"Short Stories and Sketches," Tuscaloosa County.
Folder contains 22 pages of Alabama short stories compiled by R.D. Lucky for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the late 1930s.Tuscaloo,sa, Ala., "THE LATTER LIFE OF LUCKY" Oct. 19" 1938. R. D. L. Just because Aunt Lucy had moved the bed over next to the porch window; just bec...
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WPA Alabama Writers' Project "Short Stories and Sketches," Tuscaloosa County. |
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Folder contains 22 pages of Alabama short stories compiled by R.D. Lucky for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the late 1930s.Tuscaloo,sa, Ala.,
"THE LATTER LIFE OF LUCKY"
Oct. 19" 1938.
R. D. L.
Just because Aunt Lucy had moved the bed over next to the porch
window; just because she had put the old magazines up in the attic, and
just because Aunt Lucy was trying to be helpful; A tongue began its
torture;
"She ougbt've knowed I weren't thru readin' that story; that'n
telling all about where a man got rich melting up tin cans- and I didn't
want my bed moved neither. Wish to goodness she'd leave things be around
here" . And far into the night
--
"I can't find that book nowhere. It wus one 0' them books I been
r"-Bm'.iI_lIIi1~ saving up since 1929"
Aunt Lucy had not been able to find any outside job and haVing no
home of her own , was temporarily staying with her neice.
Jim Hader was one of those fellows who knew just how to break a
womans spirit. He seemed never to realize that he was as mean as a snake
and apparently would never have admitted his base awkward selfishness.
"I been saying all the time, - we ain't got no business haVing kin
folks around; and thats what anybody'd tell yuh. Jist don't pay to be
puttin' up kin folks"
"She ain't none of my Aunt and I wouldn't hurt ,
Honey, but you know yoreself, ever time I come home,
ore feelings,
~
theys done been
somp'n moved around or somp!n else A workin' man jist don't want'a be
messed UP like that ever time he comes home"
"The poor Wife's voice was no louder than a whisper. unt Lucy
had be@n lying awake, listening in the next room but she couldn't
mske out what her neice was saying.
.,
2
"Well, yuh can't tell me nothing like that. She c'n work, can't
she? Theys a lot of folks'd pay her two or three dollars a month
jist for watchin' out for they kids and board on top 0 that-- and we
ain't got no kids yettf
"You talk like I ain't got a llab 0' sense. It'd be differnt if she
paid any board. House work - whatcha talking about. I shore hope you
don't call that work.
It was apparent that Jim's wife was crying as he continued. "Aw,
go on to sleep then; I ain't arguin - there yuh go, get all worked up
tell in me about me always wantin' to argue and here we ain't been
married moreln eight months. Okay, okay - but I'm telling you this
much, I'm gonns move this bed back around like it was"
Aunt Lucy had felt it all along too. She just knew, somehow, she
• •
didn't fit in • Things never work out right but she had tried to do the
best she ........ could.
The above little story and the one which follows and others more
or less on the darker side caused the uthor to attempt to do something
that will probably interest the reader to some extent at least.
For many weeks I had noticed a lady pass my furniture shop on her
way to the sewing room each morning. Her two small boys, aged 1m
and 8, walked along besi«e her as far as the school house.
One morning she stopped and asked me if I oould help her get her
larger boy to the hospital. I had noticed too that he had not been with
her the last few mornings.
"HJs got appendicitis , I
7 thats it" she told me.
believe,but
I
the Doctor don't seem to think
I decided to go down to her house and see what I might do about
the matter. I found the wom~home to be an old tobaoco barn, made over
into a sort Of~dwell1ng
•
• •
:3
house. I also found there, a young girl of 12, very pale , backward
and awkward but apparently capably taking care of a very small baby
brother, :3 years old.
"The girl can't go to school because she has to look after
the baby" the mother told me. "We've got a lot of little chickens too
and she looks after them and she enjoys finding worms for the
chickens"
The boy was sent to the hospital, he was finally operated upon
and pulled through by the skin of his teeth.
I became somewhat humanly interested in the trials of this lady
whom I found to be caking a salary of twenty two dollars per month.
She was attempting to hold her small f~ily together, minus the
husband, pay rent, feed and clothe the kids on coolie wages.
As thw weeks went by, I could see her trudge through the snow
and icy weather from my shop window. I decided that surely this rich
country might be a kinder place in which to live.
A short true story concerning an incident in my own boyhood came
back to me vividly. The story follows;
"1lY MOTHER BELIEVED IN PETTING"
tIIIxqt••!j~••"tj••••,",pbmM••
Several winters have passed since I was a kid, 10 years old,
down below Tuscaloosa, Ala., picking scrapy cotton in a large field,
by myself, near our rented home. Trying to make a nickle or two •
I got sort of lonesome out there in that big field of withered,
sun baked cotton stalks, so I said to myself, "I'm gonna run back to
the house and get Mamma to come out here and watch me pick cotton"
It is all very clear ~o me now and has been for a number of years.
My Mother was sick; she had been ailing for quite a long time. Some
sort of liver trouble; nervousness eto., but a lot of KNOI-IT-ALLS,
• •. 'l
•
•L
wo~d sal, nAh, they aln't much wrong wlth her; shes jist nervous-like and
can't be satisfled With nothlng nohow"
There were then some wonderful hospitals in the larger communities
but none for my M~~r. It wasn't thought
arrange4 fo~ her to be admitted to one of
poor of course.
of and how could lt have been
them anyway. e weee much too
•
I want to
Before I go back to the cotton patch incident
mentlon the fact that our diet was one long and unv rying
siege or "(at back" -
•
old salty hog m~at, left over buscuits, split
•
open, sprinkled with sugar and tOasted in the stove. A fine rare. I
certainly believe that such a messy diet as we had during those years
stubborn
brought on the/case of pallegra that my father developed a little later,
aftar
Now lets get back to the cotton patch where I happened to be
scrappin~ cotton. Or rather lets begin at the house where I had gone
•
to ask my mother if she would try to come and watch me work.
"Weli son, " she said very bravely, "I'm afraid I just can't walk
down that far~ I suppose she thought her 10 year old son might understand
her condition but I did not.
" AW, Gee-II
you down
I kept on beggin? her, "Come on lilia_a, I'll help
- , 1 rU...n - ""t- ba~ and get a chair so you can just sit
•
there and watch me pick cotton"
It was in the cool of the afterno~. The sun had just atrout gone
down behind the trees and crazy kid that I was, I tho~ght it would be nice
for her to come with me.
I got the shock of my young 11fe right there. My mother did so much
appreciate a little petting. She listened to my love-making overtures;
I1Come on .Memma II - She finally consented to go with me. Said I, "Here no....
•
I'll help you down the steps
back and get the chiir"
• and whe e get to the cotton patch, I'll rcn
·" .. ,.,'1
•
5
It was all beyond her strength. By the time we reached the cotton
!)atch, no more than a hundred yards, she had become exhausted; ber.t
double-, Sheer weakness had brought her to the ground.
In my bewilderm€ot, I thought of the chair. I reasoned, Now if I
can get her up in the chair and sort of drag her back to the house, but
I couldn't lift her up well enough for that.
Fortunately some good man (I've forgotten who he was)
came along right then and he helped me get her back home.
That is the story briefly told. My Mother never got well.
I believe such experiences affect some of us more than it does
others and somehow, within the past rew years, It has occured to me
movement ought to be
started in this country to establish Rest Camps or Vacation Camps for
Mothers.
This idea emained with me so constantly that I finally began
the writing of a book carrying a very pretty romantic story built up
around a young lady, a Doctor and his wife and a young man whose
lives become devoted to the development of the original Mothers Rest
Camp of Alabama.
R. D. L.
regretfully.
1=
•
•
•
Tuscaloosa J Ala ••
Ootober 17,1938.
R. D. L.
Jim Holbaok
Dangerous Demoorat •
The thing that seemed to worry Jim Holbaok moet right now
wa~ his fifth grade education.
"I wieh you'd of happened along by here yeeterday" , he eaid
~ ~
" Uy boy Just went off aga lastAto se~ut gettingA on
the WPIJ work. H s the one that ohanged my mindAtheee things you
want me to talk about and that boy oould of explained thinge more
than loan."
