Universe Goes to Cascade

I invited one of my first cousins, Michael Strange, AKA "Universe," to reminisce about the year he lived with our grandparents, affectionately known as "Mama Bea and Papa."

Transcript

Universe Goes to Cascade

My great grandfather, Jesse Strange, was born a slave and freed in his 20s. His 12 children were born free, and referred to as "The First Freeborn Generation." In this podcast series, I interview Jesse Strange's descendants in order to document our stories. This is Strange Family Folklore. 

I invited one of my first cousins, Michael Strange, AKA “Universe,” to reminisce about the year he lived with our grandparents, affectionately known as “Mama Bea and Papa.”

Teresa Roberson 

All right, Universe. Thank you so much for joining me today. Now, for a brief moment in time you lived with our grandparents, Floyd B. Strange and Beatrice Strange. Is that right? 

Universe  

Yes, that is correct.

Teresa Roberson 

Okay. For how long? How old were you during that time?

Universe 

I was 16, turning 17. I actually did my last year of school there. I graduated at Tunstall. I left Jersey from Paterson and came and I stayed that whole school year.

Teresa Roberson  

What was life like? Because I know it had to be different than Paterson, New Jersey, living in Cascade, Virginia.

Universe 

Yes, yes, it was definitely life-changing. But of course, we used to come for the summers, which, you know, I used to see you sometime there. We would come for the summers. But it's nothing like full-time living with Mama Bea and Papa. That's a different adventure than two weeks or three weeks. So, with that being said, yes, it was life- changing. It actually made me a better person. Because to understand Mama Bea, her principles and her order. 

When you're young and a kid, you don't understand it. And then when you get older, you'd be like, “Wow, she was tight in her game.” She was really a hustler. And she was a hard worker. But she had good principles. That's all she wanted you to do was good. She wanted me to be a good child, I guess as she was taught. You know, but when you're young, you don't see that. 

So, me and Mama Bea when I first got there, we used to argue a lot and I didn't understand it because I would never want to argue with my grandmother. But it's like she was looking for stuff to pick with me seem like. My Uncle Clarence, he came and explained to me that hey, look she just getting older man. Don't argue with her. Take two to argue. So, once we stopped arguing, we got on track and I had to learn my discipline. Because I always had respect for her, but she had me arguing and that's like out of way character because I'm arguing with my grandmother that's like, disrespect. We don't do that. 

So, I got that out the way and we became good friends. More than just a grandmother, I became a friend. 

But it was hard. I had to iron sheets for your bedding. I never knew that. I never knew nothing about ironing the sheet to get into bed. I was like, “Wow, I'm gonna get in this. I'm gonna make this wrinkled.” She was like, “It doesn't matter.” She had to iron. 

Teresa Roberson  

I have never ironed sheets in my life. Didn't she have a dryer? 

Universe  

Yes! She hung out on the line mostly. We would go hang them on the line, but she did get a dryer, but she still liked the line. To hang out if it ain't cold winter, we going out there. And even in some winters if that sun get up, she'll put it out there. She liked the fresh air with her stuff.  I do know that. 

Also, what I learned with her and I seen that they always harvest food. They would plant and then they would go and reap their plant. She would can things. 

They would share food out. Somebody in the family they give some to. Of course, you're gonna cook a meal with it.  You're going to eat because you got to help do stuff. You never could sit there with Mama Bea. You always have to work. She has a job for you. 

But then you get to see your participation. What it ends up to do. What does the end result of your participation do.  She showed you how you helped with the family and this is your end result. We eat good food. 

Teresa Roberson  

Were you also out in the fields, helping them plant food?

Universe 

Yes, while I was there.  When I was there, everything that ever happened,you had to be a part of it.

Teresa Roberson  

Your typical day, even when you were in school, did it start before, out in the fields and then you went to school?

Universe  

Well, no, at that time, they wasn't farming as hard. So, if we had that season, that season come for a certain plant. So, when we going back to school, we be done and pulled everything. So, even planting stuff, they would already have planted it.  So, it wasn't a lot to it for me for farming. 

