KELLY LIMES-TAYLOR HENDERSON: Hello. How are you?
JAMES LIMES: Oh, I'm blessed, I'm blessed.
HENDERSON: Oh, good. Good.
LIMES: Now that the Lord has allowed me to rise one more time, so. (laughter)
HENDERSON: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
LIMES: Thank -- thank God for that.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
LIMES: (Unintelligible, 00:31) couple minutes.
HENDERSON: Good.
LIMES: Yes.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
LIMES: Um, I don't know how we do this now. Are we --
HENDERSON: (laugh) Oh, it's pretty simple. I just start out with a question. Um,
were you ready for the question?LIMES: (laughter) Well, I guess I'll be ready if I can be.
HENDERSON: (laugh)
LIMES: I -- what was it that, uh -- for my, for me, anyway, my youth and coming
up, it's a little fuzzy. I say that because I guess the older I got, sweetheart, 00:01:00I just pushed a lot of stuff aside. I didn't relish on them so, much.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: You know what I mean?
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: So, um, I, I don't know how this is gonna play out. I don't know how the
other guys, uh, uh answered your questions, but I'll do the best I can.HENDERSON: Okay. Okay. Well, that's good. What, what I do, um what I do recall,
though, is that I need to sen -- I need to go ahead, um, and mail you a consent form, because when we, for my project, when I'm asking the family questions and everything, um, I'm recording it and I'm --LIMES: Yeah.
HENDERSON: -- going to try to get the recordings to you all. So, first I need to
ask if it's okay that I record, um, our conversation today so that I can write down what we say and --LIMES: Yeah.
HENDERSON: -- everything like that.
LIMES: Well, yes.
HENDERSON: Okay. Okay. And then I'm, what I'm gonna do is transcribe it, try to
get, you know, down everything we say and then send you all copies of the 00:02:00recording and the transcription so you ha -- you have it. Um --LIMES: Am I coming through clear to you?
HENDERSON: You are, yes. Yes.
LIMES: Okay.
HENDERSON: You are. Um, so, so that is the first thing, and the second thing is
just anything that you remember is fine, you know? Because everybody remembers different things, and that's actually been what's happening is that everybody -- You know, some people remember some things, but what everyone will say is, you know, "You should talk to this sibling or that sibling, because they can remember it better," you know --LIMES: Yeah.
HENDERSON: -- or, "They were actually there," and so it's, it's fine.
LIMES: Right.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm. Mm-hm. So if you -- When you were saying that, you know,
coming up for you was a little bit fuzzy, we can probably start with the fuzziest part, which would be, um South Carolina and what you may remember about living there and being there.LIMES: Well, uh as far as South Carolina goes I, I left there when I was twelve
00:03:00years old --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- so I really, um -- And like I said, a lot of that stuff I I guess I
pushed in the background. When I, um -- As far as I can remember, okay --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- I know we moved -- I'm speaking 'bout the family and I -- uh, we moved
quite a bit. There's about three different homes that we lived in.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Okay? But as far as, um, I had -- my -- me having a relationship with, um
my family, my dad was gone quite a bit.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: I know that, because he was working out of town.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: My mother (unintelligible, 04:12) uh, uh, sweetheart, I used to call her
00:04:00my sister, initially --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- because, um most of the time I was with her her mother, at her mother
house --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- my grandmother house, so --
HENDERSON: Oh, Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
LIMES: There's times when Mom was, you know, out sometimes, uh whenever she's
going out or something -- Most of the time we were, we were with her grand -- with her mother --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- and her siblings. And they all called my mother by her name, Samenia.
They call her mother, "mother," or "momma."HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: So growing up I used to call her, I thought she was my sister.
HENDERSON: Ohhh -- . I see.
LIMES: Right. You know. But it didn't take long, because, like I said, my dad
worked out of town --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- and I guess told like that, I'm walking now, you know, he came in one
00:05:00weekend and he said to me, "When I come back next week, I want you to call your mother, 'mother.'"HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: So I (laugh) I say like, "She's my sister, sister." --
HENDERSON: (laughter)
LIMES: -- because I'm thinking, I, all I hear is her name, her name's, and they
call their momma, "Mom -- Momma," so I called Momma, "Momma."HENDERSON: Right. Right.
LIMES: And it -- Far as I was concerned, my mother was my sister at that time.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: So, but, but, generally, when Dad came in, then we were in our home where
we stayed with him. And I enjoyed weekend with my dad. Normally, when he was going back, I'd walk with him, you know, Mom and I, we'd go over back to the bus station when he's leaving, because he worked out of town, like I said. This 00:06:00particular day when he told me that. He said I was walking, going to the bus stop and I would just keep saying, "Mother, mother, mother, mother, mother, mother." (laugh) I mean, I guess getting used to the idea that -- I didn't want Dad to come back and I'm not saying, "Mother."HENDERSON: Right. Right.
