Not Without Laughter

His grandmother abruptly wakes Sandy one morning because his friend Buster is waiting outside to play with him. The two children have contrasting appearances. Buster is African American but is blue-eyed, has straight and blonde hair, and is light enough to pass due to his “ivory” color (11). Sandy is called what he is because his skin is “the color of “a nicely browned piece of toast” (11).

People assume Sandy's hair color, which is dark, comes from light-skinned Jimboy, whom Hager dislikes because he is frequently out of work and away; she distrusts him because she does not know whom his parents are. Annjee is dark-skinned, and Hager assumes that matches between people with her son-in-law and daughter’s complexions are ill-fated.

Hager leaves to check on the Gavitts’ niece, telling Sandy that he, Buster, and Willie Mae (a third friend) should play outside until she returns. While she is gone, a letter from Jimboy with a Kansas City postmark arrives. Hager returns, her friend Sister Whiteside in tow. The two women sit and talk about how God preserved them during the storm, then Hager sends the other two children home so her family and Sister Whiteside can eat their supper.

As they eat, the two women talk about their neighbors and themselves: Buster is light-skinned because his father is probably a white man instead of the very dark-skinned man who is married to Buster’s mother; Sister Whiteside is lonely now that all her children and grandchildren have moved to Midwestern cities. Harriet, Hager’s youngest daughter, still isn’t married. She is smart and a talented singer but is working in a country club to earn money and running the streets, much to her mother’s worry. Harriet has decided to quit high school since racism limits her options upon graduation. Her choice disappoints her mother.

Sister Whiteside commiserates with her and blames the behavior of young people on their refusal to go to church and be good Christians. She’s raised children and grandchildren and not one stays in touch with her. Tempy, says Hager, is doing well financially because of her marriage to a mail clerk, but she has left the Baptist church to become an Episcopalian, the preferred denomination of upwardly mobile and light-skinned African Americans. Tempy is missing out, argues Sister Whiteside.

Sister Whiteside says one daughter in Chicago has a professional job as a social worker, but only contacts her once a year. Her other children send her money infrequently. Hager tells her little money is coming into her house beyond what she and Annjee make. Jimboy contributes nothing. Harriet "'does need to look purty,'" so she keeps all of her earnings (16). Hager bought a little gold watch for Harriet and items to spruce up the front room, so her daughter can entertain company. She worries about the wild crowd Harriet runs with, however, and that Harriet has not been “saved” as a Christian. Sister Whiteside reminds Hager that a religious revival meeting is coming to town soon, so maybe she will get saved then. Hager says she will make Sandy, Harriet, and Jimboy (if he is around) go to it so they can all get saved.

The children have by now gone outside to play, and Hager reprimands the boys for wrestling on the ground with Willie Mae. Brother Logan passes by the yard, asks after everyone’s family, then tells Hager he saw Harriet in town late on Monday night at the Waiter’s Ball with her friend Maudel and two boys. Hager is shocked: it’s Wednesday, and Harriet told her that it was so inconvenient to come home that she would only be able to visit on Thursdays. Maudel is from the bad part of town, the Bottoms, and is generally left unsupervised by her mother, so Hager is even more displeased by this news. Brother Logan and Sister Whiteside leave.

Annjee reads Jimboy’s letter when she returns home from work. In his letter to Annjee, Jimboy writes that he had been putting down railroad ties for the Union Pacific Railroad until he hurt his back, so he will be home that Saturday. He misses Annjee and his son and signs the letter “affectionately as ever and always till the judgment day” (20). Aunt Hager remarks that Jimboy is always getting hurt when it comes to work, and she expects he will laze around all summer playing his guitar. He and Harriet are making her crazy, although Harriet does work at least. She tells Annjee she is a fool, then goes out to visit the Johnsons, Willie Mae’s grandparents.

Sandy eats food his mother brought home from her job, and she tells him it sounds like her mother just doesn’t care for her husband. In her mind, she makes excuses for Jimboy's failure to write—he was probably tired from working—and thinks that he probably hurt himself trying to outdo everyone. She is glad the injury is forcing him to come back to her, however. When Annjee asks her son if he is glad his father is returning, Sandy tells her he will be, especially if his father brings him a gun as he promised. When Sandy attempts to go out to play with Willie Mae, Hager tells him to stay inside.

Annjee thinks about the closing on Jimboy’s letter. She is sure Jimboy loves her and isn’t cheating with another woman while he is gone. They got married nine years ago just before Sandy was born. Jimboy left a week later for Omaha, Nebraska, to work. When he finally came back in the spring, they got a piano on credit but lost it when they couldn’t keep up the payments. She remembers that “all that summer her husband stayed home and worked a little, but mostly he fished, played pool, taught Harriett to buck-dance, and quarreled [sic] with Aunt Hager” (22). After that, Jimboy went to Jefferson City to work.

