Church Hill - Lina Roane

Virginia Black History Archives

Church Hill Oral History Project

Transcript of Interview with Mrs. Lina Roane, October 2, 1982.

This is a tape interview with Mrs. Lina Roane, 912 Dobbs House Road, in Henrico County. Mrs. Roane, who will be 105 in January, is presently 104 years old. She was born in Durham County, North Carolina and has lived in the Richmond area since 1939. Mrs. Roane has graciously consented to share some of her memories of Richmond and Church Hill with us. She's a member of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church and she is a brave soul for allowing us to come into her home today after illness quite recently. This interview is being conducted by Akida T. Mensah, October 20, 1982, in the home of Mrs. Roane.

I = Interviewer
N = Narrator

I - Mrs. Roane, where were you born?

N - In North Carolina.

I - You were born in North Carolina. And you lived in North Carolina until about 1939.

N - That's right.

I - And then you came to Richmond.

N - Went to Ohio.

I - You went to Ohio first.

N - Uh uh.

I - And that was around 1923.

N - That's right.

I - And then you came to Richmond, in 1939.

N - That's right.

I - Were you married when you came to Richmond?

N - No. I was married after I got here in Virginia.

I - So you didn't get married until you got here to Virginia.

N - That's right.

I - Where was your husband from?

N - North Carolina.

I - He came from North Carolina too?

N - No. He was in Richmond.

I - OK. So Jimmy Roane was here in Richmond. James Roane you met here in Richmond.

N - Yeah.

I - How old were you when you came here?

N - I came here in '39.

I - OK. And you had never been married before?

N - Yeah.

I - So this was you second marriage?

N - That was my third marriage.

I - That was your third marriage. The men couldn't hold you down, could they?

N - That's right.

I - So you got married to James Roane and did you have any children?

N - I got one.

I - Just one daughter.

N - Uh uh.

I - OK. What kind of work did you do when you got here?

N - I did some housework and farming.

I - And you did some farm work?

N - Yeah.

I - What did you do on the farm?

N - Raised vegetables and flowers for the store. I used to be a great flower raiser. And a seller too.

I - Oh, you raised them and then sold them.

N - That's right.

I - Was there any particular place that you sold them?

N - Lombardy and Grace.

I - Lombardy and Grace. So, you should be pretty well known, that's a busy ...

I - So you sold these flowers and off and on did some domestic work,

Wwhat was Richmond like when you first came here?

N - It's hard to tell. So many different things go on, but I got pretty good at it. I liked it fine.

I - You liked it fine?

N - Yeah.

I - The streetcars and things were running at the time you came here?

N - That's right.

I - And were the streets mostly dirt streets, or what?

N - They were paved streets, but they had a lot of dirt roads. But the streets had all ... kinda like it is now.

I - I take it you were grown when you came here.

N - Oh yeah.

I - And I take it that you probably belonged to a Church.

N - Mt. Olivet.

I - You belonged, you joined it after you got here?

N - Yeah.

I - Who was the pastor when you joined, do you remember?

N - I can't think who the pastor been.

I - Was it Reverend Berlack?

N - Yeah, Reverend Berlack.

I - And you joined Mt. Olivet Church. Was there any particular reason why you joined that Church and not some other?

N - No, that was the closest and all I know was that was a church and I wanted to join one.

I - Were you living here, in this house, when you came here?

N - No, I was living on Creighton Road. My husband was working at a dairy.

I - What dairy was that?

N - Ellis' Dairy, it use to right across yonder.

I - Do you remember the Hechlers or the Browers being around in this area?

N - I remember the Hechlers.

I - Did you ever work for them, the Hechlers?

N - No, the Hechlers run the dairy.

I - I thought maybe you might have worked with them or knew them or something.

N - I worked for Dr. Gary and another lady that use to live back over there.

I - What do they call this area back in here?

N - They use to call it, years ago, they call it Bendix.

I - Call it Bendix. Did you know the Christians? James Christian and them who lived out this way?

N - Yeah.

I - You did?

N - The family I'm talking about used to live out this way and they may still have some relatives, but they moved into the City and the man was a post master, his son is in the House of Delegates. The man that I'm talking about.

I - The James Christian that represents us in the House of Delegates. They call this area Bendix at one time, you say?

N - They use to Richmond, cause it used to be a time around thirties and forties people in town wouldn't come out here.

I - Why not?

N - Everybody was getting drunk and fighting.