LIMES: But they, at that time, I, I don't know the age -- I can't say the age --
but I guess I wa -- I was talking, speaking, so -- Had to be, I guess, you know, five, six, five years old, or whatever, I --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: I don't know. Uh, Dad and I -- I don't, to be honest with you,
sweetheart, I don't really, when I say I don't know my Dad that much, because he was gone.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: I've often told people the relationship that I'd like to have had with my
00:07:00father, I never did.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Um, the closest thing to me was family-wise was Mom --
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- and, uh other than that, us moving quite a bit from three different
homes, uh my relationship with my family -- because I guess I stayed mostly to myself, so to speak.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: I mean I'd be with my siblings. It was just the five of us when we left
and come to New York --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- in, um forty-three, forty-four -- Dad came up in forty-three and then
he sent for us and we came in forty-four --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: So I was twelve when I left there.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: I actua -- I went, uh from a school age to seventh grade. When I left
00:08:00there, I was in junior high --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- (unintelligible, 08:28) grade and, uh, I got here I, I didn't like it
initially when I came --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- because I was used to the South, I was used to Georgetown, I was used
to people, the way we played with the kids --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- (unintelligible, 08:49) the Christmas spirit. Oh, we didn't have that
much but Mom made it , uh enjoyed it the best she could.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: So she was a little, uh, strict, um -- I should say, she was a, a strict
disciplinary -- aritarian because when she told me to do something, she wanted 00:09:00me to do it --HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: -- and she wanted me to do it right.
HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: I would say all of my punishment I got basically came from my mom. If, my
-- I can remember a couple of times that my Dad had to whip me but it wasn't because I, I was a bad person --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- it's just that, things that I did. Um he didn't -- I know they didn't
approve, and he said, he should've explained to me when he whipped me the first time, why he did it.HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: But I was, I was small then -- I'd say, I guess around eight, seven,
00:10:00eight around there when I had a (unintelligible, 10:15) with my sister Verna.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: (laughter) (Unintelligible, 10:21) he punished me because, uh, what I was
doing to her --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- not knowing that I could've hurt her or kill her.
HENDERSON: Right. Right.
LIMES: You know? She was a baby in arms and Mom was out and I was holding her
while he, uh, prepared her milk for her, and I was -- we were living in where we had to go downstairs because it was a second-floor bedroom, and the way she was crying, Dad, uh, he said, "A baby doesn't cry like that," so --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- so he kept sneaking, coming up the stairs and he saw what I was doing
and, honey, all I was doing was putting my hand over her mouth. 00:11:00HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: So, yeah, I could have smothered her, I mean --
HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: You know what I'm saying?
HENDERSON: Uh, yes, yes.
LIMES: And so I, I, he punished me that time.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Uh, he said that he, three, at least, they say, three times. I know twice
in my mi -- Daddy spanked me for other reasons. But, like I said, most of my punishment came from Mom. Uh, even when I went to school, uh, I really didn't give him a, a hard time. It's just that when I went to school, I did something one day at school that -- well, it's not that I did -- I did it, I just refused to take a punishment from the teacher.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: The teachers, it was different back in that day. They, they punished you.
00:12:00HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: And even got to go to the school late, you're getting punished from the
principal. But, I, I, I didn't, I refused the punishment from the teacher, she wrote a note, gave it to me, and told me to give it to my mother.HENDERSON: Uh-huh. Why did you -- Why and how did you refuse the punishment?
LIMES: Well, she was punishing the class.
HENDERSON: Oh, I see.
LIMES: It -- But I, I felt, in my heart, that I didn't deserve the punishment,
because I didn't (unintelligible, 12:47) --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: That being said, she gave me the note and I brought it home. My mother
read it, and she said, "Well, I have two choices. You gotta go back to school the next day and take the punishment," or I get it from her.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
00:13:00LIMES: So there goes -- that's the worst of two evils --
HENDERSON: (laughter)
LIMES: -- I, I'll take it from the teacher.
HENDERSON: (laughter)
LIMES: (laughter) Okay? So I went back the next morning and I told her that I
came for my punishment now. She didn't whip me as if she would have done the day before.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: You know, when she was punishing the class but she gave me two, three
(unintelligible, 13:42) to my hands, "Go sit down," right?HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: If I had gone back home and hadn't done it, I know what my mother would
have done --HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: -- so I took it from her. I didn't, um -- Going through my early
childhood, coming up -- You know, other -- I didn't have too much of a problem with school.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
00:14:00LIMES: Mom, like I said, she was a a strict disciplinarian. She -- I've gotten
whipping because of things that, uh, she wanted me to do and I didn't do at the time that she wanted me to do it and she would whipped me for that. Cleaning the house with (unintelligible, 14:37) and the way we had to scrub the floors the way to where, if you didn't do it right, you'll have to do it over again.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: You know, uh she was uh, as far as washing, well, washing the kids', the,
the baby's diapers, at the time, I did that because she had me to do that.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
00:15:00LIMES: Uh, she was, um -- I was just following her orders.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: And if you didn't do them, well, you got a whooping.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Uh, I was, I got a whipping from my grandmother, uh, which is my dad's
mother, when, because, um, Mom was sick, I remember that. So she was in the bed and so there was children, hanging out and playing in the yard like that, uh, Mamus, we called her Mamus. She come by to see how Mom was doing. Mom is pleading with her to whip me . She would, uh, she wouldn't do it.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: So, finally, when she came by one day and mother told her, "Well, if you
00:16:00don't do it, I'm gonna get up."HENDERSON: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
LIMES: Then my grandmother decided she was gonna punish me.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Well, she -- like I was running away from her, she, she tricked me into
coming to her by telling me she was gonna whip one of my cousins.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: So, took my cousin by the hand and dragged him to my, my grandmother.
