Richard Edge (primary interviewee) and Effie Edge interview recording, 1993 June 29
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Transcript
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Kara Miles | What part of Edgecombe? | 0:02 |
Richard T. Edge | That's all Edgecombe— | 0:09 |
Kara Miles | Okay. Is that where you grew up? You grew up there, too? | 0:13 |
Richard T. Edge | No. After my daddy died, my momma moved out. She moved in Nash County over here. You know anything about Nash County? | 0:21 |
Kara Miles | Not a lot— | 0:30 |
Richard T. Edge | Okay, then. She moved here by Dortches. | 0:30 |
Kara Miles | By where? | 0:30 |
Richard T. Edge | By Dortches, over here. We stayed there. People that move place to place, and see, I didn't have no daddy. Before [indistinct 00:00:53]. See, Ma had to go where the bigger farm was, to make a living. That's how she did. We stayed up there, at Harbor [indistinct 00:01:04]. Ma stayed there, but I didn't. I stayed there for—You want my background, right? | 0:30 |
Kara Miles | Uh-huh. | 1:13 |
Richard T. Edge | [indistinct 00:01:14]. See, at that time, a child didn't leave home like they do now, till they get 20 years old, 21. That's what I was then. Then, as far as the two, when they bombed Pearl Harbor, I'd come age enough to go in World War II. I went World War II, Ma was still alive then. You have to take what they give you. Ma had [indistinct 00:01:40] a kid. Then, I went to World War II in '42, in August. Then, I stayed in service for three years, four months, and 20 days. See, my uncle, when we went in service, I've seen White people there. Mother had to stay with my older brother, and all them got married. My uncle got this place here for them, first, in '43. Ma moved here. I was still in service. I stayed in the service till I come out in '46, in February. | 1:15 |
Richard T. Edge | Then, I come out and hired at the—My uncle got me a job at a coastline, my uncle, John Hennahid. I worked there one month. I worked there a while, but what happened, went up and when we work, we get 50 cent an hour. My biggest achievement, when I went in World War II, they were paying a rate of a wage to $50 an hour. That's the first $50 I ever had in '42. We come out and the man paid us all. We used to get uptown before 3:30, cash your check. I went to Planters Bank, and they wouldn't accept the check. [indistinct 00:03:16] get a couple check cashed. | 2:23 |
Richard T. Edge | I went to Peoples Bank. That was across the street, here, where I'm at now. All the White people were getting ahead of me, and they wouldn't cash my check. Then, a White man come and says, "Son, you don't never get no check cashed, but I'll help get you a start, start your bank account with $10. Then, the White people won't overlook." I started, then, with $10 to get my check cashed, Because by the time they were closed up, then still, I've been there about an hour and a half getting my check cashed. Then, I worked on up to—another hard time when old Eisenhower got into seat. We had a hard way to go. | 3:18 |
Kara Miles | Wait. What now? | 4:08 |
Richard T. Edge | Eisenhower. | 4:14 |
Kara Miles | Oh. Okay— | 4:14 |
Richard T. Edge | Eisenhower. You don't know about him. | 4:14 |
Kara Miles | I've heard of him. | 4:14 |
Richard T. Edge | The White people work us so many hours that their shop didn't need to cut you off, but the White people would make their eight hour. Then, what helped us, when President Kennedy got in there, President Kennedy turned the thing around. He got us a job, [indistinct 00:04:31] payer. They had to get us a job because he had been out for about five, six year. We work four hours, send me home while the White people will stay there and make their eight hour. Well, President Kennedy made them get us a job, lifetime, till the time we retire. | 4:15 |
Richard T. Edge | That's where I started traveling from. President, they talking about Luther King, but see, at that time, we could hardly—You had to go somewhere for a vote and register. It was a hard matter. I'm telling you the truth, a hard way to go. I'm going to tell you the truth. We had three or four White people, they never done too much. You don't know about that, though, down at the shop. We had three or four [indistinct 00:05:16] men, and we had a lot of Black people there. Well, see, I learned a lot in World War II, and I told my mama—Mom said, "Son, you are in the country now. Well, see, the town different." I had never lived in town, here, till '46. There's a whole lot there you got to take. I see that right now. | 4:47 |
Richard T. Edge | I see myself, and I come home, and I'd say, "I don't want to stay there anyhow. A whole lot of our Black boys quit." I stayed right on there till President Kennedy got us a job, a guarantee, because they couldn't cut us off until we got old enough to retire. They had to pay you. Then, I worked on up and got a good job, then. Then, I worked to about 50. How long I been on pension? | 5:39 |
Speaker 1 | 10. | 6:02 |
Richard T. Edge | 10 years. I quit 10 years ago. Then, I come 61 years old. They [indistinct 00:06:02] 61, But you had to have 360 months. We at the Coastline get full of pension. Coastline and Social Security different. I come out on pension, and I've been out here ever since. Now, don't think it was easy now. | 6:02 |
Kara Miles | No. I don't think it was, I want you to tell me all about it. | 6:28 |
Richard T. Edge | Yeah. Well, see, Ma had a hard way to go, though. Woo! Eight head of kid and a man. Man would get about $13, maybe $100 a year. I know [indistinct 00:06:42]. Huh? We had eight head of kid but, see, what [indistinct 00:06:43]. See, my dad died, I was six. Well, see, Ma had scrambled out. I had a mental illness. Mom had a good head on, and we had about, I tell mom, over there in Nash County, 10 acres of [indistinct 00:07:02], about 50 acres of cotton, about 2 acres of corn. Ma didn't get too much out of there because they were taking it all. | 6:31 |
Richard T. Edge | See, they were taking it all. Well, Ma had a good understanding what she had to do to make ends meet. We would plant field pea. She got into planting the field peas, and they get [indistinct 00:07:20], and prepare for the winter. She used to plant butter beans, and get them ground butter beans prepared for the winter. She has chicken all right, though. When I went to World War II, I always talk about my momma, and I went through Fort Bragg. That's another bad place. Woo! | 7:09 |
Kara Miles | Tell me about [indistinct 00:07:39]— | 7:38 |
Richard T. Edge | It was Jim Crow at Fort Bragg! | 7:39 |
Kara Miles | They were what? | 7:41 |
Richard T. Edge | Jim Crow at Fort Bragg! | 7:42 |
Kara Miles | Oh. Okay. | 7:44 |
Richard T. Edge | I'm telling you the truth! Colored people had to go so far to get dinner! We weren't allowed to eat with White people. Every mess hall we go to, "No Color." No Color. We had to walk about four miles. Then, we got into the mess hall, was closed up. Then, we went overseas, there, in Europe. Well, Jim Crow was there. | 7:48 |
Kara Miles | It was? | 8:14 |
Richard T. Edge | Of course! [indistinct 00:08:17] our people. We had good amount of [indistinct 00:08:22] in West Virginia. He's there now. Some, definitely, when y'all get here, now. They had no broadcast. I was in the [indistinct 00:08:30] platoon. Now, see, when y'all hit the show, now, we got to turn all the guns in. The White people were down there. I had Dominic. He was in charge over there. All the Black people, they want no Black over there. See, the gunmen [indistinct 00:08:47] tell them to go to war. They said they want no Black [indistinct 00:08:50] find the White people. Then, when we come on a ship, all the guns were taken. All the guns were taken. Kyle Bicka, he said, "There ain't nothing I can do about it." He was a White fellow. Then, I want to know my area. I will be smart. You'll read about it. Then, when we got an old tent there, and the man get us some food, [indistinct 00:09:15] and stuff. Then, [indistinct 00:09:18] get me to mess on. | 8:14 |
