60

A. Varesano interviewing Anna Timko
-5-
6/23/72
Tape 16-2

254 probably had them still burning, I don't know. Because I'm saying, I didn't
have it done, and my mother didn't do it, so I didn't really see how it was
done, so I don't know.

AV: Well, what did the top part look like?

AT: It was covered, something like my cellar is.

AV: Round?

AT: No, not round. Square. And straight. Not exactly square, it was straight,
you know, straight, up on top. I don't know, they probably must have had
another sheet iron, I guess, on the top, too, to throw the head, or something.
I don't know how they....Could have been, I guess, the one on top, and then
the one on the inside, you know, like for a platform.

AV: What was the door like? Did they have a door on front?

AT: They just used to put something in front of it. I can't tell you what.

AV: A square opening? Or a round opening?

AT: It was a pretty big opening. A square opening. It was a pretty big opening.
And what they used to put infront of it, I can't tell you. We didn't have
one, so I can't describe it completely.

AV: This one that you're describing to me, who used to have one like that?

AT: Oh, a great many people had them in town, then. I said, there's one used to
be across the street here, but they didn't use it while I was living here,
already, they didn't use it. But they still had it there. But see, it wasn't
in use. I guess it was too much work, you know, to take it apart, because
there was a lot of work to it, there was brick, and there was sheet iron, and
everything else. You know, it was hard work to take it all apart. So, it was
standing there. But then finally the people broke them up. They didn't have
any use for them.

AV: Well, you know why I asked about the shape, because some people have told me
that the top was rounded, cone-like.

AT: Well, what I remember, this to me seemed it was straight on top. And I don't
know whether they had a chimney to it, or not, that I don't remember. They
must have had a chimney, because how else would the wood burn inside of it?

AV: What family was that?

AT: Well, there were so many people living here, so I don't know who used it. But
the last family that was here, they wer Slovak [?], and I think they were the
ones that knocked it apart there. But there were other people, they never
used it, it wasn't theirs. Because they come to live here after I was here,
already. They come here later, because she was living with her mother. And
then they come in here to live, later, after, you know, way after I was here.
I don't know how many years I was here when they come here, so they weren't
using it. That thing used to stand there. And then they went and they, I
think it was them that tore, broke it up, tore is apart. And my mother-in-law
250 had a smokehouse. She lived right next, across the road here, on the
other side. She had a smokehouse. She used to, you know, she kept pigs
and she'd kill them, and she'd make her sausage and the hams, and keilbasas
and different things, you know, and she would smoke them in the smokehouse.
She'd cure her stuff, her bacon and everything, she'd cure it. My brother
had, too, he had a smokehouse. He used to raise a pig about six months, and
then he would kill it. And the bacon would just be that thick! The fat was
like butter! It was young, you know. After he cured it, and he smoke it,
and he'd....

AV: How did they do that?

AT: Well, they used to, you had to put it, when you'd kill it, and you cut the
bacon up, and yu had to soak it. Well, usually they used to put it in tubs,
because they were wood. And put salt on them, and then you had to

A. Varesano interviewing Anna Timko
-5-
6/23/72
Tape 16-2

254 probably had them still butrning, I don't know. Because I'm saying, I didn't
have it done, and my mother didn't do it, so I didn't really see how it was
done, so I don't know.

AV: Well, what did the top part look like?

AT: It was covered, something like my cellar is.

AV: Round?

AT: No, not round. Square. And straight. Not exactly square, it was straight,
you know, straight, up on top. I don't know, they probably must have had
another sheet iron, I guess, on the top, too, to throw the head, or something.
I don't know how they....Could have been, I guess, the one on top, and then
the one on the inside, you know, like for a platform.

AV: What was the door like? Did they have a door on front?

AT: They just used to put something in front of it. I can't tell you what.

AV: A square opening? Or a round opening?

AT: It was a pretty big opening. A square opening. It was a pretty big opening.
And what they used to put infront of it, I can't tell you. We didn't have
one, so I can't describe it completely.

AV: This one that you're describing to me, who used to have one like that?

AT: Oh, a great many people had them in town, then. I said, there's one used to
be across the street here, but they didn't use it while I was living here,
already, they didn't use it. But they still had it there. But see, it wasn't
in use. I guess it was too much work, you know, to take it apart, because
there was a lot of work to it, there was brick, and there was sheet iron, and
everything else. You know, it was hard work to take it all apart. So, it was
standing there. But then finally the people broke them up. They didn't have
any use for them.

AV: Well, you know why I asked about the shape, because some people have told me
that the top was rounded, cone-like.