Vol. 4-Interview-Zosack

Wain Brown interviewing Susie Zosak -218/12/72 Tape3-1

WB Oh the teacher?

SZ Yeh, did you ever meet him?

WB No but I heard of him the, I heard about him

SZ Well he was our neighbor and she was a mid-wife

WB There was only 2 mid-wives in Eckley?

SZ There was Mrs. Machiskie she was my mid-wife and had about 3 doctors I guess, I'd have a doctor and then he'd get his practice and then I'd get another one, well Mrs Machiskie, are there Machiskie's in Eckley, yeh Johnny Cash's wife she is a Machiskie but her grandmother was a mid-wife, then there was Mrs. Stephanko and then Mrs. Machiskie got too old and she didn't go and then Mrs. Stephanko used to go. Andrew's mother the one the one without the arm, he was coming from Huckleberries and he crossed and when he was crossing his one leg and arm was cut off he used to live next door.

WB How about some other cures that you used are there other special cures that you used for different ailments

SZ Yeh, there's watchacallit, they used to say you were "overlooked", it's like a tea it's not poison I don't know if there's any around and then there's that watyoucall it, they use it for bad hearts, (digitalis?)

WB Garlic?

Sz No they need garlic too my father was a great garlic guy, I have some right there, you make, I remember when my oldest daughter graduated, she graduated from Philadelphia General and I had that book and it told you where that whatyoucall it, that was a good book I don't know where it disappeared, somebody just took it, one of ours, you know, maybe my second daughter graduated she used to go with a guy from Highland, so the one that belonged to her she never got it, there was no other book that the other girls graduated, none of them got any books like that it was gotten from Philadelphia General, that even had that this professor he was a big shot and he was sidk and he seen poor prople go on, and I was

Wain Brown interviewing Susie Zosak -228/12/72 Tape 3-1

thinkin' when I have more time, when I had little kids I didn't have time to read but I like to read even now, anything and I thought when I have more time I'm goin' to read that it was the history of nursing and you could see a picture of St. Elisabeth when she had a leper in the tub in the picture and she was washin' this leper and that was in Hungary where my husband and my father came from, St. Elisabeth was the Queen of Hungary, and when her husband died her mother-in-law put her out, that was the history, she did do that but was a saint before she died even

WB You said your father used a lot of garlic for his remedies

SZ Garlic is good, onions is good too, onions is good for a cold and they have iron in and it's good for a cold and do you know what they'd do, they'd stew onions and put on there to loosen all that, on your chest there

WB And that would loosen the phlegm in your throat?

SZ Yeh, to get that out, stewed onions and garlic, my father used to put the garlic on the stove and then we'd rub our feet with it

WB What would that do?

SZ Cure the cold, and Mrs. Morris across the street she was a Greek woman, a Galatian she would make a string like pearls and put them around her neck because a certain part of the month if you had worms and that time they used to drink fresh milk from the cows, it wasn't pasteurised, And the worms liked that and kids had worms it didn't hurt them but some would vomit one up or some would come up here real big ones they didn't hurtcha but but she put that and you passed them.

WB What was on the chain

SZ Garlic, she'd put them on a string and they smelled it and they didn't like the garlic smell and then you'd pass them out, some times they would come out your moth or your nose

WB How about teas, were there special teas that you drank?

SZ There was different kinds of stuff that they used I know this digitalis is the

Wain Brown interviewing Susie Zosak -238/12/72 Tape 3-1

stuff that they used, well this man in the History of Nursing said that when they went to see what the woman was curin' the people with, this professor, he thought the hell with youse big doctors them poor people are gettin' cured by this old lady, he didn't say it like I'm sayin' it, he went and when this man went there and came gack and got cured those smart men went and asked him where he was and went to her and it said there, this I read myself that old lady those things that she had but they're usin' that digitalis today for bad heart, he said they're usin' that today that that woman had in there but she had 8 or 9 and none of them doin' any harm and she didn't know what was good for each, I guess, but she steamed them, that's what cured that Mrs. Harts and I'm tellin' you that woman looked like

WB Digitalis was in the water?