I - They were raising a little cane out this way, or they were raising cane out in Richmond?

N - They raised it out here. They were making liquor and ... make it right cross the road over there right cross the spring over there.

I - So you had some bootleggers in your neighborhood.

N - Right across the road over there because there was water. My neighbor use to say go over there and take some of it. Go over there and get hold of some poison and kill somebody.

I - Well, your going to the Church and joining Mt. Olivet, what was that like? Who were some of the people who were there then when you joined?

N - When I was working?

I - No, at your Church. Do you remember some of the names of the people when you were there?

N - David Templeton he was one.

I - David Temple?

N - Yeah. The others it been so long I have forgotten at that time.

I - Did you know many families up in Church Hill? Did you know many people?

N - I used to know all of them around. Bessie Harris.

I - Bessie Harris?

N - Yeah. I knew her.

I - Did she live on 28th Street?

N - Yeah.

I - And passed recently, I think. She's supposed to be related to me, Mrs. Bessie Harris.

N - On what side?

I - My mother's side. Maggie Howard.

N - Did you know any Calvins? John Calvin? He was carrying mail.

I - Yeah. And his wife's name is ...

N - Frances.

I - Frances?

N - We used to be good friends, his daughter just left here about a half hour ago.

I - The lady I'm talking about I think she's my mother's second cousin, second cousin or something like that. She had two daughters and she lived on 28th Street in the 1300 block on the corner. Is that the same lady?

N - That's right.

I - OK. Yeah she's related to me.

I - No, we always lived in Church Hill. We moved in Fulton about 8 years ago, my wife and I, but my people basically came from Church Hill and Hanover County- So Bessie Harris was one of the people that you knew. Did you know any Howards? Did you know Polly Howard who lived at 24th and Fairmount?

N - No. I used to when I used to go about, know everybody in Church Hill.

I - They had a beauty parlor right there on the corner. They fixed hair there for a long time. What about the Murrays who lived on 24th Street, they were the Elsie Purnell Robertson's parents.

N - I knew the Murrays.

I - You knew them?

N - Yeah.

I - What kind of people were they?

N - I don't know. It's been so long that I was around.

I - Let me ask you, you are a 104 years old and here I am a whipper snapper of 43 and trying to get to be 104. How do I go about doing that?

N - I tell you, I don't know how to tell you how to do it.

I - Just keep on living, uh.

N - Just keep on trying. Don't give up, just keep on trying.

I - Were there any kind of special things that you did growing up or any special kinds of foods that you ate, exercises, or anything like that?

N - No more than in my younger days.

I - Dancing. You liked to dance?

N - Not every day.

I - What kind of dance did you do?

N - Oh, old timey called the frolic.

I - The frolic.

N - Yeah. That's what they used to call it.

I - I wish I could make you get up and make you do that frolic, but I ain't going to do that. I wish I could see that frolic, it sounds like an interesting dance.

N - It's an old timey dance. A dance to your right and do this and dance to your left and do that, and swing your partner and all this; they call that a sit dance. You didn't have any kind of music except the banjo. Cause my brother used to be a banjo player years ago.

I - And your brother's name was?

N - Tom Barry.

I - Tom Barry?

N - Yeah.

I - Did you come from a large family?

N - There were six of us.

I - There were six of you. Any sisters and brothers.

N - Yeah. All of them gone now but me.

I - Were you the youngest of them?

N - No, there were three younger. I had a sister younger than I am. She been dead about two years now.

I - Did most of the people in your family live a long time?

N - Yeah. I So, before I leave, I'm gonna have to let you rub some of that luck on me. I want to be here a long time.

N - Well I hope you will. It's all right as long as you can qet around and help yourself. I can move around a little bit. I just got so here in the last month that I can't do nothing much. I been getting out there cutting down bushes, take my ax and cut my bushes down.

I - Take you what?

N - Ax.

I - You can pick up an ax. Good gracious life. And split wood?

N - Sure, I been splitting wood all the time but I haven't split any this year.

I - Then that's the exercise.

N - Now I buy it already split. Ain't got to do nothing, take and put in the stove. Used to buy it and you had to split it, but I quit that cause it was a bit hard. So, you pay a little bit more and you go get it and burn it.

I - Well, that's remarkable cause you got a lot of young people, kids, that don't want to split wood. They say it's too hard a work to do, but apparently it's agreed with you. So, dancing and aplitting wood has kept you going and looking fine.

