Interview with Kenneth T. Anderson, January 9, 1992

MULLINAX: This is an oral history project with Kenneth Anderson for the University of Kentucky Family Farm Oral History interview. This interview is being conducted by Maureen Mullinax on January 9, 1992 for the minority farmers sub-project. Okay. Let's try this again. Tell me again your full name and when and where you were born?

ANDERSON: My name is Kenneth Turner Anderson. I was born January 29, 1940. Born in Garrard County down in the Buckeye section of Garrard County. By the--

MULLINAX: Where is that at?

ANDERSON: It's about six or seven miles east of Lancaster.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: Down on Buckeye--Route--Kentucky 39.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. And you were born there back in 19--

ANDERSON: '40.

MULLINAX: --'40. Okay.

ANDERSON: Um-hm.

MULLINAX: And your parents, what were their names?

ANDERSON: Wendell and Julia Anderson. My mother is six or seven--seventy-seven years old and my father he--he's passed. He's been dead for twenty-eight years.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. And what about your brothers and sisters? Did you have brothers and sisters?

ANDERSON: I have one sister.

MULLINAX: Okay.

ANDERSON: She's three years older than I am.

MULLINAX: So she's fifty-three now or rather fifty-five.

ANDERSON: No, she's fifty-five. Um-hm.

MULLINAX: Okay. And what's her name?

ANDERSON: Ophelia. Ophelia ----------(??).

MULLINAX: Um-hm. And where is she at now?

ANDERSON: She lives in Lexington.

MULLINAX: In Lexington? What does she do?

ANDERSON: Well, she doesn't do anything. She, she was a nurse but, RN nurse, but she's not doing anything now.

MULLINAX: Okay. Is she married?

ANDERSON: No. Her husband passed--

MULLINAX: Okay.

ANDERSON: --two years ago about three years ago.

MULLINAX: What did your parents do? What kinds of things did they do?

ANDERSON: Well, my father, my father he was--he farmed some, but his occupation was carpenter. He was a carpenter. And my mother she, she was an interior decorator.

MULLINAX: Oh.

ANDERSON: Yeah. Hung paper for many years.

MULLINAX: Who did she do that for? Did she have her own business?

ANDERSON: Yeah. She and her sister worked together and they, they hung paper all over the county.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. How did, that's interesting, did she have a separate place of business or did she run it out of her home?

ANDERSON: Right out of her home, yes. They just--they mostly--what they 00:03:00did was just hung paper, you know, they didn't--well, not exactly a business, but just mostly hung paper.

MULLINAX: Do you know how long she did that for or when she started that?

ANDERSON: Well, as, as long as I can remember--as far back as I can remember when I first started to school she was hanging paper then and she hung paper right on up till I guess she was sixty years old.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: Um-hm.

MULLINAX: How did she learn how to do that?

ANDERSON: Well, when they were kids at home her mother used to paper the kitchen with newspapers and that's the way they started hanging paper.

MULLINAX: And your--your father was a, a farmer and a carpenter?

ANDERSON: And a carpenter, yes.

MULLINAX: Which would you say he was--

ANDERSON: Well, he liked carpentry the most.

MULLINAX: Did he?

ANDERSON: He never--he never cared no whole lot for farming. He always liked carpentry and he, he--and he was a good carpenter. He was kindly a door carpenter and window. He liked to hang doors and windows. He was kind of inside carpenter, you know.

MULLINAX: And how often would he be doing carpentry?

ANDERSON: Well, he'd do it throughout the year. Just any time he could get a job.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. Um-hm. How did he get the jobs? How did he contact the jobs?

ANDERSON: Well, people, you know, just--one--one person he's worked for would recommend him to the other and--and he didn't have any trouble getting jobs.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. Um-hm. Could he make a pretty good living then with carpentry?

ANDERSON: Yes, he made a pretty good living with carpentry.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: And my mother she drove a school bus for, you know, I--about, I don't know, eight or ten years.

MULLINAX: During what time? Do you remember when she drove a school bus?

ANDERSON: Well, I don't, I don't know exactly what year it was but I guess she drove at least ten years. But I don't know, you know, what years it was. I was in--I was still in school when she started driving.

MULLINAX: You were young?

ANDERSON: Um-hm.

MULLINAX: Real young?

ANDERSON: Yes.

MULLINAX: Okay. So maybe in the fifties she was--

ANDERSON: Yes. It was in the fifties.

MULLINAX: Okay. And how did your father get into farming?

ANDERSON: Well, he--he would just--he was raised, you know, his father 00:06:00before him farmed. So well, that's kind of the way I started, you know. It just bred into you. You just--that was just something to do, you know, wasn't a lot of jobs. And that was just part--partly a way to make a living.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. What kind of farming did he do?

ANDERSON: Well, he just did tobacco, raised tobacco.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: That was all. He wasn't no big farmer. He just, you know, he ran--he--he had to rent until, let's see, I don't remember what year it was. I remember I was nine years old when they--when--when we bought the little place where mother lives now out on 52. And it was just four acres, but, you know, we raised tobacco on it and he rented tobacco.

MULLINAX: So he rented--he rented land to raise--to raise--

ANDERSON: To raise tobacco on.

MULLINAX: --a crop.

ANDERSON: Um-hm.

MULLINAX: How did--how did they buy that land? Do you know who they bought it from and how they--how they bought it back in 1949?

ANDERSON: Well, I don't know exactly how they bought but I can remember when they bought it. He was raising this little crop and she was running the school bus and hanging the paper.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: And that's the way they--

MULLINAX: Do you know if they, like, took out a loan to buy that land or?

ANDERSON: Yeah. They took a loan out.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: I think, the best I can remember is they had a thousand dollars and they paid a thousand dollars on it and I think the place cost four thousand four hundred dollars.

MULLINAX: Gosh. That's amazing, isn't it?

ANDERSON: Forty-four hundred dollars.

MULLINAX: For four acres?

