William Johnson (primary interviewee) and Beaulah Johnson interview recording, 1993 July 02
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
Sonya Ramsey | One, two, three, testing, testing. One, two, three. Okay, Mr. Johnson, could you describe the area where you grew up as a little boy? | 0:01 |
William Johnson | Out here in Tillery. Halifax County. Halifax, North Carolina. | 0:09 |
Sonya Ramsey | Okay. What was Tillery like back then? | 0:10 |
William Johnson | Oh, it was rough around here. No, it wasn't too bad. But see, children look like [indistinct 00:00:26]. Along there, children back then didn't ever go no place anyway, going home at night, go home in the evening. Nothing like they do now, all night and all day. They ain't doing nothing but—That's hand in hand with time. | 0:29 |
Sonya Ramsey | You said it was different, the kids. You were real busy when you were a little boy? | 0:42 |
William Johnson | That's right, didn't— | 0:49 |
Sonya Ramsey | What kind of things did you have to do? | 0:49 |
William Johnson | Oh, I just worked on the farm most of the time with my father til days I growed up. | 0:55 |
Sonya Ramsey | What kind of crops did your family bring? | 0:57 |
William Johnson | Cotton, corn, peanuts. | 1:00 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did your family own their own land? | 1:04 |
William Johnson | No, no. | 1:06 |
Sonya Ramsey | No? They worked for other people? | 1:07 |
William Johnson | Most of them, anyway. | 1:09 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did y'all have to move around a lot where you lived or did you stay in Tillery most of the time? | 1:15 |
William Johnson | Well, they moved around a lot too, about twice, two or three times or something like that. | 1:16 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did your mother work on the farm with your father? | 1:27 |
William Johnson | That's right. | 1:29 |
Sonya Ramsey | How many brothers and sisters did you have? | 1:30 |
William Johnson | Six little boys and three girls. | 1:41 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, okay. Did your father ever talk to you or tell y'all about, did the man that y'all work for, did he ever try to cheat y'all or anything like that? | 1:43 |
William Johnson | Who we worked for? | 1:53 |
Sonya Ramsey | Mm-hmm. | 1:53 |
William Johnson | No. | 1:53 |
Sonya Ramsey | No? | 1:53 |
William Johnson | No. | 1:53 |
Sonya Ramsey | How did the money get exchanged? | 1:53 |
William Johnson | Well, you do farm, you see, you get so much a month, every 30 days anyway. Give 'em enough to buy groceries and everything. | 1:59 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did your family have your own tools or did you rent your tools? | 2:05 |
William Johnson | No, they rented mainly, where your farm had the tools, you know? Mules and plows, [indistinct 00:02:15] forks and everything. Worked on the farm [indistinct 00:02:19]. | 2:09 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did your brothers and sisters, did y'all help out on the farm? | 2:24 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm, every morning on the farm. | 2:27 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did y'all get to go to school that much? | 2:30 |
William Johnson | Yeah, we went to school pretty often. Sometimes I wouldn't, the rest of them did but I didn't. I would go, what, you know, if the rain or something like that, I couldn't work in the fields, I'd go to school then. As soon as it stopped raining, I'd go back in the fields, plowing. | 2:33 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you like school? | 2:50 |
William Johnson | I liked it, mm-hmm. | 2:50 |
Sonya Ramsey | What did you like about it? | 2:50 |
William Johnson | I liked to go to school and be in the congregation at school, and teachers, they treated me nice, just like—just liked it, but I just couldn't go. | 2:50 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did the teachers try to help the children that couldn't go to school as much? | 3:00 |
William Johnson | No, not long then. | 3:05 |
Sonya Ramsey | They didn't? | 3:06 |
William Johnson | No. | 3:06 |
Sonya Ramsey | Was it hard to try to catch up? | 3:08 |
William Johnson | Yeah. | 3:10 |
Sonya Ramsey | After y'all were working, what did you and your schoolmates or your friends do for fun? | 3:13 |
William Johnson | Well, we all stayed down there and worked together on, you see—didn't never go out no place to work, I just worked there on the farm all the time. | 3:20 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did y'all play any games and things like that? | 3:25 |
William Johnson | Yeah, played—what you call that thing? Jack rocks. | 3:32 |
Sonya Ramsey | Jacks? (Johnson laughs) Okay. Were you good at that game? | 3:35 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I was good on that jack rock game. The rocks were somewhere, I could get [indistinct 00:03:41], mm-hmm. | 3:39 |
Sonya Ramsey | When you got to be a young man, did you want to always stay on the farm or did you want to leave? | 3:47 |
William Johnson | Well, I stayed on the farm for quite a while, then I left after everything kind of like when they stopped farming, so I worked public work, you know. Out. | 3:52 |
Sonya Ramsey | Where did you work when you did public work? | 4:03 |
William Johnson | Oh, in the woods. | 4:04 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, in the logging camp? | 4:06 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 4:08 |
Sonya Ramsey | What did you like better, the public work or working on the farm? | 4:09 |
William Johnson | Well, I liked the public work better because I was getting money. On the farm, wasn't getting— | 4:15 |
Sonya Ramsey | You got more money. | 4:16 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. That's right. | 4:17 |
Sonya Ramsey | What kind of things did you do when you worked for the logging camp? | 4:19 |
William Johnson | Well I sawed. | 4:24 |
Sonya Ramsey | Saw? | 4:24 |
William Johnson | Drove trucks and all that stuff, hauled logs, pulled wood and all that kind of stuff. | 4:25 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you work there a long time? | 4:32 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I worked there about a year or more. Then I worked at the gin house, ginning that cotton four years. | 4:33 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, okay. And what was that like, working at the gin house? | 4:33 |
William Johnson | That was fun, good. | 4:33 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you like that better than the logging mill? | 4:33 |
William Johnson | Sure did. | 4:33 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did it pay more? | 4:33 |
William Johnson | Well, about the same. | 4:33 |
Sonya Ramsey | About the same? | 4:33 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 4:33 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did your other family members still work on the farm while you were working out there? Did you still live at home or did you have your own home? | 5:00 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I still lived there. Mm-hmm. | 5:04 |
