NATCHEZ — Eddie Hooker Sr. likes to take life slow.

Sitting in his front yard in a plastic chair, cane in hand, Hooker likes to watch the cars and people pass down his street.

Born in Mississippi in 1925 Hooker has had ample opportunity to watch the decades roll away.

And all those years have given him a balanced outlook on life.

“I could be better, I could be worse,” he said. “But the Lord’s got me here.”

Hooker said growing up in rural Mississippi was sometimes a trying experience.

“We went to school in a church,” he said. “There was no school for us then.”

Hooker said referring to a time, no so long ago, when segregation was the norm.

Schooling, at that time, Hooker said was not thought to be very important.

“We got just a little country reading that’s it,” he said.

But Hooker said when times were hard he had to look no further than his own mother.

“She would always say ‘It’ll be alright,’ and it then it was,” he said. “God was good to us.”

Hooker was also living in Mississippi during the struggle for civil rights.

Being born so early in the 20th century, Hooker saw many years in both the pre and post civil rights era.

He can summarize one of the most important parts in American history in very few words.

“Things is more fair now,” he said. “Things could have been better and they could have been worse. It was more difficult then.”

In his 20s Hooker spent time working on the riverfront in New Orleans.

“It was a job and a place to live,” he said.

But New Orleans, like everything, is changed by time.

“They it’s (New Orleans) a slaughterhouse there now,” he said. “Everybody’s killing now.”

Hooker said he has also seen changes in his own neighborhood take place almost over night.

“Everyday things change,” he said about crime in his neighborhood.

But living in the area for what Hooker estimates to be about 30 years he has also seen change for the better.

He said when he and his wife moved into the area there were only two or three house in the area.

Hooker said when he went to work one morning so many new homes were framed in the afternoon that when he came home he thought he was on the wrong street.

But that was a long time ago.

Hooker now uses much of his time working with his church, Beulah Missionary Baptist Church, as a deacon and spending time with his wife.

And while Hooker was not exactly sure how long he and his wife had been married for he did say “We been steady a long long time. I like it.”