Orson Clark-12/14/81 - Pg 15

place where it would be warm and comfortable.

Interviewer: Much more than what you had.

Ruth Knowlton: When we first went to Georgia, there was no central heating at all. Most of the houses had just planks, wood boards. First time in my life that the walls were wood boards. Now we put them in and we think they are fancy but that's what they were. And it was up on stilts.

Interviewer: Whitewashed. it wasn't fancy then.

Orson Clark: Well we learned this, that at one time all of that country in there was under water. They had gone in and drained. Now around the lake they built canals. Then they would go out and build smaller canals and drains, run them into this one and that runs around and dumps into the lake. We were told by one man, he said, "This was all under water when I bought this." He had a place there. He said, "Now they have drained it. Now we are beginning to take it over and farm it." The reason they built those houses on stilts was because there was water down there and you had to get up.

Ruth Knowlton: You didn't know either, when a hurricane came through. We were never in the hurricane but we would get the heavy rains. They just brushed by us. I can remember one time, water standing on the ground that high after that rain. It was so waterlogged and it's standing on the ground that high. All the earth worms floating out there. This was in the early '50's that we were in Georgia.

Orson Clark: It was maybe ten years before that they had one of these. It had just taken the lake and lifted it right out of there and let it down. So when that cleared up, then they built a dike around the lake. In building the dike, they dug the canal. it was fine. The people were very lovely there. The people would talk with you and visit with you. They weren't interested in the church, but they would visit with you and be friendly with you.

Interviewer: That's a southerner.

Ruth Knowlton: What did you run into mostly, hard-shell Baptist?

Orson Clark: Yes, it was the Baptists.

Interviewer: That's where we lived in Georgia, they were all Baptists.

Orson Clark: Those Baptists, they are good enough.

Interviewer: They are content with what they are. Then when you came back to Farmington, what did you do?