North Carolina Traditions; Frail Joines: Brushy Mountain Taleteller

- Transcript
WING WING WINS WADAS North Carolina traditions, frail joints, brushy mountain tailed heller of Wilkesborough. North Carolina traditions, frail joints, brushy mountain tailed heller of Wilkesborough.
North Carolina traditions, brushy mountain tailed heller of Wilkesborough. North Carolina traditions, frail joints, brushy mountain tailed heller of Wilkesborough. North Carolina traditions, frail joints, brushy mountain tailed heller of Wilkesborough. North Carolina traditions, frail joints, brushy mountain tailed heller of Wilkesborough. North Carolina traditions, frail joints, brushy mountain tailed heller of Wilkesborough.
North Carolina traditions, frail joints, brushy mountain tailed heller of Wilkesborough. North Carolina traditions, frail joints, brushy mountain tailed heller of Wilkesborough. He was a pretty good fella. He taught us kids to pay our debts. He worked his hard. And he loved his liquor. He'd go sometimes three days and wouldn't drink none. Sometimes he could a whole week. When he'd get drunk, sometimes he'd stay drunk six months. He's awful good to put in a crop when I was right little. He'd work in every day and just push us and work. There was a corn plant that was hanging in the heat state drunk and they expect me to see the other kids work.
It's known we don't have to work all that corn. Take care of it, you know. And maybe I got in plow all day and he'd bring somebody in that night three or four of my drinking and eight out five gallons liquor. They'd get them a dip or you know, and just kept the dip over there and every time one one drank four out of dip before you know, and drinking. Pass it around. Daddy come in and have an old person when he get drunk. He'd start cussing. He's kinfolk. So you're my mother's kinfolk. And he'd say, yep, when I see that bird said, I'll shoot him right between nine. He'd shoot the backstick, you know. And he's not a one on the heart. He's killed a thousand times. I'll go and tell you that. I don't know where you quit drinking liquor a thousand times. But he killed every one of my mother's kinfolk and most ahead in a thousand times. But he'd set and shoot the backstick and they'd sang an ed shoot and played over the phone and grabbed me trying and sleeping on. Next morning, he said, son, time to get up and go to plan. Time to get up and go to plan. And every time I took a drink, come and shake you up. You want a drink of liquor? I don't even remember the first drink of liquor I ever took. I was so little and I couldn't tell you when I started drinking liquor, but I didn't remember. I was thinking about, so what was his name? He was a robber.
I was a robber. Me and I stand through the flesh and we were picking up and one day, Roof got the paper out of the mailbox. I was reading it at dinner time and all at once he just fell off of the porch in the yard and just rolled and laughed. And I said, Roof, what in the world are you laughing so at you? He said, I want you to read this in the paper. And he had a piece in the paper that said that Grand Ellen, he was running for sheriff again. And he went out and spent the day with Cam Robertson and his godfury in a little while. And Roof, what ticker Roof's a good man in him? I was at this little Monday, but at Sunday, we'd go across mountain over where I'd had a sight of ABC Orchard where we used to live. And we met Cam Robertson's wife and it actually was a wife of riding a little par of brown mules that Cam had.
You know, when both of them was drawing her hair, just stringing it out in the wind. You know, both had long hair. And they usually kept it bowled up on the back of the head, but it'd come down, you know, when it just strung out in the wind, it'd come way down below the waist. Both of them had an awful head of hair. It'd run them little mules, not hard to stand straight back. You know, when both of them had a pistol stuffed on them, well, hunting for them to down some of them, but it's just going to shoot them. And Roof, he wanted me to read that piece in the paper. And he said, Godfury in a little while, I said, hell far, I said, do I not appear to man god knows the devil. It used to be an old family that they'll back up on the mountain named Omanus, named Willard, I mean Steve Roberts, and the boy was named Willard, and they had a girl named Leoni. And they were like me, they wasn't too bright. And they started to town one day, and it's hard to surface the road out to Paraplanes, about two miles, I guess, some siddled image out to Paraplanes. You know, when they put a white line right now in the middle, and they come to that sea mansion on Willard, they said, I God, perhaps it was.
Oh, it said, what the hell is that down there? It said, was they done to the road? And they said, they got out, you know, and they looked, and they kicked that cement road and looked, and said, Willard said, what in the hell is that white line in the middle, Paraplanes? Yes, I do, Willard said, my God, it said, buck on one side, bury on the other. And they straddle that white line with the old steers, went right down the road and meet the cars, you know, and it just, it's narrowed. It just, by the way, there was two cars passing them, it was driving in the middle, you know, they're taking up the whole road to the car to run over on the showroom to get around, I mean. Go down there, and it saw a sign, and said, speed limit 15 mile, now. Well, when Steve said, will it, whoa, will, will, said, Willard said, go down and cut me a damn good long switch. And I don't know what we can make it an opposite, my God, we'll give her a try. Well, I don't know what we can make it an opposite, my God, we'll give her a try. Well, I don't know what we can make it an opposite, my God, we'll give her a try. Got that?