Richard T. Edge | That morning, nobody ran out, find out, didn't have no gun. We walked in the morning. Everything was gone. That's right. I knew it. See? I knew it. They went into that tent and got everything, clothing and everything in it. See, Ariel love white stuff. You know that, don't you? | 9:19 |
Kara Miles | Who is this? | 9:39 |
Richard T. Edge | Ariel. You've seen those white [indistinct 00:09:41]? | 9:39 |
Kara Miles | Uh-huh. | 9:40 |
Richard T. Edge | Now, you can take a white sheet and get rid of [indistinct 00:09:44] as you get over there. They love white, they cut a hole them [indistinct 00:09:47]. The captain be saying, "There ain't nothing I can do." That morning, we had a hard time getting any food. They give us a stick the next night, walk guard, nobody around to pick up sticks and build the tents. Sure did. Then, he broke it out, fix it up, and put us in a serving unit. No Black fighting White people. I stayed on to the 92nd [indistinct 00:10:10]. The 92nd, we had a choice. Join the 92nd or either stay where you were. I didn't accept. I been there for two years. I ain't missing no 92nd, going to get killed. White people get [indistinct 00:10:24] then, because the German will kill them all, and the little beach here. You heard about that, didn't you? You heard about it. | 9:41 |
Richard T. Edge | I tell you now, English people, they not Jim Crow like we are. We couldn't go nowhere! If you were Black, couldn't go to Red Cross. We had to go to the side door. Every color could go in ad get stuck with a—We had to go the Captain. Ain't nothing he could do about it, the chain. Red Cross, we had to go to the side door. All them [indistinct 00:10:55] over there. You never read about no doctor [indistinct 00:10:58]. England charges, though. They could go in there. Ain't no American people go in. No. You go to the side door. You know what the side door is, don't you? | 10:29 |
Kara Miles | Mm-hmm. | 11:04 |
Richard T. Edge | [indistinct 00:11:05]. We caught the devil over there. Then, the White people didn't want to sleep with you. Still, when I come out in '46, they still didn't want to sleep with you. After we off the war, [indistinct 00:11:22] over here, they sent us to Europe. Come through Panama Canal and went to Philippines, another place kind of tough on Black people. Then, we stayed about three—They got their top bunk. Before we got there, I was [indistinct 00:11:38]. Then, in Philippines, [indistinct 00:11:40] back to Japan. Japan not Jim Crow. | 11:08 |
Kara Miles | Oh. It's not? | 11:45 |
Richard T. Edge | Uh-uh. Then, what happened, we used to go out and buy pawns. How many pawns you had to go home? They pile all the Black people that are camped there. All the White people going home on a nice ship. The government find out somewhere, and the government come over there. They gave us 24 hours to get us on the ships. That's right. I've been in [indistinct 00:12:14] camp over there. All the White were gone. Then, we had a few White people over there. Then, the White said, "We ain't going to want no additional KP," and you don't know KP. There's no way. KP, and why? I said, "Watch this." | 11:45 |
Richard T. Edge | Then, we had a First Sergeant from Tennessee on [indistinct 00:12:34]. I was a T/5. He said all us got to—[indistinct 00:12:39] KP? Pots and pans, that's what we call—You don't know what any of them. I always talking. I go, "I don't wash no dishes." All these White people here get some PFC. Man says, "I ain't going to wash, all y'all Black people here," He says, "I ain't washing none of you." First Sergeant went out there and he got scared, and he went and washed dishes. I didn't wash no dishes. Then, I come up and got my discharge. When I come on through Fort Bragg, [indistinct 00:13:07] saying? "Now, look here. You all Black people back here again. Don't test these White people. The same thing when y'all left here, same thing now." | 12:29 |
Richard T. Edge | Man, he was telling the truth. You can hardly walk the main street, no ma'am, put you against White one. | 13:20 |
Kara Miles | You couldn't do what, now? | 13:25 |
Richard T. Edge | You couldn't walk up and down the main street here, not touch a White woman. I'm not talking about putting your hands on her. I mean, like you on the street. If she holler, you going to jail, just because we talk. Sure did. Out in the country, there, [indistinct 00:13:45] about a fall, you don't know two words about that falled. Momma wouldn't let us come uptown. You know what [indistinct 00:13:52] said? Go to show. Sure didn't want to go to show. I was a man, then. I was 19 years old then, knocking on 20. I went to World War II. Come that fall there, that river, [indistinct 00:14:0w] river, you better get across that before the sun go down. | 13:29 |
Kara Miles | Really? | 14:04 |
Richard T. Edge | You better get called across that before the sun go down, because no White people waiting for you. | 14:07 |
Kara Miles | What would they do to Black people— | 14:13 |
Richard T. Edge | Outrun you like—Ain't nothing you can do! Run you out in that river! See, ain't nothing you could do! They had advantage over you. See, down there in the fall, no White people down there, or no Black. They'll run you in that river. Then, you coming home, then, you got to go through—coming out through—They don't cut no paths out, now, since I been here. I'd about have done it at that new hospital. You know where that at, I believe. | 14:16 |
Richard T. Edge | Now, we used to go through the 100 year old. Which, you better get through them woods before it get dark. See, we didn't have much time uptown on Saturday. We didn't have no car. My brother had one. My brother, a whole gang [indistinct 00:14:58], whoa, whoa, whoa. See, whole [indistinct 00:14:59] thing. No one coming, but don't let it worry you. A whole other thing, I tell the boy now, young boy. Now, they all got a bank. If they don't know you're at the bank, then you won't get nothing. You don't get no check cashed here if you don't got no bank, if they don't know you. | 14:46 |
Richard T. Edge | See, I always says, White people, I've been dealing with the bank, you see? Well, won't be embarrassed. Bad to be embarrassed whole lot of peoples all in the bank, then they look over. Bill Sejekka helped me. He retired now. He helped me a whole lot when the [indistinct 00:15:46]. He told me what to do. I was working regular, then. Told me how to have money and stuff. Well, he was a White fella. We had Mr. Eggsa. He was a good man. Now, he's said, "Y'all working here, now. You'll be protected. Y'all will retire one day. You [indistinct 00:16:10] if you want. Now, y'all better to prepare for yourself. Now, going to tell you because ain't nobody going to tell you." You see that, out here now. I'm gonna be gone, then, sometimes I think about what he's said, now. You see, my momma was saying he arrested, and was gone. | 15:29 |
Richard T. Edge | Now, I come out of World War II and had another trouble. Ma and all my brothers stay here, don't want to take no old people. My baby brother and my sister, all the rest of them were grown up and married, with three [indistinct 00:16:41]. Momma asked me, "You want to stay and take care of momma or [indistinct 00:16:44]?" I said, "No. I'll cut my plate and I'll stay here till momma die," and momma did about 20-some year. It's why I never ain't here. It is kinda tough, in a way, and then, now, you don't leave everything on White people, now. | 16:22 |
Richard T. Edge | We got some tough Black people. You'll find out! You keep working! You keep working now. | 17:04 |