Now what I can tell you, Teresa, was when I got there, they was paying like $5.50 to pull tobacco by the hour. And I was amazed because I was 16. That was almost like minimum wage back then that they was paying. I would go out in the morning. They would go like, four o'clock, five o'clock because by noon, you're leaving the fields. It's too hot. So, they go early. 

I had a chance to go and earn money. It wasn't Mama Bea and them field, like they did tobacco. It was someone else, but I did get to do that. And I thought that was amazing. I would pull tobacco every day for $5.50.  You didn't have to twist my arm. 

Teresa Roberson  

 What year was this? 

Universe  

This was in 1985.  

Teresa Roberson  

Okay, so $5 went much farther.

Universe

Yeah, $5 and 50 cents.

Teresa Roberson 

Okay.

Universe    

Yes, Margaret Ann, which is Joe Strange wife was the leader of that pack. 

Joe Strange is one of our second cousins, son of Mary and Jesse Strange, who was the second oldest of Great Grandma Lucy and Great Grandpa Jesse.

She knew the people and she will get you to work. Lynn Strange also worked with me. 

Lynn Strange is Margaret Ann’s and Joe’s son.

We all worked out there. And I thought that was good. I was in shape. So, I was doing a good job. So, it was good for me. 

Teresa Roberson 

How many summers did you work tobacco?

Universe 

One. 'Cause I left and went in the military right after. I actually signed up at 17. I wasn't even 18. I had to get permission from my mother and father. They had to sign in order for me to go. I left at 17.

Universe’s parents are my Uncle Olander and his third wife, Aunt Gladys.

Teresa Roberson  

So, you left Paterson, New Jersey, after your junior year to spend your senior year in Cascade, Virginia? 

Universe 

Yes. 

Teresa Roberson  

Was that your choice? 

Universe  

That wasn't my choice. Definitely not!

Teresa Roberson  

You know My older sister, Renee, she had to do the same thing, but our father was in the military. 

Universe  

Mm hmm. 

Teresa Roberson  

You get transferred when you get transferred. The Air Force was dictating that. So, can you tell us a little bit about what happened? 

Universe 

Okay, okay.

Teresa Roberson  

You don't have to go into much detail. 

Universe  

No, I'll give the truth and I'm gonna keep it short and simple.

Teresa Roberson  

That's interesting. After your junior year, you graduate from a high school where a high percentage were you cousins, right?

Universe  

Yes, that's why I was able to transfer and settle swiftly. Because where I'm from, I'm the only, me and my sister, never ever would you ever hear anybody else named "Strange." Ever! Okay, we the oddballs. Just me and my sister in the whole state of New Jersey. So, with that, well, I had my uncle, but his kids wasn't around. So, me and Michelle, my sister, we had that name. So, coming here was like, I'm in heaven. Everybody's a Strange. It's normal. And it's a lot of us. And they known and they good people. And like they popular. 

Things of this nature, so it was a good transformation then. But what I actually had to leave for was I got kicked out in my junior year, and that was for missing too many days. Not for being really a bad person. Okay, I didn't do anything too interruptive and wasn't listening or what have you. 

But I didn't listen, as far as the rules for the days. Now they came up with a 21-day system rule. Okay? And I averagely missed 50, to 60 days a year. And when they came with 21 days, that was like a culture shock for me. The first year, my 10th grade year, I had 20 days in maybe April? March? April? So, I couldn't miss one day up until June. I could not miss one. And I lasted in the 10th grade. But by the time I got to the 11th grade, and February, I had like 20 days and I was like,“I'm not gonna make it this time.” And I end up, for that reason, getting kicked out of school. 