I watohed the old gentleman as he ran his fingere along on
the two by four which extended acroee the small front porch Just
about one foot above hie head.
"Got eeveral of theee 25 ¢ pipes" - he chuckled. "Even then I
get hard pushed when I get 'em ecattered around allover the place.
I'K Jiet liable to put one down at the hog pen ae a~here elee and
and walk right off and leave it. Generally run acroee my etr~y pipee
though without muoh trouble"
"A whiff of etrong, mellmY-8weet emoke struck me full in the
face ae Jim Holb_ck eettled ~own in the old straight
chair with ite fUZZy cow hide seat cover. He leaned back and propped
hie foot against the poroh poet.
"It wouldn't suit everybody", he explained - handing over a
small can filled with brownish, crumbly home grown tobacco.
"Smelle good" I ventured and before I had time to aek about
the factory~ike fragrance, he continued.
"It took me forty years to make up my mind about smoking -
• •
for
)
hes
a way. If all of us cotton farmers raised our own tob-
" ell, I'll tell you the facts - ~ boy says it ain't right
oe to raise ~ own tobacco and fix it up like that and I reckon
right in
factories - anyway, its more trOUble than its worth"
"I rolled a cigarette and tasted the mild cigar like-flavor
waiting to find V' j out how he Jixed his home-made smoking tobacco.
"Thats deer tongue what gives it the right smell" , he finally
acco I guess it would throw a lot of men out of work in the regular
told me - "You can go up around the sub-marginal project and find
deer tongue a growing allover them hills up there"
"MY old lady heats the tobacco leaves in the stove, crumbles it
up right fine then sprinkles a little ribbon cane sugar over it and
it suits me better'n any of that bought stuff you fellers smoke around
town"
Never diG suck any smoke down my throat but I always said nobody~
oughte to smoke until about a year ago, I jist decided I'm going to
enjoy my pipe as long as I can"
"But what about that good flavor-odor" , I broke in.
"2"
"I had to admit he really had something there but I was anxious
to find out some other things.
"And I've got something here" - I said before~ii j~e had
a chance to tell me any more about the home spun tobacco business.
I offered to read the list of question~ which I had jotted down
on a slip of paper.
"Spect you better do that" - he agreed willingly "Getting sorter
late and ~ eyes ain't good as they used to be"
"Reckon I.~ve to like it" , he went on chuckling again when I
asked "Do you still like farm life, after all these years?'
"Don't know nothing else to like much except I been ge*tinn
more interested in politics the last year or two than I ever been"
•
•
•
. "3"
•
"Yell, now" - I interrupted, moving ~ chair over nearer the
•
wash stand which was an odd home-made affair. Jim's wife had already
told me how she found ~mal;Jpeculia~tree over in pasture. It had
four limbs which grew in suoh a way that they made excellent natural
legs. The small table-washstand held ~ attention this time only for
•
a minute.
"Well sir" , I repeated - "I've never been a farmer but it
certainly seems to me that farm life would hold all the interesting
experiences compared with politics"
"Its all mixed up together", Mr. Holback assured me • "1 can
see it all purty plain now to what I used to and talk about X*a the
farmer making his own living - pshaw - he oan't make a living by hisself
exactly to save his neck~
-I used to argue hell off its hinges about other people sittin'
around on their do-nothing stool
like that.
.'", and everything
I figured anybody could make a liVing if they'd work but I shore
haven't got much to brag about and further and more • its everybody
that makes a living for everybody else. Jist can't do it by yourself
to save your gizzard.
"Course I been voting the denocratic ticket all my life, not
studying much about it till that boy I told you about got me to thinking
how =ny w ys you could look at things.
s he looked out tow"rd the remshackled barn. I could tell hs
WqS anxious to give me. honestly. some information that might be
helpful.
"You're fixing to write up some stuff for the Government which
is liable to be read by a lot of high up educated people according to
what ~ wife said you told her" - He turned his eyes e&rnestly b~t
uncertainly in my direction •
•
"Reckon I jist might as well go back and bsgin right where I
was before I starte~' , he smiled good naturedly while I couldn't
keep from laughing at his midly humorus~I.~ , friendly way of saying
things.
~••""IX*II~nrX:iIJ!ItBS.W.IJa*'lr=.r;•r•tlXx.!I~
"That'll be fine", said I, feeling that he really had something
to say, I added encouragingly - "suppose you go ahead and tell me some
of your experiences in your own worda"
"Well, I was born down here a piece from Tuscaloosa - Been living
here all my sixty one winters, not counting off about three years
~
when us and several other families got the Texas fev;r"
"Thats been quite a spell back. I reckon its been nigh on 32
years since my first wife died and then I moved back here with one
small child"
"Didn't have a dime", he said with emphasis, "but I was one of
them stubbord ignoramous.. critters. I could handle a four pound axe
and I knew it and after my first wife died --"
Mrs. Holback came out the front with the small tub which she
used for her kitchen water bucket.
"Here", I suggested - suddenly thinking I might divert the
Holback history into some 1888 gruesome detail - "Let me draw the
water for you"
Her husband moved slowly to his feet - "I'll take the tub Emma,
git
wanta show him my pigs before it gits too dark 1'11_£ in the ater
in A few minutes"
e walked toward the front gate leaving the tub sitting on
the well boxing as we passed.
"Emmas my fourth wife", he began "but I'll tell you right
now- my low down hard headed cus8edness made it hard on me and my
folks too"
•
,
•
• "5"
"When I moved back here from Texae, I lit in to clearing up land
for different land owners at three dollars per acre. I worked. I'll
be snatched if I see now how I did what I did. Didn't have no plow
mule but I got old man Silverhorn to rent me one of hie plugs. He
let me work out the rent eo I cleared him five acres of new ground.
Next thing I had to look out for eome land eo I could farm the coming
year. Well, I just tell you the truth - anybody'd work as hard ae I
did that winter had ass oughter have the fatal snot sat beat out of
'em. Yes eir, I cleared by myself - I mean with my axe and piled
the brueh - twenty seven acree of new ground tha twinter"
"I boarded with my brother and his folks all that winter and then
about time spring eet in , I done decided I better try to git married
agin. I never did court none, you might say. Honest to God, I reckon
I never did say a kind word to any of my wivee except I try to treat
Emme a little better now since I eorter learned a little sense besidee
working"
"MY second wife died in two ye rs and left me with another child
and that made one boy by my first wife and one little gal by my second
wife. I argued and growled about nearly everything - jist looks like
I couldn't help it and it might do eomebody eome good to just put
that down on your papere jiet like I'm telling it right here."
"My third wife had eix gale. She worked and worried hereelf plumb
I
to death. She shore was a good woman and/ought of been a whole lot
easier on her but its done toolate to talk about that now. "hen the
last baby wae born the Doctor zaaa told me it had done been dead at
leaet a couple of daye and natc~lly my wife didn't live over that.
"The oldeet gal had done got up big enough to keep house and
cook and the other six cut wood, hoed and helped me farm just the
eeme like they were boye. Oh yee - my boy - well, I just tell you,
)1
he run away and I never did know where he went for a long time.
• •
•
• "6"
"You all can come on to supper", Mrs. Holback called from the
well, after, no doubt, deciding that we men couldn't be depended
upon for her bucket of water.
Although anxious to know the full details of the life of an
unusual sort of fellow, I felt that I'd rather hear more about
politics and less about llolback history. on second thought, I made
up my mind to listen to whatever he wanted to s~y.
The old fashioned long table, the bench fully as long, and
sitting next the wall bore evidence of bei well used.
ham.
"If you don't mind, I'd rather just sit here on this bench"
I suggested. Right at the moment I had the notion to say, "This
must be the seat of the silent six" but I didn't have to ask about
the six girls.
"Since my gals have all left home, we ain't had much use for
that old bench"
Uim Holback spoke dryly, unemotional, as he pessed the large
bowl of tender greens, cooked with what was left of a hickory smoked
"I reckon if you took teem one by one, they'd tell you plenty
to put in your wri tings
lab out how hard I on 'em when they was growing ~ up"
"I just wonder who that is now" Mrs Holback turned her kBaaz
chair and got up. The two dogs rushed out from und r the house.
jttte howling bark of the older dog turned to A whiny welcoming
sound j at outEide the front gate.
