Georgia BIOS:  A Visit to a Flower Shop   
   U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (Folklore
   Project, Life Histories, 1936-39); Manuscript Division, Library of
   Congress.Copyright status not determined.
   
   0001
   
   [Augusta, Georgia?]
   
   A VISIT TO A FLOWER SHOP
   
   Written by: Miss Grace McCune
   
   Area 6 - Athens
   
   Edited by: Mrs. Sarah H. Hall
   
   Area 6 - Athens
   
   and
   
   John N. Booth
   
   Area Supervisor
   
   Federal Writers' Project
   
   Areas 6 and 7
   
   Augusta, Georgia
   
   March 3, 1939
   
   0002
   
   February 21, 1939
   
   Miss Willie Jones, Proprietor (white)
   
   Jones Flower Shop
   
   Cor. Clayton & College Ave.
   
   Athens, Georgia
   
   Florist
   
   G.M.
   
   A VISIT TO A FLOWER SHOP
   
   Miss Smith's Flower Shop seemed more like a spring garden in full
   bloom than a business place when I came in out of the [bleek?] cold of
   a February day. There were flowers on every hand. Cut flowers were in
   wall baskets, vases, and tall standing baskets. Pots of blossoming
   plants were arranged on tables at the windows. A long table extending
   down the center of the room was laden with vases of cut flowers and
   potted plants, and tall palms added distinction to the attractive
   room. Across the back of the shop were huge refrigerators filled with
   cut flowers. For the convenience and comfort of customers a [settee]
   and a number of large chairs were placed near the wall where their
   occupants could have a good view of the flower-filled room as they
   waited.
   
   The florist was talking with two young men, and as I waited bits of
   the conversation attracted my attention. The youths wanted her prices
   on corsages for their "dates" to wear to a dance. It seemed that they
   priced every variety of flower in her store before they finally
   selected orchids. After receiving her positive assurance that the
   flowers would be ready and delivered in ample time for the dance, they
   left.
   
   00032
   
   "Now, what can I do for you?" she asked. After I had explained that I
   wanted to know something of her life and her business experiences, she
   said, "I don't mind but I'll have to talk as I work, for the orders
   that came in the morning mail are yet to be gotten out. Most of them
   are for flowers ordered sent to patients in the hospitals here. Just
   come on back in the workroom with me."
   
   "Do you receive much business of that kind?" I asked.
   
   "Oh yes," she said. "These orders come in almost daily, and I
   appreciate mail orders. I'm proud of them, for I realize they mean
   that my customers have confidence in me. Why sometimes the orders
   simply state the price, leaving the selection of flowers to my taste.
   For instance, here's an order that came in this morning's mail from a
   woman in a nearby town that simply says for me to send a three dollar
   order of flowers to a friend in a hospital here. When I receive an
   order like that I do the best I can and send what I would want for
   myself. On this particular order I think I'll send pink carnations,
   for I think they are lovely in a sick room. Anyway, this order is an
   easy one for the sick woman is a good friend of mine, and I happen to
   know that carnations are her favorite flower.
   
   "Very often new customers tell me that some of my old customers sent
   them to me. I try to let them know of my appreciation. One especially
   nice customer has sent me many new customers through her connections
   with several fraternal organizations, and 00043this has meant quite a
   bit of business for me. I had an opportunity not long ago to show my
   appreciation when she lost her brother in a nearby town. A good many
   orders came in for that funeral, but when she called me and asked me
   to fix her own offering, I asked her if I might make my own selection
   of flowers and design. She readily gave her consent saying, 'You have
   never disappointed me yet.' I used all white flowers in the casket
   spray that I sent, and it seemed to me that it was a really lovely
   offering. I wanted it to be especially so, but I was not expecting the
   many messages I received about those flowers. One was from the
   undertaker in charge of the funeral. He wrote me that they were often
   asked by the families that they served to order flowers for them. He
   said that all of the flowers that came from my shop had been beautiful
   and that this particular casket spray was the loveliest they had ever
   handled. He wanted to know if I would fill orders for his firm
   regularly. That request came from a much larger town than this one."
   