So, my mother sent me to Virginia, because I'm staying at home, I got too much idle time. She sent me to Virginia. And I came down before school was out while I was just out of school. And when I came down,talking with my father, he said, "Well, why won't you come to school down here?" And I said, "Well look, long as they put me in the 12th grade, I don't have a problem with that." I said, "Long as I'm in the 12th grade, I'm not going back to the 11th. That I'm not going to do. But if we could go to the 12th. He said, "Okay, I'll come with you up there." He said, "We'll go back and we'd go to your school and get your records.

We thought you can do that. You know how people is. So, we went to go get the records, and we went and we couldn't get them. They had to send them. They had to send them back. We went and got everything that we needed, though, and whatever he needed to do. He made sure that I was going to be able to start when it started here, which was in August, where we didn't start to September. 

So, that's another thing. I'm like, in the summer? What do you mean? We start back school already? This is a little different. 

But one thing, Teresa, the bus comes in front of your house. So, I'm not gonna miss days, like I missedpreviously.  I used to have to walk to high school three miles there and three miles back every day. So that's what also deterred me from walking to school every day.

Teresa Roberson  

Whoa, I didn't know that. I didn't know anybody our age, or generation was walking that distance. 

Universe  

Oh, yea. Three miles every day and that's rain, snow, hail or sleet because even with the snow, we had school. Up there it is normal to snow. So, just because it's snowing don't mean you out. It got to snow, enough for you to be out. And rain and cold weather or whatever, we had to go. 

So, with that being said, when I did come down here, all they asked for was your social security card, your birth certificate. They asked me what grade I was in. I said, "Twelfth." They said, "Okay." They gave me a test. I took the test. I passed it. And he said, "Okay, what classes you had and what you want, or whatever? 

So, being they didn't have my records, they made me take all of the classes that I could take. Because they didn't know. Because they didn't even have records yet. So, what was that? August, September, October, November. Around Thanksgiving, they came with the records. I said, "I guess this my last day of school today. They will come in here and find out that I was set back a year." 

And with that being said, Teresa, I went.He called me in the office, the principal. And I went in there, and he pulled out everything. So, I'm just listening, more than I'm gonna talk right now. So, he went from like, they do middle school down here. So, he went back to like my seventh eighth grade. Don't know why. I'm looking like, okay, I'm just gonna shut up. So, he started adding credits from like, seventh and eighth grade. He going, "Wow, man." He gets up to the 11th grade. And he's like, "Man, you got enough credits to graduate." He said, only thing you need to take is English and government. And you got enough credit." 

So, I had to take just the two mandatory classes, which is English and government. All these other classes you have, it doesn't matter if you pass them or not. 

So, now mind you, he's adding up from middle school. We don't have middle school where I come from. We go from one through eight, and then nine through twelve. That's what we do. We don't have a middle school program. Okay, so you do high school, and you do elementary. But he added up the credits. Like I said, I didn't say nothing. 

Now this was the only thing: you had nine, ten and eleven. So, for the ninth grade, you got four marking periods. For the 10th grade, you have four marking periods, and for the 11th grade, you only had three marking periods. But he didn't say anything. So again, I'm just there, listening. And the reason why he didn't say anything is because in their school, they only had three marking periods. They didn't have four like we had. So, when they do they mark periods through the year they have three. So, he probably didn't catch it because he used to three and he wasn't even seeing that he had four previous to the ninth and tenth. So, he said, "Hey, man, all you got to do is pass English and government and you're out of here. And I said, "Well, thank you, sir." And went back to class. 

Teresa Roberson  

Oh my God!

Universe  

That is how I stayed and went and pass through 12th grade.

Teresa Roberson 

The New Jersey Hustle! That's what you did in Cascade Virginia. Universe, one story that I remember when we were... oh, boy, I think I was still a teenager. So, I know you're not that much older than me, but one thing I remember from a conversation and I always thought it was funny. That's why I remembered it all these years.   You were telling me and here's my impression of you. "Yeah, I don't mind school that much, but I just can't do the hours." Andyou were so dramatic about the hours of school. You just couldn't. You never told me about the three mile walk there and back. 

