Description:
Faye and Eugene Simpson talk about their lives.
Transcript:
Interviewee: Faye Simpson (and Eugene Simpson)
Interviewer: ?
Interview Date: ?
Interview Location: ?
Transcribed on July 18, 2020; transcription checked/edited on July 20, 2020
Eugene Simpson (ES): I’m Eugene Simpson.
Faye Simpson (FS): And I’m Faye Simpson, wife. We live in Bakersfield, California. We have resided there the past 55 years. I’m a native of Louisiana. And Eugene, my husband, is a native of Oklahoma, where he was born. But a real Louisianan.
Interviewer (I): Mr. Eugene, tell us who were your parents.
ES: My parents was Lilybee Edwards and my father was named, they called him, Gene Simpson.
FS: And wasn’t he a native of Louisiana?
ES: Who dat?
FS: Your dad. Gene Simpson was a native of Louisiana?
ES: Yeah. Gene Simpson.
FS: Was Mama Lilybee a native of?
ES: Oklahoma.
FS: Oklahoma City, bred and born.
ES: Yeah.
FS: She was a daughter of the late—
ES: —Reverend Edwards.
FS: Yeah, Reverend Lloyd Edwards. And she’s a descendent of Jeff—
ES: —Yeah—
FS: Jeff Edwards. How old were you when your mama moved you to Louisiana?
ES: To Louisiana? I think I was around about…if I can recognize it, I think I was around about …16, around in there.
FS: Yeah? Sixteen years old?
ES: Yeah, when I was native to Louisiana.
FS: Moved to Louisiana, he is the second oldest of sixteen children. His mom was the mother of sixteen children, he’s the second oldest. His oldest sister, deceased?
ES: Yeah.
FS: Yes. So at that time, it was five of them. Four boys and one girl that moved to Louisiana. And of course, he never had a father.
I: What are names of your siblings?
ES: Like my sisters and brothers? My sisters, one of them is Mary Alice…
FS: Mary Alice now resides in—
ES: —Yeah, in Louisiana right now.
FS: Delhi, Louisiana.
ES: Delhi, Louisiana.
FS: And then you have five in Bakersfield, California.
ES: Yah. And Mary Al—I mean no, Virginia—
FS: —Virginia—
ES: And Mary Alice— I mean Lilybee, Cornelius—
FS: Dorothy.
ES: Dorothy.
FS: Pearl.
ES: Pearl.
FS: They all resides in Bakersfield.
ES: Yeah, they all resides in Bakersfield.
FS: Yeah, he is the only residing brother. Out of all the children, there’s six sisters and one brother that remain. He moved to Bakersfield… in what year you moved to Bakersfield?
ES: Moved to Bakersfield, I think is 1950.
FS: 1951.
ES: ‘51, yeah.
FS: The year we were married. December 1st , 1951.
ES: Yeah.
FS: And then two weeks later, we came to… back to your home state.
ES: Yeah. Oklahoma City, we came back.
FS: And we resided here a month, almost a month.
ES: Yeah.
FS: To the end of December or 1st of January, and then we moved to.
ES: California. Bakersfield, California.
FS: Where we now—
ES: Where we are now living now.
FS: For the past—
ES: For the past 55 years.
FS: And he retired from.
ES: Montgomery Wards.
FS: Montgomery Wards. He worked there 36 years as a tire specialist at a tire shop there, working, and then after retirement, we had a boarding care. We cared for the mentally ill for 25 years. Yeah, ages eighteen through fifty-one, you know, mostly young men and middle-aged men, which is quite interesting. I call it [indistinct] ministry. It really was because we had all ages, all personalities and really all cultures. We never made different. One of the main things that my husband and I learned in working with those people is that they all can identify with love, regardless of their background or the issues that they were going through, and some of them were really serious issues. And we came to Bakersfield and we united with the Mount Zion Baptist Church. And we were a member there twenty years. And presently we are a member of that People’s Missionary Baptist Church, and we are a member now for thirty-five years. And then Eugene’s a…deacon, and we have one son, one sibling. He’s a deacon also that serves that the same capacity. He lives across the street from us. And we met and married at a country fair in Delhi, Louisiana. Met in a country fair in Delhi, Louisiana, and now they moved to California. It is paired in October 1951 and he came back and we married in December of 1951. That’s where we have resided since. And you know we have one son, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Quite an interesting life.
I: Do you have any fond childhood memories?
ES: Oh, yes.
FS: The stories that happened to you and your family growing up.
ES: Oh well, we worked on the farm. We raised cotton and corn, peanuts. And mashed potatoes, like that on the farm. We cut hay a lot on the plantation in Delhi, Louisiana.
FS: What church did you all attend?
ES: We attended the Green Grove.
FS: Green Grove?
ES: Louisiana.
FS: Green Grove what?
ES: Green Grove Missionary Baptist Church.
FS: And the school you went to. What was the name of it?
ES: The school was Seven Star. We had school in our church.
FS: Worship on Sunday?
ES: And then school.
FS: School during the week?
ES: During the week.
FS: In the same building. Wow, that was quite it.
ES: Yes, of course.
