Old Josh’s Ode to Bessie

Part I, 1849


[Josh has taken a liking for Bessie, she works with her brother on the neighboring plantation; helps Josh with his two boys, and now Josh has created a song for her, he is wooing her, it would seem. She has come over to his shanty in the back of the Hightower house, by the carrel. They are now sitting on the little porch, in two rockers, and he is singing this song to her; Josh is not know to have ever been too romantic, in the past, or future, nor in the present, but he is here a little more balanced than in most previous episodes.]


Josh’s Ode to Bessie

By Joshua Jefferson

Tonight she come to dhe arms of Josh
I can hear dhe cooing of dhe bird’
dont youall hears whut dhe birds say?
I can hear dhe cooing of dhe bird’
miles an’ miles ‘way…

he stay: Josh he on his way!
Aint you hear whut dhe bird’ say?
Oh, stay, stay dhe birds say,
hush dhe mout’, de birds say
Josh is on his way,

Bessie, Bessie ain’t you here
she a-likeen-to dha sound of dhe bird
ef-in she don’t hurry on up…
dhe bird say, its goin’ to be
way too late, fer Bessie an’ me!

5-2006 (No: 1965)



Old Josh, in: Sweet Bessie
Part II, 1849


Said Josh to his son Silas, sitting one evening on his front porch of his shanty, in back of the Hightower barn, “Bessie in a bad fix!”
“Why you say that pa?” asked Silas.
“She and her ex-husband Hank, be back in the woods fishin’ down by Goose Creek, and they be comin’ out through the ole road in the night, I sees with me own eyes, Sweet Bessie layin’ cross the grass an’ she say:
‘Look here now, Hank, whut is hit youall wants?’ and Hank is this kind of nigger, and he say ‘Youall aint nothin’ to-me,’ and he had haul- off and slaped her in the face—I sees her face, and there she be, on the grass: I got a thinkin’ he dont like her seein’ me!”
“Then whut happened pa?” asked Silas.
“Well, Hank, he gits scared when he sees me, wants to run but he don’t…he have a knife in his hand, and Sweet Bessie she callin’ to the Lord to save her and me. She done tells the Lord, help Josh bite Hank to death, she say, ‘Ef-in he lose his mind Lord, you got to take him, and puts him down yonder…!’ She mad as a Billy-goat.
“Sho’ —enough pa, she luck as the day is long, I reckon,” commented Silas, listening like an owl for the conclusion, a corn-pipe in his mouth, just chewing on its end, no tobacco in it, and a jug of moonshine by his feet, ready to pop the cork, but too intrigued to do so in fear he might miss something his pa will say.
“Well, Silas,” said Josh with a deep inhaling, “I done save her I reckon, and I am his omen to him now!”
“Why youall say that pa?” asked Silas.
“I done thought I knows women, but I finds out I aint known nothin’ ‘bout them, they is like sunshine and rain, every hour of the day, you got to keep your step and eye on them, and you gots to watch you’ own step, cuz you inners dont tell you mind to stop, and youall ready to die fer a hug and kiss, and you know, the birds and the bees want a piece of the pie.”

(Josh never did answer Silas original question, because he didn’t want to tell Silas, he beat Hank up, and Bessie felt sorry for Hank, and she told Josh to go, and cared for Hank. And I think Josh felt a little foolish after that.)




Old Josh’s Conversation with
and Lula the Cook
Part III, 1849


Old Josh and Lula the Cook, on the Hightower Plantation, in Ozark, Alabama, are talking about the relationship between Bessie and himself: Josh telling her, that it doesn’t seem to be working out, and Lula implies Josh needs to getting a good woman, he’s no spring chicken, matter of fact she says he is in his late forties, close to fifty (Lula, the black cook, assistant to Granny Mae, comes and helps out now and then, when Mrs. Ella A. T. Hightower requests it, often referred to by Aurea )…

“I hears the argument Josh,” says Lula, “You and Ms Bessie fight-in all the time, an ole man like you, whuts got in to you both, shes a young one, half your age?”
“I aint no ole man yet, Lula,” said Josh trying to think of an answer why he and Lula fight all the time.
“You think you owns Bessie, and her family comes to take her home, cuz you and Bessie do all that sugar-eyeing and kissin’ and who knows whut, then fight-in like you are two devils, and her family wants her fresh for a rich man I suppse,” commented Lula, shaking her head to the right and left, not up and down, and letting out a sigh.
“Supposen we do…all that whut you say, why her family git in our way, come her and takes her home, that aint their business, she old enough to say ‘leaves me be,’ but she dont.” said Josh, head up in the sky as if picturing past events.
“Well Josh,” said Lula, with a smirk, “youall got the advantage with that there tongue of yours, it aint got any shame, and Bessie, gits a no-good ex-husband, and a noisy family, but I cant blame her, cuz that there is all she gits to have besides you, and a few young men down there at that Ozark bar, you aint no price for no woman either Josh, so don’t go thinking you is.” Said Lula, adding “I like ya Josh, but likin’ someone and livin’ with the person you like, and is like you, is—well, I hates to say it, a nightmare. Its like jumping out of the chicken coup, into the frying pan, I jes’ as well stay in the coup and wait for the slaughter to come, cuz I know it’s a-comin’. So you see Josh, she aint git no better with our without ya…”
“Well, I reckon that is the way some folks think, I waz kind of wild, stubborn in my younger day Lula, had some bad ways, had to raise two boys, but I aint all that bad anymore.” Said Josh, adding, “I hears Bessie’s Hank, hes-a making bad remarks ‘bout me being ole man, like youall say. He lives in New Orleans, and comes here and goes to the bar in Ozark, and has all them gals, and finds Bessie, I think Bessie and me, we loves each other.”
“You is foolish Old Josh, she loves fire, and you is fire when there is no fire around, and when there is, you is jes’ a candle in a window. She likes the fire in Hank, she jes’ love fire, you is no more than an old horse in a barn to her,” said Lula.
“How come you say that?” asked Josh, with a hurt look.
“I aint see why you fret ‘bout her, I suppose you have changed, but she aint, and ef-in you chase her, you aint never goin’ to keep up with her, her mama wants money for her, thats why she comes to fetch her,” said Lula.
“Well,” said Josh, a little disappointed, “You is right I suppose, but my heart say I loves her…!”
“No,” said Lula, “I knows men, and that aint the heart talkin’ cuz after you and her makes love, youall fight like the dickens for hours, that aint love, that there is wantin’ to change someone, or control someone, who dont want what you want, but maybe jes’t that fire, that there is all you both want, and afraid you cant have sittin’ on your door steps when you wants it.”
Josh didn’t argue about it, he just up and left out the screen door in the back of the kitchen: I don’t think he ever saw Bessie again, I think she left or New Orleans, shortly after that meeting between Josh and Lula, looking for more fire.


The Year set for these four sketches was 1849; all four sketches were made linking to one story in particular, sketch one was called, “I Aint No Nigger!” ((5-19-2006) (Episode No: 9)) this sketch was separated from the other four, and the year was changed to 1863 for the happening, and it was with Bessie Ann, not the original Bessie in Old Josh’s Song to Bessie. Thus, the other three sketches were left alone as they fit more properly together. The first sketch “I Aint no Nigger,” was not changed in content, just separated.
Old Josh’s Song to Bessie, sketch two (episode No: 10) written (5-19-2006), actually five days after; and sketch three, Sweet Bessie (Episode, 11, written, 5-26-2006): and sketch four: Old Josh and Lula the Cook (Episode 12, 5-2006). All sketches or episodes are linked to ‘Old Josh’s Ode to Bessie’ renamed,’ November, 2008.