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A. Varesano interviewing Helen Fedorsha -10- 6/15/72
Tape 14-2

would call the manure pile. That used to be used on the garden for fertilizer. And it's better than any fertilizer in the world.
AV: That was only for cows, you used the leaves?
HF: Even for under pigs, so that they wouldn't have to lay on the bare floor. And then you'd used some straw. But you made sure they weren't on the bare floor. And even though the people weren't educated, but most of them knew how to take care of animals. So that was our job there, we used to go down to Number Eight, down where I showed you that I though was the Number Eight slope. Well, down in that section - it's all stripped now - we used to down in that section. And the leaves would really be high. There were a lot of trees and they'd fall off, so they'd really be high. And, I used to enjoy walking through them, and they used to smell so good!
AV: So, the kids were really brought up with work.
HF: Yessir, they were brought up with work. No mini-bikes trying to shatter your nerves! As soon as they have a couple of pennies, they go out and buy a mini-bike and they runit like mad! No sir, you didn't see the kids do that!
AV: So the girls at that age were almost ready for marriage?
HF: Yes, when, I think when they were fourteen, fifteen they were ready for marriage.
AV: Why did your father object to your sister's marrying so young?
HF: Oh, he didn't exactly object, only he told her to be careful, that she is so young. But girls didn't get out like they do today, you know, to travel around and meet different men. You didn't get out that way, so a man that you knew and you thought you liked, you married, and that was it, you were settled.
AV: What kind of standards did the girl have in looking, and choosing a man? Did she avoid certain characteristics?
HF: Well, I think most of them out try to avoid men who drank heavily. And men who were good-natured, good workers. Because even then there were men among them that would work a few days a week and take the rest of the time off. They didn't want to work. Well, then, you were trying to be careful not to marry someone like that, because then you were in trouble.
AV: How would you know?
HF: Well, even in the one town, a small town like this, naturally you'd know about one another no matter how it is. People talk, and there's nothing very secret. Everything is told, and especially women knew something about a man and they knew that, say, for instance, your daughter was going to be married and I knew something about this man that wasn't too nice, well, I wouldn't keep it under my hat, I'd tell her about it.
AV: You'd tell the bride, or?
HF: The mother, and tell the mother that thell her daughter to be careful.
AV: Ah, hah!
HF: Oh, yes, we didn't even need a telephone in this town!
AV: I believe it!
HF: But everone got along, regardless of what you were, were you Dutch, were you Irish, were you Polish, were you Tyrolean, it didn't matter. Everyone got along with one another. Everyone was good enough for anybody.
AV: Did they object to marriages between, like, Slavish and Irish?
HF: No, not, ah, they had some objection to it, but not that much. If the girl insisted, then they went ahead and they married.
AV: Which ones might they object to?
HF: Well, really, I think the most they would object to is someone who was lazy, and someone who drank too much. They'd object to that, because they would just figure that she wouldn't have a good life. And it was true that a lot