Later, he began to regret that decision.
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
Finally, Christopher-John and Clayton Chester came home.
Despite the fact that Man had gone first into the Army, it was Christopher-John who came home first. He arrived in August and went directly to Mississippi. Stacey, Dee, the girls, and I went down to greet him, but he didn’t come back with us. He stayed on awhile helping on the land, and came to Toledo in November. Man didn’t arrive in the States until December. He too went directly to Mississippi. He was there for Christmas, but after the new year he too came to Toledo. Both Christopher-John and Man had decided they could no longer live in Mississippi. Actually, they had already made up their minds while still in service. Neither saw a future in Mississippi. Having endured the bloody battles of Europe, having been tested daily, they no longer had the stomach to live under the harsh rules of segregation.
With so many soldiers returning, the rumors of layoffs at Willys Overland were now rampant. Soldiers who had once worked at the factory wanted their old jobs back, the jobs that had been promised to them. In addition to so many returning soldiers, the Army would no longer need the production of jeeps as it had during the war. The plant returned to its prewar production schedule with no more of the overtime that had provided high wages to all its workers. There was no longer hiring. Christopher-John was fortunate to get a job with a car dealership, though it was part-time. Trained as a mechanic by the Army, Christopher-John had a skill that did not require work in a factory. Clayton Chester was not as fortunate. Unable to get work at any of the plants in the area, he decided to go back to school under the G.I. Bill, which would pay his tuition as well as allow him a living allowance. It was too late for him to enroll at the University of Toledo for the semester, so he enrolled in special classes offered to veterans at the local vocational high school. His plan was to enroll at the university in the fall. In the meantime, he was taking the vocational classes and any odd jobs he could get—painting, plastering, light electrical work, minor plumbing. Man was good at anything he set his mind to, and even if he did not know how to do a particular thing, it was of no worry to him. He simply went to the library, got a book on the subject, and when it came time to do the job he could do it.
With Christopher-John and Clayton Chester now in the house, Dee found places for them to sleep, one on the living room sofa bed, the other on the Sunday room sofa. At first, it seemed a bit crowded having five grown people staying downstairs, but soon it didn’t matter. We had lived in smaller spaces together growing up at home and on Everett Street in Jackson. What mattered was that the boys had returned safely from the war and we were all together again. Now, here in Toledo, even with the threat of the layoffs, we could look forward to a future.
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
During the Christmas holidays, before Man came to Toledo, Moe had stayed with us while the Ford plant was shut down for the week. It had been months since the meeting with Attorney Tate and Stacey’s warning that Moe should not come to Toledo. Despite that warning, Moe said he just wanted to be with folks from home. “You know, Cassie,” he said, “how much I miss my daddy, all my family. These past months not being able to come down here every week, see all of you, I’ve been missing them even more. When Stacey brought me that last letter from my daddy, Daddy said baby brother Morris was about to finish up eighth grade at Great Faith School come spring and then he’ll be going up to Jackson or over to Vicksburg to finish school. He said he’d rather send Morris up here to me so he could go to school in Detroit.”
“Really?” I was surprised. “Thought he’d want to keep Morris there. He’s always doted on Morris.”
“Well, we all have since Mama died giving birth to him. We all took a hand in raising Morris. Always smart as a whip. Course you know I ain’t seen him since he was seven. He’ll be turning thirteen before year’s end.” Moe seemed reflective on the coming year. “Got the feeling my daddy is looking out for both of us, for Morris and for me. His youngest son and his oldest son. He wants Morris to have a good education. Education, that’s important to Daddy, but I figure the real reason he wants Morris up here is for me to have family with me, and who better than Morris?” Moe smiled. “Daddy says I half raised him. Might as well finish the job.”
“So, what are you going to tell your daddy?”
“Figure to do what he wants and send for Morris, have somebody bring him up to Detroit before school starts next year.”
“They lay you off, are you still going to send for Morris?”
Moe nodded. “My daddy hasn’t asked one thing of me in all these years I been gone from home, but he’s asking this of me now and I’m not about to say no to him. Whatever happens, I’ll make it somehow. Besides, it’ll be good to have one of my family here. I won’t feel so alone.”
I understood.
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
The layoffs began after the first of the new year in 1947. Those workers who had filled the factory’s high demand for labor during the war years were now being let go.
Stacey was one of those workers.
No one knew if hiring would begin again or if there would be a callback. Uncertainty hung over the house on Dorr Street and over the city. All the renters had jobs at the plant and all of them, like Stacey, were laid off. Christopher-John had his part-time job and Man, his temporary jobs. I still had my job working a few hours each week at Roman’s, but that only brought in enough to help with the groceries as well as my own personal expenses. None of us earned enough to pay the mortgage, and it was the mortgage on the house that worried us all. The renters paid what they could and some could pay nothing at all, but Stacey and Dee were not about to put them out. Like us, they were all hardworking people and were doing what they could to find work to support their families. Still, we all knew that there had to be money coming in soon from somewhere. Stacey and Dee fell back on their savings, but if the layoff continued and there was no full-time work, that money would soon run out.
“I have a good mind to go to California if things don’t pick up here,” Stacey said as we sat around the kitchen table late one evening. A sleepy Rie sat on his lap. “I figure maybe Uncle Hammer can find something for me.”
“So, what do we do then?” interjected Dee. She repositioned ’lois, already sleeping, in her arms before demanding an answer from Stacey with a pointed look. “Move all the way out there like we moved all the way up here?”
Stacey smiled at her. “You want to move back down south to live? All you’ve got to do is say so,” he teased.
“I wasn’t saying that,” Dee demurred.
Stacey laughed. We all did, for we knew how Dee now felt about going back south. “I’m telling you the truth,” Stacey said. “I could not get the woman to come with me north and now she’s the one who doesn’t want to go back. For two years I begged Dee for us to move north and she fought me tooth and nail about the thing—”