Sonya Ramsey | When you were working at the logging mill, did you work with just Blacks or did you work with Whites too? | 5:12 |
William Johnson | Oh, Black. | 5:18 |
Sonya Ramsey | Just Blacks? | 5:24 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 5:32 |
Sonya Ramsey | And when you worked at the cotton—the gin mill, did you work with just Blacks? | 5:35 |
William Johnson | Yeah, all the Black workers, but a White man was the boss there. | 5:35 |
Sonya Ramsey | How did he treat his workers? | 5:35 |
William Johnson | It's all right, we've just been through and pay us the price, that's all. Even Martin, you know he was in Tennessee. We didn't know nothing about him. He died about 10 or 12 years ago now. | 5:35 |
Sonya Ramsey | How did the Whites treat the Blacks there? | 5:47 |
William Johnson | Well, they treated them all right, or if they didn't treat them, they wouldn't take it, you see? | 5:49 |
Sonya Ramsey | Really? (Johnson laughs) What would they do? | 5:49 |
William Johnson | Reckon they'd go and quit and go somewhere else. | 5:49 |
Sonya Ramsey | Was it hard or was it easy to find jobs? | 6:05 |
William Johnson | Well, along then, it was easy to get a job, but it wasn't like you leave one job and go to another. You just might have on a farm or plow or a truck driver or any man wanted somebody to do just work the gin house or putting up tobacco. Yeah, you can get a job, but you won't get too much for it. Nothing but the work. | 6:11 |
Sonya Ramsey | What were some of the good jobs to have and what were some of the bad jobs? | 6:26 |
William Johnson | Well, wasn't no good jobs around here then. (laughs) No, they weren't paying but 50 cents an hour, 50, 60 cents an hour. And one of the jobs I worked at—One of the things would really cheat on you, too, you know. When you would take four or five dollars, most of the time boss would tell you you couldn't through, but you might take four or five dollars and put it in your pocket. That's right. | 6:53 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you have a lot of friends that you worked with? Did you know the people that you worked with? | 6:59 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I know a bunch of them, but all them are dead though. Yeah, all the boys I was raised up with are dead and gone. | 6:59 |
Sonya Ramsey | Were there places that you could go when you got to be a young man that you could go for fun and things like that? | 7:12 |
William Johnson | No. Not except you go to schoolhouse or something like that. Have a program at the schoolhouse, you know? | 7:19 |
Sonya Ramsey | Programs at the school? | 7:22 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 7:22 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you like going to those? | 7:28 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I like that. Mm-hmm. | 7:30 |
Sonya Ramsey | Were you much of a courter back then? Did you do a lot of courting, would you say? | 7:34 |
William Johnson | No. | 7:36 |
Sonya Ramsey | No? Not a little bit? | 7:36 |
William Johnson | A little bit. A little bit. (laughs) | 7:36 |
Sonya Ramsey | A little bit? | 7:36 |
William Johnson | Yeah, a little bit. | 7:45 |
Sonya Ramsey | What was that like? | 7:45 |
William Johnson | Well, I just did what, about it—I was mostly—always been a homeboy, you know? I was the last one that left home. I was the last one that left, and went to Baltimore and Norfolk and everywhere. I was the last one that left. I was the last one—went to New York. | 7:48 |
Sonya Ramsey | You left and went to New York? | 7:58 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 7:58 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, okay. | 7:58 |
William Johnson | Yeah, and New Jersey and Baltimore and all that. | 7:58 |
Sonya Ramsey | How old were you when you went to New York? | 8:06 |
William Johnson | Around about—I'd say about 20, 22 years old. | 8:22 |
Sonya Ramsey | And why did you decide to leave to go to New York? | 8:30 |
William Johnson | Well, there wasn't nothing here to do no how and then I got a— | 8:30 |
Sonya Ramsey | It was hard— | 8:30 |
William Johnson | Told the reverend, took me something, and [indistinct 00:08:31], you see. (laughs) I was fighting up there in town one night and I had to check out. | 8:36 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, you were fighting down here, and you had to leave? | 8:40 |
William Johnson | Down here, that's right. | 8:40 |
Sonya Ramsey | Were you fighting with a Black person or a White person? | 8:40 |
William Johnson | No, White, White, White. | 8:44 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, so you had to get out, hm? | 8:46 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I had to get out. I didn't had to go, but the man I worked for told me, "Don't go nowhere." Said, "but here you go, you know, staying—" I said, "Well, if I stay here and then he get notice they're going to put me in jail, they're not going to talk." So I said "I'm going to leave." I'd have stayed here and worked under him all the time, see? Because I got paid, and I went about my business. | 8:48 |
Sonya Ramsey | And if you stayed, they would have put you in jail? | 9:08 |
William Johnson | Yeah, if they got me to put me in jail, but they never would get me. | 9:08 |
Sonya Ramsey | What did they do to Black men when they put them in jail? Did they hurt them? | 9:19 |
William Johnson | Yeah, keep them in jail, til they try 'em again. Four or five months and six months or 12 months, like that, on the road. | 9:25 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did they make them work in the— | 9:31 |
William Johnson | On the road, yeah. | 9:31 |
Sonya Ramsey | They made them work, not just be in jail? | 9:31 |
William Johnson | That's right, in the [indistinct 00:09:37] you can get out of jail [indistinct 00:09:38] go to work, but it ain't like that now. The jail house and everything full, nowhere to put them, because [indistinct 00:09:44] but now they've got machines to do the work. | 9:31 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you think that was unfair that you had to leave like that? | 9:43 |
William Johnson | Well, it wasn't fair because the man brought it on his self. | 10:02 |
Sonya Ramsey | You just defended yourself? | 10:13 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 10:13 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did he call you a name or something? | 10:13 |
William Johnson | Yeah, and he hit me. | 10:13 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, yeah. But that was self-defense. | 10:13 |
William Johnson | That's right. He hit me with a pair of bare knuckles. Getting ready to [indistinct 00:10:17]. | 10:15 |
Sonya Ramsey | So did you like New York? | 10:20 |
William Johnson | Oh yeah, I liked New York pretty good. | 10:22 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you have someone to stay with when you first got up there? | 10:25 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm, I had an aunt. | 10:27 |
Sonya Ramsey | An aunt? Okay. | 10:27 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm, out there. | 10:27 |