ANDERSON: For four acres and--and that was a big price at that time because whoever--it was a thousand dollars an acre. And back in 1949 a thousand dollars for an acre of land was an awful lot of money.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: But it was--it was right on the road and any time you have a little place like that right on the road it--they just come high.

MULLINAX: Yeah. Yeah. And do you remember your father talking about debt at all whenever he bought that place?

ANDERSON: Oh, yes. Yes, they had a hard time trying to pay for it.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: Of course, a thousand dollars was awful hard to get a hold of--

MULLINAX: Yeah. It is.

ANDERSON: --back in those days.

MULLINAX: Yeah. And did your--so that was the first place that your--your father owned?

ANDERSON: Yes. Yes.

MULLINAX: And before that did he rent?

ANDERSON: Just rented.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. What about your grandfather? What kind of farm did 00:09:00he have?

ANDERSON: He was a farmer, yes. He farmed on--down on--well, on Buckeye, down in the Buckeye section. He had, oh, about somewhere around eighty acres, I guess, when he died, he, he owned about eighty acres of land.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: And he, he did some hog farming and tobacco farming.

MULLINAX: And what happened to that land when he passed on?

ANDERSON: Well, my--my mother owns part of it right now. She owns thirty-three acres of it.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: See after my grandfather passed, well, my aunt bought it and then after she passed well my mother bought it. So it's still in the family.

MULLINAX: So your--your aunt bought it from? Who--who did she buy 00:10:00it from?

ANDERSON: Well, it was seven brothers and sisters. So she bought--bought it from the rest of the family.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. Do you know was there a will?

ANDERSON: No.

MULLINAX: Did your grandfather have a will?

ANDERSON: No it wasn't a will.

MULLINAX: So he just--they just got the land after he, he died--it was--and they just--

ANDERSON: It just automatically went to the family.

MULLINAX: --they just divided it up.

ANDERSON: Yes, eighty-five acres.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. Did your aunt get the majority of?

ANDERSON: No, she just got thirty-three acres. One of the other brothers bought the--the lower place. It was fifty, about fifty acres I guess.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: But now it's--it's not no longer in the family now. It was up until last year.

MULLINAX: Were there ever any family tensions over the selling of that land?

ANDERSON: No.

MULLINAX: No.

ANDERSON: No. They were--they were a very close family, very agreeable with each other.

MULLINAX: So did--did your father farm that land once your grandfather --

ANDERSON: No.

MULLINAX: --passed on?

ANDERSON: No.

MULLINAX: It was just in his hands?

ANDERSON: Um-hm. I farmed it.

MULLINAX: How did you come to farm it?

ANDERSON: Well, I just rented from my aunt.

MULLINAX: Okay. Okay.

ANDERSON: I raised tobacco on it for--

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: --I don't know five or six years.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. What about your--your mother's place then? What will happen to her land when, when she passes--

ANDERSON: She's still got it.

MULLINAX: --on?

ANDERSON: Oh when--

MULLINAX: But when she passes on?

ANDERSON: --she passes on? Well, I guess my sister and me will get it.

MULLINAX: Does she have anything written up or have you talked about that at all?

ANDERSON: Well, no not really, but I'd say she has.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: She--she's pretty clear minded. I'd say--

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: --she's got, you know, everything fixed like she'd want it to 00:12:00go.

MULLINAX: Yeah. And so then you--when you started farming, when did you start farming on your own?

ANDERSON: I raised--oh, on my own? I, I've been right here for eighteen years, nineteen years. It was nineteen years the first day of January, but I rented a farm in '63.

MULLINAX: Okay.

ANDERSON: And I lived on that farm--that was where you was yesterday.

MULLINAX: Oh.

ANDERSON: Arthur Dunn.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: I lived on his father's farm up on--up on 52 up there. And I lived there for eleven years. That was the second year after we married.

MULLINAX: Okay. And your wife's name is?

ANDERSON: Joan.

MULLINAX: Joan.

ANDERSON: Um-hm.

MULLINAX: And you married back in 1951, is it?

ANDERSON: No, we married in '62.

MULLINAX: Oh, I'm sorry 1962. I'm getting my dates mixed up 00:13:00here. And then you moved to Arthur Dunn's father's--

ANDERSON: Yes, Arthur, senior, Arthur Dunn Senior.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: Yeah. We moved there in '63. We stayed there eleven years and farmed every day. We raised some big tobacco crops and milked cows. And we moved here in '73, wasn't it? '74, '73. We moved here in '73.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. Can you tell me about that first farm that you had. What was--what was it like? What kind of crops--well, you said you raised tobacco but how many acres did you rent and--

ANDERSON: Well, that--that farm was ninety acres, but he had--he had some more farms, you know, he was--he--he owned about two hundred acres 00:14:00at that time. They was scattered around from Boones Creek up on 52, but we did custom hay baling. And we raised--we kind of raised a crop in-between early in the morning and late at night. We did hay baling, you know. We worked every day, six days a week. There wasn't hardly a week passed that we didn't work six days a week and we fed cattle. We had a lot of cattle. We fed cattle. I fed cattle for my rent.

MULLINAX: Oh, okay.

ANDERSON: In the winter time.

MULLINAX: Okay. So they were his cattle?

ANDERSON: They were his cattle. I didn't have any. Not up until, oh, the last five years that I bought five cows. I bought those five cows off this farm right here.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: And I started milking. Of course, I in-between time I, I went to work at Trane in Lexington and worked a year.

MULLINAX: And what--what's that?

ANDERSON: That's air conditioning plant.

MULLINAX: Okay.

ANDERSON: Don't you know where Trane is in Lexington?

MULLINAX: No. I've never heard of it.

ANDERSON: Yeah. They build air conditioners.

MULLINAX: Okay.

ANDERSON: I worked over there about a year and well, I, I had to quit because I was already obligated to Mr. Dunn, you know, to farm and work for him. So I had to quit over there. And then after I quit over there I did get another job. I worked at Boyle Packing Company in Danville. You know, a killing cattle and hogs.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: I worked over there for about a year and after that I came back to the farm and worked, well, just started raising a bigger crop. I was raising five or six acres of tobacco.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. By yourself or you and--

ANDERSON: Well--

MULLINAX: --your wife?

