Willistine McClain

Willistine McClain (WM): [The] thing that sticks out most in my mind is her fruitcakes.

Monica Palmeira (MP): Fruitcakes? She made really good fruitcakes?

WM: She would always make fruitcakes at Christmas. And she would make fruitcakes for just about everybody in the neighborhood.

MP: Oh really? She would make them for, people would ask her to make them?

WM: Yes. And they would bring her this material and she would make the fruitcakes. She would start the day after Thanksgiving to making the fruitcakes.

MP: Really, so she would make fruitcakes for a month?

WM: Yeah, because she would put them in something like a tin can, stain and cover them up. She would baste them with wine, I don’t know how regular now, I don’t even remember, but to keep them from drying out. And of course on Christmas, on Christmas Eve night, they would always cut the cake.

MP: And they were real good?

WM: Yeah

MP: Nice

WM: They were always moist. I understand that wine…

To hear more from Willistine McClain, listen to her full oral history "Williestine McLean - On her childhood, parents, food, and farming."

Willistine McClain begins the interview by sharing her childhood background of living in Darlington, SC with 12 siblings. She also includes her battle with cancer and having to attend UNC Hospitals for treatment. Willistine describes her parents’ relationship; her father was in his 20s and her mother was 13 when they married. Her mother had to work in the field, however, her father wanted her mother to tend to their 4 children and not work. She speaks on how her mother did all of the cooking until she was in 8th grade. She describes how live chickens became angered whenever her mother wore red, which was her favorite color. Ms. Willistine talks of how her father grew products such as corn, hot peppers, wheat for flour, sugar cane for molasses, tobacco, and cotton. Her father was also a brick layer and carpenter.