Grady Mathis, Smokemont, North Carolina
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Grady Mathis, of Tow String Creek, in Swain County, North Carolina, was 50 years old when recorded in 1939.
[transcripption copyrigh Michael Montgomery and Paul Reed, 2017]
[M = Grady Mathis; I = Interviewer Joseph Hall]
M: So I set in up there, one day to get all of them, they said, “how many ground hogs you get?"
I: A little louder.
M: Say, “how many ground hogs you get?” “oh,” I says uh, “sometimes I get one and two and sometimes three,” I says, “the pretty part about it, Bishop told me to go ahead and kill the ground hog [that] was eating up the country up there, and I went ahead and killed it, buddy, I had to get twelve before I got that'un,” and so he uh jumped on me and asked me about it and I said, “why, that was just a curve I was a-shooting at the boys around here,” and he said, “well, I actua- told Mister, Mister Needham,” “well,” I said, “I meant Mister Bishop, it wasn’t Mister Needham, it was Mister Bishop," something like that the way I told him.
I: Now tell about me coming up there.
M: About uh you?
I: xx
M: And so one day Mister Allman and Mister Bishop, they come up there, and I was up and telling Mister Allman what kind of a curve I was a-shooting about the ground hog, you know, and Mister Bishop, he went ahead and said, “well, I’ll just have to get you and we’ll go over here and make a record of this,” and he told it over the radio, you know, and I went ahead and told him and, and he promised then to come get me, but he never did, told him I’d go, but he never did come.
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M: Along in nineteen and thirty-three I went into a, a Southern camp, and then I went from there to a company of fifteen, that’s Northern camp, and they had a fellow there, he was a rated man, and the Northern boys had done away with him, you know, and he said to me there one day, the superintendent did, he says, “Grady, I’ve got a vacancy here for a leader, and I’ll let you have a bunch of those Northern boys, and if you can handle them why, I’ll give you the rating,” I said, “all right, I’ll try it, if I can’t get it out of them, why I can fetch them in or they can fetch me in,” and he said, “all right, that’s the kind of a man I was looking for, somebody can work them,” “well,” I says, “I know what the work is, and I know how to learn the boys to work, or I’ll try it as hard as anybody,” well, I went ahead down there and started out with the boys, and they went ahead there and went to running a-backwards and forwards to bum cigarettes from one company there to another, and I hopped up on a stump and told them cut that out, I happened to be the boss there, and I wanted work, I wasn’t wanting them a-running around there bumming cigarettes, so’s uh one said, “why, Christ Amighty,” he says, “what are you, a slave driver?” and I said, “don’t you open your mouth to me another time, boy, or I’ll show you whether I’m a slave driver or not,” and so a day or two later he said uh, “what did they do with you whenever you killed that man some two or three year ago?” and I said, “who want to know, you?” he says, “why, yes, I’d like to know,” "well, now" I says, “if you just name that to me again, you’ll know, you’ll go just the same route the other man went,” and so uh I went ahead there and I went working them and, and they got to call me the Lieutenant, I told them that was my name, you know, Lieutenant, and I fell into work there and showing the boys how, and so’s the first thing I knowed, I’d get started off, out away from them, why there they’d be a-whirling around looking at me, and I’d say “here, what are you doing there, boys? do you think I’m Sandy Claus? I don’t want to see that happening no more,” and they got to talking back and forth to one another and say, “why Christ Almighty, he’s a slave driver,” and I said, just whirled around, I says uh, “I don’t want to hear that nary another time, boys, I’m a-showing you how to work, and I mean for you to know how to work,” and so's he just tightened up.
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M: So a few days uh later, why, one of the Northern boys come out there to me and says uh, “hey, Lieutenant,” he says uh, “[if] a fire breaks out here, [will] you take us out on these mountains?” and I said, “why, yes, what do you think I’m here for?” “well,” he says, “I didn’t know,” he says, “ain’t you afraid you’ll get us lost out here?” and I said, “no sir, you can’t lose me in these mountains, I was born and raised here,” "well," he said, “would you want us to fight fire like we work?” I said, “yes, but I still want you to fight it still harder, for a fire is hard to protect when it catches out, and I don’t want to see no standing whatever when fire is out, I want you to put it out,” "well," he said, “what if the fire was to break over?” “well,” I says, “when fire breaks over, I usually break over, but I break over to get the boys straightened out at it,” “well, what if we wouldn’t do it?” “well, if you didn’t I’ll break your back with something, I’m there to do the work, and I mean to have it done,” then the Northern boy says, “why, Christ Amighty, Lieutenant, we was liking you just fine, but we don’t think you’d do us thataway, we going to do the work for you just like you tell us,” “well if you do that, we going to get along,” “all right,” he says “Lieutenant,” he says, “[if] a fire breaks out, all you got to do is show us how, and we will sure enough put it out, cause we don’t like to get you bothered, Lieutenant, you're a good man and want to help us boys out, but we understand your ill way of talking,” "well," I said “that’s all right, I don’t only talk ill, if you boys wants to be ill with me, why, I’m small but I’m hard to handle,” “well, Christ Amighty,” he said, “we had a little boy up north about your size, and he got struck in there and he killed several men before he got stopped, that’s why we want to take care of you, we don’t want to get you mad,” “well, that’s all right” I said, “I ain’t a-wanting to bother nobody,” but I says, “you boys here are going to do the work now, they got me here for a experienced local man, see, after this, and I told the man I thought I could, and that’s exactly what I mean to do is to see after it,” he said, “that’s okay,” well, that’s all I have to say this time, I reckon.