   She left me momentarily to wait on a customer. As I waited, I looked
   over the little workroom. High stools were placed around the long work
   table. Built-in cabinets hold supplies and accessories. Conveniently
   at hand on a long rod at one side of the table was waxed paper,
   cellophane, and tissue paper to be used in packing flowers for
   delivery. A supply of tulle and ribbons in a wide variety of shades
   and colors was in a large cabinet with glass doors. A large and very
   business-like desk was evidence that this room was also used as her
   office.
   
   00054
   
   The florist was laughing when she returned to the workroom. "Poor
   boy," she said, "This is the third time he has been here today to look
   at those red roses. Tomorrow is his girl friend's birthday. She will
   be 20, and he wants to send her 20 red roses. Red roses are rather
   expensive at this time of the year, but he'll get them yet; he wants
   them so bad.
   
   "Last week I had a large order for corsages for a valentine ball. They
   wanted sweetheart roses. I did have a time trying to get those
   sweetheart roses, but finally I found one place that said they could
   send me all I wanted, so I sent them a large order. It was delivered
   on the morning of the very day I was to deliver the corsages in the
   evening. When I unpacked that shipment I found a note saying they were
   sorry that they did not know they were out of sweetheart roses when
   they accepted my order, but they were sending some fine large roses
   and hoped I could use them. It was too late to try anywhere else, and
   then too I had already tried everywhere. Well, I just had to make the
   small roses out of the larger ones. Yes, you may be sure it was a job,
   but in this kind of work you come up against all sorts of
   difficulties. Our orders have to be delivered on the very hour, and to
   get out large orders we sometimes have to work day and night in order
   to have them ready in time. One thing we have to do is to be prompt in
   our deliveries. We would not last long in this business if we failed
   in timing a few deliveries."
   
   "How long have you been in the flower business?" I asked.
   
   "Most all my life," she promptly replied, "but I have only been in
   business for myself 16 years. It was a hard pull but I have
   00065advanced from a very small beginning to the shop that you see
   now, and don't you think I'm not proud of it. I am more than proud of
   my establishment, although it still means work all the time. Why, I
   spent all of this morning writing checks for every bill that I owe. I
   meant to do that yesterday, but was just so busy I didn't have the
   time.
   
   "To get back to how I started, it all came about through my love of
   flowers. We always grew lovely ones at our home. Father was not what
   you would call wealthy, but we had a good living and a large roomy
   home. There were six of us children and while we were still in school
   father lost 'most everything he had except our home by going on notes
   for his friends. That has been a lesson to me in my business.
   
   "We children had to stop school and go to work, and that is when I
   began to realize that we could make money out of our flowers. One of
   my sisters and I worked with the flowers, and we soon cleared enough
   to have a large greenhouse built for the hothouse plants. We planted
   every available bit of land around our home in flowers. We had many
   things to learn, but we kept at it until we did learn and built up a
   good business. We were both determined to see it through and we are
   both at it yet, although we no longer work together.
   
   "A few years after we started, we built a swimming pool and a dancing
   pavilion on our place. This soon became a popular resort in the summer
   months. In addition to those who came/ simply for swimming and
   dancing, many picnic parties patronized our place. We kept the
   00076pool cleaned out and had it cemented. It filled from a large
   spring. We were making good with it, as well as with our floral
   business, but when my sister got to where she left most of the hard
   work for me to do, our partnership was soon dissolved.
   
   "One afternoon she was entertaining the Community Club. The boy that
   worked for us was helping me clean out the pool to make it ready for a
   social group that had rented it for the evening. When we finished
   scrubbing the cement bottom of that pool I was so tired that I set
   down on the bank to rest for a moment. Sister came walking up.
   
   "'What are you doing?' she asked.
   
   "'Resting, for I'm really tired out,' I answered.
   
   "'Well,' she said, 'if I hated the country as bad as you do I'd get
   out of it. If you don't like this, why don't you get out and go in
   business for yourself?'
   
   "That made me mad. I'd worked so hard to build up our business, and it
   really belonged to both of us together, but that's when I decided to
   get out and see if I couldn't do better. I came to town, rented a
   small place, and a friend went into business with me. That made my
   sister mad for she hadn't thought I really would take her at her word
   and get out. She did everything in her power to stop me. She even told
   the telephone company that they couldn't install a phone in my name or
   in the name of my new shop.
   
