Vol. 3-Interview-Sulkusky

AV & DM inter. M/M Sulk. -41- 8/11/72 Tape 25-1 JS That sonofagun you couldn't prove it when you got your first gallon of whiskey

DM It was that strong

JS That strong

DM You didn't grow the figs around here, you had to buy them

JS No, no there was a store man that used to come in and a grocery man and her mother went out to buy groceries and she asked him if he had any figs, yeh he said, he got figs, so he goes home, big box, big wooden box and he pulls it out in the open and gosh dang there was some of them molded on top well he took that whole layer off and the lower layer was clean, it was nice, so she took 2 lbs. or how much and her father went out he said, Mike do you know what, what you could be arrested, why, well you sellin' moldy figs and the old man was just edgin' him on, so got him, he said you could arrested because you're sellin' moldy figs, he said he didn't sell the moldy ones I sold the lower ones where they are alright, but that went thru

DM And did he get them for free

JS And this guy now what he was after, he caught on, because he used to handle some stuff too he used to sell it, he used to get it from somewhere, wherever he got it and he used to sell it, so finally he said, alright if you want the figs, you give me a gallon if you make it, I don't promise nuthin' he said, if I make it and don't get nuthin' how am I gonna give you, he said I have to see what I'm gonna get

MS I used to call it my ding dong [clock is chiming] whem my company used to come we had to turn that off because they couldn't sleep all night

DM Really, oh that's beautiful, is that a Westminster Chimes

MS You know I'm used to that and if I haven't got that on, well I miss it

JS But I think there's different tunes you can get on it, you push a button

DM That's a great clock I love them

AV and DM inter. M/M Sulk. -42- 8/11/72 Tape 25-[?]

JS Well these figs you know, we started boilin' the sonofagun, he told me I'm ready, alright I'll be up I sez, get the bugger ready and I'll be up, and I come up and that goddam jug got full takes the proof and puts it in and lookin' and lookin' and the proof is down on the bottom, well the old woman I guess she was monkey' around I guess she knocked it down and knocked it out of whack it won't proof, don't come up and won't proof again, 4 times come up and didn't proof the old man was stuck he hollered to the neighbor, it was a different neighbor, he was boilin', and he asked him, John, he sez, are you usin' you're proof and lend it to me a minute, well he said I ain't usin' it just now but I goin' use it too so give it to me back and he give him his and he puts his in and he said, Yonko yours is as bad as mine, it's no good, what are you tryin' to tell me mines alright what's the matter, but the fifth she mooned about that much off the bottom

DM What is a proof, and how does that work, I don't know

JS It sets down and it will show you the proof

DM Is it like a thermometer

JS Yeh, yeh, you set it down

DM What moves up

JS Whatever proof it is, it's numbered on there, all the way down

AV Did you buy it or make it

JS You buy it, 200 is lowest I think on it, is it 200 or 210 is the lowest and it starts from 10 down, if it's 200, I said to my daddy-in-law, wait, I'll show you how strong that is, that's what's the matter with it, so he takes a lid from a jar them aluminum ones, and I took some and I took it out in the shanty there and I got away from here to that room and I struck a match and I throw the match them big matches and when I threw that sonofagun match it was about that far away from that thing and it went w o o o p, it just exploded like dynamite, the lid, when I went to pick the lid up there was no glass in it or anything, I said you

AV & DM inter. M/M Sulk -43- 8/11/72 Tape 25-2

see that, that's how strong it is, well when we started to dilute it, you should see the good whiskey we made out of that and I was makin' it 105, 110 you know and the old man edge me on to make 120 I said no, her mother would come and tell me don't you make it higher than 90 for him and there I was in a fix, well I'd have to make some of each, so I'd make some 110 and he could drink it and he could take it pretty good, he was pretty strong

AV Wouldn't you like some of the 200 proof

DM You'd have to get a giant paper bag and pick me home and carry me out, baggy squad

