Is the speaker a child in "good times" or is she an old woman? Maybe a little bit of both?
Think back to a few good conversations you might have had with older folks. You might realize that grandma and grandpa do the whole time swap thing all the time. First they bring us right back to those days "when they were young" and then they're grandma and grandpa again yelling at us to speak up because they can't hear us.
The same goes for Clifton's speaker, who sounds like a kid who can't remember the insurance man's name in the first stanza and an old lady reminding children to remember the good times in the last stanza.
Plus with her relaxed voice that doesn't give a hoot about those proper grammar rules, we get the feeling that our speaker is being honest with us about her experience. Clifton wrote a lot about what it was like growing up as an African American woman in the 20th century, so her use of dialect is perfect for the poem's setting and time. The speaker tells the poem exactly as she hears it, including "grampaw" and uncle brud hitting "for a dollar straight." Little details like these give the poem a personalized feel without saying too much.