Document text
STATE
Tcx'kS Ay‘ec.c\Ati.,S
Forms tq,MA killed am sgr Fetch Intervkqw
New York
NAME OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
FORMA
Circumstances of Interview
Marion Charles Hatch
862 First Ave.
Oct.18, '38
-Stories
1. Date and time of interview
Oct. 13, '38 Evening.
2. Place of interview
Residence of informant.
3. Name and address of informant
Mrs J. Bennett,
862 First Ave.
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put
touch with informant.
you in
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
age .Atirse-4,-€44
4:141;. I became acquainted with informant Italessumaimu
in the same house 111110601'.4-4-, 46,6*
5. Nam and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
I interviewed Mrs Bennet
room apartment on the s
Avenue She had a wood
as sh4L feels chills qu
scrupulously clean but
issuing from(he fact o
her moving out easily.
t in the kitchin °foot three-
econd floor facing First
fire crackling in t e stove
ickly. She keeps her apartment
with a faint note of disarray
f her rheumatism which prevents
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forma, each
bearing the proper heading and the -number to which the material refers.)
STATE
New York
NAME OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
FORM 13
Personal History of Informant
Marion Charles Hatch
862 First Ave.
Oct. 18, '38
suBJECTAs1-
4-S to ri es t- A
1. Ancestry
Irish.
2. Place and date of birth
43
Ireland, Abut 73 years
A
3. Family
Widow of an American
111116
t/A.C11
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
4. Places lived in, with dates
Ireland during early childhood.
England until about 25 years of w e.
Since then in America
5. Education, with dates
She was educated in a Catholic school in England reaching
vha t would be the equivalent of highschool. She studied
Latin and has read Dickens and Shakespeare.
6. Occupations and accompiishments, witn dates
She has been a carpet sewer since living in America
She worked for most of the big department stores such
as Wanamaker's Imre Ales were often conditioned on
7. Special skills and interests changes being mde in the carpets to
fit odd rooms, fire cladesetc.
Being crippled she enjoys reading and listening to the radt
8. Community and religious activities
Catholic.
9. Description of informant
Although a woman of 73 years/ she
ed in eyes that still retain a de
10. Other Pffirttilinntee Ihr eibitadview exc
few wrinl
sn coilkYeprege i
stealing
of the mo
strikingly
on the wall show her
still has beauty, represenfr
ep blue sparkle, even featuileA0
ellent forehead. '3he has
es and her white hair is
has been successful mainly
ssing her cheeks and
something of the form
uth and chin. Pictu res
beautiful in youth,
STATE
New York
FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedited)
NAME OF WORKER Marion Charles Hatch
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECTf
413
862 First Aye,
Oct. 18, '38
-Stories
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
r
I had asked Mrs Bennett p,eviously to td 1 me
some stories so when I entered she said
"I have a little story all fixed up.
She handed me a piece of paper with a story written
in pencil The original I attach to the end of
this document What she had written on the paper was
as foll- ws:
one
"My mother and I called on an acquaintance4evening
The husband of the lady was violinist. He wanted to
entertain us with some classic music He started with
Oravalleria Rusticana. In the middle of it his wife jumped
up, pulled up her skirts and did a step dance and said:
"Oh give us 'Johnnie get your gun, get your gun."
I read the story and laughed and then the
interview proceeded as follows:
My mother and I wee so mortified, he was so mortified
1.• r
but we didn' t dare laugh 3ut on the ww home we
screamed with laughter. Didn' t dare laugh She did
two three s'eps I wished I could cd) it bu t I can' t
4.444( F44
.0%,
(Mrs Benne o imitate. _Milk e never went
J
4, "4444-c4iL
there again. You know Cava,,eria 71usticana ?He started with
I such pathos you know So se i 011 about t Ha, I
Tik ha/
C
11MXII"'" eav-oe (-10.444-01
Myifsiste r and I* My mother was exnec ting a baby
and my sistekand I were sent what shall w e sw nurse
nursec. she was a very cross old woman they always are the
midwife they don' t have any midwives any more Vil at happened
--f-r_ *-_-_-
to thegthey u se-allo do quite some business alp und here
itat one me yessirilla midwives and the doctors never
go t paid they were cat led for ,pr d they were romised
ra.44444.._04.40L
(the mone just came they saw they c on flu eked4...
s+44,44 S•064444
(I was in there las night and he gave he4
r a,4:1:1
44.4,4144•+. Se411.4,-4:4/ Itc.
