Learning to value money and hard work
Barbee describes her father's disciplinary tactics and how he taught his daughters to value money and hard work.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Annie Mack Barbee, May 28, 1979. Interview H-0190. 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
- BEVERLY JONES:
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Now your granddaddy told me that he was a tobacco worker. What is the
impression of your father when you were growing up?
- ANNIE MACK BARBEE:
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He was a good provider and he was very, very strict.
- BEVERLY JONES:
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What do you mean by strict?
- ANNIE MACK BARBEE:
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Well, had to go to church three times a day. If you didn't go
and wanted to go somewhere in the afternoon and you was sick that
morning, you couldn't go out that evening. You just had to
stay sick all day long regardless of how you felt about it. And the
church was a must. You had the family prayer on Sunday morning, read the
bible. Everybody say bible for instance, before you could eat. That was
a must. And when you had company at night, nine o'clock was
the limit. They had to go home regardless. And when you went out you had
a certain hour to come in. Eleven o'clock. Well it was all
right providing where you were going, to a dance or
something like that, he would extend the limit a little farther. And he
was particular about your associates. You couldn't mingle
with any and everybody. He had to know the family and the children
themselves. And when you went somewhere to visit a child, you better bet
he knew the people—the family, you know. And, well, we went
to work real early—me and Mae, that's your mother.
And when we became women, working, got grown
working—'course I guess we should a been in
school, I don't know—but he still was the ruler to
a certain extent, you know. Then when we got eighteen the limit was off.
He'd let you do, you know, do your own shopping or whatever
you wanted to do with your own money. You were grown then, you was
eighteen, then you could buy what you want, just give him something for
staying there, you know. In other words, you paid board. But the other
money, you could take it and do what you want with it—buy
clothes or whatever, whatever. And then when you get short of
money—'cause I've gotten a plenty money
from them. I used to love the baseball games and when my money would run
out, he'd loan you money, of course. He'd let you
have money, but you had to pay it back, you know. But I think that was a
nice way of teaching you to pay your debts. I didn't approve
of it at that time. It really hurt me because he was my daddy.
[laughter] But when I began to realize later
on in life, that made me want to pay my debts. If I borrowed money from
somebody, it was instilled in me to pay it back, regardless of who it
was. But I resented it in the beginning. I didn't like it one
bit. But by him doing that, it instilled, you know, if we borrowed some
money from some money from somebody, regardless of what it was for, we
was supposed to pay it back. I liked that part of it after I got grown.
I didn't realize it until I got grown.
And we worked at the factory. That's all we knew about,
working at the factory. Well, factory work was all right.