Vol. 1-Interview-Falatko

A. Varesano intervewing Bertha Falatko -19- 8/17/72 Tape 26-2 BF: Yes, small table, and a sink. AV: A real sink that drained? BF: Yeah. AV: Where did it drain to? BF: Out into a ditch. AV: In the garden? BF: Alongside the garden. AV: And where did it run off to, into the garden or into the street? BF: No, down into the alley. AV: Not this ditch alongside of the road? BF: No, no, no down the alley. AV: And what was the inside of that shed like? Was it papered? BF: Papered, yes. And we had an oilcloth on the floor. AV: Oilcloth? BF: Um-hmm, On the floor. AV: Do you mean linoleum? BF: Linoleum, yeah. AV: What about the ceiling, what was that like? BF: That was papered, too, but first, we didn't have no paper, we just had everything white-washed, AV: How about the shanty? What was on the walls of the shanty? BF: We had nothing on the walls, just regular boards. AV: And then, in the shed there, right off the kitchen, what was that used for? What activities? BF: No activity at all. It's just, my mother used to have her cupboard there, and she used to have mostly the pots and pans there, especially in wintertime, so she didn't have to always go in the shanty. The shanty at that time was not attached to the house, so she didn't want to go out there all the time. So she just kept the stuff, most of the things, like, in the shed. She had a cupboard in there, and she did a lot of her work in there. The kitchen, as you see, is not very big, AV: What kind of work did she do in the shed? BF: Well, she would do most of her cooking, like, well, she didn't cook it in there, but she used to prepare the food in there, and then she'd cook it on the stove in the kitchen. AV: What kind of stuff did she store in the cupboards, besides pots and pans. Silverware?... to bring BF: Well, naturally, we had/most of that stuff in the shanty into the shed in winter. AV: How about the dry good, like rice and beans? Where were they kept? BF: Well, we kept them mostly in the shanty. AV: Even in the winter? BF: Um-hmm. AV: In that cupboard? BF: Um-hmm. AV: There was only one cupboard in the shanty? BF: Some people had two, we only had the one big one. AV: How big was it? BF: The cupboard? Well, let's see, it would be about so long, from there to here. AV: Two yards? BF: About two yards. And it was just about a foot and a half wide. AV: And how tall? BF: As tall as this room. AV: Six feet?

A. Varesano interviewing Bertha Falatko -20- 8/17/72 Tape 26-2 BF: About five feet. I mean, the cupboard was five feet. AV: Yeah. And then, in the kitchen itself, the regular kitchen, what did you have? BF: Well, see, our kitchen, as you see, was very small. We only had a table and chairs and the stove. AV: A table, was it covered with oilcloth, too? BF: Um-hmm. AV: Did you have holy pictures on the walls? BF: Oh, naturally! It was a must! AV: How Many? BF: Two, because our kitchen was small. AV: Which ones, do you remember? BF: Well, we had a big one of the Holy Supper, and then we had the Holy Family on the other wall. AV: And, what was on the floor of the kitchen BF: Kitchen, I don't know, I think we had oilcloth, I mean linoleum, in the kitchen, I think, too. First we didn't, but that later on we had a linoleum. AV: At first it was bare boards? With rag carpet? BF: Just bare boards, yeah, yeah, Of course, the rag carpet we put down mostly on the weekend. AV: Oh, really? For what? BF: Saturday and Sunday! AV: Why was that? BF: To make the house look nicer! AV: Was that special occasions? BF: Well, we had so many in our family that they would get dirty in no time, and men especially when the/would come home from work, they had to take a bath at home, and we only had those wooden tubs. So naturally they would splash the carpets all up, and my mother thought it was foolish to even have it down. AV: So, weekends was considered kind of special dress-up-time? BF: Oh, yeah. AV: What did it have on the walls, and the ceiling? BF: Our kitchen was whitewashed. AV: Yeah? And the ceiling? BF: The ceiling was whitewashed, too. AV: Was it cloth ceiling? BF: Well, not in the kitchen. later on we had it in the kitchen, but not in the beginning. In the other room we had cloth. AF: In the beginning there were white-washed beams? BF: White-washed, yeah. AV: What was in the kitchen window? BF: Just shades. AV: Did the shed have any windows? BF: One small window. AV: Just a shade on it? BF: In fact, I don't think we even had a shade on that one. AV: I see. And, was there a door between the kitchen and the shed? BF: Oh, yeah. It was attached. The shed was attached to the kitchen. AV: Where was the source of lighting in the kitchen? BF: On the metal ring. AV: A cracket for kerosene lamp? BF: Uh-huh. AV: How about in the shed? How did you light that? BF: The shed, we just used to carry a lamp in. We used to have a lantern.