N - I've been splitting wood all the time but the last couple of years. I got two axes.

I - You got two axes?

N - Yeah. One is bigger and one is kind of light. I got one ax that when I first came to the place years ago, and it was laying in the yard; every time I go to clean the yard I throw it another place, keep on ... wouldn't throw it away. So one day I tired of always moving dis here ax I said I'm gone bury it. So I dug a little hole, put it in there. I don't run the plow now.

I - You got a plow too?

N - I got three. One little tractor and two little tillers. She runs the tiller now but I had been running it all the time.

I - It seems like from what you're telling me, you don't mind working. If you feel like it you get out there and do some work.

N , I wasn't raise to do a whole lot of work but after I left home I learn how.

I - Was your husband a hard working man?

N - Yeah.

I- And he taught you how to do this or did you just picked it up because you wanted to be a part of what he was doing?

N - He learn me how cause I didn't know anything about it. He hired people and paid them by the day.

I - And your first husband's name was what?

N - Willie Glenn.

I - He seemed like he was quite a man.

N - He was. She is just liked him like him up and down.

I - And this was in Ohio?

N - This was in North Carolina. She left there and went there to Ohio in 1923. Then she moved down here in 1939 (her daughter was talking) I came on down here to visit my sister who was sick, and I fell in love with a man or he fell in love with me, I don't know which. So I went back to Ohio and we had promised this here married business before I left. I was mostly joking. After my sister died, I wrote and told him and he wrote and said he was looking for me back. And I wrote and told him I ain't got no money to come to Virginia. I trying to get away from him. So wrote me word back and told me till just what day to look for the money and have the trunk packed. Same day that he said that money would be there, and I had that trunk packed and pulled out that night and come to Virginia and got here on Saturday.

I - It seemed that men didn't play, if they wanted you, they didn't mind going out of their way to get you.

N - He was a nice man. As nice as he could be. He was tall. His picture is here somewhere or another, him and the dog.

I - Tell me some more about your selling flowers and being up on Lombardy and Grace. That sounds fascinating.

N - I would have never started selling flowers if it haven't been for the lady across the road. She said why don't you go and sell flowers and make yourself some money and sew it up in your skinny tail. I said, Jimmy ain't gonna let me go. She said ain't nobody thinking about the nigger. Go anyhow. I said that I can't very well do that, I said because it might not do so well. That night that I went to bed I said, "Jimmy, let me go learn how to sell flowers and help Miss Cora sell flowers. If you let me go I ain't never gonna ask you that no more." He said, "You can go this time, but don't ask me that no more." I said, "OK." Went that Saturday. The lady couldn't sell flowers for me, all of it was hers. Didn't give her the money, I put the money in my pocket. So when I got home we went the room I unloaded all my pockets there on the floor. Jimmy come on into the room and he looked at me and looked at her and looked at the money and he said Lina, where did you all get all that money? I said we sold flowers for it. I said I sold that much and Miss Cora sold that much. He said it ain't no use me saying no to you. And I said, it sure ain't.

I - So you knew if you would have made some money at it, you were going back.

N - I had over $200.00 and at that time that was money.

I - You know, I've been laughing at my wife killing flowers and trees and dogs trying to grow flowers and now that you said that, maybe I better get out there and help her with those flowers.

N - She can make some money.

I - Yeah. She can make some money. Today, tonight, I'm gonna go home and tell her to raise all the flowers you want and I'm goin to help you.

N - You got, you all raise flowers?

I - We've just got a few flowers in the front yard.

N - I thought maybe ya'll had a big garden.

I - No. I wouldn't know what to do with one and I'm sure if I made my wife made enough she could probably run a plantation.

N - I've got a kind of flower out there. Been had that flower for years. It bloom every 30th of May.

I - Well you must be pretty good at growing flowers, you must have good healthy looking flowers ...

N - See, anything I plant will grow.

I - So you have a knack with flowers, you must know the secret of life. You can make flowers grow, you've lived a long time, you must know the secret of life.

N - I don't know. cause them flowers right here next to the yard have been here 30 years.

I - Thirty years?

N - Yeah. When I first come to Virginia I thought they were the prettiest things. I begged and begged for him to give me a plant, he wouldn't do it; I said well sell me a plant. Cause I thought the flowers were so pretty that he would do that. Well I couldn't buy and he wouldn't give me none. I kept worrying him until he said here take it and make something out of it. So she told one of the children to go out there and pull me up some. And that's where I started out on that. And I been had them every since.

