Download [Page] [Document]
mcc-bc1-268
The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 254
After we left the arsenal and moved to town it [the outhouse] was built off the back porch. You had to walk from the porch. There was a tank up on the wall, some kind of tin or something. When you'd get up and pull the chain down, it would flush. It had a pull chain. That was in the 1940's. Electricity. Emma didn't remember anyone having electricity. She said: Few people had electricity. A few people, like the Jacobs, had Delco battery lights. I knew a couple families who was living well??"Walter Jacobs and Sam Harris. We used kerosene lamps. [Did you use candles?] We didn't use candles. When do you think we lived? That was before our time. Home Remedies: Emma said she couldn't remember home remedies, but then mentioned Asafetida, which was bought at the drug store and taken “for indigestion, colic and upset stomach.” She said, “You'd put it in water and let it dissolve and then take a drink of it.” Kerosene was put on a bite or a sting. Doctors and Illnesses. Emma said: I used to hear Dad talk about malaria. It came through and killed a lot of people. They didn't have medicine for it. He said Scarlet Fever killed a lot of people. I remember the doctor back when it was Dr. Scruggs. I recall him coming to mother when she was ill when I was 6 or 7 years old. He was old then. He came in his horse and buggy. He came so far and then he'd have to walk the rest of the way to the house. If we needed a doctor, we'd go to Huntsville and get one. My youngest brother, Walter Lee, died at age 11 from appendicitis. We didn't know what it was. We took him to the doctor. [Was the doctor Black or White?] The doctor was White. The first doctor was Black. He was new [possibly Dr. New]. We took my brother to him??"he got worse. When my brother got real bad off, his appendix ruptured, then we took him to the hospital. The doctor there was White. It was July of 1938. My brother died. I was about 18 then. A lot of people had midwives when their babies were born. I had a midwife with my first one and the second. I said I'd never have another midwife, and I didn't. I had seven children. There was a time when midwives was all you had. Dr. Walker delivered the rest of mine at home. When asked about the dentist, Emma said you could go to the dentist and have a tooth ground and filled; however, “sometimes they got bad and people just got them pulled.” 254 - (4287)