556: Ready? Interviewer: Alright, sir. 556: First man. Second man. Third man. Fourth man. Fifth man. Sixth man. Seventh man. Eighth man. Ninth man. Tenth man. Did you? Interviewer: Sure {X} That'll do it. If I can remember exactly where the setting was. I'd like to ask you a couple questions. First, uh uh I passed patches of very light ground uh almost a white now and I also passed this limestone that uh or lime plant that is that the same thing? Is that a line kind of? 556: Well, the proper name for that stuff is chalk. It's the same material as it is in the White Cliffs of Dover over in England. Interviewer: Oh, I see. 556: It's chalk. It's not uh what we'd call limestone. It's the chalk formation. Interviewer: So if if people talk about white dirt, uh 556: Well, that it's in meant a place you see we're sitting on three-hundred feet of that chalk formation. This was the bottom of the ocean at one time. It's been in and out of water three times in its geological history. The upper cretaceous geological period is what we're in what we in. And there's three-hundred feet of that stuff, we're sitting on it right now. And it was formed at the rate of one inch every hundred years. So you can figure out how long we was underwater here. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: You can find all kind of sea animals and sea materials. Oyster shells, shrimp all ossified of course. I have a collection down at the museum I'll show you. Picked up right here. And, as I say, the- they go from Mexico {D:for far north} to St. Louis. As far north as St. Louis. And this country's been in and out of water three times, in it's geological history. Interviewer: What does that do to the farming? Uh is that 556: #1 Well, it course it's a lot of the land # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 556: needs lime and a lot of it don't. A lot of it's got it already. That's why you see all these lime plants here. They dig this stuff and process it and it's and they sell it to farmers who don't have lime in their soil, you see, you've got to have lime in your soil to sweeten it. Interviewer: Now which is the post oak? Is that the post oak, line is? 556: That's just kind of a clay land. Uh, of course, that's mostly west of the river, and all over this side mostly is black land. Interviewer: I see. So this this chalk really is a monster kind of outcropping. 556: Yeah, it's sometime it's close to the surface. Sometimes it's a good ways down. But a lot of time, it's right on the surface. You'll see just a skim of dirt. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And can you grow anything in it? Uh 556: Oh yeah. Well, if it's enough soil there. If they've got enough soil it's it's good for grass. You notice on the way from here to Brookswood you notice all these grasslands on your right coming down. Interviewer: Yes. 556: That's good pasture land. It makes good pasture land. Of course, they fertilize. So. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: They fertilize it by uh plains. Liquid fertilizer. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: Course if you've got enough salt on it, course. Oh it's under all this soil for that matter, but some of it is a good ways down. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: Out here at these uh mine plants they do it's just strip mining all it is. They pushed the surface dirt off and then they got three-hundred feet of that inexhaustible supply. Interviewer: And then uh how the soil is on top of it now or it's in the black belt. That would be the gumbo? 556: That's the gumbo and it's and it's it's very deep soil, see the the line the uh chalk is a good ways down and some of it and this out here especially it's it's very deep. Interviewer: I see. #1 Oh, second question I uh I've seen some people around town here in Macon and in Brooksville and then Columbus who appear to be Mennonites or Irish people. Is there a settlement? # 556: #2 Right. # Oh yeah, they're pouring in here. Oh yeah, they got a lot of Mennonites coming in. Interviewer: So where uh that's interesting and surprising uh fact to me. Where where do they come from? 556: Uh, they come from the north where Wisconsin, Indiana. Some of 'em as far away as uh Oh, the northern tier of states. They all flocking down here, and they're all good farmers. They by this land, they're very close-knit people. They won't They don't uh mingle much. They don't vote. They don't take any part in civic affairs, and And uh Interviewer: And why uh why? I'm familiar with the Amish settlements uh in Pennsylvania and 556: #1 And yeah, well these are Amish. They off-shooted 'em. # Interviewer: #2 And uh # Why would they come here? I 556: To buy this cheap land. They first in South and they think is cheap now, compared to what they sold there as far up there. Course land up there got very high, and they first started coming down and buying this land when it was so much cheaper. They'd sell out up there for you know a big price, and come down and buy this cheap cheaper land they thought because it's getting pretty high now. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: There's a place sold out here long ago. Six-hundred-and-forty dollars an acre. Interviewer: Six-hundred-and-forty. 556: And I remember when you could buy the best land in {D: Knoxford} county for not over fifty. Interviewer: {X} 556: Twenty-five to fifty. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: #1 But they # Interviewer: #2 You say even this rich black belt uh # 556: Yeah, you could buy it fifty dollars an acre. That was considered a good price for it. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: And uh these Amish they an offshoot of the Amish. In fa- we have three different groups of 'em right here. Of a different and they all uh Mennonites, but they're three different groups, but they that's two {X} here. One group has a school out here on old forty-five, and another has one. And they have their own churches. Uh. I guess they're good citizens, but they won't they're very clannish. They won't take any part in civic affairs Or as I said, they don't won't vote. And uh only marry one another. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Now Indiana, they won't drive automobiles. They drive horse and buggies. 556: Well that's the old orthodox Amish. Interviewer: Oh. 556: These are Interviewer: These will {X} 556: #1 Yeah yeah they're. Oh gosh, yeah. # Interviewer: #2 They used machinery # 556: They're very progressive. But up they use all kinds of machinery. Tractors and {NS} automobiles and they they are they're not the Orthodox Amish. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: Although they're related to 'em cause I've seen some of those Orthodox Amish coming down in visit 'em. Interviewer: I see. Are they they women have these little 556: Oh, they all wear have wear that cap, and the men all wear beards. Interviewer: Beards and plain clothes? 556: Yeah. Interviewer: Well, that's uh some sociology and geology, which 556: And another thing, they're hardworking people. They sure do work out here Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: And they're good people. You if you get in trouble for instance if this house were to be burned, there would be a group of 'em here in the morning to help you put it back to the rights. They uh the motel up here had a fire here some months ago, and next morning there was a group of 'em up with their tools saying we want to help you and and when they had they Camille and on the Gulf coast, a group of them went down there and worked they whether you pay 'em or not they they just want to help, they say. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. So they're uh in while they don't vote or participate in civic affairs, they are they are uh they're willing to give 556: #1 Oh yeah. # Interviewer: #2 Their talent to # 556: And they're very religious people. Very religious. Uh. They are {X} preachers. In fact, one of the best mechanics in town works at the Chevrolet place down here, and when he went to work, he says, "I'll have to have Saturdays off. I can't work on Saturday, have to prepare my sermons on Saturday." So he don't work on Saturday. He spends Saturday preparing his sermon for the church the next day. