Interview with Versel Jones

Omer Jean Winborn: Hello. I am Omer Jean Winborn, and I am interviewing Mr. Versel Jones. And would you mind stating your name for the recording?

Versel Jones: My name is Versel Jones.

Omer Jean Winborn: Would you mind telling us what year and where you were born?

Versel Jones: I was born in 1948, 7th month, 21st day in 1948, Jackson, Mississippi.

Omer Jean Winborn: Okay. Could you tell us the names of your parents?

Versel Jones: My dad was named, my father was named Levi Jones, and my mother was named Ma Dee Jones.

Omer Jean Winborn: How many siblings did you have or had?

Versel Jones: I have seven now. There was nine of us.

Omer Jean Winborn: Okay. And any other details you wanna share about your family?

Versel Jones: Oh, I love my mother and father and my brothers and sisters. We seem like we're just one. That's how we love one another.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh, wow. That's could you tell us a little bit about yourself generally? About where are you in the line of siblings? Are you in the middle? Are you the oldest, the youngest? Where are you?

Versel Jones: I'm the older one.

Omer Jean Winborn: You're the oldest.

Versel Jones: Yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yes. And you said you had nine.

Versel Jones: Yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: And there's how many living now?

Versel Jones: Seven.

Omer Jean Winborn: Seven. Okay. Girls, boys, can you tell us how many?

Versel Jones: Two girls and the rest of them boys.

Omer Jean Winborn: Okay. Do they all live in Mississippi still?

Versel Jones: Yes.

Omer Jean Winborn: Okay. All right. Could you tell us about how your family came to live in Ypsilanti?

Versel Jones: I'm the only one out of my family who came to Ypsilanti.

Omer Jean Winborn: Okay.

Versel Jones: Outside my cousin.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh, where are the rest of your family? Are they still in Mississippi?

Versel Jones: Yes.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh, all of them?

Versel Jones: Yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: All of your siblings? Okay. When did your family or when did you first migrate to this area?

Versel Jones: Oh, I moved to Ypsilanti 1975, but I came from Ann Arbor to here.

Omer Jean Winborn: You came to Ann Arbor first?

Versel Jones: Yes.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. Why did you come go to Ann Arbor first?

Versel Jones: Well, that's where I stopped at, and I got a job there. And when I moved here, I got ready to buy a house. 'Cause City of Ann Arbor wanted me to buy a house in Ann Arbor, but I couldn't afford to buy no house in Ann Arbor. Later on in the years, they grandfathered that. You can buy a house anywhere you want to. And when they said that, that's when I come to Ypsilanti. I could afford a house here. I couldn't afford no house in Ann Arbor.

Omer Jean Winborn: Okay. Did you have relatives in Ann Arbor?

Versel Jones: Yes, some cousins.

Omer Jean Winborn: Okay. Do you mind telling us or sharing with us who your cousins were?

Versel Jones: My cousin was Elita Jones and Robert Thompson.

Omer Jean Winborn: Okay. And who is... What's Mr. Thompson's other name? I think people will know him.

Versel Jones: His name was Robert Thompson, but his nickname was DeLong.

Omer Jean Winborn: All right. And what did he have in Ann Arbor?

Versel Jones: He had a restaurant.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yes. And what kind of restaurant was it?

Versel Jones: He cooked fish, chicken, shrimp, stuff like that, hamburger.

Omer Jean Winborn: Barbecue.

Versel Jones: Yeah, barbecue too.

Omer Jean Winborn: I remember. I can still right now taste that sauce.

Versel Jones: Oh, yes.

Omer Jean Winborn: Thank you for sharing that. What's your earliest memory of growing food?

Versel Jones: Oh, I started farming around nine years old. I started having my own big garden. I could watch my grandfather and them when they raised their garden and how they were doing, rototilling, making rows in the garden, planting stuff. And we would plant our stuff by the full moon 00:04:00and the almanac.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh, the full moon and the, say that again, by the full moon and the...

