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A. Varesano interviewing Mary Washko -3- 7/19/72 Tape 23-1

MW: tan, like a champagne-colored shoes. And I got them because I was goin' to first holy communion. And, oh that was a big thrill for me.

AV: What, communion?

MW: No, them colored shoes. Because nobody else had them kind and I did! So, if you got something different than someone else, that made you feel readl big. So.

AV: Well, what did they do at first holy communion? Any celebration, or?

MW: Well, not exactly. See, when you was a certain age you went to like Sunday School they called it, and you had to know all them questions about God, you know? And then you'd learn so long, then you'd learn your prayers before confession. And then they'd pick out a certain day, you'd go on a Saturday to confession, and then Sunday to communion. Well, then they'd dress you up already, you know, for communion. You had a little veil, and dress, and during Mass you'd receive that holy communion. In them days they really didn't have nothin', you know. You'd just come home. Then if there was a little family, you'd get, you'd come to the house and maybe have a sandwich or whatever you had for them, and a drink. Just some light --nowadays they give the children money, they are pretty lucky!

AV: Well, these first communions, did you have a special dress for the occasion?

MW: No, not exactly a special dress, but it had to be white. Yeah. It was, if your mother made it, your mother made it. Only that they bought the veils because you couldn't really make them in the them days.

AV: Were the dresses long?

MW: Oh, yeah, below the knees. Yeah. No, no short ones. Long stockins.

AV: What did the boys wear?

MW: Well, they usually wore navy blue. Navy blue suits, with a white shirt, and I don't know, they usually had a white ribbon tied on their arm, I guess to represent something. So, that was the occasion on that. And to go to church you had to go every Sunday, no matter how far you had to walk. You just hadda go. Your parents said "To church", you went to church.

AV: Did the parents take the kids, or just send them?

MW: Oh, no, they went. In my day, the people really went to church. Oh, yeah, you walked. And regardless what kind of big holy day come up, if they had midnight Mass or anything, they went to midnight mass just like they would an ordinary Mass, you know, during the day. The church was always crowded. And oh, sing songs, for every occasion there was a different song.

AV: You mean the Holy Days.

MW: Holy days, yeah.

AV: What else did you do at Christmas time? Did you have any special customs?

MW: Well, yeah, like Christmas, you'd, we called it a Holy Supper. The family all got together. And you'd had maybe sometimes six, seven different kinds of food, somebody had more. And you'd taste a little bit of everything. You had a candle lighted, you'd pray, everybody was together.

AV: How did you do that? What kind of prayer did you say?

MW: Well, you'd just say your ordinary prayer, like Our Father who art in heaven, you know. And before and after, you'd thank God for the food.

AV: Would you have the candle lit on the table? During the meal?

MW: Yeah.

AV: What did that symbolize?

MW: Well, that really, I don't know really how it went about, but they, I know, if it was superstitious or not, they'd always say, everybody sat around, the candle was burning, it would flicker, and we always used to look for the shadows on the wall. We were told as kids, whether it was true or not, that who had the biggest head, they'd say would die the first!