ANDERSON: --mostly by myself. I had to hire a lot and she 00:16:00helped me--she helped me set tobacco and strip tobacco. But then I had to hire, you know, quite a bit.

MULLINAX: Who would you hire?

ANDERSON: Just anybody I could get.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: But it was one fellow that, another man lived on the farm by the name of George Hodge. He helped, I mean, mostly all the time. Of course, he was there--he was kind of like me. He didn't have nothing. Just like myself. So we swap work and cut wood and he didn't have no car or anything. I'd have to take him to town to get his groceries. I mean we did pretty good. We, you know, labor wasn't very high.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: But we made it pretty good.

MULLINAX: What--what did your wife do back in that time?

ANDERSON: Raised babies.

MULLINAX: Raised babies. (laughs) Okay. Well, we haven't talked about your 00:17:00kids at all. Let's talk a few minutes about--

ANDERSON: Well, we've got six.

MULLINAX: --your kids. You got six--

ANDERSON: We've got --

MULLINAX: --children.

ANDERSON: --six children.

MULLINAX: Can you tell me--

ANDERSON: Three boys and three girls.

MULLINAX: Yeah. Can you tell me about when they were born? And what their names are? And where they are at? And what they are doing? (laughs)

ANDERSON: Well, we will start with Raymond. He's the oldest. He's thirty-four. He just turned thirty-four in December, December the 30th. He lives in Lexington. He spent fourteen years in the Army right out of high school and he--he lives in Lexington now. He works--he's a truck driver for 84 Lumber, you can talk up, 84 Lumber. And he just recently married and has a son. My only grandson. And the 00:18:00next is Anthony, James Anthony. He lives in Danville. He has one daughter. She's eight. He works in Nicholasville over at Donaldson in Nicholasville.

MULLINAX: What--what is that? Donaldson?

ANDERSON: Yeah. They make mufflers.

MULLINAX: Mufflers.

ANDERSON: It's a kind of steel plants. Most everything they do is made out of steel, because he's been there, I don't know, about five or six years now. That's the second son. And the next is a daughter, Kerry. She's--Anthony is thirty-one, thirty-two. He's--the daughter 00:19:00is thirty-one.

MULLINAX: Thanks.

ANDERSON: She works in Danville at ATR. She has been--

MULLINAX: And what is--

ANDERSON: --there--

MULLINAX: --ATR?

ANDERSON: They--they--they are--make wire. Well, they don't make wire. They run wire--steel tires--wire for steel tires. You know, those steel wires in tires.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. Um-hm.

ANDERSON: That's what they do. Used to be, what was the name of that? Firestone. Used to be Firestone. Japanese bought it and they--it's called Tokyo Rope now. America's Tokyo Rope. That's what the ATR stands for. She's been there about ten years maybe. Approximately ten years.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: She's got one little girl. She is 11. And the next is LaDonna. She works in Richmond at--

MULLINAX: Merchant Alert Check Service.

ANDERSON: --Merchant Alert Check Service.

MULLINAX: So she's an office manager there?

ANDERSON: And, of course, she's only been there, what? About two years? She doesn't have any children.

MULLINAX: And how old is she?

ANDERSON: She's twenty-eight. And the next is Malone, Kenneth Malone. He lives in Danville and he has two children, two daughters. And he works at Mathews Conveyor in Danville and he's been there about ten 00:21:00or eleven years, about eleven years. Yeah. About eleven years.

MULLINAX: And what do they do?

ANDERSON: He's a welder.

MULLINAX: Okay.

ANDERSON: Yeah. And a good one. A real good welder. Uh, Yeah.

MULLINAX: The last one.

ANDERSON: The last--(laughs)--is a baby girl. She works in Nicholasville at Gulf States [editor's note: Gulf States Paper]. They make these food boxes. You know, like cracker boxes.

MULLINAX: Okay.

ANDERSON: They make those.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: We had an interview over at that plant, when was it? Open house? And we got to--we got to see the whole, 00:22:00the complete plant. That was back in--about the first of December. She doesn't have any children. She's got a couple of dogs--(laughs)--she thinks is her children. Couple of poodles.

MULLINAX: Yeah. And she lives in Nicholasville?

ANDERSON: No. She lives in--

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: --in--

MULLINAX: She lives in--

ANDERSON: --Garrard County.

MULLINAX: Oh, she does. Okay. Okay. But she works in Nicholasville.

ANDERSON: Yeah. I have two in Garrard County. One in Madison County. One in Fayette and two in--in Danville.

MULLINAX: Yeah. They're all real close then.

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: That's nice.

ANDERSON: They come home pretty regular. Well, you can look up and see one of them coming any time. (laughs)

MULLINAX: And did you raise most of those kids here then? 00:23:00Here and then Arthur Dunn's farm?

ANDERSON: Well, most--well, we raised the biggest majority of them we raised them over at--on Arthur Dunn's place.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: They were--well, all of them was in school, but they--wasn't that her first year? She just had started to school when we moved here and so--

MULLINAX: Back in '70--'72 you said?

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: Yeah. So what--what made you decide to buy your own place?

ANDERSON: Well, I just thought it was time to make a start. We--I've always wanted a farm from, you know, a little boy up.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: I wanted a farm and I wanted twenty dairy cows. That was always my dream from a boy--

MULLINAX: Twenty what?

ANDERSON: Twenty dairy cows.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: So when I bought this farm and I applied for a loan. I applied for a 100 acre farm and twenty dairy cows. So that's what I got.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. Where did you apply for a loan at?

ANDERSON: From FHA [editor's note: Farmers Home Administration].

MULLINAX: Um-hm. Did you have any problems getting a loan or was it an easy process?

