Community solidarity, foodways, and childhood remembrances
de-Heer again emphasizes the importance of community solidarity during her formative years and describes her father's role as a leader in the neighborhood. In addition, she describes some of the foodways of her family and neighbors, various activities, and her fond memories of visiting the countryside after moving to the city.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Julia Peaks de-Heer, January 8, 1999. Interview K-0146. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- JILL HEMMING:
-
You say that you viewed your dad as a real community leader. Tell me a
little bit about his civic involvement. What kind of organizations was
he a part of, or how did he—
- JULIA PEAKS DE-HEER:
-
Well, his involvement—my father, once we moved to the city. I
call it the city, from where we were living that was the country, the
county. The only thing that he would do was help them organize. If we
were having a rent party or something, he would help organize that. He
was gone mostly because his job took him out of town a lot. He was the
one, if anything got rowdy or anything at that time, he was the pipeline
to the authorities and everybody knew that. Because, he said,
"Well, if this happens, I'm going to call the
police." But that is basically what he did. If anybody needed
to go anywhere—but as far as being a
leader or anything, no. He would work with them in the neighborhood on
the weekends when he was here. If somebody went out of town, one of the
men had to go out of town or something, he kept an eye out on the house
and would make sure food was there or something, that the families ate.
That they had what they needed. And this is basically what everyone did.
Looked out. The men liked to fish and they would try to fish or hunt and
bring enough for everybody, or two or three families at a time.
- JILL HEMMING:
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True country boys.
- JULIA PEAKS DE-HEER:
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Yes indeed. It was country from their heart. Catfish, yuk! They had so
much rabbit. But food was there. Chicken, of course plenty of chicken
because they were at the Farmer's Exchange.
- JILL HEMMING:
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Chicken, chicken, chicken.
- JULIA PEAKS DE-HEER:
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Yes. We had stewed chicken, baked chicken, fried chicken, chicken,
chicken.
[Laughter]
There was so much chicken. Then we ate chicken feed. You know,
the chicken feed. And we used to love it. Because they used to stew
those. They would boil them and put onions in it and a little
thickening. It was good to snack on. Then cornbread and buttermilk.
There are the things. Crackling corn bread. They would get meat. They
used to go out and kill hogs, slaughter hogs. And the fat, the skin.
They used to—they had a smoke house. My grandfather had a big
smokehouse for the sausage. We had sausage, ham, and everything that
goes in the smokehouse. And then the skin, some way my grandmother made
crackling. And we had crackling corn bread. It was some good eating.
- JILL HEMMING:
-
They did that right in Durham? This wasn't out in the country.
This was right in their backyard?
- JULIA PEAKS DE-HEER:
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Yes. Oh, they slaughtered the hogs in the country because we
couldn't do that, but in the town they made the soap. They
had this great old big black pot, and boil liquids. They made
[unclear]
soap. My grandmother and my mother, they used to
make soap in town. But they slaughtered hogs in the country, where a lot
of my family still live and lived. The older ones that are still here.
So we would go out there.
- JILL HEMMING:
-
So you still felt pretty connected to the country, even though your
family moved to the city because there was enough family there that you
went back and forth?
- JULIA PEAKS DE-HEER:
-
Right. And I would love the summer when school was out in the summer,
because I could go back, and it is in my bones now. As I think about it
now, because wherever I go, I travel a lot, and wherever I go I would
think about the country. And to me it may be a way of
getting—those were my peaceful times. And I reflect back on
it and the peace. So this is probably—it was a peaceful time
for me. It seems to me when I moved to the city everything just went,
like the hay wall. It was there for a minute, everybody around.
That's why I paid close attention to what everybody did. And
it was good. Hopkins Street is our neighborhood. That's my
neighborhood. But Stagville, that's my home.
That's a difference. A neighborhood and a home. We grew up in
that neighborhood and the atmosphere was pleasant. There was a sense of
unity and people looking out for each other. And loving, and sharing,
and caring.