Kara Miles | Tell me about them. Tell me about the tough life you— | 17:11 |
Richard T. Edge | I'm going to tell you now. If you don't go that way, they don't hardly want to mess with you. I have never believed the whole lot of [indistinct 00:17:20]. [indistinct 00:17:21] you don't whine and stuff. When I was in World War II, I didn't drink too much. See, war's [indistinct 00:17:26], we getting paid on that, I said, "Nah. I'm going home. I'm going home to see what Ma doing." See, every Black person, though, ask all of them, ask one of them, they don't care what you haven't done. You keep living. They don't care. | 17:17 |
Kara Miles | You mentioned drinking. They would drink a lot? | 17:42 |
Richard T. Edge | Yeah. Gosh, yeah. Yeah. Now, when I had that shop, if wasn't in the town here, was 200-some people was owing me. We go by seniority. When I retired 10 years ago, [indistinct 00:18:01] three. Them people drank, them [indistinct 00:18:04] coming up, wouldn't show up. See, what happened, they quit. [indistinct 00:18:10] when I retired. See, I didn't stay in one place. Richmond, Savannah, Georgia, place like that, then I made it back in here, to retire here, the freight department. I have a [indistinct 00:18:29] what you haven't done. They'll laugh and talk with you. | 17:52 |
Richard T. Edge | You stomp your feet if you want to. You always going to stomp your feet. You have to [indistinct 00:18:37]. [indistinct 00:18:38] and talk. Ma had a good understanding. Ma used to make our clothes, and Ma made our [indistinct 00:18:51], too. She [indistinct 00:18:51]. She could sewer. She go to town and buy that material. She didn't buy no sheet. She made that at home. She'd buy them all big, big bow with a [indistinct 00:18:58] to make sheets. Momma used to sew. She was a good sewer. | 18:35 |
Kara Miles | Your mother farmed, too? | 19:04 |
Richard T. Edge | My momma out there because, you see, what happened was dad was dead. My daddy died. Well, he left momma and he had a kid. See, I had a brother, a sister, and another sister. I had another brother. What they did was work was—When I was there, see, I didn't do too much. I had to do chopping in there. What they did was more planting. | 19:06 |
Kara Miles | Why's that? | 19:28 |
Richard T. Edge | See, they was the oldest. | 19:41 |
Kara Miles | Oh. Okay. | 19:41 |
Richard T. Edge | We had [indistinct 00:19:42]. I would pull—[indistinct 00:19:42], though, but a mule. I would pull so far I could reach them, and see Ma go up top there, and we try to pull it farther with the mule. | 19:42 |
Kara Miles | It was corn? | 19:45 |
Richard T. Edge | Corn. You used to shuck all that. You see that long leaf on the corn? | 19:48 |
Kara Miles | Uh-huh. | 19:53 |
Richard T. Edge | Used to pull that off for mules. They tie it up and hang it on the stone, let it dry, then go back an bale it, tie it up, and stack it in the field for the mules, for the winter time. I was a little short. Ma used to pull it far. I would pull it far. [indistinct 00:20:16]. White people wouldn't give you nothing [indistinct 00:20:19], but that mule, but you had to do as you can to feed them. Mm—hmm. | 19:54 |
Kara Miles | You all lived on White people's land— | 20:24 |
Richard T. Edge | Yeah. Yeah. We didn't have no land. We didn't understand that. We didn't have no farm at all. You read a lot. White people get a large family, large farm, make more money. Not you, but they'll make more money. Y'all see what I talking about now? See, that reason we are. Edgecombe County has small farm, 5, 6 block. You might have found it up here in Nash County, here, that man had 10 acres of tobacco. That's a lot of tobacco. See? They didn't want no more people got big family, to see you get that tobacco and stuff for they wouldn't pay nobody. Sharecropper, you know what a sharecropping is here? | 20:30 |
Kara Miles | Uh-huh. | 21:12 |
Richard T. Edge | We used to, you get half, they get half, you don't get no half. They'll say that. Whatever you get through paying out, see, I want it charged, that stuff, that [indistinct 00:21:20] and better they charge us. All the things Ma would get, running up to January, all they'll pay you. We could get no suits, and clothes, and still. Ma made all her material, girls dresses, going to school, and made all of them. She made them herself. I'll pass you in a suit, I got us in overall. Ma used to do a lot of patching, when hole come in. She get one good pair, and let us have it for Sunday. The rest, a hole would come in them, crawling on the ground, she would patch them. That what she would do. | 21:12 |
Kara Miles | Who's land was this, that you all lived on? | 21:56 |
Richard T. Edge | Harper Cold, he dead now. Harper Cold, he dead. At that time, at that Dortches, you know about Dortches, though. Now, you can talk back at a White [indistinct 00:22:10] in '42. They'll send you an army. Out in Dortches, my brother was—Maybe, my oldest brother, I had an older brother [indistinct 00:22:20], too. We were going to town. He asked us where we're going to work. I said, it's around about three o'clock, then. My brother used to cuss. I ain't never believed in cussing. My brother said, "Hell no. I ain't going to work." He said, "How about you?" I said the same thing. He said, "How old are you?" I told him. I said, "19." Say, "I come 20 in July." My brother, he already 20. He was 21. He older than I was. Then, he left in July. He let me come out how I told Ma, but he going to be gone a few days. They sent me [indistinct 00:22:52] in 26th of August. | 21:58 |
Richard T. Edge | See, [indistinct 00:22:54] 26th August getting the tips off. We left here mighty fast, but Ma made us dress good, and I think Ma [indistinct 00:23:07] Joanna, what you're going to do now? All you boys gone. Uncle John Henna was an old fella, but he been in town his whole life. He had old Will come and told Ma about this house here, in Mamu, here. I won't staying in town. When I come out here, I ain't never been here before. I was living in the country. | 22:52 |
Kara Miles | What did your mother do when she came here? | 23:29 |
Richard T. Edge | She came here. That little money she had when I went through Fort Bragg, was a law then, if you don't take no 15 days back home, Ma's check won't start. I wouldn't accept no 15 day. She got $50 a month. $50 a month was good money, they talking about what now? I told her I won't come back home, and said, "Now, before you sign this blank here, you better find her because you can't." I said, "I ain't going back home." I said, "Well, my momma got to have something to eat." "You sign the check. You sign it blank and she'll get her check." I signed it and I went away and stayed for three years. | 23:33 |
Kara Miles | I don't understand the 15 days. | 24:10 |
Richard T. Edge | At that time, you won't sign your name in Army. You come back, stay 15, you won't get no pay and she wouldn't get no pay. I wouldn't accept the 15 days. My check—her check started right there when I signed it blank. You know what I'm saying now? | 24:11 |
Kara Miles | Okay. | 24:25 |
Richard T. Edge | Okay. That how it was. | 24:25 |
Kara Miles | Okay. If you didn't take your 15 days, then she would get— | 24:31 |
Richard T. Edge | A $50 check— | 24:32 |
Kara Miles | —$50. Okay. | 24:36 |
Richard T. Edge | And then my check would start. | 24:36 |
Kara Miles | Okay. She didn't have to work after that. She— | 24:41 |
Richard T. Edge | No. She worked in the country all her life, but she ain't know too much about this town. No. she didn't work at no serve [indistinct 00:24:53] because she'll get of age. | 24:44 |
Kara Miles | Well, I want to talk more about the farming. You worked on Mr. Coley's land. | 25:00 |