Versel Jones: The full moon, you can watch the moon at night. The sky will tell you whether it's a full moon or half a moon or a star moon. And a star moon, that means you don't want to plant then. You want to plant when it's a full moon.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh, okay. Thank you for sharing that. Tell me about your garden or your farm.

Versel Jones: Oh, well, I raised peas, okra, greens, tomatoes, watermelons, cantaloupes, different stuff like that.

Omer Jean Winborn: Now, did you... Now the stuff you raised in the South was different from the stuff that you raised here, wasn't it?

Versel Jones: Oh, yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: What was the difference?

Versel Jones: The difference down there is the season was longer. You couldn't plant nothing here but sweet corn. It'd take 12 weeks for sweet corn to bear. Down there, the summer would last longer, the season would be longer. And a lot of the stuff we could plant down there, you couldn't plant it here 'cause the season was longer.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh, okay. Yeah. You said your grandfather taught you how to grow. Who taught him? Do you know?

Versel Jones: I guess his parents.

Omer Jean Winborn: His parents. Okay. And did people in your family, did everybody grow food or some of them, are they still growing food in the South?

Versel Jones: Oh, yeah some of them do.

Omer Jean Winborn: And what do they grow?

Versel Jones: They grow peas, okra, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, corns.

Omer Jean Winborn: Now, do they sell it?

Versel Jones: Yeah, some of them do.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. And where do they sell it, to the local farmers?

Versel Jones: The market and the grocery stores.

Omer Jean Winborn: So you did grow food prior to coming to Michigan, so you know. Could you tell us 00:06:00something about what your experiences was, or were like after you came to Michigan and you started growing food? What were some of the things that were kind of different? You shared some.

Versel Jones: That I had to learn how was the season here. That was the first thing you had to learn. On time, you could really plant some stuff. It'd be Good Friday, Good Friday, everybody plants something. But if you plant it before Good Friday, it would not do nothing 'cause the ground is still cold. You have to wait until the ground gets warm up. The ground started warming up after Good Friday. And I already planted my stuff around June the 15th.

Omer Jean Winborn: Okay. Oh, so things were different like in Michigan 'cause you had to plant and learn how, what else was different? What about the land? What about places to grow? What was different? What's the difference between...

Versel Jones: You had to look around, find your spot of what you could plant it somewhere. If you didn't have no property of your own, you had to ask somebody else, let me use this here or how much you charge me if I had have a garden on your land? Most people I talk to, they'd be glad for me to have a garden where they could eat at.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. So when you came to Michigan and you planted in Michigan, what impact did growing food have on your family in the community here?

Versel Jones: When I gather, take it into the house, and my wife most times she didn't know what to do with it, I had to tell her what to do. I said, "You gotta wash this, clean it real good. Take it, like a green, you gotta get the stem from the greens and cut them up." Then she'll wash them real good and put them in a pot and cook them.

Omer Jean Winborn: You know, I always wondered why 00:08:00my mom would always say, because I didn't grow up in the South, greens were good after the frost hit.

Versel Jones: Yeah, that's right.

Omer Jean Winborn: Tell me about that. What does that mean?

Versel Jones: The frost would make the green tender.

Omer Jean Winborn: Okay.

Versel Jones: And then they'd be sweeter. You didn’t have to add no sugar or nothing to them because once the frost hit, they get sweet.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. Now in the South, would the frost hit them down South too?

Versel Jones: Yeah. Oh yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh, they do.

Versel Jones: But most people, they eat them before the frost. But I had a garden here, I had people that asked me, “give me some greens.” I said, "The frost, I don't give my green away till the frost here." They said, "What you mean by the frost?" I said, "They don't taste right." They said, "We want them now." And I'd give them to them. They were my people. I give it to them until they learned what it was all about. Because greens, when the frost hadn't hit them, they'd be tough. You can buy greens out of the store now you can, you know them were hothouse green because they were tough. Once the frost hit them, they get tender.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. That's good to know. That's something that my parents always said but I didn't understand what they meant. I just knew that they taste better when the frost hit them. Thank you for sharing that. How was growing, buying and preparing food different when you were young than it is now?

