Document text
_RogaP—Beadeft
Janitor and Odd Job Man
Rewritten August 15,1939
1. Date of first writing Feb.15,I939
2. Name of person interviewed Ossie Bailey (Negro)
3. Address Probarte Road
4. Place Brevard,N.O.
Occupation Janitor and Odd Job Man
6. Name of writer A.W.Long, Brevard,10e.
7. Name of reviser
ROGERBEADON
Janitor and Odd Job Man
ORIGINAL NAMES CHANGED NAMES
Ossie Bailey Roger Beadon
Tharp Bowen
ASHEVILLE,N.C. Taskboro
Brevard,N.C. Tucony
ROGER BEADON
Janitor and Odd Job Man
Yas, sir, I wuz born right here in Tucony, in sight ob
dese mountains, an. I ain't never seen much else,.ceptin.
when I went down to the Penitentiary." This was Roger Bailey speaking,
a very black Negro some sixty years old. My daddy before me wuz born
here and he lived to be a hundred and seven years old. Everybody
said he was a tough little nigger. My daddy an' me has always worked
for white people, an' white folks has been mighty good to mow us.
When we wuz hungry we could always git somethin' to eat at the
backdoor, an' when we wuz cold we could always git some old clothes.
I got sick once an' the man I worked for sent me his own doctor.
I reckon dat's why de udder colored people call me 'a white man's
nigger.; but durin' the hard times I always had work an' some of
dese udder fellers nearlyperished to death. I always try to live
peaceable and 'tend to my own business and do as good work as
I can. A crippled now in one leg, but I manage to hobble around
an do light jobs. I live two miles out of town, on a high hill,
but I scramble down every mornini to the bank and look after the
furnace and sweep out and then go back after the bank closes
clean
and nymnp up. In between I do odd jobs, such as trimmin' shrubbery,
mendin' window screens, cleanin' out stove pipes, an'things like
that.
White people were also good to me when my house burned down
a year or so ago. Boys from a summer camp come over an' helped
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to build me a new house. Them boys wuz mighty good to me they
stopped their swimmin' an' playin' an' worked like regular
carpenters. I've got a ncioe four -room house now, built of
an' boards covered with tar paper, an' room enough
my big family. Two 6f my daughters got married an' got out
way, but it wuzn't long before they an' their husbands wuz
Cor
of my
back.
There ainI) nothinl much worse'n a wuthless son-in-law, but times
wuz hard an' they couldn't get much work. I sometimes took 'em with
me on sobs they done pretty well as long as I kept my eye on em.
But Ilse got too many younguns in dat house. What kin I do? De
goverlment won't let me kill 'em, an' I can't give 'em away,
so what kin I do?
But we manage to get enough to eat. De ole oman takes in
washin' an' goes out to work by de day but my leg is gettin' worse
all the time an' de doctors say dey can't do anything for it.
I ain't as young as I once wuz, so somebody has got to go to work.
I've got one good son, Am, but he
He's wuth all the rest of my chillun put
Tucony said Jim was the best boy he ever
is in the Penitentiary.
together. A man here in
hired. One day he went
off to Taskboro with a bunch of other boys and somebody gave him
doped liquor to drink. He wasn't used to liquor and
him out of his head. When he got back home he began
furniture around an' we didn't know what to make of
this stuff put
to throw the
it. I caught
him by the arm, but he broke away an' ran across the fields.
I limped after him but he soon got away. The next thing I heard
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wuz bad news. Jim had broken through the door of a neighboring
farmhouse and had been shot in the leg by the owner of the house,
Mr.Bowen, a business man of Tucony, who lived out in the country.
Jim was arrested, of course, jailed, and later haled into court,
where the judge sentenced him to four years in the State Pen.
Me ah' his mammy felt disgraced, we suttinly did. We'd always
had a good name an' now we felt ruined. We thought nobody would
ever give us work to do again, but we wuz wrong. People wuz sorry
for us and treated us like they always did. They knowed it wuz
jes bad luck, an' eveybody has bad luck once in a while. People
act in funny WFVs sometimes, but most people is good-hearted.
You find dat out when you git in trouble.
But there wuz more trouble to come yit. Mr.Bowen's wife was so
upset by Jim's breakin' into the house that she refused to live
in the country any longer, so Mr.Bowen had to give up his nice
place and move into Tucony. An' worseln dat, Mr. Bowen he said
he wuz gwine ter shoot Jim again when he got out of the Pen
he said de judge wuz too easy on him. Die worried Jim's mammy *at
an me so s we couldn t hardly sleep at night. But we worked on
and prayed hard dat de good Lord would soften the heart of Mr.
Bowen.
De bad day come when Jim was to leave for the Pen. Dey
brought him down to the depot handcuffed between two deputies.
Me an' his mammy mmatinimb couldn't say nothin' but tell him to be
a good boy and mind what dey said to him and we told him we'd
be prayin' for him hard. We watched de train as long as we could
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see de smoke from de engine.
Den more trouble come. Trouble, trouble trouble, nothin
but trouble. One of my boys got into a quarrel with another colored
boy. Dey quarrelled off an' moan' I knowed dere wuz swine ter
be a fight sometime. One day when I found out dey wuz swine ter
be a-workins
I ain't able
I don't want
Some of dese
hearts dey
but when ypu
in de same field, I put my pistpl in my pocket.
to fight much with my hands, so I'd better be prepared.
to hurt nobody, butl-donet want to it hurt neither.
young niggers ain't got de fear oeGod in their
think God is a long ways off an' ain't noticine much,
pint a pistol at 'em, dey knows what dat means,an'
de j don't like de smell of gunpowder.
De fight did come it suttinly did. I found dese two boys
rolliftover and over one anudder. De udder boy jerked out a knife
and slashed my boy an' den I fired my pistol in the air. De boy
wiA.-37$/t—
what done de cuttinljumped up an' run. My boydrznit hurt much,
an dat wuz de end of it. I made no complaint and nobody was arrested.
enough
But I reckon dat young nigger knows/entree* now to behave hisself.
Do I ever hear from Jim? Of course I does. He s gittin on
les fine. I'elprayed for dat boy every day of my life01 Ilse
prayed fur him when I come down from de mountain every mornin'
an' Iese prayed fur him ev ry evenine when I scrambled back up.
told
I've heard one 'piece of good news. Mr. Bowen ted me the other day
coin
he wuzn tr!o*ne ter bodder wid Jim any more he said he had plenty
udder troubles widout takins on dat. He say the depression has
done rtint him.
When Jim first went to the Pen, dey put him to peeling
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potatoes. idgimemtumgmba wishoshmtnumnalbEslimthrimmmmtalim14 He got
interested in cooking and atter a while dey made him assistant cook.
He also leads de prayer meetings. When his time is up, dey say
dey swine give him de job as head cook at big pay. Jim always wuz
a smart boy an' a good boy. I know he will help me an' his mammy it
along.
Me an' de ole 'oman went down to see him one day. He wuz
lookin' hearty an' happy an evlybody wuz ready to say a good word
for him. We wuz surprised to see the place lookin' so clean
an' comfortable, an' dere wuz plenty to eat. Dey had lots more to
eat than we has. Dey even had electric lights an' shower baths
an hot and cold running water. Yas, sir, it suttinly wuz a fine
place. At our house we have kerosine lamps, and when we want to
have a shower bath we have to go to the creek. As me an' de ole
me
oman walked away, she says to me Roger, lea you an go home
A
an' see if we can't it de udder chillun in here.'