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ALBERT AND ANNE DENHAM
(Florida)
"Anne, my wife," said Albert Denham,
"she has gone to town this mornin with another lady. They ain't come back
yet. I'm sorry she ain't here, and I hope she come back before you gets
gone; she'll be plum glad to see you."
We were sitting on the front porch of Mr. Denham's home near Hicoria,
Florida when he made this statement. He was out of breath from hoeing in
his garden and sat panting. While he panted, he wiped his brow with a
dingy bandanna.
"She don't get to go to town much for we ain't got no car, nothin 'cepting
my old truck, but I always lets her have it whenever I gits the chancet.
It's a right nice change for her too, and gives her a chancet to get away
from things. She works so hard."
Upon my arrival I had found Mr. Denham in his little vegetable garden
between the front of his house and the back end of his grocery store which
faces the main highway. I had told him what I wanted, so he laid his hoe
aside and insisted on coming to the porch, adding that he needed a rest
anyway.
He was a tall, thin man, with light hair and clear blue eyes. He assumed a
serious attitude toward the interview, but talked freely of himself and
his family. His manner was pleasant and friendly.
"Talkin about Anne though, makes me think of how she's been sufferin
lately. She has a lot of pain in her side. I think she works too hard,
tryin to keep us all clean and fed right.
"Sometimes she washes as much as twice a week, especially when the
younguns is goin to school. Did you notice all them clothes on the back
line, dryin? Well she put them out before she went to town this mornin."
There was a mixture of pride and sadness in his voice, but he went on with
his story.
"She keeps the house clean too, and wears herself out scrubbin floors. I
try to tell her not to do too much, but she won't listen.
"Of course the children all help, we are raisin them that way. But when
they're all gone off to school, there ain't much they can do. We try to
teach our younguns to be mindful of their home, and feel a responsibility
in it. And lots of times they take right a-holt of things and do them
without bein told. We ain't got much of a home now, or much furniture in
it, but we like to take care of what we got. I hope to fix up some day,
but there don't seem much of a chancet now. Would you like to see what we
got? As I told you before, it ain't much, but it's ourn and it's clean."
He led me indoors. In the living room a center table with a linen cover
caught my attention at once, on top of this was a large Bible. Other
furnishings included several chairs, a cot, a trunk, and kerosene lamps.
The bedrooms had little more than a bed and one chair in each. But the
beds were clean, neatly made, and covered with hand embroidered muslin
spreads. High shelves draped with muslin served as clothes closets. In the
kitchen was a wood stove, some shelves for groceries and cooking utensils,
besides a table and three crudely made benches.
There weren't any modern plumbing facilities. A pump in the yard supplies
them with water, and a large galvanized tub, hanging to the side of the
house, serves for bathing and washing. I saw an old fashioned out-house
about 150 foot beyond the house. We walked back to the front porch, and
seated ourselves in one of the old, unpainted and weather-beat-on rocking
chairs.
"The younguns ain't home now," he explained, "they're off to school. I'm
alone. So bein there warn't no business at the store, I jost been hoein in
the garden. It was good time I was gettin to them beans, cabbages and
okra, they shore needed it. That's how come you to find me there. I gotta
another piece over back of them pines in yonder, but the land ain't any
good; I just don't seem to have the luck farmin here to what I had in
Alabama. I always made a pretty fair livin there till the last few years
before we come here. But it seem that everthin has gone wrong in money
matters now, for a long time."
We talked along on general economic conditions, then he reverted back to
his own problems.
"Anne and me was both born in Geneva County, Alabama, and lived right near
each others farms. I'm 45 now and she's 37, or I'm thinkin that's what she
is. I never can keep up with dates and ages exactly: seems like it takes a
woman fer that anyway.
"We both learned to farm and our fathers both raised lots of corn and
cotton. We married back in 1919, and I think it was then that we come to
Florida for the first time and looked around for a place. We heard they
was some fine farmin land down around Lake Okeechobee in the muck, but we
didn't get no farther when we seen this place. I jest up and bought it. It
was all jest pine land when we first came. We didn't like it much though,
and Anne was homesick all the time so we went back home and farmed up
there fer a while.