Richard T. Edge | Right, but I wasn't in charge of [indistinct 00:25:15]. I worked out on his farm. What do you pay more on my brother? Ma had stripped that one out. He's not nothing, not to him. I'm going to make [indistinct 00:25:24] for the children. You cut your own wood yourself. Go in the woods and cut your own wood. | 25:15 |
Kara Miles | When would he give her money? | 25:33 |
Richard T. Edge | After make the settlement for [indistinct 00:25:36]. [indistinct 00:25:40] cotton. | 25:34 |
Kara Miles | Do you think he was fair and— | 25:45 |
Richard T. Edge | No! You know he wasn't fair. Ma knew he wasn't fair, but there was nothing she could do. At that time, he had a big farm. A whole lot of people didn't make a penny. He was taking that money. My brother could figure good. My brother dead. He died last year. He had a good head on him, on figure. Well, he ain't hardly have it. After you see my brother mean business, he would get a little more money, but my brother when he did, he could do a lot of figuring. Ain't nothing too much you could do after. Ma had three of us young, and the other four. She had to have somewhere to stay at. She couldn't [indistinct 00:26:40] because she could get no job. | 25:50 |
Richard T. Edge | Money ain't never was no factor, though. When she come to town, I tell you what she did. Used to [indistinct 00:26:52], but she didn't [indistinct 00:26:53], they had a place here. People would bring the [indistinct 00:26:55] over town here, they go [indistinct 00:26:57], and people pay her by the pound. | 26:42 |
Kara Miles | Okay. She did that after she came— | 27:07 |
Richard T. Edge | Yeah. Uh-huh. They would pay her by the pound, how many how many pounds? They had a way how to weigh it. You seen how many pounds she had. She had a great— | 27:07 |
Kara Miles | Did a lot of people live on this land— | 27:15 |
Richard T. Edge | Oh. Gosh! Yeah. Well, more Black people's out in the country before Luther King come in. Then, Black people got a lot of money, the White people didn't want them because they didn't want to pay them. That's why a lot of people want no Black people out there. Weren't too many Black people in town, here. We were [indistinct 00:27:49] about it. We were living better than the people in town, here, because we go out and get our own wood and stuff. | 27:26 |
Richard T. Edge | Mom would raise our own meat and chickens, but wasn't no money to spend. The people in town, they had to work to [indistinct 00:28:04] season. We won't need no factories around here [indistinct 00:28:08]. They worked to the [indistinct 00:28:11]. That's where they made their living. They had to do the best they could. That's how it was. Ma, they weren't no [indistinct 00:28:22]. [indistinct 00:28:25] was a Black man job, [indistinct 00:28:39]. The White people wanted to do their job. That would happen. | 27:55 |
Kara Miles | That's what happened after? | 28:44 |
Richard T. Edge | Oh. They [indistinct 00:28:45] the thing. White people want to work there. What happened, you see them go and do mill working. After Luther King come here, started bringing in mills, White people don't want no mill. What happens is, that the reason why Colored people hard to get a job at these mills. They got to have a lot of learning. Now, you see that don't you? You got to have a lot of learning. They wouldn't work for the mill. The job we had at shop, they wouldn't work. I'll tell you what happened. See, you get a little grease. We weren't nothing but Black people there, at the freight department. We had a lot of freight. Your freight [indistinct 00:29:18]. | 28:45 |
Richard T. Edge | Over there, granddad uncle were working there. That was a breezy job, packing boxes, fixing up [indistinct 00:29:27]. White men would have no job. He'd have a boss man. After money got up there, union was gone, [indistinct 00:29:37] union. After union got in there, it made them [indistinct 00:29:41]. Look what happened, not no Black people back. See what happening? You give them a guarantee, and a whole lot of people got paid off, and I didn't accept no pay. I pulled my time. What it did, some of my boys I work with, they got they got their pension, they paid them off, but see, I didn't accept no pay. They'll take 10 cents on the dollar, of $100 on the check. I pull mine full-time. When I got 21, I come out. | 29:18 |
Richard T. Edge | Some of them, they went up to 22, they left there, but got a 10 cent cut, and a 20 cent cut, but I didn't get no cut. The money was there. They want you to leave there. The way money at, now you hear them talking about they don't want you there now. We got [indistinct 00:30:30]. We've got a few Black people down there. They want to get rid of them because they got a guarantee. How now? No guarantee of [indistinct 00:30:38]. That guarantee will put up [indistinct 00:30:42]. Nah. Don't Black people wear them prettier shoes and pants down there, and white shirt? They won't [indistinct 00:30:53] when you leave there. When they working a three or four-hour day, they sit right there are talk. If they would've put eight-hour, till President Kennedy got in there and guarantee a job. | 30:15 |
Richard T. Edge | That's how it was. There already job that White people grabbing. She wasn't working. Now, that's what I worry about now, about our people. I worry about everybody, but don't get no record. You ain't get no job. I talk to these boys down here. [indistinct 00:31:35] get your police record, they ain't going to hire you. | 31:06 |
Kara Miles | Do what now? If you get— | 31:40 |
Richard T. Edge | A police record, they're not going to hire you. | 31:42 |
Kara Miles | Okay. Mm-hmm. | 31:43 |
Richard T. Edge | I get on around here, now. Police get them sitting on doors and stuff, dragging, and police get them. I said, you ain't going to get no job. You going to be right up here. You won't have nothing to grow. [indistinct 00:31:56] just got rid of. Now, I think one of them people, [indistinct 00:32:02] in there, you say [indistinct 00:32:04] money, when you get older and want to get retirement, well, he done it for me. Take these people that are working at these server-work, in the café, there nowhere they [indistinct 00:32:11]. There nowhere they going to [indistinct 00:32:13]. They ain't growing nothing! Only $200 or $300 a month. You have to work. You have to have a good job to get $500 a month. | 31:43 |
Richard T. Edge | Now, Coastlines, they're different. Before pension and Social Security, is 65 years old, or either 70, you get $500 a month, but the Coastline not like that. You get your $306 a month. You get your full pension, but you want more than that in your age. What happen, I work 40-some years, but I work 475 months. Them other months don't count. All you count, that $306 a month, at 30 years. They pay you according what time you have, but they don't want no talk now. They got to be with that car that come from cargo. You can't see how it work just now. That got to come from the car. It's cargo. They can say you work [indistinct 00:33:14] and they on that car, comes the cargo. You have to work it. | 32:25 |
Richard T. Edge | But Social Security now, I got a brother, here, he work the shop, but he ain't work. I feel sorry for him, 65 years old. No. 69. $200-something a month. Now, where we were in World War II, was penny job, [indistinct 00:33:34]. What happened? If you don't work, you don't get nothing, so if you don't pay nothing. You re-live using that, there. I see on the news yesterday, a man said people getting $200 or $350 a month. They don't have to pay no tax on that money, but they don't have nothing! A lot of people, that why they wouldn't work. The factory work don't pay nothing, period. The [indistinct 00:34:03] stole the thing, dollar store, you have to have a good job. I get retirement and windfall money. That's the government money. I don't get no Social Security. I got Social Security, they won't pay me no Social Security. They won't pay out no Social Security. She gets a check on me, retirement. | 33:17 |
