I imagine within him he probably did get angry, and possibly he felt that
it was a thing that had to be done. I don't know why he did. I'm just
trying to figure how he must have reacted. Because there's no way for me
to feel any of that, that had to be done. But evidentally he felt that
the good will, and maybe you were at the mercy of those examiners, I
don't know.
[interruption]
Well, he had a way—and I guess that's another reason I didn't care for
him—I really distrusted him as much as anything else. I didn't feel like
he gave us. . . I mean, he'd just wipe over anything. If you had put two
and two together there and come up with five, oh, he wouldn't have said
anything about it. He'd just say, 'Oh, that was just error,' and go on.
You want an examination to tell you what you're doing wrong, so you can
get straightened out. So that's how I distrusted him. He was so gay and
full of stories, and always some joke. And he was always walking by Miss
Bessie's window, 'Bessie, have you heard this one?' Well, that's the one
place on which Miss Bessie and I parted company. I didn't accept nobody
getting familiar with me unless you were my friend and I was your friend
and you were on a first-name basis. And there were people that I did
like well enough, and we were on a first-name basis. But it had to be
one of those things. So I always sort of resented the way Miss Bessie
let anybody walk up there and call her 'Bessie.' Bessie this and Bessie
that. So every time they came to examine the company, Mr. Merritt would
always come out of his office. He had the largest office on the third
floor. And he would go into some little office. Of course, it didn't
disturb me, because I sat over in an office from that. But I didn't like
the idea that Mr. Merritt was always giving up his office. But anyhow,
that was happening. So, day in and day out they're coming in. Now a man from South Carolina, Mr. Kelly, was
just as nice as he could be, and he wanted to get some secretarial work
done. And it ended up that I did all of his letters the whole while he
was there. And thoroughly enjoyed doing them, and he, seemingly, was
glad to have me. I'm sure that's the only reason I enjoyed it, because
he was very nice and very appreciative of what I was doing. And every
once in a while he would show me a little note that his secretary in the
department down there, was writing to ask, who was that was doing his
work up here? She was getting a little alarmed, you know, because
somebody's getting her job. And, of course, you know, that was
flattering. I liked Mr. Kelly very much. Didn't like Mr. [UNCLEAR] . Mr. [UNCLEAR] was always
flounting [UNCLEAR] . So one day, after many days that he
had been there, he comes out of Mr. Merritt's office with a bunch of
examiners. He gets right to my door— he's telling a joke as he's coming
out; he's a great joke-teller—he sticks his head in my door, and I'm
sitting at my desk writing something. And he says, 'Did you hear that,
Viola? Viola! Did you hear that, what I was saying?' [long pause]. By
this time the elevator gets there. So they get on the elevator. Lord,
what am I going to do? I'm not going to take it. What am I going to do? So I come home and I'm worried sick. Because I
know I cannot take it. I also don't know how is the best way to handle
it— with an examiner for the North Carolina Mutual being involved. I
wrestled with it for most of the night. When I got up the next morning,
I knew perfectly well what I was going to do. So I got right up and I
got a piece of paper and I wrote him a note. I said, 'Dear Mr. [UNCLEAR] , If you need my services for anything, or you
have to ask for anything that I have to make available to you, it is
quite all right for you to come and ask for what you want without
addressing me in any terms. I reserve the right to permit my friends to
call me Viola, and no one else. Respectfully.' And when he got there,
his note was on his desk. I had gone over to Ethel and said, 'Ethel,
when the examiners come in, I'm going to go to the restroom. Because I
have written Mr. [UNCLEAR] a note. I don't know how he's
going to take it, and I do not care. The only thing I'm worried about is
how Poppa is going to take it. Because this may
be, I'm on my way out. But if I am, I'm on my way. But I'll just go to
the restroom to wait for the explosion.' So she said OK. So sure enough
when they came in, everybody came by, 'Good morning, good morning.' And
the minute they got in there, I got right up. I stayed as long as I
could, and then I came on back up to my office. As I came by, Ethel said
[gesture]. So I knew then that evidently [UNCLEAR] had
come out, or anyway she felt it was safe. So I went over there. She
says, 'He got the note.' I said, 'He couldn't miss that.' So I said,
'What did he do?' She said, 'He brought it here to Mr. Spaulding.' I
said, 'What did Poppa say?' She said, 'That's what I called you to tell
you. Mr. [UNCLEAR] read it in there with the examiners,
and then he came right in that inner door and handed it to Mr.
Spaulding. Mr. Spaulding read it and he leaned back in his chair, and he
said, 'Heh, heh, heh. Mr. you can't treat this here young generation
like you can treat the old one, can you?' And that was all he said. And
[UNCLEAR] came out.'
So for a couple of days he didn't speak to me at all, which, of course,
was delightful. He just would pass and wouldn't speak. And the thing
that really surprised me, but very pleasantly: Mr. Kelly didn't ever
stop calling me when he wanted to have a letter done for him. And always
in the same nice manner, 'Do you have time? Do you think you could get a
letter off for me to the department, sometime during the day?' I'd say,
'Of course, I'd be happy to, anytime.' And so the relationship was the
same all the way except for old [UNCLEAR] . He waited
about three or four days and then finally he capitulated with a 'good
morning' and a 'good evening', and I gave him the same thing back, 'good
morning', good evening'. But I didn't ever hear anything more from that.
But I was so proud of Poppa. Because I didn't know what he was going to
do. I didn't know whether he would have been frightened off, you know,
then asked me to apologize or something. Which I was not going to do. I
was just ready to go. As a matter of fact, not for a long time, but way late one day, in the office with Mr.
Spaulding, he started in, " Heh, heh, heh. [He called me Tommy] Tommy,
you straighten them out, don't you?' I said, 'I try every time, Mr.
Spaulding. I don't know whether I make it every time, but I try.' But he
laughed and that's all that came of that. Didn't have no trouble with
old man [UNCLEAR] . I was sure glad when he was gone.
Because if I had known that last little item, of what he was doing to
Poppa, I know I would have hated him. I knew that he was responsible for
them getting these little things, a little whiskey to carry up to their
hotel rooms, or drinks there. And at the end of the examination, they
got some kind of token. Or, usually it was at the Christmas time. He
always managed to come in and start the examination, Christmas break,
then come back after Christmas to finish. Which meant you got a
Christmas gift right at the time. All of those things I resented. So the
other things, God knows.