Vol. 4-Interview-Zosack

Wain Brown interviewing Susie Zosak -168/12/72 Tape 3-1

WB How about for eyes, if you had pain in the eyes or headache?

SZ Well if you got any pain at all in Eckley, Mrs. Coxe had a nurse and she took care of that, which was good. Where I lived we didn't have no nurses but that doctor, Dr. Cordon they had, that St. Joe's Hospital was Dr. Johns, Dr. Williams, Dr. Martins. Dr. Lawrence, they had a couple doctors, their mother and dad lived in Eckley, no they lived in Hazlebrook and they walked to that little church and they were married there and they had a priest and 2 doctors, I guess 3 doctors and

WB At St. Joe's?

SZ (?) Father Martin was a priest in Wilkes-Barre, John was a doctor at 236 W. (?) that's where (?) used to come and see me and then the son went, that was Lawrence, but Jim was a doctor, Martin was a doctor in Wilkes-Barre and John was a doctor and he used to come around and you used to put a card in the window if anybody was sick

WB There was different colored cards for different doctors?

SZ No you just put a card in with doctor, and that meant a doctor go in there because there was somebody sick there, sometimes you wouldn't even be sick but you just wanted to see the doctor, and talk and he'd give you pills, you'd throw the pills away because they didn't think the doctor could just look at your tongue and know id you're sick.

WB How much did you pay for the doctor?

SZ A dollar a month, that's the God's truth, do you believe that? Did you ever hear that?

WB And did you pay for the medicine?

SZ No he gave you that, he would give you the pills.

WB So that was a dollar a month and he would see you as often as you were sick?

SZ Yeh, If you needed a doctor for a month straight, he'd come in for a month straight but then he would like to, when a baby was born why then he would charge

Wain Brown interviewing Susie Zosak -178/12/72 Tape 3-1

$5 but my mother was a md-wife and there was another mid-wife.

WB Oh there were 2 mid-wives in Eckley

SZ My mother was the main one, she wasn't the smartest the other lady was a little bit more "tony" like and then one time we were comin' home from Hazleton and we stopped, the doctor, the baby got sick or somethin' and he was a good man, oh yeh, the mother had a dead-born baby see they didn't want to call the doctor people at that time wanted to save the $5

WB How much would your mother charge

SZ $3,50 for a week and if they didn't have anything you didn't get nothin' but you know what, you went and you washed the baby and washed the clothes

WB Would she deliver the baby, and watch over the mother for a week for $3.50?

SZ Yeh, and the mother would get up in 2 days or 3 but that's how they do now in the hospital they getcha up in a day that time you had to lay in the bed 9 days and when you got up you died because of blood clot there was Gaffney's young man she was good for 9 days and when she got up the poor soul she got a blood clot and she died

WB A blood clot?

SZ Yeh, that's why they getcha up right away after child birth they getcha up right away

WB You said in Eckleythe people would stay in bed 9 days

SZ Only the ones, that's what the doctor would tell you to do but later on even in the hospital the gotcha up right away and in 3 days you ought to be home sure they didn't believe in that they learned from the other ones that it wasn't the right thing to do so they wouldn't get blood clots they'd just tumble over and die, the get a blood clot and that was the end.

WB What else would your mother do as a mid-wife

SZ She'd wash the baby

WB Wash the baby and do some work around the house

Wain Brown interviewing Susie Zosak -188/12/72 Tape 3-1

SZ If they had some other, someone else would help but she would wash the baby take it to the priest and you know when the baptise the baby and if the baby was sick she would get to that powwow lady with the mother

WB Oh she'd go to the powwow lady in Lehigh?

