History of Mattie Bell Bridges Jones

 

Interview with Carolita Jones Quillin

March 1, 2003

Done by Nancy Quillin Long

 

 
Background History
Mattie Bell Bridges Jones

 

Mattie Bell was a short, pudgy lady with a round belly.  She wore her hair pulled back into a bun.  Mattie had lots of vanity and was meticulous in her dress.  She liked new things. 

 

Mattie was a sickly woman, but she did not look sickly.  Carolita always thought her to be a hypochondriac.  Mattie would take to the bed for weeks having others care for her.  She was very demanding of others, and Carolita remembers Granddaddy getting off the tractor to come in to give her her pills.  Carolita remembers all of Mattie’s children being called to her bedside, thinking that she was dying.  The grandchildren were made to stand outside, and they could hear her carrying on.  

 

Martin Harmon would do lots of the cooking and household chores and Mattie would pack her bags and leave for 2-3 weeks at a time to go visit her sisters.

 

Mattie Bell was very demanding of Ava as well.  For most of Ava and Jo Carroll’s married life, Mattie and Martin Harmon lived in their back door.  Ava would take care of them daily.

 

Mattie Bell was highly thought of and very religious (not spiritual).  She would always be with her church friends and most of them were gossips.  She was a “loper.”  Carolita remembers her getting up very early, putting on her bonnet, and making the neighborhood rounds.  She would then come in through the back door of Carolita’s house croaking, “Lazy, lazy, lazy,” if no one was up yet.  Mattie Bell would always say, “I just don’t know what to think of these young people.  They’re just going to the dogs.”  She tended to hoard things and would dole it out later.  For example, if she had fresh fruit, she would finally offer it to the grandchildren when it was nearly ruined.