Interview

The government came and told Miss Davis that they were going to take over everything and she would have to move. She didn't believe it at first, but then a man took her picture while she was feeding her chickens. Now you just pretend you hadn't talked to me any before and you tell me about the government moving you up here. Well now I don't remember the day or the month or nothing like that, you understand? But I know they come one evening and I just was fixing to quit working in the garden. And he comes and he says, Well, says, is this Miss Davis? And I said, that's what they call me. Other words ain't new, I suggest. He says, well, says, I'm taking pictures around. Says the government's going to take over everything and James was going to have to move out. I says, all this many years? I says, you talk crazy. And he says, no. Says, I'm here just to tell you. Says, friendly talk. And he says, then my chickens was all out and it was late in the evening, you know. I says, well, you'll have to excuse me. I got to put my chickens in the chicken yard. He says, that's just what I want you to do. Well, there was a shark fellow with him, you know. But he didn't ever tell me who he was, you understand? And I went to put my chickens in the chicken yard and fed them. And I had on my old bonnet and shirt where I'd been working, you know. And I'd throw the corn out. And I noticed this shark fellow walked up close to him and said something or another. And he said, well, you've got a pretty bunch of chickens. Says, do they lay? I says, yes. I says, sometimes I pick up nine eggs a day and sometimes I don't. He says, well, this surely is a pretty place. Well, I didn't know this shark man walked up to him and took my picture just as I went to throw some corn out to him, you know.