70

A. Varesano interviewing Anna Timko
-15-
6/23/72
Tape 16-2

663 and they had (Back St) bigger rooms downstairs Because they live in one of these
homes up here, too, and then they moved.

AV: Oh, big, something like the Denions live in?

AT: Something like that, yes. Yes, on that order, yes.

AV: That's interesting to know. Well, who was this woman who had twenty-one
boarders?

AT: She was a Mrs. Yenshaw.

AV: Yenshaw? Not this one?

AT: Oh, no. Her mother-in-law.

AV: What was her name? First name?

AT: Susan, I think was her first name. She died years ago already. That was her
husband's mother.

AV: How much was she charging for these boarders?

AT: I don't know how much she was charging for them. What I understood, that
they had different ways of doing with it. I don't know whether she did it,
675 or was it a way before that, but I used to hear them talking, you know, but I
never lived through it, but just what I heard them talking about it. That
some had, that they would eat altogether, and then they woud add up what it
cost and they would divide it among themselves, so much for each one equally.
And some of them, I don't know how, were they buying their own, or how it was.
I don't know, I can't tell you.

AV: Do you know what they called these different kind of systems?

AT: No.

AV: Well, how old were these boarders?

AT: They were all young men, because they were all working in th mines, they
were all young men.

AV: Didn't she have any problems with them? Their behavior, like?

AT: I don't know. Probably , you know, because like all men
they'd want to take a drink or something and so many of them there together,
and then she had her own children, I don't know how many young children she
had there yet, too. I don't remember, did she tell me how many children she
had at the time, or not? But I couldn't believe, you know, she told me, this
lady was telling me herself, that she had twenty-one boarders! I said, Where
did you put them? Especially for sleeping, because for food, well they could
cook food. And people didn't eat like they do now, everybody has their own
dish, but then you cooked something, you put the pan on the table, then
everybody was reaching into it, taking out of it. Because, where could she
keep up with everything, you know, to do all that work herself? You couldn't
do it! To do the wash, the cooking, and serve them, and everybody at different
times they're working, you know, you have to have a meal for everyone. It's
difficult.

AV: And how much was she charging for them?

AT: I don't know. You couldn't charge too much, because the wages weren't high.
So, it probably didn't cover up your work, how much you put into it. That's
hard.

AV: Not to mention, she had to have water ready for them every night, too.

AT: Right. Because there were no wash shanties. And you had to carry your
700 water. Then they'd bring a tub, and they'd be washing- because my brother
used to change here - the youngest brother, the one that liver in Upper
Lehigh - he used to change, before they had wash shanties. So then, in 1934
they built a garage, because my husband wanted to get a car, so they built a
garage. So he put his car in the garage, and he'd wash here and change here,
you know, change his clothes here, leave his work clothes here, and put on
his shift clothes. And in the morning the same thing, when he'd come he'd