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TITLE:
SOUTH CAROLINA. WRITERS' PROJECT
LIFE HISTORY
MISS SALLIE'S COOK
Date of First Writing March 2, 1939
Name of Person Interviewed Annie Squire (Negro)
Fictitious Name Ruby Childs
Street Address 1222 Barnwell Street
Place Columbia, S. C.
Occupation Cook
Name of Writer Verner Lea
Name of Reviser State Office
On approaching my destination, I heard a conversation taking place
between Ruby and her neighbor, which ran something like this: "Sister
Jasper, was you at the Ebenezer Baptist, Sunday night gone?"
"Ruby, I ain't been to that church since the argument I told you 'bout.
What's more, I'm thinkin"bout joinin' up mid the Methodist. Anybody louse
me of short changing the plate, I figure they's all crooks.
"Ef I'd had a piece o' extra change I mould o' been glad to give 'em
the whole quarter.
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"Well, when I put my quarter in the plate, I took out fifteen cent
change. Brother Sikes argue me up and dawn. He stood there and let all
the congregation hear him call me a thief and a liar. Said after I put
in the twenty-five cent, I didn't take our a dime and a nickle, but 'stead,
I took back the quarter, and ten cent beside.
"I told him he's so crooked he oughter sleep on a corkscrew. Then
I put on my coat and switched out, and don't aim to never go back."
Well, what I mean to tell you, Sister Jasper, there was sho' some
cuttin' up Sunday night gone.
"Everybody was settin' there quiet -like, and Parson Brawn was leadin'
in prayer. All of a sudden we heard the awfullest goin's on just outside
the church door. Such a hollering, cussin'„ and carryin' on you never did
hear.
"First thing you know, Parson Brawn's boy come splittin' up the aisle
cryin' to the top o' his voice and a-holdin' on to his ear. He run up to
his pa, grab him round the legs, and holler and cry 'til he near 'bout broke
up the meetint.
"Him and dat little sinner, Coon, got to arguin' over a bottle o' pop.
Finally, they got to fightin', and Coon near 'bout chewed Jake's ear off.
"I don't see what makes Jake hang around Coon so much, 'cause they
ain't nothin' but trouble when them two gets together.
"But you know that preacher turn it all off so smooth -like. He say,
'Set dawn, Son. I'll anoint your soul, and your ear will be all right.'
"He had done already choose his text, but he 'pologised to the congre-
gation. He told 'em he was awful embarrassed about Jake and Coon, but boys
would be boys. And seem' what had jus' took place, he was gonna preach on
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peace. Keepint the peace.
"He preached one o' the finest sermons I ever hear. He sent one
o the ushers out to get Coon. But Coon done lit out up a alley wid the
bottle o' pop. He was =kin' tracks for home.
"I been a member o' that church for many a year, but that was 'bout
the best piece o' preachin' I ever hear Parson Brown put out yet.
"Jake, he just set there, with tears in his eyes, like the spirit was
comm' on him. He's a puny little fellow, and Coon ain't got no right to
be always jumpin' on him.
As this dialogue cane to an end, I arose from my temporary seat on
the steps. Walking around the side of the house, I found Ruby busily en-
gaged in hanging out clothes. As she turned and saw me, her greeting was
one of genuine welcome.
"How you, Mist Polly? Lord, child, I ain't had a chance to clean my
house yet. Take this chair on the porch. We'll just set here in the sun."
Although I had known Ruby for a number of years, and she had often
helped me in various ways in my house, our acquaintance had never gone be-
yond the surface.
She is a=typileol-Nerro; fat, good-natured, and very black, with lips
that resemble toy balloons. Her optimism is a trait worthy of note. Just
one of Ruby's ridiculous remarks will cast a rosy glow, where formerly all
was blue. She is always dressed in a blue uniform and white apron, with
the proverbial rag tied around her kinky black head. Her perpetual grin
displays three prominent gold teeth. Though thirty-five years old,
she sticks to her socks, winter and summer. Sometimes, in very cold
weather, she wears hose. But even then, the socks must come on,too.
"Mis' Polly, you'll be thinkin' I'm a trifling housekeeper. But I
had to get these clothes out. I generally keeps my three rooms right tidy.
I woulder been through, but Sister Jasper been sick. I had to pass her
the news over the back fence, 'cause she can't get out.
"Jus' me and my brother Bud live here. He works on a W.P.A. job and
pays half the rent and half o' everything. Ever now and then he buys me
a dress or hat or some sort ot little gift for a surprise. He's one more
good boy.
"No, God: I ain't got no husband. And what's more, I don't want one.
I had one o' them things once. But I sho' ain't lookin' for no more.
"I don't like to think and talk about them days, Mis' Polly. When I
do, I gets a misery in my head.