Got that iron tan, you know, and the police, they started turning around on Main Street, and the police thought, hey, hey, says you can't turn around there. Oh, yeah, said, my God, I think I can make it, said, whoa, come here, blue, said, turn around on Main Street, you know, if that's where I'll run. I thought I can make it, I thought I could make it. Well, Steve got sick, and Willard went to the store to give him some medicine one day, and he's raining. And Steve died while he was going, you know, said, will they come back up, you know, and Steve, Leon, he was standing door crying. And he said, Leon, what's the matter? He said, Pap didn't go down while I was going to the store, did he? She said, yes, he did. He said, I'll be down. And some of them said, Willard said, you're going to bury him away in that plant? Oh, no, he said, that'd make a good potato patch, actually, let's bury him up on that old dry ridge where there won't nothing grow. On time was a bunch I was sitting out on a porch out there, I'm raven, it was right in the box of road of 18, 16, it was sitting on the store porch there. On Saturday evening, you're low with us there at the porch of the road, and a card coming along going towards the north, and he'd run over and thong, you know, and he'd gone by,
and when he'd come to go on the ward of the north, he walks by right the other way, and he'd run over and thong me it. He'd gone, nothing come along towards Taylorville, and he'd run out there and thong me it. You know, one rupluch was about to have knocked me, he'd kept sitting there, turned it in, looking at you, you know, and finally hard out and said, hey, do it. Just pour in the hell are you wanting to go? You said, any damn word. He's turning right this side of the porch says, hey, Elmer Low is yonkin herbs, and it's straight to that side across there. Now, North Wilkesburg is on the other side of the river, and North Wilkesburg has always been the town. Wilkesburg was the county's seat, and courthouse was about all it was to eat it out of motel, and maybe a couple of two or three stores,
but it never had grown very much, and hasn't yet, just far as the town are growing, but North Wilkesburg is the one that's really grown. You know, from this road up here in turn left when you get up on the Oakwood road. Well, where I got my name Freyla, I was a nickname from Freyla, you know, Freyla was the first nickname I got. I went to school with that name, and I didn't like the Freyla part. I didn't like that, you know, and they get to call me Freyla when I use them and I find. But the Freyla was short of that, you know, they shorten it to Freyla, and that's what I always went by. What did they call you Freyla? I was a fan by the name of Jim Freyla, a Nike smithy, opened a store up out here for even a year I was born, 1914. And they was in partnership here, and old man Freyla was big fat and red face. Well, my uncle thought my mother was going to have twins, and he made a cradle big enough for twins.
Well, I come along and said, I weighed about 14 pounds, and everybody said, well, it looks like old man Jim Freyla has a big and fat and red face. No one, they just got to call me Freyla. And I went to school, I didn't use my name until I went into the army. I never used no nothing. And they ain't a better record where I went to school one day. But when I got old enough to pay taxes, you know, I made the 12th John Jones in Wilkes County that was paying taxes. It was 12 dollars. That was the whole family name, and it was just handed right and left, you know, to the doing business. Of course, right now, they circle up and die at all. You see, my dad his name was John, and he had all of John to the bout his age. And they're about all die at all. Now, there's not many John Jones left in Wilkes. In fact, I don't know, I may be the last one, I don't know. Or another of a name, John. Well, that grave over there is my uncle.
It got died in France in World War I, died with a flu. And this was one of my uncle's who got wounded in World War I. And he's one that part T. Davis shot and killed. And that one down there was my last uncle to die. He was the best one I had. He accumulated the least, but he was the best. And that's my father's grave over Yonder. And I reckon that's all that I know of. They've probably some more joined us out there, and they've almost owned it. But I couldn't tell you which one. I know my great grandfather was born down there at that old graveyard across from home. It's screwed up. And my father, I mean, my grandfather and his grandmother was buried over there at Walnut Grove Church. And they sort of scattered out. Well, the old one that they tell me was easy to get along with, and easy going people. And the most stubborn I find it wasn't a kin to my father was pretty easy people.
