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The Looks gill
Coward, N. C.
Septelber 21, 1938
U. L. W.
MI EgAA 4LLI2 (CALL') AUNT 104,4A)
Aunt Lame Willie is very proud of being eighty-one
yeers old. She in proud too that *he doean't heve to
weer glasses, even for reeding, and thet she still has
her own teeth. If you tek her but cotton mills she
will say Nlite oast/illy in her high, thready voice *I
worked in a cotton mill for sixty...three years, but I
never did erre for it much. I had to wait six years
ego when 1 had e bed case of the grippe.°
Now that the weather is cool the site in her
walnut rocer by the window End knits lace from spool
thread. °I just make up the petterna,° she will explain
and every time I knit e long piece I change because
I get tired of doing the same one.' For making enough
lace to go on a pair of pillow cases (between BO and
90 yards) the charges 50# end supplies the thread.
This is the only money she otn earn now.
3ut Aunt twat is not doleful about it. With s
sly male on her face she will tell you ouietly that
She 'lives on Charity." Then her grey eyes twinkle
as she says °IIT just like everybody else now, letting
the government support me. Before they grve me my old
sip pension, my church and the folks I knowd here
kept me going..
Aunt EMMA is too "stiff in her bones" to go out
much, but she is tremendously interested in whet is
happening in the world and reads enything that is given
to her. Allen I brought her some oopiee of HollenOss
she was delighted because she likes the poetry in it
she said. One of her favorite magazines is The "lamina,
e Fundamentalist Baptist magazine which her
niece sends her from Texas. The editor has been writing
r series of ertioles on his travels through the west,
and Aunt twat was particularly interested in what he
had to say about the Mormons. "Those people know how
to get along," she commented.
Important in her life are the visits from the
preacher of the small Lutheran Church in the mill
section to which the belongs. "very week thrt
comes, he is here to see me," she srAd, "end I surely
do enjoy him. It tickles me to look et him -because
heft so young just a boy you'd cell him and he's
got a new baby now too."
Zhe spit in t can that stood on the window sill,
then took a, carefully folded unwire of cloth from her
apron pocket rnd wiped the snuff from her lips. rem.
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thing about her person wee precise her dark voile
dress with the checked apron tied tightly over it;
her heir, oerefully perted in the middle end looped
brok an either side so that the delicete gold crosses
in her errs were visible. Her feoe wee remarkable
long streightfestured, end intelligent. Sehind her
maiet reserve wrs the humor that occasionally showed
in her eyes or the manner in which she made e remerk.
It wrs not eesy to get Aunt Kmme to tell ebout
herself. he wee more interested in telking of the
gormons, her preacher, whet had been happening in
town or in reminiscing about concord in the old deys.
"I Wee born down neer Gold Hill, but I've lived
ell my life in Concord. Folks used to tell me I had
e foreign iodic," she said with pride "end I guess it
wee beoeuse one of my Grandfethers as E Yankee. He
settled up near Greensboro. soy 2,rest-Grandfether
oz.me from Germeny, but I'm
*when the wer came End Ps went off to fight, I
ripe so little I just orn't remember muoh about it.
at lew, I'll never forget when the Yankees burned
3rlisbury. I wasn't but four years old, but to this
dry I otn remember how the sky looked thet night
it wFs red Ell over one side. The Ytnkeee never did
hurt us; 1 guess' they must hrve knowd my Grendfrther
WES one.
"Pe opme beck from the war, but he died not so
long after that. I had to go to work to support the
family. There was my mother, who hod the heart trouble;
my little sister end little brother; end my old punt
who couldn't walk e step for twelve years before she
died.°
I interrupted Aunt Emme to ask if she had ever
gone to school.
'Why yes, some men here in town run a school in
a log building down Spring Street, and I went. I got
all the eduoetion I ever had up until the time I was
ten year old, but I learned everything so good I MIST
have forgotten it. They made you back then.' Her
feint voice became pert 'I'll bet right now I could
outspell any of these teachers down here at the school.
"Course, I guese I would have gone on and maybe
leFrned some more if I hadn't been bound to support
my fondly. hen I was twelve, I started work in the
old moiJonald .1,1.11 that had been running here in town
since before tte war. It *as the only cotton mill in
Concord then. I rent to work every morning at six
end stayed until seven in the evening. They paid 25*
F day. Silt law, in those days people didn't mind work
we had a good time. Many p night I would come in from
the mill, wash my face, put on my hat and go off to
choir practice or somewhere. I was young and strong
so I didn't get tired.'
