DARE Interview : Fargo, Georgia; Primary Informant GA025

Fieldworker

Rentschler, Sally

Date

• 1968

Publisher

Dictionary of American Regional English

Summary

• Informant Data:
• GA025: White; male; age: 71 (old); education: some schooling; community type: rural
• Media Files:
• Arthur the Rat. Speaker: GA025 (4:41)
• Full Interview 1 (Tape 0307-S1).
• Content:
• 00:30 Arthur the Rat
• 05:20 Tall tales about swamp—types of birds that fly upside-down or backwards. Poetry, one about self and one making fun of Hitler
• 13:00 Hitler poem was published in "Stars and Stripes," and soldiers who liked it came to see him. Life near the swamp
• 17:40 Farming for corn, sweet potatoes, and peas. Self-education, learned to write on sand in front yard
• 21:50 Going to town with people who've never been. Fish stories and tall tales
• 26:25 Bobcat joke, scarecrow joke. Can't grow watermelons because vines grow so fast they wear out melons dragging them
• 29:50 Poem he wrote to advertise a run-down Model T for sale, working in post office
• 32:10 Tape end
• Full Interview 2 (Tape 0307-S2).
• Content:
• 00:25 Making fun of local Congressman at post office dedication. Old raft to cross river before bridge, grandfather(?) going to Savannah to buy ammunition
• 05:35 Getting soap from potash and salt from palmettos. Various home remedies
• 10:00 Moonshine toddy to sweat out a fever, keeping barrels of honey and syrup, introduction of wheat flour with turpentine commissary
• 14:30 Eating cured beef and pork, hand-grinding cornmeal. Bear grease when out of lard
• 19:15 Alum and special spring tonic. When they started to have butter
• 23:45 Square dances on Saturday nights when he was young, starting his fish camp business
• 27:20 Gun accident at fish camp, attacking a bear with a pocketknife
• 32:10 Tape end