Like One of the Family (19 page)

I
SERVED A LUNCHEON PARTY
today…. Yes, It was a very nice affair. It seems like it was given to benefit some orphanage, and the ladies had a very nice time chit-chattin' and playin' cards and I was mighty glad that somebody was gonna reap some benefit out of the fun 'cause wasn't nothin' else happenin'.

… I mean they seemed kinda bored and weary and put-upon and also acted like they'd just as soon be somewhere else. By me bein' the one who was doin' the servin' I got to hear a lot of what they was talkin' about. My, but they have done a heap of travelin'! I tell you, when we take off every few years and go down home for a week, you can bet your last dollar that we've been nowhere! Why, those folks don't think nothin' of jumpin' up and flyin' off in all directions at one time, and it would be pretty hard to name a place where most of 'em haven't been.

One sorry-faced woman told all about how she had gone to India and France and Egypt and all manner of far-off places. I couldn't for the life of me see why she looked so sad-eyed because I know that just one of those places would've set my eyes dancin' for years and years. But there she sat, blowin' smoke rings and yawnin' every once in a while. The others took their turns and went to describin' all corners of the world and how the food in France stood up to the food in Spain and also how tea was made one place and how the coffee was brewed in another…. Yes, it was strange how they kept talkin' about
food
, and I did get the general idea that of all the places they had gone nobody had looked at very much except their dinnerplate! Why, you'd think they had never had nothin' to eat!

Honey, they was busy rememberin' the pastry from here, the fish from there and the wines from some place else! And all the time sittin' right in front of them was every manner of goody that you've ever heard of! I'm tellin' you, they had a spread! But everybody just picked at the stuff and mumbled about their diet. Seems like they couldn't eat unless they went off some place far!

They raised a right-smart piece of money for the orphans and after the affair was over I had to hang around puttin' things in order. After the last guest was gone, I got to chattin' with Mrs. G … and I asked her about the trips she had taken. She told me about Italy and a few other places, then she says, “The next time I make a trip, I think I'll go to South America, I do think I'd see more and enjoy the atmosphere of a new …”

“Well,” I says, “I always see a
lot
when I go on a trip and although I haven't been to many places, I figure that I really get my money's worth of sights and feelin's.”

“Oh,” she says, “have you traveled?” “A bit,” I said, “I've been back down to South Carolina two or three times, out to St. Louis once and I make little short trips to Long Island and New Jersey all year round.”

“And you've enjoyed them?” she asked. “Oh, yes,” I says, “when I go travelin' I see a heap, and it's my greatest pleasure to recollect things for a long time and in that way it seems to me I get all the good out of where I've been time and time again.”

“I've been to South Carolina,” she says, “and I do recall that they have a lovely Battery, the Cooper River Bridge and …” “Well,” I says, “I remember other things more. For example, I've never had a more wonderful feelin' than lookin' out of the train window in the first early hours of the mornin'. There's a deep misty haze hangin' just a few feet above the ground, the sky is streaked with red and gold against gray, everything is quiet and still-like and it seems as though there's not a livin' soul in the world.

“The brown-wood lean-to houses look like livin' things standin' along the side of the track and watchin' the train whizz by. If you can get to the diner and have a cup of coffee at that exact time, well, you'll find that coffee tastes better at that minute than any other time. You feel cozy and close to your own thoughts, yet lookin' out the window makes you think of how big and strange the world is and how small you are.”

“Yes,” she said, “I do recall that feelin' slightly although I never paid too much attention at the time.” “But,” I says, “that's not all. You have to look sharp if you want to get the
good
out of a trip. Be sure and watch for early twilight-time and you'll really be in luck if there's a little rain happenin' at the same time. You'll see the tall cornstalks noddin' and wavin' in the fields, you'll see a horse shakin' his head and strollin' in little circles. I've always wondered why the horse pays the train no mind. And right about then the train engineer blows his whistle ‘too-whoo-whoo-whooooo,' and all of a sudden I smile to myself … not about a joke or even anything I can describe. No, I can't name the feelin', but I smile or laugh a little to myself and it feels good to get up and rock and sway down the aisle and drink a cup of icewater out of one of those paper cups.”

