Document text
June 26,1939
iss Opnelis MuU (*bIto)
334 Itcaria 4., ir.v*r1,N.0
Howeworkgr
Lon6pwriter
grigipal
Opholia
Brovard A.C.
Connostes.;4.c.
ihamed.bummt
Aurolia iAmitt
itakke411
IF I 0OULDN'T TALK I'D BUST
Neeelia Smitt about thirty years old, reddish of face
and hair, and broad of beam comes of a family of German
extraction who settled in the western ?art of the state be
spelled
fore the Revolution* The family name originally was/Sehmidt,
but the erosion of the years has worn it down to Cmitt.
"There are six of us ohildreal said Auwelia, "and all
of us have funny names* The reason is that my mammy never
did like my daddy's family an oho said none of us children
should Wm be loaded down with Smitt family names; so she
ve us neras she had run across in reading* he thouht
such names as 743sdemona, Beatrice, and Zuanita were pretty.
She never gave any of these names to us, but th,:,:se were the
kind of names my mammy liked. he said that if she ever had
another in, she was coin' to name har Desdemona. One of my
brothers WNS named for a me:chant in town that my mammy liked;
she passed up ail the names of politicians Ind -;)reaohers, She
didn't take such stock in them*
"1 wuz born in Wakkee section, about eight mils from Tucony*
This neighborhood is aelled Wekkee because it is near the Wak-
kee Falls and ai.;hty. pretty falls they are. y randdaddy
Smitb bouoht a lot of lead in this section when he wuz a young
man The The creek bottoms grow good corn and oabbages, and fine
apple trees grow on the hillsides. A part of this large treat
of land was inherited by my daddy and thre us chillun wuz
born dnd crowed up. 7(5 ran wild over these mountains. I climbed
trees like a boy and we chillun worked in the cornfield. Map.
be that's why we are so strong today. 'J.e ate green apples like
other chillun and had the same pains they had, my may said
she once found me with a bad stomach ache curled up in the
woodbox like a puppy. reckon I didn't want her to know I
had been eatint green a pies. someties got whupped pretty
bad,
"Near us a public school house wuz built. The principal
and his wife Ald chillun lived nearby and a smart farmer and
cattle trader wuz also a neighbor. /t wuz a (›od settlement.
The chillun of all thase large families went to school to
and played together and often ate at one another's
houses. Most of lem are now married and scattered. :Arse of
the -4rls I growed up with married men from away off yonder,
and most of tem done well.
"Th,3y wuz all smarter than I wuz. I n ver did study none
in school. I reckon I wuz too dumb to learn. I couldn't keep
my mind on my lessons, and I :c)t tired settin' still and doint
nothint, so I 7ot to playint pranks awl was haule up by the
teacher and told how dumb and wuthless I wuz. This didn't bother
me much because I knowled how dumb I wuz. I never thought
hard of the teacher for what he said; in fact I don't think
I understood more than half of it. His biz words went over
my head.
"Finally I got big enough to go out to work and I've
been workin' over since. I zot a job one summer as a wait-
ress in a camp. 1 liked that because there was always
somethin' goin on, I also worked as a waitress in a ,.:7,00d
bcyardin house in Tucony. he woman who ran this bof.:rdin,
house was a riod Aanaj:er and kept a :;ood table, but she
certainly could make the edges cut, somebody said she once
won a orize at a world's fair for both' able to out the thin-
nest piece or cake at a boardie house. Her and her sisters
always wuz as close as the bark on a tree. These sisters are
all alike. 'ome of tem don't 6ive their hardworking husbands
enough to eat. That's the truth for I worked for two of rem,
A)11, I reckon it my really put less into their stomauhs and
more in the bri& we'd be better off. But it's a poor business
to starve yourself o death. d rather apend =hey for food
than for doctors' bills.
"1 don't know whi it is but all of my brothers and sis-
ters know o much more than I do. I don't even know which
woy north is from he:43; I only now that the sun rises across
the river and sets behind the ridge. And I don't know the
namas of but two flowers. somehow I don't like to use my
mind. I'd ruthcr wash clothes, scrub floors, and hoe po-
tatoes. I like to see things grow in the garden and I eat
ay full share of the vegetables.
"Although I hoven't much book learnie, I notice that
my family always listen when I talk about family affairs*
They don't always agree with me but they listen. When we
bouOit the house we now live in, my may hsd the deed made
out in my name. I reckon she thought I could hold on to it
better than the others. I seem to be the oily one ia th
family who knows the value of a dollar. 1:11 rest are always
wantin' to buy thins they don't need. Hardly a week passes
but my mammy doesn't want to buy a now pieoe of furniture,
or another stove, or somethinv. I quarrel with her about
it plenty. he was an only child and spoilt to death and
she always gets sulky when she oan't have what she wants.
/t's a kelvinator she wants now, but I tell her to wait
till we get the house paid for. 21enty of people buy kel-
vinators on time, but I don't want no rope around my neck.
When I go to bed at night I don't want to have to think of
the collector pmin4 around.
"Why father moved from Wakkee into Moony, you ask?
