Document text
Mari Tonasi
Recorded in
Writers' Section Files
-192tr;
TAXIEG CARE OF MYSELF
*The nay I leek at it you got to have money to live, and if you can get
it without breakinz your back, so nuoh the better. Chewing sheets and polish.
ing mirrors isn't the best job in the world, but it's not the ocelot, either. 1
got this room, a little salary, and they throw in the meals, too. You can't be
too fussy, it don't pay. I'm satisfied."
It was a tor story hotel room. Mollie sat sideways an the broad window
sill. he Wes 111ree And florid. The low forehead ems almost hidden by thick,
reddish bangs. lier hands, large boned and rough were never at rest. Always
poking along the wall, the sill, the window, or at an imaginary speck of' dust
an her dross. She had strong, healthy teeth, and the wide mouth opened often
in a smile to show them.
"1 oculd pick plenty of fights with the other chamber maids, if I had a
mind to," Uellie said. "There's allays eneugh to argue about. I got enough of
that the first day I came here about five years ago. A fighting welcome I
called it. There was a couple of girls had been taking turns doing up one of
the best rooms downstairs. When the fel:ow left they found an envelope an the
bureau addressed to 210. Clamber Weld* and inside were three one dollar bills.
Well, each one swore it was for her. One even said he'd told her he was going
to leave the money for her. They got to fighting, pulling hair and slapping
each other. And that's the way I found 'en the first day 1 same here. Fighting
like mad for three dollars. Somebody finally made 'en see sense, told 'en to
split it. So they took a dollar and a half each. :he next day they wens as
good friends as if nothing had happened. but that fight kind of prepared sm. I
mind my omn business and keep things to myself as much as 1 can.
2.
"I like this better then hous-work," said. "You work in a house
.just so ion; and you feel too obliged to them. Feel as if you cot to do more
thun they ask you to do. You ;know where the State araces are halfway between
::Aarre and :IaLltpelier7 T.hut's where 1 was horn. (-4:1 a farm up the hill in bag*
of the State garaces. There was a perk up there oalled Caledonia eark. Folks
used to come up there to picnic a lot. rhole families. .bey had ',Inge and
teeter boards for the kids. met;mes we could hear their fun from the farm.
be A.ds tud sneak out of the house and over to the party. They'd always give us
something to eat.
ometi,-.ee there'd be a bunch of weps there with accordians and fiddles.
That's vast we kiked. busic and fun. Ye didn't have nothing to play music at
hone. ,-,:noe anU L1-- he's my brother, a year and a half older than mai.- cot
to pla::inc with some kids at a picnic. -ihey cave us a taste of minet the first
we ever had. heal wor wine, sour and stron. '4e had only a half class each
Lut smelled it our breath 'alien we cot hoze. be was fit to be tied, lad
as a hornet. Said he'd tell the police about those dikaiveps teaching little
kids to drink. 7e told him it was the kids who cive It to us, that cooled him
dowh IV:4 but ws still cad. Ai. didn't have it in him to do much drinking,
exoopt on holidays. c had the craving but he was just plain soared. ie own
fatter was lazed for -.Are -n account of drink inc too nuoh.
"Speakinc of Vi0p6s, py stars, they used to get an asT1 rasz.ing those days.
:t's cl'an7ed new. here's a pile of 'em here in town. i.nnest, hardworkirze and
decent. They're we1 ihed. but where I lived on the farm when 1 was a kid
there wasn't Le wop. family arow cr uhrut thr. miles. e didn't see very 3.ny
of them. a neither. Am oL. Italian 'ud drive his meat wagon up our way twice a
week eel1a meat, r-11(... ,:rN.teriws. Le had a bell in the wagon and we'd bear him
coult17, log before we' se hiL;1. d run ot from wherever we were to catch a
3.
sight of hiss. He had the longest moustenhe we kids lud ever seen. Blank and
drooping. That's changing now, tic. Therm cutting 'em off around here.
This Italian's name was Pete. We'd run down the road after his meat mon
yelling•
'Pets, kite,
The idato chest.'
"es didn't get med at us. He'd just laugh. Pa and NI 'ud hear us screaming
after him but they never said nothing to us. They ,should of, but they didn't.
Ousel they felt the same ewe* did. Wheal* were fair grown up we stopped yell-
ing at his. I can't understem hoe Pa was so strict about liquor and yet he'd
let us zo on hurting that poor sop's feelings.
"Palms scared eut of drinking by what happened to his father. There was a
lot of fine maples up a pied e fromour farm. Every year cone spring Oramp 'ud
tap tes for sap. nil never made sugar mikes. Said it vas too much trouble. The
boiling down used up too nuoh rood fire wood. He just boiled the sap to syrup.
'Cramp's aocident heppened during one of those sap runs. Frosty nights, and eare4
sunny days, we were havir ranp 'ud been drinking too much that day. he was
a great one for mixing up rum and sap. nalf a glass of rum; and the other,
half, fresh, cold sap lust drip: ad from the spout. I never seen nobody else drink
it that may. I've tasted it th,ugh, and it sure is ,1".00d. tell, by mAl afternoon
porr Grump had a good edge en. There was still a lot of spew on the ground, the
soft, sticky kind vm get in the sprint,. He was leading a horse through the
woods, dracing a sledge) full rf wooden sap buckets. ne wee singing and ober.
