Tomboy Adventures

Cousin Gwen Strange, daughter of Joe and Margaret Ann Strange, shares stories about her grandfather, Jessie Strange, second child of    Jesse with his second wife, Lucy Strange.

Transcript

My great grandfather, Jesse Strange, was born a slave and freed in his 20s. His 12 children were born free, and referred to as "The First Freeborn Generation." In this podcast series, I interview Jesse Strange's descendants in order to document our stories. This is Strange Family Folklore.

Cousin Gwen Strange, daughter of Joe and Margaret Ann Strange, shares stories about the wisdom of her grandfather, Jessie Strange, second child of Great Grandfather Jesse Strange with his second wife, Lucy Strange.

Teresa Roberson  

Part of my process here I want to document the first generation of freeborn Stranges, the children of Great Grandfather Jesse Strange.

Gwen  

Yes.

Teresa Roberson  

Actually, your grandfather is also named Jessie strange. It's just spelled differently.

Gwen  

Yes. We had some different versions of the way he spelled his name.

Great Grandfather Jesse spelled his name J-E-S-S-E, whereas Gwen’s grandfather Jessie, my great uncle,spelled his name J-E-S-S-I-E. 

Teresa Roberson  

Can you introduce yourself going through the family tree before we start talking about your grandfather, Jesse.

Gwen  

My grandfather was Jessie William Strange. I think he was the second child. He was married to Mary T. Strange. I am the daughter of his baby son, which is a twin to Barbra Jean Strange. I am his daughter. 

Teresa Roberson  

Okay, and your father is Joe Strange, right? 

Gwen  

Yeah. 

Cousin Gwen’s father, Joe, and her Aunt Barbara Jean are twins and the youngest two of 13 children. 

Teresa Roberson  

To start off with, tell us some of your favorite stories about your grandfather.

Gwen  

The favorite story about my grandfather, which we lived together. I was told that I would get up under the table to clip his toenails. So, as I got older, I was experimenting on doing hair. So, I dyed grandpa's hair one day, and it turned green. So, that's one of my favorite stories. I used to drive him around when I got a teenager. I used to pay his taxes. Take him to Keystone Richardson. Grandpa would always go to the front of the store and they would hand him a bag. And I'm like, "Why they would give him a bag?" But I didn't know that grandpa would always go back to the beer counter and get his beer. I would fuss. I say, "Grandpa, why are you paying all this money extra for this food when the grocery store have the food cheaper?" He would say, "Girl, you got to always keep an account and keep in good standing." Because back there then, I guess when they were sharecroppers, they would go and they would put things on what they call, "put it on time, put it on the book." So, every month when he got his check, if I or either my cousin Sherman, he would take him around too. 

Sherman Adams is the son of Clyde and Lucille Strange Adams. Aunt Lucille, AKA “Aunt Cille,” is the sixth child of Gwen’s Grandpa Jessie.

When he got paid, we'd take him to Keystone Richardson. He was in a routine with what he did. So, me and Grandpa got in a little argument, debate which, they say I'm good at it. I guess I took that up from my Aunt Gladys because my Aunt Gladys, they say, would keep Grandpa straight too. 

Aunt Gladys is the fifth child of Gwen’s Grandpa Jessie.

I said, "Grandpa this don't make any sense that you going here paying these high prices when you can just go to the grocery store, and it's much cheaper." But I didn't understand that, at that time that this was his account that whenthey didn't have money on hand, they could charge it. And they could pay up when they got their social security check at the first of the month. I always remember Grandpa saying, "Don't talk so much. Listen, sometimes." He would always sit up under the tree and he would have a cane. He would be talking to himself, but he would be beating that cane. He would say, "Sometimes, it's just better to talk to yourself and just meditate and just listen. You got two ears and one mouth. He would say, that way you don't always get in trouble. Just be quiet and listen, sometimes." I said, "Okay." One thing to this day that I do believe in that my grandpa taught me is your word is your bond. I have a problem when people tell me something, and I put some dependence in it, and then they go back on it, because my motto is “your word is your bond.” So, he did teach me that. That will always stay with me. Because that way people will have more confidence in you and you won't be all over the place with saying this and doing that. Because your word is your bond. I remember when he would tell us stories like, "Girl, I was so good with a gun, I could shoot a gnat on a tree." I'm like, I believe Grandpa telling some little fibs because you can't even see a gnat. My granddad, he only had, one eye. I'm like, "Now how can Grandpa say he can shoot a gnat off a tree when he only had one eye?" But that was some of the stuff he would tell too. He would always keep his little nip. You know what the little nip is? 

