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FL-4 February 16, 1939 Annie Allen (real name) Anna Alden (white) (fictitious name) 5238 N.W. 24th Court Miami, Florida Divorced Elvira E. Burnell, Writer Evelyn Werner, Reviser
ANNA ALDEN
As I drive up to the Alden home I notice the large onestory stucco house has been freshly painted in cream color, new French windows are set in frames painted dark green, and I wonder if the Aldens still live here.
The place looks immaculate from the outside. It is built on the front of the lot, and a short side-walk lined with wellkept flowers and shrubs, leads straight to the house. On the wide, long, stone porch, built across the front of the house, there is a much worn sofa and a wooden rocker. The front door and screen door are closed; I knock and a young woman with a magazine in her hand opens the door.
"Does Mrs. Alden live here?" I inquire.
"Yes," she replies, and calls, "Mom, someone to see you."
Anna Alden immediately comes to the door, carrying a very pretty baby in her arms.
"Well, fer the lan' sakes," she cries. "Am I glad to see you. You're jist the one I was a-wanting to see 'bout somethin." Turning to the girl she explains, "This here's Miz Burnell, the govmint lady use to come a-visitin during the FERA." 894
2 To me, "You ain't never met Ruthie--this is my married daughter from New York." We exchange greetings and Anna says, "Come, let's you and me set down here on the porch in the sun and talk. . it'll do my neuritis good. That old neuritis has got the best a me agin--that and indigestun. I kin fight the indigestun alright, but not t'other.
"Here, set down." As her she pulls up the rocker, the baby squirmes around in her arms trying to get down. "I'll jist let this young 'um down here on the walk so we kin talk in peace." To the baby, "You stay right here now, Carolin' Ann, and don't run off."
"What a healthy looking child," I say of the baby who has blue eyes, blone hair and fat, smooth, pink cheeks. She is wearing a clean white dress, and is barefooted. "Ruthie's baby?" I ask as Anna sits down on the sofa near me.
"Law, no, you'll be surprised when you hear it. I wish't 'twas Ruthie's, but it's Fanny's, my youngest. Times seems to git harder fer me. I got m'own younguns raised, 5 girls and 3 boys, now I start a-raisin the gran'chillun--he looks like I'll have t'do it anyways. 'Taint no choice in the matter.
"My Edith May's 30 years old--she's the oldest and real domestic; she does most of the housework. James, he's 28, is a studyin in New York; Victor, less see, he's 22, works at the Miami Country Club; Bruce's 20, and he joined the Navy; Evelyn's 19, and works when she can git it; my Anna and her 895
3 husband, Alex, are divorced.
"An Fanny, my youngest, she run off and got married 'fore she was 16 and this here baby's her'n. She married a no'count rasdal; makes me so mad jist to think of it!" Her thin lips close tightly; her expression is one of anger.
"Do they live here with you?" I ask.
"Not him, law NO!" she replies hastily. "He never did stay here none. After they got married he rented em a little house for theirselves. Fer a little while things went along pretty good, least I thought they wuz, an then one night a neighbor of their'n come an sez, 'Miz Alden, you'd better come an git your daughter 'fore that rascal kills her, fer he's abeatin 'er up plenty. Hurry up an I'll take you,' he sez. Well, I went with him jist like I wuz an found that rascal abeatin Fanny jist like the man sez, an I shore lit into him. He run out o' the house an I told Fanny to pack her clothes an come home with me, --poor kid, she wuz so scared, she wuz glad to leave there, him a-beatin' 'er an 'er that way too, a-carryin' this baby--he'd ought t'be horse-whipped, that's what
"Well, I tried to git 'er in Jackson Memorial Hospital fer the baby t'be born'd cause I couldn't pay fer havin' no doctor, an that rascal, we couldn't find him nowhere. Twould not 'ave been fair to Victor neither, to keep 'er home to have the baby--he gives me most all his money to run the house. Well, bein as how we live outer the city limits, they wouldn't 896
4 take 'er in Jackson an they didn't want to take 'er in Kendall neither at first, but finally I got 'er in there--you know the house inside is jist about one big open space like it always wuz, 'cept now we have got a few rooms separated for sleepin--an there ain't no place here to have a baby private-like.
"After Fanny got home an up on her feet, here come that rascal a-tryin to meet 'er and make up (he'd come when I wuz out). Him making a fuss over the baby an 'like. I tole Fanny twould be best fer 'er to git shet of him, but fore I knowed it Fanny, she's jist a kid and loves him so much (he's 27) wuz traipsin aroun with 'im agin an finally she went back with him. He rented a place, not so far from here. Well, I was a-hopin he'd do right by her now, he wuz a-workin steady over to the Maule place, an seemed like he'd changed. Then one day he come for me, all excited like.
"Better come over quick, cause Fanny's awful sick," he sez. "Well I went right away an there she lay white as a ghost. 'What's the matter?' I sez to him.
"Well, I give her some medicine,' he sez, a-hangin his head kinder shame-like an with that he walked out the house.
"Fanny, then she told me the truth. 'Mom, honest I didn't do nothin but take that medicine Jess give me,' an she pointed to a box on the dresser. 'Jess don't want me to have no more babies,' she sez.
"Look here girl," I sez. "You don't take no more of them there pills cause I don't want you t'die or nothin' like it. 897
5 Yore jist courtin trouble a'doin them kind of things, 'sides its wrong an you know you hadn't orta. I ain't so powerful religious but I shore know right from wrong, an much as I hate t'see you have another baby so quick, if yore that a-way agin you'll jist have to bear it, that's that,' I tole 'er. I was so made I didn't know what t'do, but anyway she stopped a-takin the medicine. After that he treated her jist awful agin, he wuz so made cause she listened to me--why he wouldna keered if she'd died. I told Fanny, 'If he starts beatin you, you come back home'--an it wuzn't long fore she and Carolin' Ann come back home an now she'll have another young'un in about a month. I dont mind em bein here so much myself, but taint fair to Victor, that's all."
"Did you let him get by with all this and not get the law after him?" I asked.
"Well, Fanny, you know, she's still jist a kid, an loves him so, but this second time I tuk 'er to Jedge Oppenborn bout it, cause that rascal, he wuz a-workin an they's no reason why he shouldn't support em. Well, the jedge, he got 'im to court in a hurry an sez he must pay Fannie $6.00 every week, or go to jail. He's a-payin it so fer, but the minute he stops, by gravy, I'll see he lands in jail ifen it's the last thing Anna Alden does," she says vindictively.
By this time Caroline Ann is tired of the little stones and glass jar she's been playing with. Bang! goes the jar on 898