Vol. 3-Interview-Sikora

A. Varesano interviewing Steve Sikora -4- 7/19/72 089 Tape 22-1 AV: Do you remember that incident? SS: Naw, I don't remember, just that I heard of it. Because we just about came in, 1918 from Farmertown we moved, when we lived down there in the cullent? AV: What did your house look like on the Back Street? SS: Well, the same as them that's up there, you see them two that's up there? AV: Oh, you mean like Mrs. Timko's house? SS: That's right. Only burs had a sheet-iron roof. AV: Sheet iron? SS: Yeah, metal. It was like that there corrugated. AV: Was it a weatherboard from the outside? SS: Yeah, same as these. Same as these, only it was a smaller home, that's all. There was only one bedroom upstairs, that's all. AV: Just that part, like under the pointed roof. SS: That's right, one bedroom. And there there was a little cubby-hole, we called it, you know, a little bodda there, where the stove-pipes used to come through. So, there wasn't much room. And they said there used to be a lot of people, I mean, they used to live in them homes, too. I mean, the boarders they used to have, some of them. AV: In the Shanty Street homes? Well, how many rooms on the first floor? SS: There was only two downstairs that I know, the parlor and the kitchen. That's all. AV: And did they have a built-in summer kitchen? Attached to it? The shanty? SS: No, from the house to the shanty it used to be open. There wasn't a building like it is now. There used to be a space in between the house and the shanty, they had a boardwalk. So they used to do mostly all their cooking back in the shanty. Their washing, and all that stuff. AV: Was this boardwalk on your house roofed over, or just open? SS: It was just a platform to walk on, that's all. All boards. AV: Oh, it was not anything fancy, like... SS: No, it was just boards, I mean, two wide boards, side by side, for a boardwalk, that's all. AV: I see. SS: And it wasn't closed in, like now. It used to be open between the shanty and the house. You could see all the way down, you know what I mean? AV: Why was it separate from the rest of the house? SS: Well, that's the way they put 'em up, because, I guess everybody stopped comin' in, because there was a lot of work here. I guess they put 'em up in a hurry, is all. AV: The inside of that Stanty Street house, was that plastered or papered?

A. Varesano interviewing Steve Sikora -7- 7/19/72 115 Tape 22-1 AV:It wasn't the men's job at all? SS: No, the mean never interfered with that line of work. AV: You mean you never fussed around with... SS: N'how they ever used to put that, but it used to hand, too, you know? That cloth! AV: Yeah? How do you mean, it used to hang? SS: Well, how they used to put it up, I don't remember, but they used it on the sides, all around. And then the whole thing used to s-- away from the ceiling you know? It used to be pretty even, but it used to be raggish. Different color, you know. AV: What did you have on your ceiling, printed cloth? SS: Well, just sort of a print, or either a solid, you know? I even forget. I think mine was more of a solid color. AV: Who did the papering in there, the women or the men? SS: The ladies, I mean, the wife. They used to get together and they used to help one another. AV: What did your father do when he came home from the mines, just in the way of a hobby or something to help out? SS: What did he do, oh I'll tell you! He used to make sure that there was wood in the house, and coal. You know, there used to be coal in them days, in them days you could pick coal. they wouldn't stop you. AV: Did you pick coal? SS: Oh, yeah, I used to pick it here, but since I am on pension I don't go there. AV: Ah, what kind of thing did he to do help out in the family? Did he hunt or trap, or anything? SS: No, he didn't have no sports of that sort. He used to like to pitch crates. Or play checkers. And play cards. What I mean, like pinochle, he used to love that. That was his hobby. AV: He didn't hunt or fish? SS: No, he never went for that. AV: Did he know anything about shoe-fixing or shoemaking? SS: Yes, he used to fix all them shoes. He had one of them things, you know, I still have them in the coop. AV: What's it called? SS: Kopicka. we call it in Slavish. It's a shoe thing, you know, you put a shoe over it. It's a stand, and then there's a thing made like a shoe, and then you put the shoe over it. So, we used to fix our shoes. You'd get an old piece of leather, and take the whole sole off and put new leather on, or either rubber, that heavy rubber like you see they have on a truck, like the flaps? That's what they used to make it strong, you know. AV: Did he make the shoes, besides fix them? SS: No, he didn't make the shoes. just repair the soles, that's all, or the heels. AV: Did you know how to do that? I mean, did you learn from him how to do that? SS: I used to watch him. I used to get the stuff, like the leather and stuff from the shoemaker's. We used to have a shoemaker here in town. AV: Oh, an Italian fellow. SS: That's right. What was the name, oh, it's one of their daughters that married to...ah..Bartols. He was a shoemaker. He was a good shoemaker. Then his son took over, he's not living here now, though. I used to work in the mines with him, with the son. But he pulled out somewhere, I don't know, Philadelphia or somewhere. AV: Where did he have his shop downtown? SS: Right in the house, right by the house, he had a little place built on the stone side of the house, like.

