Vol. 3-Interview-Timko

Hole punched through word, Fold remedy

During the 1918 flu, the people used gun powder dissolved in water to treat the flu.

Anne Heard people were eating garlic to keep away the flu, they even put it on the window sills to keep out the flu. Those that( knew is crossed out) she knew that did this all got the flu. She didn't + her family never got the flu, so she doesn't believe this.

(Unreadable Header on right upper left) Woods Foods

Mrs. Jane Timko (Unreadable Date)

When she + her brother went out for huckle berries they used to carry their dinners with them. This consisted of a piece of bread which was eaten with berries.

The berries grow in sunny areas, not where there is thick woods; They like open spaces between rocks; This was where she used to look for them.

Edible foods from the woods included huckle berries, pignuts, chestnuts, walnuts, + mushrooms. Pignuts grow in burrs on short bushes + where not eaten by her + her brother Chestnuts used to be found by her family at Sandy Hill, towards Sandy Valley. They used to pick them off the road. Now they are scarce. Their family didn't sell them, just ate them for food. Preparation: They are good cooked in salted water; the shells would then pull off easily. Some people would roast them in the shells on top of hot coal stoves. The skin wasn't cut - it would burst by itself. These chestnuts are smaller than horse chestnuts. Walnuts were not not found in the woods in this area, she said. Some people had walnut trees planted in their yards, however.

Food Recipes

Mushrooms were cooked fo christmas in a soup. * Preparation: Dried + stringed mushrooms would be soaked in hot water, taken off the string, washed several times in water so as to leave the rinse water clear. Then they would be put through a food chopper so the pieces would be even. They would be cooked in a pan with water to cover + salt to taste; + cooked till tender. This takes a long time, since the mushrooms are dried.

Wash out rice to get the starch out. Add raw rice to cooked mushrooms. When this starts cooking, add saurkraut juice to taste.

Brown butter + onions with a teaspoon of flour. Let cook till this "seasons" - ie, till it browns. Add this mixture to mushroom + rice + let it "bubble through" till it's done.

* Other way of serving mushrooms as a dinner dish: Chop mushrooms, add to browned butter + onions, with salt to taste. Add beaten eggs + let it finish cooking. (Eggs added depend on amount of mushrooms you have + ratio of eggs to mushrooms you want.)

A. Varesano interviewing Anne Timko -1- 7/19/72 Tape 22-2

AV: So, what did the men do in the household? For example, young boys, what were they supposed to do? AT: Well, usually bring in the coal, or little chores around the house, that was their line of work. AV: Were the chorese of the boys different from the ones of the girls? AT: Oh, yes, the boys would usually do the outside work, and the girls' was on the inside, do dishes or sweep or something like that, you know. Dust, that was the girls' work. It was different from the boys'. AV: Did the boys tend the gardens? AT: No, the older people usually used to do that. They weren't interested in that! JT: (her son, Joh, speaking in the background) They was interested in girls! AT: Oh, no. Not little boys, John! JT: Oh, you don't know, there Mom! AT: I guess I don't! AV: So, did the boys have to go off to help their father chop wood? AT: Ask my son. Joh, did you hear that one? Did the boys have to go and help their fathers chop wood? Tell 'em how you were choppin' wood. Oh, I don't know how old he was, about how old were you at that time, John, do you remember? He was only a young boy yet, and Mike was a kid, I don't even think Mike was goin' to school yet. And John was choppin' wood, and Mike- Joe went up to help, and Mike was the younger one- he wanted to help, too. And he was choppin' the wood, and they were picking it up, you know, to put it in the woodshed. And as they were pickin' it up, and John swung the ax, and the ax flew off the handle, and hit Mike's head. Boy, did he have a gash in his head. Oh, my gosh, that was terrible. They often talk about it. But it wasn't John's fault, the handle just got loose, and the ax flew off the handle and caught him in the head. So they had to take him to the doctor, and he got, I don't know how many stitches he got into his head, because it was in Mike's hair, and you know, it was dangerous if he wouldn't had those stitches. That was the kid only had so many accidents. All serious ones! And one day he said to me, It has to be me, Mommy, it's always only me! It was him, he always got the most of everything. He was so unlucky. AV: Did the boys have certain times that they had just to work, and then other times that they could play? AT: No, they'd drop playin', they felt like doin' anything they were told, they would do it when they had their spare time. They weren't really, you know, say that, well you have to do your work. You'd tell them to do it, but still they'd go out to play first. And then they'd come back in to do it, if they thought of it. If they were pushed again. If they weren't pushed, they wouldn't do it. AV: That's just like them! AT: Yeah, And bring the coal down from the coal shed. Mine didn't like to bring it down. Then, my husband won't bring it either. Said he has kids, let them bring it. And I complained to my brother, and he said, You know what to do with them? He said, Let them go in bed, and when they're asleep, he said, get them up to go and get the coal. I says, Mike, I couldn't do anything like that. Well, that's the only way you're gonna teach them, he said, otherwisethey won't, they'll always forget! But I never did that with them, though. I'd go up and get it myself! AV: So, your sons never had to get the coal from the back shed? AT: Yeah, they'd bring it, they brought it on occasion, but most of the times they'd forget. You know, like children, like to go out and play, and they'd forget what their chores are, what they're supposed to do.

