“Seven years ago they told me I was going to die in six months from lymphatic cancer. I was at the cancer center the day before yesterday for chemotherapy and radiation. The chemo must be helping. Morphine numbs the constant pain. Life is rough. I can’t work a job. They have me on SSI but it is not enough money. I pick up cans to help make ends meet and pay utility bills. It is just me, so I don’t have to eat like everyone else eats. I can do wonders with $50 in food stamps. I eat vegetables, chicken and fish. I am not too keen on frying anything. I am just playing the hand dealt to me. That is all a person can do, just try to hold on. I hear a lot of people saying a lot of things about dying, but until you are faced with it, you don’t get it.”
“What do you do for fun or to escape?”
“I cut my air conditioning on and turn on my huge television, it’s an old fashioned TV. I like to watch movies. I don’t have a vehicle so I don’t do no running around. I like to barbecue. My neighbor will bring over a box of meat and tell me to do my thing.”
My favorite memory in Yazoo City is of Ricks Library and the Main Street school. I was a little shorty but I would keep the wolves off. Back then blacks were fighting and whites were fighting and I would get in the middle and try to stop it and tell them to hold up. I have been known as a traitor ever since. I don’t like fights, but I’ve got two teeth missing from fights. They were knocked out from the roots in brass knuckles in two different fights. I don’t think the violence is going to stop anytime soon. People don’t act like the used to, people do all kinds of crazy things. The area I am living in is rough. Walking down the street after I just moved in and people came up saying, “what you need? You are going to buy something.” I had to fight with them because I wasn’t going to buy anything. They respect me now and call me Old School.”
“Why are you carrying around the picture frame?”
“A young lady asked me to repair this. I can fix anything and used to build houses and furniture. I wish I was still doing it. I think I could work in a shop restoring antique furniture and building ones that look just like it. I went to New York for a visit and repaired some antiques for a friend of mine who was a curator at a museum. I thought I was big stuff when I went there. I had $2,900 in my pocket. I went shopping, then looked in my pocket. Where did all of my money go? I know there is nothing here for me and I don’t like some of the things people do, but I like it here. No matter how many times I leave, I always come home.”
0 Comments