Document text
SIB Dec 6, 1939
Drik Jensen Danish wire mill worker
Danish Tin Plate Worker
All the time they makes improvements at the wire mill, but they
can't do no better tin plate than Jensen can do.*
Rearrangement page milkiers refer to penciled ansibers is right hand corner
of page i paragraphs numbered in left hand margin
Par. Pot*
1 1 birth of grandchild
2 1 childhood anecdote
3 2 0 continued
4 3 another anecdote, transition to superstitions
6 8 insert for clarity
it 5 3 and 4 superstitions and belief in nosier
7 7 old country customs
8 9-10 transition
9 8 confirmation and engagement
10 k89 marriage
11 9 women cooking
kft bkopmktmgximzkanskin
kt
12 5 bicycle anecdotes
13 4 and 5 prodmetaof mill
14 12, 13, 14 vire and tin plate process
15 6 layoff at seventy
Dote: wooden shoes and some generalities about Denmark omitted.
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Erik Jensen
Paper _4
STATE MASSACHUSETTS
NAME OF WORKER MRS. EMILY B. MCORE
ADDRESS 84 ELM STREET, WORCESTER,
MASSACHUSZTTS
DICE OF INTERVIEW JUNE 20, 1939
SUBJECT LIVING LORE
NAME OF INFORMANT ERIC JENSEN
ADDRESS WORCESTLX, MASSACHUSETTS
Name: Rmily B. Moore
Title: Living Lore
Assignment: Erik' Jensen
Topic: Danish Steel Worket
Paper 4
Mr. Jensen was sitting onza box in the sun before ,h_ylittle shop.
Never before had. I seen him idle, his dett, square hadds, folded on his
crossed knees/ As soon At' he caught sight of me h'e called out "Jahl
Jahl Today I'm glad to see youllIdIel- you wet read in the papers,'bout
my Rosa? Yai3Sunda.y I am grandpappy,End what a nice baby she hasfj
All the time I'm thinkin' what she shud call him, (-10b1-1-1-e—h4e—eval6) I
er",thik s,
mebbe Eri,fkl, but then, she thinks 'Roger', wall, mebbe that's
good, Roger Neilsen, that's pretty name. NeJoh—aly--fidet-17-vi-l-t-gcr-un-
far. Jaatiler.....64siwarata.044,..
Wall, no, I have no son, out I= that little fel-
low 1.-&-my-hlgragi_and Rojasls.-and he's part Jensen, anyhow. Jahl we have
ChriLtening4._ nut_l_donit_ know. whan-r- -bat I tell you, and-yott shud eomet'
9,14"
Ivieooe we have old-fashioned Christening, if my missus keeps good. That
baby pda 4,4141 --it -004110 fine.. akes me think& in Den-
markr, people jest have the kids, and that's all, but here, my Rosa
have so much good care for months before, she -is fine and good now.
This is a good country everything's good here.
:-a what
I guess alwas in the mind of Danish boy is to come to this good
country. Once when I was about 10 years old, another boy and me take
care of a drove of cows. There i s no 'crick' for water, so all day long
we have to fill up the water box. Well, that's a big box meboe four
feet wide and six feet long, and it's tight so no water can come through.
well, we get mad at the cows, for as quick as we c arry the water, the
Name: Emily B. Moore Assignment: Erik Jensen
Title: Living Lore
Topic: Danish Steel Worker
Paper 4
cows drink it up, and we have to carry the water about *tarter of a
mile. We have yoke across our shoulders, and pail of water on each
end of the yoke. The old man we work for puts a piece of stick on
the end of the yoke and he wants we should carry two pails on each end
of the yoke.