HENDERSON: (laughter)
LIMES: (laughter) But instead of her grabbing her, she grabbed me!
HENDERSON: (laughter)
LIMES: (Unintelligible, 16:57) she whipped me.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: That was the last -- first and the last time my grandmother ever whipped me.
HENDERSON: What, um, can you tell me more about, some -- remember about her?
LIMES: Well, she's the one I'm speaking about now, Mamus.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
LIMES: It's, uh -- I -- To talk about Mamus, uh I used to go to her house when
00:17:00she lived like a block and half from us --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- to play with my cousins, uh, Billy and Jean -- that because, uh,
that's, uh, my dad's sister children. She was living in New York. The children were there. And they were staying with my grandmother.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Mamus was a, she, she strict person also. And she was a religious person.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: She used to hold, uh, prayer meetings in her home.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: You know. Uh, I guess she -- That's, that's what I, uh remember most
00:18:00about her, that she had these prayer meetings --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- and folks go and (unintelligible, 18:35) praying and stuff, but she,
like I said, though, she was very strict herself, in terms of, uh, how she wanted the kids to car -- carry themselves.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: They didn't allow us as young kids growing up to entertain uh, uh you
didn't sit in the, in the conversation when they talk with grownups. We didn't, uh interrupt them.HENDERSON: Uh-huh. Mm-hm.
00:19:00LIMES: We -- And, and I guess that the pretty young kids should be seen but not heard.
HENDERSON: Right. Uh-huh.
LIMES: They -- basically that's the way she was then --
(pause in tape)
LIMES: Uh, I only that had that run-in with her that one time --
HENDERSON: (laugh) Were you, were you ever in her house during any of the prayer
meetings? Like what would happen during one of those?LIMES: Well, no, we would be outside.
HENDERSON: Oh, Uh-huh.
LIMES: Yeah, but not in, in the home itself. We would be outside in the yard playing.
HENDERSON: Oh, I see. I see.
LIMES: Well, now and then she would come out to make sure that we out there and
weren't into anything --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- but we didn't sit in on the prayer meetings.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Basically, it was just her and her, uh, group of, um, women.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: They, you know, I guess, have their, uh conversation about what they
00:20:00wanna do and have, you know, prayers.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: So when the, the ladies leave, that's when, uh, uh then we can go in the house.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: We didn't, like I said, we didn't sit in with them.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
LIMES: But, uh basically, uh other than that, uh I loved her, you know --
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- and, uh that's, that's mostly what I remember for the, I know, I
'member she worked.HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: But other than that it's just, just, she comes home and she has her, uh,
you know, her prayer meetings, when she does them. Sometime they're in the week 00:21:00or mostly like on Sunday, Sunday afternoon.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: But, you know. That's what had occurred until, uh, I guess, the kids
stayed with her until they came to New York. Just the year before we did.HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: Billy and them came up in forty-three.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: And my mother and I, we came the next year.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: And Dad came up in forty-three.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
LIMES: And, and, then, we came the next year, in forty-four.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: But (unintelligible, 22:02) 'till then, uh she was just my grandmother.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: But, see, I didn't spend too much time with -- Most of my time was with
my mother's mother --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
00:22:00LIMES: -- her, her siblings.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm. Mm-hm. And what do you remember about your, about your
mother's mother and being in that house?LIMES: She was also a strict, um person.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: I don't recall on her ever whipping me. I know that, uh I got from my
mother's sisters, I got, uh I wouldn't say a whipping, more or less, scolding, she likes to tell -- make sure that you doing what you supposed to be.HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: -- like the (unintelligible, 23:10) if you are not doing what you should
be doing.HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: Like I remember one time I, I had I went -- as a young kid, playing
00:23:00around, and I'd go upstairs in the bathroom, and I had my younger brother with me, and I had stolen one of my dad's cigarettes.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: And this at like -- was ten (laughs) and I'm, I'm trying to smoke.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Well, uh, when Irma came up, to go to the bathroom, we were in there,
supposed to be taking a, a, a bath, anyway. (laughter)HENDERSON: (laughter)
LIMES: You know? Uh, her and me and Irvin --
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- that died -- Yep. He'll, we're supposed to be taking a bath, and I
lighted this thing up and started smoking. Well, I'm trying to smoke --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- and (unintelligible, 24:16) to, to, uh, hand it to him. Irma came in
00:24:00-- she wanted to go to the bathroom and she was just, opened the door, she came on in. But she smelled the smoke and she called my mother, because my mother was downstairs, "You better go and see what your boys doing. I smell -- "HENDERSON: (laughter)
LIMES: And (laughter) uh, I'm trying to open the window so that the smoke'll go out.
HENDERSON: (laughter)
LIMES: (laughter) I got a whipping for that.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Uh, they said that Irma had scolded me for something I was supposed to
have done. I don't recall exactly what it was --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- but she locked me up in the the closet --
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- just for a few minutes. Yeah, I guess to scare me. But, for the most
part, my cou -- my aunts, they were beautiful. I didn't have a problem with them 00:25:00you know. They, they made sure we ate, uh -- Basically, it, it's, it's like the family was strict --HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: -- and that, you know, they -- You didn't talk back to an adult in your youth.
HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: You didn't, you didn't sit in their conversation. Uh, I guess it, it goes
back to saying, "Be seen but not heard."HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: You know. It's, it's like, um uh, even my uncles, the ones that I did
play with -- I had a couple that played with me as a young boy coming up, my uncle Bubba --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- one of my mother's brothers.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: And, uh, he and I got along -- well, I say, "got along" -- it's not "got
00:26:00along." He, um used to have little games and stuff and when he finished with them, he'd give them to me!HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: That's what I remember of him. I think he's 'bout the only uncle that I
had from my mother's brothers that I was close to --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- until I came to New York. Down there, he was still the one that I was
most close to, because he -- he being the youngest -- he, he did things with me when others (unintelligible, 2 6:59) others didn't.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: The, the girls her sisters the ones were the younger two, they used to as
00:27:00a baby they used to, uh, you know, take care of me, take me out -- I'm talking about Sister and, and, and Theopia, the youngest. I didn't, I didn't, uh, (siren) (unintelligible) socialize much with the older sisters --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- 'cause they're more up in age. They didn't play like that.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Okay, so, basically my, uh, my youth coming up then it's just being with
the young people, my siblings, and there were friends that we we know, friends 00:28:00that we knew.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Uh -- Other than that, uh, it's not, uh it's not, uh, uh, it was a -- My,
my time, basically, was just being with my cousins that were there --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- and my brothers and sisters.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: You know?
HENDERSON: And when you say that you went up to New York in forty-four and you
didn't like it, what --LIMES: Right.
HENDERSON: You said, you said you couldn't play like you used to. What were some
ways that you would play in Georgetown that you couldn't play in, in Harlem?LIMES: Well, when, when I say when I first came here --
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
00:29:00LIMES: -- it, it, it's like uh, put it this way when I was in Georgetown,
'specially around the holidays --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- Mom, uh would make sure -- Uh, speaking like Easter, like that --
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- we couldn't (unintelligible, 29:48).
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Okay? Uh, believe it or not, I even (laughs) had a little poem that I
used to recite on Easter Sunday.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Uh around the Christmas holidays the choirs, groups, uh, not just choirs,
just groups of people -- 00:30:00HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- they used to come out to, they're singing just Christmas carols. Well,
they'd go by different ones' homes, um they stopped in front of the house and they'd be singing in gowns.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: That I missed.
HENDERSON: Um -- Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
LIMES: On, on, on Saturday, Sunday, the people might say you can't -- You can
pass people's homes and smell what they're cooking, okay?HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Uh, as a child coming up, that's what I missed.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: I missed, um being able to, to uh -- When they, when they had the, uh
00:31:00it's around the holidays, Christmas, that's when we'd get our fireworks, okay?HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: And Mom would have, uh firecrackers (unintelligible, 31:48) you know, it,
it wouldn't be stuff that they're doing these days.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: But I'd have my little firecrackers so that I could go out in the yard
and light them, or sparkles or whatever. When I got here, it was a whole new ballgame.HENDERSON: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
LIMES: The, you couldn't smell the food cooking. I missed the choirs singing. I
00:32:00missed just sitting outside enjoying the night air with the family.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Um like I said, smelling, smelling the food when you walked by the street
at different homes. People waving at you when you passed, "Hi, how are you?" This sort of stuff --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- I missed truly.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: As that -- When I got here the whole atmosphere for me changed. I was
walking on the subway when we got here and I see all these tall buildings.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: I'm like, "What the heck?"
HENDERSON: (laughter)
00:33:00LIMES: (laughter) Well, I'm not used to no building five, six stories in the air!
HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: Okay? Couple of stories, fine, but (laughs) not like that. Anyway, it,
it, it just took something from me, Kelly, the whole -- It just changed.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: When we came, it was like uh, we got here that, the summer of forty-four,
uh, in September and that Christmas for me was a, a drag.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Even though Mom and Dad did their best to, to give us things, and I'm not
knocking them in any way -- God bless them -- --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- it just didn't feel like Christmas.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: As I said, uh, um the, uh -- I couldn't go out. I didn't hear the carols,
00:34:00I couldn't smell the food like I did down there and I'm, I'm living in this tall building, six floors up. You had to walk up -- It, it, just wasn't the atmosphere. It, it didn't jive.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: So at -- well, yeah, I got used to it, but, initially, I wanted to go
back home --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- because there I felt, I guess I had more freedom.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Okay? It wasn't, uh, I guess Mom didn't allow us to come downstairs like
we were home.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: We'd, we can go out in the yard, we could play. It, it, it was just a
00:35:00total, um -- I, I don't know how the others took it being, uh you know, uh -- But I, I wouldn't say, Vernie, because -- Well, Ronald was a baby, so he don't know anything about it.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Vernie was, uh younger but I doubt if she remembered too much of what
Georgetown was all about.HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: So, basically it was just me and Sadie.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Okay? Uh Irv because he's the third birth -- boy -- the third, uh -- I
don't now how much he may have remembered of what Georgetown was like. 00:36:00HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: So, being that they were younger, I guess they, um it didn't really
matter to them.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Again, by my being much older, and I say that, because, like I said, I
was twelve when we left --HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: -- um, Sadie was definitely -- because she was two years younger than me
(unintelligible, 36:59) -- And, then Irv, he was you know, younger than her. So it's uh -- They were like -- Well, they were too young to probably wouldn't remember. But that time, I, I, I've got a -- just like it took my childhood from me.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
00:37:00LIMES: So to speak -- The things I used to do, the games we used to play, uh, I
couldn't play it because, um, Mom wouldn't allow us to go downstairs --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- like that. And, like I said, my Christmas just, just didn't seem, it
didn't seem like Christmas to me.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Okay? The snow -- I didn't see snow. If we did see it, it was little to nothing.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: We came here and it got so cold and I'm seeing all this stuff falling.