Although Hager always complains about Jimboy’s wandering and work habits, Annjee thinks he isn’t really to blame because there are no good jobs for African-American men in Stanton. Her father had struggled to find work until he died, and her mother had worked as a washerwoman to support them. Annjee wishes she could go with Jimboy when he leaves, but then only Harriet would be left to stay with Hager. Harriet is wild because Hager had been working too hard to keep an eye on Annjee as she grew up. Hager also hates Jimboy because he taught Harriet—a talented singer and dancer—the buck and wing (a popular dance), although Hager did soften when he played old-fashioned spirituals for her. Everyone is just happier when Jimboy is around.

Annjee promises herself that the next time Jimboy leaves and writes back, she will follow Jimboy, “a travelling man,” and see all the cities and places she has missed because she has always meekly accepted her lot in life (23). Her current employer, Mrs. J.J. Rice, is known to be difficult, but Annjee has worked for her for five years. Young people leave Stanton as soon as they can, but despite being twenty-eight, Annjee hasn’t even been to Kansas City.

Despite her dreams of traveling, Annjee knows Jimboy married her because she was a woman who stayed put and because she was “the first nice girl” he’d met out of all the women he knew in St. Louis and Chicago (23). On top of that, she has dark skin; she is lucky and proud to have a light-skinned man like Jimboy and a brown boy like Sandy. She starts to cry and nearly ruins Jimboy’s letter with her tears.

Hager interrupts her thoughts by scolding her for letting Sandy fall asleep in the middle of the floor and sitting up without even taking off her hat and shoes that she wore to work. The family goes to sleep.

Hager rises early on Thursday to begin doing the wash for the Reinharts, the only family that sends their laundry out in the summer. She receives seventy-five cents for washing, ironing, and delivering the laundry to them. Sandy and his friend Jimmy Lane usually pick up the laundry on Wednesday. Hager usually gives Jimmy five cents for his help because he isn't a Christian and she wants to teach him the value of helping the elderly. Hager blames Jimmy, a “bad boy of thirteen” for influencing Sandy to behave poorly (25). Sometimes the two boys get so distracted from bringing the laundry back that they forget it or even spill it, exposing the underthings of Mrs. Reinhart. On this particular Thursday, Hager is behind on the laundry because there is so much of it.

Harriet arrives. She is pretty and smells of face powder and perfume. Sandy greets her affectionately. Hager immediately confronts Harriet by asking her if she was in town Monday night. Harriet casually says she was; she didn’t have time to come home because Maudel was making a dress for her. Hager reminds Harriet that Thursdays were supposedly the only days she could come home. Harriet has lied to her. Harriet says this was the first time she had come in on another day.

When her mother asks how she got to town, Harriet tells her she got a ride from some boys and saw no need to come home since Hager and Annjee always go to bed so early. When Hager praises Annjee’s early bedtime as responsible, Harriet scoffs because all Annjee does is go work in Mrs. Rice’s kitchen anyway. Furthermore, Harriet is quitting her job. She’s tired of the dirty work, the lack of adequate staffing, and the frequent propositions she receives from white men. She will leave her job at the Stanton Country Club on Saturday. Besides, her friend Maudel says there is a job as a chambermaid at the Banks Hotel.

Only "strumpets” work at hotels, which are sinful places, says Hager (28). She forbids Harriet from working there and tells her to help her hang up the wet laundry. Maudel and all of her siblings are immoral people, according to Hager, and even the little boy, Sammy, was sent to reform school. Her accusations anger Harriet, who says Sammy was sent to reform school just for shooting dice, Maudel is loyal to her, and their mother, Mrs. Smothers, is nice to her. Hager takes the clothes to hang them outside. Hager calls Sandy in to cut wood and get more water for her. She complains to him that Harriet is "aggravatin" her (28).

At dinner, the conflict continues. Although Harriet is glad to hear that Jimboy is coming home, she sneers at both Annjee and Tempy when her mother asks why she can’t be more like her sisters. Tempy, Harriet notes, is so pretentious about her new class status that she refuses to come see her mother. Harriet just wants to have a good time and has no interest in being like her sisters.

When her mother says her desire for a good time comes from her failure to become a Christian, Harriet shocks her mother by saying she has no interest in being a Christian. Jesus is “white and stiff and don’t like niggers, ”and it “seems like all the good-time people are bad, and all the old Uncle Toms and mean, dried-up, long-faced niggers fill the churches” (30). She will never join the church. Her mother cries out to Jesus. Harriet starts to get dressed to go to a barbecue. Her mother tells her she is not going anywhere with Maudel and some boys. But Harriet keeps getting ready.

Hager tells Harriet that William, Harriet’s father, said as he died that Hager would have to look out for Harriet because she was too beautiful to ever "'mount to anything."' Harriet is by now dressed in a short dress that her mother dislikes. Harriet “looked very cute, delicate, and straight, like a black porcelain doll in a Vienna toy shop” (31).

Harriet’s ride arrives, and the driver honks the horn. Hager tries one last time to tell Harriet that she will not be going out that night. Harriet tells her mother that she can’t stop her. Hager’s anger is replaced with fear and sadness, and she tells her daughter she just wants her to be an upright, Christian woman. She grabs her daughter. Harriet calls her mother "an old Christian fool," and rides off with her friends in the car (32).