I - You were born in 1878 or thereabouts. Were you parents slaves to your knowledge?

N - Yeah. I remember that. I remember slavery times. It was back when I was small cause I won't treated like one, but I could see other people, see how they act. In them days, if a person saw a little nigger child and they liked it they gonna take it. When I was about six months old, I was ruch a pretty baby and this little white girl, she thought I was so pretty she tooken carrying me in house with her that's where I stayed until I was 19. She raised me from since I was 6 months old. I slept with her mother and father until I got big.

I - Do you remember the name of the people that kept you?

N - It was Bowlers at first but the one that take me when I was a she was a Bowler, she married a Jones.

I -A re you saying Bowler or Bowlen?

N - Bowlen

I - Bowlen, OK. What about your parents? Did they just stay and worked along ... ?

N - They just worked along cause my mother used to work for four dollars a month, that's all she got.

I - What was her nane, your mother?

N - Molley Berry.

I - Molley Berry?

N - Yeah.

I - And your father's name?

N - I didn't have the same one.

I - William Bowlen was supposed to have been your Dad. A lot had been said about race relations and white people not getting along with black people and so on. Did you have any problems getting along with white people or black people?

N - No. I ain't never had no trouble with white. I was raised up with them until I left.

I - Why did you leave?

N - I got married.

I - Oh, you got married

N - I got married at the house cause that where she wanted me to get married at, but I know so many of my friends won't come out there white people's house and go in their parlor and all. They won't come there.

I - Did they have a big plantation or did they just have a farm..?

N - Yeah. Oh they had everything they were big enough to own. Stores, saw mills, mill, and farming tobacco and all that kind of stuff.

I - Did they teach you to read and write or did you go to school or what?

N - She taught me how. She done the best she could, but I was a hard head and I wouldn't do, but instead of putting the switch on me to make me listen she'd go to petting.

I - So she thought she'd love you and make you do it.

N - I went to school and the teacher made me tell a story. She said everybody's gonna have a good lesson till Monday hold their hands up. I didn't hold mine up cause I was one of these here hateful children. I didn't hold mine up but all of the rest of them did. So that Monday she said everybody that held up their hand Friday hold your hand up again. I didn't hold mine up. She said did you hold your hand up? And I said, no I didn't. And she said I did and I said I didn't so she whipped me just because I said that. So when I went home, I told them what she whipped me for. So when she came over the next morning going to teach they all met her on the road and got after her. She tried to get me to back. I with my little self tain't while you ask I not coming to your school no more. She tried it. She gave me books and she go in one room and I go in the other room and while she'd be teaching, I'd be learning to dance.

I - So school wasn't very interesting to you at the time.

N - No.

I - Were there other black children going to school or were you more because you were a pretty child, you were going to school with whites?

N - No, colored didn't go with the whites.

I - So it was a separate school system?

N - That's right, separate schools. But she taught me at home. See, she tried she done all she could do, and it was my fault cause I was so hard headed till grown and wasn't big enough for nothing. A lot of times she get a switch after me. One time she had to keep this nigger man from killing the whole family. He got mad, he lived on the farm. His wife set a hen, and she died before the hen hatched. And I pushed the, some of the hen off the nest and threw the eggs over the yard. Some of the neighbors saw me and they told the man when he come home what had happened to the hen on the nest and he was mad enough to kill the whole family. He was a hot man.

I - What was his name? You don't remember his name.

N - I forget his name.

I - He was good and mad.

N - He was pretty mad. He had me to whip or he was going to whip somebody.

I - He didn't care who it was.

N - That nigger man he was a hot man. So she went and got a little switch and whip me round my dress. I ain't felt none lick of it, just holloring for God's sake. I was a bad little girl when I was coming along. I wouldn't eat when I wanted to get even. And I get the sugar and hide it in my room in a gallon bucket and go in the house cause they didn't buy sugar by the pound like we did, they got it by the barrel.

I - Persimmons.

N - I get them, pack 'em down in a box.

I - That make your mouth feel like it's raw inside or something.

N - I get them pack 'em down in a box and hide and when I took out they'd say when you are used going to get the sugar. I'd wait to they should eating and then I go and get the sugar out my room.

I - So you were quite a little character when you were growing up.

N - I was that. After I got to be a big girl you couldn't take that horse, take horse and leave 'em out where they could turn around in pasture, cause when time came to bring in I'd go jump of their backs and ride them to the barn. I used to be a real horse back rider.