ot_tha---yokee-weiatie-me--eheuld-c .ey-two-paile--4Q-a&c.11,ana.—yrcuil
_that, mekna fn tail That's too much for
leetle boy, so we gets ma,said-thsteirge-witat-wa-shoolel-elo. Well, we make
up our minds that we sail away to America, where boys don't have to
work. How we should do that, we don't know. Then we remember the water
box would hold water, and we could float it. Wall, we get four shovels,
and a wheelbarrow, and take the box to the ocean, and we get in, and with
the shovels, we padule out to sea. It was fun', but--we-flic10-t--Imaols-the
tide-wee-gol:*-46.t; we rowed and paddled; and-thea-14.-404-4G-tee--reegitr-
oh, I suppose weNtil about a mile or two out; it started to get dark, and
the waterwas rough and kept throwing us around, and we get scart. Wall,
we thought we'd better paddle back, but with the tide against us, we
couldn't get back. What to do, we didn't know,la hours after dark we
hit the shore, out it was about four miles away from where we started.
We was afraid to go home, so we slept out that ,pight, and everybody was
looking for us. Nobody thought we'd try to go to sea. Well, when we
got to the old farmer's house the next morning, he took a cow -hide and
laid it on-Nour backs plenty. lIkk never wanted to run away again.
the stork and the other grabbin' the straw roof, I tried to oalance
myself, but I fell off. No*,-what-yee-thlitle-3-- I break my arm, and I
get a lickin', too; not because I go on barn or break my' arm, but be-
cause I pull doihn stork, and that means bad luck to the house where
A
the stork is.
"Ohl yes, some people are like that, what you call super-
stitious. Not so much now, but when I' -se little kid, they scare us
'bout lots of things. loid I tell you 'bettt ino-seer-L-er-4-trvits4-=
oheAAjt,,I,
well, everybody in Denmark believes in teaam./1 but mostly,Anesserft imaa,
when they tell you about him, he's just little and fat and wears a red
stocking c ap, and has a beard, land well, just like the Santa Claus
here. He's a good fairy, and eveilbOdy's kids believe in him. They
used to tell us when we's kids that he watches over you. Something
they never forget, every Christmas Eve, the mothers put outside the
door a bowl of rice gruel, with cinnamon and sugar in it and a lump of
Name: Emily B..koore Assignment: Mt. Jensen
Title: Living Lore
Topic: Danish Steel Worker
Paper 4
"How I happened to be workin' for the old farmer I was hired
out to help him. Your family would hire you out to a farmer or any
place for work, and if you was bad, they'd whip you. Yennerly the boys
was good for there. afraid of the man they works fork, and if you got
beat; you must need it.
"Another time somebody told me I was afraid to stand on my head on
JAAC
the top of the barn. The barns are covered on top with thick straw, 4^,-4
;(.4.,1Andi
aad I got up and gat.--ale-se-iar-Abhe-Letetsita.r-ersi with one harid holding 40d4
-4
Name: Emily B. Moore
Title: Livi4g Lore
Assignment: Mr. Jensen
Topic: Danish Steel Worker
Paper 4
butter on top of it. If you forget to put it out forNllesseryou
have bad luck. Olci-people--4aelietre- beti-luck-wil-1-4-ollow-thee4 too,
-meboe-death-in-the- family.
',The stories our mudder tells us is always good stories and they all
end good. The Danish people good people, and like gob home life and
lots of fun. Never in Denmark where I live did I e many wealthy
people, and there wasn't many poor people eitei. All they wanted was
to have enough money to get along with, an as that goes, they wouldn't
need any bunks. Like here, you see be ars on the street, but you never
see that in Denmark. If somebody 44/n't have enough to live on, his
neighbors help him and it is nbisin to be poor. When they have fest-
ivities, the people all come' together, if they have money or not, for
the Danish people like ün and amusement. They have good morals and
never is there a criie against a woman, for they respect their woman.
