Interview with Hobart Combs, July 12, 1983

Partial Transcript: Where did you all live when you were growing up?

Segment Synopsis: Hobart talks about the way people made a living in Teges. People sold corn and timber to neighbors and companies for cash.

Keywords: Buy; Cash; Corn; Money; Sell; Timber

Subjects: Country life--Kentucky--Teges Creek; Farm life--Appalachian Region; Logging--Kentucky--Teges Creek

Partial Transcript: Let's talk about the schools. Now did you--where did you go to school?

Segment Synopsis: Hobart started high school at the age of twenty one and attended many different schools. He also came back to Teges and taught in a one room school.

Keywords: Children; Credits; Mule; Terms; Typhoid

Subjects: Education--Appalachian Region; Rural schools--Kentucky; Teges Creek (Ky.)

Partial Transcript: Was there anything, do you remember, when you were growing up, that people raised then that they don't raise anymore?

Segment Synopsis: People would raise sheep for their wool to make clothes and other things. There used to be a friendship lodge where dinners and meetings were held.

Keywords: Cattle; Dinners; Hogs; Horses; Lodge; Meetings; Sheep; Spin; Wool

Subjects: Farm life.; Sheep--Kentucky--Teges Creek; Teges Creek (Ky.)

Partial Transcript: What--what would you have to have cash money for?

Segment Synopsis: Money was needed to buy flour and sugar, things the people of Teges could not provide themselves. They sent wool away to have it made into things.

Keywords: Clothes; Flour; Money; Sugar; Wool

Subjects: Country life--Kentucky--Teges Creek; Food habits--Appalachian Region, Southern; General stores

Partial Transcript: How did you hear, like way back then, how much contact did you have with, like, other parts of the country? Did you have, like, a newspaper or anything?

Segment Synopsis: Teges did not have a lot of news from the outside world except for what was in Manchester. Very few people had access to books, which made school hard.

Keywords: Books; Echo; Magazines; Newspapers; Pathfinder

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Economic conditions; Appalachian Region--Social conditions; Country life--Kentucky--Teges Creek

Partial Transcript: When did all that logging quit around here?

Segment Synopsis: Logging quit in the early twenties for unknown reasons. Coal was a much bigger source of income.

Keywords: Commercial; Mining; Timber

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Economic conditions; Coal mines and mining--Kentucky--Teges Creek; Logging--Kentucky--Teges Creek

Partial Transcript: Has there ever been any commercial farming much?

Segment Synopsis: Commercial farming never took a big part in the Teges economy. People left Teges often in search of jobs.

Keywords: army; children; corn; jobs; oats

Subjects: Rural-urban migration--Kentucky--Teges Creek; Subsistence farming; Teges Creek (Ky.)

Partial Transcript: Did it seem like when the, the Depression came did it have much effect on people around here?

Segment Synopsis: The Depression did not affect many people in Teges because they lived off the farms. It did bring some programs such as the WPA which led to road improvements.

Keywords: Cars; Programs; WPA

Subjects: Depressions--1929--Kentucky; Roads--Design and construction--Kentucky--Teges Creek; Teges Creek (Ky.); United States. Works Progress Administration of Kentucky

Partial Transcript: You ever remember anybody, any, like, missionaries coming in here wanting, trying to help people? Or trying to start a new church or something like that? Or giving something away?

Segment Synopsis: Hobart has no memory of missionaries coming to develop Teges. Children would spend time playing different games at the schoolhouse. Neighbors would visit and work with each other.

Keywords: base; church; marbles; schoolhouse

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Social life and customs; Country life--Kentucky--Teges Creek; Teges Creek (Ky.)

Partial Transcript: What do you think's the biggest difference of now and when you were growing up?

Segment Synopsis: Hobart believes people don't like to work for a living and that now there is a culture of government dependence.

Keywords: Government; Work; employment

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Economic conditions; Teges Creek (Ky.)

Partial Transcript: What about this--when did people start having, uh, oil wells or the gas wells?

Segment Synopsis: Hobart talks about drilling for oil and gas wells in Teges. There was a blowout in one of the oil wells. The interview is concluded.

Keywords: Companies; Drilled; Land development; Lease; Struck; Survey

Subjects: Gas drilling (Petroleum engineering); Oil well drilling.; Oil wells--Blowouts; Teges Creek (Ky.)