Document text
Approximatedly 4200 words.
SOUTH CAROLINA WRITERS' PROJECT
LIFE HISTORY
TITLE: MOTHER HEART
Date of first writings March 21,1939
Name of person interviewed: Mrs.Annie Griffin Ofittle (white)*
Fieitious names Mrs•Mamie Ankle
Places eandsor Place,Charleston Countys3.0.
Occupations Housewife.
Name of vritert Rose D.Workman
*Although the small grandson attends the white school, Mrs. Cattle
is thought to have Indian blood in her veins, and is often spoken
of in the community as a "Brass Ankle."
Project 1655
Rose D.Workman,
Charlestons3.C.
March 21,1939
NOTFfER HEART
Life History
As the Health Nurse brought her car to a stop before
the little green cottage, the elder of the two women sitting
on the porch, laid down her pipe and came down the rickety
steps to meet her, brim eyes shining. A wideonaggle-toothed
smile lighted up her tawny countenanee.-The other womanobig
blowsy,barefooted, set down the child whom she had been holding
in her lapeand silently disappeared within the house.
"Good morning, Neale," said the Health Nurse pleasant-
ly. "How're you getting on these days? I hadn't heard a word
from you for so long I though Ifd better come out and see if
you were still alive. Haven't seen your name in the death
columns tet,though," she ended with a chuckle.
"Notm4 we're all right welloant that's a fact-loeptint
me. I been having nother spell o risin's. Look -a -here. She
pointed with a grubby hand to her throatowhere a piece of
soiled calico covered a small hilly knot near the shoulder bone.
'Had five more since you been out. Sho hope this -here's the
last ol the crop, eausen they hurt like pison."
"Golly!" said NM's* Grips, lifting the bandage and
gaging critically at the angry flesh beneath the bit of calico.
"But you know, Aamie, I told you the last time I was out here
you simply must have all those bobten old teeth pulled out.
Project 1655
Rose D.workman„
Charleston,3.C.
Mardi 21,1939
MOTHER HEART
Life History
Page 2.
They're poisoning your whole system. Why havantt you done
it, Mamie?" the scolded.
"well, Its Crisp, you see, it's like this," said
Mamie, resting her lean brown arms on the car door, and
preparing for a good, long chat. "I did have three pulled
a couple months ago. But the dentist charged as dollar a.
piess for them, and I °anti: afford to have no more yanked
for a while. Couldn't a had those out, hadn't boon the
tsuranoe man kept my book up for as, sots I could pay the
dentist stead ot him, till Bill's next Check came in.
"But, Mis Crisp. What I want to know is this.
Bow come the old folks aint go to no dentists, ant yet
'Opt so well ant husky like they dons? Whim my grandpop
died, age of one hundred sixteen years, all his teeth be
like pawls, so whits an shiny, ant he never been to no
dentist in his life. My ma lived to be seventy-four.
Whenever she want a tooth out, she just wrap a piece ot
string round the riektty one, ant git one of us Chillins
to hold on to it. 4eld go ono way; she'd go tother.. No,
Matam, it didntt cost nothing to pull tooth in thou days.
But nobody had tem all snatched outen their jaws at once,
the way doctors do poor critters now.
Project 1688 Life History
Hose D.vvorkman,
Charleston,S.C. Page 3.
MOTHER HEART
"Ant the old folks use to live for a longolong time,
an' they never had no knife stuck into their innards, by no
doctors. How come that, Mis Crisp?" the blue eyes twinkled.
"1 member my granded just slept away, till one night the
breath left his body. Ant my grandmother was eighty-six when
the died; she had some sort ol kidney trouble, ant sometimes
she'd just kinds clutch herself in the back, an' scream with
agony. But the never done nothin, 'bout it.
"No, Ma'am, I don't hold for no doctors. The Bible
says )hat all medicine in filthy, and what the Bible mays,
believe."
"But Howie," said the nurse," God wouldn't have
given us drugs and doctors if He had not meant for us to use
them. You come into the clinic some day and let one of the
nice young doctors check you over. You don't look well,Mamie,
honestly you don't. Your lips are purple," she continuedeas
she tilt the old woman's pulse with her own strongoihite fingers.
"Nem, ant I ain't (eel well, neither, that's a fact.
All that hard work 'l done in the fields in my young days tellin,
on me now. Seems like the cold luso creep into al bones, till
ache all over with the rheumatics. It's this -here age that's
got se. You know bow 'tin with a woman when she gits to be a
certain age? 4011, that's the trouble with me now.
Projeot 1658
Rose D. Work,
Charleston„ 8.C.
