Alex Byrd: And you was talking about being out on the cow pasture where you used to play ball.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah, we'd play ball. We drank out of the same—Somebody would go get a bucket of water. We all drank out of it. And then used to be a lot of springs around here. Well, water coming out the ground, you know?
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: And people just had these old—I don't know if you ever know that. It was something they called a gourd.
Alex Byrd: Yeah, I know a gourd is.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Oh, you do know what that is.
Alex Byrd: Think it's a dipper, right?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
Alex Byrd: Yeah.
James T. "Red" Eaves: That's right. (laughs) You tell your age after a while. (laughs)
Alex Byrd: I've been talking to people older than me.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Around these springs, they'd have several of them hung up around there, and the people would get them and look at them and see which one looked the best. Then they'd drink out of it. Yeah, I used to drink water out of a stream, running through the woods. But man, and I wouldn't even think about it now. Yeah. And all of this out front it was woods.
Alex Byrd: Okay.
James T. "Red" Eaves: All of this was. And then this guy live across the street, me and him growed up together, now.
Alex Byrd: Is it a White guy?
James T. "Red" Eaves: White guy?
Alex Byrd: What's his name?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Russell Moore.
Alex Byrd: Russell, okay.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Mm-hmm.
Alex Byrd: He's what's named that street named after him.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Right.
Alex Byrd: Okay.
James T. "Red" Eaves: And he would treat you right, if he knowed you. See? And me and him growed up together. He knowed me. But a Black guy that he didn't know, he'd burn his ass. And he worked at a strip. He was a superintendent at a stripping outfit, see. He had a boy driving a truck for him. This was on the side. It was his truck, see. He had this boy hauling coal for him. Well, he got rid of his trucks, but he never did put this Black boy to work in that pit, see. And the boy left here and went to Detroit.
James T. "Red" Eaves: It was in '50, I believe it was, '48, or '49, or '51. I went over there trying to buy me a truck, and I need $100. He come in there, and I told him, I said, "Loan me $100 for a few days." He said, "What are you going to do?" Said, "I'm going to buy me a truck." And he wrote me a check for $100, and I bought the truck. In a few days, I paid him back.
James T. "Red" Eaves: But now, another Black guy run into his fence up there one day, and he was drinking. And he called the law. And they come up there and arrested this guy. I told him, I said, "That guy was one of my friends." He said, "Well, son, if I had any idea that you knowed him," said, "I never would've called on the law."
James T. "Red" Eaves: So I went to his mine one day, on surface. And they was hauling dynamite on a little old Jeep, see. He wasn't there, but he come there before I left. And he asked me, said, "Is it anything that I should know," if somebody had told him, "that I don't know?" I said, "Yeah." I said, "Now, you know what's going on." I said, "But I'll let you go ahead and correct it because you're here," because I was fixing to burn his ass, you see.
Alex Byrd: That's when you was inspecting?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Right.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah. But he got to the place he's just crazy about money. He bought a tiller, which tilled up, a little old garden tiller. I think he give 12, 13 hundred dollars for it, and didn't raise nothing but it's about a five or six hills of tomato. So I said to him one day, I said, "You know what, Russell?" I said, "That's kind of stupid." I said, "You spent 12 or 13 hundred dollars for some damn tomatoes, and all you had to do is stick them in the ground." You know he got rid of that tiller the next week? (Byrd laughs) But that was stupid! He didn't raise nothing but tomatoes, you see.
James T. "Red" Eaves: And then, one day, he come by and told me, said, "I just come from the doctor, and the doctor give me a clean bill of health." It's just six months later, he was dead with a cancer. Yeah.
Alex Byrd: Well, how did Black folks who came through here from other places, how did they get treated by the Whites here?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Well, didn't too many peoples come here, see. But number one, I remember guys working on railroad, I mean, working on the highways, building roads. Now, they would come in here, but most all of them would be out of deeper out of the South, see.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Like Mississippi and Alabama, see. Well, they know the score, you see.
Alex Byrd: Okay.
James T. "Red" Eaves: See? And they'd come in here, and they'd get acquainted with some of these women. Then they'd jump up and marry one, you see.