Sonya Ramsey | What part of New York did you go to? | 10:27 |
William Johnson | I was up there in Brooklyn. Not Brooklyn, not Brooklyn—yeah, it was in Brooklyn. | 10:27 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you ride on the subways, things like that? | 10:27 |
William Johnson | Once in a while. | 10:27 |
Sonya Ramsey | What did you think about that? | 10:27 |
William Johnson | I liked that all right. | 10:27 |
Sonya Ramsey | You did? You liked that? | 10:27 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 10:27 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you get a job while you were in new York? | 10:27 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 10:27 |
Sonya Ramsey | Where did you work? | 10:27 |
William Johnson | I worked down in a place called—not Fells Point—Fells Point, no, not Fells Point—[indistinct 00:10:58] Company. | 10:27 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, okay. Did you like that job? | 10:27 |
William Johnson | Yeah, but [indistinct 00:11:15]. We worked hard in that place. | 10:27 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did it pay pretty good? | 10:27 |
William Johnson | Yeah, it paid pretty good [indistinct 00:11:25], mm-hmm. | 10:27 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you just work with Whites or did you just work with Blacks? | 11:28 |
William Johnson | No, all mixed up together. | 11:28 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, what did you think about that? | 11:29 |
William Johnson | Knowing they treat you right, do you right— | 11:33 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did they treat you pretty good? | 11:41 |
William Johnson | Well, the Whites didn't never work down with the Colored, you know. Well, the boss, he over there—You never see the boss but once in a while. I worked the nights. I never seen him for a period, because I work in nights, and see he come on in and check then go back to his house. | 11:43 |
Sonya Ramsey | What did you do for fun up in New York? | 11:53 |
William Johnson | Wasn't much fun—well, was fun along then, but not now, it ain't no fun. | 12:02 |
Sonya Ramsey | You didn't think it was any fun? | 12:02 |
William Johnson | No, I didn't ever— | 12:04 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you work too hard? | 12:07 |
William Johnson | Yeah, and I worked too hard, but I didn't even know no place to go. | 12:08 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, okay. | 12:08 |
William Johnson | Until I got used to it. I used to go from there to New Jersey, that was with my uncle. Not my uncle, he was my great uncle. See that's why—my aunt over there, come back to New York, go back to work. Get them [indistinct 00:12:26] boat up there. Around there [indistinct 00:12:28] get a couple bills, go on back to the house. | 12:09 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did they tease you because you were from the country? | 12:41 |
William Johnson | I reckon they couldn't. | 12:41 |
Sonya Ramsey | Mm-hmm. | 12:41 |
William Johnson | Because a bunch of them come from the country, you know. All them boys, I see no one raised up here together. | 12:42 |
Sonya Ramsey | So you knew some people from down here that came up there too? | 12:43 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm, yeah, a bunch of them, up there, and a bunch of them died up there. I've got two brothers up north, my two brothers—he's older, died in Baltimore. He ain't been dead about—no, been dead around about four years now, five years, something like that. He ain't been dead that long ago. Huh? | 12:54 |
Sonya Ramsey | [indistinct 00:13:14] | 13:08 |
William Johnson | Yeah, he's out, and another brother, [indistinct 00:13:18], baby, he died. My brother stayed down here [indistinct 00:13:24] down here, he died. There's three of us living, and three dead and all my sisters, there's three sisters dead. Mother and Father are dead. | 13:15 |
Sonya Ramsey | How long did you stay in New York? | 13:24 |
William Johnson | I stayed in New York about a year and a half. | 13:24 |
Sonya Ramsey | Okay. Where did you go after that? | 13:24 |
William Johnson | Come back here. | 13:50 |
Sonya Ramsey | You did? | 13:50 |
William Johnson | No, I didn't. I come back to Newark. | 13:50 |
Sonya Ramsey | Newark? | 13:52 |
William Johnson | Newark, New Jersey. | 13:53 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, did you like Newark? | 13:54 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I liked that pretty good. | 13:54 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you like it better than New York or worse? | 13:54 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I liked it better than New York. | 14:00 |
Sonya Ramsey | Why— | 14:20 |
William Johnson | New York was a fast town. | 14:20 |
Sonya Ramsey | A little too fast. | 14:20 |
William Johnson | Yeah, girl. | 14:20 |
Sonya Ramsey | Was Newark a little slower? | 14:20 |
William Johnson | Yes [indistinct 00:14:20] got faster. [indistinct 00:14:20] | 14:20 |
Sonya Ramsey | Really? (Johnson laughs) | 14:20 |
Sonya Ramsey | What did you do when you were in Newark? | 14:22 |
William Johnson | I worked in a place called [indistinct 00:14:26] just a little pickup job, you know [indistinct 00:14:27] I worked for my aunt's husband [indistinct 00:14:27]. I'd go out here [indistinct 00:14:27] he'd pay me and that's all. | 14:26 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you like working there? | 14:27 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I liked working there. Mm-hmm. He won't give me too much, but I was just staying there [indistinct 00:14:49] he married my aunt, and I stayed down there. It was a nice place to stay, lay down and get up when I get ready, and he'd [indistinct 00:14:58] when I want to. I liked that. | 14:27 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you date much while you were in Newark? Did you go on any dates and things like that? | 15:02 |
William Johnson | Who? | 15:04 |
Sonya Ramsey | You? Did you go out and court any while you were up there? | 15:04 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 15:04 |
Sonya Ramsey | Was it faster than down here? | 15:04 |
William Johnson | Yes, fast and just right [indistinct 00:15:08] right now, you ain't got time. When you see one you want to [indistinct 00:15:24] go on about your business [indistinct 00:15:35] you see? There ain't many girls around here now [indistinct 00:15:40] teenage [indistinct 00:15:41]. All the rest of them dead and gone everywhere. | 15:07 |
Sonya Ramsey | How long did you stay in Newark? | 15:56 |
William Johnson | I didn't stay in Newark too long. I went back [indistinct 00:15:56] back to Newark. New York back to Newark. This week I might go over there and the next week, come back and be back in New York. | 15:56 |
Sonya Ramsey | [INTERRUPTION 00:16:14] I'm sorry, how long did you stay in Newark? That was the last [indistinct 00:16:49]. | 15:56 |
William Johnson | Oh, I didn't stay there too long. I transferred back and forth from New York to Newark. | 15:56 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, okay. Back and forth? | 15:56 |
