Old Josh (Three Episodes: 23, 24 & 25))Pure Nigger: 2nd Series))
Old Josh, in:
And His Grandson’s Question
(A lost and now found: Episode: 23)) 7-23-2006))
1905 (spring)
(A conversational Sketch with Silas and Josh ((Silas’ son, Caspy, is sitting on old Josh’s porch at the Hightower plantation, it is 1905, Josh is 90-years old. Caspy is four. And Caspy, asks his grandpa a question, but Josh talks about
What happened in 1825))
“Umupuh,” said Caspy, watching his Grandpa rock back an forth on the porch, Silas with a pipe in his mouth, leaning against the frame of the shanty hut, Caspy in front of Grandpa’s legs, looking upward.
“Whut does dey boy look at me fur likes dat?” Josh asks.
“Hes a looking wuh yu-all dont hab de ole cob pipe like me pa,” said, Silas with a laugh. But old Josh was not laughing.
“Naw, suh,” said Josh, his old eyes gazing at his grandson, big old black hands holding onto the wooden arms of the chair, Josh bringing his coffee can to his lips, drinking the coffee in it down, kind of staring at the boy’s eyes.
“Sho…” Caspy murmured with his four year old curious eyes.
“Dey wuz a time me an’ a boy wuz gowin down dat dere road (Josh points to the road in front of the plantation) I gits tired unloudin’ da wagon fur Mr. Hightower, all de dey long, so dat day de Marster, Mr. Hightower passes and he look, and my friend he wuz a schoolen boy, so he writ on a page of paper his school work an’ wes git along fine, he wuz tryin’ to explain to me how to writ, so he turn de other way and I reckon dey wuz a hundred shootin’ soldiers nearby, it wuz back in ’25, he gits hit by a bullet, I knowed the boy fur guine on five year’.
“Did dey kuilt de boy pa?” asked Silas.
“Yessum,” said Josh with a tear in his eye, “you’d better guin in da house, Silas, need you to make somethin’ for Caspy, hes hungry.”
“It was bad times, so I find a hole and I hide in it a while (Josh can hear from his porch Hightower’s phonograph)…I forgeits Ihad his pipe in me pocket, as he writ. De white bos cold writ, so he wants to. Dat writin’ stuff git him in trouble, well, he was kuilt.”
Old Josh, in:
Mule-Ears (1902)
(Episode #24)
“Yes pa, I knowed, she’s right sick, ole Nelly the cow.”
(Two Negroess entered the Hightower born to the left side of Josh’s shanty hut´, it was late at night, or as one may say, early in the morning, it was 2:00 AM, Josh couldn’t sleep, and woke up Silas in the process of trying to get back to sleep. And started laughing for no reason and heard the barn door open, moonlight shinning down, chatter somewhere about.)
“I got ears like de mule I do, an’ hears something in de barn; Silas, it best yu go on over an’ tell Mr. Hightower, ‘efore he blames us for somethin’ we didn’t do…” said Josh.
“I reckon so,” commented Silas, half dazed from his sleep.
“How many robbers you see pa, over dere by de barn?”
“None, but I hears two, I knowed dere is two, moest all my life I hears good as a mule, ain’ no trouble wid my hearin’ jes my seein’.
(…said one Negro to the other… ((the cows in the background, in the far back of the barn moving about, so they moved quickly with agility of apes in motion) “stand still,” said a voice. It was an October evening, perhaps a tinge past 2:00 AM, a chill in the air. Motionless was Hightower standing outside the barn door, with a ten-gage shotgun, the two Negroess drunk, perhaps wanted to sleep the night away in a warm place, but found two cows, and figured they could take them, and sell them, everyone was sleeping and who would be the wiser, so alcohol will dull your senses, and so it did in this case. They overlooked the horses, because they were too much trouble, stomping about, and all that.)
“Hurry on up wid de cow…” said one of the voices in the barn.
(The Negroess stood by the door now, laughing about the cows being so big, and the money they’d get for it, one spat on the cow deliberately. Then he saw two eyes in the doorway, Hightower’s, and Hightower saw four eyes next to his cow, and likened to a hammer blow, the shotgun hit their chests, two shots, that is all it took.
2-14-2007
Old Josh, in:
Skinn’ Bessie (1896)
(Episode: #25)
(There were a few Old Josh stories, made by way of fragments, instead of the usual, sketches and longer conversations; this short fragment of a conversation is an example. I was going to leave it out, but it seemed for the reader to really get to know Old Josh, even the fragments that were meant to be longer, but never got to that stage, might be of interest.)
Josh: Amos wid dat ole gal?
Silas: Wuh ole gal?
Josh: Skinn’ Bessie!
Silas: Wuh he do to git her so mad?
Josh: Yu ain’ heard ‘bout de time Amos token horse meat over to Skinn’ Bessie, she gits so mad she wuz a bilin’ she wuz! She com to meet Amos at de Cotton Mill de next day, on her bare foots its so hot, gus she mule lay down dead in da heat. Well, yu knowed how Amos is he says ‘Bessie,’ an’ she hits him in de mill. He squeal like de pig. Well, she gits so mad, she takes de horse meat, grabs dat meat and cooks it right outside de mill, and slap ole Amos in de face wid it. I reckon he is hurt, he jumps ‘bout like de grasshopper. He run in de cotton mill tore cloths an’ all, fur a while, kaze Bessie wuz jes warmin’ up.
