We all pick cotton and get in the corn. We work day laborers now.

"If I was young the times wouldn't stand in my way. I could make it. I
don't know what is the trouble lessen some wants too much. They can't
get it. We has a living and thankful for it. I never 'plied for no help
yet.

"I still knits my winter stockings. I got knitting needles and cards my
own mother had and used. I got use for them. I wears clothes on my body
in cold weather. One reason you young folks ain't no 'count you don't
wear enough clothes when it is cold. I wear flannel clothes if I can get
holt of them.

"Education done ruint the world. I learnt to read a little. I never went
to school. I learnt to work. I learnt my boys to go with me to the field
and not to be ashamed to sweat. It's healthy. They all works."




Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person Interviewed: Mattie Aldridge
Age: 60? Hazen, Arkansas


"My mother's old owner named Master Sanders. She born somewhere in
Tennessee. I heard her say she lived in Mississippi. I was born in
Tennessee. My pa was born in Mississippi. I know he belong to the
Duncans. His name George Washington Duncan. There ain't nary drap white
blood in none us. I got four brothers. I do remembers grandma. She set