Oral History Interview with Elbert Arvin

1983OH02.2

1983OH02.2

Family Farm Oral History Project

Interview with Elbert Arvin

June 29, 1983

Conducted by Ginny Scott

© 1983 Kentucky Oral History Commission

Kentucky Historical Society

Kentucky Oral History Commission

100 W. Broadway ( Frankfort, KY 40601

502-564-1792 ( (fax) 502-564-0475 ( history.ky.gov

Use and Quotation Policy

Authorization must be granted by the Kentucky Historical Society (which includes the Kentucky Oral History Commission) to use or publish by any means any archival material to which the Society holds copyright. To obtain authorization, users will submit a completed Use Agreement to the Kentucky Historical Society Special Collections & Reference Services. Fees for all uses, excepting non-profit or other use, with the intent to enhance understanding of or appreciation for Kentucky’s heritage will be assessed on a case-by-case basis and added to the cost of reproduction.

Users may not alter, distort, or change in any way the text or the image to be used, unless otherwise authorized by the Society. Researchers are responsible for obtaining permission to publish by any means any material held at the Society but to which the KHS does not hold copyright. The Society is not responsible for any copyright infringement.

Users will not quote or otherwise reproduce in part or in whole any archival material, without citing the “Kentucky Historical Society,” and without giving explicit written acknowledgement of the collection from which it was obtained, as designated by the Society.

Users will present to the Kentucky Historical Society Special Collections & Reference Services one (1) copy of any publication using materials held by the Society or will provide any other proof of appropriate acknowledgment and citation as the Society will designate.

Only material that will not be physically damaged by the process of duplication will be copied. The Society reserves the right to withhold permission for the reproduction of any material involving unusual difficulty or great risk to the original.

This is an unedited transcript. Quotation of materials from this transcript should be corroborated with the original audio recording if possible.

The following is an unrehearsed taped interview with Mr. Elbert Arvin, farmer in Estill County. The interview was conducted by Ginny Scott, for the Kentucky Oral History Commission. The interview was conducted at Mr. Arvin’s farm in Estill County on June 29, 1983, at 1:00 A.M.

An Interview with Elbert Arvin

Scott: First Mr. Arvin, I’d like to thank you for taking time out, I know you are busy from all the running you do.

Arvin: Yeah, I do a right smart.

Scott: I’d like to start out you telling me when you were born, where you were born, and who your parents were, and just get your background settled.

Arvin: My background…it might be bad!

Scott: [Laughing]. I’ll take that too!

Arvin: I was born August 13, 1913—seventy-one in two months.

Scott: And still going strong.

Arvin: Oh yeah. Going ever since I was sixteen years old, and my daddy….do you want that here?

Scott: Yes.

Arvin: …he was Alvin Arvin, and my mother was Ethyl Arvin; she was a Lincoln before she was married. I was born and raised right here, never got off of the place. See, I done so much farming, that I didn’t have to go to the army ( ) go into farming he said I’d make more here than I would in the army.

Scott: Than you would to join the army.

Arvin: Yeah.

Scott: Was this your dad’s farm?

Arvin: No.

Scott: Wasn’t his farm.

Arvin: I never had a penny…off him.

Scott: You built it all up.

Arvin: Done it myself. Never went to school a day in my life hardly.

Scott: How many acres do you own?

Arvin: Well, I think there’s about right between 1160, I think I’m right, and 1200 acres. Somewheres right in there; I don’t know exactly.

Scott: How many on this farm, right here?

Arvin: Do what?

Scott: How many acres are on this particular farm?

Arvin: See, let me figure here a minute, I’ve got about two….I bought one or two up here awhile back and put them together. [Laughs]. I believe….

Scott: [Laughs]. You own so much property you can’t keep up with it.

Arvin: I believe that there’s a hundred and eighty acres in this farm.

Scott: In this one?

Arvin: Yes.

Scott: Is it, most of it cultivatable; do you…?

Arvin: No, lot of it in kindling. I guess there’s about oh, twenty-five acres that if I wanted to use it, but I don’t use it.

Scott: Oh, do you cut the timber?

Arvin: The pasture, I just use the pasture.

Scott: Do you cut the timber?

Arvin: Do what?

Scott: Do you cut the timber, or just leaving it?

Arvin: I just leave it for the boards. We cut a little of it if we need it, you know, on the farm.

Scott: But not, not to sell, or anything.

Arvin: No.

Scott: Okay, when did you buy this farm? When did you buy your first farm?

Arvin: Oh…1938.

Scott: How much did you give for it, do you remember?

Arvin: I got this farm right here, half of it, for, for well just half of it, I gave about 450 acres of it, I bought it for 400 dollars.

Scott: You are kidding.

Arvin: That’s what I give for it. Four hundred, and I didn’t have any tobacco base on it, and I was just starting out, just married. Married June 2 in ’38, and I went over to the ASC office. I had growed tobacco, you know, ( ) it all my life. ( ) on this farm, and I went to the ASC office, and I told the manager over there, “I’ll just tell you Buddy, I’m in the hands of receiving,”—you know it was hard times was then, during the depression, just coming out (I went through it too)—and I said, “I’m in the hands receiving now. I want to play for this place.” I borrowed the money from the Bank of Morehead. And so he said, “I’ll see that you get your backing.” So that just made ( ) I’d made March ( ). At that time, sow our beds. He said, “You go ahead and sow your beds; I’ll see that you get a base.” All right. I came back that afternoon and went and sowed me a bed, and my brother-in-law ( ) forestry. You know my wife was in forestry ( ). And, it went on for about two months and he told me, he said, “You won’t get that base.” I said, “If I don’t, I’ll sell my tobacco bed.”

Scott: [Laughs].

Arvin: And so they set me an acre.

Scott: An acre?

Arvin: An acre of tobacco. That’s ( ). And do you know I grew that acre of tobacco, and paid for that place that year.

Scott: Oh my goodness.

Arvin: I borrowed the money, I didn’t have it just to pay, and then I started you see ( ). My wife was a schoolteacher. She taught, she was teaching over in there.

Scott: She taught in Estill County?

Arvin: Yeah, must have taught 14 years.

Scott: Oh my goodness.

Arvin: And, I got and another farm come open, you know up for sale ( ) but I went over there was 170 acres in it. I told the banker, I said, “Son, I’m going to hit you for a good one this time.” He said, “How much?” “Two thousand dollars.” I bought that for two thousand dollars. I said—he said, “Yeah, go ahead and buy it.” He put the money to me, and I bought that one and paid for it. I tell you why I went and got some baby calves, and put them up here in the barn, went to feeding them, and I said, I told my wife, she was teaching, and I said, “I’m going to pay for that farm with them baby calves.” Oh, she said, “You’ll never do it.” I said, “Yes I will too.” So I went to work on it, and fed them calves out the first year, and they took care of that farm and made me five hundred dollars.

Scott: Oh!

Arvin: I paid that off you know. Then another one come up that was 160 acres back, and I said, “I want that one,” and I went over and told the banker, “I’ve got to have that.” He said, “Well, all right.”