Teresa Roberson  

Talking about moonshine? 

Gwen  

Moonshine, moonshine! My dad was one of the moonshine runners. I could always hear stories about the moonshine. Of course, my dad was a moonshine hustler too because he had a little joint. So, a lot of that stuff originated from the older people that had these little juke joints. I don't know if grandpa had one, but I know my dad had one. His brother, Thel, had one. 

Walter “Thel” Strange was the eleventh child of Gwen’s Grandpa Jessie.

I hope I'm not telling on people... well they can't get arrested anyway now. So, the older people would, like if we took a trip, they would have their little nip under the seat. They'd reach under the seat. My daddy used to like to travel. They always believed in that little nip and giving us cod liver oil. Grandpa and Grandma would line us up because my Grandma Mary, all of us live together when I was little. They would line us up and give us cod liver oil, and Grandma and Grandpa always talked about going down to the branch at the old place, getting calamar root and they lived off the land. 

Calamar root is also known as “calamus root.”

I remember when I had my first child. We had peppermint planted beside the house. I think Grandma Mary had planted it. I was told that you boil that and you drain off the peppermint and you give it to the baby. So, it was little things like that, that I really learned from my grandma and my grandpa. Of course, my Grandma Mary, she learned me how to make bread. Grandpa was so stingy. Let me tell you another story about Grandpa. Grandpa was so tight with money that Grandma was going to Washington. He thought that he gave her $5, but it was 50. She was so shocked. "Jessie gave me $50. I can't believe it." But he didn't know he gave her $50. He thought he gave a five. And they said, "Don't tell him, Mama. Don't tell him. Just keep it and go on." So, he was a little tight with his money. But as I look back, Grandpa always had money in that wallet. I don't know if it was tens, twenties, fives or ones, but that little wallet it was fat. So, I always thought my granddaddy was rich. He was a kind of a quiet, humble, spirited man. 

Teresa Roberson  

Help me with something, Gwen, because you say at one point, he explained that he shopped at this grocery store because he was a sharecropper. But then he always had a pocket full of money. Those two things don't normally go together.

Gwen  

You know what? To think about it. I don't know. When I at the time, I got a teenager, he always had money. It appeared to me, it was a lot. But still, even though he had the money in his wallet, he wanted to keep that account. You could not get him away from getting that account at that store. I don't know if it was because he would go in and get his little beer and keep it secretly. Because they would put it in the bag and he get it, but I wouldn't sometimes know it. 

Teresa Roberson  

He liked that good customer service because they don't do that at a regular grocery store.

Gwen  

No, no, no, no, no. Keystone Richardson was more like a little mom and pop store. But once the grocery stores came, those prices are much higher than the grocery store. Grandpa had some money in that wallet. Now as what we would think what money is today, back there then because I was born in 1958. So, it was around about '74 or five when I started driving. Back there then, if you had $100, it was money. 

Teresa Roberson  

I'd take $100 now, Gwen.

Gwen  

Oh yes. So, I would always wonder why Grandpa just can't pay for the stuff. He got the money. But he would always pay off that debt and charge another one. I just didn't get it. "Grandpa, why don't you just go pay for it? And we wouldn't have to come back here." But no. That was his routine, monthly routine. He didn't stop until maybe he got a little older where he didn't get around as much. But Grandpa also had this truck. When Sherman would drive the truck, when Grandpa stopped driving. It was just green Dodge. We would paint that truck. Spray paint it green and black. We had a brand-new truck every year look like. They would spray paint that truck. So, I remember that truck. Then one day, it was me Phoebe, Sherita, all of us like to go to this little place called "Blue Creek." 

Mary “Phoebe” Wheeler is the daughter of Ernest and Marion Strange Wheeler. Sherita is the daughter of Pleas and Catherine Strange Wilson. Marion and Catherine are the third and eighth children, respectively ofGwen’s Grandpa Jessie.

We wanted to get the Blue Creek so bad. We said, "We can go on Grandpa's truck." So, those were the good old days. That family really stuck together.

Teresa Roberson  

You keep calling him "Sherman," but it's "Shorty" you're talking about, right? 

Gwen  

It's Shorty. 

Teresa Roberson  

 It was years before I realized that was the same person. 

Gwen  

Really? 

