Perspective
Ma Frattie's 'lasses'
I found her, this time, out be
hind her smokehouse that had
the appearance of melting into
the ground below. The tempera
ture was as low as a toad frog
under a collard, but there she
was, ninety years old... plunder
ing around the back of her place
with a pitchfork in one hand and
a hand saw in the other. There
was a perfectly organized little
string of cats following a few feet
behind her, and her old mule was
resting against a nearby barn
stall that was braced with poles,
blowing smoke from her wide
nostrils that made white puffy
clouds in the polar air that sur
rounded us.
Buttoned to the gills, Ma Frat
tie was. I could count at least
three sweaters under her coat,
and the wool scarf she had tied
around her head made a some
what snugger fit for the old cap
on her crown. She intended to
stay warm.
"Whatcha want, young
in...thangs gettin' a tad dull at
yore place?" she inquired of me
as I approached. "Jest joshing,
girl," she explained as she patted
my shoulder. "These artificial
food chewers has got my mouth
to aching so bad thet I may as
well give up the idy of eat'n and
being sociable altogether." She
laid her pitchfork and saw down
on a tree stump and motioned me
towards the back door.
"Ketch thet cheer child," was
her polite way of telling me to
have a seat at her kitchen table a
few seconds later as she washed
her hands under the somewhat
trickle of water that tried to spill
from her faucet. Then, most
gracefully, she threw her "store
bought food mashers" in a rolled
up nest of paper towels.
"Thet's more like it," she
grinned toothlessly at me. For
me too, I thought. I always un
derstand Ma Frattie much better
with her efeth out rather than
trying to compete with the
"clicking and clanking" they
make rolling around in her
mouth.
"I just wondered what you
were up to today," I sighed as I
settled into place at her tiny ta
ble. "Thought you just might
have something good to eat lay
ing around here somewhere."
"Naw," she immediately re
sponded. "Even iffen I did, you
wouldn't want it. I don't care nu
thin' for no store-brought mess. I
do eveythang from scratch
'round heah. Ain't no short cuts
at Ma's place. Youngins nowa
days got to have all thet fancy
stuff to eat. Don't even know
whut homebrewed throat tickler
tastes like enymore. None of 'em.
They're so lazy thet they
wouldn't even scare up a coon
ifen they was plum starvin' to
death.
Got nuthin' to do, and don't even
CARE thet they got nuthin' to do.
Most of 'em move around like a
bunch of waterbugs in slow mo
tion."
Some days Ma Frattie doesn't
take to kindly to modern ways or
modern people, and today was
one of them. I always step lightly
on those days.
"Well, what HAVE you got,
Ma?" I asked again. "A cold bis
cuit will do. You DO know how to
make biscuits, don't you Ma?" I
was kidding, of course, but I de
served every bit of that "squinty
eyed" look I got in return. "Don't
be givin' me no hassels girl," she
fussed back at me. "Them teeth
has 'bout done me in, and I ain't
innerested in dispensin' manners
today."
We talked a bit about several
things for a few minutes, includ
ing how she was about to freeze
to death on account of a rat nest
that had suddenly appeared in
her pile of best quilts. The quilts
she used for "extras" in the win
ter months.
Then, rather abruptly, she
yanked me by the arm so hard
that I nearly fell out of the chair.
"Lordy child, I plum fergot thet
thar barrel out thar! Getcha self
up from thet cheer and lets go! I
got jest whut you need out thar in
thet smokehouse of mine!"
We loaded on enough clothes to
brace the cold outside and pro
ceed towards the shackly smoke
house that couldn't have been
over ten feet square. The front
door swung free at the first touch
of the roty iron latch while the
parade eg cats simply entered by
way of ft hole in the wall. A few
beams overhead supported a col
lection of fishing poles and to
bacco sticks. Dusty quart jars in
a cardboard box and two worn
wash tubs occupied most of the
floor space. Straw brooms were
tied with string and resting
against a pork barrel. The scent
of an open bag of fertilizer imme
diately made me sneeze, during
which time I knocked over a tin
pail full of rusty wires of the type
used to hang hams from the
beams. Most of the inside walls
were occupied by neat rows of
"dirt dobber" nests and large
nails from which strings of dried
onions hung.
I watched attentively as she
dug around in a small barrel on
top of a table and eventually sur
faced with a lovely corked jug.
