Amoskeag by Tamara K. Hareven

Author:Tamara K. Hareven [Hareven, Tamara K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-83159-0
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2013-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

Cora Pellerin, 1977

We had a good time in the spinning room. After we got our pay, every time we had something new, we’d stay out to show off our new clothes. In those days it wasn’t like today. We’d get dressed for the holidays. It was a must—you had to have something new. At Easter we’d have something like a new coat, new shoes, new hat; and we’d stay out the week after we got our pay. They used to come on Thursday at two o’clock to give us our pay. We’d take turns. We didn’t all stay out the same day. I would stay out one Thursday, then the following week my girlfriend, and then the following week it was another one’s turn [laughs]. I never would wear the clothes from the mill in the house. We changed in the mill. I made my own smock to wear there. It had to have pockets to put the scissors and roving in.

When I was seventeen, I got my own room. I lived there for four years, and then I got an apartment all by myself. I had nice furniture because a furniture store furnished the apartment. I used to pay $5.00 per week for everything. In the corporations it was much cheaper, but you couldn’t get an apartment in the corporations if you weren’t married. It was family housing.

Not too many women were living alone in their own apartments. I was a wildcat [laughs]. Some mothers of my girlfriends, after they knew that I was in an apartment, they didn’t want their daughters to chum around with me any more. In those days, if you lived alone in a room, they were afraid their daughters would get the idea.

I had my own home, I had everything. I cooked my own food. I didn’t have to go to the boardinghouse and eat what they had. I learned how to make pie and bake my own beans, and I liked that. My boyfriend, who became my husband, came to see me. He was welcome any time he wanted to come. He was fifteen years older than I.

In 1918, I started to weave. I had a very good teacher. She was the niece of the woman who ran the boardinghouse where I lived. The woman said, “If she’s going to make a weaver out of you, it won’t take long.” I was a little bit afraid of her. They give you two weeks to learn. So the first day of the second week I started two looms, then three, and by noontime I had four looms going, and I kept them going all day. She said, “Hey, start another one and I’ll keep a watch on it.” We had six looms for a full set. So I started another one. By that second week I had all my six looms going.

My work was handlooms—four-shuttle, four-color.* Some weavers weave all their lives and never get the hang of it. Some women especially, they just weave because they have to earn money; they never apply themselves to it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.