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Transcription: [00:02:24]
{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
I believe I can't.

[00:02:30]
{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
What about, um-- What activities, then, did your family do? What was the kitchen used for besides eating? Was it a gathering place for folks to come to talk, or families to just get together and meet? What are some of the things you would do as a child in the kitchen?

[00:02:51]
{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
Well, like every so often, I mean, we didn't have companies to come in. My dad would sit around and joke around with us and play around with us. That's basically it.

[00:03:08]
{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
What were some of your favorite things that you would like to do, that you uh, activities that you did with your mother and father?

[00:03:14]
{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
Uh, growing up with?

[00:03:17]
{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
Some of the things that you would do.

[00:03:19]
{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
Nothing.

{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
Nothing?

{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
Um-hmm.

[00:03:21]
{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
No? Okay, what to you, growing up, was one of your favorite dinners, maybe the meals you mom would prepare for the family?

[00:03:32]
{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
Sunday, Sundays.

[[laughter]]

[00:03:34]
{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
So on Sundays, what you have?

[00:03:37]
{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
Oh, we would have the, back then I'd call it the basic dinner. We would have like jerky min, you know, homegrown vegetables and stuff like that.

[00:03:53]
{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
Who were some of your friends growing up in the neighborhood or school or--?

[00:04:02]
{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
We actually didn't have any because we basically stuck together. And I wasn't going to, like, on Sundays to our cousins' house to play. That was the life we had.

[00:04:14]
{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
Okay, are there any family traditions that you carry out today that you mom did when you were growing up?

{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
No. [[chuckles]]

[00:04:26]
{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
No? Okay, do you have any treasured memories of your family, things that particularly stand out with you, and growing up with your mom and dad and sisters and brothers?

[00:04:39]
{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
No, not really. I can't recall any.

[00:04:43]
{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
Any family activities?

{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
We didn't have any activities, no absolutely special.

[00:04:49]
{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
What about bedtime rituals, where you told stories at that time or--?

{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
No.

[00:04:56]
{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
Any family medical remedies that you would remember? I mean, if you got sick or colds, was there special remedies that your mom would, uh, do when growing up, or would she take you to the doctor?

[00:05:13]
{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
I'm going to tell you the truth. We actually didn't have no sickness.

{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
Really?

{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
It was the strangest thing.

{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
Wow.

[00:05:23]
{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
Like if we got just a little cold, I don't know what she would fix. Mom would fix up something that we'd do next morning. That was it.

[00:05:32]
{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
Okay. Tell me a little bit about your mother and father. What type of work did they do?

{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
They was farmers.

[00:05:41]
{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
Farmers? Did they have their own farm, or did they farm for someone else?

{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
Farmed for someone else.

[00:05:47]
{SPEAKER name="Shelia Montague Parker"}
Who did they farm for?

{SPEAKER name="Ruth Smith"}
Oh, dear.