Like One of the Family (7 page)

“Mrs. M …,” I said, “you just treat me like you would anybody else that might be workin' for you in any kind of job. Don't be afraid to talk to me because if you say the wrong thing I promise to correct you, and if you want to get along you won't mind me doing so. After all, if I got into all your personal business and wanted to know everything about your life and your husband and your friends, pretty soon you would be forced to correct me even though it might make me uncomfortable.” “Oh, Mildred,” she says, “I didn't realize …” “Of course you didn't,” I cut in, “but can't you see that it's unfair to push a one-sided friendship on me?” “Mildred,” she says, “I wanted to be friendly.” “Now of course you did,” I answered, “but, for example, when you told me the other day that you're going to drop by my house and see me sometime I don't appreciate that because I never invited you, and you never had me to your house except to do a day's work.” She looked down at her hands as I went on. “I don't think it's fair that you can invite yourself to my house and I can't tell you that I'll be over here for tea on Sunday afternoon.”

Marge, she shook her head sadly. “You mean that there is nothing that we have in common, nothing that we can talk about?” “I didn't say that at all,” I said, “but let's just relax and feel our way along and not try to prove anything, and before you know it everything will go along easy-like.”

She smiled then, “You mean you don't want to be treated
special?”
“Well, I do and I don't,” I answered; “because I knew a woman once who was awful rude to me and said that was the way she was with everybody, no matter what color, and she didn't want to treat me
special
. I told her that if that was her general way then I'd appreciate her treatin' me special and I'd bet that other folks would like the change too.” Marge, Mrs. M … fell out laughin' and says “Mildred, people are the limit!” … And I guess she's right too…. No indeed, I don't take that time and bother with most folks because when I run into a mean, hateful one who comes chatterin' around me about “What do you do after work?” I just give her a short smile and say, “Oh, first one thing and then another.” And by the time she's figured that out, I'm in another room busy doin' something else! … That's right, but, as I said, Mrs. M … is a nice person, so I told her.

M
ARGE
, I
AM VERY SORRY
and yon will have to excuse me, but I don't feel like devilin' any more eggs, neither do I feel like makin' any more potted ham sandwiches, and furthermore I ain't so hot on goin' on no picnic…. Yes, I know it was my idea and please don't jump so salty, because I am goin'. No, indeed I would not stand Eddie up. I only said I didn't feel like goin'.

Yes, my mind is disturbed. Now you know I have never been a fearful woman. In fact I have always prided myself on how I'll stand up to anybody, but to tell the God honest truth, I get scared thinkin' of what might happen when you go on a picnic.

It gives me the shivers when I think how they been killin' up our people left and right, and how the law is always lettin' the murderers get away with it! Do you know what happened on the picnic last year? … No, not the picnic you went on but the other one! Well, Stella and Mike, Pearl and Leo and me were drivin' along singin' songs and havin' a nice time when all these cars came drivin' past us. Guess what? … I'll tell you. They were all flyin' Confederate flags and singin' Dixie! They slowed down as they passed us and jeered and hollered a lot of ugly names! There must have been seven or eight cars and every one of 'em was loaded with screechin' hoodlums. I was some scared. I was afraid that Leo and Mike was gonna get in trouble, especially when I heard Leo say, “Okay, Mike, here's where we take somebody with us, 'cause damn if I'm gonna leave this world by myself!”

Stella started cryin' but Pearl reached down in the lunchbox, got the box of black pepper and hollered back to me, “The first mother's son that sticks his or her head in this car is gonna get both eyes full of black pepper!” Well, it looked for a while like we was gonna be run off the road but Leo held that car steady and wouldn't budge a inch. Pearl yelled, “Honey, we gonna hit!” But Leo still held fast to the center of the right lane. Oh yes, they went on after a while, when it looked like it might mean they was gonna crash too!