Universe  

Yeah, the hours was definitely a part of it. That's why I said I miss like 50 to 60 days a year since elementary school. And that was only because my mother worked.My father worked. They didn't know when I was staying home. And I was playing hooky a lot. But the one thing, I always knew my work and knew how to catch up my work. 

So, I never got reports that I had bad grades. It’s always about missing days. But sometimes they never even paid attention to that when it came because it was just missing days. I always had good grades, so they never questioned that. And I always could do the work. Sometime I thought, because you know how some school systems are, I'm gonna be honest. We would do third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade. A lot of times, I felt like they gave me the same work over and over again, like I already knew it. So, my interest wasn't there. I already had A's and B's in this. So, you giving me the same stuff. So, I'm not excited or I'm not interested. So, I would lose my interest. And kind of like, when you get piled up work, and you got to come do it. That's kind of a challenge, too. And I'll come and do all this work and catch up and be in front of everybody. I even learned how to go ahead because I didn't need the teacher to do some of the work. I do ahead because I'm going to miss two days. 

Teresa Roberson  

You already planned this?

Universe  

Yeah, I got that good. So, I going to plan ahead to do the work and then come back and be right in the pocket.  

Teresa Roberson  

What grade are you in when that became a strategy?

Universe  

Well, more like high school. I was in high school then. Not really elementary. Well, maybe cause the eighth grade, ninth grade, eighth grade too, I was getting pretty good. 

Teresa Roberson  

I remember that conversation about you doing the hours. And then you went to live with Mama Bea and Papa. 

Universe  

Yeah.

Teresa Roberson  

How did you do those hours?

Universe  

Hey, I had no other choice, to be honest. I couldn't go back. And I always wanted to be with my father. I'll be honest. So, it wasn't that hard to twist my arm because I'm with my father. Right? And then that was a big thing. So, I always wanted to go with him. But I was just so used to Paterson in my mother, but to trade that off for my father, it wasn't that bad. I'm gonna be honest. He's a cool guy. He's not hard to get along with. 

I was able to get my permit, get my license fast and everything. That's another thing with Mama Bea. She was so hard on me that when I got my permit, cause he wanted a chauffeur. My father drank, so he needs somebody to drive. So, his thing is, let's get this boy some license. Even a permit, he'll give me the car. 

She didn't like that. Of course, she's gonna go by the book. So, I even had to have insurancewhen I had driver's license. You had to be insured in order to be driving. With so many people had license, my age and other people had license. They didn't have insurance or added on to the insurance. But that was a requirement. And once I got that, I became her chauffeur too. I will always drive her to my Aunt Velma and Uncle Wayne's house. 

So, I call Universe’s Aunt Velma and Uncle Wayne, “Mom and Dad.”

When she come down there, I became her chauffeur. So, she kind of lined me up, right? 

And you know, she's a front seat driver. And She don't play. If you go past one mile pass that speed limit, she going to let you know. One mile over! People think I drive like Miss Daisy, man. I don't really do speeding. I kind of stick to the speed limit. And they be like, "Hey, man, you could go, won't you drive..." It's kind of a habit. Mama Bea had me a check. So, I kind of stayed to the speed limit pretty good. 

Another thing, you think it's bad then, but then now look, what she was always doing what was just right. You couldn't see it as a kid. But the things that she was instilling in you and what she was doing was just being right. So, I had to understand that part about her. And that's what made me love her so much, is because she always was just a lady that wanted to do right. And she was right. She had a good foundation. And that's what she was trying to teach all around. 

Nobody could come to the house and couldn't eat. She always offered food if you come in. People say, "Oh, well, I just ate." Well, she'll get you in there long enough for you to be done talked. And then now I know you got to be hungry. Now when you want something now? I got a cake or a pie. You want some dessert?  She always would feed and I mean, everybody that come through the door. That was her thing too. So that's something with me that I have no problem with, feeding people. 

