“I don’t know what to say about these young people.  Mine are pretty good.  So, I’m ’fraid to say much about the others.

“Lord, I don’t know what we’ll do if we don’t get some rain.

Vocational Experiences

When I was able I washed and ironed.  I didn’t have to do nothin’ till after my father and husband died.  Then I washed and ironed and cooked till the white folks set me out.  They said I was too old.  That is one thing I hates to think of.  They had the privilege to say I couldn’t work; they ought to a seen that I got somethin’ to live on when I wasn’t able to work no more.”

Interviewer’s Comment

You can’t get the whole story by reading the words in this interview.  You have to hear the tones and the accents, and see the facial expressions and bodily movements, and sense the sometimes almost occult influence; you have to feel the utter lack of resentment that lies behind the words that sound vehement when read.  You marvel at the quick, smooth cover-up when something is to be withheld, at the unexpected vigor of the mind when the bait is attractive enough to draw it out, and at the sweetness of the disposition.  Some old people merely get mellowed and sweetened by the hardships through which they have passed.  Sometimes, you wonder if some of the old folk don’t have dispositions that they can turn off or on at will.

It is not hard to realize the reason why Amanda was treated better than other children when you remember that she called her grandpa “Master”.

Interviewer:  Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed:  “Cat” Ross
                    Brassfield, Ark. 
Age:  Born 1862

“I was born in Releford County on old Major Ross place.  I was born durin’ a battle between the North and South at Murfreesboro.  The house was on the battle ground.  Mama had five children.  Her name was Susanna Wade.  Papa’s name was Amos Ross.  He belong to Major Bill Ross.  Major Ross had ten houses houses—­one at the edge of the thicket, two on Stone river, and they was scattered around over his land.  Major Ross never went to war.  Papa went with Major Billy to bury his gold.  It stayed where they put it till after the war they went and dug it up.  I seen that.  When they brought it to the house, it was a pot—­iron pot—­full of gold.  I didn’t know where they had it buried nor how they fixed it.

“My folks was all field hands.  They muster been blessed cause they didn’t get mixed up with the other nations.  Grandfather’s mother—­Grandma Venus—­come from Africa.  She’d been in bondage about a hundred years.  I recollect her well.  My folks all lived to be old people, over a hundred years old.  They was all pretty well, all Africans.

“I have seen the Ku Klux quarter mile long and two breasted on horses.  They scared me so bad I never had no experiences with them.  They run my uncle in.  He was a big dancer.  One time they made him dance.  He cut the pigeon-wing for them.  That was the name of what he danced.