And their children after them : the legacy of Let us now praise famous men, James Agee, Walker Evans, and the rise and fall of cotton in the South by Maharidge Dale;Williamson Michael & Williamson Michael

Author:Maharidge, Dale;Williamson, Michael & Williamson, Michael
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Agee, James, 1909-1955, Agee, James, 1909-1955, Evans, Walker, 1903-1975, Cotton farmers, Farm tenancy
ISBN: 0679728783
Publisher: New York : Pantheon Books
Published: 1989-03-23T05:00:00+00:00

me, the people I associate with, are scrapping, are barely mak-ing it.

The way I do it now? If I can make one week at a time, I’mdoing good. People don’t have—what you call it?—any kind ofsecurity. Job security is gone. There’s no more of that. . . . The bigcompanies have got the upper hand right now on the averageworking man. Like this job I’m on at this hospital out here. I’d saytwenty-five workers are temporary part-time. You don’t get anybenefits out there, you don’t get the vacation, paid holidays, all ofthat. But if you want a job, you’ll stay there. Supply and demand.There’s not enough jobs out here.

They’re going to have to give the common man a break for achange. If a man is already rich, that’s good. I’m not saying takeall the money from the rich people and kill them because they’rerich. But you’re going to have to go back to giving the poor persona break because they’ll appreciate it, they’ll go on with it. If I madea million dollars, I would reach back and help somebody some-where. There needs to be a limit. If a person gets rich, makes amillion dollars, there should be a limit. The big bugs shouldn’thave all these breaks.

People making forty or fifty, they’re set. They got what theyneed. They don’t think about the people out there. If we don’t dosomething here in the United States, if we don’t correct this prob-lem one way or another, get it on an upward trend, we’re gonnafind things a lot more difficult. People’s gonna start taking whatthey want. . . . My son? I don’t know if he’ll do the same thing Ido. But he’s talented with going out and picking up money. He’sbeen through grass cutting, then he went through this aluminum-can thing. He’s just got it in him. I don’t worry about him at all. Iknow he’ll make a dollar somewhere. He’ll go out there and get itif it’s available. The availability of it is what I worry about.

His youngest boy enters the room. Sonny is looking at a pictureof his mother in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. It is the first timeSonny has ever seen the book.

The son asks, “Is this for real?”

Sonny’s eyes never leave his mother’s.

“This was the Depression, Son. It’s for real. Yeah.”

Several years later, Sonny was tracked down again. Things hadnot gone well. He and Susan had lost the house—work turneddown, and they had to sell it. And as bad as that was, it got worse.Since that first visit, his real wage fell another two dollars an hour,and he had to drive to Mobile to get any work.

“What can I do now?” he said. “From where I am, the Depres-sion is here. I make the same as I did ten years ago.” He’d like to getout of his field, go to school for three years to become a nurse. Buthe still has mouths to feed, and so that plan seems impractical fornow. Like Debbie, he is not complacent and is always thinking ofways to better himself.

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