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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 253
I remember when mother fastened the beans [pinto] over the fireplace. That was in the 1930's. We had a little rack built under the chimney. We.had a wood stove with a wide tank on each side to heat water. It was a step stove. The apron where you made fire was at the bottom. The top was like a step. It had four eyes and was about a yard tall. The stove was up on little legs. The upper step was where the eyes were. In between was a little door where you put the food. Mattresses and pillows were made by the women. Emma emphasized that when she and her husband got married, they bought a mattress. That was in 1938. In earlier years, the mattresses were made of straw. It is reasonable to assume that some women still made mattresses for their family in 1938, especially since Emma emphasized that she and her husband bought theirs. Emma explained that her mother got bales of straw from a store in Huntsville to make the mattresses. Some people just went out and got “grass” from the field. Asked if she meant hay when she said “grass,” Emma said yes. The bales of straw that were bought were different from the grass pulled from the field. The kind they bought lasted longer and didn't break up as fast. [Note: Straw is made of grain stems, oats, and wheat.] Feathers were saved for making pillows, not all the feathers, just the soft ones. Later, pillows were made of cotton. Feed or fertilizer bags were sewed up to make ticks for the pillows and mattresses. Some people bought material from the store in Huntsville. At one point of time, “sometime in the 1930's,” a woman came “from a program” and met with the women of the communities in the churches. The woman from the program taught them how to make mattresses and pillows using cotton to stuff them. Garbage. When asked what they did with garbage, Emma said she did not remember having a lot. Once in a while, people hauled it off to dump somewhere. She didn't know where they dumped it. When asked if people burned garbage, Emma said that people would “burn some.” She said, “Sometimes you'd see a fire off somewhere and you'd know somebody was burning garbage.” When asked about tin cans, Emma said they didn't buy much that came in cans. The food she could remember buying in cans was sardines and salmon. Salmon was used for making salmon patties. The Out House. When asked if trash or other refuse was ever dumped into the outhouse, Emma's answer was “No.” In regard to outhouses, Emma said: In the 1930's the WPA dug a hole and built a seat up over them. Not many people had them. Most people dug a hole and had a wood board seat. Sometimes when we were young, we'd just go out in the bushes. 253 - (4286)