A. Varesano interviewing Bertha Falatko

AV: Yeah, And the summer kitchen, how did you light that? BF: We had a lamp we had to carry to. AV: And where did you keep it? BF: Usually on the table. Sometimes we used to have it back in the shanty, too. AV: Anything else in the kitchen besides tables and chairs? Cupboards or something like that? BF: No, our kitchen was too small for that. AV: What about the front room? BF: Well, in there we used to have a couch, and chairs, and on the floor we used to have carpet, the whole floor was covered with carpets. AV: Was it ever used as a bedroom, that you remember? BF: Well, yes, in the beginning, yes. My mother used to use it as a bedroom. That was when we used to live up there. When i was sick. Where Frank Zahay lives we used to live in that house one time. AV: And what did they have, a couch? BF: Well, no, we had a bed then. AV: And what else did they have? BF: Just a couch and chairs and a small round table, in the center, and pictures on the wall... AV: Holy pictures? BF: Naturally. Then maybe a family picture. AV: Oh, there was a custom to have family pictures? When did you start having, like, secular pictures on the wall, besides holy pictures? BF: We didn't have much of those, really we didn't. AV: Just decorative stuff, like. Would you most likely to have family pictures on the walls instead of just decorative pictures? BF: Well, we did. We would have mostly only religious pictures on the wall. We didn't have any other kind. We would only have the other pictures mostly like, maybe if we had one family picture on the wall. And then the other pictures, if we had any, was just like on the table, beside the lamp, or something, or if we had a cupboard... AV: So, when you lived in this house, this front room was not used as a bedroom at all? BF: No. AV: Just as a sitting roo. BF: Yeah. AV: When you lived in the Zahay house, that's Number 60, it was used as a bedroom. BF: Yes AV: What did it have on the floor, anything? BF: Carpets. AV: And on the windows, did you have anything? BF: Well, we had shades on and I think my mother had curtains on there. AV: What kind of curtain? BF: Just regular thin material, like, ah...like a lace. AV: Was it like that? BF: No. not like that one. It was more of a lace design in it. AV: What's the name of that material, do you know? BF: Well, actually, material in those days was all cotton, but it was lace. AV: By lace, do you mean like a floral design? BF: Yeah. AV: And then, what was in the other room, like the upstairs bedrooms, what did they look like? BF: Well, the bedroom, we had carpets on thefloor there, and all we could have

A. Varesano interviewing Bertha Falatko -22- 8/17/27 Tape 26-2 in there was beds, and maybe one little cupboard. AV: For what? BF: To keep our, like different litle things we had, like maybe we had a chain on our necks, or something like a cross or something. And we'd have a picture on there, and maybe our rosary and things. AV: What did you mean by a "cupboard" in the bedroom? BF: Just a regular cupboard. AV: Like, how big would it be? BF: Just as big as my desk. AV: Oh! So about a yard and a half long by maybe two feet wide, and a yard high? BF: Um-hmm. Maybe a yard and a half. AV: It would be like a rectangular thing, and did it have drawers in it? BF: Had drawers, yeah. AV: What did you store in the drawers? BF: Our underclothes and our nightclothes. AV: What did you keep on top of it? BF: I was saying like maybe we had a picture on sometimes, you know... AV: A holy picture? BF: Not necessarily, no. It would be mostly family or maybe a friend's picture. And if we had any kind of jewelry, may for instance like a cross on the neck, we'd take that off or something like that, at night. AV: What was the source of lighting in the bedrooms? BF: A lamp. AV: A wall lamp, bracket lamp? BF: Yeah, upstairs we had a bracket lamp. AV: That you put your kerosene lamp in. BF: Yeah. AV: And then, what about your regular daily clothes, like dresses and things. Where did you hang them? BF: Ah, we used to hang them them just on the door. AV: In the back of the door? BF: Back of it, yeah. AV: On nails, or hooks? BF: Well, sometimes we had a hook, mostly nails. AV: Did you also use the wall in the back of the door to hang clothes? BF: Oh, yes, My dad would put a stick-like, make kind of like a bracket or something, you know, and we would hang our clothes up there. AV: Yeah, something like a clothes closet rack? BF: Yeah, yeah. AV: And he used to make it so that the thing stuck out from the wall, with a dowel rod in between?

A. Varesano interviewing Bertha Falatko

802 BF: I imagine they did. AV: Was there anything else that was common to bedrooms? Like, some other object like a night stand. Did they have that? BF: Well, mostly I guess we did have a night stand. AV: What did you put on that? BF: Well, we had a glass of water for ourselves, like maybe we had a night stand between our two beds. We'd have two beds in the room, and we'd have a night stand, because naturally, we were small, we almost always would get up for a glass of water or something. We'd have that, and maybe we'd have a crucifix on it, on the table, too. AV: Did they have many holy pictures on the bedroom walls? BF: Oh, yes, just as much as they had in the other rooms! AV: Were there a special kind ogf holy pictures, like smaller, or... BF: Not as large as the ones downstairs, they were smaller.. AV: Why did they have the smaller ones upstairs and the larger ones upstairs? BF: That's something I can't tell you. I don't know. AV: Was there a special kind of holy pictures or holy objects that you'd have upstairs? BF: Well, a special picture my mother had up there was a guardian angel, watching over children going across a bridge. That was one that I remembered clear. And then the other ones, maybe she would have a picture of Jesus.... AV: Was that in her rooom or in your room? BF: that was in our room. AV: That was shared by you and your sisters? BF: Um-hmm. And even our brothers. Sometimes when our xxxx was small, he slept in our room. We'd all bunch up together! AV: Who slept in those two beds, then? BF: Well, my sisters... AV: How many sisters? BF: There was three...how many did I have? Let me see... ...seven, I think. And six brothers. AV: And where did you put them all?! BBF: We all used to sleep in those two rooms. AV: Did you have, like three in a bed? BF: Sure AV: Did the boys sleep in with the girls, too? BF: No, well, xxxxx maybe slept when he was smaller, you know. But after, when he got bigger, he slept with the boys. And then my mother and dad had a bed downstairs. And the boys had their own bed when they got older. We didn't even have a door on. AV: Did you have the middle bedroom, or the front bedroom? BF: We had the back bedroom, and the boys would have the front bedroom. AV: Back bedroom. In the Zahay, in Number 60... BF: Well, see, they have, no, we only had two bedrooms AV: I know, but when you came here... BF: Well, it's the same, we slept in the back room, and the boys slept in the front room. AV: And your parents (were down)... BF: Yeah AV: But over there, at the Zahay place, you and your sisters slept where? BF: In the back, and the boys in the front. And here we do the same. But my mother and dad didn't sleep downstairs, because my dad died soon after that. Then some of my