Side 1:
Jo
[5] She was there when the family moved to South Turkey Creek. Her mother
was glad to be back with her father and step-mother. She heard lots of stories
from her parents about their school days and meetings. Her father sang a lot.
The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival started two years later and many people
came to the house. Her mother sang hymns as she worked. She remembers her
grandfather's barn and all the space the children had for playing. Her parents
and grandparents were involved in the Methodist Church. [Nellie Triplett
Lunsford, Thomas Triplett, Sophia Triplett, Bascom Lamar Lunsford]
Jo
[33] There was a problem in all churches regarding dancing. Some were
more strict than others. When she was 15 she organized one of the first square
dance teams of teenagers to perform at the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival.
Richard Queen, son of Sam Queen of Soco Gap saw to it that that young teens were
organized to compete.
The fiddle was considered "the tool of the devil" and one time, when
the dance team was practicing at home, the minister didn't want to see "the
work of the devil going on." This was 1939 and square dancing was
nationally recognized. There were mixed emotions about this but her father never
wanted any part of alcohol. Square dancing is very physical and, while her
father offered "White Lightning" on special occasions, this was never broadly
done in her memories. [Richard Queen, Sam Queen, Bascom Lamar Lunsford]
Lynn
and Nelle
[70] He had a demijohn and he wrote "Mountain Dew."
Merton
The
preachers lumped gambling, dancing and drinking all together.
Lynn
[103] The oldest sister, Kern, did a fantastic job of writing a booklet
about their Aunt Jennie (see enclosed) before she died. [Jennie Lunsford]
Merton
[111] Was born in Marion and moved to Greenlee. She remembers falling
out of a car as a three-year-old, retrieving a broom from the bottom of a bin
(her mother held her by her heels!), her father picking the banjo and her mother
humming hymns. Her father always arrived home with a bag of candy. She was six
when the family moved to South Turkey Creek near Hanlon Mountain. She was too small to walk the three
miles to school and when she went was a year ahead. Savanna taught the first 4
classes and Plato, in the big room, had the 5th, 6th, and
7th. LaMar, her brother, who was at NC State University, convinced her to get over
her shyness and not cry at school. The family was proud that Jo never missed a
day. [LaMar Lunsford, Savannah Reeves, Plato Reeves]
Lynn
[179] She started school up the road in a two-room school house with
the Reeves. Her sister had to sit in a double seat with a big, fat boy and said
she wouldn't go back. The classes were small. They played a game called Town
Ball - like baseball - and often had classes under the trees. [Plato Reeves,
Savannah Reeves, Ellen Weir]
Nelle
[243] Teaching was done on an individual basis like tutoring. There was a
lot of religious emphasis.
Jo
[252] Her mother had surgery when she was 5. Savannah, a personal friend,
took her on her lap and, listening to her recite the alphabet, said she was
ready for school.
Lynn
[278] The students learned the Beatitudes.
Nelle
Every little valley had a 1 or 2 room school house
run by the county. High school was in Leicester. When the State took over all
the schools from the Counties, all the small schools were closed and the
students were bussed to Leicester Elementary School and High School.
Students who completed seventh grade in the small county schools were sent to
the County Court House to take a test before they went on to eighth grade and
then to High School. Nelle was the last of the Lunsford siblings to take
this test, since the school on Turkey Creek closed before Merton reached seventh
grade.
Lynn
The school bus was like a pick up truck.
Nelle
Some farmers contracted their trucks for school use.
Lynn
The students arrived late every morning because the
bus got stuck in the mud. The roads were unpaved and grass grew up in the
middle. She went to church in a buggy.
[331] A local family had a team of oxen that pulled the big threshing machine
from farm to farm.
