Welcome to what happens in this house, stays in his house straight over silence podcast. I am your host, Tammy Montgomery Dozier. Once again. Thank you for listening. I am very excited about this week's podcast. I have my very special guest . My grandfather, James .
Hey, granddaddy, dog . That is so good. That is so good .
If we have you on here and I know you just celebrated a very special day, which is your birthday? Tell the people, how old are you ?
Nine, eight, seven years old bone at 18, 1923
Is a beautiful thing. I am so happy about that .
Awesome. So granny , where were you born? Born in Tyler County. So during that time,
Was there slavery during that time?
Well , slavery had been, I don't know how many years now we're in slavery in 1868 . My dad, my granddad . He was, he was born in slavery . He was so from a, I don't know what caused it. He was so fumbled over in and they all brought him. He walked from a well after he got off his, Shilpi got a hole in the state of South Carolina and he was sold to somebody in Alabama. I don't know. I guess some Alison in Alabama, he was sold too . So they, they won Alabama where he was sold to .
But somebody in Mississippi had bought him. His name was Anderson, had brought him here and he married my great grandma, Della . And she told him, and he was a dark skinned man. And she was, you know, her grandmother , she was a slave and she would have , you know, she was a hair for , I don't know what's up daddy. Then he was dog man. And he told her well, and she married him. She will never have to work in the field.
So she married, she married him and she never did go to the field and working . I told him he married me. He married me being I've made stick to his boy. I nailed it . Go to the field .
What's he saying? Huh?
Yeah, she may have what she said. They had three boys and one with name. Hey Lula, Nerland name, cat . Can't call on her. Pick out her name. She moved over in the day . She , she see around the , around my dad and it didn't leave the Maples or they were both on PLAYBAR . He eaten . They never did leave plant nation . Cause that's what my dad had passed away. But my grand great grandmother, she worked for the slate, people in the kitchen all the time, my great grandmother .
She didn't ever have to work. And she just worked in the kitchen, the cook for all the people.
So granddad , did you live on that same plantation?
Yeah. That's where I was raised up on the same plantation. And when we had to pick cotton, chop, cotton, you know , too much , you know , we had to , and I didn't want to town. We had raised hope and we ate the banks to live with it.
I know when I was a kid, I remember that. I remember you guys used to slaughter. I used to see the hogs and I used to actually feed the halls when I was a kid.
Yeah. So what I grew up by it , cut paper would haul paperwork and stuff and farm to raise it to work . As he used to work in working one at a time and come back and work in the field of summer towns and you have him a crop. And I go back to where I can nail down on Chelsea street. Well , I have many years of being DNR had after I came, I thought I went to you all in Elvis , down there, back there . It was time to call Wesley, go right out from you all in there and how they lose them.
So that was going. And then I left and went to Milwaukee, but I didn't find a job. Then I came back and few years. And after some work on your mother from Chicago and hosel and I worked at the home kind of public schools, but 23 years. And that's where I retired from.
Okay. So it's a pandemic now. So in 1918 they had the Spanish flu. And I know you weren't born to later on. Did they ever talk about that? The Spanish flu
They flew. They had, yeah, they use that . They just talk about that , talk about it. But you know, that's when they were still here at that time and they were chatting the Indian, when we were late , they was painting a wall rightful . We would, but they killed an Indian . Well, when they brought it , flew through over here and show them and give them the Flolan totally on the cheat , me head Q and a which sheet they be dead. And so many thousand of them died.
So they were telling the Indians that it was, it was them. That was bringing it over here.
Yeah. They, the one brought it over and it wasn't no.
Oh wow. So did it spread all the way to the South too ? Like in Mississippi?
Yeah . When I was, when I was young, young people here and ms [inaudible] was here, then
How long did that last?
He has gone to somewhere around 19 to 1930, some 30 . One of my mother was, she was [inaudible] put mother, her mother, my dad, his first wife. She would shop . It was mother's day . So they was all mixed. It mixed up at time. We have a lot of people. I , we got some now here. Nope . Can't do the union. You miss it .
So we're all around mixed up. Huh? We got so many different things. You know ,
We all around mixed up now out . [inaudible] costed on the reservation. Now we've got three other stay on the reservation. I have some cottage Indian reservation, the Chaco Indian pushing you .
So during your time in your life, did you ever have to deal with a lot of racism ?
Well, we did , but you have a lot going on, but it wasn't no two minute papers on the plantation. We didn't have back 10 or 15 hours around where I lived at . We wouldn't live in a big population of people .
So you guys grew your own food. And so you guys pretty much had everything you needed right there.
Yeah, we didn't, we didn't have everything we need, but we grew older, you know, corn and all Cokes and had milk cows and stuff like that. We can't inviting all the chagrin . Like it should've been Flava . So we had to make the cornbread. If we had the five and the sugar thing we had, we didn't have no money that find that when couldn't have make wasn't making .