"I was born in St. Matthews, South Carolina. Ma died when I was four
years old. My pa was Amos Giles, and he wan't nothin' to brag on, either.
When I was eleven, me and Pa and Bud cone to Columbia. Pa got a job at the
Blume Lumber Company.
"We done pretty well for awhile. But it wan't long 'til Pa got to
drinkin', goin' out nights and keepin' bad company. 'Seem like he start
hoppin' on me for any little thing.
"I was little, but I tried to do the best I know haw. I'd stay home,
cook his meals, and wash his and Bud's clothes. But jus' seem like didn't
nothin' suit him no more.
"All that time, I was tryin' to get a little education, too. The most
I ever got, though, was just a inklin' of readin' and writint.
"Pa was all the time after me about gettin' out and findin' work.
look like heap o' times he try to be good to me. But he jus' couldn't help
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bein' mean. Sometimes, he act jus' like Satan was backin' him up.
"One night he jus' fuss and wrangle yid me half the night. The
next day when I come from school, he was set -bin' on the porch. I set
down on the doorstep and never said nothin'. After while, he say; 'Ain't
you hungry?'
"Reckon he thought I'd have a nerve to eat his food. He got up,
walked back in the kitchen, and brought me a big plate o' collards, corn
bread,and sweet potatoes.
"Seem like after I ate, I feel kinder sorry for him. So I got up,
vent inside, cleaned up the house good, and ironed him a shirt and a pair
o' blue jeans. Then I build up the fire and got his supper hot and lit the
lamp and called him to cone eat.
"Mien he cone in, he was lit up like a church. I didn't say nothini.
But he hadn't hardly set dawn, before he got to abusin' me for everything
he could think of. Call ne lazy and triflin' and good for nothin'. Keep
wantin' to know haw come I don't get me a job like Bud.
"Course it's true Bud did get a job. But after he got it, Pa made it
so hot for him he lef' home. Anyhow, Pa talk and cuss so I couldn't stand
it no longer.
"After while I say: 'I'm sorry Pa, I'll leave home. I'll go on back
to St. Matthews. I'll go stay with Aunt Lizzie. She's gettin old, maybe
I can be of some service to her. I can feed her pig, and wash, and re-
lieve her of some o' her work. Do enough so I won't feel imposin' on no-
body.'
"Pa got up, staggered over to the shelf, and took his last drink o'
brandy. Then he went to bed."
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Ruby sat alone, with tear -dimmed eyes, and thought. Finally, she
retrieved a worn and battered suitcase from under the bed. She dusted
and
it off/began packing her worldly goods, which consisted of little more
than a few torn and tattered garments. This done, she, too, retired.
She would sleep until day, then go to the garage where Bud worked.
He would find her a way to Aunt Lizzie's.
The following morning, Amos awoke to an irregular ticking of an
ancient and battered timepiece, which he found on this occasion most
annoying to his head. He had a mind to shout for Ruby. Maybe she could
do something to ease his misery. But he didn't hear Ruby moving about the
house, as was her custom of a morning. As the fog began to lift, and his
brain showed signs of normal functioning, he recollected drowsily, "Poor
Ruby, maybe she ain't here anymore. What was that she said last night
about leaving?"
Dressing himself with jittery, nervous hands, he went into the kitchen.
Instead of the warmth of the cook stove, and the aroma of good, hot coffee,
everything was cold, bare, and lifeless. On the table he found a note.
With trembling fingers he opened and read the following: "Dear Pa, when
you reads this, I'll be on my way to Aunt Lizzie's. Take care of yourself.
I hopes you make out all right. Ruby."
As Amos struggled with the fire in the cook stove and prepared his
frugal breakfast, he began to think that Ruby wasn't such a bad girl after
all. He reproached himself for his mean and low -life ways, saying to him-
self, "I'll write her a letter and tell her I'm sorry and want her to cone
on back. She's just thirteen years old. Too young to be out on her awn.
Yes, I'll write poor little Rube a letter."
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"After I lef', I got to coin' with a man right smart older than me.
He seem like a nice man, and we kept company right regular. He kept after
me to marry him. He tell me how good he would be to me and haw he'd make
up for all the trouble I'd had at home.
"Viell, long 'bout Christmas time, I let his persuadin' ways and big
talk do the devilment. I wasn't but fourteen years old.
"We got us a room in a roomln' house and lived together four months
to the day. He picked up and lef' me high and dry, and me with a unborn
child.
"Seem like me bein' young, I jus' cry day and night. I didn't know
what to do; me with no job and no nothin'. The people in the house treat
me kind for awhile. I guess they was sorry for me.
"I'd go out every day and pick a little cotton. But seem like that
didn't pay me nothin' hardly. The people in the house got to howlin' for
their room rent. I near 'bout went crazy. I jus' didn't have no heart for
nothin'. Many a time I come near to perishin'.
