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What did the men from the county do to offend Granny in the story "Blues Ain't No Mockingbird"?

Granny is offended by the men from the county in “Blues Ain’t No Mockingbird” by Toni Cade Bambara. The first mistake the men make is filming Granny’s property without her permission. They hid in the trees surrounding the property while filming as the children played in the yard and Granny worked on her Christmas cakes. When the men from the county entered the property, they continued to film and patronized Granny by calling her “Aunty.” They did not greet her, instead they spoke about the “nice things” on her property, which angered Granny.


“Nice things here,” said the man, buzzin his camera over the yard. The pecan barrels, the sled, me and Cathy, the flowers, the printed stones along the driveway, the trees, the twins, the toolshed.


“I don’t know about the thing, the it, and the stuff,” said


Granny, still talkin with her eyebrows. “Just people here is what I tend to consider."



Being an independent woman, she did not appreciate their arrogant intrusion into her private family life. They picked the wrong woman to speak about food stamps when it was evident from her property that she and her husband worked hard to provide for their family.


After the men backed away, Granny relayed a story to the children about how the press intruded on a suicide attempt she witnessed on a bridge. The cameramen were there, not only to record the incident, but to sensationalize it. This incident did not endear Granny to the press, and her disdain for their intrusion was displayed through her tacit treatment of the men from the county. 


Therefore, the men from the county angered Granny with their unauthorized presence on her property, their rudeness, and her previous encounter with cameramen during an intensely personal experience. 

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