Transcript
Preface
Tape-recorded Interview with Jesse Howard
at his Home and Studio in Fulton, Missouri
October 30, 1982
Willem Volkersz, Interviewer
Editor's Note:
This transcript is from a series of recordings made by Willem Volkersz over a number of years. They are not formal interviews, but rather records of conversations, often taped during photo-taking tours of the artist's studios or home collections.
The naive/visionary artists in these interviews have unique verbal mannerisms, many of which are difficult or impossible to transcribe accurately into written form. Thus, for grasping certain nuances of speech, researchers will find it advantageous to listen to the original tapes.
Our intent in transcribing these interviews was nonetheless to translate as accurately as possible the spoken word into a comprehensible written form, making changes to clarify but not to interpret. Thus the speaker's grammar is unedited. For example, "them" for "those," "theirselves," and "gotta" were all transcribed as heard. On the other hand, certain changes were made for clarity: " 'cause," was transcribed as "because," " 'fore" as "before," " 'yo" as "your," etc.
Other editorial notations are as follows: Bracketed words are of two types. Those with "[—Ed.]" or "[—WV]" are inserted by the transcriber, editor, or Volkersz. Other bracketed words indicate uncertainty: Two or more words or phrases indicate possible alternatives; "[unintelligible]" and "_____" indicate words that are garbled or incomprehensible on the tape, the former being a much longer phrase than the latter; "[noise]" is self-explanatory.
The original format for this document is Microsoft Word 365 version 1908. Some formatting has been lost in web presentation.
Interview
JH: Jesse Howard
WV: Willem Volkersz
TK: Trish Kozal
[Tape 3, side A; Volkersz' No. H6-2] [45-minute tape sides]
JH: . . .that's running for these offices on my place.
WV: They won't come, huh?
JH: Huh?
WV: They won't come here, huh?
JH: No, they won't come here. I don't know why they shun me. I want to put up a sign, you know, that. . . I work every day and think of something good to write, and put up these places things, "Where we have a Heaven to gain," and what?
WV: Oh, boy, "something to lose?" I don't know.
JH: "A Heaven to gain, and a Hell to shun."
WV: "Hell to shun." I think that the politicians are afraid that if you came here. . . If the politicians came here, they would be afraid of you because you tell them the truth.
WV: They can not, you know, what the Persians, you know, that have war over around Persia, everywhere. You know what the Persian said? Some of them got up and said it, I think. "They cannot stand the truth."
JH: That's right.
JH: Cannot stand it. These people, they just can't stand it, they was, there was three young people come here last night. They said—I was sick in the bed, pret near. I met them right here. I talked to them, you know. They wanted to go through my place. And [unintelligible] $2,000 wouldn't pay me for what they stole off of me.
WV: I know.
JH: $2,000. And I told these people, you know, I ask so many questions on the Bible. They just can't tell you. I've had them try to put their hands over my mouth. (chuckles) Their hands over their ears.
WV: (chuckles)
JH: You may not believe this, but every word I'm telling you today is the truth.
WV: I believe it. I know you.
JH: Every word.
WV: You always tell the truth.
JH: Huh?
WV: You always tell the truth.
JH: Always. I was taught to. I had the wonderfulest, wonderfulest father and mother that ever lived. And I asked them a lot of these questions, you know. I asked these boys, where, there's always so much drinking going on—Hi! [to someone passing by—Ed.]—so much drinking going on, drunkenness, you know. I'm going to ask you this question, a Bible question. Who was the president, he wasn't elected, he was chosen, he wrote twelve chapters in the Bible? And the word president how many times is found in the Bible? I'm asking you.
WV: Forty-two times.
JH: The word president.
WV: I don't know how many times.
JH: Well, I guess I'm a fool for telling all this, but then I told these boys. . . You know what I told them? I said, "You've got a Bible, haven't you?" Each one of them said they had a Bible. I told 'em, and I'll ask you. (chuckles) I love both of you. We can't hate each other.
WV: That's right.
TK: Right.
JH: The Bible says, "He who hates his brother is a murderer." Where's that found in the Bible?
WV: I'm not sure.
JH: Huh?
WV: I'm not sure where.
JH: Huh?
WV: I don't know.
JH: (chuckles) That's found in John. You see, we have three or four Johns. That's found in John, let's see, III. . . I forgot just the other numbers. Third chapter.
WV: Um hmm.
