Letha Johnson
From:
Arkansas
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Letha Johnson
2203 W. Twelfth Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 77
"I heered the people say I was born in time of slavery. I was born
durin' of the War.
"And when we went back home they said we had been freed four years.
"My father's last owner was named Crawford. He was a awful large man.
That was in Monroe County, Mississippi.
"I know they was good to us 'cause we stayed right there after freedom
till my father died in 1889. And mama stayed a year or two, then she
come to Arkansas.
"After my husband died in 1919, I went to Memphis. Then this girl I
raised--her mother willed her to me--I come here to Arkansas to live
with her after I got down with the rheumatism so I couldn't wash and
iron.
"In my husband's lifetime I didn't do nothin' but farm. And after I
went to Memphis I cooked. Then I worked for a Italian lady, but she
did her own cookin'. And oh, I thought she could make the best
spaghetti.
"I used to spin and make soap. My last husband and I was married
fifteen years and eight months and we never did buy a bar of soap. I
used to be a good soap maker. And knit all my own socks and stockin's.
"I used to go to a school-teacher named Thomas Jordan. I remember he
used to have us sing a song
'I am a happy bluebird
Sober as you see;
Pure cold water
Is the drink for me.
I'll take a drink here
And take a drink there,
Make the woods ring
With my temperance prayer.'
We'd all sing it; that was our school song. I believe that's the
onliest one I can remember.
"'Bout this younger generation--well, I tell you, it's hard for me to
say. It just puts me to a wonder. They gone a way back there. Seem
like they don't have any 'gard for anything.
"I heard 'em 'fore I left Mississippi singin'
'Everybody's doin' it, doin' it.'
"'Co'se when I was young they was a few that was wild, but seem like
now they is all wild. But I feels sorry for 'em."
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Lewis Johnson
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John Johnson
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