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Louisiana Folklore
MS1e7YEA PAPKER
I ain't in service now because I had pneumenia of the heart two years
ago
an' I can only do light work. That's why I'm living in this house because it's
law on the ground an' don't have many steps to go up.
l'ved in a nice raised cottae,e.
The girl that stays here, Emily, she's French an' she's light-colored so
she gets good jobs. They don't last long because they're usually with people
that come down for a few weeks but while they do, she gets good money an' she's
always ,ettint calls. Emily has been livin' with us for three years an' when-
evor she's workin', she pays well.
-2,efore I took sick, I
Vihen she ain't, she cleans up the house an'
doef, the cookin' an' helps us with whatever she can. She's done a lot of per-
sonal reidint at the hotel an' she is tryin' to get me in there as a regular
raid. Cf course, there a lot of people who core an' register there who ain't
husband an' wife an' everybody knows it, hut they don't bother them. It's all
right if you want to de things like that an' do them in a refined way an' takes
them to a hotel. Yy mother always told us when we were children, "Don't be like
the d
an' lay deiwn on the hay ant can't eat it an' growl to keep the ax from
eat'r' it." Iy mother usod to tell us little sayin's like that an' didn't
realize how true tleey were until I growed to matile age.
The other day Emily cot a call to go work in the French r.,,uarters, but after
she talked with her friends, they told her that there was a lot of dope smugJers
Edit
everybody else that has apartments in them buildin's so she got kinda scared.
,n' didn't go.
But since then she found out different an' is sorry she didn't
take that place. I told her that anybody who can live in one of them big apart-
ments, where twelve to fifteen families lives by the church, gotta be nice to
afford that. There's one thing I'll tell you, that the sportin' people pays you
good money an' they always give you good tips.
I ain't seen the Lord in flesh but I seen Him in the spirit an' whenever
Louisiana Folklore
Lelinda Parker
I gets in troubl, I just sits right in my room an' talks to Him an' He talks
back to me. I tell you I seen my mother lot of tires since she died. Once when
I was livin' on Live-Lona Street I was so sick I couldn't hold anythin' on my
stomach for days. Somebody had told my husband to make me some orange skin tea
to settle my stomach, so while he was makin' the tea, all of a sudden I heard
a knocking at the back door an' I SEVJV a great big bird on the transom of my door.
That bird flew in the room an' sat right on the end of my bed an' looked at me
square in the eye. As it looked at me, it turned into my mother an' she had a
glass in her hand an' it looked like it had a yolk of an egg in it. She comes
to re an' feeds me with a spoon an' I ate every bit of that egg yolk. Then she
changed back into a bird an' flew out the transom. As she left she told me that
that egg was gonna make me well. The bird looked like a dove. When my husband
came back into the room I was layin' there smilinl with my eyes closed an' he
thought I was dyini.
He asked me WAS I sleepin' an' I said no an' I tcld him
what had happen -a an' to ,ive me that tea.
I drank everytit of it an' from
that time I held everythin' I ate on ny stomach an' in no time I was well. I
ain't had any stomach trouble since. The only spell of sickness I ever had
after that was the pneumonia of the heart.
Just the other day I was sitting down here by my stove, prayin' to the Lord,
when who walks in the door but my brother that's dead. He used to live in Detroit
so I always caned him a anawdiE,;ger. I says to him, "What you doinl down here
now, you snowdigger?"
An'
he says, "I just had some money an' I thought I'd come
an' give it to you." An' he puts five dollars in my lap. Just then it looked
to me like brother that's a minister comes in the door an' he turns to my bro-
ther an' says, "Jim, what you doin' here?" An' he says, "I come to give Melinda
some money." So my brother that's a minister, he gives me five dollars. I got
so excited about havin' that money for Christmas that I went out the house an'
was goini to tell my friend an' was all the way to Saratoga Street an' the money
Louisiana Folklore
Mel5nda Parker 3
was gone. fri nds told me that my brother had cone to take somebody out the
house but I told them no that he meant good by that. I told my brother that's a
minister about it on Christmas pay an' he said that Jim knew that I'm lookint for
a job an that his spirit is goin' to help me find one soon. I know I'll never
want because I have promised to give my life to the Lord an' to help Him ant I
know He's gonna help me when I need it.
y husband, Harry Parker, died on Cetob'r 19, 1918. He was workin' at the
/N
ship yards in Algiers an' he got the flu an' in four days, he was dead fran
pneumonia. I was always a good church worker an' one night I went out to a
meetin' an' when I came back, I found him in bed with fever. I got some three
six's (666) an' gave it to him an' the next mornin' he was burnin' up the bed
with fever. I ca1kd the doctor but he never gave me any hope. My husband
always used to tease me an' said that I was gonna wear myself out runnin' to
church all the time. My husband was a Cathlic an' he went to his church and
duties but his people never forgave him for marryin' a Baptist girl an' bein'
married by the Baptist minister. He was buried in the Cathlic church. On Good
Fridays, I used tc go with him an' make the Way of the Cross an' I went to church
with him plenty of times.
"1,,y mother never let us eat a speak of meat on Good Friday ant she never took
a drop of food from 12 o'clock on the Thursday night til Easter Saturday morninl.
She always said that you could deprive yourself of food one day a year for the
Lord. If I had been raised in the Cathlic faith, I woulda been just as good a
(..athlic, but the only trouble with the Cathlic religion is that you can't sing
an' testify, an' when the spirit takes you, you can't shout to the Lord.
I never remarried after ny husband died an' everybody told me I was cut
to be an old maid. I've had plenty of friends an' lot of them wanted to marry
me, but I guess I'm satisfied like I'm goin'. I have a good house to live in
an' nice clothes to wear an' good food to eat an' Mary makes plenty enough to
Louisiana Folklore
Loelinda Iarker _4 _
to give us all we want an' then T do a day's work.
I tell you there was a man works in the Customhouse that was very much in
love with me.
He
has a wife an' two children. He wanted to be my friend an'
told me that he would give me everythin' I wanted an' his wife would never know
about it. ell, I thought about it an' thought about it, an' then I told him
that since he had children to support that I didn't think that the Lord would
let that money do me any good an' now his daughter's goin' to Dillard University.
I am a legal widow an' if anybody 7mnts you to do a little sweetheartin' with
.'Anem an' they ain't got no obligations an' want to give you twenty-five dollars
a month for meetheartine, you ain't doin' any wrong, it's all right.