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IT WASN'T SO EASY
(Georgia)
I was out riding one day, out on a long
stretch of a beautiful highway. I noticed a man and woman, not poorly
dressed but dusty as if they had been on the road a good while. The man
threw up his hand and asked if we would give them a lift. We stopped and
let them get in the back seat, although we told them that we could not go
very far.
I turned around and looked at the people for a minute, and they both said,
almost together, "Why I remember you and I am sure you ought to know us."
And then I did remember them, because we had given them a lift once before
on another highway. I began to ask them questions.
Mr. Bryant said, "Well, we have been in a few ups and downs since we saw
you last. We went to Atlanta that day and we was lucky. We both got work
and saved up everything we could, so we took all the money from the bank
and landed in New York.
"We had to have something to do so we kept a hotel. We enjoyed that so
much because we could be together all the time. Well, we made plenty and
had the hotel furnished real nice. We've taken lots of people that we
didn't want, and we have taken care of a lot of men and women that we
didn't think was married. But when they come and registered as man and
wife what else could we say if they were quiet and not noisy? And too, we
have had to call the law and have them put out. But we were after the
money, and we tried to not know anything unless we just had to.
"One of the biggest troubles we had was once a girl came running up the
stairs and said to save she and her husband a room, that they would be
back after the picture show closed. She was bareheaded and had on just a
little silk print dress. We asked her where her husband was and did she
have any baggage to bring up? She said, "He is downstairs talking to a man
and won't bring up any baggage tonight". We said, "All right then". Of
course, we rented several other rooms in the meantime and played several
games of Chinese checkers. Around eleven-thirty o'clock they came in. I
showed them to their rooms and gave them a pitcher of cold water. After
everything got quiet, someone knocked on my door. It was two or three of
my regular roomers and some man that was kinder settled wanted to know
'what kind of a place he had gotten in'. 'I guess we had dropped off to
sleep', I said. 'Why?' 'Well, just listen', they said. 'We don't know
which room, but that woman is screaming her head off. I think the man is
killing her, and if you don't do anything about it, we are'. So I asked
them to go back to their rooms and I would see what I could do. They did
so.
"So I went to the couple's room and knocked. I found the bed completely
torn up - I mean the cover all over the floor, pillow cases torn up, and
the girl lying on the floor. I looked around, and a pint bottle of whiskey
and a empty ginger ale bottle was on the table. I said, 'What does this
mean? I want this place put in order and for you two drunks to be quiet or
get out. You are disturbing my roomers'. I asked the girl if she was hurt.
She said, 'No, we were just playing'. But I know that wasn't so. She was
afraid to say anything else. I didn't hear anything else out of them
though and they left early the next morning. They were just pitching a
party.
"I have often had people to beat me out
of room rent. Some has gotten by with it, too, but not many. Once a good
looking young man left owing me seventeen dollars. I told him I would hold
his baggage until he paid me and that I have had so much of it to do that
I would hold them just to a certain time. Well, when that time was up he
didn't come, so I sold his things. People have left and didn't have
anything to leave for security and some have left things that no one would
have.
"I had a little Jew girl and her husband staying a while. I never could
find out what kind of work he was doing, but the bill got around thirty
dollars. I told them one day that I would have to have some money before
the bill got too high. Well, that night they got the porter to go outside
the window three stories below. They took my sheets and made strings
strong enough to hold their baggage and dropped it below to the porter.
They had plenty of it, too. I heard a noise. Of course, it didn't sound
like any ordinary noise, and I went around and caught them right in the
act. I got my gun and made that porter carry every piece of it back and I
fired him. The couple left, and I don't know what became of them."
Mrs. Bryant said, "Be quiet, Mr. Bryant, and let me talk awhile". So she
started, "This was one time I was sure scared. One night a couple came in
and asked if I had a porter to bring up their baggage. I said "Yes". He
came up with two of the heaviest suitcases I ever saw. Why, that boy just
could get up with them. He tipped the boy, and he asked the man if he
wanted those other bags brought in. He said no, that there wasn't anything
in them, that they were just some he had bought. I had to give them one of
my best rooms and I had nice expensive spreads, pillow slips, blankets,
and four new towels.
"The next morning they checked out. The porter said, 'miss, dose bags aint
near so heavy dis mornin' as day wus last night, but day is heavy enough'.
Well, luck was with us again. This time it just happened that the maid was
ready to go in this room when they checked out. She came running to me
saying, "Lawdy, Miss, dem folks done put six half-gallons of water in dat
closet and done took all de bed linen, towels, blankets, even took de
scarfs off the tables and just everything'. Of course the porter was
putting the last bag in the car. Mr. Bryant ran out and jumped on the
running board just as the man was driving off, but Mr. Bryant hung on. Up
the street they went. He finally told him to turn around and put those
things back where he got them or go to jail.
"Well, I was scared to death. I just knew Mr. Bryant would kill the man or
get killed, but he didn't. He brought them on back and the porter carried
them upstairs. All the time he had their clothes locked in the car in the
other bags and the fruit jars with water in the ones be brought up.
"Oh, so many things happened while we were there. A hotel is interesting
work. It is never the same. Something different is always happening.
"Mr. Bryant's mother died in Alabama, so we had to go. And we decided to
not come back to New York. So we packed everything we could in our car and
left for Alabama. After all we could do for Mrs. Bryant and everything was
settled, we was restless again so we packed and started back to New York.
Mr. Bryant was offered a job as mechanic in a mill.
"Everything was fine and it seemed that our car had never run any better.
Just before we got to Atlanta the car caught on fire and burned up
everything we had. When we left Alabama we took all the money we had and
put it in the car door, thinking maybe if anything happened that the money
would be safe. Mr. Bryant had just a little change in his pocket. All we
saved was the clothes on our backs.
"We had to hitch-hike then. It was not long till a man came along and
carried us to Ila, Georgia. We asked everybody we saw for some work
because we didn't want to be beggars. This man had heard about our bad
luck, so he carried us to Mr. Wilson. He gave us a job picking cotton. We
were so glad to get anything, but my feet were so sore I just had to rest
a day or two, but they got better. We picked cotton and made enough to pay
for our board and to get bus fare to Augusta, Georgia. Mr. Bryant got a
job paying him $25 a week in a store. We bought some clothes and shoes a
and some new traveling bags and went to Virginia.
"There we both got jobs. I worked in the same store with Mr. Bryant. We
made good, too. We got a nice place to live, a house and good furniture,
as pretty a living room suite as anybody wants, maple and walnut bedroom
suites, a two-hundred-dollar radio, a general electric refrigerator, and a
beautiful dinette suite.
"Well, we have gotten back on our feet as some people would say, but we
got tired of Virginia and it looked like there never would be any one but
me and Jake here. We never did have any children and sometimes I got so
lonesome for one, too. So we packed up again and came back to Madison
County. We have a small cabin to live in and a nice car to drive. And I
know you are anxious to know what we are doing out here hitch-hiking
again. Well, we just wanted to get the thrill of it once more. But I think
we are through hitch-hiking now, cause I ain't as young as I once was and
Mr. Bryant ain't either, so I think we will be happy now just as we are."
"I wish you would go home with us", she said. But we just had to turn
around and come back home.
Madison County, Georgia
By Mrs. Ina B. Hawkes
Text from: Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection
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