," ....~·.-.• ..~··2lIllilIl••Il ..!!l&...,...P,..Il.I-l~ It ain't no 'possum, I don't reckon; jist keep your seats,
I'll go see" Mr. Holback volunteered flatly. "Gittin' to where its
so~ter like town roads out here with all them rolling stores and
school buses ; keeps the dust a flyin' "
"I ts llorace " the kind old lady heard the familiar voice
•
•
•
•
"7"
as she said to me, "I guess he couldn't get back on the, work"
A tall , red faoed man of something near 30 years came in
followed by his fa ther'l
"Now hes the one can tell you about Dictators and Democrats"
Mr. Holback spoke slowly as the younger man shook my hand cordially.
Finishing supper we sat on the front porch while Horace Holback
told me of his hobo visits tofld Mexico - work in the orange groves
and finally his stevedore experiences on the san Francisco t water
Ftton ~ ,
"Iwent to night school out there and being interested in "What~
the matter with every thing" I put in most ~ of my time on pol1-
tical set••see science and econom1cs "he began seriously and
apparently sure of himself •
"I believe we should have older .-Dtpzs peoples schoolst in
every rural community -
es where the older folks
blem it really 1s to get
people.
Zaasiz - ~hat 1s;- special evening c~ss~.-
o.Lt. ~~
might go and mingle w1 tli' eacb. other" pro-things
worked out for the good of all the
"I've fully decided", he continued thoughtfully, " e don't
need one man to get started on a band wagon basis; whip up a fuss
allover the country and get people to thinking too much can be done
all at once"
"Sure - we need to get along better - every small farmer in
this country does - they've just about lived on hope and hard work
every since I can remember"
" .oney is just about the root of all our troubles all right
but 1t certainly isn't the whole cause of our hard times"
"The older generations just like my father here were never
permitted to really know anything about economics, you might say.
They planted their cotton and just hoped they might get a fair price.
•
,
• •
"S"
No control, no cooperation- No security.
"It'll take up too much of your time~ he warned me, "if I try
to explain everything the way I see it, so I'll Just not try to do
so"
"Go ahead and say wha t you please". I answered - "I'm comfortabls
and certainly fesl at home with you folks"
"Well, since we have made a start toward better methods, crop
cooperation, control etc., I think we should continue that way. Of
course, I believe it should be improved quickly, because no farmer
can possibly have anything like the decent necessities while his
products are priced out of line and unbalanced with bur national
economy •
Iolr. Holback had said nothing, SUddenly he got up and put his
pipe on the two by four from which it had been taken before supper.
"¥ell, you boys can go to bed when you get ready, I'm gonna lay
down"
Turning toward me, he said in his usual unemotional manner,
"I'll Jus tIe· ve the farmers fa te in you yOllnger folks hands- 'ake
yourself at home"
The old mans son moved his chair closer. Tempering his voice,
he began , "Now you take pa for example - He never has believed in
Automobiles. He used to say "them dang things is whats ruint the
coun try" - he laughed a 11 ttle and then kept talking "Tha ts the way
of a lot of other people living out this way.
"Pa never would buy anything unless he had the oash in sight
and you oan see for yourself, he hasn't anything here but a few acres
of worn out hilly land. ~zGAl~ You can easily see how progressive
he has been. This old house for instance; when our other house
burned, he built this lean-to out of some old seoond hand lumber
that you nor I would have. He simply never realized that progress mee
• •
means more than a pitiful existence of the individual family. Its
got to be national and in fact, its got to be more or less world
wide"
"Now, don't you think", he almost asked me pointblank -" They
are the dengerous democrats~" • I mean, these fellows who work and
•
skuffle all their lives iK, trying to manage things on the old early
Amerioan pioneer plan. Their eduoation and outlook is suoh that they
see things almost wholly from a selfish individual point of view.
After they suffer and talk among themselves for a while, they deoide
its all wrong but they don't exaotly know wby1
"Some high powered misleader works his way in • takes the floor,
and begins pumping the younger folks with the idea that something a
whole lot better is right around the oorner. These poor fellows fall
in line and while the long winded misleader froths at the mouth, a
new movement is born~
"New movements are all right baa and its a good idea to keep on
kioking for improvements but the demooratio party oan be improved
on and on and far as thats ooncerned any party would have to be improved
all along to be successful so I say " hy not wtiok to the old
Democra tic idea and keep on improving it"
"Sounds sound U , lIiiAq•••«dJi!l",!.tiJl'l.lI:brlIM.i".~.Idi:ImDa•i•!tt
luD.li.t"iJ..tJ•••".~~.;t"::~:~"::~~li:~:~:t:~:i~.t:~t;.J:tI'"
~.MlliualllllDXXmyself"
"How about his religion?" , I asked. " ould it be a good idea to
say anything about *iIaI that?"
J!i.iI•••N~.".l:l:xIfab."lt, Horace Holback smiled a little.
"I SUppose i t would be all right. Hes been going to church 11 h a is life,
gets a big kick out of trying to sing the d0, ray, mes, in the old
his every day religion
christian harmony.
has improved since
I know one thing for sure,
I was a kid. Its just like the Democratic idea, it
.. .. ...
10
seems to me that ones religion should be constantly improved. II
•
"You know wha t," the young man looked at me in the ligh~ from the
kerosene lamp sitting inside the room that~~en assigned to me for the
night. "If you were to get a history of this family, boy, you'd have to
come out here and spend a .week" and with a hopeful ring in his voice,
he added, "Why not do that some time this fall; we can hunt some and
eat sweet potatoes till you break down with a good spell of indigestion"
"That reminds me of what Aunt Jenny used to say", he added with
the
a boy like chuckle "She used to say ~ best way in the world to kill
a sweet gum tree; and you know how they will sprout every time you cut
'em down; well, she said the way to kill a sweet gum , you have to bore
a big """", hole about half way through, pour it full of old sorghum
molasses and then stuff the hole full of soft sweet potatoe.; stop it
up and it would sure die with indiges tion"
"Pretty good" - I agreed heartily "but I like rem anicertainlY
it would l?e a pleasure to spend a week with you some time later"
Leaving early the following morning, I felt convinced that if
all the small farm owners could have the spiritual outlook of Horace
Holback, there would certainly be no need to worry over what might come
what
in the future. At the same time, I wondered a.,Dl the six "gals" and their
tenant farmer husbands might think about the conditions under which they
live. I resolved to make the trip back into the country sooner or later •
•
••iil
•
R. D. Lucky
,
• •
•
Moundvill~, Ala.,
Nov. 15, 1938.
R. D. L•
•
Mr •• Lucy Crav~r .at dawn in the front bed room of her
r.nt~d hom~, acated only a f~w .t~p. off th~ Old Mill Road, one
mile ~ast of Moundville. She b~nt over and turned t~e opno.ite
.id- ~f th- four gallon c~urn toward th. small fir~.
"f~ least we 'v~ got on~ thing l~"" to worry abrut .ince
y~"t-rday" - sh~ b-gan with little indication of enthusiasm.
"It'll sav~ u. the troubl~ of looking around and trying to find
another farm to mov- on. H~ wouldn't agre~ to fix th~ wiring in
th- house.o - could have electri lights but the landlord told
my husband this morning that we could stay on her~ for th~ saoe
rant 'It~ paid.last y...r"
.
This lady of 35 seemed to have kn inexhaustible reserve
• of pati-nce and while her small statue gave no clue to h-r physi-cal
poweress. she mu.t certainly have b.en strong •
"loIy Mother died when I was 9 years old", .he· continu..d
casually and undisturbed. "There wer- four sisters of us; two
older t"An me and one younger, th~n too, I had one brother and
h~ was old-r than the r~st of us kids - that was when we liv..d up
yond-r are./( mil.. s this sid", of Bessem~r".
"Our broth-r didn't .stay at hom~ so all four of us girls
had to :io the work moatly inside th~ house and outaide both"
"I aee a lot of things com- up now days that puts me in
mind of my Father. Hea d..ad now but he didn't die till about two
ye~r. ago but I'm g .. ttin' ahead of what I waa going to aay. He
•
•
•
"~ • •
,
•
many
Marri~d aBain several years b~fore he died, that was aft~r us
girls got to marryi ng off '.'