Scott: You were a pretty good risk, for that time weren’t you?

Arvin: Yeah, he said, “Go ahead.” But then, you know, I got where I was buying these farms, and he said to me, “Anything now you want to buy, you buy it,” after I paid for that one. And he said, “You’re ( ). Anything now you want, you buy it,” and said “if you haven’t got the money to pay for it, there’s money here. You won’t have no ( ).” And he said “the ( )—cattle or anything,” he said, “I’m going to turn you loose to do what you want to.”

Scott: Just a blank check.

Arvin: “Yeah, just sign the check and send it over here,” and said “I’ll honor everyone you send in,” and I went to buying cattle, and hogs, and went to trading, and trading all the time, you know. And so I went over there and you’re doing pretty good; said “just keep a-going.” [Laughs]. Then when I went in the next time, you know, there’s one above the road, highway goes through, and I said, “There’s another 160 acres over there I want, 170.” [Laughs]. He said, “What are you trying to do, buy everyone that joins you?” I said, “That’s what I’m after.” [Laughs].

Scott: That’s the way to build it up, isn’t it?

Arvin: Yeah, and so he said, “Buy it.” Well, I just kept a buying. And I’ll tell you what. If I’d a went right on, I got to thinking then, well, I’ve gotten all I need. But you see, I tell you what, then I just kept buying.

Scott: Just to add to it.

Arvin: Yeah, everyone that joined me, or everyone that I could get. And then one come up on Red Lick, a good farm, a bottom farm, and I bought it.

Scott: What do you…did you tend these farms?

Arvin: Yeah, I’d just take the ones that I’d buy, you know, and put it ( ). I got to where I could do that you know in one year. And so then, whenever I bought that river you know, I went in and I switched ( ) I thought that might be a little too tight; the levee had gone up…a right smart, and I went in and said, “Old man, I’m going hit you for a good one this time.” [Laughing]. He said, “Hit her. Don’t tell me nothing about it, just buy it.”

Scott: Just buy it.

Arvin: Yeah, so I bought it. I just kept buying.

Scott: Well, that is some reputation you’ve built up.

Arvin: You know what? I wrote that bank $68,000, and not a man on my note.

Scott: Just a signature loan.

Arvin: Just my signature, and now I don’t owe them a penny.

Scott: Oh.

Arvin: But whenever they come, and we put in a new bank over here, Citizens Guaranty, he told them when they come out here to sell my stock in it. I said, “Now listen,” I said, “I’m going to tell you.” I said, “I’ll buy stock from you.” I said, “I’ll take a hundred shares.” “But,” I said, “now understand, I’m not going to give you any business whatsoever, even at your own bank.” And I said—they said, “Well why?” I said, “Listen,” I said, “a fellow that’s backed me like more than that bank has, I’m behind them until I die.”

Scott: For that long, yeah, you’d about have to.

Arvin: Yeah, I said, “Anybody that’s that nice to me, I can’t handle it.” I just bought the hundred shares, and I never have done a thing with that bank.

Scott: And you own part of the bank? And you do your banking elsewhere?

Arvin: Yes, and I do it at other places. But I can’t move. They’ve offered to sell me shares in other banks, but I never have bought none.

Scott: Well, you’ve paid for two-thirds of it, sounds like, anyway.

Arvin: Well, yeah, ( ). But that’s the way I got started.

Scott: Well, do you tend these farms?

Arvin: Yeah, I’ve got 43,000 pounds of tobacco.

Scott: That’s 43,000 pounds of tobacco?

Arvin: I sold 49,000 last year, and sold myself a little you see now. I sold a little over my quota [laughs]. I told the boys, I’ve sold myself out of a home.

Scott: How much did you get a pound last year?

Arvin: I averaged about $1.83.

Scott: For $1.83. Could you tell me how much it took to…how much did you have in the tobacco? How much was clear money?

Arvin: Well, I’ll just tell you the truth...I never did figure it up.

Scott: I just wonder how much you spent growing it.

Arvin: Well, I spent a right smart. I tell you what; it cost me around, approximately around $10,000, to get it in the barn, stripped and everything. Of course, I, just me done that. We got that Kelly place, you know, too—the slaughterhouse. And the boys run it, and I was hiring hands to do tobacco. I got all ( ).

Scott: So, do you have to pay people to help you tend the farms?

Arvin: Yeah.

Scott: You have to hire people.

Arvin: There’s some that helps me all the time.

Scott: Well, do you have tenant farmers?

Arvin: I think I’ve got nine or ten. I hope I’ve got ( ). I’ve got 18 barns.

Scott: How many head of cattle?

Arvin :I’ve got a hundred and forty now.

Scott: Beef cattle?

Arvin: Yeah.

Scott: You don’t do any dairy?

Arvin: Yeah, I got one, one dairy cow [laughs].

Scott: One dairy cow. Why? [laughs]. Why one dairy cow?

Arvin: I don’t know [laughing]. Just for myself.

Scott: Just for yourself.

Arvin: Yeah.

Scott: What about hogs? You raise hogs?

Arvin: Oh yeah, I keep…I sometimes have as high as three and four hundred. You see, I’ve got that ( ) farm ( ) up to my last two or three year, I’ve been selling down, and….

Scott: Sounds like it.

Arvin: Cutting it down. I’ve got five tractors, and I just, you know, cutting it down. When they ask me, say what are you going to do with those tractors. I just let them sit, I reckon. I don’t use them, I just try to get out ( ). I sold a farm up Millers Creek, had a dandy.

Scott: Why did you sell it?

Arvin: Well, never thought about the fellow taking it.

Scott: Oh, you priced it by mistake?

Arvin: Yes, I did.

Scott: And he took it.

Arvin: He took it right now.

Scott: How much did you get for, how many acres was it?

Arvin: There was a hundred, let’s see, I think a hundred and seventy.

Scott: How much did you sell it for?

Arvin: A hundred, I believe, a hundred and fifteen thousand.

Scott: How much did you give for it?

Arvin: Two. I thought I made a good profit, and I did, but when the government got through with me, I didn’t make too much.

Scott: [Laughs]. You didn’t make too much, did you? Too much profit?

Arvin: No, see what I made here and what I made out of that put me in high bracket.

Scott: Well, I imagine.

Arvin: And that went…I cried over my farm after I sold it [laughing].

Scott: Is that the only one you sold?

Arvin: Yeah.

Scott: You still got the rest of them.

Arvin: Still got them. I wouldn’t sell this one; boy, it’s a beauty.

Scott: Won’t sell any more of them will you?

Arvin: No, I’m going to hold right on now.

Scott: You won’t price anymore?

Arvin: Well, I tell you what, though, I’d said no. I had a little strip over there that crossed in Madison County, run right down a ridge. And there was 14 acres in it. A fellow from Ohio come and really wanted to buy that. I didn’t want to sell it, because ( ) the more you get around you, the worse trouble there is [laughing]. And I just kicked myself, and I told my wife, I said, I’m going to put a price on that for that what I give for all of them. And I priced him that 14 acres for what I’d got in every bit of that over there, and he took it, and I ain’t got a dime in it.