JH: And third or fifth verse, something like that. I've forgotten. I see so much of this stuff, you know, I just can't. . .
WV: Sure, I know.
JH: . . .get it all, all of it. And I asked them so many questions, you know, we've got so many people that's counting the heads. Head hunters. You see that piece that the, oh, the folk art people wrote, did you see that?
WV: Yes, I sure did.
JH: About head hunters? (laughs)
WV: That's right. You did a piece about that, didn't you?
JH: Huh?
WV: You did a piece about that, didn't you?
JH: Yes!
WV: He's talking about Naives and Visionaries [exhibition and catalogue—WV].
JH: Headhunters, you know.
WV: Right.
JH: And I asked him what. . . I've talked to, as I've said, a good many people. Another thing, we've lost the art of embalming.
WV: That's right.
JH: We people, we American people, all have lost the art of embalming. And what governor then—as long as we're on that subject—what governor gave instructions that when he died to embalm him and bury him in a certain place? Now who was that?
WV: Was it Governor Bond [of Missouri—WV]?
JH: Huh? (laughs) No, Governor Bond couldn't answer that question, even today, I don't believe.
WV: I don't know who. You know all these things! You know we don't know the answers!
JH: Well, I'm not making fun of you people.
WV: I know you're not, I know.
JH: I love you.
WV: We love you too, Jesse. Are you working on any projects?
JH: I work on something every day.
WV: Good for you. Did you ever do anything with the marbles I sent you?
JH: Yes?
WV: Have you got anything going with the marbles?
JH: Huh?
WV: Is there anything you can show us that has the marbles on it?
JH: Has the marbles on it? Oh, yes.
WV: I'd love to see some of that.
JH: Well, who was taxed. . . Who was the first people to be taxed?
WV: Hmm.
JH: That's in the Bible.
WV: Yeah, I'm sure it is. C'mon Trish.
TK: Boy, that one's real familiar.
JH: Who was it?
TK: It's real familiar, but I sure can't think of it.
WV: She's my Bible expert.
TK: Ohh.
JH: Well, the man was Joseph, and the woman was Mary.
WV: Oh, really. Huh. Hah! They were the first ones that were taxed.
JH: I just get a lot of kick, you know, out of talking, and, as I've said, these Fultonite people won't even speak to me. They won't have nothing to do with me, at all. The preachers: I don't know but one preacher in all of Fulton. Now he don't know what I'm gonna say. I've knowed him a good long while. He is as full of deceit as any dog is full of ticks. _____ dog. He's got an old church right down here on the hill, where's he's trying to. . .
WV: I saw it.
JH: Huh?
WV: I saw the church, yeah.
JH: Yeah, right down here, right on the hill. Got a little bit of ground. He won't come up here. They don't, nobody'll fool with me. The police don't come up here. The deputy police lives in the second house down there. Been there for over five years, he won't come on my place. He's driving into his place there. He was fired here, not long ago.
WV: Oh, really.
JH: I don't know who fired him, or what for. They won't come to see me. I've lived here all winter. I looked out at this darn snow. People wouldn't come in here and say, "Jess, can I bring you a loaf of bread, or something I can bring you, something I can do for you?" They won't do it. My family's all left me. How many. . . Is there anybody else, only you?
WV: Is what?
JH: Anybody with you people?
WV: No, just the two of us.
JH: Just the two of you?
WV: Yeah. We came from Kansas City to see you. Do you remember when we brought you to Kansas City a few years ago?
JH: Oh, yes.
WV: It was me that. . . It was me that brought you back.
JH: That was the greatest day, pret near of my life.
WV: That's great.
JH: Meeting all you people there, the whole. . .
WV: It was wonderful for us to see you there.
JH: It was just wonderful, wonderful. And another thing, what makes so many people to think that I'm one among the best folk artists there is? Do you know?
WV: Because you are.
JH: I question. What makes you think it?
WV: Because you have a message in your work.
JH: (laughs) Yes, I invent pret near everything, you know.
WV: Sure.
JH: Pret near everything. I make pret near all my windmills except these two right here. And I. . . You see my marbles out there. Let's see, when did you send me some marbles?
WV: Oh, about six months ago?
JH: About six months?
WV: Maybe a year ago. Six months or a year ago. Sent you two bags, two bags of marbles.
JH: Well, I've got some of them, and some people from Chicago. . . Well, I have more friends in old Chicago than I have in old Fulton.