"Pa was what you call a trapper and fisherman and there ain't
neonl~ that do that now in this part of the country. He trapped
'lnd f
times
"h~d nearly ~very since I could r~member. He stayed away sometwo
or three nights b~fore he would come in and during the
wint-r, h~ would make nretty good money"
•
"We farmed some too but Pa took up more of his time fishing
and trapping tban ne~ly any other way. It does look like we would
have got along better and I reckon we would if Pa had let Licker
alone"
•
"He got pretty good money for such as Mink hides and Coons and
th-n for ,-veral days to come, he'd blow in what money he had, mostly
on whiskey and whatever he took a notion to. He generally would wind
up drunk and mean to where nobody couldn't ~ hardly stay around
from the r+ver and that ain't the
h1m~'
one night
him #I./com. in
• • ,
the first and th,e last time he done such a thing. On top of it all,
•
it wasn't our fault because us kids didn't hardly have anything left
in th- hous" to cook - but Pa started in to saying, "I'm hungry as
a bear cat" and kept on getting madd.l!r and madder because we didn't
hav~ but mighty littl.. left ov~r from supper"
"Pa's name was Lim Haverty; he was a big man and rough looking
and so us kids had a right to live in mortal fear the way he acted.
Tr.at night h- grabbed up the gravey bowl that had used to belong
to my moth-r b-fore she died and threw it against the stove. Then he
mad. us all g"t out of bed, light th- fire , hunt up some eggs out
, •
•
I •
• •
in the crib and scrap around till we got him some more supper
fixed. The erouble was we never did even know when he would come
o
in a. night but we always had to have more cooked than he would
eat before he would be satisfied and then he would raise a row no
~tter how it was~
"Now such things as that is what all I thought I was going
to get rid of when I got married. I was 17 years old when I did
get married and just like any other girl that you might know of.
At first my husband didn't drink hardly any at all so then I said
to myself, 'I know I can turn him against whiskey' but I see I
couldn't do it so now I just go ahead and do the best I can~
"We have farmed nearly avery since we have been married and
for the last two years we have been what they call "bull farmers~
it
My husband laughs about/when anybody mentions 'bull farming' and
•
just says Iwell, it takes a good man to get onto it and it takes
a better man to get off' - For myself, I don't think it shows anybodys
good sense to speak about people being 'bull farmers' when
o
they are just being given a little helping hand b. the Government".
o
"We've got five children. The oldest one is a boy and hes in
tha C.C.C. out in California. I don't think its hardly fair on him
but hes been in the camp going on two years and like I tell him
when I write him (I send his letters by airplane) I try to make him
realize how much we appreciate his check every month as I don't
know what we would do if it wasn't for that"
"»y husband Luverne, thats my husbands name,
o
hes good in a way an~ it used to be that held work along all right
• during the crop time and hardly ever got into any kind of messes •
•
•
• •
, . 4
•
•
It just s-ems like he would g-t plumb disgusted when settling up
time cam- around. We would make a little mon~y cl.ar may be like
•
this year and th-n next lear we would not make enough to come
out an ay AP our debts. Its beer. that way off and on with most
•
of the small farmers that I know of and specially you can't pay
un if theres any doctor bills like we had. It seems like when my
husband would be in h-art to go ahead and thinking now sure he
would have enough extra after the crop• was gathered to buy some-thing
nic~ such as new furniture or a new SUit, it would make him
di,gusted when he couldn't do so·
"'rh-", if he couldn't f:nd any public work, such as painting
C~ "r~·ir..g at ;;he saw mill, he would start in to hanging around
the stor-s and it got to wher~ he would drink any time anybody
""'lld offer im some whiske ~
"Every year it got to ~l.-re I had to be the manaber more and
more b~caus. Luverne didn't t ve much care about tryin3 to do anything
except by spells. He got so h.'d have a worse temper and get
mad and throw things around whenever he was drinking. I had a lots
to put up with that nobody donlt know about, Jet and still, the
•
childr-n were coming on and getting in school. I had to work harder
and harder and I'll just tell you the dying truth, I don't hardly
kn w how it all happened. It came on this way so slow and gradual
until I couldn't to save my life, tell just wnen the store men begin
to look up to me as the b?sS of everything here at home. Th-y wouldn't
even let my husband have any credit at all. I even had to buy
his snuff and I couldn't have done it if we hadn't of got started
•
•
to truck farming on the side"
"Why sure, my husband would
and not drink any and that kept me
• stop drinking whiskey" • •
work sometimes, a month or two
in heart to thinking he'd finally
•
,
•
•
•
. 5
"The people around the little town here have been good about
buying nearly anything I had to peddle such as turnip greens, peas,
beans, tomatoes, okra, corn and so on"
"Some of my husbands own people have hinted at me like I ought
to just quit .......ka and get ~ divorce but I just go ahead and
• • don't pay muc~ attention to them exc pt I try to pass it off as
fri<>ndly as I call to not hurt their f~elillgs. I think a'.J,,"t my
childre~ ~nd when you think abc~t it hard enough, I can't aee how
it woulf h~lp anybody ~er me to quit my hus~and·
":!ow there, ..y dallghter - I know we have got h<,t' "p to the 7th
grade. She is pret.y and everybody seems to like her. I.sell butter
•
and ~ilk, all that we can spare - and scrape around every way to keep
her oorter up even with other girls her ag& - so all these things
make my work pretty ~rd and steady but I still say, I already know
what its like to keep on like we are but if I was to fly off the
handle and get a divorce, we m1ght be worse off than we are now'~
•
•
"My husband don't believe in
,
going to church but he is good
hearted. He thinks most of the church people are against him and
you couldn't make him look at it any different to save your life.
The way he tries to tell me about the biggest church people; he
says now, that Mr. Fr-eedmore ~as took mortgages on peoples houses
crons and -verything and even when the Lord fails to send the rain
and make good crops- why foot, he says - it don't make Mr. Freedmore
• •
feel' bad to take everything you got just so he keeps on getting a
•
little richer every year. The way I look at it myself, I know there
are a lots of them kind of people and I know its true in a way. They
don't really feel very sad over anybodys condition except their own
but you can't say anything to them about it. It makes my husaband
•
.'
6
1 •
mad b~caus~ some of them blame h1lll then he turns around and blames
the a.t;h~rs that never do seem like they work any much but they
•
, hand out a ittl~ money when the crops is started and then get back
more than they ought to when the crops is finished,
•
•
but as I tell my husband, its been like that for hundreds of years
and ther~ ain't much that we can do except to do the right thing as
near as W~ C&:l"
"I send my daughter and my youngest son to church every Sunday
and I go ss often as I can. I want them to be in thc ~bit of going
to church because I think it does anybody good if they will go"
• "Educa tion ir. my way of thinking is jus t one long hard row of
stumps for the Door people but yet and sti11, I believe we roed·
education. I didn't get to go but to the fourth grade so I want my
childr-n to be ~ducnted"
•
•
"Now you take this year; I 1·"'1-1. had to get out and beg, barry
and SIiB&l trade off some of my frying size chickens to get books •
• Then first thing I knew, I had to sk1lllp around and get up incidental
fees. I sure feel lik- education is worth the price but it comes
pr~tty high for the parents. Theres the football business. If the
• school principals knew how the boys are kept away from the stove ood
pile and work at home that would be worth something, I believe they
would actually be ashamed. Anyway, I just rather go ahead and do the
bAst I can. They would call me crazy if I told them what I think
about so much football."
