Document text
A.pproximately 2,700 words
48 C
TITLE:
SOUTH CAROLINA. WRITERS' PROJECT
LIFE HISTORY
TRICKED BY GYPSIES
Date of First Writing February 1, 1939
Name of Person Interviewed Nick Janie Young (Negroes)
Fictitious Name Nick Janie Fuller
Street Address None
Place Blythewood, South Carolina
Occupation Farmers
Name of Writer Helen Shuler
Name of Reviser State Office
"Spotl Redt Shot your mouths. Ain't you got no more sense than
to keep on barking?
"Please, ma'am, if you don't min', come over here where I's =shin'.
I just gotta get dose clothes on de line."
The path to Janie's yeah bench led across last year's cotton field.
"Haw many acres we plants? Lordy, chile, I ain't know for shore,
'bout fifteen, I reckon.
"NV chillun send me money? Sometime day send some, but it ain't much.
2.
"Please, ma'am, tell no what it is you is aimin' to git at?
it seems to me de hard tines I's had bilongs to me. It ain't for anyone
else to know.
"Oh, yes, ma'am, 'bout dem gypsies now. Dat was de awfullest,thigg.
One day I was a settle dere in de house just a sufferie wid my rheumatism,
and dose two women and a man drive up to de door. De mauves a-drivie de
autymobile, and he ain't crack he mout' to say nothie. De woman come in
de house. Dey tell me day can help me. All I gotta do is give 'em a lit-
tle sumpie. Dey puts deir arms 'round me and honey no up. Den day ask
me for what little money I has. I ain't mind givin"em dat money no more
than I mind givin' you die collar I's washin'. I just hands it out to 'em.
When I come to my mind, and dat money and all them other things done gone,
it 'most killed mo. I ain't know what day do to ma. Dey muster hypnotised
me or sumpin'. Dey drive off vrid two of my very best quilts what ain't
never been on a bed and my brand new dress what ain't even had de scissors
stuck in it. I ain't never tell Bub all day git, 'cause after it's all
gone, 'tain't gonna fetch it back to tell. Besides all dat forty or fifty
dollars and my best quilts and dress, day take two great big hams what was
hangie in de house. Each one of them hams weighed 'most forty pounds.
And, when day leave, dey say, 'Now don't say nothin' to Bub 'bout dis, or
you won't git no better. Den de nasty devils drive right an over to de
field where Bub plowin'. Dey tell him day can cure me if he will give 'em
twenty-five dollars. Bub say dey rub a little yellow powder in deir hand
and say sumpin', he ain't know what. And then dey caution him not to tell
me.
"Bub say he keep matohie no every day to see if I's better, and all
3.
de time I keep thinkia' maybe I'll be better tomorrow. But, shucks, de
pain ain't eased up none, and, anyway, I was sick in my mind 'cause I
give away so many things. Then one day Bub say he need some money, and
I has to tell him I ain't got no money. Geed dat was a time. But I
shore was glad dat Bub do de same thing I do; then he can't quarrel wid
MA•
"Yes, ma'am, dat was de awfullest thing. But de worst part was, dat
we dons borrowed dat money from de Gov'ment to buy fertilizer for de crop
and feed for de mule. It come in on a Friday, and dese gypsies come in
on Tuesday mornin'. And we gotta pay dat money back. Dat's what put us
behind las' year."
During the recital of her encounter with the gypsies, Janie's little
black ohinquapin eyes flashed fire, and her hands worked nervously with
the clothes, as she hustled from the tub to the washpot and back to the
tub again. In her bright -colored print dress, a man's old gray coat, and
with a red bandanna tied around her head, Janie, a ginger-oolored Negro,
looked very much like one of the despised gypsies.
"Haw old was we when we got married? Well, let no think. I must've
been 'bout seventeen, and Bub was most twenty-one. I shore wish you
could've seen our marriage. It shore was sweet. Na made no a white dress
and a long white net veil. Miss Langford, she give me a pair of long white
silk gloves. And she fix me a big bouquet of white flowers and tie 'am
with ribbon. Dere was such a crowd, we had de marriage out in de yard.