SZ Yeh powwow or whatever, there was a man there one time and he was good he wasn't a witch or nothin' but when I went down he said, I can't cure you because you don't have it, and when he told me that I didn't have it I wasn't sick I needed a tonic and started to eat and not worry, I worried myself sick because this lady had T.B. and when the doctor came he said, "You're like Josephine," she got it in her head too and her daddy died with T.B. she suffered a little bit more than that so he sent me to Dr. Neal but I didn't believe Dr. Neal but Dr. Neal was a good old doctor did you hear about him, he looked like Santa Claus he didn't care he treated everybody good he was poor, he treated you if you were poor or if you were rich, he didn't go for the money

WB Was he from Eckley or was he from Sandy Valley

SZ No he lived in Upper Lehigh but he had an office in Freeland and he married some relatives of Markels, but he was in big charge, he had doctors that would come around town and there was a doctor, Dr. Redmond I believe and he said, there was something wrong with one of our kids she had an awful fever and she was burning up, the other doctor was comin' and givin' her some kind of medicine, but he knew and he said, "I'm goin' to send Dr. Neal this kid ain't gettin' better" so he worked for Dr. Neal and he took the kid and tapped her on the back and listened and he said, "This kid is full of acid," whatever happened, did I eat somethin' because I used to nurse her and he looked at the medicine and he said "What is this a mouth wash, "when Dr. Neal came and Denion's had (?) left the door open and he left and said so many drops, and you know I started them drops in the middle of the night and by morning that kid was really gettin' better that's how smart he was and that other

Wain Brown interviewing Susie Zosak -198/12/72 Tape 3-1

poor guy he didn't know what was wrong and then do you know what, that thing that she had inside that acid or whatever it was made sores inside and she put her finger in her mouth and some of the sores would stick on the thing on her fingers and right away the next morning there was a change and that's how smart he was

WB Speaking of doctors was your mother a good

SZ My mother wasn't a doctor do you lnow what she used to do, when the baby was born when this baby was born dead and they didn't call nobody thet were goin' to have it among the neighbors and this lady they weren't even goin' to call the mid-wife they could get along without anybody my mother told me and when the doctor came he said, "When they call me that's nothin'' he was a good man but he said when ever she goes let her call the doctor which was the right thing how can you make anybody call a doctor when the don't want to, there were mid-wives all the time when my mother was there the baby was born

WB Your mother did other work besides deliver babies didn't she, she helped people with colds and

SZ Yeh, she would wash the baby and she would take those things and put them in bake the baby in that if it wasn't fellin' good and rub, and grease them up with lard and bandaged them up and you know if the mother would eat a sour apple or anything even a sweet apple or even a grape that, when the baby would nurse that would give them the colic not for long but it had to get used to it but you had to watch what you eat, you couldn't eat an orange or anything because the baby would cry it would get a sore belly like, colic.

WB But she did other things besides deliver babies?

SZ Well she did housework, she did ours

WB But when people had colds and things and people didn't want to pay for a doctor didn't she help them

SZ Yeh, she put turpentine or camphorated oil and mix it half and rub it

sz

Wain Brown interviewing Susie Zosak -208/12/72 Tape 3-1

WB Turpentine and camphorated oil?

SZ Turpentine with oil, plain oil or with lard because it was too strong or camphorated oil, half and half, the doctor would tell you that too, you'd rub it here and on the back and on the shoulders and when the baby was little and had a sore belly they'd put a bellyband on and grease that up and, and like when the baby was born so it wouldn't have crooked legs and all and you'd have to see that both legs were straight they would take a shawl or a big diaper and put the baby in here it had to have a diaper and everything on first and then you'd put the one arm there then you would wrap the feet together, wrap it all around and put this over here and it would be like the Indians like you see the Capoose

WB That would keep the legs straight?

SZ You would look to see that one leg was long as the other so it's not crippled and when they got the colic you would take this and put it with this and this put it with this that would stop the colic tooo because they had gas

WB If they had colic you would use your arm against the baby

SZ No the baby's arm against his knee

WB Take one elbow and place it against the opposite knee and take the other elbow against the other opposite knee, do that several times

SZ Yeh, sometimes the baby would be constipated and maybe that's what it was, you know and then if it got sort of twisted, not twisted or out of place but it would help if you wrapped the baby up nice and tight and put camphorated oil on that would help that was like puttin' your hand on and takin' the pain away because that would take the colic away and rub the back, well we used to tub the babies on the back and between teh shoulders I used to do that too my mother did it and then there was a neighbor, Mrs. Stephanko

WB Mrs. Stephanko was a mid-wife?

SZ Yeh you know that Andrew that has the arm and leg off