Scott: Oh.

Arvin: He took it and gave me the money. And that 14 acres, now I’ve got tobacco bases and everything, houses and good barns. I’ve got some good barns, and I ain’t got a dime in it.

Scott: Now where is your farm located in Madison County?

Arvin: Crossed, just across ninety.

Scott: Just inside the county.

Arvin: Part of it’s in this county.

Scott: So it’s just inside Madison County.

Arvin: The tobacco base and stuff.

Scott: But this is the original farm. This is your first one. Did you build the house?

Arvin: No, no. I’ll just tell you about that. I lived right up there, the first one I bought. And you see, my wife put 28 years right here teaching school, on this acre, so when they consolidated the school up here, and they put this up for sale, she said I’ve got to have it. And I said, well, we’ll buy it. And so they put it up for sale; I bought it for $2200. And me and her, we fixed this house, went to fixing it, and ( ), partitioned it off, and everything, and she died.

Scott: Well, now what was the name of the school?

Arvin: Crooked Creek.

Scott: Hmm. So this is a schoolhouse, and your farm joined it?

Arvin: Yeah, all around it.

Scott: Well, you couldn’t let it go somewhere else.

Arvin: No, no I don’t want anybody else to have it. I just like where that one is up yonder. I’ve got daughter, you know, and she’s a nurse at Pattie A. Clay. And, I bought that place until the place I’ve got come up for sale, been about two years ago. Got married, you know, and she’s been married I guess 3 or 4 years and she’s paying 75 or 100 dollars a month in town rent, and I never told her a thing about it. ( ) told my wife, told my wife I said, I’m going to buy that for Sue and give it to her. Sixty-five acres, so they come up and had a good house on it and a barn. It come up for sale, I didn’t say a word about it. And I bid it in at the sale, at the auction. I bought it and she said, “What do you want the deed made out?” I said, “Make it to her.”

Scott: Oh.

Arvin: Boy, she like to fell over.

Scott: [Laughs]. I’ll bet!

Arvin: That’ll give her a home. She’s ( ) got up there and then she wasn’t satisfied with it, and went and built a brick home, and built her a big home up there ( ) adjoining her up there.

Scott: But stayed on the property?

Arvin: Yeah, the only thing is ( ) he’s got fifteen acres right here in one big plot, right around here.

Scott: And you can’t get that?

Arvin: No.

Scott: And that would make you own everything out here.

Arvin: I’d have a whole lot of it.

Scott: Yeah, everything out here.

Arvin: And then of course, old Indian Gap ( ). Did you go over there ( ).

Scott: Yes.

Arvin: Did you come around this away?

Scott: Yes.

Arvin: Well, you know where you turned to go back down the road? That’s mine clear back here to where you go right up there. Did you see a little old house and a lot of wood piled up in front of that old junk?

Scott: Yes.

Arvin: Now I own up to right there.

Scott: Oh my goodness. That’s just amazing that you have that much property.

Arvin: I go back to Knob Lick, back in there.

Scott: That’s a long way.

Arvin: Always had it ( ). And now I don’t need it.

Scott: No, you do too—keeps you alive.

Arvin: Getting too old to fool with it.

Scott: No, it keeps you alive.

Arvin: But I like it ( ). I’m on a tractor everyday, and a fellow told me the other day said, “Well, there’s an undertaker over there.” [laughing]. He come along and said you know, they always called me Preacher, you know.

Scott: Why do they call you Preacher?

Arvin: I told it was because I was such a good baby.

Scott: Oh is that what it is? [Laughing]

Arvin: Yeah, I reckon [Laughing].

Scott: I wondered when Earl told me that he knew you as Preacher.

Arvin: Now I’ll tell you, I was named after my uncle Elbert Winfrey. Lot of preachers went out there.

Scott: Hmm.

Arvin: And I think that from that time, I was called Preacher. I never have ( ).

Scott: That’s what I got out of the phone book, Elbert.

Arvin: Yeah.

Scott: And then Earl said, “No, it’s Preacher.”

Arvin: [Laughs]. He didn’t know the difference, don’t guess.

Scott: He said, “I never knew his name was Elbert.” Now what do you grow on these farms?

Arvin: Oh, I grow hay, and tobacco and corn and soybeans ( ).

Scott: Soybeans…is there good money in soybeans now?

Arvin: Why, I just cut them for hay, feed them to the cattle, don’t have to fool with corn ( ).

Scott: Do you sell any corn or hay?

Arvin: No.

Scott: Feed it all to cattle.

Arvin: Yeah, feed it all to cattle.

Scott: So the only thing you sell off the farm is tobacco, and the cattle.

Arvin: That’s about all that leaves you…cattle ( ).

Scott: Well, you said you own a slaughterhouse too?

Arvin: Yeah.

Scott: And do you slaughter your own hogs, and sell them, or do you sell them to other people?

Arvin: I do a lot of that; I sell lot of them to the slaughterhouse.

Scott: And then you slaughter for other people?

Arvin: Yeah, we get beef from everywhere.

Scott: How long have you had that?

Arvin: Oh, I guess 18 years.

Scott: Where is it located?

Arvin: Up there on ( ). We’re building another one.

Scott: I know where to bring my beef next year.

Arvin: We’ll get it fixed up. You know what? The first we had was from New Jersey, hogs. Fellow moved to Madison County, brought his hogs with him, and brought them up here and had them killed. [Laughs].

Scott: [Laughing]. You have to go all the way to Missouri to get your customers, the first time.

Arvin: He moved, he bought a place down the ( ) from there and had his hogs fat, and just brought them with him, brought them up here and killed them. I told that’s the first I ever got ( ).

Scott: Oh my goodness. Now when did you start the little store out here?

Arvin: Oh, it’s been twelve years ago.

Scott: Why did you do it?

Arvin: Well, we thought we could buy it wholesale, you know, and do better. We ( ).

Scott: Is it a help to the farmers around here? Of course, there’s not many farmers around here.

Arvin: It’s a whole lot of help to people around here. We get a lot of trading. We’ve just got so much on our hands, I mean to do, we just can’t hardly do it all. We’re going out of here.

Scott: Well, who runs it?

Arvin: My granddaughter.

Scott: Your granddaughter runs it.

Arvin: My wife, she stayed around after she retired, you know. She’d fool around in there and talk and have a good time.

Scott: Now, it’s a visiting place, a country store.

Arvin: Yeah, they’d all get together, women around here would go down there you know and they’d all the time gossip. [Laughs].

Scott: Yeah, it’s a good visiting place.

Arvin: Had a good time.

Scott: Well, you have…of course you live here, you have rural mail delivery. Where was the post office?

Arvin: You mean the old post office?�Scott: Old post office.

Arvin: Used to be right up there in Nolan.

Scott: Was there a store with that too?

Arvin: Yeah, store right there.

Scott: Most of those are no more. They’re all gone.

Arvin: Oh there ain’t none. I reckon there’s just about two post offices, I reckon in this county, is all I know of.

Scott: That’s a help to people that live out in the county, is to have that mail delivered.

