"I don't remember exactly but I were seven they said."
"How old are you now?"
"The old-age pension man said I was 86 this year."
"Now Charlie, please give me the name of your parents and where they came from."
"My Ma's name was Ann Smith, the first time,'cause my Pappy was Charlie Smith. Then my Pappy died and my Ma married a man named Charlie Richardson. He was my step-Pappy so I took his name. Both my own Pappy and my step-Pappy were jest plain negroes and born in Warrensburg, but my Ma was a Black Hawk Indian girl, kinder light in color and purtty. Her Ma was a full-blooded Black Hawk and she married to Grandaddy Richard Dowle, which was my Ma's name 'fore she married."
"Tell me Charlie, did you have any brothers or sisters?"
"Yes Sah, I had two sisters and five brothers but none ain't here now."
"Describe your home and 'quarters' the best you can."
"Log Cabins, that's what they was. All in a long row—piles of 'em. They was made of good old Missouri logs daubed with mud and the chimney was made of sticks daubed with mud. Our beds was poles nailed to sticks standing on the floor with cross sticks to hold the straw ticks."
"How did most of you cook—in the cabins or in the 'big house'?"