Interview with C. Eldon Boggs, August 1, 1991

Partial Transcript: This is Eldon Boggs being interviewed by Zack Lewton on August 1st, 1991.

Segment Synopsis: Boggs sums up his life. He talks about the houses where he grew up.

Keywords: Berries; Brothers; Coal company; College; Fathers; Harlan County (Ky.); House; Indiana; Lumber yards; Moving; Parents; Railroads; Reading; Retirement; Rooms; Schools; Siblings; Trains; Vegetables

Subjects: Agriculture--Kentucky; Families.; Family farms; Farms, small; Housing

Partial Transcript: Okay, and, and what sort of things do you remember when you were a, a small child?

Segment Synopsis: Boggs talks about the chores that he and his brothers did. He talks about the process of growing corn. He talks about making cornbread. He explains the process of making sorghum and molasses. He describes square dancing events.

Keywords: Animals; Bread; Breakfast; Butter; Chores; Corn; Corn mills; Courting; Crops; Farming; Gardens; Harvest; Hoeing; Honey; Land; Milk cows; Milking; Molasses; Mules; Plowing; Social events; Soil; Sorghum; Springs; Square dances

Subjects: Agriculture--Kentucky; Childhood; Country life

Partial Transcript: Well tell me about what your mom did, like on an average day. What was her work load like?

Segment Synopsis: Boggs talks about his mother running a boardinghouse. He talks about the working conditions at the coal company that his parents worked for. He describes the house he lived in at the coal camp. He explains his view on how the coal company wasted lumber resources.

Keywords: Boardinghouses; Coal camps; Coal company; Fathers; Groceries; Houses; Logging; Lumber; Mothers; Parents; Scrip; Timber; Trees; Wages; Work conditions

Subjects: Coal mines and mining; Housing; Logging

Partial Transcript: Okay, now tell me about when you were a little kid. Like, what, what did--did you have any chores in the boarding house as far as--

Segment Synopsis: Boggs talks about his happy memories from childhood.

Keywords: Children; Chores; Christmas; Dime stores; Games; Harlan (Ky.); Memories; Money; Playing; Toys; Trains; Wages

Subjects: Childhood; Country life; Families.

Partial Transcript: Do you remember what sort--what was life like, uh, like that when you were out away from the mining camp and away from the other kids?

Segment Synopsis: Boggs talks about the poor situation of his school growing up and the prevalence of using guns, even at school. He talks about how his parents disciplined him and his brothers.

Keywords: Brawls; Brothers; Community; Discipline; Guns; Morals; Parents; Schools; Shootings; Teachers

Subjects: Country life; Discipline of children; Education

Partial Transcript: Did they decide to send all three of you boys off to boarding school?

Segment Synopsis: Boggs talks about his family's history with boarding school. He talks about how his parents met and married, and about their relationship. He talks about his parents' religious views.

Keywords: Bible; Brothers; Fathers; Methodists; Money; Mothers; Parents; Pine Mountain Settlement School; Reading; Working

Subjects: Boarding schools.; Education, Higher; Families.; Marriage; Religion

Partial Transcript: Well let's move more into I guess your, your more recent life.

Segment Synopsis: Boggs talks about beginning his career in ministry and going to Japan as a missionary. He talks about meeting and marrying his wife and having children.

Keywords: Bible school; Children; Christianity; Churches; High school; Japan; Japanese; Ministry; Pastoring; Seattle (Wash.); Seminary; Teaching; Wife

Subjects: Education, Higher; Marriage; Missionaries; Religion

Partial Transcript: Well tell me about your children. How, how have you--have you tried to raise them the way you were raised, or?

Segment Synopsis: Boggs talks about his children's education and careers. He describes his philosophy on parenting and how he and his wife worked together to raise their children.

Keywords: Alaska; Building; Cambridge; Children; Daughters; Discipline; Family; Husband; Ministry; Nurses; Painting; Religion; School; Son-in-law; Sons; Symphony; United Nations; Violin; Wife

Subjects: Education, Higher; Families.; Parenting

Partial Transcript: Okay now tell me about when you retired, and, and what was involved there, and how you came to be here again.

Segment Synopsis: Boggs talks about how he likes to be in the city and where he likes to go now that he's retired. He talks about the free time that he had when he was a minster. He describes the crops that he and his wife grow. He talks about working with the agricultural extension agent. He describes how he fertilizes and sprays his crops.

Keywords: Berries; Cincinnati (Ohio); Cities; Farming; Fertilizer; Flowers; Gardens; Houses; Kentucky; Land; Michigan; Ministry; Peach trees; Pesticides; Property; Retirement; Traveling; Uncles; Visiting; Working

Subjects: Agriculture--Kentucky; Farms, small; Fruit trees.; Gardening--Appalachian Region

Partial Transcript: Well tell me about marketing stuff here.

Segment Synopsis: Boggs talks about all the different types of crops they raise, and about selling crops.

Keywords: Crops; Flea markets; Fruit trees; Gardens; Hillside farming; Peaches; Raspberries; Selling; Tomatoes

Subjects: Agriculture--Kentucky; Fruit trees.; Gardening

Partial Transcript: Are you--do you plan on expanding any as far as either your berries or your trees?

Segment Synopsis: Boggs talks about the new things he would like to try on his farm to bring in better production. He describes what he learned in a botany class and what he would still like to learn.

Keywords: Botany; Dogwoods; Expanding; Flowers; Frost; Grafting; Hillside farming; Horticulture; Mountain Laurels; Peach trees; Rhododendrons

Subjects: Agriculture--Kentucky; Farms, small; Fruit trees.

Partial Transcript: Well do you think there's a future in Harlan County for people like you? Would you suggest this way of life to other people, as far as trying to grow some things on hillsides, and?

Segment Synopsis: Boggs talks about how he feels about the possibilities in agriculture in Harlan County. He talks about the poor work ethic in Harlan County and how people abuse welfare and government assistance. He discusses the environmental problems that are not being addressed by the EPA. He discusses how the attitudes are affecting the lives of children.

Keywords: Attitudes; Children; Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); Farming; Garbage; Rivers; Trash; Wages; Welfare; Work ethic

Subjects: Agriculture--Kentucky; Farms, small; Harlan County (Ky.); Kentucky--Economic conditions; Kentucky--environmental conditions