Document text
Name: Alice Kelly
1/21/3ir
Assignment: Portuguese Fish-
erman
Topic: 2nd Interview with
Manuel
"'No, I ain't been so good to -/day. When the
weather she's damp 1 don' feel so good. But I don't
care, I saved my boat. You ainl never heard about
that? Well, I can' tell you alla story to -day, be-
caushe I don' feel so good. But it was like thish.
The boat she was sink in an I seen she wash goinl an'
I feel like my arm she wash bein' pulled off orc some
thin'. So I thinksh quick the enginel An' I pull her
out an 'eave her overboard. Cost plenty, but the boat
she can ride now. I save her.
Sure I wash burned. I wash burned somethin,
fierce. hands fash, I was damn near cripple, but any
ways the boat she's save&.
Thatsh somethinl you writers you can' unner-
stan'. How we feel about the boats. You write a
shtory, mebbe you don' tell, so what? You get up the
mornin', you write another. But the boatsh means mon-
ey. Beans savingsh. Beans sometting gone you've known
long time.
Anyways now the boat, she's all right again.
Was worth it what I did.
2.
I see all the boatsh is in. They mostly comes
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back for Christmas. I don' know if I can go out tlis
Chrispmus like always, but I want to. You know how it
ish weeth us? Night before Chrispmus we go rounl. Any
house where they's ligntsh we go in, weesh the family
good fiesta. Drink a little wine, talk spout 01! times
an! the oil country. Very happy. When I wash young
man I could co sometimes twenty thirty houshes one ev-
enin! An! get up for mass at five nexsht mornin!.
Never no head nor nothinl, but now I'm gettinl on.
Sure, I sin' but feefty—give, but thatsh not
so young for fishint. I had it hard all my life, never
reshted, never fooled roun!..always work, work, work.
Out all weathers, up t'ree, four in the mornin! winter
an! summer. .gets your bo.iesh after 'while.
Lly oil man, he fish till he was olt, all bent
over, I can fish, out can't go roun! to the Charmeri-
tas like the 01' daysh. Can! drink too much, keep up.
The ooy, he does for mel
Sure, it hurts when I move, little oit. It
Ish the damp. I'll oe all right when the sun shines.
No, I,a'am, she wont clear to -day. Nor yet to -morrow.
This here'sh a Norleaster, good for ttree daysh anyways.
But me I like a good shtorm even when I don' feel so
good. The sea she's alwaysh full of surprisish. She
looks pretty one day an' next minute she getsh mad an'
blowsh like hell.
3.
Sure, I'm goinf out again. Fishinf out of
Chatham next week. An' glad to go. The season aint
been so good. Prices been down, so we gotta do double
work make up.
Look, when you come next time, I'm gone tell
you all about how I saved my boat. Gone tell you about
Portuuese namesh, an' some the thinrrs we believe about
the sea, like signs an' all. I'll tell you about the
01' country, too.
i\o, I don' wanna go back. Oh sure, for vishit,
but I like it here. The kids like it here. Jeezel if
they live' in the olf country they'd know how good they
got it here. Young peoples here they c) -t it soft. Get
good money an' schoolinf an don' work hardly at all.
Was different when I wash a boy.
Look, I don' feel so good on account of the
damp. But you come back, I tell you shtories you won'
hardly believe. ilot many knows the 01' shtories now,
but I get tninkinf sometimes about all them thinr's my
man toll me, an' how true they was. he hadn't no
book learninf.. Couldn't read nor write hardly, but he
wash wise! I didnf pay so much min' when I wash young.
Like _ay boy here he don' think the olf man knows nothinf.
learn, like the rest cf us. Learn the hard way.
Well, come a:'ain, Glad to tell you an-jtfing,
only to -day, I don' feel so good."
Name: Alice Kelly
Title: Living Folklore
Assignment: Portuguese
Fishermen.
Topic: Interviews
with Manuel
"You ask me las' time we talk did the Fortt(Yuesh
ant lankee fishermen get on. Well, it's like theesh. Now
we get on good, but there was time when there was a lot ol
trouble. I mind one time I feesh offa the Banks. That's
real fishinl, offa the 3anks! An' listen, there ain't no
men can fish like the Fortugueesh. Y"-ou ask anyone, they
tell you! Well, thees trip was all Fortuueesh, only the
skipper ant two, three guys snipped outa Boston.
ihs skipper hees name's Mike Murphy. Not Portu-
gueesh I tnink you admit! But he likes us fine ant he's
good guy. lie knows fishint. Ant he's always glad to sign
on the rortu,'ueesh. On thees trip I'm speakint about, we
got out the harbour ant the Yankee guys begins passing re-
marks. I don' understand all they say, see? But one thing
they call us, t,ey call us Igink47:A They keep on sayint
it. 'Those ginks, they'll saA‘\Well I ask the cook,
'What is that, (-inks?' An' he says, II dunnot but if you
want stop 'ern, weeth you, Mannie. An' he picks up
his cleaver ant we go up and speak to them an' after that,
there wasn't no more trouble, that trip.
a.
The skipper he was on our sides because he knew we was
the best fishermen an he needed us. It's like this, see? The
Yankees they fish to get money enough to go ashore, run shops
maybe, or do business. The Portugueesh he don' like that. He
fishes because he wan's. to. Because he don' want no boss. One
time I try stay ashore couple yearih. I had a good job on a
yacht. Good pay the besht of everythinl, but I didn't like it.