Her toothless grin made me feel
warm all over.
The old stove in her kitchen
was going full blast in short or
der, and soon the delicate aroma
of freshly baked biscuits filled
the house.
"I clean fergot thet 'lasses was
heah," she confessed to me as
she washed the matted flour
from the paper-thin dough board
and then removed the stone jug
from the top of the stove where it
sat warming. "This heah's the
real stuff girl. Had my nephew
search for it whilst he was gone
the last time. Been savin' it up
fer special times and then clean
fergot it was out thar. Sit yoreself
on down heah girl and scrub that
'lasses with them biscuits. Scrub
it good now cause I intend to do
the same. Ain't even got to put
them choppers back in my head
to do it neither."
And I did. And so did she. We
scrubbed Ma Frattie's smoke
house 'lasses every which way
those biscuits would turn. But we
saved a little for another
day... real soon.
'Workfare' gives welfare
recipients sense of pride
It's called "workfare" and it is
a concept that should have been
implemented long ago. Requir
ing able individuals receiving
public assistance to work for
their checks is proving to be the
answer to the stigma of welfare.
The notion that able-bodied re
cipients of welfare programs
should be required to work is not
a new one. Many have believed
for years that federally financed
public assistance programs en
couraged those receiving bene
fits to become dependent on the
system. Conservatives labeled
many such handouts an insult to
the work ethic and feel welfare
has encouraged a decline in tra
ditional family values.
Entrenched liberal thinking
that welfare is compensation for
economic and social injustice is
beginning to change. Many are
beginning to realize that some so
cial programs actually encour
age a continuation of welfare de
pendent generations.
The idea of developing pro
grams that encourage pride and
discipline in welfare recipients is
becoming very popular and is re
ceiving unusual bi-partisan sup
port. State legislatures around
the country are joining forces to
. support laws that require able
bodied welfare recipients to ac
i cept occupational training and
, .. jobs. More than 20 states have
such legislation and more will
follow with programs of their
own. Servers! North Carolina lo
calities have experimented with
< workfart- programs
. raUWnia Kgf a
plan many say is a model for fu
ture programs. Called Greater
Avenues for Independence or
GAIN, the program covers ap
proximately one-third of the
state's 586,000 AFDC cases. Wel
fare beneficiaries, with the ex
ception of the handicapped and
single parents with preschool
children, must register with the
program or risk having their
payments stopped.
Once in the program, GAIN
participants are evaluated and
given necessary training to re
ady them for the job market.
They are given three months to
find a job, and if unsucessful, are
enrolled in a pre-employment
preparation program where they
are required to work off the sum
of their welfare payments in an
assigned job.
Workfare programs, as can be
expected, are opposed tiy some.
It isn't impossible to find well
reasoned objections to aspects of
the programs are worth trying.
And many of the participants
agree. Most people, if given the
opportunity, prefer to support
themselves. Any system that en
courages this attitude is worth
trying. Let's give workfare a
chance.
A recent article in Time mag
azine reported the comments of a
Dec Moines participant. Ruth
Breitxke, 94, has worked as a vol
unteer at the juvenile court since
September in return for the wel
fare check. "I enjoy what I'm
doing here even though I don't
get paid for it," she says. "It
gives the feeling that you can get
back into the working world. It
gives you that boost." IN Hamil
ton, Ohio, two workfare partici
pants working at a shelter for the
home!? say they enjoy their
jobs so much they put in several
extra boon per month without
PV
. A favorite term of those who
support workfare is "obUga
sssEgum;
are obligated to do their part to
make the system work. Properly
implemented workfare pro
grams allow those dependent on
welfare an opportunity to pay
that obligation. Most of all, it
gives them a sense of pride in
themselves and encourages self
dependence. These are goals ev
ery individual should have the
opportunity to reach. Workfare
can provide this.
Turn the electric blanket to broil \ L
Teaching via lyrics ruled out
A conversation in our office
one afternoon last week about
child rearing turned towards the
topics of education and grades
rather quickly. You could almost
sense that report cards had just
come home a few days earlier.
Grades seem to be something
that all of us down here agree
on.. .anything less than an A is
really not acceptable. B's are tol
erable, but they just don't elicit
the response from us that A's do.
Unfortunately, our children
seem to feel that a mixture of A's
and B's are totally acceptable,
and they think that they should
receive a medal of honor when
they attain the A-B honor roll.