William Johnson | Just back and forth, mm-hmm. Go to New York this week, stay there on Saturday. Sunday come, I'll go back to New Jersey [indistinct 00:16:52] go back to New York. | 15:56 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, how did you get back and forth? | 16:52 |
William Johnson | I had an uncle. He [indistinct 00:17:11], he come on and get me and take me over there and bring me back. | 17:14 |
Sonya Ramsey | That's nice. | 17:15 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 17:15 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you think you would always stay up there? | 17:15 |
William Johnson | No, I didn't—It was all right, but I didn't like it too good there. | 17:21 |
Sonya Ramsey | Why not? | 17:27 |
William Johnson | I don't know [indistinct 00:17:29] folks fighting and doing everything. I couldn't get out—I was scared to go out but people didn't go out. [indistinct 00:17:41] stay in the house all the time after night come. | 17:32 |
Sonya Ramsey | What time was this about the—was it the '30s or the '40s when you were in Newark when you first started— | 17:46 |
William Johnson | [indistinct 00:17:52] '39. No, '30s [indistinct 00:18:04] 1940. Something right along in there. | 18:03 |
Sonya Ramsey | Okay. Did you have to go into—I'll go back. What did you do after you lived in Newark? Or, how long did you stay there? | 18:10 |
William Johnson | In Newark? | 18:14 |
Sonya Ramsey | Yeah, lived in New York and Newark? Did you move after that? | 18:15 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I come back to Baltimore then. | 18:21 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, why did you decide to go to Baltimore? | 18:21 |
William Johnson | Yeah, then I stayed in Baltimore, then I come back here, come back home. | 18:27 |
Sonya Ramsey | Why did you decide to move to Baltimore? | 18:30 |
William Johnson | Well, I had a lot of people up there too, you know? A lot of people. | 18:32 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, a lot of friends and relatives? | 18:33 |
William Johnson | From New York and Newark, New Jersey, Baltimore. I had a lot of people [indistinct 00:18:43] second cousins, all that. Mm-hmm. | 18:33 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you like Baltimore when you first got there? | 18:50 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I liked it pretty good when I first got there. [indistinct 00:18:59] | 18:51 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you get a job when you first got there? | 19:03 |
William Johnson | In Baltimore? | 19:05 |
Sonya Ramsey | In the boiler room? | 19:05 |
William Johnson | No, Baltimore. Yeah, I got a job there [indistinct 00:19:10] laser company. We were the only one on the [indistinct 00:19:15] I think that job's still going on. | 19:08 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you like that job? | 19:23 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I liked it but it was just so hot down there. [indistinct 00:19:23] really big building, you see? And got an apartment [indistinct 00:19:28] just like they're pouring water out of a bucket. Hot too. Good God [indistinct 00:19:41]. | 19:24 |
Sonya Ramsey | Was it hard to get jobs or did people help you [indistinct 00:19:43]? | 19:40 |
William Johnson | Well, it wasn't too hard, hm-mm. No, I think my brother-in-law got a job for me. | 19:43 |
Sonya Ramsey | Your family helped you with jobs? | 19:45 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 19:53 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you live with your brother-in-law in there with Baltimore? | 19:58 |
William Johnson | No, I lived with my—in Baltimore, no. No, I [indistinct 00:20:07] with my brother in Baltimore. I lived with my aunt. | 20:00 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, with your aunt? | 20:00 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 20:06 |
Sonya Ramsey | What did you do for fun in Baltimore? Did you get to go out any up there? | 20:17 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 20:20 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you like it? | 20:20 |
William Johnson | I liked it. | 20:20 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did they have the same kind of places they had in New York? | 20:25 |
William Johnson | Yeah, mm-hmm. | 20:33 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you like them better or the ones in New York? | 20:33 |
William Johnson | I liked in Baltimore better. | 20:33 |
Sonya Ramsey | Really? Why is that? | 20:35 |
William Johnson | Hm? | 20:35 |
Sonya Ramsey | Why was that? | 20:36 |
William Johnson | Well, it was more convenient there. | 20:38 |
Sonya Ramsey | A little easier to get to? | 20:39 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm, easier to get around. | 20:39 |
Sonya Ramsey | Why is it easier to get around? | 20:39 |
William Johnson | Well, the houses [indistinct 00:20:50] some over here and some over there and some on that side of the street [indistinct 00:20:58] streets up there in New York [indistinct 00:20:59] I liked New York all right, in a way. I had a lot of friends up there who stayed up there. And I thought I'd leave there and come back to Baltimore. | 20:54 |
Sonya Ramsey | How long did you stay in Baltimore? | 21:07 |
William Johnson | I stayed in Baltimore about a year. | 21:07 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh [indistinct 00:21:21]— | 21:07 |
William Johnson | [indistinct 00:21:21] | 21:07 |
Sonya Ramsey | Okay. Where did you go after that? | 21:07 |
William Johnson | From Baltimore? | 21:07 |
Sonya Ramsey | Mm-hmm. | 21:07 |
William Johnson | Come back here. | 21:27 |
Sonya Ramsey | Came back here? | 21:28 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 21:28 |
Sonya Ramsey | Why did you decide to come back here? | 21:28 |
William Johnson | Well, my mother [indistinct 00:21:32] she was living then and she [indistinct 00:21:38] I said, "Well, let me get [indistinct 00:21:39] on the road." So I come back, and come back and I got back in trouble again. | 21:31 |
Sonya Ramsey | You got back in trouble again? | 21:38 |
William Johnson | And I liked to. I liked [indistinct 00:21:47] down there and beat him and I throwed him overboard. Let him drown. | 21:54 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh goodness. | 22:00 |
William Johnson | Drowning down there [indistinct 00:22:01] moonshine at night [indistinct 00:22:03] tried to run over me. | 22:01 |
Sonya Ramsey | He tried to run over you? | 22:04 |
William Johnson | Yeah, mm-hmm. | 22:04 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh goodness. Was this a White man too? | 22:04 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 22:04 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, okay. | 22:04 |
William Johnson | [indistinct 00:22:11] moonshine [indistinct 00:22:14]— | 22:04 |
Sonya Ramsey | He was drunk and that's why— | 22:16 |
William Johnson | No, he wasn't drunk. [indistinct 00:22:18] | 22:16 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, why did he try to run over you? | 22:16 |
