Mrs. Bill Brown, Towstring Creek, North Carolina
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Mrs. Bill Brown, from Smokemont, in Swain County, North Carolina, was 71 years old when recorded in 1939. She has about four years of formal education and gave her occupation as a farm housewife.
[transcripption copyrigh Michael Montgomery and Paul Reed, 2017]
[B = Mrs. Bill Brown; M = Bill Moore, interviewer]
B: Now just go ahead, know to say I've knowed Mister Connor so long.
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B: I’ve been acquainted Mister Connor for thirty-nine years, thirty-nine years the tenth of last April, and he planted a walnut tree, must I plant it thataway? and it grew, and he made his casket out of it, he made it hisself.
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M: xx
B: Oh he, and uh he, after he had the casket made, why he got in it and set in there and had his picture made in the casket right where he professed religion when he was a young man.
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M: Missus Brown, were you born and raised in Swain County?
B: No sir, I wasn’t born in, I wasn’t about to tell you, I’ll just tell you where I was born and ...
M: How long have you lived in this part of the country, Swain County?
B: Fifty, fifty-five years, fifty-three, fifty-four, I mean, guess it’s been fifty four.
M: How many do you have in your family, Missus Brown?
B: Ten children.
M: Talk a little louder, ma’am.
B: Ten children.
M: Tell us about that great big rain that come way back yonder.
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B: No, it wasn’t.
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B: One day we uh, they was a, an awful rain come up and the waters got up and my daughter got scared and, and, well what am I, must I tell? he asked me.
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B: Oh hush, Clara, I don’t know nothing about this.
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B: You can tell it, you can tell it good, come on, come on.
M: I’m going to cut it off, cut it off and get her to tell it.
B: Good, come on, Frank, get down here and tell it.
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U: Lord, I can't tell it.
B: Yes, you could, you can do better than me, I’m sure.
U: Well, I'll tell you one.