Strange Family Folklore
Strange Family Folklore
Killing Santa & Other Cascade Childhood Memories
I had the honor to talk with my 93-year old uncle, Floyd Strange, Jr., son of Floyd and Beatrice Strange, and my mother's oldest brother.
Killing Santa & Other Cascade Childhood Memories
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.
I had the honor to talk with my 93-year old uncle, Floyd Strange, Jr., son of Floyd and Beatrice Strange, and my mother's oldest brother.
Teresa Roberson
Thank you so much, Uncle Floyd, for joining me tonight.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Yes.
Teresa Roberson
I've been interviewing descendants of your grandfather, Jesse Strange. Just trying to record our family history. What can you tell me about your father and growing up in Cascade?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
He was a wonderful man. He was nice fellow. Never heard them tell a curse word or nothing like it in my whole life.
Teresa Roberson
That's really strong character because I think back then they have more to cuss about than we do now.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Now the rest of them did, but he didn't. Yeah, he didn't.
Teresa Roberson
Well, what's a good story that you remember about your father or spending time there?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Well, we worked. We worked the whole time.
Teresa Roberson
Doing what?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Working in tobacco, corn, everything. On the farm, you had everything. I had to milk cows. We had to feed the pigs. Feed the hogs. We had a lot of work, a lot of work. There wasn't a time there wasn't nothing to do. If the wind blows or something, we go back over here on this side of the pine over ain't much wind over there and we'd cut wood, cut pine. It was always work to do on the farm. But I said if I ever, get old enough to get me a job, I'm getting off the farm.
Teresa Roberson
When you were growing up you, worked on the farm, but as a young man did you leave farming behind? Did you stop farming ?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
When Linda started college, I worked farming for several years.
Linda Strange Dillard was Uncle Floyd and Aunt Olivia’s oldest of three daughters.
I worked in the mill with a guy. He was a supervisor then. He had a little old farm out there. Oh, it wasn't that far away from me. A couple of acres in the back and I attended that for a couple of years. Mother and Daddy then helped me. Done that for a couple of years when she was in college. Worked third shift in the mill and worked all day on the farm. Seven, eight, nine o'clock lay down in the floor couple of hours and get up and go to work.
Teresa Roberson
So, most of your adult life you were working in the mill third shift and then farming during the day?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Yeah, right.
Teresa Roberson
Now, did you ever go into the military?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
No, I didn't. I got married at that time. When I got my questionnaire, I was married. Had a family so, gotta guy got me off. I didn't have to go. At that time, if you had a family, a wife and some kids, you could get deferred.
Teresa Roberson
Do you remember what year that was?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
No. I suspect it's been 70 years ago or longer. Probably been 70 years ago or longer.
Teresa Roberson
When you were in your 20s.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
I reckon I got 20. I don't know.
Teresa Roberson
Now in addition to farming were you also a hunter?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
I wasn't much of a hunter. I used to go out there with them. I used to go with Daddy. Daddy used to go squirrel hunting. Go out there with him in the woods in the mornings before daylight. I used to try to hunt a little bit. We went out there one day, me, my uncle, and dad and all us.
The uncle in question was Daniel Strange, third child of Jesse and Lucy Strange.
Coming up a hill and the dog had jumped a rabbit. When the rabbit jumped over the hill, the dog right in behind him and I killed him. Missed the rabbit and killed a dog. He cried about that thing. It hurted him. That just killed me for hunting.
Teresa Roberson
So, that was Uncle Daniel’s dog?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Mmm hmm. I didn't care much for hunting.
Teresa Roberson
Your mother, Mama Bea, she loved fishing.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Oh yeah, I used to go with her down the creek fishing and we'd walked to the creek.
Teresa Roberson
On your property?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
We walked down on her daddy's creek. Yeah, we go down, cross the road from where that church was at. On down back down the hill down to the creek down there. We walked down there. When it come a good rain, more creek got muddy. We walked down about 30 minutes.
Teresa Roberson
Now you were walking down there that means you had to carry whatever you...
Floyd Strange, Jr.
...yeah you ain't carry but a fishing pole. Or you might not carry that. You might just cut you a pole off the creek down there and put you a fishing line on it and a fishhook. And throw it over in the water.
Teresa Roberson
Wait a minute. You were cutting a tree branch?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Just get you a tree branch. Get you something, weren't too big, you know? Just cut you one and throw you a line, a fishhook on it and throw it over in the water. You didn't buy none at that time. You couldn't afford no fishing pole. Won't like it is now.
Teresa Roberson
Because people have fancy expensive fishing poles now.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Oh yeah.