I - You enjoyed that?

N - Oh yeah.

I - Did they have many horses?

N - The stable was full of them. I don't know how many they didn't have. They had one that you'd better not go near her with the side saddle. That's a woman's saddle. I couldn't only ride. She catch near her with one she'd kick your brains out. The other one was pretty good. I decided one evening to ride the cow and she threw me on a pile of rock. She stole a ring from the store and scuffed it up and buried in the yard.

I - You were also crafty, you were mean and you were also crafty.

N - She look at this ring I found. And she said oh I guess some of them lost it at the party at sometime or the other.

I - You weren't going to tell her, huh?

N - I ain't never told her I took that ring and put it in my pocket and when where a cigarette in the yard and took my foot and mash it down, I had cleaned the yardthat day, I just cleaned it. But all I had to do is ask for it. I was a big girl and had all kinds of dolls. Whenever I get grown and go to work and make some money I was going to buy me one of those big dolls I want one big enough to wear baby clothes. Just carrying on like that Christmas shopping. At that time she didn't carry nie shopping. So she could buy this doll and I not know it. I come back and that box was gone and I said I bet that's my doll. I searched around and searched around awhile. I went back in the back room felt in the trunk and felt the doll head.

I - What do you think gave you so much nerve as a child, what made you feel like you could do that and get away with it?

N - Because they always let me do as I pleased, do something like I do.

I - When you came to Richmond and you sold flowers and different things like that where did you go to shop? Did you make your clothes or did you buy them?

N - I would go to town like everybody else and buy what I needed.

I - Can you remember the name of the stores that you went to?

N - Miller & Rhoades, Thalhimers.

I - Did you ever do any shopping in Church Hill?

N - I was buying groceries. I used to buy all my groceries at Safeway's in Church Hill.

I - Do you remember Joe Hodes?

N - Yes. He used to be on 25th Street.

I - Was it 25th or 29th Street? 29th and Q. Do you remember Dr. Harris? Dr. Vernon J. Harris?

N - Yes.

I - Did I tell you that he used to work for Joe Hodes at one time. Do you remember that?

N - I can't remember. He might have.

I - But you did go there sometimes to shop?

N - Yeah. I used to do a lot of shopping at Church Hill.

I - Did you know any white families in Church Hill?

N - No. I remember any whites.

I- Were they any whites living in this area when you moved down here?

N - No.

I - None. It was all black?

N - All black. Rough as pig iron.

I - Rough as pig iron.

N - My husband didn't like coming here one bit. He wanted to go to town. He didin't like the house but he started working on the old place. They were asking $700.00, and that's what he ...

I - $700.00 and that's all he paid for it?

N - Well I did buy it. I had to pay $1200.00, probably worth a whole more than that now. All that down there and all that back there belonged to the house. I didn't pay but $1200.00 for them. I didn't know anything buying those houses and things like that. The man that my husband was working for, he carried us to the bank. He thought he was going to have to be responsible caused we didn't know anything about buying nothing but he hadn't so much this and so much that, I wish I could help him pay but I had to pay out. So with $400-00 down. So this white thought he would have to pay. I gave it to him and he was surprised cause he, didn't think we had that much money. But I was selling flowers then. During that time you could make good money selling flowers. I didn't throw it away, I saved it.

I - How much were you charging for the flowers?

N - 50cts a bunch.

I - 50cts a bunch, so you sold a many bunches.

N - Child don't say a word. After they showed me how to bunch them and make it look good. I could put em together, sell them right along.

I - You certainly are an interesting person to talk to. It's just amazing, you know, that you have kept up as well as you are and you seem still spry and spunky and ready to grab that ax any minute and chop down a tree or something.

N - Doctor told me if I can move the feet I can make it careful. I asked the Lord to take care of my feet. I used to raise chickens. Last year I raised two pigs.

I - You, do you consider yourself a very religious person?

N - I try to be. If you just don't make me mad.

I - So when you get mad, your religion disappears a little bit, huh. But for the most part you would say that you are a religious person. You figure much of what you have done and the fact that you have gotten as old as you have, you think that had something to do with belief in God.

N - I reckon, yeah. Cause if it wasn't for the Lord I wouldn't make it. He take care of us when we can't take care of ourselves. I have reasons. Trust in Him and He will take care of you.

I - Is that a big point?

N - I don't forget that.

I - So you never forget that no matter what you do. That's interesting.