Arvin: Oh, yeah, I’d say it is…a lot of help.

Scott: What about the elected officials…the politicians in the county. Did they ever do anything for the farmer?

Arvin: Well, not as I know of.

Scott: Is there anything they could do…could they be of more help if they…?

Arvin: Well, if they’d get in there and pull for us they could. Do you know the farmer’s got he weakest end of the string of everything—now.

Scott: Well I know. Roads, what about roads? Do they maintain the roads pretty good? Is it a hassle?

Arvin: ( ) you see out there ( ) pretty good.

Scott: It ‘s just a hassle to get it done.

Arvin: Well, I tell you what, we got off on the wrong ( ), for you see, they took it up Dug Hill, you know where Herman lives, you see that curve and all that around through there, that wasn’t there…they just built that—this road, and we let the governor get in there and pull the lake.

Scott: Oh.

Arvin: …and built that.

Scott: So you got it ( ).

Arvin: Yeah, ( ) let it slip up on us.

Scott: Was that the last governor?

Arvin: No, that was when Nunn was in. Do you remember him?

Scott: Yes, very well. [Laughing]. Very well. What about the governor now? What about the people in state offices, now? Do they help any?

Arvin: Well, I’ll tell you what. They, we’ve got more bridges than we ever had with any other governor besides Happy Chandler.

Scott: Is that right?

Arvin: Yeah. John Reynold, he built, he’s building a bridge just up here on Lewis Creek and he’s helped ( ) the bridges a whole lot, fixing them and straightening them up.

Scott: Which in turn helps the farmer.

Arvin: Well, that’ll help him you know, going back and forth.

Scott: Helps a little.

Arvin: Yeah, help a little. Anything to get done helps that much. I tell you what, I’ve been putting that blacktop right there where you turned off. There’s been I guess three or four governors told me, if I get in there, I’ll blacktop. And I’ve even put up 500-600 dollars in their campaign, that’s wasn’t much though. And, so this one come up, John ( ) and he wanted to put up some, and I said now I told them, “I want that ( ).” Well they built it, and I said, “Well, are you going to do it?” “Yes buddy,” and do you know they haven’t done a thing to it. And so this one’s up now, you know, and I told them while they were up here wanting money you know for the campaign. I said, “I’m going to take my $500 and buy blacktop and put it on myself.”

Scott: And put it on yourself. You know where it’s going then.

Arvin: I said “I’ll know where it’s at.” [laughing]. I want the store fixed up ( ) do it, and I poured some concrete around there, and asked them to help me with some blacktop, you know. All I wanted was to help me on over toward the store with blacktop. “Oh no,” he says, “we can’t do it!” I said, “ I’ll be darned if I don’t take my sales tax out of the store and buy blacktop.” [Laughs].

Scott: Buy your own blacktop.

Arvin: You can’t do that. [Laughing].

Scott: Who are you supporting in this campaign? Martha Layne, or Bunning?

Arvin: You mean in this county?

Scott: Yeah, I mean this…for the governor’s election.

Arvin: You mean who do I think will get it?

Scott: No, who are you supporting?

Arvin: Oh, I’m for Martha Layne. I’m a Democrat. [Laughs].

Scott: Oh, okay. [Laughs].

Arvin: I don’t know what you are.

Scott: No, I’m a Democrat, wholeheartedly here [Laughing].

Arvin: I thought you couldn’t hardly be a Scott without it.

Scott: No, no, no….

Arvin: You see I’m thoroughbred on both sides [Laughs].

Scott: Do you think she’ll make a good governor? Do you think she’ll get it?

Arvin: Who?

Scott: Martha Layne.

Arvin: Martha Layne. Well, I’ve not got anything against women, whatsoever, but I don’t know what she’ll do in that, with the governor.

Scott: Is that what most people are saying too?

Arvin: Yeah, she’s strong. I was over there and heard her speaking one day.

Scott: Yeah, I went up the Richmond….

Arvin: You did. She ( ) over town ( ). And she’s smart.

Scott: Well, have you heard Bunning?

Arvin: Never have. I’ve never met him.

Scott: But I feel like Martha Layne will do, try to do what she says she will.

Arvin: Well, I’ll tell you what, I believe she’ll help the rural people more.

Scott: Yes, I think so too.

Arvin: If she don’t, she’s ain’t told right.

Scott: I think she’ll try; I think she’ll do the best she can.

Arvin: We’ll try her, and if she makes good, we’ll just keep a woman in there all the time.

Scott: Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. I’ll run the next time.

Arvin: [Laughter].

Scott: What about the national government? Do they do anything?

Arvin: You mean help?

Scott: Yes.

Arvin: Well, yeah. I’ll tell you what. This Soil Bank and everything is a big help to us.

Scott: Explain what that is.

Arvin: Well, it just helps a whole lot. See we can grow corn, if we want to, or put it in the Soil Bank, so much of it, and draw on it, and pull a crop too, and all that comes in and helps; it helps a lot.

Scott: And that’s federal funding.

Arvin: Yeah, that’s a federal program, and it’s really set up this time better than it has been.

Scott: How long has it been….

Arvin: Well, you see, it went out of existence about, well let’s see, who was president…Kennedy started it, John F., and he went on and then Carter—let’s see who was before Carter? I can’t keep up with them.

Scott: Nixon.

Arvin: Yeah, Nixon.

Scott: And Ford.

Arvin: Yeah. You know I’ll tell you what. Nixon was one of as good as presidents that we ever had if hadn’t ( ).

Scott: Do you think he’ll go down in history as being a good president, after…

Arvin: What he done?

Scott: Yeah.

Arvin: Well, they just betrayed him. I mean his first term.

Scott: He’ll go down in history as being a good president, not a bad one.

Arvin: He will, and he deserves it.

Scott: Yeah, I think so too.

Arvin: But, it’s just like me and you. If we get into politics, and I betray you, you can’t help it.

Scott: That’s right.

Arvin: You’re in trouble. He ought to have been to, of course, I don’t know, he ought to have been too smart a man to do that.

Scott: To have gotten caught up in it, right.

Arvin: Yeah. He….

Scott: I think that’s his fault.

Arvin: He had it every bit in his hands, and didn’t have to do it.

Scott: That’s right. But it’s the people around him, it’s the people he chose to be around him.

Arvin: Yes sir, got him in trouble.

Scott: Well, was he a help to the farmer?

Arvin: Yes buddy. He loved that ( ). He was in that ( ) business too. He’s a whole lot of help to us. And I think it was ( ) one of the good things was we got some tobacco shortage, but now, you see they’ve plopped that over on us, and we have to pay our own way. All of it, we got the money out for the support price, and everything, and I’ll tell you what, it’ll eventually break us.

Scott: Think it’ll break the small farmer, especially.

Arvin: Yeah, it will, you see they’re going to raise that. I don’t doubt that it won’t go to six or seven cents this year, what do you say?

Scott: I’d say you’re not far from right.

Arvin: Well, anytime, of course I ain’t go no education, but anytime that you’ve got a 60 million pound surplus and have to pay for it, you’re in trouble. You’re going to have ( ). If Congress don’t do move it out, of course, if they moved out the ( ), you’re all right.

