“Yes, miss, Hot Springs was a good place to make money. Lots of rich folks was coming to the hotels. Yes, ma’am, I made money. How’d I make it? Well lots of ways. I used to run. I was the fastest runner what was. Folks would bet on us, and I’d always win. Then I used to shine shoes. Made money at it too. Lots of days I made as much as $4 or $5. Sometimes I didn’t even stop to eat. But I was making money, and I didn’t care.
“Then there was a feller, a doctor he was. He give me a gun. I used to like to hunt. Hunted all over these mountains[1], hunted quail and hunted squirrel and a few times I killed deers. The man what gave me the gun he promised me twenty five cents apiece for all the quail I could bring him. Lots of times I came in with them by the dozen.
“I tried to save my money. Didn’t spend much. I’d bring it home to my mother. She’d put it away for me. But if my pappy knowed I got money he’d take it away from me and buy whiskey. You might know why, miss. He was part Creek—yes ma’am, part Creek Indian.
“Does you remember chinquapins? They used to be all over the hill up yonder.[1] I used to get lots of them. Sell them too. One time I chased a deer up there[1]. Got him with a knife, didn’t have a gun. The dogs cornered him for me. Best dog I ever had, his name was Abraham Lincoln. He was extra good for a possom dog. Once I got a white possom in the same place I got a deer. It was way out yonder—that place there ain’t nothing but rocks. Yes, ma’am, Hell’s Half Acre.[2]
“Yes, miss, I has made lots of money in my time. Can’t work none now. Wish you had got to me three years ago. That was before I had my stroke. Can’t think of what I want to say, and can’t make my mouth say it. You being patient with me. I got to take time to think.
“Me and my wife we gets along pretty well. We have our home, and then I got other property.[3] We was real well off. I had $1200 in the bank—Webb’s Bank when it failed.[4] Never got but part of my money back.
“When I sold out my bootblack stand I bought a butcher shop. I made a lot of money there. I had good meat and folks, black folks and white folks came to buy from me. So you remembers my barbecue, do you? Yes, miss, I always tried to make it good. Yes, I remembers your pappy used to always buy from me.
“Your grandmother was a good woman. I remember when your Uncle Freddy had been following me around all day while I was hunting—it was in your grandpappy’s garden—his vineyard too—it was mighty big. I told Freddy he could have a squirrel or a quail. He took the squirrel and I gave him a couple of quail too. Went home with him and showed your grandmother how they ought to be fixed.
“I can remember before your father lived in Hot Springs. He and his brothers used to come thru from Polk County. They’d bring a lot of cotton to sell. Yes, ma’am lots of folks came thru. They’d either sell them here or go on to Little Rock. Lots of Indians—along with cotton and skins they’d bring loadstone. Then when your pappy and his brothers had a hardware store I bought lots of things from them. Used to be some pretty bad men in Hot Springs—folks was mean in them days. I remember when your father kept two men from killing each other. Wish, I wish I could remember better. This stroke has about got me.
“Yes, miss, that was the garden. I used to sell garden truck too. Had a bush fence around it long before a wire one. Folks used to pass up other folks to buy truck from me. Your mother did.