In the Backwoods

RyKell remembers being about four or five years old, sitting on the side porch of the house on Rock Head creek, Tennessee. She was sitting on the bottom steps of the stairway that led up to the "boys' room" (that was what it was called by the entire family) upstairs. There was also the inside steps in the family bedroom that led up to the "girls' room" upstairs. She recalls holding a little puppy in my arms. She also remember that the neighboring white mill children (those whose parents worked at the mill), especially Jordan Alfred and Lavonne, liked to carry her around whenever they came from their little mill house down the road over to RyKell's mama and daddy's house.

The family consisted of her daddy, Twen Giarc, her mother, Annoc, four brothers and two sisters and herself, RyKell. Our home was situated across from a creek far back in the remote part of Middle, Tennessee, in the backwoods called Rock Head creek in Yrrep County. RyKell's grandfather daddy's father, built this house. It was a fairly sized house with two tiny bedrooms upstairs. The community was very sparsely populated. There were only a few white families scattered very far apart. RyKell's Daddy farmed the poor soil that was poor and rocky, planting and harvesting corn, soybeans, and peanuts. He also logged with his mules and wagon whenever he had laid his crop by and if there was an opening at the local sawmill for a team of mules and a log wagon. Now her Daddy was around the age of forty-eight when she was five. He was what people called a mulatto. He had a very light complexion, with straight black hair. His facial features were that of any Caucasian, and he had a tall and skinny framed body. He chewed tobacco, dipped snuff, and smoked a pipe, and played the violin (fiddle).

RyKell's Mama stayed at home and kept the household in order for the rest of the family. Her Mama was about forty-three. She was small in stature, about five feet. Her complexion was a pretty dark brown. She often told all of her children ever since RyKell could remember that her daddy nicknamed her from the time she could remember. He called her his "pretty black girl." She was just that. She was very pretty.

The Giarc family was the only black family on upper Rock Head creek, so RyKell never saw or played with or communicated with any other minority families and their children, and neither did her other brothers and sisters.

Daddy had sent the oldest one of RyKell's siblings, Neleh, to live with his sister Emmy in Aashville so she would be able to attend school. The rest of her brothers and other sister were homeschooled by my mother. There was no public school for them to attend because they were black. No school was provided for blacks to attend on the head of Rock Head Creek. The white children were able to ride the big yellow school bus to the elementary and high school in town called Nednil. Mama taught RyKell's other brothers and sisters Rad, Cara, and Yor at home. RyKell was not of school age yet, but was always present in the room or on the porch when Mama taught the rest, so she started learning at first grade level very early. The other two older brothers, Twen Junior ("Brother," as he was called by the family) and Donny Mack, had already abandoned homeschooling and had taken up work at the local sawmill. This was approximately in the year of 1944.

Since the children had no one else to communicate and play with, Cara (who was five and a half years older than RyKell, which made her nine and a half) and Yor (who was three and a half years older than me, seven years old) spent their time playing with all of the dogs, puppies, cats and their kittens, all of which ran rampantly about the outside and inside of the house. They even had a pet pig, chicken, and a billy goat. Rad, who was eight years older than she, making him about twelve years old, stayed busy helping Daddy around the farm and engaging in all kinds of mischief whenever he had the opportunity. Yor was RyKell's faithful comrade and playmate.

They all had the God-gifted ability to appreciate music and play some kind of instrument. They had no formal note reading, just the ability to hear and play. It was an inherited characteristic, because her Daddy and Mama both could play musical instruments. Daddy and his brother played the violin and Mama the piano. RyKell never did see her Daddy's brother play the fiddle, but her Daddy said that they used to play their violins together when they were growing up in the same house that we were still living in on Rock Head Creek. So all of the seven children of Twen Giarc were genetically inclined to play some type of instrument.

The local white neighbors and their friends always gathered together and came to their house, especially on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. For their entertainment, they played good country music. Twen Junior, Donny Mack, and Cara only knew the three chords on the guitar, C, G, and F, so they only played the guitar to amuse themselves. Neither of the three could sing either. But on the other hand, Rad played the guitar well but had no vocal ability. Yor, RyKell's best playmate and comrade, well, Yor was enormously talented. He could play any instrument that he wanted to. I never saw in the latter years any instrument that Yor could not play — guitar, banjo, mandolin, violin, piano, drum, harmonica, and something that mama called a juice harp. Yor had a voice for singing and he could sing, sing, and sang. Yor was just monumental in his ability with music. I could sing. I could sing any song that she heard over the old battery-powered radio. RyKell yearned to play the guitar like the others, but since she was only four she was told, "RyKell, you are just too little and scrawny. The guitars are bigger than you," and that she would surely drop the instrument and break it. Daddy said he would not be able to buy another one if that occurred, so she was not allowed to touch the guitar unless she climbed up onto the bed and sat on Mama's featherbed. RyKell didn't think it was fair, but every now and then she would do just that.