Everybody talks about him being nice people, you know, and easy to get along with. But my grandfather and his brother married some Indians. I'm over in Tennessee, and they both were his large families, and they were always known for their fighting and fussing and couldn't get along. And it's that and the other. And if you put two of them together and give them a fine of liquor, and they'd have a fight, if they hadn't seen one another in 20 years, they'd have a fight in less than hour. They couldn't get along at all. And I never did no more great grandfather, old man, Jackie Jones. But everybody tells me that I was just as active like him. When I was little, all the old people say, you just like your great grandfather, old man, Jackie Jones. You don't look like a rest time. And most of them was dark skinned and black-headed and brown-eyed. But I come out of blonde and a blue-eyed and a bunch, you know. And I guess I was a throwback from the rest of them. And my grandfather on my mother's side was an awful easygoing, quite old man.
And he always told me, said, the Indian and the Georgia is what ruined all of them. And I don't know who they were on them or just give them a little backbone. I don't know which he'd call it. When I got old enough to start running around, I was joined. It was related to us back up around Trap Hill and up in there. And I got up in there running around, you know. And people say, where are you from? What's your name? I'm a joint. Any kind of Trap Hill joining, I say a little bit for all. You're not no kind of them down a little fight and join us over on Raven Falls. And I say, yeah, my dad is one of them. Talking about Marco Beale, he left here and went out to Illinois. He pretty mean he got wounded in the arm and had a part of his hip shot off. He left here and went out to Illinois and stayed a while. He come back and everybody was afraid of him and cold lane. So some of them was making liquor and they invited Beale down to still place.
They thought it hadn't caught for making liquor and hadn't sent off for two or three years. And get rid of him that long and maybe go back out to Illinois. So they invited him into the still place and then slipped around and pulled it and when Beale went in still place, the law was in there and they called him. And charred him and making liquor, you know. But they made a mistake of telling him who the poor still played and it was where he wanted to invite him down and get some liquor to him and get him some liquor. He came out to the still place. So he got mad and said he was going to drive Wilkes County. Back at that time, Wilkes County was known as a moonshine captain of the world. I think the government had about half of the revenue orders in Wilkes County and all the U.S. government's revenue was ahead, you know. And so Beale, he got him a horse and the little field guy said, didn't he see a little pup smoke come up and back and forth, he got to use and coke or anything and all day. And when Beale arrived at the party, he got a little smoke and ball up and he'd see it and he knew the mountains were good. He'd go in and cut the steel and they hadn't gone for steel.
He didn't cut the steel. He'd just tear it out of the furnace and bring it down to my grandfather and he'd get four or five, maybe six. He'd send for the deputy marshal to come out and get him. Jim Montgomery was a deputy marshal. And I would just a little kid, but I remember Jim was coming up by and he tossed steel all over that buggy. He'd have five or six, fifty gallon copper steels tied on, you know. And he'd say, Billy, when you're gonna come down and give yourself up and Billy said, soon enough, I cut a few more damn steel. So I'll be down one of these days. I know one of the Johnson boys told me that he heard his daddy and his uncle send Beale word. He's coming to one cut the steel and he'd always tell him he's gonna cut the steel before he cut it. And he's coming to Monday morning and said, they all send him word. If he did, he'd die. They'd kill him if he'd come down the valley up there. And he'd boy said, they were all little. They went over and laid behind a log and said, watch Beale ride down and whistling on his horse with a rock on the saddle. I don't want him. Said he went in toward a steel out of the furnace and carried it back up through the other hordens. Mountain covered up with his uncle's and his daddy and his uncle's up there and said, not a shot fired.
One on for several years before they ever got Beale. And ever before he was going, he was in the fight with somebody. They had a hundred and some warrants for him over here at one time and they tried him. And he'd give him six months to be hard out. Jack Davis got up and swore he shot him between eyes with a 45 pistol and a bullet bounce back. George Ashley had a warrant out for him for beating him up with a par steel nugs. Said he'd come in to his home and he wanted to have a par steel nugs on his hand and like to beat him to death. And Beale weighed about a hundred and forty pounds and George weighed over two hundred. George actually had no one. And so George's lawyer asked him, said, what'd you hit him with? Beale said, I hit him on the fist. I didn't hit him with steel nugs. Do you mean to stand there and tell me that a man your size could knock a man that big down with his fist? Do you expect the court to believe that? Said, just how hard did you hit him? Well, Beale was up in the witness chair and his lawyer about six foot four and old Beale just hopped down at him.