Alex Byrd: Mm-mm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Well, same way about Greenville, see. I know two or three guys was heavy operator equipments. They come in here and start working, and they married some girl up there in Greenville, see.
Alex Byrd: Mm-mm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: And all them guy that would come in here, seemed like they was gifted with talent because most all of them could do anything, you see. But as far as come in contact with the White, they never got no call because the man they're working for, he would be White, you see.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: But other than that, see, I tell you, most trouble they have had was over there in Madisonville. See, them people over there, a lot of them are big shots, and they'd get these Black boys to take care of their yard. What like that, see. Then next thing you know, they be going with the man's wife, see. Now she'd have to make the first move. See a man know that if he going to get hung, or shot, or killed, he ain't going to make no first move, see.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: And one guy in particular, he was going with this woman. And every time they'd get together, it would be in her car. And when he wipe hisself, he sticks the hanky down under the seat. And they got him one day, and she hollered rape, you know? And he told them that he had been fooling with her and where he had put the hankies under the seat. They went and pulled out all those hankies. But still he had to leave town, see.
Alex Byrd: But they ain't kill him.
James T. "Red" Eaves: No, they didn't kill him, see.
Alex Byrd: Was this back in the '40s or '50s?
James T. "Red" Eaves: No. Let's see. I guess it was in the '30s, I guess. Yeah, that's been a long, long, because I was real small. That seemed like, back in those days, now, I don't know exactly, but it was fresh, they hung two guys over at Madisonville. I used to hear my daddy talk about it. Said peoples come from everywheres to see that hanging.
James T. "Red" Eaves: And one of these guys had a wife. She was pretty as a speckled pup. And the judge said, "Anytime a man got a wife looks as good as that, he ought to be hung, to fool with a tramp." He called this White woman a tramp, see. And she hollered rape. And the guy had been going with her the whole time.
Alex Byrd: This was two guys, right?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah, two of them. Mm-hmm. Both of them been going with her. And seemed like, to me, there was some White, I mean some light-complected Negro girls, yeah. I can't remember. I remember the White guy that done the shooting. And this Black guy was going with this girl too. She was a Black girl. And this guy said they got into a fight, and some guy said, "He just took his pistol out and shot this guy," because he'd gone out with Black girl, see. And this guy was a foreman on the railroad, see. And he didn't want this Black guy going with her, see.
Alex Byrd: Why? Because he liked her?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Alex Byrd: Okay.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Now see, I don't even, I remember the woman, and I remember the man done the shooting, but I don't remember the Black guy he killed, see. Now see, I guess that was in the '20s, I guess, because I used to hear older peoples talk about him.
James T. "Red" Eaves: And one Black woman, she had church. We had church over here. Man, and she come out there and shout from now on. She come in the church shouting. And there she was living out there with a White man. And, well, I didn't know what was going on. She had a little, old building there.
Alex Byrd: When you were a little kid?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah. She had little, old building out to the back, and that's where she's supposed to have stayed, see, because he was single. But her daughter built a house down here. Oh, I guess it was about a half a mile from here, on down the road. And he lost that house out there, where he did live, see. And he built this house for her daughter and him, all the way up, sometime, hell, he'd go down there and spend the night. Yeah. And hell, I was—
Alex Byrd: And everybody knew about that?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah, everybody know'd about it, but me, till I asked Brother about it, my oldest brother, see.
Alex Byrd: Uh-huh.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Her name was Aunt Nanes. I never will forget that. One day, she come in the church and just a shouting. She was a heavyset woman too. She'd jump up and down. The church get to shaken a little bit.
Alex Byrd: When you was coming up, were there Blacks who lived around here, and some who thought themselves, you know how folks get a little bit of money, or they get a little bit of something, and they start to separate themselves, or think of themselves as—Were there ever classes?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Mm-mm.
Alex Byrd: Like folks who thought of themselves as an upper class? Or—
James T. "Red" Eaves: Mm-mm.
Alex Byrd: Not around here, in White Plains?
