Document text
Mary Chappell
Editorial Dent.
THE STORY OF KATY BRHYBY
Scruggs Alley, in Birmingham, runs east and west from 24th
to 26th St. South. Like most other all in the city it is
4
lined with small, grey, unpainted housa6 like them it is dusty
arel dirty in dry weather, muddy in wet. Yet different from them,
because it is more like a country lane. At the bend in the alley
there are trees, and nearly every house in the Spring and Summer
has its flewers, growing in front and its vegetables in back. In
Winter, however, it seems poverty-stricken and deserted with its
trees bare, its flowers gone, and with only a few thin streams
of smoke coming from chimneys here and there. The Negroes who
live there are generally from the country, most of them from
around Montgomery, Selma, or smaller towns in south Alabama.
Katy Bremb5, is one of these. She lives in a house just
where the alley bends from 26th toward 24th St., and there has
ter flowers and vegetables. Katy refuses to tell her age, out
a guess would place her in the fifties. She is short and fat
ee
with exoressive hands, and streaks of gqy in her hair. Her
face is smooth, but with deep lines between her eyes and lines
running from the corner of her nose to her mouth lines of
laughter at well as sorrow‘ for Katy ha e a magnificent sense
of the ridiaalous: while I was getting her story she would,
from time to time, break into laughter at the memory of some
long past caeic scene. She dresses neatly always and in quiet
colors. She has been working for eireefornearly seventeen years.
Alabama IritY. Brumby 2
Katy grew up in Mount Meigs, a small town 12 miles east of
eeee
Meetgomery. There were eight or nine children in the family,-ef-
eieftele Ket,e was the oldest. Those wheehave net died 11,
,eeatt4Yia—jiiar the country. Several remain in Montgomery or
Mount Meigs, but there is a sister in Plorida and a brother in
Indiana. When Xaty was small the family rented on Miss -Smma-ls
farm, but Katy hardly remeMbers it, excert that her father told
her Miss Emma was a. good landlord. Then her family move& to
place, "He's a plantation doctor; he she wuz a good
man," she says, He saved my sister's life-idatts Lucy, in
21orida from de typhoid. Re had, some trees, peaches, you
know. On/y way he'd make Lucy take medicine wuz to promise her
some of his eeaohes. He's a good man, but he died with cancer
of de nose.'
The farm was a good way from Mount Meigs. Katy is very
proud of Mount Meige. firti$ a real, small village. We's got
an undertaker new, not the horse -pulling kind. Used to have to
go to Mon'gomery. Mount Meigs is a nice place, not out in de
sticks like Greensboro where Victoria come from." Victoria is
a neighbor in Scruges Alley).
tier father, too, was a good man, a "good providern for his
family. nie never ue sick, till he died. He's a good farmer.
We raised everything to eat but grain. Great big onions, and
greens, and rutabagas and all. My Daddy banked turnip roots
and. rutabagas jus' like potatoes. Don/ you know what 'banking'
Is? You see, he take eine straw pine trees what grow down
there, you know and he'd shape it up round de turnip roots
and rutabagas" she demeestrated with her short, brown hands
"and then he'd shovel dirt around 'em until deyls jus' a little
hole at de top so's we could reach tern out. Sometimes those
AlabarVI.
Maty 3runby
turnips he sprouted illAt like day ems grwtng. I asked about
meat. "We had owe beef, you know, and pigs, and all kinds of
fowl, Chickens, guineas, turkeys, two kinds of duck, evtry-
thing but geese; we couldn't raise dem." The money crop was
cotton, and they raised lots of it, but at the same time raised
all their food exceot "grain which they could buy in town.
Katy's family was not in the plight of so many tenant farmers.
There was little sickness in the family, and there was plenty
of food, even turnips "banked" against the coming winter.