   "A lawyer that I consulted asked me if the Smith Flower Company - that
   was the way sister and I had been listed in the directory 00087was
   incorporated. I told him it was not. Then he said, 'There's no way in
   the world that she can legally prevent you having a telephone in your
   own name.' So he called the telephone company and explained it. Pretty
   soon they were there to install my phone.
   
   "We had built a nice large greenhouse together, and we owned a car
   together that we had been using to deliver our flowers. In fact, I had
   paid more on the car than she had, but, bless you soul, she went up in
   the air and wouldn't even let me use the car to deliver my orders
   until I could get another one.
   
   "I've always detested the idea of giving up anything that I had
   started, so the more she tried to stop me, the harder I tried to get
   ahead with my new business, but it was hard. I had to build a new
   greenhouse that cost me $2,500 and I had to buy another car, for those
   were two things that I had to have if I was to stay in business. Soon
   I started building my own residence. I would get a little done and
   then would have to stop and wait until I had more money. The
   contractor would say, 'Just let me go ahead and finish the house, and
   then you can pay me later.' I wouldn't consent to that for I always
   want to see where I am, and I didn't know then, the way my sister was
   trying to hinder my business, if I was going to be able to keep my
   shop going. In the fall of that year my partner asked me to use some
   of his money to finish the house so I could move in it before cold
   weather, for I would need someone there to see that the heat was kept
   properly regulated in my new greenhouse. Seeing that he was right
   about it, I did borrow the 00098money from him, had my house finished,
   and moved in before time to heat the greenhouse. But, let me tell you
   right now, I paid him back every cent by the early spring of the next
   year. Since then I have kept on making improvements on my home until
   now I have a lovely eight-room house, modern in every respect except
   for gas. Yes, it was tough going, but, as my partner said one day when
   I was unusually blue, 'Remember that old saying, you can't keep a good
   women down.'
   
   "My people continue to impose on me since I have worked and made good.
   In addition to improvements on my residence and its grounds, I have
   built several cottages. This might seem to be a jumbled-up story, but
   you'll soon see the connection in the impositions of my family, my
   cottages, and my business.
   
   "Two young married men work for me. One of them is my nephew. I
   provide a house, lights, and water for each of those couples, and I
   guess I furnish their coal too, for my coal bill is not less than
   [$17?] every two weeks. I pay them good salaries too, for our work is
   not like 'most any other kind of business on account of the irregular
   hours I'm compelled to require them to be on duty. There are times
   when we have to work day and night.
   
   "My nephew is supposed to help me here in the shop when he is not busy
   out at my greenhouse and garden, and I especially count on him to help
   with deliveries, but half the time I don't even know where he is. His
   wife helps me in the shop in rush times, but I sure do have to pay
   her. In spite of the fact that I'm always doing 00109something for
   them, they do not offer to do anything for me unless I pay them for
   it.
   
   "I'm always buying something for this nephew's two little children,
   but he and his wife don't appreciate what I do for them. I pay bills
   for things that I never see. He and the other young man that I hire to
   work out at my place just do pretty much as they please. Why, just let
   me get in a big rush here at the store and phone out there for them
   and what do you suppose I nearly always learn? They are usually gone
   fishing or hunting when I need them. They think because one of them is
   my own nephew they are privileged to do pretty much as they please.
   They even use my cars to make these pleasure trips in and charge the
   gas to me. I guess I'm just too easy on them.
   
   "I own my business all by myself now. I started out in a very small
   place, and I have had to move twice because I needed more room for my
   business, for it has grown from year to year, and now I'm getting just
   about all the trade that I can take care of. That sister of mine
   thinks that I should do more/ /for my kinfolks than I do, but I can't
   see it that way, and, in fact, I don't see how I could do much more
   for them. True, I don't keep any of them in my own house any more.
   That just didn't work out well when I tried it; we couldn't get along
   together, but I do provide a house for one of my sisters and one for a
   brother and his family, and I help to feed them. Father and mother are
   both dead, and I am sure that/ I do as much for the remaining members
   of the family, as any of them do for each other, or for anyone.
   
