Oral History
I chose my Grandfather, Curtis Southwell to interview for my oral history. He is my mother’s father, and he still farms today at the age of 85. We talked for an hour for our interview, and I learned a lot about the humble man that is my grandaddy. Through this interview, I learned about how my family got to the spot that they are now, and how he ended up how he did.
Key: J=Jake Hagan, C=Curtis Southwell
J: Whats up, hows it going, how are you doing?
C: Alright!
J: Alright, tell me your full name and your birthday.
C: Curtis Lavone Southwell, I was born sept 21 1930.
J: Were you born in your house?
C: I don’t remember. No, I was born on the farm.
J: Do you live in the house you were born in?
C: No, but the house I was born in is down the road and has been renovated.
J: Can you tell me about any stories from your childhood? Did you have any siblings?
C: There was two of us, but I had two half brothers.
J: Did they live with you?
C: One of them did, Rufus Earl.
J: Did you help your father farm?
C: I grew up farming with them.
J: Did school get in the way of farming at all?
C: Oh yeah I went to school. Our school started later than school starts now, so I worked on the farm and was able to work until school start.
J: Did you always want to farm?
C: No, no, no. Are you wanting some of my history?
J: Yes sir.
C: Alright lets back up. I started the school over at Warnock School. And when I was 15, I went to drivin’ the school bus. I always come home in the evenings after school, and I had chores to do that I did. When I was 15 the war was on, and we didn’t have a lot of men around. I got the job drivin’ the school bus, and I drove it for three years.
J: Did you get payed to do it?
C: Oh yeah I started off at 15 dollars a month. Then I started driving in my second year to Statesboro, and I got 5 dollars more a month.
J: Is it the bus at your house now?
C: No that was a used bus I got to haul people out of savannah to work for us. I paid for workers a dollar a head to come down here, and at the end of the day, I payed them for work.
J: What did you do after you graduated high school?
C: After highschool, they put me in the draft into the Korean war, but I didn’t want to go. I missed it by one day. I went on a bus to Columbia and rode a train to Tennessee. We got snowed in on the train for 27 days. I finally made it to San Diego and went through boot camp. I came home and went back to San Diego. When I got there they told me to go see the senior chaplain. He asked me how things were when I left home. I told him alright as far as I know. He asked about my daddy. I thought he was alright, but after I left they sent a telegram that he was in dying conditions. I flew home to see him. The doctor said my daddy could never work again, so I got out of the service to go back to farming. I’ve been here ever since.
J: Are you glad that that happened?
C: Well, I didn’t want to be in the fox hole. I enjoyed my sea duty though.
J: You were in the navy right?
C: Yes, I was stationed on a boat that never left the dock. I couldn’t even swim.
J: When did you meet Grandmama?
C: I was about 20 years old, and I had pain in my side. I couldn’t handle it. The doctor said it was my appendix, and it had to come out. I had heard about a chiropractor that could do some good. So I went there, and Martha was there. I met her and liked her. I persuaded her after she said she didn’t date patients. We courted for about 2 years, and then we got married.
J: Did she work there?
C: Oh yeah she got the patients ready for the chiropractor. She massaged me. And I’m 84 years old and still have my appendix. ( laughter)
J: Wow that’s awesome! How did it work with your “Courting,” and was that different than dating today?
C: Well we had a place that everyone hung out at. It used to be a warehouse and gas station. We all met up there. Martha lived by it and would walk by going to and from work. I dated her for a little better than two years, and I saw her every day except maybe 4 or 5 days since we met. Back then, friends would mess with people getting married, and we had a group that we were afraid would serenade us. We didn’t tell anyone but our parents that we were getting married.
J: So how did yall get married?
C: We went in my old house and renovated it for us before we were married. On a Saturday evening I had to work all day, and we got married that night. I was wore out, so I went to pick her up, and she looked great. We got married and went down to savannah to eat seafood. On the way home, I was so sleepy that I told her that if she felt like driving to drive us home. That was the first time I ever let someone drive for me. We got back home and went to bed.
J: Have y’all always lived in that house since y’all’s marriage?
C: Oh yeah, we got the house ready for us, and we lived there and even had a television. I payed the man 5 dollars a month until I had it payed off.
J: Now when exactly were yall married?
C: I believe it was 1951. On Valentines day. We were married 56 and half years.
J: So did your father live past when he was said to be in dying condition?
C: Yes it was a bad diagnosis. We loved each other, and I had established my farming. After I got married, I separated into my own farming business. I rented land, and I eventually bought his land when he died. I rented land up until 1990.
J: How did that work having other siblings?
C: I had heard about families having terrible times with wills. I got everything in the house priced and all the land, and we all got together and settled everything. If someone wanted something they took it, and if they didn’t, we sold it and split up the money. It worked out really smoothly. None of my family wanted the farm. They told me to get three people to appraise the farm. They picked three people to do it, but I was friends with them. I told my brother Robert that I didn’t want to work with the man I banked with because it was prejudice, but Robert said I don’t care, I go to church with them. So we all talked to them, and I ended up bidding the highest so I got the land. I bought my brothers out.
C: Jake, your tongue, there aint a sharper sword than your tongue. Years after we had settled and all, Robert, the oldest who I respected the most, he come visiting me at times. He said he didn’t know a thing that could change to make how they settled things. It was peaceable. I never wanted to jip anyone. And here I am 85 years old, and I am enjoying life.
J: Do you think you are going to work the rest of your life?
C: I’m going to work as long as I can.
J: Yes sir.
C: I don’t ever intend to stop. Now there’s things that I can’t do. My hands, if you look at my hands, there’s things I can’t do that I used to could do. Now if you take my knees, I don’t ever get down on my knees. I am trying to protect what the doctors did when they replaced my knees. I don’t stress myself. Little things with my fingers like nuts and screws, they hinder some things that I do.
