Excerpts from the interview given by Louise Smith Aligood, February 14, 2002

Nelson: I want to ask you, do you remember when the Depression really first hit?  I know you were pretty young . . . and how did it affect the family and the town, if you can remember?

Aligood: Well, let's see now, how did it affect . . .?  It affected us that we didn't have money [laughing].  We had had the store as I said, so we had plenty of food, but there were people that didn't have plenty of food.  And it was a sad occasion in a lot of ways.  Because you didn't like to see anybody in need of food.  Now, clothing, you can get by with that because you can just speed up your washing and . . . didn't have electric washing machines, you know.  I mean we had rub-boards outside, and a big pot.  And I still have the big pot.  And I wouldn't sell it for . ..  I mean there is not enough money to buy those memories. 

Nelson: You all did your own wash?

Aligood: No, we were very lucky that this family lived over by one of the farms and Aunt Lou, we called her.  She would walk two miles or something to our house on Monday morning, and she was there a little after daylight.  I mean, she washed all day long.

Nelson: Did she work for your family for pay?

Aligood: Yes.  And what she would do is take her pay . . . we ran a little store.  And she'd take her pay and go buy what she needed out of the store to carry home with her.  You know, then you didn't have . . . it always seemed like, I never remember not having a car.  But there were days prior to that that I didn't remember.  I mean I didn't . . . that we didn't have a car, you know.  But I guess it . . . I'm trying to feel like they had a car all the time, we did.  And we were . . . when the boys learned how to drive, they were not carousers or drunkards or anything, so they were granted the privilege to carry us.  Of course my mother drove some.  She drove a good bit.  And then we went somewhere one day, and I don't know, I said, "I wonder if some of the boys didn't cut up or something that made her . . ."  She kind of drove and got the car almost stuck, you know, at a nursery, I believe it was.  But I wouldn't want to say for sure, but I can just remember that we were at a nursery where there were things growing and all that.  She loved flowers, so she might have been trying to buy her a flower [laughing]. 

Nelson: Did the store stay open throughout the whole Depression?

Aligood: Oh, yes.  It got real sluggish in the Depression because so many people were just charging, charging, you know.  And Daddy, when they sent the wife and children up after groceries, he'd just . . . Mama would just say, "Gordon, you've got to remember you've got children, too."  And Mama was a . . . I said it was tit for tat.  Both of them had a sympathetic heart.  And you can't help but that because those little children didn't have anything to do with getting here.  And you wanted to take care of them.  But there were some fine people, and there was a saw mill down toward Drifton also.  And it produced a lot of activity and brought in people.  You know, saw mill usually have . . . when they move, they usually bring people with them then.  I know now they don't move.  But back then.  And you were proud to know that something new was going to open and give the opportunity for work.  But they would erect houses that was pretty decent for the people who lived in them.