ANDERSON: Well, it took about two years. I--we--Mr. Dunn priced me that farm over there at one time and I applied for the loan over there for that farm. And then he kind of backed out on me. So after I had my application in for a farm loan well then it wasn't too hard for me to buy this farm.

MULLINAX: Oh. So Mr. Dunn decided against selling the, the--

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: --the farm to you?

ANDERSON: Yeah. He--

MULLINAX: Is that the place where Janet lives now?

ANDERSON: Yeah. Right there where Janet lives.

MULLINAX: You lived in that house? Oh, okay. That's well that's where I did the interview yesterday.

ANDERSON: Was it?

MULLINAX: Yeah. Yeah.

ANDERSON: That's where we--we lived. We was there when they built that barn and in fact I, I tore the old barn down.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: And I worked back and forwards for him since I've been here. We will never get completely loose from them as long as little Arthur is living.

MULLINAX: What do you mean?

ANDERSON: He, you know, he just always. Well, we--was kind of like a family you know. We just worked together and we still help each other right now. It's not hardly a week passes, you know, he don't call and want me to do something. Weld something out there on the farm.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: So we, we stay in touch.

MULLINAX: Yeah. So then you--you bought this place in, in '72 and you bought a hundred acres. Is this--

ANDERSON: A hundred and eight acres.

MULLINAX: A hundred and eight acres.

ANDERSON: Um-hm.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: I've raised tobacco and, and I, I did run about twenty--twenty to twenty-five cows on it, milk cows. And I milked cows up to six years ago. I milked cows for twenty-five years of my life. So I guess--right after I went to public work I, I didn't have--Well, my--my youngest son he was--he was working third shift and he was doing the milking in the evening and I did the milking in the morning. And so after he had to go to second shift, well that put both of us on second shift so we didn't have nobody to milk at night.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: So I decided to quit. It's been--well, that's--we quit on six years ago on the first of January.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: But we, you know, we was getting tired of it. We had milked for so long and the milk prices--the government had done got into milk and it wasn't--it wasn't paying like it used to. And feed was high. We had a lot of bad luck with our cows. We lost several cows. It really wasn't paying much.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: I haven't missed it any.

MULLINAX: Yeah. You said something about the government getting involved in--in--in dairy.

ANDERSON: Well, they put--they put a support price on milk. I don't know. It just seemed like--it never--milk never did do--sell very good after they put that support price on it.

MULLINAX: What do you think about the government's involvement in--in farming?

ANDERSON: Well, I don't think much of it.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: Because to me when the government gets in farming it's 00:28:00for the big farmers. I mean they, you know, they have anything is free to give away the big farmer gets it before the little farmer knows anything about it. See, they get it off the top. That's where I feel, I might be wrong, but they, I mean, the--they will come around and tell you what you can get a--or you will get a notice in the mail what's available for you but when you get there it's gone. I mean the big farmers has already got it. See, they know when it first comes out.

MULLINAX: Yeah. What kind of things are you talking about?

ANDERSON: Well, you know, it always, it always--they always have like a free feed program or--or like they go and give you so much money on building a pond, you know, things like that.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: But it's, it's like leasing--bull leasing. You know, they will 00:29:00lease you bulls or either like a new seed program come out they, they go give you so many free seeds for experiment or tobacco seed. The big man gets that before the little man even knows anything about it.

MULLINAX: Yeah. Have you been able to take advantage of any of these kinds of programs?

ANDERSON: No, I haven't ever got anything.

MULLINAX: No. So do you--can you think of any kind of thing that could help the little farmer that the--the government could do? Do you have ideas about that?

ANDERSON: Well, the government, I mean, well, just like the University of Kentucky. They--when they send me a notice out that they will 00:30:00come and give me a, you know, test my soil free or something like that. Well, really I don't think that's helping me. Come and test my soil, because all they do is tell me how much fertilize I have to buy and, you know, that--that's just more money out of your pocket which your land may need it but in--in my case. I've never had the money, you know. I don't make that kind of money, because you've always got to spend more money when--when the government gets in it if you farm like they want you to.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: They are, in my way of thinking, they farm on paper.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: And it's just different when you get out there in the soil it's different than farming on paper. Of course, I'm quite 00:31:00sure they do a lot of experimenting and all and they are supposed to know what they are doing. But--I'm quite sure they know what they are doing. You understand what I'm saying?

MULLINAX: Yeah. I know what you mean.

ANDERSON: But I just can't farm like they do.

MULLINAX: So how do you--how do you go about your own way?

ANDERSON: Well, I just do the very best I can, you know, I farm to the best of my ability and, of course, I try to do things that they recommend as far as I can go. As far the money will let me go, you know. If, if I make so much money well I, you know, I try to--I give it my best shot. In raising a crop I give it my best shot to try to raise the best crop 00:32:00I can because that's my money I'm spending see. And I'm trying to make money out of tobacco. I'm not, you know, just doing it for a hobby. I'm trying to make a living. Trying to pay for my farm out of tobacco is what I'm doing and it is not easy. Not anymore. I, It's not no way in the world I could make it now if I didn't have a second job. I've got to, I've got to work forty hours a week to farm.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: But that's, you know, that's not very good when you've got to do another job to keep the farm going. That's, that's not very good.

MULLINAX: How long have you been doing that? You've been doing that a long time haven't you?

ANDERSON: Ever since '78.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: Yeah. I went to work for Whirlpool in 1978. Of course, after--after the children married and left it's been a little different. 00:33:00In one way it's helped and in another it hasn't because when the children were at home, you know, I didn't have to hire much help. We raised all of the crops.

MULLINAX: How many acres of tobacco do you plant?

ANDERSON: Well, I had five out this year and, I mean, you know we didn't have a very good season. I come up real short this year, but I guess I'll just have to try to make it up another year.

MULLINAX: So you are just going to have to make ends meet with the other--

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: --the other job then?

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: How many acres did you raise at the time that you were raising the most how many did you plant?