   001110
   
   "All of them think they are keeping up with what I make through my
   nephew. What they don't know is that I have learned not to let him
   know about my financial affairs. He takes no interest in the work and
   in the problems of the shop and greenhouse and just will not look
   after the shop at all. Right now I need to get out and take a trip or
   a rest somewhere, but bad as I need rest I can't afford to leave my
   business to run itself."
   
   Someone came in the shop and the florist went to join the prospective
   customer. I noticed some pictures over her desk. They were pastel
   tinted pictures of lovely little girls, and one of a baby boy, but my
   attention was especially attracted to a photograph of a cemetery
   scene. It was the grave of a child, and beside it was a Christmas tree
   with all the decorations needed to make a child happy. A large
   illuminated star crowned the tree. Evidently someone had celebrated
   the birthday of Christ by the grave of a beloved child.
   
   A triumphant smile of a good natured I-told-you-so style wreathed the
   face of the florist as she came back to the workroom, and sure enough
   her first words were:
   
   "I told you so; that boy couldn't resist the red roses for his
   sweetheart. He came back and ordered them. Now he's so happy, and I
   hope she will be just as thrilled when she gets them, as he is over
   sending them."
   
   The next two customers were young men. One ordered talisman roses sent
   to a young woman, and the other wanted a pot of flowers 001211for a
   sick friend. She patiently and tactfully showed one pot of flowers
   after another, explaining its merits and giving prices until at last a
   choice was made. One customer followed another so rapidly that it was
   nearly two hours before she was at liberty to talk with me again.
   
   She had just finished waiting on a rather shabbily dressed boy, but
   she was just as friendly and helpful in showing him her stock of
   flowers as she had been with the more prosperous looking visitors.
   When he had gone she said, "I wish I knew who that boy is. He comes in
   nearly every day just to look at my flowers. He really is a lover of
   flowers. I often give him a few for I imagine he can't afford to buy
   them. In some respects he's more of a child than a man, even if he is
   grown in size."
   
   She finished recording her orders for the morning, and I took the
   opportunity to ask about the pictures of the children, taking care to
   let her know of my interest in the one of the Christmas tree by a
   child's grave.
   
   "Those are all children of my nephews," she replied. "This one," she
   said, handing me the photograph of the eldest child, "is the one that
   is buried in that grave. She was my favorite. I love them all dearly,
   but she just seemed to think more of me. A few years ago she was
   accidentally killed by a truck just a few weeks before Christmas. How
   she did love Christmas trees! Every Christmas we keep a brightly
   lighted tree by her grave throughout the holiday season. She was a
   bright child and everybody loved her." The tears were brimming in her
   eyes, but they were quickly wiped away as Miss Smith arose to greet
   the person who was entering the shop.
   
   001312
   
   I thought I detected a sudden stiffening of her manner as the person,
   who proved to be a salesman, attempted to interest her in the idea of
   giving him an order for supplies. "I don't need a thing," she told
   him. He kept on urging. "How about some pots?" Again she replied, "No,
   I don't need a thing." He flushed. "Aren't you ever going to forget
   about that old matter?" he argued. "I told you that I am not in need
   of anything," she repeated more frigidly than before. His "thank you,"
   was in tones of annoyance and discouragement as he went out.
   
   "I wish that man would stop coming in here," she explained. He gave me
   a dirty deal on an order once, and I just won't forget about it. It
   was a rather large order, for hundreds of pots for one thing. There
   were pots of every size and the order totaled hundreds of dollars.
   Well, he proceeded to overcharge me on every item on that order. I
   found it out when a price list came in the shipment of goods. I guess
   I should have reported him, but I didn't. I just stopped giving any
   more of my business to him, and he does hate to miss the large orders
   he used to get from me. You see, I try to buy in large orders, for the
   larger the quantity ordered, the better price they give you, and then
   I keep an extensive stock on hand and watch it to be sure that I do
   not run out of anything.
   
