Big Thicket Legacy

James Addison Moye

Introducing James Addison Moye Addie Moye does not tell a story; he relates incidents , and nearly all ofthem are humorous. He is not a person with a collection of stories he tells from time to time, but, during our long conversations , he recalled events that he had not thought of, it seemed, in three quarters of a century. He remembered them vividly, however, and was occasionally overcome with laughter as he told them. One gets the feeling that Addie missed very little ofthe fun and mischiefthat young men engaged in. He worked hard most of his life in logging camps and sawmills. He is about five feet ten inches and probably never weighed over 160 pounds. "Hard work won't hurt a man," he says, "unless he gets too much on his back." At present , he lives with his daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Allen Stockholm. Addie likes music and had just returned from an all-day singing fifty miles away when we first met him. He was ninety-five years old but had made the hundred-mile trip alone, driving his own car. He is active and alert The fiddle is Addie's favorite musical instrument In fact, it was the favorite of most people, the most popular instrument in the Thicket The fiddlers afforded music at the dances, log rollings , and just plain home entertainment. There were all kinds of fiddles, made from gourds, cigar boxes, pine, and other materials. Some of them were made of good material and with painstaking care. Dolph Fillingim comments as follows: "My daddy made several fiddles. He used thin strips of maple around the edge, about three inches wide. Made the back from holly. It was hard and rebuked the sound and sent it up. He dressed it off, give it the violin shape with hand tools. He used sweet bay for the neck. The fingerboard was made out of pine, and the top was soft pine, gave the fiddle a mellow, soft tone. He bought strings. You could buy steel strings or catgut." Regardless of the "make," however, no other music would tempt Addie Moye so quickly to a shindig five miles away on a rainy night after cross-loading on a logging tram all day. JAMES ADDISON ("ADDIE") MOVE grew up around Dallardville, Polk County, close to the Indian Village. My father's name was Tom Moye and my mother was Ellen Davis. The Davises come from Mississippi and the Moyes from Alabama. Grandpa Brighton Moye, they called him Tom, settled on Hickory Creek, and papa was born there, but later they moved down to Big Sandy. They was all raised there. I remember grandpa had a big dance at his house. Him and his boys had made some cane beer. They danced all night long; sometimes the sun was up when they quit dancin' and playin' the fiddle. You know when they're a-boilin' syrup, they have skimmers , and they skim off all that foam that boils up on top and throw it in a barrel. After a while it ferments, and you can draw it off down there just like the Lord made that wine out of cold water. And it will kick you down; Ican witness that Best beer you ever drank! There was eight of us boys and five girls in papa's family, and it was sort of like a fella Istayed all night with way up the country one time by the name of Uttle. He had a big family, and Isaid, "Mr. Uttle, how can you make a livin' for all this big family?" He says, "Every Uttle helps." That's the way it was with us. We all worked hard. Mama had a wash place on a little spring branch about one hundred yards from the house, and I'd help her when she washed the clothes on Saturday. Three little bears hung around there all summer, and I'd say, "Mama, those bears goin' to come here and get us." She said, "I'll throw hot water on 'em." One time Iwent to stay all night with one of my uncles. He had three boys and he raised'em a-batchin'. He told the boys, "Down there by that foot log across the creek, Isaw tracks of that old cat that's been a-catchin' my chickens. I'm goin' to set a steel trap...