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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 330
The Women's Work on the Homeplace. Edith recalled tasks that were done. Washing Clothes. Edith said: The washing place was away from the house, down by the well. A black pot was down there by the well. When Edith's mother was ready to wash clothes, her father built a fire under the pot. The clothesline was down there. They carried the clothes back up to the house to iron. When they were ready to iron, they set the flat irons on the stove to heat. Canning and food. We had a big vegetable garden. Mother canned lots of fruits and vegetables. Edith said: We had pigs. Mother canned sausage. She made patties and cooked them before putting them in jars. She would pour some of the fat and hot water in the jar with the sausage patties. You could also put the sausage in a bag [home sewn bags] and hang it in the smokehouse. Everybody had a smoke house. Mother raised chickens. We had everything in the world there was to eat. Farming. Edith said her father, Lee Woodward, got the land from his father John. He raised cotton and corn, no tobacco. He had a tractor and a mule. She said her brother could tell the researcher more about the farming. Tenant Farmers. Edith said: Father had tenant houses on his land. The tenant houses were about a quarter mile away from ours. Most of them were log houses with two or three rooms. There were not a lot of them. They were south of our house, toward the river. Their families and my brother worked the fields. Mother wouldn't let me. [Do you remember any of their names?] I only remember Mandy, who had a daughter my age; her name was Viola. When I was a young child, the only playmate I had was the little colored girl Viola. We played together all the time. I used to go to their house sometimes. Mandy helped mother a lot on washing and ironing days. Viola came to see me since I have lived here. It had been so many years. I didn't recognize her. Then she told me who she was. [Edith couldn't remember Viola's last name or how to contact her. Edith seemed like she had been very pleased by the visit.] 330 - (4363)