ANDERSON: Well, I have raised as many as ten acres.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: I know I had to--I don't know it was the second or third year I moved here I had--I had tobacco rented 00:34:00over on the Dunn Farm and then I had tobacco rented up here on the highway on the Paul Rich farm. So I, It was ten or twelve acres plus what I had here. I usually have about four acres here that I raise every year, but, you know, I, I leased a little tobacco this year.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: It seems like it gets harder every year I guess because I'm getting older, but to do the two jobs it just gets a little harder.

MULLINAX: Yeah. So you still work forty hours a week?

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: Sometimes more. We--we've been doing quite a bit of overtime.

MULLINAX: What do you--what do you do with the rest of 00:35:00your--your land that you have?

ANDERSON: Well, I raise hay.

MULLINAX: Hay. Um-hm.

ANDERSON: Run cattle.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: Used to raise, when I was milking, I raised a lot of corn, silage, you know, and--

MULLINAX: Right.

ANDERSON: --feed. But since I quit milking I don't--I don't raise any corn any more. Hay, I raise, hay about sixty acres of hay this year.

MULLINAX: What kind of machinery do you have?

ANDERSON: Well, I've got what it takes, you know. A tractor and a mower and tobacco setter, car. I got, you know, I got the machinery it takes to farm and work it.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. And you said, earlier you said, something about being raised to be a farmer. That you've wanted to be a farmer since you were a young boy. What was it like growing up 00:36:00on a farm when you were--when--

ANDERSON: Well, that's the only thing I knew.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: I raised my first tobacco crop when I was nine years old. We was in--I was in 4-H in school and I raised it--my first tobacco crop at nine years.

MULLINAX: What did that mean it was your, your crop? Did you--it was your father's land?

ANDERSON: No, it was my uncle's land.

MULLINAX: It was your uncle's land.

ANDERSON: Yeah. And I, I had a real good crop that first one. I won the blue ribbon on it in, in 4-H. Well, I thought that was the only way to go. Didn't think there was no other way. Nothing but farming.

MULLINAX: So then did you set it all out yourself when you were--

ANDERSON: Well, my uncle he helped me.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. Um-hm. But you bought the seed and the--

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: --and the--

ANDERSON: Raised it with a mule.

MULLINAX: What about your sister? What did she do on the farm?

ANDERSON: Nothing much.

MULLINAX: Really.

ANDERSON: She never has done much. She--we used set tobacco with a hand jobber and she did drop plants in this hand jobber. But now other than that I can't remember her ever doing anything. I don't even remember her stripping any tobacco. She never did like nothing about farming.

MULLINAX: What about your mother?

ANDERSON: Oh, my mother has done it all.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: She's, she's helped in all of it. Helped. This year we went to set our tobacco and she got on a tobacco--we was waiting for some help. And she got on a tobacco setter 00:38:00and set, I think, it was four--three or four rows and that's the first time she's ever been on a tobacco setter, you know.

MULLINAX: And she's seventy-seven you said?

ANDERSON: Um-hm. She'll be seventy-eight the 20th of this month. But now she--she's always, you know, well, she lived on a farm all of her life. And she's always been willing to try. And used to--she used to strip a lot of tobacco. After we married, she used to come and help us strip tobacco.

MULLINAX: So she was raised on a farm too? Her parents were?

ANDERSON: Um-hm. Yeah. She--she's been on a farm all of her life.

MULLINAX: Can you tell me what it was like growing up in--in your house? What kind of things? What kinds of memories you have of growing up on a farm? Kinds of things that you would do?

ANDERSON: Well, it--we've had it pretty rough all of our life. 00:39:00Although we've never--never been hungry or cold. We've always--we've all--we've always raised our own meat you know.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: Our garden, we've always had a big garden and we just lived a normal life. I mean as far back as I can remember it, we've always had a car. You know, we was right there on the side of the road and we had a--we rode the school bus to school. And after I got fifteen or sixteen years old I started working through the summer.

MULLINAX: Where did you work?

ANDERSON: Just on a farm.

MULLINAX: Really.

ANDERSON: Wherever I could get a job. So, I mean, it--we haven't had it that bad but we've always been able to get a job.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: I never have seen a time I couldn't get a job. Might not have been what I wanted all the time, but, you know--

MULLINAX: Yeah. Can you tell me about the house you grew up in? What--what was it like? What kind of building was it?

ANDERSON: Well, it was just a frame house. They--it was six rooms. Yeah. Six rooms framed house.

MULLINAX: This is where your mother lives now?

ANDERSON: Um-hm. Yeah. On 52. Now we lived--we lived--when I was 00:41:00about five or six years old we lived right up the road here on Silver Creek Road. The house is still there now. That is where I learned to drive. Right out that road. And we lived there for, oh, I don't--I can't remember how many years. But it was three or four years we lived there. And then we moved from there down on Poor Ridge Pike. And we stayed there approximately three, four years. And then after we moved from there we moved out there where my mother lives now.

MULLINAX: So you--you had a pretty big house for just your 00:42:00sister and you and your parents--

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: --to live in. Did anybody else live there or was it just your family?

ANDERSON: Just our family.

MULLINAX: Just your family.

ANDERSON: Um-hm.

MULLINAX: Do you remember anything about your mom's kitchen? What it was like?

ANDERSON: Well, it was just pretty much like--almost just like it is now.

MULLINAX: Yeah. Yeah. What kind of stove did she have in--in there?

ANDERSON: Well, she had a--she's had a gas stove ever since she's been there. Now the--the houses before that though she cooked on a wood stove. Yeah. A wood stove, you know, a cast iron stove.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: I can remember it well.

MULLINAX: Was that hard to keep going? Was it hard to regulate?

ANDERSON: No.

MULLINAX: Or did they--

ANDERSON: No. I mean, they were used to it and--

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: --you just had to keep a little wood and coal in it. It had the baking oven on top. I don't guess you ever seen one of those?

MULLINAX: No, I haven't. I haven't seen one.

ANDERSON: Do you--anyway--Yeah.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: That--well, now we had--I was going to say we had lamps, but we had electric lights down there.

