Like One of the Family

by Alice Childress

  Yes, they sent her away some place to a private sanitarium. It’s a mess whenever rich people get into that kind of fix so you can imagine what it must he to have trouble like that in a poor family! When that stuff gets hold of you, it seems like it will make you steal or do anything else to get enough money to keep right on buyin’ it. But the worst part of all is how it tears up your system.

  … Sure, somethin’ oughta be done about it! But what? I’m not a violent woman, but I believe I’d feel mighty close to murder if I caught up with somebody who had helped do that to a child of mine or anybody else’s children for that matter.

  It strikes me as doggone funny that they never catch anybody except some folk who are sellin’ a few packages of it to people! I mean, it must be comin’ from somewhere, and nobody is givin’ it away free in order to win friends or influence people! … No, some big people are makin’ a big mint of money out of that stuff, and some folks must have got powerful rich off of strewin’ it all ’round the country. How come nobody ever seems to catch up with some of them?

  You should of heard Mrs. T … who lives down the street! … Yes, her son got mixed up in that foolishness and when it came time that he wanted to cure himself of it, he went into these terrible spasms and shivers and sweats. She told me, “Mildred, I come home and found my boy on the floor just retchin’ and groanin’ and sweatin’ somethin’ terrible with his eyes sunk in his head like death itself! He was crawlin’ on the floor tryin’ to get over to the telephone and call somebody to help him.”

  Girl, the tears was pourin’ down her cheeks and that poor woman had her heart brimfull of trouble and misery. Well, it got to the point that she couldn’t leave the rent money in the house ’cause he would find it and use it to buy more of that poison. She said he would be ’shamed about it afterwards but it looked like when he needed that stuff, he’d get so desperate that nothin’ or nobody mattered except gettin’ hold of it…. Yes, they sent him down to Kentucky to take a cure, but when he got out, she never saw him no more ’cause he didn’t come home. Every once in a while, she’d get a postcard from him with no return address on it, but after a while he stopped sendin’ them, and she never heard any more from him.

  … Well, I wouldn’t say that nothin’ but weak people would get themselves into such a state. No, I wouldn’t say that at all unless we wanna figure that there’s just millions and millions of weak folks.

  … No, I didn’t say that there are millions of addicts. I can’t say ’cause I don’t know just how many there are, but I’m talkin’ about another thing I read about that has some bearin’ on the matter.

  I read where there is a new kinda drug that is supposed to relax folks and ease up the strain on them without havin’ any Ml effects afterward. Do you know that people are buyin’ up them pills so fast ’til the drugstores are just plum run out of it all the time! Yes, mam, and bigshot people are tellin’ all about how it helps them to keep goin’ from day to day! There is a big rush on and almost everybody seems to be makin’ a bee-line for them pills!

  What in the world is the matter? Folks are takin’ these things because they are weary and scared and tired and nervous and upset! Well, I’m glad this new stuff is harmless, too, but it clearly shows that folks would be buyin’ that harmful dope if they wasn’t afraid of payin’ them heavy dues by ruinin’ their health. Looks like people are sayin’ “We’re all unhappy and need some pill or somethin’ to ease our minds and give us a moment’s peace.”

  Girl, pills and needles ain’t gonna change this world one little speck. Somehow folks will have to take some of the pressure off of people. They oughta get some of these great minds that’s hangin’ around and put ’em to work figurin’ out ways and means to do it.

  Don’t you think there is enough of them big people to take a little bit of effort and remove that monkey that’s ridin’ on the backs of American people? …

  MERRY CHRISTMAS, MARGE!

  MERRY CHRISTMAS, MARGE! Girl, I just want to sit down and catch my breath for a minute…. I had a half a day off and went Christmas shopping. Them department stores is just like a madhouse. They had a record playin’ real loud all over Crumbleys…. “Peace On Earth.” Well sir! I looked ’round at all them scufflin’ folks and I begun to wonder…. What is peace?

  You know Marge, I hear so much talk about peace. I see it written on walls and I hear about it on the radio, and at Christmas time you can’t cut ’round the corner without hearin’ it blarin’ out of every store front…. Peace … Peace … Peace.

