20

Mary Zurko interviewed by Denis Mercier -13- 8/21/72
Tape 12-1

DM: I wish I did.
MZ: The people of the town, of the Irish distinction. Is the ones who donated to this church, and they are the ones that put that church up. They all donated. And then they had different things going on, you know, every once in a while, to stimulate more money...
DM: In other words, there was a debt incurred...
MZ: Towards the, that's right, and mother said it didn't take very long for the church to be built. Because, mother, mother lived right up there, you know when Thomas Turko lives? Well, mother and grandmother lived in that house.
DM: Then, they, did they do it themselves, I mean, did the carpenteres from the town do it, it was made by the people of Eckley?
MZ: Oh, yeah, a lot of people, yeah, sure...
DM: It wasn't hired out to some other construction company?
MZ: Not that I know of. They did some of the work. But I guess, like the interior, you know, you had to have somebody do something, you know, because they had a lot of contracts, you know, yeah.
DM: Oh, yeah, sure, but I mean the building itself, the building itself was built by the...
MZ: Oh, yeah. If the roof was bad, well, the roof was bad, there, one time, and all the men, it didn't make any difference whether you were Irish or Polish or what you were, they all went up and put the roof on.
DM: Beautiful! That's great!
MZ: Sure. Yeah!
DM: How did the minister, or well, how did the priest, get supported? Were they supported only from collection?
MZ: That's right.
DM: I bet in the "good old days", the collection was pretty good.
MZ: My mom worked there, she worked there once in a while, you know, at the church, until she got married, and, in fact, Father ? christened me. Father Brettany cristened my brother John, he christened Joe, I think, too.
DM: And back then, it was early in life, right, a couple of days old, maybe a week or two?
MZ: Oh, yeah, well Joe was born, John was born in 1900, and Joe was born in 1902, in other words, just like stair steps! Ha! Ha! No time lost, Dennis!
DM: That's a good old Irish Catholic family! I know the kind very well!
MZ: Oh, my mother, she said, oh, she used to laugh at that, honest to God, she said, you know sometimes I have a little barrel of diapers to wash! Ha! Ha!
DM: There's nothing worse that that, though, to wash!
MZ: I'd use Chux, these Chux are good now...
DM: And Pampers and all that.
MZ: Sure. Is your little boy trained?
DM: He can't make it through the night sometimes. Sometimes he forgets to wake up and he wets. But otherwise he's all right.
MZ: Well, he's only young yet.
DM: He's three.
MZ: Oh. Well now, I wouldn't, you know sometimes some people, you know, they get so disturbed because they do that. And it's foolish to try to, to scream at them all the time. Because that just scares them. They stop it.
DM: The priests lived off the collection alone, or was there any, like diocesan support. let's say for the rectory or anything?
MZ: I don't remember that. I don't think so. I think they lived with the support of the people.