We've discussed the problem
of grades, thus leading to dis
cussions on homework, on nu
merous occasions, and as of yet
we've found no miraculous solu
tions to the problems they pre
sent.
It seems that our "little dar
lings" can spend six and a half
hours a day in the classroom,
only to come home and when
asked what they learned say,
"nothing." That always has both
ered me. I'm sure it's not true
because both of mine can read
and write and even do arith
metic. They didn't learn how to
do these things at home, so I'm
pretty sure they picked it up one
day at school while they were
doing "nothing."
For a while there last week we
thought we had come up with the
perfect solution for teachers to
get through to our young ones.
We all have realized that while
all day in a classroom can teach
them nothing at all, an hour in
front of a radio allows them to
know all of the words to the en
. tire Top 40 songs in the nation.
We rationalized that if teach
ers would put their lesson plans
to music, tike students could har
monize and henceforth and for
evermore know what they
learned in school on any given
day.
We were pretty proud of our
selves, what with having solved
one of life's greatest problems.
Our arms were beginning to get a
little sore from patting ourselves
on the back when Edgar Rober
son, who had stopped by to pick
up some pictures, burst our little
bubble.
Edgar agreed that it would be
a pretty good idea, but then after
thinking about it for a little while
said, "Can you imagine Sid E>ley
standing in front of his class sing ^
ing? That did it. We totally lofct it
and elapsed into fits of laughter.
That was about the most hila
rious thing we cou
around the class, belting oit a
science lesson in Stevie Woiider
style. It was simply too mfch.
We all agreed that those students
would never hear the words ^
they'd be too busy laughing. !
After the laughter stopped, I
decided to give Sid a call and|see
if he'd mind us sharing {our
thoughts with you. Sid got ?the
last laugh. I read him my column
up through the previous ?ar
agraph, and he told me th^t it
would be fine for us to prinj it,
but he also wondered if I realized
that he really did have a "mag-Q
nificent" voice and that in actua
lity he did sing his lessons to; his
class. Oh well.
Teachers, we tried; but we just
didn't make it this time. May be
one day we'll come up with a way
to make your work easier, ;but
until then keep on teaching Jour
kids "nothing", it seems to be
working okay. < ' a
emn, serious
Colleton showed interest in colonization
The last of the eight original
Lords Proprietors named in the
1663 Charter of Carolina was Sir
John Colleton.
Colleton was born in 1808. The
place of his birth is unknown, but
Devonshire was the likely place.
Rich and influential in his adult
life, Colleton was a staunch sup
porter of the English monarchy.
During the English Civil Was
Colleton served in the royal
army, advancing to the rank of
colonel. He gave large sums of
money to the royal cause and
raised an entire regiment for the
king's service. In the latter en
would later own part <
Sometime about 18
left England for BaitMoa. On
that West Indian island he be
came a planter, merchant,
financier. He also held
nor of
the governor was also related to
the Duke of Albemarle may hav
had some effect on the choosing
of the Carolina proprietors.
Colleton returned to England,
where he was knighted in 1661.
He was given a seat on the Coun
cil for Foreign Plantations and
membership in the Royal Afri
can Company.
The exact manner in which the
Carolina proprietorship came
into being is difficult to deter
mine, but there is reason to be
lieve the idea was initially John
Colleton's. He had a lively inter
est in the expansion of English
colonization and his experience
in the New World gave him a
greater appreciation of the
needs, problems, and rewards of
new settlements in America.
Like moat persons interested in
the land, Colleton was eager to
enlarge his holdings. The fertile
soil and vast forprtts of the unoc
cupied territory once granted to
Colleton took and active part in
the proprietors' deliberations re
garding their new province. He
received personal title to an is
land in Albemarle Sound today
bearing the altered name Col
lington.
As the only proprietor with ac
tual experience as a planter (Sir
William Berkeley's planting be
ing secondary to his governmen
tal position), Sir John Colleton
would have the greater under
standing of what would niake
Carolina successful.
Unfortunately, Colleton diet) in
1666 and Carolina had to suffer
government by men of lessen cx^jf
perience too busy to conoern
themselves much with land hnd
people three thousand mjles
from England.
Colleton's share of Carolina
fell to his son Peter.
I
? ' ' ' *? J I
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