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Janice
(Georgia)
Tom's note:
This life history gives an interesting perspective of the WPA at the end
of the article. The WPA was not just a program for the unemployed, but
also for what we might call the "underemployed." The subject of this life
history, Janice (Carolyn Bell), had a job at a trucking company when she
got her WPA job, but the new job nearly doubled her wages. The
societal and economic ramifications of having the government replace
private jobs with 'relief' jobs which substantially increase compensation
would make for an interesting study.
Up the two long, steep flights of
stairs in the building used by the WPA in Macon, to the little partitioned
off space in which she works, came Janice jauntily this morning. She
carries her rather tall, beautifully developed body in a queenly manner.
Auburn curls frame her smiling face, the beauty of which is greatly
enhanced by a complexion any woman would envy. Soft, large brown eyes, a
well shaped mouth and gleaming white teeth--- all these points add up to
make a girl much above the average in appearance and personality.
"Come on over and have a cigaret, Janice, before you start exercising your
typewriter," I called. "All right, I guess I can," was her answer. "All my
reports are finished, and Mr. Upshaw won't be in till this afternoon." So
fortified by Lucky Strikes and cold, bottled Coca-Colas, I asked Janice a
few questions and she told me of her life.
"I was born in Moultrie," she began, "the youngest of five children. I
have two brothers and two sisters. When I was only nine months old, my
father, who was educated to be a lawyer, decided to move to Macon. We
lived in a house on College street and it's been on that street that I've
lived practically all my life. My mother and Tommy (her father) were
always devoted to each other and we all had a happy home life as children.
That is, until my father's serious illness came. Since then, we've only
known privations and hardships. When I was young, Tommy was jolly and
good-natured, but he's been sick so long that now he's nervous and
irritable. I can't get along with him. That's the reason I don't live at
home. As long as I can go by and spend an hour or so with him every few
days we respect each other and things are swell. But I tried living there
after my divorce and he was eternally criticizing me every time I had a
date. I don't do anything wrong, I only want to have a good time; I'm only
twenty-one, you know, but I guess he's afraid that I'll make a fool of
myself again by marrying somebody else like Clyde. I'm not going to repeat
that mistake, but he doesn't trust me, so Annette Gray (another WPA girl)
and I rent a room together. I'm not at home to irritate him and we both
are happier."
Janice speaks highly of her father's intelligence, has a great respect for
his training in legal matters, and having heard her say that he was an
invalid, I asked her to tell me about him.
"Well, it happened when I was a little girl about six years old," she
began, Katherine, my oldest sister, was a senior at Wesleyan, the other
children were in high school or grammar school. Tommy was desperately ill;
he had a tumor on the brain and no one thought that he would survive the
operation. He did, of course as you know, but in performing the operation,
the surgeon cut a nerve and so he has been paralyzed ever since. That was
when our hard times began. There was my mother with five children and a
sick husband. My father had some insurance but it wasn't enough to take
care of all of us, much less pay for the care and attention that he
needed. Mother didn't know what to do; she was not trained for work
outside the home, and if she had been, she couldn't have made enough to
hire a nurse for Tommy and take care of us. So after much thought and
worry over the situation, Katherine borrowed enough money to finish her
work at Wesleyan, the boys got jobs delivering the Telegraph so they could
continue school, and in some way we managed to live through that year.
"When Katherine graduated at Wesleyan she got a position as teacher and
was able to help us all. She's always been fine, never a thought for
herself--just always planning how she could help us. The other children
did their part, too, but Katherine always been like another mother to me.
Just as soon as one or us would finish school, he or she would get work
and help the rest of us.
"When I was about sixteen I graduated from high school here, and
Katherine, Mother and Tommy decided that I should go to Winthrop College
in Rock Hill, S.C. Katherine was teaching there then still is, in fact,
and I was thrilled to go.
"That was where I met Clyde, the boy I married. He lives in Rock Hill; his
father is a merchant there. He was a cute boy and lots of fun and I fell
for him like nobody's business. We were together lots but nearly always
there was a crowd and Katherine didn't suspect that we were in love and
planning to marry. When school ended Katherine and I came to Macon where
we spent the summer. But by September Mother and Tommy were planning to
move to Rock Hill, too. All the other children were gone from home and
they decided that it would be cheaper and better for the four of us to
live together in Rock Hill. And was I glad to see Clyde when we arrived in
Rock Hill!! We decided to marry during the Christmas holidays but he
didn't tell his parents and I didn't tell mine or Katherine till about the
middle of December. We delayed telling them because we knew there'd be
plenty of fireworks when they heard the news, and believe me, we were not
a bit wrong. Honestly, I think if Mother hadn't been so fat she would have
gone up in the air and Tommy being paralyzed was all that saved him, I'm
sure. But Clyde and I were firm, we just kept saying that we were going to
be married and that was all there was to it. They never did give their
consent but at Christmas they all gave me pretty underclothes and I knew
by that that they wouldn't interfere very much."
