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Section 3: Analyzing Oral HistoriesPrimary Source Set A
American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940
[I Ain't No Midwife ]Scroll Down to view the text of this document. {Begin excerpt} March 14, May 29, 1939
Mary Willingham (Negro) I AIN'T NO MIDWIFE ... "The most I ever got in one week was $14 and that was on a nursin' job. I'll never forgit what the man said that hired me after my $14-a-week patient got to where she didn't need me no mo'. He didn't offer me but $10 a week, and I didn't want to take $4 lose than I had been gittin' and I told him so. 'Mamie,' he said, 'I don't make much myself, but whatever I promise to pay you you'llt git it and you won't have to wait for it.' When I goes on a job I gives my whole time, night and day, 'cept for 4 hours a day rest period, that any doctor'll tell you a nurse has gotta have if she is to stay on the job and be able to do what the patient needs her to do. Now you knows $10 a week ain't nothin' to pay for day and night services, and white folks wouldn't think of expectin' white nurses to work for such a little bit, and them white nurses does a heap less than me. "On my last job I didn't git to take no 4 hours off ever' day, for the patient told me she couldn't stay by herself a'tall. I was on that job day and night two weeks without no extra pay for over-time. These days, nursin' jobs is so hard to git that I'se home more'n I'se off nursin'. I never had but three jobs of nursin' all of last year; at one I stayed two weeks, three weeks at the second, and I was on night duty six months straight at the last place. Them first two places paid me $10 a week, and I got a dollar a night for the night duty. "Ellen - that's my baby gal - got as far as the eighth grade in school. She works just any place she can git a job. Most of her work's been cookin' and maidin', for that's all she knows how to do. Whenever a colored girl tries to git into some other sort of work they's allus asked, 'What 'spe'unce is you had?' If the new work is dif'rent from what they's been doin', they don't git it. How's they gwine to git 'spe'unce if nobody gives 'em a chanst? Answer me that!" ... "My gal ain't able to pay for that {training}," Mamie answered. "Her baby goes to the WPA nursery school, and that's a big help when I'se off nursin' and that baby's ma's off huntin' work. She 'most allus gits around three dollars a week when she's got work, and I reckon she might work for less if anybody would hire her. But now ain't it a shame for folks to have to work for less then it takes for 'em to live on. ... {excerpt ends}
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American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940
[Packinghouse workers]Scroll Down to view the text of this document. {excerpt begins} Packinghouse worker Betty Burke June 15, 1939 Text of Interview The meat specialties, that is about the coldest place in the yards. That's where they prepare medicinal extracts from meats, for hospitals, I guess. Anyway, they have a room there that's 60 degrees below zero. Nobody is supposed to stay there longer than 3 minutes, but some of the men go in there for 15 minutes at a time. I used to have to pack the brains in cans. They would be frozen stiff and my nails would lift right up off my fingers handling them. It's always wet there and very, very cold. I had to wear two and three pairs of woolen stockings, 2 pairs of underwear, a couple of woolen skirts and all the sweaters I had, and on top of that I had to wear a white uniform. My own. But I couldn't stand it there, it was so cold. It's easy to get pneumonia in a place like that. In cleaning brains you have to keep your hands in ice cold water and pick out the blood clots. They have the most sickening odor. Cleaning tripe, though, that's the limit. Rotten, yellow stuff, all decayed, it just stank like hell! I did that for a few weeks. Then I worked in the sausage department. In the domestic sausage. We'd have to do the pork sausages in the cooler. Sometimes we wouldn't be told what kind of sausage we'd have to work on and then when we'd come to work they'd say 'pork for you' and we'd have to throw any dirty old rags we could pick up around our shoulders and go to work in that icebox. If they had any sense or consideration for the girls they could let them know ahead of time so that girls could come prepared with enough clothes. In summer sausage, they stuff very big sausages there. That's very heavy work. A stick of sausage weighs 200 pounds, five or six sausages on a stick. They have women doing that. It's a strong man's job and no woman should be doing that work. The young girls just can't, so they have the older ladies, and it's a crime to see the way they struggle with it. On that job I lost 27 pounds in three months. That was enough for me. It's a strain on your heart, too. Women got ruptured. They pick the strongest women, big husky ones, you should see the muscles on them, but they can't keep it up. It's horses' labor. In chipped beef the work in much easier. You can make better money, too, but the rate has to be topped, and it's very, very fast work. ... {excerpt ends} Questions:
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American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940
[Italian Feed]Scroll Down to view the text of this document. {excerpt begins} Mari Tomasi Recorded inWriters' Section Files DATE: SEP 21 1940 ITALIAN FEED ... "I'm getting a dinner ready for a party of twelve people. All from Montpelier. Not Italians. Italians know how to make their own Italian dinners. These are Americans. In the winter I get about two orders a week for good-sized dinner parties. In the summer, not so many. They like to get out then in their cars and stop at different places to eat." ... "After Pietro died I had to figure a way to live. I said to myself: I have the house - small as it is, it's mine and all paid for. I have a little insurance money, but there are four children. I got to make that money stretch. So I began taking orders for dinners. And sometimes if the neighbors were sick - but not sick enough for real nurses- I took care of them. ... "I like to work like this-- here in the house. I know where every pan is hung, where every spice is kept. Sometimes my customers want me to cook in their own homes. Well, I do not refuse, but