“Now, you all figure out your own schedules about this bathroom, but don’t worry about your Uncle Hammer and me. We’ve got our own bathroom off our bedroom.”
None of us had ever heard of such a thing, but we marveled at it. So, this was California. The boys, out of courtesy, let me have the bathroom first, and I chose to shower. It was exhilarating. I had never had a shower before. The house on Dorr Street and the one on Everett, in Jackson, had no shower, and, of course, down home on the land, there wasn’t even a bathroom, only a round washtub into which I had to squeeze myself for a bath with water drawn from the well and heated on the wood-burning stove. After the shower, I eyed the tub, looked around the sun-filled room, and promised myself a long, luxurious soak later. Aunt Loretta had already told me to take advantage of all the bottles of bubble bath and lotions lined along the tile shelf encasing the tub.
I figured to like California.
Once we all had a chance to clean up and unpacked the Mercury, we headed out, taking both the Mercury and Uncle Hammer’s Cadillac. Aunt Loretta went with us. She said she wanted us to see the sights after we went to the trucking company. I rode in the Cadillac with Uncle Hammer and Aunt Loretta. At Stacey’s insistence, our first stop was at a car wash. Stacey always demanded a clean car, just like Uncle Hammer, from whom he had gotten his love of cars, so Uncle Hammer understood. After the car wash, we went to the trucking company. Stacey and Uncle Hammer went into the trucking office, but the rest of us stood by the cars. It was a warm day and the sun was shining. Aunt Loretta was quite a talker and we laughed and talked with her, enjoying her stories, until Stacey emerged and said, “Cassie, they want to see you inside.”
“Me?” I asked. “Why do they want to see me?”
“Uncle Hammer told Mr. Strickland about you.” Stacey glanced over at Christopher-John and Man. “Fact, he mentioned all of you were looking for work, but Mr. Strickland said he only needs one driver right now. Thing is, though, he said there might be an opening for Cassie in his brother’s office in Los Angeles.”
I stepped away from the cars, totally surprised. “Los Angeles?”
“That’s what he said. Uncle Hammer knows Mr. Strickland’s brother too. Actually, said he knew him before this brother here. Says he’s a good friend. You interested?”
I went with Stacey. As we entered the office, Mr. Strickland came over to greet me. He was an older gentleman, older than Uncle Hammer. “Your brother has been telling me quite a bit about you, Miss Logan,” he said affably as we all sat down in comfortable chairs next to Uncle Hammer. “Understand you’re looking to find a job in California.”
“That’s right.”
“Well, I don’t have any openings myself that might suit you, but my brother might. He has several businesses down in Los Angeles with a partner of his. Primarily, he’s in the insurance business, but he’s also doing a bit in real estate too, and now he’s expanding into a little local trucking serving the Negro community. He’s got an assistant to help him with the insurance and another with the real estate, but he just told me the other day he’ll be looking for someone to assist in taking care of the trucking paperwork. Of course, he could hire someone down there, that wouldn’t be a problem. But I’m sure because of your uncle and his recommendation, he’d hire you with no hesitation, sight unseen. Stacey here tells me you know how to type and that you’re a quick learner. Now, I know you’re a college graduate, so I don’t know if you would be interested in this kind of work.”
“I could be interested, but I’ve never worked in an office.”
“No need to worry about that. You don’t even need shorthand. Typing is the only manual skill you need. The main thing is that you present yourself well and learn the office routine. You can do all that, I think you might be helpful in my brother’s operation down there. If you’re truly interested, I can contact my brother. He’ll go with my recommendation of you and, of course, that of your uncle.”
I glanced at Stacey and Uncle Hammer. All of this was so unexpected.
“I am interested,” I said, “but what about the salary?”
Mr. Strickland laughed. “Got a lady here after my own heart. First things first! But to tell you the truth, Miss Logan, I don’t know right off. I’ll check with my brother. One other thing. Hammer tells me you’ve never been to Los Angeles and that you don’t know anyone there.”
“That’s right.”
“If you decide to take the job, I’m sure my brother and his wife will welcome you to live with them. Now, my brother’s wife is in a wheelchair and she needs some help getting around and taking care of the house. Would you be willing to take care of those duties in exchange for room and board with them?”
I didn’t hesitate. “Of course.”
“So, can I tell my brother I’ve found just the person to work with him down there?”
“Well, Mr. Strickland, the job—if the pay is all right—and the living situation both sound good to me. But my decision depends on my brothers and what they’re doing, so I’ll need to think about it.”
“Far as your brother right here,” Mr. Strickland said, nodding toward Stacey, “I don’t think that’s a problem. We’ll need to test-drive him and I’ll be doing that myself personally in a few days. Can’t do it before then. I’ve got to run up to Sacramento tomorrow, but if he passes the test-drive, he’s got a job. You keep that in mind.”
“I will,” I said.
