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Forms to be Filled out -for Each Interview FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
FORMA
Circumstances of Interview
STATE New York
NA ILE OF WORICO Clerance Weinstock italph 211ison
ADDRESS 110 King St.
DATE Liay 1st, 1939
SUBJECT
1. Date and time of Interview
2. Place of interview Harlem .wabor Center, 125th Street, C.
3. Name and address of informant 4-4 heavy -see Negro man of light complexion.
4,ppearently i his late forties.
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant.
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc. Labor hiring room. Benches,
cnairs. iosters:"'zlack and white Unite." Bunch of bananas with
joiot
caption, Stay In lour own bunch, 0 ge Skinned". Card tables.
row of large windows looking down ',Iron streets below, alive
with cars, street cars a d reorle.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
TeOte
My Fealka Made The Truckin Business
Wienstock
Ellison .a
My people made the trucking business. You see all these
companies around here? We made em. We even built the buildings.
Some of the fellows whets big shots now, used to go round with
wheel barrows. Now they got trucks; they're big shots. We helped
em get where they are and now they dont want to look at us any-
more. They dont want you. Its the same thing everywhere. Now
take the worlds fair.They had us draining and fillin-in out there,
working in all that filth. They got us when they wanted to get it
ready and now the dirty work's done, let me see you go out there
and get somwthing. Let me see you:
Same thing,all over. Just take the truckin business. I'm a
handler. I've been in this business since 1898. Our people made
that business; made the warehouses. N when they got it made they
didnt wdat us. Its just like a man makin steps. You make the
business: and -ask for a-taise. Well, they got to pay you. Thats
two steps. Then things go long n you get to get a union. Thats
the third step. And right there's the step they kill you on.
Now theyd rather give the work to somebody else. They dont want to
pay ypu that good money. N aint much youu can do about it. You
see that picture up therr7 in the wall? Black and White Unite"
Them hands is clasped together in the picture, but here its wide
apart. Always squabblin. Caint vt together. Thats really the
way it is.
.b
I been in this business forty-one years. Sometimes I get
tired and leave it n get me a family. But dam it: I was tellin
my wife the other day, the last time I did it I believe it changed
my lucks Folks connected with this dam Oxford movement. Just a lot
of dam talk. Its just like you sittin here taikin to me; just a lot
of questions. Made me so tired I quit the job. She was always askin
me questions. Always wanted to know my business, Made me tired as
hell. but I finally got so I could talk to em like I wanted
to n I told -her it was just a lot of noise. The oxford movement,
hell! She asked me all my business, just everything, trying to
get in my business. Tfilking bout the Oxford movement. Just tryin
to get in my business; thats all. Sp I saidlYou ask me all these
questions, so Im goin to ask you: How many times do you go with
your old man a night?' ThrA stopped her. Hell yes I told her.
!hats just what I told her. Skies tellin me somethin about Buckman.
Hell; what'd he dot He couldnt get along with his parish, so he
beats it to %gland to do some more studyin. Then he had some
goddam dream about Christ on the cross n writes back here hes very
sorry n everything that he was wrong. So he starts this Oxford
movement. And all the suckers, they fall for this dream. So he
goes back to England and gets a_big building and she tells me
about this vision. Hell anybody can have a vision and then say
$5000,00. N these suckers fall for it. Made me sick askin all
them questions. N they taikbput Father Devine. Now there's a
man whose doin somethJn. Talking about the work of Christ dont
cost nothin. Hell, you get these big buildings and these coal bills
n light bills get to comm n in n you get all them people tratelin
round with Buchman— why he had seventeen people come over with him
last time— who you thinks payin for all that? Monk The vision?
Tellin me about visions. Hell my luck aint been the same since I
worked for them people. Ever since worked down there my lucks t
been bad; aint had a thing to do. Thats the reason I dont have no
faith in man. I been around all this stuff too much. It dont mean
nothin. The unseen spirit up yonders alright. Get on your knees and
get in touch with him.' But man? Man aint nothin. Thats the reason
we caint get nowhere down here with this union; man aint no good.
Sure, theres some good. Some is alright. What did God
say about em being all mixed up. Ha said Let em mingle together,
1211 seperate the goats from the lambs. _How many times you ate
goat thinkin&you was eating spring lamb?
YesI believe in visions. lye had em myself. I was living
down town with a family an seen the womans husband whOl;d been
dwad six years Her boy was sick n seen him too. He came and
stood in the hall between the two rooms n said "Im goin to take
three rooms. You can come on if you want to" The boy was a kid
twenty-two years old n he heard im too. A few days later the boy
was gone, dead.
Dreams come to me all the time. I get fore -warnings whenever
somethings about to happen to me. I know just when and how. Hell,
you have em too. All fellows do; they liust forget when they wake
up. I had one last night bout what this meeting was for this
morning. N I think things '11 be alright for me n a lot of the
fellows. Things we been workin on oughta come out right.
Things would be alright if it wannt forthese Irishmen.
They the ones causing the trouble. You know that. Iil till you
bout the Irishman. What makes em so dam onery is that they been
slaves to the English. Couldnt ellen hunt on their own land. Raise
crops and it all goes to the king. Caint even shoot the hares
thats running over their own land. Caint plant corn except by
permission. Everything goes to England. N dont let him get over
here. lies like a bird out of a cage, canary s been in such
a small place h. couldnt feel himself. He gets over here and gets
a little land n hes gone. He dont know you. You know thats right.
You caint get along with him. Hell.limmiimmm They the ones whats
causing all the trouble. You just have to get an Irishman down n
beat the shit out of him; than hes the, best friend you got. You
couldnt have a better friend than a Irishman you knocked the hell
outta.
I had a warnin one time when 1 was working. I had a piano bout
to lower it out of a window on a pulley. N when I started down
stairs to let it come, somethin said You better not let that
down!" So I runs back up stairs an looks and the dam piano was
hanging there by a strand. The dam rope was coming apart n it
was just hanging there by a few strands. Now if I hadnt listened
to that warning, me n six or :,even other men would have been
dead. I have dreams all the time. I dreamed about my grandfather
who had been dead thrity-three years anumbnammp who I'd never
seen n I asked my mother the next mornin n she said yes that was
the way he looked.