This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.
This documentary was created as part of the Stories: YES program for Bethel School in Bethel, NC, made by Ida Dishman, Ashlyn Braswell, Clay Presnell, Ben Gailfoil, and Starla Presnell. It was made with the support and assistance of Blowing Rock Art & History Museum, Adam Sheffield with Appalachian State University Digitization Services, storyteller Sherry Lovett, and Beth Davison with Appalachian State University Documentary Film Services.
William Sherwood (00:08): Hi, I'm William Sherwood. And I was born in the Bethel community of Watauga County. Well, my father was raised in a country store and he ran a country store for the first some few years that he and my mother were married. And then he was a farmer and by the time I came along, I helped him with the farm and consequently learned what I could about the farm in business. I'm a farmer I owned and operated a dairy farm for 46 years. And I look after and feed and take care of a hundred head of Brew Cows and their babies, but it was sort of an odd situation where my dad was about to sell it. And sort of made me mad and I told him if he was going to sell it to sell it to me.
William Sherwood (01:04): So couple of weeks after I was out of high school, I thought I'd never get paid off. I bought my father out, started back in the farming for myself, went into the dairy business in 1959. Stayed in the dairy business for 46 years, I sold the cows, the dairy cows in 2005. Well, when I first started, we did most everything by hand and with horses and now we use tractors with a lot of modern technology. Well, first off, you've got to be willing to put forth a lot of a lower [inaudible 00:01:42] and quite a bit of hard work, but there's not anything better than a farm life, in my opinion, I loved it all, all in here still do. Well, being close to nature and close to seeing how things happen and the real of nature and watching cows and birth of new baby calves and things like that are very rewarding. Very gratifying.
David Yates (02:26): David Yates, born in Watauga County. Went out of the hospital in 1943. Oh, it’s changed a lot. We used to do everything with mules, horses, horsepower, and everything's tractor machinery now. Mostly family, neighbors and school kids that would come in and work and a lot of guys I grew up with, they worked for the money. Coming in to make extra money for the next school year.
David Yates (02:59): When do I work now? Well, most every day, you still got lots of cows to feed, lots of things to do and sometimes you're up 12, one o'clock delivering a baby calf and that's still a big thrill, even if you deliver one or if you just go walk out in the field and find one. If you don't get a rise out of a new calf coming, new baby born and get up and get that first milk, you're about going. I mean, it's a lot of responsibility, but's a lot of fun to see it. I mean, you got to be a hard worker. You got to be a lot of decisions made, a lot of things to keep the farm going.
Find a complete transcript at www.museumonmainstreet.org
Asset ID: 2021.02.04