Even though she was not allowed to touch the two guitars, she found herself a substitute instrument. Her Mama had this antique string piano that she had had ever since she was a girl and lived with her parents, Papa Eki and Good Mama Lenah, RyKell's grandparents on her mama's side of the family. Before her Mama married her Daddy, she lived in the West Tennessee River community of Ellivyrrep, and she was able to bring the piano with her when she moved to Rock Head Creek after she had married her daddy. The piano was the kind that took up almost the entire side of the wall in our front room (best room). The piano was huge and it stood on four huge elephant legs. So at age four, RyKell taught herself how to play her Mama's piano.

Daddy and Mama did not demand too much. They didn't want to change the land, but were satisfied with what it had to offer as it was. They were willing to work, to make-do, and to do without, and in return all they wanted was a living and freedom to go their own way at their own pace. Operating on this basis, they were able to come to terms with living on Rock Head Creek. They had qualities of character that made them and still make them a breed apart.

Daddy and Rad worked on the farm when they were not working in the woods, logging, going to the mill with his wagon loaded with logs.

Life on Rock Head Creek was at its hardest. There was always lots of work of one sort or another to be done. The family was large and Daddy and Mama had no urge to leave the land where Daddy had been born and brought up and which he knew so well. The task of harvesting this work bounty was carried on all throughout the year.

RyKell's brothers and sisters were then, and those that are still living now, defined by skin color. All of them looked at the color of their skin and longed to be white with straight blond or red hair and blue eyes. Well, with the exception of Yor. Yor was not like that. Maybe it was because he was born with light, light skin just like our Daddy. But the rest, Neleh, Twen Junior, Donny Mack, Rad, and Cara, wished that they were white ever since I could remember. All of them looked at the color of RyKell's skin and regarded her complexion as a character flaw coming from her mama's DNA, and that her color made me not as good or pretty as my other two sisters.

RyKell's Older Siblings: Neleh, Twen Junior, Donny Mack, Rad, Cara (Pretty Doll), and Yor Neleh's skin was a tawny brown color, and she was never satisfied that she was not light like Cara. Cara's complexion was light, almost like Daddy's. All of her brothers and sister loved Cara, and when she was born, because she was so pretty, Rad nicknamed her Pretty Doll, and that was what she was called by everyone, even by our white neighbors.

Now Neleh, the oldest, was not at home very much. She stayed in Aashville with her aunt Emmy so she could go to school, but she would write to us and always wanted all of us to know that she, being the oldest, would always be the smartest, that she was to be the leader and all the rest should follow in behind her. And she truly believed that RyKell, being the youngest, should always just bring up the rear in everything from then on to everlasting eternity. Neleh even said she was pretty too! She said that she was only about 5 percent short of Pretty Doll's beauty. The family all called Neleh Sister. Sister was already eighteen years old and had boyfriends when RyKell was age four. RyKell was told by Pretty Doll that Sister liked a boy in Nednil by the name of Hugo. Hugo drove a truck for one of the mills in town and resembled a Caucasian. Even though Neleh stayed in Aashville most of the time, whenever she did come home she always managed to sneak out and see Hugo. Pretty Doll said that Neleh even walked at one time through the backwoods into Nednil just to see him. Now Daddy was not in keeping with her talking to or seeing Hugo. Hugo was a good deal older than Neleh and liked to consume large amounts of alcohol and smoked. He also had other girlfriends in town and later fathered one illegitimate son.

Twen Junior, the oldest son, was very mean. He had a kind of muddy light complexion with really kinky, knotty, hard hair, and loved white people. RyKell always considered him as being the ugliest of all of her Mama and Daddy's children. Donny Mack, the second son, was also mean, could always whip Twen Junior and the rest, but his complexion was very dark. His hair type was not as stubborn as Twen Junior's, and he liked to stay by himself most of the time. Even though Donny Mack's skin was darker than mine, Neleh, Twen Junior, and Rad said it did not make any difference because he was a boy.

Rad was about the same complexion as Twen Junior, but his facial features were very coarse, exhibiting a broad, flat African nose with extra, extra kinky and stubborn hair that he never combed. He had bowed legs and walked with his toes facing inward and was describes as being "pigeon toed." Rad prayed each day that he would somehow magically turn white. Then there was Cara, Pretty Doll. She and Yor had the complexion of my daddy, which was very fair. She and Yor were never mean to me, but the others were.

Cara (Pretty Doll) told RyKell that she remembers the day RyKell was born. This is how she relayed her memories to her.

She remembers waking up early in the hot morning of July 4, 1941. She recalled not being able to go into the big bedroom that Mama shared with Daddy like she always did each morning. Instead, she was steered out onto the side porch by Ms. Kate. Now Ms. Kate was the midwife for every home in the little community. After a while, Pretty Doll said, she still was missing Mama and knew if she could just get into the house she would find her. She remembers seeing Ms. Kate come out of the kitchen onto the side porch where she was. Now Ms. Kate was a tall, big-boned woman with a family of her own that lived on the lower end of Rock Head Creek. Ms. Kate started to walk up the long porch that would lead her into the hallway and to the door that would give her access to Mama's bedroom. Cara said that she said to herself, "I'll just get in behind Ms. Kate. Ms. Kate is so big and wide she will never know that I am behind her." Cara told RyKell that she thought she would follow Ms. Kate inside when Ms. Kate opened the door.

