| Aunt Eunice--The Legend: Part 2 | |
Only
Rich People Eat Peanut Butter
All of us had our own chores and one of mine was helping with
the washing. Mama had this big
black wash kettle that we would build a fire under in the backyard, and my job
was stirring the clothes with a big wooden paddle.
We put bluing in the water to make the clothes whiter.
Later, when I was grown and got my first washing machine, I thought that
was the most wonderful invention in the world.
“As a family we were pretty self-sufficient.
We raised most everything we ate and Mama made a lot of our clothes out
of flour sacks and fertilizer bags. I
remember carrying lunch to school in a tin bucket.
Sometimes, if I was lucky, I would trade a couple of ham and biscuits for
a peanut butter sandwich. At that
time I thought only rich people ate peanut butter.
"I was twenty years old the first time I ever
came to town. It was at the end of
cotton picking season and as a special celebration Daddy carried us to the
County Fair. I had never seen so
many lights and so many people. The
thing that really impressed me the most though was the cotton candy.
I had never tasted anything like it.
"I suppose it's difficult for anyone who never
picked cotton to understand how happy we were when it was finished.
We would get out in the fields at first light, sometimes freezing to
death, and work all day long bent over picking cotton.
There was no comfortable way to pick it.
If you bent over, your back killed you and if you worked on your knees
you got gouged by sharp rocks and thorns. If
I was working for someone else I got paid .50 cents a hundred pounds, or 50
cents a day for chopping cotton. The only good times of the day were lunch time
and quitting time."
Eunice
Gets Married
In 1940, Eunice met and married a local farm-worker named
Leonard Merrill. Though the couple soon had three children, any thoughts of
her becoming a typical housewife soon vanished.
The area was still recovering from the worst depression this country had
ever known and simply putting food on the table was often a Herculean task.
"I did housework for Mrs. Butler, who lived down
the road, and also helped take care of her children.
I was paid six dollars a week for six days a week.
It doesn't sound like much money now, but we did whatever we had to do
back then.
"Later I went to work for my brother-in-law who owned a
small restaurant in Farley. I made
$15.00 a week and the first time I got paid I was scared to death.
That was the most money I had ever had at one time!"
The restaurant was a popular gathering spot for
local politicians and people wanting favors.
One local wag claimed there was more business conducted at the restaurant
than at the courthouse. For a young
country girl like Eunice, it provided a valuable insight on how politics were
conducted at the time.
"There was a back room in the restaurant
with a big wooden table and every Monday morning the sheriff (Oliver McPeters)
would do his business there. People
who wanted to pay a fine or wanted a favor, would wait their turn to see him.
Of course, all the business
was done in cash. Sometimes the
whole front of the restaurant would be full of people waiting to see (or pay)
some politician in the back room.
"The first thing I learned in the
restaurant business was how to pour coffee and the second thing was how to keep
my mouth shut!"
Eunice
Goes Into Business
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