Goals for herself and her community
Turner shares some of her goals, most of which include nurturing needy members of her community, revealing her ambitions for herself and those around her, as well as her sense of humor about her struggle to pay her bills.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Josephine Turner, June 7, 1976. Interview H-0235-2. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- KAREN SINDELAR:
-
This will be the first real stretch in your life when you
haven't worked, then, except for the time you were taking
care of your mother.
- JOSEPHINE TURNER:
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Right, right. I've worked all my life, and I've
never sat down. A lot of them tell me
I'm not going to sit down. "No," they say,
"you're not going to sit down there; you know
you're going to work." But I don't know,
there's so much I see needs to be done.
- KAREN SINDELAR:
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What types of things would you like to do?
- JOSEPHINE TURNER:
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Well, there's a lot of sick people out here, old people
that's alone. I'd like to visit them, you know,
and see what I can do to help them—such as go with them to
help pay their bills and things. This morning I was in the bank, and
they wouldn't even cash this old lady's check
because she didn't have nothing but a Social Security card or
something. And I know her; and I said, "Give me the
check," and I signed the check and they cashed it for me. You
know, there's just so much of it to be done, a lot of little
children out here that need to be started on the road to Sunday school
or something. It looks like they're teaching them everything
but what needs to be taught. We have a lot of parents that need a lot of
teaching, because you can't just tell a child what to do.
You've got to show him. There's just a lot of it
that I have ambition to do. I don't say whether
I'll do it or not, but I mean I will be trying. Then all
these things that I'm associated with here, and
there's a lot of prisoners. They had a mother this morning
that wants me to see what I can do; I'm the chairman of the
Human Relations out there at Guess Road prison, and a lot of prisoners
need… You know, there's so much that needs to be
done. And the job is really holding me back. A lot of time I need to be
at those night meetings. Now I got a call from a woman who wanted me to
drive her to the theater tomorrow night, so I'm going to have
to ask for an hour off. And there are so many meetings day and night
that I need to be at. So I'm sure God will give me a piece of
bread, you know. I tease them down at the
church. I said, "Well, I'm going to quit work. If
you feed me I think I can make it, you know." I have paid bills
up this morning, so I can have lights, water, gas, telephone for one
more month anyway [laughter] .