N - He told me years ago, trust in Me and I'll take care of you and He really didn't tell no tale. He really stuck to it and I can thank Him for it. Yeah he promised me that years ago and he really has give it to me.

I - Let me ask you a question. I've heard a lot of people, my mother, my aunt, and so on, say "the Lord promised to take care of me." How did he promise to do that? Who do you mean when you say that?

N - When me and Him were coming up together I can talk to him just like talkin' to you. And he talking to me. That's the spirits doing that.

I - So your belief in your faith is so strong that youreally feel that God is speaking to you?

N -Yes. He spoke to me. I can't put to be no other way. The voice spoke to me and said "trust in me and I'll take care of you." That's what I do and do everything I feel big enough but I don't forget when night come ask forgiveness.

I - So you're saying that you've lived your life but you have never lost respect for God?

N - I sure ain't. I don't forget it.

I - Do you think that's same belief will work for other people or just you?

N - I believe if you get your mind on it and talk to Him right, it might be the same. But I can tell you about myself.

I - So you are not trying to tell what somebody else might get, you just talk about what you have or what you feel you have.

N - I am talking about what I got. Just like I'm talking to somebody and I won't sleep. Yeah He spoke to me years ago, and I ain't forgot it. Everyday and night I think about it. And now I can thank Him for bringing me this far.

I - Is your daughter like you in any way? Was she like you growing up? Ms. Bruno was she like you?

N - She wasn't that bad and she wasn't that good. She was devilish.

I - She was deadly. Did you whip her, or did you let her have her way when she was growing up?

N - Let her have her way. No I wasn't no different from the rest of them. Jesus told me He would take care of me and it's been a many day since He told me that. He told me just like somebody talking.

I - Well, I try to have faith and belief, I do have faith and I do believe, and I admire ... I like to hear people talk about their faith because it helps to strengthen mine. And to listen to people like yourself who have lived a long time is more believeable to me that there is a God and that He takes care of you.

N - I've had all kinds of trouble and all kinds of everything that a poor person could have, but He's took care of me up to now. He told me to trust in Him and He would take care of me. I thank the Lord for that. Since I've been so sick a many night I have asked the Lord to take me but he ain't ready yet.

I - You keep on dealing with it.

N - I keep on toughing it out. But when He call me I don't mind. I am ready.

I - At this point we will have Mrs. Viola Bruno talking along with her mother, Mrs. Lina Roane and I will continue the interviewing. That is Akida Mensah will continue the interviewing.

N -You all were talking in general about helping people in your neighborhood and so on.

N - She is good about helping people. I use to help people. I would do all that I could to help.

I - And by she you're talking about Mrs. Bruno. What makes you like that? Did You get that from your mother?

N - Well maybe I had, but I just like to work with sick people, I just like it and I never take no money from them. Because now they turn it back to me now and doing it for me now.

I - So, you feel that helping people is something that you should do.

N - That's right. That why I feel like helping everybody.

N - I do that too. If I feel that people need help I don't mind helping. I have gil ven people things. One lady's house got burned down with everything she had and people brought things and stored them here for her. I give her a stove. And everything I could spare to help.I believe in helping everybody because somebody may have to help me.

I - So you feel you returning some of the favors that you've gotten in life.

N - Yes. And glad to do it. I would do it now if I was able to get around. And anything I can do to help I'll do. I would do that now. The lady that raised me, she was white but they would help the colored people. They would give flour and cut-off meat and put that in there. I was raised for that.

I - Mrs. Bruno, your mother being the age that she is and she being your mother, how does that make you feel?

N - It makes me feel great.

I - It makes you feel great. Why so?

N - I don't know, it just make m feel great.

I - Do you feel that you may have, your loving her and being with her, God using you, let me say, to keep her going.

N - Well, I was real sick one time and she took care of me and after I got well, then I said the Lord let me stay for some reason cause doctor said I wasn't gonna live a week in 1953 and I'm still living today.

I - So, you feel that your mother did the best she could by you, and you're gonna do the best you can by her.

N - That's right.

N - She was sick for two years.

I -Two years.

N - I was paralyzed for two years, couldn't move or nothing.

I- Was this the result of an accident or something?