MOTHER HURT
Zdte History
Page 4*
"Not No medicine aint gain' hip me none, so you
just shut up your little bag. It's just this age got to year
off. But come on in, honey, ant set awhile. Rosalind, she
done go Ala= to the fields soon as ever the sense you coming.
She deaf0duMb, an, blind, you knoweant she done like for to
have comptny. Sometimes it mek her so mad when folks come by,
the butt her head gin the wall till they get seared ant go.
But I lust says
'Butt on, my gal„butt ant'
"Nowenow, you don't have to worry none 'bout Romp.
lind, Mis Crisp. She gain' stop buttint fore she hurt herself
too bad."
"Bute auttinly„ Mis Crisp, I treat her good. Ain't
I take her in when she be left* motherless orfinedeaf, dumb
and blind, sixteen years agot Ain't I raise her long with
my own leven head ot young-une I just don' worry none when
I hear her startint to butt.
wYktasjm, Itsse had leven younrmuns. De Devil, he
had a grudge tgainst me, ant took it out in ohillunss But
'sides that leven head I took in four others, ant raise tem
like my own. Itse got what the olit folks use to Gall a
'mother heart.' My heart just turn to water when I see a
young-un suffering.
Project 1685 Life history
Rose D. Workman,
Charloston„S.C. Page S.
MOTHER HEART
"I wus a Idopted chile myself. My daddy wus sawmill
man, but he got killed in an axIdent when I was just a little
gal in Dorth'ster County, ant my grandma took me an' my brother
to raise. When she dies, my brother ant me kep onstayin, together,
cause he say it wouldn't be right for him to marry ant go leave
me alone; or to bring in some woman who Robbie wouldq't like me.
He say we both better git married the same time. So one Saturday
night I marry; ant come Thursday, he took himself a wife.
"My husband 'us a sawmill mangtoo, He wus Eakin'
seventy-five cents a day Chen we marry. But he warn't no vaunt,
Mis Crisp. He'd go off stay a year, or a year ant a half at a
time. Just disappear when the notionld strike him. Then some
mornin, there he'd be, back again, mann' for breakfast, just
like he never been way at all. But he stay round long enough
to gime them lemon head of chilluns, though he didn't never
take no sponsibility toward raisin' "em.
"I *int never been to school a day in my life, Wis.
Crisp," said Mamie. "But I did want for my &Mune to git a
edication, Gausen they all got level heads on tem, ant could
they have learned a trade, they'd a made a good livings for
themselves. But when they wus little I use to live way out
in the country, too far for them to walk to the schoolhouse,
even if I could& got clothes for them to wear, or bought their
lesson books. But a -course, I couldn't do neither of them things,
Project 1658
Rose D. Workman,
Oharleston,S.O.
MOTHER HEART
Life History
Page 6.
It took all the forty or fifty eents I made a day cuttin'
cabbage or plain' cucumbers on the truck farm., to feed
them hungry mouths, much less fillin their heads with
learninl.
"Sometimes I'd pick up potatoes. Z my lone self
have picked up twenty-one barrels in a day, working from
sun -up to sun -set. Those times I've made as much as seventy
five cents, but most times, forty cents a day wus my limit.
"All the well-to-do folks round the island section
know Mamie Ankle; Mamie boasted," and there aint one soul
in this -here world can say I ever done a dishonorable thing,
or made a dishonest dollar. When times wus extra hard, they'd
gimes their washin's but not too often,causen they'd rather
the colored folks would do the washin's an' house work. But
they gimme old clothes for the chilluns„ an' help me out in
lots ol ways When I'd be earryin, one of the babies,a0 not
able to do much outdo' work.
"Tell me, Mamiel" The Health Nurse was always interesi-
ed when babies were mentioned, "Did you raise all your children?"
I lost two head," said Mamie,"but some ways or
other I managed to raise all the rest; an' I managed, toopto
gen' four of them to school for two terms; but the rest like
me, aint never had a day's sehoolini in their lives. They're
all married ant scattered now," the sighed,"Iceptin Lily.
Project 1855
Roes D.Workman„
Charleston,S.C.
11001111 HEART
Life History
Page 7.
She died when little Jim was born. I aint got nary a one at
home with we now."
"Nene Roselind's dat little blind gal I been tellin'
you 'bout that I take in when her own ma dies, when she was jus'
a wee un herself. That's she baby you holdin, in your lap now.
Yeas, IM4 'Bout three years ago I went over to work in a hotel
in Lake City, an' I leave Rosalind home with my two youngest.
when I come back I notice Rose mighty fat an0 pretty, but I
aint think nothint out the way. Then she begin to hole her
hen' to her cheek all the time, so I took her to the dentist.