Katy can read and write; but that was not all she learned
at school. ha had the inestimable advantage Of being under a
woman like Georgia Washington. For also in Mount Meigs was Miss
Georgia's school, which continued under her direction until just
a few years ago. Ae Katy remembers, the tuition was $10 for the
term. She was Ileeble, however, to pay all of that, so she
cleaned Miss Georgia's room for the remainder, and thus had a
7ersonal relationship with her which was closer than that of
teacher and pupil. Her talk now is larded with Miss Georgia's
ex)ressions, all simnle and. all wise. For instance, when she
passes the vegetables for a second time, aty will say, "Miss
Georgia say you already got plenty when you want just a little
bit more.' Katy was taught other things besides book learning.
Absolute cleanliness for one: the small girl was not allowed
to wear pig -tails as the other children did for Miss Cieorgia
said they weren't cleanly. Today Katy keeps not only a clean
kitchen, out her own home and oerson are scrupulously clean.
Katy was in the eighth grads at school when he stopped.
Alabama Katy Hrumby 4
Her father died. about that time. He had never before been ill.
4 was taken with what Xaty calls "flying rheumatism" which
affected his heart. "My Mother us living, but she couldn't even
go to de funeral. She's in bed. She had three strokes, but
she's finally took with de eight -day eenumonia, you knew she's
sick eight days befo' she died. It us a. year after -my Daddy
died. dat I's married to Joe Srumby and come to Birmin!ham." Joe
is from Mount Meigs, too, "He was a land scepe,u she said.
don like to work indoors. Be buttled once but he don' like
it. A. man down. in Mount Meigs a white man, you know taught
him landscape. He's a good one, too.
"We come to nirmin'hem ae first year dey sent soldiers
across, nineteen -sixteen. seventeen, I don' remember. I worked
for de Levy's, de first people I worked for, five -six years; then
I worked for de Moores and de Jenkins. Then I come to work for
ylall neartbout seventeen years back." So Katy has left the
country forgood; she looks back on the life with, I think,
some longing; she says though that she wouldn't like it now
after living in the city so long.
Sae and Joe had no children, and somewhere along the line
they separated. "I found out Is not getting any place with
him." Joe is still devoted to Katy. For many years he tried
to nersuade her to come back to him, but she was sure the single
life was the ,,ett07. Even now he often comes for her after
work or oerforw other services.
Eety has worked for 1),S continually except for a short
Ala:barna Zaty BTVE
period during the depreesion. The first years she was here, she
went to night school at the Industrial High chool. "Louise (a
cook who works across the street' still goes. I'd go, but its
too far cross town. Dey didn't teach me nothing new, jus'
refreshed what I had befo', I got promoted to de eighth grade,
end dat's where I wus at Miss Georgia's befo I married Joe
Hrumby."
During the depression we and Katy separated; she went on
relief. She applied to the DPW at the same time. °Dey vats a
nice young white boy there. He eho wuz nice. He tali me held
try an' get me a job. I wux dressed in my good white uniform,
an' I guess I looked real nice. I tea' him I's a cook, an' he
said did I nurse. I toll him, 'Well, I jus' tell you, I dent
like to nurse one Dit. I don', not one bit." tSe would have
preferred a job cooking, because she both likes it and is proud
of her proficiency at it. It is the only part of domestic
service that she really does like. Her great talent is in cook—
ing plain food deliciously. People have asked her for recipes,
but it is impossible to give them, for she cooks by instinct
as much as by recipe She didn t get a job as a cook, however.
She went or relief. Ji*idently her intelligence made an immediate
impreevion, for she was put in charge of a sewing room. III
can't do nothing but plain sewing, and all I had to do uz watch
de other folks, -Ley made dolls and toys and things. Then dey
transferred me where dey's doing fancy sewing, embroidery you
know. I she wuz scared_ 'cause I wouldn't know if dey did it
wrong." gventually they let her off, telling her, she says,
that we had a little work for her. now I know ylell didn't
have no work for me, mo 1 jus' didn't come by.' This was true;
laabama Katy Erumby 6
we had said nothing to the authorities.
