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Plum Thickets and Field Daisies
Banjo Pickers
I VIVIDLY REMEMBER the banjo pickers frequently seen in the streets or standing on a corner plunking out a melody. People often laughed and poked fun at these poor illiterate men who carried their instruments tied around their necks with a heavy string. Most of them came to town from some lowly home in the country and dressed in faded blue overalls and a faded blue coat. Their greatest and best loved possessions were their banjos, and they handled them with affection. Sometimes, one might think that the players looked shiftless and lazy standing on a corner with their banjos.
Herbs, Their Use, and Other Old-Fashioned Remedies
TUCKED AWAY in a corner of many gardens in Brooklyn was a small plot saved for an herb garden. This little plot was methodically and clearly kept out of cultivation because herbs were prized plants, and owners wanted to avoid losing their root stock as a result of too much digging around them. Herbs seem to multiply and grow best when they are left alone to grow in their own way.
The Outdoor Privy
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Water from the Well
PEOPLE USUALLY GOT A BUCKET OF WATER in the morning, one at dinner time and then one at night. Water was a commodity that had to be conserved and stretched as far as possible because carrying buckets of water long distances was quite a task.
Women usually carried the water from the well for use on wash day, but occasionally, a boy was employed to do this job for them. I remember seeing strong women carry buckets of water balanced on their heads while also carrying buckets in each hand. They accomplished this feat without having much water slosh from any of the buckets.
Our Physician Friend
IN THE NEXT BLOCK from our home lived a physician who was an important person in our early family life. During our father’s lifetime, Dr. George Williams was our family physician, and he remained so after my father’s death.
I remember our beloved friend as a large, good-looking man with an olive complexion and black curly hair. He had a jolly, infectious laugh. It was a big hearty laugh that called to you and let you know that he was near.
Billy, Our Goat
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The Gold Digger
THE GOLD DIGGER was an old man who moved painfully, methodically and slowly. He hobbled from place to place with the aid of an old gnarled stick that looked like a small tree branch.
His feeble frame was massive. His great shoulders were rather hunched and rounded, but one could readily see that he had once been a powerful man capable of doing laborious work.