A New TeacherIt is August and school has already started. We have a new teacher, Miss Glover. Shes nice-looking, brown and smooth like peanut butter, and wears her hair pulled back in a bun. Shes not loud and bossy like Miss Battle, our old teacher. Miss Battle is mean and yelps like a yard dog. She makes you learn, though.
Miss Glover makes you learn, too, but she makes learning fun. She brings in lots of pictures and maps and books for us to look at. Shell even let you take some of them home if you promise to take good care of them and bring them back. A lot of the pictures are of places shes been to. And if she makes you read in front of the class and you miss a word or say it wrong or something, she wont shame you in front of everybody. Shell just call you up to her desk and help you with the words you said wrong. And no one else can hear what she says to you but you and her.
Another thing Miss Glover doesnt do: She wont give you a licking with the ruler. Miss Battle will give you a licking right in front of the whole class and then go tell your folks you been acting up in school. Shell even tell your grandma and your grandpa when she sees them in church on Sunday. Miss Glover would never do that — she believes children should be talked to. If any switching needs to be done, she says it ought to be done at home. Shes always having to talk to my cousin Charles. Sometimes I think he cuts up just so Miss Glover will take him to the back of the room and talk to him. You should see his face when hes getting talked to — his eyes get all dreamy-looking and he grins like a Cheshire cat.
Charles sits next to a real pretty girl named Winsome Blue. Hes sweet on Winsome but he doesnt want my friend Arma Jean Pettegrue to know, because hes sweet on Arma Jean, too. He doesnt know how to act when both of them are in the same place at the same time. When Winsome is around he gets all silly and clumsy and starts dropping things on the floor. But when Arma Jean is around he gets all mannish and acts all biggity, strutting and talking that Harlem talk he learned while he was up in New York City this summer, like “Gimme some skin, man!” and “Dig that crazy jive!” I sure hate that he had to come back down here to Richmond County to go to school again this year. I wish his poor mama would get well so he could go back home.
But getting back to Miss Glover, most of the parents just love her and they all gather around her at church, except for Mister Waters, Cleveland Waterss daddy. Mister Waters says his boy dont need “all that book learnin and coddlin ” Miss Glover trying to do. He asked Miss Glover, “What Cleveland need with so much book learnin when the South aint gonna let him be nothin but a sharecropper?” He even comes to school and plucks Cleveland right out of the class whenever he wants him to work in the field. Too bad, because Cleveland likes school and catches on real quick, especially to things that have to do with numbers.
Miss Glover tried to talk to Mister Waters one day when he came to take Cleveland out of class. She spoke real nice to him but he got all loud and talked to her rough like he was trying to scare her. Told her she was “fillin the childrens heads with foolish notions, talkin to them bout travelin and such.” Then he said something that made all of us children feel ashamed. He asked Miss Glover if she really believed any of us colored children would grow up to be anything other than somebodys maid or farm hand. Miss Glover stood back and looked him straight in the eye and said, “My dear Mister Waters, you are looking at a colored child who grew up to be something other than a maid or a farm hand!” And Mister Waters couldnt say a word. But he took Cleveland out of the class anyway.
After they left, Miss Glover reminded us that there was nothing wrong with being a maid or a farm hand as long as you were honest and hard working. She said, “Education and good morals will lift the colored people up.” I hope we keep Miss Glover forever!
Miss Roula Olette
Just before school started Missy Violet had to go down to Tallahassee, Florida, to see about her sick brother, but she gave me his address and told me it was fine for me to write. Missy Violet and I are very good friends now. She says Im her best helper girl because I helped her “catch babies” this summer. But Mama told me not to bother Missy Violet with letters while she was down in Tallahassee. Mama said, “Dont go tantalizin the life out of Missy Violet with a lot of letters, worryin her about things goin on up here at home. She got enough on her mind takin care of a sick brother.” And she shook her finger at me.
I told Mama that Missy Violet was expecting me to write and tell her all about school but Mama said, “No!” So I had to sneak and write a letter. I hated to disobey Mama, but I just had to tell Missy Violet about Miss Roula Olette! Miss Roula is Missy Violets good friend and she is in a bad way. So I borrowed an envelope and a stamp from my big sister Savannahs stationery box and wrote the letter on a piece of paper I tore out of my composition book. I hope Savannah wont miss her envelope and her stamp. Now all I have to do is get the letter down to the post office window at the general store before Mama finds out about it.
August 14, 1929
Dear Missy Violet,
I just had to write and tell you about poor Miss Roula. I think she is gone sick in the head. She wont eat anything except oatmeal and squash and goes wandering around in the cemetery in her housecoat! I think shes acting that way because her snooty ol daughter Amabelle came down here from New York City and made her stop taking the boneset tonic you gave her for her tired blood and poor circulation. I know Miss Roula has some because you sent Charles and me over to her house with a great big jar full before you went away. Mama told her daughter about the tonic but Amabelle claims she cant find it.
Missy Violet, I dont like Amabelle one bit. She looks at people down the side of her nose like she thinks shes superior. Charles doesnt like her either — he calls her “astorperious.” Thats a word he picked up up in Harlem this summer. He says it means “stuck up.” Something about Amabelle reminds me of my classmate Margie Poole. I bet Margie will be just like her when she grows up, all snooty and superior-acting. Both of them are know-it-alls. I wont forget how Margie laughed at me because I thought babies came out of a tree stump.
I can tell Amabelle thinks shes good-looking, and she does have all that pretty black hair hanging down her back, but to me shes not as pretty as Miss Roula is. She looks like an ol yellow pumpkin to me. Shes talking about taking Miss Roula back up north with her to live. Poor Miss Roula doesnt know anybody up north. Amabelle hardly lets her have visitors now. Like the other day when Mister Johnnie Browne stopped by to see how Miss Roula was doing, Amabelle looked him up and down, wrinkled her nose, and said, “You need to do somethin about that rash all over your face and arms before you go visitin folks.” Hurt Mister Johnnies feelings something awful. He came over to the house with water in his eyes, telling Mama and Papa about what happened.
Charles says hes gonna put a cow patty in Amabelles car. I hope he does.
Missy Violet, I also have some good news. We have a new teacher at school. Her name is Miss Glover and she is a fine teacher. I look forward to going to school every day now. Even Charles gets up and gets ready in the morning without giving Mama any trouble. You will like Miss Glover because she encourages us to read. You always do that, Missy Violet. You always say, “Read, children, read!” Well, we are doing lots of reading now. Miss Glover brings the newspaper to class every day and we all have to take turns reading from it. Maybe you will get to meet her when you come home. She attends church every third Sunday.
Thats all for now, except that the ax handle fell on Papas foot while he was working in the woodshed and now Mamas making him stay off it. When it happened I was at home and ran with Mama to the woodshed when Papa hollered for help. When I saw how his foot was bleeding I remembered what you taught me about bloody wounds and told Mama not to wipe the blood off, but to tie it up in its own blood because that would start the healing right away. Later, when we got Papa back to the house, Mama cleaned the wound and bandaged it up. And we put cayenne liniment on it every day just the way you did for Mister Cook when he cut his foot on the tractor. Papa and Mama were surprised that I knew how to make cayenne liniment and how to take care of wounds. I was glad I remembered what you had taught me.
Papa is complaining about having to stay put all the time, but he makes sure that one of the boys goes down to your house every day to feed your dog, Duke, and milk the cow.
Please write to me and tell me what to do about Miss Roula, and say hello to your brother for me.
I sure wish we could find that boneset tonic.
From your best helper girl,
Viney