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And {NW} very unrelated question here, but we talked about uh cars yesterday. When the first Fords came out, what were they known as? Uh 556: Tin lizzies. It so happened my uncle got the first agency first Ford agency in this part of the state now. I I worked for him. And at the time we had well of course nobody knew how to drive 'em of course and we had that's the first thing we had to do was teach somebody to drive. That was my job. They had no front doors. The first one had no front doors at all. And they had carbide lights on 'em and we'd have to take some old fellow been used to driving a pair of horses and try to teach him to drive, and the funny thing we'd sell some old fellow a car, and I knew he would be hard to teach uh young fellows are easy to teach, so I'd try to tell him, "Let me teach your son. One of your boys." "Oh no, teach me how to drive this thing." Well, I'd fool with the old fellow a month or so, and he'd finally give up in disgust. Interviewer: {NW} 556: And the young twelve or fifteen year old boy in the backseat would jump over and drive right on. How'd you learn to do that, boy? Probably been watching you for a month, and you easy. Fords were very simple to drive. Interviewer: Oh. Did they call 'em uh T-Models or Model? 556: Well, they were Model T's of course and you got a tin lizzy. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: He called 'em tin lizzies. Interviewer: I've heard uh that many people refer to them as T-Models. 556: They were Model-T. That was a Model-T. Interviewer: Yeah, cause I wonder why they they say T-Model rather than Model-T. Did did they say that in this area, or 556: Both ways. Interviewer: Both ways? 556: Yeah, the colored folks all called 'em T's. Interviewer: Oh. 556: A T-Models and course the next one was a Model A. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: But my uncle had this forty-inch there for years, and when we first started to sell 'em, they the uh philosophy was if you wasn't able to pay for a car, you had no business with one, see? And so That kind of limited to the sales but finally got such a big pressure for deferred payments that um he said, "Alright, we'll do this. You pay a half of this car down as spot cash exactly half then we'll make equal notes for the balance, and the first note you miss, now you bring in the car." And we never had to repossess a car. Interviewer: That alright. 556: So that went on for a good many years, and finally this trade-in business started. But he refused the trade-ins. Said, "No, I'm not gonna take that old junk car. Or do anything with it." And that caused a source of trouble but he didn't ha- between him and the Ford motor company. They want him to trade, and he wouldn't trade, so he made his {X} So he said, "Well, you just take these I'm not trading for these. These old bricks and he never did. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: That's where most automobile dealers lose his shirts, you know, in these trade-ins and Interviewer: Uh. 556: He never would trade. Interviewer: {X} 556: And they got down to where one they sold for three-hundred and sixty-four dollars apiece here in Macon. Less than the air conditioning on a Ford costs now. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And those were the uh the T or the A? 556: The Model Ts. Interviewer: The T. 556: See, when when they discontinued the Model T {NS} there were eighteen months till the Ford motor company was out of production. They had no cars at all. And that's when Chevrolet caught on. In the meantime, I went to work for the Chevrolet dealer when they when Mark was sold out. And Chevrolets were one popular car then. And the my old uh Ford ninety wasn't much a car. They came out with a model called Superior K. And we had plenty of 'em, and they couldn't get a Ford. And uh they'd go uh, "Well, I don't want this car, but I can't get a Ford. I'll take it." And they found it was a good car. Interviewer: Mm. 556: And Ford is the very man who gave Chevrolet the leg-up. {NS} If Ford had never been out of production, Chevrolet never would have gone as far as they did. Interviewer: Why did he go out of production? 556: Had to change models. Interviewer: In eighteen months? 556: In eighteen months to change over and it had all new machinery, everything had to be built from the ground up, see? And it's quite a deal rate take the day when you change models. It's quite a Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: But just think, been making Model Ts after twenty years and had to scrap every bit of the machinery had see and start all over on a new model. On this Model A. Interviewer: Say, and Chevrolet just happened to be there. 556: Chevrolet was right there. We had a showroom full of cars and get plenty cars and {NS} that's exactly what gives Chevrolet they gave Chevrolet that popularity. The fact that they couldn't get a Ford. I don't know because I was right there a man come in and say, "Well, I don't want one of these things, but I I got to have a car. I can't get a Ford, so I'll try it. I don't want to, but I'll try it." And it turned out it was a good car. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: So that's the way Chevrolet got started. Interviewer: Well, it's very interesting. I'd like to ask you a series of questions on uh on how people express themselves. Uh, the up to this time we uh have been asking questions you know, what are your name, what do you call this, and what do you call that. Uh this {NS} 556: Now, uh my wife's sick. Sick as in the bed {NS} Interviewer: Very uh sorry to hear it uh 556: Bring it I'm bringing her some medicine. {NS} Interviewer: Uh what I'm interested in trying uh to do with you uh is this you you have a really excellent ear for language, and you your imitations are uh are uh are really very good, and I was wondering is is since you've had this experience uh with so much experience working with people, if you would try uh to give uh try to recapture just the way that people used to speak uh if you if say a farmer came into buy a car or he came into the post office with a complaint or uh however you used to deal with people you but not on a formal basis and not always with educated people, and if you could uh try to recapture that kind of expression uh that's what it's extremely difficult to try to uh to find those things, and I'd like to try it with you uh. For example, if you were pointing out something uh that's sort of surprising, uh uh nearby you'd say, "Well, I just just" what? I just look. And you'd say well just look here or. 556: Well, uh course I was automobile salesman a long time before I went in the post office. And I think I just about communicated every type of person in the county. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: Blacks, Indians. Uneducated white people, educated whites. Practically all types. Interviewer: And and what what I'm interested in is how you would adjust or your speech you know to talk to some, say uneducated white uh, or excuse me uneducated white uh who who came in and you had to convince him uh of something Uh if if you pointed out something to him, for example, uh how would you say uh well now just just look Look here, or? 556: Well, I had an old farmer come in once and the uneducated old fellow told me that the hind end of his car was torn up. He meant the rear end, of course. The differential. Told me the hind end was torn up. And wanted to know what it'd cost to fix it. I said, "Well uh depending on what's broken back there, we just repla-." "Well, I want you to tell me first just what this is gonna cost." I said, "We can't tell you until we take it down and see what we need. You may need a rain gear, a {D: pinon}. We don't know what you need." "Well, I don't like to do things unless I know what it's going to cost me," he said. In fact, I don't know what it's going to cost me, I don't want to go into it. I said, "Well, we can't tell you now until I don't know, it may be." "Well, what you think it would be?" I said, "Well, it could be fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, or maybe fifty dollars." "My god almighty," he said. "Fifty dollars?" I I I said, "Well, I'm just guessing. I don't know. I can't tell you." "Well, I hate to go on anything like that unless I unless I know what it's going to cost me." Well, let us take it down and see, and if you don't want to pay it, you don't have to do it. "Well, it won't run without it, will it?" I said, "No, it won't run unless we fix it." "Well, I don't know what to do. I I I ain't got no much money, but I I don't know." And he stuttered and stammered around here awhile Finally he said "Alright, tear it down. Lets see what it's going to cost." So we tore it down, and it didn't cost him terribly much. I think around twenty dollars to fix it. Ford parts were very cheap, you know, in those days, and the mechanics were only a dollar an hour. So he said, "Alright, go on and fix it. Damn it." And we're we were able to see, so we fixed his car, and he went away happy. That hind end though he'd call it. Interviewer: And of the horse uh Hind end of a car 556: {NW} Hind end, he called it. Interviewer: If uh he said damn it uh what would a woman likely say in a in the same kind of 556: Well, now back in those days, that was a long time ago. Women didn't use those expressions. They do now, but they didn't then. It was considered Interviewer: What what would she say instead uh 556: Well, she might say my lands or oh lord or something like that, now. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: Goodness gracious uh Similar expressions, but they didn't They didn't use. They thought it was very scary to use language like that. Of course, now they don't make a difference. Interviewer: Hmm. 556: But back in those days, they didn't. I remember the first woman they saw on the street smoking a cigarette. Why, they just thought it was horrible. A woman smoking a cigarette right out in public. Everybody could see her. They just thought that was terrible. Interviewer: She was pretty uh 556: Oh she was far but Interviewer: Pretty loose 556: Yeah a loose woman. Smoking a cigarette in public. Interviewer: I think uh you told me about uh common. Would she be known then as as uh common woman uh if she smoked in public? 556: Well, they could would consider her very much lower in the social scale. I don't know about being common, but Interviewer: What would they mean if they said common? Would that be a good thing then, or? 556: No, that would be kind of a common common people they were considered as I told you yesterday, the current expression was poor white trash. Interviewer: Uh. {NS} Uh there wasn't anything about the morality or 556: Oh no. Nothing derogatory at all in that way. No, they didn't mean that at all. They just uh Interviewer: Common folks. 556: Common folks. Take these Mennonites, now. They they don't believe in education. They uh eighth grade is that's all you should know. That's plenty. So they cut 'em off at the eighth grade. They don't believe in higher education, although I don't no I don't know of any that are that are have gone to college. But they don't they don't believe in going above the eighth grade I believe here. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And they would be thought of as uh pretty common, then uh in that sense? 556: Well, not necessarily, but still they people don't understand that why they don't want more education, and Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: But they have their own rules and rights and regulations. Course, that's the way they want it. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. I'd like to some other questions on just uh how people would express themselves in conversation. What was an old farmer couldn't hear what you said? How would he? 556: He'd say, "Heh?" Interviewer: I see. 556: Put his hands and says, "heh?" Interviewer: All 556: "Heh?" Interviewer: He said, "I I'm you have to speak up cause I'm kind of 556: I'm deaf. Interviewer: Uh. 556: He called it deaf. And you know that was an Old English word, Old English expression that was perfectly proper at one time to say, "deaf." People up in the mountains in Tennessee still use it. Interviewer: Mm. 556: They say, "deaf." They say {X} Shoes and socks. Shoes and stocking. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: Old English. Interviewer: By the way, how about uh different ways to say eat. Uh how about to when they wanna say, "Yesterday, I. Today I eat, but yesterday I 556: Yesterday, not yesterday. Yesterday. Yesterday, I ate dinner at one o'clock. Interviewer: I see. 556: And uh they had a sign here in a nigger cafe, said, "If you ain't got no money, you don't eat." {NW} If you ain't got no money, you don't eat. {NW} Interviewer: Well, that's uh those are the very expressions that we're interested in collecting. 556: Yeah. Interviewer: Uh, how about uh somebody'd uh who died in an in an accident, and you'd say, "Well, don't don't uh don't bother calling a doctor. He he already 556: Well, the current expression is, "He's passed." Interviewer: Uh. 556: They never say, "passed away." They say, "He's passed." In other words, "He's dead." My uh daughter's a sociologist down in New Orleans, and And she had uh a letter from a a very literate uh they had a colored colored minister who died. And she wrote to wrote to him, and she got a letter from his wife who was a college graduate, and says the reverend has passed some time ago. Interviewer: Mm. 556: And now that was a literate nigger who wrote that letter. Said the reverend has passed. Instead of passed away or died, she said in fact, she showed it to me and said, "Look at that." But she still can't get away from {X} I had a colored there was a colored a colored preacher here. Did I tell you about it yesterday? Named Moody. Interviewer: #1 No. # 556: #2 Was a graduate of Cornell. # Interviewer: No. 556: He's a member of the he was a colored pastor in the Baptist and he was a well-thought of. He was a prominent and was a good man. As black as tar, but he was a very good man, and he was highly educated. He was a graduate of Cornell University. And it we used to talk. He told me one day, he says, "You know, I'm supposed to be an educated negro. I'm a graduate of Cornell. But they have never taught me not to believe in ghosts and haints and spirits." Says, "Right the day I wouldn't pass a graveyard at twelve o'clock at night by myself for nothing." Now he said, "Now, I'm educated," but said, "just but I's just uh I just got it in me. I can't help it. Sometimes I just hand it down." Says, "I'm still afraid of ghosts." Said, "I know there's no such thing, but that don't make a difference." Interviewer: Feels it 556: I'm afraid uh I had a letter from the University of Maryland not long ago. Professor was writing a book on colored people, and he says, "The white planters instill the fear of ghosts and spirits into their slaves to keep them from running away." He says, "Will you elaborate on this for me?" I wrote him back, I said, "I won't elaborate because there's no such thing no matter what the truth in it." I says, "These niggers brought those superstitions over here from Africa as slaves." And I say, "They still believe in it right today." Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: For instance, fellow was telling me about they had an open grave out here and he walked in and fell into it one night. Well, this is a true story now he told it. Fell into it and tried to get out and couldn't. And so he just said, "Well, I'll just have to spend the night." {D: He backed up yet early 'em just leaned back and he did a nigger felt the other end of it.