Don't I'm in the hall who's knocked him about ten foot out across the courtroom. He said, I hit him about twice that hard. Lawyer tried to get the judge to do something with Beale and he said, he answered your question. Just go on, go ahead. Part T day was met him out there and raven one day and told him, come up, you had some good looking. So Beale went up there and hit him in four or five more boys and said, when he got in the house, Part T just grabbed his gun and told him every day I wanted to get out of there and said that, one boy said, he wrote not out in front of the house behind the apple tree and turned around and walked him and said, Beale walked out. Now in the yard and had his hands up there and said, Part T said, you asked me up here and said, I didn't come looking with no trouble. Part T shy him in the belly and shut the door and they were a shotgun and they got him up and carried him out there and crammed his guts back and he even rolled him a cigarette and he lay there and died. But when I got to going around and breaking these horses, you see every time I went to a new little settlement to break a horse,
there's always a bully there. There's one boy that everybody was a free dog. Well when I first started, somebody would say something to me, I'd crawl him for a fight, you know. But if I got one way down the ladder, I'd end the next and above him and try them and end the next and end the next until I climb to the top, you know. You know, you go around the weenie rows and you go around the parties, you get invited to party because you was a stranger, you know, and one thing or another. And back in, there's a lot of people, you know, every settlement had a group of boys that played fiddle, get turned things and they'd have party and they'd drink, you know, and make music. We are in the morning and they ain't saying one thing or another. Well I soon found out if you started down on the ladder, you had to climb to the top or whip in these guys. Sometimes it got pretty rough. If you had to whip about 15, you know, to get up to the top man. And so I got, so I just played like I was afraid, you know, until I found out who was the meanest guy and who everybody else was afraid with. And then I'd get around and let him run his mouth a little bit, I actually thought I was afraid because I hadn't said nothing.
And then I just forced him into a fight almost. You know, you can do it without seeming to even have anything to do with it, if you know the ropes. And so when you got the top guy and let him all rest, left you alone, you didn't have to bother with the small fry, you see. When you soon learn to take care of yourself, when you know you're there in a strange group, you ain't got no friends, you just to own it by yourself. And if the man gets you down, he can beat you to death, you soon learn to take care of yourself or keep your mouth shut one, you know. And I never could keep my mouth shut, I always had a big mouth, you know. But all you heard talked was how much liquor I drank and who I went with. And you know, I was about the crowd that I associate with, I had an all they studied. Once in a while you get with a group, one go see women and talk, women, you know, but most of them is how much liquor I can drink. That was a big count of man. If you could drink a pint of liquor and then whip, so and so, I used count of man, you see. And that was what the boy wanted to do was be a man, you know. And so, time I was, time my daddy run me all home when I was 13, you know. They went very many men to tackle me for a fight.
If you went to town on Saturday night, there was two or three restaurants down there, you know. We call one of the degrees his phone, beaches was the main biggest place. And then there was a snappy lunch right across the street, on 10th street. And then there'd always just a little scatter around, you know, and maybe down the road and up the road and there sat in the other place where people met and drank and fought. Well, you go down there through the week, you hardly ever run into any trouble, you know. But on Saturday, you don't want to come down. Well, here was a little faction that had somebody, nobody could whip, you know. And over here was another bunch. Maybe it's their parade, all drinking, but they don't all bullies. Well, you let them come in and get to drinking and nothing to do on just two fights. As all is studied, why you could get a fight any Saturday night and you could see one over here in North Hooksburg about any Saturday night you wanted to. You see, when I even caught a rod, I told them how mean North Hooksburg was and everybody made fun of me. And I got a paper, you know, I was taking a little county paper to print it twice a week.
And John Walker was chief polies. And one time it had big headlines said, and told how many of the arrested on Saturday night, for fighting, you know, and cutting one another and one or two had got shot. And said chief was polies. John Walker said it, hitting her might take stalling, grud, and you might take London, but you never take North, tends to treat on North Hooksburg on Saturday night. Well, boy, I took that paper and you know, I just, hey, boy, it's coming. I said, you don't believe I come from a rough place. You know, when I had an army out there and everybody had a look at that and their eyes bugged out, that was unusual. For something like that to make headlines on the paper, you know. But it was our great, big letters, you know. These are real thought I'd mean, well, when I got overseas and got in France, we had a hospital sitting in France. He brought a boy up there and he was unloading shells. He was in the merchant marine. He's unloading shells and one, one off his hand. Just load his hands for us right now. And his legs and his breasts, you know. And he couldn't use his hand. Both of them was bandaged up. And he couldn't use his hand and they brought him up to my ward. Well, some of them found out he'd been to North Hooksburg.
