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Willette Booker Mechille Ivy

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Ethel Lockhart
Sandra Petties Georgia Wise

RETIRED
Verlean Caruthers
Fairy Bell Hewlett Mary Alice Lewis
Ollie Vaughn

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This project was made possible by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council

Project Contributors:
John Hunter Allgood, John T. Edge, Amy Evans, Mary Beth Lasseter and Kendra Myers

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Fairy Bell Hewlett, Retired

“I had a book of my own that I made up…I made a lot of recipes up in there of different things of my own self, just like my homemade rolls--cinnamon rolls and stuff like that. And everything that I did or was like homemade, it was from scratch, you know.”

--Fairy Bell Hewlett

What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.

SUBJECT: Fairy Bell Hewlett, RETIRED COOK
HOUSES WORKED: Tri Delta, Chi Omega, Sigma Nu, University Grill
DATE: Unknown
LOCATION: Unknown
INTERVIEWER: John T. Edge

John T. Edge: So please tell me, for the purposes of discussion, is Fairy Bell your--your given name or is it a nickname?

Fairy Bell: No, Fairy Bell is my given name…I got it from a white lady we were staying with. We were sharecroppers--my father was--and so she named me. I was big and plump they say I was pretty. And so the white lady give me my name, Fairy Bell. She said I looked like a little fairy when I was with a baby. And so that’s how I got that name.

And where did you grow up?

I growed up in Burgess. That’s--that’s out there by Clear Creek. You know where Clear Creek Church is? That’s where we grew up from. That’s where my father and them all grew up from. So we was--he was [inaudible] [Dog barking loudly] My grandfather, he a slave you know, and my father, he was hired out to the Joneses. And so that’s where they stayed in Burgess and that’s where he just stayed around with them. And when he got married, we stayed on--you know he stayed on with them. And then he and my mother got married, and so we just still stayed and stayed.

So y’all stayed out at the same place the Joneses had?

Right, until all the children was grown and married and then my father got a little bit too old for working in the you know--sharecropping. And so then we left and come to Oxford. Then we moved in the place they call [Shelly Bar Hollow].

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And what year were you born?

I was born August the 29th, 1936.

And your last name is?

Hewlett.

Just like Hewletts who own Taylor Grocery [in Taylor, Mississippi, just outside of Oxford]?

Right.

So all those families are--go back to that same place?

That’s right; they does.

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I was 13 years-old when I started cooking and [inaudible] ‘cuz in the evening said my mama we done got too grown to do anything else. So in the evening when you get out of school, you’re going to go to work for somebody. So that’s what I did. And the first thing that I made was oyster stew. I cried; I cried around there for a long time before I really knew how to make that oyster stew.

Did someone ask you to make oyster stew?

They make us--the [Inaudible], they asked me to make that oyster stew. That’s what he wanted for supper--you know dinner that night because he drinked a lot, and he wanted--wanted that[soup in his thermos before he would take his meal.

So how did you make oyster stew?

Okay; you make it with sweet milk and butter and black pepper, a little salt and then you would have just--you chop your oysters kind of up a little bit and then you chop a little garlic up in there. And that’s all you do to it.

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So that was the first thing you made and you were 13?...And what--what did you start making after that?

I started making after that--I was just you know real steaks on the grill and then I would make bread, rolls kind of like, and biscuits. I would--that’s what back in those days, biscuits was mostly you know. And so then--from then on I went to making--they wanted to have cakes and different things all on up like that.

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So--so you started out cooking for the [unintelligible phrase]?

Yes, sir.

And then how long did you do that?

And then after then, I--I did that for about three years, and then I went to the grill, the University Grill. W. C. Fields [?] was the manager there. You had to weigh everything you cooked. I was making fried apple pie. I was always the dessert maker. I was making fried apple pies and peach pies. So I come in there one morning; I was supposed to been at work at five o’clock; I was late. I was running in a hurry you know and he goes, “You can go home at 6:30.” I didn’t know he was looking at me eating food. So I went on and did that and he let me make that stuff up and he came in there and dumped it all in the garbage can. And I had to go back and remake it about the recipe ‘cuz you only putted salt and you put shortening in there, but I didn’t weighed it; so. And you’re supposed to weighed it and you’re supposed to weigh the flour and you’re supposed to weigh the shortening before you put it in, before you make it out any kind of way. But they were troubling the cooking though. It’s not like now--say, “I’m going throw something up here and go ahead on;” you actually had to measure everything. I don’t care what it was; if it wasn’t but a pinch or something, you had to put it in a measuring spoon and make sure that--.

And this was--you were how old when you started cooking there?