} And this fellow saw him trying to get out, he said, "You'll never get out of here." Said, "But he did." Says he did get out. {NW} He said it scared him to death, but he got out. Interviewer: Uh. 556: And he couldn't get out, and says when he saw when he said it dark as pitch, you know. Interviewer: Oh. 556: Said, "You'll never get out of here." Interviewer: #1 That uh that reminds me # 556: #2 But uh the # Interviewer: Did you do you have you heard any ghost stories uh uh people who have seen ghosts? Uh and who have associated smells and things with uh with the ghosts. Have you ever heard, for example that if you see a hand or there's a uh there's a smell of a ghost around uh 556: No, I hadn't heard that. I know we had an old cook once. I saw her take the lid off the stove and put some salt in it right quick. But I said, "What'd you do that for?" Said, "Do you hear that jaybird out there?" I said, "Yeah, I heard him. What about it?" Said, "Every time you hear a jaybird out the kitchen window, you'd better put some salt in that stove or something going to happen to you." Said, "You know, they all take sand to the devil on Friday." I said, "No I didn't know that." Said, "You'll never see a jaybird on Fridays cause they ta- take sand to the devil on Friday." But she said, "If you heard a jaybird holler outside, you better put salt in the stove." Says uh it's bad luck not to. And I didn't know what she was doing. I saw her loosen the lid off and put salt in there. Interviewer: Uh. You mentioned uh if you don't have any money, you don't eat. 556: Yeah. Interviewer: Now, how about uh somebody who uh has as I started to say, might've been injured and died at the scene. Uh somebody who comes along and say well don't call a undertaker because he uh already done 556: He done passed. Interviewer: Done passed or done 556: Uh deceased. Some of 'em said ceaseded. Interviewer: Ceaseded. 556: That's another word they used is ceaseded. Interviewer: Were they were they use this word done? Uh, in other words, at this point manage to how would uh I done worked all day? 556: Oh yeah. Yeah done. That's quite a day. I've used that. Interviewer: And and I wonder how they use it. Uh, what does it mean? 556: #1 Well, alright # Interviewer: #2 Instead of saying # I worked all day. I done worked. 556: You'd ask somebody uh you'd ask to see well you want something to eat? Uh you want some dinner? He'd say, "No, I done eat." Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: I done eat. Uh. One of our senators was going through Mississippi once with a Northern Congressman. And they passed this little town, and he was talking about the illiterate niggers and he said all niggers speak two languages. Said I'll prove it to you the next station. And they they stopped this old nigger's leaning against the station, he stuck his head out the window and says, "Hey, old man." Said, "Wahee." This old nigger says, "Wahoo." Say, "See there? Choctaw." {NW} Said, "Wahee." They use the word war. Wahee. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: Or wahoo. You see there? {X} It's Choctaw. {NW} Interviewer: Uh what uh what was being said there was what was being exchanged was uh who is he? 556: When he said, "Wahee," he meant, "Where is he?" Interviewer: I see. 556: War wahee. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: And wahoo. {NW} Wahee. Interviewer: And if one If somebody were to say uh well people think that uh so-and-so uh if there's a crime committed, people think that so-and-so what uh he 556: They'd say, "I suppose so-and-so done it." Interviewer: Done it? 556: I suppose. They use the word suppose a lot. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: #1 Instead of suppose it's suppose. I suppose he done it. # Interviewer: #2 And somebody might shake his head and say uh # What uh what make what make him or makes him do it? Or how would they say that uh 556: Different ways of expressing it uh Why he done it uh. What for he done it. Things like that. What for he done it or why he done it. I I've often wondered what some of these illiter- the very illiter- the average illiterate nigger only has about a vocabulary of two-hundred-and-fifty words. And they get by with it. And I've often wondered what an educated Englishman could do when he got out in the country and tried to talk to one of 'em. He couldn't understand a word he's saying. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Um. 556: Like these French down in Louisiana. I wonder what a Parisian would do if he get down there. And you those those colored people don't speak English. I know down there one day somebody asked this old nigger, met him down in the wood country and asked him a direction. He said, "No speak the English." That's all he knew. He spoke French, but oh boy. What French. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: I've just often wondered if a educated Parisian was deciding to drop down in that country and tried to talk to one of 'em. Interviewer: Would he be lost? 556: That's terrible French they used, but Interviewer: Uh how about uh different ways of saying yes and no and adding sir and ma'am and 556: Yes sir. No sir. Yes sir. Interviewer: Uh. And uh how about the uneducated white uh how would he indicate uh as a matter of fact this whole business of using sir. Um, either by whites or blacks. But especially in whites where uh is that a mark of uh 556: It's just a mark of respect. That's all. You see, I was in the Navy and we never addressed my officer, you know. If you were in the Army, you always said sir. It's just a mark of respect, that's all. It's uh not a subservient attitude at all. It's just a mark of respect when you Interviewer: Do you withhold it from somebody uh that you don't respect? 556: {NW} That's a rather hard question I Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: I suppose it is done. Yes sir. But it's it's merely a mark of respect. Not necessarily, uh as I said, subservient attitude. It's just a It's just a polite way of talking to a man. You if you Like General Lee once was going down the street in Richmond and after the war, and this old nigger tipped his hat to him. General Lee tipped his hat back to him. He said, "I can't let an illiterate old nigger be more polite than I am." It's just a it's just it not only a mark of respect, but of politeness. If you want to be polite and nice, you you say sir. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: And it's but now the illiterate would say no sir, yes sir. Interviewer: I see. 556: No sir. Yes sir. Interviewer: But now is that the black man uh #1 Could you imitate an uneducated white man? # 556: #2 Well that's blacks I'll tell you # A lot of these whites have lived and worked on these plantations with niggers so long, that they have just about adopted the nigger terminology. Because that's all they talked to, see? And to make 'em understand, they get down and talk just like they do. Because if you use different type, they wouldn't understand you. So you take a lot of these um Foremen and uh On on farms on plantations, these big plantations. They they deal with 'em all day and talk to 'em all the time and and you they just I know one man who can't who couldn't tell and I know he's an educated man. But he's got and he's talked with 'em so long and worked with 'em so long, he sounds exactly like one of 'em. Just exactly. Interviewer: Well he if that's the only way he could communicate. 556: That's right. To communicate, you gotta get down and speak their language. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: And I can do it, too, fairly well. I was raised with 'em. Interviewer: Oh that's that's really what I'm very much interested in. It is so hard to find and record those things that 556: Well, as I say, the average illiterate, and they're getting scarce now, by the way, Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: has a vocabulary of not over two-hundred, two-hundred-and-fifty words, and some of those words unless you know you wouldn't understand like a foreign language. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. What um if you ask uh some argue are you going someplace uh next week and he doesn't say yes or no. He wants to say, well maybe uh how would he say that? "Well, I 556: Well, I don't know I expect I will, I expect I won't. I don't know. I might, maybe. