Where were you born?

Where was I born? About a quarter of a mile from where I’m living now; that was eighty years ago.

Which was in New Summerfield?

Right over here, right behind, well, you go down about four or five hundred yards, back in the woods is where I lived.

So you were born at home?

Yes.

How many brothers and sisters are in your family?

Well, there was six of us; four boys, two girls.

Which one were you?

Which one am I? I am Hubert Charles McLeod. [laughing].

Are you the youngest or ...

I am next to the oldest boy; I’m the third in the family. The two sisters were the oldest and then a brother August McLeod and then Hubert McLeod, E.L. McLeod, and Tipton McLeod.

Where your parents born in Cherokee County?

Cherokee County, right.

What is your earliest memory?

Oldest memory? Swimming in a swimming pool down on McLeod farm. From a branch, actually, we built us a swimming pool in this branch. We dammed it up.

How old were you?

Ohhh, Lordy Mercy. We used to fight each other; we always used to have fights. I’d say fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old. Somewhere around there; fifteen I imagine.

Where did you go to school?

New Summerfield.

How did you get to school?

Walked.

What kind of school supplies did you have to have?

Had to have a pencil and paper, and they furnished the books. And my teacher's name was Miss Racepaul [sp]. And it was what, four miles, six miles to the school, and we had to walk. And I fell in with my teacher’s good graces; she rode a horse, and that’s how she got to school, and I rode with her on that horse. And we used to have our fun with tumbleweed. They may still have them out there now; we used to chase them tumbleweeds all over the country.

Did you have to take your lunch to school?

Yeah.

What did you take?

A little bit of ‘syrup in the hole’. You take a biscuit, punch a hole in it and pour some syrup in it.

What kind of classes did you have?

Honey, I didn’t finish school. I only finished the tenth grade. I didn’t finish high school.

Did you have electricity in your house?

No, we had lamps. I don’t know if you ever...have you ever seen a lamp?

Those gas lamps?

No, it wasn’t no gas lamp. It was an oil lamp.

What kind of chores did you have to do around the house?

Well, we chopped wood. We had a crosscut saw. Do you know what a crosscut saw is?

Yes

Well, we had a crosscut saw. The only thing that bothered me about it was that my dad never would get any wood during the summertime for the winter. He’d wait until up in the wintertime and we’d go out there and saw wood. And I guess that was keeping us out of mischief. I don’t know what else. Our recreation was opossum hunting. You ever go opossum hunting?

No Sir.

We used to go opossum hunting; we’d opossum hunt to twelve o’clock at night. And with the opossum’s that we’d catch, we brought them in and skinned them out. And we made a quarter. Sometimes we’d get a quarter, mostly fifteen cents, a hide for them. We’d sell the hide from them. We didn’t sell the meat. Now, I think they, some people, eat opossum. I’ve tried it; I never did like it.

What did you do for entertainment?

We’d fight, wrassle, and, like I say, go swimming a lot. Yeah, and chase the girls; never did catch any of them. Ohh yeah, tops. We used to play tops. Did you ever play tops?

No Sir.

We had a ring in school there. We'd have a ring, and we’d take our tops and try to get in the center of that ring. Sometimes your top wouldn’t come out; you had to know how to make it come out of that ring. If you didn’t, we had to leave it in there, and they’d "pluck at eye", they called it. Sometimes they’d bust your top wide open before you could get it out of there. And we played basketball, of course. My dad, for Christmas one time, we got baseball sets. That’s about the best Christmas present we ever had.

What’d you do during the summers?

We picked cotton.

Picked cotton?

Yeah, and all kind of farm work. Haul cattle, tomaters, peppers, the whole deal. Anything you can do on the farm, we did it.

Did you sell that stuff?

No, the only thing we ever sold was tomaters. And, well, we had cotton. The first time we come back here from West Texas we farmed about a hundred acres of land. We owned, right down here, about a hundred and fourteen acres. And, of course, it got sold. Several people own it now. We had a rugged old house.

Did you go on dates?

I walked around the house a many of times with a girl, and ordinarily, if you was smart enough, you’d get to kiss her. But you didn’t want to get caught together.

What do you remember about World War II?

Hon, I didn’t have to go to World War II. Well, I didn’t have to go to war. I went to the service in San Antone in 1935. And I was in the service about a year, and I came up with a medical discharge out of the service, so I didn’t have to go to war. My three brothers did. They called me; they called me up to go, to be drafted into the service. Well, in fact, what started it was me working in the shipyard. And they had told me in the shipyard; I told them I was going to quit. And they said, "We’ll have you in the service in a week's time." I said, "Well have at it." And they did. In about a week or two they called me up for the service. We went to San Antone, and I got down there, and they passed me for everything. I got ready to be drafted into the service and they said, "Why, we can’t take you." I said, "Well I done sold all of my clothes and moved Margarette and them back up here." They said, "Well we can’t take you." And there I was. I said, "Well why can’t you?" They said, "Because you [already] have a medical discharge out of the service." So anyhow, that’s it.

What battles did your brothers fight in?

Two of them was in the Marine Corps. They were in the South Pacific. One of them was in the Navy. He was on the U.S.S. Bunker Hill whenever they bombed it, but he come out alive. That was Tipton McLeod. Havis McLeod lost his leg--hadn’t been over there long.  E.L., he served [during] a whole theatre of war.

What do you remember the most about the fifties?

Well, I married you [looking at his wife].

His wife: That was in '39.

That’s what I’m talking about; '39, the fifties.

His wife: In the fifties we lived in Texarkana.

Yeah, I hauled automobiles in the fifties. Well, in fact I done other things. I left the shipyard, and I went and drove a city bus in Houston. I drove a Harrisburg to Bellaire bus in Houston. Then we moved back up here and I drove gasoline transport for Ray-Smith Transport Company. I left there and went to Texarkana and hauled automobiles. I come back and went to work for the Texas Highway Department. I worked for them for twenty-five and a half years, and here I am.

Do you remember what you were doing when you heard that JFK had been assassinated?

Yeah, I was right on Highway 135 in Tecula. I was sand man for the highway. And it come on the radio; I had a little radio in the seat. It come on the radio that he’d been assassinated. That’s where I was. I was working for the Highway Department.

If you could give me one piece of advice before I left high school, what would it be?

Let me tell you what, get a good education where you can get you a job and make your own living. That don’t mean that there’s anything wrong with marriage or anything about it, but it would be nice if you could make a living on your own. That’s the advice I give you. And, the man you marry, just always be true to him and him true to you.