It, it was just a -- It was something that I had to get used to.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: I, I got used to it, because I had no choice.
HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: Okay? Um then fighting to, to, uh, Mom trying to get me into h -- to
00:38:00school. They wanted to put me back a year --HENDERSON: Ohhh --
LIMES: -- and I -- Yeah. When I came here -- I would've gone into seventh grade.
HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: But I came here, and they tried to push me back to sixth grade.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh. Why was that?
LIMES: Well, I, I -- Well, I, I don't know. They
said that uh they didn't feel for some reason that I, uh, I guess warranted going to seventh grade. But then I was too old to go into elementary --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- so, eventually, they had to accept me in the seventh grade.
00:39:00HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: And, and I, I went to the seventh grade.
HENDERSON: And how do you -- how did you do when you were there?
LIMES: I did pretty good.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: I 'member when I, uh, took my, uh started taking my foreign language --
when I say "foreign," Spanish, I took Spanish.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: And I can recall my first test that I took and I got a hundred on it!
HENDERSON: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
LIMES: Okay? But it was just, uh my math wasn't too -- I wasn't too sharp in math.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Now, my mom was a mathematician really --
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- because she used to teach. I don't know if Vern and them told you that.
HENDERSON: Aunt Vernie did. Some of the younger ones didn't know, or --
LIMES: Right.
00:40:00HENDERSON: -- they weren't sure. Mm-hm.
LIMES: Like I said, she used to teach. This woman -- believe me or not, Kelly,
she did, she taught me the time overnight.HENDERSON: Oh, wow.
LIMES: (laughs) When I say overnight, she (laughs) -- You know, she would ask,
"What time is it?" and I would go with the, with the, uh "the long hand, the long hand, the short hand's on that," right?HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Well, my mother decided she'd had enough of that. She got a, what they
used to call a "Big Ben" clock --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- then set me down one night -- and she went on the hour, on the
half-hour, then --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- a quarter hour, fifteen minutes. Believe me, sweetheart, when I got up
the next morning, I was tellin' the time.HENDERSON: Uh-huh. (laughter)
00:41:00LIMES: And when I said she was a disciplinarian, Mom would tell you something
(unintelligible, 41:29) she didn't tell me a lot of the times. She wasn't gonna repeat, going over it two, three times.HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: Okay. She'd help me with my schoolwork at times. If she told you a word,
when you come back to that word, you just better know it, you see.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: That's the way she was. I got hit up the side of my head many nights,
doing it. (laughter)HENDERSON: (laughter)
LIMES: I'd -- she'd tell me the word and the word pops up again and you're
stumbling over it and she goes, she'd hit me by the head, "So-and-so! So-and-so!" She'd tell me the word.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Well, the next time I could say the word. I know it.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
LIMES: That's the way she was. Numbers, she was great. Now, I wasn't, I guess I
00:42:00didn't, uh, do good in math, initially although I when I did something I knew, then I did pretty good in it --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- to the extent that, uh uh she was, when I took my first algebra test,
I did great --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- uh, because the, uh the school I (unintelligible, 43:04) but I knew I
did pretty good in it.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Other than that, uh -- All, all, all I can say is that I, uh I credit my
00:43:00mom for the person I am today and still how she brought me up.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: I guess being, uh, the strictest that she, the strict person that she
was, the type of person that she was she didn't allow her children to, uh to just go out and do what they feel that they wanted to do.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: You know? She brought us up to respect the elders but she, that was the
rule anyway, that you, you have, you may have had a parent, or parents, but it's like the whole block, the neighborhood that you had was your parents.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
00:44:00LIMES: I say that because, uh everyone knows everyone.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: There was no one in that neighborhood that would see you're doing
something wrong, and they would not tell your parents.HENDERSON: Now when you talk about Nana, like when you all first moved there,
and you wouldn't be allowed to play out on the street and that sort of thing, what was going on in the street that you couldn't be down there?LIMES: Well, that is just Mom's way of protecting her children.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Uh, basically, that's what I look at it. She -- You know if, if, uh --
I'll put it this way, the building that we were living in was a six -- a six story building.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: The apartment that we were living in was in the back of the house. It
wasn't in the street. 00:45:00HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: There were no windows at the street where she could see us.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
LIMES: So -- Our windows faced what you call a, a courtyard --
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- basically. So she could not see us. Although she has friends, uh, uh
two apartments, the front apartments on the floor the occupants, they became neighbors, uh, friends.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: So Mom'd visit them, uh and she could look out their window.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: And, and look out down on the street, if the kids were down there. But,
mostly, whatever Mom got -- if you were downstairs and getting into something, uh, we, she would know because the, the lady in the front , Miss Wilson, would 00:46:00tell her --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- if we were doing something wrong --
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- or if she felt that we were doing something wrong. That woman, Miss
Wilson, would tell her.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: And, and I've got -- then Mother would say, "Well, you were doing
something (unintelligible, 45:43)" -- Yeah.. her neighbor told her --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- that she saw me. Okay? Not that I was doing anything wrong --
HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: -- but the fact that I was down in the street. However, if I ran across
the street, let's say, the side of the street we were living on, if I ran in the street or I ran across the street --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- Mother would know that by the time I got upstairs.
