03709_0130: Ceceilia Patrourtsa

April 21, 1939 Ceceilia Janes Lazos Poulos (white) 2883 College St., Jacksonville, Florida. Wife of Restaurant Owner Lillian Stedman, writer Evelyn Werner, reviser

CECEILIA PATROURTSA

I called Ceceilia Patrourtsa on Tuesday and she said, "If you could come on Friday, that would be fine."

Friday was hot, and I was glad when I reached her neat brick bungalow. She opened the door herself, a large woman with a strongfeatured Greek face. Her black eyes welcomed me as she stood aside for me to enter.

We went into the living room; a cool room with the usual suite of overstuffed furniture. It was different in two respects from the average American home. There was not a picture on the walls and there was crochet work everywhere. It was draped from the mantle in a long, scalloped scarf; it decorated every available bit of the furniture in the form of antimacassars; there were even portiers in the arch between the living and dining room, made of the medallians crocheted together and forming streamers that graduated from a foot in the center of the opening until they reached the floor at the sides. Through the door I could see a crochet tablecloth of the same pattern.

The living room and dining room were filled with baskets of roses and carnations from a florist's shop. Ceceilia herself, dressed in blue lace with a corsage of sweet peas at her should, gave the impression of a hostess at an important party. I must have looked a little bewildered as I sat down, for she said in explanation:

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"My husband iss so sorry not to be here. He have to work. When I told him you wanted the story of our marraige, he told me to order the flowers so when you come you will know that he loves me very mooch. That he iss happy to be married to me as mooch today as the day he married me. He could not be here himself to tell you all this but he said that the flowers would tell you."

Three-year-old Elizabeth came in, seated herself beside her mother and said, staring at me, "What's your name and what do you come here for, anyhow? Do you want to see my picture?"

Her mother smiled and said, "She expected you all the morning. I told her you wass coming and to keep herself clean. They like to dress up. I want to bring in my other little girl for you to see. She got her hand hurt this morning. Her sister, here, hurt her. They are so jealous of each other and that big one there fight the little one something terrible. She would kill her I think if I did not be around to watch. I hope they'll stop fighting sometime. Bolo," to Elizabeth, "bring the baby here to see the lady and then get us some Coca-Cola out of the ice-box."

Bolo brought the baby and left her in her mother's lap. Both children wore silk dresses that were too long for them, decorated with hand work.

"Dis is little Polly and she name for my sister Polly who work at my father's store. My sister is little and I think, too, that dis one be little joost like her. That Elizabeth is a big girl for her age and that is why she hurt the little one so mooch when dey

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fight like. Dis one only two years old." Bolo left to get the Coca Cola and her mother settled down to tell me about the life of her family.

"My father, he come to this country when he was a very young man. Then he send for his wife to the Old Country and they have five children and good success." It sounded a little rehearsed when she started to talk but less so as she continued. Her accent was more apparent when she forgot to make an effort to speak correctly.

"My father he hass been in the store business for a long time, ever since I can remember. He use to have a little grocery store and we did not have all the nice things then that we have now. But my father he iss a good buyer and my mother she iss a good saver and knows how to save the money in the home.

"My mother never spend too mooch of the money in any easy way. She feel she can save the money by not buying a lot of things that some people buy; like going in debt for a heap of things for the house. She won't do that and she always do all the work the hard way. She do all she could to save and make something in the home, while my father he do the best to make something in the home, while my father he do the best to make something in the store.

"So we get a little money saved up and then my father, he go in the big store and sell nothing but sweets and from the day he opened up he done a big business."

Bolo returned with the Coca Cola and a plate of chocolate creams. Ceceilia offered the candy again and again.

"Eat as much as you can. It is good and cold. The children

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they do not like candy at all, so I have to eat it myself. My husband he go by my father's store and buy it every day from him. You know that is the way of showing that he wish him much success in the store. He knows that the children no eat mooch of it and I have to. My father should be in some other business, for my sake. . . it make me too fat.

"I use to sit and eat candy and crochet and eat candy and crochet. Dat iss now I make so mooch of the handwork you see all over everything. I like pretty thing and my husband he like it too, so I make the portiers and the scarfs and chairbacks and the mantle covers and the tablecloths and a bedspread on the bed in my room there.

"So, back to my story--my father always been able to send us to a good school. He thinks a youngun can learn more in a private school than in the public school but I don't think so. He pay $3.50 a month for me all the time I go to school from the first, to the time I graduate from the high grades. And the same for my sister, Elizabeth. But my baby sister, she didn't like it and wanted to go to the public schools and she did. She graduated from the Lee High School two years ago and she is brighter than us that had more expensive training.

"All Greek families send their children to the school where they learn to speak more Greek than they would at home. We do not speak so much Greek in our homes when everybody in the house does learn the English. It is best that we try to speak the English

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good and so we do not talk mooch Greek before one another but send the children to the school, so that they will have the friendship of other Greek children and learn enough to be able to speak some Greek for it usually helps them in business later.

"The Greek school is conducted in the afternoons and on Saturdays. I am going to send my children to the public school. My baby sister learned the most there.

"My mother she never learn to speak the English language. She has to speak the old language of her mother country although she been here for a long time. But she stay home and have the children and work hard like a servant for all of us and don't get to know the English. She thinks that is lazy not to do all the work yourself. She come here forty years ago and never go out mooch to see other people, just stay home and work. We try to show her the easy and modern way of doing housework and washing but she says it isn't good enough. She iss happier when she can work hard for her family and that iss all the fun she want. But me, I gotta go to the shows and go out riding and all that.

"One thing we don't do that the American girls do and that is to have dates with the boys until we are 19 years old or older. Our fathers are very strict about that. And a Greek girl will not marry a man unless he doing some business and can take care of them right. Not like some girls that joost get married to stay married for a little while. We always try to stay married if there's a chance in the world to do it. We are ashamed to be

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