Document text
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TOL1481
We Eat Good
Re,corded
Writers' Section Fits
It
1.)
joe Tvalle has a sign in his field. A w:Ite-washed
plank nailed to a broom han[Ile noses up above the yellow
of butt-rcups anJ reads- Joe Lavolle. Berle° for tale
Pick them Yovrself, MS.
The July sun is hot. lurninL hot. Joe Lavalle sits
on t. e running board of ,is carobloting his viet,leathery
face with a biL blue han&erchief. Ten feet away is his
woodsLed lean-to, a shaded spot under a giant spruce wheA)
Joe could sit in the comforting cool. But from there he
woild not be able to watch the Connecticut couple w:1) are
bending over the bery plants taking advantage of the
Pick tern "ourself, tab'.
beo drones dully around Joe's ear. :le slaps at
it lazily with a damp, calloused palm. "The old lady
says I'm a damfool. Dunlo but Idaybe sLy's right. I try
to spare myself a lotto hard work in t:e sun by charginT
'em a nIcLel less to pick 'en t:-,emselves, but dam' if
'tain't just as hot sittin' here watchint em.
"There's them ti:at don't need watc.inl," Joe admitted,
"but Llye sono a chance and they'l steal the heart out
of you. I(DCI, I know. Last wo,k t ree girls drove up.
7rou ::arshfield they said the-.; was. ;,anted to pick
three baskets, tAay sal. Toy :1:ve LA) a del-lir and I
tell tem to Lp ahead tinc. pick, I'd be along with the
cange. Pretty 300'.1 I hear the girls tootin' the horn
2.
for their change. They'd filled their baskets heapine
high. That's all right. Let 'am fill 'em as high as
they want. I'd do the same* But then I spy two of those
colored handkerchief things they'd becm wearint round
their heads, layint on the floor they was, bulging with
berries and leakint juice tibeat hell. Noll, they was
all squashed anyway, so I let it go. But I wanted to
let 'em know I was wise. When they drove away I yelled,
'It's the first time I've had three sneakint female berry
thieves in my patch all t'once.' I gotta kick out of
seeint their faces red up."
Joe was keeping his eyes on the Connecticut customers*
"Look at lam," be exclaimed. "They don't know bow to
pick. Bendint like that straight from their hips, the
damfools'll have a backache for the rest of the week.
tell 'em before they start, but it don't do no good*
They ought& put one foot fortard a little, and then sort
of squat. That way's easier and it don't break your
back*"
Joe Lavelle was disgusted. !At spat on the dry road*
A small cloud of dust stirred up in the rut. "God,
they's ignorant foolsI When you've had to dig your eats
from the dirt as long as 1 have you learn to be good to
your back. You got only one back. It's got to last a
long time. Millie learned* That's my wife. She'd
never been on a farm till she married with me. Mill
people, her folks were. Eery too. From Montreal. My
folks, now they came from Canada, too. St. Jean. They
been farmers as far back as I know. Not big, rich farmers.
They allus had too many mouths to feed. But they'd eat
good. Everything loept their clothes come right off the
farm.
"It was m7 old man got the bug to oome to Vermont.
'Twas round '21, just before the big granite strike in
Barre. Lots of French farmers was comint down round
that time. Word went round they wasn't doin' so bad.
Wells right then the farm wasn't dein' so good. For a
couple of years the old man had been prickinl up his ears
every time he heard of a good place to move to. There
was too many of us on that farm. We slept three and four
together and fought like hell all the time. Let's see,
fourteen there was and the house lust big enough for five.
Yy aunt and uncle and their three kids. My father and
not or and five of us. My grandfather and grandmother.
We could& stood the beinl jammed in, it was the pickin"
and fightin' all the time. V:y Uncle Joe'd got a job off
the farm, workin, for a furrier in town. Every pay day
he'd give the Lrandfather a little cash. Livin' as we
did off the farm we didn't see much money. That little
bit of cash kinda turned my grandfather's head, le got
to favorin' Uncle Joe. Mips I was named after him. It
made no difference that my old man worLed off twice as
much and more than what my Uncle turned over to the old
folks. De couldn't see it. All he could see was that
cash. Come the time when my father and mother was ousted
4.
from their roam (two windows it had) and put in my uncle's
room. My aunt ne,ded it, the old folks said, to have her
third young one in. Though the other roped been good
enough for her first two. Come the time when us young
ones was made to do the harder chores, leavinl the easy
ones for the cousins. Pat's when the old man made up
his mind. 'Come on,' he said, 'we're got& to Vermont.'
And we did, 'Twee the first tire any of us young ones'd
been in a train. Most twenty years ago. I remember
the old man sayin' to my mother while he was pilin' us
in the train, 'Vella, Flora, we can't blame the old man
too much. Ho never had much money to rattle in his pants.