Teresa Roberson  

Yeah, because I didn't grow up around Cascade.

Gwen  

I don't know why they call him Shorty because he's not that short.

Teresa Roberson  

Well, not anymore. No. 

Gwen  

He was one of Grandpa's right-hand man. Me and him would take him around. But that truck, it stayed in the family for a long time. We would go to the berry field on that truck. You know the old homeplace? We would go pick strawberries and we would be on the back of the truck. Let me correct myself. Not strawberries, black berries. Dewberries or blackberries. I always thought they were the same, but they say they're different. But I remember the old homeplace because of that. We would go down that little long road off of 58. We would go to the end and we can see what the big house was and then we would go pick strawberries toward the left of that. I don't recall ever living on that home place. I think Grandpa and Grandma was the last ones that live down in that area.

Teresa Roberson  

Are you talking about Mobley Creek?

Gwen  

Yeah, Mobley Creek. That's what they called it, "Mobley Creek." I think the last time we went to Mobley Creek, it has probably been over 20 years. I remember one reunion that we all went down and they had to cut away for us to get through. We went and we clean off the cemetery.

Teresa Roberson  

 It was so overgrown, you couldn't just drive on the roads?

Gwen  

Well, because after Uncle Percy and Thel stopped farming there, it wasn't a lot of in and out. 

Uncle Percy Strange was the fourth child of Gwen’s Grandpa Jessie.

So, once it grew up. That year, it was during the reunion. It might have been the day after the reunion. Think Herbert, they went down or Thel, and they cut where they could get through. 

Herbert Strange is the fourth child of Beatrice and Floyd Strange. Floyd was the younger brother of Gwen’s Grandpa Jessie.

It was right many of us. I think Theodore went, Jean, I think she might have gone. 

Theodore Strange, Jr. is the son of Anna and Theodore Strange, Sr. Theodore, Sr. was the younger brother of Gwen’s Grandpa Jessie.

We cleaned off some of the cemetery over there, the graveyard. We also walked over to the creek. It's a creek bank. That's what Grandma used to go get the roots, the calamus root. We had that for stomach aches. Some other root they would put bootleg in and give us for colds. 

Now, when Cousin Gwen says “bootleg,” I believe she’s talking about moonshine.

But that branch, you can cross over and go to Aunt Mable's and Uncle Percy's house. 

Annie Mable Strange Adams was the second child of Gwen’s Grandpa Jessie.

So, that's the last time that I remember that we went there. But I was told from my Aunt Jean that she left from over there and came up here and lived with... I don't know if it's my Aunt Lucille or Catherine or who, but she came here and went to school. I think my dad was still over there. So, that was during the time that they had to walk along ways to get out there to go to school.

Teresa Roberson  

So, your Aunt Jean went to Cascade? 

Gwen  

I think she did come up here and go to school in Cascade. I don't know if my dad did, though. But I talked to her and she told me that she came up here and lived with... it was either my Aunt Cat or my Aunt Lucille, don't quote me, but it was one of the two.

Teresa Roberson  

I think you're right. Do you know why your Grandpa Jessie did for a living like throughout his lifetime because I've never heard that any of us were sharecroppers. I know that we worked tobacco and, in the factory, and also the military. 

Gwen  

Okay, well maybe I need to correct myself. They raised tobacco, so the sharecroppers would be someone living on someone else's land. I'm glad you corrected me. I don't know if he was labeled a sharecropper, but I don't recall Grandpa ever working in a mill anyway. Grandpa was famous for talking the fire out of people too. He would have people come down where we live, beside where Thel lived.  That was the home house after he moved from Mobley Creek. People from different places would come for Grandpa to talk the fire out of them. 

Teresa Roberson  

Can you explain that for anyone... I've heard the term before, but if anybody has not.

Gwen  

I think it's something that you basically gifted with. I haven't recalled if was passed on to him from someone else. I know I had a friend that got burned. He talked and basically, you don't know what he's doing. He just sitting there like carrying on a conversation, might be rubbing the place, just talking to him. He passed it on to Thel.  I think we talked about that in the book. I remember when Georgia's daughter got burned, Barbara. 

Georgia Wheeler Mulholland is the daughter of Ernest Wheeler and Marion Strange Wheeler.

I think she had maybe second to third degree burns. They were saying that it seems like she got better when Grandpa, I think it was even through a call because I don't remember him going. But he talked the fire out of her. So, that was what he was known for. Talking the fire out of people.

