here since way back yonder. Fust
thing ah kin member is a bad storm an mah ma put us undah de baid. She
wuz skeered hit would blow us away. Ah use tuh play till ah got bigger
nuff tuh work. Ah member we use tuh play runnin. We'd play walkin tuh
see which one uv us could walk de fastest tuh de field tuh carry dinner.
We use tuh jump an we use tuh ride stick hosses an limbs offn trees.

Ole boss learnt mah pa how tuh make shoes an de way he done: Dey kilt a
cow an a deer an take dey hides an tanned dem. De way he tanned hit wuz
tuh take red oak bark an white oak bark an put in vats. Dese vats wuz
somethin like troughs dat helt water an he put a layer uv oak ashes
an or layer uv ashes an a layer uv leather till he got hit all in an
covered wid water. Aftuh dat dey let hit soak till de hair come offn de
hide den dey would take de hide oft an hit wuz ready fuh tannin. Den de
hide wuz put tuh soak in wid de redoak bark. Hit stayed in de water till
de hide turnt tan den pa took de hide out uv de redoak dye an hit would
be a purty tan. Hit didn' have tuh soak so long. Den he would git his
pattern an cut an make tan shoes outn dat tanned hide. We called dem
brogans. We all wore shoes cause mah pa made em.

We planted indigo an hit growed jes like wheat. When hit got ripe we
gathered hit an we would put hit in a barrel an let hit soak bout er
week den we would take de indigo stems out an squeeze all de juice outn
dem, put de juice back in de barrel an let hit stay dere bout nother
week, den we jes stirred an stirred one whole day. We let hit set three
or four days den drained de water offn hit an dat left de settlings an
de settlings wuz blueing jes like we have dese days. We cut ours in
little blocks. Den we dyed clothes wid hit. We had purty blue cloth. De
way we set de color we put alumn in hit. Dat make de color stay right
dere.

Ah'll tell yuh how tuh dye. Er little beech bark dyes slate color set
wid copper. Hickory bark an bay leaves dyes yellow set wid chamber lye;
bamboo dyes turkey red, set color wid copper. Pine straw an sweetgum
dyes purple, set color wid chamber lye. Ifn yuh dont bleave hit try em
all.

Mah ma made cloth while mah pa made shoes. Ah member jes as good when
dey handcuff mah ma's two brothers tuh keep um from runnin off when dey
got ready tuh sell em. Ah seed um handcuff as many as eight tugethuh
when dey marched dem tuh de pen. Yuh know dey had uh pen kinder like de
pond pen fer cows an hosses. We