We put a table under de tree for de cakes. Na made a cake and ioed it all
over wid white icing. Then some of de people present no wid cakes. All
de bridesmaids detch me a cake, too. De crowd stay all afternoon, and, when
4.
no and Bub drive off, dey throw rice at us.
"Yes, ma'am, we vent right to housekeeping. Bub was hired out to
Mr. Wilson, and we went over dare to live. He paid Bub fifteen dollars
a month and give us a ramshackle old house to live in."
By now, Janie's mind had been diverted from the idea of telling of
her hardships, and she willingly revealed the story of her life with Nick.
"We could live very well with me working all de time in de field for
forty cents a day. I did anything dere was to do an a farm, teept plow.
I sow de seed, chop cotton, hoe de crop, and put down fertilizer, and do
anything else dey wants done. We work four years mid Mr. Wilsol;L and man-
aged to save enough money to buy us a mule and a wagon. Then Bub take a
notion he went to rent some land; so we move to Nr. Wall's place. And
dat year, we, work fifteen acres. He charge us one five -hundred pound bale
of cotton. But dat was de first year de weevil was so bad, and we didn't
make no cotton to speak of.
*We didn't have near enough to pay de rent. But Bub bought wood off
different places, wherever he could find it, and hauled it to Columbia.
He went three days out of every week. He would leave home between one and
two o'clock in de morning. On Saddays, I went with him and worked for a
white lady in Columbia. She just give me things. I didn't want her to
pay no no money, 'cause what she give me was worth more than what de money
would buy. When de chillun got big enough, we'd take them with us. Some-
times in de minter it would be so cold we'd have to stop 'side de road and
buil' a fire. After we sold de wood, Bub would give de chillun what he
aim for 'em to have. You know, you have to ilownce 'em out or dey want
everything dey see.
5.
We just stayed dat one year on Mr. Wall's place. Bub decided he
could do better to sharecrop. De next three years, we worked on de
Lathrop place. Bub had his mule and wagon, and we done de work. Mr.
Lathrope furnished de seed and fertilizer. Dose years we did very well.
We made plenty of corn, peas, and potatoes, and raised some hogs and a
caw. But we had very little money. Yes, ma'am, a very little money."
Nick, Janie's husband, walked leisurely down the path to the spring.
"This shore is nice cool water, Janie. You ain't got dem clothes out
yet? Here 'tis way past noon, and I hungry as I can be. I been outtin'
bushes 'round de field all mornie, and now I's ready for de rations.
"Yes, ma'am, it shore make a nice place for Janie to wash. Dem sweet
gum trees keep it cool in de summertime, and de wind can't hit you in de
winter, 'cause it down in a hollow. I box up de spring dat way to keep de
trash out. Dat spring ain't never fail us yet, no matter haw dry de weather.
"Shore, I been livin' on a farm all my life. Mk and Pt live over
dare on de Riok's place. I always had to work hard; but I liked de country
and always wanted to own my farm.
"Me and Janie been livin' first one place and den another. Sometime
we rent de land and sometime we sharecrop. But it ain't matter where we
livin', I hauls dat wood to Columbia."
"Yes, ma'am," Janie repeated, "haulin' wood is shore in it."
"De past year or two I ain't been able to haul no wood. You see,
Missy, dat mule old now, and he most done. I just hope he'll make another
crop.*
*While we was livin' dere on de Langford plaoe, Ma MMA trying to pay
for die farm. She had a hard time tryin' to keep up de taxes and gittie
6.
money to make de crops, and she had to borrow some money from us. She
give us a mortgage on de place. Pt had been dead several years, and Ma
had got married again. But her husband didn't take no interest in de farm,
and he wouldn't help her. Then Ma decided to move to Columbia, and she
turned de farm over to us. We had to pay lots of back taxes and pay de
other chillunPs interest. Sometimes I think we'll never git through mint."
"Missy, dey ain't nothint like paid yet," Nick rejoined. "And dis new
house, you calls it, ain't new atall.
*You know, I useta b' long over here to de Flat Branch Churoh. Janie,
she stick to Round Top. She wouldn't change her church. And she shore
showed wisdom, 'cause now dere ain't no Flat Branch. Our parson useta al
mays come from Columbia on preachin' Sunday. Nearly every time he's come
to our house for dinner."
