Jobs various family members held
Durham had a good relationship with his parents, but he did have responsibilities around the house from a young age. To keep his family comfortable, his father found other jobs he could do during his off-hours.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Frank Durham, September 10 and 17, 1979. Interview H-0067. 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
- DOUGLAS DENATALE:
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Were your parents pretty strict with you?
- FRANK DURHAM:
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No, sir, they wasn't too bad. They were pretty good, but they had it
under control all right. But they weren't too strict. But we knew to do
what they said.
- DOUGLAS DENATALE:
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Did you have chores to do?
- FRANK DURHAM:
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Yes, sir, oh, every day, yes. Certain things to do every day. We cooked
with a wood stove. That had to be got up. And then one of them was
firewood had to be fixed. And the water had to be drawed and brought in.
That wood had to be tended to every day. We had a cow, and we had hogs
and we had chickens; all that had to be looked after. They raised them
all the time. Had a gang of chickens. We always had plenty of eggs and
meat and milk at home. They kept two cows. Papa sometimes had two or
three cows. He had a pasture, and he would buy them
out in the neighborhood and around. Folks learned to come to him. He'd
go look at the cow, and if he thought he could make a little on it he'd
buy it and keep it a while and feed it up and fatten it and sell it.
He'd get a lot of them from especially the colored people. Some of them
didn't half tend to them, and they looked mighty bad. And if he'd see
one that he thought he could make a little something out of, he'd buy
it. And maybe he could dicker
[unclear]
on it after he kept it for six months or something, tend to it
good. For a milk cow. And he was constantly buying a little something.
He'd buy a piece of land or anything he thought he could make a little
money on. That's what kept him goingbesides his
pay in the mill.