Just before Thanksgiving 1936, Katy came by to bring us some
flowers and to borrow some money. By then both we and Katy reae-
Used our mistake in parting, and Katy left with her money and
ner job.
her friend, Susy, to whom she is most helpful with food,
money if needed, and other service, says, "Katy's good. to dem
she likes." This is true. Among her neighbors she hag her likes
and dislikes, and acts accordingly. Yet even those she dislikes,
she will defend. "Aw, done mind him, he den* mean no harm," she
said of a particularly grumpy old man across the 'alley. She is
certainly good to her family, especially to those in the country
who need it most. She sends clothes to them when possible and
does all she can. "T'm de oldest, and dey needs it bad, Miss
Mary. Dey got children, I havenit."
Of course, what she can do is not too much. Katyts Day is
$6.00 a week. (This is pretty good pay for a cook in Birmingham
and speaks its own message of conditions among this section of
the population, which may, for some, be alleviated by what is
called "Southern paternalitm"). Out of this she must buy fuel
in the Winter, pay for her insurance, clothe herself (except
for uniforms), and pay rent of 44.00 a month. A further small
expense is due to the fact that Katy works and is single.
Without members of the family to do it for her, she must pay
neighbors to do such of her washing and house-cleaning. "It
sto does take de money aut of yo' pocket, I pay dem 500 to
clean and dat*s too much for jus* two little old rooms."
Alabama Kt
zrumby
7
.;ssentials, which she cannot afford, such as bi.fo,a1 glasses, are
taken ears of. She is seldom ill, unless with a cold, or, as
recently, with a worained ankle; so that almost none of her in-
come goes for doct)140 bills. She eats at her place of work, so
that her diet is :≥.1.; w141 or ill -balanced as or own.
In Scruggs Alley she lives it one-half of a house. She has
sown her o -by -for (almost literally) front yard with Winter
graes, which struggles up through the hard -packed black earth it
patches. Steps bisect the front torch, and two doors lead off
the porch, the one on the right to Ksty's two rooms where she
lives alone erne -t for the occasional visit of a hiece from Mont-
gomery or Mount Melee. A bed, a stove, an old victrola, and a
radio that doesn't work are the main furnishings. In the back
yard she grows 8 few vegetables and flowers, greens and dahlias,
onio aaMsinnies. (Katy' has"green fingers": around the house
she can make things grow as none of us can She has made notatoes,
sweet and Irtsh. sprout in water where we have never been able to.)
She says folks it the alley take her flowers and her vegetables,
especially the tender Spring onions, because she's away all day.
"I'm gonna stoo working an' take care of my things someday,n she
W.re. "Pell be sorry then." Everything at her home is kept in
strict order and is very clean, She does not have a bathroom;
t,ere is only at outdoor privy shared by several families. "Dat's
o0," she said, "Eat ain't right." She said, too, that the land-
lord doesn't make the improvements he ought and doesn't keel) up
his property as he should.
Katy is well-iru'dmred on world events through the morning
Alabama Zaty Brumy 8
and evening newepapers which she reads every day. If she doesn't
have time on the place she takes them home with her at night,
Kxcept for an oceasional word with which she is unfamiliar, she
has no trouble, and she can be heard after breakfast before the
dishes are washed reeding aloud to herself in a mumbling tone as
she drinks her coffee. During the Czeclilovakian crisis in the
Fa11 she listened to everything we could get on the radio, even to
Hitler's speeches. Anti-Zemitism in Nazi Germany has somewhat
upset her3 perhaps because of her fondness for the Jewish family
for whom she first worked. She told us one day of a rumor which
was circulating among the Kegroes. "Dey say deyls going to send
all us colored folks back to Africa.' I said that perhaps it got
started due to the Jewish persecution and the talk of sending the
refugees to Africa. Katy misunderstood. 'Now, Miss Nary, dons
talk thataway about dem poor people de e has snob a hard time."
exeleined. 'Dat'e all rig den," she said.
About national events her opinions are nrirso sore. She
thinks there are too many people on relief that don't need it.