A. Varesano interviewing Anne Timko -2- 7/19/72 Tape 22-2

AV: How about your brothers? Did they have to get coal from the back shed? AT: Oh, my brothers had to carry their coal from the banks. AV: Oh, they went picking? AT: After school, they always went picking. The time that we were talking, last time, you know, about my brothers, that was Vern, and he was only nine years old, and he went out to get this coal first, and his friends helped him to get the coal, because they wanted him to join their gang to go out with this powder, to burn it. So they helped him to bring in the coal, he has cans, I don't know, I guess they were about five-quart cans, it would amount to about half a bucket I guess, or something like that. And these boys went out with him, these firends went out with him and helped him pick the coal, so he'd get home sooner so he could go with them, and then it cost him his life. Then he went with them, and got burnt, and he died. AV: Did you remember that? AT: Oh, yes, I remembered that. I was seven years old. He was an older brother than myself. He was nine years old. Because I was telling you here, before then, my younger brother, another brother next to me, my younger brother, come in to tell me, you know, that my brother was burning there some place, and he jumped in the water. And he overheard one of the friends tell a man that was going up that way, and then we went lookin'. And it was getting late in the evening, and we didn't tell my mother. We were afraid that my mother will cry, and we didn't want to tell our mother, so we went - we were kids, he was five, I was seven - and we went up in the alley to look there, but by the time we come home he was in the house, and all the people were there already, this man brought him in, but he had come through the woods, you know, a path through the woods, come right up the back to the alley and that man brought him in. That was something. AV: I'll bet it was. Did he die then? AT: Oh, yes, he died the next night in the hospital then. He was burnt completely. Oh, that place stunk. Oh, everything stunk, just like, worse than burning meat or something. He was burnt terrible. The whole body, everything was burnt. The whole house smelled. It was terrible. The next morning - well, he stayed home overnight. The doctor wasn't in. He stayed home overnight. And the next morning, the doctor came and was flipping off that burnt skin from him, and then he sent him to the hospital, and one o'clock the next night he died at the hospital. Well the doctor at the hospital told my father, he said he didn't die from the burns. He said, I've seen worse burns than that. But he said, he died from the cold water. See, there was a water there about knee-deep or deeper, I guess, and thse boys were all kids, they didn't know what to do, so he jumped in the water to outen the fire. So he did, he jumped in the cold water. And the fire, you know, and the cold water, and that ended his life. It was terrible. AV: Where were you living at the time? AT: In my brother's place, where my brother lives now. That's where I was born and that's where I was living, until I got married. Even after I was married I lived there, til we got the house. AV: Whereabouts was this place where he was burned? AT: Where my brother is living, on Main Street, Gyurko's? In that house. AV: I mean this water... AT: Oh, that was down in the alley, that was down further, and they used to call that a cistern. Kids used to go down there and, you know, wasde through that water. I never went. I was afraid of water. I was afraid something was going to bite me on the feet if I'd get in the water! I was always afraid of water! But other children often did. They went in there. I got my friends