N - No, I got like that in Ohio. They brought me down here and put me in St. Phillip's Hospital and some doctor from North Carolina. He was just like a new young doctor. He put me on some kind of medicine. I've never been able to find that medicine. And I gradually started walking a little bit. When I got up one night and the nurse said go back Mrs. Bruno, I couldn't move. I got out of the bed and went out to the hallway and asked where was the telephone. They said upstairs. I walked up those steps and called my mother and let her know I was walking. And I've been walking ever since.

I - Well, I'm certainly glad to hear that you know it turned out well and apparently your mother says she attributes her well being and long life to God promising to take care of her. Did you have a similar experience? Or is your faith imilar to hers? Or just what would you attribute?

N - It must be the same because I know He told me to put my feet on the floor and walk and I've been walking ever since.

I - When you say, He told you?

N - Heard a voice or something "Put your foot on the floor." And I turned over and raise up and turned my foot and put it on the floor. A girl was in the room with me and they said where you going. I said I'm going to use the telphone, call my mother and I walked in the hallway and scared the nurses. They hollered go back, Mrs. Bruno and I just kept on walking towards them. They said the telephone upstairs and I walked up there and used the phone.

N - She was living in Ohio then.

I - She was living in Ohio?

N - But they brought me down here.

N - She was up there for two years, two years, she wanted to come home. So I wouldn't go after her myself. I sent the boy who use to stay here. I put him on the bus cause she had to come. I put him on the bus and sent him up there to drive her back. I stayed on that Pennsylvania Highway 'boy' going and coming. I stayed on it and never got tired.

I - Never been tired.

N - Work all day long. I tend the garden, go on the corner and sell flowers, then leave here Saturday night going up the road.

I - Did you drive yourself, or somebody else drove you?

N - William the boy that use to stay here and 1. And I never got tired, never got too sleepy. I made it them two years doing what I could for her.

I - Well, you're quite a woman. You are really quite a woman.

N - I've been a woman.

I - You're still a woman. You're still a woman.

N - I tell her all the time I said Momma never say what you can't do, you can do right on.

N - All I want to do is get so I can half way make it.

I - Well, I've heard a lot of good things about you from neighbors and people that know about you, but particularly from the Joneses down there. They tell me that yot say, well I, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Jones. They said that she don't even like to be around old people. They make her feel old.

N - Well if the Lord spare me and don't do nothing to bother this heart no more I be here tending the flowers.

N - I got somebody to help keep the weeds down. He help plow and do different things. Some I don't worry. I don't let anything worry me.

I - Well is that some of your philosophy of life? Don't let things worry you?

N - No.

N - She don't let nothing worry her.

N - Before I let things worry me I'd give it up, and be just as happy, and if you don't watch that something will happen to you in less time than a month.

I - (A man used to work for them, borrowed money and left)

N - He came back 6 or 7 months later and told us he wanted his things to work with. Brought his wife along and his wife kept giving signs, don't pay him no mind, but I just couldn't watch him. He got them things and haven't come back yet. Borrowed more money and said he was coming right back but out there he was in a terrible car wreck and then he come back here at the end of the summer and come find out he done got in a wreck again, but I don't see nothing about him in the paper. I said I reckon he done lost everything that he had.

I - Let me ask you a question. If it's God's will that you live another 10, 20, 30 years, what do you think you would do in that time? What would you do?

N - Anything that I could.

I - Anything that you could. You have lived a long time and you've seen I'm sure a lot of changes. Do you think we'll ever have a Black president?

I - Yes maam.

N - I don't know.You never can tell. I think they spoke about that last night on the radio.

I - Have you ever met Mayor Marsh or Douglas Wilder or any of those people? Have they ever come down to shake your hand? It would be a nice thing it seems to me that one of them, or all of them, would come down and they could certainly learn something about living a long time. Would you enjoy something like that? Meeting some of those people that you hear about on the radio and see on television--Doug Wilder and Henry Marsh and men like that and women like Willie Dell and so on? None of them have ever ...

N - No, never seen them.

N - This preacher that came on, I like to listen to that. The broadcast comes from a country church. The preacher comes on about 10:30 pm.

I - You, I'm hoping well I won't say it until it happens. Is there anything that I can get you? Is there something that you like? Do you like ice cream?

N - Yes.

I - What kind of ice cream do you like?

N - I like vanilla.

I - Vanilla ice cream? How much? Can you eat a quart? a gallon? How much can you eat?

N - She can't eat much at one time but I can put it in the freezer.

N - I've got a freezer back there.

I - OK.

N - Do you want some water?

I - No mam, thanks anyway. I'm gonna run to the store a minute. [End of transcript.]

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