North Carolina Five - Text
Subject is African-American male, born Winston-Salem, Forsyth County 1965. Was recorded by Pat Toole 12.08.99 and edited by Paul Meier 02.04.00. Subject tells amusing story of switching class schedules with a younger high school friend. Running time: 00:04:20
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
It all started about in 1973 when we first met. And I schooled on Carver road and that's in Winston-Salem, North Carolina it's Carver high school. And we were all getting together to go to first period, but the school was so huge that my best friend and I got confused, so we switched our schedules. I ended up in his classes and he ended up in mine. And my parents thought that I was really dropping my level because I was two levels grades higher than him. And when I brung my books home, they seen that I had pre-Algebra when I was already in Algebra. And they axed, "Howard, what are you doing?" And I said to them I said, "Well-" I never tell a lie to my parents, so I said to them I said- "Well, me and Clayton-" that is my friend- "we switched schedules." And I got the whippin' of my life. And when I got to school because they had to go back and re-change everything and teach him that first-that first day they had to teach him over again what I had already learned. And so my parents really fixed me on that. And my best friend and I we could not be together for- it was almost a year before they let us come back together again. But now he's living in Georgia, and I'm living here, and it's just, it's hard. We all both graduated and we are graduated from college. And we are having a ball. God called me at the early, tender age of thirteen. And the church was full. I had my message all laid out on the roster of men. My family – my whole entire family – was there at the church. And my grand-both of my grandmothers, which are deceased now – was there. And I got up and I started to sing a little song that my grandmother used to always love to hear me sing. And when I got through singing it, I went directly into the message. But, and overall I forgot to tell them the title of the message. And I was going through my message and I happened to look out and my grandmother's wig was turned cock-sided, it wasn't on right. And I burst out laughing in front of two thousand people. And when the sermon – when I was through with the sermon, my grandmother axed me she said, " Howard, why did you laugh?" I said grandmother, I said "Go look in the mirror." And she had her wig cock-sided still on top her head and she looked at me, and she was real upset because I didn't throw her signals that her wig was lop-sided. And she was real upset with me, and – but I did – I – I did a real good job at the tender age of thirteen then I moved up and I had my first church of 1700. I was pastorin’ at a young age of seventeen.