Richard T. Edge | Of course, I pay you while in retirement, but if I work some, though. Windfall money, I got to pay tax on that. With retirement, you don't. You don't pay no Social Security. Only way you pay Social Security, you don't have %306 a month. They add it in there. When you got $306 a month, they tell you when you go sign up, if you got file for your Social Security, we're going to cut your check off. You not going to lie, go out here, and work no job, because the woman told us [indistinct 00:34:58], you guys can work anywhere you want to, you get enough money, we going to cut your check off for so many years. I ain't kept no work, none. They tell you not to work. I go down and go work on living, and [indistinct 00:35:17] go back to the local boarder in Raleigh, they going to cut my check off. | 34:24 |
Richard T. Edge | I'm too old now. Age got me, man. I enjoy it, though. I know [indistinct 00:35:30] union meeting, and Calvin Beesic, I miss [indistinct 00:35:34] Calvin. I always think about him, and Ms. Eggasy. Now, you all working, like you working now, he going to pay all the years to come. If you don't work, you don't grow nothing. That's the White fella. | 35:21 |
Kara Miles | Mr. Eggsa was a White— | 35:37 |
Richard T. Edge | Yeah. I think he was a [indistinct 00:35:51] Jew. Think he was [indistinct 00:35:54] Jew. He got along good with Colored people, but he was supervisor. | 35:37 |
Kara Miles | You were talking about the police records, if you have a police record, you can't get a job. | 36:03 |
Richard T. Edge | Nah. Not no good job. | 36:08 |
Kara Miles | Yeah. Could you tell me about police, back in the day? | 36:09 |
Richard T. Edge | Well, Lord, have mercy. Back in the day, when I started coming up town, most all the Black people, you go to Cresa, you going to [indistinct 00:36:24] in Cresa after that. You will not waited on, to all the White waiting on. You don't walk that street, the White people, you know you're going to get messed around and get picked up, and put in jail. You will not holler a lot or talk back at them. | 36:14 |
Kara Miles | Did you ever put in jail— | 36:43 |
Richard T. Edge | No. I ain't never been in jail or did nothing. No. No. I never go to jail. I wasn't scared, though, anyway. [indistinct 00:37:02]. If you stayed under her roof, she'd tell you you could be home 6:00. Okay. You won't go and see your girlfriend. Ma said, "Son—" Now, I was young when I come home to feed the hogs and the mule. Ma said, "Now, son, you be here 6 o'clock." I don't care if you was 20 years old, not 20 [indistinct 00:37:23], you're not 18, 19, you going to be there. She'd tell you once, say, "Yeah." | 36:45 |
Richard T. Edge | Police was—That block used to be terrible. Colored people be cranking it so much, chasing people down that street and block out, with the Colored police. They wouldn't line the block of no White people. Colored people could put Colored people on, but they line it now. They put you in jail and set up there. They'll tell you to be tough. | 37:32 |
Kara Miles | When did Colored policemen come? | 38:03 |
Richard T. Edge | They come after Martin Luther King. | 38:05 |
Kara Miles | [indistinct 00:38:09]. | 38:07 |
Richard T. Edge | Had chasing all of them. [indistinct 00:38:15] had two. | 38:12 |
Kara Miles | They wasn't [indistinct 00:38:17]. | 38:15 |
Richard T. Edge | They lie and go into cuffs, [indistinct 00:38:24] now, though. | 38:20 |
Kara Miles | Police, they started getting new policemen [indistinct 00:38:33] Black [indistinct 00:38:35]. | 38:30 |
Speaker 1 | The Colored policemen could only work on the Colored— | 38:39 |
Richard T. Edge | That's right. Carry a stick, no gun. Chase and Tillman, both of them did that. Both of them did that. | 38:43 |
Kara Miles | You were talking about the block— | 38:51 |
Richard T. Edge | [indistinct 00:38:57]. You know how I know where that at now, because right up there— | 38:58 |
Kara Miles | [indistinct 00:39:02]. | 39:01 |
Richard T. Edge | [indistinct 00:39:03] block up there, that's where the [indistinct 00:39:05] used to be. Uh-huh. We used to call that, a long time ago, the—There wasn't no way to go! You want to come on the main street and walk main street. When the sun started going, you had to get across that [indistinct 00:39:21] right there. You got to get home. You don't have no car. My brother had a car. He was going one way, and we were growing up. We were younger. Weren't seeing too many Black people own cars at that time. | 39:02 |
Speaker 1 | The block was where Colored people had— | 39:33 |
Richard T. Edge | Right. That's right. That's right. That's right. Colored people, now, you be [indistinct 00:39:50]. You know how you used to come through the train and come from Savannah [indistinct 00:39:53]? On the train, you say, "I'm getting in that street from the station," you see nothing but Black people. You heard about [indistinct 00:40:01]? Now, I think they got rid of that place, now. I believe they have. Whole lot of Black people hanging now. I think they got rid of that place. | 39:42 |
Speaker 1 | What place was that? | 40:10 |
Richard T. Edge | That's the [indistinct 00:40:12]. | 40:10 |
Speaker 1 | Okay. | 40:11 |
Richard T. Edge | Where the train used to stop, there. We just started riding when in train. You had to ride it anyway, with the Black [indistinct 00:40:21]. You don't hardly right it, in the clean part. | 40:13 |
Speaker 1 | Tell me about—You had to go to the [indistinct 00:40:21] room, you said? | 40:21 |
Richard T. Edge | Yeah. You don't know about that. Used to have coal burning back then. | 40:21 |
Speaker 1 | On the train. | 40:38 |
Richard T. Edge | Yeah. Them coal, when the thing shoot up there, about two or three cars, all the smog would fall back down in them cars. About three or four cars back, wasn't no smog. That's where the White people sat at. You understand what that is now? | 40:40 |
Speaker 1 | Yeah. | 40:56 |
Richard T. Edge | Mm-hmm. [indistinct 00:40:58] had coal burning back then. Like I told you before, had the coal burning, usually have a shovel, see, White people have no job. Look at them diesel out there, now see a—We got Colored people down there. [indistinct 00:41:12] you see White people down there. Got them diesel, that's a clean job. We don't have no coal burning. They won't share no coal. Black people share their coal, but you got to go to school for that, though. | 40:56 |
Speaker 1 | Where did you have to go? You had to go to school for that? | 41:23 |
Richard T. Edge | Yeah. For any of them, for [indistinct 00:41:31]. We had Black [indistinct 00:41:36] in World War II, at that time. | 41:29 |
Speaker 1 | Why did you go into World World II? Why did you join? | 41:44 |
Richard T. Edge | I didn't join, but [indistinct 00:41:51] Dortches. If you know what red and white, that patch with red and white, you in Nash County, the brick building over there. Ain't that brick building [indistinct 00:42:01] right there? I talk back at a White fella and he said—and I told you a while ago, my brother, he would cuss, older than I am, in [indistinct 00:42:09], and he said, "Well, I don't work." My brother said, "Hell no." I said, "No. Hell no. He don't work." He said, "You will work." He coming out and told my momma my brother already 21. He left in July. He said, "You going to leave here, too." I left at 26th of August, and I didn't come back. They put you in the army, you talk back, a long time ago, especially a White person. They can't do it now. I was put [indistinct 00:42:42] in there. They'll send your application in and get rid of you. | 41:49 |
Speaker 1 | What did you think about joining the Army [indistinct 00:42:52]? | 42:48 |