I was around about 16 or 17, I think.

And was this the primary--was this the place where the students ate or the--?

Yes, sir; that was the University Grill.

Like the cafeteria?

Okay; they had a grill there that they--and then they had a cafeteria.

And you did--what all did you do at the grill--you talked about pies?

And I would help put on different things you know and be in charge of a lot of it--shrimps and everything--you know everything that they wanted you know. I would help after I got my pies and bread made up.

Do you still make fried pies?

No, sir.

[Laughs] Well why not?

Well I did do it before I started working for Miss Caroline and them. I was at the Handy Andy [Barbecue Restaurant].

How long ago was that?

It’s been a good while ago. I was making those fried pies. [Laughs] I used to bake those fried apple pies and--and fried peach pies.

And did you make them from dried fruit?

Dry fruit, and you had to cook them on top of the stove and then drain them and put the seasoning in them and let them cool off and then the next day, I--you know I would make up the [fried] pies.

That kind of dried fruit, it’s a holdover from when people that had apple trees--did you do that?

Right; we used to--yes, sir. We had dried apples and peaches, too. You would take them and wash them, and then you would slice them up you know, and then lay them up on top of a house or something another and let them dry out.

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You have to be a really lover of food to want to make people want it, and tastes good.

Well tell me about that because I think there’s something, there’s something obviously you’ve done all your life if you love food.

I love to cook food, but especially peoples you know not--I’ll just throw up something for myself. But when I’m fixing for peoples like 500 and 300 and 200 peoples, I want the best for them. I really made mind ret on cooking. I don’t have anything else on my mind, but that cooking. And that’s the importantest part about cooking. You’ve got to want to cook. You’ve got to have a willing mind to--you want to do this. This is something I really want to do. And so that’s where you--kind of way it is with anything. You’ve got to want to do everything and try to do your best. That’s the way we was taught -- to do our best. And that--and you know you’ll take time and sees that spices, seasoning, and you’ll just be--I don’t know, but they just always told me that I was a good cook. Ask my church how I do.

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How--so you started cooking at the grill and then at what point did you start cooking for the fraternities and sororities?

Oh, after I had done gotten married then and--I first started at the Chi O[mega] and that was good.

What year was that?

That was back in the ‘60s--the ’60s, because the ‘70s that’s when I went to the Chi Omega. Chi Omega, I worked there 11 years and I was the head cook when I worked there. They said I did a wonderful job. So our girls got in a car wreck and so bless their darling hearts, they wouldn’t eat the hospital food. I had to fix breakfast for those kids and things and their mother would come and get it and that’s what they’d eat all the while they was in the hospital.

This was that big wreck back in ’87 or something?

Right; yes, sir. And so then you know I just--I had a wonderful time at the Chi Omega. That’s why I started to making homemade rolls and--and anything homemade, that’s the way I started--just trying all--and do different things. Miss Caldwell and I started. We had a woman names Miss Champion and she was rough, but she knew how to get the work did, you know.

Who was Miss Champion?

She was the housemother and all; same as Miss Caldwell was the housemother, but and so I would have been over there now but this last housemother, Miss [Inaudible] got there, she went listening--there was a lot of those black peoples wanted my job you know because I had did everything and I knew how to do everything and they trusted me. So therefore, she you know--a lot of them went to talking and they were just standing looking at me like I had done stole something. So it was time for me to get away from there. So then I went over at the Sigma Nu. I worked with Mr. Billy Gottschall and Doctor Davis, and that’s where I got in love with the boys there. We did; I cooked homemade rolls--cinnamon rolls for them and a lot of homemade soup and all of that you know and we--I just had a good time with cooking. That’s just been my pride and joy until I started working for Doctor McIntosh.

What year was that when you started [working for Dr. McIntosh]?

Ninety-five; he got quite married then. I just went in there and went to clean. His mother wanted me to clean up--behind him…And so I cleaned up behind him and loved him and his wife both. And so that’s where I’ve been every since.

So let’s back up and talk about your first--so your first time for sororities was working was working for Tri Delta…What year did you start there--the ‘60s?

Around about ’68.

And tell me what it was like to work there with sororities? Were you coming up with menus that--that you know--when you say okay; on Monday we’ll have fried chicken or how did that work?

The housemother and I did. We would make the menus together and so that’s what we did. If we had fried chicken and creamed potatoes, green beans, or something like that and a dessert and bread and drink.

And did your--did the food you cooked, was it--was it things that you grew up cooking yourself or was it things that the sororities said, “This is what we want you to cook?” Which kind of traditional--.

