"After the old folks among the slaves had had their breakfast, the cook
would blow a horn. That would be about nine o'clock or eight. All the
children that were big enough would come to the cook shack. Some of them
would bring small children that had been weaned but couldn't look after
themselves. The cook would serve them whatever the old folks had for
breakfast. They ate out of the same kind of dishes as the old folks.
"Between ten and eleven o'clock, the cook would blow the horn again and
the children would come in from play. There would be a large bowl and a
large spoon for each group of larger children. There would be enough
children in each group to get around the bowl comfortably. One would
take a spoon of what was in the bowl and then pass the spoon to his
neighbor. His neighbor would take a spoonful and then pass the spoon on,
and so on until everyone would have a spoonful. Then they would begin
again, and so on until the bowl was empty. If they did not have enough
then, the cook would put some more in the bowl. Most of the time, bread
and milk was in the bowl; sometimes mush and milk.
"There was a small spoon and a small bowl for the smaller children in
the group that the big children would use for them and pass around just
like they passed around the big spoon.
"About two or three o'clock, the cook would blow the horn again. Time
the children all got in there and et, it would be four or five o'clock.
The old mammy would cut up greens real fine and cut up meat into little
pieces and boil it with corn-meal dumplings. They'd call it pepper pot.
Then she'd put some of the pepper pot into the bowls and we'd eat it.
And it was good.
"After the large children had et, they would go back to see after the
babies. If they were awake, the large children would put on their
clothes and clean them up. Then where there was a woman who had two or
three small children and didn't have one large enough to do this, they'd
give her a large one from some other family to look after her children.
If she had any relatives, they would use their children for her. If she
didn't then they would use anybody's children.
"About eleven o'clock all the women who had little children that had not
been weaned would come in to see after them and let them suck. When a
woman had nursing children, she would nurse them before she went to
work, again at around eleven o'clock and again when she came from work
in the evening. She would come in long before sundown. In between times,
the old mammy and the other children would look after them.