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I always the enjoyed the old days when my mother used to card and spin wool. She had an old spinning wheel. We raised sheep and a good many would die. After a time we could pull the wool off their bodies easily by hand. After the wool was {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} washed and carded we would take a 'roach' or corn shuck and start spinning on the finger, then we would wrap the 'roach' around the spindle. My mother wove bedspreads; I have what is left of one yet. It is a sort of 'mother' color; a sort of pink.
I liked to cook. We used to eat lots of cabbage, baked beans, potatoes and sweet potatoes and some meat, mostly pork.
I have often told the children the reason we older people are healthy is because we ate lots of vegetables, spinach, beans, etc. My grandchildren won't eat vegetables like we did.
When we got sick, we would try our home remedies and if they didn't work, we would try to get a doctor. For the ague we took 'cincinda'. Verbine root was used for rheumatism. Some used to carry or wear different herbs to keep off sickness but Father didn't believe it would work.
He didn't believe in ghosts but one time at night he came in with his horse rig and called to us to bring a lantern. He seemed scared and said the horse suddenly jumped ahead and then stopped and trembled. He looked around and saw a man who got out of sight real quick. He didn't know the man and thought that he was something unnatural as the horses acted so queer.
People used to go miles to hear that tell at meetings about visiting with the dead. Lots of people still believe in it.
My sister rented a house in Illinois and after she moved in she heard noises in the walls. She thought it was haunted and her son made her move out.
The young people didn't have much privacy when they courted. The boys would come and sit in the room where the whole family was gathered about. Folks more very strict about having the young folks well attended. Sunday was the big day for courting.
I have an old newspaper clipping from Macon, Missouri about a man by the name of Robertson, who took an oath in 1908 that he wouldnt shave or cut his hair until [?]. J. Bryan was elected president. He kept his vow and when he died his hair and whiskers reached almost to his waist.
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