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kr. and Mrs. A. B. Ross,
Rt. 5,
Hendersonvilli, N. C.
THE BOSSES
No names changed.
over a long period of her
portly of figure, and her
Luline L. LAbry, Rt. 5
'lenjersonville, N. C.
THE' ROSSES.
Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Ross, Rt. 5.
Hendersonville, E. C.
$42111 the trouble and hardships I've ever had have come from whisky".
Alrier--a-
Even as Yrs. Ross uttered this tragic statement)
adam,14*aiwa441.-444pde—Ttetito
associate with her. Her
the cheerful smile which
people have grown to
40-ett
brown eyes si*.itre with health and the intelligence
A.
has enabled her to keep her bark afloat on a rough sea
life. She is quick of step, even though she is
face has its
worry lines which underlie the ever
cheerful smile. Her small but careworn hands seem to always be buy, even
as she sits and talks. She is the moth, r of eight living children and she
is justly proud of
AN most of whom are now contributing
to the upkeep of their rented six -room house. As she settled herself in a
comfortable chair)she turned off the radio, brushed imaginery crumbs from
her blue print house dress, and €4i;;;;;44.1
"When a htsband and father has been a drunkard for 25 yearsiyou may be
certain that his family has suffered and been deprived of a great deal they
aome entitled to. Aside from Ma constant humiliations, I've always had to
work at everything under the sun
to keep my children even half fed and cloth-
ed. I've done about everything while they were rowing up. When we lived at
Tuxedo /I rushed from
44
make ends meet. Early every morning
mother brought me her two small children
came for them and fed them at
in the afternoon I started my
one thing to another from early until late trying to
the mill hands worked'2a young
to care for during the day. She
noon, then brought them back. During their nap
own dinner which was served at 4 o'clock when
my children came from school. Soon after that the mother came for her
little tots and then
I flew in and washed my dishes and began my sewing. Almost every night
I sewed until 10 o'clock and ver- often I made six dresses in a week. T
didnt get very much for my sewing but it 4ii hel-oea. In winteri we
fared a little better because I always had several h
eads and livers
to -,-renare on shares for my neighbors who ereferred to give me a part for
my work to bothering with it themselves. In manlier the children picked
lots of berries and I nearly always canned en(ugh to make pies for their
school lunches.
"At other times)when 1 didnt have the care of the little children I
went here and there to the homes of neighbors to cook a dinner or to help
with the sick. T was always busy hel)ing somebody that needed my ser-
vices. I client get much money for tn workeLNKINN. but oas usually paid
in food-- milk, a little butter, cornmeal, vegetables, just anything I
could take home to keep my children from being hungry.
7
linT
husband lisieb-Lii doing very well in construction
A
business in South Carolina. He averaged from j200 to ,p-±00 a month, and
once he made ,7.800- in a month working on road building. At that time
could ray 2,5 for a blouse and ::;10 for a new skirtiand I had nice under-
wear )and we wert erosperous and hai)py.
'Jlet so today.
It is harder now for me to get a new housedress than it was then to get a
new coat ,:nen I wanted one.
was raisea on a good farm in South Carolina, aionL with four brothers
and a sister. On my ;um mother's side of the family mY grandfather had
a larce plantatien in Chester and r!c Counties-- the line vnt throu,h
his farm.
usca to have so much fun acing twqmdli to visit where there
was so much pros-eerity, so much to see and to do. Grandfather was a fine
country doctor, but his home was 10 miles from the town His work was
among the farmers of the section. He seemed like a rich and very success-
Ross 3
ful man, but, like so many other doctors of the old days, so few people
paid him for his services, and finally at the close of his career)he was
broke)and his large plantation was sold at sheriff's sale. He had nothing
left.
"When Mr. Ross and I were married he made about 475 a month. All his
people had always been good construction people. They wanted to give him
a good education and he was in a junior college when he just quit and took
a job as a bartender. Our children came along so fast that it makes me
almost breathless even now to even think about it. Today I see that it
iould be lots better if people had only as many children as they can
properly take care ofp3ut I didnt know this in time.
"My first daughter, Francis, is 29. She is married and hds three
lovely children, but I tell her she has enough. That is all they will be
able to take care of. Then came Allen, now 28. He is in South America
working for the Gulf Refining Company. _le's always sure of a gcoa jebimms1
because he's a good construction engineer. Then along ca4le Henry, now
21.
26. He's married, and this winter he and his wife are in Fort Lauderdale,
Fla., where he has a job at carpentering on a long-time building program
lea man he's worked for a long time. Next sum-11er they'll be back in North
Carolina again. Gwinn was next. He's 24 and works in Pennsylvania.
Then there was Alice, 22. She took a course in beauty culture and has been
earning money for two years or more. She pays the rent for this house and
I dont know what' we'd do without her help. Marion ias next. He's 19 now.