Teresa Roberson  

Okay, in addition to other talents, like raising tobacco, did you ever work in the tobacco fields with your Grandpa Jessie? Or was he still doing that when you were a child? 

Gwen  

I don't remember working in tobacco with Grandpa, but I did help Thel and Uncle Percy. I used to help several other people. I liked it. I just didn't like the worms. My dad I think he tried to do it one year, but it was maybe one or two acres. It wasn't enough to live off because he worked in the mill. But Thel and Uncle Percy were big time farmers. I would love to help them in tobacco. Other than running from the worms. Other than that, I loved it. They would look at me like, "Girl you crazy!" Uncle Percy had like 16 kids and me and his daughter, Annie, was real close. I thought it was amazing once they sold tobacco and she would come home and say, "We got to go school shopping." Maybe he would give them $50 or $100 and I'm like what! But to them, I was crazy because that was some hard I work, but I guess because I didn't have to do it all the time, it was like I wanted to do it because for one thing I wanted to drive the tractor.

Teresa Roberson  

Oh, there it is! I was also wondering. I've never worked tobacco either and from what I hear I don't want to, but you like being out in the field. 

Gwen  

I think I was more like a little tomboy at one point. When you grow up and you're all alone, because I was the only child, and I always loved being around older people. I just wanted to do something and I thought it was just good to do. I'm glad I had some work ethics. I would go help people. I had a job then. I just thought it was making some extra money. I'll never forget this time, my mom, we would load up on the truck at about six o'clock in the morning. We would go to Ruffin to help these people in Ruffin. They would pay you like five, six dollars an hour. My daddy was a hustler. He would take people over there and we were working tobacco. One day, me and my mom was over there working in tobacco, I had an armful of tobacco and they holler, "Snake!" I threw all that tobacco. My mama come running across the field and I'm running behind her. So, other than fighting and looking for the snakes and me being afraid of the worms, I loved it. And then with tobacco you got all this black gum on your hand. Let me tell you what else we used to do. We used to get…do you know what poke sallet is? 

Teresa Roberson  

Oh, yes. 

Poke sallet, AKA “poke weed,” is a toxic plant if eaten raw, or a nutrition-dense green if cooked properly.

Gwen  

So, we as kids used to go behind where Aunt Cille and Aunt Cat's house and we would pull the poke sallet. We would fix us a little tobacco thing and we would be imitating, like we working in tobacco. We'd be stringing tobacco, learning how to string tobacco. It was just fun. Today's times all kids do is sit in the house. We had things to do outside. We had fun. We ran outside. Played. We built play houses. We even had catalog play houses, doll houses. We didn't even know what the word "bored" was. We would play ball. They had a ball field beside my dad's house. Logtown and Blue Creek would come and play ball. 

Teresa Roberson  

Baseball? 

Gwen  

Baseball. They would play football in that field. I call it "killerball" because they didn't have no helmets. They just ran and tackled each other. That's when kids were tough. Sometimes, my dad would sell fish sandwiches and ham sandwiches under that big old tree. We would just sit and enjoy and relax. I remember when we used to have the family reunions before we built the Strange park pavilion. 

Strange Park Pavilion, which we family members also call, “the shelter,” has been the site of many generations of Strange Family reunions.

It would be behind my Aunt Cille's house. That's when they would bring up boxes of food out. Kind of like when homecoming is at church. They would bring out boxes of food. So, it's things like that that has changed over the years. But tobacco was fun to me. 

Teresa Roberson  

You sound like somebody who didn't work in tobacco often. You said you just did it for extra money. What as a teenager or a young woman, what were you mostly working as?

Gwen  

Well, before I got a job, I wanted to just be with my cousins because I didn't have anybody. I did like tobacco. I thought I did. But as my other cousins say, I liked it because I didn't have to do a lot of all the time. So, anytime I got the opportunity to do it, I did it. I was working in Fieldcrest mill. I started in the spray cotton mill in the 11th grade, full-time. I still would get up some mornings and go help pull tobacco. I wanted to make extra money. Then in the 12th grade, I got a job in Fieldcrest mill full-time. So, I didn't have to do it. I wanted to do it.

Teresa Roberson  

More money and to hang out with your cousins.