Teresa Roberson
So, what type of fish would you guys catch?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Well, I reckon you'd call them "flounders," I guess. Real wide fish like your hand. Sometimes catfish. Some of them, they call them "butterfish." Reach about as wide as your hand. Call them “butterfish.”
Teresa Roberson
How old were you when you left home and got married?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Probably about 18, I imagine.
Teresa Roberson
Did you ever work outside of Cascade or outside Virginia as a young man?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Nah, didn't do very much. I worked sawmill one day. Tried everything that was there. I couldn't work at the sawmill.
Teresa Roberson
What was wrong with the sawmill?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
It just something I couldn't learn. Some people worked all their life at the sawmill. I couldn't work the sawmill.
Teresa Roberson
You just didn't like the conditions?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
We used to cut logs. We used to cut wood. You know Uncle Down?
Uncle Daniel’s nickname was “Uncle Down.”
We'd take a crosscut saw, saw a tree down and cut it up. They used to kill hogs. Just like November, December. December get cold after Thanksgiving. Me and my daddy and Uncle Down get out there and kill hogs for different people.
Teresa Roberson
Did you work in a slaughterhouse?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
No, this wasn't a slaughterhouse. Just fix a place out there. Put a tub out there. Put a fire under your water and get your water boiling hot. Go out there and kill two or three hogs and bring them back and skin them. You get to half them. Gut them. Carry them back to the people.
Teresa Roberson
Did you ever make sausage or you just slaughtered the hogs?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Well at that time, there would be so much of the meat for sausage. They'd take it somewhere and get it ground up. Some of them had sausage mill grounders and they'd ground it themselves. Do it anyway you wanted it. You'd cut it up. You get your tenderloin, your ham, your shoulder, fatback, tenderloin until get all of it off them. Then you cut it up and salt it. Put it in a meat box. Put salt on it. Salt it down.
Teresa Roberson
What's a meat box?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Just a thing that they had, square box, so big that they put the meat in like that when you salt it down. You had to salt it, lay down for six, eight weeks. Then they take it up and get that salt and stuff off of it. They put wood in a tub. Let it smoke. It's called "hickory smoke." They let it smoke for so many days. Then they string it up, put it in a bag or something.
Teresa Roberson
Now, Uncle Floyd, I heard you tell a story about the first time you went to the movies. Can you share that with us?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Yeah. I'd never been to the movies. When the movie come on, the guy started. They pulled that gun out. I made sure they didn't shoot me. I jumped up and run. They had to grab me. I made sure the dude wasn't going to shoot me. I didn't know. I'd never been to a movie. Didn't know about no movie or nothing. When you come out with those Westerns, come out with that gun, I had to go.
Teresa Roberson
About how old were you when that happened?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Oh, I don't know. Probably eight, ten years old. Twelve, maybe. Not over that. Just a kid, you know. They come out with that gun, I had to get to getting it. Yes, sir.
Teresa Roberson
And what else do you remember from your childhood that just stands out that you laugh at now?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
When a kid, you know, we couldn't do, didn't do, but so much damage or you got a whupping. It won't like kids now. If they got in them britches, you tried to stay out from all that. It's not like kids nowadays.
Expressions like “whupping” and “got in them britches” mean corporal punishment, which some people call “spankings,” but somehow “spankings” sounds too benign.
Teresa Roberson
Growing up you just worked on the farm and went to school?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Well we got out there and made wagons. Made toys to play... made our toys to play with, you know? You had to make your toys if you played with something. We'd get out there and build a little wagon, put a steering wheel on it, have it where you could get in that thing and go down a hill. Drive it. Put brakes on it.
Teresa Roberson
You built a wagon with brakes?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
We done all that stuff. You fix from fences where you make you some brakes on it. I wouldn't have an idea now how I did it, but I remember all that.
Teresa Roberson
That's different.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
We'd just take wood. All, everything was made out of wood. Saw your blocks off, make your wheels. Bore a hole in them. Run an axle across through it. Take a wagon, maybe it might go a mile toward some my buddies' houses. They had hills. We'd go out there. We'd take our wagon and go down those hills. That was the only fun you had then. See, chaps get anything they want now.
“Chaps” is another word for “kids.”
You couldn't afford to buy nothing.
Teresa Roberson
That means Christmas was celebrated very differently when you were growing up.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
It was it was it was a lot of difference. I remember when I seen Santa Claus. That just killed Christmas.
Teresa Roberson
Why?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
‘Cause I made sure they had us fooled. Had you fooled. Chaps, we don't fool chaps no more. We thought it was Santa Claus. I stayed woke. I said, "I'm going to see Santa Claus this Christmas." I stayed woke. They didn't know I was woke, but I was woke.He come in there and put stuff in there and that just killed it. Killed everything. I said, "I'm sorry I seen Santa Claus."