And boy, they went and invited all around it and knew me. You know, they could get what it was and come in and get him to tell him how mean North Hooksburg was. And he's from Indiana. And he said, ask him, say, you ever been to North Hooksburg? Yeah. Did you see this guy? Yeah. Well, me and him, we go to bootleg and you want to sit and drink, lick and talk all night, you know, on Saturday night. He'd buy brains and eggs, hog brains and eggs. And I'd get a gallon of lick, usually out for brandy. He loved brandy as good as I did. And I'd meet him at this bootleg and you want. Well, he'd have this old woman to fry eggs and brains and we'd sit right there at the table and talk all night long and drink at brandy and eat them brains and eggs. And he said, I was an all-in-a-man. It loved brandy and eggs and brandy as good as he did. And so he told him, he said yes to me and him spent about every weekend together while I was at the back. And they said, well, what kind of town is it? And he said, oh, a little one horse town. He said three or four thousand. He said, they rolled the streets up about eight o'clock at night and closed all of the door and said,
captain of the dog and getting the fight and said, they'll call out the police department, the fire department. And everybody in town will call out to see the cat fight. They all laughed at me, you know, but he said, now that's through the week. He said, on Saturday night, he said, these old hillbillies come down to that and said, I'm a one-gallon on the bridge of the leg and cut off halfway to the knees and then bar put it and the beard grew out about six or eight inches long. And he said, each one with a pistol and some of them two pistols and a kind of liquor stuck in their pocket. Some of them got a half a gallon, carrying their hand and a gallon jug with a grapevine through it, swung over their shoulder and said, they go to meeting at the snappy lunch and at beaches. And he said, by four o'clock next morning, he said, I've come up 10th street there and he said, blood and guts and shit would be waist deep on you and said, you couldn't wait to it. Said the police just go off and hide to Sunday morning and they go down and say, they get them up and bury the deer. Well, they all pulled out and left, just shook her head, you know, and got gone. He looked up and said,
did I make it bad enough and I said, that'll do. I said, you done a pretty good job. He's lowered. What was you on me till, Jerry, about? Oh, I was my dad his first cousin and his brother, you know, two of them and one of them was known. And his wife was praying for him and said, Lord, how mercy on Paul Cald and said, forgive him his sins and never think that he's drunk. Cald and Hill, don't tell him I'm drunk, tell him I'm sick.
And then Tom, his brother started praying for him one time, you know. He said, Lord, if they are on, if they are Lord, you know, if they have mercy on Paul, Tom, soul if he's got on. He thought it was an alpha case, I know. This is real people. I had an earthquake, it was a preacher, you know. You got up one time, you're hearing preach for a mile. He wasn't a bit of trouble to be a mile from where he's preaching. You know, we're going to understand it, you know. He's up one night and he said, by golly, he said the little ones. He said the young girl had used the flower on the back of their necks and the cream on their face and the little ones at home were doing without bread and butter. He said, by golly, he said, heaven was a land of milk and honey. He said, all you had to do was just get a biscuit in each hand and wait and salt the way.
I could just see a whole congregation and old farmers were toe down between their toes, waiting around to honey and butter and people thought, how did he want to go to hell? Jesus Lord, I'm going to quick talk about my kin folks. They'll come back home, they won't. William and Bob Rainer's drunk sitting down on William's porch and on and Bob said, William, did you see that chigger climbing that dead chestnut over on the mountain? They know they're just about a mile over on the mountain, you know. William said, no, I don't see my eyes going to the bathroom. I hear him walking. Frail Joins, Brushy Mountain tailed heller of Wilkesboro was produced by Alan Tellus. The program is part of the North Carolina Folklife Media Project. The project director is Cece Conway for the Institute for Southern Studies.
The technical director is Brett Sutton for WU&C FM. Funding for the series is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
- Series
- North Carolina Traditions
- Producing Organization
- WUNC (Radio station : Chapel Hill, N.C.)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip-6f78af5f53f
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- Description
- Episode Description
- John E. "Frail" Joines of Wilkesboro, N.C., tells stories about rural life in North Carolina.
- Asset type
- Episode
- Genres
- Performance
- Topics
- Performing Arts
- Local Communities
- Subjects
- Joines, John E.; Storytelling--North Carolina
- Media type
- Sound
- Duration
- 00:30:07.560
- Credits
-
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Host: Conway, Cecelia
Performer: Joines, John E.
Producing Organization: WUNC (Radio station : Chapel Hill, N.C.)
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
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WUNC
Identifier: cpb-aacip-963a4c38c27 (Filename)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Duration: 00:28:29
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- Citations
- Chicago: “North Carolina Traditions; Frail Joines: Brushy Mountain Taleteller,” American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed August 15, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-6f78af5f53f.
- MLA: “North Carolina Traditions; Frail Joines: Brushy Mountain Taleteller.” American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. August 15, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-6f78af5f53f>.
- APA: North Carolina Traditions; Frail Joines: Brushy Mountain Taleteller. Boston, MA: American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-6f78af5f53f