WV: Yeah, I think you're right. (all chuckle)
JH: They come down here, you know, and brought me two saws, two brand-new saws.
WV: Oh really.
JH: And some paint, you know. I need a lot of paint. Brought me some paint, paint brushes, and two batches of marbles.
WV: That's great.
JH: And I don't know, we're standing right here, you know, let me show you this piece of work right here. Will you get it?
WV: Sure.
[Interruption in taping]
JH: That's a real artist. And I have so much work stole from me. My daughter did this carve work.
WV: That's beautiful.
JH: And this. And she put something on here, plaster of Paris. Well, the plaster of Paris won't hold up.
WV: That's right.
JH: And after the plaster of Paris fell off, that's what I printed on there, myself. And this is all my work, you know, a fish. . .
WV: Right.
JH: . . .where he first catched the hook, and he catched a fish with money in his mouth. I think that's wrote on there, isn't it?
WV: Yes, it is. Yeah, it's right down here. "Money in fishes mouth." See that, how there's a fish inside a fish.
JH: Now _____ watch us work on a horse on shoe soles, and there's a. . . I did this piece of work way back [many] years ago.
WV: Huh.
JH: You see, over there in my old shed, you see, I have no tables, big tables, and no real place to do my work.
WV: I know, I've seen it. Are you still working with the marbles?
JH: Huh?
WV: Are you still working with the marbles?
JH: Yes.
WV: Good. Are you painting signs too?
JH: Oh, yes.
WV: Good for you.
JH: Yeah. And we'll go across the road, then. Did you ever see my horseshoes in here?
TK: No, I hadn't.
JH: You never?
WV: No.
JH: Well, we'll go in there then. I'm getting no cooperation from nobody, not even Mrs. Howard. _____, shh, I hate to say it. It's over a hundred years old, that old house is. When I bought it 37 years ago, it had old wooden weatherboarding on it, you know, and it hadn't been painted. And, of course, that'd just naturally fall off. But it had all this work covered, _____ the whole work. I've been a pretty good carpenter myself. And here's one piece of my daughter's work, artwork.
WV: Yeah, I've seen it; it's beautiful.
JH: And she quit; I don't know why. She quit me, even. She even quit me; I don't know why.
WV: Um hmm.
JH: [Looking at pictures in JH's house—WV:] And that's my wife's mother, over there. They homesteaded in Kansas—the Linton people did—and everything just burnt them out. They just had, had to get away from Kansas. My wife's father, her father's a [Grenville]. Came here from Kansas in a covered wagon, I think it was, landed four miles south of Calwood. And they had four children. And they. . . Maude's father, my wife's father, come here, you know, _____ _____, just barely able to walk, and talk.
WV: I'll be darned.
JH: And that's how long I've known her. [another person is speaking]
[Interruption in taping]
JH: What was his name?
WV: David.
JH: Huh?
WV: David?
JH: Oh, no. No, no.
WV: It's not, huh.
JH: (chuckles)
WV: I thought it was.
TK?: [unintelligible]
JH: Well, he'd been tried in the fire and furnace. Now, who he was?
WV: No.
JH: Went through all the fire and furnace, made the furnace hotter and hotter.
Mrs. Maude Howard (MH): No, I can't think of it.
WV: [To MH:] No, you sit down.
MH: [unintelligible]
JH: That's Daniel.
WV: Daniel.
JH: You get your Bible, and sit down—there's twelve chapters in it. Where Daniel was throwed in the, tried in the fiery furnace, and all like-a that; he was chosen president. They'd make the darnedest bunch of, electing a president today, that was ever in the whole world. Now you commence reading, the first chapter, get you a pen, and put down how many times you find the word Daniel—that was his name, President Daniel.
WV: Right.
JH: And he is only. . . That word president's only found I think it's five times in the Holy Bible.
WV: Hmm.
JH: Will you do this and let me know?
WV: Sure.
JH: Write to me, or something? Put it in the papers?
WV: Um hmm.
JH: His name, Daniel, is found I think 72 times in the Bible. (chuckles)
WV: Oh, that's interesting.
JH: I think it's 72 times.
WV: That's amazing.
JH: I've counted it, you know, so many times.
WV: I'm sure you have.
JH: See, I've had people bring me Bibles. I've got two big lettered Bibles.
WV: I know.
JH: Huh?
WV: I've seen them, yeah.
