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A. Varesano interviewing Anne Timko -6- 7/19/72 Tape 22-2

AT: No. My mother didn't. My mother couldn't. My mother was only six months in the hospital, and my father died. A serious operation. And six months after she had that operation. She had that operation the end of August, or the beginning of September, and my father died in Febrary.
AV: Oh, dear. And then, had got to help the family support at all, and that's why she wanted to marry you off quickly?
AT: Right. And the kind of working conditions, this town worked very badly. Other towns worked a little better, but this town, I don't know, was it under Cox's or was it under Lehigh Valley, becuase so many companies had this, and we would work two or three days a wek. Well, where could you suppport, like says, he says, lot of times you had to pay rent, you had nothing coming in then. And it was only four dollars rent at that time, in the house he is living now, it was only four dollars. And you had hardly anything coming in. Sometimes some men would take something from the store, and they wouldn't even get no pay at all. They used to call it Red Snake, you know that they owe the company it!
AV: That means that they don't owe any....
AT: They don't owe the company that money, because we didn't have to pay the bill at the store yet. But my mother didn't deal with the store. She only used to buy from a store man, you know, and she know ho wmuch you could afford to pay, well, maybe sometimes she couldn't afford to pay everything that she got, because she had it yet that she had to feed us somehow.
AV: Where did she get some of her food? From the garden?
AT: Yes. Well, everybody planted gardens, the potatoes and cabbage, and corn, pumpkins, and onions, and oh, all kinds of vegetables.
AV: Whe did you plant yourself, at that time?
AT: Oh, we used to plant the same thing, too. Then I gave up planting potatoes, because there was too many bugs on them. And it was a job, picking those potato bugs. You had to through them sometimes two, three times a day, picking them. I thought there aren't any more bugs on them, but Helen showed me the kind of bugs they have on hers. And I thought there isn't any. Then in later years, I don't know what year it was then, was it during the depression, or when was it, I don't remember, the Agriculture men, the State men, they were agriculture men coming around, and they were planting gardens, some of the gardens that were diseased - not all the gardens, just the gardens that were diseased, but they would plant nothing, only potatoes. They would just put potatoes in those gardens. Well, in time, a couple years, would just put potatoes in those gardens. Well, in time, a couple years, boy they used to get beautiful potatoes. They'd leave them for us. They wouldn't take the potatoes. They'd just plant the garden. You weren't allowed to touch anything in the garden. But it was only potatoes that they would put in.
AV: And so the kids had to go through with a can of what, kerosene, to drown the potato bugs?
AT: Well, you'd put them in a can or a bucket or something, and then you would pour either hot water on them, or kerosene, on after you had them picked, you would pour it on. But, you would go through the garden again, and the were there again, where they come from so fast, I don't know! They used to breed fast.
AV: Did your mother preserve much of the stuff from the garden?
AT: No, they did some things, but they didn't understand preserving much in them days yet. They couldn't do them, you know? They did chow-chow, or something like that, red beets they did, but like other stuff, they didn't know much about preserving in them days yet. Until later on, then already they - I don't know how, did somebody get some information from someone, and