Archive Record
Metadata
Accession number |
1999.069 |
Catalog Number |
1999.069.015 |
Object Name |
Audiocassette |
Date |
08 Jul 1999 |
Title |
Sabbath, Thelma |
Scope & Content |
Original tape. Audio tape of oral history interview of Ms. Thelma Sabbath conducted by Nita Cole, Archivist, Bossier Parish Historical Center on July 08, 1999. Tape Three. Interview: Ms. Thelma Sabbath July 8, 1999 This interview was conducted by Mrs. Nita Cole with Ms.Thelma Sabbath at the Bossier Parish History Center. This is the third tape with Ms. Sabbath where she continues to read more of her stories, tells more about her life growing up in Gloster, Louisiana, and talks about her children and her parents. Copies of the hand-written stories that Miss Thelma reads are included in the file. Tape 3, Side A, Counter 1- 767 [Mrs. Cole] We're interviewing Ms. Thelma Sabbath, and she has brought some stories for us. And tell us about this story. You said the church asked you to write this? [Ms. Sabbath] Uh huh, we had a Christmas party. And they wanted me to be on the program and tell something about my Christmas when I was growin' up. And so I just wrote this down and I been had it a long time. I was lookin' through things and came across it and I just thought I'd bring it, and read it and let's see what you think about it. [Mrs. Cole] Okay, I don't think we heard the first Christmas. You gave us another Christmas story, but not the first Christmas story. [Ms. Sabbath] I have so many things all clundered and jumbled up so as I come across these things, I be wonderin' did I read 'em to you. So I, if I didn't read this one to you, and so if I did so I'm readin' it the second time.[laughing] Memories of My First Christmas. I can remember my first doll I got for Christmas was a rag doll made out of a picture of a doll on a sack of flour. Flour came at twenty-five pounds in a cloth sack and my mother would cut it out. That was the front of the sack with the doll and she would cut out another piece of cloth, sew it together then she would stuff it with cotton. Put it in a box on Christmas Eve night. It was not any Christmas trees back when I was growin' up. I loved my doll. I named her Dolly Dimple. Dolly Dimple was very special to me because that was all I got in something to play with. Also I can remember fruit was once a year. You did not sleep any until during the Christmas holidays. It was in the house somewhere because we could smell it. In my box along with my rag doll I got one apple, one orange, a few raisins. Back then raisins came packed in a wooden box. About three or four English walnuts, one stick of candy Me and my other sister and brothers, we was very happy for what we had. We did not have much because there was not much to get. But we tried to stay awake all Christmas Eve night trying to see Santy Claus come down the chimbley. In our house we burned wood and Santy would be comin' down the chimbley and we wanted to see him because we believed it was a Santy Claus, and that he was real. We wanted to see for ourselves. We got tired of waiting and dropped off to sleep. When we awoke, ole' Santy had come and gone. I can remember my brothers, in their box they got a paper cap, paper cap pistol, some sort of toy truck, some sort of toy truck my father would try to put together. Times back then was hard but good. That's it. [Mrs. Cole] That's it. Did your father make the truck that he gave to the little boys? Was that like a wooden. . . [Ms. Sabbath] Well, he would take something. Old piece of tin or something and try to make something out of it. We didn't know any better 'cause we thought that it was real. [Mrs. Cole] And it had wheels on it and it moved. And they were happy. [laughing] [Ms. Sabbath] That's right. We was just happy with what we got because we were not like the chil'ren of today. We just had, we just had to be thankful because that's all we had and that's all we was goin' to get. [Mrs. Cole] It must've been hard for your mother to make all those dolls because you weren't the only one that got one. Didn't your sister get. . . [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah she got one too. [Mrs. Cole] So she (your mother) had to make several dolls, and then your dad had to make trucks. [Ms. Sabbath] Trucks. Uh huh. And the paper cap pistols. He didn't make them. He'd go to the five and ten cent store and get one of them and them little ole' caps, little ole' caps to go in 'em. But I don't think they make them anymore. They make real guns with bullets now. [Mrs. Cole] Yeah, oh yeah. It's not the same thing. [Ms. Sabbath] No it's not. [Mrs. Cole] But when you think about her, she probably had to buy half a dozen oranges and all those you know, 'cause weren't there eight of you in your family? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah, 'bout nine. Well yeah, it was about, maybe 'bout seven then because all of us. . . [Mrs. Cole] You weren't all there. You were the oldest. [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah I, I'm the oldest. [Mrs. Cole] Now how old were you when you got your first doll? Do you remember how old you were? [Ms. Sabbath] Maybe about, I say 'bout six years, that's been now, been so long. About six-years-old. [Mrs. Cole] But a small child. But judging by how many brothers and sisters you had, that's how you could tell. [laughing] Well that must've been hard for her to hide all those boxes too. Like you say, you could smell the fruit so you knew it was there. [Ms. Sabbath] Fruit, it was in the house somewhere. We, and our house had, what you call it, a attic. I guess they was up in, we don't know where they was. We could smell 'em but we couldn't see 'em. [Mrs. Cole] Yeah. Now was there a stair to the attic, or did you have to use a ladder to get up to the attic? [Ms. Sabbath] Wasn't any stair. Must a used old chairs or somethin' to climb up there. [Mrs. Cole] And that's why ya'll couldn't get up there, you know. 