HENDERSON: Ahhh -- Uh-huh.
00:47:00LIMES: Okay? And I wondered -- she couldn't see me so how'd she -- ?
HENDERSON: (laughter)
LIMES: But the neighbor would tell her.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: See now, that, that, that's just, that's the way it would be (emphasis)
here, but if we were in Georgetown, it was a whole new ballgame.HENDERSON: Uh-huh. Why's that?
LIMES: Everybody (unintelligible, 47:47) because
that's the way it was.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Your neighbors and, and it was like -- Well, no one could see
(break in recording)
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: And, and, like I said, why it happened I haven't a clue.
HENDERSON: Hmm.
LIMES: The kids respected the grownups at that time.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: (Unintelligible, 48:19) --
HENDERSON: And the way the kids respected the grownups in that block, did that
00:48:00not happen in other places?LIMES: You mean in the city?
HENDERSON: Right. Yes.
LIMES: Well, I don't know. I, I'm only speaking -- Mainly because that that's
the block we lived in.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Most (unintelligible, 48:41) the block, I would be (unintelligible, 48:42).
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: We knew, uh, different ones in, in the building --
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- uh, my my aunt, my dad's oldest sister, was living in the building
next to us.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: And, uh coming up, eventually that's where I spent most of my time --
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: That is to say, I was out, out the house of my mother and them as a young
man, young -- Because I started staying with my aunt, I guess when I was like 00:49:00fourteen or fifteen.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: So I, it really wasn't in the house with my parents alth -- although they
were living next door.HENDERSON: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
LIMES: My, my aunt was living in five (siren) and my mother were in seven and
nine, six-thirty.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: And, so, I, I, I guess, uh I raised up with my aunt. I 'spose the house
started, I think, started getting crowded --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- (unintelligible, 50:12) When we came here, we just -- sorry,
(unintelligible 50:17) the ambulance -- (siren continues) --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: When we came here, it was just the five kids.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
00:50:00LIMES: Okay? Ronald's the baby.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: And shortly after we got here, forty-four, like I said, in forty-five,
Perry shows up --HENDERSON: Mm-hm. (laughter)
LIMES: -- you know? And then it went on from there -- In forty-sev --
(break in tape)
LIMES: -- aunt.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: And I started staying with my, my aunt. I stayed there 'til I, until I
got married.HENDERSON: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
LIMES: Stayed with -- So, I wasn't around much. I was like coming to the house
all the time. I was, I wasn't around my, my, uh my parents all the time --HENDERSON: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- basically. Or, you know, when I had my little parties and stuff I
would have it up to my mother's and my, my father's and them house. 00:51:00HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: So the most time I spent over my, my aunt's.,,
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- you know. And, and even with that being said I didn't roam the street
too much, because I, I, I started working, basically, uh, when I was about fifteen.HENDERSON: Uh-huh. What did you do?LIMES: I was working in a grocery store --
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- delivering groceries --
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- after school. Uh on the weekends, I was in the grocery store.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: It was a little, just, uh, but like a -- The store was under the building
where we lived --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- okay? Even though Mom and Dad, you know, they shopped there.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
00:52:00LIMES: And I was delivering groceries, to the neighborhood, to the people, uh,
you know, they, people come in just these little grocery and I'd take them up -- That's where I made my little change.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Although the, the, the owner the, the proprietor of the grocery store,
you know, he gave me a few bucks but, um, that's where I made my little change.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: And, uh I guess that's where, uh, I wasn't around my dad like I wanted
to, God rest his soul. I, I didn't really have the, uh -- how should I put it? The relationship with my dad, I, I, I didn't, for me -- 00:53:00HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- I didn't feel that -- I wasn't privy to the relationship that, uh,
some of my other siblings had with my dad, say Irv and Ron and -- But it was different because I was out of the house, like I said.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Uh, fifteen -- Yeah, I was staying there with, with his sister, older
sister, and since Dad is working all the time and, you know, come and go school, over there, uh I would go over in the morning before I'd go to school.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: I'd come home in the afternoon. I'd stop by after school, uh, when I'd
get my homework or whatever, or otherwise I'm downstairs and I'm doing my little, uh, delivery. 00:54:00HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: And that's how I made my change. So, I, I -- Dad and I, my relation --
relationship with my father is like -- When I wanted to know something --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- I would ask him, and he would give me the way he felt was a decent
answer --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- or if he felt that he didn't have the right answer, he would go and
look it up or go, he said he could get the answer to give me.HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: That's the way he was. But I didn't have a, a relationship with him,
where, you know, Dad and son could sit down and, and talk about things --HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: Well, we, we didn't do that --
HENDERSON: Right.