"Yes mam, up in Geneva county, I raised the finest corn and cotton you
ever seen. I done it for nigh on to three year, and I made right good
money at it too. Then the dry weather come, and the bugs started in and
killed everything we planted. After about three years of them troubles we
got up and come back to Florida.
"At that time I still owned this place, it was jest raw land, but I
started right in to clearin a spot for the house. I went in more debt to
get lumber to build jest this front room. Then we moved in, and I kept a-clearin
more land till I got that little patch there done, and ready to plant.
Then I started on that larger one over yonder back of them pines. Anne,
she kinder likes them big tall pines and the wind a-whistlin through them,
that's how come I left them."
Mr. Denham sighed deeply and a reminiscent look came into his blue eyes.
"Then all of a sudden we tuk a notion to go back to Alabama agin, and see
ifen we couldn't stay there. You see, mam, its been our home all our
lives, and all our relatives were there; we jest felt like we wanted to
live there if we could. Anyway we warn't sure jest what to do. All my
people have lived right in Geneva County a mighty long time. I reckon. And
I've heard my pa tell that his grandpa come over from England and come to
Georgia first, then right on to Alabama. My pa was named Albert, and so
was my grandpa.
"Well we didn't stay long that trip for
things was sure in a bad fix up there, seemed like the farmers jest
couldn't make a go of crops no more. So we come back again, and we stayed.
I think that was late in 1925, mam, but it mighta been in '26, I ain't
real sure.
"I was this time I started to raisin corn and cabbage. The cabbages done
all right, but the corn jest wouldn't grow. So I tuk to working out on
farms for other folks around here, and I found out for myself jest what to
plant and how to raise it best. I kinda figured I'd like to be a good
farmer like I use to be back in Alabama. But it didn't do no good. This
Florida land ain't like land is other places, and when you larn to farm
it, you jest got to start from the beginnin and do it all over agin. Well,
that's what happened to me. Even when I'd larned folks said my land [?]
and sour, so I planted cow-peas fer a crop, to sweeten the land. While
this was going on I still hired out to other folks and managed somehow to
live and take care of my family. But this taking care of them wasn't
nothin like I had expected to give them.
"Well mam, along about '33 I got $50 unexpected like. It come from some
work I had done in Alabama, and had left there with it a-owin to me. So
with things goin so bad in the farmin, I reckoned I'd take that money and
start a little store right here. I got enough lumber, the rough kind, to
build that little deck you see over there. I had to go more in debt for
it, but was the onliest way. The lumber man, he knowed I was tryin my best
to make livin, so he was willin to help me.
"I used most all of that $50 for groceries, and [?] sure glad even though
I didn't get to sell many. It jest meant that I could get my food for my
family wholesale, and that was cheaper livin. But, with what I did sell,
and what I made with other work, I managed to stock up agin and keep a-goin.
Anne tended the store times when I was hiring out.
"I don't make much in the store and never have, but it helps us and gives
us a chance to give the children some of the proper food they need, like
milk. Sometimes the milk is the canned kind, but they get it, and that's
what counts most. Then too, we kin give them dried fruit, apples and
bananas, and things like canned tomatoes. I never could buy all those
things at retail prices, especially the way prices is up now."
He paused for a moment in thought, then resumed: "Then, tendin the store
gives us all work to do, and it's better to keep tryin to work than to
give up and sit down and do nothin, ain't it now?
"The young-uns can all help too. Thy can farm, help in the store and with
the house. And believe me, they do it! I was raised that way, for my pa
believed that everyone should work. So I'm raisin them that way.
Just then a large car stopped at the store with a raucous blast of its
horn. Mr. Denham excused himself and went out to see what his customer
wanted. I heard a petulant voice demand a Coca-cola and a five cent box of
crackers. When he returned there was a wry twinkle in his clear blue eyes,
he said: "Well I made three cents that time. When I seen that fine car
stop I hoped they'd buy out the store, but it never happens. They comes
here and only buys five or ten cents worth at a time."
