Dad (Ausie White) got a fishbone hung in his throat. Lost down to skin and bones. Time was in the very early 1900's. Country Dr said he would have to cut daddy's throat or he was going to die. You know about the high infection rate back then. A black man said he would die if they did. Told them to get a very dirty sauser, break an egg in it, throw it down his throat and for him to try to swallow it. They did and the white of the egg wraped around the bone and pulled it out. Second time his life was saved by a black. He was crossing a barbwire fince, shot gun went off, shot him in the leg. They tried everthing the Dr and they knew. It would scab ouer but not heal up. Dr said they was going to cut his leg off at the knee. There again the very early 1900's, he would have died. A black man said you need to cure the sore up from the inside out. Made a poultice of jinsing weed, kept it on the wound and it healed. We were raised to be friends with blacks. Crossed path with two blacks from the Ball Play just south west of Centre. They remembered daddy and thought a lot of him. Dad was 40+ when I was born. We lived on a very large and good flat land farm. We were not sharecropping. Dad owned the best mules and farm equipment. We had nearly new Chev car. the house was a good size. Hallway down the middle. Asked Theroia how daddy got it and she said he was a good trader. That was all I could get out of her. [A mystery possibly explained by bootlegging.]
The first thing I remember is him selling the car to two ladies and we went down hill from there. Many years we were scraping bottom. Finally lived on the worst SHARECROP farm I can remember. That fall and winter he worked at a sawmill and on Floyd Hospital, Ga. Used that as a down payment on a rocky hilly farm very close to Centre [Moshat]. Had a lot of pine timber that he was cutting into cook stove wood, hauling it to Center to sell. Also sold vegetables. The Power Co ended up buying the Timber for power polls. We were rich,moved to Tom Cat Road where daddy built the house and cleared the land. Buught a 1 1/2 48 Ford truck. Started downhill until we didn't even have money to buy salt. Unk J.W. White home | White stories | Top