Oral history interview with Herman Newton Truitt, December 5, 1978
Subtitle: interview H-0054, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Tullos, Allen, 1950- interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2007
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Grocers; Farm life; Social life and customs; Grocery trade; Barter; Groceries; Textile workers; Social conditions; Food habits; Supermarkets
Other titles: Interview H-0054, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Herman Newton Truitt, December 5, 1978; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Herman Newton Truitt ran a grocery store in Burlington, NC, in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s (exact dates are difficult to find). In this interview, he recalls his rural childhood and store ownership in a mill town. This interview is an excellent source of information on southern food traditions: Truitt details what mill workers ate when they broke for lunch at his store, when they gathered on his father's porch to swap stories on Saturdays, or when they celebrated Christmas. The food traditions of the impoverished South were well established by the 1930s: mill workers ate beans and fatback, canned meats, and pigs' feet, sweet potatoes, and cornbread. In addition to describing his customers' shopping habits, Truitt briefly reflects on changes in the grocery industry and the mill business at mid-century, and the economic status of mill workers. Truitt recalls mill workers in Burlington in relative financial comfort, a recollection that may complicate contemporary views on the health of mill towns.  The interviewer appears to spend much of the interview looking at photographs and a store ledger with Truitt. This portion of the interview might be of use to researchers, but it did not merit excerption.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on May 29, 2008).

Interview participants: Herman Newton Truitt, interviewee; Allen Tullos, interviewer.

Duration: 01:43:55.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 153.7 kilobytes, 190 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series H, Piedmont industrialization, 1974-1980, interview H-0054, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by David Knudsen. Original transcript: 45 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.