'Cause your parents could but you wouldn't be able to do that. That's just, that must be where she hid 'em then. 'Cause that'd be a good place. [Ms. Sabbath] Sho' would to keep 'em out of our sight. [laughing] [Mrs. Cole] [laughing] 'Cause you were lookin', huh? [Ms. Sabbath] And another thing. We didn't see fruit but once a year and that was Christmas. Not even in the grocery store. [Mrs. Cole] And there were not, do you remember fruit trees growing anywhere in the area? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah, yeah. Like in the country. People would, yeah there'd be fruit trees like plumbs, and peaches, and things like that. But by time they started to comin' on the tree we done took and gobbled 'em off. [laughing] [Mrs. Cole] But you didn't get like oranges because that had to be brought in. [Ms. Sabbath] Brought in. Yeah that's right. You think that's a pretty good one (the story)? [Mrs. Cole] Oh yeah I like that one. I think that's a really good one. [Ms. Sabbath] Let me see I found another one by lookin' through there. Oh, I got that one in my book that, you know, I wrote about my mother. [Mrs. Cole] Is that the one that's titled Mother ? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah, Mother. I wrote that in our writing class May the ninth, 19. . . It's another one over here I don't think you heard yet. Like a Father, that's in that book too. [Mrs. Cole] Those are good ones about, about your parents. [Ms. Sabbath] I thought I had somethin' else. Oh, we had to write something in our class about, I think it say things what, you know, happened to us. That's March 18, 1998. My Lucky Day. Of course it have been a long time ago but it is a day, yeah that, that was a long time ago, but it is a day that I always will remember. I was still at home with my parents. We all had work to do around the house. And that day it was lightening and thundering, storming just like it was here last week, last Saturday. (You know, you know that was not too long here when all that, we had all that rain.) It was my day to wash dishes and clean up the kitchen. And while in the kitchen around the old wood stove, burning stove, it came a real hard clap of lightening. I ran out of the kitchen. I dropped the plate or the lightening knocked it out of my hand. I thought I had been struck by the lightening. It went down my arm I thought, and I was sho' myself, and I thought it was a lucky day for me and a day I'd never forget as long as I live. I thought that lightening had struck me. That'd been a long time ago. Oh, that was. . . that's all of that. [Mrs. Cole] Well, you were lucky. 'Cause it probably came real close to you. [Ms. Sabbath] I thought, I thought it had struck me but it hadn't. And that's all of that now. [Mrs. Cole] It just sounded like it. Tell me what your stove looked like. Your wood burning stove. Did it have feet on it? [Ms. Sabbath] Old pot belly, old pot belly stove. [Mrs. Cole] It was a pot belly stove? [Ms. Sabbath] Probably, I don't know if there's one (a picture of it on the brochures that Ms. Sabbath brought that day) this what you covered up or not. [Mrs. Cole] I don't think so. [Ms. Sabbath] Old pot belly stove with a . . . [Mrs. Cole] No I think they just have pictures of houses on this brochure. So it was a round stove? [Ms. Sabbath] It was just an old . . . Well it was kind of round, but pot, if you know what pot belly is. It stood on four legs. Had a pipe run from the stove up to the ceiling. [Mrs. Cole] And how many pots could you put on top of it? Two pots or four pots? [Ms. Sabbath] It would hold four. [Mrs. Cole] It would hold four pots? And did you have it, was it just sitting on the wood floor or was it sitting on bricks. [Ms. Sabbath] On brick, yeah on bricks. If it would had a been sittin' on the floor with burnin' wood, it would'a caught the floor on fire. [Mrs. Cole] Yeah it'd a caught fire. So, now did you have a fireplace next to it? So did it sit near the fireplace on the floor. [Ms. Sabbath] No it was in a room kind of off, that was the kitchen. It was in the kitchen. And then also we had the fireplace where we sat in the front of it tryin' to get warm. [Mrs. Cole] That was in the front room? So it was in the kitchen by itself and it just had a set of bricks that was underneath it? And the rest of the kitchen floor was a wooden floor? [Ms. Sabbath] Floor, yeah and a table was in the kitchen where we sat around and ate on. [Mrs. Cole] And did you have pantry shelves in there too? Or did you have a separate pantry that you stored some food in and that sort of thing? Or like pies if you, when your mother baked. Did she bake at Christmas? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah she had a, in our kitchen we had a safe with a screen door, 'cause there wasn't any electricity. And the old screen doors, the better the screen doors to keep the flies away from the food. [Mrs. Cole] But she didn't store a lot of food in the kitchen did she? [Ms. Sabbath] No, 'cause there wasn't anything to keep it from spoilin'. [Mrs. Cole] And you'd just go and get vegetables our of the yard and cook that day? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah, yeah. We raised our, they raised all our vegetables and things. Gardens of greens, and peas, potatoes, and snap beans, and butter beans, and corn and sweet potatoes. [Mrs. Cole] And so you ate, you would eat what was ripe and what was ready that day? [Ms. Sabbath] Oh yeah. I remember my father, and I don't know, I still don't understand that he would. . . October, I don't quite remember the date, but I know in October we had a field of potatoes. And he would plow up the sweet potatoes and we'd go out there and pick 'em up and he would make a huge bed of those potatoes and put those potatoes and put straw, pine straw in between 'em and those potatoes in that huge bed would stay there and keep the whole winter long without even, I don't see how that he done it. [Mrs. Cole] Was that near the house that he made this bed? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah, kind'a in the back of the house. [Mrs. Cole] And did it, was it just layers of pine straw, or did he have bricks around it or something? [Ms. Sabbath] I can't remember the bricks. I remember, I can remember that straw. [Mrs. Cole] So he would just layer it? [Ms. Sabbath] Layer, yeah. A pile of straw and a pile of potatoes, a pile of straw and a pile of potatoes. [Mrs. Cole] Well, that sounds like a good system. [laughing] And so ya'll would just go on and eat potatoes, sweet potatoes all winter long? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah, dig in the straw and get out us some potatoes. And they was good and sweet. [Mrs. Cole] Oh I bet, yeah. And they would cook, would you cook 'em in the ashes of the stove? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah, else there in the fireplace. Dig a hole in that pile first sweet potatoes and pile the hot ashes on top of 'em. [Mrs. Cole] Did you wrap 'em in cloth? [Ms. Sabbath] No! In the ashes, in the ashes. [Mrs. Cole] In just in ashes and then just scrape the ashes off and ate 'em. [Ms. Sabbath] And eat the potatoes. [Mrs. Cole] Oooo! That does sound good. [laughing] Yeah, I had read somebody said that they wrapped 'em in cloth and I thought well the cloth would burn and wouldn't taste good. [Ms. Sabbath] Foolish! I know you wrap 'em in foil, but we didn't know what that was. [laughing] [Mrs. Cole] Yeah, I thought that sounded kind'a peculiar so I wanted to check that out with you. [Ms. Sabbath] We didn't know, we didn't know what foil was. [Mrs. Cole] Uh huh yeah. Well they taste better. I don't put mine in foil anymore now either. [Ms. Sabbath] You don't put yours in foil? [Mrs. Cole] Huh uh, I just put 'em right in the oven. I put foil underneath 'em because the sugar all drips into the oven and makes a mess But I just cook 'em. [Ms. Sabbath] Oh I didn't know you eat sweet potatoes? [Mrs. Cole] Oh yeah, I love sweet potatoes. [Ms. Sabbath] I do too. Now that's one out two of 'em. [Mrs. Cole] Now, you want to read this, your poem that you wrote on The Great Depression? Why don't you read that one? [Ms. Sabbath] Oh. The Great Depression. Listen, let me tell you about a thing I know about the Great Depression when employment was so low. But we was sort'a lucky in a certain kind of way For we lived on a farm and had no bills to pay. We had no convenient to lighten the load Sometime a little hungry and sometimes a little cold. We worked very hard but it didn't, did us no harm In the days of Depression down on the farm. Our work began at four o'clock in the morn We'd feed the cows and chickens, pulled the cotton and corn. We take a break at lunch time when the bell would sound Then back to the hot field till the sun went down. Didn't get in much trouble while we had no time And we didn't have no money, not even a dime. We were tired, but happy and when the day was through We felt we had completed what we set out to do. When the vegetables all ripened, it was so grand We was always glad when we had them all came. We had milk, butter from our cows for sure It tasted so delicious because it was so pure. There wasn't any government sanitary laws We strained the milk and drank it just as it was Or we put it in a bucket and drop it in the well And it would come out so cold and taste really well. We attended school at the old school house Where the teachers was so strict, we'd be quiet as a mouse. From the old text books our lessons we learned By the light of the kerosene lamp that we burned. The teachers used paddles then if we didn't behave And the parents backed them every step of the way. Dads and mom always were seen and heard And when we spoke to our elders, ma'am and sir was the words. (That's what we just got through talkin' about.) We made up our own games in a very own way Using dolls wrapped in rags we played. We played jump rope with a old plow line And we'd make a bed of straw from a tree of pine. Used empty cans and bottles in our house of play Which we would sell at our grocery store that we made. We play a game of hopscotch, hide-and-go-seek And sometimes we'd go swimming in the water in the creek. We used wood for fuel that we cut off the land And the family wash was done all by hand. The iron was heated on a old wood stove Always a little too hot or always a little too cold. Life wasn't easy, but if you don't mind the work A whole lot of grit and a whole lot of dirt. Then you'll be happy. It's a good place to rear A family on the farm in the depression years. So you see, we had good times as well as bad And we really feel better about the life we had. To face such times of trouble with luckily goods But the good Lord brought us through it just as we prayed He would. And it wouldn't hurt the people of this day and time To live through a depression, maybe love they'd find. If he had no convenience and had to do without Then they'd really know what labor is and what it's all about. Now, I could write a book about those old antiques That you treasure so much and think are so neat. But if we had to go back to those old fashion ways It wouldn't be quite so easy with those antiques you'll slave. You won't have time or money to run up and down the streets And you sure can't be too choosy about what you have to eat. Now I'm still very important, but those lessons I learned By doin' about the Great Depression down on the farm. [Mrs. Cole] Oh, I like that. [Ms. Sabbath] You like that? [Mrs. Cole] Yeah I do. Did you write that for your class? Is that one of the ones you wrote for class? [Ms. Sabbath] I didn't, I didn't, no. Not that one. But I did read a story about the Depression. [Mrs. Cole] And then somebody put it into verse for you? 