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
When we left the trucking company, Aunt Loretta rode with Stacey and me in the Mercury, and Clayton and Christopher-John rode with Uncle Hammer. As we followed Uncle Hammer, Aunt Loretta was our tour guide, pointing out every item of interest and making an observation on just about every place we passed. It was clear to us that even though Uncle Hammer led the tour, Aunt Loretta was in charge of it and had scheduled the itinerary beforehand with him. We doubted if Clayton and Christopher-John were getting as detailed a tour. We rode through Oakland’s downtown, then crossed the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. Aunt Loretta said San Francisco was her town. She loved it and much preferred it to Oakland, but Oakland was where Uncle Hammer had wanted to settle. She gave us a quick tour of the city. Although we didn’t stop, we drove through San Francisco’s Chinatown and a place called the Embarcadero. She said we would come back another day to get a better look. We then drove onto the Golden Gate Bridge and Aunt Loretta told us about its construction and history. The bridge spanned waters of the Pacific Ocean, was more than a mile and half long, and connected San Francisco to cities to the north.
By now it was late evening and we were all hungry. We stopped at a restaurant on the wharf. The experience of dining at an oceanfront restaurant was a new one for my brothers and me. Unlike in Wyoming, we were welcomed here. Our family were the only people of color in the restaurant, but we were greeted with a smile and great service and none of the other diners paid any attention to us. Aunt Loretta recommended the lobster, and to my amazement, a tank was wheeled before us loaded with live lobsters. We made our pick. Uncle Hammer made it clear that we were to order whatever we wanted, that we were his and Aunt Loretta’s guests for the meal, and that he wanted no argument about that. He recommended we add some prime rib to the order, and Aunt Loretta declared there was nothing like it. Prime rib and lobster! She was absolutely right. It was a royal meal.
At the end of the day, when we returned to the house, the boys and I were exhausted and looking forward to sleeping in beds for the first time since we had left Chicago. The day had been a good one and as we said good night to Uncle Hammer and Aunt Loretta and to each other, we were all agreed that we liked California. Maybe we could just make a home here.
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
The next day we slept in late, but after breakfast Uncle Hammer, without his wife, took us on a different kind of tour. He took us to the heart of the Negro neighborhood in Oak
land. As in Toledo, colored people had bought where they could, had gathered there with their churches and businesses and identified themselves with other people of color. He took us to the three apartment houses he had acquired during his stay in California and introduced us to some of his tenants. There was one house in particular he wanted Stacey to see. He told Stacey if he decided to stay, he could have one of the apartments rent-free in exchange for managing the building. The apartments were spacious, each with two bedrooms and almost as big as the downstairs on Dorr Street.
After the tour of the apartment houses, we had a late lunch at a neighborhood café, then Uncle Hammer took us to land outside the city. The road to the place was unpaved and dusty and the property held no more than a shack of a building, similar to what we had known back home in Mississippi. It was occupied by a middle-aged couple who enthusiastically welcomed Uncle Hammer. They invited us inside and offered us steaming hot coffee and warm molasses bread. We learned that they had migrated to California from Louisiana during the 1920s and had made their living working as a maid and butler to a white family. As part of their compensation, they had been allowed to stay on this parcel of land owned by that family. When the family dismissed the couple and put the land up for sale several years ago, Uncle Hammer had bought it.
Uncle Hammer charged them no rent, just asked that they look after the place. There was a pen filled with hogs, and several horses roamed freely in a pasture beyond the pen. Chickens and guineas had the run of the yard. There was an orchard of orange trees, lemon trees, pear and fig trees too. There was even a vegetable garden. Uncle Hammer had planted it and looked after it himself. He said he liked working in the garden, feeling the soil between his fingers. “I figured I couldn’t stay in Mississippi, not like the way things are down there,” he said, “so I carved out a little bit of home for myself right here. Fact is, I’d like to live here one day, but Loretta, she’s a city person, so I bought that house in town for her. This place though, this here is where my heart is. This place, it reminds me of home.”
The boys and I understood.
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
In the days following, before Stacey went on his test run with Mr. Strickland, we checked the Bay Area for other job possibilities. Uncle Hammer had made a list for us. There was another company, a white company that might be hiring, and both Stacey and Clayton Chester filled out applications. Several garages had openings for a mechanic and there was also a service department in a dealership that was interested in Christopher-John’s qualifications. He would have no problem getting a job. I found that I could get a job as a sales clerk, but I could not get an office job in a white firm without shorthand. Also, most of those jobs, even here in California, remained lily-white. Still, we all had good job prospects. Man’s decision about staying in California was totally dependent on what Stacey chose to do. Christopher-John, however, was torn. He had his part-time job waiting for him in Toledo and even though he wasn’t admitting it yet, we knew his heart belonged to Becka and he wanted to marry her. As for me, I was waiting as well on Stacey’s decision, but I wasn’t certain if it would affect my own. If Stacey stayed and brought Dee and the girls out here, I would want to be here with them, not in Los Angeles. But if all my brothers left, I wasn’t sure what I would do. I loved my family, wanted to be with them, but an opportunity had presented itself, and like Christopher-John, I was torn as to what decision I should make.
