Interview with Ida E. Potter, August 12, 1992

Partial Transcript: This is an oral history interview with Ida Potter for the University of Kentucky Family Farm Oral History Project.

Segment Synopsis: Ida Potter is introduced. She describes her family background, including her parents and siblings.

Keywords: Brothers; Children; Death; Fathers; Jobs; Mothers; Parents; Remarried; Siblings; Sisters; Work

Subjects: African American families; African Americans--Genealogy.; African Americans--Marriage.; Childhood; Warren County (Ky.)

Partial Transcript: Let's, let's start back with your father.

Segment Synopsis: Potter talks about the various jobs her family members worked over the years.

Keywords: Brothers; Chores; Death; Domestic work; Fathers; Gardens; Hours; Housework; Mothers; Quarry; Sisters; Work

Subjects: African American families; African Americans--Employment.; Childhood

Partial Transcript: Alright, and when did you, um, marry your husband?

Segment Synopsis: Potter talks about how she and her husband met and when they married. She talks about where they lived when they were first married and describes their house. She talks about hosting and cooking for many relatives and visitors.

Keywords: Additions; Bedrooms; Childhood; Cooking; Farmhouses; Golf tournaments; Grandchildren; Great grandchildren; Husbands; Jobs; Married; Norman Potter; Parents; Relatives; Rooms; Schools; Sold; Tennessee; Visitors

Subjects: African American families; African American farmers.; African Americans--Employment.; African Americans--Marriage.; Family farms.; Traditional farming

Partial Transcript: Can you tell me about your, your kids?

Segment Synopsis: Potter talks about her four children and their careers.

Keywords: Ages; Careers; Children; College graduates; Daughters; Factory; Jobs; Military service; Secretary; Sons; Teachers; Trailer parks; Work

Subjects: African American families; African Americans--Employment.

Partial Transcript: So is that all of your children?

Segment Synopsis: Potter talks about the child who passed away at less than two years old. She talks about where she gave birth to her children, and talks about the availability of doctors in the area.

Keywords: Black doctors; Children; Death; Delivery; Doctors; Health insurance; Home births; Hospitals; Viruses; White doctors

Subjects: Childbirth; Maternal health services.; Medical care; Medicine, Rural; Physicians--Kentucky; Rural health services

Partial Transcript: Okay let's, um, let's go back and think about the, the first farm that you and your husband--when you first moved here. Can you tell me what the farm was like?

Segment Synopsis: Potter talks about working on the farm with her husband in the early days, and discusses the types of crops and livestock they raised on the farm. She talks about the machinery they had, and selling their produce.

Keywords: Changes; Chickens; Corn; Cows; Eggs; Farm mechanization; Fields; Hay; Hogs; Husbands; Jobs; Land; Machinery; Married; Norman Potter; Planting; Products; Raising animals; Selling; Sickness; Soybeans; Technology; Tennessee; Tobacco; Tractors; Wheat; Work

Subjects: African American farmers.; Agriculture.; Crops; Family farms.; Farm life.; Farms, Small.; Food animals.; Livestock.; Traditional farming

Partial Transcript: When your husband would buy land, um, would he talk to you about that?

Segment Synopsis: Potter talks about how her husband bought land and says she never knew of him having trouble getting a loan to buy more land.

Keywords: Banks; Borrowing money; Buying; Decision-making; Husbands; Loans; Norman Potter

Subjects: Family farms.; Farms, Small.; Land use, Rural.; Real property

Partial Transcript: Okay. Um, what about your children? Did they work on the farm?

Segment Synopsis: Potter talks about the types of work her children did on the farm and whether they enjoyed farming.

Keywords: Air force; Boys; Chores; Cooking; Farm work; Fields; Gender roles; Girls; Jobs; Land; Military service; Sons

Subjects: African American families; African Americans--Employment.; Childhood; Family farms.; Rural children; Sex role; Traditional farming

Partial Transcript: What about your husband's family? Um, how close were you with them when you moved--

Segment Synopsis: Potter talks about her relationship with her husband's family, who she says she has known since her childhood.

Keywords: Children; Helping; In-laws; Mothers; Norman Potter; Parents; Relationships; Siblings

Subjects: African American families

Partial Transcript: Okay, um, let's talk about, um, health issues on the farm.

Segment Synopsis: Potter says she only knew of one accident that occurred on the farm. She says her husband uses chemicals on the tobacco he grows but is not sure what kind. She talks about her husband hiring help at times, like during tobacco cutting season.

Keywords: Axes; Chemicals; Cutting tobacco; Doctors; Family; Farm accidents; Health issues; Hired help; Mules; Pesticides; Tobacco; Wages

Subjects: African American families; African American farmers.; Agriculture.; Crops; Family farms.; Farm life.; Farms, Small.; Rural health--Kentucky; Traditional farming; Wounds and injuries.

Partial Transcript: ----(??)----first time I've been out all day doing work since I had------(??)-----canned over a hundred quarts of tomatoes.

Segment Synopsis: Potter talks about what she grows in her garden, and talks more about the foods she cooks. She talks more about hosting visitors, like during hog slaughterings, which she describes.

Keywords: Apple trees; Beans; Cabbage; Cold weather; Dishes; Food; Fruit; Gardens; Gatherings; Growing; Hog slaughtering; Jobs; Lard; Meat; Pork; Sausage; Slaughterhouses; Squash; Tomatoes; Vegetables; White people; Winter

Subjects: African American farmers.; Agriculture.; Cooking; Crops; Family farms.; Farm life.; Farms, Small.; Food animals.; Livestock.; Traditional farming

Partial Transcript: Your, your sister-in-law was saying that everybody worked as a team in her family.

Segment Synopsis: Potter talks about the different chores the boys and girls did on the farm. She talks about her mother-in-law and her cooking, and discusses how she herself learned to cook.

Keywords: Boys; Chores; Food; Gender roles; Girls; Husband's family; In-laws; Learning; Lunches; Milking cows; Mothers; Norman Potter; Pies; Recipes

Subjects: African American families; African American farmers.; Agriculture.; Cooking; Family farms.; Farm life.; Farms, Small.; Rural children; Sex role; Traditional farming

Partial Transcript: Do you, um, do you know anything about how your, um, husband's father, how he passed on land to his kids?

Segment Synopsis: Potter talks about how her husband's father passed on his farm, and says she is unsure of how their own farm will be passed on to their children. She says farming is a hard life. The interview is concluded.

Keywords: Children; Farmer's wife; Father-in-law; Government programs; Husband's father; Lifestyle; Norman Potter; Ownership; Property; Selling; Wills

Subjects: African American families; African American farmers.; Agriculture.; Country life; Family farms.; Farm life.; Farms, Small.; Inheritance and succession.; Land use, Rural.; Rural conditions; Traditional farming