'Cause it sounds just like you. I mean it sounds like all your stories. [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah. You know, I had, but I didn't, the time I came I didn't, I just ran across that. Like I was tellin' you lookin' through things I run across these things. And I just thought I'd bring it and then see. [Mrs. Cole] Oh that's a great one. Oh, I like it. [Ms. Sabbath] See what you think about it. [Mrs. Cole] Yeah I like that. There was something I was going to ask you. Oh, tell me about, you were talkin' about earlier that your mother used to. . . [Ms. Sabbath] Oh, I brought a picture, just a, and everybody say I look just like her. [Mrs. Cole] Oh I'm so glad you brought a picture of her. [Ms. Sabbath] I, 'course it's old. You think we look alike, or I look like her? [Mrs. Cole] Yeah you do. I think so. I think so. Your chin's a little bit different, so you must have your dad's chin 'cause your chin's a little bit different shape than, than hers is. But you, you definitely favor her. And you know my children are like that. They look like both their parents. You know when they stand next to one, they look like that one and when they stand next to the other one they look like that one. [Mrs. Sabbath] She was a good mother. If she, we all went to church together. She would scrub us all. And she would set, if she didn't set behind us, she wouldn't set in front of us. She'd set behind us. And we knew to keep quiet. We didn't talk. We didn't hardly look at one another. We was, but all she had to do was just in church, we started to cuttin' up and all she had to do was just look at us or shake her finger. We knew what that meant. We knew what, she was good, she loved us and she done all she could for us. Like I say, we didn't have much. We didn't have nothin', but I can remember sometimes we didn't have nothin' to eat, run out of food. And she could get in that kitchen and just work up somethin'. It was good. It wasn't nothin' -- she'd make up a big ole' pan of cornbread and a big ole' skillet of white gravy, we'd eat it. And it was fillin' too. [Mrs. Cole] And it tasted good too. [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah, it was good! [laughing] I guess that's what you call a real mother what cared for her chil'ren and loved 'em. And you don't hardly see that anymore. [Mrs. Cole] No you don't. And you had mentioned earlier she used to go out and pick mullein? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah and make that tea? When we was all chil'ren had the chickenpox, the measles, or the mumps. She would make a big ole' pot of mullein tea and when we'd ask for, you know it carries a high temperature, a fever. And when we would ask for a glass of water, she'd give us a glass of mullein tea. [Mrs. Cole] And what does it taste like, mullein tea? [Ms. Sabbath] Well, I don't know. Then it tasted good so it doesn't. . . [laughing] [Mrs. Cole] Uh huh. It was comforting then? [Ms. Sabbath] It sure was. And we had to, we couldn't get up and run all around the house. We had to stay in the bed. [Mrs. Cole] And so she knew how to just go out in the, in the woods and. . . [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah, 'cause it grows round in the fields and not far from the house and she would go out there and pull up some mullein and wash it, and wrench it off, I guess she did. Make a big ole' pot of mullein tea and we dranked off of that. [Mrs. Cole] Now would she give you anything else besides mullein tea? I mean were there other, if you had a different ailment, like if you cut your foot or you cut your hand or something? [Ms. Sabbath] If we cut our foot, I'm glad you mentioned that. Runnin' and playin' because we didn't have any shoes on. No, she would a, that kerosene, we call it coal oil it's the same thing, she would take an old rag and fill it full of that coal oil and make a polster like and put it on our place where we had a . . . [Mrs. Cole] For cuts. [Ms. Sabbath] For cuts and it would stop that bleeding. [Mrs. Cole] That must've, that would sting. Did it sting? [Ms. Sabbath] No. [Mrs. Cole] No? It didn't sting? [Ms. Sabbath] It didn't sting. But it would stop that bleeding and nobody would have to go, what when your not, hurt yourself now what you have to git a, what kind of shot? [Mrs. Cole] Oh, a tetanus shot. [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah. [laughing] That, that wasn't even heard of. [Mrs. Cole] Yeah. No, you just didn't do that. [Ms. Sabbath] Well there wasn't nothin' like that around in our . . . and so she would mend our wounds with that. 