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Gibson kill
Concord, N. C.
September 7, 1938
U. L. X.
JOU; SULO4ON
She set on the edge of the here front poroh and
nursed her beby son, r freil, dtrk-hpired women with
t Pete fece Pnd eed bleck eyes. Beside her res e
crutch, pedded et the top with worn blue corduroy. Two
little girls sprewled near her on the poroh floor; en
older girl set on the steps end smoked e oigrrette
with re.. much displty re Nossible.
There wre'. no furniture on the porch which hed
A
trken on the color of the red oley front yard. But
r dirty, eplit-bottom chrir err brought forth by the
drughter with the cigrrette Feld the two little girl*
mpde ee welcome by stendine very close to me nnd
grinning broedly. They rere pretty little girls even
if they were unreehed rnd uncombed; from their wrists
dove. '.4) their btre toes they too ceemed to tive ecruired
the color of the dusty front yrrd.
The worn rhifted the nursine c. lid freeuently.
He T lrrge boy for hir cieteen eonthe, but he
becrme fretful when ehe took him rwry free her brerste.
!lid no wonder. Tvery inch of his free, his rrme rnd
th body shoving rbove hiv overells :7Ts covered with
en eruption reeembling prickly hert. Thr women didn't
know what it west but t neighbor suggested it might
be poison oak.
The two little girle giggled because the baby
still htd sweet pottto sneered on his face from dinner.
Janie Armstrong ,colomon, the mother of the house-
hold, wee born thirty—five years Ego in Rook Eill, south
Orrolint. he rts one of the eight children of e preacher
*who moved about from place to piece.* A case of spinal
meningitis when she as two years old left Jnnie with
a. twisted leg and a deformed foot so she he °never
knowed whet it is to go without a crutch." he says,
her illnest must have made her nervous too because she
couldn't bstr to stay in school, so after trying it
severtl yeers, she gtve it up entirely. Janie doesn't
remember exactly how old she was when she sttrted to
work in the mill, but she must have been about twelve
or thirteen. She started going to night school in
Rock Hill, end finally got es high as the sixth grads,
then when he teventeen she rrie Ar. olc.on,
who was twenty yeerE her senior md widower with
to children. .ler mErriE-4e meent the end of school
pud the end of steady work, but jtnie teat beck to
the mill between babies when She 'F$as able an could find
ulee. he hts worked se spooler, standing
supported by her crutch; she sais she got used to it
and didn't mind.
From the first thinge didn't go so well with the
,olomon family. They moved rbout in ',..)'outh Caroline,
then to Destonie where most of Janie's fa:tally lived,
end on to Concord where they stryed. Life hes become
herder in reoent years. Janie telks about it in the
weary voice of resignetion:
°It looks like I've had more eicknese end trouble
then tny one women ern stand.
"Uve year ego my husband took whet you'd cell e
reel old-faehioned ctse of the typhoid fever, end wee
sick for four months. 4hen he wts getting over thet, he
swelled up with the rrtheritis rheumatism end was just
about bent double with it. He tint never been able to
work regulsr since then.
oometimes when he gets in the bed Ft night after
he's vorked ell day he breaks down end cries because
hie joints aches him so bpd. we've spent every cent
I could rake together end cal my ft:lily End ison
could eive us to try to cure him, but it looks like
there ron'lnothing meke him well egein.
°Lest year he got whet I thought s” -,s sore eyes.
One morning he olled me to come there, he couldn't
see nothing. When I looked t is eyes, the bells
red rs piece of raw liver ell over. Tht doctors
said it come from his teeth, nnd Ur. httc over at the
'04'1 paid to heve them every one took out. After they
wee pulled, he could see again, but hit didn't help
his artheritis nary bit.
"rhea lest summer he took ewful sick with the
melprirl thd we had to get rdr. Burns in to cure him.
I don't reckon I'll ever get all the doctor bills paid
up."
'hen he's Cole now, Ur. Solomon runs the elevetor
et the albson ill, but usually he doesn't work more.
then two or three dev e week. 6ometimes he eerns
500 or so from renting out r bony horse and en old
plow he owns. Uf oJurse, the 'anise hrs to be fed,
but Janie eid it could just about pick its living
in the summertime.
