spoiling the little foxes that spoil my vines.
my mind plays tricks on me. is it okay if i take a bath now?
i was looking through my trunk and i can't find my toby.
it is a charm that my great grandmother made me.
babe brother and his wife are taking advantage of a situation. i hate to be mean to people but picking sunny up when they feel like it has to come to an end. now i'm going to ask him how come he couldn't be at your birthday.
i don't know how two brothers can be so different.
what can i do for you, officer?
i always had chickens, ducks and whatnots.
we grow most of our own food. the money i get from social security, my pension and my wife's work, keeps us living on the edge. what choice do people like us have.
now how far would further out be?
like what may i ask?
i'll be damned if i get rid of my chickens. i ought to get some hogs and put them out there.
what time is it? do you think you can just treat us like your slave? it's after one.
that's a lie.
look! don't try to get ahead by riding our backs.
since when?
your feet are cold.
i asked you to wake me when babe brother comes.
i'm not going to let him get away with murder.
he ain't nothing like me. how come a man has to have sons that are day and night apart? you ought to stop protecting him.
you're always taking his side.
i'm trying to make him a man but you keep babying him.
instead of standing here doing nothing, i better give those chickens some scratch before they start cackling.
well, well, look who is taking up all the sunshine. brother john, how are you doing?
tell me something. how do you get energy to stay on the move all day?
your mother asked me not to mention it but your mother's birthday was last week.
what did your wife get her?
boy, go tell your wife to come in.
babe brother is a poor boy.
i need about five pounds of laying mash and you better give me about the same of scratch.
when are you going to have a sale on weed killer?
what kind of a sale is a two-day sale? i thought sales last a week or two.
all of the preachers were down in the basement of the church confessing their sins to one another. they were way down in the basement 'cause they figured no one would hear them. one of the preachers said, it makes me feel too shame to tell how bad i have been. you know them young gals that sit up in the first row. i can look at them and forget my text. i'm just lost when it comes to women, even them middle age sisters. then another preacher said, i don't think i can tell you what my sin is 'cause it's bad. another preacher said, brother, we all amongst friends. tell us what's troubling your soul. clear your conscience.
so the preacher said, we all got a bond 'cause we confessed to one another. so let me tell you, my sin is corn liquor. i just acts a fool behind that spirit water. i loves it more than preaching. now ain't that a sin, lord. so all the preachers went on confessing, each one worst than the last. finally they came to the last preacher who had been very quiet and listening to every word that fell. one of the preachers said to him, it's your turn. confessing will lift you burden, brother. bare us your soul. we did. the last preacher said, no, my sin is the worst among all of you. one of the preachers said, ah go on man and stop all this suspense. so the last preacher said, like i told you my sin is the lowest. my sin is gossiping and i can't wait to get out and tell what i heard.
i'll you a story about the terrapin and the rabbit. no, you tell me a story. come on.
i looked everywhere for my toby.
harry, good god almighty, man! it's been, what, thirty years or more. suzie, we haven't seen harry since we left home.
this is my grandson, sunny. he is my youngest son's child.
he knows better. sunny, apologize to harry.
what are you doing in these parts?
why didn't you catch a plane?
stay until you feel better? i would like to hear all the news.
man, put your boxes down and stay as long as you like. we have empty rooms since the boys got their own families and moved out.
man, act like this is your home.
you had to tread softly.
harry, i would like for you to meet my oldest son, his wife and daughter.
it's the boy next door throwing at his birds. i'm just waiting on him to hit a pane in the window
you ought to come hear our preacher. remember old cat iron? well, our preacher is just as strong.
i was going to get up and get a hen out there for dinner, but time got away.
well, i would appreciate that.
it was slow. now it seems like everyone is having births at home.
what could have caused this? i just changed this damn thing.
you and babe brother hit it off so well.
i tried to teach him right from wrong just like i did his junior.
you're suppose to teach your children what you know. junior, i don't have to worry about. babe brother is a different story.
my daddy called me boy up to the time he died. i was always boy to him.
in weather like this, you cannot walk around bare-headed.
haven't the years been good to hattie?
good god almighty, if it ain't like a parade of people from out of the past. m.c., where did you come from?
well, it's up to suzie.
i think we have enough. so now tell me a story.
be careful of the water.
you tappy heads better not tear down my house.
tell me, how come me and suzie have to be mother and father to your child? you never take the boy to the park, circus or anything. if we did not take him to church, he wouldn't have any sense of religion.
is that the way your parents raised you?
no, it's that when do you have time to be parents to him? you guys don't pick him up until nine, ten at night. you are into yourselves, as the saying goes. spend some time trying to be parents. take him to the mountains, fishing. you ought to let him get to know nature.
junior spends time with his child.
no, i'm too hot now.
i wouldn't care if i drop dead if he learn something from it. son, you make me wish i was dead.
let us go back in before the night of celebration becomes a night of me killing my son.
i'm worn out.
i have to feed the chickens before they wake everybody up.
i will appreciate that.
i don't want to stay here. where is babe brother?
next time, i don't care how sick i'll be, don't take me back to the veteran's hospital.
i tell you, i feel like a ghost.
it's good to be able to hear that.
how is the garden doing?
how is that hen doing? i was meaning to pip her before i fell sick.
i'm going to lie down. take my, hand and help me up, lest i fall.
oh, i couldn't have last another day in that hospital. you get weary being in the old soldiers home, old soldiers and war stories. they wait to tell you their last story; the next morning the nurse pulls a sheet over their face.
suzie, i'm hungry.
suzie.
suzie.
what, are you having another party?
gal, you're talking to john henry. when was i sick?
not our harry?
what happened to him?
how long has he been dead?
what happened to your hand?
what did you put on it?
i hope you will take care of your mother better than that when i'm gone.
babe brother, is that my shirt that you're wearing?
how come you're not wearing my shoes?
when is the undertaker coming?
when are you boys going to fix that roof?
here i am thinking about myself when poor harry is resting on the floor of the kitchen.
did i ever tell you the story about the man who wanted to make his own mind up about heaven and hell? he didn't want nobody's opinion but his own.
he's going to check out heaven first. he gets a round trip ticket to heaven. he gets in heaven and finds it just like back home. people dripping with sweat, working in the fields, hardly surviving. he asked a man who was getting a drink of water, "i thought the streets were paved with gold." "they are but you won't see them," he said. "boy, you got to work day and night cause idleness is sinfulness." so he takes the other half of his ticket and takes the express to hell. he sees people stretched out on their backs kicking back, picking their teeth. "man, this is a dream." he asked, "what's you'll doing?" they all hollered back, "sinning." the devil was shaking hands with everyone and came up to him and said, "please to meet you." he asked, "i thought you'll was supposed to be burning in fire." someone said, "man, ain't no fire down here except under that pot of chitlins." the man was going go ask the preacher back on earth.
i'm almost finished. i'm about to come to the punch line.
but these are white people, anybody. the punch.
it's only a tale.