I: Mr. Eugene, when you moved from Oklahoma to Louisiana, were there any—what differences did you see between the two places?
ES: Well, the only difference I can see, in my, you know, is... Well, other words, I have done here is I had worked in the field right when I came here for just a little while. Then I found a job at Montgomery Ward’s when I got here. I wasn’t on the farm since I got here.
FS: But as a child… when you left Oklahoma, what was the difference in your life in Oklahoma and then life in Louisiana?
ES: Oh, as far as life was, there wasn’t any difference, you know.
FS: The transition and change in his mom’s life.
ES: Well, we left Oklahoma City. My mother and dad had separated. And then, she met another man down in Louisiana. They got married and that’s what we was until we moved out to California in 1950.
I: Did you ever experience any type of racism?
ES: Oh, well the race. When we came out here, there was a little bit pleasure mixing together. You know what I’m saying. We didn’t have poor views and attitudes that they had, you know. Different attitude, you know, different people, you know, for different thing. Otherwise—
FS: —Racism in Louisiana.
ES: Yeah, it was very different when we got to California.
I: Tell us something about your religious, spiritual beliefs.
ES: Religious, spiritual? Well, all I know that when you accept God, you are ready to be born again. You can’t ask for nothing else. God is one thing about it. The Lord will do what he said. He said I am the way and the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the Father but by me. So, if you believe in God, you can’t beat him.
FS: So she wants to know how do you feel. Do you?
ES: Oh I feel good.
FS: Good believing in God?
ES: Yeah, I feel good believing in God. In fact, in a sense, my way, I’m set up, I know him, I don’t believe in him, but I know him, that he is God. He’s been proven that his words never fail. So I’m happy. In fact, I would want to serve no other organization but Lord. God takes care of everything. He said asking, doubting nothing in my name, that he would grant it on a destined truth. He never failed me yet. It’s a lot of consolation in meeting God. You’d be surprised that the consolation that you can get out of it. If you need the Lord, you let the Lord fight your battle if you’re really sincere about it. And if you’re sincere, he’ll make the way for your back to ways already meet. You just have to wait on him until he do what he has to do. He may not come when we want him, but he certainly on time.
FS: Oh. Did you have any hate in your heart? You know, any hate on forgiveness in your heart as a black man in Louisiana when you were denied different opportunities?
ES: No, I ain’t had no hate.
FS: Grown up as a young man, you couldn’t still relate many people as a human being later in life.
ES: I never had truly. Be honest with my part, I never had. No problem, you know. Like me, ask for a clean slate for others to at me. I never had no hate in my heart. It’s the way I look at it. I said, “Well Lord.” If someone com up I didn’t know I said, “Lord it’s in your hands.” I said I don’t know. I just keep praying. I never had no problem.
I: Well, let’s turn to you, Miss Faye. Let’s talk about you now.
FS: Okay. Well, I don’t where you want me to start. But then now we had fifty-five years of marriage, you know. When I met him, I was twenty, he was twenty-three. I’m the oldest of nine siblings and I was born in Louisiana and reared in Louisiana. And now, earlier I could say, you know, we really weren’t taught, hate a racism, you know. Because we just accepted as a way of life and submission to whatever we had to live with. And we were always treated good, and my father always in a seat for us. He was a deacon and Sunday school teacher. And I went to elementary school there and graduated from Bakersfield High School after we were married and we moved there. So we married in 1951 and we moved there and we had a good marriage. I don’t want to regret anything, you know. I love my mother-in-law and his stepfather who was very very good to me. In fact the atmosphere of the family at this long, to tell the truth, I have never felt like an in-law. I feel like that I’m a part, very intimate part of the family. That’s the way his sisters and brothers were quite young when we married. He was the oldest of his family when I married him because his older sister was deceased. And I’m the oldest in my family. And then my mother had a nervous breakdown when I was fifteen so I kind of had to be Mom and Big Sister and all, and go to school, and all of that. It was quite a trying some time, but it kind of enrich your life of patience. That’s what gave us a lot of patience when I had to wake up the mentally ill at home. And I kind of used to tolerance, you know. That was not responsible for being like that. If they could do it better, they would have then. And I worked in many church organizations like Sunday school teacher, president of other mission ministry at our church and president of district, president of state convention and vice president of the national Baptist convention. And my husband has allowed me to travel extensively. That has been real enjoyable all the years, all the period of years. But I met many people and made many friends and many acquaintances. And I’ve been to this state many many times, you know, visiting with family and also various meetings. So overall I can say, you know, we just had a real great life. And now I enjoyed bowling since in California and took care of my parents who we brought from Louisiana. He’s there and very helpful and caring for them. But we both care for our parents until their death there in Bakersfield. Our both parents moved from Louisiana to California, but mine lived with me. But his were still in their home but we still cared for them with the help of other siblings. And we retired now, you know. I still do some, have some time because people won’t let you retire. My cousin told me, no, you just won’t retire. So the goal is a way of staying in touch and you know, and being involved with people that I enjoy. So it’s just a beautiful life.
