“The Ku Klux got after our papa. They fixin’ to kill him. He hid in the gullies. They come to our house once or twice but I never seed em. Papa come once or twice and took us all and hid us fore sundown. They quit huntin’ him.
“We farmed wid Mr. Hess. Mr. Herrin wouldn’t let nobody bother his hands.
“We had good times. I danced. We had candy pullings bout at the houses. We had something every week. I used to dance in the courthouse at Clarendon—upstairs. Paul Wiley was head music man. All colored folks—colored fiddlers.
“I was married over fifty years. Bunt Sutton’s mother helped bout my weddin’ supper. (Bunt Sutton’s mother was a white woman.) She and her family all was there. She had then two boys and two girls. Mama bought me a pure white veil. I was dressed all in white. We had a colored preacher to marry us. We married at night, borrowed lamps and had em settin’ about. There was a large crowd. Ann Branch was the regular cake-cooker over the country. She cooked all my cakes. They had roast pork and goose and all sorter pies. Then I went on to my new home on another man’s place bout one-fourth mile from mama’s house. Bunt Sutton’s mama was a widow woman.
“My husband voted some but I don’t pay no tention to votin’.
“I own a place but it don’t do no good. My son is cripple and I can’t work. I done passed hard work now. My husband bought this place before he died. I don’t get help from nowhere.
“This is hardest times in my life. Well, education doin’ a heap of good. The papers tell you how to do more things. It makes folks happier if they can read.
“Now I don’t be bothered much wid young folks. You heard em say flies don’t bother boilin’ pots ain’t you? I does nough to keep me going all the time and the young folks shuns work all they can cept jes’ what it takes for em to live on right now. Their new ways ain’t no good to me.”