William Johnson | [indistinct 00:22:18] drinking, you see? | 22:16 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, they still remembered that. | 22:21 |
William Johnson | Yeah, yeah. [indistinct 00:22:26] | 22:23 |
Sonya Ramsey | That's scary. That's scary. That would scare me. What did you do after that? | 22:34 |
William Johnson | I didn't do nothing, I just stayed around, stayed around. | 22:34 |
Sonya Ramsey | You didn't leave again? | 22:39 |
William Johnson | No, I didn't leave again, hm-mm. | 22:39 |
Sonya Ramsey | Why did you decide to stay? | 22:39 |
William Johnson | [indistinct 00:22:41] go nowhere [indistinct 00:22:43] wait to stay there to kill him, then I'll go. | 22:42 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh. Okay. | 22:44 |
William Johnson | See, to kill him, then I'll go then and go somewhere. But he ain't never [indistinct 00:22:51] once in a while now [indistinct 00:22:53] be mean. I said, "No, I ain't never been mean." [indistinct 00:22:56] I said, "No, I don't take nothing [indistinct 00:23:00] I'm going to treat you right and you treat me right." [indistinct 00:23:04] | 22:48 |
Sonya Ramsey | Where did you think you got your courage from? | 23:01 |
William Johnson | Hm? | 23:01 |
Sonya Ramsey | To be so strong? Where do you think you got your courage from? | 23:09 |
William Johnson | I don't know, it just got in me [indistinct 00:23:14]. | 23:10 |
Sonya Ramsey | Do you think you got it from your parents? | 23:10 |
William Johnson | No. | 23:10 |
Sonya Ramsey | No? | 23:10 |
William Johnson | No, [indistinct 00:23:21] my parents, but they were good. | 23:10 |
Sonya Ramsey | Were you the only one that would fight back like that or— | 23:10 |
William Johnson | No, [indistinct 00:23:27] my brother. | 23:10 |
Sonya Ramsey | Your brother would too? | 23:27 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I got a brother. Yeah, [indistinct 00:23:31]. He lived in Baltimore. He's the youngest one. Yeah, [indistinct 00:23:38] down there one night, hit a girl in her leg. [indistinct 00:23:43] | 23:29 |
Sonya Ramsey | You said what happened? He was in a store and what happened? | 23:47 |
William Johnson | He shot [indistinct 00:23:51]. | 23:49 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh. | 23:49 |
William Johnson | [indistinct 00:23:55] he got to the door and started shooting [indistinct 00:24:01] hit somebody else. This boy down here now and the boy [indistinct 00:24:05] and hit the girl in the leg [indistinct 00:24:06]. | 23:57 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, when was this? | 24:06 |
William Johnson | That had been a pretty good while ago. | 24:06 |
Sonya Ramsey | A while ago? | 24:10 |
William Johnson | Yeah, [indistinct 00:24:12] gotten married. | 24:10 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, you got married. How did you meet your wife? | 24:17 |
William Johnson | In New York. | 24:18 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, in New York. Was she from New York? [indistinct 00:24:24] | 24:19 |
William Johnson | [indistinct 00:24:24] New York. She was in Brooklyn [indistinct 00:24:30] in Brooklyn or Long Island or Coney Island or somewhere. | 24:25 |
Sonya Ramsey | What was your wedding like? Did you have a big wedding or a small wedding? | 24:38 |
William Johnson | A small wedding. | 24:39 |
Sonya Ramsey | Small wedding? | 24:39 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 24:39 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did family come down here, come—Did you get married in New York? | 24:45 |
William Johnson | No, I got married here. | 24:48 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, you brought her down here? | 24:49 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 24:50 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did she like it down here? | 24:53 |
William Johnson | Yeah, it's her home. | 24:54 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, she was from here too. | 24:56 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 24:56 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, did you know her before? | 24:59 |
William Johnson | Yeah, yeah, I knew her before. | 24:59 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you know her while you were growing up? | 24:59 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 24:59 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh. Were you always sweetheart? | 25:06 |
William Johnson | No, I just met her when I was in New—I mean [indistinct 00:25:11] when I was in New York. | 25:10 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, okay. | 25:10 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I've been [indistinct 00:25:11] sit, talk with her. | 25:10 |
Sonya Ramsey | Well, didn't you move back here with your [indistinct 00:25:25]? What did you do when you moved back here? | 25:10 |
William Johnson | I got married here. | 25:26 |
Sonya Ramsey | Mm-hmm, you got married. Where did you live then after you were married? | 25:28 |
William Johnson | I lived with her mother for a while, then I moved here and I moved, me and my brother moved together. | 25:39 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did your father ever give you advice on how to be a good husband and things like that? | 25:42 |
William Johnson | No. | 25:43 |
Sonya Ramsey | Or your older brothers? | 25:43 |
William Johnson | No. | 25:43 |
Sonya Ramsey | No? So you had to learn on your own? | 25:43 |
William Johnson | That's right. | 25:43 |
Sonya Ramsey | Okay. | 25:43 |
William Johnson | [indistinct 00:25:57] he'd tell me what to do, "Go out tonight and do this and do that and get yourself in trouble, you're going to jail for your time." I said, "Okay." [indistinct 00:26:10] you go out there [indistinct 00:26:13] I said, "What can Momma do?" Can't do nothing. [indistinct 00:26:20] get in no trouble. | 25:59 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you start farming when you were down here, or when you moved back down here with your wife and you got married? | 26:23 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I started farming. | 26:26 |
Sonya Ramsey | Mm-hmm? | 26:26 |
William Johnson | Hm-mm. | 26:26 |
Sonya Ramsey | No? You did? Where did you work then? | 26:32 |
William Johnson | I worked in [indistinct 00:26:37] driving a truck. | 26:32 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, you drove a truck? | 26:32 |
William Johnson | Hauling logs [indistinct 00:26:41], mm-hmm. | 26:32 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you like that job? | 26:32 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I liked it pretty good until you get ready to unload. | 26:45 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, then it's hard work, huh? Did you have to lift those? | 26:47 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm [indistinct 00:26:53] that pole wood about five feet long [indistinct 00:26:57] on a flat car. | 26:54 |
Sonya Ramsey | How did you get that job? Did someone help? | 26:57 |
William Johnson | I worked with an old Colored fella, a preacher. He was hiring a whole lot of boys around here [indistinct 00:27:10] some hauling and some sowing. He was paying about—I think $5 or $10 a cord. Cut it by the cords, you know? | 27:04 |