I wanted to be independent, see? Not say thees lyessirt an
tnossirl alla time. The Yankees they don' mind. They run stores,
they work for bosses, an' they don' care. But the Portagueeah,
he's always a kind of a independent feller.
Of colase the skippers are like bosses kinds, but it's
not the same. An' then you work you can be skipper yourself.
I been captain now for a long time. My son, he'll be captain
someday, too.
I feesh always on trawlersh. It'sh hard work but I
don' never get tired. Makes a man hard that kind 0 work. The
trap boats, they get the bait, that aint no work. Ain' fast e-
nough for me. I like to fight. Fight wind, an' col' ant weath-
er. I don't feel the col' no more.
A while ago I come in from fishinl. I come up onna
dock, an' Jeesi I wash dirty. Stand all night clean fish ant
it was dirty weather the wholewip after firs' day. Well, up
onna dock the win' she was blowint like sixty. I take off my
shirt, fill a bucket of water an' I give myself a good wash.
Feels good! But they's some city folks come down' onna dock
ant they couldn1 get over it, bow I shtood there wash myself
3.
weeth no shirt ant the win' blowinl. Say, the win's my friend
ant the water, I feel at home. Inns, house I'm like a big bull.
I don't fish so much any more. I'm gettin' on ant I was burned
bad. I'll tell you about that some day. But I miss it when I
dont go out.
I like to hear the boy talk ant my frien's, they come
in ant they have mebbe little wine an' we talk.
&ex., if I can't -feel a boat under me I manna die.
I don' want to run no store, say yessir' an' Inossirl to no
man. But that'sh Why Yankees aren't such good fishermen.
They hearts ail:0 in it.
If I can go out in my boat an' bring in a good catch,
I'm happy. I wouldn' change weeth no man. Look, don' you ask
no questions from the Yankee fishermen becaueh they don' feel
nothint. You come to me. lb Portugueesh we're independent
like I said, but we're glad to oblige. Like to help you out
any time.
Reed Jan 6, 1939
lasignment: Portuguese Fisherman
Name: Alice Kelly
Subject:
Interview with 'Manuel'
figgerin, on goinl home. Yessir, back to tht
olt country. Ten yearsh now since I seen it an' I'm sure fig-
win on goinf. It's gone be one theahe excursions, see?
Forty dollars for fare. That's cheap enough, ain't it? In
nineteen forty, Thatah when the excursion she takes place.
tikinl the wife and the boy there. None the children
sin' never seen the islands nor Lisbon either. All my peoples
comes from Lisbon but moved to thl islands. Ant the wife she
comes from till islands.
wies,ma'am. It'll sure be nice to go home. On'y
stay a month but Its lookint forward. Like I told you I
come over here when I wasn't only a young man. But I was al-
ready good fisherman. Me ant my four brothers we all fish an'
my father an' his father. That's all business there wash
back there, only maybe marketing ant like that. Fish mostly
with looks beak there. Some draggint but mostly with looks.
Its pretty back there. Everybody cheerful aller time. Don't
hurry like here.
*Sure, the boy he's fish. He's good fisherman. The
Portuguese boysh they do more like tht olt man. Of course some
of 'em get these ideas to High Senool. Don' do ,em no godd's
I can see, but don' do em no harm neither. Lotsq these Ameri-
cans they tell me their boys is in town, got jobs here, got
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jobs there. Me, I like have the boy on my boat. Teach 'is
what I know. Theei know where he is. What he's doint. The
boat she'll be his when I go, see/ It's good for 1m know how
to tandle her.
*Yes ma'am. The burns is some better. It wash great
lack far me didn't burn no muscles. Jeezet I sure come near
lose my boat. Like I tpll you I just fixed her up nice, new
paint, clean 'or up. everlthinl. Then I wash put in bole
new engine. Well Sir! I need some tar so I got her in a buc-
ket, heat up onna fire, see! Firaht thing I know she ketches..
goes right up. My boy he shout to raise the dead. I grab the
Istingisher an' let 'or have it, but tar she burns terrible..
stinguisher don' do no good.
*I see I'm gone lose my boat. I holler at the boy
an' at the other men. They refuse go below. You can' blame
fem. The flames she's cominl up rod. But she's my boat so
what could I do? I go down. I grab the tar bucket, throw
her overboard.. Throw over some parts the engine..take blan-
kets, stamp out flames.. Anyways I save my boat. If she'd
went was alla my life moulder been gone, too. Lila my work
everything.
*Yes ma'am, it hurt pretty bad. But I don' t'ink she'll
leave no scars. I was out fishint again las' week, but I wasnl
no good. My hands she swole all up. Drive you crazy.. a big
catch ant I couldn' do nothinl. But I was glad get out in the
boat again. Oh sure, I'll be out again Inother week, maybe
two.
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10I been writinf about this excursion. They got nice
boat, fine trip. It'll be somethint for the boy. An' me, I
still got some folks over there. I'm gone right away the place
I was born, twenty mile' outer Lisbon, then the islands. I'm
figgerinl on goinl sure.
00' course I may have bad luck. Two three bad sea-
sons, I couldn' go. But forty dollars she's reasonable. !Os,
ma'am, that's real cheap trip. So I guess I go pretty sure.
*Yes ma'am a month back tome. Sounds pretty good.
An' after that? W'y of course I come back 'ono again.'