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: Expect so. Interviewer: Would uh how did they uh how was reckon used? I reckon so. 556: I reckon so. That's a very popular word. That means I guess. Interviewer: And it was reckoned, uh the negro might say expect, but the 556: I say I reckon so. Reckon. Interviewer: So. Mm-hmm. 556: First {NS} when I went to school up in New York {X} New York met a boy there from Texas, and he's use that word reckon and this fellow just died. Did, "What did you say?" He said says he didn't know what the word was. He'd never heard it before. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: You say, "I reckon." What do you mean, you reckon? He's aw, he said, "I think so. I'll put it where you can understand. I think I'll go." Interviewer: Uh. 556: He was talking to me when he said, "I reckon so," cause I knew what it meant. Interviewer: Uh-huh. That's still used, isn't it? 556: Oh yeah. Interviewer: What? 556: #1 Quite common. # Interviewer: #2 And not neccesarily by lower classes? # 556: Used by everybody. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: But as I say, we See, this county we outnumber now there's five niggers to one white in this county. And is has been as high as ten to one. And associating with 'em all the time and talking to 'em and working with 'em and working with and they're working for you. They picked the so just picked educated whites. They just picked that stuff up and You would hear a PhD using that talking that way, and now you know they know better but it's just uh Interviewer: Well, that's what's reported. 556: They just have solved it. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: I know I do. Interviewer: And I think people do that uh and have to do it deliberately or they they don't belong in the community. They have to or to adapt uh the #1 Speech {X} # 556: #2 Well it's you have to do it # to make 'em understand and that's the thing they you have to Interviewer: And if uh you were say selling a car, even to an uneducated white, wouldn't you have to uh use his language? 556: Get right down there with him. I sold an old nigger a car here. A second-hand car. And he said now I'm gonna bring my son in tomorrow, and you teach him how to drive. So he came in the next day and I got the boy on the front seat by him, and he was on the backseat. And I said look boy. Now I'm a show you how to start this car. When he I said that, that old nigger jumped straight up said wait a minute, wait a minute. Said you got that thing backwards. Say show that nigger how to stop that car first. Said you got it backwards. {NW} {X} Interviewer: He probably felt like a prisoner in the backseat. 556: Yes, said you got that thing backwards boy. You show that you show that nigger how to stop that car first. {NW} Out down here in the country, uh a couple of years ago and a man owned a plantation down here, and he was out of he was gone. And one of his colored hands came up to the store and asked his brother said I don't know exactly how to do so-and-so down here, so I Tell me what to do about it. He said do you know how to d- how you would do it? Yes sir, I know exactly how I would do it. He said well you do it just sit just backwards from that and you'll have it right. {NW} I'll never forget that. She said of course I do it wrong every time. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: Said you do it just as he said the word backwards. You just do it backwards from that and you'll have it right. In other words, just the opposite, he meant. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: How bout the uh use of be how you well I 556: Well Uh first thing they'll say is how you doing today. I'm okay I guess. Well, how all the folks? Oh, they well. Except so-and-so, she she's kind of polar today, but rest of 'em get along pretty well I guess uh Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: But so-and-so, she's polar today. But I the doctor with her last week, and she she come out alright I expect. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Do they do they say uh I uh I be pretty good? Does that sound right or no? 556: Well, no. They say I'm doing pretty fair, I guess. Interviewer: Uh and the they use the word be and I be pretty good or not? 556: No. No, I that's used in some sections, but that's not that uh Interviewer: And if you say uh {NS} 556: I remember one time all the colored people's cabins was live or were out behind our house and they set the night jars out to air during the I was walking I was I couldn't have been over eight or ten years old, and I threw a rock at one and hit it and broke it all to pieces. {NW} The old woman got very indignant. She went to my dad and told him and said said, "Your son broke my thunder jug." {NW} And said, "I I be scared to go out at night," and said, "I have to have one," and she said, "You're gonna have to find me a new one." And I remember you never said I be scared to go out at night and said Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: I just gonna have to have a new one. Interviewer: Uh-huh. By the way, what would she say that she did uh to the thunder jugs, she you picked up a rock and you what? 556: She said I throwed a rock at it. Interviewer: Throwed. 556: #1 Said I throwed a rock at it, I say. # Interviewer: #2 {D: said a chunk} # 556: No, she said a rock. It was a rock. It was a brick a a piece of Interviewer: You ever use chunky chunked a rock at 556: Oh yeah, chunk is great. Chunk that. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: Oh yeah, that's quite a word. Chunked it. Interviewer: And that means that means throw or 556: I never forget when I broke it. Remember the day I broke that thunder jug. {NW} Oh boy. Interviewer: Uh. If uh somebody says uh your fence needs uh fixing uh uh when you gonna do it? And and once you say well I'm thinking about it now I may do it uh next week. How would he say that? What's uh um I'm I'm uh fixing to do it or? 556: Yeah, he'd say well I I'll get your fence fixed sometime. I'm fixing to I'm getting ready right now and I'm I'll have it fixed for you about this time next week, we say. Interviewer: Do do people uh say I'm fixing to do it? 556: Oh yeah. I'm fixing to do this and I'm fixing to do that. In fact, I heard a preacher said in one of his sermons not long ago said he was fixing to go to the convention. {NW} A preacher with a PhD degree. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: Said he was fixing to get ready his He's fixing to go to the convention. Interviewer: Well, it's uh it's interesting these words uh um survive. Uh I I hope myself I hope they do because it's it makes uh the language rich and and varied and interesting. How bout uh do people uh add and if they were talking about singing at church uh they were singing. Would they say I's singing? A-laughing, a-dancing while they were dancing. Does that sound alright? 556: That sound alright. Yeah. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: Alright. Interviewer: And uh if they say uh well if you need money, I'll give you some. And they say, no, I don't wanna be what to anybody? 556: Will no be beholden. Interviewer: To anybody. 556: The word is beholden. Interviewer: Oh. 556: Yeah, a lot of 'em. I don't wanna be beholden to nobody. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: In other words, I don't want to be any obligations. For instance, you'd pick up you go out in the country and you pick up some journalists and poor white They give you a ride? Yeah, they gave me a ride maybe a mile or two down the road. He gets out of the car, and he'll invariably say, "What do I owe you?" Don't owe me anything. Glad to take you. Alright. I asked a fellow not long ago I said what why do they say that? He said well, I'll tell you why they say it. They don't want to be under any obligations to you. He's offered to pay it, you've refused it, so that that clears it. He don't owe you a dime. You don't want to be beholden to, you see? But they'll always push that they probably hadn't got a nickel. Say what do I owe you? Nothing. Glad to have you or glad to ride. Alright. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: And he's under no further obligations. He offered to pay you. You refused it. So he's home free. Interviewer: I see. 556: And that's why they do it. Now, I had never thought of it in just that light, but that's exactly why they do it. Interviewer: And say, uh it's kind of a courtesy uh. 556: That's right. He offered to pay you. {NW} And you refused it. Interviewer: So he's not beholden uh how about somebody saying now I've forgotten about that but I now but now I now I recollect, remember, mind 556: Well now the older people use that word recollect a whole lot. I was down here at the courthouse one day, and there was a big tree's uh growing this old man was looking says, "You know, I recollect the day those trees was planted." I recollect. That was a That was used quite frequently by the older people. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: {X} Interviewer: What's the reverse? Now I don't uh 556: I forgets. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: I forgets that I forgets. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And uh the road uh as it's under repairs, so we can't go through there. The road's all 556: All tore up, and they working on the road. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: The road all tore up. Interviewer: And if um if you give uh a poor man gives his wife a necklace say or some beads, and for his her birthday and and he'll say well now don't just look at them. What put 556: Put 'em on. Wear 'em. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And uh the opposite of that is the uh the opposite uh if if a child says now don't lose them. Before you go out, you better take 556: You mean to take care of 'em? Interviewer: Uh-huh or you you you better their beads little girl she's home before you go out to play, you better 556: Put 'em up. Interviewer: Put 'em up? 556: Put 'em up. Interviewer: I see. 556: In other words, put 'em in a safe place. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: Put 'em up. Interviewer: If something belongs to me uh in conversation uh you'd say well that's that's 556: That's mine. Belongs to me. Interviewer: Alright and if it belongs to you, it's 556: It don't belong to me. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Or how bout this or you say this is mine. It's 556: Yours. Interviewer: Uh-huh. And if it belongs to both of us? 556: Ours. Interviewer: And uh to to them it's not ours it's 556: Another thing some of the older people used is uh I I've heard it way out in the country. We-uns and you-uns. Interviewer: I was wondering about that. 556: You don't hear that much now, but I used to it used to be quite often that's another from the Old English we-uns and you-uns, but I used to hear it a {X} the farther out in the country you get way out. But uh I know I went out there one day hunting A couple of us did, and we stopped at this little house, and the woman asked us have you-uns had dinner? Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 556: Or you-uns and we-uns. You don't get that much now. Interviewer: That reminds me uh uh would you explain now how uh this uh how the expression y'all used to be used and how it is used now? 556: Who, what, y'all? Interviewer: Yes. 556: Well uh, it's a funny thing. Lot of people think when we use it well we still use it Y'all should But you never refer to one person. Now they think uh so many people think when you say y'all, I heard 'em People who didn't know any better. That means a group. It's used in the Bible many times. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: In it many times. You all. Interviewer: Mm. 556: I've got a list of the quotations from the Bible. Where that word you all is used. It means a group. It don't mean one person. It never has. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: For instance, you may be talking to one person, but they're but they're referring to one or more people uh more people than one. A group. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: And this usually this is very common in the South. Everywhere today. But then it's never to one person because that's the plural. Interviewer: And there's no uh No prejudice against it there here, is there uh? 556: Mm-mm. Interviewer: Uh. 556: If it was, half the people would {NW} Interviewer: The reason I ask, is I was interviewing a very elegant lady and she was the uh most elegant lady in town in Northern Mississippi and uh she said, "Well, we never say that," uh. She says only country people say that. 556: What, you all? Interviewer: Y'all. And just at that moment, her sister came in and says, "Y'all still taping?" 556: {NW} There you are. They may d- they may do it unconsciously, but you all is always is a group. For instance, Well all we are. My brother and his wife were here a few Sundays ago, and my wife I know she told 'em, "Y'all come back to see us." Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: But she meant both of 'em. She didn't mean one of 'em. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And uh would you use all in combination with uh who if somebody uh if you went to a party and came back and your wife uh might say 556: Who all was there? Interviewer: Who all was there? 556: Right. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: Who all was there? Interviewer: And uh if you talked to somebody for a long time, she might say well what uh did he say? Would you say, "Well, what did he say?" 556: Quite frequently that's used. "What all did he say?" Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And how about this word right smart? Would you explain how that's 556: Yeah, right smart. Yes. {NW} That's that's used quite frequently, right smart. Interviewer: Would you give me some examples uh 556: Well uh it generally means quantity. You'd say uh, "How many strawberries did you raise?" You say, "Well, I raised a right smart of 'em." Interviewer: Oh. 556: It generally it refers to quantity. A right smart, a right It means quantity, see? Like you you raise a right I got a right smart right smart number eggs today or raise a right smart the crop of potatoes or strawberries or whatnot. It's used in that in that sense of quantity. Interviewer: Would you does this sound right to you? Over in the delta, an old man said that his daddy had a right smart of Indian in him. 556: Yeah. Quantity. Interviewer: {X} 556: That's perfectly alright. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: A right smart of Indian blood you'd say. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: A right smart of white blood. A right smart of yeah that's alright. Interviewer: And uh uh how about uh that somebody somebody would say if nobody else uh will look after him, you're gonna have to look after uh how would how would that be said? Nobody's going to look after them. They're going to look after 556: Have to look out for themselves or shift for themselves. Interviewer: Selves. 556: Yeah, look out for themselves. Interviewer: Uh-huh. And if he wants it done right, he better do it. He wants it done right, he better do it him. Himself, his self. 556: Yep. That's right. Interviewer: Well how how does that come out it 556: If you want it done right, you better do it yourself. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: Uh, something like that. Interviewer: And how bout uh his or him? His self? 556: His self is used quite often to himself. They know better, but they'll say it. Interviewer: Well, actually I I don't think in conversation there are right forms. It's just a matter of what people actually say, you know. It's uh yeah I've seen uh many regions 556: Well, I as I say the the the speech or the of the educated people here has been so diluted with the negro idiom that it's pretty sad. I know every time I go off I go to all these conventions and trips all over the country. I been all over the United States, and my wife will always warn me now, "Remember where you are." You forget this stuff that you use at home. Cause you remember they won't know what you. She always warns me. Interviewer: Alright. 