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![["Jenny Smith is an old-time fiddler, dulcimer player, banjo musician and clog dancer from Lost Creek, West Virginia. I interviewed her with her mother, Dee Cogar Bright, from Sutton, West Virginia. When she was young, Smith apprenticed with fiddler Melvin Wine through the former Augusta Heritage Apprenticeship Program. In this interview, they speak about their family lore, and the old-time music and square dance traditions, mainly in Braxton and Webster counties."]](/thumb/4224BrightDeeJennySmithIntTranscript121917 "Transcript of oral history of Dee Cogar Bright and Jenny Smith")
- Identifier:
- 4224.BrightDeeJennySmith.IntTranscript.12.19.17
- Title:
- Transcript of oral history of Dee Cogar Bright and Jenny Smith
- Date:
- 2017-12-19
- Creator:
- Smith, Jenny and Bright, Dee Cogar
- Contributor:
- Hilliard, Emily
- Subject:
- Folk music festivals, Appalachian dulcimer and autoharp music, Wine, Melvin, Square dance music--United States, Apprenticeship programs, Hammons (Family : W. Va.), Banjo, Fiddle tunes, Folk music--West Virginia, Old-time music, and Fiddling
- Location:
- Weston (W. Va.)
![["Vernon John Burky was born to a Swiss family in Helvetia, West Virginia in 1925. He grew up speaking Swiss on his family farm, where his parents raised animals and managed a sawmill, and his grandparents operated a cheese house. They made Helvetia cheese, a type of Swiss cheese, similar to Emental, that was made throughout the Helvetia community and a staple in the diet of residents. As a child, Burky raised chickens and tapped maple trees on his family farm. As an adult, he was an active winemaker, a common pursuit in the Helvetia community. During his working years, Burky worked as a truck driver for a saw mill and a coal company. He learned to play fiddle as a child and started playing in the Helvetia Star Band, the local dance band for generations and the namesake of one of the villages two dance halls. He still plays in the group, which performs regularly for Helvetia square dances and events. Yeah; just kept that smokehouse full of smoke all day and night. Theyd put a big hunk of wood on it; it wouldnt burn but it--they had fire under it and it would sit there and smoke that little room half as big as this. They just smoked up tight. They had the sausage on rods; nothing could come in or get up on there. There it would sit; it was just dried up real solid and my uncle was--I stayed with my uncle when I was in high school. And he said, hey Vernon; come over here. (Laughs) He had rheumatism and he couldnt move around. He was in bed all winter. Go up there to the smokehouse and get me a link of that sausage. (Laughs) And Id go up and clip one of them off and bring it down. Hed get a hold of one piece and put the rest under the pillow and hed start eating that. He wasnt supposed to have red meat because of rheumatism.This interview is part of a series of interviews conducted with foodways practitioners in Helvetia, West Virginia, as part of the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance. Learn more: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/"]](/thumb/4224BurkyVernonIntTranscript111416 "Transcript of oral history of Vernon Burky")
- Identifier:
- 4224.BurkyVernon.IntTranscript.11.14.16
- Title:
- Transcript of oral history of Vernon Burky
- Date:
- 2016-11-14
- Creator:
- Burky, Sandy, Burky, Vernon, and Morgan, Thrayon
- Contributor:
- Hilliard, Emily and Whipp, David
- Subject:
- Helvetia (W. Va.), Eggs, Cooking (Sauerkraut), Cheesemaking, Waltz, Cooking (Sausages), Fiddling, Sawmills, Wine and wine making--United States, Maple syrup, Fiddle tunes, Cooking, Swiss, Square dance music--United States, and Canning and preserving
- Location:
- Helvetia (W. Va.)