She took me to more funerals than I ever been in my life. I still never been as many as funerals I did that year with Mama Bea.  They know everybody and she got to go, her and Papa. I've been to a lot of churches, anniversaries and homecomings. They don't miss them. They are known people. So, everybody invite them and they gotta go. They like a special person. So, they go to everything and represent for whoever. 

So, I had to go to everything with Mama Bea. That was the thing when I was there. I had to do all these things. It wasn't no question about it.  The only way was if Olander was there. And he said, "It's okay." But once he's gone on the road driving that truck, she got me in her clutches. Everywhere, everything, anything, it's gonna be done. 

But now when I can reflect, it was nothing wrong with anything she did. I love her to death. We grew even stronger after I went to the military and came back. That's why I said, we began to have even a good friendship.I understood her very well. 

One other thing, your grandmother, Mama Bea loves $100 bills. It's like her eyes light up. Or you could give her five 20s, but it's not the same as that $100 bill. She got this beautiful smile. Mama Bea likes to smile.  She always liked to do our hair and makeup herself. And she has arthritis and she’ll still do it. She get set up and she do a lot herself. That's what I was amazed that that she did this herself. Nobody else did it for. She'll do these things in a wheelchair. And I was also amazed at the things that she could do in a wheelchair. 

One thing that amazed me about Mama Bea was how she’d sling that heavy cast-iron skillet. Although I’m 60 years younger, I couldn’t lift that skillet with the ease that she could.

She did a lot.    

Teresa Roberson 

Well, she was the Avon lady. 

Universe

Yes.

Teresa Roberson  

So, that doesn't surprise me. 

Universe

Yes. She was.

Teresa Roberson  

Now, what hustles did you see her do?

Universe 

Well, like you said the Avon and always with some type of vegetable or farming. They always either was bartering or trading or giving. We pick strawberries out the patch. I went with her.She make those strawberry cobblers. The best I've ever had. She make the strawberry cobblers.  Her pound cake is one of my favorites. These are like my super favorites. Them two: the strawberry and the pound. 

Teresa Roberson  

That Lemon Jello cake that she used to make.

Universe  

Lemon Jello Cake? See, I remember the Watergate pie. You remember that? Watergate pie, the green one that she used to love to do? So yeah, I mean, she has so much. Her baking skills and the way she used to freeze stuff. I've never seen that done before. Like, I would think it would be freezer burnt. She would take things out like a cake, for instance, that she baked six months ago. And she would take it out from the bottom of that freezer with aluminum foil on it, and she had her other, saran wrap on it. And she take that stuff off. And I'm like, man, no way that cake gonna be right. It's gonna be soggy or whatever. And she let it thaw out to when she want and you cut that cake and it's fresh, like the day she made it. I was just amazed the things that Mama Bea knew how to do and what she did. 

I also was saying that deep freezer, she knew where everything at. She's sitting in a wheelchair, telling you where to dig down and what side it's in, underneath this. Naw, you got to go down a little deeper. It's up under the thing. Yeah, down in there. And she know what side and she's sitting there and could tell you everything. And where is that. 

Teresa Roberson  

My mother is the last generation of... you know, we have the internet now? Those women were the internet. So, that doesn't surprise me. Mama Bea had not one, but two deep freezers and then a refrigerator where half of it was a freezer. So, she basically had two and a half freezers. We don't do that these days.

Universe  

Right. Right. And that's something we have to know. I want to get back to that. So, I know a little something about especially canning, doing vegetables and stuff over because the season be out, which I'm ready to start growing indoor vegetables. So now that we're at that point that we don't have to wait just to a season. We can do it all season. So that's something I'm definitely working on. 

But now one other thing that you say like they was the internet? Well, I will like to inform you to know, because every morning being I lived there that phone would ring about 5AM in the morning, and sometime between four and five, because she had breakfast at 6:30-7:00. Breakfast is on the table. So, around four-ish, five, at least by five, that phone is ringing and she's talking to her sisters. And you remember they had like a party line thing go through there. 

