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JACQUELYN HALL:

a caterer all the time you were growing up?

SEPTIMA POINSETTE CLARK:

Not all the time. For a while. And business didn't pan out to do too well. He was with another fellow named Brownie. They ran a little restaurant downtown, and then they catered at nights to big parties, but she knew they weren't able to make a living. Well, he had this USO job, two at a time, and those were the things that he did.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Do you remember other things that he did to make a living?

SEPTIMA POINSETTE CLARK:

No, only catering and running that restaurant and custodian. He was a custodian at the USO.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did any of the children work?

SEPTIMA POINSETTE CLARK:

All of them.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Any of the brothers and sisters work for money?

SEPTIMA POINSETTE CLARK:

Sure, wework.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did you do?

SEPTIMA POINSETTE CLARK:

Well, my brothers used to carry the papers as little boys. They took papers in the morning and in the afternoon. And, as I said, I took care of a lady's two children that lived across the street from me. She was a dressmaker, and I took care of her children in the mornings and in the afternoons. She paid my tuition. And my sister, she went to a trade to learn to be a dressmaker, but she never did learn.

JACQUELYN HALL:

She never did learn? [laughter]

SEPTIMA POINSETTE CLARK:

Her mind was on other things, and she never did learn to sew. [laughter] And the little ones coming along, they profited from my work, because when I finished high school and took a state examination and started teaching, I could help the family.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Yes. Did you ever take in boarders? Did your mother ever take in boarders?

SEPTIMA POINSETTE CLARK:

No. Had too many children.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Did you have any other relatives living with you?

SEPTIMA POINSETTE CLARK:

No. There were eight of us, you know, and all we could do was to get them sheltered, and we never took in.