Jo
[333] In 1937 the Leicester School was closed after fire inspection. The
fire escape was over the girls' bathroom, roofed in tar paper. All schools were
heated by a pot-bellied stove. Sandy Mush had closed and was sending students to
Leicester, then all students were bussed to Hendersonville Rd. to the basement
of what is now the Sheriff's Department and was then the Asheville-Biltmore
College and Biltmore High School.
Jo
[363] This was before Highway 63 was built. It was a long trip and
students were bussed for three years. Burnett Brown was in the first class to graduate
from there and Jo was in the next. Then they opened the new Leicester High
School which is now Leicester Elementary. Erwin has replaced all of this but
then they spent well over an hour a day being bussed. [Burnett Brown]
Jo
[378] The teachers had to ride those busses after having taught those
noisy, loud, high school students all day.
Jo
[381] A year before this happened, the city high school had hired
away the best teachers. Miss Lillian Clark was still with her group, but they were so
short of teachers they called them out of retirement, including Prof. A.C.
Reynolds who had taught her parents. (see Reynolds tapes) [Gilmer Graham, Bill
Plemmons, McDonalds, Miss Lillian Clark, A. C. Reynolds]
Merton
[399] They didn't have grades when their mother went to school, but mother read a lot and
went way beyond high school.
Jo
[415] When the small schools closed, Savanna stopped teaching and Plato was
sent to Leicester to teach the big boys. They laughed at him because he wore a suit
coat and chewed tobacco. One day when he took his coat off to play ball, someone
slashed the back. In the country they were taught not to destroy anything. At
her 50th high school reunion, two people admitted to this deed. He
was timid and shy in assembly and the Leicester town folk snickered at him.
Nelle
[489] When the eighth-grade students were bussed to Leicester they were put in class
8-B. The ones who went through the city school system were in 8-A [Interruption
- Sheriff Dept. - not important]. She got 100% in all classes and
after two months was moved to 8A with people like Wells. The students in this
section were smart and she had competition. [Edith Wells]
Merton
[538] We came from one-room school houses. The Leicester "locals" had store-bought candy
bars and crackers. Our mother made our clothes. "Made us look good out of
nothing."
Lynn
[550] During her growing up it was her mother who was strict about
grammar and different duties were assigned for mistakes.
Jo
[570] If you left clothes lying around they were put in the "black
hole of Calcutta."
Merton
[579] They wore overalls which were cut off in the summer.
Lynn
[585] Mother made coats and everything. Aunt Jennie had lovely clothes
and made a coat for Jo. [story interrupted - see p.14] [Jennie Lunsford]
Side
2:
Jo
(Regarding the newly released CD [also released as a cassette tape])
Four years ago a young rock artist from St. Louis came to her,
enthusiastic about Lunsford's work. He felt a CD should be made. She and her
husband were so impressed that he was so interested that she and her husband
decided to put money behind it to see that it had family input. They went to the
Smithsonian and the Library of Congress - both were interested but urged them to
contact the North Carolina Arts Council and the Folk Life program as a
possibility for funding. They had never given funding for anyone not a living
artist but on application $5,000 was given. The Smithsonian was willing, since
some funding was available. Nell made tapes of her favorites; she made a tape
and shared with Lynn and Merton. She bought a copy of copies from Joe, an old
player. Martin of Folk Life program obtained more. Jones was consulted [He wrote
The Minstrel of the Appalachians - see enclosed]. Mike, a musician, was consulted. Tony is
the director of Folkways Recordings. Pete's father was a musicologist. [Bascom
Lamar Lunsford, Lewis
Herron, Joe Bussard, Wayne Martin, Loyal Jones, Mike Seeger, Tony Seeger, Pete
Seeger, Charles Seeger]
Nelle
[2/39] She was with her father when Charles Seeger and his wife wrote down
the music as he sang it. Lunsford could not read or music. Only Lynn and
Lamar were performers. [Bascom Lamar Lunsford]
Lynn
[2/54] She went to St. Louis and the Fair in Cherokee with her father.