The dentist give her one good look an' say:
'Mill Ankle, you bes' take this gal to the doctor sols
he can say if 'tie safe for we to work on her teeth. This galls
pregnant.'
"/411, sho nut, kis Orisp. Some son -of -a -gun done come
while I off in Lake City, an' take 'vantage of that gal. dhen
I ask her who the chili's father, all she done is make a motion
like somebody drivin' a car. That's all she know. Mud Mrs.Ankle
shook her fist revengefully after a car disappearing into the
distance beyond the railroad track.
"Was it a white man, Mamie or a colored man, do you
think?" asked the Health Nurse, keenly interested.
Projeot 1656
Rose D. 4orkman„
Charleston„S.C.
MOTHER HEART
Life Histort
Page 6.
"I don know no moo than I luso told you,Mis Crisp,"
said Mamie. "You ean look at the chile an' judge for yourself;
but he white as a little li$y„ that all I Oft say. The baby
blind,too,when he been born,jusl like its ma," She went on,
"but I took it to the hospital, ant they optrated on its head.
Out a great long gash an' drain out all the pus, an' when they
brung it back it could see all right. The government 'lows me
eight dollars a month for Rosalind an' the baby Ai"
"why, course, Is bringinl up the Baby, Mix Crisp,"
said Mamie indignantly. shat you thinkin" bout, anyway? Aint
that child been born in my hands? I raise him with a teaspoon,
on condensed milk. I had a horse them, ant I sell it, an' pay
fifteen dollars to the nuss, an' fifteen to the man doctor who
tended Rosalind.
"Now, taint no use your hurryinl off, Mix Crisp,"
said Mamie, as the nunse rose from the old pohch rocker where
the had been sitting examining the baby's teeth, eyestand hair,
as Mamie chatted. "I aint got nothint to do till mid afternoon
when I starts cookinl Bill's supper. It don' take no great time,
Oither,to cook what little we folks has to sat. 441 usually oats
butts meat an' rice for supper, ant if I'm lucky, we has some
sort of vegetubbles, am' maybe a little stewed peaches or such
dos
Project 1655
Rose D. Workman,
Charleston, S.C.
MOTHER HEART
Life History
Page 9.
"Noon', we done set no table. I just dish up the
victuals oaten the pot an' give oath youneun his rations in
his own tin plate. 'Here's your food. Come ant git it, I say,
ant they takes it outen the porch, or gather round the stove,
'cording to the weather.
"I she wish I could give gem the aorta food you tell
me they aught to have when you been out here last timeddis
Crisp. But best I can do is give gem nough to keep gem from
starvintl. I claps to goodness, I don' know what It*'a-done
without that boy Billy, What I took in when he was just a
little orfin chile. You 'member Mla erlep, how you hop him get
that laborer job at the Navy Yard last year? Well, Billy's a
goda worker, ant he's gitting twenty-six dollars an' twenty-
five cents every two weeks now, as carpenter's helper. He don'
even git the check cashed, but jusg turns it over to me entire,
every pay day. This the way I manage my money, !Us Crisp.
61 the month check I pays the rent, ant buys
the wood for the eooksteve. I pays twelve dollars for this
little four room cottage. Then I pays the tsuranee policies.
got jusg nough Isuraaao on as an' the four head what live
with me- Rosolind; her baby-Dodie, we calls him-; Billy; an'
Tnother little orfin grandohile, Jimmie Brown,what Igse bring-
ing up- to put us away in case og death,
Project 1655
Rose D, Viorkman„
Charleston, S.C.
MOTHEL HEI
Life History
Page 10.
"Jimmie's +right, and goes to Gilboa regslar every
day. I wish to goodness, though, Mis Crisp, they'd give that
chile what they call 'tree lundhl causen be can't understand
how tie other chilluns git big bowls of soup an' cups o cocoa,
an' he with his little stomach growlin0 out loud he so hongry,
got to sten' by an' look.
"But I 'pus Ulan' you how I manages my money, is
Crisp. .411, outen the fifteenth o the month oheck I buys
what little groceries we got to have for the month ahead
butts moat, coffee, rioe and mach. Then I pays the vstallments
on the furniture... Come in ant see my new wood rang*, an the
gran' kitchen cabinet I done bought sines you wus here last.
Range cost me forty dollars, and cabinet cost twenty-six
lairs an' fifty cents. I pays one dollar on sash 0 them every
Saturday night. Aint that white =alma slick? All you got to
do to keep it white ant shining is wipe it with a damp rag,
ent it comsat up so clear an' pretty you can see your face in
it, ant that's a fact.