sid4:01fx9
conversation in his own language, you know and at the end
0
she looked 1.4) and she said Hmmml just like that I la,ugi-tot
2.:
in the night he just saidnoh go to heli./i 604.1
4- -_-_• i -„z/ 4
"-Nve—W it on a run of c curse when we were sent for
.110110
that cranky old mid wife The being older tha—n I,
what shall I sw she saw the importanceof making hastelt
was tired of running and I asked her what we were runni
for and she said Oh mother s going to have a baby
and Mrs Tutor is bringing i/ t sure nu t her name in
she was over seventy then and she 's probably dead and
bu ried by now -4-
she hasn' t anything to worry at
if she's gone to the right place if not she will
4- 4.
have plenty to vick.rY aboU
c, (Azvst go -c
c —C -If that's the case I'm not going to run any more
tifi/ N7R)
we don't want any mo re babies You know I never
4told my mother that We never dicussed having ba,biesg
Isn' t that funny.? Having a harkime or my thing of
the kind
loomift• 1- 7- 1-- 1
4.Fil was working in a house ano ther INIMIt was sent to help me
and there was live wire# the elctrician was working
•bew-
and he left a live wire exposed it was on a lam p
•111.
and he was1 ing something on the lamb she je ins deaf
••••1... I
..1..
didn' t hear th e man say i t was alive0 she went to touch it
_...,, 14.0-1..,t
..._
and stopped she would have4en shocked if I had
n' t stopped her from touching it going home she
-_
0
wou4In' t go cb wn$ the stairs, she got in the elevattr
u A
and want j..to come to I woul t g in and I shut
P -4t
ilk
.,.__ alf_ _Aa dozen times ghe looked
at4A-W4AN. k)
ou never saw dame TA•vcrtst IPS in
Vto•96‘
own sh7 we
blvt .44"1
(4g7 .ployele44,40ex_
like wax work
londonRerrherey, s
=NW.
a funny thing My brother was in Madame Trouseauis
and he 110 had a uniform of the English infantry red coat
tall looked fine six egular scarlet coat and he
IL=
was standing there admir7the waxworks. He had never seen
them before And woman started to admire him,.
finally he start d to move and the woman got qui te
a start She ,thought the statue had come to life
e was e lever4 Everybody was shouting
to her The carletaker was "fari.dovm from
the North of Ireland The lord Mr knciws where tey
9
4r
are now, that was in j4?. morgall
the dad
V Lhey gave lots of work. They occupied lots of people
-1.-
So the far —down). They were ways having samething
C_
done overhey treated ev.Strybody so nicecia
One time we therk and Wm she thought Caftwork
wasn't going as well as she thought it Add be she said
she wouldn' t have ajyhing, to do with al y simma. the
work people she was finished with the boss and sheimmer.1/4..
*t z..
flat everybody out in the first place So we ti ought
we we re through But we asked ano ther man and he said
if our work was satisfactory just to go tack in the
morning Morgan's daughter said I thought I told
you I was through. I took a chance I said but we
came from another office') and she said Al right
then stay at work and so we kept the job and later
she gave us $5 and laughed th out the incident
`---P"Take your haan off the haandle you can' t put the
accent in
0x:034.7 -kept
She went up
6.-tAtidA-41
o the roof and down the cellar
#7-
ana down several times She looked more
like a statue than anything else Then I went like
this to her (es tu re s, but you cant t put that downy.,
and she judged from that to take her hand off the
handle So finally she took her hand off the handle
and stopped the car Oh she was a devil a devil of
a woman I wished aftevards she had touched the live wire
)IL..I
and got a shock hi&
ohlshe was horrid in every way a mean woman I couldn't
describe her really I think all deaf people are mean.
Suspicious because they can't hear.
-4,04
114Ary.l.
YtA c4lAft
poem.-
E -40L10(
%Ala. M4004* C.4444" "10 71,114.
Mrs ved ibuse for twenty years 14.'44
Se44
1.a)
ou're
again I could cry Mrs hardly keep the tears
back. Oh don't doa that Mrs MENNERt R. Don'tok.
0
cry w Mrs(!)0h you have no sentimen You're too
tired to have sentiment You
going away and you don't even
whata you think I'm going to 86 street Not goin
6 szed_44,
going away now I won't see you
to Italy or Europe just to 86th street "You have
I
no sentiment you don't feel. You mus hait_a_little
philosophV'll be coming down heire rjvput,not
444.4.^4.44e446.40•44.4.),
so often#.. IgAt door Mr ell good night. Mrs
A
B: (Almost wee pinw ood bye !Mrs B ollows her into
i
hall to say something alone.)
don't feel You are
want to ery Weell
tr"
was in bed and asleep woke up and saw a
looking through the window at me I inriedi,
my head under the bed clothes and went off
That settled that another kid would 1114,
'101-•
on irk, ground floor We e in bed three of. Ue ilaspt
in a bed great big
-e4A*t.
they here we we,e
A.
an extension made
where father kept
he used to keep
NM.
