(This is part of a series. For Table of Contents go here)
I picked up
the phone and called Dorothy to arrange our next meeting to record more of her
life story. Her number is one that I knew from memory.
“Hello?”
“Hi Dorothy,
this is Charlie.”
“Hey,
Charlie,” her voice brightened, “how are you doin’?”
“I’m doing
fine, I hope you are doing well. Dorothy, I have a day off tomorrow, and I
wondered if tomorrow afternoon would be a good time to come by to let you tell
me more about your life story.”
“Oh yes,
Charlie, I would love for you to come by. You can come by any time.”
We agreed on
a time to get together at her apartment the next day. I tried to visit Dorothy
each week from the time we began her life story project. Because my work
schedule is variable, we did not have a set day each week. Sometimes we would
set the date for the next visit before I left her apartment, and sometimes I
would telephone her when I knew I had some free time to set up a meeting. I always had to call ahead, though, because
Dorothy had friends and connections. Just because I had a day free, didn’t
always mean Dorothy would be available. She had church friends and church
activities she enjoyed. One of her friends had a friend who was a hairdresser.
Sometimes that friend would arrange an afternoon to take Dorothy to see her hairdresser
friend who would style Dorothy’s hair for her. Other times Dorothy might call
on one of her friends to take her to the grocery store, or she may have a
clinic appointment to see her doctor.
In our
conversations about life at Partlow State School, Dorothy would sometimes
mention recreational activities that the residents took part in. Other times I
would ask her what some of the activities were that she enjoyed. Here are some
of the things Dorothy had to say about things they did for fun.
Playground Activities
I used
to love to play hopscotch, red rover and fruit basket turnover. I must have
been 13 or 14. One time we were playing
this game and I didn’t know how to play it, I just run around. I hauled off and
hit this girl in the nose. I bloodied her nose, but I didn’t mean to hit her. I
just didn’t know how to play. They told me I better sit down while I could,
that U would have to learn to play the game.
I hated it after I hit her. We
also played London Bridge and Red Rover, Red Rover.
We had
these bikes - I finally learned how to ride one. The first bicycle I learned to ride was a big
old white bike. It didn’t have no brakes on it. I got started real fast. I
forgot how to stop the thing. I went way down across the yard and hit the curb,
fell off and skint my knee up and scratched my hip up. It scared me worse than
it hurt me. I knocked somebody down.
One
time I was swinging and the swing broke with me. That learnt me some sense. I
never did try to swing high no more. At school when I was in Sylacauga, they
used to stand up in swings. They had them Jinx poles, a handmade see saw and an
old flying jenny. At Partlow they had
swings and see-saws and monkey bars and a slide. Sometimes people would get
hurt. One time a girl fell and cut herself.
They
use to have an old board and it had nails in it. We had fruit jar lids – I mean
the little rubber part that goes in the lid – and we’d throw them and if it
rung on a nail it had a number on it. If you had as many as 5 or 10, you’d win
the game. I liked to play that one, and half the time I’d miss. We used to play
old homemade games – I used to love to play them.
I used
to love to play ring toss. I used to run, and instead of grabbing onto a limb
and chinning it, I’d just run under the limb. Then I learned how to chin limbs
(Dorothy’s term for chin-ups) – I used to could chin limbs – grab ‘em and pull
up on ‘em. I don’t know if I could even do it now.
We used
to chin them old orange ink poles. They were something sort of like monkey
bars. They had swings and see-saws, a little old sand bed, and sliding board.
I tried
to walk on my hands one time but I kicked up too hard and fell over. Another
time I ran and jumped into a swimming pool back when we used to go up to the
pool at Queen City. I hurt my side then and I never did jump into a pool again.
I never did learn how to swim. I used to like for somebody to float me on my
back. They let some from Bryce Hospital
go to that pool sometime. Then the colored people started using it and they
wouldn’t let us go there no more.