'v411„thenouton that same check,I haste buy what
clothes we jug' natehully got to have. Ant sti.00urite Billy's
got to have some little money for imusementstand for transpsta.
tion to his work. h body dons have much of his wages left come
payday night," she aided ruefully.
Project WS
Rose D. Workman,
uharleston,S.C.
MOTHER HEART
Life Eistory
Page 11.
"I's* she glad you come today, steadin tomorrow,
Mix Crisp," Esmil started off again," esusen tomorrow I goes
down to the cross-roads to meet the government truck. Once a
month they bring us out a few little fmoditiesf they *ells
them. Las' month they brang us three sounds butter: two -twenty
four pound sacks of flour; four pecks dried peadhestanf twelve
cans of cream. Taint much, but it all helps.
"Mamie," broke in the Health Lune," tell me this.
Suppose the government were to stop giving you these groceries.
would it make much difference' to you really, or would you get
along all right without it?
Mamiefs copper -tinted face broke into a sunburst of
wrinkles as the smiled her happy,enagglewtoothed smile again:
"Well, ma'am," she dhualed,"taint no use tellinf
you a lie. If the govfment ever stopped givinfs us those
fmodities, I'd jusf make same other arrangements. I aint gel&
let the stomach starve. The rent mangd have to do without.
it's easy to move, you know, but it aint so easy to let the
stomach growl.
,Bat some look at ay pretty new blankets," she said,
and led the way into the front room, whore a bright green blan-
ket covered the big double bed, quilt-like."Isse buying four
co" them, from a lady what eases out here with household goods.
1 pay twenty-five cents a -piece for each of them every Saturday
night. See, this -a -one in hoselindfs room is what they calls an,
Project 1655
Rose D. Workman,
Charleston„5.C.
MOTHER HEART
Lics History
Page 12.
'Indian blanket.' She an' her little boy sleep in hersmo use
to give her no dresser nor mirror, **use the Gantt see, so I
puts the only bureau in Billy's room. Right now, though, sw
son-in-law, Jesse Jones, is sleepinf in thereptill he can find
some place to stay fvenient to his work. He ant his wife ant
little young-un has that room tem,frarily„ an' Bill's sleepinf
in the other bed in Roselindfs room. It don' make no diffrunce,
puttinf them in the same room, cause Rosalind ean't see, an'
Bill sho aint going bother none bout that blind gal. Little
Jimmie sleeps with me in the front room.
"Didn't you notice the curtains What I got up at
the windows in my room, Mis Crisp?" Her toil worn hand gestured
proudly toward the limp, dejected strips of muslin hanging from
the two undhaded windows in the big, room bare except for the
bed, chair, and one or two brightly colored calendars tacked
upon the walls.
"Them's the fusf curtains over been up in any house
of mine," she gloated, her blue eyes shining with housewifely
pride.
"Hit sho is nice to have you drop in for a spell like
this," Mamie continued, as she squatted on the top 'Imp of the
rickety porch, and began to smooth. the wrinkles from a pile of
freshly washed diapers with her strong, flat -iron hands. Mrs.
Crisp settled herself in the creaking old rocker again, after
her tour of inspection through the housetand began to twist swabs
irOject 1665
Rose D.Workmans
CharlestonsS.C.
MOTHER HURT
Life History
Page 16
of cotton about thin little sticks, setting them asides with a
bottle of some dark ointments to be left for the treatment of
Mamie's "risings."
"Most days I don' have nothinl to do cep rook ant
rooks" Mamie went on. "I gits up at crack ol days ant cooks
the butt meat ant grits for the dhillunst breakfasts ant brings
the coffee to a bile. I packs up a little lunch of bologna ant
bread for Billy to take with him to works ant I starts little
Jimmie off to school. Then taint nothint to do till time come
round to cook suppers Gauen we don' worry bout no midday meals
Mis Crisp. ye just pick up a snack /hen we feel like a bite.
"Twice a week I washem up the kitdhen..4o, ant every
day I rubs out a little washints causen we dont have enough to
last us lessen I washes as they takes off. Most times I washes
out Jimmy's overalls at nights so ts he can have them clean to
put on in the mornint.
Then some days I does a little mondial; ant a -courses
I tends the Baby. But that's just 'bout all I finds to dosand
time sho hangs heavy sometimes."
"Picture shower Mis Crisp! Shame on yout I aint never
seen no picture shows ant I don' hanker to see one while life
lasts. No, I done promise my Lewd if He be so kind as to let
me raise my chilluns like they should be raised, I'd never grieve
after no wardly treasures.