Richard T. Edge | I was in the country, weren't joining then. They were [indistinct 00:42:59] at the time. I'm old enough to go. I was 21. They put me in at 20 years old. | 43:02 |
Speaker 1 | What did you think of the Army once you got in it? | 43:10 |
Richard T. Edge | After I was in there, I learned a lot. After I left Fort Bragg, Alabama was a bad place. You heard about [indistinct 00:43:21], Alabama. We had to go by three. Them White people will kill you there. [indistinct 00:43:30] Alabama, because we go in town, there, and I stayed at [indistinct 00:43:32] train went out in Texas. Texas was a little different. Mexicans out there in San Antonio. You ever read about [indistinct 00:43:39]? | 43:15 |
Speaker 1 | Uh-uh. | 43:42 |
Richard T. Edge | [indistinct 00:43:43] in San Antonio. We went out there. We had some pretty good colored [indistinct 00:43:49] old fella. I think he was retiring when I went there. At that time, we stayed over there at [indistinct 00:43:59]. I'll tell you, I don't be making no lie, now. At that time, [indistinct 00:44:05] about a half a mile. We went and see the girl. Was a little small town. They hung a wax in there, Black women, and when the Black women, come in there, they said we had a lot of White officers there. They said, "Y'all Black men. Ain't got no money for us. Y'all going to mess it up." What happened, it's [indistinct 00:44:36]. You see them White women and White men laying on under them trees and grass. Well, what we headed to do, go see the [indistinct 00:44:45] Old Mexico. | 43:42 |
Richard T. Edge | You ever read about Old Mexico? We had a [indistinct 00:44:47] go across there. The government sent a convoy across there. Old Mexico ain't never been [indistinct 00:44:53], but now you go to Old Mexico, but you could [indistinct 00:44:55] silver money and $2 bill. You get over there, and mess around, and get in jail, the government pay [indistinct 00:45:02]. Old Mexico and New Mexico different. You can [indistinct 00:45:08] a $2 bill and silver money. You carry any money, what money you have wasn't silver, you got to leave it at the gate. They write your name down, and pick it up when you come back. Yeah [indistinct 00:45:21] Mexico. | 44:45 |
Richard T. Edge | I left Texas, there, went overseas. | 45:23 |
Speaker 1 | What country did you go to overseas? | 45:25 |
Richard T. Edge | I went Casablanca [indistinct 00:45:31] country. I tell you, I always been a little different. When we got in [indistinct 00:45:45], we had some White people that had—We had a Black Red Cross there. We were hot, too. All the ice cream and stuff, they pulled it back. Put a hot coffee. I had another boy that would talk some, too. Now, we do dirty things, but I didn't do dirty things in the jail. We got up there. We're getting a hot coffee, we [indistinct 00:46:13]. We tried the coffee out, and all that stuff that went, oh, we don't get no coffee. They brought that ice cream stuff back. They brought it back. They took all the cold stuff and get hot coffee. We don't want hot coffee. Then, we went overseas. | 45:29 |
Richard T. Edge | Took 18 days to go over there, then, from here to—That's right, Casablanca. We were on a slow ship, then. A [indistinct 00:46:40], you can go [indistinct 00:46:42], now. | 46:29 |
Kara Miles | You can do what, now? | 46:39 |
Richard T. Edge | You can go [indistinct 00:46:43] that, now. | 46:42 |
Kara Miles | [indistinct 00:46:48]. | 46:43 |
Richard T. Edge | Took us 45 days to go from Italy to— | 46:49 |
Richard Edge | But my main thing is stay out of trouble. You don't want to get in no guardhouse. If you get in the guardhouse now, you mostly pay when you get out. They deduct it. You'll pay for that time. So I never get in the guardhouse. | 0:02 |
Kara Miles | What kind of things would you have gotten in the guardhouse for? | 0:13 |
Richard Edge | Because of what you'll do. I didn't never get in the guardhouse because I kept my record clear because you had to pay for that time. You sit in the guardhouse 30 or 40 days, you got to pay that when you come out in World War II. But see, that's the rule. I didn't never go to guardhouse. | 0:13 |
Richard Edge | In service, I always had some extra work to do. First Sergeant always gave me, after I get on duty, he was always a pretty good fellow. He'd tell the captain that I would go there, work with the captain after 5:00. I worked all the while in Texas. When I went to Texas the First Sergeant picked me out. It was Freddy McNair. There 300 something men, I said to myself, "What in the world do he want?" He said, "You stay down here. Don't arrest the boy like that, he don't do nothing." He gave me a job cleaning up offices to [indistinct 00:01:20]. Then I stayed there and he gave me a job. I didn't do it all day now. I didn't do it. [indistinct 00:01:28]. He gave me a job to help the Lieutenant. The Lieutenant paid me $7 or $8 a month. See, that was pretty good money doing that work. | 0:34 |
Kara Miles | You said after the war and you were in the coast line, you said you worked in Savannah? | 1:40 |
Richard Edge | Yeah because seniority called. | 1:46 |
Kara Miles | Okay. | 1:48 |
Richard Edge | I tell you what I did. I worked in Savannah for one year and I come back here and I pulled back in here. Then I went back to Savannah again, stayed there a year. Then I pulled back here and now I'm retired. | 1:50 |
Kara Miles | You went to, you said, Richmond? | 2:04 |
Richard Edge | I even went to Richmond too. You see, you have to go because you have a guarantee. You don't mess your guarantee up. Captains, they'll send you over there. Richmond, I worked for 20 some days. What happened when our boiler got cut off, they pulled me and I come back home. | 2:06 |
Kara Miles | How was Savannah different from here? Did you miss Savannah? | 2:26 |
Richard Edge | Savannah, it was good. It was hot down there. You can't beat no more [indistinct 00:02:38] South Carolina to get along with. Now, I was 40 miles from the job and the boss man called the boy out for me. I had a truck and this man had to get to work [indistinct 00:02:52]. They want ya'll to bring him, them colored boy. And they said, "We'll get him here." You do 40 miles on that main highway out there like y'all's city. I worked there and the boys treated me nice. The Captain, the head man all treated me nice, but it's so hot down there. To tell you the truth, look like a cloud cover, put your rain coat on a few minutes you got to pull it off. Hot down there. | 2:32 |
Kara Miles | You were talking earlier about the differences between living in the town and living in the country. | 3:23 |
Richard Edge | See, now I was in Charleston in the country when I went in the Army. In the country, I'm old enough to know. In the country, we had to get kindling. | 3:29 |
Kara Miles | Get what? | 3:46 |
Richard Edge | Kindling. You know what kindling is? To make a fire. | 3:46 |
Kara Miles | Oh yeah. | 3:46 |
Richard Edge | We'd get a bag. We go find a fat liner stump and get bags of liner for the winter. Put it in bags and bring it and put it in the house. Not in the house we staying. That's what we did. Then we had to cut, in the fair weather that best time to cut your cooking wood when I had a wood stove. Cut your sap and oak pine wood, easy split. That way, my brother he'd cut 5 culls of pine wood and the length of that he split it up for the assembly to cook with. Get it before the sap get in it. Then your winter wood, you get somewhere. Then when the fall of the year come, you got to start cutting green wood. You can't hardly cut no wood out there because the wasps are so bad, and those snakes. See, people do say that down there. But at that time, those snakes wasn't here now. Telling you the truth, we'd go out in the yard and see old snakes any time within the country. They'll hang around chicken houses and eat your eggs up. | 3:50 |
