- 2 days ago
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Short filmTranscript
00:00I see you be walking up around Alberta's house.
00:03You're supposed to be at Taylor's, and you be walking up around there.
00:06What you watching? What I'm walking for, I don't need to be watching after you.
00:08I seen you walking around there more than once.
00:10Hell, you laugh and see me walking anywhere.
00:12That don't mean nothing because you see me walking around there.
00:14Where'd she come from anyway? She just kind of showed up one day.
00:17Galahassee? You can look at that and tell her she wasn't them Florida gals.
00:20They got some big, healthy women down there, growing right up out the ground.
00:24You got a little bit of Indian in her.
00:26You know most of them niggas in Florida got some Indian in her.
00:28Yeah, I don't know about that Indian part, but she's damn sure big and healthy.
00:33Woman wears some big stockings.
00:35Got them crazy big old legs and hips wide as a Mississippi leg.
00:40Legs don't mean nothing. You don't do nothing but push them out the way.
00:43But them hips, cushion the ride, Troy. You ain't got no sense.
00:47The truth, I keep riding on Goodyear.
00:53What are y'all on here getting into?
00:55You worried about what we're getting into for a woman?
00:58This is men talk.
00:59I don't care what y'all talking about.
01:01Bono, you gonna stay for supper?
01:02No, I thank you, Rose, but Lucille say she cooking up a pot of pig feet.
01:06Pig feet? Hell, I'm going home with you.
01:08I might even stay tonight. You got some pig feet.
01:10You got something in there to top them pig feet, Rose?
01:12I'm cooking up some chicken. I got some chicken and collard greens.
01:14All right, well, you can go on back in the house.
01:16Let me and Bono finish what we talking about.
01:17This is men talk.
01:18I got some talk for you later.
01:20And you know what kind of talk I mean, too.
01:21You go on in there and powder it up.
01:24Joy, stop it.
01:26Oh, woman, come here.
01:29Look here, Bono.
01:30When I first met this woman, I got out that place, say, hitch up my pony, saddle up my mare.
01:39There's a woman out there for me somewhere.
01:41I looked at here, looked at there, saw Rose, and I latched on to her.
01:45I latched on to her and I told her, and I'm going to tell you the truth.
01:49I latched on to her and told her, baby, I don't want to marry.
01:53I just want to be your man.
01:55Rose told me, tell him what you told me, Rose.
01:58I told him if he wasn't a man kind, then move out the way so the man kind could find me.
02:02That's what she told me.
02:03Nigga, you're in my way.
02:05You're blocking the view.
02:06Move out the way so I can find me a husband.
02:08I thought it over two, three days.
02:10Well, no, two, three days, nothing.
02:11You was back the same night.
02:12Come back, told her.
02:13Okay, baby, but I'm going to buy me a Banty rooster and put him out there in the backyard.
02:18And when he see a stranger come, he's going to flap his wings and crow.
02:21Look here, Bono.
02:21I can watch that front door by myself.
02:23It was that back door I was worried about.
02:26Oh, you are.
02:26No, sir, what can you do?
02:28No, but tell her a lot.
02:28One thing was, when we first got married, forget the rooster.
02:31We ain't had no yard.
02:33I hear you tell it.
02:34Me and Lucille was staying down there on Logan Street.
02:37Had two rooms with the outhouse in the back.
02:39I ain't mind the outhouse, none.
02:40But when that goddamn wind blow through there in the winter, that's what I'm talking about.
02:45To this day, I wonder why the hell I ever stayed down there for six long years.
02:49But see, I didn't know I could do no better.
02:52I thought only white folks had inside toilets and things.
02:55A lot of folks don't think they can do no better than they're doing now.
02:58Just something you got to learn.
02:59A lot of folks still shop at Bella's.
03:01Ain't the wrong with shopping at Bella's.
03:02She got fresh food.
03:03I ain't said nothing about if she got fresh food.
03:04I'm talking about what she charged.
03:06She charged 10 cents more than the A&P.
03:08The A&P ain't never done nothing for me.
03:09I spend my money where I'm treated right.
03:11I go down to Bella and say, I need a loaf of bread.
03:14I pay you Friday as you give it to me.