James T. "Red" Eaves: No. I'll tell you what. All the guys made pretty good money, and one guy in particular. Well, he called himself a Eaves. He went in his mother's name. He was supposed to have been a Littlepage, see.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: But he was born in wedlock, so he went in his mother's name. We always called him Uncle James. Well, he cut coal in the mine, see. Well, he would work every day. See, the kind of work he was doing, he was making territory, making the mine larger, you know.
Alex Byrd: Okay.
James T. "Red" Eaves: That's why he had to cut coal. So he works about every day, and I think he had pretty good money. But the bank, I'm going to mess it up. See, back in those days, they didn't have no—
Alex Byrd: Insurance?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Insurance.
Alex Byrd: I see.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Nothing, see. And my dad said he lost pretty good money at that bank. Some of them seemed to think, after that, he was burying his money. See? But now, he was a regular guy and carried a big .38 on him, most of the time.
James T. "Red" Eaves: You had little old place down here, called Crossroads. And they went down there, got some whiskey. I think he was driving a Model A or Model T. I don't know. Was back in those day. Some guys were going run him out of there. He put this .38 on them. Man, they fell away like fly. And before they could get home, the police stopped them in Nortonville. They done called them.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Well, the police knowed him, know that he doesn't never bother nobody, unless somebody trying to bother him. So they stopped him and talked to him. I think that even police was drinking with him. And then he come on home.
Alex Byrd: Was these Black guys who was trying to run him out?
James T. "Red" Eaves: No, they were the White guys trying to run him out from down at the Crossroads.
Alex Byrd: Okay.
James T. "Red" Eaves: See, they went down there and got some whiskey, you see.
Alex Byrd: Okay. And they was trying to run him out—
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah.
Alex Byrd: —and he pulled that gun on them.
James T. "Red" Eaves: He pulled that gun out on them. Yeah. I remember is he had a son about my age. We used to take the bullets out of that gun to fool with him. Had one of them long barrels on it.
Alex Byrd: Was it any different in, say, like Earlington or Madisonville? Were there classes of Black folks? Or you think it was about the same as it was here?
James T. "Red" Eaves: No. In Earlington, see, you had school teachers and preachers, see.
Alex Byrd: Okay.
James T. "Red" Eaves: They rated theirself over the Black level. But see, they couldn't go too high because they had to deal with the Black. Do you see what I'm talking about, see?
Alex Byrd: Yeah.
James T. "Red" Eaves: But on ordinarily, they would want to look down on you, see. And the principal of the Black school, his name was Mims. I guess he was principal down there for years and years and years. They got one of the nicest church it is around there, in Earlington. They still take up good money.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Because I belong to Shriners, and one of my friends died down there. Well, when somebody died down there I know and pretty well, I always go down there to the funeral. And see, I got a lot of people down there, see.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Now, my grandmother daughter had a daughter, and see, she married a guy living down that a way, and see. Shit, I guess she had six or seven kids. And she had one boy. I know he got about eight or nine. And shit, they got kids scattered all over Earlington. Some of them, one or two of them around my boy's age. And Earlington was kind of a knitted town too, see.
Alex Byrd: What kind of town?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Knitted.
Alex Byrd: What's knitted?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Close together.
Alex Byrd: Oh, okay.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah. The White guy wasn't going there and starting no stuff. Yeah. And they paid the police there.
Alex Byrd: Okay.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Police come by, he'd get his cut. Everybody down there want to sell a brand of whiskey. They're selling. So when the police come around, you give him his cut, see. Yeah. Yeah.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Coal mining camp. That coal cutting man, most of the time, they didn't have no money, but anything else you wanted, you could get it down there. And them Black boy really dress, man. They looked dressed just like guys in the big city. Didn't have a penny in their pocket.
Alex Byrd: And still be dressed sharp.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah. Yeah, they got anything you want, furniture, clothes.
Alex Byrd: That's at that big company store—
James T. "Red" Eaves: Right.
Alex Byrd: Western Kentucky.
James T. "Red" Eaves: West Kentucky. Back in those days it was called St. Bernard, Bernard Coal Company.
Alex Byrd: Okay.