A party line was a single phone line shared by many different people, especially in rural areas such as Cascade, VA.  Anyone on the party line could pick up their phone and listen in on whatever conversation that was taking place.

So, they all would be on every morning talking about whatever just happened last night. And I mean, whatever just happened. The information that them old ladies used to get, I couldn't believe it. And they get everything that just happened that night. Whether it was a race, somebody got hurt, somebody was doing whatever it was. I don't even care. Them ladies know. Every morning they got central thing at 5 AM. And they talk about it. And then they do they signifying.  

Now for some Black people, “signifying” is an exchange of insults and boasting, but in this case, what Universe mean is keeping up with everything going on.

She cooked and then she called her nieces. I think after the sisters, they go to the nieces and talk to like Cat and them up the road. You know what I mean? 

Cat short for “Cathleen” Strange Wilson, is another second cousin and Joe Strange’s older sister.

So, they go down one generation, but they always faithfully call each other like every morning. 

Teresa Roberson 

My mother and Renee, my older sister, they do that Monday through Friday. You can get me once a week. You're not getting me every day. But you're right, that was amazing. Are you still planting things? On a much smaller scale? Or you're ramping that up now?

Universe  

Well, I haven't really done much. That's something that I really, really want to get into and I'm ingenuing a place for that. So, I'm working on having a place and a building for the indoor and outdoor and everything will go on at this place. So, I am working on it and putting it together.I want to definitely carry that on from our legacy that they use farming. I have to put my best foot forward, as they say.

Teresa Roberson  

Are you looking at building something similar to a greenhouse? So, you can have year-round farming?

Universe  

Yes, I want to greenhouse and indoor. I want both. I want to greenhouse, but I also want strictly indoor. Yeah, I want indoor too. Because I want to see how the effects of both do. Because you can grow just indoor with your lights, fruits, vegetables, and I want to do both. And I do want to greenhouse because it makes much more sense. And then when it's time for outdoor, I would do outdoor. Yes, I'm going to do all three. Why not maximize? Why not know how to do everything that's available to do at this point. 

Teresa Roberson  

But from what I know of you, you pretty much followed your father's footsteps. Because I wasn't in the world when Uncle Olander was in the military, but I definitely knew him as a truck driver. 

Universe  

Yes. 

Teresa Roberson  

And so, you pretty much did the same. You were in the military. I think it was the Navy?

Universe  

Navy. Mm hmm. He was too. He was in the Navy.

Teresa Roberson  

Okay. And then you became a truck driver. I mean, there's probably something in between. I'm missing gaps here. 

Universe  

Right, right, right. But no, I did get my own company and decided to drive because I was driving on the road already. With him. Once I was going with him. He used to get me for the summer. I had the intuition to drive long hours. And I knew how to read an Atlas. He taught me how to read that. So, before you had your navigation system, I would get any Atlas and can take you all over and can read. And I knew how to go through any town and find my way to anywhere. I was good at that. I can be anywhere, wherever we at give me an atlas. I look at that. And from there, I'm gone. I get you out of here. I can take you wherever we want to go. So, with him I learned and then I always was driving. And I said hey, man, let me try to see the business because my brother, Ed, my other brother from my mother, he had trucks. That also had me being inspired, my brother and then my father. So yes.

Teresa  

 When did you start your trucking company?

Universe  

Thirteen years ago, so that's like uh…let me see. It's been about 10 years. It's been about a decade, I would say. I had to get it exactly, but a decade or more that I've been running my own company.

Teresa Roberson  

Now before we close, and it's so funny that you focus so much on Mama Bea because she is really the star of the show, at least in that house, but Papa always struck me as being the strong silent type. 

Universe

Yes.

Teresa Roberson

Except for when he was singing. He had a very strong...

Universe  

Strong voice. Yes. Even when he speak really when he's saying something. When he's gonna say something, his voice is strong, too. You can hear him, but one thing I will say about Papa is he take care of Mama Bea. Okay, that was the thing that I can notice the most was his interest was is Bea okay. Bea, Bea, Bea.  He right there. What you need, Bea? Whatever Bea needs and Bea gonna have. He's there. That's the one thing that I know for him. 

