Document text
Accession no.
3634
Date received
100/40
Consignment no.
1
Shipped from
lash. Office
Label
Amount
3p
)-,c•
_
WPA L. C. PROJECT UNIT
Form --3
ilaiti.D.r...__Collection (or Type)
Title....N1I1X9...1.9r.9 St_f„r_Ci. PAVIT
Place of origin ChiCajgRa I.1taois Date. 4/208
Project worker Garnett L. Esker,
Project editor
Remarks
STATE
NAME OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
CHICAGO FOLKSTukk
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview
Illinois
Garnett L. Wow
4700 Kenwood Avenue
April 20, 1989
Folklore Negro Stuff
FOLKLORE
CHICAGO
MAY 26 1,39
1. Date and time of interview
April 20, 1939, Ss30A. 14, (called 3 times before I found HaL)
2. Place of interview'
6034 May Street (South)
3. Name and address of informant.,
George F. Sims, 6034 Way Street, (colored)
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant.
Mrs. Noel Collins (colored) Evangelist
.5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
Sims ad his married daughter, her husband and children occupy the 3rd
floor of a fairly neat house. Comfortable living roam, well furnished and
heated by a big nickel timed stove. It is a strictly negro neighborhood
but unusually good mostly one and two-story cottages.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number tt which the material refers.)
W3634
FORM B
Personal History of Informant
CHICAGO FOLKSTUFF
STATE Illinois
NAME OF WORKER Garnett L. Eakww
ADDRESS 4700 Konwood Avenue
DATE April 20 1939
SUBJECT Folklore Negro Stuff
NAME OF INFORMANT George F. Sims
1. Ancestry..
FOLKLORE
CHICAGO
.A.frioan been a hundred and fifty years 4n New Orleans
and nearby parishes.
2. Place and date of birth
Houma, Louisiana, 1869
3. Family
Wife, two married children and a herd of grandchildren.
4. Places lived in, with dates
New Orleans and the parishes until 1933, but was rarily at
home, being either on river boats or on seagoing ships.
5. Education, with dates
Grade schools of New Orleans. Talks pretty well, OMR read
and write understandably.
6. Occupations and accomplishments, with dates
Steamboat roustabout Captain of the etch assistant
engineer on ocean tugs Clyde Line Steamship (30 years)
7. Special skills and interests
Understands engines and knows boats and ships.
8. Community and religious activities
Goes to church and sings in choir.
9. Description of informant
Pleasing, very black wrinkled face; a powerful body, smiles
readily. Talks interestingly with a strong dialect.
19. Other Points gained in interview _
That negroes of this kind are a credit to community.
He is useful, intelligent, upright and courteous.
POLICLOItE
FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedited)
CHICAGO FOLKSIume
STATE Illinois
NAME OF WORKER Garnett L. Eskew
ADDRESS 4700 Kenwood Avenue
DATE April 20, 1939
SUBJECT Folklore Negro Stuff
NAME OF INFORMANT George F. Sims
CHICAGO
*Work' Lord, I haint done no work sense I come to Chioago 6 years
ago. I done work all my life aid I am going to rest now. The Bible
say a man should rest when he gits be three score and ten. Dot's what
I am now. So I stays home with my family. I got a fine wife and family.
I likes Chicago alright but it sure do get cold in winter.
De first job I ever had in my life I was 16 I left my daddy's
store on Dryades Street in walk right dawn to the river and
git me a job roustint on the Resolutes she run up to Memphis. From dat
time on I work on boats. I work on de Jesse K. Bell (we uster call her
de Jesse Ketch Hell) and the Oliver Bie and the Sunrise and the T. B
I got along all right, too, 'wept once when dey. give us
spoiled meat to eat on de"Resolute". And I quit and got me a
and made 'em pay me for all de time I didn't work and pay my hoispital
bill too. That bad meat made me sick.
"s Den I went to sea on de Clyde Line Boats and the United
Company boats: to New York and Philly and Panama. Went down to Honduras
one time. Nother time went to Frisco. I was engineer's assistant's
and everybody I work for like me. I get along well with White Folks.