"I always wanted nice things but I guess a person would finally
go crazy sure -nough if they keep on wanting and wanting to' have
such things as plenty of clothes, bath rooms, rugs on the floors,
electric lights and so on. I .till do want things like that but yet •
•
• |
| title |
"Short Stories and Sketches," Tuscaloosa County. |
| titleStr |
"Short Stories and Sketches," Tuscaloosa County. |
| url |
http://cdm17217.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/wpa/id/847 |
| id |
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http://cdm17217.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getthumbnail/collection/wpa/id/847 |
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1743797183317016576 |
| spelling |
GSU# SG022775_00543-00565SG022775_00543_00565"Short Stories and Sketches," Tuscaloosa County.Folder contains 22 pages of Alabama short stories compiled by R.D. Lucky for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the late 1930s.1937 circa1930-1939Alabama Writers' Project; Alabama--Biography; Alabama--Social life and customs; Tuscaloosa County (Ala.); United States. Works Progress AdministrationTextDocumentsAlabama. Dept. of Archives and HistoryWorks Progress Administration filesSG022775WPA Alabama Writers' Project, Short Stories and Sketches by R.D. Lucky, Tuscaloosa Co.Alabama Dept. of Archives and History, 624 Washington Ave., Montgomery, AL 36130EnglishThis material may be protected under U. S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S. Code) which governs the making of photocopies or reproductions of copyrighted materials. You may use the digitized material for private study, scholarship, or research. Though ADAH has physical ownership of the material in its collections, in some cases we may not own the copyright to the material. It is the patron's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in our collections.96 dpi tiffTuscaloo,sa, Ala.,
"THE LATTER LIFE OF LUCKY"
Oct. 19" 1938.
R. D. L.
Just because Aunt Lucy had moved the bed over next to the porch
window; just because she had put the old magazines up in the attic, and
just because Aunt Lucy was trying to be helpful; A tongue began its
torture;
"She ougbt've knowed I weren't thru readin' that story; that'n
telling all about where a man got rich melting up tin cans- and I didn't
want my bed moved neither. Wish to goodness she'd leave things be around
here" . And far into the night
--
"I can't find that book nowhere. It wus one 0' them books I been
r"-Bm'.iI_lIIi1~ saving up since 1929"
Aunt Lucy had not been able to find any outside job and haVing no
home of her own , was temporarily staying with her neice.
Jim Hader was one of those fellows who knew just how to break a
womans spirit. He seemed never to realize that he was as mean as a snake
and apparently would never have admitted his base awkward selfishness.
"I been saying all the time, - we ain't got no business haVing kin
folks around; and thats what anybody'd tell yuh. Jist don't pay to be
puttin' up kin folks"
"She ain't none of my Aunt and I wouldn't hurt ,
Honey, but you know yoreself, ever time I come home,
ore feelings,
~
theys done been
somp'n moved around or somp!n else A workin' man jist don't want'a be
messed UP like that ever time he comes home"
"The poor Wife's voice was no louder than a whisper. unt Lucy
had be@n lying awake, listening in the next room but she couldn't
mske out what her neice was saying.
.,
2
"Well, yuh can't tell me nothing like that. She c'n work, can't
she? Theys a lot of folks'd pay her two or three dollars a month
jist for watchin' out for they kids and board on top 0 that-- and we
ain't got no kids yettf
"You talk like I ain't got a llab 0' sense. It'd be differnt if she
paid any board. House work - whatcha talking about. I shore hope you
don't call that work.
It was apparent that Jim's wife was crying as he continued. "Aw,
go on to sleep then; I ain't arguin - there yuh go, get all worked up
tell in me about me always wantin' to argue and here we ain't been
married moreln eight months. Okay, okay - but I'm telling you this
much, I'm gonns move this bed back around like it was"
Aunt Lucy had felt it all along too. She just knew, somehow, she
• •
didn't fit in • Things never work out right but she had tried to do the
best she ........ could.
The above little story and the one which follows and others more
or less on the darker side caused the uthor to attempt to do something
that will probably interest the reader to some extent at least.
For many weeks I had noticed a lady pass my furniture shop on her
way to the sewing room each morning. Her two small boys, aged 1m
and 8, walked along besi«e her as far as the school house.
One morning she stopped and asked me if I oould help her get her
larger boy to the hospital. I had noticed too that he had not been with
her the last few mornings.
"HJs got appendicitis , I
7 thats it" she told me.
believe,but
I
the Doctor don't seem to think
I decided to go down to her house and see what I might do about
the matter. I found the wom~home to be an old tobaoco barn, made over
into a sort Of~dwell1ng
•
• •
:3
house. I also found there, a young girl of 12, very pale , backward
and awkward but apparently capably taking care of a very small baby
brother, :3 years old.
"The girl can't go to school because she has to look after
the baby" the mother told me. "We've got a lot of little chickens too
and she looks after them and she enjoys finding worms for the
chickens"
The boy was sent to the hospital, he was finally operated upon
and pulled through by the skin of his teeth.
I became somewhat humanly interested in the trials of this lady
whom I found to be caking a salary of twenty two dollars per month.
She was attempting to hold her small f~ily together, minus the
husband, pay rent, feed and clothe the kids on coolie wages.
As thw weeks went by, I could see her trudge through the snow
and icy weather from my shop window. I decided that surely this rich
country might be a kinder place in which to live.
A short true story concerning an incident in my own boyhood came
back to me vividly. The story follows;
"1lY MOTHER BELIEVED IN PETTING"
tIIIxqt••!j~••"tj••••,",pbmM••
Several winters have passed since I was a kid, 10 years old,
down below Tuscaloosa, Ala., picking scrapy cotton in a large field,
by myself, near our rented home. Trying to make a nickle or two •
I got sort of lonesome out there in that big field of withered,
sun baked cotton stalks, so I said to myself, "I'm gonna run back to
the house and get Mamma to come out here and watch me pick cotton"
It is all very clear ~o me now and has been for a number of years.
My Mother was sick; she had been ailing for quite a long time. Some
sort of liver trouble; nervousness eto., but a lot of KNOI-IT-ALLS,
• •. 'l
•
•L
wo~d sal, nAh, they aln't much wrong wlth her; shes jist nervous-like and
can't be satisfled With nothlng nohow"
There were then some wonderful hospitals in the larger communities
but none for my M~~r. It wasn't thought
arrange4 fo~ her to be admitted to one of
poor of course.
of and how could lt have been
them anyway. e weee much too
•
I want to
Before I go back to the cotton patch incident
mentlon the fact that our diet was one long and unv rying
siege or "(at back" -
•
old salty hog m~at, left over buscuits, split
•
open, sprinkled with sugar and tOasted in the stove. A fine rare. I
certainly believe that such a messy diet as we had during those years
stubborn
brought on the/case of pallegra that my father developed a little later,
aftar
Now lets get back to the cotton patch where I happened to be
scrappin~ cotton. Or rather lets begin at the house where I had gone
•
to ask my mother if she would try to come and watch me work.
"Weli son, " she said very bravely, "I'm afraid I just can't walk
down that far~ I suppose she thought her 10 year old son might understand
her condition but I did not.
" AW, Gee-II
you down
I kept on beggin? her, "Come on lilia_a, I'll help
- , 1 rU...n - ""t- ba~ and get a chair so you can just sit
•
there and watch me pick cotton"
It was in the cool of the afterno~. The sun had just atrout gone
down behind the trees and crazy kid that I was, I tho~ght it would be nice
for her to come with me.
I got the shock of my young 11fe right there. My mother did so much
appreciate a little petting. She listened to my love-making overtures;
I1Come on .Memma II - She finally consented to go with me. Said I, "Here no....
•
I'll help you down the steps
back and get the chiir"
• and whe e get to the cotton patch, I'll rcn
·" .. ,.,'1
•
5
It was all beyond her strength. By the time we reached the cotton
!)atch, no more than a hundred yards, she had become exhausted; ber.t
double-, Sheer weakness had brought her to the ground.
In my bewilderm€ot, I thought of the chair. I reasoned, Now if I
can get her up in the chair and sort of drag her back to the house, but
I couldn't lift her up well enough for that.
Fortunately some good man (I've forgotten who he was)
came along right then and he helped me get her back home.
That is the story briefly told. My Mother never got well.
I believe such experiences affect some of us more than it does
others and somehow, within the past rew years, It has occured to me
movement ought to be
started in this country to establish Rest Camps or Vacation Camps for
Mothers.
This idea emained with me so constantly that I finally began
the writing of a book carrying a very pretty romantic story built up
around a young lady, a Doctor and his wife and a young man whose
lives become devoted to the development of the original Mothers Rest
Camp of Alabama.
R. D. L.
regretfully.
1=
•
•
•
Tuscaloosa J Ala ••
Ootober 17,1938.
