TRANSCRIPT

JL - 'Big' John 'T-Bone' Little, interviewee / LR - Lyn Royce, interviewer

LR: ...there you go... Tell me a little bit... You started... You mentioned a little earlier about, uh, your great... your Great Grandfather?

JL: Yeah, my Great Grandfather James.

LR: Yeah, tell me about your Great Grandfather.

JL: He uh, escaped from Mississippi. Came up through the Underground Railroad. And he come up all through, uh... I guess that's when Harriet Tubman was working, he come... I think he come through that time, and uh, he managed to get through into Canada. And he settled around, uh, what the heck was that, uh, Dryden... Dryden... Dresden... Dresden... he come through that way, Chapman... Chap... it's Chapman...?

LR: Chatham?

JL: Chatham. Yeah.

LR: Chatham.

JL: He come through that way into Welland, eh? And his first wife I think was from... His first wife was named Nellie, I think she was English, and uh, yeah, Nellie I think. And he had some kids by her and I think, she died and then he married, married another girl and that's where my grandfather and all them... see my grandfather had a bunch of others and that, uh... Beryl and there was... oh, god, they mostly... when they grew up they mostly settled in Toronto, Wilsons there, so lots of Wilsons up in Toronto there. But then he had sons like my Uncle Art, that was his son, he was, uh, uh, ah, Dieslynch in there and he taught, taught school in Brockville. He was, he was a brilliant... And then uh, uh... Course my mother was... They were all... All, all, all my mother's side they were well educated and everything else and, uh, all my nieces 'n that... like I got cousins Lavinia - Anne Wilson - she worked at the bank of, Canadian Bank of Commerce for a long time, then she decided she wanted to go back to school and she come out as a psychologist, eh? She got her own, her own plaque. And then, uh, then my other Uncle, Bill, which lives on Niagara Street - the homestead's still there yet - and he had a bunch of kids and um, and they're all well educated and he used to have his own garage there, you know, were he repaired cars and that, and um, so....

LR: Did... Were there stories passed on about your... about your Great Grandfather's trip?

JL: Oh yeah! I tell you, if you need something there, call Lavinia [Ann] Wilson.

LR: Okay...

JL: In, uh... yeah...

LR: We've been talking to her a little bit, so...

JL: Yeah... she's got most the pict[ures]...

LR: She's got those stories.

JL: She['s] even got [a] picture of my grandfather, used to pull this cart - I remember him when I was a kid, he was pullin' his cart; his cart, [ I ] used to say 'Who's that old man?' They said, 'That's your Great Grandfather.' You know? And I used to look at him; I was fascinated. He had this old, baggy, baggy clothes; [indecipherable] old baggy clothes, his hair was all... you know, looked just like this guy here. He would... you know, and, uh... But a great guy. And so, uh, he'd pull his little cart and he'd collect the junk all over the place. He... he always... every... people'd throw away something... copper; now back in those days he'd pick up copper and all that kind of stuff, and he made... if you got 2 cents a pound he took it, yeah, and he made a living like that. 'Course he liked to fish too. We all liked to fish back in those days... I remember my Grandfather taking me to Dunnville and this place he, we used to go there like almost every Sunday and he took me up there; my father, and, uh, my grandfather and my grandmother and, uh, we used to go fishing. And I remember there was this one spot, we'd pull off the road and walk down the hill, went down into the bulrushes into, was the Grand River, Dunnville. And that place haunted me for years and years. And then a couple of years back, I was in Dunnville and I was talkin' to the guy in the place, I said, 'There's a place up here,' I says, 'I used to come fishin' as a kid.' I says, 'It was just off the road; you could walk down.' The guy says, 'Well, there's a place up the road there,' he says, just like that, 'You just come off the road and walk down;' he goes, 'there's bulrushes.' And I walked there and as soon as I stepped in the car, I knew it was home. You know, it was just like, 'Wow, this is it!' Just like it settled, a thing that was haunting me all the time. It was settled, just like I could actually feel my grandfather there it was just, it was just like going back in time, eh? It was so great to find that, this was a couple of years ago, 'cause that thing haunted me for years and years while I was growin' up. Where was that place we went fishing? We had some good times there. And then we used to go over every, every, every I think August, Emancipation Picnic in Port Dalhousie. And everybody that was everybody, and I met relatives there I never even knew I knew, and they come from Chicago and from, all from the States; 'n Lockport and Rochester. And then, uh, all up through Ontario; Hamilton; Owen Sound; you know they all come down for that, those picnics. We set up big tables and loaded them with supper... we'd stop at everybody's table for 5 minutes and y'always had to have something to eat. And, man, by the time of the day, I was like this [gestures rotund belly] - I could hardly walk! But those were good, some good times.