Vol. 4-Interview-Zosack

A. Varesano interviewing Susan Zosack -28/11/72 Tape 30-1 251

AV You mean, immediately after...

SZ Let me tell you, you went to be churched. I know I went.

AV Right after the ceremony?

SZ After the cerem....., after the mass, because I had mass. When I was married I had mass. We were married in St. Mary's, where you go. That same church. Only they, I think they put it on the other place, didn't they? I'm not sure now. Something is mixed there. They fixed it up better. Is the church that way, or this way? This way, I think it is now. Ain't it? I think they have something else out of that. I went there a long time. Now when you....

AV How long after the service did they have that blessing?

SZ Bein' churched?

AV Yeah.

SZ After you got married and everything was over then the priest came in the back with the blessery, you know, and he took you to the altar, and you went around the altar and came out.

AV What was that supposed to mean?

SZ Just like you get churched after a baby is baptized----well, the baby is baptized, then you come home, and a week after you go to church, you go to Hazleton, you go to church to be churched, with the baby. The mother.

AV Oh, the mother can't get churched the same day the baby is baptized?

SZ The mother could if she went, but see, she could if she was there, but you're not there, because they baptize the baby and you're home. So then you go a week or so later. We even hired a buggy and horse to get you there!

AV Wow! And how long after she had the baby did the woman have her baby baptized?

SZ Sometimes they would baptize them in a couple days. If the baby is weak they baptize it right away. And if not, not longer than a week. But in the city they keep them for a month. They're crazy! You should never keep a baby long.

271___

AV ....I really never encountered that before.

SZ Cough, cough...Now you get me coughin"! I wonder where (????) is. Cough. Mayve she fell in somehtin'. The las time Annie got lost, went to Hazleton.

AV What do you think happened to Annie Maloney when she got lost?

SZ You know she can't hear.

AV Yeah.

SZ And they're by themselves, and sometimes they answer, sometimes they don't hear, sometimes they don't want to answer, I don't know.

AV But, when she picks huckleberries, does she always go off on her own?

SZ Well, you go where you... I was goin' myself, but she said she was goin'. Then she said maybe they'd be some up there----she wasn't up there. I said well, I was up there once. Well, she said was there any? I said, there was some along the bank. So then, see we got up from the Number one water, and then you go this way, and there's a power line, so we were talkin' about goin' up there. So she was up. But she didn't go to the power line, because I went up to the power line, and I got on the top there, and I started to holler. And I didnt see her up, and I didn't see her down, and she didn't answer. She probably didn't hear me. Or maybe she answered and I didn't hear. Then I came ddown. I came down, and I started hollerin' again, and she didnt answer, then I thought she probably went home. So I come home, and it's I guess about an hour since I came. She only has a quart can.

A. Varesano interviewing Susan Zosak -38/11/72 Tape 30-1 290

AV But what about Annie Maloney? What do you think happeneD, that she walked so far?

SZ She was hollerin', she was by the m(????), and they were hollerin', and I guess instead of her goin' the right way, she went the other way.

AV Do you think it was that "Mamona" that happened?

SZ No. You know what Mamona is?

AV No.

SZ When you go in the woods, or you go anywhere, it's not Mamona, it's, you just, things twist in your headm it's nothing, as far as that goes, I don't think, anyway. Ah, I went down there one time just for mushrooms, I think I went for (????). I put the two buckets, right back of Pigeons on the top---you had to go down, and you were back of Pigeons---and I picked the buckets, and I went lookin' for mushrooms. And I went there, and I went down lower, and there was a swimmin' pool there where boys used to swim, you know what I---swimmin' hole---pot, not a fancy one, just what they---a little dam, you know? And when I got there, I knew where the swimmin' dam was. I knew the bank that was there, a dirt bank, and I seen the path, but it seems, you know? It didn't look like it, like it's fer you to go home, it twists around for you, and it seems that you're goin' away from home. You see it, and you know it, but you still have it hard to, and you still go, like I went anyway, because I figured, there's the swimmin', there's the path, and if I go here, you can't see nothin', only the other part of the brush, Highland. So when I came, and I had the buckets, and even when I got the buckets, there was the buckets, and I still didn't know where I was until I got right back of Pigeons, then I knew where I was. I knew where I was because, see, the breaker is here, but it seemed that the breaker wasn't where it shoud be, it seemed it was on that side, but you go because you're right there, you know? So that's how. As far as Mamona goes, there's no Mamoney. It's just, you get like your head gets twisted. Sometimes you get off a bus, just goin' on the bus, and gettin' off the bus and you don't know.

AV That's what happened to you?

SZ Yeah, I went to Hazleton one time, was a kid, and I got off the bus in Harwood, and goin' home it looked like I was going to go back. And when it happens in the woods, well, I think I better go look for that lady.

AV Helen says that it happened to her father.