  Marge, what is peace? … Well, you’re partly right, it do mean not havin’ any wars … but I been doin’ some deep thinkin’ since I left Crumbleys and I been askin’ myself…. How would things have to be in order for me to be at peace with the world? … Why thank you, dear…. I will take an egg nog. Nobody can make it like you do…. That’s some good. I tell you.

  And it begun to come to my mind…. If I had no cause to hate “white folks” that would be good and if I could like most of ’em … that would be peace…. Don’t laugh, Marge, ’cause I’m talkin’ some deep stuff now!

  If I could stand in the street and walk in any direction that my toes was pointin’ and go in one of them pretty apartment houses and say, “Give me an apartment please?” and the man would turn and say, “Why, it would be a pleasure, mam. We’ll notify you ’bout the first vacancy.” … That would be peace.

  Do you hear me? If I could stride up to any employment agency without havin’ the folk at the desk stutterin’ and stammerin’ … That, my friend, would be peace also. If I could ride a subway or a bus and not see any signs pleadin’ with folks to be “tolerant” … “regardless” of what I am … I know that would be peace ’cause then there would be no need for them signs.

  If you and me could have a cool glass of lemonade or a hot cup of coffee anywhere … and I mean anywhere … wouldn’t that be peace? If all these little children ’round here had their mamas takin’ care of them instead of other folks’ children … that would be peace, too…. Hold on, Marge! Go easy on that egg nog … it goes to my head so fast….

  Oh yes, if nobody wanted to kill nobody else and I could pick up a newspaper and not read ’bout my folks gettin’ the short end of every stick … that would mean more peace.

  If all mamas and daddies was sittin’ back safe and secure in the knowledge that they’d have toys and goodies for their children … that would bring on a little more peace. If eggs and butter would stop flirtin’ ’round the dollar line, I would also consider that a peaceful sign…. Oh, darlin’ let’s don’t talk ’bout the meat!

  Yes girl! You are perfectly right…. If our menfolk would make over us a little more, THAT would be peaceful too.

  When all them things are fixed up the way I want ’em I’m gonna spend one peaceful Christmas … and do you know what I’d do? … Look Marge … I told you now, don’t give me too much of that egg nog…. My dear, I’d catch me a plane for Alageorgia somewhere and visit all my old friends and we’d go ’round from door to door hollerin’ “Christmas Gift!” Then we’d go down to Main Street and ride front, middle and rear on the street-car and the “whitefolk” would wave and cry out, “Merry Christmas, neighbors!” … Oh hush now! … They would do this because they’d understand peace.

  And we’d all go in the same church and afterwards we’d all go in the same movie and see Lena Home actin’ and singin’ all the way through a picture…. I’d have to visit a school so that I could see a black teacher teachin’ white kids … an’ when I see this … I’ll sing out … Peace it’s truly wonderful!

  Then I’d go and watch the black Governor and the white Mayor unveiling a bronze statue of Frederick Douglass and John Brown shakin’ hands….

  When I was ready to leave, I’d catch me a pullman back to New York…. Now that’s what you’d call “sleepin’ in heavenly peace.” When I got home the bells and the horns would be ringin’ and tootin’ “Happy New Year!” … and there wouldn’t be no mothers mourn
in’ for their soldier sons … Children would be prancin’ ’round and ridin’ Christmas sleds through the sparklin’ snow … and the words “lynch,” “murder” and “kill” would be crossed out of every dictionary … and nobody would write peace on no walls … ’cause it would be peace … and our hearts would be free!

  What? … No, I ain’t crazy, either! All that is gonna happen … just as sure as God made little apples! I promise you that! … and do you know who’s gonna be here to see it? Me girl … yes, your friend Mildred! Let’s you and me have another egg nog on that…. Here’s to it. MERRY XMAS Marge! PEACE!

  ON LEAVIN’ NOTES!

  GOOD EVENIN’, MARGE. I just stopped by to say “Hey” … No thank you darlin’, I do not care for any turkey hash, and I don’t like turkey soup or creamed turkey either. Child, there’s nothin’ as sickenin’ as a “hangin’ around” turkey.

