I was
married the last time in 1907 and was forty-five years old then. That
will make me seventy-six years old this year--the twenty-eighth day of
this coming September. My wife died nine years ago.

"I have heard my father talking a little but old folks then didn't
allow the young ones to hear much. My daddy sent me to bed at night.
When night came you went to bed; you didn't hang around waiting to
hear what the old folks would say.

"My daddy got his leg shot in the Civil War. He said he was in that
battle there in Richmond. I don't know which side he was on, but I
know he got his leg shot off. He was one-legged. He never did get any
pension. I don't know even whether he was really enlisted or not. All
I know is that he got his leg shot off in the war.

"When the war ended in 1865, the slaves around Richmond were freed. I
never heard my father give the details of how he got his freedom. I
was too young to remember them myself.

"I don't know how many slaves Dr. Johnson had but I know it was a good
many, for he was a tobacco raiser. I don't remember what kind of
houses his slaves lived in. [And I never heard the kind of food we
et.] [HW: ?]

"I never heered tell of patrols till I came to Arkansas. I never
heered much of the Ku Klux either. I guess that was all the same,
wasn't it? Peace wasn't declared here till 1866. I never heered of
any of my acquaintances being bothered but I heered the colored people
was scared. All I know was that you had to come in early. Didn't, they
get you.

"What little schooling I got, I got it by going to night school here.
That is been a good many years back--forty years back. I forgot now
who was teaching night school. It was some kin of Ishes out here I
know.

Opinions

"I think times is tight now. Tighter than I ever knowed 'em to be
before. Quite a change in this world now. There is not enough work now
for the people and from what I can see, electricity has knocked the
laboring man out. It has cut the mules and the men out.

"My opinion of these young people is that they got all the education
in the world and no business qualifications. They are too fast for any
use."

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: John Johnson
R.F.D., Clarendon, Arkansas
Age: 73

"I was born sixteen miles on the other side of Jackson, Tennessee. The
old mistress was Miss Sally, and old master was Mr. Steve Johnson,
same name as mine. My papa's na