"I figured I'd better go on back to Aunt Lizzie, 'cause it was gettin'
most time.
"I prayed the Lord to soften her heart, to see to it that she'd forgive
me for skippin' off with that bastard. She told me he wan't up to no good.
"I got there late one Saturday afternoon. Bein' scared and timid -like,
I knock on the door easy. When she open it, she put her hands on her fat
hips and jus' look at me long and hard. Then she say, 'chickens always comes
home to roost. But you'll sho' have to find you another roostine place.'
"She say I made my bed, and in it Id have to lie. Then my feet jus'
come out from under me. I dropped on the doorstep and near 'bout sob my
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heart out.
"She went back in and slam the door. Lef' re settin' there 'bout
a hour. Then she come back and hand re a dipper of cold spring water.
"'Drink this, then come on in the cook room and get you some supper.
If you walked all the way, I guess you most famished, and wore out, too.
I got spoon bread, some nice spareribs, and a pot o' rutabagas."
'Jith this evidence of Aunt Lizzie's big, kind heart and relenting
spirit, Ruby dried her tears. She followed her meekly into the kitchen.
"'Set down and eat now. No use cryin' over spilt milk.'
"The very next day my poor little youngun was born. But jus' live
two hours. You see it was too previous.
'lily awn mother couldn't a been better to me than Aunt Lizzie. She
was so good and kind. I lay therewith tears in my eyes. I made up my
mind if the Lord spared me I'd repay her.
"It was her goodness to me that made me see everything different -like.
"hen I got able, I relieved her of all the work I could. I learned to
sew, and would keep her clothes patched. One time Bud sent me a little
money, and I bought her a dress.
"God bless herl She's dead now, but I know she res' in heavenly
peace.
"hen I was seventeen, I got a letter from Bud sayin' Pa was dead.
I COMB on back to Columbia. I got me a good job as cook. I cooked for
that family five years. Then they moved to Charleston. I've done dif-
ferent things. I had re a job with the W.P.A. for awhile. I raked up
leaves and trash in Valley Park. But I've cooked mostly all my life. I'm
cookin' for a fine family of folks now. I been workin' for 1Jrs. Sallie
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Jenkins for three years. -161s' Sallie sho' good to me. She give me
clothes and food and lets me off over other Sunday.
"These people is God -like. They goes to church ever Sunday, and
to prayer meetin', too. You never see 'em set down to eat without sayin'
a blessin'. They got two fine head o' chillun. Just as nice and polite
as any I ever see.
"You know Mis' Sallie is forewoman of a semi& room project. She
must have a sight in that room. I laughs at the things she tells me some-
time.
"She say ever since she been there, she halter get up and make this
same speech ever mornin':
"'Now, Ladies, there is to be no smoking, chewin', or dippin' on the
project. Anybody caught disobeyin' these rules will be cut off.'
"But Lis' Sallie so good, she makes sho' not to catch 'em. She sho'
had to shut her eyes one time, though. It was a Monday mornin', and she
wasn't feelin' so good. Reckon her nerves was jus' shot. She called the
nurse and told her to go through all the machine drawers. Told the ladies
to jus' set still. When the nurse got to old Mis' Minnie Grime's machine,
that old lady got to shakin' like a leaf. Made out one of the drawers was
stuck. But the nurse took it and give it a jerk. She found Mrs. GrimPs'
tobacco and, what's more, a jar o' tobacco juice. Mis' Linnie jus' cried
and carried on, and Leine didn't have the heart to do nothin' to the
poor soul. She been chewin' all her life. Reckon that's 'bout all the
pleasure she gets.
"Mis' Sallie said she use to start the day off by readin' the Scrip-
ture and sayin' the Lord's Prayer. Seem like that done 'em all good. But
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she got orders from headquarters to cut it out. Said they was there
to work and not to pray. There wasn't no time for such as that. If they
didn't turn out two and three pair o' pants a day, all the prayin' in the
world wouldn't bind their jobs.
"Mis' Sallie hate it so when they make 'em quit prayin'. She said
that look so ungodly. No wonder people gettin' so tough, and jus' back-
slidin' all the time.
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4 road ain't been clear sailini, but I'm tryin' to improve my ways.
"I say go forward. If you can't go forward, it's better to balk like
a mule in a creek. Just stand still and think over the thing awhile. First
thing you know, you goin' straight. But for God's sake don't go backwards.
"has' Sallie worryine her head 'bout this relief now. She say they
gonna cut off a heap of 'em. Well, I hope they don't cut her off. If they
cuts her off, then I'll get cut off, too.
"Bud, say he hear talk o' cuttini out his project. What will the
people do? That's like wreckin' the ship in midstream befo' it gets where
it's goin'.
"Well, all I can say is trust in the Lord and pray. The Scripture say
prayer will sho' take us where we goin'. And I'm bound for the Promise Land."