  Well girl, I done come up with my New Year’s resolution…. That’s right, I made just one, and that is this: NOBODY THAT I DO DAYSWORK FOR SHALL LEAVE ME ANY NOTES … You know what I mean. Whenever these women are going to be out when you come to work, they will leave you a note tellin’ you about a few extra things to do. They ask you things in them notes that they wouldn’t dast ask you to your face.

  When I opened the door this morning I found a note from Mrs. R … It was neatly pinned to three cotton housecoats. “Dear Mildred,” it read, “please take these home, wash and iron them, and bring them in tomorrow. Here is an extra dollar for you….” And at the bottom of the note a dollar was pinned.

  Now Marge, there is a laundry right up on her corner and they charges seventy-five cents for housecoats…. Wait a minute, honey, just let me tell it now…. I hung around until she got home … Oh, but I did! And she was most surprised to see the housecoats and me still there. “Mildred,” says she, “did you see my note?”

  “Yes,” I replied, “and I cannot do those housecoats for no dollar.”

  “Why,” she says, “how much do you want?”

  I give her a sparing smile and says, “Seventy-five cents apiece, the same as the laundry.”

  “Oh,” she says, “well it looks as though I can’t use you….”

  “Indeed you can’t,” I say, “ ’cause furthermore I am not going to let you.”

  “Let’s not get upset,” she adds. “I only meant I won’t need you for the laundry.”

  “I am not upset, Mrs. R …,” I says, “but in the future, please don’t leave me any notes making requests outside of our agreement….” And you know, THAT was THAT…. No, Marge … I did not pop my fingers at her when I said it. There’s no need to overdo the thing!

  THE ‘MANY OTHERS’ IN HISTORY

  GOOD EVENIN’, MARGE. I am sorry I woke you up…. Yes, I know it’s 12 o’clock…. Well, I got to work tomorrow too but I just have to tell you about your friend Mildred….

  Honey, I went to a Negro History meetin’ tonight. It was held on account of this is either Negro History week or somethin’…. Why, of course it should be a year-round thing, but a week or a month is better than a “no time,” ain’t it?

  Marge, I really “fell in” at that meeting! Let’s admit it—I look good, don’t I?

  Well, they had several speakers. There was one pretty young colored girl who was a little nervous but she came through fine and gave a nice talk about Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and many others … and a distinguish lookin’ man who was kinda grey at the temples spoke about Frederick Douglass, Nat Turner and many others…. Then a middle age white woman delivered a rousin’ speech about John Brown, Frances Harper and many others.

  I noticed that everybody would name a couple of folk and then add “and many others.” Well, when the talkin’ was over they asked the people to speak up and express themselves…. Why of course I did! I got up and said, “This has been a delightful evenin’ and I’m glad to be here but you folks kept talkin’ about ‘many others.’ … But you didn’t tell much about them.

  “Now I can’t think about the many others without thinkin’ of my grandmother because that’s who you are talkin’ about…. My grandpapa worked in a phosphate mil in South Carolina. He was a foreman and made eight dollars a week. He and grandma had seven children and paid eight dollars a month rent. It cost ten cent a week for each child to go to school, ten cent apiece for the nine in the family to belong to the burial society … and the pickings were lean. Each child had to have a penny a week for Sunday School and grandma put in two dimes a week for the church.

  “Once in a while she squeezed out seven nickels so’s the children could go see lantern slides. Them kids wanted at least one picnic during the summer. They ate up one can of condensed milk a day … a tablespoon in a glass of water … that’s how they got their milk.

  “Christmas and Easter was a terrible time of trouble and worry to my grandma … with seven kids lookin’ for somethin’ new…. Toys? Grandma used to take a shoe box and cut windows in the sides, then she’d cover the windows with tissue paper, put a candle in the box, light it, cover it, cut a hole in the top, tie a string on the box so it could be dragged along and that was called a ‘twilight trolley,’

  “She’d pull up a clump of grass, tie it in the middle to make a ‘waist line’ and then comb the dirt out of the roots so she could braid them in two pigtails … and that would be a ‘grass doll’ with ‘root hair.’ … She’d get seashells and they would be ‘play dishes’ … and the boys got barrel wires for hoops and pebbles and a ball for ‘jacks.’