Lunsford had spent years going to places where the original folk songs brought
over by the early settlers from England, Scotland, and Ireland were found. [Bascom
Lamar Lunsford]
[2/62] "I don't know just when the spark came about a festival. That's
what just really goes against the grain with me. When I read articles saying,
'Dancing at the home and it got so good that they decided to take it to the
square.' A festival isn't born like that - no way. In those days he didn't have
his ultimate goal of a home with this huge living room to dance in. We lived in
a very small house. He always thought like this was temporary. He used to kid
about it to people, embarrassed about living in a house that wasn't what he wanted.
'We're just camping, just camping.' We always took it as a joke. What do you
mean camping, this is where we live. We didn't even have electricity. I never
lived in the house that he built later. But at this time he would go out and
he'd see this beautiful dancing that he felt like should be exposed to people in
the world. They should see what was going on, what a wonderful heritage we had
here in North Carolina. But they weren't aware of how beautifully they danced
and just what a rich thing to have…He didn't even have a tape recorder…He
had a hard time getting the Chamber of Commerce to accept the fact that he had
enough talent that would be worthy of a festival…He was working on this all
the time and accumulating all this talent."
He
discovered the people while he was selling fruit trees, before he became a
lawyer. He took the trees in a saddle bag or in a buggy, took orders, and in the
process saw the musical instruments, heard the playing and watched the dancing.
Jones covers this in his book. [Loyal Jones]
Jo
[2/103] Smith heard him sing and said that archives are great but
committing music to memory is the "most important thing." [Betty
Smith]
Merton
[2/112] She went to visit Lunsford's sister in a nursing home. She was no
longer able to see, but had memorized parts of the Bible. [Belle Lunsford]
Lynn
[2/117] They did more memorizing in school.
Merton
Classes were small and we all memorized.
Lynn
[2/125] The Chamber of Commerce was afraid the festival wouldn't draw
enough interest and had a craft fair along with it, but the festival left the fair standing still. The first one was on the square and then it went to
McCormick Field. The children were too young participate.
Jo
[2/136] She had a square dance team at McCormick Field. Jo says, "Watching
Daddy operate that was enough to blow your mind because all the gate receipts
came in and were put in a sack and as he stood there and people went home. If
you were from Robbinsville he would probably give you $5, if you were maybe from
Waynesville you'd get maybe $3, and if you were from town you'd maybe get $1.
And if you weren't very good: 'Hey, come back next year.'"
Nelle
[2/146] "Mother scrubbed us up and we went all 3 nights every year.
Lynn
[2/148] Father entertained at summer camp. She entertained one time. [Bascom
Lamar Lunsford]
Merton
[2/159] The preacher stopped by the house for milk. Jo was practicing with
her team during a church revival. He went to the side porch and turned his head
so he wouldn't see.
Jo
[2/164] "Mother was a pillar of the church and that night she was
trying to get his attention to say: 'It really bothers Jo' (because there
weren't many people in their youth group up here, I was the leader of the youth
group). She said, 'It really bothers Jo that you feel like it is wrong. If you
would come in and visit with these young people and see what is going on, you
might understand what they are doing.' That's when he said 'I don't want to see
the work of the Devil going on in there.' Daddy was active in the church but he
was always traveling. She and I taught Sunday School together."