"My folks useter tell me I had a head for business, but it don't look much
like it no more. I reckon if I'd had a better education I mighta done
more. I think I went as far as the sixth grade in school, and that ain't
much. But it was different in them days and nobody cared much whether they
get an education or not. I can remember when we had a little one-room
school house with only one teacher for all of us. Every youngun brought
just any kind of school books he had, and that's what he studied.
"I never did care much for school and was always glad to stay at home and
help with the farmin, for I loved that work. Yes, mam, I had to stay home
a lot and work. Sometimes pa had a nigger once in to help, but you can't
depend on them, they're always gettin up and leavin without notice.
"You know, when I was young and jest married, I figured I'd be a rich
farmer in no time, but it aint never gonna work out that way now." At this
Mr. Denham sighed regretfully. "And it's all because I ain't got much of a
education.
"You bet I believe in education. Ever since I've been growed I've tried to
get all I could. I read and study all I can, and I like to talk to
education folks. I read the papers and good magazines, when I can get
them. Them trashy ones I wouldn't let in my house, and I'm hopin my young-uns
never get to readin them neither. Why do they let them be printed, they
don't do no good, and in the longer run they're bound to do lots of
mischief.
"[?] got five childrens. Betty, she's the oldest, she's 18 now, and in
high school. I'm hoping she'll be a teacher when she finishes. And if I
can, I'm aimin to send her to college to study for one. Grace is 15 and
she's about ready for high school I think. I jest ain't sure of their
exact ages and grades in school, mam, but I reckon that's about right.
Darline is our youngest girl and she's 11 now. I got two boys too, John
who's 13 is a pretty good farmer if I do say so. But ifen I can help it I
don't want by boys to be farmers, there's too much hard work and too much
disappointment in it. Gene, who is the baby, is nine. Gee! You'd better
not ever call him a baby, he don't like that, and he gets awful mad.
"Yep, we have a good family for bein such poor folks, but the younguns all
behaves and gits along good in school. Their teachers, and each one has a
different teacher, it ain't like we useter have it, tell me that they
don't never have no trouble with them. Well, both Anne and me, is aimin to
bring them up right and in the fear of God and the Baptist Church.
"Sometimes I wish I had more boys, then I'm glad I ain't got no more, for
they're such a responsibility and cost a lot to bring up. Mine don't
always have everything they want, and not always what they're needin
neither, but I do my best for them. Right now they're needin some work on
their teeth. John needs some tonic too, he's been right puny lately, but
jest ain't got the money. I always say the Lord don't send no more
younguns than what a man can tend, and it looks like that in my case.
I want my younguns to have a better life than what I had, and I'm hopin
that educations will fit them proper for to make decent livins. I don't
know as yet what all of them is aimin to do, but I'm tryin to put the idea
of some special kind of work in their heads. Betty of course wants to be a
teacher, so ifen I can get her off to college she will be fixed, I sure
hope I can.
"The schools out here ain't so bad neither, they teach all kinds of things
I never learned. They even get business courses and the like, it makes me
wish I could go sometimes. The teachers is pleasant too, and comes to
visit me now and agin.
"My younguns all like school, so I never keep them home. They always have
parts in all the school entertainments and do mighty well. Anne and me
always attend those doing and most of the time we enjoy them. Then of
course the younguns like for us to be on hand. I don't know how to say it,
but it seems that with the things I jest mentioned, and their readin and
writin, they learn more than we ever did. It seems they're fitted better
to meet the world and do their part in life when they get through.
"Of course I don't know whether I can get them all well educated or not,
they ain't much tellin until its all done, but I'm aimin to try. If I was
makin the money now what I useter make in Alabama when I first started
working for myself, everything would be all right. But those times is
different, and when I do make something I have to spend it right away for
things we need.
'We like it better here in Florida now that we've been here so long. The
weather is better and things are a mite cheaper. We also don't have to use
so much wood in winter. We don't never even buy no fuel, all we have to do
is take the truck and go pick up all we want. And of course the place is
all paid for, so that's a heep ofon my shoulders.'