"Did you run away, Janice," I asked.
"No, Clyde wanted me to", she replied, "but I refused. We were not doing
anything to be ashamed of and I insisted on being married at home. We
married two days after Christmas; Clyde's father and mother were there,
Katherine, Mother and Tommy and two or three of our young friends. Our
parents accepted the situation and tried to make the best of it. Clyde and
I lived with his father and mother. Clyde was working for his father, who
was very nice to us but his mother didn't like me one bit. I think she
must have been jealous. Clyde was her only child, just nineteen years old
and I don't blame her for not wanting him to marry; but I do blame her for
making my life unpleasant. I loved Clyde; he loved me. I wish things had
been different.
"I quit school when I was married and I had nothing to do all day. Clyde's
mother wouldn't let me help her with the house and since I have always had
too much energy and intelligence to be contented with nothing to do all
day but fix my hair and my nails, I was very bored. So I decided I'd go
back to school when the new semester opened in February. Clyde was willing
and gave me the money for my tuition and books. But things got so
unpleasant at home that I told Clyde I thought we ought to be by
ourselves. We rented two rooms to live in and moved out. When I'd come
home in the afternoons I'd clean up and cook supper. But Clyde and I soon
got to quarreling. He'd be real late for supper and if it was cold when he
got home he'd throw the dishes on the floor and march out and perhaps stay
all night. I know a lot of it all was my fault; my hair's not red for
nothing, you know, and I guess he had lots to take from me. I won't bore
you by going into all that. He was the most selfish, unreasonable, spoilt
person I ever knew. He wouldn't let me go to see Mother and Tommy at all;
he said their being against him was the cause of all our trouble. Maybe
part of that was true but his Mother's attitude certainly didn't help us a
bit.
"By the time I had finished my Junior year at college I knew we just
couldn't continue living together the way things were between us. So I
told Katherine I wanted a divorce. She arranged for me to go out to Little
Rock and live with my brother while I was getting a divorce. She gave me
money and I was down at the station ready to leave when Clyde heard about
it, so he came racing down to the station and made a terrible scene. I was
terribly embarrassed but I didn't go back home with him. I told him I was
through and I meant it. There was no use in spoiling the rest of our lives
just because we had made the mistake of getting married.
"Well, for a while I was pretty miserable out in Little Rock. I kept
wondering if I was really doing the right thing and Clyde wrote letters
all the time, begging me to come back which kept me upset. But I stayed.
We had already spoiled everything that could have been beautiful in our
marriage by that everlasting quarreling. My brother and his sweetheart
were so good to me; they never offered advice or interfered. They just
took me places and tried to make me have a good time. And I did. After a
while I stopped worrying; I felt that what I was doing was for the best
and I enjoyed the rest of my stay there.
"I don't know how I would ever have managed without Katherine, though. She
gave me money to come on to Macon. Mother and Tommy had moved back here
then and I lived with them and went to G.A.B. (business school.) After I
finished my course at G.A.B. I got a job with Sims Transfer Co. for $10.00
a week. I managed to live on what I was making and would have stayed on
with Mr. Sims if he had been willing to pay me more after I had worked for
him long enough to expect a raise. I surely worked hard for that ten
dollars a week. I was there at 8.30 in the morning and had to stay until
the trucks were in at night, which was often as late as 8 or 9 o'clock. I
was supposed to have Saturday afternoons off but just as sure as I made
some plans for that time Mr. Sims would keep me real late. When I heard
about this place at the WPA I went after it with all my might. Mr. Sims
raised a commotion about the WPA hiring someone who had a job, but since
he refused to raise my salary and the WPA officials knew that what he was
paying me was not enough they gave me the place. I get $75.00 now and have
been able to get a few clothes that I badly needed. My main fear now is
that the WPA will fold up and then where will we all be?"
Since that question is the one over which countless thousands of WPA
workers are worrying, and since I was unable to give a satisfactory
answer, Janice closed her visit, saying that she must get back to her job
while there is a job there for her.
WORKS PROGRESS
ADMINISTRATION
Col. F. C. Harrington. Administrator
Maj. B. M. Harloe, Assistant Administrator
Henry S. Alsberg, Director of the Federal Writers' Project
Interview with:
Miss Carolyn Bell
Katherine Court Apts.
Macon, Georgia
By:
Annie A. Rose
Federal Writers' Project
Macon, Georgia.
Jan. 9, 1939
Text from: Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection
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