Sonya Ramsey | What did your wife do when she first got here? Did she get a job too? | 27:20 |
William Johnson | Who? | 27:23 |
Sonya Ramsey | Your wife. Did she— | 27:24 |
William Johnson | Yeah. | 27:25 |
Sonya Ramsey | Mm-hmm? | 27:25 |
William Johnson | No. | 27:25 |
Sonya Ramsey | No? She stayed at home? | 27:25 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 27:25 |
Sonya Ramsey | Do you have any children? | 27:31 |
William Johnson | Two. | 27:31 |
Sonya Ramsey | Two, okay. | 27:31 |
William Johnson | Yeah, a girl and a boy. | 27:36 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, a girl and a boy. You didn't want to have a big family? | 27:36 |
William Johnson | No. | 27:39 |
Sonya Ramsey | No? | 27:52 |
William Johnson | If they [indistinct 00:27:53] grew it on up [indistinct 00:27:53]? | 27:52 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, get bigger, huh? | 27:52 |
William Johnson | [indistinct 00:27:53] | 27:52 |
Sonya Ramsey | [indistinct 00:27:53] | 27:52 |
William Johnson | Yeah, [indistinct 00:27:53] in Baltimore, no. | 27:52 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, okay. They were born in Baltimore? | 27:55 |
William Johnson | No, they were born here. | 27:55 |
Sonya Ramsey | Born here? | 27:55 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 27:55 |
Sonya Ramsey | Are they in Baltimore now? | 27:59 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 27:59 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, okay. Do they get to visit much? | 28:01 |
William Johnson | Yeah, they come [indistinct 00:28:04] son, he might be here sometime this July, but he didn't say when he's coming, but he will call and let me know when he's coming. | 28:02 |
Sonya Ramsey | When your own children were little, did they get to go to school more than you did? | 28:19 |
William Johnson | Who did? | 28:19 |
Sonya Ramsey | When your children were little. | 28:19 |
William Johnson | My children? | 28:19 |
Sonya Ramsey | Mm-hmm. | 28:19 |
William Johnson | Oh, my daughter finished. | 28:19 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, that's good. | 28:19 |
William Johnson | And my boy, he finished [indistinct 00:28:28] school too. My daughter went to Greensboro. She finished her— | 28:24 |
Sonya Ramsey | Do you think they had it better than you had? | 28:32 |
William Johnson | Oh yes. | 28:32 |
Sonya Ramsey | Yeah? | 28:32 |
William Johnson | When I grew up, I had to work. She didn't have to work. | 28:32 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, they didn't have to work? | 28:32 |
William Johnson | No, she didn't have to do no work. There wasn't no work for them to do [indistinct 00:28:48] pick cotton, she didn't ever pick no cotton. | 28:47 |
Sonya Ramsey | After you lived with your mother-in-law, then where did y'all move after that? | 28:55 |
William Johnson | I moved around here to—Where did move? [indistinct 00:29:04] up here. | 28:58 |
Sonya Ramsey | In Tillery? | 29:04 |
William Johnson | Yeah we went up [indistinct 00:29:10]. | 29:04 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, okay. | 29:04 |
William Johnson | There used to be a big house sitting on a hill. I moved up there with my mother and father and I left there, I moved to New Town, stayed down there a while. And the next place, I moved down here to [indistinct 00:29:30] stayed there for two or three years and then I moved down [indistinct 00:29:37] again. I was on the lift and I moved to a house that was on the corner right there, from that house here. | 29:13 |
Sonya Ramsey | Okay, okay. | 29:43 |
William Johnson | Yep. | 29:48 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you always keep working, where you were working or did you ever leave your job? | 29:49 |
William Johnson | No, I stayed at work there until I started with Martin out here and really digging, to drive trucks all the time, haul peanut, cotton, corn, everything. | 29:51 |
Sonya Ramsey | Were you ever involved in any organizations like the NAACP or things like that? | 30:06 |
William Johnson | No. | 30:14 |
Sonya Ramsey | No? Did you ever vote [indistinct 00:30:16]? | 30:14 |
William Johnson | Vote? | 30:14 |
Sonya Ramsey | Mm-hmm. | 30:14 |
William Johnson | Yeah, I vote. | 30:14 |
Sonya Ramsey | Was it hard for Blacks to vote? | 30:17 |
William Johnson | Hm-mm, hm-mm. | 30:19 |
Sonya Ramsey | It wasn't hard? | 30:19 |
William Johnson | No, it wasn't hard, hm-mm. | 30:19 |
Sonya Ramsey | When did you first start voting? | 30:22 |
William Johnson | About two years ago now [indistinct 00:30:30]— | 30:25 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, you just started? | 30:32 |
William Johnson | Something like that, yeah. | 30:32 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you ever try to vote back then? | 30:32 |
William Johnson | Hm-mm. | 30:33 |
Sonya Ramsey | No? Why was that? | 30:35 |
William Johnson | Let's see—No, I didn't try to vote [indistinct 00:30:45] no, I didn't [indistinct 00:30:51]. I just changed my mind—it's been a couple years ago now. I vote [indistinct 00:30:57]. | 30:43 |
Sonya Ramsey | What made you change your mind? | 30:56 |
William Johnson | I don't know [indistinct 00:31:01] they want you to vote [indistinct 00:31:03] I ain't getting nothing out of it. No, I'm just going to vote for the Democrat [indistinct 00:31:16] vote for somebody, what Democrat or Republican, so I've been voting for the Democrats [indistinct 00:31:22]. | 31:02 |
Sonya Ramsey | When your children were—I forgot to ask you, back then, do you remember any remembrances of your grandparents? | 31:46 |
William Johnson | Yeah, granddad. Yeah, I remember one— | 31:46 |
Sonya Ramsey | [indistinct 00:31:46] | 31:46 |
William Johnson | —my mother's father. I never knew my daddy's father. | 31:46 |
Sonya Ramsey | What was your—the one you remember, what was he like? | 31:46 |
William Johnson | Oh, his name was Jacob [indistinct 00:31:51]. He stayed [indistinct 00:31:54] he was real old when he died [indistinct 00:32:01] daddy, I never knew his daddy and I ain't never known his mother. | 31:49 |
Sonya Ramsey | He didn't know—they passed away before you could get to know them? | 32:05 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. Yeah. But my mother, I knew her father and I knew her mother, but I'd never seen her mother, but after she died, her daddy met another lady [indistinct 00:32:28] so he just [indistinct 00:32:30]— | 32:06 |
Sonya Ramsey | Was she like your grandmother then? She was like a step grandma. | 32:30 |
William Johnson | [indistinct 00:32:38] she's like a step grandmother [indistinct 00:32:42]. | 32:41 |
Sonya Ramsey | What were they like? | 32:41 |
William Johnson | Hm? | 32:41 |
Sonya Ramsey | What were they like? | 32:43 |
William Johnson | Who? | 32:43 |
Sonya Ramsey | Your grandparents on your mother's side? | 32:43 |
William Johnson | Well they were okay. | 32:56 |
Sonya Ramsey | Were they strict? | 32:58 |
William Johnson | Hm? | 32:59 |
Sonya Ramsey | Were they strict on y'all or were they nice? | 33:00 |