00:55:00LIMES: -- until I got older and even then uh, we didn't talk that much.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: I guess in my -- coming up in Georgetown, like I said, he was working all
the time. Even when he came here he was working, so we didn't have that kind of relation -- relationship -- at least I didn't.HENDERSON: Right. When you were in Georgetown and he would go off to work, did
you know what he was doing when he had to leave town to work?LIMES: Well, yeah. He was a presser.HENDERSON: Oh, Uh-huh.
LIMES: Yeah. But, the job that he got was like out of town.
HENDERSON: Oh, I see.
LIMES: So -- And he would go -- It was in maybe the next town over or someplace
and he'd go, then he'd come home on the weekends every -- he'd stay, through the week, the five days or whatever, and then he'd come home on the weekend. 00:56:00HENDERSON: Ohhh -- Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
LIMES: So -- And then, you know, Monday morning or, or Sunday night, he
(unintelligible, 56:47) to go back, so we were ready for Monday morning.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: And that's, that's where he got (unintelligible, 56:55) I used to walk
over the, to the bus stop on Monday night, Mom and I, you know, we'd go, walk him to the bus station --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- catch his bus and he'd go on back to the job. I do remem -- recall
that, him going back and forth like that.HENDERSON: Uh-huh. Now, did Nana, when y'all were in Georgetown, did Nana work
out of town?LIMES: Um, no.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: She did, she did (unintelligible, 57:25) time, but I don't recall it.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: (Unintelligible, 57:32) -- Okay? Uh, when I knew her, um she's, she had
00:57:00stopped the teaching thing.HENDERSON: Oh. Uh-huh.
LIMES: The, I guess, you know, the kids started coming in and she'd stopped the
teaching thing.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Too young to know then that she was doing that initially.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: I know she, um times she wasn't there, but I didn't know exactly when she
quit working.HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: I guess after I was born and after, I guess, Sadie uh, then she she stopped.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: (Unintelligible 58:21)it was just Dad.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: He was going. Sometimes he'd be like -- and, and maybe he's got two
different jobs.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: He even did that when he came here, sometimes he had two different jobs --
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
00:58:00LIMES: -- you know. So that's, I, I guess in that sense we really, we didn't
have a conversation of -- Well, well, it, I'll put it this way when I was in Georgetown, I was too young for him to really sit down and talk with me --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- and then when they got here, he was too busy going -- He, he just
didn't sit down and talk.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Man-to-man, like. I guess, talk like fathers and sons do, you know.
HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: I didn't -- I, I don't recall ever having -- Uh, my conversation with my
dad, more or less, what I put, how I put it -- If I needed an answer about 00:59:00something, "Excuse me," I would go to him and, and ask him about it, and, uh, then he would give me his best answer.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: If he didn't think that was sufficient enough, he would go and, and get,
or try to get an answer that he, he, he feel would, uh, you know that justify the situation, however he was telling me.HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: You know, or what he was telling me about, but, uh I didn't know -- To,
to this day, I, I don't recall ever just sitting down with my father and just having a, you know, father to son conversation --HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: -- talking about anything or whatever. I didn't. And he didn't do
01:00:00anything, anything toward me until my twenty-first birthday.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: That's when I had my first drink with my dad.
HENDERSON: Ah. Uh-huh.
LIMES: Although he knew I'd been drinking before that --
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- but he said, uh, "I know you've had it before, but, uh, this is your
first with me."HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: And after that, I could come into the house and get a drink, uh, drink a,
(unintelligible, 01:01:11) have it, but Dad, my father didn't drink with me.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: No. Uh, I remember when they first caught me smoking.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: He, he, he (laughs) said he's not giving them to me, he wasn't buying me
anything. "If you're gonna smoke, you can buy your own."HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
01:01:00LIMES: But I didn't have money to buy my own!
HENDERSON: (laughter)
LIMES: (laughter) I would take them from him.
HENDERSON: Right.
(laughter)
LIMES: He didn't know. But, after that, uh when he'd find me, find me smoking,
well, I mean he didn't like it I didn't get a whipping for it, I don't recall.HENDERSON: How old were you then when they would find you smoking?
LIMES: Oh, I was in, uh early teens, yeah, thirteen
HENDERSON: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
LIMES: Middle teens, around there -- Uh, I, I started smoking, I guess, uh oh
going, go -- sixteen, seventeen.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: You know. You used to go in the store and if I didn't take it from Dad, I
01:02:00would go in the store, they used to buy, uh, what they call "loosies." Pay a penny, you get a couple of loose cigarettes --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- and you'd go about your business. Unless you had the money to buy a
pack --HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: -- you know (unintelligible, 01:02:59) --
HENDERSON: And, and where were y'all when you had your first drink together?
LIMES: My dad and I?
HENDERSON: Yes.
LIMES: We were in New York.
HENDERSON: I mean were you in the house, or did y'all go out?
LIMES: Oh, we didn't go out.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: We were in the house.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
LIMES: You know? Sat in the apartment, came up and, uh, he had the bottle.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: And, you know, everybody wished me happy birthday, and he got two shot
glasses and they, and, you know, he's pouring the drinks, he says, "Well," uh "I 01:03:00know this was not your first." (laughs) That's the way he put it.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: (laughter) "But," um , "It's your first with me."
