OK, brought up children, you were made to go to church. There wasn't no
choice. I mean, from birth to about seventeen, no choice, you got to go
to church. When I turned eighteen, my thing was, "I'm out of here. I'm
out of church." Too many people bossing you. In church, all of them old
ladies sitting three is your momma. I mean, mess up in church, you're
through.
I remember this incident. Like I said, I [unclear] getting in trouble. I went to church so regular that I learned
the routine. Like passing the money plate. I figure if I sit in the
back, about the time that plate gets to me I'm going to be loaded. I
could get my movie money from this plate. I did it for about three
Sundays, you know, five dollars, six dollars. This old lady, Miss Anna
Kay, I love her to death—she gone on now but I love her to death—she
kept watching me, I didn't know she was watching me. And boy, she caught
me. The lady laid one of the best whippings you ever seen on me. And
then she took me to my mom, and then there was another whipping. So when
I got of age, [unclear], "I'm out of here." So I stayed away from church for quite a
while. I started doing wild, crazy things. Then, I don't know what made
me decide to go back, but I went back. And enjoyed it.
I spend a lot of time trying to help a lot of kids that hang out on the
block. Because they're being mislabeled. A lot of people call them drug
dealers, drug users, but it's just a bunch of kids hanging out,
communicating with each other. It's their meeting place. They get a lot
of bad rap, so I try to hang out with them. Those that want to be in
trouble [unclear] I try to talk to them out of doing it.
Another person
[unclear] Revered Eubanks. He used to be the janitor over at the center.
He's the minister now. He kept me out of a lot of trouble. I used to
love to fight. On Friday night, I used to leave home to fight. One night
I was over at the center, fighting. He came, Reverend Eubanks, and broke
the fight up. He was talking to me. I looked at him and said, "Old man,
don't touch me. You know who I am.
Page 30Don't touch me."
This man grabbed me. It was like a pair of vice. Pulled me into the
center, sit me down in a chair and started preaching to me. You know,
about the "good" in me. I don't want to hear that; I want to hear the
"bad." So after he finished all this talking and preaching, he said,
"Monday morning, we're going to have some concrete trucks coming over
here. We're going to pour
[unclear] concrete, and you're going to be here." I didn't say nothing.
After feeling his grip, I said, "I better be cool." But I said to myself
on the way out, "This man has got to be crazy. Thinking that Raney is
going to get up on Monday, come over here and work for free." For some
reason—I still can't understand it today—I was there at eight o'clock.
[unclear]. He almost like a father to me. These things stand out in my
life.