People demanding winter relief (Hunter Oatman)
Name: Mrs. Elizabeth E. Miller (Grammy Miller)
- Age: 90 years old
- Family: 4 boys: Clarence, John, James, George and 1 daughter who died in infancy
- Location: Mountain and Lake View Farm, West Newbury, Vermont
- Date: November 4 and 16, 1938
- Question: "Did you ever have to do work that the men usually did?"
- Listen to Elizabeth's response
- "One fall we had a five hundred and fifty pound dressed hog hanging in the yard. The men went off to Wells River to take up another hog they had dressed at the same time and left it hanging there and the caldron kettle half full of water. They aimed to get back and take the hog down to cellar before it froze. It would never do to let pork that was going to be salted freeze. I was all alone with the children and I waited until almost twelve. My husband didn't come and so I took a lantern and a saw and a knife and went out to fetch in that hog...I cut up that hog and loaded it piecemeal onto the sled. The worst part was getting it through the front door, but I managed. I had it all done before my husband got home. He asked who had brought the hog in. I said, 'I did.' He asked who helped and I said, 'Alone.' I wasn't wasting many words on him. He was struck dumb."
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Name: Clyde "Kingfish" Smith
- Ethnicity: African-American
- Occupation: Street Vendor
- Location: Basement of B. Shapiro, 300 E. 101 Street, New York City
- Date: November 29, 1939
- Listen to Clyde's response
- Question: "Why did you start singing while you work?"
- "When I started peddling that was in 1932, that's when I started singing...'Heighho, fish man, bring down you dishpan,' that's what started it. 'Fish ain't but five cent a pound....' It was hard times then, the Depression, and people can hardly believe fish is five cents a pound, so they started buying. There was quite a few peddlers and somebody had to have something extra to attract the attention. So when I came around, I started making a rhyme, it was a hit right away.
- "...On the street whatever comes to mind I say it, if I think it will be good. The main idea is when I got something I want to put over I just find something to rhyme with it. And the main requirement for that is mood. You gotta be in the mood. You got to put yourself in it. You've got to feel it. It's got to be more or less an expression, than a routine. Of course, sometimes a drink of King Kong liquor helps."