James T. "Red" Eaves: But now, it called West Kentucky. And see, West Kentucky sold out to Island Creek.
Alex Byrd: Island Creek.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah. And Island Creek finally sold it to [indistinct 00:18:26] Clinic.
Alex Byrd: Okay.
James T. "Red" Eaves: That's who owns it now. Of course they tore a part of it down.
Alex Byrd: I remember when we was at the bank, you shown me where the store is.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah, okay. Yeah. Okay, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
Alex Byrd: Well, Mr. Eaves, I don't want—I could keep you here all evening.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Oh, yeah, man.
Alex Byrd: But I don't want to keep you here all evening.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Well, I ain't got nothing to do. No, I don't have nothing but go to bed. So—
Alex Byrd: Okay. Because I got lots of tapes. We'd be here all day.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah.
Alex Byrd: But what I usually do when I stop, or toward the end. Well, you've seen me stop toward the end, so you know what I usually ask folks.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah. Yeah.
Alex Byrd: About just looking back over those days, what advice or words of wisdom you could leave with people?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Well, when I was growing up, things was pretty rough. I always thought that, well, when you a kid, you acted as a kid, see.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: And I'd eat, and I would stay hungry most of the time. And—
Alex Byrd: You'd stay hungry?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah, I would stay hungry, see. And I always felt I'd starve to death, when I was real small, see. And the house we lived in, in bad shape, and I always felt this way. I said, "Now, if I ever live to be grown," I said, "I'm going to make it my business to live in a decent house." I always said that, see.
James T. "Red" Eaves: But see, my daddy was a good guy. He was well respected in this area, and people liked him. But see, my daddy was a type of fella, he never would venture out. He'd always wait until things come to him, see.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Well, I'm always a little different. I'd ask the guy, you see. "How about letting me do it? How about this and this," see. And when I first went on a job in Louisville, I worked for this contractor, Whittenberg Construction Company. Well, I don't know if you know what a Georgia buggy is.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Got two wheels on the side. And they hired me, and I pushed this Georgia buggy up to the cement mix. Well, I didn't know, see. I didn't take it out. I thought he going to shut the concrete off. Pour it in there. Well, he filled it up. I couldn't even move it, man. When I backed it up, but I did back it up, it lifted me up off from the ground, see.
James T. "Red" Eaves: And then that guy put me with a—I think I cried that day. He said, "I ain't going fire you." He put me with a carpenter helper. And well, I was eager to work. And the carpenter, well, carpenter told the boss, said, "You know what?" Said, "He's a good guy, but he's just a little bit too eager for me." He said, "I can't even relax." He said, "I didn't want to come back to White Plains, man." So he put me with a concrete finisher, and I got to the place, man, I could finish concrete good, you know.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: So I getting [indistinct 00:22:22]. And then made a concrete finisher or foreman on the job. Then he let me finish concrete with him. We were working on theater, these Army theater. We putting in floor, you know.
Alex Byrd: Okay, that's local?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah, uh-huh. Yeah, back there. I was working there when I went in the Army. And now, my pay got up a dollar and quarter an hour, man.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah. Shit, I said, "Lord, have mercy." Then the Army started fooling with me. And didn't nobody tell me. I just figured we was going to Fort Knox, which is only 30 miles from Louisville. That morning, went to the post office. They examined us in the post office. Got out of the post office, went right straight down Sims Street to the Station, got on a train, crossed the Ohio River into Indiana. I said, "That's funny. We going to Fort Knox. Fort Knox the other way." Now, nobody hadn't told me nothing. Okay.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: And they don't just draft them for a year, see. We stayed around there two or three days, and one evening around four or five o'clock, they said, "Pack your bags. Getting ready to move out." Now, I know I'm going to Fort Knox now. We got on the train. I was setting up there comfortable, and I says, "Something's wrong." And I went to sleep. When I woke up, the train was parked. No, yeah. But we rode three or four days, see. and I know wasn't going to Fort Knox. I woke up one day. Hell, we was in Texas, one morning.
Alex Byrd: He's older now, Mrs. Eaves.
Elcie Eaves: Have we got—
Alex Byrd: I think he's about—
Elcie Eaves: Have we got to seventy?
