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The diary of Delia : Being a veracious chronicle of the kitchen, with some side-lights on the parlour cover

The diary of Delia : Being a veracious chronicle of the kitchen, with some side-lights on the parlour

Chapter 6: CHAPTER V FOLLOWING DAY
By Onoto Watanna
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About This Book

A first-person comic diary by a kitchen servant recounts daily routines, household mishaps, fraught interactions with employers and fellow staff, and the practical struggles of urban domestic life. Written in colloquial dialect, the episodic entries mix farcical incidents and job-hunting episodes with pointed observations about class, gender expectations, and workplace dynamics. Short, vivid scenes balance humor and concrete detail about household tasks, while the narrator’s resilient, outspoken voice ties the chronicle together and reveals the social texture behind parlour appearances.

CHAPTER V
 
FOLLOWING DAY

Awoke. Arose again at 8:30. Dressed. Washed.

Minnie and I interfiewed the follering ladies in regard to a position.

Mrs. Spunk. She offered me $20 for cooking—2 in family. The wages were too small. I refused it wid contimt.

Mrs. Drool. $25. cook and londress. Minnie told her londry work wud spyle me hands.

Mrs. Lambkin—8 in family—Cooking. $30. Minnie sed Id be after waring the souls of me feet off rooning oop and down for the 8 of thim.

Mrs. Colebin: $30. Cooking and waiting on table. Minnie sed no cook cud be expicted to wate on table orlso. Me arms wud be after aking wid passing the hivvy dishes around.

Mrs. Sesick $40. Minnie sed we was above warking for sporting ladies at any price. Any lady, ses Minnie, who paints her hair and eyes and mouth and cheeks, and pads oop her natchurall hooman body isnt a lady at all, but a plane sporting woman.