',Families go on from yeneration to yeneration doing the same thing,
like a shoemaker, well, all his family is shoemakers, and they expect
their children to be shoemakers. My people was all farmers and they
make/a business of thau, but with my back hurt, they make easy, job for me,
d I am high school teacher. Never do I do hard work till I come to
America, and even at the wire mil when my work was too hard, they make we
tin plater. At the shop now the business is slow and it seems like every-
body is waiting to see what is going to be mebbe war, but I don't think
so. We got all the store space filled up with wire, but if there is war,
Name: Emily B. Moore
Title: Living Lore
Assignment: Mr. Jensen
Topic: Danish Steel Worker
EaRIEA
we make different things. Like when we have the World War, we make
wire for guns and different war materials, and wire for all kinds of
things; we make lots of wire with points on)for keeping the enemy away
(baft-wire) and I don't like that kind of work, for I know for what they
it. Let normal
*I guess I'm glad, mebbe, I have no son, for the Danish people make
plans for their sons when they is born, and today we can't make plane :for
use
ourself. We like peace and quiet. I hear my father say once there was
a revolution in„spenOark, but quick they squelch it, for we are contented
people and like to be let along.
"Since I come to this country I work all the time,
and when I don't
work, I ride my bicycle. Why, we had a club of bicycle riders, and. each
Sunday we had to ride letrmiles, if we wanted to keep a member. Whether
it rained or not, we had to ride. Sometimes when I got home from my
riding, you couldn't tell what I was riding and I would ride right into
the pond back of the wire mill and wash off mybicf One time I vent
fO-r a ride and took a cut through Moreland Street, andyilen-I started to
coast, I couldn't pdt-my-feet back on the_pedIli, and I struak a tree
and was knocked out for 4 long time. f-t'Einc-----iv-iaas.Aarge_hours, out I
couldn't tell, for it was dark when I wascling, and daylight when I
3161k.9_up. Once when I was living on Myannis Place I used to ride up and
down the hill and Mr. Quail, a neighbor, said he never saw anyone that
could ride like me, and he bet me I couldn't ride on the top rail of a
picket fence. Well, I bet him, and I won the bet.
Names Emily B. Moore
Titles Living Lore
`4*
Assignments Mr. Jensen
Topics Danish Steel Worker
Paper 4
ven if I am W, I feel like a young fellow, and I can't think
42•4
why they will make me quit the wire mill next year. They tell me I work
faster and better than the other men, but still I have to go. That is a
very bad law, for if other men feel like I do att:tey must feel like
working. They have too many laws; one kind of law for one class and
another class of laws for the other people. They never make a man
quit work in a bank or lots of places. They told int last week they
would see if I could have the law changed, for I don't look more than
do I? FYiiiiita to go? I guess rtm not sagood-today. excite.
'Iover baby. Now, don't you forget to come to that- Christening, and.I
shall tell my Rosa, Jah, I'm happy man."
Erik Christian Jansen
EK.V.L."...2".
STATE MASSM.nubV,TTS
NAME OF WORKER EMILY B. MCOBE
ADDRESS WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
DATE OF INTERVIEW JUNE 5, 1939
SUBJECT LIVING LORE
NAME OF INFORMANT ERIK CHRISTIAN JENSEN
ADDRESS WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
D
Name: Emily B. Moore Assignments Erik Christian Jansen
Title: Living Lore Topic: Danish steel Worker
Paper 2
It was a pleasant early summer afternoon when I want to ca;.1 on
I. Jensen at his little bicycle shop. Busy with wires.,'bolts and
sundry other "indescribables" of his rausinesss.Aurbeamedat me as I
entered, jumped to his feet and pushed eiittle stool against the wall
for my comfort.
"Ohl You're busy. „1---ahouldn't have come
I began in apology.