   "A good deal of my stock of supplies is stored at my house, but I'm
   going to have to stop keeping it there or make some sort of change in
   my system of handling it." She laughed heartily, as she continued, "I
   always buy my [galax?] leaves and other foliage green 001413stuffs in
   large quantities, not less than one hundred pounds at a time, and keep
   it at the house, bringing it in with me in the mornings as I need it.
   Well, just before last Christmas one day when I had just about used up
   all we had here in the shop, I phoned to my house and told one of the
   boys to bring me in a supply. A few minutes later he called me back
   and said there was [none?] there. I sent him back to look again, but
   he couldn't find a [scrap?] of foliage. My nephew had come in the
   store and was standing by me as I phoned but he didn't say anything.
   
   "When I went home that night I found that the boy had been right. I
   didn't have any foliage on hand. I couldn't imagine what in the world
   had happened to the supply I had stored away at home. Finally, after
   Christmas had come and gone, I found out what went with it. One day my
   nephew was boasting that his wife had sold more than a hundred dollars
   worth of these little Christmas flower pots at the dime stores. I
   realized then where my supplies had gone. No, they never said a word
   to me about it, never even mentioned it to me, but they don't pull as
   many things over me as they think they do. That nephew of mine thought
   he was smart when he built a cow stall, and had a cow in it before I
   knew anything at all about it because he had built a high trellis
   between my house and the cow stall." She laughed rather bitterly as
   she added, "They feel so sure they will get all I have when I'm gone
   that I guess they think they might as well us it now."
   
   She waited on more customers and when she returned she said, "Trade
   has been rather dull today, but I guess I need a slack day
   occasionally for I have been in such a rush lately."
   
   001514
   
   Her hands were moving swiftly as she talked and when the orders were
   ready for delivery she phoned the number listed as her house. She
   waited impatiently for some time, finally the phone was answered by
   her nephew's wife who said he was not there. It was necessary that the
   flowers be delivered without further delay, so she called a taxi and
   made her deliveries. "Just see how it is," she said. "It's this way
   'most all the time. People that I pay to help me think they can do me
   just any old way, but one of these days they'll go too far.
   
   "Why last spring when it seemed like they were getting behind with the
   work out at my place, and I really don't like to overwork anyone, I
   got a settled man to go out there and help them until the rush was
   over. It was some special work. When he had finished and I was paying
   him off he said to me, 'Miss Smith, I don't like to tell things on
   other folks, but you just don't know how things are going on out there
   at your place. When I first went out there on this job they said I
   must heed their advice to 'see nothing, hear nothing, know nothing,'
   for as your nephew had been getting by, they didn't want me to tell on
   him and them.'"
   
   Miss Smith's laugh was rather hollow as she said, 'I fired both of
   those couples last fall, for going off at a time when I needed them
   very bad. They didn't think I'd do it, but I did, and sent for another
   boy to work in their stead. Well, do you know what those two boys did?
   They went and told the other boy that I had changed my mind. Next
   morning when I came out to go to work, my nephew was there waiting in
   my car, and the other helper was already at work trimming the
   001615hedges - or pretending to - and both of them were watching me
   close. They had good jobs and knew they couldn't do anyone else like
   they do me. Well, for a time they did fine after that, and I got more
   work out of them than I ever had before.
   
   "I'll have to hire my nephew's wife to help me get out those corsages
   for the dance tomorrow, but I always have to pay her four or five
   dollars for every day that she works here. She is good help and really
   knows how to turn off the work, so she's worth what I pay her, but
   what annoys me is that she never offers to help me unless I ask her
   and then she is sure she'll get paid for it.
   
   "My family are always borrowing money from me, but they never pay it
   back. They wouldn't think of trying to do anyone else that way. I
   guess they just figure that I don't need it, but it just isn't fair,
   for I pay them well for all they ever do for me, and they have all the
   flowers they want, whenever they want them. I like to see them put
   flowers in their houses.
   
   "It's the children that give me real pleasure running around the house
   when I'm at home. Without them to run in I would get mighty lonesome,
   especially on Sundays. I do my own cooking but I hire someone to come
   in and do the cleaning.
   