Scott: But all these people sitting up there with education are the ones that are deciding that. You’re the smart one. You know it’s not going to work.

Arvin: It ain’t going to work, I’m afraid it’s going to run the little man out, and of course, I don’t know. They’re wanting to do away with the leasing, claim these big race horse farms, and these big schools, and everything has got the land, you know, like the university, but I think they’ve done give theirs away, ain’t they?

Scott: I think so.

Arvin: I think they did a couple of years ago.

Scott: A couple of years ago.

Arvin: They’re going to get aid to them now.

Scott: Well, what about Carter? Was he a good president?

Arvin: Carter was all right, he was smart, everyway, but he was too good.

Scott: He couldn’t stand up….

Arvin: I mean as a person.

Scott: Yeah, you can’t have a president like that, can you?

Arvin: No, no you can’t. And I’ll tell you what. I always said that you can’t suit everybody, and you try to be perfect and lead, ( ) if you try to be perfect, and go on, there’s just no telling how many betray you.

Scott: Yes, ten right after you all the time.

Arvin: They’ll take advantage of you, and that’s what they done with Carter.

Scott: What about Reagan?

Arvin: Reagans. Well, [laughs] to tell you the truth, I see an awful lot of them walking the streets. I’ll tell you what, I never got a call from a man wanting a job ( ). And now it’s every day: I want to work; I got to have a job.

Scott: Is it close to depression? Are we back close to Depression times? I’ll tell you what, we’re so close we can feel it. Can you remember the Depression?

Arvin: No, I was born in 1944.

Scott: Yes, ’44, but I remember the talk.

Arvin: I’ll tell you what. I was seventeen years old.

Scott: Right in the middle of it.

Arvin: Right in the middle of it. See that barn right over there? I helped build that for fifty cents a day, and I tell you another thing I used to do. I don’t know whether you ever thought of it or not, but I set tobacco for a nickel an hour, and that, and I just thought the other day we were setting and resetting, and I was paying three dollars….

Scott: To get it reset.

Arvin: Three dollars an hour, giving them kids three dollars an hour. And I said boys let me tell you something. I said I worked for a nickel an hour and reset tobacco

Scott: Pegging it?

Arvin: Yeah, and they said Lordy me, I wouldn’t do that. And I said now I tell you what, that nickel’s still good too [tape interruption]. We worked; I worked to save fifty cents day over there. That don’t figure a nickel an hour for 10-12 hours. I stewed about that. I just figured up after they told over there, well, I couldn’t work for that….

Scott: Yeah, that’s less than a nickel an hour.

Arvin: And I just figured. You know I lay in the bed of a night, always did, and study about things, you know, how it’s going, and everything, and that was less than a nickel an hour.

Scott: But still it was money.

Arvin: Yeah, money.

Scott: And jobs were hard then.

Arvin: Three dollars a week.

Scott: What could you buy with three dollars?

Arvin: Well, now I tell you what they…you couldn’t as much as you can now.

Scott: Is that right?

Arvin: Yeah, well you go get your shirt for forty-nine cents; sack of flour for forty-nine; three pound of coffee for forty-nine, and everything, and it took you, you see you worked all week for the three dollars to pay for that. And now, you’re getting, well, say they made twenty-five, thirty dollars a day working for me. Well you see, he could buy him two sacks of flour at ten, you see, and then go on and get his ( ). I tell you what; I believe it’s better now than it was then.

Scott: Than it was then.

Arvin: I do, if you can get a job. I tell you what I’ve seen. I’ve seen as high as fifteen men sitting on our hill and they’re wanting work.

Scott: At one time.

Arvin: At one time. And they said, “We’ve got to have it, we’re starving.”

Scott: That’s been in the past two years?

Arvin: No, that was during the Depression.

Scott: Oh during the Depression?

Arvin: Last two years now, they’ve been calling me day and night, wanting work. Women, men and everybody.

Scott: There’s a lot of people out of work.

Arvin: Oh, there just ain’t none around here. There ain’t nobody working, and they tell me, now you, if you’ve got work, call me, anytime, and we’ll be there.

Scott: And ten years ago you had to look for….

Arvin: Yeah, now last year I was cutting tobacco, out yonder, and the first that I ever done that. We was cutting tobacco, and as I went out there after dinner, never started, and there was about fifteen waiting to get a job then. First time that had ever happened to me. Had to turn them away, I done had a full crew. That’s the first time it ever happened, you know that ( ) is what brings it on.

Scott: Well, all this has happened since Reagan has been in, hasn’t it?

Arvin: I’ll tell you what. Of course, I’ve just got an idea. Reagan’s tried to do too much at once. He just jumped in ( ) gear, you know.

Scott: Well, did he try to do anything for farmer?

Arvin: Well, he didn’t allow…he didn’t try to do nothing for nobody, there for the last two or three, last year. He going to run again, that’s what he’s after.

Scott: Election’s coming up.

Arvin: That’s what I figure [laughs], don’t you?

Scott: Me too.

Arvin: Yeah.

Scott: Well, what’s going to happen to the small farmer?

Arvin: Going out of business. He can’t ( ).

Scott: Think so?

Arvin: Yeah.

Scott: Can a small farmer make a living, say if he had sixty acres, sixty-five acres?

Arvin: He might, if you get his some chickens, and a cow and a hog to eat on, couldn’t he?

Scott: He won’t go hungry, but he won’t….

Arvin: He won’t have nothing.

Scott: He won’t have anything.

Arvin: I’ll tell you what, if you take a man now, if you go out here now and buy a farm, it’ll cost him a hundred thousand dollars…well, around here, a good farm. And buy his tools and everything, he can’t pay the interest.

Scott: Yeah, that’s funny because I had a lady tell me the same thing yesterday, in the same words.

Arvin: Yeah.

Scott: She said you couldn’t pay the interest.

Arvin: Can’t do it. He sure can’t.

Scott: Well, there’s tobacco is still the big money crop?

Arvin: Oh yeah, tobacco’s always is.

Scott: What about cattle. Is there a lot of money in cattle?

Arvin: I never did make much. I made more money out of hogs than anything.

Scott: On hogs.

Arvin: I tell you what I used to do, in my own debt, and everything, was to take, whenever I bought a new tractor, was to put me enough hogs in there, at twenty-five cents or whatever they were selling at that time, I’d put enough in there to take care of that note when it come due in six months, and they’d get it everytime.

Scott: Hmm. What is it, not take as much feed, or….

Arvin: Well, it takes a lot of the feed, but it’s quick money.

Scott: Quick money.

Arvin: It’s the only thing, if you’ll ever stop and think, it’s the only thing that you can take on a farm, and put it in a lot, and it’ll take care of your note in six months, if you’ll do it, because I’ve done it.

Scott: A calf won’t do that?

Arvin: Had you ever thought of that?

Scott: No.

Arvin: A calf, if you just get one of them a year….

Scott: Right…and it won’t do it.

