Anecdote
There was a cracker in Tulsa who bilked so many Negroes he could set up a Negro Bilking Company.
I kept my face blank (an old art) and wrote quickly the fable of Marguerite Johnson, aged nineteen, former companion and driver for Mrs. Annie Henderson (a White Lady) in Stamps, Arkansas.
Repartee
"Hey, baby. What's the news?"
"Everything's steady, baby, steady."
"How you doing, pretty?"
"I can't win, 'cause of the shape I'm in."
Humor
[Momma] used to add, with a smirk that unprofane people can't control when venturing into profanity, "and wash as far as possible, then wash possible."
. . . Oh Mizeriz Coleman, how is your son? I saw him the other day, and he looked sick enough to die. . . . From the Uglies.
Biblical Exhortation
On the other side of Jordan, there is a peace for the weary, there is a peace for me.
Putting [his teeth] in his pocket, he gummed, "Naked I came into the world, and naked I shall go out."
Memoir
We learned the times tables without understanding their grand principle, simply because we had the capacity and no alternative.
On Sunday mornings Momma served a breakfast that was geared to hold us quiet from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