Gwen  

Yes. Something that people don't know unless they were an only child. You get lonely sometimes. I would always want to be with my Aunt Cat's kids because they always said I look like her and I act like her. So, I could fit in with just being hers. But it was just loneliness. You, Carla, and Renee, you got childhood stories to tell because you were together, coming up as a child. Well, I didn't get a brother until I was 14. So, I practically took care of him because I love kids. So, I just took to him as the motherly type really. Bobbie Strange, and he was adopted when he was four weeks old. 

I always knew Cousin Bobbie by his middle name, Lynn.

I just took just taking care of him and then when I had my first child, he was jealous of my child because I took care of him and I worked and I bought him clothes and kept him, clean just like he was mine. So, when I had mine, he was jealous. I think my oldest son, they say, when he was about five or six years old, he was so jealous of me put him in the trunk. Oh, so it was kind of fun. He's still living. He just turned 50 and I'm 64. People always say, "Girl, you had that made, you was the only child.” I was like, if you only knew. 

Teresa Roberson

Grass is always greener. 

Gwen

Right, right. Well, you get everything. Well, not with my dad. One thing about my dad: he did not get me everything I wanted. He was more of a need person. My grandma, Tooty, which is my mama's mother because my mama's name is Margaret Martin Strange. She bought me everything because I was the oldest grandchild, but my dad, I got what I needed. But my brother, he got what he needed and wanted. 

Teresa Roberson  

They always blame the youngest as being the spoiled ones. 

Gwen  

I don't regret because my daddy taught me responsibility. My daddy taught me a lot. As far as being responsible, because he didn't play. Everybody thought I had my way as far as getting everything. No. I paid bills. I really appreciated that because children today need to know responsibility. As far as my brother, I don't think he taught him that because he let him have his way. But I really appreciate that he didn't take me in that direction.

Teresa Roberson  

Because you were the oldest. 

Gwen  

Yeah, I was the oldest. My dad loved to travel. He would put me in the car in the front seat. "Read the signs. Read the signs." So, that's why I don't have a problem traveling by myself if I have to. Because my dad instilled that in me.

Teresa Roberson  

What I can't get over. Is how your cousins let you drive the tractor. That seems like the sweet job. How did you beat them out on driving the tractor? 

Gwen 

Now I say I wanted to drive the tractor. I don't mean I drove the tractor all the time. When I went to help the people in Ruffin, sometime whoever got to the row was close to tractor they will let them move it up sometimes. So, of course me, every chance I get, I jump in that seat. Because I was determined I was going to learn how to drive everything. When I learned how to drive a stick shift, my dad had a stick shift truck. I was determined. They call it “straight gear”on the car. I learned how to drive that. I was just, you might would say, "tomboyish." I wanted to climb trees. I remember me and my cousin Perry, we couldn't get along sometimes, so we would fight.

Teresa Roberson  

Oh you were fighting with your male cousins?

Gwen  

Yeah, I would fight Perry. 

Perry Adams is the son Clyde and Cille Adams.

We'd be fussing, then me and Perry be fighting sometimes.  But we loved each other. When you're a child by yourself, you ain't got nobody to fight for you. So, you got to fight. You got to, what you say? As they say, "fend yourself." Y'all got sisters and brothers. I have to, as they say, "fend yourself."

Teresa Roberson  

I never got into any physical fights with my sisters. It was always arguments. I was lucky. 

Gwen  

They'd be saying, "Girl, you better be glad you didn't have no sisters and brothers. I'm like, "No, no, I wish I did. My brother, even though he's adopted, I love him just like he was my blood because he is. It's not who had you, it's who raised you, a lot of times. Now, I have three children. One is 43. One is 39 and one is thirty-eight. The oldest one, his name is Deandre LeRon, and he is retired military for 20 years. He lives in Fayetteville. My second one is Quinton. He lives with my uncle. He works at Goodyear. My daughter is 38. Her name is LaToya Strange Woods. She lives in Louisiana. She was in the military for about five years and she works at an urgent care. She's an x-ray technician, and I have nine grandchildren.

Teresa Roberson  

Ooh, wow. That's why last nearly 1000 of us descendants of Jessie Strange.

Gwen  

Right, and my husband is Lawrence Strange. So I'm Strange Strange.

Teresa Roberson  

Strange squared.

Gwen  

Yes, squared. 

Teresa Roberson  

Gwen, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. And anytime you have more stories to share, just reach out, let me know.

Gwen  

Okay, and I appreciate that you thought about me. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.

Teresa Roberson  

You're welcome. Have a great day.

Gwen  

You too. Bye bye.