10

Florida
Enrique and Amanda
Folklore

-8-

goes through when he comes home and tries to tell me what he saw. He imitates autmobiles, airplanes, horses, everything. Yu should see him imitate Enrique shaving and brushing his teeth."
Jose is sitting on the cement steps, exploding caps with a small tack hammer. He watches the caps very carefully so he can see the smoke and tell when they explode. He explodes the last cap, looks around for approval, and puts the head of the hammer in his mouth and chews on it.
"He is always chewing on some kind of iron," Amanda complains, "always chewing on his belt buckle or something like that. Look how he's got his belt fastened up now-with a match-stick. He chews off his belt buckles faster than I can sew them on.
"Do you like grapefruit juice? I'm going to give you some cans of it I got at the relief station. It carrieso ne pint in each can. Grapefruit juice makes very good drinks with rum. I get cans of it all the time--last time they give me five cans. I fixed some of it nice in glasses with ice and sugar for the kids, but they don;t like it and won't drink it. They like hte fruit, but they won't drink the juice.
"The relief station here gives away lots of good things. They give me nice clothes for the children; and they give us can meat, flour, and lots of things. It's real good stuff, too, and helps out plenty. I heard that Roosevelt was going to start giving away lots more things like that, and sell things very cheap to poor people on relief. It sure will be wonderful if he does.
"Food is pretty cheap in Ybor City--I get milk for ten cents a quart--but even so, lots of people do not have enough money to buy to eat.

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