'Cause I remember my brother, when my brother cut his feet, one of his feet almost wide open, and that's what she used. [Mrs. Cole] And that's all she would put on it would be that coal oil? And then it would just heal up? [Ms. Sabbath] Heal up. [Mrs. Cole] Seems you ought to be usin' that now. [Ms. Sabbath] There wasn't no where to go. Wasn't no stitches. [Mrs. Cole] So, you didn't see a doctor as a child then? [Ms. Sabbath] No, 'cause back then there wasn't no hospitals. It was midwives. I imagine you heard of midwives? [Mrs. Cole] They're comin' back in fashion now. [Ms. Sabbath] Oh are they? [Mrs. Cole] Oh yeah. They were sayin' in Hollywood everybody's usin' midwives now. [Ms. Sabbath] I know they was midwives, that's all there was. [Mrs. Cole] But you, so you never saw as a child, you never saw a doctor for anything, and you grew up just healthy as anything? [Ms. Sabbath] That's the truth. Healthier 'cause we ate the right kind of foods. And I remember when, when we had the mumps. The mumps was real bad, 'cause it. . . You ever had it? [Mrs. Cole] Oh yeah. It hurts. [Ms. Sabbath] She would, she would rub us up like that and buy sardines. We'd eat the sardines and she'd take the oil and rub our jaws and wrap 'em in some old rags or somethin'. [Mrs. Cole] And that made it feel better? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah. [Mrs. Cole] I don't remember anything makin' mine feel better. [laughing] I remember that and it was very painful. [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah, oh yeah they hurt. [Mrs. Cole] But she put sardines on it and then like massaged it. [Ms. Sabbath] No, she put the oil.. [Mrs. Cole] Yeah the oil. Right. [Ms. Sabbath] And we ate the sardines and rubbed and then wrapped our jaws with some old rags or somethin'. And made us, made us stay in the bed. [Mrs. Cole] And did you all get the mumps at the same time or did you get them like on after the other? [Ms. Sabbath] No. Uh huh. [Mrs. Cole] 'Cause that must've been a lot of work for her takin' care of children with the mumps. [Ms. Sabbath] Well, she was a good 'ole mom. And one of her hands, I don't know, can't remember was it the left one or the right one, she was crippled in that hand. And when she tell you to do something and you act like you didn't want to do it, she'd take that and knock you flat on the floor and then wouldn't even look back to see where you fell. [laughing] [Mrs. Cole] So then you did it right after that? [laughing] [Ms. Sabbath] Oh yeah. She was, she was tough, but she was good. Now if all chil'ren was raised up like that, it wouldn't even need policemans. [Mrs. Cole] Now was your grandmother in, I remember you said your grandmother lived fairly close. Do you remember your grandmother comin' by and. . . [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah, she would come and help out with us. [Mrs. Cole] And she'd help cook and, and stuff? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah she'd help cook whatever we had to cook. Put on a big ole' pot of peas or beans and big ole' pan of cornbread. [Mrs. Cole] And did they do a lot of sewing? I mean all your clothes and that sort of thing? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah, she made. . . you pedaled. . .our mother, she could sew pretty good. Had a old machine, you know, which helped. Not what ya'll got now. She'd make our clothes. Buy this ginghams. I don't think they have it. [Mrs. Cole] I see it sometimes. Gingham. Different colors or you'd, or you'd all have the same color? [Ms. Sabbath] Different colors. And she'd buy voile and another material. I know voile was one of the materials she would buy and make our dresses. Origan. The origan was stiff. [Mrs. Cole] Organdy. Yeah for church. She'd make those for church dresses. [Ms. Sabbath] And then they's a wearin' those sleeves, those great big ole' puff sleeves. She'd make 'em and tie them big ole' bows behind 'em. We'd put on our ole' Brogan shoes and we's dressed up. [laughing] [Mrs. Cole] And that was for church. [Ms. Sabbath] And we'd go to church. Yeah , that was our church clothes. [Mrs. Cole] And then you'd wear the gingham during the week for play clothes and work clothes and that sort of thing. And what about hats? Did she, did she make hats? [Ms. Sabbath] She had a sister. Her name was Belle. We called her Aunt Sissy. She could make all those hats. [Mrs. Cole] Oh she did? She could braid? [Ms. Sabbath] Out of straw, out of shucks, what you get off of corn. [Mrs. Cole] Corn shucks? Oh yeah? [Ms. Sabbath] I know she made me and my sister a shuck purse. [Mrs. Cole] And so she probably lived close too? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah she would make the, those type, yeah she would make our hats and purses. [Mrs. Cole] Yeah, I wish I had one of those now. You can't find anybody that knows how to do that. [Ms. Sabbath] Oh no, you can't find that now. And I just wish'd I had something what I had when I was a little girl, 'course it wouldn't be nothin' but rags by now. You know something to show what I wore when I was a little. Nothin' like that now. [Mrs. Cole] Well, tell me somethin' about what happened after you got married. Now you say you got married, but you didn't stay married for very long. [Ms. Sabbath] No, not very long. [Mrs. Cole] No. So about how long did you stay married? [Ms. Sabbath] I guess about, I'm, I'm guessin' now, it's been so long. 'Bout three, four years I guess. [Mrs. Cole] So it wasn't very long? And did you live in Gloster while you were married? [Ms. Sabbath] Yes. We, me and my husband fall out with one another and then I'd go right back home. [Mrs. Cole] And what was his name? [Ms. Sabbath] His name was Willie T. Rhodes. See after we separated and divorced, I just went back in my. . . [Mrs. Cole] Took your parents name back again? And how many children did you have? [Ms. Sabbath] From him? Just had one, a girl. [Mrs. Cole] A girl? And is that Lola? [Ms. Sabbath] Lola. Next time I come, didn't I bring you . . . [Mrs. Cole] You brought me a picture of her when she was younger. The two of you together. [Ms. Sabbath] Oh that's right. That's right. I need to, I should'a brought one of . . . All three of 'em finished school. [Mrs. Cole] So you had children, then you got married again? [Ms. Sabbath] No, just, you run around and get pregnant by somebody else. [Mrs. Cole] So you had three children all together? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah. [Mrs. Cole] And they were all, were they all born in Gloster? [Ms. Sabbath] Just Lola the oldest one. But the other two younger ones was born here in Shreveport. [Mrs. Cole] Okay, and so how long did you stay with your parents? Just back and forth? [Ms. Sabbath] Off and on. [Mrs. Cole] Yeah when you were married? And then did you move to Shreveport? [Ms. Sabbath] Yes. [Mrs. Cole] And when was that do you think? [Ms. Sabbath] That's been so long I can't, I can't think that far back. I, I you know, I don't know how many years back? It was a long time ago. [Mrs. Cole] Well, was Lola still a baby or had she grown? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah, she had growed up some. [Mrs. Cole] She had grown up some? And then she came with you to Shreveport or did she stay with your mother? [Ms. Sabbath] She stayed with me. [Mrs. Cole] Now I'm just tryin' to figure out what, what time period you moved into Shreveport. What did you do when you moved to Shreveport? [Ms. Sabbath] I got a job and started to workin', you know, doin' housework, cleanin' houses for people, washin' and cookin'. [Mrs. Cole] And did you, I was just goin' to say, did you cook? [Ms. Sabbath] Yes! [Mrs. Cole] Well you brought us some wonderful teacakes. Can you tell us the recipe for your teacakes? [Ms. Sabbath] I have to come back out here and bring you the recipe. Uh huh, 'cause I didn't know you was goin' to love 'em that well. [Mrs. Cole] Oh yeah, they're really good. And is that something that you worked on yourself or did you just evolve over time? Where did you get the recipe? [Ms. Sabbath] In one of our classes where, the genealogy classes, one of the ladies, I think that book what I have is sort'a kind'a damaged a little and they were sellin' those books for five dollars. And one of my good friends she gave me that book. And I, I'm goin' to bring you that recipe, I'm goin' to bring you the book. And I, well some of those recipes in there, and I think that teacake is, that lady says it's her, her grandmother's recipe. [Mrs. Cole] Yeah, 'cause you don't see recipes for teacakes anymore. [Ms. Sabbath] No, so I think it was back in the 1800's. [Mrs. Cole] And then nobody would know how to make 'em any, anyway. [Ms. Sabbath] They don't make things like that all of this stuff you could cook you can buy now. And those tea, I mean those cookies, I mean those peanut butter cookies, that came off the can of, with the peanut butter. [Mrs. Cole] But they're so pretty. [laughing] You've got 'em all scored on the front. I mean they're nice lookin'. You take a fork and. . . [Ms. Sabbath] You take a pinch and roll it out and put in your pan and take a fork. . . [Mrs. Cole] And score it like that, yeah. [Ms. Sabbath] And mash it out. [Mrs. Cole] Yeah, they look good. Well tell me about your other two children. Are they boys or girls? [Ms. Sabbath] One's a boy and a girl. [Mrs. Cole] And what are their names? [Ms. Sabbath] The son's, his name is Frank. And the girl's is Vertis Marie. [Mrs. Cole] And are they still in Shreveport too? [Ms. Sabbath] Uh huh, they're all in Shreveport. [Mrs. Cole] Now, after you quit workin', you got kind'a active didn't you? And started joinin' all these clubs and organizations? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah just goin' and doin' some of everything. [Mrs. Cole] Well tell me about some of those organizations you belong to. [Ms. Sabbath] Well, I told you about that Centenary College. [Mrs. Cole] Are you still taking the writing class there at Centenary? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah that's one. And I'll be goin' there tomorrow. That's once a month. [Mrs. Cole] And you've been doin' that for a long time. 'Bout ten years now. [Ms. Sabbath] And then I go to the Y.M.C.A. There's one of 'em. [Mrs. Cole] And I understand you work out at the Y? [Ms. Sabbath] Yes, I do. [laughing] [Mrs. Cole] I wish I had time to do that. I keep thinkin' I need to do that. But Miss Phyllis Kidd said that you go swim and work out and do all kinds of things over there. [Ms. Sabbath] Oh yeah. She don't do nothin'. [Mrs. Cole] No. And she, she's slim. She doesn't need to be doin' anything now. And then you also belong to the Genealogy Society? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah, Saturday I'll be there. And I'm the one on the hospitality committee. They have people, you know, bring refreshments and so I will be bringing, one of the ladies said she, she for Saturday, she would furnish, she'd bring the other things if I would make the cake. [laughing] Everybody love my cake. [Mrs. Cole] Oh I know. [Ms. Sabbath] I'm goin' to make a carrot cake. [Mrs. Cole] And you're goin' to have to bring us that recipe for the prune cake too. You brought us prune cake the last time you came. [Ms. Sabbath] Okay. Okay. A friend of mine gave me that recipe and I made. [Mrs. Cole] And it's good. [Ms. Sabbath] I, I have two or three more little ole' stories. [Mrs. Cole] Oh you did? Well good. Why don't you read us some more stories then. I'm tryin' to fill in the gaps here and 'cause you tell us so much about when you were growin' up. And I know what you're doin' now, so I'm just tryin' to fill in the gaps in between. [Ms. Sabbath] Well growin' up, as I was growin' up I didn't, all of this wasn't, it wasn't. But as I grew and got involved in, in so many things and I'm glad I did. Now this one is The House on a Hill. Once upon a time there sitting