Okay; they would ask me, you know how--help plan the menu…And so then that’s what I would do. I would help plan the menus and it was something that I would put together and they said that was fine. And then [inaudible].

Well would you come up with the menus? Would you come up with the fried chicken? Would you say ‘So we’re going to make fried chicken.’

Uh-hm.

Would they say here’s the way that Tri Delta does fried chicken or would you say?

I said the way I do fried chicken. [Emphasis added] So that’s the way it was.

And so you’re bringing your recipes to the Tri Delta House and cooking the food the way you--?

Wanted to.

And was there--was there much--was there a difference between what the Tri Delta girls wanted fried chicken to taste like versus what you did?

The way--the way I cooked it they loved it. [Laughs] That’s the way with the girls and the boys.

Did you end up developing relationships with the girls and the boys for whom you cooked?

I did.

Tell me about that.

Well they--they was just all--you know I don’t know; we just all got along just like a family. I would say--I knew them, but I didn’t know them by--I couldn’t keep their names together.

What was the differences between cooking for say the Sigma Chi and the Chi O in terms of what you did and how you--?

Well it’s different in cooking for girls than it is for boys…Boys--the girls you know they kind of want fancy things like. Boys doesn’t care just since they have the meat and the vegetable. And so it’s really--I enjoyed cooking for both of them, but it just wasn’t as hectic for cooking for the boys as it was the girls.

When you say the girls wanted fancy things, what was that?

The girls--what I mean by fancy--decorating and stuff their platters and things--I had to do that. And sometimes I would do it with the boys, but the boys got kind of rowdy and they’re like, “I didn’t want all that;” I just want the food. And that was the difference in the boys and the girls.

Were there particular dishes that you came to know for sorority houses--favorite things…?

Poppy seed chicken and what else was there? They liked my chicken spaghetti…They like my au gratin potatoes and all of that kind of stuff and it was very nice and them was loving whatever I would fix you know--au gratin potatoes and then we would have macaroni and cheese. And back in that time they--you know the people just didn’t make macaroni and cheese just like they do now--just throw it together. You would fix it in the sauce and everything. And you’d melt your cheese and your butter and then put your milk in there and then that was your macaroni and cheese. But now you’ve got these boxes and you just throw it kind of together.

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[B]ack then--I know we had to make that--help her make candy and our peppermint ice cream and that was a different thing we made up. [Dog Barking]

Which house was that?

That was the Chi Omega, and so all of that stuff would be fancy and I just about forgot a lot of things that I did do with them because all our stuff we would just about have to fix it up ahead of time, like when [inaudible] come and everything like that. And we had to fix like chicken tenders and things--at first you know we was making them and breading them our own selves. And so after the [inaudible] they come already breaded and that was a big deal. And so the boys like dumplings and so--the girls love dumplings if it’s enough meat in it, chicken and dumplings, your homemade chicken and dumplings. And so but it was just a good experience for me and them, too, you know ‘cuz they was away from home and they was wanting something kind of like what their mother cook them--like a corn pudding; they loved it.

So did they tell you... I mean was it--did they tell you these things that [they liked]?

Yeah; they said, Fairy, you make it better than my mother. And so--but you know it would go on you know like that and but everything that was cooked... and then I done forgot [inaudible]. I had a--I had a book of my own that I made up--a cookbook, and somebody got my cookbook and I never have come across that cookbook anymore.

Tell me about that.

My cookbook, I made a lot of recipes up in there of different things of my own self, just like my homemade rolls--cinnamon rolls and stuff like that. And everything that I did or was like homemade, it was from scratch, you know. Sometimes, I would home-make cakes and things. I would put them in a sheet pan and you know they was from homemade. And how I would make my crust for my pies and crust for the--like an apple cobbler or peach cobbler. It was coming from scratch. You didn’t--I didn’t buy no crust for that. And so just different things that I had; I mean and it’s like a broccoli casserole and stuff like that. At the time, when I first went there, we didn’t have--it wasn’t ordered then--we either have to fixed that up for ourselves.

The Chi Omega--that--you developed the cookbook at the Chi Omega house?

Yes, sir; I did.

And did you develop it for the kitchen to use or did you develop it for--?

Really I did it for the kitchen and you know I didn’t mean for nobody to sneak my [Laughs]--I was going to bring it home you know, but I don’t know how it got away from me.

But did you have an idea that maybe someday down the road, you could--you could publish it for other people to see or to use?

I was going to keep it and then give it out to other peoples, you know. And--but after--you know it got--I you know--I got where I wasn’t interesting in cooking.

That’s sad; that would be a great thing for people to see.

To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.