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FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
Miami, Florida
Gladys Buck
1,368 Words
8 Pages
f".(q/} it` -7-CA
Folk Lore
Nov. 28, 1938
Mabel B. Francis
Editor
In a shack on Cocoanut Palm Drive, Princeton, Florida lives'
the NJones" family. I have chosen this family for my work on
the new project and will try to present them to you as they
really are.
The house has been condemned and is in very poor condition.
The main advantage in these people living here is that the owner
can charge them no rent. The nouse leans slightly to one side
and has been patched -7ith box tops and various scraps of lumber
where the original siding has rotted through. The front porch
has been added recently by some member of the family and Can
hardly be said to add anything to the appearance of the house.
It is about four feet wide and six feet long, covered with old
pieces of tin and floored with various sized and shaped pieces
of scrap lumber which are unnailed and overlapping.
The front screen has been patched and hangs a little crook-
ed. To one side, under a sort of shed, is a large rustic swing
which one of the boys has made. Blankets and clothing hang on
the small porch and one must step over fish nets as he enters.
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Lehind the house are some guava, orange and other fruit
trees as well as high weeds and pines. In front are various
kinds of shrubs and flowers planted rather like an old fashioned
flower garden. Scattered around between the flowers are vege-
tables, mostly tomatoes.
then I called "Hello" to arl. Jones, who was not in, her
daughter Virginia, let me in and told me that she had been wash,.
ing clothes and scrubbing floors. She was bare footed and look-
ed as though she had been sleeping. She wore a faded pink cilk
dress without a belt and combed her hair, which had just been
waved, with a soiled and broken comb. She put a belt around her
waist and made herself more presentable with the exception of
shoes, which she never bothered to put on.
Virginia is a tall, slender girl with muddy complexion.
She is about tilenty-five years old, has been married and has had
a child who was killed by an automobile as it played on a sand
pile in front of this same house. For months after the child's
death, she attended spiritual meetings and, declared that she had
talked with the baby. Sometimes she works at barbecue stands but
that is infrequent and is the only work that she ever does.
I told her that I had come to see her mother to get her diet
for high blood pressure as a friend of mine thought that he had
the same trouble that Mrs. Jones suffered with. Virginia took
auok .3.
me into the kitchen and allowed me to read the diet from a
faded magazine article which was nailed to the wall, "Mama
doesn't stick to it though, it's too expensive to get the foods
it calls for,
ye talked about various things and Virginia showed me a
quilt that she waq making from faded scrape of old dresses. She
asked me what I thought about a lining of flour sacks which
she had washed white, I showed her some °rocketing that I was
working on and was lucky enough to interest her iu learning to
make a chain, I persuaded her to let me leave my needle and
crochet thread with her, promising to come back later and teach
her to make a pattern, 3he accepted the offer very gratefully.
Ihen Mrs. Jones returned, Virginia told her why I had come.
She very kindly explained her diet to me and told me of some
medicine that sle orders from Tampa. She explained that her
doctor did not know that she takes this preparation. In fact,
he has forbidden her to do so but she thinks that she could not
live without it. She goes to her doctor each meek and takes
"shots" as well as some medicine which he prescribes. Mrs. Jones
is a stoop —shouldered woman of average height and build. Her
face is pink and her lips are naturally red.
Sae was very much oonoerned about a neighbor's dog whioh
1131Ys 73uck
had been hit by a car and had a broken leg. She sent one of
her boys, John, to help put a splint on the dog's limb, telling
him to be careful as the dog was so big it would be hard to hold
down and work on without being bitten. Virginia was very angry
and said that if anyone should hit her dog she would surely
cuss them out." Her mother said, "Now Virginia, you know you
,lauldn't do no such a thing," to whioh Virginia replied, "I would
too, I think so much of him I couldn't help it."
Virginia also told her mother and me about some woman who
passed and stuck her tongue out at her. She said "I should have
gone on down to her house and beat the Hell out of her. This
amused her mother very much.
There are six children in this family, two of whom are mar—
ried. One daughter lives in tne direst poverty and has. had her
arm shot off by a. twelve gauge shot gun which was loaded with
buck shot, The other girl is married to an illiterate merchant
who owns several grocery stores and filling stations. She drives
a new Buick automobile and takes her child to Miami to dancing
school. It is said that this daughter loves her mother very much
but that her husband will not allow her to help her in any way.
The boys are John, Columbus, and Edmund. All of them are of
school age but the two older ones, who are ftfteen and eighteen
years of age, do not attend school. Edmund, who is the baby, is
M,Ayr7 luck
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eleven years old and is in the fifth grade. The two older boys
hang around the stores in Princeton most of the time and at pre—
sent they do not work.
The father of this family is in the Dade County Hospital
and has been there for many months. The nature of the illness
that keeps him there 71as not mentioned but the mother does not
expect that he will ever be able to return home.
Aeanwhile, this family of five live orowaed together. The
house consists of four uncoiled rcoms and a hall. The inside
walls are also patched with pieces of box tops and scraps of
lumber. No paint is to be seen inc;ide or out. Sleazy cloth
draperies hang at all of the narrow windows but there are no
shades at any of them. There are no rugs on the floor, which
was scrubbed very clean.
In the hall were two rocking chairs and a small square table
which was covered -Tith a huok towel. A pickle jar holding milky
water and a sluggish gold fish', an ash tray and a couple of new
magazines were on this table.
As I sat in the hall I could see into the kitchen, and two
bed rooms. In the kitchen stood an immense wood range and a home
made table with no covering. Packing boxes were nailed to the
walls and used in lieu of cabinets. These boxes were also uced
Gladys Buck .6.
in the place of chairs. No sink or water tap were visible.
On one side of the hall was a bed room. Two dirty iron
beds had sagging springs which made the mattresses elk in the
center but these beds were neatly made and covered with sheets.
Two suitcases under each bed were arranged so that the handles
were even with the edges of the beds. Virginia said that she
keeps part of her clothing in one of the suit —oases. There was
a dresser with no mirror and was piled high bqxes clothing,
magazines and various other articles.
Aoross the hall opposite this room was another bed room.
Here, the furnishings were quite different. An expensive look—
ing, lovely, bed —room suite of modern design was here. The bed
was neatly made with a blue crinkled spread and the dressers
were orderly and well arranged.