Charlie Dover

In an interview recorded in 1997, long-time Bartow County resident Charlie Dover recalled life in the area during the Great Depression. “I was delivered at my parents’ house, at that time a small tenant house by the side of the Rome-Kingston Railroad. The doctor was a very popular country doctor out of Kingston. This was during the depression and Dad had no money so he paid the doctor with a bale of cotton, a very common practice at the time. The bale of cotton would have brought only about $25 in those days. It would represent, on an average, about 1/15th of a farmer’s income. As a child I saw my parents have to work very hard and not have much to show for it except for a living for the 6 of us. Our diet was very limited, but I didn’t know that. I thought everyone had cornbread and milk for supper.”