Document text
Xuly 27, 1939
Cordie Underwood (Textile Worker)
Newton, N.C.
-Athol Deal, Writer
Dudley W. Crawford, Reviser
Original Names: Changed Names:
Cordie Underwood Carrie Overoash
Flossie Underwood Flora Overcash
It was Tuesday afternoon and the regular weekly
session of county criminal court was drawing to a close.
The judge looked tired and cross; the clerk bored; the
deputy apparently asleep; and the array of prisoners)
awaiting sentence, indifferent. The solicitor and
defense lawyers still maintained a degree of alertness,
as they listened to the last witness in one of the
numerous "liquor cases" heard during the day.
The spectators constituted a motly group; farmers,
mill hands, mechanics, business and professional men,
boys of school age motherstwith infants tugging at
their breasts, and women of uncertain ages and doubt-
ful reputations. The Negroes, occupying one side of
the room, rolled their eyes and craned their necks in
an effort to see all that transpired before the court.
Something the witness said amused them and their giggles
disturbed the quiet of the sultry room, bringing the
sleeping deputy to his feet with a demand for "order."
I dropped into a seat near the rear, in front of
an attractive dark-haired woman of about thirty. She
sat with chin resting in one hand and the other tight-
ly gripped on the back of the seat in front. A smile
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and a remark about the weather brought her into a
conversation.
"I'll say it's hot. I have been here since 9
o'clock this morning; hope they soon get through up
there.
"I'm Carrie Overcash. That's my daddy up there
with the grey shirt on. I'm just waiting to hear what
sentence they put on him. They're trying him for non-
support. My mother's dead -been dead for eight years.
My Dad married again but the woman wasn't good to the
children and our home was broke up. One of my brothers
went to the C.C.Oamps and me and my 12 year old sister
went and stayed in the country for awhile. That's when
I couldn't get work. Things got so bad at home Dad
left her and now she's suing him for support and he's
got no work; ain't had a regular job in three years.
"ever since Dad and my stet) mother separated I've
been trying to keep the home together. There's five
of us children. Dad's kinds good and helps all he
can. He just can't seem to get a job and hold it.
Mother got T.B. from having the flu and side pleurisy
and only lived three months." The judge was pronouncing
sentence on a tall weak faced young man who was charged
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with driving while drunk. Carrie stopped to listen.
"Fifty dollars fine and costs or three months on the
roads," droned the judge. Carrie shivered and the
lines in her face looked deeper. "Dad can help around
the house some. I work in the cotton mill. We live
way up above the old depot in an old four -room house.
le have a garden but I don't have time to work it. No-
body else cares. The younger children don't take no
interest in gardens. Dad's careless about sich things,
too.
"Ye'3, I am the main support of the family; been
working ter years. I usta do all the house work and
work in the mill too. Now my sister Flora helps and
it ain't quite as bed as it usta be. I don't know
what they're going to do with him. Re ain't got no
money though and I ain't got none myself. It pushes
me to make ends meet. Six in family to feed and clothe,
house rent to pay and water and lights. We don't have
no bathroom; just a privy. I don't have much left.
"Yes, I've thought of getting married lots of
times. Every woman wants to get married -they might
say they don't, but they do. Poor chance I got of
doing. it. I've turned down several chances. I can't
marry a man and bring him in to support a ready-made
family, and I oanIt walk out on them kids and leave
'em with nobody to raise !am and look after tem; saying
nothing about what they'd eat. Dad just can't be de-
pended on."
Carrie pushed back the curly hair from her moist
forehead and fanned herself with a paper.
"I never had a chance to go to school. I just
went as fur as the third grade. Mother kept me home
.111d made me !tend to the younguns and help do the house
work. I usta make dough standing on a chair. Mother
never was strong !fore she took T. B. She was in the
bed lots of the time. Dad usta work regular then.
I had all the work to do end !tend to the kids. I'd
put on beans and fry meat and bake bread and that's
about all I knowed how to do. Now I can cook almost
anything if I've cot it to cook."
The judge had passed sentence on the entire row
of prisoners. The group stood up at the command of
the court. None of them were able to pay their fine,
so the sleepy deputy escorted them to the jail.
Carrie rose from her seat and went to speak to
her father. The tall sun -burned man placed his hand
affectionately on her shoulder, whispered a few words
and they both smiled. Hastily Carrie came beck to her seat,
just as her sister Flora arrived. I heard a noise and
thought it was a sob, but turning around found both girls
were laughing.
"It's so funny," Carrie said. "My step mother was
so sure she'd make tad keep her up. He tickled about
it. The judge gave him 30 days in jail. He'll be out..
aide at that just helping with the work. I'll bet she's
mad all right. Dad's good to us if he won't work much.
"I'm not satisfied with my work. I only make $12.80
a week. Now if I could pet on at a full fashioned hosiery
mill I could make twice that much. Flora here is big
enough to cook and do the house work, but I can't get on."
"There goes Dad," said Flora, as the prisoners
filed out.
"I feel more like a parent myself," said Carrie.
'There's not much fun in my life.
"Sometimes a crowd of us goes down to a cafe in
town and dance. That's just Saturday nights though.
I have to work all the others except Sundays. I go on
at two o'clock and work till ten. I guess I'll go to
sleep tonight. I ain't been in bed today. Usually I
sleep until up in the morning. I felt like I had
to come to court and see what they'd do with Dad. Ifin
sure glad there was no fine. I was born on the farm
but I'm sure glad not on it now. At the end of
the week I know what I'm going to ham On the farm
at the and of the week you have nothing, except something
to eat.
“I do all the buying myself as I have to make it
go a long ways. Friday evening before I go to work
I buy the groceries for the next week. We can't do
on less than sixty pounds of flour which costs $1.33 and
ten pounds of fat back, $1.00, four pounds of lard, 400,
ten pounds of pinto beans and maybe a mess of green
beans. For Sunday dinner we have something extra; a
chicken or a pot of stew beef. I don't forgot to get
the kids a bag of candy -they always look for it on pay
day."
"It wouldn't seem like pay day Ithout it," said
Flora. Carrie looked proudly at her young sister. "It's
little enough to do for you kid," she said.
'When we stayed out in the country the hogs and
the chickens got more there than I can buy. I milked
throe cows and gallons of the good milk was fed to the
chickens and hogs every day. I can't buy milk to drink
at home; my pay won't cover it, but I'd rather be at
home and all of us together than to have all that to eat.
We wasn't satisfied when we's all separated. The Bible
says be content with what you have end I try to be, but
sometimes I can't understand why life 13 so hard for some
folks and so easy for others."
The crowd was leaving the court room. Friends and
relatives stood around in groups discussing the trials.
T. lingered with the girls in the beck seat till Carrie
got up to Eo.
"I'll have to be going or I won't get to work any
today. I told my boss I might not get there on time.
He'll understand, he's mi!hty good to ma. That counts
a lot when you know forks understand. I know lots of
people think Dad ain't much account because I have to
make the living, but it seems like I jist have to stand
by him. Right now he's jolly as can be. He knows I'll
keep things going at home and look after the kids. I
don't guess I'll ever have a chance to live my own life.
I must be going oome along Flora, we have a long walk
ahead of us."
At the top of the stairs a young man was waiting.
lie was tall, dark-haired and good-looking.
"I've been waiting to hoar what they done", he
said.
"It's all right." said Carrie. "Dad's going to
work it out in the jail."
'That's Carriets beau," said Flora to me in a
whisper. "When the rest of us get big enough to work
and wake a living Carrie and him will it married. Help
sure good to us; he brings us candy and thins."