Jo
[2/178] There were a lot of decisions to be made about what was to go on
the CD. Martin felt it was important to get Lunsford's words included as well as
the source. At first the Smithsonian opposed this. [Wayne Martin]
[2/202] In the May or June issue of the Smithsonian, Seeger is recording
the Indians of Brazil. [Tony Seeger]
[2/212] Many letters have been received about the recording and there is a
great deal of interest among the young people. Getting all the information down
to a few words took the concerted effort of Jones and Martin. [Loyal Jones,
Wayne Martin]
Nelle - with
others adding
[2/226] She was five when Jo was born, Merton was three. When they moved to
South Turkey Creek, there were changes in a few years. She went to the corn mill, the flour
mill, and the bank in Leicester with her mother in a horse and buggy. The school
system changed and Model T and Model A Fords appeared. There was still no
electricity. In the spring, clothes were washed in a pot in the yard. Plain
clothes were boiled, water was carried, often in relays, from the spring. Baths,
taken once a week in the kitchen in the winter, could be taken outside in the
summer. Milk and butter were kept in the cement floored spring box. A home made
dipper was made from a gourd. Father never gardened. Mother had a big garden and
learned real farming from her father who was also a blacksmith. A tenant farmer,
who lived in the cove, helped. [Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Nellie Triplett
Lunsford]
[2/319] Gathering wood was a difficult chore. Work was divided with each
person doing what liked best. Lynn was the housekeeper.
Nelle
[2/342] A salesman came when her mother was out and he
lectured her about not wearing shoes in the winter.
Merton
"We didn't have shoes if we weren't in school…Jo and I had sandals
in the summer with two straps and when winter came they were getting pretty thin
and mother got us new overshoes and we wore those overshoes on top of them. We
didn't take them off, we wore them all winter.
Jo - with
help
[2/361] She was just a little tot and Merton took her to school. Mrs.
Reeves said "what a pretty little coat, did your mother make it?" She
was so proud as she explained the history of every piece - to Merton's embarrassment.
[Savanna Reeves]
Lynn-with
help
[2/381] Mother was a wizard with that machine. She had never had a pattern.
Neighbors would drop by and she would help them.
Jo
[2/391] She was home on vacation and a neighbor came by with some flour
sacks and asked Merton (who had lost her husband and made clothes and toys for a
living) to cut them for a dress. Merton, sewing as her mother always had, cut
without realizing that there wouldn't be enough material for the sleeves. She
suggested that the new style was sleeveless and put a band around the arm holes instead. The
delighted woman paid 50 cents.
Nelle
[2/413] Mother let them sew as soon as they could reach the pedal. When she
was eleven years old she made a dress.
Merton
[2/416] Learned to make bloomers first.
Jo
[2/419] When the Leicester High School was in the Biltmore building, a deal was made
where the girls could get Home Ec. And the boys took agriculture. She
was a senior in High School and had been sewing for years.
Lynn
[2/438] [Before the interview I asked about her husband's name] When her
husband's father was born he was named Zebulon, after Zebulon Vance who was
visiting, and Zackery, after Taylor the president. Her husband was named Zebulon
Zackery Hadley but disliked being called "Little Zeb" so when their
son was born he was called Zacky. Her grandchild (see photo in snapshot) is
Zebulon Zackery IV. Kern, her sister, came for first child's birth - a girl. Then
Zebulon was born. [Kern Lunsford]
[2/557] Dillingham showed me the scrap book and memorabilia at Mars Hill
College and I asked about the tremendous job of organizing that had to take
place while Lunsford was practicing law. [Richard Dillingham]
Merton
[2/560] "Our mother was in the background which was part of the reason
he could do that. She was not a whiner, she didn't complain about things.
Anything that needed fixing she would just go about fixing it best she
could."
Lynn
[2/564] "He got a lot of criticism locally because he was gone so
much. That was painful and hurtful for all of us."
Nelle
[2/579] "I'm glad he lived as long as he did because those criticisms
got less and less."
Jo
[2/610] "The thing that is very hard to put a handle on but that I see
and recognize so much is Daddy's ability as a communicator and an organizer.
Tape 2, Side 1:
Jo
There was no formal program for the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival
because Lunsford was constantly "reading his audience" for reactions.
She, at 15, had a square dance team and was there for the entire Festival and
saw the order in which he did things.
[II/1/20] "Communicating with people with the music going on, that's not
easy, and yet I've seen him go into a room with 70 people who never saw square
dancing before and, before the end of the evening everybody knows how to do
something, they are having a marvelous time."
