<TITLE>12. Par 89-98</TITLE>L-89   They talk about the illiteracy of Kentucky mountains. You see it in this here dogpatch stuff. Some of them old mammies out there could come here to Hollywood and teach you modern mothers how to raise your kids. You let her kid come in one night with her hair all messed up, and lips... slips, (what do you call that?) make-up stuff they put on their face, and her dress all squeezed to one side, and been out all night, drunk, brother, she'd get one of them limbs off the top of that hickory tree and she'd never go out no more. I tell you, she'd... And if you had a little more of that, you'd have a better Hollywood around here, and a better nation. That's right. It's true. "Just try to be modern," that--that's one of the tricks of the Devil.

L-90   Now, this little girl, when I looked at her, my heart just bled. And I thought, "Poor little fellow."
And she said, "Oh, you want a cigarette, Billy?"
I said, "No, ma'am." I said, "I don't smoke."

L-91 She said, "Now, you said you didn't dance." They wanted to go to a dance and I wouldn't do it. So they said there was a dance down there, what they called Sycamore Gardens.
And I said, "No, I don't dance."

L-92 She said, "Now, you don't dance, you don't smoke, you don't drink. How do you have any fun?"

L-93 I said, "Well, I like to fish and I like to hunt." That didn't interest her.
So she said, "Take this cigarette."
And I said, "No, ma'am, thank you. I don't smoke."

L-94   And I was standing on the fender. They had a running board on the old Fords, you remember, and I was standing on that fender, sitting in the back seat, she and I. And she said, "You mean you won't smoke a cigarette?" Said, "And we girls has got more nerve than you have."
I said, "No, ma'am, I don't believe I want to do it."

L-95 She said, "Why, you big sissy!" Oh, my! I wanted to be big bad Bill, so I--I sure didn't want nothing sissy. See, I wanted to be a prize fighter, that was my idea of life. So I said... "Sissy! Sissy!"

L-96   I couldn't stand that, so I said, "Give it to me!" My hand out, I said, "I'll show her whether I'm sissy or not." Got that cigarette out and started to strike the match. Now, I know you're... Now, I'm not responsible for what you think, I'm just responsible for telling the truth. When I started to strike that cigarette, just as much determined to smoke it as I am to pick up this Bible, see, I heard something going, "Whoooossssh!" I tried again, I couldn't get it to my mouth. And I got to crying, I throwed the thing down. They got to laughing at me. And I walked home, went up through the field, set down out there, crying. And--and it was a terrible life.

L-97   Remember one day Dad was going down to the river with the boys. My brother and I, we had to take a boat and go up and down the river, hunting bottles to put the whiskey in. We got a nickel a dozen for them, to pick them up along the river. And Dad was with me, and he had one of those little flat... I believe they was about a half pint bottles. And there was a tree had blowed down, and Dad... And this man was with him, Mr. Dornbush. I had his... He had a nice boat, and I wanted to find favor with him 'cause I wanted to use that boat. It had a good rudder and mine didn't have no rudder at all. We had just old boards to paddle with. And if he'd let me use that boat... So, he done welding and he made the stills for Dad. So he... They throwed their leg up across that tree, and Dad reached in his back pocket and pulled out a little flat bottle of whiskey, handed it to him and he took a drink, hand it back to Dad and he taken a drink, and he set it down on a little sucker on the side of the tree that went out. And Mr. Dornbush picked it up, said, "Here you are, Billy."
I said, "Thank you, I don't drink."

L-98 He said, "A Branham, and don't drink?" Every one died with their boots on, nearly. And he said, "A Branham, and don't drink?"
I said, "No, sir."
"No," Dad said, "I raised one sissy."


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