took off after a while. I
don't know. It takes a heap of money to feed thousands and millions of
people. When the check comes, I am glad to git it no matter how little
it is. Twarn't for it, I would be in a sufferin' condition.

"I belong to the Arch Street Baptist Church. I been for about twenty
years. I was married sixteen years to my first husband and
twenty-eight to my second. The last one has been dead five years and
the other one thirty-six years. I ain't got none walkin' 'round. All
my husbands is dead. There ain't nothin' in this quitin' and goin' and
breakin' up and bustin' up. I don't tell no woman to quit and don't
tell no man to quit. Go over there and git 'nother woman and she will
be wuss than the one you got. When you fall out, reason and git
together. Do right. I stayed with both of my husbands till they died.
I ain't bothered 'bout another one. Times is so hard no man can take
care of a woman now. Come time to pay rent, 'What you waiting for me
to pay rent for? You been payin' it, ain't you?' Come time to buy
clothes, 'What you waitin' for me to buy clothes for? Where you
gittin' 'um from before you mai'd me?' Come time to pay the grocery
bill, 'How come you got to wait for me to pay the grocery bill? Who
been payin' it?' No Lawd, I don't want no man unless he works. What
could I do with him? I don't want no man with a home and bank account.
You can't git along with 'im. You can't git along with him and you
can't git along with her."

Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Allen Johnson
718 Arch Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: About 82

"I was born in Georgia about twelve miles from Cartersville, in Cass
County, and about the same distance from Cassville. I was a boy about
eight or nine years old when I come from there. But I have a very good
memory. Then I have seed the distance and everything in the Geography.
My folks were dead long ago now. My oldest brother is dead too. He was
just large enough to go to the mills. In them times, they had mills.
They would fix him on the horse and he would go ahead.

"My father's name was Clem Johnson, and my mother's name was Mandy.
Her madam's name I don't know. I was small. I remember my grandma.
She's dead long long ago. Long time ago! I think her name was Rachel.
Yes, I'm positive it was Rachel. That is what I believe. I was a
little bitty fellow then. I think she was my mother's mother. I know
one of my mother's