2-8-2007
And His Grandson’s Question
(A lost and now found: Episode: 23)) 7-23-2006))
1905 (spring)
(A conversational Sketch with Silas and Josh ((Silas’ son, Caspy, is sitting on old Josh’s porch at the Hightower plantation, it is 1905, Josh is 90-years old. Caspy is four. And Caspy, asks his grandpa a question, but Josh talks about
What happened in 1825))
“Umupuh,” said Caspy, watching his Grandpa rock back an forth on the porch, Silas with a pipe in his mouth, leaning against the frame of the shanty hut, Caspy in front of Grandpa’s legs, looking upward.
“Whut does dey boy look at me fur likes dat?” Josh asks.
“Hes a looking wuh yu-all dont hab de ole cob pipe like me pa,” said, Silas with a laugh. But old Josh was not laughing.
“Naw, suh,” said Josh, his old eyes gazing at his grandson, big old black hands holding onto the wooden arms of the chair, Josh bringing his coffee can to his lips, drinking the coffee in it down, kind of staring at the boy’s eyes.
“Sho…” Caspy murmured with his four year old curious eyes.
“Dey wuz a time me an’ a boy wuz gowin down dat dere road (Josh points to the road in front of the plantation) I gits tired unloudin’ da wagon fur Mr. Hightower, all de dey long, so dat day de Marster, Mr. Hightower passes and he look, and my friend he wuz a schoolen boy, so he writ on a page of paper his school work an’ wes git along fine, he wuz tryin’ to explain to me how to writ, so he turn de other way and I reckon dey wuz a hundred shootin’ soldiers nearby, it wuz back in ’25, he gits hit by a bullet, I knowed the boy fur guine on five year’.
“Did dey kuilt de boy pa?” asked Silas.
“Yessum,” said Josh with a tear in his eye, “you’d better guin in da house, Silas, need you to make somethin’ for Caspy, hes hungry.”
“It was bad times, so I find a hole and I hide in it a while (Josh can hear from his porch Hightower’s phonograph)…I forgeits Ihad his pipe in me pocket, as he writ. De white bos cold writ, so he wants to. Dat writin’ stuff git him in trouble, well, he was kuilt.”
Old Josh, in:
Mule-Ears (1902)
(Episode #24)
“Yes pa, I knowed, she’s right sick, ole Nelly the cow.”
(Two Negroess entered the Hightower born to the left side of Josh’s shanty hut´, it was late at night, or as one may say, early in the morning, it was 2:00 AM, Josh couldn’t sleep, and woke up Silas in the process of trying to get back to sleep. And started laughing for no reason and heard the barn door open, moonlight shinning down, chatter somewhere about.)
“I got ears like de mule I do, an’ hears something in de barn; Silas, it best yu go on over an’ tell Mr. Hightower, ‘efore he blames us for somethin’ we didn’t do…” said Josh.
“I reckon so,” commented Silas, half dazed from his sleep.
“How many robbers you see pa, over dere by de barn?”
“None, but I hears two, I knowed dere is two, moest all my life I hears good as a mule, ain’ no trouble wid my hearin’ jes my seein’.
(…said one Negro to the other… ((the cows in the background, in the far back of the barn moving about, so they moved quickly with agility of apes in motion) “stand still,” said a voice. It was an October evening, perhaps a tinge past 2:00 AM, a chill in the air. Motionless was Hightower standing outside the barn door, with a ten-gage shotgun, the two Negroess drunk, perhaps wanted to sleep the night away in a warm place, but found two cows, and figured they could take them, and sell them, everyone was sleeping and who would be the wiser, so alcohol will dull your senses, and so it did in this case. They overlooked the horses, because they were too much trouble, stomping about, and all that.)
“Hurry on up wid de cow…” said one of the voices in the barn.
(The Negroess stood by the door now, laughing about the cows being so big, and the money they’d get for it, one spat on the cow deliberately. Then he saw two eyes in the doorway, Hightower’s, and Hightower saw four eyes next to his cow, and likened to a hammer blow, the shotgun hit their chests, two shots, that is all it took.
2-14-2007
Old Josh, in:
Skinn’ Bessie (1896)
(Episode: #25)
(There were a few Old Josh stories, made by way of fragments, instead of the usual, sketches and longer conversations; this short fragment of a conversation is an example. I was going to leave it out, but it seemed for the reader to really get to know Old Josh, even the fragments that were meant to be longer, but never got to that stage, might be of interest.)
Josh: Amos wid dat ole gal?
Silas: Wuh ole gal?
Josh: Skinn’ Bessie!
Silas: Wuh he do to git her so mad?
Josh: Yu ain’ heard ‘bout de time Amos token horse meat over to Skinn’ Bessie, she gits so mad she wuz a bilin’ she wuz! She com to meet Amos at de Cotton Mill de next day, on her bare foots its so hot, gus she mule lay down dead in da heat. Well, yu knowed how Amos is he says ‘Bessie,’ an’ she hits him in de mill. He squeal like de pig. Well, she gits so mad, she takes de horse meat, grabs dat meat and cooks it right outside de mill, and slap ole Amos in de face wid it. I reckon he is hurt, he jumps ‘bout like de grasshopper. He run in de cotton mill tore cloths an’ all, fur a while, kaze Bessie wuz jes warmin’ up.
2-8-2007
posted by Dennis and Rosa Siluk at 3:39 PM
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