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Brinkley, Arkansas
Age 567, No record of age
"'Uncle Solomon' we all called him but he wasn't no kin to us, he was the funniest old man I ever heard tell of. He
was a slave. He belong to Sorrel Crockell I heard him say. He didn't go to no war.
"When the War ended he was a fisherman in Arkansas. He used to tie his own self to a tree keep the fish from
pulling him in the river. He caught big fish in the early times. He'd come to our house when I was nothing but a
child and bring 'nough fish for all our supper. Ma would cook 'em. Pa would help him scale 'em. We'd love to see
him come. He lived thater way from house to house.
"One time he made me mad. I never had no more use for him. We'd give him tomatoes and onions. He told us to go
bring him thater watermelon out of the garden. He cut and eat it before us. Never give us a bite. He was saying,
'You goiner get your back and belly beat black and blue.' I didn't know what he was saying. Grandma found the
watermelon was gone. I owned up to it. Ma got switches and whooped us. I was singing what he was saying.
Grandma tole me what he meant. From that on we had no more of his good fish."
Large, medium black.
Interviewer Samuel S. Taylor"
