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Don’t know if this can be considered “lore”, but my family does have some interesting stories. It was either last Christmas or the one before that, when we were all gathered at my grandfather’s house, that my dad and grandfather began to talk about their childhoods. Here are some tidbits I thought some of yall might find interesting or humerous.
My grandfather (my dad’s father), a Collins who grew up in the Grainger County, TN area, kept a fighting rooster which participated in many heavily betted games. After hearing this, I thought my family had reached the pinnacle of “red-neck”, but I took a course in Colonial History not too long ago. Turns out, **** fighting was a “pastime” among the elite land owners in the colonies. However, it was eventually outlawed and that’s when the sport went “underground” and the common people joined in the fun. Unfortunately, I never got to meet my Collins grandfather, but family tells me he loved children.
Another story involving my dad and my Collins grandfather: they raised hogs and every fall/winter there was a slaughter planned. Apparently, this was a big event, involving the whole family. Not one part of the pig was wasted – does “head cheese” and “blood pudding” ring any bells? Some of the less desirable parts were given to men who helped work the farm.
My Collins grandmother used snuff from the time she was a teenager. This seems to be a common habit among “mountain women.” Anybody else have family members who did this? She also made some mean, thick coffee.
That’s all for now…. will post some more stories later if yall enjoyed these.
Carrie
Yes, please, do go on. My great aunt Jane smoke a pipe. It startled my mom to see her sitting on the front porch with her hair in braids, smoking a pipe. She looked so much like an old Indian lady it made my mom believe all the buzz in the family about the Indian blood.
Here’s a story my grandfather shared with me once…. he grew up in Catawba County, NC. He remembers as a child hiding under his house when the revenuers paid a visit to his father, who was involved with the underground moonshine business.
As an aside note, he is not of Native American ancestry – his ancestors participated in the great German migration from Pennsylvania to North Carolina in the mid 1700s.
Carrie
The History Channel had segments all day about moonshining. Maybe that’s why I picked up a bottle of Irish Cream today.
About snuff — I’ve noticed it seems to be fairly common among some Robeson County Indian women I’ve met, even young ones.
Funny you should mention your great aunt and her pipe, Linda; my mother tells just about the same story about her Taylor great-grandmother. 🙂
Her great aunt Ida, who watched her when she was little, made wine too, but mainly out of grapes. Being a rather staunch Methodist, she’d set up the crocks in a back bedroom, sealed with biscuit dough. (Wine was practically medicinal, but still best kept out of plain sight, apparently.) This worked reasonably well until the fermentation got a little frisky once in a while, and the bedroom quickly got in bad need of cleaning from the ceiling down!
As for, erm, distilling as a cottage industry, there’s a long tradition of it in part of my father’s family. I remember reading a particularly good anecdote in Blaze Starr’s autobiography about revenuers showing up when she was posted as a look-out for her grandfather’s–my g.g.-grandfather’s–still. (“Twelve-Toed” John Mullins, who went by Fleming later in life.) His son, my great-grandfather, had a similar bad habit of setting his own kids and grandkids to watch the still. One time, a deputy came looking for my grandfather over just such a thing, and his mother was sure there was a mistake. “You don’t want my Homer, you want Harry!”, she insisted, before she even knew what it was about. There’s something to be said for knowing your own children. 🙂
Hello, My SIS, used to smoke a pipe, her inlaws were all agasp when they had seen her., later thier women started aswell , didn’y fly tho’!
The one thing that stands out about our women up here is they know good grociers!, my neice and I were visiting after a year or so and her new man was horified to find that she took his dog and daughter out getting ducks off the family pond, wild ducks! She told him they don’t fly far after the first wack!
His daughter was not to keen at first, but then enjoyed duck supper that night , when I was visiting I asked ” what are you going to do with that shed “? She said that is where Iam going to hang my deer! LOL all and all it was reasurring to know that not too much had changed. Tom
We have one story about famil going into the west and then coming back, they said it was vivsiting family, they did not like the west around Missouri, this was about 1800. GK
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