SZ Yeh, digitalis, she had digitalis too and it said that this digitalis was, they're usin' that today to make medicine for heart conditions yeh, it was in that book and they're still usin' it today and one of my relations she seen it and she said that's digitalis and she said that's for he heart, she's usin' it.

WB Well how about mustard plaster?

SZ Mustard plaster that loosens it but you have to watch or it will burn you have to have, flour I guess they put and they put it between rags, now all mustard it would burn you I think they put flour in it, I think flour because we didn't use it for a long time and bran one of my kids, I think Agnes she used to get bronchitis and I always had bran, you know what bran is - chop, it's bran from the wheat or the rye, it's just the shell it's chop when you had a cow you'd get corn chop and then you'd have everything all mixed together but then at that time you had corn chop and middlin chop, that's finer and then you'd put bran in with it to make lighter, bran was good for everything, so I always had bran bags, I'd have one in the oven and I'd take this one off and rub her with

Wain Brown interviewing Susie Zosak -248/12/72 Tape 3-1

camphhorated oil and put that on and she even had pneumonia one time and my husband said, he said in broken English, she's gettin' pneumonia, he said it is his own way, I said, "I don't think she can get it," and he said, "She has it, and the next day he said, "You know this kid fooled me," bran bags and them things all night puttin' that on and off loosen that up and she was better in the morning and then I had to have that all the time until she got a certain age she used to get every so many weeks soon as she got a little bit of cold she would get all choked up and I had to do that all the time and he gave me medicine and I'd always have that medicine on hand, I'd give that medicine that the doctor left and put the bran bag on, the doctor used to order the bran bag. And later on they didn't have to order them because I put them on anyway and they was good.

WB Did you ever use any special roots?

SZ Oh I don't know there's all kinds, ther's sassafrass that you get in the woods that's good for something, I forget what Mrs. (?? on TV) or what they call her she would tell you what things are good for

WB Who?

SZ I don't know what her name is, she has kids there and she learns them about you know these leaves with a ball on top there, there's some around your place too, you know what I mean, well when that's tender that's good to eat and the top is always good the top like a ball of flour (or flower??), you know what I mean, well I never thought that was any good but I heard her I only had her on for a minute the other day, she said that you can eat.

WB Oh on television

SZ Yeh, she shows all the herbs and what they're good for, but I have to look when she's on I should watch her all the time and mark it down because she knows everything like that, honest to gosh, I never heard my mother say that was good for anything and most of our people know that and there's those blue flowers

Wain Brown interviewing Susie Zosak -258/12/72 Tape 3-1

they're good for something (?????) the ones that grow around the road, those little blue flowers, and then there's digitalis, that's good.

WB How about mushrooms, you pick a lot of mushrooms

SZ If you ever take any of those mushrooms that grows there with those warts on they're worse than a rattle snake

WB Yes, but how about yellow toppers and red toppers

SZ Yeh, yellow toppers and plain ones are good and the pinky too those that grows in bunches there are some that are good, other ones too

WB When you pick them do you get them just for to eat or

SZ I dry them, when I pick them I give them to the neighbor and I dry some too and our boys all like them and I like them too but instead of cookin' them up I just give them away, I ate them once, in the spring did you ever have them in the spring? the boy loves them or you can make soup out of them, they're good but you have to know what kind and the pinky you make pinky soup our Butchie, he loves them I made a big, big pot when Pop was livin' yet and Pop looked in the pot, he liked it and, and you'd make dumplings on the side you made with brown butter, I showed Angeline how she's goin' do it, with brown butter with the pinky's that grow in bunches you make a soup out of them you have to clean them off, wash them good because they're in bunches and sometimes you find a snail or anything one day I went up in the woods and brought them in my apron and I brought some kind of a round worm, I don't know what kind it is but it had no head, no tail just a big ball of somethin' a big salamander, do you know what a salamander is, in my apron, I picked them things with the mushrooms and I dumped them there was this thing, I wouldn't take that guy in the apron for all the, I'd be afraid, it looked like a lizard and one time when it rained around here after the rain there would be lizards but not anymore, how come did you know that, after the rain, lizard and salamander is different. Yeh, a salamander is smaller.