Poor folks ain't to be blamed in the head when they get
moneyed all of a sudden.'
"up tiere in our country the farms ain't too close
together. 14here they all chip in and make their livint
off the ground, the boys grow up and marry and they keep
right on workin' there, most of tem. Just put a double
bed in the bedroom and a pair of new curtains, that's
all. I knew farmers up there keepin' four sons, and
each with a wife and kids. Seen it done 'round here,
too, not so much. Vp Eall's Brook outside Barre.
Three famolies livint with the old man. There'd been
two more a few years back. But the old van give 'em
each a corner of the pasture and they up and built for
themselves. They's only six families now in :Lall's
Brook, not countin* thl old man."
5.
The Connecticut couple were leaving the berry field.
The man carried the baskets. Two of them. The woman
smiled faintly as she passed Joe on her way to the trailer.
In a few minutes she returned with empty baskets. "Here,"
she said to Joe, "12110 them again." Joe Lavelle caned,
"Hope to see you again," and tamped a pipeful of tobacco.
He shifted over to the shady porch where bean vines
had already twined half way up their string supports.
"Stonecuttinl?u he drawled. "Hell, sure I've done stone-
cuttinl. Not much. But enough. They's dam few laborers
pop into Barre or Montpelier that don't got a taste of
stonecuttin' some time or other I mean them that ain't
already got jobs waitin' for 'em when they get here.
The old man tried its I did. Never got higher than
packer and pick-up man, but that was enough for me.
Rather have my hands in good rich dirt than in stone
dust. You get a livint from one, and a kiln' from the
other. I seen it lotta times. So 's quick as I could
get out, I got out. Got a job here with Milliels boss.
Farmhand I was. Got dam little pay, but plenty of good
oats.
eMillield come three miles twice a week, from Barre,
to help with the house works That's Low I come to know
her. I'd been here less'n a year when we got married.
The farmer here said he could use her every day if she
stayed. We figured it was a good thing. Put both our
pay together and it vas pretty good. The boss didn't
O.
live very long after his wife died. The farm went to a
nephew down Brattleboro way. Sold it to us cheap, on
easy payments. It's all ours now, such as 'tie. floods
paintin' and plenty of repairs. We can't afford that.
But we eat good. Yessir. That's all that counts. And
I guess the old roofill hang on 'till Millie and me
kick off.
"The kids re all married. !harried kinds young.
Just three we got. Three girls. Only one of 'em had
brains to marry a farmer. I allus tell her, 'Mary, you
may not have the fancy clothes Emma and Irene got, but,
by Cod, you'll have plenty to eat, and nobody else's
leavin's.
"Ile got a niece with us. She's a big help to gillie.
her folks' re in Barre. She got in a mess there a year
ago with a fellow *arks in a arocery store. Wasn't
makint enough to marry her, he says, but he'd be willinl
to pay a doctor to fix her up. She was so scairt and
feelin' low that she let him take her to the doctor's
house. But she come to then, wouldn't let the old fool
touch her. After a while Judy got 'shamed to show her
fa*, in town. She had her baby down country and left
it there to be 'dopted.
"The granite business's pretty near shot tlhell
'round here, so they say. Ti ere was a time when you
wouldn't see any of 'em loafin' ant welkin' the streets
e they are now. The business's all changed. Was
the time when everybody was granite crazy. Salesmenld
go out I don't mean on the road like they do today
I mean from house to house, like peddlers. Tryinl to
sell their monuments and markers.
"Was one come up here years ago. Slick with his
tongue, be was. Millie was upstairs 'Patin/ to have
the second girl, Mary. Expectini to have it any time
when this damn salesman walks in. Showed me all kinds
of memorials. Drawints„ they were. No prices on Ism.
I figured they'd charge accordinl to the size of the
customer's pocketbook. I told him I wasn't interested,
but be talked on /bout how a man should get his own
memorial when he can, see inl maybe 30 one else/11 bother
after you're gone. He dug out drawin/ after drawinl.
Wasn't any stoppint that fella. 14 picks out a small
one be figures I can afford. It just stands two feet
high with grape vines over the top of it. /Grape vines
are nice,/ he says. /They stand for faith and bein/
fruitful. Most of the best high priced stones got grape
vines now./
"Well, I got to thinkinl /bout Millie upstairs sick
and waitinl, I grabbed those pictures and stuffed tom
in his hands any which way. Listen, I said, get those
damn pictures and that slick tongue of yours offtm my
farm. You don't need faith when you' re dead, and how
in hell you gonna be fruitful when you're stiff as a
beanpole under six feet of dirt?'