"No! not Isgegi Yeas, I like you should come, for I like to talk
while Ijworks. Down at the mill I can talks as much as I like, but
aalways does somebody come by to talk. 1?ver in my country in Den-
mark, the people are all very Sociable, and every night, and on Sundays,
too the people all come to one anothers' houses and talk in the even-
ing, and have something to eat and drink. Mostly we drink 'snaps'q
that's something everybody makes, maybe like you call here 'brandy',
54A0-pl
made out of corn, mostly. Nike we never get drunk on 4b4t, everybody
gets used to drinking ;Lt. The Danish women always has plenty of
op\
things to eata,in the houst astd-the-iletigmet...-ead-eio.thesto-aliswe-make
kisa.a.t...ita....th......vest.tiets% The big feast we have is in May, and that
lasts lots of times for weeks. cts of things is different here than
in De k. The houses here are so e; in Denmark, the houses are
not very gh, and the barns is nearly ways bigger than tlr house,
and you can ee for miles and miles. They\a,sys the best waye\for liv-
ing is in the untry, in Denmark. All the fkmo are nice and\kcept
well. The houses the country are all about the same inside,\not
like here. The wooa\is all black and most of the waLs are white -ash,
Names Emily B. Moore
Titles Living Lore
AAsighments grik Christian Jensen
Topics Danish Steel Worker
Paper 2
paper and paint like you have here. *JAM Vere, the people have
chickens up high on their barns Oseather-vasest—end. in Denmarl4 the
1
sacred bird is thestorkrtancl-all the barns have storks on top. Then
we have lots of bee -hives, and nice farm yards.
'"Everybody in a Danish family works on the farm, and nobody works
too hard. If you lives in the city and works in the factory, you some-
times work from 6 in the morning until 6 at night, .and that don't seem
too long. Yass, they have Unions now to tell you howi you should do,
but where I was raised, it was all farms, and we didn't bother much for
Unions and things they have in the city. With my back not being so good,
I didn't have too much work.
IsIEB thinks libi j inks the biggest time for Danish boys and girls is when
.9ixt7_si...
they get Confirmation by the church. That times they is about(, and
t,1
the. have .4t. at the church, t4sa they go home and everybody comes and
bring him him presents, and they have a big feast. fAny time after that,
a. boy or girl can get engaged.!
The girls get their dreisjlonger and
comb up their braids, and not long after that they get engaged, 1%4
I didn't get engaged very soon after my Confirmation, for my back w as -")-t
aOt good, and I didn't know if I was to have a good back. After it
gets better, my people make a engagement for me but don't get married
right away/. I teach High School, and that's not so good. Then I
get letter from my friend in America, and I make my mind to come over.
Names Bally B. Moore
Title: Living Lore
Assignment: prik Christian Jensen
Topic: panish Steel lerker
Paper 2
I go and see my lady and she tells me I should come, and when I get
ready for her, she will come, too. I work here and save some money
and then I go back, and we have a wedding, ani she likes it here. NO,
you asks for an engagement, and you don't change your mind in Denmark.
All your life you know the girls you marry, and they make good wife, so
why you should change your mind, I don't know. My woman is good
woman.
'Mvery Danish woman, she learns how to make a good home. isk-„Denip
mark ,4a-g-gee4._taenl lege- and
-she-not
..sha- spend-
-a house, to learn- how -people
is -Tart-bad for- to---1-earn- -housework
Soloody thinks-that4 If you Are going to get married, you have to wait
till the girls goes to somebody's house to learn. 5'ometimes ta g±5
to get married, her people have money, not too ch. Well, their girl,
she go and live in the house with people that 4as lots of money, and
,_
she learn to do like they do in their house.\ -Weil, one thing a good
Danish girl should know how to make, is prune soup'. -Welizif I don't
know jest how, but it is good! Some meat and other things, mebbe
onions and rice, and lots of different things, but lots of prunes.
Then she should know how to make pastry, for all men likes that. Then
IL_
she must cook good chicken, and she has to know about feasts and things.
