Their Eyes Were Watching God Page #2

Can't,

Guess you better get goin',

If you change your mind,

tomorrow after the sun come up,

I'm gonna be waitin' on you,

Right down that road,

Mr, Starks!

Keep it,

What would you do if I was to Ieave you?

Leave me?

You but 1 7 years old,

You don't know nothing about the world,

I know enough,

You don't appreciate my good treatment,

do you?

No, it ain't that,

Janie,

I got 60 acres,

And I ain't no young man,

in no kind of way,

When I pass,

everything I got passes to you,

But what if I was to Ieave you?

What would you do?

Do what you got to do,

I'm goin' to sleep,

(Janie) Joe Starks had spoke

about change, And chance,

And even if he wasn't there waiting for me,

the change was bound to do me good,

Hey, girl!

(Janie) I thought I was gonna have

flower dust and springtime

sprinkled over everything,

Joe bought me all kinds

of pretty new clothes,

And I became Mrs, Joe Starks,

Can you fellows tell us

how far we at from Eatonville?

We hopin' to get there by nightfall,

Y'all in Eatonville now,

This is it?

This is it,

This don't Iook Iike

nothing but a raw place in the woods,

Well, we only been a town for about a year,

PIace is just getting started,

Got Iots to Iook forward to,

Amen.

She's right,

Y'all got a Iot of opportunity here,

Why don't you and your daughter

join us for supper?

I'm a really good cook,

and I'd be really happy to have you,

Amos Hicks is my name,

and I ain't got no wife as yet,

And I ain't nowhere near old enough

to have a daughter, Mr, Hicks,

This here's my wife,

If you and your wife

is thinkin' about settlin' here,

you're welcome to stay with my family,

Until we build our own house,

We'd be happy to put you up,

Willy, tie up his horse,

- (man) Yeah,

- We thank you,

I'm gonna get me a wife just Iike that,

You ain't got

but a fish sandwich to your name,

You can't get the Iikes of her

with no fish sandwich,

(Joe) How many acres y'all got now?

- 'Bout 50,

- That ain't enough for no town,

Well, we was real fortunate that Captain

Eaton gave us the acres to get started,

Captain Eaton own the sawmill

we work in, He's a fairer man than most,

Y'all want this to be

a town of significance, don't you?

Sure, but Captain Eaton

ain't gonna give us no more Iand now,

Cap'n Eaton?

He's generous, but he ain't stupid,

He might not give you no more,

but you can buy more,

Been a town a whole year, You would think

they'd have more happening by now,

They just need you to show 'em what to do,

I pray to God

they ain't a bunch of Iazy no-counts,

They need a Ieader, that's all,

Look to me Iike Joe Starks'd

be the perfect man for the job,

Look at this face, Good-Iookin' enough

to be on a silver dollar,

This chest,,, strong and broad,

Bet you got a big speech-making voice

in there, don't you?

These hands,,, Lord knows, these hands

We'II buy a hundred acres,

And then we'II buy a hundred more,

I'II sell the Iand we don't need

to newcomers,

and we'II put Eatonville

in the middle of the map,

And with the money we make,

we'II buy you your very own train guard,

and we gonna

crisscross this country first class,

Call me Jody Iike you do sometimes,

Call me Jody,

Jody,,,

He ain't gonna buy nothing,

I'm tellin' you, He all talk,

I been tellin' y'all

we needs to buy more Iand, ain't I?

(man) Lord, I don't know,

I hope he can,,,

- (man) Now what?

- Joe pullin' out his money,

He gonna buy more Iand, I told y'all!

Captain Eaton's signin' the paper!

- (woman) What you see?

- (man) Shh!

- And Joe done signed the paper too!

- (cheering and shouting)

(Janie) The next day,

we all voted Joe to be the mayor,

Wasn't nobody

more proud of him than me,

Hold on,

(Janie) He just strolled around,

all wrapped up in his new dignity,

Thinkin', plannin' our future,

And I was right there with him,

ready to help,

Some folks need thrones and

ruling chairs to make their influence felt,

But not Joe,

He had a throne in the seat of his pants,

When the new families came,

the land we bought made us a good profit,

And we invested the money

back into Eatonville,

- In the kitchen, Thank you,

- Which way, Mrs, Starks?

- That goes upstairs,

- (notes on piano)

Can't neither one of us play it,

This ain't for playin',

This is just for Iookin' at,

Shoot, Jody!

This is the Iife

Nanny always dreamed of me havin',

We did it,

She'd be so happy,

Are you happy?

Yeah,

(man) Mr, Starks, Ma'am,

- I got it,

- Steady, steady,

Come on!

- I hope they got my ribbon,

- Y'all comin'?

Since I had my three children,

I just ain't got the figure I used to,

You know you Iook Iike

a young gal in that dress,

Sam says the mayor of Orlando's comin',

And someone

from the governor's office, too,

- Well, you know what that means, Iadies,

- What?

- We in the big house now!

- Isn't it gorgeous?

We should go, See you Iater!

It's pretty,

You think Joe gonna Iike it?

Course he'II Iike it,

Janie?

You and Joe changed everythin',

Just feels Iike anything's possible now,

Lord, I done,,, I done run over the mayor!

Almost, Phoebe.Almost.

OK,

(Joe laughs)

I ordered it from

the finest Iadies' store in Orlando,

Oh!

Must have cost a Iot,

Look at this one, This is the one

the Iadies made me, Ain't it pretty?

Yeah, but it ain't befittin' of a mayor's wife,

You're the bell cow,

Those other women, they're your gang,

No other wife,

I'm gonna show you the world,

Remember?

(band plays ragtime)

Try as he might, Frank Taylor

can't seem to control that wife of his,

Hell, if she was my wife,

I'd kill her cemetery dead,

(woman) Oh, come here!

Where you goin' with them cookies?

Come on, now,

Oh, shoot! Gimme those cookies,

Come here, boy,

I'm tellin' you, in five years' time,

Eatonville is gonna be the county seat,

- Well, all right, I hear what you say,

- Five years' time,

This is gonna be

the county seat right here,

You hear what I say, you mark my words,

- Hard work, Determination,

- (man) A Iot of that,

(Joe) If we expect to move on, we got to

stand up and do things right around here,

- (man) You're right about that,

- We got to organize,,,

- You see her paradin' round up there?

- Mm-hm,

I reckon the dress we done made

ain't good enough for Mrs, Mayor Starks,

She up there with the men,

Too good to help us out,

(Joe) I plan to make Eatonville become

the colored capital of the state of FIorida,

'Cause this town,,,

is full of union and Iove,

I plans to put my hands to the plow,

and strain every nerve,

to make our town of Eatonville

the metropolis of the state,

And to that effect, Iet's get started tonight

with a Iittle surprise I got for you,

Our incorporation,

Eatonville is now

the first colored incorporated township

in all of America,

Everybody!

Let's,,, Iet's have a few words of

encouragement from Mrs, Mayor Starks,

Come on, say something,

(Amos) Mrs, Mayor Starks,

Come on, Come on up,

Thank you for your compliments,

But Mrs, Mayor Starks don't know about no

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