Mrs. Tennis Whitehead (1904 - 1991)
Mr. Severn Whitehead ((1905 - 1988)
Interview recorded April, 1982
TRANSCRIPT PORTION
SEVERN: ... And I remember when Jim Clogg, it’s been run by the Duncans the last few years, but I remember when that was built. And I think that was built, ‘bout long ‘bout 1917, ‘18, when the Model T started comin’ out.
INTERVIEWER: Did a lot of people have Model T’s?
SEVERN: Yeah, and one, one bunch went there and bought 12 at one time. But you never could go there (audio not clear) Model T Edsel til the first of the year. You couldn’t buy a car in them days til the first of the year. And the old Model T’s would come in there and you had to crank them, and they’d rope them off so you couldn’t get up close to them. And the old fountain set there where people used to water their horses, and birds used to go there and try to drink their water. And I remember the old ferry come in. I thought of his name til now, and I can’t think of the old fellow’s name. He was the first one to walk off the gangplank. The captain of the ship was the first man walk off the ship. I was a youngster, I used to go down there and watch him. And I don’t know what year that was. Now when they built the last schooner here, they built the last schooner, right there by Adkins Mill yard. That was a full-masted schooner. When she went off the runway, she went cross, went all the way cross and got stuck up on the mud on the other side. They had to have someone come in here and pull her off. I think she made, she went out and was makin’ one trip and she got broke in half out there in the ocean somewhere. And the boat was coal, but I forget now what year that was, but it was back in the teens. But that’s about all I can remember right now, so…
INTERVIEWER: Did they used to bring everybody across the river when the train stopped?
SEVERN: The train used to come down far as the river bridge and that was as far as it come and then it went back. Used to come down right where the old wooden bridge used to be. Used to come down where the old wooden bridge used to be and that was as far as it come until later years. And then when they put the new railroad through here, that went on. I remember when part of that was running down through VA. The new railroad that they got now.
And see now, where I can go now. That’s about all I can remember on my mind right now. When I was a youngster, we used to raft timber up and down the Pocomoke River. There used to be a basket factory here. I forget their names. And we’d raft, and raft timber from way down the mouth of the river, way up the river. Down here to Pocomoke. And get gum to make baskets out of, pea baskets and all other kinds baskets, and I even forgot what year that was now. Sometime, one time we got ice bound, up river. We couldn’t get back with our raft of timber, so we had to go up there. Big raft together and had a gasoline boat and we pulled him down and we had to stay in the boat there for about a night and a day, before the ice would let us down through here. But they were good old days.
INTERVIEWER: Is that what your dad did for a living?
SEVERN: My father, he was a waterman, and his, my grandfather before him was a waterman, had a big sailboat, and they used to go all up and down the coast with this big sailboat, and my grandfather died when my father was 15, and he took the sailboat over and he sailed from then til 1914. That’s when he come up here and start farming.
INTERVIEWER: What kind of stuff did he farm?
SEVERN: Growed spinach, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, beans, such stuff as that.
INTERVIEWER: Was it just for you or did you sell it?
SEVERN: Well for sale. Yeah for the market. Sold it for the market, and….
INTERVIEWER: Where did you keep your food at? Where did you keep your food cold?
SEVERN: We used to, if it was milk and stuff, we put it in a big bucket and put it down the well. Put down the well with a cord and then we wanted a drink of milk we’d have to go pull that out of the well, and have a nice cold drink of milk, and then in the fall, in the fall we’d kill a bunch of hogs and then, round the dead winter time, you’d put it in the smoke house and salt it down, smoke it, and then we had meat all summer. That’s the way we kept meat in the summertime, was smoke it. Take myrtle and ashes and wood and kept a low fire in the smokehouse and that was filled with smoke and that was the best meat we ever had. Fill up with (audio not clear) and sausages, full of good flavor in that meat and we had meat all the summer. So I guess that is near about all my day is now.
NTERVIEWER: Did you have, were your bathrooms outside?
SEVERN: Outside, yeah outside. Go out in the cold, outside.
(CONTINUESS NEXT SATURDAY HERE AT THE POCOMOKE PUBLIC EYE.)
