Tennessee Three - Text
Caucasian male, born 1947 from Madison, TN. Has always lived in the same region
with the exception of 1.5 years in Iulton, KY.. Reads Comma Gets A Cure and then
recalls a Christmas memory.
Recorded 6-8-01by Patricia Childs; edited by Shawn M. Muller. Running time 00:04:00.
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
One Christmas, it was probably twelve or thirteen years old, I got a bow n’ arrow for Christmas. An’ I had a bunch of uncles who were fireworks nuts (laughing) and they would always blow somethin’ up—Thanksgiving, Christmas, anytime they got together. So that Christmas they, uh, decided they would see how high they could shoot a cherry bomb, (laughing) an’ they blew up all my arrows on Christmas Day—I never shot a one. My dad was not too happy about that—he wan’t one of ‘em—he was a little put out with ‘em, to say the least. But they were quite a strange bunch. They would just strap one on to the end of the—end of the arrow—with tape, and then they’d jus’ draw back, an’ somebody would light it, and then they’d let it go. They had a lot a’ things they would do with fireworks. They had a pipe they would stick in the ground. Then they would take a cherry bomb—now back then cherry bombs were pretty explosive—(laughing) an’ one of ‘em would hold the cherry bomb, one of ‘m would light it, another’n would s—would drive a stob—tha—you know, they’d drop the cherry bomb down into the pipe, somebody would drive a stob down into the pipe, then they’d put a tin can over it, and then they’d blow it off n’ just see how high—they’d do that for hours. It’s a wonder nobody been killed but as far as I know, nuh, nobody was ever hurt.
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY SANDRA LINDBERG 22 APRIL, 2008.