During her sixty-three years in the mill, *ant
Zama worked at various wages rad hours in the Locke,
the Oebarrus, the Branoord and the XennapOlis plants.
She it not ashamed to boast s little about her record,
although the pretends at first that her work was a
mere matter of duty and routine. 'Every pay dpy that
come, I brought my money home and laid it in my mother's
hand; then after she died, I turned every oent over to
my sister who kept house for me almost fifty years. I
worked steady too, once while I was at the Cannon Mill
I went eleven yerre without missing a day's pay. Back
then if you didn't go, they'd send for you because they
didn't have no one else to do your work. Sow they've
got more hands for E job than they know what to do with.
If u hand lays out, they've got somebody else to do his
job end pretty soon he'll find himself out of work.*
Of :AA the places she worked, Amnt Y.Inzat liked the
Oabarrue A.11 best because it had so many country people.
4011d Mr. Cannon used to say when he was alive, thvt he
wanted to get country folks to work for him because
they'd stay with him. They did too.' Aer voice changed
tone es the gelded *You know how mill people ere; they
just move about from place to place..
Once during our comvereetion Aunt Emma made r
reserk without her usual thy little smile. "There's
something I've been studying about," and the put down
her knitting. *I spent all my life working et herd
re I oould, but now I've got too I can't go anymore.
You just look at the rich people this town has people
who've got plenty and more then they can ever use. It
looks to me like the town ought to take oere of the
old people eho can't help theirselves anymore.
l'Aly I don't know whet I'd e done efter I quit
work, if it hadn't been for the folks around me, and
the mill. The Looks all let me stay in one of their
houses, without paying e cent of rent, until lest
fell when they cold off the property mi house was on.
Then I hed to move."
:.ihe moved in with ,'-ranny Lizzie iorgan, shering
the expenses of the house rent fed suppliee. Both
get old age pensions, and the City welfare Department
helps them occasionally. Although the is too proud
to say anything, Aunt Lame fastidious end intellectual-
ly keen cannot possibly be heppy with Grenny.
arenny et eighty-four is fat, talkative, vulgar,
end full of energy. She thumps about in her bare feet
sweeping, scouring, washing clothes; she rushes to
a neighbor's house to phone for wood or 1st; goes to
see Mary Alexander, the landlady, about the rent;
freauently wtlks the mile down to the bolter* Depextment
to try to wrangle something from it. Alum she came in
to see as, she sat in a straight chair tilted precariously
on the two hind legs, took a dip of suftf„ and talked
A
incessantly in her low, *ours* voice, her head shaking
vith palsy. 410 came from S10 township, has never work-
ed in mill, but wome of her children hove. "I've got
five children s-liviny she said dolefully 'and not
a one of them will look after their poor old mother."
For sixteen years Gray hes lived in the drab
four -room house whioh she rents from s Negro women,
Mary Alexander. Mary owns three such houses frying
on a ragged meadow by the Locke Aill Village. Granny's
place bee plumbing, no electricity, and only fireplaces
for heating. It needs paint badly outside; inside the
grey celled walls arrrty, the unptinted floor stained
with tobe000.
All the time i neve peen a -living here i.ery hain't
done s thing to this house,' wirenny drawled. "Ate says
it takes all she's got to go over to that college in
;Ilarlotte end take hdl them special courses, but she's
got plenty of witelth. The Welfsre Depertment told
her 116 e month wee too much rent to charge on this
house. ahe won't come down r penny, though."
The room in which we sst wee furnished with
Grennyle things. The iron bed, chest of drawers,
littered trble, split bottom chtire rnd even the
eneoders on the well, the pictures und the postcards
an the mentel were here. Only the nicely mrde rocker
in which she set belonged to Aunt Emme.
then I rose to go, Aunt Emmr smiled shyly And
told me goodbye, but she didn't get up. Grenny
envelop& me in her soft rime, seueezed me end urged
me to come gsin. "te love to here company," she seid
herrtily, then raked me if 1 knew the people in the
elfrre Depertment. If I etc% she rented me to tell
them something for her.
runt i;mme wetched me go from the vindow.