Free If These Walls Had Ears by James Morgan Page A

concerns. Radio had taken over the living room—by late 1933, Charles
     and his father could sit by the fireplace and listen to “The Lone Ranger,” or Jessie and Jane could fill the wicker popper
     and listen to “The Romance of Helen. Trent.” Now, suddenly, you needed a different place for reading and playing music. The
     other factor was that the house was just so much larger with three fewer people in it. Grandma Jackson was dead, Grandmother
     Armor had moved in with her other son in California, and Carolee had gotten married and was living in Boston. It seemed a
     shame to let all that space go to waste.
    Jessie’s brilliant idea no doubt resulted from just this sort of antsy preoccupation with the house. Not content to sit and
     wait for events to overtake her family, she began to take stock of their strengths, their abilities, their holdings. The only
     thing they had in excess, she decided, was space—the house itself. With so many people losing homes—or not able to afford
     them in the first place—she suggested to Charlie that they start taking in boarders.
    It was perfect: Jessie was, after all, schooled in the efficient running of a household. The going rate for room and board
     was thirty dollars a month. Besides using the center to
hold
the center, they would be helping others who needed a place in these tough times. And one other thing in their favor: Arkansas
     had passed a lenient divorce law, and people from all over the country were coming to the state to live during the three-month
     residency requirement. This house, a family house, would be ideal for a young woman all alone and miles from home.
    Jessie began advertising, and before long she had plenty of business. There was a lot of coming and going, but word of mouth
     kept the house full most of the time. She and Charlie moved back downstairs, back to the middle bedroom. Charles moved to
     the back bedroom, the one he had once shared with Grandma Jackson. Jane insisted on keeping her small bedroom at the top of
     the stairs, but that still gave Jessie three rooms to rent. Mabel was back living in the room above the garage, so she could
     help Jessie. And if she left again, they could rent out
her
room.
    The first boarder was an old-maid schoolteacher named Miss Hairston. She taught first grade at Pulaski Heights Elementary,
     just down the street, so she was delighted to find a homey place so close. She took the big upstairs room with the cedar closet,
     the room separated from Jane’s by the pongee-covered French doors. Every night when Miss Hairston saw Jane’s light go out,
     she would say the very same thing, never a variation. It drove Jane crazy.
    “Good night, Janie dear,” she called out in her chirpy, schoolteachery voice.
    “Good night, Miss Hairston,” Jane dutifully replied.
    “Sleep tight, Janie dear.” With that, Jane pulled the covers over her head and burrowed in as deeply as she could.
    It must’ve been strange at first, having other people in the house. I can’t imagine it myself—I feel a vague unease even when
     our cleaning lady is here, no matter if she’s downstairs and I’m up in my office. But Jessie liked having new people to talk
     with. She told them all about the neighbors, how they lived and what they did and who their people were. She talked about
     her Sunday school class and tried to line up new members. She provided her boarders two meals a day, breakfast and supper.
     At night, the boarders were welcome to come downstairs and sit by the fire or out on the porch. Charlie would tell them stories
     about growing up on the farm in Kansas, or about the panthers in Louisiana.
    Having boarders was almost like having parties again. A young lady from New York named Olive Hoeffleic came for a divorce,
     bringing her mother with her. They waited out the three months eating Jessie’s good cooking, which had become more quintessentially
     Southern than that of her Southern-born neighbors. Jessie didn’t