Well, ae had a good farm and good neighbors, but as time
went on my sisters and brothers, and some of the neighbors'
chillun, wanted to go to high school in Tucony. io my
daddy sold his farm and bought a small place on the edge
of town. He had a few acres for growing stuff and my
mammy helped him work it; she didn't like housework, so
the girls had to do that after school hours. Part of
the money from the sale of the 6akkee farm went to
get my two brothers out of trouble; they got to drinkint
and frolickinl around. iAnally my daddy got a job in
town as janitor in an office building at 418 a week, but
he spent every cent of it for groceries every week and
let the taxes on the house run on. He liked to eat.
My daddy was a good man, but he didn't have much business
sense. -4(1 girls worked as waitresses in the summer and
bought our own clothes.
"Two or three years ago my daddy died at the dinner
table of heart failure. Then we didn't know what to
do. But my two brothers married and got jobs and settled
down. One of them is a barber in .:;ew leork and doesn't
drink any more. The other brother, quick and good.looking,
got a job in a chain store in a city not far from here,
and they liked him so woll that they offered him the
managership of a branch store; but this promotion wont
to his head and he got drunk, and stayed drunk a week,
and never went near his new job. Later he got a position
in a grocery store in Tucony and married and settled
down a little. Once in a while he still gets drunk
when he goes fishing :.aturday nights with some of these
fellows around town. But he has held his job for
several years; so he must be pretty good.
"Two of my sisters left high school and got jobs
in the hosiery mill at 4112 a week. I couldn't work in
this mill because they won't let you talk; if I couldn't
talk I'd bust. I went out to cook, and later to be
companion and nurse to an invalid aunt who was well-off
and able to pay me. I was very happy with her until
she died. But the place was very confinin'; I couldn't
even go home to see my folks on 6undays. You know po'
white folks and niggers never like to work on 6aturdays
and 6undays.
"I never read anything, not even the funny papers,
and when I am not at work I like to talk to people. That
wuz one thing I liked about clerkin' in a grocery store,
where I worked for two years. People were always comm'
and goin' and I heard all the news of the town. oiie
of it wuzn't fittinl to hear, I can tell you.
"Well, take IL all over, our family is getting
along better'n ever. e missed my daddy, and do yet,
but we all turned to and went to work. Our place on the
edge of town was pretty far away for us „iris to walk to
our work, so we let the county take it over for taxes
and we bought a good house in town near the depot.
got it cheap on account of the hard times, and we are
paying for it little by little. we pay $25 a month
and we'll get it paid for in less then ten years. It
is a large two-story house, freshly painted white, with
big trees around it and a big garden, have boxed
up one end of the back porch and my mammy and us girls
sleep out there during the summer. All the other rooms
are filled with renters and we have no trouble in meetinl
the payments on the house. We are now 4200 ahead and
my mammy keeps this money hidden away in a crack in
the wall. I tell her the rats may et it or the house
burn down; and ttie best thing to do with it is to make
an advance payment on the house. I don't know whether
I can make her do it or not, but I am goint to keep on
at her. I don't give up easy.
4 "One of our renters is a taxi driver. He comes
in late and goes out early, so we don't often see him;
but we have a couple in the house who have a squalling
brat that sometimes keeps us awake. I don't like that
much because I work hard and I need my sleep. These
people viork in one of the mills. They have milted only
one room, but they are au over over the house and under every-
body's feet.
"Yes, I ath harking on a part time job as cook, but
you don't need to ask what I'm doing the rest of the time.
Ault don't I do? Iget up early and sometimes wash out
clothes or clean house. Lould be surprised at the dirt
these roomers bring in; they never think of wipinh their
feet on the at. hly mammy gets dinner ready for the
girls when they come home from the mill, bht she won't
wash up tae dishes. he leaves them for me to wash when
I come home. And then the family expect me to get supper.
Liometixes I find my mammy and my youngest sister --they
always sleep together and are oust like twins--layint
on the bed waitin1 for me to it 'ex somethinl to eat.
After supper me and another sister go out and work the
garden uLtil drk. :,c) you see I don't have time to it
lonesome.
"I hardly get tine to go to church either. 14
family wuz Lutherans in the old days, but there ain't
no Lutheran church here and ee are all mixed up 4 we
go to different churches --w en we go at all. One of my
sisters bou:ht a good sucond-hanh auto and we sometimes
spend ounday visiting our relations in the country. They
always have plenty to eat, and I like a change of vittles
sometimes. And it's good for sore eyes to see somebody
else wash tie dishes.
"One churjii we don't go to is the one down there by
the mill. They have lively times down there, they tell
me. hen I go to church, I wallt it to be like a real
church, and when I go to the movies I wsuit aomethin'
else. I'd go to church oftener if I had the right kind
of clothes; but when I nave a nice nress I may not have
a good hat or decent shoes, and when I have a good hat
and shoes maybe I haven't a nice dress. J don't care
very much about clothes, but I like to look as decent
as anybody else. oo I go to church when i feel like
it and when I have respectable clothes; and it's nobody's
business but my own."