In the
summertime, they used to have watermelon cuttin’s out on the lawn. The
watermelons wouldn’t even be cold. We didn’t have no way of getting them cold.
Music and Dance
They
never would let [the boys and girls] get together until later on when they let
us start dancing with them. I reckon I was about 13 years old when we started
having those dances. One time I jumped up and ran through the crowd and a girl
was dancing with a boyfriend of mine. I
thought, “He’s supposed to be dancing with me!” I ran through the crowd and
slapped him and I shoved her. Somebody went and got me. They told me I was
going to get in trouble. Then it started to rain and they had to call the dance
off. We all had to go back in the building.
We had
our dances over in a place they called “The Boys Colony” where they raised
vegetables and things. They would take us out there sometimes on Friday nights
to have a dance, or sometimes we would have a street dance out in front of the
main building. [There they would play]
records. They played that song ‘Good Golly Miss Molly,” and Jerry Lee Lewis,
“Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” and Chubby Checker, “Peppermint Twist,” and then
the regular “Twist.” One time they were playing “Tallahassee Lassie,” and I got
up, wasn’t nobody dancin’. I got up and was whirling around and the supervisor
couldn’t event catch me. Then when the music stopped she got hold of me and
said, “Dorothy, just stop dancing around before you run into somebody.” Then
when they played the next song I was up again. She said, “One more like that
and you’re going to the building.” I said “I’m not goin’ nowhere.” I just kept
on whirling around until I got tired of whirling.
One
time this boy got up to dance with me, and I said, “I can’t dance with you, you
twist your old feet every which a way!” and I pushed him. Another boy said, “go
ahead and fall down, I’m not going to pick you up!” I grabbed the second boy by
the shirt and I shoved him – I almost shoved him down. Then they made me sit
down.
One
time I was dancing with Geraldine and her boyfriend. Something happened and he
grabbed hold of me. I hauled off and I shoved them – they didn’t fall down, but
they fell against the bench.
I had
some boyfriends there. I used to like Cecil. One time I got mad at him because
he wouldn’t dance, he would just sit like a stump. I knew him some back then
but I didn’t really know him like I did later. I had one boyfriend and somebody
come between us and broke us up. I got mad at her and told her. She knew that I
liked cooked apples and she said, “I’m going to cook you some apples, Dorothy
Faye.” She was trying to make up with me after she took my boyfriend. I said
“You cook ‘em honey, I won’t eat ‘em.” I said so help me Jesus I’ll never eat
another cooked apple you cooked,” and I never did, either.
Movies and Television
And one
night we was all in the movie theater where they had the movies over at the
community house, and I were doin’ something and started out the door, and the
supervisor stopped me and said “You was in to it too, Dorothy Faye Burdette!” I
said “Into what? Let me go!” and I walked away from her. Then she caught me
again and kinda shook me, and I commenced to laughing at her. She said, “Laugh!
You think it’s funny, but I don’t! You can’t come to the movie, you’re posted
for two weeks!” When they said “posted,” that meant you couldn’t go anywhere
for awhile.
She posted me because I jerked away from her
and I didn’t want to hear what she was saying, of something. And I was in a
hurry to get to the building and I didn’t want to wait on her. She said, “You were chunking up in that
crabapple tree.” (We used to chunk rocks up trying to knock the apples down) I
said “I was not!” and I jerked away from her. I think I was about 18 or 19.
Sometimes
they would take us to the movie theater in Alberta City. The girls would go one
Saturday and then the boys another Saturday. It would usually be a western.
They’d give us a little bag of popcorn and we would see the movie.
There
was a TV in the corner of the Day Room. The Day Room was on the floor where my
ward was. When Hee Haw with Buck Owens came on, the attendants wouldn’t allow
us to make a sound. We had to be perfectly quiet.
* * *
Next week we will hear from Dorothy about
some of her work activities as well as staff relationships at Partlow State
School.
*
No comments:
Post a Comment