Arvin: It won’t do it. And it’ll cost you for that cow, it’ll cost you fifty or sixty bales of hay, do well to do it on sixty. And you’ve got to feed her the year around, you see, and keep her on pasture.

Scott: And the pig, in six months….

Arvin: Yeah, whenever you go to take a sow, and feed her three months, maybe you’ve got eight to ten pigs. And you see, she’ll pay for….

Scott: She’ll pay for herself.

Arvin: Yeah. Pay for her pigs, and all. I mean she’ll pay for herself. My granddaddy is the one that me in to it. I was a little shaver of a boy, and he was a good man.

Scott: He was a farmer.

Arvin: Yeah. He was a good farmer and a good manager. And, he had a big bunch of hogs. I was a little fellow you know, running around with him. He told me, he said, “I’ll tell you what,” and I’ll never forget it, he said, “I’m going to give you a pig, a sow pig. And now he said I’ll tell you what you do.” He said, “You take her home, over to your daddy’s,” and said, “hang on to her, get her by the tail and hang on to her, and she’ll sure bring you out.”

Scott: [Laughs]. And that’s true.

Arvin: And it’s true, I just practiced all the time, and made me more money than anything I ever done. I’d just take them, if I wanted a new tractor, I’d just put that in there, you know, to keep from taking any money out.

Scott: So you just….

Arvin: Had them hogs in there, and had the corn. I always had a lot of corn.

Scott: You don’t sell corn?

Arvin: No. I keep it all.

Scott: Or soybeans?

Arvin: Don’t sell nothing off the farm.

Scott: Just pigs, cattle….

Arvin: Yeah, I just go buy me ( ). I’ll buy me a bag. I’ve got enough sows to get my pigs. I just go buy ( ). And he called last night wanting to sell me three. They call me you know wanting to sell me everything.

Scott: How much are little pigs? How much do they bring, I mean how much do you give?

Arvin: They’re down now. They went down, this feed grain ( ). I tell you what, they’re going to ( ).

Scott: It’s going to hurt the pigs.

Arvin: Yeah, that’ll hurt the sale of them. I imagine they’re all half now.

Scott: We don’t, we only have pigs for the pork.

Arvin: I’ve got a bunch of sows up now, one of them had ( ) we started. And I’m going to hang on to them, I’ve got that corn, and I don’t care.

Scott: Yeah, just hang on to them, you’re not going to lose anything.

Arvin: No, I’ll just do that.

Scott: Well, when you and your wife first started farming, you raised most of what you ate, didn’t you?

Arvin: Well, we did. You see, whenever we started, I was farming before we were married. I was renting, and farming. And, I’ll never forget, I was driving a car for my uncle, a peddling, through town, 50 cents a day. So me and her married, married the second day of June. She had this school, she was teaching at this school. Well, when it started in July, cause you start in July. I went over there one morning, and I told her, “Now listen, in two weeks from now, you hunt you another peddler boy.” I said, “I’m quitting.” He said, “What in the devil are you going to do, starve to death?” I said, “Well starve to death like this ain’t no different.” [laughter]

Scott: On fifty cents a day.

Arvin: “No,” I said, “I ain’t got nothing, ( ) stay all day.” I peddled…I done that for ten years.

Scott: What do you do? What’d you sell?

Arvin: Everything. Milk, butter, chickens, eggs.

Scott: Everything off the farm.

Arvin: Everything off the farm, and I’m done, I’m going to quit. And so, I quit, and went to work for myself, ain’t worked a day out except on the railroad. I took a notion in ’40, ’43, I railroaded. ( ) Well, how come me to get it, I didn’t take it, to tell you the truth. I had that farm on the river and…you know where the roundhouse is over there at ( )? And I’d go across there, and walk across that bridge, and just walk on up on the farm, and work. So I was going down through there one day, and me and Jess ( ) were buddies. He’s the main cheese in that warehouse, big man. I was going down through there and “Wait a minute Preacher, I want to see you.” “What is it Jess?” He said, “I’ll tell you something.” I said, “All right.” I just stopped, thinking we were going to have a chat, you know. He said, “I’ll tell you what, come in here, I’m going to sign up to work.” Said, “I want you to work for me.” And he said, “I’ll tell you what,” he said, “you can make you some money.” They were paying 46 cents an hour.

Scott: That was good money.

Arvin: Yeah, then. And he said, “You can work.” And I said, “Now Jess, listen here.” I said, “I’ve got this farm over here now, and three or four farms, or five or six,” and I said, “I can’t.” He said, “I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” said, “you work on rainy days.” He said, “When you can’t farm, you just come over here on rainy days. Don’t say nothing about it.” Well….

Scott: Good arrangement.

Arvin: “Yeah,” he said, “if it rains, you can work”. And he said, “Now, I’ll tell you what. I’m going to call you tonight at 11 o’clock, so your seniority will start.” And I thought, I’d worked all day on the farm. I come home and at 10 o’clock the phone rang. It was Jess, saying you can come on out and work tonight. Well, I went on and went to work.

Scott: [Laughing]. You started to work.

Arvin: And I took right off from that night. Well that next morning at seven o’clock, you know, that’s when I’d eat my breakfast, and then went out on the farm. And, so, went on, and one day there it was about tobacco cutting time. And I said Jess, “I’ve got to cut tobacco, you’d better give me a leave…of absence.” He said, “You don’t need no leave, go on.” Said “I wished I had a dozen like you that worked rainy days,” said “you do what I tell you.” And so I just took off.

Scott: And cut your tobacco.

Arvin: Yeah, cut it all. And then, so I went back, you know, right on, and I done that for fourteen years.

Scott: For fourteen years?

Arvin: Fourteen years, and I’d go back and work whenever I wanted to, and farm. I’d go get my card and punch in just like I was there every day, never said a word to anybody. And that’s the way I reckon it give me a good start. You see, I got up to twenty-five dollars a day there.

Scott: That’s good money.

Arvin: That was good money then.

Scott: That’s good money now.

Arvin: ’58.

Scott: Real good money in 1958.

Arvin: You know, he told me, he come over in the field to me, told me, “Preacher, let me tell you something, that’s the worst mistake you ever made.” I’d told him I was going to quit. It was five or six days after I’d quit, you see. He told me said, “You and Larry are still on that ( ) roster, and said it’s going stay there,” and he said, “You come back over there and work, just like you was.” “No, I’ve made up my mind to quit Jess,” and I did. I wouldn’t go back.

Scott: Wouldn’t go back.

Arvin: No, and so, now I wish I’d stuck, you see, I’d had a good pension.

Scott: Right, that’s what I started to say. You didn’t miss retirement by much did you?

Arvin: No, I got where, no I had enough. I got retirement.

Scott: Oh, did you get retirement?

Arvin: That’s what ten years get you is retirement, and after I got my ten years, you know, then I didn’t care.

Scott: But if you’d stayed it would have been a little bit better.

Arvin: Oh Lord, you know, if I’d stayed and finished up until now, I’d been drawing a thousand dollars a month. That’s what fellows working right beside me were doing.

Scott: And you wish you had?

Arvin: Oh God, yeah. That’d helped me out.