His older brothers kept him in clothes until he graduated from Flat Rock
Rich School, and he worked
Ever since he graduated he
stores in Hendersonville,
there.
some in summers at whatever he could find to do.
has been working for one of the leading grocery
They like my boy and we think he has a good futur
When he got his vacation this summer he drove some friends of his
aoas 4
back to their home in Arkansas. They had spent the summer in Henderson-
ville and he knew them through their trading with him at the
From their place he took a bus and paid a short visit to his
brother-- in Louisiana, and got back here in a little over a
store.
uncle-- my
week. He
had a grand time and the trip did him a lct of good. We were so glad to
have him go and see a different part of the country even if he did have
to do it in a hurry.
"Then our next child was Lillian, 18, and then along came Virginia
now 16. These two girls are finishing high school next year. For two
summers they have both worked either in boarding houses or in private
families and helped earn their clothes. Of course, with their father
always spending so much of his money on drink and so often having no work
at all for the same reason, I've had to work very hard and have made
many sacrifices for my children, but I've raised them the best I could
and not one of them has been a disappointment to me. At times I've had
to feed us all on as little as 42.50 a week for weeks at a stretch, and
even now I cant always provide well balanced meals for us. Like today
whenMarion came home on his bicycle for lunch)all I had was sweet potatoes,
Irish potatoes and some gravy left from yesterday's meat. If I could have
had a dish of green beans or a green salad I know it would have been a
better balanced meal, but I hope to have a better supper for us tonight.
It takes at least 44-6 a month for our actual needs: 46 for house rent,
for lights and water, and the rest foes into our food. But We have
spent almost nothing for doctors for years. When one of my boys had to
have an operation for appendicitis two years ago he,had saved enough
money to pay for it himself.
'7-ays to keep very close to my boys and girls and they
have always been confidential with me about their affairs and their
_Ross 5
little experiences. Up to the time alien left home to work he always
came to me and told me about the places he went and what he did. If I
asked him a question and he told me hadn't done this or that, a little
later he'd come to me and say: Mama, I told you a little lie a while ago--
2
it was so and so& He didnt like to lie to me and he just had to correct
it before he could feel right.
"Almost every night this little house is about filled with young folks,
friends of my children. They're satisfied to spend the evenings here
unless Yr. Ross is hpaza drunk. That makes it unpleasant for all of us
A
and in that event the girls and their boy friends walk into town two
miles and maybe go to a show, or in summer they just go to town and sit
on the street benches and watch the people go by. I never worry about
what my children are doing. I hear so much about how wild and bad the
younger generation is, but I dont believe it. They are more frank, more
candid with each other and with their parents in most cases--- I know
mine are--- but I have lots of confidence and faith in the young folks
of today. I do think they do too much riding about in cars if their
parents fail to make their friends welcome in their homes. I'd rather
ide
114**4-44a give my chair Ap.to some boy or girl visiting us than to have wy
children going away from home for their amusements.EIt is quite a problem
to know just how to handle some of the yoUng people now. I remember some
years ago that a very good woman with plenty of moneti at her command
built a lovely little commtnity house down at Tuxedo, hoping and expecting
-44^iens,44
Itp-44, Aattract and entertain all the young girls and boys living in the
mountains near by. Well, the girls liked to come and enjoy the games and
music and sewing classes and the nic, refreshments always to be found in
the ice box, and they really seemed to profit by it, but those mountain
boys just wouldn't join in the parties and preferred to go back in the
Ross 6
woods behind the little community house, and drink their horrible old
moonshine liquor. It is always plentiful around there, too.
"We've lived in Hendersonville now for over seven years and I've kept
right on doing what sewing I could get to do, going to the neighbors to
hel with housework, even washing for people, and we managed to get along
until my children are all earning money except the two girls still in
school. It has been more than two years since my husband has given me a
penny. So much that he earns has to go for liquor and he has to pay so
many fines in court)that he never seems to have an?),Yor his family.
About all he can get to do right now is to haul a load of sand or gravel
to someone now and then, but his real business is simply gone.
"In all these years we've never owned our home. I think owning a
home should come first with a man who expects to have a family. We dont
have a car either. Just an old truck used to do any sort of work he can
pick up now and then. de both vote)but I do my own thinking when it
comes to that. Lately I've split my ticket as I see fit and vote for the
man I think best suited to the office. I expect my husband and my boys
to do Vust as they see fit about this question.
"I'm thankful to believe that my hardest days are over now that my boys
and girls are grown and tka,- seem safe on the road to success
and clean decent living. Now and then my dear father from South Carolina
comes up to spend a few days with us, and once in a while some of the boys
who are not too far away get back to see us for a little while, so we can
have happiness, and I can hold up my head, and smile, and know that things
might have been much worse for us. We have just lots of things to be
thankful for all the time. For one thing, I've just got some new teeth,
thanks to my children, and they are my greatest blessing just now".