5

M/M John Kascak interviewed by Denis Mercier 08/22/72 Tape 12-2
095

DM: Stone, right?
MK: I know she had, ah, she had something made like, you know that she would take all them hot coals out. Not coals, but the wood. Then put the bread in.
DM: But you can't remember how high they were? I mean, weren't they about, something like three or four feet, maybe five feet wide, the whole oven, not necessarily the door, but the whole oven, was about this wide?
JK: Oh, I would say about three by four.
DM: Three by four was the interior wise? And then the outside size varied...
JK: Um-hmm.
MK: Would it be about, ah...
JK: About two feet high. About two feet high.
DM: Two feet high?
JK: The fire place.
DM: Oh, yeh, okay, okay.
JK: Just the fire place.
DM: But I mean, if you stood next to it, where would it come up?
MK: Oh, it wouldn't be, I don't think, that...
DM: It wouldn't be over your head...
MK: No, no. It wouldn't be over the head. But it would be up.
DM: Shoulder height, maybe? About four or five feet?
JK: Like I say, they built them up on a hill, on a little hill-like, and then when you would stand there, you would, well, maybe you'd have to stoop a little... to look in...
MK: ...Stoop a little in, but not much.
JK: Yeh.
DM: You would never have to reach up to put the bread in? It would always be down.
MK: Oh no, no. Not that high, no. Oh, I think I can see the one we had.
DM: Up on the side of the hill, up against the side of a hill, right?
MK: Yeh. The house was here, and then there was like a little hill. It was right up there.
DM: Is it anything like Annie Timko's? You know, she uses it now for a cold cellar. It looks like it might have settled. It's a nice little round mound there...
MK: It was made like one of those Eskimo hut, you know?
DM: Um-hmm. Like an Igloo.
MK: Igloo, right. And hers, hers looks pretty big. Isn't it? But if she uses it -- Annie TImko's, there -- it looks pretty big...
JK: Yeh, they had a good sized one there.
MK: Well, they use it as a cellar now, see? So maybe they built it up higher.
DM: No, it's not that high, but she can crawl in and out of it. Believe it or not, she can still get down there and crawl in. But you have to crawl. It's low, a very low door. But she has a wooden door on it that will shut and lock.
MK: It's in that order, it was.
DM: Well, we can move out to the garden for a minute, then, and we'll talk for a few minutes about the garden, and then I think that will be about enough for today. This will get you tireder than your regular work, if I don't let up, huh?
MK: Ha ha!
DM: Can you remember what you planted in your graden, back on the Back Street?
JK: Oh, I planted about the same as here. Potatoes, and carrots, and lettuce and...