Davy, a coal-mining camp twelve miles north of Welch. Since we still
had no car, the school's principal arranged for Mom to get a ride with
another teacher, Lucy Jo Rose, who had just graduated from Bluefield
State College and was so fat she could barely squeeze behind the steering
wheel of her brown Dodge Dart. Lucy Jo, whom the principal had more
or less ordered to perform this service, took an instant dislike to Mom.
She refused to say much during the trip, instead playing Barbara
Mandrell tapes and smoking filter-tip Kools the entire time. As soon as
Mom got out of the car, Lucy Jo made a big show of spraying Mom's
seat with Lysol. Mom, for her part, felt that Lucy Jo was woefully
uninformed. When Mom mentioned Jackson Pollock once, Lucy Jo said
that she had Polish blood and therefore did not appreciate Mom using
derogatory names for Polish people.
Mom had the same problems she'd had in Battle Mountain with
organizing her paperwork and disciplining her students. At least one
morning a week, she'd throw a tantrum and refuse to go to work, and
Lori, Brian, and I would have to get her collected and down to the street
where Lucy Jo waited with a scowl, blue smoke chugging up out of the
Dart's rusted-through tailpipe.
But at least we had money. While I'd been bringing in a little extra cash
babysitting, Brian was cutting other people's weeds, and Lori had a paper
route, it didn't add up to much. Now Mom got paid about seven hundred
dollars a month, and the first time I saw her gray-green paycheck, with
its detachable stub and automated signatures, I thought our troubles were
over. On paydays, Mom took us kids down to the big bank across from
the courthouse to cash the check. After the cashier gave her the money,
Mom went into a corner of the bank and stuffed it into a sock she'd
safety-pinned to her bra. Then we all scurried around to the power
company and the water authority and the landlord, paying off our bills
with tens and twenties. The clerks averted their eyes as Mom fished the
sock out of her bra, explaining to everyone within earshot that this was
her way of making sure she was never pickpocketed.