R. D. L.
Jim Holbaok
Dangerous Demoorat •
The thing that seemed to worry Jim Holbaok moet right now
wa~ his fifth grade education.
"I wieh you'd of happened along by here yeeterday" , he eaid
~ ~
" Uy boy Just went off aga lastAto se~ut gettingA on
the WPIJ work. H s the one that ohanged my mindAtheee things you
want me to talk about and that boy oould of explained thinge more
than loan."
I watohed the old gentleman as he ran his fingere along on
the two by four which extended acroee the small front porch Just
about one foot above hie head.
"Got eeveral of theee 25 ¢ pipes" - he chuckled. "Even then I
get hard pushed when I get 'em ecattered around allover the place.
I'K Jiet liable to put one down at the hog pen ae a~here elee and
and walk right off and leave it. Generally run acroee my etr~y pipee
though without muoh trouble"
"A whiff of etrong, mellmY-8weet emoke struck me full in the
face ae Jim Holb_ck eettled ~own in the old straight
chair with ite fUZZy cow hide seat cover. He leaned back and propped
hie foot against the poroh poet.
"It wouldn't suit everybody", he explained - handing over a
small can filled with brownish, crumbly home grown tobacco.
"Smelle good" I ventured and before I had time to aek about
the factory~ike fragrance, he continued.
"It took me forty years to make up my mind about smoking -
• •
for
)
hes
a way. If all of us cotton farmers raised our own tob-
" ell, I'll tell you the facts - ~ boy says it ain't right
oe to raise ~ own tobacco and fix it up like that and I reckon
right in
factories - anyway, its more trOUble than its worth"
"I rolled a cigarette and tasted the mild cigar like-flavor
waiting to find V' j out how he Jixed his home-made smoking tobacco.
"Thats deer tongue what gives it the right smell" , he finally
acco I guess it would throw a lot of men out of work in the regular
told me - "You can go up around the sub-marginal project and find
deer tongue a growing allover them hills up there"
"MY old lady heats the tobacco leaves in the stove, crumbles it
up right fine then sprinkles a little ribbon cane sugar over it and
it suits me better'n any of that bought stuff you fellers smoke around
town"
Never diG suck any smoke down my throat but I always said nobody~
oughte to smoke until about a year ago, I jist decided I'm going to
enjoy my pipe as long as I can"
"But what about that good flavor-odor" , I broke in.
"2"
"I had to admit he really had something there but I was anxious
to find out some other things.
"And I've got something here" - I said before~ii j~e had
a chance to tell me any more about the home spun tobacco business.
I offered to read the list of question~ which I had jotted down
on a slip of paper.
"Spect you better do that" - he agreed willingly "Getting sorter
late and ~ eyes ain't good as they used to be"
"Reckon I.~ve to like it" , he went on chuckling again when I
asked "Do you still like farm life, after all these years?'
"Don't know nothing else to like much except I been ge*tinn
more interested in politics the last year or two than I ever been"
•
•
•
. "3"
•
"Yell, now" - I interrupted, moving ~ chair over nearer the
•
wash stand which was an odd home-made affair. Jim's wife had already
told me how she found ~mal;Jpeculia~tree over in pasture. It had
four limbs which grew in suoh a way that they made excellent natural
legs. The small table-washstand held ~ attention this time only for
•
a minute.
"Well sir" , I repeated - "I've never been a farmer but it
certainly seems to me that farm life would hold all the interesting
experiences compared with politics"
"Its all mixed up together", Mr. Holback assured me • "1 can
see it all purty plain now to what I used to and talk about X*a the
farmer making his own living - pshaw - he oan't make a living by hisself
exactly to save his neck~
-I used to argue hell off its hinges about other people sittin'
around on their do-nothing stool
like that.
.'", and everything
I figured anybody could make a liVing if they'd work but I shore
haven't got much to brag about and further and more • its everybody
that makes a living for everybody else. Jist can't do it by yourself
to save your gizzard.
"Course I been voting the denocratic ticket all my life, not
studying much about it till that boy I told you about got me to thinking
how =ny w ys you could look at things.
s he looked out tow"rd the remshackled barn. I could tell hs
WqS anxious to give me. honestly. some information that might be
helpful.
"You're fixing to write up some stuff for the Government which
is liable to be read by a lot of high up educated people according to
what ~ wife said you told her" - He turned his eyes e&rnestly b~t
uncertainly in my direction •
•
"Reckon I jist might as well go back and bsgin right where I
was before I starte~' , he smiled good naturedly while I couldn't
keep from laughing at his midly humorus~I.~ , friendly way of saying
things.
~••""IX*II~nrX:iIJ!ItBS.W.IJa*'lr=.r;•r•tlXx.!I~
"That'll be fine", said I, feeling that he really had something
to say, I added encouragingly - "suppose you go ahead and tell me some
of your experiences in your own worda"
"Well, I was born down here a piece from Tuscaloosa - Been living
here all my sixty one winters, not counting off about three years
~
when us and several other families got the Texas fev;r"
"Thats been quite a spell back. I reckon its been nigh on 32
years since my first wife died and then I moved back here with one
small child"
"Didn't have a dime", he said with emphasis, "but I was one of
them stubbord ignoramous.. critters. I could handle a four pound axe
and I knew it and after my first wife died --"
Mrs. Holback came out the front with the small tub which she
used for her kitchen water bucket.
"Here", I suggested - suddenly thinking I might divert the
Holback history into some 1888 gruesome detail - "Let me draw the
water for you"
Her husband moved slowly to his feet - "I'll take the tub Emma,
git
wanta show him my pigs before it gits too dark 1'11_£ in the ater
in A few minutes"
e walked toward the front gate leaving the tub sitting on
the well boxing as we passed.
"Emmas my fourth wife", he began "but I'll tell you right
now- my low down hard headed cus8edness made it hard on me and my
folks too"
•
,
•
• "5"
"When I moved back here from Texae, I lit in to clearing up land
for different land owners at three dollars per acre. I worked. I'll
be snatched if I see now how I did what I did. Didn't have no plow
mule but I got old man Silverhorn to rent me one of hie plugs. He
let me work out the rent eo I cleared him five acres of new ground.
Next thing I had to look out for eome land eo I could farm the coming
year. Well, I just tell you the truth - anybody'd work as hard ae I
did that winter had ass oughter have the fatal snot sat beat out of
'em. Yes eir, I cleared by myself - I mean with my axe and piled
the brueh - twenty seven acree of new ground tha twinter"
"I boarded with my brother and his folks all that winter and then
about time spring eet in , I done decided I better try to git married
agin. I never did court none, you might say. Honest to God, I reckon
I never did say a kind word to any of my wivee except I try to treat
Emme a little better now since I eorter learned a little sense besidee
working"
"MY second wife died in two ye rs and left me with another child
and that made one boy by my first wife and one little gal by my second
wife. I argued and growled about nearly everything - jist looks like
I couldn't help it and it might do eomebody eome good to just put
that down on your papere jiet like I'm telling it right here."
"My third wife had eix gale. She worked and worried hereelf plumb
I
to death. She shore was a good woman and/ought of been a whole lot
easier on her but its done toolate to talk about that now. "hen the
last baby wae born the Doctor zaaa told me it had done been dead at
leaet a couple of daye and natc~lly my wife didn't live over that.
"The oldeet gal had done got up big enough to keep house and
cook and the other six cut wood, hoed and helped me farm just the
eeme like they were boye. Oh yee - my boy - well, I just tell you,
)1
he run away and I never did know where he went for a long time.
• •
•
• "6"
"You all can come on to supper", Mrs. Holback called from the
well, after, no doubt, deciding that we men couldn't be depended
upon for her bucket of water.
Although anxious to know the full details of the life of an
unusual sort of fellow, I felt that I'd rather hear more about
politics and less about llolback history. on second thought, I made
up my mind to listen to whatever he wanted to s~y.
The old fashioned long table, the bench fully as long, and
sitting next the wall bore evidence of bei well used.
ham.
"If you don't mind, I'd rather just sit here on this bench"
I suggested. Right at the moment I had the notion to say, "This
must be the seat of the silent six" but I didn't have to ask about
the six girls.
