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Speaking of the Pollards, they have moved out of the county and up to Raleigh. Mr. Pollard opened a bank up there, and I hear Mrs. Pollard is entertaining flocks of rich wives. I know she thinks she is the cat’s pajamas. There was an announcement of the bank opening in the paper with a picture of them. Mr. Pollard was shaking hands with the mayor of Raleigh and there were other business folks standing around them. I’d send you the article torn from the paper, but then our letter would get too heavy.
That is all for now. I miss you all terribly.
Your loving sister,
Ethel
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Hey y’all! It’s Dianne here! – March 19, 1930
I am so excited about these letters. I will try to stick to the rules, but I have so much to tell you. I’ll try to write small. If this fat letter makes you go over the postal costs, I will pay you all back. I see these letters as a way to keep a diary for years to come, so I am going to tell you some things you may have heard, but I want it in the official Nash Round-Robin Letters record.
Joe got a good job at the Burlington Mills textile plant. His title is bobbin carrier, but that doesn’t mean he carries bobbins. He works in the area where the cotton is pulled from the bale, twisted, and spun into thread. Although I haven’t seen inside the plant, Joe said the process is the same as our grandma’s spinning wheel, only motorized.
His job is to watch all the action really close and fix problems when they happen. He says machines get too much dust if the thread is damp. Then all kinds of problems can happen. He learned how to do this job by being an apprentice with the overseer. To me, it seems nerve-racking to be there ten hours a day making sure nothing goes wrong. And he is walking around all day with barely a break to eat his lunch. He says it is hard work but better than farming! And they give him money to do the job every week.
Joe started his job in September. I stayed behind to pack up our stuff and get the house picked up so y’all would have more room. When I arrived in October, there was a house ready for me and Joe to move into. It was a perfect house with two bedrooms, electric lights, indoor bathroom with water pumped from the well right into the sink! Isn’t that the bee’s knees!
Until you come visit and can see for yourself, I’ll tell you what the house looks like so you can see it when you read my letters. It is a wooden house painted gray. The trim is white, but there are no shutters. If you are standing in the front yard looking at the front door, you will see a small porch on the right side with an overhang from the roof. It is big enough for one or two chairs, that’s it. When you look to the left, you see a room that juts out from the rest of the house—that’s our bedroom. Once you come in the front door, you are in the hall. On the right is the “living room” as they call it these days. That is where we sit, talk, and listen to the radio now that we can afford one. It has a fireplace that burns wood. There are four windows in there. I can’t wait to sew some curtains.
Behind the living room is a kitchen big enough for a table and four chairs. I love that kitchen. The stove is electric, not wood burning. There are plenty of kitchen cabinets. And guess what? The ice box is electric too! It really isn’t an icebox! It is a refrigerator! The indoor bathroom is between the two bedrooms on the left side of the house. I just hope the toilet washes out easy, so the room doesn’t smell like an outhouse. And like I already said, the water can pump right into a permanent sink. Can you imagine! I can’t wait for each of you to visit. We will have a bedroom waiting for you!
It took me awhile to get the house all set up. And I am not yet finished because we don’t have a lot of furniture. But I have done what I can for now. I was thinking I would be bored after that, but it didn’t happen. Once I settled us in, the neighbors came calling. The houses on our road are mostly for women and families whose husbands or fathers work in the mill. I really like a few of the women. Some of the others not so much. They want to find out what kind of furniture you have and where your people came from . . . you know, the nosey type. There was one woman that told me to stay away from her husband. She actually said, “The new girls that move in want to be with my Billy. Even though he tries to discourage them, they find their way to his bed.” Can you believe that? It is a woman’s fault that Billy sleeps around! I wonder how good looking Mr. Irresistible is?!
There evidently is a garden club in this town. I will have to join. I miss using the earth to bring food and beauty. There is nothing planted around this house or on the street. Ethel, next time I come home I will dig up some of the things there to replant here. One thing I want for sure is some of those yellow roses.
Ethel, I am glad you have someone courting you. You and Marie need a man around. If he is as nice as you say, it would be good for her to know a man that won’t leave her.
Okay, that is it. My hand is tired and I made it under two pages. Send it back quickly. Joe says he will put up a mailbox for my letters this weekend!
Love to all my sisters,
Dianne
* * *
Dear Ethel, Dianne, Annie – March 28, 1930
I have had these letters a week. I will take them back to the postman this afternoon. I don’t have much to say because my life is terrible. There is nothing new that Ethel does not already know, but she said I have to write something anyway without any cusswords. She told me there is something good in any day. Well, I will write about me and you can find if there is any good in it.
The Murphy kids, Michael and Ellen, ages 8 and 6, are easy to take care of. Mr. Murphy is never home. He travels all the time. And Mrs. Murphy is having sex with the doctor’s son. You all remember Philip Walker, right? Dianne, you told me he was the one who went to get Momma when Ethel had Marie. Well, it seems getting a person’s family to come to the doctor’s office is not the only thing he is quick with. Last week, I walked the kids home from school. We came in the back door so we could go right to a snack. There was Mrs. Murphy without her top and Philip stripped down to his underdrawers, hugging and kissing each other right on top of the kitchen table! In broad daylight! I turned around to Michael and Ellen and shouted, “Stop! Your momma’s busy right now.” But I was not quick enough, because Michael yelled, “EEYOU! Gross!” I grabbed their shoulders and pushed them back out the door.
Mrs. Murphy started shouting and screaming like someone had hurt her. She cussed at Philip and said, “I told you to leave me alone! Now get out of my house, you creep!” I didn’t look back, but I could tell Philip was not the only person being a creep.
All three of us walked as quickly as we could. Michael was asking a hundred questions—“What was Philip doing to Momma? Where were their clothes? Are we going to tell Daddy that Philip hurt my momma?” Ellen was just crying and sniffling the whole way. She did not have anything to say about what she saw. I told the kids we were going to my house, and we would eat dinner there. And if they wanted to, they could spend the night, but I was not going to answer any questions about their momma and Philip Walker. I said, “The only thing I will say is that your momma did not get hurt. She should be the one to tell your daddy, not you.”
Once we got to our house, I told the kids to go to my room and close the door. I went out behind the barn and started shaking. I was shaking so hard, my body slammed me to the ground. I started screaming and hitting the dirt with my fists. I stayed out there until Ethel called out to me. Then I started breathing deep trying to calm myself down. After a while my breathing slowed, and I started crying. Ethel found me. She sat down beside me and hugged me for a long time. She said in that sweet-momma-kind-of-voice, “It will be okay, Caroline. Whatever it is, it will be okay.” Ethel is good like that.
Before we finished dinner, someone knocked on the door. I had not had a chance to tell Ethel what we saw. Michael and Ellen were right under my feet the whole time. When I heard the knock, I stiffened and said to Ethel, “Take the kids to my room, and I will see who is at the door.” She must have seen my fury because she did what I asked without any questions.
As I was walking to the door, I was planning what I would say to Mrs. Murphy, but it was Philip Walker at the door.
Now that I could see him with his clothes on, I noticed him different. Philip is a few years older than me. He is a head taller, and he looked like he had muscles. I thought to myself, I don’t think I can take him, so don’t push it with him.
He said through the screen door, “Caroline, can I talk to you? Outside?”
I said, “No, you cannot! I am not gonna to be alone with you. If you have anything to say, say it right here!”