Project 1666
Roe* D.Workmen,
Obarleston,S.C.
MOTHXR HSART
Life History
Page 14.
"All I want is a comfortable plass to stay, a bed to
sleep in, ant something to oat. I put my faith in God, ant He
will he', as to go on higher.
"1 goes to the Holiness Church on Sundays, ant weekday*,
too, come they have meetints. That preacher what they got now is
she powerful in prayer, Mis Crisp. Last year, when I be so sick
with that ruin' on my hant ant my fever just soar up, he hear
'bout me, an/ he come out long with two of the ladles what sing
be& the altar. Ant he wrestle in prayer, Mis Crisp! He pray
over we for hour ant a half, ant when he done, I just sit up in
ttc bed, an stay: 'Coffee, please,' though I aint touched food
nor drink for eight days gone. Ant from that minute I started to
git well. That the kint ot doctor I believes in Min Crisp no
offense meant to you, Was*
"Hera, mash that fly," said !Jamie, lathing out with a
diaper in the direotion of a big horsefly which had come to rest
on the nurse's instop."Clare to goodness, Mr. Lamb, the man what
owns this house, ought to be right smart shamed of hisself.
He don' gime nary a screen, an' in summer the flies ant mosquitoes
like to oat us up,"
we don' have no indot water, nor tlectrie lights,
neither. But Billy he dug we a well last year. See out there,
book ot the house? 4hen we rust come here, I had to pay the
colored lady what lives at the and ot the road twentr.five Gents
Project 1655
Rose D.4orkment
CherlestonO_C.
MOTHER HEART
Life History
Page 15
a week for gatherinI water outen her pipet ant then to tote it
clear down here, 'bout quarter mile each way. Sho seems good
now, to have water right in the yardt Course in swimmer time I
still totes, eausen this here's what they call 'surface water'.
That means we's litble to catch all sorts ot disease bugs if
we drink it rummer, when the bugs le breedint. Come winter,
though, we uses the well for everlithingtwashinl000kin't ant
drink'.
"Must 'member to get some kerosene nip, fore night
fells," she said "Speck you could stop to the neon your
may out, us Crisp, ant tell 'em to send as bout two gallon
kerosene? Hit Is she a long walk there ant back, luggin, that
big eao I
"When's Ilection day, Mis Crisp?" Mamie queried an
her return from the kitchen, bringing with her the empty
kerosene tin. "I want to make better connections next time
than I don' last year. You sees beinI I can't read mar write,
Ilse got to git someone to hep as scratch my tieket. Mintiest
Ilection day, two men come up just the same time to len as
their Instance; ant each one wan' for we to scratch mine a
different way. So at lessen, I git so mad, I :us' up ant tear
my ticket cross, an' go back ant sit in the gentleman's car,
what brung me to the polls. An' I aint vote till yet. But I
know that aint the right way to dot Mis Crisp.
Project 1655
Romp D. W0211111111
Charleston,S.C.
NOTE6R WART
Life Alstory
Page 16
Canaan Mr. Roosevelt hes a good man, an' he means well, ant
the people are a lot better off now than they wus when he git
in. Those on the lang was jusg bout to starvo when he glt to
be president. Yagas„ Ma'am, he she trying to do his part,"she
concluded, puckering up her purplish lips, and shaking her
grizzled heed judiciously.
"They talks bout something waled 'security' now,"
Mamie went on. "I wish to Oawd I could be secure 0 getting
eight dollars every week that roll round, just to span' en
groceries. You aint got no notion how much they charge poor
folks out here for groeeries an' cuthl an' than I'd like to
know for she that I'd have my rent money secure fust og *oath
month. I wouldn't worry no more bout nothing, come I was **curs
bout them two things," ahs sighed.
"Oh, is you got to go, his Crisp?" Manic rose,regret-
fully. "Pore you come next time I going try to plant a posy or
two like you mention last time you been out this way. But seems
like nothing don' want for to grow out here, so hot in summer,
ant so cold in winter. Still, it would be something to look at
sometimes; taint nothing to see now gcepting the train go past,
an' a body tires seeing train smoke after a while. Lawd»a-mercy„
if that aint Roselind coming back% I dunno how that young-oen
knows, but she just seems to scent folks like a bird dog smells
Project 1665 Life History
Rose D.workmany
Charleston,S.C. Page 17
ItOTEZR
a paltridge, an she sub a cowpony dodger!" The old woman
chuckled, as the picked up her pipe from its resting place
on the piazza rail, relighted it, and stood watching and
waving until the car was lost to sight in the curve of the
road beyond the railroad tracks.