Writing a novel set in Nash County (Raleigh: felony, homes)

[Bethanytedder]

Randy could have been terrified by a black snake in the tobacco fields. They were fairly common or perhaps the mule got away from him. Also when I was small, we had a barn right across the road from the barn my father used. My mother stayed home and cooked and got water and the snacks that came at mid morning and mid afternoon. My aunt worked at the barn and her 6 year old son drove the tractor to the barn. Of course that meant crossing the road. So when Aunt Molly heard the tractor fire up, she would stop and cross over to our house, hop on the tractor with her son Bobby and stop the tractor before allowing him to cross the road. Why you ask? Because Bobby was too short to reach the brake on the tractor. The man I worked with in 1968 still used mules. And they were hateful critters when they wanted to be. My ex-husband broke his hand on one of there hard exteriors trying to get the mule to do what he wanted it to do. Sounds like child and animal abuse doesn't it? And technically it probably was. But that is just the way it was in the 40's, 50's and 60's here. Good, bad or indifferent, that is just the way it was.

[dianalee4jc]

Hehehe... yeah, luckydog, I was thinking of an undershirt. *blush* And for the cap I was thinking that it would have a John Deere logo on it.

Ya'll are awesome!

[luckydog]

John Deere would work, many have seed logo, ...they are given to the farmers by the seed sales reps.

the family has invited Randy's girlfriend and her mother over for the day

They would definately offer their help to his mom, even if they are guests, when she was preparing the meal. Afterwards, they would absolutely help clean up, regardless of the fact they are guests. It's a mark of good manners here.

[Bethanytedder]

Now I worked in my grandfather's store as a child of about 9. And can still here my grandmother telling me how to count out change. For instance, you give me a $5.00 bill to pay for $3.81 worth of stuff. So I would take 4 pennies and count them out to you, 82, 83, 84, 85, then I would hand you dime and say 95 and finally a nickel and say $4.00, then I would had you a dollar bill and say $5.00. That is counting out change. We always drew the gas for the people. That is why we have so many older women now that have no idea how to work the gas pumps now, my 86 year old mother included. Oh and 13 party line telephones. That was an experience in real living. If you had a phone at all, it was a black rotary dial phone and you had to share a party line with 12 other people. Getting them off the phone so you could make a call was another experience. Everyone had their own personal ring so you would know who it was for. And most phone numbers were read like JA3-9020. Or In this case, Jason 3-9020 or SH7-3490. Which meant Shadyside 7-3490. This was the same as 747-3490 which it is the prefix for where I live. We didn't even dial all seven numbers until after I was married in 1969. For the longest time if you called Snow Hill where I live, you only dialed the last 4 digits.

[dianalee4jc]

Black snake... eek! Are they venomous?

Actually, the barn in the story prompts Randy to think of something that happened to him when he was sent to Texas at the age of nine, to spend some time with his cousins (Silvia's relatives). The boys were older, and they beat him up. He ran away, and spent the night in an old barn that was falling down... thus, the memory cue.

Randy was born in 1983, so he wouldn't have been involved in the tobacco harvest, as you've described it. But his father might have, and certainly his grandparents would have.

Another thing I saw... fields with rows and rows of some kind of crop with a rounded black covering of some sort... maybe to protect the crop from the cold? (It was December when I was there.) Any idea?

[dianalee4jc]

I'm going to throw this out for ya'll, because I'm real curious about it. Maybe you'll know something, maybe not... or maybe someone else will come in and know something.

Anyway... when I first started thinking about this story, the names of people and places came to me in a rush. The name of the little town where Randy lives is Sandy Fork (fictitious... I've changed all the names just to respect the people of Nash County). But I thought I should check just to make sure there wasn't actually a "Sandy Fork, North Carolina." What I found was that there IS a Sandy Fork Missionary Baptist Cemetary in southern Nash County. And there's a Sandy Fork Road. (Scary? LOL) Now... if there is a Sandy Fork Missionary Baptist Cemetary, then at one time there had to be a Sandy Fork Missionary Baptist CHURCH... and maybe that means at one time there was an area called Sandy Fork??? If so, I would LOVE to know the history of that place.

But... I've changed all the names of the towns, with the exception of Raleigh. Sandy Fork is just made up (the area around the cemetary is nothing more than fields). Nashville is Clarksville, Bailey is Bentley, and Spring Hope is Springfield. I was going to mention Rocky Mount, but changed my mind as that would place the story (for the reader) directly in Nash County. As it is, I've just said that the area is a bit more than thirty miles from Raleigh.

[Bethanytedder]

Being born in 1983, his father and grandfather and even 'ole Ray would remind him of the days when he didn't just go to his father for money for say school clothes. Most teens used the money they got barning tobacco for school clothes for the upcoming year. My grandfather always took him day's take in money out of the store in a cigar box. Then he locked it in a closest until he could get to the bank to deposit it. They had the weirdest looking keys almost like skelton keys to lock the closest. And get this. One morning while I was down for the summer with my grandparents, a customer came to the door and needed something pretty badly. My grandfather handed him the key to the barn, the man opened the store, got what he wanted and left the money on the counter and he was like say a nickel or so over in what he actually owed. And he lived just a small distance from the store. My grandfather had me take that nickel back to that man when we opened up. I believe I a correct in saying that Rocky Mount is in Nash and Edgecombe counties. They refer to it as which ever county line you are at as which side of the county are you in.

[luckydog]

rounded black covering of some sort

I think you're referring to "row covers"--I don't know the crop

[luckydog]

they do use row covers for strawberries here...will come off in May

[Bethanytedder]

I don't think the black snakes are poisonous but I wouldn't want to meet up with one of them in the field. They can be quite long. Most of them would be killed on the spot.