Becca EmaNymton wrote:
> barbie gee wrote:
>> Becca EmaNymton wrote:
>>
>>> We had a housekeeper, so I never saw my mother do laundry, iron
>>> clothes, change the sheets, wash dishes or do housework. She was quite
>>> spoiled. Us kids somehow learned how to do it when we grew up, though.
>>> Mother never worked, but she kept herself busy being a social
>>> butterfly. I still love her and miss her.
>>
>> how did she afford a housekeeper?
>> I'd give my eye-teeth to have someone in once a week...
>
>Barbie, most of the people around here had housekeepers, I think that
>was common.
>
>Our housekeeper was Bessie, after she retired, her granddaughter Ollie
>Jean took her place. My sister (some of you have seen her on Facebook)
>was afraid of Bessie, she mentioned this a year or two ago, and I have
>no idea why she was afraid of her, she never clobbered us or anything.
>She was strict, though. She was tall, skinny with long thin arms and legs.
>
>Everybody knew everybody's housekeeper's names and there was a lot of
>gossip about who was doing what. A neighbor had a cook named Rochester,
>he wore a white, double-breasted chef's jacket and the white chef's hat.
>He smoked great big cigars, inside the supermarket, you could follow him
>by smell! He talked to the butcher's, quite a bit, about meat I assume.
>He told the best jokes. They stopped allowing smoking in supermarkets.

That was back before segregation was abolished, many middle class
folks, especially in the south, had black housekeepers, often the only
work they could get... they worked for low wages plus meals and gladly
accepted hand-me-down clothing for themselves and their kids. Even in
the north lots of people had black housekeepers/cleaning ladies...
throughout my childhood my mother had Rosalie... Rosalie was a good
worker, she was thin but she had massive breasts.