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eight Gladys If I thought the Carrboro house was a castle, the little three-and-a-half-room apartment that we had on Anderson Avenue in the Bronx was absolutely palatial . There was hot and cold running water and heat all the time. And we were together. Barbara was three now, and we had been separated from Junie for almost two and a half years. Of course, we were still living underground and had to be very careful. We couldn’t see our friends and my family. Barbara and Grandma slept in the bedroom, and Junie and I had a pullout bed in the living room. And we lived a very quiet life. Junie worked full-time for the Party, and he was always taking forays out to go back down South. You can’t get a normal job and then suddenly take a week off to go down and organize in the South. And, under another name, I got a job as a comparison shopper for Macy’s. What I always did when he was away was to turn on the radio, and I heard the news that morning that he had been arrested. I went in and told my mother, and, of course, having that baby was always the thing that made us keep calm. My thoughts in any time of emergency always go back to Bernie, and I think I may have gotten in touch with him. He was such a big shot in the New York State Party by then, and I knew he would tell me what to do. I knew I had to do something—I knew I had to get Junie some defense. Eventually, I was in John Abt’s law office, and he was great. I couldn’t see Junie in Tennessee where he was arrested, but my mother took care of Barbara, and I did go to see him when he was moved to the jail in Winston-Salem. I’m sure one of the reasons Barbara maintained whatever stability and sanity she had is because my mother was the constant figure A RED FAMILY 77 in her life. If I had to run here to prison, or there to a trial, my mother was always there. And the couple of times I was gone for longer periods, there were other very dear friends with whom I left her. At the time, we were still in the Party, and there was still a purpose to all of this. I was frightened, and I didn’t know where it all might end, but I felt this was part of the deal. This was a part of his being a member of the Communist Party. Of course, his bail was ridiculous: it was one hundred thousand dollars. I was in touch with his mother, and it was very painful for her. She tried to help us out as much as she could. The idea was to try and get somebody other than a New York lawyer. So if I could, my job now was to find him a lawyer who wouldn’t be too much out of tune with Greensboro and a Greensboro jury. We finally wound up with an excellent lawyer from Washington, D.C., David Rein. I was down there during the first trial, and that was hard. I think I even stayed with his mother. There was some legal reason he was freed, and then there came the whole period of waiting to see whether there was going to be a second trial. Being a perennial optimist, I always said, “No, no, there won’t be a second trial. . . .” And, of course, there was a second trial. I get the two trials mixed up and sometimes don’t know which trial I’m remembering. I suppose that’s a case where not having memory has nothing to do with electric shock or anything other than sheer trauma. Those years were just ghastly; they were horrible years. Mrs. Scales went to court every day, and Aunt Lucy and Mary Leigh, and John whenever he could. Junie made Archibald stay away because he worked for the government. I want to tell you, that family was something. And I sat right behind Junie, as close to him as I could. It was just a completely unbelievable experience. The people who were testifying against him were stool pigeons, and they weren’t talking about my husband or about the party to which I belonged...

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