556: "Remember now don't say so-and-so. Don't say this, that, and the other." Interviewer: But you know actually in in the communities in New England where there aren't many blacks at all, never have been Uh there are some fascinating expressions, which may actually have their roots way back in England ago. They just carried over. 556: But you take this word ain't cause everybody knows that that's not correct. I told you about the paper yesterday {X} {D: said well give me a thousand dollars to inquire to the word ain't} but of course you know it's not correct, but they just get into the vernacular and use it. No one is wrong, but Interviewer: By the way, I was that a commercial appeal? 556: Yeah. Interviewer: I looked for it. 556: Well, it was in there. It was in Sure it was commercial. Uh, the full is the list of the full appropriately in May to delve into {X} absolutely senseless. Interviewer: Uh-huh. I uh I have looked for it, but I guess Well, it was 556: At least in my edition uh Well, I I it was either yesterday's or the day before because I just read it. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: Twenty-three thousand dollars to Interviewer: investigate 556: That's why children fall off of tricycles Interviewer: {NW} 556: And the and they came up with the fact they need the tricycles turned over and ran into something some inanimate object. Interviewer: Um. 556: I tell him any mother could have told him that. Uh it's Interviewer: Uh same thing as during a certain time. Say uh bats uh don't fly in the sun. They fly only 556: They don't fly during the daytime. They flies at night. Interviewer: Night? Uh 556: In during the day. Interviewer: During the day? 556: In during. Interviewer: And you can find a if you look around for something and and uh say, "Well, I just can't find anything quite {X}." You say, "Well, sure you can. You can find something like that any." You say anywheres or anyplace or? 556: Most anywhere. Interviewer: Most anywhere. 556: Had it most anywhere. Interviewer: Uh-huh. And uh how about uh almost midnight, by midnight? 556: Near about Interviewer: Near about midnight? 556: Near about. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: Yeah, near about midnight. Interviewer: Uh-huh and if you uh if you say now I'm not going to do that and your friend says, well, if you're not, then what? 556: Then who is? Interviewer: Pardon? 556: Who is? Interviewer: Who is? Do they say neither or neither? You if you're not gonna do it 556: {NW} Neither. And neither am I and this and that and you never used the word neither. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: Either, either. Neither, neither. It's either. Interviewer: By the way, that's not everything I wanted to ask you but I've heard colored people say neither and but is that an affectation or 556: Probably is. In fact, if a white use it, it's an affectation. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Now how bout the uh negro you used the word or I should ask you this um how would the negro refer to his mother's sister? 556: That's his that's his auntie. Interviewer: And that's his aunt and not aunt. 556: No, auntie. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: Auntie. Nah, I've never heard the word aunt used, by anyone. Interviewer: Never heard 556: Just like you heard some white say uh Half That's affectation. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: Half a pound. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And uh how bout uh sure? How does that you 556: Sure. Interviewer: {X} 556: The word is sure. Interviewer: Sure and and uh 556: Sure, sure. Interviewer: Uh, how is that used? Does that intensify something? 556: Yeah, if anybody say uh you gonna do something? So sure, sure I'm gonna do it. Sure. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: And by the way, We had a friend. He up and married a girl from Montana and she was the very precise talking girl. I heard her use that very expression not long ago. Somebody says, "Are you coming to the club meeting," and I said, "I sure am." Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: Now that girl had never heard that word {X} says, "I sure am." I thought that was very Interviewer: How bout uh combining uh sure with enough. 556: Sure enough. Sure. Perfectly proper. Interviewer: And what is uh in what context is it used? 556: Uh well you'd say uh Are you sure you're going to the party tonight? Said, "Sure enough I'm going." Sure nuff. N-U-double F. Sure nuff. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: Sure enough I'm gonna do it. Like I said, you sure enough gonna do so-and-so? Sure I am. Interviewer: I um it reminds me uh uh of another lady I interviewed um {X} in town who's in her eighties, and her husband been dead for well, I asked her these questions, and she there's another lady who said well that's lower-class. Country people say, "Sure enough." But uh I went out and then after the interview, we were talking and her husband, been dead for twenty years, he really did bear a very strong resemblance to my father and I said, "And you know your husband looks just like my father," and she says. "Sure enough." 556: Mm. Interviewer: And and uh that's why I wish that these interviews could be conducted the way I'm talking to you, you know? I would like to have a real feeling for the language that 556: Well, that's a very common expression. Sure enough. Interviewer: There's no {X} 556: But it as I said, the reason for all of this is that we've associated with the colored so long, and and worked with 'em and talked to 'em and businesses and stores and working with 'em. It just rubbed off on 'em. That's all. Like I told you about Doctor Cook. President with a string of degrees behind his name that long. Said he was born up in the prayers. Said, "Now that's now I'm not making a grammatical error." Says, "That's what the niggers called it, and that's what I was raised to calling it. The prayers." That's this section through here, see? The prairies. Said it's not he said, "It's not prairies. Prairies are out West. This is the prayers." Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: I heard him say that. Interviewer: I think it's a healthy attitude uh to kind of preserve these differences and 556: Well, sure it's Interviewer: How bout uh uh some way of saying cold or good and intensifying? It's do you say real cold or? 556: Sure nuff cold. Interviewer: Nuff cold. 556: Yeah, sure nuff hot. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: Sure nuff. Interviewer: Is real or really used very much uh 556: Well, uh yeah it's it's used uh a good deal. Real. Interviewer: In in what context? 556: Well, I had a lady down at the museum the other day, and I was showing her some different things and now this article here is a hundred years old , and she said, "Really?" Look like It seemed like every other word she said was really. "Really, you really, that real, uh really?" She kept using that word really she was a dozen times. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And uh how bout the uh use of something, nothing. If you give me sentences for 556: Well, He'll never amount to nothing. {NW} How's that? Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: He'll never amount to nothing. Interviewer: And uh 556: He'll be something some day. Interviewer: I see. 556: Keep on going like he's going, he'll be something some of these days. Interviewer: And uh you how bout catching fish? Do you catch any know what 556: What is that, now? Interviewer: If if you're talking you ask somebody if he caught any fish and he has such bad luck he didn't catch any, and might say you know just in conversations that no 556: No {X} I heard a lot of them say, no it was a washout or I drew a blank or they wasn't biting or something like that. Interviewer: How bout nary a one? 556: Nary one. That's that's not used very much {NW} with the white people. Uh they I've heard I heard a fellow say the other day, everyone Says I haven't got everyone. Now, what did he mean? Instead of saying nary a one, he said everyone. I haven't got everyone. Uh I hadn't heard that but once or twice. But I did hear that man say everyone. Interviewer: And uh with fish or with what? No but some somebody asking me to have some any 556: I forgot it was. You got so-and-so? I got everyone. Everyone I suppose he would Hitting that, but he said everyone. Interviewer: That's interesting. 