Legacy Letter of Jean Henry

Interviewer’s Note

It was a pleasure speaking to Mrs. Henry. She has a unique message to tell, because she wanted to teach the world about some of the harder parts of the past. Not just the good. When you think about it, we really have come a long way. And even when times might seem hard now, her message gives me hope for a better future.

Times Have Changed, Thank the Lord

Today is a lot different from what it was when I was brought up. You had to come home from school and get a shovel and go down to the cellar and get coal, bring it upstairs. Take it in the dining room. That’s where this little pot stove was, and that coal would keep the rest of the house warm.

When you washed the clothes, you did it with your hands. There was no machine. We had two big tubs. One for washing clothes, one for rinsing. After you washed them, you put them in the second tub that had bluing in it, and you rinsed the clothes with that. Then you’d take them out in the yard and hang them on the clothesline to dry.

If it was raining, you had a clothesline down in the cellar and you’d hang them up there, away from the coal bin. The next day, you’d take them off the line and use the iron, and you didn’t have no plug-in iron. You used the coal bin iron on the clothes.

Moving with the Army

My husband was in the army, and that’s where I was, wherever my husband was stationed. My son was born in Stuttgart, Germany. My children were born in different states. Things were different because the U.S. Army had their own facilities where you had to take the clothes to wash and dry, and it was not in your backyard. They had spacious places where you had to go and take the clothes.

We met at a dance. I went to a dance one Thursday night, and he was dancing, and he chose me as his partner. We danced for the rest of the evening, and then I gave him my telephone number. I didn’t give my address because my parents didn’t approve at that time. So I gave him my aunt’s address, which was five blocks away. And if he would come there, I’d be sitting on the steps waiting, ’cause I’d tell him just what time to come.

Work Life

When I graduated from senior high school and got a job, that’s when I thought I was somebody. And I had a job, and I had money. I worked at Woolworth’s, five and ten cents store. I was packing bags and working as a cashier.

But I had to bring my money home and give it to my grandmother. And then when I needed something, she would give me what I needed. Today, these kids can go ahead and get a job and start spending and keep the money in their pocket.

Later, I enjoyed being able to be in charge of young children. I taught the young children along with the teacher as a teacher’s assistant. Whatever was needed, I was able to supply. So it was a good job, and the children would benefit because they learned to listen and follow directions.

I liked that the children had to listen to me. I was in charge. And if I said, “We’re all lining up and we’re all going outside for exercise for an hour,” then I’d line the children up and we’d go out in the yard. It was a yard at the school. I would go out there and we’d play hopscotch and whatever game they wanted to play.

When I became of age and got married, I had young children that listened to me, and I’d tell them what had to be done, and they’d follow directions.

Hard Time but an Enjoyable Time

My grandmother told me: “Never, never think that you’re above somebody. And if something has to be done, and they want you to do such and such, don’t think you’re above it. Help to make it easy on the person.”

To my children: It was a hard time, but it was an enjoyable time. They didn’t have all the benefits that they have today. They can go in their bedroom and pull a skirt or blouse and put it on and select what they want to wear. When I was growing up, it wasn’t that way. You had a few clothes, and whatever you had, your mother said, “You wear a blue skirt today and a white blouse.” It wasn’t that you could choose.

Everything was done at home. You had to take the shoes to the shoemaker to get them shined, or you bought shoe polish and you’d take an old cloth and buff the shoe and get it nice and shiny. Today you can drop them off.

We had a dining room table, and we’d put the dishes all around. The salt, the vinegar, and whatever else on the table, and mother would call, “Dinner’s ready,” and everybody came in and sat down together. Everybody enjoyed the meals together. After everybody finished eating, on certain days, you had to clean the table off and wash and dry and put the dishes up on the shelf where they belonged, and then sweep the floor.

But after dinner, we’d go in the living room and sit down and play Old Maid and all the different card games. Saturday was family day. We’d all get together. If we wanted to go somewhere, we’d all go together.

We had cookies and ginger ale or soda. My grandfather made the soda himself down in the cellar, and mama would bring some of the soda up Saturday afternoon so it’d be cold when we were ready to drink it.

Dancing

Wednesday nights, we’d go dancing at the school gymnasium. They had a record player, and I think it was like 25 cents for the record player. Everyone would dance and have a good time. No fighting, no arguing, nothing. Everybody got along with one another and enjoyed the evening.

And the boy would walk the girl to her front door. He wouldn’t go in. He’d stop at the front door. And then she didn’t have a key; she had to ring the bell. And her mother came to the door and saw that boy, and she said, “Good night,” and that was the end of it.

Today, a girl meets a boy and introduces him to her mother and father. But they might go out Saturday afternoon, and the mother says, “Well, I’ll think about it. Come back by Friday, and I’ll tell you.” Today, you don’t have to think about nothing. If you want to go, you go.

My Message to You

I want to let my children and everyone who reads this know that it is much easier living today than it was years ago. You think you got it made, but you should have been living years ago and endured the activities that we went through when we were growing up. It’s much better now.

Today, everything is right in your own house. You don’t have to take clothes out anywhere. I can wash the clothes in the washing machine, then put the clothes in the dryer, and I put them in the closet. And when the clothes are dry, I bring them in.

You can go to the supermarket and buy what you want, come home and just put it in the microwave. I don’t have to go through all that preparation, not today.

Be grateful that your parents have a little money and that you can take things to the laundry and the shoemaker and places where they have to go and pay to have someone else do the work, and you just pay them and come back and pick them up.

I want you to be grateful. Appreciate the nice things that you do have. Thank God that times have changed. I’m happy that they have changed. Today, you have freedom. Sometimes change is good.

Finally, thank the Lord that you’re still alive and that you have it so much easier than we did. Times are different. Altogether different.