Alex Byrd: —20-something right now.
Elcie Eaves: I'm a—
Alex Byrd: He was in his 50s.
Elcie Eaves: Oh, wonderful.
Alex Byrd: So we almost, we almost there. He went back. We in the Army.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah.
Elcie Eaves: Yeah. Oh.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah.
Elcie Eaves: Have you finished?
James T. "Red" Eaves: We said we called you, didn't we? Didn't we say we'd call you?
Alex Byrd: [indistinct 00:24:34].
Elcie Eaves: I never knowed you said you'd call me.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah.
Alex Byrd: It's almost, we closing out.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah.
Elcie Eaves: Okay.
Alex Byrd: So we've got to get you to the 50s.
Elcie Eaves: Because I won't be that long, because of my life hadn't been that long.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Now, I look back at my life. It could have been worse.
Alex Byrd: Well, you didn't tell me what you did in the Army, though, Mr. Eaves.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Oh. When I was in the Army, we was in a chemical well, we was in a chemical well fire. And we wore those impregnated clothing, and it was grease, you know.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: [indistinct 00:25:29] related to gas. That's—
Alex Byrd: Did you have to go overseas?
James T. "Red" Eaves: No. Uh-uh.
Alex Byrd: Okay.
James T. "Red" Eaves: No, we was on maneuvers in Tennessee and was on a night problem, and the guy run off the road, over a cliff. That's what they said, because, see, I was knocked out. I got a compound fraction in this leg and a lick over this eye. And when I come too, some guy had my leg held up high. They was taking a picture of it. And I'm got a compound fracture. See? But anyway, three guys got killed.
James T. "Red" Eaves: So they sent me to Nashville, to their general hospital that was out there at [indistinct 00:26:16]. I stayed out there, I don't know, pretty good while, because every time I'd see that doctor, I'd have my stick, see. And they would send sawdust with little screws out there. You saw them out, see. I done forgot what they paying us a hour, see. But I'd buy two or three carton of cigarettes and take them in town and sell them for $10, see.
Alex Byrd: That's when you was in the Army?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah.
Alex Byrd: Oh.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah. And man, I was popping in Nashville too. They had three clubs up there. Oh, Dr. Summer. One day, I went to a dance one night, and some joker stole my stick, see. And Dr. Summer, the next day, I was without that stick. He said, "You look like you in pretty good shape."
James T. "Red" Eaves: Man, next, I was in there, now. Man, next thing I know, I got on a train that I went to Camp Lee, Virginia. Man, those guys soldiered up there. Yeah, they soldiered man. I was exempted from doing that [indistinct 00:27:36] and leggings all time, big old helmet and, oh, all.
James T. "Red" Eaves: And next thing I knowed, I was on a train going to Florida, Camp Gordon Johnston, Florida. And they put me in Amphibian Force down there. And that outfit was fixing to go overseas. I had been in the Army a pretty good while, then. And they began to let them out on points. So I talked to the company clerk. I said, "Don't look like I'd have to go overseas. The time I get over there, they'd have to ship me right back. I'd have my points over there." So he—
Alex Byrd: The war was over?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Just about, see.
Alex Byrd: Okay.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Mm-hmm. So he said, "Well, I'll check into it for you." So, oh, First Sergeant called me. He said, "No, you won't have to go overseas." Because he had been overseas, you see.
James T. "Red" Eaves: But I never forget. See, peoples is people. Old dentist had been in the Army I don't know how long. And I got some teeth broke, you see. And he asked me what theater was I in, see. I told him, I said, "I haven't been overseas." Man, he said, jumped back and said, "What?" I think that booger tried to hurt me too. And I was surprised, see. He was a commissioned officer too, see.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: And he asked me, he said, "How come you didn't go oversea?" I said, "I'd just go where they sent me." Well, I think that made him madder.
Alex Byrd: So you managed—How long was you in there, man? About four?
James T. "Red" Eaves: I was in about four years and two months. Yeah.