MULLINAX: Okay. I'm going to turn the tape over here.

[Pause in recording.]

MULLINAX: Okay. You--you were telling me about your--your mother's kitchen. Can you tell me about some of the things she used to make to eat? Do you remember? I mean what kind of cook was she?

ANDERSON: Oh, she was a good cook.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: She's always been a good cook.

MULLINAX: What kind of things did she fix?

ANDERSON: Well, just mostly what was grown right off the farm.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: She was--she--she made a lot of pies and cakes and--and well, vegetables that we had, you know, grew on the farm. And she--she's always put up anything she could. Canned, you know.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: We picked blackberries and, well, just anything she could put in a jar. That's what we'd have.

MULLINAX: Did you preserve meat?

ANDERSON: Yes. She--we killed our own meat and--and potatoes. We'd bury our potatoes.

MULLINAX: What do you mean? You'd bury your potatoes.

ANDERSON: Well, you know, after--after the--after you'd grow your potatoes and dig them in the fall, well you'd dig a--have a big hole and you'd dig those potatoes and put those potatoes in this hole. So they wouldn't freeze during the winter. And then you'd--you'd bury them in straw. And any time you wanted potatoes you could go there and dig the dirt off there and get them and they'd be nice fresh potatoes.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. Um-hm. What--

ANDERSON: We didn't have a cellar, you know, what a cellar is?

MULLINAX: Yeah. Yeah. I know what a cellar is.

ANDERSON: Okay. We didn't have one of ours. We had our--had our own smoke house. That's where we kept our meat and we burned wood and coal.

MULLINAX: In the house for--for heat?

ANDERSON: Yeah. For heat we did. And back to this cooking, she'd make fruitcake, you know, at Christmas.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: Well, she--she could cook about anything. Nothing fancy now. She wasn't no fancy cook. All these different things they have now well she didn't--she didn't do any of that cooking.

MULLINAX: Yeah. What was your favorite dish she'd fix?

ANDERSON: Well, I always was a fried chicken eater.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: Always.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: And we--we raised our own chickens and, you know, she'd go out--I've seen her go out in the morning and kill a chicken and fry it for breakfast.

MULLINAX: For breakfast?

ANDERSON: Yes. Many times. We raised--have our own bacon. That was--that 00:47:00was something had to be done every morning was to eat breakfast. If you didn't eat another meal a day, you had to eat breakfast.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: That was the main meal.

MULLINAX: So you ate--breakfast was your main meal.

ANDERSON: We ate--we ate breakfast every morning. Of course, we had three meals a day but, I don't know why, but she really stressed on breakfast.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: You know, you didn't get your day started after you had breakfast. And she still does that today, you know, she thinks you've got to have breakfast.

MULLINAX: What kind of--what time would you normally get up when you were young to eat?

ANDERSON: Oh, we'd get up--we'd be up and ready to go at seven o'clock in the morning. You know, we didn't get to stay in bed. Seven o'clock was late.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: Most of the time we had breakfast about seven o'clock.

MULLINAX: Did you do chores before breakfast?

ANDERSON: No. No. We didn't have any chores to do in the mornings, but--but in the afternoon you had to get the wood and coal in.

MULLINAX: But you would sit down to a big breakfast every morning?

ANDERSON: Every morning.

MULLINAX: What kind of food would she fix?

ANDERSON: Well, she would have bacon and eggs and--and gravy and hot biscuits. Always have some kind of preserves if she--if we wanted preserves or strawberry preserves or apple jelly or anything, you know, she could put in a jar.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: And then we'd have--some mornings we'd have fried chicken and fried potatoes and biscuits. She'd always have the biscuits.

MULLINAX: Sounds like she was a pretty good cook?

ANDERSON: Oh, yeah. She, she cooked hard food all of her life.

MULLINAX: What about when you went to school? Can you tell me about that? When did you start schooling?

ANDERSON: I was seven years old when I started school on account of the way my birthday fell.

MULLINAX: Okay. So that was back in 1947.

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: And what was school like when you first started? Where did you go?

ANDERSON: I went to Mason.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. And what kind of a school was that?

ANDERSON: It was an all black school.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: I went to--I never graduated until I was 18, but 00:50:00I went to--I went to school regularly.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. So you went all the way through high school.

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: Until 1948, then?

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: Did you go to the same school the whole time or did you?

ANDERSON: Yes. I went to the same school.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. What was the building like?

ANDERSON: Well, it was just a one story building, block building. It's--it's still in Lancaster now. Down on Buford Street.

MULLINAX: Did all of the grades--were they in separate rooms or how did that work?

ANDERSON: Well, it was, let's see, first--first and second grade was in one room. And the second--the third, fourth and fifth grade, I 00:51:00believe, was in one room. And then, let's see, the sixth and seventh was in one and then when you, you know, graduated from eighth grade. Eighth, ninth--eighth and ninth was in one. I'm losing a year there somewhere. And--well, we changed classes. In--after we got in high school we changed classes and we'd go like to English and history class to one room--

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: --and then it was vice versed. But it was--it was two 00:52:00or three grades in one room. Some--the teachers would change, you know, you have an English teacher and a history teacher. But and different times of day, well, the classes would change. But it was all right there in that one building.

MULLINAX: Yeah. Did, did your sister go to that same school?

ANDERSON: Um-hm. Um-hm.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: And her oldest son went--went there to his first year of school.

MULLINAX: Hmm.

ANDERSON: And then after that is when mixed it up.

MULLINAX: When they integrated the schools.

ANDERSON: Integrated schools, yes.

MULLINAX: What year was that when your son first went to school?

ANDERSON: What was it Joanne? '56.

PERSON: I ----------(??). That was ----------(??).

MULLINAX: How old is he now?

ANDERSON: Thirty-three.

PERSON: Thirty-four.

ANDERSON: Thirty-four. He just turned thirty-four.

