Interview with Bebe

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Hello?

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Bebe!

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Hi.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): How’re you doing?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Well, I’m still sleepy and I went in and laid down on the bed and fell sound asleep for 2 hours.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Oh wow, dang, sounds like a good nap. Um, well, I just had a couple of questions for you. Do you remember when I called you, probably like a month ago, and I asked you questions about the grandfather clock?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Yes

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): I, this time, I probably have to ask you some similar questions but this time I have to record it for my class.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: OK.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): OK, so would you mind if we went ahead and did that?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: No, I don’t mind at all, I’m fascinated.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Alright, um, so the first question I have is, where did you buy the clock?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: I bought the clock in an antique shop in an antique shop in Natchez, Mississippi. I bought it from a man named David Calcote,and he’s gone now, he’s passed away. And he and his black servant came to Carrollton and delivered the clock.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Ok, that’s interesting. Um, do you remember the name of the shop where he was?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Yes, it was called The Antiquarium.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Yeah, I was just hoping they had a website and I could look it up, you know.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: And it might be that they wouldn’t have closed it yet. Um, and he built clocks there.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): He built clocks?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: He built, b-u-i-l-t, clocks there yes. And he built my clock.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Wow.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: That’s why I have a very unique pendulum on the clock. And I have an, oh gosh, what is it called, I have an antique, painted pendulum.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Interesting! I think I noticed that when I was looking at it.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Yes, it’s uh, you would never want to change that. Some people paint over it and put some bright brass on it and keep it polished all the time, but I wouldn’t do that for anything in the world. And uh, also he put the face on the clock with the agricultural face, showing the four seasons.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): That is so cool.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: And it is so cool. Actually, you know, the clock depict our life. Buddy’s and my life together.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Really? In what way?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: It’s all about farming.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Yeah that’s true. They’re showing plowing and planting and harvesting..

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Right, it shows all the four seasons and that’s why I loved it, and I think that’s why he loved it, because it was our life.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): That’s so cool. Um, so did you buy the clock because of the way it depicted your life?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Definitely. It was the only clock at his shop, and there were 7 clocks in his shop that were all ticking away, it was the only one that depicted agriculture.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Hmm. Were they all grandfather clocks?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Yes.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Wow.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: It was a gorgeous shop, but it wasn’t what you call fancy.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Yeah, it just had beautiful things in it.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Yes, it was just a shop with perfectly lovely things in it. I also bought some plates from the man, and he called them old Meissen plates, and they’re uh, I don’t know if you all got them or not, but they have flowers on them and no markings on the back. Many plates have the makers’ name on the back. And these are that old, these are over 200 years old.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Wow, that’s insane.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: And they’re handmade and hand-painted. And they’re just lovely, and there are 2 different sizes, there’s a luncheon size and there’s a salad size.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): That’s so cool. Um, when you bought the clock, what made you want to go buy a clock, like why did you buy a grandfather clock?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Because, as far as I was concerned, we had the perfect place to position a grandfather clock there.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Right, right where, I remember that spot. I remember the way the sun would come through the glass door, through the glass and it would fall right on the clock, I thought it was so pretty.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Thank you so much. It was.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Um, so when exactly did you buy this clock?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: I don’t remember, we’ve had the clock for about 7–8 years I think.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Um, my mother told me that she remembers you guys buying it sometime, like 1995ish.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: She’s probably right.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Um, she said that you guys had made a Natchez trip together. Do you remember that trip?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Yes.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Is that when you did buy it?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: I’m sure it is, yes.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Um. Was it during the summertime?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: I think it was more during the fall.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Huh, ok. So what was family life like around the time you got the clock. Like, was Mom pregnant with Mahlon at that point.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Mahlon was about 7 years old. Would Mahlon have been around 1950? (She has her time and dates mixed up. She meant 1995.)

