allowance on what you could plant. Herbert Hoover, the government, would maybe allow you to plant so many acres of it in cotton. More than that had to be cut down. I had 50 acres of land, and the government let me plant four acres of it with cotton. 174 - (4207)