Audio Recording Interview with Jack Dempsey, Jack Dempsey's Barbecue, Enigma, Georgia, parts 1 and 2
About this Item
Title
- Interview with Jack Dempsey, Jack Dempsey's Barbecue, Enigma, Georgia, parts 1 and 2
Names
- Stanley, David, 1942- (Collector)
- Dempsey, Jack
Created / Published
- Enigma, Georgia, July 26, 1977
Headings
- - Folklore--Georgia
- - Field recordings
- - Interviews
- - Sound recording
- - United States -- Georgia -- Berrien County -- Enigma
Genre
- Field recordings
- Interviews
- Sound recording
Notes
- - Side A: Part 1 of a 2-part interview with Jack Dempsey, proprietor of Dempsey's Barbeque, Enigma GA, about 11 miles east of Tifton GA, fieldworker provides Box 677, Tifton, as mailing address: Dempsey worked around barbeque pits since age 9, beginning in Texas, he contrasts his methods with the "easy, lazy" methods of present-day barbeque, his is superior, previous boss was a "red-haired, freckle-faced, black-eyed, Texas Irishman, a hellcat on wheels" who broke "many-a-nose" of employees who failed to measure up, Dempsey describes self as a "little game banty rooster" in Paris TX, worked there three years before the owner "turned me a-loose and let me be on my own," Texas barbeque features beef, pork spareribs, chicken, sausage, kid (goat?); Dempsey's method, red oak wood, burns to coals in furnace, trims meat, starts fat side down, puts coals in windrows, sears the meat (three hours), turns it and does the same, turns it again, drops heat, puts the sauce on from the two-thirds-done point, never sticks a fork in the meat, starts about 4 or 5 am, ready at supper time, Boston butt pork roast, spareribs, chickens; wood burned separately, coals shoveled into pit, square bladed garden-type shovel; wood from local farmers, free or pays for it, but gets it all himself, a "one-man operation," can cut a cord of wood, load it, and be back in hours, uses a Polan chain saw, has used one-man bow and crosscut saws in past. splits wood himself, uses about 100 cords a year, has an "old-timer" whose mother died and "he didn't have anyone to look about," Dempseys feed him, "if he says he's hungry I give him something to eat," pickup to haul wood, 1963 Chevrolet; secret sauce, varies from section to section, comments, "I'd give anything in the world to have a son to follow my footsteps and pass it down to him," some sauces use vinegar or lemons, others make sweet sauce, "through this section they go wild over our barbeque sauce," occasionally sells bottles of sauce, cooks beef in summer for tourists and local people, most locals want pork, "the barbequed kid will sell any time"; Brunswick stew made with pork, chicken, and beef, with vegetables, a mighty tricky dish, "it'll sour easy," shouldn't be chilled and then warmed up; Irish stew in Texas uses beef only, one furnace of wood could cook 500 lbs. of meat, if he weren't so busy' about the furnace-and-pit system learned in Texas; bad barbeque is like getting a bad watermelon (fieldworker writes "proverbial comparison"), "I always refer my story back to the old watermelon," description of bad melon; no farming, Dempsey lost his savings farming potatoes in Minnesota, vowed that he'd never "put another dime in the ground," comparison to gambling; watering techniques in garden, does not use sprinkler; about building the barbeque pits, "don't you know it's a sin to work on Sundays," said a lady, Dempsey replied, "yes, but you know what the Good Book says, 'when the ox is in the ditch, get the ox out'"; complaints about U.S., lack of law and order, "the criminal is treated better than the law-abiding citizen," urges local control of schools and justice, has had no trouble in his store, "I'm one of the best-hearted damn fellows in this part of the country."
- - Side B: Part 2 of a 2-part interview with Jack Dempsey, proprietor of Dempsey's Barbeque, Enigma GA: about a 115-year-old black man in neighborhood, known as "Old Timer" or "Tab," adding "he's dying from old age and lack of care, his grandchild doesn't care anything about him, can't go to old folks home because he has TB," Dempsey arranged for cabbage and potato custard, handles financial matters for him, bought (window) screening, table, fan for him, sends him food, the boy's kind of "got his lip poked out" because he can't get money to gamble; description of general store, cans hot peppers, grows tomatoes, gives some away with barbeque; antiques within the store, including schoolroom clock from Goldfield, Nevada, given Dempsey by his mother, Dempsey and his wife take occasional vacations and look for things to bring back, does not offer credit but will give it away, Dempsey has been burned by credit and bad checks, antiques are a hobby, "my way of operating an old-fashioned store"; about clothing, Dempsey bought 36 blue-and-white striped jump suits from Sears; Dempsey wears a .25 cal. pistol on belt, he previously also wore a .38, self-defense and need to protect his restaurant, 12 merchants in area have been killed by thugs, operators of whiskey stores assaulted, if someone tries to rob him, always hoped "that if God will grant me the power, they won't try Him, they'll try me," the Bible says that "you're supposed to be able to defend yourself," he would kill only to save own life; Dempsey says he acts the same toward everyone, regardless of race, age, etc.; interview moves from inside the building to the outside, looking at barbeque pits, the furnace described, Dempsey burns corn-cobs because he doesn't believe in throwing away anything; about large-scale parties he's cooked for, including Gov. Carl Sanders, high-school band, churches, has done the church dinners for nothing, "the Old Master will take care of that"; sources for meat, business practices of meat suppliers; Dempsey raises the lid of a barbeque pit, describes grill, a sheet-metal worker named Paul Smith in Tifton made the hoods, "he's a legend in his business, there's no one in this country that can show Paul Smith a light to go by," about making rocker panels for 1953 Henry J automobile, sold car to a crippled man, comments that when that Henry J said "Henry J, the car of today," it was; Dempsey went to Minnesota with $27 and the car, "it operated so sweet"; barbeque pits built of used bricks, in front of store, where customers come in past them, "if I was in a tight, I'd ask him to wait a minute"; about an old-time blacksmith at the highway 319 junction in Tifton, "that's all that's keeping him alive today, he just piddles enough to keep him active," Mr. Turner, "you can sit there half a day and just talk all you want to talk"; how Dempsey used to sleep out by the pits; about a local preacher who "cast so many stones that he wasn't here long," urged him to preach like you're supposed to, but the preacher had to leave, "whichever way the chips fell, they fell"; Dempsey is not a Christian, but he was raised to know right from wrong, "if I wanted me a drink of whiskey, I'd just as soon take a drink in front of one as another, I'm bitter against this driving drunk or making a fool out of yourself"; Dempsey goes dancing on Saturday nights, recommends Curtis's Radio Ranch in Moultrie, Curtis Gordon toured with Grand Ole Opry.
Medium
- audiocassette
Call Number/Physical Location
- Call number: AFC 1982/010: AFS 21186
- MBRS shelflist: RYA 0997
- Field project identifier: GA7-DS-C19
Source Collection
- South-Central Georgia Folklife Project collection (AFC 1982/010)
Repository
- American Folklife Center
Digital Id
Online Format
- audio