556: {X} The horses ain't got everyone. Mm-hmm. Interviewer: And uh the uh if you say well the teacher blames a little boy for something, and uh are she says did you do that and uh what did you do and uh he might say now I uh I ain't done nothing? 556: Yeah, he could say that. I ain't done nothing. I didn't do it uh. I ain't done it. Uh he could say it. Sure. Interviewer: What do you think is when you were in school does that sound uh 556: Well I guess it was used, but I don't remember using it a great deal. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And uh 556: Journaling when we made a grammatical expression, the teacher would jerk us up right quick. Interviewer: {NW} 556: If we was if we made an error. I remember one day we had an English teacher. This was a ridiculous thing. And she was a very strict-laced old English teacher. She just tried to teach perfect English. And we were going to school one day, and we had this boy he was always up to something. And she says his name was Lewellin. Lewellin All. She says, "Lewellin, have you seen greater farm?" He said, "Yes ma'am I seen him and taken after him." And of course she just liked to blow him up. He did it just for meanness. "Yes ma'am," he says. "I seem him and taken after him." Oh, she just bristled on him. Oh, it just made her so mad. It was one of her English students she Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: I'll never forget that. "Yes ma'am I seen him and taken after him." Interviewer: That's strong uh strong notions. 556: Oh boy she liked to {X} Interviewer: Would you uh sort of create a kind of conversation that would happen if somebody came unexpectedly at uh mealtime uh how uh I mean again uh without any kind of social feeling about it uh just how people would ask them to come in and and uh 556: Well, I've often heard this done that Well, you're getting here right at dinnertime. We ain't got much, but what we've got, you're welcome to it. We got plenty of it. Such as this is and be glad to have you come sit awhile with us and eat something with us. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: There you go. Wasn't looking for company but uh we just got what we'll eat if you was here. I mean you can eat what we can eat, so come in and eat with us. And of course there would be a bountiful table that Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: They always apologize these I used to go out and these big dinners that and the host at the table would be literally covered with anything above everything. She'd like to apologize for the sorry meal {X} That would be turkey and ham and chicken and beef and just I didn't have much today. Of course, all she was doing was fishing for compliments. Oh, I just did the best I could. I just that's uh Interviewer: If you want uh uh someone to start to eat right away, you say, "Well, just help 556: Help yourself. Interviewer: Self. 556: Help yourself. Interviewer: And you uh If you offer somebody a certain dish and he doesn't want it, how does he decline it? Says I 556: You generally don't. You go on to take it and don't eat it. It it's uh you it's kind of a reflection on the hostess when you turn something down, see? Interviewer: I see. 556: So if you don't like beets, we'll say, and they're passing the beets well You may not like beets. But it's a reflection on the hostess cooking if you don't take some of it and uh um uh Try to uh try to eat uh you don't have to necessarily eat it, but you should take it along on your plate anyhow. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. You ever say I don't like 556: No, don't say never say, "No, I don't like beets," or, "I don't like this." No. You're gonna take a little of it and then don't eat it. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Suppose uh you come for somebody and she's not quite ready, uh she'll say, "Not just 556: Y'all set awhile. Dinner will be ready directly. Interviewer: Alright, or if she said, "Just just a minute uh I'll be with you just 556: {X} He'll say, "Well, well, I'll be through in a minute. Y'all just set down now and we'll uh dinner will be ready in directly." Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And then you would say 556: #1 There's no hurry. # Interviewer: #2 Don't hurry I I'll wait # 556: Take your time. We got all day. Don't make a you never get in a hurry, see? Interviewer: Uh. 556: No, no, we ain't in no hurry at all. Just take your time. Interviewer: We'll wait. 556: We'll wait. We'll sit here and talk. Interviewer: Uh do you say we'll wait for you, we'll wait on you, we'll 556: We'll wait. You go right ahead. Take your time. We're in no hurry. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: Got all day. That's what you generally say. You got all day. Interviewer: Uh-huh. And if somebody comes uh for your wife and she's at the club, you say, "Well, I'm sorry. She's 556: Just a minute. It's what they always say. "Just a minute." And course it may be thirty but still that's what they say. Just a minute. Interviewer: See uh. You said she's not at home or someone calls comes to the door and asks for you wife and she's not here, you say, "Well, I'm sorry, she's not 556: She's not at home. Interviewer: Uh. 556: What we'd say. She's not at home right now. Be back but they all want to know when she'll be back. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: So you try to estimate it. Not at home right now, but probably be back in fifteen minutes to twenty minutes or thirty minutes. Ther- Uh as the case may be. Interviewer: What's a standard greeting for someone grew up in Macon and comes {X} 556: Well Interviewer: Well, you haven't seen for a long time. You say, "Well 556: Well, uh that happened to me just the other day. A boy that I grew up with here I've forgotten just what I did tell him. I told him I was glad to see him. Glad you're back home again. Looking well. Course you always tell 'em how well they look. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: Looking well. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: Hope you'll stay. This, that, and the other. Just a few pleasantries. Interviewer: And and you say, "Well, when you come back again, I'll be sure 556: Sure and drop around to see us. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Uh, we'll be glad to see you or how how would you change glad. We'll be glad to see you. How glad? Uh, we'll be 556: Well, I don't know. Interviewer: Uh, there are a couple things here that I'm looking for is right glad. Does that sound right? Be right glad to see you. 556: That or very glad. Interviewer: Uh-huh. 556: Generally be very glad. Interviewer: And how is this word proud used? 556: Proud to see you. We had a Sunday school we had a Sunday school teacher here and by the way he's got his master's degree in English from the University of Mississippi. And I ask a question at a Sunday school class one day. He said, "That's a good question. I'm proud you ask it." {NW} Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: Said, "Now somebody laughs, it'll be okay." Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: Said, "I'm proud you ask it." Interviewer: Are there some other word that's he's a younger man is he that 556: #1 Yeah, yeah, he's in his forties. # Interviewer: #2 {X} # Mm-hmm. 556: And he says, "That's a good question. I'm proud you ask it." Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 556: I remember that rather happened just a short while ago. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And uh it's how about before uh this tape's about to run out another question coming up.