Document text
Approximately 2250 words
SOUTH CAROLINA WRITERS' PROJECT
Life History
TITLE* HOW MRS. REDMOND CAME TO BE IN THE
APNRTM711 HZSE BUSINESS.
Date of First Writing December 8,1938
Name of Person Interviewed Mts. S. C. Schi11 ,(white)
Fictitious Name Mrs. Redmond
Street Address 49 Smith Street
Place Charleston, S.C.
Occupation Apartment House Keeper
Name of Writer Rose Workman
Name of Reviser State Office
Project #.165,5
Rose D. Workman
Charleston, S.
HUI;
h
Approx. 2350 Words.
IIUNi CAME To h IN THE APAitTMENT
HCUSE BUSINESS, CHARLESTON, S. C.
Mrs. Redmond's glossy dark hair was simply coiled in a knot
an her neck, and a black cord fell from her smart, new -fashioned
glasses down upon the blouse of her crimson knitted suit. Her
manner in greeting was gentle and quiet, while her palpable look.
ing hands with their long, spatulate fingers were busy with the
knitting needles. Under them a crimson and black afghan was
slowly increasing in size.
In her deep, calm voice, which somehow seemed the perfect
counterpart of those strong, well -modeled hands, she said:
"You want to know how I came to be in the apartment house
business?
"Well, my husband is a railroad man. We came here from
Florida sixteen years ago. But although I was iorn down there,
my father was a native South Carolinian, and fought under Wade
Hampton in the Reconstruction Da,s, (War Between the States.)
When I was a child he used to tell me of a book that had been
written about him and his brother, and named after the horse my
father rode at that time. I found the book in a library once,
and tock it hone and read it.
"Be has often told me now Wade Hampton would say:
"Bill, protect the women and children./
"Father was born in 1840, and after the war went down to
Florida, where he made his living, hunting, fishing and trapping.
The pillows I sleep on law are filled with the feathers from some
of the 'plumaged birds' he killed then. He stayed down in the
Project #-1655
Rose 1. Workman
Charleston, S. C.
Florida wilds for over forty years without ever coming back to
Carolina. But he loved his native state and I often think how
happy he would be to know that his daughter and grandchildren
are living here toda.
the nation-wide strike of 1918, I believe it was, my
husband came here to work as a oar repairman at the railroad yard
I brought my three little children and we settled down in a small
apartment, rather crowded, but glpd to be together.
"Moving round from one apartment to another, it seemed to us
from the prices people wanted for them, they must be making plenty
of mo.ey. If they could do it, why couldn't we?
"I sat down and thought things out. Here we were, paying out
130 the rirst of every month, for three small furnished rooms,
All right then. I would find an apartment unfurnished, for $20,
and put the other nO on some furniture. We'd make a start that
way. So I found one, and paid down a month's rent in advance.
"Ilut now I had _iven ul) the old flarmtshed apartment, and had
to nove into the new one in the morning. And we didn't have even
a bed to sleep on. What should we do for furniture?
Ihe or
just how to
the Lrocer,
having borrowed any !Ioney afore, I didn't realize
,o about askir, the bank for a loan. So T went to
to a former landlord, and a f. other people whom I
knew, and a-ked them for rAserenoes. They wrote out little let-
ters for es and I took them to the bank, laid them down on the
window and said:
Project #..135E
Rose To Workman
Charleston,
"Will you let have 4130, please, right away?"
"I know now how surprised the young man must have been, but
he just said that these things took time and they would have to
make intestigations before advanong me any money; that it mi ht
take two or three weeks.
"T. said, two or three weeks! I have to move tomorrow, and
I haven't a bed to sleep on.'
T walked out of the bank, and called on the grower. I
said to hi
Vill yon lend me 430 to furnish an apartment? I have to
have it riit away. don't have a bed to sleep on even.'
"He just said* 'All right.'
"o ILot the money, and went down town and. Add out enough
cash to furnish three rooms on the instalment plan.
iAy husband was than makinn 0.25. I rented the front room
for 12. That left us a bed room, kitchen, bath, and an attic
upstairs fol, storane.
"flntin that front room was the begtnninL of our apart'zent
house Uusiness.
"oon the town was crowded. The A.eet was here. .0eople
couldi,ft f ,Aaces to stay. .'rices went up. Some one came in
and asked for a room. ":e moved up to the atti,-. and rented the
bedroom for $7 a week, with privile es of the kitchen. The
children were small, and the bath ro,7,11 was big. We made closets
in the bathroom and used it as a dressing room.
Project -1655
Pose T..:or#man
Charleston, S. C.
Pace 4
"3onn the man in the front room moved out, and we rented
that to another couple at a hieher rent, with kitchen privi-
leces, also. There we were, with three families all using
the sare kitchen. 'Put we got &Ink:: fine, and I started to
have 2v two 1.de7 children taught =sic.
"Then we decided to take a large place. We moved and have
beer- there for rine years this coming- Mardi.
"My husband's salary was soon cut to $108. We were paying
t.50 cut of that 0105 for rent, We had seventeen rooms and fur*.
niture for three,
"One day my iusband came In and said: 'People are sleep'.
the floor. The hotels are crowded.'
"T rl-'hed nut and boujht enough furniture to rix up the
frort roou r first tencnts were two ladies who paid me 43
a Iht. Mvhusband said:
171.17 don't ynv send Jasper down to the hotels: They are
turnirL nfr
"Jaser was my boy. Ye lime then about fourteen years n3d.