William Johnson | They were nice enough [indistinct 00:33:04] most of the time. No, they was okay [indistinct 00:33:12]— | 33:03 |
Sonya Ramsey | Go on. | 33:06 |
William Johnson | So my granddaddy, he was good, and my stepmother, she was good, but I'd never seen them—her mother but after she died, he married again [indistinct 00:33:27] real small [indistinct 00:33:29] two girls, two girls and two boys. | 33:13 |
Sonya Ramsey | Do you remember any stories that they told you about anything? | 33:38 |
William Johnson | No, they wouldn't tell no stories [indistinct 00:33:43]— | 33:41 |
Sonya Ramsey | They didn't talk— | 33:41 |
William Johnson | They didn't have time. | 33:41 |
Sonya Ramsey | Were they working too? | 33:41 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm, yeah. | 33:41 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, okay. | 33:41 |
William Johnson | No, they didn't have time. Worked all day and then they'd come home at night [indistinct 00:33:55] back then you've got [indistinct 00:33:57] no bikes or no nothing, so [indistinct 00:34:00] smoking [indistinct 00:34:02] go in the house [indistinct 00:34:04] you couldn't sleep at night [indistinct 00:34:04] but now [indistinct 00:34:04]. | 33:50 |
Sonya Ramsey | Things are better now— | 34:03 |
William Johnson | Oh girl, what are you talking about? And a lot better too. Yeah. | 34:03 |
Sonya Ramsey | Was it hotter than, back then? | 34:03 |
William Johnson | Hot, yeah [indistinct 00:34:06] it doesn't seem like it was, but it's the hottest here right now. [indistinct 00:34:06] early in the morning [indistinct 00:34:06] when they get hot, they come out, go into the house, sit down and cook [indistinct 00:34:40] pick some blackberries and [indistinct 00:34:44] cabbage and white potatoes and ham and meat. Sit down and at your dinner, you go back in the field and eating about four or five [indistinct 00:34:51] cool, work until it gets dark [indistinct 00:34:55] 90 degrees [indistinct 00:35:01] chopping tobacco. No sir, couldn't have been me. I ain't got nothing [indistinct 00:35:08] have a stroke, who's going to help you out? Nobody but death to come and get you. | 34:06 |
Sonya Ramsey | Where did people go when they got sick? What did they do? | 35:17 |
William Johnson | Well, they had a doctor come out to you. You call the doctor and he'll come to your house. | 35:21 |
Sonya Ramsey | Was it a White doctor or a Black doctor? | 35:22 |
William Johnson | White. | 35:22 |
Sonya Ramsey | White? Was he nice? | 35:22 |
William Johnson | Yeah, Dr. White and Dr. John and Dr. Smith and Dr.—There's plenty of doctors around here. | 35:30 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did they treat their Black patients well? | 35:39 |
William Johnson | Especially the White. But now he ain't coming out here. You've got to go to him, hospital [indistinct 00:35:50] do come pick you up [indistinct 00:35:54]. | 35:44 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did Blacks go to the hospital back then? | 35:54 |
William Johnson | Hm? | 35:57 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did Blacks go to the hospital back then? | 35:57 |
William Johnson | Back when? | 35:59 |
Sonya Ramsey | Back during the segregation times? | 36:00 |
William Johnson | Yeah, they go. Mm-hmm. | 36:02 |
Sonya Ramsey | Would they get treated? | 36:02 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. Oh yeah. | 36:02 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did they have a Black hospital here or just the White hospital? | 36:09 |
William Johnson | No [indistinct 00:36:14] took care of the White and Colored [indistinct 00:36:16]. | 36:14 |
Sonya Ramsey | Where did y'all go to buy stuff when y'all went shopping? | 36:25 |
William Johnson | [indistinct 00:36:31] | 36:29 |
Sonya Ramsey | [indistinct 00:36:31] | 36:29 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 36:29 |
Sonya Ramsey | How did those stores treat the Black people? | 36:33 |
William Johnson | All right [indistinct 00:36:36] Black people was in there working. | 36:34 |
Sonya Ramsey | I'm sorry, what did you say? | 36:34 |
William Johnson | You've got Black people in there working. | 36:34 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, Black people, there were Black people working there? | 36:34 |
William Johnson | Yeah, in the cash registers, yeah. | 36:34 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, okay. Is that back then too or is that now? Back then they had Black people working? | 36:34 |
William Johnson | No [indistinct 00:36:54] post office and all the places like that, banks. You see them [indistinct 00:36:59] in there now, yeah. | 36:34 |
Sonya Ramsey | Back then, how was it like to buy stuff? Were they nice back then? | 36:34 |
William Johnson | Yeah, they were good and things were cheap too, you know? Yeah, they go in the store now and them cash registers [indistinct 00:37:17] yes, sir. | 36:34 |
Sonya Ramsey | Around here, did they ever have any signs about segregation, like the Colored bathrooms and the White bathrooms? | 36:34 |
William Johnson | Yeah, you got [indistinct 00:37:32] now. | 36:34 |
Sonya Ramsey | They do? | 37:34 |
William Johnson | Jim Crow, yeah. | 37:34 |
Sonya Ramsey | They had the Jim Crow signs there? | 37:44 |
William Johnson | No, but you go over there, you can't get in—"Bathroom's out of order." Yeah, but you in there. Some places that's probably right now do the same thing. Sometimes you go to them hotels—I mean, them restaurants and on the bathrooms you can go in all you want, White and Colored, White and Colored. But some of the places, you know, on the street. Well, I couldn't much afford them but I would go in there, and we ain't got it unlocked, drinking wine, tell the bosses ain't drinking wine, all this stuff [indistinct 00:37:58] and everything [indistinct 00:37:58]. | 37:44 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you ever know anybody who would go to the White water fountains and the White restrooms just to break the rules and things? No? | 37:58 |
William Johnson | Hm-mm. | 37:58 |
Sonya Ramsey | What would happen if somebody did that? | 37:58 |
William Johnson | The restroom, [indistinct 00:37:58] yeah, they go in the same place [indistinct 00:37:58]— | 37:58 |
Sonya Ramsey | I mean back then— | 37:58 |
William Johnson | No, no— | 37:58 |
Sonya Ramsey | That's what I mean, back then. | 37:58 |
William Johnson | No, no, no [indistinct 00:37:58]. | 37:58 |
Sonya Ramsey | What would happen if somebody did back then? | 37:58 |
William Johnson | Well, somebody would come in there and catch you and put some wood on your head or knock you on your head or do something [indistinct 00:37:59]— | 37:58 |
Sonya Ramsey | [indistinct 00:37:59] do that? | 37:58 |
William Johnson | Yeah. Mm-hmm. No, things have changed around— | 37:58 |
Sonya Ramsey | You think things have changed? | 37:58 |
William Johnson | More than 100 different ways too. | 37:58 |
Sonya Ramsey | For the better or for the worse? | 37:58 |
William Johnson | For the better. | 37:59 |
Sonya Ramsey | For the better? | 37:59 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 37:59 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did anything change for the worse? | 37:59 |