Jog asley on his old corn cob, 'ben all of a suCen the sledge runners struck a
piece of bare rook that ere jutting out of the anew. The sledge Slowed, and
somehow aPamp -et a leg looked in between the sap buckets. It he'd been sober
he eight have managed to free himself. Dot.he vas full of rua and sap* ne
just ley there on his book and let the horse drag his through the weeds. 20
rode on his beak in the snow all the way down the hill. A good mile it mos.
never could walk good avian. Alleys sort of dragged his leg after blew That's
why We down on liquor*
"Oranp was born in Vermont. is people were Scotch, they'd come over from
Swig Yorks They had a fusion a clearing up the northeastern part of the State.
Oraup vent on (win!: for it after his folks died, bat be couldn't mike it pay.
People around them parts just let their farms run down to nothing. Weep said
the folks 17t their land ge to tinter so mulch that you oeuldn't find a 'posing
field for the cove and sheep. Ormsp couldn't stand it any more. There ems two
farsbeuses in at. ht of his OND houses and now they'd been empty and no smoke
ooning fres gem in two years. He got so lonesome he just peeked up one day and
left the pleas. Left it to whoever vomited its I guess. Wasn't mash goods anyhow.
He came down here then, up back of the State garages and bought himself a farm.
The IMMO place where I was born. Sim of us was born there, and my own fathers
too*"
The short sleeves of Uelliels cotton dress were tight around thick, freckled
arms. She studied the brown splotched flesh speculatively. WA always a
Lig* husky kid. When I vos 15 I looked 21. That's when I cot ay first job
working out, when 1 was :ifteen• 1 hired out by the day to some folks on the
*am road* The woman dressaaked and the husband was a pert owner of a small
st-n. shod. She was :oed to as. Not always puttini on airs like some folks
who can afford hired help.
"There used to 'le a ruii! man'd ooze to the house selling tools and things
for the shod. A salesman. 1 was eighteen then, us began noticing as, and
then he cam around real often. Just a young squirt he was. Seemed more
5.
kiddish than we I we. always a husky kid. Nell. we got engaged. Mid the
woman I worked for neve me an old chest and helped me fill it. If the gpt new
tebleolothe. napkins, or towels, she'd give me her old ones. Pa kind of shied
of Nat. Said he didn't think mneh of anyone who node a living sticking his
!list, in other people's houses all the time.
'Pe said to watch out for him. Se said these salesman were all the same.
Said they all left their ornecienee to home because a consoienee kind of
hindered their good tine and cluttered up their getting around. Well, it acme
about two cooks before the wedding and I received a letter from hew Jersey.
From Nat. Ne come right to the point. Said as how he was sorry he'd led me
along, and he was already married. The woman I lortsd for get OOMO0D0 to leek
7nto it, end sure onoull he was alreaty,married. Phi 44 now and nobody's got
me so olose to a wedding ring as at did. I can ',pork. I'm better off working
and taking care of myself.
"I've soon lot of salesmen right here in this hotel. C;ot pictures of
their wives and kids on the bureau. It makes we wonder if some of these local
girls are getting fooled like at fooled we,
Nve don't get the olass be that you'd get in some of the hotels in town.
But most of 'mare nice onowh folks. Nearly all men. SometiAis I thaw* my
stars I got a plait taco and a bed shape. it keeps the man awe, from we, Mid you
never can tell when you're pin: to bump into one as deceiving as sat.
"I don't get lonesome. Three evening; a mask we and Ruth she's
another chamber maids go to the movies. VO fot three movie houses in town, so
we try lem all. Ruth's sister is married to an Italian stonecutter. Nis
mother showed her how to cook spaghetti, rvioli, ehicken- withimine-- all
Italian dishes. I never say Ino' when she ask. we to supper. Couple years ago we
had an Italian chef downstairs, but he left dor a job in one of those deenstreet
6.
restaurants that speoialise in Italian feeds. Our boss didn't cerej we don't
get much call for Italian good here. If folks want it, they o where it's a
speoial. Ruth's sister 's learned to croehet since she got married. ?ler
house is filled with crocheted pieces. Pillows, mats, bed—
spreads, even curtains. Lately. I been going over there to learn from her. But
I guess my fingerPre too big end clumsy. I can't bold the book."
Nellie gave up her window seat for the bed. It sagged under her weight.
"Speaking awhile back about "rasp reminds me of something I heard last
look. Remember his old feral told you about? Well, Oramp's brother's niece.
lives there now with her husband. Sort of cousin to mo, I guess. :hey got a
hired girl, but I don't know what they'd need her for.
They still believe in that bundling business up in those parts. Bundling,
mind yout 2y stars, parking under the same blanket with a stranger, meybe.
it's hard to believe, but the folks that. told mo ou:ht to know. Anyway, the
hired girl went a little further than plan bundling. she's !,ot a baby. My
cousin and her husband are taking oars of it, if you please. Like it's one of
the family. There's certainly funny things go on in this world."
An alarm clock shrilled from the next room4 gellie said, "That's Ruth,
the other chamber maid. It's our turn to get working. :Aloes I sort of talked
myself out anyway."