Me had a sweet little face, and thou01. he was blind in ore eye,
it didn't hurt his looks any. And he had pretty, big white
teeth,
"Prom then on, after Jasper had come from school in the
afternoons, and 4ot his lessons for the next day, he would make
himself meat and ao stand on the hotel steps. An when he heard
people eorJaintnL that they couldn't find any place Lo _o, he
:T.o.joct i?-165,5
:.:ose .:oran
,aries ton, t"." C o
Pa:e 5
would „Jut his head on one side in the cute way he had, and show
those 1316, shining white teeth, and say:
can take you to a nice private home.'
"Yhen they'd ask, Whose home!' Feld answer, 'My Mother's.'
"Then he'd get in the oar and ride with them to the house.
"Sometimes when they zot there, they wouldn't want to come
in, because it looked so shabby outside, like lots of the old
houses here, and he would say:
'If you would leave your wife in tho Air, and corle inside,
you'd see how lice and clean my mother keeps it.'
"And lots of times they would come in, and when they did,
the sta7edo
"I rememer lots f funny things about those first hard
years. One tint, I k:ww .1•0 I never could have made it alone
without my husbands' Aelp.
"One time the town was so crowd -d I had every room in
the house full.
husband anti I didn't have any place to
slee?. omeone had left an -1.el broken wooden bedstead in an
outhouse. -;e draixed it out and set it up. It was so hot we
had to keep an electric fan ori all the time to make that
stu,y little place cool enouht to stay in And every nLht
that old bee w,A.41d fall down. )ru nIhtte head would come
down, The next night the foot. We lauji about it rowl
"Cur place. like lots of the old houses here, has ser-
varte' quarters out in the :4tek, with stables under the.
Project ;`1-1655
2.one
Charl. ton, C
Pae 6
Well, another time when the town was crowded* I ot some of my
boy tenants to help me, and we floored the stable with boards
from packints boxes. Then we ?lixed pink colorinz with whitewash
and tintee the walls, and my husband made tables and shelves tnd
I covered than with 0.teen oilcloth, and the first thinz I knew,
I had rented the place to a yrunc lady for $20 a month.
"That sane your lady left here and went to New York and
won a ''eauty Cntest over two hundred zirls; ipt a contract In
.ollywood, and is playin now Scandals.'
"Twent d-llars a month -wasn't so much for a furnished a-
partent, but sonlotien In the lavden Season I 6ot as much as
$5 a niht for m7 rooms. Then we would make beds on the floor*
and al- ole g in the strue room. Hut nobody minded. e were
etti aheaet
"rft,f,n I wold
the roomers breakfast and soinetes sup-
per, too, besIdes cookinc for ny own fanlly. Scvletimen T woLld
be
-I- en or fourteen 1 ours straifcht without layl
dcwy ead. All t is time ry health waa terriA.e, )11.t 7 kept
on n I hadn't tine to stop.
eId4 have nen enf:uji to chance tha beds
so w.:en umrists world c'ieck nut in the rlorn!.
and wr-ld n ri e es and erop the lir. into a
every day*
my husband
bi tub in
the back 77ardl dry the sheets, pillow cases and towels in the sun*
or if there wasn't any sr, in the wind--- and by one o'clock I'd
have them ironed and back on the bees again.
"1 had to eater to all kinds of persons. SoraetLes
Project Z -l658
ose P. 7
0:larleston, 0.
eople would stoi other tihass the ,lainest kind of fake.
only had sliAlae thi_h6s, so they must always appear to the
N)st adva.nte. And kept my house
"I'm tollint,'iov. all this to show you what people can do
if L..ey r.ake up their minds to it. We had a hard time for a.
while. Luri, those yei...rs I ad two ad6ominal operations; and
17 little irl Lac her tonsils out. All that cost us a lot of
money but we Cidn't have to Lo to the city hospital, and we
had private rooms and nurses and everything.
"I'd 1Ske to tell yol, how my little girl helped me to rent
my ro-vs in those first struu,lin
"(re aft(,rnoon 1ilad to ,o rut. it was in the midle of
the .clen, lEliali011, a A told her if anyone came, to ask them
#5 a ni;lit for the room that was vacant, but if they held out
a4;ainst payin6 that much, to lot it go for 14. hen I came
home, stilt; a 4ig Pierce•.Arrow in the yard, and two L,00d-looking
ytun takinc, out ba6-ia 0. Che of theLti called out to me:
ay, your little davc ter is a clever kid. Know what Who
told s? ...;Aos said:
Ina says the room is 45, but if that is too much, take it
for A.
a
took it for
"Today that lihAle ,irl is thirteen years of ate; my son
had a Load job, mai:inc., 0.25 a month; my oldest daughter is mak-
1116 $65; my husband is still earnin6 only $125, hut the house
averages me about $160 a month.
l'rojec -1555
:,ose r. ,oran
PaL,a a
"or I hi.tve a 60,4 servant and i don't have to do any
flard work. ”b .,ave all the coml'orts anyone could with for,
ane Alvo electric iceboxes in each apartwent; three radios,
extension phones. Our own apartIllent consists of three bed.roo:„ kitchen, oath, dining and living room.
pe 1:ave or own car and enjoy taking long drives on
Zunay a4.ternoons, and zaking trips back home to see my hus.•
bands' people in sotilaes. We're going down next
rTiday, instead of at Christmas, as he doesn't like to be
away TOM _10143 nene
"Today I don't owe anybody a five -cent pities. e save
between i50 and 05 a month. bone seasons I've made as much
as ,00 in eight weeks, and I've never lost one month's rent
in tie twelve years I8ve asen in apartments."