Versel Jones: Well, a lot of time you couldn't find everything you need to plant here. Like when I go on vacation, when I go down South, I get seeds and bring them back here 'cause half the stuff I planted, you couldn't find the seeds here.

Omer Jean Winborn: Really?

Versel Jones: Yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh wow. Like, give me an example.

Versel Jones: Like peas, okra, collard greens. You can find some seeds sometime now. And with the flower had a lil pack bout that big 00:10:00with 10 to 12-ish seeds in, I go down south and buy a bag of seeds bigger than this [Gestures to 16 oz. iced tea bottle].

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh, wow.

Versel Jones: You couldn't buy that many seeds here.

Omer Jean Winborn: No, absolutely not.

Versel Jones: It come in a little pack like a flower seed.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah, it does. It does. I've never seen seeds that big before.

Versel Jones: No, the pack would be that big.

Omer Jean Winborn: The pack. Oh, the pack would be that big. Oh my gosh.

Versel Jones: You have enough to plant. Sometimes I have enough for a couple of years.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh wow. So, what else was different? Okay. My parents had a garden and now there's no such thing as gardens around here. Now they're very scarce. What did you notice that is different about when you left the South and you came to Michigan and it was different? First of all, land. The second thing what you planted, and then what else was different for you?

Versel Jones: Then the fertilizer and stuff. The stuff you need to put on your plants, you wouldn't have it here. I used to bring all that down from down there too.

Omer Jean Winborn: What kind of fertilizer would you use?

Versel Jones: Soda. One was named fertilizer the other one was soda. Soda. You put it in when it's cool, on your land when it's cool. I have brought it back and put it on my lawn. Everybody ask me why your lawn be so green and ours it ain't that green. I said this a secret that go through the family. [laughter] You tell everybody, but everybody go down there, they’ll be bringing it back and that'll run the price up.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh yes. So it's a secret but it's not a secret in the South.

Versel Jones: No. Yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: It's a secret up here when you brought it up here. Anything else different that from South up here in planting in the garden?

Versel Jones: Yeah. Well, like sweet potatoes, you can't have sweet potato here because the season wouldn't be long enough. But sweet potatoes don't get ready till 00:12:00last of October. Most time October get here, it got snow on the ground already.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yes.

Versel Jones: It started getting cool and that stuff started getting flat then.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yes. Yeah. So yeah. Anything else you can think of that I'm not saying or that you could share with me about the difference of… What about the price of food? What about that?

Versel Jones: Down there? It’s much cheaper than it is here.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah.

Versel Jones: 'Cause when it get here, look at how many states they gotta come through, to transfer that here. When they get here and then come through all of them other states, they had to pay 'cause they come through them different states. They haul that stuff here for us to settle it up here.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yes. Yeah. Did you find yourself saving money from having a farm?

Versel Jones: Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It wasn't much, but it was something that it was good for us to do.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. Now, when you lived in Ann Arbor before, the time that you lived in Ann Arbor, did you have a garden in Ann Arbor?

Versel Jones: Yeah, I had one. I was living in an apartment then, they had a little space right on the apartment. I dig it up with a shovel and planted, plant something.

Omer Jean Winborn: Where was that apartment? Do you mind sharing?

Versel Jones: Pinelake Village.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh, okay. I know there was space there.

Versel Jones: Yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yes. Alright. Yeah.

Versel Jones: You didn't have to do nothing but just dig it up and plant it if you had some seed.

Omer Jean Winborn: Wow. So now then when you moved to Ypsi, where did you plant?

Versel Jones: Oh, I had my own property then. Oh, I could plant stuff behind my garage. That's on my property. Then when I want bigger space, I found an open lot. Then I find out who the lot belonged to. I go talk to them. I said, "I want to raise a garden," and some of them wouldn't charge you nothing for doing it, as long as you keep the grass cut for him.