JS He was a powerful guy, you know there was a guy up at the colliery and he was firin' at the boiler, the boiler house at the breaker, and there's guys up there Big [???blank space] oh he was a big tall man, heavy, big strong and there was a black iron there I forget how much pound it was, 500 and some pound or somethin' and they just wanted to see, my daddy-in-law, wanted to have some fun that he can't lift it so they had the block up at the breaker somewhere and they got there all of them guys and who can lift that block well they let on, this one that one and so on and say to the old man, now dad you lift it up, he lifted it up and the other guys couldn't budge it up and they were bigger men and you think they were stronger, but he lift it up, he was the only one could lift it up I seen him take a stick of timber from that timber yard was 18 ft. long or somethin' for fence polls or somethin' pretty thick, I guess 10 inches or so, he'd take it on his back and walk down this way with it, I say to him, I have polls ready, I picked them out, nice straight ones and 6 ft. long, I said you don't want them any longer than 6 ft. you put them down 2 ft. in ground and you have 4 ft. up that's big enough and I had a bunch of them picked out and I said, bring the wheelbarrow up and put so many at a time and you don't have to carry them on your shoulder come over to the road and come right down with 'em, he got movin' around with this big one and he said but I can make 3 out of this

AV & DM inter. M/M Sulk. -44- 8/11/72 Tape 25-1

and my god I couldn't get him to not take it, I went over to take them from him and the first thing I see him [blank space] come here just give me a hand to take them off my shoulder, and away he goes with the goddam

DM Oh brother

JS I thought to myself that's a pretty good piece to carry [blank space] but you know when the Coxe's had this they used to fence this whole town, the front, sides, back the alleys all the way up and nice boards and chestnut too, they're guaranteed from 20 to 21 years to stay in the ground and they did do that

DM Not like the junk they sell you at the lumber yards today, last about 5 years and then it rots around the bottom

JS Yeh chestnut was good lumber for posts

AV How did they keep up that fence around town

JS 21 years and they would stay longer, that pole by the grapevine that first one you know, I had it down in that house and when we come up here I brought it up here and I brought it from #7 up, it was down on the ground the way it was now it was dead I don't know how many years so I took a saw down and cut the limbs off and I brought it up on my back all the way from there home and you would think it was a bag of feathers on your back that's how light that was

DM The pole

JD That pole, and it's still good, that's chestnut, so that's a long time, that dam thing god knows maybe it's 100 years old

DM And it's dead but it still doesn't rot

JS It don't rot in the ground so much, it holds, and split, if you cut that for fire wood you just see them pieces fallin' off, splits so dam nice you know, only if you put it in the stove it's like shootin' crackers

DM Yeh that's dry wood that does that,

JS You should be born here

DM Yes we'd learn a lot

AV & DM inter. M/M Sulk. -45- 8/11/72 Tape 25-1

JS Sometimes there was plenty of jobs around the mines here, and them lokey's used to be runnin' around, you take like now, you'd hear them blowin' there and in the winter when the snow was to keep the roads open the tracks you know there'd be all night runnin' back and forth keep pushin' the snow off the track then the big engines

DM That must have been really neat, early Eckley, all of these things happening all at once that must have been great

AV Go hunting wih Spongy

JS Well I'll tell you what, you take like the olden times on Sunday afternoon they'd have their dinner and there was a sallon down here at the bottom of Sandy Hill they'd go down there and a keg of beer, $1.25 and whiskey 50 cents a quart, they'd get a keg of beer and go down there with their family and they'd have a nice time

MS What happened to the fireman

JS We don't need no fire

MS Who has to get up in the morning

JS You can heat the coffee on the gas stove, it's not cold tonight, it's nice

MS I know that without you tell me, whose the fireman, are you the fireman

DM We have a gas stove, we have a combination gas and coal stove but we don't use the coal stove, Walley makes most of the fires, I'd like to but he won't let me he likes to do it, he beats me to it

MS He's the boss so he thinks you can't do it

DM Oh he just thought he was the boss, I can make a fire, I can make a coal fire, sure but he likes to do it himself, he doesn't want me to do it so I said o.k. and he thinks that's a lot of work but I like that work so I cut the grass and do all the housework and it doesn't come out too evenly, I end up doing all the housecleaning but right now it needs vacuum

MS Do youse change off then