JH: You've seen them. And you do that—and publish it! How many times the word. . . President is only four to five times. President. . . And he wrote twelve chapters in the Bible. And he was tried in all this fiery furnace. You see, there was three of them—no, there was four, four people!—there was three people, four people that at that. There was four people. Who was that fourth one that they seen walking around after the fire?
WV: Hmm.
JH: (chuckles) Well, that was God. I think. You see, God was a man. He created man in his own image. I was starting to read, over here—big letters, a great big sign across the road. Now he had a, God had a image of himself to make man, and he made man in his own image. Now the next question is this: What Adam and Eve. . . I've asked people a number of times where the Garden of Eden is, and they won't tell me. They can't tell me. They won't do it. And that was before woman was created. And God put Adam in a deep sleep, taking out one of his ribs, and made who?
WV: Made Eve.
JH: Huh?
WV: Eve.
JH: Made woman.
WV: Right, oh, made woman.
JH: That's one of the first places you see in the Bible about woman.
WV: Um hmm.
JH: Well, I. . . _____.
WV: I know.
JH: Here they are, putting up money, and driving all over the whole place, putting up millions of dollars to get in to be president.
WV: That's kind of sad, isn't it.
JH: Silver and gold won't take them through there. And I just got through telling you that—I can't speak what I want to speak now—Daniel.
WV: Um hmm.
JH: Are you going to read Daniel? Will you do that if you said you would?
WV: Um hmm.
JH: And publish it. How many times you will find the word Daniel in the Bible. Before he wanted to come out for president, now he was a better known man.
WV: I think you're right.
JH: I don't think but a very little bit of Jimmy Carter, myself. He only made one or two things that he did. Just made his name on one or two things. And I just got through reading a piece out here on my gate. That gate, you know, has no hinges. Hinges _____ gate! I just do odd things like that.
WV: Right. That's really interesting.
JH: But where Jimmy Carter. . . Jimmy Carter, President Jimmy Carter, I was looking on the TV when he made this statement, where people had lost confidence in each other. That's a terrible thing when I have no confidence in you, and you have no confidence in me.
WV: Right.
JH: Of course we have the confidence in us, you understand.
WV: We do.
JH: We have that. You wouldn't be here if you didn't have some confidence in me.
WV: Exactly, exactly.
JH: You wouldn't be here.
[Interruption in taping]
JH: When Jesus Christ set down to the table, you know what he said to the people? He said, "One of you will betray me."
WV: That's right.
JH: They answered around. . . They won't sell it, you couldn't sell them.
WV: (laughs)
JH: They answered around, "Is it I? Is it I?"
WV: Was it Judas?
JH: Judas.
WV: That's right.
JH: And Judas, I want to put a piece up out here about that, what happened to Judas. Do you know, after he betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver, what happened?
WV: Umm. I don't remember.
JH: He went and hanged himself.
WV: Ohh.
JH: I want to put a piece. . . I want to put a piece up out here that kinda reads like this: Where Judas betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver, and went and hanged himself, I want to put a piece up out here, where these traitors betrayed Jesse Howard. All of you stole my property. I want to tell them, "You go hang yourselves. If you can't find a rope, go hang yourselves with part of the tree.
WV: (laughs)
JH: I want to print that. Yes, I do!
WV: That's a good one.
JH: They just run over me, you know, ever since I moved here thirty-seven years ago. And we'll walk down this way anyway.
[Interruption in taping?]
JH: I hauled it [_________—Ed.] off of my farm, hundred acres out here on the old river road. And the _____ _____ is straight. And after I sold it, why I had to move somewhere, and that's what I put on it. You can read part of it there now. That was the prettiest straight little piece that you ever seen—when it was sawed.
WV: Right.
JH: And of course I put up all this stuff here. I put that up, you know, for a kind of a lookout. I can see each way. And that log here, that was the big log that they used to wreck my property with. Right here.
WV: Oh really? Ahh! So you saved it.
JH: Huh?
WV: You saved it?
JH: Yes. Wrecked my property, especially down there in the ditch. And this piece right here, you couldn't get that job done for a hundred dollars, that one piece. It's wrote on both sides. Here. And this other one, I had that all painted, and the paint's no good; I don't know what's going to happen to them. I don't know. You can just barely read a little bit of it, of some of that work, just barely read. Barely read a little of it. Why don't you go up here and go along this place with me? I put that up. I had the old sickle out of my old mowing machine on that, and I took it off, just here a short time ago. I had red, white, and blue. They don't even respect the red, white, and blue here.