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: And I believe he did, took all the other guys. Now I don't know, uh the
younger ones when they started (unintelligible, 01:04:07) but that's what he did with me.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: After that, uh if I'd come home, come in the house and he'd
(unintelligible, 01:04:19) he would, sometimes he used to call me, "the old man," uh, "Want a little drink?" He'd get ready to go, and I'd go and get it or he'd go and get you the bottle and hey, he got that --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: But then he used to send me to buy his bottles for him.
01:04:00HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: But older (unintelligible, 01:04:39) uh, I used to go and get his bottles
for him.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Uh, there was a time when they wouldn't sell me the bottles, because they
said I was too young.HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: But, uh I went in with him once and he introduced me to the guy, "This is
my son." "That's your son?" Say, "Yeah." So after that I'd go and they would give me the bottle, but even though I had, uh my registration, because back then, you, I had to register with the Selective Service --HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: -- and -- And, uh, I had proof of my age --
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- but they still didn't wanna, said I looked too young.
HENDERSON: Ohhh --
LIMES: Meaning, uh, they didn't wanna sell it to me. But after he made the
introduction that night, I could go in and they'd give it to me. 01:05:00HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Yeah. And they'd say when I used to get, uh, whiskey on my own the guys
on the block, he had older guys go and get it for him.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Like that. But, you know, he was pretty good that way. And even then, we
didn't, we didn't talk as I wanted to --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- I still say today, that's one thing I could regret of not being able
to just sit down and talk to my dad the way I had wanted to.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: You know. You know, at the time at his death, we just we just, it was
01:06:00just something that, um, it never happened.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: And, and why, Kelly, I could not tell you why that he -- I just know that
most of the time he was gone or (unintelligible, 01:07:00) had, like I said some other time I wasn't around because I now was out of the house, per se --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- and so, uh when, when they came and I'd come around either he's
working, his hours were different, a lot of times he was working at night, you know. Uh (unintelligible, 01:07:30) he's working, uh, four to, to uh, twelve, 01:07:00you know. When he'd come home, he, he'd be in bed, right.HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: When he'd -- You know? Or he's working eight to four in the morning.
Those hours, I seem to remember him having hours like that.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: If he's in the day, then, you know, I'm going to school, so it was no
time for him and I -- When I, um got out of school he, he was going to work at night and I'm working at the day, so --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- we never had the chance just to kind of -- well, some weekends, yeah,
I'd go to his house and watch, watch, a little, uh, you know, baseball. He used to love the Dodgers.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
01:08:00LIMES: And we watched some baseball some, but, still that camaraderie, that
father-son (unintelligible, 01:08:48) --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: I to this day, I truly -- I never had it with him.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: And that's one of my greatest regrets of my father leaving us. And he,
you know, he left us at an early age, and he was, fifty-four --HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- you know, when he died. So, I really didn't have the sort of a -- Now,
the other kids may have had, I don't know how much.HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Believe that Ron and, and, uh Vern might have had more (unintelligible,
01:09:34) --HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: -- and maybe, maybe T.J., I don't know.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
01:09:00LIMES: But I do know I didn't. My mother's basically the same, because all she
did was give me orders and she wanted you to follow them. I tried to do that to the best of my ability. Uh, she would come and just send me shopping, oh, yeah, and I did a lot of that, going, going to the grocery store, or either I'm with her, or I'm going for her.HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: You know? Uh, even though I was over and living with my aunt, I
(unintelligible, 01:10:27) would come over in the morning and call myself fixing a little breakfast for the kids that were there.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Okay? Not that I was a great cook --
HENDERSON: Uh-huh. (laughter)
01:10:00LIMES: -- by no stretch of the imagination.
HENDERSON: Mm-hm. (laughter)
LIMES: I been fixing a little breakfast for them, you know --
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Anybody could put a little grits together or oatmeal or whatever, but --
HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: -- but, but that was that. Uh I've, I've never cooked at all really --
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- although my mom tried to teach me to cook, because she --
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: -- and she, uh I guess just like, "You gotta be able to stand for yourself."
HENDERSON: Right.
LIMES: But I guess I was pret -- pretty good. A few things I would've fixed, but
once I got married, all of that went out of the window --HENDERSON: (laughter)
LIMES: (laughter)
HENDERSON: How old were you when you, uh, got married?
LIMES: I'm sorry?
HENDERSON: I said how old were you when you got married?
01:11:00LIMES: Believe it or not I was twenty-five.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: I had, I had made a (unintelligible, 01:11:44) said if I reach my
twenty-sixth birthday, and I wasn't married, I wasn't getting married.HENDERSON: Oh!
LIMES: That was my reasoning.
HENDERSON: That's qui -- quite --
LIMES: -- I was --
HENDERSON: -- quite a statement. (laughter)
LIMES: That's what I had said.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Kelly, I got married a month before my twenty-sixth birthday.
HENDERSON: (laughter)
HENDERSON: Mm-hm.
LIMES: Later, one day, and I don't know, to this day, if you'd asked me, um what
happened, I couldn't tell you.HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: All I know is, I heard the words, "We getting married." I don't --
HENDERSON: (laughter)
01:12:00LIMES: "What?" (laughter) And then, and then I know it's twenty fourth of December.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh.
LIMES: Well, when I told my mother, she said, "Are you crazy?"
HENDERSON: (laughter)
LIMES: People are getting ready for the holidays.
HENDERSON: Uh-huh. (dog barking)