[II/1/30] He changed the program as the meeting went on. One of her daughters
was dating a young man who played the bagpipes. He opened the Festival for
several years It brought the house down.
Merton
[II/1/40] If a performer wasn't good and attracting audience attention, he
would ease him off.
Jo
[II/1/42] "If it wasn't going well he would come over and make you feel
so good because you came. 'The time has run out but we are so glad you came,'
and you would be off and she would be on singing before you knew what happened.
But he did it without hurting your feelings because, after all, he was Bascom."
Nelle
[II/1/45] He would put on people who weren't so good in the beginning because
he wanted everybody to have a chance.
Jo
[II/1/47] Shindig on the Green has replaced the "before 7:00"
program. She is going to suggest this be reinstated and have the informal part
start around 5:00. The director and festival committee watches the shindig and
evaluates the performers who will be asked to perform at the Festival.
[II/1/57] The young man who is running it has an impressive musical
background. The Folk Heritage Committee and the Chamber of Commerce are in
back of the Festival. [Stewart Cantor]
[II/1/60] The Civitan Club started the Festival in Mars Hill and Lunsford was
named Mayor for the day. For years she and her brother served on the committee
for the Festival which was named for her father. She moved away and her brother
died. It is a different kind of Festival, involving dinner. She intends to go.
It will be in November. The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival is always held the
first weekend in August. [Bascom Lamar Lunsford]
Lynn
[II/1/83] She doesn't go to these much anymore.
Jo
She is teaching a course (see enclosure) Called the "Shortened Elderhostel." She is teaching this with
Dirlam at Mars Hill and will be
attending the Festival every night. [Hilary Dirlam]
[II/1/118] She tells about the class material (see enclosed) with the addition
of the church program of 1897, a page on the negative attitude about mountain
people and a page on Aunt Jennie's Diary. [Dr. Henry Merton]
[II/1/152] Lunsford never let in electrical amplifiers.
Merton
He wanted the dancers to dress in their Sunday clothes. But the dancers
won out.
Lynn
She tells about dancers that stood out because of individual clothes or
hair.
Merton
leaves
Jo
[II/1/180] Lunsford adapted to a lot of things. He was ahead of his time and
adjusted to a lot of things.
Nelle
[II/1/182] The week before the Festival his adrenaline was up for the whole
time.
[II/1/191] We had some very colorful characters staying with us.
Jo
[II/1/192] A young woman, who had hiked down the Appalachian trail, asked to
stay and sleep on the porch. She gave Jo's mother a lecture about making her own
bread rather than buying it from the store. This was the beginning of the era
when people were getting "back to their roots" - the early 50's. Her
mother was glad to get all the modern devices and sewed her quilts on the machine
while Kern, her older daughter, did hers by hand.
Nelle
[II/1/230] Father brought performers home. We had an open house. [Bascom
Lamar Lunsford]
Lynn
[II/1/248] Some camped up the hill where the platform was. This was Depression days. They didn't have campers - just trucks and tarps. Some camped at McCormick
Field. Sam came and stayed a long time. He was a famous bear hunter. [Sam
Honeycutt]
Jo
[II/1/266] Sam did some turkey calls and yodels. He wrote a book about bear
hunting and Lamar helped him with his grammar. She told the teacher that her
mother said their grammar always got worse during the school year. [Bascom
Lamar Lunsford]
Nelle
[II/1/291] We wanted to talk like the others.
Jo
[II/1/296] She, through the Festivals, knows many people who, before he became
famous, made many snide, condescending comments about her father because he
didn't work at Enka or farm. He sat on his porch memorizing songs. [Bascom
Lamar Lunsford]
Nelle
[II/1/309] Her cousin saw him sawing wood and asked if he had turned over a
new leaf. It takes repeating the songs to memorize them.
Lynn
[II/1/325] Every time he picked up the banjo and started
to sing, he exuded joy.
