RJ: Oh, he married my mother in about 1910, I would guess. Dad was born in 1888 and
 Mom was born in 1891, and they were both [from] very long-lived families. For
 instance, Grandpa Jones [was] an example of a real hard southern man. He was a
 small man; I do not think he weighed over 140-145 pounds, but he was very wiry.
 Grandpa was always very physical. When he was seventy years old, he was chopping
 wood with such vigor that a chip flew up and blinded him in one eye. Ten years
 later, [when he was] eighty years old, he was chopping wood when a chip flew up
 [and] partially blinded him in the other eye. So he could see just enough so that if
 you were in a bright doorway, he could see your silhouette. Grandpa slowed down
 a little bit but, until a year before his death, every morning and every evening he
 took the milk bucket, walked down to the creek, across the footlog, up to the barn,
 milked the cow, [and] came back.

 Now, I said my grandparents were long-lived--every one of them lived to be over
 ninety years old. Grandpa Jones was ninety-seven; [he] milked until he was ninety-
 six. Grandpa Hood lived to be ninety-six. Grandma Jones [was] ninety-three, and
 my Grandmother Hood dropped dead when she was ninety, fixing lunch for Grandpa.
 So you see we have lived pretty well. Now my mother was a little sickly; she only
 lived to eighty. And my father lacked two months making it to ninety.

CJ: That was papaw, right? When did papaw die?

RJ: Oh Lordy, what did you ask me that for? [It was] 1978, I think. Yes, it was 1978.
 He lived a very full life and he also had a great deal of stamina. Now, I did not look
 much like my father; I am tall and slender. He was very chunky and husky, where
 I am wiry. But he had his little store out on the corner in East Flat Rock.

 After he retired from the store, he was famous for his garden. He raised beautiful
 raspberries; that was his big deal. But an interesting thing about this also was that
 his garden always had two rows of flowers along one edge. He favored dahlias [that
 have] big beautiful blooms in red, yellow, purple, and white. He also liked zinnias
 a great deal, and gladiolus. For many years before he died, Dad would go out to
 work in his garden. He would always have it plowed; someone would come with a
 tractor and plow it for him. The last ten years. He had arthritis and had a hard time
 getting around, so he would usually use crutches. But he would get out in his garden
 with one crutch, and he had a special little hoe that had a blade about three inches
 wide. He would leave a crutch in the shed and then he would go out using the hoe
 and one crutch to get out in the garden. Then he would lean on the crutch, he
 would take his hoe and he would do what he called "work" the whole garden. He
 would dig that whole garden up. At about the time that he got finished, he would
 have to start over again because it took him that long. But he was a landmark for
 many people; they would give directions by saying, "Well, now, if you go out
 Spartanburg highway, you turn left at the school, well, you know that garden where


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