Interview with Anne N. Mason, January 24, 1992

Interview Summary

Anne E. Mason grew up on her parents' small farm, which raised both cash crops, such as tobacco and milk, and subsistence crops, such as chickens, hogs, garden, dairy cattle, and fruit trees. She shares some of her memories of this time, especially focusing on the 1940s. Topics include the use of a Delco plant for electricity generation, employing German prisoners of war on the farm, the advent of freezers, childhood play with neighborhood children, relations with parents and grandparents, and milk production and its marketing. She describes how her father later became the tenant of a larger property and how, after she married, she and her husband became involved in sharecropping. Her husband ultimately took an industrial job in Lexington, from which he retired. She recollects raising her children, and states that they were active in Future Farmers of America. She states that she herself was a member of 4-H in her youth. Mason also discusses some of the important leadership roles she has served in, such as the County Board of Education, Central Kentucky YMCA, Farmer?s Home Administration and Southern States Cooperative. She also reflects on Toyota Motor Manufacturing's influence on the county.

Interview Keyword

African American experience in farming Black farmers Childhood play Community leadership Dairy production Delco plants for home generation of power Farm organizations German P.O.W. laborers Heritage farms Hog butchering Irrigation of tobacco Relationship with grandparents Relationship with landowners in sharecropping Relationship with parents Sharecropping Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, Inc

Interview LC Subject

4-H clubs African American families African American farmers Agriculture--Kentucky Agriculture Family farms Future Farmers of America Prisoners of war--Germany Prisoners of war--United States

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Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.