I charge them more." Melicenda said, "I don't bother to fix the table pretty. I figure my customers come here to eat, not to look at my table. Oh, I fix the food fancy so it will look good to the eyes, too. And I give them plenty. That's what they pay for. "I charge them $1.25 each. That isn't too much. First I serve them a big platter of stuffed celery, thin slices of salami and mortadella , ripe olives, and pickles. Then the ravioli with a rich tomato sauce. If they want spaghetti, too," the woman shrugged resigned shoulders, "Well, I give them the spaghetti as well. The little Italian rolls are good with ravioli. I don't make them myself. I buy them from the Italian baker down the street. Just before it's time to serve the dinner, I sprinkle them with milk and put them in the oven for a few minutes to heat them. Dessert, no. I never serve dessert. The ravioli are so rich that I make them a dish that will cut the richness. I give them a salad of lettuce, endive, tomato, onion, celery, mixed with vinegar and olive oil. I use the wine vinegar. It gives a better taste to the salad. With the dollar and a quarter dinner I serve just one glass of red wine. If they want more they got to pay for it. "Tonight my customers will get here at seven o'clock. They won't leave until eleven. ... Melicenda smiled. "Well, any time you want a good Italian feed, call me up. My name is in the telephone book. Just call Melicenda Bartoletti." ...{excerpt ends} Questions:
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American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940
[Miss Henrietta C. Dozier]Scroll Down to view the text of this document. {excerpt begins}
March 1, 1939. Rose Shepherd, Writer. MISS HENRIETTA C. DOZIER , ARCHITECT. ... "How did I happen to take up architecture - an unusual occupation for a woman? Well, even in my childhood I wanted to study architecture, and have drawn plans since I was seven. In fact, when I was just a little tot I used to draft patterns for doll dresses for my own and the neighbor children's dolls. So it seemed the natural thing when I reached the age to decide what my life work was to be, to select architecture as a vocation. ... "I served an apprenticeship of one year in an architect's office in Atlanta, then attended Pratt Institute for two years, afterwards enrolling at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Boston, taking the full four years' course and graduating in 1899 with a B. S. degree in architecture. ... "In Jacksonville, the Federal Reserve Bank Building, southwest corner of Church and Hogan Streets, on which I was associate architect, is one of which I am always very proud. This building completed in 1924 is one on which the 'shifting sands of time' have had no effect, for its foundations are firmly anchored on a clay bed which extends two and one-half feet below the deepest footings. On account of the mean 13-ft. above water level of Jacksonville, it is sometimes a difficult engineering problem to secure firm foundations for large buildings and skyscrapers, but the Federal Reserve Bank is well built and soundly constructed and, I am happy to say, after its constant use all of these years, with heavy installations of gratings, shelving, massive safes with heavy combination doors, there is not a crack in the entire building. ... "I have always had to compete with men, yes. In submitting designs, plans, bids, I have never asked any consideration at any time because I happened to be a woman; I put all my cards on the table in fair and honest competition, and ask only consideration on the same basis. For the most part I have been treated fairly. I remember one instance when designs were asked for the State and County Building in Atlanta, I went to the county officials, in the confidence of youth - it was in 1904 - but I knew what splendid training I had received, and stated brashly I would like to have this job. "They said, 'We are sorry, Miss Dozier , but we cannot give it to you because you are not a voter.' "Well, that was a new argument and was my first experience with officials' playing of politics with the tax-payers' money. ... "Then in 1925 the Women's Club of Jacksonville, of which I had been a member for a number of years, transferred their old clubhouse at 18 East Duval Street to the City of Jacksonville and purchased a location on the St. Johns riverfront at 861 Riverside. "I submitted my designs, asking for consideration on account of my membership in the club. The job was given to a man, whose wife was a member also, and who I learned had bought a considerable quantity of the bonds then being offered to finance the new building. "Again it was my great pleasure to go before the board of this organization, and give them my personal opinion of such 'political bargaining.' It is needless to say, I withdrew my membership, as it has never been my policy to belong to any organization engaged in unfair dealings. Were their faces red? I'll say they were! "On the whole, I have had only courtesy and consideration in my competition with men in my work. During my thirteen and one-half years in Atlanta, I dealt with the same contractors and subcontractors most of the time, and had the greatest cooperation possible. "There was one instance of a crazy plumber in Atlanta that maybe caused me a gray hair or two. He was working on a residence building, and when I went on the job as a matter of routine inspection early one morning, I noticed he had roughed in the plumbing all wrong. I called his attention to it, as a matter of course, and without any warning at all, he picked up a 2 by 4 and came at me, saying: 'God A'mighty never intended a man to be bossed by a woman!' I thought my time had come as he advanced toward me with the heavy board in his right hand, which he was wielding as a most formidable shillalah. Just in the nick of time, the contractor appeared on the scene and grabbed him, having a rather hard time to subdue him and get the club away from him. He had been crazy all the time .... ... "I believe from my own experience and with a woman's general reputation of condensing space and utilizing corners fro wall spaces and furniture settings instead of blocking them up with windows, foors, and closets, it gives me the very best ideas for commodious and comfortable homes.... ... {excerpt ends}
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