'Pahl they have wedding feasts4 and wilam,....thobc-bamie Christening feasts,
and Christmas feasts, and Lent, and then funerals .c I hear my
Name: Emily B. Moore
Title: LiViLlg Lore
Assignment: Erik Christian Jensen
Topic: Danish Steel Worker
Paper 2
Mddet tell about that, but I don't go myself. In olden days in Den-
mark, a funeral would last a week, mebbe.140-mud ii der she me
Lu
VttiQus. onct, mebbe is ain't true, but she said a man was like to die;
couldn't get better. Wall, he eats chicken dar•ilifter day, and his wife,
she kill them off. One -day he say to her, 'I think I should have
some chicken, I feel like.' She say to him, 'NO, you can't have no
more chickeh,-- you eat them all up, and I jUst got enough for your
funeral.' Miebbe that's not true, but my muddertells me When„Zoi, a little
boy.
*Sometimes you come and we go upstairs and talk with my,mi-Civa
and she tells you lots of things. Jah, that's_all sfie got to do,
remember, and she remembers lotE of _things she tells the kids. Things
have changed in Denmark after I come over here, but lots of things is
the same. Comesgain. I like to talk with you.
Smiling broadly, he waved from the door as I went down the road
and out of sight.
Erik Jensen
Paper 5
STATE MASSACHUSETTS
NAME OF WORKER MRS. EMILY B. MOORE
ADDRESS 84 ELM STREET,,WORCESTER,
MASSACHUSETTS
DATE OF INTERVIEW JULY 5, 1939
SUBJECT LIVING LORE
NAME OF INFORMANT ERA-, JENSEN
ADDRESS WORCESTsR, MASSACHUSETTS
Name: Emily B. Moore
Title: Living Lore
Assignment: Worcester
Topic: Erik Jensen
Paper 5
next time send for some for my family. You just measure your foot on
a paper, and they send you some to fit your feet. No, I don't send very
often, for they wear a long time, but I get you some.
-11YOU—ste -ttris die well -I go WZkin-g—bY in the inin—t-ffir
see this, and I says to myself, 'Jensen, mebbe you can show Mrs. M.
better how you draw wire, with the die', sos it_in my ,pocket rP
you. No we don't use tnem no more, •but this is a very old one. Now,
yOu see, this side has holes in it, but on the other side, the holes
are the same holes, but they gets littler; yod4Cpoind.your wireuLthrough
the big side, then you take the plyers, and catch your wire on the other
sicie, and you jest draw and draw, and when you gets so much through, you
wind it up, and draw some more. That was how you used to draw by hand.
The Digger the wire is, the harder you have to draw and pull. Sometimes
a_
I see big mten draw that wire and it is so heavy and thick, he uses all
his muscles till he sweats like hell, and he keeps on pulling the wire.
That's how it was when I come here first. Now, when you draw wire, its
not so hard, for the men just point the wire through the dies, and the
machine she pulls the wire, and another machine winds it on the reel, and
nobody has to sweat if he don't want to.
"We don't make the heavy wire at the North works, out they make
it at the South works. When we get the wire up here, its about as thick
as the finger, and then we draw it down to whatever size we want it.
They draw wire ,003—wt4A41-4-e so fine you can hardly see itA Manyi the
Name: Emily B. Moore Assignments Worcester
Title: Living Lore Topic: ligla Jensen
Paper 5
You not telephone me, out by golly, I'm glad to see you, but
it is a bad, bad day. Yennerally days like this I works better, not
so many peoples come, and I don't have to stop so much. No, don't got
for I got somethint for you something I pick up in the mill, and I
think meooe I can show you better, how to make wire. By and by, I give
you, when this cement sets, I go get.