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Um, let me think, Mahlon was born, I want to say Mahlon was born in 1995. Because he’s 5 years older than Gin and I. And we were born in 2000.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Yes ok. Oh gee. Well Mahlon was a little boy, and he would get a chair, and if the clock needed to be set, he’d watch me set it. And then he’d watch us wind it. And he was the only child that I had, of all of my grandchildren, that paid any attention to the clock, at all. Nobody else even looked at it. Mahlon was fascinated by it. He wanted to know all about it, he wanted to know about the weights, and he was amazed at how heavy they are, they’re quite heavy. And he was the only child that really paid attention to the clock.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): So you chose this clock based on its agricultural history. Um do you know anything about like, the implications of the grandfather clock in the south? Did it indicate anything at all?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: No, not really, I don’t know anything about that.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): What type of people owned one?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Well, it was people who were interested in history, and interested in our lives, and I know that the clock tells a story…

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): What type of story?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: of our lives together, and the clock is historically significant of our lives together. And I think people bought clocks… I don’t know… I think people who are interested in history.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): OK.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: And I know David Calcote was an expert and he knew all about clocks, he collected clock parts.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Oh yeah! And that’s what he built you clock out of, right?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: And he built the clock, yes, out of clock parts that he found.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): That’s so interesting. Did he work with anybody?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: I don’t think so, no. I think he was by himself.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Ok so, back in the old south, do you think there was a certain type of family that owned a grandfather clock?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Oh, sure.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Such as?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Oh I think they were people who were interested in history and the significance of history. History is very important, and history is so important because what happens historically happens again.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): And so in the past, like in the civil war era south, the type of people who owned grandfather clocks were people who were interested in history?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Yes.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Interesting.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: They were interested in their history, their family’s history. And now David, I don’t know too much about David’s history, but I know he lived in Natchez and loved Natchez. And he knew history so much the history of Natchez. You know the story of how the founding fathers of Natchez saved the town?

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Um, no, could you tell it to me?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: The founding fathers decided that they didn’t want Natchez to be burned. Vicksburg had been burned, and all of the towns that were around, the old antebellum towns there were gone. Because that’s what they did. They were victors and they burned everything in it.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Yeah, that’s crazy.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Well that’s what they do. The victors usually, they burned the town and raped the women and just utterly destroy it. Well, anyway, Natchez was too beautiful, and the founding fathers loved Natchez. And most of the founding fathers’ homes were built by hand or by slaves and the founding fathers wanted that preserved. And so in order to preserve it, they made a deal with the victors. They said that if you save our town, the silver and the beautiful things in it, we will house you, just give you your room and board just like at a hotel. And we will serve you as the owners. And they did, and they gave their room and board. You know, they tell the story of, DAR has a house, Rosalie, and Rosalie has the most magnificent furniture. People at Rosalie, they had this property, a vast property in the back of the house, and they buried their sterling silver, and they buried furniture, and consequently they saved it because they were able to dig it up when the Northern generals left.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Alright, so I have one last question. What would you say was the clock’s job, like on the plantation. Did it have any role in social life or family life or work life or anything like that?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: I’m sorry, what?

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Did the clock have any role in the life of the family. Did it help them know, likem when to leave, their social life, their family life… what sort of implications did it have in those regards.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Well I think they had, probably had a child, kept it running

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Someone kept it running…

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: a child probably did that, someone like mahlon, they were responsible.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Why do you say that?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Because it teaches the child order, it teached him responsibility, if the clokc doesn’t get wound it dies, and if the clock doesn’t run, it’s worthless. What good is a clock that doesn’t run?

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Huh. Right. So the value of usefulness.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: So I would think that a clock could teach a child all kinds of things.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): That’s a really interesting viewpoint, I hadn’t thought of that before.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: I thought of my clock as being fragile. And it is fragile. The clock is strong and forceful and valuable. And those are all good things.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): So you think of the clock as fragile yet strong?

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: Oh yes.

Elizabeth Kruse (Me): Interesting.

Elizabeth (Bebe) Barrett: In other words, all of the parts must be kept wound, for the clock to work.