   "Last Sunday one of my friends was visiting me and she said, 'I knew
   you were crazy about flowers, but I didn't know that you were as bad
   off as you are. Do you know how many vases of flowers I have counted
   in your house today? Fifty-two, and I don't know how many more I might
   find if I hunted for them.' This friend 001716really likes my home,
   and it's natural that she should, for I do have a nice place. It's
   just outside the city limits, and it seems to me I've already
   mentioned to you about the cottages that I built on the place to rent.
   I don't have any trouble keeping those convenient little houses
   rented.
   
   "The electric power lines go right by our place, so of course we have
   had everything wired for electricity. I use an electric pump to
   furnish water for the house and greenhouse and we have plenty of it.
   About the only thing we miss is gas to cook with, but we prefer to
   cook with electricity. While we live in the country, we have all the
   conveniences of city life, and as our place is on a paved highway we
   have no trouble in getting to town.
   
   "I often come back in town at night to shows, as that is about all the
   recreation I have time for. I go to church on Sundays unless I have to
   work, but when a big funeral is on hand, I work harder on Sunday than
   on other days. Sometimes when I can get one of my helpers to stay at
   the house on Sunday, I get away for a whole day, and the change of
   scene always does me good. Those days-off are seldom, for you can
   never tell when someone will phone in an order on Sunday and want it
   in a hurry, and I am usually the one that has to stay there and tend
   to business.
   
   "I often think of what our old Negro cook told me once when I was
   little. She was trying to get me to do something that I didn't want to
   do. Well, after trying every other way she knew, she just turned me
   across her lap and gave me the only whipping I ever received.
   
   001817
   
   As she spanked me she was saying, 'Some of dese days, youse gwine'er
   haf to do fer yo'self, and how's you gwine'er git along, lessen you
   larns how"'
   
   "How right she was! I really have/ had to work, but in spite of all my
   handicaps, I've made a good living, and now I'm trying to lay aside
   enough to take care of me when I get to where I can't work. I have
   several very good investments in stocks, and that seems a better
   investment than building houses to rent, for there's something to be
   spent on repairing rented property all the time. Most of the renting
   class of people will not take care of a house, simply because it is
   not their own property.
   
   "I do have a time with my social security payments and records. In
   fact, I still don't entirely understand them; I really don't know what
   it all means. I don't object to it, and I'm willing to do my part. It
   was just a little complicated at first, but my reports pass all right
   now, I guess, for I don't hear any more from them after I send them
   off.
   
   "Last Sunday my sister wanted to know just how much insurance I'm
   carrying on myself.
   
   " 'Not any at all,' I replied.
   
   "She was shocked and gave me a 'raking over the coals,' as our old
   cook used to say.
   
   " 'Why should I carry insurance?' I asked. 'I have no husband or
   children of my own to leave it to, and I think I can take care of
   myself financially as long as I live.' I guess they want all
   001918they can get.
   
   "The first of this year I made a resolution not to lend any money to
   anyone during this year."
   
   "Have you kept that resolution?" I asked.
   
   "I did for one day," she said as she laughed heartily. "Maybe it was
   two days I kept it, and then my nephew and my other helper wanted $10
   each. Of course they got it. They know exactly how to get around me."
   
   After stopping to wait on customers again she came back to the
   workroom saying, "The rain is coming down in torrents, and I have to
   send out some of these flowers. Guess I'll have to use a taxi again
   for that nephew of mine has not come back yet and it's 'most time to
   close up the shop and go home. He knows I can't drive an automobile,
   so I'm pretty sure he'll get here in time to take me home. It's a good
   thing this hasn't been a busy day, for I couldn't have gotten hold of
   him if I'd needed him ever so much."
   
   I wondered why she spoke of business as dull, for she had worked hard
   all day. As I left, I stopped to thank her for giving me so much of
   her time, and I told her that the interview had been a most
   interesting and informative one for me. "I enjoyed talking to you,"
   she said, and added, "I'm glad you came in, for I don't like to be by
   myself."
   
   A man passed me in the doorway. Evidently he was her truant nephew,
   for I heard her greet him, "Where have you been all day?" As I walked
   down the street I wondered if he was able to present an excuse
   sufficiently plausible to satisfy the florist. It would certainly have
   to be a good one.

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