Scott: If you had to go over….

Arvin: You know, I’ll tell you what. If I worked one day a month they had to pay me the same pension that they did you, where you worked every day.

Scott: Oh.

Arvin: I could just go in once in the evening, or a day or two here….

Scott: And then you were still on the payroll.

Arvin: Then I was on the payroll. And, my insurance, and everything was carried right on. I was crazy for not staying, but you can see it, you know, but it’s too late.

Scott: Well, you always see it afterwards, afterwards…. If you had it to do over would you go into something else?

Arvin: Well, yeah, I’d be a farmer, I guess…that’s the only thing I’d ever known.

Scott: You like it that well, too?

Arvin: Yeah, my Dad, you know he was in front of me. That’s how come me not to get no education.

Scott: Explain that.

Arvin: You see, he had six mules. And, I always, from the time I was as big as that little kid there, wanted to drive them mules. I thought if I could get them check lines in my hands I was a rich man. And, he’d send me to school, and my mind was on the mules. I didn’t care about books.

Scott: Missing an education hasn’t hurt you a bit.

Arvin: No. ( ) never forget it ( ) primer ( ). Remember the primer?

Scott: Oh yes.

Arvin: And, I think I was reading Little Boy Blue, and I’d look around, you know, and he said, “Preacher, you’re not a bit more interested in that than nothing.”

Scott: [Laughs].

Arvin: He said, “What’s the matter with you?” I said, “Heck, I want to be at home.” I said, “I want to drive them mules.” He said, “I’ll tell you what,” he said, “they ain’t going to make you a thing—you’d better get in here and get you an education.” And golly, I’ll tell you what, didn’t hurt, but I just didn’t want to be there, you know. And I’ll never forget one afternoon he let me go home before the last class, and I’d take off and run down and jump out the door [laughter]. A little old boy, I’d jump out the door and I’d holler just as loud as I could holler. Never hit the ground [laughing]. The schoolhouse had them high steps, right off I’d jump, you know, to the ground. And here I went, I hollered. “Hey, come back here young man!” Gosh I ran up on top of that hill, where my sawmill is, and ( ) and I got to the old house, and I turned somersaults, and I rolled clear to the county road—like to have killed me! [Laughter]. When I went home, I was skinned up, and Mom said, “What’s the matter with you?” I said, “I fell down.” But you know I never told about that, because I knew I was going to get a licking the next morning. So, I went, I went back, and I had my lunch. I set her down back there on the seat, got in, and they rung the bell. ( ) said, “Come up here son.” Lord, I said, “I’m in big trouble.” I went up, and he said, “Now I’ll tell you what.” I said, “What?” He said, “Now I let you go home for your last class, because you can’t do that again,” he said, “because it disturbs others.” And I thought to myself, Lord, God, I got that fall and everything else and I ain’t going to get a whopping! [Laughs].

Scott: Somebody was watching over you on that one.

Arvin: Oh yeah.

Scott: Yes, somebody was looking out for you.

Arvin: I tell you what, I don’t know. I was always, just didn’t care about it. I had three or four uncles, and they were in pretty good shape, and I’d be riding them mules, you know, loaded, doing everything, worked everyday in the field. Whenever you get mules out of the field, I’d log all winter. I wasn’t big enough to load it, but I’d drive four mules. And, the fact of the business, when I was nine years old, my brake rope, you know you tie them into the mule you was driving, you’ve seen it done, ain’t’ you? Tie that brake rope….

Scott: I’ve done it.

Arvin: Well, my brake rope come untied back to the wagon, and I stopped them mules and I went back there to tie that brake rope. I was back there on the mountain. Had about forty locust posts on the wagon and I was tying that rope and one of them mules started and I just hollered “Whoa!” and thought he’d stop, and he went on and caught my leg and broke it right square into.

Scott: Oh goodness!

Arvin: I was nine years old, and me back there….

Scott: How’d you get out?

Arvin: Well, I tell you what, I couldn’t walk—my leg would just fall over, you know. My daddy he was behind me, and he come on in just a minute or two and put me on a mule and brought me ( ). Doctor ( ) came out there and set it.

Scott: Went back to the sawmill, probably, the next day!

Arvin: Huh?

Scott: Went back in the logwoods the next day?

Arvin: I wanted to but I was down, I couldn’t. [Laughs]. I got well, and that made them all get to pick at me you know. I got hurt, and they’d say that one will never amount to nothing. And I told them I said that Uncle ( ) Woodrow, he said that you’ll never amount to nothing. I said, “ I don’t care if I don’t.” I said, “You’ll see someday.” I said, “I’ll try her.”

Scott: Sounds like you may have proved him wrong.

Arvin: And he, whenever I started, he…wouldn’t say anything; now, you done better than I thought you would.

Scott: [Laughs].

Arvin: But I done pretty good.

Scott: Yeah, it sounds like you’ve done real good.

Arvin: Yeah.

Scott: Well now, how many children do you have?

Arvin: Three.

Scott: Three children.

Arvin: Two boys and a girl.

Scott: Are they farmers?

Arvin: Yeah.

Scott: Your two boys are farmers.

Arvin: That one that was with me there a while ago is working on the river. He’s going to bale hay ( ).

Scott: They will continue farming, won’t they?

Arvin: Yeah, they’ll have to or sell it one. I don’t know with them later on, they may let them go ( ).

Scott: Well, they grew up farming, so they’ll probably continue it.

Arvin: I’ve got it all fixed for them and everything. I’ve got my business all wound up.

Scott: But the small farmer, is just not going to make it. The kids aren’t going to come back and run a small farm.

Arvin: No, no. And another thing I noticed you never see a small boy interested in buying cattle. They just don’t do it. I don’t know what’s going to happen.

Scott: Farms are just going under. I think we’re just going to have to get so low until we realize that’s where we’re eating.

Arvin: …they’re just going to starve to death, and have to do it. You know a farmer, if he wants to farm any he ( ) live.

Scott: That’s right. Well do you still grow a garden?

Arvin: Yeah.

Scott: Do you really?

Arvin: Yeah, I’ve got a dandy garden out here.

Scott: Hmm, I’ll know where to come in the summer.

Arvin: Yeah, I peddle around here something all the time. I never ( ) Sunday or Monday. I go to church every Sunday.

Scott: When are you going to retire?

Arvin: Never.

Scott: Never.

Arvin: I’m supposed to have done been retired, but I ain’t. Those boys finds me a job you know every morning.

Scott: Is that kind of unique among farmers? Farmers don’t retire, do they?

Arvin: They can’t. Now how can I….the only way that I could retire and been satisfied is to have put it every bit up and sold it, and got out of it.

Scott: What would you do?

Arvin: I don’t know. I guess go crazy [laughs].

Scott: You got to have that to do every morning, don’t you?

Arvin: Yeah, I back over the same thing about every day. You see, I get up and get my breakfast.

Scott: Do you do your own cooking?

Arvin: Make my bed up. That’s what I hate that day—that bed making. Get it made up, and take off.

Scott: Farm all day?

Arvin: Yeah, and I got a girl that she cooks me dinner some.