I: So do either of you have any regrets? Sounds like you…
FS: No, I would not say that I lied, I’m not trying in area sometime but to regret it, I think it has been really good for both of us. Those has helped to shape us.
I: Do you have any words of wisdom that you’d like to leave for your family?
ES: Oh, yes. I tell the youth in our family and others, you know, that the greatest success in life, the greatest success in life is giving and forgiving. If you can hang on the hinges of those two, you will most likely make it in any situation. You have to learn to give and you certainly have to learn forgive because there’s not room enough in our house for beauty and sweets at the same time. So that’s one word I’d like to offer to any generations, present and the future.
Taking care of the people in our home, you know, we had mostly men because our son was there and Eugene. The women in the social worker was very corporative in the area because I don’t go away from home as much as I were going and leave girls there with them. So I chose the young men and sometimes they would come with known much bitterness and hate even with their own families. I remember one experience that I had with, you know, this young man. He was teacher, I mean, his mom was teacher, his grandmother was a teacher and his sister. And he was a football player but he got into drugs and he dropped out of school, but he was real bitter. So one day, his mom and grandmother visited our home and then he got in an altercation with them. He jumped up and he was going to charge at them. I said, “No, you can’t do that.” I said that’s wrong. The Bible says they are your parents, you know, and that your days will be long upon the land the Lord of the God give thee. So that he back over. He sat down and he got still. After they were gone and he said, “Faye, where is that found?” I said it’s in the Holy Bible. He said, “Well okay, find and show it to me.” So he went to get his Bible and I find and showed it to him there, you know, in Genesis. And then he didn’t say anything but he. I left. And he went out in the yard and dug a hole in the yard. He opened the Bible to that page. And he started a little fire covered over the grass and he burned that page up. And then I came home and I saw a smokeless small corn and said, “What are you doing, Russell?” I didn’t want that in the back yard. So that was one among the most interesting things that we would have, you know. They would get up during the night and they would want to ask for ice cream or cookies or something, and I said well let them have it, you know, because they couldn’t sleep. Sometimes the medication didn’t work really well. And they will be restless. So we would get up and have to nurture them, you know, and walk them through it so they could go back to sleep and then I have them return. In fact, the young man we have is like a room and board. Now like semi room and board. The young man that I kept at eighteen and he is now forty-five. He came to us a year ago and he was in a room and board down the street from us. And he said, “Faye, do you remember me? This is Victor.” He said, “I want to come and live with you and Eugene, can I?” And I said, “Yes, Victor.” Even though it was an action teenager then, and he is a calm, sweet young man now. And the one and only one that we ever gave a key to our home. He has his key while we are away. Real sweet,
matured into a beautiful young man went to a lot of classes. We learned later that he was adopted, you know. So then I mean he used to just do things who defend himself. Like he said, “A man’s field house on fire. Burn it down.” And then he had to go spend some time in the, you know, penitentiary. And two years ago, or one year ago, he had a little altercation up there with his social workers. He said, “I’ll go back. I’ll just go back and serve some time.” I said, “No, Victor, you can’t do that. You are a young man now. And the Lord has brought to this for you will not go back. Go do those hours that they want you to do about three hours a day for about three months and then come home and just enjoy yourself. You can live with us. We love you. I don’t want to see you locked behind the bars anymore. You don’t have to.” And so then he called his father who lives in Ridgecrest, about a hundred miles away. He said thank God for Faye’s wisdom. She encouraged to go. He was just so angry. He’s willing to throw in the towel and just go back again. And I said, “No, he is doing real well.” Well, that’s one experience that we’ve had. And over the years, some of them was very very very unsafe and their parents were along with them. We were so thankful that we were there with them, you know. We made descent to their lives, but we hear from them all the time. They come and go. Some of them went away and did it well and some of them didn’t do too well.
I: Do you have recall any stories with situations you dealing with mentally challenged?
ES: We always—
FS: —It was one time we went away. We left late there. If he had a disturbed man, so he come home with you.
ES: Yeah. We had one experiment. We got came back home after we had what he wanted to walk me and everybody else almost and let us just about that all the serious time that I had any problem with. So if you want to stay anymore, we’ll still come picking him up. Otherwise,
FS: We see him all the time, whenever we meet him.
ES: Yeah, we see him all the time.
FS: Warm experience.
ES: Yeah.
FS: You know, but he moved away because he felt it. We will have her come in and stay with him again while we were away, which we never did. Yeah. It was this about a minor thing. He came to the table to eat without a shirt on and I said, “Well, that didn’t bother you. You should, we would’ve handled that when we got back.” You know, we didn’t leave you that to a mother
them, we left you there to smother them. And we left you there to care for them. And then I was upset with her. But of course he was a very, very sweet person. But that was one of the main good experiences.
I: Well, I think that’s it. Really appreciate your stories. Thank you for participating.
ES: Thank you.
FS: Thank you. I guess we could write a book after 55 years.
I: You could probably write three or four books.
FS: We are glad that our lives have been twined together. We work together as a team. And whatever we were doing, we just worked it out. And always been a bed of roses, but we made it.
ES: Yeah, we made it.
I: Awesome. Thank you.
FS: Alright.