I worked as a hospital orderly for sixteen years. Then I worked over
there at the ABC store where I told you to turn. That's my work. I
worked over there for twenty years, and I've been retired for eleven
years, and I still work over there some. Maybe a couple times a month.
So I worked over there a while, and then I was on with Carolina Cameras
for a bit. I've been to about every school in Lincoln County, too.
Sometimes I go around there and I recite poetry. I don't read it, I
recite it. Most of it that I have, I've already memorized it before I
even write it. For instance, next Sunday's Easter, and spring means
Easter …
Mr. Winter packed up all the sleet and snow
March winds came everywhere
but where, I do not know.
Birds are singing everywhere
Buds are showing here and there
Lots of people seem to care
Because the day He died is near.
On this special Sunday morning
Samuel will be loud and clear.
They'll be talking ‘bout our Master
Whom we all should love quite dear
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For as we enter this new season
Won't you try to change your ways
For the day is surely coming
When you must also face the grave.
Those thoughts… I had them before I ever wrote them down. Just probably
an act of God.
I'm not angry with being the color black
For only God can create this day.
I've been taught since I used to know
My soul can be as white as snow
For if I live from day to day
And conduct myself in a Christlike way
He will at some time call me home
To live with him upon the throne.
It's no use going around, holding you head up, being angry with someone.
I'm not angry with anybody. There's a lot of things that I didn't
approve of, but the way I felt about it, we had a voice back in the
fifties …being in the choir. We'd go around to different places and
sing. But I told them, integrate yourself with the very best of people
as much as
Page 8 possible, but segregate yourself from
those who are impossible. That's doesn't just mean white, that means
everybody. There's plenty of black people that I don't want to be
bothered with. I don't like their attitude and I don't think they're
acting like they should act, so I don't want to be bothered with them. I
dodge a lot of people I don't want to be bothered with. You see a lot of
people you don't want to be bothered with. You ever seen black people
you don't want to be bothered with? Same way, no different. There's only
two kinds of people: good ones and those that are not so good. I told my
wife the other day: ‘I figured out what the problem is in this world.’
‘What you think it is?’ she said. I said: ‘Well, respect,
responsibility, understanding, love, kindness, friendship, and only God
above knows whether or not they're going to go back to work or not.
Now I was in the Boy Scouts back when I was a boy, and if everyone would
act like Boy Scouts, we wouldn't have a bit of trouble in this world. We
had rules we'd go by, and oaths… but it's a whole lot easier to do good
than to do bad, I think. But some people just, I don't know…