The Piano Lesson

00:43:37,963 --> 00:43:39,005 I'd play. 648 00:43:41,588 --> 00:43:43,505 Ooh, that's a nice piano. 649 00:43:45,213 --> 00:43:47,170 If I had it, I'd sell it. 650 00:43:47,171 --> 00:43:49,629 Unless I knew how to play it like Wining Boy. 651 00:43:49,630 --> 00:43:51,962 You'd get a nice price for that piano. 652 00:43:51,963 --> 00:43:53,837 - Mm-hmm. - Now, I'm gonna tell you something. 653 00:43:53,838 --> 00:43:55,379 See, Lymon don't know this, 654 00:43:55,380 --> 00:43:56,879 but I'm gonna tell you 655 00:43:56,880 --> 00:44:00,587 why me and Wining Boy say Berniece ain't gonna sell that piano. 656 00:44:00,588 --> 00:44:03,754 Well, she ain't got to sell it. I'm gonna sell it. 657 00:44:03,755 --> 00:44:06,712 Berniece ain't got no more rights to that piano than I do. 658 00:44:06,713 --> 00:44:08,921 I'm talking to the man. 659 00:44:09,963 --> 00:44:12,046 Let me talk to the man. 660 00:44:22,171 --> 00:44:26,087 Now, to understand why we say that, to understand about this piano... 661 00:44:27,130 --> 00:44:29,170 ...you got to go back to slavery time. 662 00:44:29,171 --> 00:44:33,129 <i>See, our family was owned by a man named Robert Sutter.</i> 663 00:44:33,130 --> 00:44:35,670 <i>That's Sutter's grandfather. All right.</i> 664 00:44:35,671 --> 00:44:38,879 <i>The piano was owned by a fella named Joel Nolander.</i> 665 00:44:38,880 --> 00:44:41,546 <i>He's one of the Nolander brothers from down in Georgia.</i> 666 00:44:42,046 --> 00:44:43,920 <i>It was coming up on Sutter's wedding anniversary,</i> 667 00:44:43,921 --> 00:44:45,879 <i>and he's looking to buy his wife...</i> 668 00:44:45,880 --> 00:44:48,379 <i>Miss Ophelia was her name.</i> 669 00:44:48,380 --> 00:44:50,795 <i>He's looking to buy her an anniversary present.</i> 670 00:44:50,796 --> 00:44:53,838 <i>Only thing with him is he ain't had no money.</i> 671 00:44:54,505 --> 00:44:57,463 <i>But he had some niggers.</i> 672 00:44:59,588 --> 00:45:01,504 So he asked Mr. Nolander 673 00:45:01,505 --> 00:45:05,630 to see if maybe he could trade off some of his niggers for that piano. 674 00:45:06,130 --> 00:45:09,504 Told him he would give him one and a half niggers for it. 675 00:45:09,505 --> 00:45:10,962 That's just how he said it. 676 00:45:10,963 --> 00:45:14,505 Say he could have one full grown and one half grown. 677 00:45:15,130 --> 00:45:19,795 Mr. Nolander agreed, only he say he got to be the one to pick 'em. 678 00:45:30,463 --> 00:45:33,671 <i>So Sutter lined his niggers up...</i> 679 00:45:36,255 --> 00:45:39,505 <i>and Mr. Nolander looked 'em over.</i> 680 00:45:46,671 --> 00:45:50,088 <i>And out of the whole bunch, he picked my grandmother.</i> 681 00:45:51,338 --> 00:45:53,379 <i>Her name was Berniece, same like Berniece.</i> 682 00:45:53,380 --> 00:45:56,420 - Come with me, Mama. Bring your boy. - No! 683 00:45:56,421 --> 00:45:57,754 - Come with me! - No! 684 00:45:57,755 --> 00:45:59,212 <i>And he picked my daddy</i> 685 00:45:59,213 --> 00:46:01,463 <i>when he wasn't nothing but a little boy, nine years old.</i> 686 00:46:02,046 --> 00:46:03,420 <i>They made the trade-off,</i> 687 00:46:03,421 --> 00:46:06,587 and Miss Ophelia was so happy with that piano, 688 00:46:06,588 --> 00:46:10,545 it got to be just about all she would do was play on that piano. 689 00:46:10,546 --> 00:46:13,337 Just get up in the morning, get all dressed up, 690 00:46:13,338 --> 00:46:15,337 and sit down and play on that piano. 691 00:46:15,338 --> 00:46:18,338 All right. Time go along. Time go along. 692 00:46:19,046 --> 00:46:21,170 Miss Ophelia got to missing my grandmother 693 00:46:21,171 --> 00:46:24,712 and how she would cook, clean the house, talk to her and whatnot, 694 00:46:24,713 --> 00:46:27,879 and she missed having my daddy around to fetch things for her. 695 00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:32,879 So she asked to see if maybe she could trade back that piano 696 00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:34,629 and get her niggers back. 697 00:46:34,630 --> 00:46:38,170 Mr. Nolander said, "No!" Said a deal was a deal. 698 00:46:38,171 --> 00:46:41,670 And him and Sutter had a big falling out about it. 699 00:46:41,671 --> 00:46:45,254 And Miss Ophelia took sick to the bed. She wouldn't get up in the morning. 700 00:46:45,255 --> 00:46:48,338 That's when Sutter called our granddaddy up to the house. 701 00:46:48,838 --> 00:46:51,087 Now, our granddaddy's name was Boy Willie. 702 00:46:51,088 --> 00:46:53,587 Same like Boy Willie. That's who he was named after. 703 00:46:53,588 --> 00:46:57,295 Only they called him Willie Boy. 704 00:46:57,296 --> 00:46:59,670 Now, he was a worker of wood. 705 00:47:02,963 --> 00:47:05,963 <i>He could make you anything you wanted out of wood.</i> 706 00:47:07,588 --> 00:47:08,879 <i>Them white fellas around there</