WV: Huh.
JH: In Fulton, they don't respect it. That is an old wheel that added on a great big old earth mover; now it's set across the road over there. Just laid out there and just rusted out and rotted out. Everything rotted out of it; it was pret near _____ made of wood. The disk harrow they stole. They stole the old disk harrow. That was bought, I guess, over a hundred years ago. And it's called a spading disk. Difference between that and our modern disks, our modern disks just roll over their stick, you know. And this is pegged down under; that's what called a spading disk.
WV: Huh.
JH: I just happen to have just a part of them put together. I used to pull yonder, over my garden, places with my team. That's Hell's Eight Acres, over there. One of them trees is a male, and the other one a female. Which one's the male?
TK: The one on the left?
WV: No, the bigger one.
JH: Huh? Now. . .
WV: That one over there.
JH: No. (chuckles)
TK: On this side.
WV: Well, you were right.
JH: Some people ask me how I can tell which is which. That one is full of berries [the female—Ed.].
WV: I see. (giggles)
JH: This one hasn't got a berry on it.
WV: Huh.
JH: And I had them set in five-gallon cans, and Christmas trees all decorated up one time when our family was living together. All decorated. And I aim to build a house here, you know, and rent this place over here. And that devil is charging these people $200 for that old place over there, rent—$200 a month.
[Interruption in taping]
JH: Thirty-seven years ago. And they won't help you, they won't look at you, they won't do thing in the world. There's a wheel made of old sulky rake teeth. Now you got to figure that just to an inch, you may not believe it. Now these teeth come around and make a wheel. Now I did that, because they're in good shape. A wheel. . . Of course I've got the wheel in the midst of a wheel over in my shop. But I moved down here on them old wheels, right here. An old part of the old wagon's over there just rotting out. I've got a dandy little four- horse woodsaw over there, just rotting out. And there's nothing here, that ever moved, too. There is nothing. Well, we'll go back now pretty quick.
WV: [reading:] Jesse Howard, 307 Black [Cannada, Canada], [Ba-jell-i-co] 492037.
[Interruption in taping]
JH: . . .of course, you could walk. That's the _____ _____, young _____; they're both eighty.
WV: Pardon?
JH: Two. . .
WV: You _____ a lot.
JH: Yeah, and you go over to the [heirs, airs].
WV: Okay. (laughs)
JH: [rings bell for a while]
TK: Nice and loud.
JH: Now, that was taken off the old, it was in the big belfry up over at Fairview Church. When they tore the church down, they set the bell off the side of the road. Now wasn't that wise?
WV: (laughs)
JH: Wasn't it. And somebody stole it.
WV: Ahh.
JH: And it's been thirty, forty years ago. I just happened to be at a sale down here in town—a man having a big sale—and he had all kinds of bells. I guessed that the old cat stole all of them! I reckon. But I knew this bell.
WV: You recognized it?
JH: Huh?
WV: You recognized it.
JH: Yes. You see, how the church happened to get it, that frame had been broke. Now all the parsons were blacksmiths. That's the way they drilled a hole in here and bolted it back together. _____ you _____ now and repeat it again. Ring that old bell when it was up there in the belfry, over eighty years ago. This was an old manure spreader. Look what axles it has.
WV: Sheese!
JH: I moved that building down here on them wheels, with my team. The wheel was in the shape of this man, here. He never walked a step in his life. Walked on his knees. He lives just across the field right over there. Fine man. He owned a big stallion horse. That horse'd just walk around him, just like you would a baby. He tended that horse, hauled the hay out here on these wheels. I happened to be over there. I bought the old cart from him just for a keepsake to _____.
[WV and TK have moved away from microphone, and are largely unintelligible; they seem to have put the tape recorder down to search through things and have forgotten it was running. They are examining scrolls JH has painted which were stored outside in an old refrigerator. JH continues telling about a Biblical incident involving Joshua.—Ed.]
JH: I'm just not able to do all of this, you know.
[unintelligible passage]
JH: Just think of the work. The work.
[unintelligible passage]
WV: This [refrigerator—WV] hasn't been opened for a while, you know.
JH: _____ _____ my _____ if some of these preachers do these things, don't get around here. I never heard of a preacher ever doing anything like this! I went up to church pret near all of my life!
WV: [unintelligible]
JH: Just think of the work on that.
WV: Oh, that is wonderful, Jesse. Just good work. Really nice work.