laid none of these little bits At things
/t
all in bed one ni..:;ht, ray father nad
over the extensio w s of et 1
leather ad to have a lot Of I:lather/
leathtr in loft one night we leer 1 in
bed and we went to sleep. we heard some crejagnii over le aci-X
shishil tenilis ten/ cA over aepinz came further and further
4
and the first thing the fellow did he fellif through. the
ceiling. his leg
we jumped out
trying to get out
wanted
ran up to
of bed, we
-r
quick
came through the ceiling Ha (hal
ti: 4 A if
re any knocked each °Wu. down
aughs ha/ha /nobody 1
to be last for fear TE would catch 111 4, well we
my fatheraVmotther, of course shoutir* not
crying somebody getting in or something well0f,eouree
4- f
my father just right away thought of the leather
so him nd my mother went out to see what it lisa all
bout. Of cou rse the fellow was gone when he bardus
shout Thee was ri"5-bsody there A hide of 2,
qone
11,4' Was
th ere must In ve oeen somebody there throwing the leathca.
down so we stayed up in iymother' s room til everything
sor
i
was over. Mother said oh t was nobody there. It was
some cats How did the cats fall through the ceiling?
/4
oh the ceiling was weak We beli eyed it all and went
right back to sleep.
4 4-1- )L
father ea de shes He could make lady s shoe 9,
gentleman's running pump/ a lady's patent slipper*
turned inside out he was a swell shoe maker. I heard
my father father say, telling some stories he said when
he was serving his time he had to s erve seven years.
there was seven of them of the m slept in one room"(
and when one fellow wanted to go out with his girl the
other six had to stay home0 they had only one good
suit between
them Ha (lid ha/ I've h ea rd my fa ther IOW tat
that many many tine s. My mother used to be awfully asha,ed
A
and so did we but af terwards it seemed so ridiculous
and when one went with his girl the otheks had to stay
home oh dear dear dear what funny things/that's all
them fellcw s don' t care as long as they are having a
1-
1
life
-644/1
good la
its a wonde our hearts didn' t jump out of place h114
oN
tt
wer kept intact
A
they wer42_p entices you know they weren' t full fledgUd"c
they didn' t have much money you don' t get much when
you're an apprentice 0 I guess they feed them'hat's
I can just see us ,.:..etting out of bed with one accord
la3, haI ha the last ore 's a sissy ha ha'na The last one
would be somebody.
8,44
proba.blyAkeffir of he men that worked for my father
-rears after my mother told us but father wouldn' t tell
Ur/
us the men who wicrked' for father knew at was there
4L
many and many a soldier us kids 'fused to shield They
stay out to see their girl they stay over time if
fAi
caught out in the town without a pass they take
them to the guard h-iuse Nau y.Du know many and many
IL
a 411.1111111111hr—I've seen hidinUV1ien the provost asked
we'd say they've gone they would stand in some niche
you know and stand there so they wouldn' t be 0111.
w ent to a bachelor(5 apartment and two men very
nice. oh I got qui te chummy with them afterwards they
W
were very nice I went sew and my scissors4down beside
A.
me I'll give you an idea of tIT scissors I have s WE Silillia&-'
4-
4- of course it isn' t the same as all those year You
.4., .A.
1 t imagLine how Pilch callous you can get cutting."...
wou
(-r-at. .5-41/4:41-114.44 CAreAkiA,_)
ifOri ece of bindi Er,., •hang it on our
0`,4
waist
You can always tell a person doesn' t know how to work
how they rig themselves how they cut the thread,
A big bull cog came in and sat in frorir of
CIA44 Sir t'4144."‘
...or watching me 40 I was in ther,t by myself riiMIIM
4.140.4siort—
so we don t throw it on
,he floor afterwards
I was in thre alone aa d the big bull dog came in
watching: me. was I scared7 I was afraid to pull out my
%moo.
This one I don't know whether I should tel 1 you or not
hand to sew I was afraid to lift out the scissors.
If I lifted up the scissors he'd go for you I think.
so I called out after a while will somebody come
and tajthis dog away. I was so frightened my own
voice tr1".hten ed. 'Oh says he wouldn' t hurt you he's
Ian awful nice dog he wouldn't hurt you w1 was afraid to
pull my ago out afraid to cut the thread with the
ii
scissors. If you don' t take him away I'll never do
ft
ch
any work V- .S-Gt-42,,t-
-44114-444
That was a big private house on Lexinp-ton avenue
L04-40 tistl#A, I
the son (the house a son of a gun. I was sitting
on the floor sewing the carpet Oh I could go to
the court but I don't like that They would only
say I was an advent'ut ess. I had no witnesses
0
I couldn't orve anything. I was VW very plump
in those days today I m "ma broad/but then I
was plump like sat down beside me on his hunkers
and told me I had a wonderful complexion I paid
no atention to his fla tery Then I sawAISVAW
som ething
I just got up and ran 0 I would have thrown those
aWoug...•PC-
shears through a w o 11C-the—WTI:if-Talk s fter s
and I couldn't do that So I ran until I couldn't
run any more I was tire out Qf course other ne pie
have better storieslibut (s rcas i 1 II they wou ni t
6)14,14474-4 ..-1
remember them like to see him do that to me He'd
ii/ 4141w4rAvg‘plepotaaaleterniltaayk---
know better
Slue 4
So he ran af ter me until couldn' t run an more I turned
4. 't
on him and held my shears If you come a step nearer
J
I'll push these right through you "well what happened?"