Omer Jean Winborn: That's wonderful.

Versel Jones: Yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. So can you just describe where the area was where you first planted in Ypsi? Just a little...

Versel Jones: Right down about 6 houses down from me.

Omer Jean Winborn: Okay. And just where is that? Just describe it 'cause...

Versel Jones: It's on Jefferson Street.

Omer Jean Winborn: On Jefferson. Okay.

Versel Jones: On a corner lot. It wasn't big enough to build no house or nothing. And I started off having a garden and I set some apple trees out. Had some peach trees out, still having plum trees and I went from there.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh wow. Can you share some about how you came to grow on a particular plot of land, for instance, it was better for growing, the area was nicer or you said you grew behind your house, but then there was a vacant lot. Was there anything that was not desirable or was there any place where you tried to grow something and it didn't grow?

Versel Jones: Oh no. I hadn't stuff like that. All my stuff produced. I was like I had a green hand.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. That sounds like it. Yeah. When thinking about the history behind farming and land and gardening, what comes to mind? The history for you and your family, what do you think about when you think about gardens and how it affected your family?

Versel Jones: My grandparents and my parents, they all did that too. And I wanted to do what they did, and they raised food. I said, "Well, I've gotta learn how to raise the food too."

Omer Jean Winborn: Were your parents and grandparents sharecroppers?

Versel Jones: Some of them were.

Omer Jean Winborn: And did they... Did any of your family own the land that they were on?

Versel Jones: Yeah. My grandfather and my father.

Omer Jean Winborn: Did you know anything about how they acquired that land?

Versel Jones: I don't know how 00:16:00they got it. But all I know is they had it, and they said that land wasn't high like it is up here. Because back then when I was coming up, you could buy 10 acres land for about $500. You couldn't even buy a lot here for no $500, $1,000, a lot gonna cost you around $30,000 to $40,000 and some place cost where it'd be $50,000 just to build one little house on.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yes. I know. So that's a real reason why a lot of people don't have gardens here too. So yeah.

Versel Jones: And it is a lot of work. When you get certain age, you ain't able to do it. Not know how.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah, that's true. How do you feel about growing food and farming now that... How do you feel about it now?

Versel Jones: Well, I don't want no big spot now. I want a small spot now 'cause I'm getting up in age where that’s what I don't wanna do it no more.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. It's hard work.

Versel Jones: Yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: What's difficult besides hard work about it, have you noticed any of your, like children or grandchildren or cousins or relatives that want to learn how to grow?

Versel Jones: No.

Omer Jean Winborn: Food?

Versel Jones: No. They don't want to. My kids and babies laugh at me.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. They did.

Versel Jones: They said, "Dad, we could buy this for you." I said "No, I want to grow it myself."

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. Do you think they understood about what, how the importance of what it was like to just to get out there and garden? 'Cause I thought the same thing...

Versel Jones: I don't think they did because if they had. If they know what was going on, they got out and tried. They wouldn't even come out here. “It’s too hot. I can't bend over long.” That what they'll say.

Omer Jean Winborn: Wow. Are there ways that growing food connects you to your ancestors or to other people who came before you?

Versel Jones: Yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: Can you talk a little bit about that? How you feel connected to your family or your ancestors? Do you know who your grandparents or great-grandparents were?

Versel Jones: Yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: You know who your great-grandparents were?

Versel Jones: Yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: That's wonderful. Yeah. So they were also farmers?

Versel Jones: Yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: And they also lived in the same place?

Versel Jones: Yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: Area?

Versel Jones: All us stayed on the same property.

Omer Jean Winborn: And you still have that property today?

Versel Jones: No, we sold it.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh, you sold it? So are you...

Versel Jones: All the brothers, all my siblings all got together and sold it.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh, you did? So are they still living though? You said they were all still living?

