A Story About Robena McCoy Tooke first Money She Earned

Short Story about Robena

by Carolyn Stephenson

Today is September 5, 2021. Robena told me a short story the other day about her working for Jokey Tooke who was Jerry Tooke’s dad. Robena is now 78 years old and she has been remembering back when she was a little girl living at McAdoo, Texas. She said her mom, which is my Aunt Edna, wanted to earn some money to ride a bus to see her husband who at the time was in Waco, Texas in a hospital. He had been there for some time and she wanted to go visit him. Aunt Edna worked for Jokey Tooke chopping cotton ( hoeing the weeds out of the cotton). She doesn’t remember how much money her mom made but she guessed it was enough to ride the bus to Waco. Robena said her mom didn’t have a place for her to stay so she went with her mom to chop cotton. Now, she says she was about 4 or 5 years old, but Jenk , my brother thinks she may have been older, maybe 10. I really don’t know, because, either, I was not born yet or I was very small. When they finished the job, Robena said Jokey paid her mom and then looked at Robena and said, well, young lady, you need to be paid too. Robena liked the way the money in Jokey’s pocket jingled. So, he reached into his pocket and pulled out what change he had. Robena said she felt so proud to have her own money, just like her mom.