page_0076

A. Varesano interviewing Helen Fedorsha -12- 6/15/72
Tape 14-2

now, you'd walk, that was the road that they used to go up to the colliery with. There was no name for it. And they you'd start walking up the Main Street. As you were walking up, maybe there was a couple couples coming down Main Street and then they'd go up Back Street! And, well, "Hello", "Hello"! I can't tell you have many rounds you'd make around the town, because around here it was an alley, where the street is now, that was an alley. And you'd walk up that way, and you'd start going down the Back Street again. And the couples that you'd met, you met them I dont' know how many times a night, and every time, "Hello", "Hello"!
AV: How late would you do this?
HF: Oh, we were supposed to be in the house by nine o'clock or a little after nine, and then if you would go out later you had to give an account of yourself. Today, my God, if you told the kids to do that, they'd think you're crazy! And one night we were out - our mother and dad were out to a wake - and, oh, it was a beautiful moonlight night, and me and our Anna were out, and wer eout later than we could otherwise be, and we're comin' home, and we had that small window in the back room, and we used to keep a screen in there, but I guess the screen was taken out, the window was open, so, the curtains were short curtains, but they were blowing out the window. We're coming down the street, and we can see this, and we though, our daddy is waiting for us to come home, sitting at the window. So we came down to the house, and I didn't want to try the door, our Anna didn't want to try to door. But my mother used to leave the door open for us to come in. And we'd close the door after - well, usually my dad would come in after we came in the house and he would close up the door for the night. So I said to our Anna, Somebody's sitting at that window! And the curtains were blowing out, there must have been another window open in the place, and there was a draft and the curtains were blowing out. So we come to the house, and we are afraid to try the door. We're sitting around outside. We finally came to the conclusion, it doesn't help to sit outside. No matter how early we came down, and we're gonna sit outside, we're gonna be out there late. So then they won't believe us that we came home at that time. They'll think we just came home when we rap at the door. We finally tried the door and the door was locked. And I said, well, I guess they are waiting for us. So we tried the door again, because I said to Anna, I said, You know, Anna, the longer we stay here, the later it's gonna get, they aren't gonna believe that we were here so long, they'll think we just came home. And we tried the door again. My mother heard us. And she said give my daddy a nudge and she said, did you lock that door? And see, it was my mother's job to fix things up for the night. My daddy never did, so he wasn't used to it. And she said, Did you lock that door? And he said, I don't know. And it was just a habit for him to slip the latch. She says, I hear somebody. And she said, I wonder if the girls are home? My daddy gets out of bed, looks in the back room, we weren't there. So, he came down, and he opened the door, and of course we though we were going to get a ripping out, because it was late already. Well, late in those days, today it wouldn't be. Today maybe they wouldn't be going out yet. And he said, how long were you girls out here. ANd we told him how long, and we were afraid to rap at the door. Well, he said, I was down, and when I was down, it just slipped my mind and I just slipped the latch and that's it. You weren't being watched!
AV: You mean, they would go in bed and trust you to come home?
HF: Oh yes, an order was an order. You were told what time you were expected home and you, there were very few that disobeyed that order, very few. Because, you didn't question them on it. THey gave you an order, you didn't