"You might call it dinner, Bub, but many a time Ityan't nothin' but
bread and meat."
*Well, it ITISA sumpin' to eat, and he vas mighty glad to git it. Den
de members begin to move away. Some of 'em jined Round Top, and de few
what was left didn't come to preachin'. Sometime dere wouldn't be a soul
at de church but ma and de preacher. Den he quit comm'. De church was
dere not bein' used. So I bargained yid de few members dat was left, and
I bought de buildint for sixty dollars. I borrowed de money, and now I
done pay it all back.
"Haw I pay 'em back? Whenever I could git a day, I worked at de
sawmill. And den I helped one and another wid de farm work, and I keep
haulin' wood to Columbia. Den Janie, she work and help, too."
"I reckon I did help. I sold everything I could rake and scrape.
7.
Payint debts and raisin' eleven head of chillun ain't no joke."
"Janie is good help in de white folks kitohen, and we is always
helping mid de butcherin'. We makes it a practice to be honest and do
our work right so we can go back again. I ain't want no one to steal
even one pea from me, and I ain't want nothint dat ain't mine. I try my
best to make my chillun do de same. Men I find one take sumpin', I use
de switch ',here it do de mos' good.
"No, ma'am, dose youngest ones what's at home now go to school, but
de oldest ones didn't take to books. Dey'd ruther work on de farm, and
we shore needed tem. Dere's three of 'em up in High Point, North Carolina.
Minnie is a nurse and maid for some white folks. Sometimes dey sends me
a little money. Little Nick is married, and he works at de sawmill. Arthur
works over yonder in de dog hospital and gits five dollars a week. He helps
no a little, but can't send much. One girl is married, and de other five
are still with us. NO and Nick didn't have no chance at schoolin's and we
vented to send our chillun. Dey can all read and write, and dat's more
than we can do. We shore had a hard time gettinl all dose chillun raised.
Sometimes dere wasn't too much to eat; and we was glad when de sumnortimo
come, 'cause den we didn't need much clothes. De good Lord keep us well,
and dat shore helps. Little Janie is de onliest one what had any trouble
to 'mount to anything. Her tonsils was bad, and we had to take her to de
clinic. Dey claim dey cut 'em out. But I ain't know, 'cause her throat
bleeds some yet."
Mile Janie finished up her meshing, Nick, sitting an an upturned
eater bucket and leaning back against a tree, told about the farm and his
crops.
8.
*We got one hundred acres in one tract, and forty acres in another.
Lordyl No,ma'am, dere ain't but forty or fifty acres cleared. De res'
is woods, mostly oaks and sweet guns and poplar/ with a few pines. MV
crops die las' past year was pretty near all failures, I planted six or
seven acres of cotton. But dare was so much rain, and de weevil eat 'em
up so bad, I ain't git but one bale. I plant my corn in de bottom lan',
'cause it de richest, and I ain't have no fertiliser. But de rains come
and drown 'em out. Den I had peas in de corn, and, when we pick leas dare
ain't but six or seven bushels. Since me and Janie give all dat money to
dem gypsies, I ain't had none to buy fertiliser. And die flat, sandy lam'
shore takes a plenty. If I could get steady work somewhere's 'til time
to start de crop, or if I could git on dat PKA, it'd shore help. Taxes
is just pilin' up. Dere must be morn'n a hundred dollars back taxes, and
I just don't see where day comin' from. And I don't know if I can borrow
from de Gov'ment again dis year or no.
"No, ma'am, I ain't never had much time for nothin' but work. Some-
time I go coon huntin' wid de white folks. I's de guide, 'cause I know
all dose woods 'round here. But I 'member one night I gits all turned
'round, and we gits lost. It's daylight before we gits home."
"Did the gypsies help the rheumatism, Janie?"
"Help? No, ma'am, dat day ain't. Right now I got a piece of red
flannin' pinned across my shoulders. When I wake up die mornin', I couldn't
hardly git my head off de pillow. Day shore never done me no good."
AGG