A. Varesano interviewing Steve Sikora -6- 7/19/72 146 Tape 22-1 AV: Oh, the Bertold house. That's not there any more? SS: No, it's ripped down. It's right across from Fatula's out here. Johnny Fatula. Right there. AV: What kind of a house did it look like? SS: Well, it was a little different house that these here. AV: Not a double-house type? SS: No, it was a single. Something like Fatulas. In that order. AV: And he had it built on to the side of his house. SS: Yeah, on the side: He had to come out of the house, and then he'd have his thing, like, in the garden. It was away from the house a little bit. The shoemaker's shop. AV: Oh, it's SS: Yeah, they probably put that up there, some place, yes. AV: How big was the place? SS: Oh, about as big as this. AV: Oh, twenty feet by twenty? SS: I'd say yes, something like that. About the size of this, I guess. AV: And the construction of that, do you remember? Did it have a pointed roof, or a flat roof? SS: Well, sort of a pointish, I would say. It was like a point, you know, like an ice cream cone. That's the way that one was built. That's how I remember it. AV: Ice cream cone? SS: Like a point, you know? AV: Like this roof here? SS: Ice cream cone upside down, you know! AV: Oh! Okay! It was a square, a rectangular-type structure? SS: Yeah, it was just squared off, something like this, I guess, but I mean had a pointy roof, and that's where he had the shoemaker's shop. AV: Did you ever go in there? SS: Oh, yeah. A lot of times I want in there. AV: He must have had a separate coal stove for that. SS: Yeah, he had like a heather, you know, them old-time heaters..It used to burn coal. AV: And how much his stuff, do you remember that? SS: Well, you mean the... AV: His shoes? SS: Well, they had different prices, I guess, for different shoes. What the prices, I couldn't tell you, because, I mean, like my father, he used to mostly fix ours, you know, smaller. But once in a while he used to take them down there. But the price I forget, what he used to charge. AV: It must have been pretty low, compared to, ah, looking at the wages of the miners at the time. SS: Oh, yeah, well the miners wasn't making much money. Look, when I started to work, I was only making three dollars a day. AV: What did you do? SS: When I first, well, I say, a mule operator. That's all I was making. AV: What did your father do? SS: Well, he worked in the mines, and some places, but I don't remember that, you know. Because he traveled pretty near all over the United States, my father, you know? Wherever there was work, he went there, you know, for his bread. He went through Kingston and all them places. Parkut, and all over. AV: Did he have his miner's certificate? SS: Yeah. But I never seen it, I mean. Because even his paper, his certificates