JH: "The Lord is going in truth," is it, "under David?" Is that what that says? "The Lord is going in truth under David."
[unintelligible passage]
TK: Is that on this one?
JH: [unintelligible]
TK: I've got three here. Joshua. Got Joshua is this one. Here's David.
JH: David cut off his head. That's what he did to old Big John. [unintelligible]
WV: [unintelligible]
JH: There's one place in here where Joshua. . .
TK: Yep, here you are.
JH: . . .Joshua. . .
WV: I'll be darned. You want to see a nice spider?
JH: There was five old wicked kings hidden in the caves.
WV: [unintelligible]
TK: Just barely. (chuckles)
WV: Just barely. What kind of spider was that?
TK: It had awfully long legs!
JH: Five old wicked kings hidden in the caves, and Joshua went in there and hanged them on trees.
WV: Huh!
JH: The five old wicked kings. Hanged them on trees. They don't tell you if they hanged from the ropes. Hanged them on trees.
WV: Okay, make sure.
TK: This has a _____ _____ on the ground. Here's another one of them.
JH: Now just look at that work and work.
TK: Lots of work.
JH: Just look at it.
TK: You wrote Genesis. Genesis.
JH: Well, that is [unintelligible]. You know, that's the _____ of _____ book. There's not another place like it in the world! And then the name of this book.
TK: Right, yeah. You've got it all written down here.
JH: What?
TK: You've got it all written down here.
JH: These people think no more of me than I'm a darn dog. Oh, that['s] canvas. You can't tear it.
WV: No, it's too strong.
JH: [unintelligible]
WV: Oops. There's another one, right there. Hmm.
JH: Nobody help me one ounce, not one of 'em. Nobody. Help me one ounce.
TK: [unintelligible] the prophet Jeremiah. "Twelve people and four _____."
JH: [unintelligible]
TK: "______ is red Russia."
JH: That's right, that's right.
TK: Can't find that name in the Bible.
JH: No, you can't. Have you tried it?
WV: I don't think Russia's in the Bible.
JH: No, you can't find the name. I give you five dollars for every time you find the word Russia in the Holy Bible. Or any of these big cities or _____, any of them.
WV: Uh huh, that's right.
JH: Ohh. What am I here for?
WV: Jesse, would you sell us a few of those?
JH: Huh?
WV: Would you let us take a few of those to Kansas City? I'd like to show Sherry Lacy and the people in Kansas City what you did on canvas.
JH: I sold some of them when I _____ where I was having the [unintelligible]. You're the only person doing anything like that.
TK: Right.
JH: I'll never do anything with them. [unintelligible]
WV: I want to make sure that they're kept in a good, dry place, so that they're nice and safe. And don't get all wet.
JH: [unintelligible]
WV: Well, let's see. This is a colorful one. [moving things around]
TK: Oh yeah.
JH: [unintelligible] doesn't have a motor in it. They were the _____ anybody had seen.
[unintelligible passage]
WV: Sure.
JH: [unintelligible] Hang on. See, you have to roll this stuff up like this. [unintelligible] . . .keep from _____ it out. And the way I keep track of the lines that I paint on, why I put a clothespin.
WV: Oh, that's good.
TK: Good idea, real good idea.
JH: Here's one here that. . .
TK: _____ the one with all the numbers on it. You wrote down all the chapters. [looking at objects] Yep. _____ _____.
WV: Yeah, I know, I really like that. Would you let us take these two?
JH: Well, I couldn't let you take this one, no. With all them numbers.
WV: Uh huh.
JH: [unintelligible]
WV: Let's see. _____ times.
JH: Them old bars, you know, you _____ _____. The _____ here, you see. And that's a _____ do something special. Did you knowed of it? You're ____ing high on something kind of special.
JH: That's right. [pause] What does that say?
WV: Umm, that's about Richard Nixon. It says, "Free thought, free speech. Dear Mr. President Richard Nixon and family: Well, the whole world, we people, are going through the most perilous times in the history of this great world. It is with us today, perilous times. 'This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come.'—See the Second of Timothy, Chapter 3." That's what it's about, about perilous times.
WV: One of those _____.
TK: Read on?
JH: _____ _____, to read on.
TK: Let's see, where did you get to? "Read it and believe it. Read on and on. I am a man small in stature, weight: 120 pounds, height: five-feet, four-inches, just had a birthday June 4 at age 89. I only have a sixth-grade education. . ."
[End of interview]