Scott: Is she up here with you?

Arvin: No, she lives in ( ).

Scott: She’s….

Arvin: She’s pretty good to me, even though she’s mine.

Scott: Hmm.

Arvin: Do anything in the world for me. That’s worth a fortune.

Scott: Well, could you manage the farms now without the boys?

Arvin: Well, yeah, rent them out, I guess would be about all, but I couldn’t do any better. I’d just have to rent them. I mean, well, I just couldn’t handle them.

Scott: Just too much, isn’t it?

Arvin: Yeah, if you take all the tobacco setting, and everything, I couldn’t do it unless I got plenty of help, you know.

Scott: The boys are a big, big help.

Arvin: Yeah, they’ve been…. you know what, me and them boys have spent three nights away from each other.

Scott: Is that right?

Arvin: That’s when they graduated from high school and went to Washington. I missed two nights of seeing them.

Scott: Goodness.

Arvin: After they married, I had this when they married, you know. And, Donnie, he’s the first one married, that was with me. He come in, he and his wife, ( ) and I told them I said, “Now, Donnie,” I said, “you’re on your own now, your married.” And I said, “What are you going to do?” He said, “I’ll tell you what I’m going to do.” I said, “What are you going to do?” He said, “I’m going to stay right here with you.”

Scott: [Laughs].

Arvin: Said “I’ll just move in one of the houses, and me and you’ll farm together.” I said, “Now listen, that might not suit your wife. You’ve got her now.” “Oh,” she said, “that just suits her.” So they went, stayed right here. And then the other married, and he lives right over there. I asked him, and he said, “We want to stay together,” and we’ve just always been there.

Scott: And that’s the way you prefer it, isn’t it?

Arvin: Yeah, they wanted to stay, and I just let them stay. We stayed right on in here. Whatever one of us got, we all got.

Scott: Well, that’s something else that’s unique among farm families.

Arvin: Yeah.

Scott: There’s more of a sharing, sharing of work, sharing of profits and everything else.

Arvin: What one of us have, we all have, and go on.

Scott: Sounds like a good life, and you wouldn’t change it.

Arvin: Well, I tell you what, I’ve had as good a life, and I had as good a woman, me and her lived together 42 years.

Scott: Oh, that’s a long time.

Arvin: Yeah, she was just as good to me as a baby, and I ain’t got a thing to study about being bad to her, saying a thing out of the way to her, or ( ).

Scott: That’s what matters.

Arvin: Yeah, that’s worth a fortune. Hey, I’ll tell you though one thing. If I had her back, and had our days to live over, we would have put that money in the bank and ( ) these farms, we’d use some of it. She’s like me, she was kind of tight.

Scott: For what?

Arvin: Keeping it.

Scott: I mean, what would you use it for?

Arvin: Nothing. I told her, I said to her, her name was Lydia, I said Lydia (about three years ago—no it’s been four years, she’s been dead three years). I said, “Let me tell you something.” I said, “We’d just as well to have paper sacks over there in that bank as money.” I said, “We never use it,” and I said, “we’d just as well have that many little candy sacks, and we had.” Did you ever think of it?

Scott: True. But what would you have used it for?

Arvin: We never used it; we keep it ( ).

Scott: I mean, what would you have wanted to use it for?

Arvin: We’d took, we’d have left here and took trips or anything, anything we wanted to eat, we’d bought it. And if we wanted a new truck or a new car, why we’d got it.

Scott: Would you have been happy taking a long trip and being away from the farm?

Arvin: Well, we couldn’t leave. We have everything tied up, we knew we had to be here, and one morning she was sitting at that table, and she an old car that she’d had for two or three years, I guess. And she said to me, she said, “I’ll tell you what.” I said, “what?” Said, it was on Wednesday, I’ll never forget it, she said, “I’d like to have a new car.” “Why,” I said, “you’re going to break down and buy a new car?” She said, “Well, I’d like to have one.” I said, “I’ll tell you what, just right in there and get ready and me and you’ll go get it.” And she just went in there and got another dress on, and we went to town and I bought it. Brought it in, and she kept it out here around all the time. And ( ) right here in town, stores, and back, and I seen that ( ). I’d get my vacation round the house, ride all them tractors out; I’d work every day.

Scott: Never knew what a vacation was.

Arvin: No, no.

Scott: Well, again that’s farmers.

Arvin: And I’ll tell you another thing we done. We should have—this is the worst thing you can do. You see we had these deeds, all made to me and her.

Scott: To both of you.

Arvin: Both of us. And we didn’t have a will. I didn’t think we had to have it. Whenever she died, I had to pay inheritance tax on everything she owned.

Scott: A fortune.

Arvin: And you know what they done? They even asked me how many rings she had and everything, any diamonds, and I got a notice in three weeks after she died, that I had to settle with the federal government and the state in nine months. That hurt me there.

Scott: Oh gosh. That’s not right.

Arvin: No, that’s not right. Me and her worked and made that ourselves. That lawyer charged me $2500, and that fellow that I got accountants with, they take care of all my business, he comes here about every three months, and checks everything I’ve got, income taxes and things.

Scott: Helps to keep up with them.

Arvin: And he charged me $3000, for his little bit. Like to broke me up. Had to pay the government, pay the state….

Scott: It’s like paying for it twice.

Arvin: It is, I paid for half of it twice.

Scott: Yeah, half of it twice. And that’s not right.

Arvin: No, it ain’t right.

Scott: But they’ll do it to you.

Arvin: If you and husband marry, you and your husband ( ), I say.

Scott: I say, too. I’m just like you.

Arvin: Yeah, that’s what, whenever I signed that check, and sent it to the federal government and the state, I told the lawyer, and I told Craft, you may know him, John Craft, ( ). He takes care of my business, and I told him, I said, “That’s the unfairest thing I ever signed in my life.”

Scott: It is, without a doubt.

Arvin: Yeah.

Scott: It’s just like….

Arvin: I said, “That’s one thing I begrudge.”

Scott: Paying it twice.

Arvin: Yeah.

Scott: It isn’t right, but I don’t know any way around it.

Arvin: Well, there ain’t.

Scott: There’s just no way around it.

Arvin: But they tell me they ( ) the last two years.

Scott: I don’t know, I haven’t heard anything about it.

Arvin: That’s what they tell me.

Scott: Well, they should have.

Arvin: Why Lord, yeah ( ).

Scott: You hear about people losing their farm, that they inherited.

Arvin: Yeah, well I just tell you what, it just took this ( ) that I’d saved up.

Scott: Yeah, I guess it would.

Arvin: At that time.

Scott: Well, Mr. Arvin, it’s been nice talking to you. I took your whole dinner hour now.

Arvin: Yeah ( ), I’ve enjoyed talking to you.

Scott: I’d like to come back sometime, and….

Arvin: Come back and bring your husband, we’ll talk and look them over.

Scott: Okay, we’ll sure do that.

END OF INTERVIEW

©Kentucky Oral History Commission Kentucky Historical Society

�PAGE �

©Kentucky Oral History Commission Kentucky Historical Society � PAGE �45