Alex Byrd: Well, you did all right. Yeah, brother.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah, I done about four years and two months, and yeah. No, I never will forget that old dentist. He practiced just out at Peckerwood too. When I was in that hospital, a lot of those, I seen two or three pilots that was in that hospital, from Tuskegee, you know?
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm. Those Black [indistinct 00:29:56]?
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah. Mm-hmm, yeah. I talked to one of them and seemed like, to me, he was from Owensboro. But he seemed like he was a friendly guy, though. But you know how it is when you're a officer. We probably come in contact there, maybe we sitting down beside the side on a bus, going into Nashville, or coming back, something like that. You sit down the side of them, you know, you could talk to them. But—
Alex Byrd: Mmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: —meet them out in the streets, you just let them go ahead on, you see.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah, mm-hmm. When I come out of the Army, I had one gentleman. And see, I got a first cousin. Her daddy and my mother was brothers and sisters. And her husband, he was the one-star general when he was in the Army. He been out, now, about—Well, he's in Texas. Yeah, he's in Texas. I don't know what he doing. And I saw him once, that's when his wife's mother died. Because he had on his uniform down at the funeral. And when I was in the Army, they just had one Negro there, and that was Davis.
Alex Byrd: Yep, Benjamin O. Davis.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah. But man, they got a bunch of them in there now.
Alex Byrd: Oh, yeah.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah.
Alex Byrd: You know, they had Colin Powell.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah.
Alex Byrd: And he had four stars.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah, see, well, I done forgot about him. Yeah.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm. He's a big man. I saw him once.
James T. "Red" Eaves: You saw him in person.
Alex Byrd: Did you see?
James T. "Red" Eaves: You did? Yeah.
Alex Byrd: Oh Mr. Eaves, he's big. I didn't want to like him, either, because I didn't like old George Bush.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah.
Alex Byrd: And I knew that Reagan had appointed. So I didn't want to like him. And it was at some, it was a Jefferson Award ceremony. And he walked in the room, and he's about 6'3". And he's broad, and he's lean and tall, just a big man. And he gave a little speech. And you couldn't help but like him, by the end of it. And you know, someone come into the room and they just become the center of the room? He was like that, just everyone just deferred to him.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Well, I'll tell you one reason, see. I know that he had to be outstanding, see very outstanding. Because see, you got a whole lot of White Jones, and he picked him.
Alex Byrd: Right.
James T. "Red" Eaves: See. And he had to be outstanding, you see. And before I even saw him on the TV, I hear some White guys talking about him. I was down there drinking coffee, down at Nortonville. They wasn't even talking to me, and they said they got a Black Jones. Said, "He's sharp as a tack." Yeah. And then I got to [indistinct 00:32:56]. Then I saw him on TV several times. And then, again, he seemed like he was a friendly type guy. But I knowed he had to be outstanding because I know Bush and Reagan. See, I didn't like Reagan and didn't like Bush, you see.
Alex Byrd: Mm-hmm.
James T. "Red" Eaves: But I know for them to go down through the rank like that and get a Black man, see, he had to be great, see. Yeah, he had to be great.
Alex Byrd: And he is.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah.
Alex Byrd: Okay. Well, I better finish up before Mrs. Eaves—
James T. "Red" Eaves: Well—
Alex Byrd: —would make you leave.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Okay, then. Well—
Alex Byrd: But wait a minute. Let me unhook you.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Okay.
Alex Byrd: You forgot to say your closing thing. You know how I usually ask you to, you just got to say your closing piece of advice to folks who could be listening to this tape a long time from now.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Well, I'll tell you what. To make it in this world as things are today, keep your mouth closed and your eyes open. Whether we like it or not, it's a White man's world. He control everything. You couldn't even eat breakfast in the morning, wasn't for him. But I always believed this motto. And Christ told each peoples, "Why do you want to be first? Because the first shall be last." So that's it.
Alex Byrd: That's good words to live by.
James T. "Red" Eaves: That's right.
Alex Byrd: Thank you, Mr. Eaves.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yep.
Alex Byrd: I really appreciate it, not just this interview, but everything you have done since I've been here.
James T. "Red" Eaves: Yeah, okey-doke.