Document text
Accession no. .4
it 3617
WPA L. C. PROJECT *Titer,' UNIT
Form --3
Folklor• Collection (or Type)
Date received
100/40
Consignment no.
1
Shipped from
Wash. Office
Label
Amount
bp
Tlik_910_Ampszlonat
Place of origin Chimago4 11341101S Date.4A5/39
Project worker Bitty Burke
Project editor
Remarks
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
CHICAGO FOLISTuiel.
FORMA.
Circumstances of Interview
STATE Illinois
NAME OP WORKER Betty Burke
ADDRESS 1339 South Troy Street
DATE April 5, 1939
SUBJECT Job Exprience
FOLCORE
CHICAGO
1-7L f
1. Date and time of interview 4/3. 4/5 4/5 Evenings 2, afternoon 1.
2. Place of interview
4820 South Elizabeth Street, homect informant
3. Name and address of informant Mrs. Betty Piontkowsky
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant.
Molly Yampolsky
.5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
None
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc. Two story wooden house, stove
heat, four families living in sub -divided rooms, 10 rooms in all.
Betty and family have 3 rooms in the back first fl. reached by walking
through a narrow side passage unpaved, half covered by rotten broken board
lengths. Very clean inside. Shares toilet with front family. No bath
tub. Probably one family on her block possesses bath. Very rundown
frame cottages and flats on the block.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number ta which the material refers.)
W36.1 1'
FORM B
Personal History of Informant
CHICAGO FOUST uFF
STATE Illinois
NAME OF WORKER Betty Burke
ADDRESS 1339 South Troy Street
DATE April 5, 1939
SUBJECT Job Experiences
NAME OF INFORMANT Betty Piontkowski
1. Ancestry American born -Polish parentage
FOLKLORE
CHICAGO
2. Place and date of birth 24 years old 5208 S. Hermitage -Back of yards.
3. Family Harried 6 years one child 5 expecting another in May- husband
left her twice, for months each time, but is now at home.
4. Places lived in, with dates Back of the yards all her life.
5. Education, with dates
Hamlin Grammar School to 8th grade. Enjoyed
dramatics in shhool.
6. Occupations and accomplishments, with dates Has been stockyards worker, off
and on, and in various departments, since she was 13 years old.
7. Special skills and interests
None discoverable, so far.
8. Community and religious activities- Roman Catholic, attends church irregularly,
observes all hol*lays and rites and fasts, etc. Her husband who is
Irish, is wholly irreligious. There are bitter quarrels on that account.
9. Description of informant Haggard as a result of sick pregnancy, but rather ap-
pealing in spite of being extremely hard and generally suspicious
minded. Can speak Polish well but uses English at home. Betty hasn't
been outside the yards district for 3 years and doesn't care to go.
10. Other Points gained in interview
Uses obscene language continuously without any inhibitions whatsoever
or any offensiveness realized or intended.
FOLKLORE
STATE Illinois
NAME OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUTJECT
NAME OF INFORMANT
FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedit0d)
CHICAGO FOLKS TUFF
Betty Burke
1339 South Troy Street
April 5, 1939
Job Experiences
Betty Fiontkowsky
Kid, I always worked at Armour's. Some of them places in the
"7."-•
CHICAGO
yards ain't worth a s --t. My sister Anna works in one of them two by
four joints some cheap Jew owns. Armour's aint so bad, and some depart-
ments like the ore I work in, they call it the lard refinery, it's pretty
clean there. What I do is operate one of these big autobatic carton
machines. These machines are up on a high platform and after I feed the
empty carton and wrapper into a machine it comes out on a belt and the carton's
packed with lard, and goes down on the floor by belt to the check girls. My
machine is fixed for a rate of sixty cartons a minute. We used to stitch the
boxes but now there's a great big machine and all them boxes are glued auto-
matically. Say, lots Of girls are out on account of that machine doing their
work.
They got a new rule now. They won't take no women over thirty. You got
to go through a doctor's examination if they lay you off more than sixty days*
every time, even if you're an old timer. There was a woman in our department
she was a big, fat woman. We used to call her Mama. She was laid off once
and when she came back they wouldn't take her. Miss McCann, she's in charge
of hiring all the women, she come out with her ass stuck out and she said,
FOLICLORE
FORM D
Extra Comment
STATE Illinois
NAME OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
CHICAGO FOLKSTUFF
Betty Burke
1339 South Troy Street
April 5, 1939
Job Experiences
NAME OF INFORMANT Betty Piontkawsky
CHI CAGO
Doesn't want her name used, nor her
address. Very fearful that her chance
to get back to work will be jeopardized
in same way. Hasn't told too much because
she's not yet accepted interviewer's
visits as wholly without suspicious
motives.
'Mama, don't you know it's for your own sake we can't take you back.
'Why you might have a heart attack at work and then the company would be
held responsible. You shouldn't be working at this any more.
Say, kid, you shoulda heard Mama. She was so madt She started
yelling and hollering about haw she was good enough to work there 4
months ago and haw she was only 15 pounds heavier than when they laid
her off last. She was a 215 pounder, but there was nothing wrong with
her. She was stronger than most of us, like an ox. She didn't have no
weak heart. But old piss -in -the -face McCann just didn't want her anymore
and she wouldn't take her back. Mama called her every name she knew in
Polish, before she went.
I remember when they had them fights in the yards over the Unions.
Same of the men got stabbed. -Jesus, they had cops all over the place
for a long time. It was kind of exciting. But I didn't know what it was
all about anyhow. Didn't care to know, either.
I worked in the refinery this last time until I was more than five
months gone with what I got. It didn't show so much then. If they knew
I was that way they wouldn't let me go to work. I got a bad eye lately
FORM 0 page- a
CHICAGO FOLKSrurio
too, my luck, My machine needs good eyes else I could get a
hand mashed easy. It's a good thing we get 15 minutes morning
and afternoon relief. We have half hour lunch. One minute late
and we get dooked half an hour.