William Johnson | No, ain't nothing changed for the worse, not around here. For the same thing [indistinct 00:39:20] and killed his self. | 38:52 |
Sonya Ramsey | Okay, okay. Your children then, you said they went to Baltimore after they got grown up? | 39:15 |
William Johnson | [indistinct 00:39:42] yeah, they've been there since Laura left Greensboro. From Greensboro to Baltimore [indistinct 00:39:49] since they've been in school. | 39:15 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you stay in—What was the last place I asked you where you were? You said you were working where it was so hot, you said? Did you stay there? | 39:15 |
William Johnson | Where? | 39:15 |
Sonya Ramsey | When you first got here and you started working? | 39:15 |
William Johnson | Oh yeah, I stayed here. | 39:15 |
Sonya Ramsey | You stayed there a long time? | 39:15 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 39:15 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you ever have a garden at your house? | 39:15 |
William Johnson | Garden? | 39:15 |
Sonya Ramsey | Mm-hmm. | 39:15 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 39:15 |
Sonya Ramsey | Mm-hmm. Did you ever raise any other farm too or [indistinct 00:40:19]? | 39:15 |
William Johnson | [indistinct 00:40:19] garden, that's all, just a small garden. | 39:15 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you like farming when you were farming? | 40:25 |
William Johnson | No, I didn't like it. No, I didn't like it. | 40:27 |
Sonya Ramsey | You didn't? Why didn't you like it? | 40:30 |
William Johnson | No, I didn't like it. You had to go there and plow and do all that kind of stuff. Well, you didn't get no money for the first of the month. I'd rather be working on my own, making $2 or $3 a week or $4 or $5 a week. I had that [indistinct 00:40:47] but that ain't what I want. I want some money sometime. | 40:32 |
Sonya Ramsey | Yeah, so you could buy things. | 41:00 |
William Johnson | That's right. As I growed up, I went to working and I said, I'm more out here now. Day that you stop farming and after you work enough, [indistinct 00:41:16] a little farm, make a little garden, and all that stuff. [Indistinct 00:41:18] you got sick, you couldn't do nothing. | 41:14 |
Sonya Ramsey | When you were growing up, who made the decisions about money and your family? | 41:17 |
William Johnson | Who made the money. | 41:29 |
Sonya Ramsey | Who made the decisions about money, like where to buy things and what to do with the money? | 41:30 |
William Johnson | Well, my daddy did. | 41:34 |
Sonya Ramsey | Your daddy did? | 41:36 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 41:37 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did your mother have any input on that? | 41:40 |
William Johnson | Well, she had some, but you know how men was along then, my daddy, he was, he would take her shopping every once in a while. He needed the money, he'd go off somewhere. He'd buy the groceries and everything. My mother, she'd work on the farm, she'd have to get her $30. The time she get around to buying this and buying that and buying this and buying that, that was gone. | 41:42 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did they have a certain store where they had to go buy stuff? | 42:15 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 42:17 |
Sonya Ramsey | Why did they have to go to a certain store. | 42:17 |
William Johnson | There used to be a man [indistinct 00:42:19] they go down and get anything [indistinct 00:42:28] meal, flour, sugar, everything [indistinct 00:42:34] anything they wanted, but they he had to pay for it. | 42:17 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did they pay in cash or did they pay on credit? | 42:41 |
William Johnson | They paid in cash. [indistinct 00:42:46] | 42:41 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did they sometimes take it out of the crops? | 42:47 |
William Johnson | That's right. | 42:48 |
Sonya Ramsey | Was that most of the time, they took it out? | 42:48 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 42:48 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did they charge more when they did that? | 42:53 |
William Johnson | No, they couldn't charge too much, but they would take it all. [indistinct 00:42:59] a nigger brought around 10 to 12, 13 bales of cotton, 150, 75 bags of peas, corn and rice. They didn't take no soybeans down there. That was worth five cents a pound for every five—a bale of cotton weighed 500 pounds, about $50. You could buy peanuts for three cents a pound off of [indistinct 00:43:31], wasn't doing nothing. Make a bit of money for Christmas. Go in the field, stash of peas, [indistinct 00:43:38] niggers a screen wallet, sold the peanuts and screen them up, put them in a bag and sell them for Christmas. | 42:54 |
Sonya Ramsey | Christmas? | 43:47 |
William Johnson | Yeah, Christmas, but don't ever got Christmas money. (laughs) | 43:47 |
Sonya Ramsey | What was Christmas like? Did you like it? | 43:47 |
William Johnson | Oh, Christmas was good. But sorry that it get near and come, come and gone, satisfy you. | 43:59 |
Sonya Ramsey | So fast, huh? | 44:03 |
William Johnson | Mm-hmm. | 44:04 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you get a day off and things like that? A little rest? | 44:05 |
William Johnson | No, I ain't never get no day off. | 44:07 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh wow. | 44:07 |
William Johnson | No, unless there's rain or snow or do something else. Never get no days off. | 44:07 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did you have sick time? If you got sick, did they give you the day off? | 44:09 |
William Johnson | Sick? | 44:18 |
Sonya Ramsey | If you got sick, mm-hmm. | 44:19 |
William Johnson | Yeah, they'd give you the day off. | 44:20 |
Sonya Ramsey | Oh, okay. You didn't get any vacation days? | 44:24 |
William Johnson | No, no, no vacation. No vacation. You get sick, you just sit and [indistinct 00:44:31] when you get well, go on back to work, cut that pay. | 44:24 |
Sonya Ramsey | Did they have a union there? | 44:30 |
William Johnson | No. | 44:30 |
Sonya Ramsey | No? | 44:30 |
William Johnson | No, there ain't never been no union around here. | 44:30 |
Sonya Ramsey | Why is that? Why is that? | 44:30 |
William Johnson | I don't know. There ain't enough people, I don't think. Union round here, ain't going to work, no how. How you get no union, they ain't going to do nothing. They got their union holding them benches down. | 44:45 |
Sonya Ramsey | Okay. I think I asked you all the questions—Is there something I should ask you that I haven't asked you yet about your life? Am I leaving something out? | 44:47 |
William Johnson | No. | 45:00 |
Sonya Ramsey | Okay. I think I pretty much finished. I don't want to leave anything out. | 45:06 |
William Johnson | Yeah, you've done okay. | 45:10 |
Sonya Ramsey | Okay. | 45:10 |
William Johnson | You say your home is where? | 45:10 |
Sonya Ramsey | [indistinct 00:45:14] | 45:10 |
Item Info
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