"Jahl not today I have my 'voodent shoes on it ain't cold
enough for them now. Yah, they's comfortable, andamore comfortable than
leather shoes they's the best things for your feet; they's insulators
against dampness. No, they don't fall off, for they got leather over
here, and they stay on tight. All the time in Denmark, people wears
'vooden' shoes for work, but leather shoes for Sundays and when.you's
dress up. Well, you see, the clay and the loom in the 01' country, she
is very wet and sticky, and catch on your shoes, out falls off the 'voodent
shoes when you kicks them. Everybody wears them and nobody thinks it
funny to see them. Oh, yass, sometimes we have dances and we wears them,
just for the noise, and to beat time with them. No, everybody clogs
them at the same time, and it has a nice sound when they do it. Them's
what you call 'folk dances', and sometimes we have them at the Friendship
Society, and everybody dances in 'vooden'shoes.
"I don't think so you can buy them in Worcester, but I never
tried, for Ts send to Denmark for them, and I always have ffeny sets of
ivooden' shoes at one time. You like, I should get you some when I
Name: Emily B. Moore Assignments Worcester
Title: Living Lore
Topic: Erik Jensen
Paper 5
rime I draw wire that would reach from here to Boston, all by hand, too.
1)1
k(lk
Right here we send carloads of wire, and I remember that not so long
ago they sent forty million pounds of BX (electric wire covering) wire
Lto different parts of the world. Funny thing about wire, we make it
vo-t
here in this country, out [...ha_compositlow-e--make---w4rE from, comes
:from Sweden; they never could make the oase of it here, mebbe its the
oolik,tmetal or the ore that goes into it can't be mined -in this country. All
hj "jt Acindsof wire we make at the North works. There's wire for music, pianos,
oe
wa es, clocks, radios, telephone, picture wire and hundreds of different
kinds. Any kind of wire that's fine,w e male it. Why, some of the wire,
we craw through diamonds, ier it's so fine. Then we mak44bending?Ivire,
and wire for electric light bulbs and for doctors instruments, and for
dentists, too. Nevar—iae-fere—oould—make----theRtion of any wire that we can't
"Jan! meooe they do tin plate before I come, but Jensen do
better'Itin plate 7 for he knows how. Well, like this it is; we make
the wire, and it gets wind on the reel, then we tin plate it. Before,
when they tin plate the wire, she sticks in a lump and mebbe you can't
wind it back. Well, I have like this: On this side, I have my wire
I want to make tin plate; well, in the middle here, I make
my'1vat
of tin platel.mebbe. pounds; in one side, I stick through the
wire I want to tin plate, and push it through the vat of hot tin plate;
I make this steel arm to hold down the wire in the tinplate vat, then
Name: Emily B. Moore
Title: Living Lore
Assignment: Worcester
Topic: Erik Jensen
Paper 5
she goes through the vat and out the other side; now, when she comes
out the other side, in the water I push it to make hard the tin plate;
then when she comes out of the water, all cooled off, I have right here.
I another slab with rubberlkiperst;n toso-Cviper'he tin platedwire dry
1
1 before it is rolled on the reel, then she don't stick together. The
i wire is all rolled up on the reel and ready tote packed away or shipped
iout. All the time they makes improvements at the wire mill, but they
Lcan't do no better tin plate then Jensen can do.
"Jaht I have the girl works with me here in the bicycle/shop,
for*rls work oetter than boys. 11)own at the wire mill we have ,4s many
_
girls ewe can keep busy, and they make good workers. One time we used
to have boYa, doing the same work, out the boys get smart-aleA, and throw
'nipples' all over the place, and sometimes they hit somebody in the eye,
and meoue hurt someo4y, and the safety inspectors tells us girls can
do work. We get girls in and they works fine, and mind their own bus-
iness., This 'striker' of mine here, !he's goin' a work a t wire mill
next fall, for I teach her how she should do, and she yenerally do good
work.
"Nebbe I don't tell you hi you can understand about wire mill,
yah? That's allright for me, and I take you, only jest let me know
sometime before, and I take you when I get done for the day. You come
through the mill with me, and everybody knows Jensen, and they tell
you anything you wants you should know. You not much bother to me
today, and you come back any time you like, and meobe next time I can
have you some 'vooden' shoes, yahlo