"Us has been married more dan 50 years and dey has all been happy years. Us has had our troubles and hard luck, but dey come to evvybody. De Lord has been mighty good to us, 'specially in lettin' us be together so long. It was what you might call a case of love at fust sight wid us. I was visitin' down at Camak, Georgia at Christmastime. She lived at Sparta, and was spendin' Christmas at Camak too, but I didn't see her 'til I was 'bout to leave for Athens. I jus' thought I never could go 'way atter I fust seed her, but I did, and I didn't git to see her again for 12 long months. Us writ to one another all dat year and got married at Christmastime, one year from de time us fust met.
"Us has still got dat old pen I used when I writ and axed her to marry me; I'd lak to show it to you. 'Scuse me please whilst I goes in de house to git it." Soon Ike returned. "Ain't it a sight?" he proudly exclaimed as he displayed the relic. "I made it up myself in December 1886 and it got her consent to marry me, so I'se kept it ever since. My wife and me wouldn't part wid it for nothin'." The wooden pen staff is very smooth as though from long usage except at the tip end, where it appears to have been gnawed. It looks very much as though Ike may have chewed on it as he wrote that all important letter. The iron pen point, much too large to fit the standard grooves of the ordinary pen staff, was placed on the staff and tightly wrapped. After 52 years of service the pen point and its staff are still in good condition. Ike has the Prince Albert coat that he wore on his wedding day and he insists that it looks and fits as well now as it did on the occasion of his marriage. "I'm keepin' de coat and pen for our chillun," he declared.
Before resuming the conversation, Ike went back in the house to put the treasured pen away. In a few moments he returned. "God has been good to us," he said, "for He let us have all nine of our chillun 'til dey was grown up. Us wuked mighty hard to raise 'em and give all of 'em a good education. Dat was somepin us couldn't have when us was growin' up and I'm thankful to be able to say dat us was able to send 'em all to college. Four of our chillun has gone on ahead to de next world, and de five dat's left is scattered from place to place; none of 'em is wid us now, but dey don't forgit us. Dey writes to us and visits us often and us goes to see dem. One son is goin' mighty well as a lawyer in Washin'ton, D.C., and our baby lives in New York City. It's been 'bout 3 years now since my daughter Juliette died atter a automobile wreck near Dalton, Georgia. Did you know 'bout Juliette? She give her life to wuk for de Y.W.C.A., and she went all over de world tryin' to make things better for de young women of our race. Somebody writ a memorial book 'bout her. I wish dere was a copy of dat book here for you to see, but it was borrowed from us and it ain't been returned.
"Did you know I had jus' come back from Washin'ton, whar I visited dat lawyer son of mine? He sends for me nearly evvy summer and I enjoy visitin' dar, but I wouldn't lak to live up dar 'cause dem folks ain't lak our own southern people. I must say dey is mighty nice and good to me when I goes dar though. Once when I was dar somebody told me dat if I wanted to have a good time I mustn't let nobody know I was a Georgian 'cause dey said dat de northerners don't lak our State. De rest of de time I was dar on dat visit I tuk partic'lar pleasure in tellin' evvybody how proud I was of my State and my home.
"Dat reminds me of Miss Sally Hodgson. She was in de North, and one evenin' she was tryin' to tell de folks up dar dat de southern people warn't as bad as some of de Yankees had said dey was, and dat de white folks down South didn't mistreat de colored folks. Miss Sally said dat de very next mornin' de papers up dar was full of news 'bout de lynchin' of 8 Negroes in one night at Watkinsville. If you had knowed Miss Sally, you would know how funny dat was," Ike laughed. "She said atter dat dere warn't no way she could convince dem folks up dar dat Georgia was a good place to live in.
"Us had some good friends in de North and sometimes dey comes down here to see us. One of my wife's friends, a 'oman wid a lot of education has jus' gone back to Philadelphia atter a visit here in our home. Us travels a good deal and us has found dat de world ain't so large but dat us is allus runnin' up against somebody dat us knows wherever us goes.
"Sometimes when you is in a strange place it's mighty handy to find somebody you have knowed a long time ago. I 'member one time when I was visitin' in Washin'ton and wanted to git a glimpse of de President. I didn't say nothin' to nobody 'bout what was on my mind, but atter my son went to his wuk in de mornin' I slipped off to de capitol widout tellin' nobody whar I was gwine. I found a waitin' room outside de President's office and I made up my mind I would set dar 'til de President had to go out for dinner or to go home for supper. I never thought about he might have a side door he could come and go from widout usin' de door to de waitin' room. Atter I had set dar in dat waitin' room de best part of two days watchin' for de President, somebody said: 'Howdy, Uncle Ike! What is you doin' here in de President's waitin' room?' I looked up and dar stood Albon Holsey. He had growed up in Athens. He was de boy dey 'signed to wait on President Taft when he was at Miss Maggie Welch's home for a day and night in January 'fore he was inaugurated. I bet Albon is still got dat $5.00 Mr. Taft give him de mornin' he left Athens, but he don't need to spend it now 'cause folks say he got rich off of his chain of stores for colored folks, and anyhow he's got a fine job dese days. Well, I s'plained to Albon dat I was jus' waitin' to git a peep at de President whenever he happened to pass through dat room. Albon he smiled sort of wise-like. He tuk out one of his cyards and writ sompin on it, and axed a lady to take it right in to de President. She warn't gone 2 minutes 'fore she come back and said: 'De President will see Mr. Holsey and his friend now.' I was wuss skeered dan I has ever been at any other time in my life. Us walked in and I was 'fraid de President could hear my knees knockin' together, and my heart was beatin' so fast and loud it seemed to me lak it was 'bout to bust. De President spoke to us and when he found out dat I was from Athens, he axed me lots of questions. He said dat he was interested in Athens. Soon Albon said us must be goin' and when us got out of dar I was right weak, but I was might proud and happy to think de President had tuk time to talk pleasant lak wid a pore old Negro shoemaker.
"Another time in Washin'ton a friend of my son's tuk me to a club one night whar some of de richest of our race is members. Dat night I met a man who had went to school wid de Mr. Teddy Roosevelt dat was President atter Mr. McKinley; den I met another Negro dat had been a classmate of President Hoover and one dat went to school wid President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It's right strange how dey all heads for Washin'ton, D.C. to stay.
"Athens has allus been a real quiet town, and dere never was no real serious trouble here 'tween de races, not even when Matt Davis and Pink Morton was Postmasters here. People was allus predictin' trouble 'bout dat, but de folks here was too level-headed for dat. Dey knowed dey could straighten out deir own troubles widout havin' to fly off de handle in a race riot, and so dey 'tended to deir own business' and de races got along all right through it all.
"Atter all, Athens is a good place to live in. Here us has de best neighbors in de world; dey's allus ready to look atter one another in times of sickness and trouble. Wid de kind of good, Christian folks dat lives here, Athens is bound to go ahead."