MULLINAX: He's thirty-four. So when he--he was six--

ANDERSON: Yeah. He started when he was six.

MULLINAX: Yeah. So about twenty years ago, I guess.

ANDERSON: Um-hm.

MULLINAX: Well, well, what--what did you think about school back then? Did you--did you like school? Did you enjoy it?

ANDERSON: Well, I enjoyed school at first, when I first started. Well, I guess I enjoyed school mostly all I could because I 00:54:00was in 4-H and, you know, I, I liked agriculture. So that kind of kept me interested in school.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. But you knew you were going to be a farmer when you were--you were--

ANDERSON: Oh, yeah.

MULLINAX: --were going through school?

ANDERSON: That's--that's all I had in my mind. I just--that was all I wanted to do.

MULLINAX: Yeah. Yeah.

ANDERSON: And I, I guess, like today. It was just, you know, wasn't so hard to make a living that would be all I would be doing is farming.

MULLINAX: Yes.

ANDERSON: Of course, there's not many black farmers left in this--

MULLINAX: No.

ANDERSON: --in this county.

MULLINAX: No. There's not.

ANDERSON: There used to be a lot of black farmers, but not anymore. You can just about count them on--on your hands.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: How many black farmers left in Garrard County.

MULLINAX: Yeah. Do you remember, I mean, did those farmers--those black farmers get together when you were younger. Do you remember there being a community of black--black farming families or did they connect a lot?

ANDERSON: Well, not no lot, but like one thing they did 00:55:00together. Like if you had a hog killing it would be a lot of them would get together and, you know, have this hog killing.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: And they would--where ever they'd kill--now this mostly was back in my grandfather's day. I can remember that when they would--

MULLINAX: When you were--

ANDERSON: --would go to his house and he would have a hog box. That's what you scald the hogs in.

MULLINAX: You scald the hogs in the--

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: --hog box?

ANDERSON: All right. They would--it would be different farmers would come, you know, everybody would help everybody until everybody got done. If you had four hogs and the next man had four, we just killed your hogs and you'd bring them in.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: And it wasn't no such thing as going to a 00:56:00slaughter house. You'd--they'd--they'd set a certain day and it looks like to me it would be the coldest day of the year when they would do this. (laughs) And they would have--they would--as they would kill the meat, well, they would you know cut off a big piece and they--my grandmother she'd be frying it, frying fresh meat and one of the main things was liver. When they'd kill these hogs, somebody would slice the liver and they'd have fried liver and gravy. That's--boy that's been so many years ago.

MULLINAX: So they would make a day of--

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: --getting together?

ANDERSON: They'd make a big day and used to be--now this was even after I started farming. One farmer would help--come and help the other one you know. Would nobody--like--just like cutting tobacco. Wouldn't nobody be through cutting tobacco until everybody around in the community was through 00:57:00you know. Because they would go from farm to farm and help them, but not anymore.

MULLINAX: Was it like that when you were young on your father's farm?

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: Yeah. Why do you think that changed?

ANDERSON: Well, I don't know. People seemed like they just get busy, got busy and didn't have time. Well, you take me for instance now, well, see I don't have time to help you because I am too busy here, see, trying to get mine done so I can go to work. And I mean it's, it's two things shouldn't be. You shouldn't try to farm. Farming is a full-time job.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: And you shouldn't try to farm and work public work. That's the way it should be, but I mean it--it's not. But that's the way it should be because if something has to be left undone. Now all summer I was baling hay and I would 00:58:00have to bale--well, I work day shift this summer and I would come in and go over there and work eight or ten hours a day and then come in and have to bale hay until dark, see. And it--it takes--looks like twice as long. And something has to be--has to go undone when you work in public work and farming--when something needs to be done on the farm, it needs to be done when it needs to be done. Like chopping tobacco or setting tobacco. When the time comes that's when you should do it, but working public work you can't do it because you don't have time. There is just not enough hours in the day to do it.

MULLINAX: Do most of the--the farmers that you do most of them work off the farm too?

ANDERSON: Well, most of the farmers now I know do. Yeah. 00:59:00Now Arthur Dunn he's--he's retired, but, you know, he worked public work for--

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: --oh, about--it was over twenty years.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: I'd say close to thirty years.

MULLINAX: Is there any way in which you--well, you, you did say that you help Arthur when he calls you every once in a while and has you help. Do you connect with other black farmers in the--in the area much?

ANDERSON: Well, Thomas Peters and I are real good friends and we help each other backwards and forwards. Of course, he doesn't raise any tobacco, but he--he's got cattle. And I help him bale hay 01:00:00and--and, of course, he helps me a lot in--in my tobacco.

MULLINAX: Do you hire him or do you just kind of trade work--

ANDERSON: We just kind of--

MULLINAX: --back and forth?

ANDERSON: --trade back and forth. I hire him when we are cutting tobacco, but other than that. Now he helped me strip a lot of tobacco this year. Just drop in, you know, for an hour or two.

MULLINAX: What about church? Do you see these people in--in the church that you go to? Do you go to church?

ANDERSON: Well, it's not--well, like the Dunns and the Peters, well they don't go to our church. See, I go to church at 01:01:00Buckeye. They go to church over here at Boones Creek.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: So we don't--unless our churches, you know, come together and have services at one of the other churches we don't hardly see each other in church.

MULLINAX: Are they the same type of church?

ANDERSON: Yeah. Same denomination. Baptist. Yeah.

MULLINAX: Why do you go to the one that you go to?

ANDERSON: I've went there all of my life.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. Um-hm.

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: So you grew up in that church?

ANDERSON: I grew up in that church. Yeah.

MULLINAX: How has the church changed over time?

ANDERSON: It's changed a lot because it's just, you know, it's so many members that's died out and it's just not--not very many members there now.

MULLINAX: What kind of a church is it?

ANDERSON: It's a Baptist church.

MULLINAX: Baptist?

ANDERSON: Um-hm.