  “Every minute of grandma’s life was a struggle. She never had a doctor except for ‘sickness unto death’ and neighbor women helped bring her seven into this world. Sometimes she’d get down to the ‘nitty gritty’ and have her back to the wall … all the trouble lined up facing her. What to do! What to do about … food … coats … shoes … sickness … death … underwear … sheets … towels … toothaches … childbirth … curtains … dishtowels … kerosene oil … lamp chimneys … coal for the stove … diapers … mittens … soap and hunger?

  “Next thing, Grandma would get cross at the children and she’d begin to grieve and cry if they’d make noise…. Then she knew it was time to ‘rally.’ After the kids was off to bed she’d sit in her rockin’ chair in the dark kitchen … and that old chair would weep sawdust tears as she rocked back and forth.

  “She’d start off singing real low-like…. ‘I’m so glad trouble don’ las’ always,’ and switch off in the middle and pick up with … ‘Saviour, Saviour, hear my humble cry’ … and she’d keep jumpin’ from tune to tune…. ‘I’m gonna tell God all of my troubles when I get home’ … ‘Come out the wilderness leaning on the Lord’ … ‘When I’ve done the best I can’ … and her voice would grow stronger as she’d go into ‘It’s not my mother but it’s me oh Lord’ … and she’d pat her feet as she rocked and rassled with death, Jim Crow and starvation.

  “And all of a sudden the rockin’ would stop and she’d jump up, smack her hands together and say, ‘Atcha dratcha!’ … and she’d come back revived and refreshed and ready to go at them drat troubles….”

  That’s what I told ’em, Marge…. You know, it’s amazing that we’re all here today! … Well, the way they took it you could tell that I was talkin’ about their grandmas too…. So I told ’em, “I bet Miss Tubman and Miss Truth would like us to remember and give some time to the many others….”

  I’m going upstairs and get some sleep now…. Stop that, Marge…. If I’d known you would cry, I wouldn’t of told it.

  INTERESTIN’ AND AMUSIN’

  MARGE, TURN OFF the television so you can hear me talk because what I got to say is a lot more interestin’ than hearin’ that man singin’ a song about a box of kitchen cleanser.

  I served a buffet cocktail party this evenin’ for Mrs. H., and of course her notion of a few friends is a lot different from mine, but be that as it may, we all got to work for a livin’…. Well, her crowd is what they call “smart,” so after they ate up all the shrimp sa
lad and chicken loaf, they lolled around chit-chattin’ about poetry, paintin’ and the problems of the world…. You know, Marge, it is easy to pass yourself off as one of the “smart” crowd because all you have to know is two words: “wonderful” and “amusin’.” There’s hardly anything they can think of that isn’t “wonderful” or “amusin’,” from the President to a pussy cat.

  Well, yours truly was doin’ her bit by emptyin’ ashtrays and servin’ martinis in between washin’ dishes … and they was arguin’ like sixty about first one thing and then another … then finally they started talkin’ about war and peace…. Marge, for the first time “wonderful” and “amusin’” was squeezed out of the conversation.

  Some of ’em was sayin’ we couldn’t have war and some was sayin’ we couldn’t have peace, and as I told you, I was mindin’ my cleanup business…. Well, one of ’em got the bright idea of tryin’ to make a fool out of me by callin’ me in and askin’ my opinion…. Hold on, Marge! I did that…. “Excuse me,” I said, “but I have to do my work”

  “Oh, Mildred,” Mrs. H. squeals, “don’t be stuffy. I’ve told everyone how wonderful you are.”

  So I put down the silent butler and says short and quick, “I’m against war and if most of the people feel like that there’ll be peace.”

  Well, honey, I could tell by the laughter in their eyes that they thought me “amusin’.” Anyway, one arrogant young man speaks up…. “Why are you for peace … do you have a son?” “No,” I says, “I do not have a son, but I got me and I have hope for better days and I’d like to be here to see ’em and I’m lookin’ forward to someday bein’ as much of a woman as I can be…. I also consider that all children belong to us whether we birthed them or not, be they girls or boys….”