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
We had been in California almost a week by the time Stacey went on the road with Mr. Strickland. On that same day, Dee called. Uncle Hammer was gone and Christopher-John and Man were with him. Aunt Loretta answered the phone. The call was station-to-station, not person-to-person, allowing Dee to speak to whomever answered. Aunt Loretta told Dee that Stacey was not at the house, then handed the phone to me. “It’s Dee,” she explained. “Has to be something wrong, her calling on day rates.”
As I took the phone, I nodded in agreement and said to Dee, “Dee, what is it? What’s the matter?”
Dee laughed and I was relieved. “Nothing’s the matter, Cassie. Fact, everything’s fine. They’re calling everybody back!”
“What!”
“You heard me! Everybody’s being called back to work! They go back to work next Monday!”
“You’re kidding!”
“It’s all over the radio. The union called too. It’s official! You all better get started back right away.”
I frowned. “You know Stacey’s not here. He’s on a test run with Mr. Strickland. He’s the man owns the trucking company.”
“I know. Loretta told me. When will he be back?”
“Not ’til this evening probably. You know, Dee, he could get that job here.”
“Well . . .” Dee went quiet. “He’s got a job here too . . . and the girls and I are here. You tell him to call me soon as he gets there. This call is costing. I’ve got to go.”
When Stacey returned, I met him outside by the car and told him about Dee’s call. Stacey smiled and shook his head in dismay. “That’s something, isn’t it? I’m getting called back to work?”
“That’s what Dee said.”
He walked around to the front passenger door of the Mercury, opened the glove compartment, and pulled out a soft clean cloth. Coming back to the front of the car, he began buffing a spot on the fender, then laughed. “The Lord sure does work in mysterious ways! Two jobs in one day!”
“So, you definitely got the job with Mr. Strickland?”
“Sure did!” He grinned and continued buffing the chrome.
“So, what’re you going to do?”
“Truth is, Cassie, I don’t know. I’ve got to think on it.”
“I don’t think Dee wants you to think on it,” I said.
“I know what Dee wants. We’ve got a house already in Toledo with a decent rent that’ll be coming again, what with folks going back to work at the plant and all the back-rent due. All that’ll certainly help with the mortgage. We’ve put down roots there, made a life, know people, and there’re good working conditions at the factory. Could have that job for life.”
I pointed out that if he stayed here, he could not only work with Uncle Hammer but have a rent-free apartment, along with the trucking job.
“That’s the thing. I’d like that, working with Uncle Hammer. Maybe with him I could do something that’d be good for Dee and the girls. Maybe one day be my own boss.”
“But?” I said, reading my brother’s mind.
Stacey smiled at me. “But there’re no guarantees. It’s risky. If I were on my own, no wife and children to think about, maybe I’d chance it. But the way things are, Cassie, I just don’t know if I can take that risk when it comes to Dee and my girls.” He was quiet a moment, then stopped his buffing and looked at me. “And what about you?”
“What about me?”
“You going to take the risk and stay here? Give up that teaching job? That offer Mr. Strickland made about his brother and business in Los Angeles, what’re you thinking?”
“Like you, I’m thinking on it.” I turned to go, then looked back. “But you, you’d better make up your mind quick. Dee’s waiting on your call.”
Stacey didn’t call Dee right away. He talked first to Christopher-John and Clayton Chester, then went to Uncle Hammer’s office at the back of the house and the two of them talked. Afterward, Stacey left. We sat down to dinner without him. Aunt Loretta asked about Stacey, and Uncle Hammer said, “He’s a man grown. He can miss dinner if he wants.”
Aunt Loretta gave him a look, but then dismissed his surliness. “Well, he’s missing a good dinner.” Dee called again, but this time person-to-person to Stacey so that she would not be charged for the call if Stacey wasn’t here. We all knew Dee was anxious to hear from him.
Stacey did not return until late. It was already past midnight in T
oledo. He asked Uncle Hammer if he could use his office phone to make the call. Uncle Hammer was in his leather chair reading the newspaper. “You know where it is,” Uncle Hammer replied.
Several minutes later Stacey returned to the living room. “Well, we’ve decided. I’m going back. I’m leaving in the morning.”
“You sure about going back?” I asked.
“I’m sure. Dee agrees. She wants to stay there.”
“Well, we were sure hoping you would stay here with us,” said Aunt Loretta.
Without looking from his paper, Uncle Hammer said, “He’s made his decision. He has to do what he figures is best for his family.”
“Wasn’t an easy decision to make,” Stacey admitted. “I told Dee how beautiful it is out here. I told her about the apartment house too. That’s where I went to think things through before I talked to Dee. Dee’s worried about if something down home happens, if her mama or grandma or anybody else got sick and they need her to come down, she couldn’t hardly make the trip from California back home like she could from Toledo. Admit, that bothers me too. Much as I want to stay here—and I probably would if I wasn’t married with a family—I figure it’s best to go back to Toledo, at least for now.”
Uncle Hammer put down his paper. “May not get another chance to leave,” he said.
“I know that. But I prayed on it. Decision’s made.”
“Well, I hope you all aren’t going back,” lamented Aunt Loretta. “It’s been so good having all you young folks here.”
All the Days Past, All the Days to Come Page 13