Then the woman says to me, “But that's on the train, what about the places you've visited?” “Oh, I enjoy the places, too,” I says. “But more than the monuments and the parks and streets and such sights, I enjoy the little unexpected moments that jump up in front of you and are gone before you know it. Like when we all went on a picnic out on Edisto Island, off the coast of Charleston, The picnic was nice and there was lots of good things to eat and games to play and laughin' and talkin' and singin'. But when the picnic was over and we gathered up our things and started back to the wagon, one of those moments jumped up right in front of my eyes for almost a whole minute.

“You see, we had picnicked up on a grassy mound under a big tree, and I was one of the last ones to leave. As the people trailed down the path, some of them were carryin' the sleepin' children and their heads were bobbin' on their shoulders, the old folks were pickin' their way real slow-like so's not to stumble or fall; one little girl was runnin' to keep up with her papa and her feet was slippin' and slidin' and kickin' up the dust and everything was covered with a big silence.

“Then Reverend Carter, who was pullin' up the rear with his arms full of little campchairs for the children, started to sing ‘When the Saints Go Marchin' In' and he was singin' all by himself. Somewhere off in the distance a big old lonely boat whistle hollered out—‘Loooord!' And then the people joined in with the minister, ‘I Want To Be In That Number!' As I stood up on that little mound watchin', I felt big and strong and able to do anything in the world. It seemed as though I was miles away and didn't know them and that they was the whole world passin' before my eyes!

“Then my friend Pete Jones came up to me and said, ‘You gonna stand here all night, sister? Come on 'fore we get left!' Then the moment was gone and soon I was back with them and we was all talkin' and makin' jokes about what all we had done that day.”

Mrs. G … looked at me and nodded her head. “You should get to travel more since you get so much out of it.” “Yes,” I says, “and I hope to someday but meantime I just look at everything that I can see right here at home because I know there are a lot of people savin' up their money to come here to New York and if it's worth that much to them, I oughta make it worth somethin' to me.

“If you want to see somethin' now, you get out of here on the first day of school openin' in the fall. Don't tell me these children don't like school! You never saw so much starch and hair ribbons in your life and new pencil-boxes and plastic book-bags, and sass and candy apples! Another thing you oughta catch is the children out in the street on Christmas-eve night, the hot chestnut man with that little weak whistle on his cart, folks draggin' trees through the snow …”

Then she says real solemn-like, “I wonder what Paris, the West Indies or Italy would mean to you?” And I told her, “Honey, I would have me a natural ball!” And I would, wouldn't you, Marge?

I
BET YOU
can't guess what happened over at the pubic school yesterday”! … Miss Richardson told me that they found out that some of the school children was dope addicts…. No, I'm not talkin' about the high school, I'm speakin' of the elementary school! … That's right! Most of them children ain't over thirteen or fourteen years old! It sure
is
a cry in' shame…. Yes, they say they caught some young man who had been sellin' it to them! They say that he was on the stuff too!

Girl, you can't pick up a paper or a magazine without seem' somethin' about people caught takin' dope. I wonder why they do it, too. Most times you'll read somethin' about it givin' them some kind of kick or thrill or somethin' like that, but I don't believe that could be altogether true!

I worked for a woman once, and they found out that her daughter was takin' some kind of dope. The daughter was a nice enough kinda person, but she didn't never seem too thrilled about nothin', if you ask me! … No, she used to hang around the house lookin' real quiet-like and still all the time. There would be days when she got sort of nervous and jittery and more than once I noticed that she had awful dark circles under her eyes to be as young as she was! But for the most part she was dull as dishwater and didn't seem to take too much interest in nothin'….

