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Audio Recording Interview with Janie Doss and her children (20 July 1977), Tift County, Georgia, parts 3 and 4, family activities

About this Item

Title

  • Interview with Janie Doss and her children (20 July 1977), Tift County, Georgia, parts 3 and 4, family activities

Names

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

Created / Published

  • Tift County, Georgia, July 20, 1977

Headings

  • -  Foodways
  • -  Folklore--Georgia
  • -  Children's games
  • -  Calendar rites
  • -  Farming
  • -  Farm tenancy
  • -  Field recordings
  • -  Sound recording
  • -  United States -- Georgia -- Tift County -- Tifton

Genre

  • Field recordings
  • Sound recording

Notes

  • -  Side A: Part 3 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 begins with sounds of children engaging their mother, daughter Tracy sings There'll be Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight, Janie respond with "Early in the morning in the middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight, back to back they faced each other, drew their swords and shot each other, if you don't believe me ask the blind man he saw it all"; Tracy tries to get Lisa to count to six; Janie recites parody of the Ride of Paul Revere; comments about odd local people, a man who stays inside by himself all the time, a man who drank Vitalis hair tonic, man who draws with two hands; comments on children's clubs, mention of junebug airplane; fieldworker asks about old houses built high on pilings, Janie remembers playing under the porch when young, windows in old houses were small, about the old house (former dwelling) behind the Doss home, its sheds and roof are not original, property owned by W.T. Hawes, once had a back and forth with him about harvesting pecans; about size of farms, many about 500 acres, Keith Doss's mother has 1,100 acres, people rent as much (farmland) as they can, not on a percentage (shares) but via "standing rent," more on farm rentals and relationship to government price supports on peanuts and tobacco, about the government ploughing under the crop of a man who planted too much; how Janie fills the freezer (garden produce?) by "picking on halves, it doesn't cost them anything, doesn't cost us anything"; son Mark says the former dwelling houses plows and a harrow; more on pick your own gardens; about sunflowers (eat seeds), making fig preserves and other fig products, pecans in cooking and baking, including in Jello "congealed salad"; about freezing pecans, shell them by hand-crushing two at a time, pecan pie, shells not good for anything unlike walnut shells, Janie's sister has more than 100 trees and sells pecans; about chestnuts, just like porcupines, hard on the feet, about sandspurs and cockleburs, continued in part 4.
  • -  Side B: Part 4 of a 7-part recording of a visit with Janie Doss and children Mark, Tracy, and Lisa, at their home in Tifton, GA: continuation of discussion of cockleburs, children exclaim "Basagran" (herbicide); about clearing land using a bulldozer, drivers are skilled and get good pay, risk of getting stuck, turning over, special skill to dig the "core" of a pond, Keith Doss could make more money running a bulldozer but prefers farming, Janie says "I love farming, beauty of new-turned earth is indescribable, it's an art, making perfect rows, you are making something out of nothing"; about plowing, several stages, turning the soil, laying out rows with a certain plow, fertilizing the soil, son Mark says, that's what I am going to do, turn the land; Janie remarks on the smell of new plowed earth, how she played in them as a child, played "bear races," kids chasing each other on all fours, knees not touching the ground; how farming is a cycle, planting, growing, harvesting, then repeat; beauty of plowed fields, aesthetics of plow patterns, contour plowing; about farm accidents, rare, story of boy run over by a tractor; about "whatifers," Tracy asked "what if"; about Janie's grandmother, sang mostly religious songs, as did her mother (surname probably Richardson) and Janie herself; about home remedies, Janie does not recall many; about Halloween, kids dress up go trick or treating to houses where they know people, schools have carnivals and a spook house, including cold noodles for brains, peeled grapes for eyeballs, string hanging like spiderwebs; Halloween pranks, soaping windows, turn over garbage cans, throw rocks and sand on porch, story of a trick that incapacitated an auto preventing a person from getting to a hospital, died, trick or treating has declined because of increasing "meanness" today, treats can be sabotaged; porch light signals trick or treaters are welcome; jack o'lanterns from pumpkins, hoses decorated to scare children, other celebratory holidays include New Years, dinner and stay up to midnight; at Christmas, drive to look at decorations, Valentine's Day, birthdays, Tracy had a party and cake, Tracy mentions pajama parties with telling secrets and staying up late, Janie remembers a sock hop for her 16th birthday, songs by Elvis, Ronnie Dove, the Four Seasons (Janie's favorites), Tracy recalls a party dance called the California Strut, Janie "dances with her children and keeps up on the latest," about Janie's musical preferences ("rock"), topic continues in part 5.

Medium

  • audiocassette

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Call number: AFC 1982/010: AFS 20914
  • MBRS shelflist: RYA 0872
  • Field project identifier: GA7-TA-C12

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 3 and 4, family activities. Tift County, Georgia, 1977. Audio. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/afc1982010_afs20914/.

APA citation style:

Adler, T. A. & Doss, J. (1977) Interview with Janie Doss and her children 20 July , Tift County, Georgia, parts 3 and 4, family activities. Tift County, Georgia. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/afc1982010_afs20914/.

MLA citation style:

Adler, Thomas A, and Janie Doss. Interview with Janie Doss and her children 20 July , Tift County, Georgia, parts 3 and 4, family activities. Tift County, Georgia, 1977. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/afc1982010_afs20914/>.