Subject:Trains
Entries
Entry 928
This is the real truth but I'm goin' tell you. When I was livin' in Florida, it's been eight chears ago [1929] I was goin' with a man. You see there's another ole woman wanted to go with the same man. An' I was workin' out but she weren't. An' I'd go to my work in the mornin' - I knew she wanted to go with him a long time before she did this - an' I would go to work ev'ry mornin' an' I always git back home in time for five o'clock. So she lived out in the country an' I lived kin'a in town. So she came in town one day: The train comes in there at Jl:30, see. An' I was workin' but I went home that afternoon about five o'clock an', as a general thing, I went an' I put my right foot upon the steps first [for luck], you see, an' after I got in the house I went on in the house an' put down my packages you know, then I begin to feel sick, an' I begin to spit foam an' white spit, an' it jis' went all over, you see, an' I set there an' I say, "I wonder what's the matter with me." An' I had a brother-in-law there an' he says, "Sister, wha' choo been eatin'?" I said, "Not a thing. I haven't even eaten any dinner [noonday meal]." So he come in there to see if there's nothin' wrong. I kep' a-spittin' that foam an' spit you see. I say, "I believe I'll lie down but first I'm goin' have a drink of water." Then I went an' lied down an' when I lied down the more that foam an' spit would come out of my mouth an' I'd have to spit. So I got up an' I said, "Bert, I feel like I have to leave you." I went to go down de front steps back out to go roun' the house [to the toliet] an' I jis' tumble - jis' my head was jis' [demonstrates] goin' over and over like that. I sort'a had to hold it up you know to keep from fallin'. An' I [came back and] went on into the house an' there wouldn't be a thing but that foam an' spit. So he went an' got a doctor - he got a medical doctor, see. The doctor come. He says, "Why, what's the matter with you - what choo been eatin'?" I said, "Nothin'." He thought - he sayed it might'a been a kin'a indigestion. I said, "I haven't eaten anything." So he give me some medicine; he give me some black froth [= black draft see Index]. First, he give me a dose of Epsom salts. But it got worse. I couldn't eat an' I couldn't keep settin' up alone. So then my brother-in-law say, "Well, I'll tell you, sister," he say, "suppose we try a root doctor." I said, "Well," I said, "anything you think you kin do." That was the next day. So he goes an' gits a root doctor. He's up there about East Palatka, Florida. An' so he got a man to take him up there. They got back that night. He came in an' immediately say, "This woman," he said instantly, "she's hurt." He [brother-in-law] say, "You think so?" He say, "No, I know." He sayed. "Now, let me tell you what choo do." He say, You go there an' you dig under her front steps tomorrow mornin' - the first thing.you go there an' dig." Well, I got along that night - he say, "After you git what's under them steps," he said, "then I'll tell what to do." He [brother-in-law?] went out there the next mornin' an' dug under there an' they got a pint bottle - a pint flask with corn whiskey [often means moonshine whiskey, white] in it an' that had frogs in it. He sayed there were frogs. He stayed around there till they got that bottle - had frogs in it an' lizards. Well, after they got the bottle out, then my leg would start funny - it would grab me like that, llke somepin crawlin' up my leg. It would get up almost to my knee an' then there would be a big knot, jis' like that - you could see that thing with the blood in it.
(What leg was this?)
The right one [she had stepped upon the steps with her right leg first]. Listen good. He sayed, "Now, I'm goin' tell yah what choo do." He: say, "You po' this whiskey off of 'em, you take these things an' burn 'em. He say, "Then, if you kin," says, "you try it," he say, "I know you kin becuz it's right on the railroad" - you see, down in Florida an' the train was always killin' cattle, you see - "an' you go down there an' you kill a buzzard [round the dead cattle]," he say, "it's against the law to kill [a buzzard] but if somebody killed one, you come back, you boil that buzzard, an' you give 'er a cup of that buzzard tea." Oh, it smells horrible! But I wanted to git well. An' then I would drink a cupful an' bathe that whole leg down with it choo know.
(Don't you bathe it up?)
No, he bathed down right on out de toe; told me to bathe right on out de toe. An' take that stuff after I bathed with it, you know, an' throw it north. An' then after that he sayed, "Well, I'm goin' try to cure you. I had four patients like this. They were in terrible condition." An' he did that with that buzzard water in that bucket for two or three days. Then he changed from that an' give me a pint bottle - he put sulphur in it an' whiskey, pure corn whiskey. An' I had to shake that up an' take a tablespoonful of that three times a day. Well, I got better - that spittin' up that foam an' stuff, you see. An' I felt good. Ev'ry day I'd feel all right. I'd go on with my own work till about time for that same - that train would come - the same she come on it that day at 11:30 - I begin to feel bad.
(Why did you feel bad when that train came?)
Oh, that the train she come on to put that devilment down, you see. An' ev'ry day when that ll:30 train come along I begin to feel bad an' I had to go to bed. Well, I - it was in summertime you see, an' I had to put on all the clothes an all the bedclothes they kin git an' put on me. An' the perspiration an' sweat would jis' roll off. An' when that train go back that she went [back] on at 5:30, I'd git all right. I'd git right out de bed - could git out de bed an' do my work. [For knot on head going and coming by time, see p.270.] Well, then I got well, I kep' takin' that sulphur an' whiskey what he told me. Then he fixed another dose [prescription] of red pepper and soda and vinegar in a bottle an' drinked that. He told me to take a swallah [of] dat ever' now an' then when I begin to feel bad an' boil all the water I drink. An' then he told me to lay hot poultices on that leg, an' ev'ry time it begin to pain to put that hot poultice of [corn] meal an' real hot pepper, an' they'd bind that to it. An' from then I began to feel better. [Wilmington, N. Car., (300), 225:3; at Burnell, Fla.,1934; the doctor charging $25.00.]