This story is excerpted from an workshop conducted in Rushville in August with Diana Dohrman, JoAnn Drummond, Retta L. Kayton, and Sandra Loosvelt

Diana Dohrman: Yeah, you get chiggers. They’re little bugs gets under your skin.  

JoAnn Drummond: Oh, I’m sure they got- I’m sure you got chiggers in South Carolina. 

Shyanne Bellamy: We have. We may call them ticks.  

JoAnn Drummond: You may call them nosees. You may call them no see. Texas and Texas have called them no sees. Yeah. 

Everyone: They burrow underneath the skin. They’re really tiny. 

Retta L. Kayton: Yeah, yeah, real tiny. You can’t see them. And then they bite.  

Sandra Loosvelt: And they bite. 

Diana Dohrman: Well, and they just keep, if you put clear fingernail polish on them and they smother.  

Retta L. Kayton: or Vasilne . 

Diana Dohrman: Otherwise, they just keep- 

JoAnn Drummond: They don’t do that, but- 

Diana Dohrman: I was completely covered before I realized what it was.  

Sandra Loosvelt: My God, 

Everyone: To do those buffalo berries, you put the tarp down on the the ground and then yeah, beat the tree and it all falls down.  

JoAnn Drummond: I never got to do that. 

Retta L. Kayton: Well, that’s the easyway. 

Everyone: And they have to be right. Yeah, they have to be right. Yeah, they’ll fall down. Doesn’t take too long.  

Retta L. Kayton: To not get the chiggers, you put a rubber band around the bottom of your pant leg. 

Diana Dohrman: They bothered my dad so bad that he wrapped his ankles with rags that had kerosene on them.  

Retta L. Kayton: Oh yeah, 

Diana Dohrman: he just- 

JoAnn Drummond: You know I don’t remember them in the sand hills.  

Retta L. Kayton: They come up from the from the bottom of- 

JoAnn Drummond: Chiggers and the Sandhills.