"Since my gals have all left home, we ain't had much use for
that old bench"
Uim Holback spoke dryly, unemotional, as he pessed the large
bowl of tender greens, cooked with what was left of a hickory smoked
"I reckon if you took teem one by one, they'd tell you plenty
to put in your wri tings
lab out how hard I on 'em when they was growing ~ up"
"I just wonder who that is now" Mrs Holback turned her kBaaz
chair and got up. The two dogs rushed out from und r the house.
jttte howling bark of the older dog turned to A whiny welcoming
sound j at outEide the front gate.
," ....~·.-.• ..~··2lIllilIl••Il ..!!l&...,...P,..Il.I-l~ It ain't no 'possum, I don't reckon; jist keep your seats,
I'll go see" Mr. Holback volunteered flatly. "Gittin' to where its
so~ter like town roads out here with all them rolling stores and
school buses ; keeps the dust a flyin' "
"I ts llorace " the kind old lady heard the familiar voice
•
•
•
•
"7"
as she said to me, "I guess he couldn't get back on the, work"
A tall , red faoed man of something near 30 years came in
followed by his fa ther'l
"Now hes the one can tell you about Dictators and Democrats"
Mr. Holback spoke slowly as the younger man shook my hand cordially.
Finishing supper we sat on the front porch while Horace Holback
told me of his hobo visits tofld Mexico - work in the orange groves
and finally his stevedore experiences on the san Francisco t water
Ftton ~ ,
"Iwent to night school out there and being interested in "What~
the matter with every thing" I put in most ~ of my time on pol1-
tical set••see science and econom1cs "he began seriously and
apparently sure of himself •
"I believe we should have older .-Dtpzs peoples schoolst in
every rural community -
es where the older folks
blem it really 1s to get
people.
Zaasiz - ~hat 1s;- special evening c~ss~.-
o.Lt. ~~
might go and mingle w1 tli' eacb. other" pro-things
worked out for the good of all the
"I've fully decided", he continued thoughtfully, " e don't
need one man to get started on a band wagon basis; whip up a fuss
allover the country and get people to thinking too much can be done
all at once"
"Sure - we need to get along better - every small farmer in
this country does - they've just about lived on hope and hard work
every since I can remember"
" .oney is just about the root of all our troubles all right
but 1t certainly isn't the whole cause of our hard times"
"The older generations just like my father here were never
permitted to really know anything about economics, you might say.
They planted their cotton and just hoped they might get a fair price.
•
,
• •
"S"
No control, no cooperation- No security.
"It'll take up too much of your time~ he warned me, "if I try
to explain everything the way I see it, so I'll Just not try to do
so"
"Go ahead and say wha t you please". I answered - "I'm comfortabls
and certainly fesl at home with you folks"
"Well, since we have made a start toward better methods, crop
cooperation, control etc., I think we should continue that way. Of
course, I believe it should be improved quickly, because no farmer
can possibly have anything like the decent necessities while his
products are priced out of line and unbalanced with bur national
economy •
Iolr. Holback had said nothing, SUddenly he got up and put his
pipe on the two by four from which it had been taken before supper.
"¥ell, you boys can go to bed when you get ready, I'm gonna lay
down"
Turning toward me, he said in his usual unemotional manner,
"I'll Jus tIe· ve the farmers fa te in you yOllnger folks hands- 'ake
yourself at home"
The old mans son moved his chair closer. Tempering his voice,
he began , "Now you take pa for example - He never has believed in
Automobiles. He used to say "them dang things is whats ruint the
coun try" - he laughed a 11 ttle and then kept talking "Tha ts the way
of a lot of other people living out this way.
"Pa never would buy anything unless he had the oash in sight
and you oan see for yourself, he hasn't anything here but a few acres
of worn out hilly land. ~zGAl~ You can easily see how progressive
he has been. This old house for instance; when our other house
burned, he built this lean-to out of some old seoond hand lumber
that you nor I would have. He simply never realized that progress mee
• •
means more than a pitiful existence of the individual family. Its
got to be national and in fact, its got to be more or less world
wide"
"Now, don't you think", he almost asked me pointblank -" They
are the dengerous democrats~" • I mean, these fellows who work and
•
skuffle all their lives iK, trying to manage things on the old early
Amerioan pioneer plan. Their eduoation and outlook is suoh that they
see things almost wholly from a selfish individual point of view.
After they suffer and talk among themselves for a while, they deoide
its all wrong but they don't exaotly know wby1
"Some high powered misleader works his way in • takes the floor,
and begins pumping the younger folks with the idea that something a
whole lot better is right around the oorner. These poor fellows fall
in line and while the long winded misleader froths at the mouth, a
new movement is born~
"New movements are all right baa and its a good idea to keep on
kioking for improvements but the demooratio party oan be improved
on and on and far as thats ooncerned any party would have to be improved
all along to be successful so I say " hy not wtiok to the old
Democra tic idea and keep on improving it"
"Sounds sound U , lIiiAq•••«dJi!l",!.tiJl'l.lI:brlIM.i".~.Idi:ImDa•i•!tt
luD.li.t"iJ..tJ•••".~~.;t"::~:~"::~~li:~:~:t:~:i~.t:~t;.J:tI'"
~.MlliualllllDXXmyself"
"How about his religion?" , I asked. " ould it be a good idea to
say anything about *iIaI that?"
J!i.iI•••N~.".l:l:xIfab."lt, Horace Holback smiled a little.
"I SUppose i t would be all right. Hes been going to church 11 h a is life,
gets a big kick out of trying to sing the d0, ray, mes, in the old
his every day religion
christian harmony.
has improved since
I know one thing for sure,
I was a kid. Its just like the Democratic idea, it
.. .. ...
10
seems to me that ones religion should be constantly improved. II
•
"You know wha t," the young man looked at me in the ligh~ from the
kerosene lamp sitting inside the room that~~en assigned to me for the
night. "If you were to get a history of this family, boy, you'd have to
come out here and spend a .week" and with a hopeful ring in his voice,
he added, "Why not do that some time this fall; we can hunt some and
eat sweet potatoes till you break down with a good spell of indigestion"
"That reminds me of what Aunt Jenny used to say", he added with
the
a boy like chuckle "She used to say ~ best way in the world to kill
a sweet gum tree; and you know how they will sprout every time you cut
'em down; well, she said the way to kill a sweet gum , you have to bore
a big """", hole about half way through, pour it full of old sorghum
molasses and then stuff the hole full of soft sweet potatoe.; stop it
up and it would sure die with indiges tion"
"Pretty good" - I agreed heartily "but I like rem anicertainlY
it would l?e a pleasure to spend a week with you some time later"
Leaving early the following morning, I felt convinced that if
all the small farm owners could have the spiritual outlook of Horace
Holback, there would certainly be no need to worry over what might come
what
in the future. At the same time, I wondered a.,Dl the six "gals" and their
tenant farmer husbands might think about the conditions under which they
live. I resolved to make the trip back into the country sooner or later •
•
••iil
•
R. D. Lucky
,
• •
•
Moundvill~, Ala.,
Nov. 15, 1938.
R. D. L•
•
Mr •• Lucy Crav~r .at dawn in the front bed room of her
r.nt~d hom~, acated only a f~w .t~p. off th~ Old Mill Road, one
mile ~ast of Moundville. She b~nt over and turned t~e opno.ite
.id- ~f th- four gallon c~urn toward th. small fir~.
"f~ least we 'v~ got on~ thing l~"" to worry abrut .ince
y~"t-rday" - sh~ b-gan with little indication of enthusiasm.
"It'll sav~ u. the troubl~ of looking around and trying to find
another farm to mov- on. H~ wouldn't agre~ to fix th~ wiring in
th- house.o - could have electri lights but the landlord told
my husband this morning that we could stay on her~ for th~ saoe
rant 'It~ paid.last y...r"
.
This lady of 35 seemed to have kn inexhaustible reserve
• of pati-nce and while her small statue gave no clue to h-r physi-cal
poweress. she mu.t certainly have b.en strong •
"loIy Mother died when I was 9 years old", .he· continu..d
casually and undisturbed. "There wer- four sisters of us; two
older t"An me and one younger, th~n too, I had one brother and
h~ was old-r than the r~st of us kids - that was when we liv..d up
yond-r are./( mil.. s this sid", of Bessem~r".