A. Varesano interviewing Steve Sikora -7- 7/19/72 173 Tape 22-1 SS: and everything, I never took care of them for him, because we was smaller, you know? And all those brothers and sisters, why, they went and got married and we left everything, you know what I mean, so. AV: What else did your father do to help around the house, when he wasn't mining? Did he have any other activities that he'd do? SS: Well, he would like, fix fences that ought to be repaired, or put posts in, stuff like that, because them days everything was all fenced all over, you know. Used to look like a little ranch, this place, Eckley! AV: Did he put up the fences? SS: Well, like if it had to be repaired, if it was rotted posts or something, he'd take that post out and put another one in. AV: Who put them up originally, a company carpenter? SS: Gee, I couldn't tell you. Did they usually put it up, or did the people put it up? I even forget myself. They used to get the lumber from the company in them days, you know? That's when I was here. The company used to donate it. AV: Who built the outhouses, out back? SS: What's that? AV: The outhouses. SS: What do you mean, the outhouses? AV: Well, the outhouse. SS: You mean in there? AV: Yeah! SS: Well, the company, you know. The company had carpenters. That's how it was. They had carpenters. Like Lehigh Valley, Jedda Highland, Coxes, they had carpenters. They used to repair the houses, I mean the roofs, tarpaper on, and stuff, in them days. AV: And did your family do much berry-picking? SS: Yes, we did a lot of berry-picking when we used to be small. The mother always went out, and the father. When he had time, and had nothing else to do, he would go, too. Pretty near the whole town used to go out. Everybody. There was always you could hear people hollering out in the mountains: Johnny! Albert! All that stuff, you know, their mother used to be hollerin'. Come over here! The whole town used to go out, mostly, for berries. And they used to go out til dinner, then would come home and have a piece of butter bread, or whatever you had to eat, and go back again til five o'clock. AV: Did you's pick only blueberries, or put in other stuff, like strip berries... SS: Well, mostly blueberries, or swamp berries. They called them swamp berries, that's the ones thats on them high bushes. So, we used to make two trips a day like that, for berries. AV: Did you mix them all in, to sell as blueberries? SS: Well, you could, yeah. They would take them. But sometimes, some huckelberry mean, they wouldn't take them if they were mixed. They wanted them separate. Because on account of these bakeries. See, they would want just the blueberry, and they wouldn't want mixed. AV: How much did they buy them for? SS: Well, we used to get, it was cheap in them days. Blueberries wasn't so expensive. Like today, they give you at least thirty-five cents a quart. But them days, I don't know what the world it was, about. Started with about ten or fifteen cents, I guess. See, well, things was cheap then. The wages and everything, you know what I mean? The material and everything. So. AV: Did you ever get out to go for mushrooms, or didn't you go in for that? SS: You mean, in them days? Oh, yeah, my father, all of us used to go. Mostly the boys, you know. My father was a great mushroom picker. He would always

A. Varesano interviewing Steve Sikora -8- 7/19/72 208 Tape 22-1 SS: come home with mushrooms. Redtoppers - ??? they called them - white toppers, he used to go out and pick mushrooms. He used to go down towards ???? , there used to be a ball field there where they used to play baseball. Down in there he used to have a ???? place, he would always come home with a big bagful. He used to always have a water bucket with him. He used to carry a water bucket. Twelve-quart bucket. He would always come home with that filled up. AV: And did he pick those ??? SS: And ???? he used to pick, too. Yup. Them little ones, I mean them peppertops, they called them. AV: Pepper-tops. SS: Yeah. Well, like pepper on top of them. AV: What did you finally do with them after they got them? Did you eat them right away or did you can them? SS: Well, some of them we used to dry. Like say, we even dry them here ourselves, like, you put 'em in a bag on the stove. See, the stove has to be burning. Like a coal stove. Well, you hang them on a string, you string them on a string, you cut them up first, in sections like, the stems separate and, you know. Then you keep putting with a needle through the thing until you have a ring, like if you would put a necklace on, you know. Then you hand them on the stove, by the stove, and they would dry up, you know, if there was any bugs or anything in them, they used to crawl out from the heat. And you dry them and they'll last for years and years. AV: And you'dc cook them when you wanted them? SS: Well, they used to save them for Christmas. AV: Yeah, that's the special... SS: See, we have a bagful in there now, I mean, for, oh, a good many years already that we have dried. For Christmas, they always had for the Eve, you know what I mean? Christmas Eve. AV: That's good. What did your family do on Christmas Eve? SS: Oh, like, have a supper, you know. Mushrooms, and then you get wafers from church and stuff like that. Like if you go for Communion. Put a little honey, you dip it in, and stuff like that, so. AV: Did you have any special type of custom that you did? SS: Well, like what? AV: Well, bring in the kuba players, or? SS: Oh, yeah, there used to be kubas used to come around in them days. They used to go around and sing all these songs from church. They used to get permission, you know? Used to have like a permit. Joe Charnigy used to be one. Did he ever tell you? Yeah he was one. You ask him sometime. And my uncle, here, that passed away, he used to be. He used to be that spady, they called it, the old man. And then they used to be- dressed up, you know, with big straws things filled up, (like a barrel) filled up with straw. They used to call him the spady, and then there was another fellow with him, they used to call him the mady. That was old and young, you know? Oh, they used to be good days. Happy days. AV: How about Halloween? What did you do around here on Halloween? In the old days? SS: Oh, gee, I don't know, the olden days on Halloween. Oh, I even forget what they, we used to do. I know today they come right to your door somehow. AV: Yeah. I thought the young boys around here pulled a few pranks now and then? SS: I don't know much about Halloween, I mean, but I remember unless it comes in my mind later on, or something. AV: How about Thanksgiving? What did the people do around here on Thanksgiving?