03:15Now, what sense that make when I got money to spend it somewhere else
03:18and ignore the person who done right by me?
03:20That ain't in the Bible.
03:21We ain't talking about what's in the Bible.
03:23What sense it make to shop there when she overcharge?
03:25Well, you do your shopping where you want to.
03:27I do my shopping where people been good to me.
03:28I don't think it's right for her to overcharge.
03:30That's all I'm saying.
03:30Look here, I got to be getting on.
03:31Lucille gonna be raising all kind of hell.
03:33Where you going, nigga?
03:34We ain't finished this pint.
03:35Come here, finish this pint.
03:36Well, hell, I am if you ever turn the bottle, Lou.
03:40The only thing I say about the A&P is I'm glad Corey got that job down there.
03:45Helping with his school clothes and things.
03:46Gabe done moved out.
03:48Things getting tight around there.
03:49He got that job.
03:50He can start to look out for himself.
03:52Corey DeNorton got recruited by a college football team.
03:55I told that boy about that college football stuff.
03:58The white man ain't gonna let him get nowhere with that football.
04:01I told him when he first come to me with it,
04:03now you come telling me he done got more tied up in it.
04:06He ought to get recruited in how to fix cars or some way he can make a living.
04:10He ain't talking about making no living playing football.
04:12It's just something the boys in school do.
04:14They're gonna send a recruiter by to talk to you.
04:16He'll tell you he ain't talking about making no living playing football.
04:18It's an honor to be recruited.
04:20It ain't gonna get him nowhere.
04:21Bono will tell you that.
04:22If he be like you in the sports, he gonna be all right.
04:26Hey, but two men ever played baseball good as you.
04:28That's Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson.
04:30They're the only two men ever hit more home runs than you.
04:33And where did it ever get me?
04:34I ain't got a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of.
04:36Times have changed since you were playing baseball, Troy.
04:38That was before the war.
04:39Times have changed a lot since then.
04:40How the hell ain't unchanged?
04:41They got a lot of colored boys playing ball now, baseball and football.
04:44You're right about that, Ro.
04:46Times have changed, Troy.
04:48You just come along too early.
04:49There ought not never have been no time called too early.
04:54Now you take that fella.
04:57That fella they had playing right field back then for the Yankees.
04:59You remember what I'm talking about?
05:00Bono played right field for the Yankees.
05:02Yeah, Selkirk.
05:03That's it.
05:03Man batting 269.
05:05You understand?
05:06269.
05:07Now what sense that makes?
05:08I'm batting 432 with 37 home runs.
05:11He batting 269 playing right field for the Yankees.
05:14I saw Josh Gibson's daughter yesterday.
05:16She running around with raggedy shoes on her feet.
05:18I bet you Selkirk's daughter ain't running around with no raggedy shoes on her feet.
05:22I bet you that.
05:22They got a lot of colored baseball players now.
05:24Jackie Robinson was a first.
05:25Folks have to wait for Jackie Robinson.
05:27I done seen a hundred niggas play baseball better than Jackie Robinson.
05:30Hell, I seen some teams Jackie Robinson couldn't even make.
05:33She talking about Jackie Robinson.
05:34Jackie Robinson wasn't nobody.
05:36I'm talking about if you could play ball, then they ought to let you play.
05:39No matter what color you are, come telling me I'll come along too early.
05:42If you can play, then they ought to let you play.
05:44You're going to drink yourself to death.
05:47You don't need to be drinking like that.
05:49Oh!
05:50Death ain't nothing.
05:51I done seen them.
05:52I done wrestled with them.
05:53You can't tell me nothing about death.
05:54Death ain't nothing but a fastball on the outside corner.
05:58And you know what I do with that.
06:00Look here, Bono.
06:01Am I lying?
06:02You get one of them fastballs about waist high on the outside corner of the plate
06:06where you can get the meat of the bat on it.
06:08And good God, you could kiss a goodbye.
06:11Am I lying?
06:12No, you telling the truth there.
06:14I've seen you do it.
06:15If I'm lying, that's 450 feet worth of lying.
06:19That's all death is to me.
06:20A fastball on the outside corner.
06:23I don't know why you want to get on talking about death.