high on a hill was a house. That old house was the house that we chil'ren lived in with our mother and father. It was not anything fancy, but it was a place called home. It had a tin top, old windows, shutters that was about to fall off and rattled something terrible when the wind blowed. Sometime the wind would blow so hard until we thought it was going to blow the old house down because it didn't, it set on a hill. It was much love in the old house. After we got out of school and came home, each one of us had chores to do. Then we would come inside, eat supper then we would gather around the fireplace burning with wood on the floor. No chairs to, no chairs. It was two chairs. One for our mamma and one for our daddy. We had more chairs but they would be used for company. Only we would gather 'round our mother's feet and she would help us with our school lessons for the next morning. Sitting around on the rough floor in our old house on the hill, Mamma taught us a lot things. She taught us how to love one another, how to respect the older people, also how to share with others some of what we had. Tape 3, Side B, Counter 1- 188 [Ms. Sabbath] The old house was so cold we had one burning fireplace, but it was so cold that in the '30s the old house never did get warm. I remember standing in front of the fireplace until my legs would be just baked in front and freezing behind. Those old hard times taught us to look to the Lord because He is the One and the only One. There is a song, through it we learned to depend on the Lord because He is able. Now that's that. [Mrs. Cole] Now do you have grandchildren? [Ms. Sabbath] Uh huh. [Mrs. Cole] And do you share your stories with your grandchildren? [Ms. Sabbath] Oh yeah. A little bit. You think that'll do? [Mrs. Cole] Oh yeah, I like that one. [Ms. Sabbath] It ain't but about two more, then that's the end. [Mrs. Cole] We want to hear 'em. [Ms. Sabbath] I just got through that. This is Christmas. Christmas would be coming soon and we would be looking forward to those two days because we knew that we would be getting all kinds of goodies. Mother would start cooking a week ahead of time. She would bake sweet potato pies and stack them on top of one another. About ten pies that would make them real high. But we would cut through them with much ease. Then she would bake, oh bake good ole' jelly cakes. That was the cake everybody baked back in those days. And it just wouldn't be, not be Thanksgiving without a goose with good cornbread dressing. And turkey was the main meat for Christmas. It was not any electricity back in the 30's. Fresh meat kept real good without spoiling. The smell of the food cooking on a stove with wood burning -- just had to keep wood in it. When one armful burned out, we would put in more. That way we kept the fire burning in order for the food to get cooked. That's all of that one I think. That was all of that. [Mrs. Cole] So the next one's a different story? Well let me ask you this? If you have a wood, a pot belly stove, where do you bake in a pot belly stove? Does it have a little shelf? [Ms. Sabbath] It have a shelf, a little door you could open. [Mrs. Cole] And it has a little shelf in there that's above the wood. [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah you could put your bread or put your whatever you. . . [Mrs. Cole] So how many pies could she fit in there? She's baking ten pies. Did she have to bake 'em two at a time? How many would fit? [Ms. Sabbath] She would put two in there at a time. [Mrs. Cole] So that would take her a long time. [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah, she started the cookin' a week ahead of time. [Mrs. Cole] And baked every day probably. [Ms. Sabbath] Baked daily. Good ole' pies. Back then we had piles of that real good butter. [Mrs. Cole] And then did you have family to come over at Christmas and everybody eat together? Did your grandmother and your aunts and all that all come over? And so she was probably the best cook I bet. [laughing] [Ms. Sabbath] I don't know, but she had plenty for everybody. [Mrs. Cole] Yeah, and everybody bring somethin' too. [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah when they came by. [Mrs. Cole] I was just curious as to how much would fit in that stove. [laughing] [Ms. Sabbath] You ready for the next one? [Mrs. Cole] Yeah I'm ready. What's the name of the next one? [Ms. Sabbath] Hard Years. During those years we would go into the woods and saw up wood for the fireplace and the cook stove. It was not any electricity so the wood was used to burn in the fireplace and in the stove to cook food. The wood would be brought in the house in my father's wagon pulled by the mule. The mule's name was Old Pet. The weather was so very cold back in the '30s our old house that we lived in was full of holes and cracks and it was real hard to keep warm. The north wind was so strong blowing would make tears come from our eyes. When we would go to bed at night, our old house never did get warm enough to heat up the house. Did not have but one fireplace and with the house full of holes and big cracks the cold wind could blow right through in there -- was nothing to stop it. So we would heat up the old smoothing irons on the hot coals in the fireplace and wrap them up in old rags and put them at our feet trying to keep them warm at night while we tried to get a good nights sleep. With all that wrapping up hot irons in old rags it still was freezing cold in our old house because it was so many holes and cracks the north wind came right through. But with all the hard times it still was good times and good days. We all lived through thick and thin. The family, our family stayed together. We was taught by our parents to be thankful for what we had, little or much. We be grateful because there are days others hold out, and oh, there are days ahead. Hold out and hold on. That's all of that. [Mrs. Cole] I like that. Now did your parents stay in Gloster all their life? Did they ever move from there? They stayed there all the time? [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah., far as I know of, yeah. [Mrs. Cole] And then when did they pass away? Do you remember? [Ms. Sabbath] I believe it was, I've got a, I should have brought it, the funeral picture of my mother the year she passed. I can't remember what year it was that my father passed, but he, she passed before he did. [Mrs. Cole] Before he did? That's unusual. 