Teresa Roberson
Who did you see?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
I didn't let him know it. I don't know it. I would've gotten a whupping.
Teresa Roberson
Who did you see though?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Daddy.
Teresa Roberson
Do you remember how old you were?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
I don't know. I was a chap.
Teresa Roberson
Did you tell your other...
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Yeah, I told the rest of them. That just killed Santa Claus. I killed Christmas. I wished I'd never seen Santa Claus.
Teresa Roberson
So, you saw Santa Claus one Christmas and you told your younger brothers?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Oh yeah, I just killed Christmas. Kids know who Santa Claus is now. You don't fool kids no more.
Teresa Roberson
Some still believe.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Most of them nowadays, you don't fool them.
Teresa Roberson
What would you get as a child back then for Christmas?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Little toy or some fireworks or candy. Apple, orange. You didn't get no whole lot. They couldn't afford a whole lot. They'd tell you Santa Claus might not come this time. He broke his leg. That just killed him. I was just worried to death, thinking Santa Claus won't coming.
Teresa Roberson
Some of the younger kids these days think that Santa Claus...
Floyd Strange, Jr.
They just tell them all, you know. Might not get much Santa Claus this time. Things are tough, you know. You couldn't get much. Nothing. A few clothes. Want a pair of shoes, when March come, first of March was the first day you went barefooted. Shoot, I'd been done kicked the toes out of mine. I had to go barefooted. We went barefooted a whole lot, you know. You couldn't afford buy another pair of shoes.
Teresa Roberson
Did you grow up with two pairs of shoes like your regular shoes and your Sunday shoes?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Oh yeah. You had regular shoes. Had shoes where you wore to school and you had to dress shoes. Daddy started buying me steel-toed shoes, but I kicked the toe out of mine.
Teresa Roberson
You kicked the toe out of your steel-toed shoes?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
My everyday shoes.
Teresa Roberson
Oh, okay.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Then they started getting steel-toed shoes. You can't kick the toe out of them.
Teresa Roberson
Okay.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
l'd tear up a pair of shoes. Kicking things!
Teresa Roberson
Wait, why were you kicking things?
Floyd Strange, Jr. 20:15
I don't know. Chap, didn't have nothing else to do.
Teresa Roberson
You did a lot to stay out of trouble...
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Climbed trees. We do all that stuff. Tear your clothes. You tore your britches, you had to tell them how you done it. You had no business climbing that tree. Get your butt whupped.
Teresa Roberson
Now, who would spank you more, Mama Bea or Papa?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Mother would spank you the less. When Daddy whupped your butt, you got a butt-whupping. He worked with you. Mother would say, "Go out there and get a switch." I'd go out and get something that wasn't worth a nickel. But Daddy, when he got a switch, he got a switch.
Teresa Roberson
See when I was growing up, Mama Bea was the only one who would spank me, not Papa.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
When he promised you a whupping, you got a whupping. It might be two or three days, but he didn't forget.
Teresa Roberson
What would you get in trouble for?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Everything. Sometimes we'd go out there and get into the watermelon patch. We'd go out there. He could tell when you pulled one. Get a watermelon. Anything. Maybe out there, might go off sleep, go out there graze the cows. Cow got away. Well then you had to be responsible for it. You'd have to go out there sometimes sit and graze the cows. They had a place where you had grass and everything. It was always something to do.
Teresa Roberson
How old were you when you guys got a tractor?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
We had mules. Might have been about 1950 because he bought it was a 1950 tractor. A brand-new tractor. So, that cut out a lot of the mule work. You do all your plowing with the tractor. Just use the mule to lay off the land. Or plow your tobacco. Different stuff.
Teresa Roberson
Did you ever ride horses when you were younger?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Yeah, I would ride the mule. We used to ride the mule. We'd ride the mule to work or ride the mule from work just like we be out doing tobacco. Maybe leave your plow out there in the field and get on mule and ride your mule home. Give him some water. Get in the house and give him something to eat while you were eating. Take an hour or so for dinner. Go out and get him. Hook him back up and go back to work again. Then we had to work tobacco. You'd plow tobacco out with the mule, and work the tobacco hoe. Now they don't do that no more. You plant your tobacco. They work everything with machinery. Everything is easy now. You'd have to make about three or four grades of tobacco when you sell it. Now all they do when they take it out the barn now they carry it on to the market. One grade. Everything. Was somebody telling me now, they buy it in the field. You don't carry to the market no more. That's what they tell me now. I'm not sure.
Teresa Roberson
Do you remember the first time you drove a car?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure do. Daddy had a '29 A Model Ford. That's what I learned how to drive on.
