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.
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