]
[TR: Some word pronunciation was marked in this interview. Letters
surrounded by [] represent long vowels.]
"I used to be a banjo picker in Civil War times. I could pick a church
song just as good as I could a reel.
"Some of 'em I used to pick was 'Amazing Grace', 'Old Dan Tucker,' Used
to pick one went like this
'Farewell, farewell, sweet Mary;
I'm ruined forever
By lovin' of you;
Your parents don't like me,
That I do know
I am not worthy to enter your d[o].'
I used to pick
'Dark was the night
Cold was the ground
On which the Lord might lay.'
I could pick anything.
'Amazing grace
How sweet it sounds
To save a wretch like me.'
'Go preach my Gospel
Says the Lord,
Bid this whole earth
My grace receive;
Oh trust my word
Ye shall be saved.'
I used to talk that on my banjo just like I talked it there."
Superstitions
"Oh, yes ma'am, I believe in all the old signs.
"You can take a rabbit foot and a black cat's bone from the left fore
shoulder, and you take your mouth and scrape all the meat offin that
bone, and you take that bone and sew it up in a red flannel--I know what
I'm talkin' 'bout now--and you tote that in your pocket night and
day--sleep with it--and it brings you good luck.
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