J: Do you still go to the auctions?
C: Oh yeah, you talking about the cows?
J: Yes sir.
C: I don’t attend church like I did, I go to Sunday School, and I go to Sunday morning Church. I do not attend a lot of the events they have, but with me not cooking, I go to town for each meal a lot of the times. After Martha passed away, I have gone and bought all of my food. It has gotten me out among people where I can feel young again and enjoy life. I talk to a lot of people. I do a lot of witnessing. I don’t claim to be perfect, although I used to joke around with Martha that I was right near perfect(laughter.) But I run into people all the time who don’t know the Lord. I go get a sausage biscuit somewhere every morning but Sunday and see people. Friends started finding out I was eating, and they called to find out where I would be, and they would meet me. I have found people that were acquaintances that I have talked to, and they are people I would never talk to before. I’m not trying to build myself up at all, but the point is that some of these fellows are good friends of mine, and they asked me to lead them in devotions. I got a hold of the preacher to come with us once a week so he could lead us in a conversation. A lost person doesn’t always need a sermon. They need to feel free to talk about what they want to first and get comfortable. I’m coming back to your question.
J: No I like hearing about this.
C: I go to the auction on Tuesdays, and the fellow there is a huge man with the filthiest mouth you have ever seen. He hires anybody he can get to drive cattle into his business. He’s all the time cussing, calling crazies, just stuff I don’t even want to hear. I think 2 weeks ago, he was sitting there, he had his shirt open, with his belly hanging out. I said, “When you gonna start cutting back on your food?” He went to running his mouth, and I said, “If you don’t slow down, you gonna have a heart attack or stroke.” He started laughing and cussing, saying, “ I don’t care when I die. They can either burn me or bury me.” Now that tore me up. He treats me good, and I can get more money over there, but he just has a dirty mouth. I know I shouldn’t judge someone, but I can draw conclusions by how this man puts himself out and by how he talks. Its just sad. Now I have a problem. My sons all joined the Church back in the day, but I can’t get any of them to go to Church. Now they all have excuses, but there aren’t any real excuses. I have tried to get them in Church, but all I can do is try my best to live in front of them. I was hard headed like them, but the only thing that I am hoping is that they would turn around like I did.
J: Can you tell me about your ancestors?
C: I believe that my family was from England or Wales. They came over here in the early 1800s and settled in Bryan County. Once Bulloch started to grow, they moved over to Bulloch County, and I have been there ever since.
J: I got one last question for you. You have been sharing a lot about your faith, and I want to know what is the thing in your faith life that you are looking forward to the most, whether that is in this life or the next?
C: That’s something I can give you a sermon on to (laughter). We have just finished a study on Revelation, now that’s eternity, and now we are doing one on Genesis, the beginning. Some of our talk in Bible study was about how the scripture was saying that God would furnish us water, he was going to do away with the sea, and I can’t get it all together. And someone say what are we gonna eat? That doesn’t affect me! I’m not interested in that. I want God to accept me. If he accepts me, then he will take care of me. If I go to Hell, I don’t know anything that could be worse. And If I’m going to live in eternity with God, it’s going to be a good life. If I go to Hell, it is going to be a painful life. That is my feeling about my future. I want to be honest and pleasing to God. The rest is going to be taken care of.. How do you feel?
J: I feel the same way. I feel that nothing we can do is going to get us there. And all we can do is have faith that Jesus did it for us.
C: That’s right.
J: Like you said, because of that, we need to show other people by the way we live. I can’t wait for it I don’t know about you.
C: Hahaha yes sir. Now I enjoy my cows, I mess with them sometimes and ask them if they think God will let me have some of them up there with me, but that’s just me cutting up. I do not question a lot of things, because I feel like it’s going to be taken care of.
J: I appreciate you telling me these things, because I do question a lot of things, but I know that there is no need to. You told me a sermon through how you’re living your life. Thank you for letting me interview you Grandaddy!
Reflection Questions
Q: How does your tradition-bearer’s story relate to your community in both the present and the past? How does it relate to you?
A: My grandfather is a man of the past. He was a small child during the Great Depression, and he was a young man during the Civil Rights movement. However, like the community, he has grown as times have changed. In a sense, it relates to me because I represent the newer generation in the community. My grandfather and I are alike in that we both represent our generation, but we also are affected by each other’s generation. I act like an old soul sometimes, and Grandaddy loves fast food of the 21st century.
Q: How did your perception of community history change, from before the interview to now?
A: My perception of Statesboro and Bulloch County has changed a lot during this project. The interview and the bibliography I wrote has shown me how much of Statesboro I did not know. I never knew about the hang out spots of my grandfather’s youth, but it has been awesome to learn.
Q: How did this project inspire you to learn more about your community?
A: This project has made me want to get back to my roots in both a familial and geographical way. I want to learn more about the town I call home.
Q: What were some of the challenges you faced during this project? What could you do differently in your next oral history interview?
A: A challenge that I faced in this project was trying to get a complete history of my family. It was difficult because I had to do a lot of research on Ancestry.com to find things about my family that others did not know. My grandfather was a great interviewee, but something he did not have a lot of information on was his family coming over to America. I had to do a lot of that research on my own. The next time I interview someone, I want to be more conversational where we both talk about ourselves to each other.
Q: If the roles were reversed and you became the tradition-bearer, what stories would you like to tell?
A: I would tell stories from my childhood and my college days to my grandkids. I would love to tell them about when me and my future wife first got married and lived on our own. I would want to leave behind a story for my kids that would make them proud that I was their father.