Jo
[II/1/340] King is saying the same thing. She has copies of all of the tapes.
He sang "Mole in the Ground" for his mother before she died. He
learned singing from her side and love of learning from the Lunsford side.
[Chris King]
[II/1/381] After he had a stroke Jackie coordinated the Festival for 18 years
or so. Jo worked on the Heritage Committee (6-8 people). Jackie said that his
phraseology was years ahead of itself in recording. Jo sent Jackie, who had just
had a stroke herself, a copy of the CD. [Jackie Ward]
Tape 2, Side
2:
Jo
Her mother was about 25 when she married. Jo's grandfather moved to
Rutherford so his three teenage daughters could go to college. Aunt Jennie ran the household when
Jo's grandmother died and then Jo's mother took over the household. All of the family taught school but came
back during the summer. Jo's mother saw to the three meals a day while having babies. It
was the custom that a lot of people would come and spend the summer.
[Jennie Lunsford, Luarta Leah Lunsford, Nellie Triplett Lunsford]
Lynn
[II/2/25] Aunt Jennie would keep us entertained. [Jennie Lunsford]
Nelle
[II/2/29] We had a big garden and Mother canned.
Jo
[II/2/33] Grandfather Gillespie, whose daughter, Lucinda, married Tommy
Triplett had 650 acres of land. From her father, Thomas, Nellie inherited 88
acres. [John D. Gillespie, Lucinda Jane Gillespie Triplett, Thomas
Triplett, Nellie Triplett Lunsford]
Nelle
[II/2/48] Thanks to Jo the property was not sold and the money divided. She
got a surveyor and mapped out the land. Everyone has a piece. The house on the
road (Lunsford had built) was sold to a bachelor (see photo- under repair-
inferior photo did not turn out. See Jones' book).
Jo
[II/2/68] She will take her class by the house and sent Robinson a copy of the
course she is giving. Lunsford gave all of his books and folk life collection to the Mars Hill Library in
memory of his parents. [Bobbie K. Robinson]
Nelle
[II/2/82] During the Depression her father made a parking lot across the road.
As a prank the children brought in anything that would roll and her father
thought a meeting was taking place up there. [Bascom Lamar Lunsford]
Lynn
[II/2/94] She had a girlfriend spending the night with her and two boys came
over (this was not a "date"). It rained so hard they could not leave. At 2:00
A.m. Lunsford appeared in his night clothes and said: "Good morning
boys," and he just turned around and went back upstairs, and they shot out
of there like the sun was shining bright as day. He just had a way of expressing
himself, with very little words. Without being ugly or unkind to anyone, he got
to the heart of the matter." [Bascom Lamar Lunsford]
Jo
[II/2/115] Her children gave him a New Testament in large print after his
stroke and he sat right down and wrote a poem in it. Her older sister, Kern, went out for the
afternoon and returned to find her
parents giggling over the fact that her father had cut her mother's hair.
Lynn
[II/2/135] Remembers both her mother and Kern standing before the mirror
trying to decide whether or not to cut their hair.
Jo
[II/2/139] When Kern was 14 her father taught her how to drive so she could drive him
into his law office in Marion and he could read the paper on the way.
[II/2/147] I ask about the Polio epidemic and they said they didn't go
swimming during this time and schools were closed.
Jo
[II/2/161] She went to Washington in 1939. She served in the military
during WW II and moved back to NC
in 1951. She saw pictures of the Festival. The girls wore slacks, despite her
father's disapproval, to take the boy's part. The competition stopped and the
dancers had a little disk that said "buy bonds."
[II/2/177] He didn't like taps or precision dancing. She was talking with
Richard about the Bailey Mountain Cloggers who have show performances and smooth
dancing. [Richard Dillingham]
[II/2/196] "Square dancing" the way daddy wanted it to be done was
the community getting together and everybody wearing the best they had and going
ahead and dancing…I remember him saying , 'If you're going to clogg and do
things, each person does their own thing in their own fashion to the tune of the
music."