I'm gonna say this:  honor your queen. Honor your wife. Okay, take care of her. Treat her in a high aspect. This is what I got from him. He treat the woman in a high aspect. That's what I got from Papa. 

And his prayer. He always bless the food and that's why I said about his voice too. I knew his prayer.Can't do it right now. I have to sit down. I said I'm gonna sit down and put his prayer back together because I know it in pieces. I got to get it right, but I've heard it so many times. That it was an awesome prayer too. 

Those are the goodthings I knew about him. His prayer and how he honor his wife, his queen. Being the head of his household, but he know he honored. Papa was like retired when I was there. So, he get up early too. He always up early doing whatever he do around there, but most of it is going to be making sure to Bea all right. Long as she all right, then he goes sit over there out the way.

Teresa Roberson  

So, he was no longer working partly as a security guard?

Universe  

Not when I was there.  By the time I got there I believe he had... because his knee had messed up on him too. 

Teresa Roberson  

Right. I remember that. 

Universe  

Papa wouldn't go to the doctor. I said, "Now, I see what I get some of that from too. His knee was jacked all the way up and he wasn't trying to go get it fixed. I don't know was it broke or whatever. He a tough guy. 

Teresa Roberson  

He would always dismiss it too and downplay it and call it "arthritis."

Universe  

I think it was broke, Teresa. 

Teresa Roberson  

He would just walk on it. 

Universe  

For years. 

Teresa Roberson  

And it healed improperly. 

Universe  

Right. Exactly. 

Universe  

He was a tough guy. He was kind of quiet. We didn't talk that much. Let me tell you this though. Now I do have one thing I can remember about my papa because he made me feel real bad. The city boy. I was a city boy. And for some reason, it's just me. I can't eat fat off chicken. Like the skin, the fat off beef, off pork, whatever fat is lean in their fat. I can't eat it or the skin. I'm just not good with it. 

So, I will eat my food and have all kinds of food left on there. And he'll be like, "You finished?" "Yeah, Papa."  "Boy, I see you ain't never been hungry." He would take, after I'm finished eating and take my food and eat it some more. He said, "I know we feeding the hogs, you giving them too much food." I'm giving too much slop in the bucket. 

I hardly ever saw Mama Bea and Papa’s hogs, but I definitely remember at the end of every meal, putting whatever scraps I had left on my plate in the slop bucket for the hogs to eat.

"Nah, you putting too much in there. It's okay to put some slop in there, but you putting too much in there."  So that was the one thing he got on me. I said, "Yeah, Papa. I don't think I never been hungry,” because he said, "I can see you ain't never been hungry." And then around here, I would never be hungry anyway here. For sure. Because they always had food. No such thing as being hungry around here, but from where he came from. He might've knew what that meant. I said, "No. I really don't to be honest with you. Not being smart. But nah, I never been hungry." So, I couldn't eat it. 

Teresa Roberson  

That reminds me of one thing Mama Bea used to say. They would eat all of the hog except the oink.

Universe  

Okay. All of it except the oink? Now that's another thing. The first time I ever seen live things happen when I was down there. I seen them kill a pig. And then they dropped them in the hot water and pulled them up, they shaved them. And then they cut them open and start pulling stuff out. So, that's the first time I've ever seen something like that live. I'm like, “Wow.” Then we got our own hens. We had about seven or eight hens, Mama Bea and them.  I watched them hens and fed them hens and got them to grow. I didn't know what they was gonna do with them hens. 

Teresa Roberson 

You knew what they were going to do with those hens!

Universe  

I wasn't sure. Look to be honest because I'm not used to it though. I never been around when somebody did it. Usually I'm not around. So, I don't know what they getting ready to do with these hens. I'm not sure. I don't know. Oh, we gonna be the one killing these hens and feathered and pull them and do and then we go eat these hens? 