Kara Miles | Which did you like better, town or country? | 5:07 |
Richard Edge | Oh, since I've been here after I got me a job, I ain't never had to be on my own. In the Army, I didn't know where to stay at. When I come out of World War II, he told me I had to worry about making ends meet. She said, "They don't live in town like they do in the country. You got to pay for the winter." | 5:09 |
Kara Miles | What did she mean by that, that you don't live in town the way you did in the country? | 5:37 |
Richard Edge | See, you buy coal and stuff. Prepping winter stuff. And in the country, you'll go cut a load of wood any time. It looks like it don't snow or rain, but you got to cut a load of wood and put it on the wagon in the country. In here, you prepare. It's a little different now. We got city gas and everything else. But we still use wood in that stove in there because my wife likes wood over here. We buy wood. We still use it. | 5:41 |
Richard Edge | I told her after this year, I'm going to get it because I'm getting so that I can't handle that wood now. A man can cut it when we want to have it cut. We use city gas over here now, and electric. In the country, you don't use electric. Oil lamps. In town here now, you've got to prepare. You get out here and your light bill be cut off if you don't pay for your money in the months there. | 6:17 |
Richard Edge | Now, we got to pay more this year. See, I can't even get it and be living. We got to get more I ain't talking about no fuel, little stuff for the kitchen. We had to get it out before the weather gets bad because I usually go help get it. She'll beat me walking there. I can't keep up with her walking now. It's a little different. She's got to go get all that stuff. I was helping here, but she's got to go on. If I want to buy it, she'll go out and buy it. | 6:49 |
Kara Miles | Tell me a little bit about school. Where did you go to school? | 7:30 |
Richard Edge | I didn't go to school. My high school was Edgecombe County, [indistinct 00:07:33] County. | 7:30 |
Kara Miles | And how long did you go to school? | 7:32 |
Richard Edge | I went about 6th grade, that's it. I just wouldn't go. Ain't no telling. | 7:38 |
Kara Miles | Did you used to have to stay out of school some days to work on the land? | 7:50 |
Richard Edge | Yeah, after I attended the County, mom used to keep us out and pick that cotton before it starts raining. If it rained on the cotton you couldn't sell it good. She tried to get all the first picking. The second picking we called the storm cotton. They like it here now. People don't know no different now. We used to get out there and pick that cotton first. We don't want no storm cotton. | 7:55 |
Kara Miles | So when it was time to do that, did you go to school? | 8:28 |
Richard Edge | No. She couldn't do it all by herself. I couldn't [indistinct 00:08:40] because I didn't know nothing about that. We would have sweet potatoes, had to get them up and put them in the back. My brother, we would do the picking and put them in baskets, number one and number two. | 8:33 |
Kara Miles | So would you miss a certain number of days from school a week? | 9:01 |
Richard Edge | If the cotton comes, you're going to take a whole month to pick that cotton. | 9:05 |
Kara Miles | So you wouldn't go to school that month? | 9:10 |
Richard Edge | No. Family and them went, the girls went. | 9:14 |
Kara Miles | Okay, the girls went. | 9:14 |
Richard Edge | Yeah. | 9:14 |
Kara Miles | Did the girls ever have to stay out? | 9:21 |
Richard Edge | No, family ain't never picked no cotton. Jess, she got married. And my older brother, he would get up feed for the mules in the winter time. After daddy died, he did the most important thing, prepare for the mules and cows for the winter. We had a cow too. He had come over here and we would cow feed before it started raining and snowing. We'd come with the wagon and get enough for the cow. the cow had to eat. He always did that with the mules on the wagon. | 9:23 |
Kara Miles | Did the girls go further in school? | 10:14 |
Richard Edge | Oh yeah. Fanny High School [indistinct 00:10:23]. She wouldn't go to college. We had one that went two years at Booker T. And my brother in Philadelphia, he went. He got grown. He got pretty good learning. That's why he had work, see. | 10:17 |
Kara Miles | Did you ever go visit Philadelphia or New York? | 10:48 |
Richard Edge | Yeah. After mom passed, [indistinct 00:10:56]. I came up to see the tree every year after I stayed five years. We'd go there and stay two weeks every year. Since mom passed, I been there one time since then. People got so— My older sister died up there. I don't hardly go up there no more because if you got on a train in New York, you'll lose anything. Train don't go far in the city. And when I used to go there, Jess used to meet me. She knows the sub, I don't. There's a difference. Brooklyn, see I don't go. I don't know how to go up there no more. | 10:51 |
Richard Edge | I may go see Francis sometimes. She's in Philadelphia. I don't hardly go there no more because she [indistinct 00:11:58]. She ain't paying no attention. Get me up there and you don't know what kind of cab you get on. The cab changed since I've been up there. Last time I've been up there, my brother in Philadelphia, a gang of guys on the train. They said, "That man don't live up here." We waited 7 or 8 more and we got on a cab. You see, if I had been by myself, ain't no telling what would have happened. It ain't like it used to be. | 11:46 |
Kara Miles | Well, New York a long time ago, did you used to go up north when you were younger? | 12:30 |
Richard Edge | No. I started going north after I come out of World War II. | 12:38 |
Kara Miles | What did you think of the north? | 12:39 |
Richard Edge | I don't care nothing about it. | 12:39 |
Kara Miles | Yeah? | 12:39 |
Richard Edge | No. I don't like that crowd. I don't think nothing about it. You got to stay in the house all the time. | 12:46 |
Kara Miles | Was the situation different with White people and Jim Crow and stuff? Was that different there? | 12:56 |
Richard Edge | You can't hardly tell when they're talking and everything. | 13:03 |
Kara Miles | What do you mean? You can't do what now? | 13:05 |
Richard Edge | Like when you go get groceries, you don't know hardly what they're saying. | 13:09 |
Kara Miles | Okay. | 13:12 |
Richard Edge | Most of them Jews run them stores. I wasn't up there enough to learn too much about it because I didn't want to stay there and work. My brother up there in Philadelphia, he likes it up there because he's been up there since 1946. He love it up there. | 13:12 |
Kara Miles | Tell me about voting. When could Black people vote around here? | 13:41 |
Richard Edge | What now? Oh, I'm going to tell you about myself. | 13:45 |
Kara Miles | Okay. | 14:11 |
Richard Edge | Before [indistinct 00:14:12]. He was an older fellow and he helped me a whole lot for voting. They used to go up there. You don't know hardly where it's at. You had to go all red tape. And I'll tell you what happened. Mason, you may have heard me talk of him, we started having meetings here in these churches. And Mason had a meeting and [indistinct 00:14:31] Raleigh, they helped us a whole lot. We ain't had no help for Black people. We were overlooked. They don't care. If you had a brick house and fine cars, it's the same way now. Don't have that up there where you're at. They'll go along with you, but you're overlooked here and in churches out there. | 14:12 |
