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[AL-3]

Julia Rhodes
Avondale Mills
Alexander City, Ala.
Tallapoosa County

JULIA RHODES
By Maude Cain

I found Julia Rhodes in her kitchen preparing the mid-day meal. It was a bright September morning about 9:30.

When I arrived she willingly transferred her culinary duties to her daughter, Myrtle, while she invited me into the front bedroom.

This is the room which the Rhodes family use as their living room, evidently because it is the best furnished. It is very small, but its one bed looks comfortable enough.

At first Julia could hardly talk to me, but the difficulty proved to be only a mouthful of snuff. She had picked up the snuff-dipping habit from her playmates as a small child, she explained to me. She seemed to feel the need of some sort of apology. "I wished I didn't use it", she said, "but it's a whole lot of satisfaction." She did not wait for questions but, without further preliminaries, launched on the story of her life.

Julia was born on a farm in Tallapoosa County 35 years ago. While she was still very young, her father brought the family to town, hoping to provide for them better by putting the two older girls in the mill.

Julia was not old enough to work, so she did not go into the mill. She entered school. But she was "skeered of her teacher". She did not like school and her parents did not force her to go.

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