Yes, they sent her away some place to a private sanitarium. It's a mess whenever rich people get into that kind of fix so you can imagine what it must he to have trouble like that in a poor family! When that stuff gets hold of you, it seems like it will make you steal or do anything else to get enough money to keep right on buyin' it. But the worst part of all is how it tears up your system.

… Sure, somethin' oughta be done about it! But what? I'm not a violent woman, but I believe I'd feel mighty close to murder if I caught up with somebody who had helped do that to a child of mine or anybody else's children for that matter.

It strikes me as doggone funny that they never catch anybody except some folk who are sellin' a few packages of it to people! I mean, it must be comin' from somewhere, and nobody is givin' it away free in order to win friends or influence people! … No, some big people are makin' a big mint of money out of that stuff, and some folks must have got powerful rich off of strewin' it all 'round the country. How come nobody ever seems to catch up with some of them?

You should of heard Mrs. T … who lives down the street! … Yes, her son got mixed up in that foolishness and when it came time that he wanted to cure himself of it, he went into these terrible spasms and shivers and sweats. She told me, “Mildred, I come home and found my boy on the floor just retchin' and groanin' and sweatin' somethin' terrible with his eyes sunk in his head like death itself! He was crawlin' on the floor tryin' to get over to the telephone and call somebody to help him.”

Girl, the tears was pourin' down her cheeks and that poor woman had her heart brimfull of trouble and misery. Well, it got to the point that she couldn't leave the rent money in the house 'cause he would find it and use it to buy more of that poison. She said he would be 'shamed about it afterwards but it looked like when he needed that stuff, he'd get so desperate that nothin' or nobody mattered except gettin' hold of it…. Yes, they sent him down to Kentucky to take a cure, but when he got out, she never saw him no more 'cause he didn't come home. Every once in a while, she'd get a postcard from him with no return address on it, but after a while he stopped sendin' them, and she never heard any more from him.

… Well, I wouldn't say that nothin' but weak people would get themselves into such a state. No, I wouldn't say that at all unless we wanna figure that there's just millions and millions of weak folks.

… No, I didn't say that there are
millions
of addicts. I can't say 'cause I don't know just how many there are, but I'm talkin' about another thing I read about that has some bearin' on the matter.

I read where there is a new kinda drug that is supposed to relax folks and ease up the strain on them without havin' any Ml effects afterward. Do you know that people are buyin' up them pills so fast 'til the drugstores are just plum run out of it
all the time!
Yes, mam, and bigshot people are tellin' all about how it helps them to keep goin' from day to day! There is a big rush on and almost
everybody
seems to be makin' a bee-line for them pills!

What in the world is the matter? Folks are takin' these things because they are weary and scared and tired and nervous and upset! Well, I'm glad this new stuff is harmless, too, but it clearly shows that folks would be buyin' that harmful dope if they wasn't afraid of payin' them heavy dues by ruinin' their health. Looks like people are sayin' “We're all unhappy and need some pill or somethin' to ease our minds and give us a moment's peace.”

Girl, pills and needles ain't gonna change this world one little speck. Somehow folks will have to take some of the pressure off of people. They oughta get some of these great minds that's hangin' around and put 'em to work figurin' out ways and means to do it.

Don't you think there is enough of them big people to take a little bit of effort and remove that monkey that's ridin' on the backs of American people? …

M
ERRY
C
HRISTMAS
, M
ARGE
! Girl, I just want to sit down and catch my breath for a minute…. I had a half a day off and went Christmas shopping. Them department stores is just like a madhouse. They had a record playin' real loud all over Crumbleys…. “Peace On Earth.” Well sir! I looked 'round at all them scufflin' folks and I begun to wonder…. What is peace?

You know Marge, I hear so much talk about peace. I see it written on walls and I hear about it on the radio, and at Christmas time you can't cut 'round the corner without hearin' it blarin' out of every store front…. Peace … Peace … Peace.