With the future of his children still in mind, he added: "Anne and me
both, always tries to see that the younguns have the right food and
clothes. I don't mean fine vittals, nor fine clothes, but the right kind
and ones what's always clean. We have both studied diets, so as to give
our children the best as we know how. They like milk even when it's the
canned kind, and they like vegetables too, that is, all but carrots. They
eat corn, butter-beans, string beans, and okra. Now they shore do like
okra, and it's good for them too. I never did care much for vegetables
myself, but since the kids came along I've larn to eat a lot of things I
never like before. Sometime I have to take part pay for my work in
vegetables aroun here, so then we had to eat them.
"No, mam, when I was gettin started here, I didn't sell no groceries much
for tradin, unless it was fruit. Some of the folks out on the creeks
around here, raise good bananas though and then they'd bring them in I'd
trade for them occasionally. But I couldn't do that much and stay in the
business. Then again I'd take some grapefruit or oranges, because ifen I
couldn't sell them, the younguns could always eat them, and they're good
for them. Mostly though, I sells for cash, that's the best way. I also
don't give no credit, because I just ain't able.
"Havin this little store sure has lots of benefits, for it helps me buyin
clothes and other things besides groceries. I can usually get a discount,
whereas ifen I weren't in the business I'd have to pay the same as other
folks. And them younguns of mine, shore use a heap of clothes. Shoes too,
they just don't last no time at all. You may not believe it, mam, but
these here clothes what I've got on are the best I've got, but I don't
need no better. Blue work shirts and pants are plenty good enough for me.
It does make me feel kind a bad though, when my folks can't dress up like
the rest of the folks. I even wear these here clothes to church. Anne
keeps them all washed and ironed and I don't mind for myself if I ain't
got no suit like other men have.
"I couldn't say exactly, mam, jest how much it would take for us to live
comfortably. I ain't figured on that for a long time, and of course it
would take a lot of money for us-uns to have all the things we really
need, besides these what we want. Well I reckon as how if we was to start
life all new agin, and to have the proper clothes and food, and maybe see
a doctor, like I always plan things for my family, it would take nigh on
to $75 if it was regular. Then agin, maybe that might not be enough, I
jest don't know. I wish Anne was here, she could tell you right quick, and
she's better at that than I am. And it's mighty hard to say with prices
going up all the time.
"Sometimes I sell a few vegetables out of my garden, but prices for them
is so bad it ain't hardly worth the trouble to tote them to town. Besides
we can always eat them. Sometimes I think I'll jest give up farmin all
together, it's so aggravatin; and jest let the land go back to woods and
trees. But I do love the work, and when I gets to thinkin of all the time
I spent in clearin and cleanin, I jest can't let go. Seems like there's
somethin about bein a farmer oncet you got into it.
"We all likes the store too, but it would be a heap better ifon there was
more business and we could stay busy all the time. The childrens can keep
store as good as Anne and me, and they knows how to weigh out grits and
the like, and make change. Most folks never thought I could make a living
with this here little store way out here on the highway, but I shore have,
even when it was so far from town.
"I got that there little old truck too, and I can use it sometime when I
get work, especially ifon it's county work. We've done right well in spite
of all what folks said I couldn't do. Anyway we ain't starved, and that's
somethin big.'
Mr. Danham then spoke of life in town: "I wouldn't want to live in town,
but I do like to go in sometimes and watch to see what the rest of the
folks are doin. But I ain't never seen none what looked happier than we
are. They always seems to be in such a hurry.
"I think out here's a better to raise younguns too, they got plenty to do
an no time to get into mischief. In town they want to stay on the street
all the time. I've seen little bitty younguns in town roamin around all by
themselves. 'Pears like they'd be skeered, but they ain't, and they jest
go walkin right down the streets. I can't keep from wonderin what their
parents is like when I sees it.
"Out here it's much cheaper to live too, wood to buy, no electric lights
and not even no water. Jest think of havin to buy the water you drink and
wash in, it gets me. I got one fine deep well outside my kitchen door, and
I aim to build another room around it sometime for the kitchen. And there
it is, all the water a body could want, jest for working the pump handle a
little. I don't believe the Lord intended for people to buy water, do you,
mam?
