Document text
r
Accession no.
3637
Date received
10/10/40
Consignment no.
1
Shipped from
Wash. Office
Label
Amount
WPA L. C. PROJECT.
Form -3
Yitlt4r4' UNIT
Folklore Collection (or Type)
Tftle_The_blaok south in Chioago
Place of originChP:setio, Illinois Date ..5/3119
Project worker___Carwat L, Lskoar
Project editor
Remarks
FORM D
Ext;a Ccmment
CHICAGO FOLKSTUFF
FOLKLORE
CHICAGO
STATE Illinois
NAME OF WORKER Garnett L. Eskew
ADDRESS 4700 Kenwood Avenue
DATE Nay 3, 1939
SUBJECT The Black South in Chicago*
NAME OF INFORMANT George Sims (6034 S. May St. ,Chicago. This is in addition
to other matter, supplied by the same informant two 'seeks ago)
"Catfish? Who gesso? Bit's the best eatin' fish you kin git
anywhere. Don't keer where you go. There aint nothinl that tickle
your palate like a chunk of channel oat fried crisp. Of Wee de
snot cat good. Thl ole mud oat sant bad neither. I have eat pompano
and buffalo fish and red snapper and a lot of others. But don't let
nobody tell you any different. Catfish is the finest eatin of all."
"In N'Yowliens when I was a boy I never had to buy no fish.
All we had ter do wu4 to take a pole and string and hook and go down
sit on de steamboat wharf. Sit there and doze and haul 'em in. Den
if we git tired of catfish we could have crabs.. The by -yo (bayou)
flows right through de town. Pay a dime for a little dip -not and some
bacon scarps, and go sit in shade of de oak trios and pull em in
De old crabs, dey catch hold th' bait and holl it wid dey claws til
you pulls it to the top of de water. Den you dip in and lif' him
out. Crab meat good eatin too.
"Nother dish I likes a lot dat we useter have in N'Yemliens is
Jam -lye (Note: jambalaya a Creole dish invented by the Spaniards
and improved by the French). My wife know haw ter make hit bettern
W3631
FORM D page -a-
CHICAGO FOLKSTUFF
anybody I ever see. She take some fish and out hit up and mime
hit wid cook rice, and season hit up nice and hot. 4 some times
she put in some chop meat or chicken stead er de fish am' fry it
brawn in plenty of greasei Sho is tasty eatint
"When I =snot nothin but a little tad, on Sunday, sometimes,
we'd come hone from Church and eat a big dinner. Den I'd take my
bucket and nothin' else but muh bare hands, and walk -out ter de little
drain canals dat cone outer de swamp. Dab's whar we ketch de crawfish.
(Crayfish is whut dam creoles call hit). Ketch a whole bucket full and
take em hone an' muh mammy would make de best Crawfish beast (Rote: he
means Crayfish Bisque)a man ever pop in his mouf. Dat shony is one
fine soup. Haint tasted none since I got up to Chicago.
"An Gumbo I Didn't you never eat no Gumbo? You has? Will, den,
you know whut I talking about. Some times muh wagon make it wid crabs
or 'wimp; or sometimes void chioken, and put in de okra, and make it nice
an' tasty wid sage and bayleaf and thymol An' after hit done cook a
long while man, dey aint no better eaten no wharlls
"Here in Chiosmgo? Yessir, I have done fount a place ter git good
fresh fish and de kine or stuff we put in dem Creole foods. Whar at?
Over in Jew town on de west side.*
"Boss, less quit talkin' bout dat Nlyawleens food. Hit make hongry.w
You done ask me 'bout steamboat songs. Hit bin so long ago, ant I
done lined de church sense I lof down dar, dat I mos fergit all about
Ooonjone. But dey wilt one song day we uster sing dat went like dins
FORK D page -3-
CHICAGO FOLKSTUFF
Sing die song in de oity,
Roll dat ootton balet
Nigger always happy
When he gits out of jail.
Mobile's got de wimmin,
Boston got de beans,
New YaWk done got flashin' swells,
But de nigger like N'yessleens.
Chos Coonjine, baby, won't you 000njine,
Coonjine, honey, is you game,
liammy won't lemme coonjine
But I 000njine jug' de Barnet
"Sing hit for you/ lawd, bops, I aint sung no sich song for forty
years. Hit went like die
(NOTEt He sang it, but impossible to reproduce it.)
411 useter sing dat song when I was workin' on de Alio* B. Miller,
runnin' up Yazoo River and sometime when I work on de Saint John, a
ootton boat, dat run up Rod River."
"I 'member once we had a mighty hard mate name Sam Cotton *go
wus too handlywid de hoe handle. So all de rousters jumped de boat
at Vioksburg, and say dey wontvork for such a mean mate. So de mate
FORM D page -4-
CHICAGO FOLKS TUFF
and de oapn tie up de boat at Vicksburg and come on down ter N'yawlin
on de rattler. Den day look me up, and say:
George, we want you ter git us a mess or roustere. So I
gits together about twenty er de boys down on de levee and says
ter de oapn and de mate: "Capn and Capn Sam, dose hyuh boys is
willinl ter work on de boat, iff de mate is willin' ter behave
hisaelf." De oapn he laff and say dat gwinter be-all right now,
dat Sam will watch hisself. So we take de train and git de roue
tors up ter Vicksburg, git on bode de boat and come on down ter
NY1aiens. De mate (dat is oapn Sam) act just a peaceable as a
lam' L Evelthing all right after dat.“