The oldest Solomon girl, who is seventeen, works
in the mill when she is ble, but she hes "the low
blood pres!lare and dizzy spells so ti:vt she fells
right over sometimes.° been having etr trouble
too tnd wes et the doctor offioe the afternoon I
met the rest of the fnmily. Janie says the girl hes
been trying all summer to get a job in the mill, but
work tits been so aleck they were laying htnds off
insterd of hiring them.
Jenie supports the family. he works at the OA
sewing room for 114.72 every two weeks. The little girls
will tell you proudly their mother is am "inspector."
ahe began in the sewing room re E regular worker about
six months ego, but then was promoted to the position
of inspector end overseer. The hours rre the eame as
they would be in the mill eight hours but she
likes the work better because she can sit down. Besides
it isn't e werring re mill work.
The rent on the dingy six —room house the family
occupies is ;16 P month. It wouldn't be so high if
the house belonged to the mill, but no one in the
Italy works sterdily enough to be eligible for e
oompany dwelling. tit. Charles at., on wA.oh their house
is situated, is not e ptrt of r village although it is
near severe' mills. Many of the people on the street
own their own homes.
Janie erye she can't really manage on what she
gets she just gets along the best wry she knows
how. The ;PA helps out sometimes. They geve her two
dresses each for both the little girls who go to school
this fell. .31.1ie was determined her children would
look decent when they ettrted to school, so she watched
the Papers und when Belks advertised materiel for 7*
e yard, she bought enough for two dresree eeoh. "I thrnk
the Lori I ern sew," she edded fervently. "ehen I wee
young'un I couldn't run in pity rnd cut up like the
others, so I set in the house und letrnee to mete things.
I wouldn't here the job I've got now if I hedn't."
:ome help hFs oome recently in r eey Janie hedn't
counted on. be ;)ointed to the girl who hed been smoking
cigerette end erid to as "Do you know how old thpt
girl is?" I looked rt the girl in the tight green dress.
Jhr vee short end plump, her bleck heir we plretered
down by e freshly done finger wrve she hod given herself,
her feFturee were bold but immeture. I gueeeed she wee
fourteen.
neerbout eixteen, Jenie arid, "end three
eonth ego she run off end got merried.°
The girl glowed with imeortence tnd spoke in her
blunt, orsuel mauler. -emr cried when I done it.
"Yee, I did. itse wee so little tnd young she didn't
knor whet she wee 6 —doing. Tiut now 1'i gled she merried.
got t good, herdworing men he up et the
Locke (all) end they're etrying upeteirs so thel
4elpe us out. I know' a too thrt I could -4't give her
the things she ought to hive, red her men ctn."
7he mrrried deughter becele very velutble efter
her true strtuE WPS reverled. ehe geve u deteiled
account of the no -count man her step -sister married,
she told why she left school rt the end of the sixth
grrde (her mother rrid it wee becruse she bed merrying
in her herd), she expleined thtt she writ "feeling puny,*
merning thet she rrs pregnant. Then she ordered one
of the younger girls to get e broom end sweep the yprd
which she declEred "look:- like t trFsh pile. The
child rtn for e broom And begen to sweep so vigorously
we were submerged under c yellow cloud for t while.
Janie finds her grerteet Fnd practicelly her
only plersure in life in her children. "ke and my
husbend both think the wor1C of them," she will tell
you, "end we don't never want E one of them to letve
ue. he looked down tt the child in her rrms. This
here ie the only boy we've got I'm scered sometimes
thrt re think too much of him.
The a'olomons do not hrve r rtdio or e oer, And
they do not go to the movies. They use kerosene lrmpe
for lighting the house in order to erve money. The
children go to the Beptict :Aindey School on 76-inecoff
'.Areet, but Jrnie seys since she's been working she
h,,rdly ever gets out to church. Every -:=Fturday morning
her brother who is prercher tt the ..),ospel Teberntole,
broedoents from tonic, tnd Jtnie likes to go to e
neighbors to heir him. 'nut I don't get to hear him
much no more,“ she remerked wistfully. As she stroked
the beby's heed, 1 noticed Jenie's tends hed pink polished
nrila.
left the house Es ;Lr. Jolomon came in from e
neighbor's turnip pitch with his horse end plow. rhe
little group on the porch wrtched me go. Then they
followed Jenie Es she went into the house still holding
the bEby to her brevet with her free arm.