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Audio Recording Interview with Janie Doss and her children (20 July 1977), Tift County, Georgia, parts 1 and 2, family activities

About this Item

Title

  • Interview with Janie Doss and her children (20 July 1977), Tift County, Georgia, parts 1 and 2, family activities

Names

  • Adler, Thomas A. (Collector)
  • Doss, Janie

Created / Published

  • Tift County, Georgia, July 20, 1977

Headings

  • -  Folklore--Georgia
  • -  Children's games
  • -  Art
  • -  Tobacco farms
  • -  Superstitions
  • -  Field recordings
  • -  Sound recording
  • -  United States -- Georgia -- Tift County -- Tifton

Genre

  • Field recordings
  • Sound recording

Notes

  • -  Side B: Part 2 of a 7-part recording of a visit with Janie Doss and children Mark, Tracy, and Lisa, at their home in Tifton, GA: discussion of proverbs continues from part 1, Janie Doss says "it's the best way answer something without having to tell a whole big story," Doss also made a list of superstitions, e.g., never borrow salt, mark X on your windshield is a black cat crosses your path, never rock an empty chair (bad luck, related to death), never spin a chair on one leg, never wear one shoe, never sing in bed, never sew on anything while wearing it, don't sweep trash out the door after dark, on New Years never wash or iron but eat black-eyed peas and hog jowl, anything that says we'll have a good year, we'll do it, if you don't get what you crave when pregnant will mark the baby, tells of sister-in-law craving candy bar and the baby had such a mark on its back, more on marking infants, if you hate someone your baby will have one of that person's traits, never bite off baby's fingernails or he will be thief; about planting by the signs and using an almanac, compares results in their garden when planting by the signs with planting when Keith Doss "had the time," farm crops tend not to be planted by the signs, this is more for small gardens; Doss cash crops, peanuts planted first, then corn, then tobacco, the signs cannot always be considered, planting timed to stagger harvest times, about harvesting peanuts, peanut inverter, then combine, Doss remembers harvesting peanuts for $1 per bushel; about harvesting tobacco, use of a sled, stringing on a "horse," hanging in a barn in four tiers, cooking tobacco, moisture control and "swelled stems," remove tobacco from sticks, pack on sheets in a circle, stems in the center, Keith Doss takes their tobacco to Grower's Warehouse in Tifton, this year's heat and drought means tobacco is drying out too fast, last year was a good year, Keith farms with Mick Robertson; irrigation is difficult here, too much to try to irrigate everything, use of landplaster (calcium sulfate, gypsum) as fertilizer and soil conditioner; has been rain at Doss's but not at Robertson's about 10 minute drive to the north; Janie Doss reminisces about tobacco work in her past, "we used to have some times," summer work financed her school clothes, today workers get $20 per day, then she got $10, comments that $20 today is "lousy"; Janie used to work as a "stringer" putting leaves on sticks; hired tobacco field hands tended not to be black or even other hired labor because of the care required in picking, depended on family and close friends, about cropping tobacco with a harvester, croppers below (pick leaves) and stringers above; evolution now is bulk barn, which eliminates the stringing, bulk barns are aluminum enclosures, holds three times a much as traditional flue-curing barn, with vents, thermostats, moisture gauge, bulk barns have caught on in the past 4 or 5 years; cotton not grown much anymore, they say "not worth it," Janie has picked cotton, her grandmother had a crop and Janie worked there, "dragging a sack behind us."
  • -  Side A: Part 1 of a 7-part recording of a visit with Janie Doss and children Mark, Tracy, and Lisa, at the home of Janie and Keith Doss, Rt. 2 Box 280B, Tifton, GA, location identified on fieldworker Thomas Adler's field map of Tift County GA as site H (lat-long: 31.380925, -83.489494): recording starts with fieldworker's comments near and at the Doss home, after photographing a log house, peanut wagons, and a prison work gang, photographs at call number AFC 1982/010: GA7-TA-11; at the Doss home, Janie is making junebug airplanes for the children, group moves to yard to fly them, several attempts, discussion of the activity; discussion of snipe hunt; group moves back into house; comments on hot weather, 96 degree at time of recording, Janie said had reached 106 in the 1940s; discussion of songs, and of Janie's pictures, homemade popsicle stick napkin holder; about proverbs, most from Janie's mother; on artistic talent, always there in Janie's family; about Janie's sister Faye Milton in Nashville GA, lives on Doctor Brown's farm; Janie says that visits by salesmen had led her mother-in-law to slam doors in stranger's faces, about salesmen, Janie bought a family Bible but Keith asked her to cancel the order; Janie's soap carvings, includes cats, how air causes soap carvings to deteriorate, fingernail polish makes them look prettier, tools include knife, fingernail file, cloth, ballpoint pen, about building up blocks of soap, soft soap and hard soap, example of flower (orchid) soap carving, Janie's favorite is a cat; fieldworker reads some proverbs Janie has written down, proverbs continue in part 2.

Medium

  • audiocassette

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Call number: AFC 1982/010: AFS 20913
  • MBRS shelflist: RYA 0871
  • Field project identifier: GA7-TA-C11

Source Collection

  • South-Central Georgia Folklife Project collection (AFC 1982/010)

Repository

  • American Folklife Center

Digital Id

Online Format

  • audio

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that some of the materials in this collection are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions, and are therefore free to use or reuse. For example, the fieldwork in this collection is in the public domain in the United States.

However, the Library has obtained permission for the use of other materials, and presents additional materials for educational and research purposes in accordance with fair use under United States copyright law. For example, some of the recordings contain copyrighted music, and not all of the performers and other individuals who were recorded signed releases for public use of their work.

In addition, the American Folklife Center and the professional fieldworkers who carry out these projects feel a strong ethical responsibility to the people they have visited and who have consented to have their lives documented for the historical record. The Center asks that researchers approach the materials in this collection with respect for the culture and sensibilities of the people whose lives, ideas, and creativity are documented here. Researchers are also reminded that privacy and publicity rights may pertain to certain uses of this material.

Researchers or others who would like to make further use of these collection materials should contact the Folklife Reading Room for assistance. Rights assessment is your responsibility. The written permission of the copyright owners in materials not in the public domain is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Permissions may additionally be required from holders of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights). Whenever possible, we provide information that we have about copyright owners and related matters in the catalog records, finding aids and other texts that accompany collections. However, the information we have may not be accurate or complete.

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Credit line: South-Central Georgia Folklife Project collection (AFC 1982/010), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Adler, Thomas A, and Janie Doss. Interview with Janie Doss and her children 20 July , Tift County, Georgia, parts 1 and 2, family activities. Tift County, Georgia, 1977. Audio. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/afc1982010_afs20913/.

APA citation style:

Adler, T. A. & Doss, J. (1977) Interview with Janie Doss and her children 20 July , Tift County, Georgia, parts 1 and 2, family activities. Tift County, Georgia. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/afc1982010_afs20913/.

MLA citation style:

Adler, Thomas A, and Janie Doss. Interview with Janie Doss and her children 20 July , Tift County, Georgia, parts 1 and 2, family activities. Tift County, Georgia, 1977. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/afc1982010_afs20913/>.