VNovomhr I. I96!

SCARLET AND BLACK

 

>‘S‘even Children in One House

woman who said that the family
was in the process of mot/mg.

The tether ot the iamily worked,
or had worked until the shooting
accident, in a rnanutacturing plant
on the south Side. The family lived
in a barracksrlike, one~story build-
ing, which, as was ditch the case,
had no lawri around it and was
badly in need at paint. Nine peo-
ple, including seven children, lived
in the house. Maybe their new
house would be better. You can
always hope.

We met another triendly boy
that day in the Bottoms. His name
was Paul and he lived in a house
that had two trucks ﬁlled with old
washing machines, tires, and as-
sorted junk in the trout yard.
Paul was friendly and wanted to
talk to us. But we were out of
luck. and Paul’s mother ordered a
retreat into their home. We liked
Pall],

We almost missed the last per
son we talked to. Site was sitting
behind a house that made you
wonder what was supporting it.
She had a well-used house trailer
behind the house, She was hard
to see because her tattered coat
blended so well with the unpaint-
ed, grey boards of her house.

She got up to tend a trash burn-
er. and we approached. She had
a hard time seeing us because a
cataract condition had blinded one
eye, and old age was dimming the
other. She couldn’t allord new
glasses.

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Wants Acreage
In the Country

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“I’m ﬁguring on leaving helore
long." the 72-year-old widow told
us. ”They keep taking my taxes.
and they’re [00 nosey. I want to
get some acreage in the country,

“I've been thinking ot trading
this place on on a pig and eating
the pig, but l haven't had that
big of an appetite yet.”

The woman had been moved out
of an urban renewal district in

another part ol the city several ,'

years oelore. Now she was living
in undoubtedly worse conditions.
Site had little liking tor the people
who ran the urban renewal pro
gram, nor did she eare lor the
neighborhood health service.

“i had a stroke the other day,
but didn’t tell anyone or they
would have called the police and
they would have sent me to the
hospital. I don’t like doctors. It’s
just not worth live dollars to go
in and have them say good morn-
ing to you. I just keep a bottle
of aspirin around. [don't have
anything more to do with medi-
Cine."

Besides having survived the
stroke, the old widow had saved
herself several times from being
burned badly. The city ordered
that she keep her back yard tree
from weeds because of the fire
hazard, so little by little each day
she pulls them up and burns them
in a deteriorating metal barrel.
The ﬁre in the barrel occasion-
ally backs up through holes in the
barrel and several times has
threatened to add more holes to
clothing that: can hardly afford
more wounds.

The definitely ragged old wom-
Ao noted that she lived on a small

 

she absolutely refused to go on
reliet or be sent to a nursing
home. She honestly intends to
“die with my boots on."

She said she had been Work—
ing since childhood. “l ain’t satis-
ﬁed if I'm not working.”

The old woman was pitiful but
what would help her? She said
she wants to be alone. A nursing
home would oiler her no better
alternative than her present ex-
istence.

Maybe the only viable solution
to Des Moines' poverty is the ex
pensive and demanding task of
personally analyzing each per.
son's or each family’s need and
then planning a logical method to
extricate them from the conditions
which keep them struggling to
maintain a wretched existence, an
existence which Des Moines can
be proud complies with its mime
mum standards of fire safety but
fails to comply with that old
woman’s desire for a degree of
dignity.

 

 

 

 

as we LEFT the Bottom;
area to return to Grinnell,
we passed this row or
houses. all unpainted, and
again noted the irony ui the
gold capircl dome overlook.
ing the scene.

Low cost apartments will
probably replace the old
houses in the domain ct the
gilded dome, and people
like ihc ragged old lady will
be leti again to lend for
themselves.

But we didn't have a so.
lulion eilller. so we headed
back to Grinriell. But ﬁrst we
stopped at ihe capitol and
climbed is the tap oi inc
dome. It's true — from the
dome you can‘t really tell
that the slums exist.

midi security incan’m 'and‘ﬂat'fé'”

 

 

 

 

 

 

LEANING ON A masn BURNER behind her dilapidated
home. this 72-year-old widow talked icr over an hour to
see reporters.

The ragged old lady recalled the day: when she wax
the last hoidout living in an area designated tor urban ra-
nuwat She said that looting was a popular sport with the
residents cl areas surrounding lhe urban renewal develop-
ment and thai police protection left something ic be de.
.nud.

"Some boys haul bothered me tor icur nights, so I
linally goi a gun. When they came back again I went out
and asked them it ihey needed their lime icensils cut. The
leader came at me, so I eui off his iccnail with one shot.
They ran off and never came back." '

The widow was linally moved cut at the urhan renewal
district and settled on the property pictured above. The
urban renewal program in her old neighborhood obviously
did her no good. and she seems iusﬁlied in having a dislike
for the urban renewal administrators. who, she complains.
”don't earn their living by the sweatot their brows."

Like most at the people we met in the bottoms area.
though. she remained optimistic and happy, At the left.
she laughs as photographer John Phillips takes her picture.
Atier the picture was taken she said in a maileraiefacf
tone. "I was pretty once. if you want a picture of iris l'Il
lind you one when l was younger."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