[II/2/201] There was a phase here of square dance "mills" where the
dancers were turned out in all ages. There were national competitions, which was
different from what their father had in mind. Now there are square dancers, smooth
dancers, and the Green Grass Cloggers, which is stylized square dancing. There
are high-kicking dancers and acrobatics.
[II/2/211] An all-girl square dance group from here is going to the Olympics
in Atlanta as amusement - not competition.
Jo,
Lynn, Nelle
[II/2/216] Lynn went to a Festival in Chapel Hill. Wherever Jo and her husband
traveled they always found square dancing.
Nelle
[II/2/227] When Lunsford died, news was spread all over the world. Her son,
who was in Switzerland heard the news before she could contact him. [Bascom
Lamar Lunsford]
Lynn
[II/2/232] The material, which is now in the scrap book (see enclosure), was
in boxes. Merton started to work on it, Kern came up for a long weekend and
worked on it, and Jo came for vacation and worked on it.
Jo
[II/2/244] We made our own paste out of flour and water, had we used
commercial paste it wouldn't have lasted so long. We always made everything at
home. Mountain people were so independent and seemed backward because we didn't
need outsiders. If you needed a shirt or a chair or entertainment or a cake you
made it yourself.
Nelle
[II/2/254] They dammed the creek and made their own swimming hole.
Jo
[II/2/261] Their cousin was a tenant farmer and didn't mind their making a
pool. The children didn't swim during the Polio period, however. Mother didn't
know how to swim and wanted the children to learn. She made suits out of old
sweaters, put some nails on the basement wall to hang them, and welcomed the neighborhood
children.
[II/2/300] Everybody in the family has had skin cancer. Lunsford was treated
by a doctor in Cleveland who later moved here. [Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Dr.
Prince]
[II/2/330] I ask for some closing remarks:
Jo
The parents had a tremendous sense of humor.
Lynn
Mother could pitch in and have fun and go on over-night camping trips.
They went on the top of Hanlon Mountain and the only store-bought thing was pork
and beans.
Jo
"We all learned to be very self-reliant and independent and not let
community or other people's opinion - if you think it ought to be done then you
do it - and Daddy enjoyed doing what he was doing so much that all these people
gravitated towards him."
Lynn
[II/2/375] "I think that in the Lunsford clan this must have been a
common expression because in Kern's book she [Aunt Jennie] mentions, 'Don't ever
let anything get you down'."
She
and her husband built the house we are in. It was to be a vacation house. When
they had trouble in building it, Lunsford would say "Don't let anything get
you down - I mean nothing."
Nelle
[II/2/409] "We had a lot of fun growing up together."
Addendum:
Letter from Nelle Greenawald: August 14, 2002
"I had a very happy childhood. I am 84
years of age now, and I hold the memories as though they were yesterday.
Our parents gave us freedoms and opportunities to explore and express ourselves
through schools, books, projects, etc. They did this with a tight ruling
concerning 'proper behavior' -- (honesty, integrity, manners, religion, etc.)
We have a special appreciation for our parents (Bascom
and Nellie Lunsford) and the heritage they gave us--my father's drive and
efforts which eventually gave him the recognition he received in preserving and
organizing the rich folk songs and dances--and my mother's special talents on
the home front.
We seven children (Kern, LaMar, Ellen, Lynn, Nelle,
Merton and Jo) pursued various fields of education and services, employment,
etc. Today we have our own families (Children and grandchildren).
However, the bonds of "home" in the Lunsford family continue to stay
with us...
I went to Secretarial School and attended
George Washington University, worked in government offices, etc. until I was
married in 1940. We had two sons. When they were grown I worked
again in church administration until my husband (Jack Greenawald) retired.
All through those years, I kept a special interest in my father's folklore
activities, helping him from time to time with his correspondence and
records."
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