Richard Edge | I worked in a pastor for 20 years. But I'm in a little different shape now. I helped him a whole lot. Not run his business now, see. When they come out here, they're young. And they treated them so bad, he asked me to help him with the pulpit. And I didn't hardly want to do it because I was working. And mom was living. I told mom about it. And as I got married I told him I've been working with a pastor 20 years. But see, he knows it. I told him to get somebody else. I said, "Pastor, I just can't keep it." Ain't nobody going to mess with it. It ain't complicated. But you think there's job in the pulpit. During that [indistinct 00:15:48] I told her not to bring no work in there. We had guys in the usher drinking. They had me going there to put it on the old church. We ain't been there all the time. And it's been done ever since. | 14:59 |
Richard Edge | No, I can't keep up with him now but my legs bother me so bad. [indistinct 00:16:14]. You see her though. You can't beat the pastor walking though. He was a good man and he loves children. But we got some tough people up there now. Don't let nobody fool you. I overlook that stuff. I'm old enough to. | 16:07 |
Richard Edge | Now what y'all did Sunday, y'all brought me home. I have younger people to bring me home but I hate to put the weight on anybody. You know me. I'll go by myself. But pastor, he offered to bring me home. We got some people that overlook but I don't have no ground to walk on. I make a pretty good living. He'll make a fool out of you if you aint got no sense. I hate to talk about it though. She ain't been there too long. "No, I don't go by your rules, period." I'm going to do exactly what I've been doing. I'm not going to change. | 16:33 |
Richard Edge | You know Dave, don't you? | 17:26 |
Kara Miles | Yeah. | 17:28 |
Richard Edge | I know good and well. You must have met him. Yeah. That bag I had, now I have a different bag. I can't pack stuff in there. In that bag, I had [indistinct 00:17:49], candy and towels for the pulpit. I keep them and clean them. She had that bag every time I leave church. I told her not to do it no more. She just had come out. I said, "I've been her longer than you have." But she don't miss it no more. | 17:33 |
Kara Miles | And you were telling me about Rev. Mason. | 18:07 |
Richard Edge | Rev. Mason's dead now. He was as good man for people. Now, he's hard to beat. [indistinct 00:18:17]. Out here working at this church and things and he was going around behind these Black people and I got interested in him. And I started to register to vote. And I don't pass now. [indistinct 00:18:30]. | 18:11 |
Effie Edge | I think really it's because of the [indistinct 00:18:30]. | 18:29 |
Richard Edge | He's not here when I come out. | 18:29 |
Effie Edge | Yeah. | 18:29 |
Kara Miles | Was Rev. Mason Black? | 18:29 |
Richard Edge | Yeah. | 18:29 |
Kara Miles | He was Black, okay. He was at your church? | 18:29 |
Richard Edge | No. | 18:29 |
Kara Miles | What church was it? | 18:29 |
Effie Edge | That's on— | 18:29 |
Richard Edge | Thomas Reed, Saint James. Yeah, Mason was a good man. | 18:29 |
Kara Miles | And they used to hold meetings there? | 18:30 |
Richard Edge | Yeah, all the churches. | 18:30 |
Kara Miles | Okay, to try to get people to vote? | 18:33 |
Richard Edge | Yeah. We used to have a church like that full. | 18:34 |
Kara Miles | Now, when was this? | 18:35 |
Richard Edge | That was [indistinct 00:19:11] Luther King started. Wasn't too many Black people. The Black people also didn't care. Not us, now. We was out by ourselves. We got pretty good jobs. What happened was we just stopped taking junk off White people. These school teachers would spit on top of you, keep moving. I'm glad to have what I learned because I got a granddaughter now in school. She goes to state, now look at her. She comes her Sunday and she's going for her masters, year and a half. I said to myself, "I don't know what happened." She'll finish state this year. | 19:11 |
Kara Miles | In May? | 19:42 |
Richard Edge | May. Like I told you, we bought her a car when she didn't have no transportation. She bought the car brand new. Now she's over there working and good thing she's got that car. She can't go 4, 5, 6 miles to work walking. She's real nice. | 19:42 |
Kara Miles | You were talking about how well-to-do Black people would kind of forget about poorer Black people. | 20:22 |
Richard Edge | Yeah. | 20:28 |
Kara Miles | Tell me something about that back in the day. Tell me about it. | 20:29 |
Richard Edge | You don't know [indistinct 00:20:36]. | 20:35 |
Kara Miles | What was different about Wilson? | 20:36 |
Richard Edge | Wilson, I think people are a little better than Wilson. It was always Jim Crow with Black people. | 20:48 |
Effie Edge | One thing about Wilson, it has more Black people in business. | 21:12 |
Kara Miles | Okay. | 21:19 |
Richard Edge | But I still down turn it back down. I never had, like I said, windfall money. I'd rather pay her. But see what I mean? We got good colored people here. I'd rather pay that Black lady that lives in the next house there. Yeah, and fill that windfall bank for money every year. I'd rather pay her than pay the White person because she needs it. She's trying to get into school and trying to get herself up. We got good people here. | 21:19 |
Kara Miles | You were talking about different White people and how they acted and things. Could you talk a little bit more about any experiences with Whites that you had, bad experiences? | 21:57 |
Richard Edge | I had more bad experiences after I come out of the Army and get my checks cashed and stuff. You were overlooked. I mean, I agree on that in a way. They didn't know you. You don't get waited on. I had my check there from the coast line and I couldn't get it cashed. I had just come out of World War II. Now, [indistinct 00:22:44] I hadn't done a lot of running around. I used to go to J.C. Penny. They knew me, but the young races down there, I got to have my picture and everything. If you got money in the bank, you can't buy nothing. I don't hold this on them. | 22:12 |
Richard Edge | And I went to buy me something or another. I told that lady down there, "Why you didn't tell them to call me, a parent?" One bank I went into to try to get some money and they didn't want to have it. What was I talking about? | 23:01 |
Effie Edge | You did, one time you was out to the mall. | 23:17 |
Richard Edge | Yeah. | 23:17 |
Effie Edge | And you was going to write a check and the lady wouldn't accept it. But the lady at the back said, "Well, why you didn't call me?" I don't guess he was thinking because she wasn't that age at that time. | 23:18 |
Richard Edge | No. | 23:42 |
Effie Edge | So they wouldn't cash it. So thought, "Y'all really didn't get it, did you?" | 23:43 |
Richard Edge | No, didn't get nothing. But I think that's a good idea. | 23:46 |
Effie Edge | It's about the same now. | 23:51 |
Richard Edge | Yeah, people go get your money out there. | 23:51 |
Effie Edge | It's about the same way now. You know you got to have some identification. You just don't walk in them banks and get their money and you don't have no identification. And you got to show something to cash your check. But the bank we use, I don't have to have nothing because they know me. But anybody can't just walk in there and cash a check now. So it was back then like it is now. But some people is slick enough to cash a check. But if I go to a bank anywhere else, I got to show some identification. They don't know me. And that's the same about my money. If I man knocks on my door talking about some money, I don't know him and he's not getting nothing from me. So it's about the same. | 23:52 |
Richard Edge | It's about the same. | 24:53 |
Effie Edge | It is about the same. | 24:53 |
Kara Miles | Okay. Well, I have enjoyed talking to you. | 24:59 |
Richard Edge | I'm glad you came by. | 25:01 |
Kara Miles | Yeah. | 25:01 |
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