Versel Jones: No, they have their own homes and stuff now.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. Now, do any of them have gardens?

Versel Jones: No.

Omer Jean Winborn: None of them have gardens?

Versel Jones: No.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh wow. You're the only one that...

Versel Jones: Yeah, I'm the only one that had one.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh my goodness. And you're the oldest?

Versel Jones: Yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. Wow. Oh, I'm surprised. No gardens at all. Do you think it's a tradition of growing food or tradition that's so important to pass down?

Versel Jones: Yeah. That, that want to do it. I just love to do it. I just love to see the food and stuff grow.

Omer Jean Winborn: That…I would too. And I think I heard you say something prior to our conversation about this, about growing in a flower pot. Did you tell me that?

Versel Jones: Oh yeah. I have...

Omer Jean Winborn: Did you tell me that?

Versel Jones: Planted tomato, hot pepper in a flower pot.

Omer Jean Winborn: And what'd you just put it on the back porch or?

Versel Jones: Yeah, something like that.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. Wow.

Versel Jones: In front of the garage.

Omer Jean Winborn: You also have flowers, beautiful flowers.

Versel Jones: Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: Too around your house. And you also mentioned something about cutting grass and...

Versel Jones: Oh, yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. So all of that comes with knowing how to garden and 00:20:00how to take care of plants and farming. What do you think were some of the values and the traditions that you, what could you say to me about the values and the traditions that you had growing up?

Versel Jones: Well, some of the stuff I could grow or that I didn't have to go to the store to get. I didn’t have to go to the market. I can go in my backyard or down the street where I done grew the stuff at and get it and bring it home.

Omer Jean Winborn: And when you came here, and I just, prior to this you were talking and you were saying you had to show your wife how to do the peas and all of that.

Versel Jones: She ain't know about shelling no peas and no stuff like that.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. So you had to...

Versel Jones: She was a city girl.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. So she grew up in the city. What about cooking the food and all of that? She knew about that or did you...

Versel Jones: Well, some. Some I had to teach her that.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. So what'd you teach her? How to cook?

Versel Jones: Well, greens and stuff, lot of... Teach her how to pick them, all that kind of stuff.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah.

Versel Jones: Because my grandparents showed me how to do it.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yeah. So, yeah. That's something. What would you like people who come after you, either your direct descendants or even people who are listening to this in the future. What do you want them to learn about your experience of growing food? What do you want to share with them?

Versel Jones: Well, I would like to see some of them do some of this stuff. But I look at my siblings and my children, my grandchildren, they don't wanna do no stuff like that.

Omer Jean Winborn: No, they don't. Is there anything that you'd like to say to people who might be listening to this about growing food or how it's affected your life or anything you'd like to say?

Versel Jones: Oh well, I like for them, if they don't know how to grow this stuff, 00:22:00they always can come and ask me. I'd be happy to show them. Teach them.

Omer Jean Winborn: Yes. Is there anything that we didn't cover that you'd like to talk about?

Versel Jones: Love one another.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh, thank you. Yeah. That's wonderful. Yep. Thank you so much. Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?

Versel Jones: Well, I would like to see everyone be a Christian, go to church, Sunday school and stuff like that. Participate in stuff going around visiting the city, all that stuff. When in the hospital, nursing home don't have no family, I go see them, sit and talk with them. I take them some little candy like peppermint candy and stuff like that. They can't get that in the nursing home. They can get it if I take it to them.

Omer Jean Winborn: So you go around and visiting the nursing home?

Versel Jones: Yeah.

Omer Jean Winborn: That's wonderful. Yes. Are these people just family members or church members or?

Versel Jones: Well, some church members. Some of them the ones that they don't even know me. I don't know them. It's something I just took up.

Omer Jean Winborn: Oh, that's wonderful. That is so wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing. And is there anything else you wanna tell me?

Versel Jones: No, I think I better cut it off.

[laughter]

Omer Jean Winborn: Well, thank you so much.

Versel Jones: Yeah, thank you.