MARPLE: Tell me a little bit about yourself?
JONES: I was raised down here in Tennessee Holler (??) and Mt. Nash (??) and I
lived in Souki Holler (??) when I got married in 1940. I’ve been around here mostly all of my life, all but during the war, we lived in Middlesboro.MARPLE: How old was [were] you when you got married?
JONES: I was fifteen.
MARPLE: And sixteen when you had your first baby?
JONES: Yes.
MARPLE: How many kids di-d you have?
JONES: Eleven kids, I raised eight.
MARPLE: Tell [me] what a typical day was like for you?
JONES: Well, I would get up early every morning because he worked in the mines,
and we ate breakfast about 4:00 am. If it was in the summertime, we would clean the house up after the girls got big enough to help. When we had outside work to do, we would wait till daylight so we could see to do it, and we worked out there till dinner and we would come in and get us something to eat and go back and work till about 3:00. Som we would get in and have supper ready by the time he would get home from work.MARPLE: Did you sleep with the baby?
JONES: Yes.
MARPLE: Did you breastfeed?
JONES: Yes, my first two died when they were about two weeks old, and I had to
dry my breast up early. I would get to feed on the breast about a month then, I would have to put them on a bottle.. MARPLE: How old was [were] they when you weaned them from the bottle?
JONES: About a year old.
MARPLE: How did you know what to feed the baby?
JONES: I was raised up in a big family and I watched my mother- feed them and I
knowed [knew] how to feed them.MARPLE: How old was [were] they when you started feeding them solid food?
JONES: Why, about six months old.
MARPLE: How did you feed them?
JONES: I would put them in my lap till they got big enough. Sometimes I would
stand them up in a chair.MARPLE: What did you start feeding the babies?
JONES: I would feed them gravy, jelly and stuff like that and at supper, I
would give them bean soup over bread, mashed potatoes and stuff like that,
anything I knowed [knew] wouldn't hurt them.MARPLE: Did every[body] sit together at a meal?
JONES: Yes
MARPLE: Did you grew [grow] a garden?
JONES: Yes, most every year I had one.
MARPLE: What caused your first two babies’ death[s]?
JONES: One had Bo hives and I really believe he mashed the other one to death.
MARPLE: Do you remember your other ones being sick al ot?
JONES: No, they never was [were] sick too much.
MARPLE: What about colic?
JONES: They had colic.
MARPLE: What did you do for it?
JONES: There wasn’t too much for me to do.
MARPLE: Did you use the doctor pretty often back then?
JONES: No, back then you didn’t have the money to spare to go.
MARPLE: Was there a hospital around here?
JONES: The old Jellico hospital.
MARPLE: You never had to take any of your kids to the hospital?
JONES: No.
MARPLE: What about ear infections?
JONES: No.
MARPLE: How about diphtheria or typhoid?
JONES: No.
MARPLE: Did they have whooping cough?
JONES: Yes, they had the whooping cough, measles, chickenpox.
MARPLE: Was there anything you could do for the whooping cough?
JONES: No.
MARPLE: Have you got any favorite home remedies?
JONES: There was wild cherry bark and honey and something else, but just the
wild cherry you know, boil it down and put honey in it, it makes a good cough syrup, it cuts the phlegm and stuff out.MARPLE: Any of them ever break a bone?
JONES: Yes.
MARPLE: What about toys?
JONES: They didn’t have that many toys.
MARPLE: Did you ever make them something to play with?
JONES: Sometimes somebody else would.
MARPLE: What would they make?
JONES: They made them a wooden wagon.
MARPLE: Did you ever get to play any games with them?
JONES: Yes, just a few.
MARPLE: Did you have any favorite stories or lullabies?
JONES: No.
MARPLE: Did you read to them?
JONES: Yes, I read the bible to them.
MARPLE: About how old was [were] they?
JONES: Four or five years old.
MARPLE: How would you dress a baby?
JONES: Just regular clothes.
MARPLE: Did you make their clothes?
JONES: Yes.
Jones: Who helped you with the baby?
JONES: Well, Opal, the oldest daughter, and the oldest boy helped.
MARPLE: Did your husband help?
JONES: When he was at home.
1:00