225

A. Varesano interviewing Joe Sulkusky (and Mrs. S.)
- 7 -
Tape 30-2

290[?]

they couple on. Just like beads, you know, you string beads.

AV: How many are you supposed to use for the headache?

JS: No, you put on the whole set, how long you have, you know, you can put them on.

AV: What about those hoop snakes?

JS: The hoop snake?

AV: Yes.

JS: Well, I'll tell you, I didn't see a hoop snake now since, oh I was a boy, a
pretty big boy I was. On Sandy Hill. And you oughta see them guys go! You
know what he does? He grab his tail in his mouth and he roll like a hoop!
He was just goin' like a hoop like the devil!

AV: Why does he do that?

JS: That's their habit to run away, or what I don't know, but that go like a wheel,
just like a wheel. But you never seen a bull adder?

AV: No.

JS: Gee, he would be like an ordinary snake, you know. And you disturb him, and
pretty soon that son of a gun'll blow himself up, he's like a balloon. But
you know, he won't get thick--he'll blow himself that thick. We used to
see them here on the Sandy Hill, quite often. I had a dog, he was a stray
dog. This here ah, what the hell was his ame, Charlie Rhea, lived down where
[?????] live, where that new house they built in the lower door. And he
moved out of here and he left the dog. The poor dog was roamin' around,
roamin' around, and she folleyed (sic) up to the house once and they give
her eat. It was a she, that, female. So she was there, and then she wouldn't
go away from the house. She stood there, and she kept on, so then they said
Oh let her go. And it was a very, very good dog, a nice dog. So I took her
out with me, dow to Sandy Hill--I don't know what the hell we went for, was
it chestnuts or leaves or what--you oughta see her kill the snakes!

AV: She did!

JS: Yeah, big ones, big ones. Ho, boy, but she would work. What?

MS: When Molly Maquires was playin' here, the time our Joe was washin'...

JS: Yeah...

AV: Well, how did she kill the snakes?

JS: With her teeth. And with her paws, you know, but she would maneuver around
so much, you know, that she would get 'em off balance. When she would get
'em off balance, she'd dive in and grab 'em. Heh? Yeah, that was a good
dog for that! So then I had her for quite a while, and then we saved a
puppy from her. And he was mixed, he was like a half-breed Saint Bernard,
you know, but he didn't grow quite as big as a Saint Bernard. You oughta
see... What I done, I went up to the breaker, and I asked them for some
belts, you know, these big wide belts that run the, the machinery into the
breaker. See they'd break and tear up, then they'd throw them away. I
asked them for some belt. I says, old belt, that you's throwed out, I says,
if I could have some. What do you want it fer? Oh, I want to make a
harness, I says, for a dog! What do you mean, for a dog? I said, I got a dog,
I says, I'm gonna learn him to pull a wagon, or a sleigh. And I did! I
made the damn harness for him, and all, and oh, that's where you shouild be!
Then you'd get skinned up lots! Because I used to go out and.....

MS: It'd be like the bicycle again....

JS: I used to go out....

MS: Aren't you marked up no more? Aren't you marked up no more?

AV: Oh, a little bit, yeah.

JS: And finally, I used to go out ridin' with him. Well, he was all right. And
mind you, he'd learn. If I would holler Gee, he' turn to the right, I'd
holler Pnaw, he'd go to the left. Anything I hollered at him, he'd listen.