Teresa Roberson
On a what?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
'29 A Model Ford.
Teresa Roberson
A Model Ford. Okay.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
They come out with T Models I don't know whether Daddy owned a T Model or not.
Teresa Roberson
Now was that the type of car that you had to crank in the front?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
You turn it and crank it with a crank and it run.
Teresa Roberson
Wow. I've driven the car that had a clutch but never...
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Right, right. No, all them was way gone when you start driving.
Teresa Roberson
How old were you when you bought your first car?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
You know, I declare, I disremember. Was trying to think the first car that I bought. I can't even think now.
Teresa Roberson
Was this before or after you got married? Do you remember that?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
I had a car when I got married. Sometime, but I disremember. I can't think. Well, I'd done worked in the mill for a while. I went to work in the mill when I got 16, I believe it was. I was still at home, you know. When I was working.
Teresa Roberson
I just remember, when coming home for family reunions, a lot of the guys in the family were always proud of their cars.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Yeah. I can't even think what the first car was that I owned. I can't even think. It's been so long.
Teresa Roberson
Well if it comes back to you let me know.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Okay. Yeah, it's been so long I can't even think. And I owned so many of them.
Teresa Roberson
Right? When you first started driving, people didn't need driver's licenses. Did they?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Didn't have to have no license. Didn't have to buy tags for a car. When you bought a car with the tags on them, you run them to run out.
Teresa Roberson
What do you mean "your tags run out?"
Floyd Strange, Jr.
When new tags run out, if you bought them in May, they went for a year.
Teresa Roberson
Okay, that's about the same.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
If you still had that car, you had to put tags on it. You didn't buy no insurance for cars then. You just bought the car and drove it.
Teresa Roberson
How did you meet Aunt Olivia? Did you go to school together?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
No, we didn't go to school together. Another section up there it's called "Logtown." We used to travel up in there lots. We got to seeing each other. Got to liking each other. So that was it.
Teresa Roberson
That sounds real vague, Uncle Floyd. Y'all didn't meet at a dance? A relative didn't introduce y'all?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
I disremember how we met now really. She went to high school in Eden. Eden, North Carolina. She went on over there. Come home every weekend. I'd go over that a way sometimes. Run up on her over there.
Teresa Roberson
So, you two didn't go to school together?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
No. I was in Pennsylvania County and she was in Henry County.
Teresa Roberson
Okay. And you didn't meet at church?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
No. I can't think how, we really did meet to tell you the truth.
Teresa Roberson
See, I'm surprised because back in your day, I thought people only met through school, church or maybe some high school dance or something like that.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Can't even think how we really did meet. It was a place up there, used to go up there and drink liquor. Buy me some whiskey.Called it "Logtown."
Teresa Roberson
There was no drinking age when you were a teenager.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Drink anytime you want to. No, they didn't have no certain drinking age.
Teresa Roberson
I'm just surprised because you guys didn't have like, internet to do internet dating or clubs...
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Did have nothing to do nothing with. No, we didn't.
Teresa Roberson
You didn't work on the farm with her?
Floyd Strange, Jr.
No. With her? No, no.
Teresa Roberson
But you stayed married to her for many, many years.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Yeah. Close to 50 years.
Teresa Roberson
And then you had three girls like your younger sister, my mother, three daughters.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Yeah, right. Linda, Gayle, Carolyn.
Teresa Roberson
Well, Uncle Floyd, I appreciate you talking with me tonight.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
Yeah, I appreciate talking with you.
Teresa Roberson
I look forward to talking to you some more if you think of more things that you'd like to share with me.
Floyd Strange, Jr.
All right.
Throughout the conversation between Uncle Floyd and me, his youngest daughter, Carolyn Strange Bell, was listening. Of course, she had something to add.
Teresa Roberson
Okay, tell me.
Carolyn Bell
All right. My father should have shared with you how feisty my mother was. Because he was handsome, he was running around. And so, she was pregnant with me, I think. All of a sudden, they heard, now he in the house, and everybody else was in the house, and they heard this noise. They went outside. My mother had bust all the windows out of his car. She had gotten mad.
Teresa Roberson
Obviously, it was resolved peacefully because you were born.
Carolyn Bell
Right, it was resolved peacefully.
Teresa Roberson
They remain married.
Carolyn Bell
They remain married. I have a mark, a birthmark on my leg. They said because it was a black snake because my momma was mean as a black snake...when she get mad. There was a stripe on my leg. It used to be. They used to say it was a birthmark. Like a black snake. Like a black snake supposed to be mean, but I'm not sure.
Teresa Roberson
Thank you so much.
Carolyn Bell
All right. It's all good.