"We get up so early in the mornin sometimes, that we have to light a lamp
until sun-up. But we have plenty to do when we get up so early, anyway it
seems like folks that gets up early feels better than those what stays in
bed. I always been use to gettin up like that though, for when I was a boy
on the farm, we always got up long before daylight, my pa wouldn't have it
no other way."
He then discussed the political aspects of the country in general: Anne
and me, both is good Democrats, like we was raised to be, and like I'm
raisin my younguns to be.
"Anne and me both vote, but Anne don't take much stock in it, she's timid
and don't like to go to the polls. I am Democrat from the ground up and
mighty proud of it. It sure looks like the Democratic Party is the only
one for the country. Anyway it's the onliest one what ever looked on for
the poor folks. Nothing much was ever done for the likes of me until the
present administration. I sure do admire Mr. Roosevelt and I sure hope he
runs for a third term: This country needs him. And if other meddlin folks
will let him be, without so much interferin, he will do a heap betterin
that. Why mam, he studied for years to be the President some day, so when
he got in, he knew jest what was to be done, and how to do it. We ain't
never had no President like that before.
Folks can't help bein poor and in a rich country like this, it looks bad.
It also looks like folks could be helped a lot when we're so rich. I think
Mr. Roosevelt saved the nation when we come in office. Before, folks was
gettin discouraged and so despirited. There was jest about to be a war
right here in our own land I'm thinkin. If he hadn't been elected, they
ain't no tellin what would have happened. I'm prayin for him to run agin
next time. And if he does I'll sure work for him.
"Anne likes him too, and we both read all we can about him. We try to keep
up with affairs as best we can. I tell her she ought to be glad to vote
for it shows that she is an American citizen, and that's a lot to be
mighty proud of.
Mr. Denham paused and rocked excitedly for a few minutes. A slight flush
crept into his pale face. It was evident that he was interested in the
future of his country and was willing to fight for what is right.
"With all them countries in Europe a-fightin, we got a lot here to be
mighty thankful for. And we ought to do jest what the President tells us
too, for he knows what is best. He sure is interested in his country
anyway.
"Of course I don't understand much I read about them furrin matters, but
it looks like war is headed this way and we oughta be ready. I don't
believe in war, but if it comes we can't jest let them furriners come over
and take our land. And believe we got lots of fine things to take care of
here too, but Mr. Roosevelt would mind them for us, if them meddlin folks
would jest let him be.
The political discussion ended with this, so I ask him about his church.
He said: Yes,mam, I'm a Baptist. My whole family belongs to the Missionary
Baptist Church at [?]. We go every Sunday as regular as we can. Not havin
no car makes us go on the truck, but we piles the younguns in and goes
right ahead.
"We give towards the church whenever we can, it ain't never much, but we
do our best. Preachin is the minister's work and he has to be paid the
came as the rest of us. Sometimes I give groceries, or Anne bakes a cake
for a dinner or a social, but we can't always do that, when we want to.
They like for Anne to bake cakes for socials for she's such a good cake -
baker.
"We are tryin to raise our children up to be good church members. Seems
like the world needs a lot of that today. I mean more real religion and
love for each other in it. While there is so much hatin and dishonesty
going on, it ain't no wonder there's fightin and trouble everywhere.
"I think the church is mighty important, and bein a member and havin that
responsibility helps lots of people to keep steady and behave right. Maybe
we can't always like everybody in the church and sometimes even the
minister don't even suit us, but we ain't in the church for a club, we
gotta keep adoin for the Lord's sake. That's another thing I admires in
President Roosevelt, he goes to church and he prays too, and he ain't
afraid to speak of God when he talks to us people. Yes, mam, he's right."
February 7, 1939
Bob and Anne Franklin (white)
Hicoria, Florida
Country store proprietor and farmer.
Barbara Berry Darsey, writer
Veronica E. Russ, reviser
Text from: Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection
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