MULLINAX: What was it like when you grew up there? How many families--

ANDERSON: Oh, it was--

MULLINAX: --would you say --

ANDERSON: --it was a--it was a lot of families there. Big--it was a big congregation then. Now it's--it's--you can almost count them on one 01:02:00hand now.

MULLINAX: Really?

ANDERSON: Um-hm.

MULLINAX: So you think there are--how many families would you say go there?

ANDERSON: Now?

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: Hmm. How many would you say five?

PERSON: Say about six or seven.

ANDERSON: Six or seven--

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: --families. Yeah.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. So are they--have these families gone there all of their lives too?

ANDERSON: Yes. One--

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: Well, most of them. We have two families from Danville that, you know, haven't been long. The last couple of years they joined. But the, the older people die and, and the younger people just don't come. We've got a lot of young members if they 01:03:00would come to church.

MULLINAX: Um-hm. What was it like--what was church like going there when you were--when you were growing up? Was it a--did you go Sunday morning and stay all day? Or--how--what was it like--

ANDERSON: Well--

MULLINAX: --going to church there early in your life?

ANDERSON: We have stayed all day a lot of days, a lot of times. We've had, you know, morning service and afternoon service since we have--over the years we've stayed a lot of all day services. All day long services. We have revivals, you know, two weeks. It was a lot different experience then than it is now.

MULLINAX: Yeah. In what way?

ANDERSON: Well, by so many, you know, so many people coming to church and the older people, you know, had a lot of older members there. People--I can kindly remember--there was one man that used to ride his horse to church all the time. He lived right on down the road there from the church. And every time he'd come to church he'd ride his horse and his name was Big John Ray. It--it' been, you know, a real good experience.

MULLINAX: Yeah. So was that a central part of your growing up? Going to church?

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: Yeah. I've went to church all of my life.

MULLINAX: Well, one other thing I, I wanted to ask you was about your farm here. You've got this, a pretty good sized farm here back in this beautiful country. What's going to happen to the farm when you pass on? Do you know? Have you made--

ANDERSON: I'm going to live forever.

MULLINAX: You're going to live forever. (laughs)

ANDERSON: Well, I don't know. That's a good question. My wife she don't care nothing about farming and I, I don't think--I don't think any of my children would be. I don't think that would, 01:06:00you know, want to farm. I think they've had enough farming through their young life. They are not--they are not interested in farming at all. And I'm--I just don't think that any of them will be interested in it to farm.

PERSON: ----------(??) sell it.

MULLINAX: You will sell it.

PERSON: If, if I live through it, you know.

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: I--that might be it in a nut shell.

MULLINAX: Yeah. Because nobody really--why don't you think they are interested in it?

ANDERSON: Because there's not no money in it.

MULLINAX: What do you think could make farming more profitable?

ANDERSON: Well, I don't know. I just don't know now. Tobacco 01:07:00is getting worse every year because--because of the non-smokers. Every year it's getting less chance of tobacco staying in. Tobacco is just liable to go any time now. And I don't guess--

MULLINAX: That's, that's--

ANDERSON: --we would have as good as a tobacco market now if it wasn't for foreign countries. But cigarettes are getting high. Chewing tobacco is getting high and then, like this year, they--they say we was going to have a good year. And look what they've done. Tobacco--some tobacco brought less money than it did last year, but now--

MULLINAX: Why is that?

ANDERSON: I don't know because it's a terrible shortage on tobacco. This year it's a big shortage on tobacco and last year tobacco brought--most anything you put on the floor last year bought a dollar seventy-six cents. Well, the highest tobacco sold this time was a dollar eight-four and I've heard of some ninety cent tobacco this year.

MULLINAX: Huh.

ANDERSON: Well, labor is higher this year, last year, I'm talking in '91. Fertilizer is higher. Everything you bought was higher, but look what they get. And see that's another thing. When the government sets 01:09:00a price on tobacco, then they give you what they want you to have and there's nothing you can do about it. And that's why the young people don't want no part of farming.

MULLINAX: So they realize that you're not going to make a--

PERSON: That's right.

MULLINAX: --dollar at it. Do you--do you belong to any kind of farm organizations?

ANDERSON: No.

MULLINAX: Any farm clubs?

ANDERSON: No.

MULLINAX: Any groups of any sort? No.

ANDERSON: No, I don't.

MULLINAX: Do you talk about this kind of thing with your fellow farmers? These--

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: --problems?

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: Does anybody have any solutions?

ANDERSON: I haven't heard of any yet.

MULLINAX: Yeah. Yeah. It's frustrating.

ANDERSON: Yeah.

MULLINAX: Have you experienced any kind of different treatment as a 01:10:00farmer from--in your experience with farming. Have you experienced any kind of discrimination?

ANDERSON: No.

MULLINAX: No.

ANDERSON: No. I, I've lived where ever I wanted to live and all my life. I never had no--no discrimination. No--that I can ever remember since I've been in this world.

MULLINAX: Um-hm.

ANDERSON: And I've, you know, any where I wanted to go. Anything I wanted to say. I've never had no trouble. Of course, I've lived, you know, in Garrard County all my life. But I've never had no kind of discrimination at all--well, James Burdett, how did 01:11:00he get into this.

MULLINAX: Well, he--the director of our project knows Jenny.

ANDERSON: Okay.

MULLINAX: And we went down towards Berea before Christmas and talked to him to see if he could tell us the names of some black farmers that he--that he knew. And he gave us your name and said you'd be a good person to talk to.

ANDERSON: Ah, shoot.

MULLINAX: Well--

ANDERSON: I just wondered. I just wondered, you know, how--

MULLINAX: Yeah.

ANDERSON: --'cause he's not farming any--

MULLINAX: No, he's not farming any more--

ANDERSON: --no longer. So--

MULLINAX: --but he told us about all of the people down here in Garrard County that he knew. But--well, I want to thank you 01:12:00for sitting down and talking to me today about your, your farming experiences. I've had a real good time.

ANDERSON: Okay.

MULLINAX: Thanks.

[End of interview.]