"Our broth-r didn't .stay at hom~ so all four of us girls
had to :io the work moatly inside th~ house and outaide both"
"I aee a lot of things com- up now days that puts me in
mind of my Father. Hea d..ad now but he didn't die till about two
ye~r. ago but I'm g .. ttin' ahead of what I waa going to aay. He
•
•
•
"~ • •
,
•
many
Marri~d aBain several years b~fore he died, that was aft~r us
girls got to marryi ng off '.'
"Pa was what you call a trapper and fisherman and there ain't
neonl~ that do that now in this part of the country. He trapped
'lnd f
times
"h~d nearly ~very since I could r~member. He stayed away sometwo
or three nights b~fore he would come in and during the
wint-r, h~ would make nretty good money"
•
"We farmed some too but Pa took up more of his time fishing
and trapping tban ne~ly any other way. It does look like we would
have got along better and I reckon we would if Pa had let Licker
alone"
•
"He got pretty good money for such as Mink hides and Coons and
th-n for ,-veral days to come, he'd blow in what money he had, mostly
on whiskey and whatever he took a notion to. He generally would wind
up drunk and mean to where nobody couldn't ~ hardly stay around
from the r+ver and that ain't the
h1m~'
one night
him #I./com. in
• • ,
the first and th,e last time he done such a thing. On top of it all,
•
it wasn't our fault because us kids didn't hardly have anything left
in th- hous" to cook - but Pa started in to saying, "I'm hungry as
a bear cat" and kept on getting madd.l!r and madder because we didn't
hav~ but mighty littl.. left ov~r from supper"
"Pa's name was Lim Haverty; he was a big man and rough looking
and so us kids had a right to live in mortal fear the way he acted.
Tr.at night h- grabbed up the gravey bowl that had used to belong
to my moth-r b-fore she died and threw it against the stove. Then he
mad. us all g"t out of bed, light th- fire , hunt up some eggs out
, •
•
I •
• •
in the crib and scrap around till we got him some more supper
fixed. The erouble was we never did even know when he would come
o
in a. night but we always had to have more cooked than he would
eat before he would be satisfied and then he would raise a row no
~tter how it was~
"Now such things as that is what all I thought I was going
to get rid of when I got married. I was 17 years old when I did
get married and just like any other girl that you might know of.
At first my husband didn't drink hardly any at all so then I said
to myself, 'I know I can turn him against whiskey' but I see I
couldn't do it so now I just go ahead and do the best I can~
"We have farmed nearly avery since we have been married and
for the last two years we have been what they call "bull farmers~
it
My husband laughs about/when anybody mentions 'bull farming' and
•
just says Iwell, it takes a good man to get onto it and it takes
a better man to get off' - For myself, I don't think it shows anybodys
good sense to speak about people being 'bull farmers' when
o
they are just being given a little helping hand b. the Government".
o
"We've got five children. The oldest one is a boy and hes in
tha C.C.C. out in California. I don't think its hardly fair on him
but hes been in the camp going on two years and like I tell him
when I write him (I send his letters by airplane) I try to make him
realize how much we appreciate his check every month as I don't
know what we would do if it wasn't for that"
"»y husband Luverne, thats my husbands name,
o
hes good in a way an~ it used to be that held work along all right
• during the crop time and hardly ever got into any kind of messes •
•
•
• •
, . 4
•
•
It just s-ems like he would g-t plumb disgusted when settling up
time cam- around. We would make a little mon~y cl.ar may be like
•
this year and th-n next lear we would not make enough to come
out an ay AP our debts. Its beer. that way off and on with most
•
of the small farmers that I know of and specially you can't pay
un if theres any doctor bills like we had. It seems like when my
husband would be in h-art to go ahead and thinking now sure he
would have enough extra after the crop• was gathered to buy some-thing
nic~ such as new furniture or a new SUit, it would make him
di,gusted when he couldn't do so·
"'rh-", if he couldn't f:nd any public work, such as painting
C~ "r~·ir..g at ;;he saw mill, he would start in to hanging around
the stor-s and it got to wher~ he would drink any time anybody
""'lld offer im some whiske ~
"Every year it got to ~l.-re I had to be the manaber more and
more b~caus. Luverne didn't t ve much care about tryin3 to do anything
except by spells. He got so h.'d have a worse temper and get
mad and throw things around whenever he was drinking. I had a lots
to put up with that nobody donlt know about, Jet and still, the
•
childr-n were coming on and getting in school. I had to work harder
and harder and I'll just tell you the dying truth, I don't hardly
kn w how it all happened. It came on this way so slow and gradual
until I couldn't to save my life, tell just wnen the store men begin
to look up to me as the b?sS of everything here at home. Th-y wouldn't
even let my husband have any credit at all. I even had to buy
his snuff and I couldn't have done it if we hadn't of got started
•
•
to truck farming on the side"
"Why sure, my husband would
and not drink any and that kept me
• stop drinking whiskey" • •
work sometimes, a month or two
in heart to thinking he'd finally
•
,
•
•
•
. 5
"The people around the little town here have been good about
buying nearly anything I had to peddle such as turnip greens, peas,
beans, tomatoes, okra, corn and so on"
"Some of my husbands own people have hinted at me like I ought
to just quit .......ka and get ~ divorce but I just go ahead and
• • don't pay muc~ attention to them exc pt I try to pass it off as
fri<>ndly as I call to not hurt their f~elillgs. I think a'.J,,"t my
childre~ ~nd when you think abc~t it hard enough, I can't aee how
it woulf h~lp anybody ~er me to quit my hus~and·
":!ow there, ..y dallghter - I know we have got h<,t' "p to the 7th
grade. She is pret.y and everybody seems to like her. I.sell butter
•
and ~ilk, all that we can spare - and scrape around every way to keep
her oorter up even with other girls her ag& - so all these things
make my work pretty ~rd and steady but I still say, I already know
what its like to keep on like we are but if I was to fly off the
handle and get a divorce, we m1ght be worse off than we are now'~
•
•
"My husband don't believe in
,
going to church but he is good
hearted. He thinks most of the church people are against him and
you couldn't make him look at it any different to save your life.
The way he tries to tell me about the biggest church people; he
says now, that Mr. Fr-eedmore ~as took mortgages on peoples houses
crons and -verything and even when the Lord fails to send the rain
and make good crops- why foot, he says - it don't make Mr. Freedmore
• •
feel' bad to take everything you got just so he keeps on getting a
•
little richer every year. The way I look at it myself, I know there
are a lots of them kind of people and I know its true in a way. They
don't really feel very sad over anybodys condition except their own
but you can't say anything to them about it. It makes my husaband
•
.'
6
1 •
mad b~caus~ some of them blame h1lll then he turns around and blames
the a.t;h~rs that never do seem like they work any much but they
•
, hand out a ittl~ money when the crops is started and then get back
more than they ought to when the crops is finished,
•
•
but as I tell my husband, its been like that for hundreds of years
and ther~ ain't much that we can do except to do the right thing as
near as W~ C&:l"
"I send my daughter and my youngest son to church every Sunday
and I go ss often as I can. I want them to be in thc ~bit of going
to church because I think it does anybody good if they will go"
• "Educa tion ir. my way of thinking is jus t one long hard row of
stumps for the Door people but yet and sti11, I believe we roed·
education. I didn't get to go but to the fourth grade so I want my
childr-n to be ~ducnted"
•
•
"Now you take this year; I 1·"'1-1. had to get out and beg, barry
and SIiB&l trade off some of my frying size chickens to get books •
• Then first thing I knew, I had to sk1lllp around and get up incidental
fees. I sure feel lik- education is worth the price but it comes
pr~tty high for the parents. Theres the football business. If the
• school principals knew how the boys are kept away from the stove ood
pile and work at home that would be worth something, I believe they
would actually be ashamed. Anyway, I just rather go ahead and do the
bAst I can. They would call me crazy if I told them what I think
about so much football."
"I always wanted nice things but I guess a person would finally
go crazy sure -nough if they keep on wanting and wanting to' have
such things as plenty of clothes, bath rooms, rugs on the floors,
electric lights and so on. I .till do want things like that but yet •
•
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