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Nelda
and Clyde Maxwell Age: Nelda-78, Clyde-86 Occupations: Nelda-School Teacher Clyde-Business Owner Hometown: Allensville Interviewer: Matt McManus |
|
Nelda
and Clyde Maxwell Age: Nelda-78, Clyde-86 Occupations: Nelda-School Teacher Clyde-Business Owner Hometown: Allensville Interviewer: Matt McManus |
Q. What was it like growing up in Vinton County? 
Interview:
Q What is Vinton Country like now compared to when you were a kid?
A. Well Route 50 was a gravel road and they maintained the road with teams of horses. A man up here in Allensville named Clyde Stevens used a team of mules and a plow to maintain the road. And I grew up on a farm and we had daily chores like, milking the cows and cutting weeds out of the corn field. My dad farmed the same land that I own now.
Q. What was the main crop of your time?
A. Well, corn and wheat were the main two crops we planted. But back then we also had lots of fruit trees.
Q. Was it hard growing up on a farm.
A. It made a good working man out of you when you became an adult. I remember hoeing corn and we raised our own potatoes. I remember one thing we weren't use to seeing is deer. I never saw a deer the whole time I was growing up.
Q. What was it like when you saw your first deer?
A. I knew what it was but I have never seen a animal like that running around. We also had lots of beaver running around back then. And another thing we never had was electricity, so at night all we had were candles. We had hogs for meat during the winter time.
Q. What did you do for entertainment as a kid?
A. After working all day we went to a nice stream of water and cooled off. and dad would always say go cut the iron weed out of the pasture. Iron weed grew in the pasture and would ruin the crops so we always had to cut them down. My recreation was always tending to a garden. Then when this work was all done we had a nice stream of water that we used to catch a lot of nice fish out of. But dad would usually say go cut those iron weeds out of the corn field first. So we would go cut the iron weeds out first.Dad would tell us certain trees we could cut to build us a log cabin . One fall after we finished it up the creeks got up and took our cabin right down Little Fork - the creek that ran along the cabin. My dad played the banjo and every Saturday night we would have a concert. My brothers had a tree house and us girls had a play house in the barn.
Q What was it like to live through the depression?
A Mother would can the food we grew in the garden and we would cure our pork in salt so it would stay good for along time since we didn't have refrigerators then. And my dad raised land hens and every week he would take in a couple cases of eggs a week to Chilicothe and in return he would get what he needed.