No, that wasn't all. After we got to the picnic grounds all we could see was motorcycles roarin' back and forth with Confederate flags on the handlebars. Well, you can imagine how long it took us to get ourselves together, but as hard as it was we managed to try and enjoy ourselves. When we went to the lockerrooms I pointed up to the wall and showed the girls where somebody had written, “niggers not wanted.” No, we didn't mention it to the fellas 'cause our day was spoiled enough already. Yes, we had a swim and ate our lunch even though I couldn't taste it. Afterwards when we was drivin' home, we didn't sing and just before we crossed the tollbridge a white fella rolled down his car window and asked Leo if he'd give him a match, Leo gave him a dirty look and said, “Hell no!” He looked at us real funny, but we didn't pay him one bit of mind.

Marge, do you remember those two men that was killed in Yonkers just 'cause they went in a bar to buy a drink? … No, nothin' at all was done about it except to let the one who did it just go right on about Ms business! Search your mind and tell me if you remember one time when a white person got the chair or was hanged for killin' one of our folks. Well, if it's ever happened, I've never heard of it!

Don't it give you the goose pimples when you realize that white people can kill us and get away with it? Just think of it! We are walkin' targets everywhere we go—on the subway, in the street, everywhere.

Now I am a good woman, but if I was not, the law is so fixed that I can't go around killin' folks if I want to live myself. But white folks can kill me. And that is why we got to be so cautious even on a picnic.

Of course I'm goin'! I shall take my life in my hands and go to the beach. After all we got to go somewhere … sometime.

M
ARGE … DAY'S WORK
is an education! Well, I mean workin' in different homes you learn much more than if you was steady in one place…. I tell you, it really keeps your mind sharp tryin' to watch for what folks will put over on you.

What? … No, Marge, I do not want to help shell no beans, but I'd be more than glad to stay and have supper with you, and I'll wash the dishes after. Is that all right? …

Who put anything over on who? … Oh yes! It's like this…. I been working for Mrs. E … one day a week for several months and I notice that she has some peculiar ways. Well, there was only one thing that really bothered me and that was her pocketbook habit…. No, not those little novels…. I mean her purse–her handbag.

Marge, she's got a big old pocketbook with two long straps on it … and whenever I'd go there, she'd be propped up in a chair with her handbag double wrapped tight around her wrist, and from room to room she'd roam with that purse hugged to her bosom…. Yes, girl! This happens every time! No, there's
nobody
there but me and her…. Marge, I couldn't say nothin' to her! It's her purse, ain't it? She can hold onto it if she wants to!

I held my peace for months, tryin' to figure out how I'd make my point…. Well, bless Bess!
Today was the day!
… Please, Marge, keep shellin' the beans so we can eat! I know you're listening', but you listen with your ears, not your hands…. Well, anyway, I was almost ready to go home when she steps in the room hangin' onto her bag as usual and says, “Mildred will you ask the super to come up and fix the kitchen faucet?” “Yes, Mrs. E …,” I says, “as soon as I leave.” “Oh, no,” she says, “he may be gone by then. Please go now.” “All right,” I says, and out the door I went, still wearin' my Hoover apron.

I just went down the hall and stood there a few minutes … and then I rushed back to the door and knocked on it as hard and frantic as I could. She flung open the door sayin', “What's the matter? Did you see the super?” … “No,” I says, gaspin' hard for breath, “I was almost downstairs when I remembered … I
left my pocketbook!”

With that I dashed in, grabbed my purse and then went down to get the super! Later, when I was leavin' she says real timid-like, “Mildred, I hope that you don't think I distrust you because …” I cut her off real quick…. “That's all right, Mrs. E …, I understand. 'cause if I paid anybody as little as you pay me, I'd hold my pocketbook too!”

Marge, you fool … lookout! … You gonna drop the beans on the floor!

