Vol. 4-Interview-Zahay

AV inter. FZ -126/20/72 Tape 13

FZ Right down below Charnigo's house

AV In front of his

FZ No below it, below Charnigo's house there was a house down below that so the hydrant was between those 2 homes

AV Who lived in that house that burned down

FZ My brother-in-law lived on the one side

AV Which brother-in-law was that, what was his name

FZ He's dead, you know Joe Sulkosky, and the other side a fellow named Barner Mile Barner, he still lived in Freeland

AV Did he have a family was he married

FZ He was married but I don't think he had a family, that was too long ago I don't remember

AV As a carpenter you got to know these homes in the town very well, did you use to build out-houses for the people

FZ Yeh we built out-houses, coal-sheds the only thing we didn't build was you call it a shelter, a shed, you see this door over here, I built the outside door but right in front of that people built what we called a shed, you call it a shelter but the people use to have to build them themselves the company wouldn't do it, but we built out-houses and coal-sheds

AV Did you have a certain plan or did you just build them like that

FZ No, well we had certain dimensions and that's what we used on all of them

AV So they came out pretty much the same way

FZ We just knew the heighth and width

AV Did you build those out-side cellars for the people, like Mrs. Timko has

FZ No, people built them their ownselves, the same thing with the bake oven they built them too

AV Did you have a bake-oven when you lived on the Back Street

FZ No, we had no bake-oven

AV inter. FZ -136/20/72 Tape 13

AV And did you have a cellar

FZ Yes we had a cellar, one of those out-side cellars you know what we often talk about

FZ You know in later years, we lived in house #1, it had a small cellar only about 4 ft. high that's all and it was cemented and all, a nice cellar but then in later years see everybody was (???????) and they stripped and when they stripped you know how far the coal was down below the cellar floor

AV How much

FZ About 3 ft. that's all the surface was on the coal so we often thought of it but we didn't know it a good chance to get our coal, yeh just about 3 ft. we didn't know it until they started to strip and the way we used to build out-houses every family had a single out-house we built them together for both houses, like 2 single ones stuck together, just a partition in between

AV And where would they be located in the back yard between the two yards

FZ Yeh the same as now, but they were no good because you'd walk into a toilet and there would be someone else in there next door and you just had to watch and then later on I don't know whose idea it was to change it, every family had their own

AV How would you go about building one of those out-houses, what was the first thing you'd do

Fz Well you had men, laborers, that's all they did they'd dig a hole and in those days they dug them deeper now they only dig them 4 ft. deep in those days they'd dig them 5, 6 ft. deep and about 4 ft. wide and the length of 2, I'd say 7, 8 ft. after puttin' them together well first thing you'd do was build what they called a box, just like a boc, just the 4 sides

AV What would you build that with, planks

FZ Yeh, you'd make a frame, 2 frames and you'd nail the boards onto these frames and after it was built you'd lower it into this hole and on top of this box after the box was lowered into the hole, put clay all around

AV inter. FZ -146/20/72 Tape 13

to hold it into position

AV Where did the clay come from

FZ From out of the hole and then we built the toilet like I said the dimensios were maybe ?ft. top, 7 ft. front, 5 or 6 ft back that's all

AV Why did you make the hole 5 or 6 ft. deep at the time

FZ Well in those days they made them deeper you wouldn't have to do them so often

AV They wouldn't get filled up so

FZ Yeh, now four feet, there's a family can fill them up in no time

AV Well what's the next step then when you complete the outhouse

FZ That's all

AV Did you build a frame

FZ You start over again

AV No I mean the top part of the out-house it would be on top ot the box

FZ Yeh, the first thing when you built the box the top frame, the top frame is 8 inches wide, o.k. the plank for the box they only used half of the frame then the other half you would use for the top, you know what I mean now, and then we'd measure the front we'd out one plank square and the other plank we'd put whatever pitch we wanted on the roof, see, put the corners up, and we'd do the same thing with the 2 back corners and then we'd put our frame in between

AV You would roof it with planks

FZ Boards and tar paper

AV And then you'd put in your sides

FZ Yeh, That's what I said, the box, the top frame was 8 inches wide, well we only used, see this is the top frame, we only used half of it for the plank on the box to nail on and then we'd have the other half for the boards for the top of the toilet to nail on and an extra frame for the bottom but then the top you had to make a frame you know

AV And then you'd make the inside of the out-house

AV inter. FZ -156/20/72 Tape 13

Yeh we made the seat, each family had 2 holes on each side

AV Why 2

FZ Well I guess one was a big one and one was a small one for the children, mostly a big one an a small one

AV Oh I see, and did you put any hooks or windows in there

FZ No, you mean hooks on the door

AV No hooks on the out-house, oh to hold the door close

FZ And the outside all you had was a knob something like that there

AV Like a latch on your cellar door

FZ Yeh, some were made that you could lock them, see,

AV That you needed a key to open it

FZ No, no if you were on the inside you'd look it inside and nobody could get it open, you had to open it yourself this way

AV And didn't you have any light in there

FZ No

AV How would you get light, would you cut holes in it

FZ Most of the people would put windows in, just big enough for 8 x 10 window pane

AV Where would that be located

FZ Oh anywhere, they had them on the door and some had them on the side, mostly on the side

AV Did they have designs cut into the door for light, like you have that half moon on your door

FZ No, if you wanted something like that you had to put it in yourself

AV Why did they have that design for

FZ It depended on the individual what he wanted

AV Did they think it looks fancy

FZ Yeh that's why, made it look a little different, see I put the half-moon on see instead of puttin' a square window in I put the half-moon it was up to the in-

AV inter. FZ -166/20/72 Tape 13

AV What other designs did they put in there

FZ Mostly half-moon, some hole, mostly a hole for a 8 x 10 window pane, that's all just a square hole put a frame around and put a window pane in

AV How did you take care of the out-house, did you pour something in periodically

FZ No we never did

AV You didn't put in any quick lime or something

FZ No

AV When did the practice come

FZ Oh I don't know most of the people don't use it now not that I know of

AV I heard that they put in some

FZ Well some people do

AV So how would you tell when the out-houses were getting filled up

FZ You could see, I know when we lived on, this is a raw one, when we lived on the Back Street when I was at home yet out toilet was so full and the wouldnt give us a new one my father went to work and he raised the seat in order that you could sit on it and he went up after the boss a couple times boss by the name of Verdic and he wouldn't give us a toilet and my father went up one day and said "Jim if you don't give me a toilet, do you know what I'm goin' to do," and right alongside our garden was a pretty deep ditch, my father said, "Listen Jimmy if you don't give me a toilet I'm goin' dig a ditch from the toilet out to this big ditch andlet it run out in the ditch" so I guess he really thought my father would do it so they came down and gave us a toilet, that's how lousy they were

AV It was about time they did

FZ As I said my father added 8 inches on so you knew where to sit

AV So I take it the manure wouldn't disintegrate that quickly

FZ No, and I guess the reason that was there was a lot of paper too

AV Oh yes what did you use