Eileen Muzetta Smith

By Velma M. Rose Smith (late 1940’s)

On a Monday night, after a busy washday, I got my first notice, that our baby was getting ready to face the world. An unsteady world, we were in a depression, no work to be had, banks were closed, no one had money. Mama and Papa Rose came up, Dr. Neal arrived and all was ready. Time passed, and we waited. Dr says the baby is caught behind a bone, or it is hanging on. That should have been a cue, it wasn’t going to join us, until it decided to. Finally she arrived. Mama took the baby girl, who had already screamed so loud that Brownie had come running in to see what was going on. From that time on, Brownie watched this baby girl, protecting her from strangers, or from running away. I have a picture in my mind of Jay holding onto her dress and Brownie blocking her way and barking for help. Jay took a look at his new baby sister and said “Aw, ain’t she nice”, and it was a mutual agreement. Mama brought a little black haired, baby girl to me, said, “I believe she belongs to the coalman”. We named her Eileen Muzetta, (Muzetta, a cousin of mine, Burnside). She was alert from the start, jumping at noises and looking around. She adored her Papa and Mama Rose, and when they came up on Sunday, it was a ritual to take a walk around the circle (block). She joined in the children’s game, Billy Goat Gruff, and was the littlest billy goat that crossed the bridge. She learned her letters with Jay, as I helped with Phonics, making letters with colored chalk on their black boards. One day I found a big HA HA on my new rug. She had a lot of Polish playmates, and she learned to play their game, the one that hit the hardest, won.

We moved here to Whitneyville when she was 4 year old, she carried her little broom with her, and was very upset, because there were no sidewalks for her to sweep. She had a cat that she dressed in doll clothes, and wheeled around in her doll carriage. She was cute with her long dark curls, and pretty little dresses that Rosamond made for her, and Mama Rose made too, from a yard of material. But she was as tough as the kids she played with in Bloss. She liked to play jokes and was witty with her answers.

Eileen was a friendly girl, had lots of girl friends and boy friends too. She was able to fade out of sight when she saw the pile of dirty dishes. But she became a very efficient worker. She had a will of her own, which was a nuisance, when you wanted to doctor her. As a little girl she had all the children’s diseases before she went to school. She had a hard time with her vaccination, and was very ill with chicken pox. When she was 13, she had strepp throat and was a sick girl, sicker than we realized.

She had a will of her own, and I am happy and proud, that her and her girl friend, Roberta Passmore, were the only two girls in the graduating class that didn’t smoke or drink.

Her eyes still are black, when she is angry.