Singin' the Blues or any other durn thing ya want.

[Leo Tanner]

Movie theaters don't have balconies anymore either.  Lot a monkey business up there too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbqp6ryEsbw&feature=PlayList&p=39E550C652ACCCEF&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=30

[Wireman]

I can't think of ah single place round here wid ah balcony.

Maybe that fancy "Arts" place down town. 

The one where the movies is fer dem Arts type whut smoke wid da Wrong Hand. 

[Leo Tanner]

Yep, it would seem that "the balcony is closed" fer good.  The theater I went to as a kid had one until they renovated.  Took one huge screen an made two theaters out of it an ripped out the cheap seats.  Another nail in the coffin of Americana. 

[Ozark Tracker]

The last old Theatre over at Muskogee had a balcony, in the mid 60's  it would be the whites upstairs and the blacks would sit downstairs,    
that's the theatre I  turned the half grown possum loose in that night,  found him out in the parkin lot and caught him and put him in a brown paper bag,  I never heard so much screaming in my life.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

What, the possum didn't like the movie???

[Wireman]

At's funny OT.

Exact opposite here I do believe.When I was werkin' fer dat Dukey Univarsity, Dey still had the signs on the Water fountains and the Bathrooms marked. The balcony was fer "colored" Americans.

Some Yahoo pulled up in the Yard again today while I was gone fer ah second.  This usta' be ah nice quiet part ah the country.

Daddy Won't Sell The Farm

[Leo Tanner]

I remember the first time I heard that story OT.  I was laughin so hard that Lil thought I'd gone even goofier than I already am.  

Don't remember where ya posted it, but dang that was funny.

[Texas Lawdog]

Things moved sorta slow around Muskogee back then, OT was just tryin' to liven things up!

[Ozark Tracker]

it did stir things up for a little bit,  they flipped on all the house lights and opened the side doors and I saw him run right out the door and into the night,  I guess he had a story to tell too.   

you know people was funny back then about the blacks and whites,  my grandmother wouldn't have eaten if she'd seen a black back there cookin,    I came to her house one time and told her I had eaten with a black lady that lived off down toward the river,  the lady had pressure cooked some carp and made me a sandwich and fried it.  I can remmeber she about passed out,  she was always on me about that being around people.

[Delmonico]

Found out today some customer called Andreas a Mexican F@@ the other day at work.  Said he held back and didn't punch him.  Told him if it happened again and I was there, I saw it and the other guy swung first. 

I don't like about half the folks I've ever met, but color, race, religion or coutry of origin has nothing to do with it.  Heck he's the best of the young ones we have at the store.

[Texas Lawdog]

That's just the way things were back then.  Horse's Butts come in all COLORS!

[Ozark Tracker]

I'm always reminded of all those days when I hear that one song,   Catfish John,    

good memories and smiles



Momma said don't go near that river
Don't be hangin' 'round old Catfish John
Come the mornin' I'd always be there
Walkin' in his footsteps in the sweet delta dawn

Let me dream of another mor-ornin'
And a ti-ime so long ago
When the sweet magnolia blossom
Cotton fields were white as snow

Catfish John was a river hobo
Livin' by the river bed
Thinkin' back, I still remember
I was proud to be his friend

Momma said don't go near that river
Don't be hangin' 'round old Catfish John
Come the mornin' I'd always be there
Walkin' in his footsteps in the sweet delta dawn

Born a slave in the town of Vicksburg
Traded for a chestnut mare
But still he never spo-oke in anger
Though his load was hard to bear

Momma said don't go near that river
Don't be hangin' 'round old Catfish John
Come the mornin' I'd always be there
Walkin' in his footsteps in the sweet delta dawn

Momma said don't go near that river
Don't be hangin' 'round old Catfish John
Come the mornin' I'd always be there [fade]

[Leo Tanner]

My Great Uncle Nick was like that.  I'd go ta the store with him an he'd pick the line based on who was the checker.  I was just a kid but still wanted ta say, "hey, we can get the hell out here a lot sooner if ya pay this lady instead a that one."  Guess I never will figger that one out.  The guy fought nazis fer cripes sake, how could he be like that?

[Texas Lawdog]

Leo, That's why they had two sets of water fountains and two sets of bathrooms back then.  Things changed from 65 on.

[Ozark Tracker]

don't know where your uncle was raised Leo,  but feelings ran really deep in lots of parts of the country  and you were taught one way or the other from an early age.

[Leo Tanner]

He was from Pittsburg.  I've heard a lot of folks from out there acted that way.  I respected the man in many ways, but when yer 10 an ya see that kind of behavior from an elder it's perty disheartening.  Guess it was all part of ma edjacation.  I chose not ta be like that an just hate people who are A holes.  Guess ya could say I'm an equal opportunity hatin guy.  On the other side of that coin I'm even handed at liking folks too.

[Delmonico]

The Northern Plains was really one of the most un-bigoted part of the country.  Back when they were The Bugeaters in the 1890's UN won a game on forfiet.  Another team refused to play them because they had a black guy on the team.

Old photo's show black and white cowboys drinking in the same bar sometimes.  Yes there were lots of problems, but less than a lot of the rest of the country and often up north was worse than down south.

[Texas Lawdog]

Leo, You gotta remember that we come from a different time than you. Everything started to change after 65.

[Ozark Tracker]

There in Oklahoma where I grew up, Wagoner, County was the old Creek Nation when the 5 civilized tribes came to Oklahoma, when the Slaves were set free, a large portion were taken in by the Creek nation, these Freedmen as they were referred to were assigined land just like the Indians there, every 40 acres had a house on it, when I was growin up and probably more Blacks were therer than there were whites at one time.

there were 2 all Black towns that were fairly close to us, they were established earlyl in the 20th century,  towns built up with business's, Schools, Jails  everything just the same, but different.

[Wireman]

Peoples is peoples.

Good er bad, peoples juss da same.