M
ARGE, SOMETIMES OUT OF TOWN VISITORS
can be a real drag if you live in New York City…. Well, you remember the time my friend Mamie visited me for two weeks? … Of course I enjoyed her company, but she almost gave me a nervous breakdown! … Yes girl, she came here with a list as long as your arm and had every minute of her time planned right down to the second…. No, I didn't mind that at all, but what got me was the fact that my time had to go right along with it…. Honey! She had to see
all
the museums, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, the United Nations, Radio City, Central Park, Bronx Park, Small's Paradise, Birdland, Randolph's, the theatres, the markets, and, of course, she never got her fill of bus and boat sight-seeing trips…. My dear, I never did so much subway ridin' and transferrin' in my natural life…. I can tell you that I was some worn out. About two days before she left she decided to make the rounds of all the big department stores…. Marge, we hit every floor in Macy's and then run over to Gimbel's and …

Girl! Are you out of your mind? Of course she didn't soak me for all the bills, in fact she made an announcement the first day she got here…. “Mildred, I'm goin' to pay my own way everywhere I go.” … That was great, Marge, but the fact remains that I had to pay
my
way and traipse along with her, and when she left I was two steps from the poor house and a nervous breakdown.

Wait a minute, I haven't told it all…. Well, she also had to sample all the different foods in the different restaurants. We had Chinese dinners, French lunches, Italian suppers and so forth and so on, then to cap the climax she just
had
to ride one of those horse and buggy things through Central Park…. Yes, we did that the day before she left…. There I was leaning back in this carriage, my arms full of packages and my blood pressure hittin' close to two hundred when out she comes with this remark: “New York is all right to visit but I could
never
live here. It's too much rush and hectic going all the time. The pace is too fast, the buildings are too close together, and I like peace and quiet.”

My dear, you could have cut the silence with a knife because countin' to ten was not enough and I had to go past seventy-five before I dared answer her…. But before I could open my mouth she adds, “How do you ever stand it?” I took ten more after that and mumbled something about, “Oh, I don't live this fast all the time.” … Believe me when I say that the prettiest sight I ever saw in my life was that big train sittin' in the station waitin' to carry her away from here. That's a fact … and you know I'm fond of Mamie!

Today … listen close now …
today
I get a letter from her sister June sayin' that Mamie had such a good time while she was here that she … June … had decided to spend her vacation with me next summer. My ankles started to swell just sittin' there thinkin' about it, and I made up my mind then and there that I could not go through the business of bein' personal guide on a merry-go-round for another two-week stretch…. Of course, she's welcome but no more of this jumpin' through hoops for yours truly, especially when half of the time the visitor goes back home without the least idea of what New York City is all about or why millions of people stay here and also like it…. I know it! All these out-of-towners think we're a bunch of good-timers!

Marge, you know it is a rare thing for me to be runnin' different places … and even if my health could stand it, my pocketbook can't…. That's right, there's hardly a small town in the land where you'll find people goin' less than your friend Mildred, but whenever I go away I soon find that I'm gettin' real homesick for this New York … because I like it!

When I'm here, I enjoy stayin' home with the thought that there is a million places for me to go if I wanted to, but when I'm away I hate stayin' home with the thought that I
have
to because nothin's goin' on…. Yes, mam, that makes a real difference.

When I'm away I miss the subway…. No, not the rush and crowd, but the people. I like ridin' with folks of every race, color and kind…. They make stories go round in my head, and sometimes I go past my stop because I'm so busy imaginin' their children and homes and what kind of lives they live…. One day I was in a super-market and I saw this East Indian with a beautiful pink turban on his head…. Oh, he was busy buyin' a box of Uneeda biscuits…. That stayed on my mind for a long time because the turban made me think of pearls and palaces … but there he was as big as life … with biscuits! … Yes, I miss these things when I'm away. I miss the people walkin' along with their little radios held up to their ear so's they can listen to the Dodgers, the big ships standin' still and mighty in the harbor, the tough little tug boats huffin' and puffin' up the river, the fellas pushin' carts of suits and dresses in and out of downtown traffic, people readin' all manner of foreign newspapers and such, all the big sounds of swishin' automobiles, planes overhead and children shoutin' until it all comes together and turns into one big “New York-sound.”