06:25Ain't nothing wrong with talking about death.
06:26That's a part of life.
06:27Everybody going to die.
06:28You going to die.
06:29Elmo die.
06:30Bono going to die.
06:30Hell, we all going to die.
06:32But you ain't got to talk about it.
06:33I don't like talking about it.
06:34Well, you the one brought it up.
06:35Me and Bono talking about baseball.
06:37You come telling me I'm going to drink myself to death.
06:39Ain't that right, Bono?
06:40Now, you know I don't drink this but one night out the week.
06:43That's Friday night.
06:44I drink just enough the way I can handle it.
06:46Then I leave it alone.
06:46I cuss it loose.
06:47So you ain't got to worry about me drinking myself to death because I ain't worrying about
06:51death.
06:51I done seen him.
06:52Done wrestled with him.
06:54Look here, Bono.
06:54I look up one day and death is marching straight at me like soldiers on parade.
07:01The army of death was marching straight at me.
07:03It was the middle of July, 1941.
07:06And it got real cold, just like it'd be winter.
07:09And it seemed like death himself reached out and touched me on the shoulder.
07:13He touched me like I touch you now.
07:15I got cold as ice.
07:16Death standing there grinning at me.
07:17Troy, why did you hush that talk?
07:19I said, what you want, Mr. Death?
07:21You be wanting me?
07:22You done sense your arm and he be getting me?
07:24I looked him dead in the eye.
07:25I wasn't fearin' nothin'.
07:26I was ready to tangle just like I'm ready to tangle now.
07:30Bible say he'd be ever vigilant.
07:32So I don't get but so drunk.
07:33I got to keep watch.
07:34Troy was right down there at Mercy Hospital.
07:36You remember he had that pneumonia?
07:37Laying there with fever, talking plumb out his head.
07:39And death standing there staring at me, carrying that sickle in his hand.
07:42Finally, he say, you want bound over for another year.
07:48He said like that, say, you want bound over for another year.
07:54I said, bound over hell, we can settle this right now.
07:58He kind of fell back when I said that.
08:00And all the cold went out.
08:02I reached down.
08:03I grabbed that sickle.
08:04I threw it as far as I could throw it.
08:06And me and him commenced the wrestling.
08:07We wrestled for, in character six, three days and three nights.
08:12Now, I don't know where I got the strength from.
08:13Because every time he tried to get the best of me,
08:15I reached way deep down inside myself,
08:18found the strength to do him one better.
08:19Every time Troy tells that story,
08:21he finds different ways to tell it.
08:22Different things to make up about it.
08:24I ain't makin' up nothin', woman.
08:25I'm tellin' you the facts of what happened.
08:27I wrestled with death for three days and three nights,
08:29and I'm standin' here to tell you about it.
08:34All right.
08:35At the end of the third night,
08:36we done weakin' each other the way we can't even hardly move.
08:39Death stood up.
08:40He threw on that robe.
08:41Had a white robe with a hood on it.
08:43He threw on that robe
08:45and went off to look for that sickle and said,
08:47I'll be back.
08:48Just like that.
08:49I'll be back.
08:50I said, yeah.
08:51Well, you gonna have to find me.
08:53God wasn't no fool.
08:55I wasn't gonna look it for him.
08:56I know death ain't nothin' to play with.
08:57And I know he gonna get me.
08:59I know I got to join his army,
09:00his camp followers.
09:02But as long as I keep up my strength
09:04and see him coming,
09:05as long as I keep up my vigilance,
09:07he gonna have to fight to get me.
09:09I ain't goin' easy.
09:11Well, look here.
09:12Since you got to keep up your vigilance,
09:14let me have the bottle.
09:16Oh, hell, I should've told you that part.
09:18I should've left out that part.
09:19I should've always be talkin' all that stuff
09:20half the time and don't even know
09:22what he be talkin' about.
09:23Yeah, Bono know me better than that.
09:24That's right, I know you.
09:26I know you got some Uncle Remus in your blood.
09:28You got more stories than the devil got sinners.
09:31Oh, hell, I done seen him, too.
09:32Done talked to the devil.
09:33I don't know.
09:33I don't know.
09:34I don't know.
09:34I don't know.
09:34I don't know.
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