Interview with Roxie Cooper Gillespie 1976:

Mary: Who did all the farming?

 

Roxie: We never had no farm.

 

Mary: Well, you had the animals and all that.

 

Roxie: Oh, my dad took care of that when he come home from work.  

 

Mary:  Well, he worked long hours in the mine didn’t he?

 

Roxie: Well, mother milked.  But, uh he always had food out for the cows in the barn and all. But we never raised no big garden. Mom had a garden, but we never had a big farm to work or things like that.  In the back up in the hill we had our hog pen, our chicken pen, and our barn for the cows.  He always had uh, maybe two cows and this masculine. 

 

Roxie: We had a player piano, and see that just ruined us all.  …law we had a lot of comp’ny.  They could’ve come and stay as late as they wanted to ‘n they played the piano and they’d dance around in the living room and we had a great big hearth and that’s where my one sister-in-law, John’s wife, she could tap dance.  She’d tap dance on that hearth.

 

…our home was open to all the young people. They come up and play the piano and sang. Clarence’s [CC’s] brothers preached up around there.  They been to our house lots and lots a times.  …sing.  …I never did go to Church of God.  But anybody was welcome to come home. 

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