"I heard about the pateroles catching the colored folks. They would
catch them on the road as they were going places and whip them. The
pateroles was white folks that was supposed to catch colored folks when
they were out without a pass. Sometimes the colored folks would stretch
ropes across the road and trip them up. You would hear them laughing
about it when they got amongst themselves the next day.
House, Etc.
"I was born in a old log house--two rooms. One for the kitchen and one
to sleep in. We had homemade furniture. Mighty few of them had bought
furniture. Most of then made it themselves. If you had bought furniture,
that was called fine. There was no rollers to any bed. Food was kept in
the house. Wheat was kept under the bed because they had nowhere else to
keep it. Planks were put around it. We children used to jump up and down
in it.