SZ Sure. Happen to anybody. There was an old lady, like I told you, in Humboldt, that the kid said That Way, she said No, that way. Well, then, the kids said No, and she picked the kid up and put him on her back and went, and when she got by the breaker, the breaker was away, in Harwood, and she lived in Humblodt, and instead of goin' to Humboldt, she went to Harwood. Into the woods. She thought, What are you, goin' to be tellin' me? Put him on her back, and she went over. Because he was pretty big, you know? So she put him on her back, and when she got but the breaker, they brought her home. And one lady went all the way to Conyngham. You know where Conyngham is? Why, she went Hopesville, up to Hopesville. Hopwsville is a little bit further than Conyngham...

AV From Eckley?

SZ From Humboldt. And she got, I guess she must have got on the Tomhicken road, and she probably went to the Tomhicken road, but not toward town---or, towards Hazleton, but towards Conyngham. The Conyngham road went, it was always sort of scary. I never wanted to, like if you went from Humboldt, this was Humboldt, and then there was a path, and you'd get on the Tomhicken road. And nobody traveled there, you know what I mean? Maybe sometimes a farmer that was goin' from Conyngham. It was a road that wasn't traveled much And then

A. Varesano interviewing Susan Zosack -48/11/72 Tape 30-1 330

they would be a ragman, or somebody. But see, if you went there---if I went there by myself, I would just peep up and down--I was a kid, but I never wanted to walk that way or that way. There used to be, like, men, old men, that used to pick eye rags, and bones, and you know, like that, and there was an old man that used to do that, and somebody said that they seen his tryin' to, on his horse, you know what I mean? So, you'd be---you know what I mean? Yeah? You know? Not nice, what I want to say. That's what I heard. But he would go to Conyngham through that road, and so when I went there, say, maybe pickin' huckleberries or mushrooms, I'd look, I'd get on the edge of the road, and I'd look there and there, but I wouldn't walk from here to there, to the road, because I'd be afraid if you met somebody there, there was nobody. Nobody. There was nowhere to run. You'd have to run back in the woods, and tryin' to get home. Where I would go through (?????), you know? You'd go with somebody, but you never went yourself. It's a big road now.

AV That's the road that the lady must have taken.

SZ She must have took that road, yeah, because she was tight by the coal dirt, and I don't think she went---see, she's dead now, she used to live next door to our house, next door to my mother's.

AV But what did you say, What are Mamoney?

SZ Well, it means, it's O Mamoney. You'd got like dizzy, you know? It's not a, no kind of, they don't have that in the books or anything like that, you know what I mean.

AV No, but, the people say----, alot of these people say?

SZ Well, they'd say, it's old Mamoney. Like, you get like doped or aomething.

AV Oh, I thought it was a kind of a spirit.

SZ Oh, I don't know what kind. It ain't a good one, then, if it is one. You don't have to be afraid of it if you're good livin', or even if you're a sinner, you bless yourself, and the Mamona will go away.

AV Yeah? Is that what happens?

SZ Sure.

AV How do you deal with it, then? Just with blessing yourself?

SZ Well, if you, say if you, some witch or somebody wants to get near you, and you bless yourselfm they won't do you nothin', they can't. You say Name of the Father, and Son and Holy Ghost Amen.

AV And that will chase them away?

SZ Yeah, they won't.... It's good to wear a miraculous medal all the time, too, you know. But if yu're right livin', nobody'll-- even if you're not good, God takes care of you. That's why God died on the cross, to, for the sinners, not for the good ones, because they didn't need it. I mean, he died for the good ones, but it's the ones that need it. You know what, I don't know, maybe I'd better fo after her.

AV You think....?

SZ I don't know. She only had a quart can.

AV But tell me, you say it's good to wear....

SZ She fell. She fell where she was pickin'. It's not far. You know, I just go by the water, and on the side there are all kinds of ---- it's six o'clock, 363

CHART 35 A.Varesano interviewing Susie Zosak 8/14/72 Tape 26-1

Subject

Page: 1--Bran bags for illness, esp. pneumonia Flax seeds for infections

Page: 2--Gad Rey leaves for infedtions -comfrey?

Page: 3---Mastoids(?) in the ear

Page: 4--"Felons" - infections? 4-- Milk for staying healthy -- Loss of appetite

Page: 5--Childrens ilnesseds - colic - ear infections Ways to treat ear infections and other illnesses Page: 6-- warm oil - holy water - smoke it - incense - glycerin - gunpowder Page: 7 -- mouve(??)

Page: 8 - glycerin/digitalis

Page: 9- Holy Days

Page: 10- working w/other people + Dr. Corrigan

Page: 11- how the town doctor worked

CHART

A. Varesano interviewing Susie Zosak 8/14/72 Tape 26-1 Subject

Page: 13- Dances/meeting husband

Page: 14- Working as a teenage girl - Baking bread

Page: 16- Children(13)

Page: 17- Washing closes

Page: 18- Miner's lunches

Page: 19-Types of food - children's meals - (catnip??) for the body

Page: 22- Making clothes

Page: 23- Corsets

Page: 24- Religion