Cara said she thought she had it made, but just as Ms. Kate got to the closed door, Ms. Kate turned around and said, "Go back, Pretty Doll." Ms. Kate went inside and closed the door. It was on a Friday morning, July 4, 1941, about 10:00 AM, that RyKell Giarc, came into the world.

RyKell always knew even back when she was four years old that she was treated differently than Neleh and Cara (Pretty Doll), but nevertheless she was content and happy playing with Yor and their pets. She was told later on by Pretty Doll that after RyKell was born, Mama did not have any baby clothes for the baby that was coming, so she took some of Twen Junior and Donny Mack's $10-a-week pay they received from working at Maharg's Mill and purchased RyKell a few baby supplies from the S&R catalogue. Twen and Donny Mack became very angry at Mama using some of their work money. They said, "Mama took some of our money to buy that oh black baby some clothes. They had no business having her in the first place." Ever since that event took place, Twen Junior and Donny Mack harbored resentment and hatred for RyKell from that day on. Rad never said anything mean, just always looked somberly at me and would say real loudly, "Stay out of the way, RyKell!" But he always had a big smile for Pretty Doll and some kind of treat for her (mostly apples).

Life at Home: Weekly Supplies

Twen Junior, Donny Mack, and Rad always went to town with Daddy on Saturdays. Sometimes Yor got to go too, but not always. Town Nednil was 9 miles away if you went by the way of the gravel dirt road, and about 5 miles if you went on mule back through the woods. Their Daddy would go to Nednil every Saturday in order to buy the family's weekly groceries.

RyKell remembers Mama making sure that Daddy's overalls were clean and patched if need be, and starched and ironed, and that Twen Junior's overalls and Donny Mack's jeans and Rad and Yor's overalls (if Yor got to go) were also washed and ironed and their hair cut and combed (even Rad's hair was combed by Mama) before they started off on mule back for a day in town. They each carried a seagrass burlap sack on each mule to carry the groceries back from town.

Mama used the old heavy stove irons for ironing. It was Yor, Pretty Doll, and RyKell's duty to go and get the wood so Mama could heat the irons with a fire outside. And when it was time to do the weekly washing, Pretty Doll, Yor, and RyKell had to go into the woods and find dried brush and small tree limbs and drag the branches back to the house so a fire could be started around Mama's big kettle so the water would be hot to wash the clothes. Her Daddy never got Mama any wash wood because he was too busy trying to make enough money and work his crops so he could feed his family. If they couldn't find any wood quick enough, then Mama would heat the irons on top of the wood-burning cook stove to do the ironing of the clothes. Of course, Pretty Doll and RyKell did not get to go to town, and so they were left at home with Mama.

Mama only got to go to town twice a year, and that was always near Christmastime, and at least once when she did go to town Pretty Doll and RyKell got to go too. Daddy would hitch up the wagon to the mules and make a seat for Mama with a broad oak plank. Mama would cover the plank with an old quilt and then she would have a place to sit while riding into Nednil to do her Christmas shopping. Pretty Doll, Yor, Rad, and RyKell sat in the steel-tired wagon bed. Daddy did not drive the wagon down the dirt road to Nednil; instead, he went through the back woods wagon path, which was the same path that he and the boys used when they rode the mules to Nednil.

Her Daddy ran a grocery account with the local store in Nednil, Mr. Srekcut's Grocery, which he would pay at the end of the farm year when he laid his corn by and sold his peanut crop. In spite of their small size, the stores carried enormous and incredibly varied stocks. The dry goods store, which Daddy got to visit sometimes if he had a little money, carried shelves bearing overalls, work shirts, gloves, boots, heavy jackets, and coils of rope. The grocery store where Daddy had his account was filled with bins of potatoes, onions, cornmeal, dried beans and coffee, sugar, pickles, crackers, and flour stood in the corners. Baskets of eggs and counter-fronted boxes of store cookies occupied the counter, along with the glass case containing the penny candy, the nickel bar candy, and the cold drink box filled with all kinds of cold drinks stood in the corner near the back of the store.

If you came into the store and didn't see what you wanted, you asked for it, and almost all the time the owner, Mr. Perry, said, "I've got some of that someplace round here. Let me give a look." Then he'd go through the small door into the back of his store, and in all likelihood he'd find it. The molasses, vinegar, and kerosene barrels were kept in the back of the store house too. And when her Daddy brought in his empty can, Mr. Perry went out there to fill it for him, jamming a small potato over the spout in case Daddy or my brothers had lost the cap, so the kerosene wouldn't spill on the way home.