Florida
On the first day of June, the Lomaxes drove up to Mrs. Griffin's door at about eleven o'clock in the morning, just as she was building a fire in her wood cook-stove to cook dinner. Mrs. Griffin was almost blind; she kept one of her grandchildren to help her, and she had a boarder, a workman who took his lunch with him. After they had talked with her a little while and she had sung three or four songs, inluding ► The Cambric Shirt a variation of which was made popular by Simon and Garfunkel. Mrs. Griffin invited the Lomaxes to dinner; there was no excusing themselves, and they stayed. The food was coarse and poorly prepared, but Mrs. Griffin's courteous hospitality made up for any deficiencies in the quality of the food. She had chickens, all of whom she called by name, and the Lomaxes recorded her ► Calling Chickens.
She calls herself a Georgy Cracker. "How did you happen to leave Georgia, Mrs. Griffin?" "Well, my Ma had a sister down here she wanted to see, so her an' five o' us kids jes' come. We lef' Pa at home an' he come later." "How did you come?" "Walked hit. A hundred 'n' seventy eight miles, ever step of hit. Tuck us three weeks. But when we wuz bigger me an' my brother walked hit agin in seven days an' nights". She had twelve children all brought to maturity and eleven of them living now. "my children all had the same father. I haint never been that way except fer one man, an' as the Lord's my witness I haint never knowed but two men in all my life, an' them two wuz my husbands. An' I've been thowed with men in every way. I've worked in the fields with 'em, rid horse races with 'em-why I run a horse race right over thar, ridin' barback, made some money too, not bettin', but jest the prize money; an' I've built a house with my own hands, an' when I married Mr. Griffin I wuz runnin' a sawmill o' my own, an' had twelve men a workin' for me." Explaining that she was not on good terms with one of her daughters who probably could remember some of the song words that she had forgot, Mrs. Griffin said: "Will Brown, he's my daughter's husband, told me he'd kick me off the place if I ever come near his house. An' d'ye know why? Well, I told 'em plain out that Nellie, that's their daughter an' my own grandchild, too, I haint a-denyin' that, but I told 'em she wuz goin' to burn in hell fire fer breaking up another man's home. She went in an' got a man to fall in love with her, then she tuck an' divorced her own husband an' made this other man divorce his wife an' then they wuz married. Twarnt nothin' but plain adultery an' nothin' caint save her from hell, an' I told 'em so an' they don't like hit." "Anyhow my daughter caint sing any better than I can, fer she's snaggled toothed too."
Mrs. Griffin used to work large farm, but once had $22000 in bank. Lost most of it in bank failure. Mrs. Griffin calls a spade a spade. She can't write, "never went to school a day in my life". This came out when she complained that she had difficulty in shopping: "I have to send my grandson here, an' he caint remember but one thing at a time; so I have to send him fer meat, an' then when he gits home with the meat, I have to send him back for beans." "Why dont you write out a list for the grocer?" Then came the explanation. But Mrs. Griffin is wise in many ways beyond "book-larnin'". Wish we could hear her husbands' side of this story.
Letter from Ruby Lomax to her family
The Lomaxes next stop was at the Florida State Penitentiary at Raiford. With the help of the recreational director and band leader John Lomax found some singers. They set up the machine in a room that had had been used for an exhibit of arts and crafts of convicts. They worked several hours with a quartet who sang, with guitar accompaniment for some of the songs. James Richardson who sang ► Home on the Range said he had sung it for radio on some state official occassion. Next morning as they started out, Superintendent Chapman called Ruby Lomax back and said he did not want her to go into the men's dormitory; he did not want to take any chance of the men's trying a break with her as hostage. Ruby Lomax was allowed to visit the women's ward instead. The women had had church service early after which the Lomaxes set up their machine for everyone who wished to stay. A notable recording from this session includes ► Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