So I had to work his time when I was working for when I was a young boy in mind, the grown peoples that I think it was in the dollar day .
Yeah , not much at all for all the work that you guys
And we had to work for . Not , not work eight hours a day. We had shot up 14 hours, 15 hours a day .
I think half of the people today will be able to do what you all did.
No, they wouldn't wait that long . You know, cook would cook, but no [inaudible] Cola or lamb Cola are wrong. We had to have time . No of the stool in the front and make a light in the house. Okay . If we didn't have the money to buy Cola Cola, I wouldn't buy the gallon, but we didn't have the 10 cents to buy the Cola . Wow . I said, no , y'all live people living in here now shy . We were , we know we nailed it. Get nothing from [inaudible] . That's all we got washed a year.
And I'm sure you appreciated that when you got that, he was happy as a boy. She has not had a bird . They call ,
I know you were married to my grandmother for a long time. How long were you guys married
Man ? 73 years . Wow.
That is up until her past . So how did you guys meet ?
We didn't have nowhere to go, but to the church we met at church from Nashville. We got married at a church.
Okay.
No , I had no clue in my day with no clue and nothing like that. People have a little, sometimes the people would pay it in thing. They'd have it at the house. They call it. We've all have a little dope down at night.
Is there any , I know you have some of those poems or sayings . Give me one of those poems that you used to say to grandma.
Well, I told her she was a tagger out of hang around her Dean . I've talked to you my dollar and tell you, let me, yes . He was a whole side and I was bold . Brave , man. I just standing there . You bite me and I never move ahead .
I love it. That is beautiful.
Yeah . I told her you wasn't wrangle with your beautiful. I started walking. How far are you today?
That is lovely. So granddaddy, what advice would you have to the younger generation to us about how to live a long life and how to live a good life? You know, I know you had the time at the beginning, but would you still here ? Cause are very active.
Well, actually I don't know. All the people, all of your honor, the older people, the old that then you don't care how young they was. They was old and you spoke to honor people, honor the people supposed to go to school and you spoke to Sharon . Yeah, absolutely. No. Ma'am to the older people in their school and at home and there .
Where you, your grandpa, grandma [inaudible] and DNS, I guess I would say he knows you obey, obey, you know, your grown people in youth that you , you know, you would have a longer life, but people don't be enough . They don't expect it . No button. They don't say yeah, no, not nobody don't care how old you are. So that's why they, why they days is being could show no respect, obey your mother and father day. She'll be longer on the land, which is all good.
I don't know how the old Baden you grown people's now .
So what would you tell them ? What'd you and I know what you're saying. So what are some more advice that you would give, like everything is going on in politics and it looks like this world is just gone crazy.
Well, it is people don't know nobody talk about here , but you're supposed to talk about nobody calling. They brought out a name and of course going on all over the world and now you just can't go out in public and just speak with you. Think you guys know what you talking about. And they were saying , he don't go out on the side and kill people. You got to know what you're talking about. People who got so much, people's got no load . Now like we had back in the day, we are see somebody in need.
We would go hear from people. Now. They don't want to help nobody. They don't want to do nothing less . They pay them . We didn't move. We did things back in them. Days went by in the morning saying we did it for love with people that they need. We go here , people. That's what it's all about in the to date, seem like nobody wants to hear . And so we get whatever we have.
We think we've built on the body and all of us of people wouldn't like that in them days when I was coming up, we hear one nother people who was in the fields , chopping the crops and things. And , and we had got through it. Our we'd go here . You get to get to child and get them out to see you. When I was a boy, we help them to get to where they could be at the hospital. And nobody wanted to do anything for you. Now, listen , you pay him money. Nobody wanted to do nothing. So nothing, not .
If they could have do anything for you now, you got to pay you. Ain't got no money. Ain't nobody going to do anything for you.
So granddaddy, my last question for you. And when it's all said and done, what do you want people to say about you? What do you want your legacy? What do you want people to say about you?
I don't have no , I lived in the other thing. That's the only other thing I can say because thereby Nico always treated him right now. We obeyed and I never had a fight window . Yes . Well, granddaddy, I want to thank you for being on my show. You have been amazing. I appreciate it. I know I speak in the right language. You speaking with wisdom is speaking with wisdom and everybody loves and they know wisdom when they hear it.
So I thank you that you are , and you can still speak and talk and we can understand everything. And so I do thank you. And I love you. Okay. Thank you . Thank you. But I want to thank you for listening to what happens in this house stays in his house. Strength oversight of this podcast. Again, my name is Tammy Montgomery dossier and I can be reached at seven seven three two five +1 557-773-2515 five three seven. My email address is Tammy [email protected] .
My website is www.connectedbyloveconsulting.net. Again, thank you guys for listening and have a great day.