A Tour of Ms. Catherine's House
A tour of Ms. Catherine's House reveals many details about everyday life in the early years of the twentieth century, but these same details also point back in time to the rich African heritage handed down through generation after generation of people who occupied the hewn timber cabins. The interior and furnishings such as old newspaper used as wallpaper, a table with a tin top, and a crate used as an extra chair all reveal how meager and lacking luxury their lives were. A sketch on the back of the front door shows the footprint of the original cabin, as well as the small additions which were removed when the cabin was restored.
Clothes and bed linens were practical, useful, and colorful. Clothes were typically for work, but brightly colored, handmade quilts adorned both the parents' and children's beds.
After field work came household chores, both inside and outside the house. Washing clothes, ironing, and cleaning house were never easy tasks. Of course, groceries and food items were sold in general stores and later on in supermarkets, but these were often far away, with little or no transportation. Ms. Catherine grew a rather large garden of vegetables each year and preserved these by canning. Tending her garden wasn't the only outside chore, however. Following African custom, Ms. Catherine made her own brooms from straw for sweeping inside the house and used dogwood branches to make the brooms for sweeping the yard.
Social activities often included church and membership in a local lodge.
African culture and heritage are reflected in the many different areas and ethnic groups who brought their vocabulary, customs, traditions, and culture with them to the South.
Copyright Amelia Wallace Vernon. All rights reserved, 1999.
