Interviewer: Um, what did they thresh with, before the machines came on? Speaker: The tramper. Well, no, with the flail. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Speaker: That- the flail was- yeah, two sh-- one stick, and then a short piece of a stick tied to that, and you'd flail it. And then there was a tramper followed that. That would- run- ah, that was powered either by a- ah, an oxen or a horse. Or probably two. I've seen- I've seen them- seen them run with a horse and an oxen. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: Or two horses, or two oxen would do it either. That was what they called the tramper.

They were decent men too, you didn't have to worry about- I remember Mother making meals and sitting them at our kitchen-table. Interviewer: My goodness. So they- they weren't people to be feared. Speaker: Yeah. You didn't fear them, no. But we used to call them "tramps" at that time. "Oh there's a tramp here." Yeah, yeah. Interviewer: Not "hobos."

Interviewer: Really? Do you remember any big fights down there? Speaker: Not too many, the- then the- the- another thing there for a while- for- shortly after I got married. I-don't-know why my wife married me because I was an awful tramp. Interviewer: How did you get- how did you meet your wife? Speaker: You wouldn't believe that story.

Speaker: Mom declared that they had marked our- because the train went right through our farm. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: And it had marked someway because we had a tramp everyday. Do you think that they- Interviewer: Yes, yes. Yes, they would have. Speaker: Ah, and some of them- ah, we enjoyed the tramps. Mom had to- she'd always get them something to eat but ah I could remember this one tramp coming and I don't know what made him think but he said ah, "Have you a fiddle?" So daddy said, "Yes." So he brought out the fiddle and he played, then daddy played, and then he played, then daddy played.