'Cause usually the dads go first. [Ms. Sabbath] Yeah they sure do. But she outlived all her sisters and brothers, and mother and father. She was the longest liver. This is one I, this is one I read in my class, my writing class. Thelma Sabbath. Thanksgivivng. Thanksgiving is a happy time and a blessed time. When families come together to be with one another on Thanksgiving Day. Some families travel far, for miles coming home for Thanksgiving. And that is a great day of the year with love sharing and getting in the kitchen cooking all kinds of good food. In my childhood days I can remember on Thanksgiving we would have a big goose for Thanksgiving and turkey for Christmas. Because back then my grandmother raised a lots of turkeys and geese, chickens, ducks and she would give my mother two geese because it was so many of us. It would take that much and that good sweet potato pies, cooked cakes, potato salad good dressing with the goose. And it was sure good. On Thanksgiving Day, our dinner was put out on the table and all of us would gather around the table, would bow our heads and our father would say the blessing because he was the head of the house. And each one of us would say a Bible verse and mother would also bless the food. The old saying the family that prays together stays together. We worked hard, very hard back in those days. We worked for what we wanted. We did not go around breakin' in people's houses and stealin' and takin' what people's, other people's things, what they worked hard for. We just did not do that. That is what's happening today. Stealing and plenty of it. If we brought anything in our house what our parents did not buy for us, we had to tell them where we got it from and then we had to take it back where we got it from. We had to tell the truth. They would find it out anyway. Could not, could not put anything over our parents back then. Good ole' days. We need that now. That, that's all of it. That's everything. [Mrs. Cole] Yeah, that's great. Well, let me turn off the tape then. Thank you Ms. Thelma. The two following stories were copied but not read by Miss Thelma. May 9, 1997 Mother I had a sweet loving mother. Taught her children how to love and respect other people. Also she taught us how to love one another. She took time with us and she also would make sure that we went to Sunday school and church every Sunday morning because she went with us. No car to ride in, we walked, and was on time. And another thing, we had to sit quiet in church -- to talking. Mama would sit with us all of us would sit together. If she would happen to see one of us talking, Mama did not say a word, just give us a mean look or just shaked her finger. We know what that meant. We would wash our Sunday clothes early on Saturday where they could dry, so they could be ironed on Saturday nights. We had a rule in our house, no ironing on Sundays, no cooking. Mama would cook Sunday's dinner on Saturday nights. There would always be company coming home with us every Sunday for Dinner. There was plenty love in those days. Every night before we went to bed all of us had to kneel down at the bed. Mama would teach us to say the Lord's Prayer before we got into the bed. There is nothing on this earth more precious then silver or gold, more beautiful than diamonds or roses, for all the world to behold. It's the love of a Christian mother who has faithfully followed God, who taught her children the things that are right as down life's way they trod. Her door is always open to her weary wandering child and no matter how you treated her she's loved you all the while. That is a mother. June 13, 1997 Things About my Father As children growing up we thought he was one of the meanest person in the world. He meant what he said and said what he meant. If we was told to do things around the house or things in the field because we lived in the country, those things he told us to do we did them. If we did not we knew what the next thing was, that was a good strap used on us. Way back in the '30s men used razor straps to sharpen their razors. Long blade razors was used to shave with and the strap was used to serve more than one thing. We all stayed together. We went places together and came back home together. One of us dared not come home without the other. We know what was in store for us. Parents was good parents in those days. They did not have much to give their children because there was not much to give, but they gave their love and let us know that they cared. Loving and caring parent means a lot. We had to respect the older people. |
People |
Sabbath, Thelma |
Search Terms |
Oral History |
Lexicon category |
6: T&E For Communication |
Interview date |
1999-07-08 |
Interview place |
Bossier Parish Historical Center |
Interviewer |
Nita Cole |
Medium |
Plastic |
Recording media |
Cassette Tape |
Lexicon sub-category |
Sound Communication T&E |
Inventoried date |
2025-06-12 |