"I knows lots of folks on dere who den' need it, she says. She
thinks highly of the people with whoa she came into contact when
she was on relief, the people to whom she applied. "Dey ions all
nice to me." She likes to listen to the President over the radio.
she said, cigaleng, 'I'd rather hear him dan read it.
gets eleepy.' her opinions are often quite conservative, or at
least out of line with what one would expect. 'I don' like this
Oonference day had here. Dey gets folks all upset like."
Katy does not have the vote; there are laws in the South
Alabama Katy Brumby 9
which pretty effectively disenfranchise the Negro. "We wur, dis-
franchised w back; my Daddy tol' me all about it, Sometimes I
do& tee why de y treat colored folks de way dey do." Disen-
franchisement ian't all. They used to let u« go to de Alabama (a
motion picture theater) but not now. We can't go to none of dem
nlates.i' We were listening, one day, to Marian Anderson, the l'egro
contralto, zinging over the radio. After the rich ispervoice had
stelped, I said 'la heard she was coming to Birmingham for a con-
cert in the $pr1.
"I don' guess deyll let us hear it."
we murmured, but were not so sire.
.aty has all day Thursday off, excirA for cooking breakfast;
the same day, ex-vot that breakfast is much later; and most
legal holidays, including Christmas and ew ear s. Her time off
ehe sends in going to town, or even more usually in cleaning her
house, washing her hair, or washing clothes. She goes to very
few movies, Occasionally she hears one of the Negro swing orchestras
that play at the Negro Masonic Tesnole one night, at the City's
Avditorium the next. When the circus is in town, shectttende that.
More often her recreation is with her friends. For Ohrietmas She
bought a gallon of wine to entertain them with. Although Katy is
religious, she doesn't disapprove of drinking or smoking, and
herself both drinks and smokes. She does disap-Tave of work on
Sunday, It Is, for her, the Sahoath, the day of rest, indeed.
Naty's and our relationship is a hay one. But she had com-
aints. She actively dislikes for us to have company for meals,
and her constant threat is, "-Oen be sorry when I eves to Mon'eomery.
laba aty .iruMby 10
y sister WaZat, me to live with dem. rail be sorry." All this
hardly above a mutter as she takes a .-,stn from the seec-tne sight
and the smell of whdch make your mouth water, -sets something to
soak in the stnk ad orders you out of the kitchen. Her chief
complaint le that she has too much work to do. "Yell just got
one somebody u do all de work, Need two somebodies" Katy is
getti older and cesnot do What she did when younger; her
weight, too. is a hoodlum.
She tells us, when the atmosphere is better, of the super-
etitions of her peeple. She says, "Don' step- over working tools
(in this case, the vacluum cleaner) bad lack come Yo' way." It/s
bad luek to be swe,A by a orz,om, he remedy is, to kiss the
broom. Opening an umbrella indoors is had luck. "Old folks,"
Katy says, "believed in. all dem things. I don' carry with dem
much." The believers are always the old folks, but Katy obeys
the ritual. After stepping over a "working tool," she will step
backward over it she kisses the broom; she throws salt over her
shou1der. The old folks told her, "'De first twelve days of de
first month, dey represent as months of de year, and de kind of
weather for de m times. Of co'se, sometimes dey borrows one for
day, and. all this wind today, it's a good March aNI.
borrows it."
Katy is loyal above all persons I know, and absolutely an
-'.ndlvidual. She is not only 8. friend, but a member of the
family, which, despite the accusation of "paternalism," is the
only wv to describe a relationship at once so intricate and. so
simple.
de other," Kaki said. "Now yestiddy, de third. was a good April
wo acc
AaaZaty Brumhy 11
Katy as a person, I have said, has a. magnificent sense of
the ridiculous. Bat what seems. to remain is the undertone of the
sorrow of the race, It °pat ain't rightln it is, "Wh7 do dey
treat colored folks dot way?°: it is the haunting to of sorrow
that remains in the irituals after the often comic surface has
been forgotten,
Washington Copy
11/39