Them hens was good. She finished with them babies, but I watched them. Clarence go get them out one by one out the hen house. And it was a nice sized rock. He’ll put them over, their neck over there and cut they head off and let them run out in the field.  And he did all of them like that.

Teresa Roberson  

I only remember one timewatching Papa kill a chicken. And it seems as if a few minutes before I knew that's what he was gonna do, I said, "But Papa that chicken's too young to die." He says, "Oh no Sweetie Bird," cause my nickname was "Tweety Bird." He said, "Oh no, Sweetie Bird, this chicken is good." And he's like, it's ripe or whatever word you use. And I watched him kill that chicken. 

Do you know, I would not eat that chicken? Me nor my sisters would eat that chicken and my mother thought we were so silly. Carla is going to eat everything. So originally, Carla was not going to eat the chicken just like Renee and I was not going to eat the chicken. Renee and I didn't touch it. They convinced Carla that the chicken that Papa had just killed wasn't the chicken that they had prepared. Of course, it was the chicken. Why in the hell would you kill a chicken and then not eat it for dinner, right? So, they told Carla that this was a store-bought chicken and they ate it. 

And so, Renee is like the devil. Everybody think it's me, but Renee is like devil. She sat there throughout dinner. Carla eating away. And then after dinner, Renee was like, "Yeah, you ate some of that dead chicken, didn't you?" As if we ever ate live chicken at home. 

Universe  

Live chicken, right.

Teresa Roberson  

So, we were used to store bought chicken.

Universe  

That's what I'm saying.

Teresa Roberson  

Renee made such a fuss about Carla eating that dead chicken, I think Carla threw it up. It just messed with her.

Universe  

Well I knew it was the hens that we just did. And like I said, it was awesome because Mama Bea will cook. It's a lot of things I would tell you that I did not like before I got there. And when I tell her that I didn't like something, she said "No baby, you haven't had mine yet. Just wait a minute. I know you say you don't like this, but you got to try this first because you didn't have mine." I'm like, "Okay, if that's what you say cause I don't like that type of stuff." 

I would eat hers and I would like it. Actually, chicken dumplings became one of my favorites. I would not touch, I could not stand nobody dumplings. No way. And that became my favorite, messing with her. Chicken dumplings. Yeah, she make them anyway. I don't eat everybody else's because even again, I go somewhere else and they make the chicken dumplings is not like Mama Bea's.

Teresa Roberson  

That's the same way I feel about potato salad. Only Carla and my mother know how to make potato salad. 

Universe  

Everybody don't.

Teresa Roberson  

I'll give other people's coleslaw a chance, but not their potato salad.

Universe  

You can look at it and tell, uh? I know that's not gonna be right for me. 

Teresa Roberson  

Well, Universe once again, thank you so much. Take it easy. And again, if you're ever driving out to Austin, which I know...

Universe  

Don't worry, we'll get a chance and just make a trip out of it. My name, when you say "universe," that is my attribute. And I actually had the attribute since I was 13. So, it actually has a meaning. I live my attribute. It became part of me. So, traveling, is one of them. Being universal, you understand? That's me. 

The universe is everything. Now, I might not go outside the Earth, but everything down here in the Earth, I will go. I'm not scared to go on all four corners, and straight through the middle on the earth. I want to see it. I love the Earth. I like to see different auras of the earth and what it has to produce, and the people. That's one reason for traveling and then being universal. 

See "universe" means sort of like, what we're doing now. It's you and I versing to bring about a better understanding of life. So, you and I, versing is right in the name, you and I versing to bring about a better understanding of life. That is universe, and the universe is everything. 

Teresa Roberson  

I like that. 

Universe

It's everything. So that's what that is. And that's what I strive to do. So, I'm going to be universal, and I'm going to go all over and people, they're going to know me, and they're gonna love me. We're gonna verse. 

Teresa Roberson  

Thank you for explaining that.

Universe  

Well, thank you for the interview.