9
V-. tiet4 t
I asked "Well it was all OV er by then 0 Nothing more
-f k
L.A....,....,..b...L.
Pri?kErs Slavic,
the superntendent very deaf jpetfy* knocks
Mrs Bs she back?. Don' t answer the door She's
a nuisance/. I don' t want her to see you in here. She's
so nosy (Mrs Slavic pushes in.) Oh was that door
unlocked
Mrs Slavic (Speaks in loud uncontrolled voice of
t4A
deaf person.) Look at this She has copy of magazine
Life/ opened.) Is this awful.. Its pictures of a
baby how you get baby (Mrs B. interposes right in.
front of Mrs Slavic. isn' t she stunid7 She can' t hear
4-
anything we say r perhaps she can. If she can hear
she's gelt flg an earful
Mrs Slavic -the things they print now. My •boy
showed this to me oh its awful,awful. Mrs Tie- All right
lL
go on hone now (Mrs Slavic of course doesn' t hear.)
(Finally rs Slavic completes he cri ticism of
14-fe, sees that we are busy and goes out.)
agliiii5i4fis deaf so I went in therelt She was making
bread. She offered me some of t4s,hot bread.
---/1144-79/4
I couldn' t eat anything in I said no I d n' t
0
want anything She said it wit‘n
I(
I said NoT Nol I don' t want any. I know what's good for
4
tit er
my system "Oh she says I didn' t know your *grit
it.
sister was in the city your sister isn't here
t hurt me
‘9a-4-44'7
augh nix so td-yrrist have though we were drunk
taking bo th sides and the middle We couldn' t
This lady was name d Susan The landladyithe janitor
Her friends didn't like her name Susan so she changed
her name to Bessie as a favor to her friends.
So when she had her little boy christened the
priest asked for her name and she told him Bessie.
The priest put it down Elizabeth Well when
-1A--/
that lady came home she was so ini ignat.iiat dc
H
y',u think she says he put me down Elizabeth I said
vt IV
that is Elizabeth of course she didn' t know until
she came home and somebody read it to her because
she can' t read/you know, You can imagine the fun I have
s:ire times wi th them.
Next door the girl was always crying She didn't
If
ta)
know what she was crying for Iould tell her You,V
crying there just crocodile tears then later the
mo ther would turn on the dal ghter and say "Oh you and
your crocked dile tears.
I came down to hi
t C
c.
71-
oor, o e rsle to L7; e t own
T ...ix months
and haven' t been down once. (laughs) I've goti, now
so I don' t want to go down I just sit at the window
and look down at the world Its fun. Sometimes I have
trouble ge tting my groceriesi_ One day I dropped half
a bucket of ashes down to the street trying to a" tract
some boy's attention 0 Th, delicatessen charges
a couple of extra pennies for everything and IOW I
have to give the kids a couple of To enniew
(As I prepared o go 0
(Very politely.) Now I ve done you a favor nerhas you
can do me one Get me a loaf of Banner whole wheat
bread and a quarter pound of butter.
vtlf
FORK D
zar tr. Comment
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Marion Charles Hatch
ADDRESS 862 First Ave.
DATE Oct. 3.8 '38
SUBJECTF 444 —Stories
I decided Mrs Bennett would be a good
prospect for stories She stopped me again in the
hall and asked me if I wanted a coal stove. A friend
of herAwas moving away and wanted to give away a
stove: .i. took this opportunity to make an appoint-
ment to get some stories from her.
Mrs Bennett is very quick and tart
in her opinions. This quality is ballanced by a keen
sense of humor and a musical laugh, that can often
be heard through the halls "There s not enough
Joni ty in this house Al]. these fo reign peopl e. They
never laugh", she once said The lady above her
could never hear her playing the radio but occasionally
heard her laugh. "Some times I am thinking over these
things and laugh outloud in bed in the middle of
the night. 0, she said.
A word or two to underline her outspokeness.
During the telling of the stories she stopped to
remark "Oh you do have a sense of humor You know
when I gave you that rose you were so embarrassed. I
thought you were the dullest man I ever met in my life.
When I came downstairs for the interview she said
"Oh I knew that waLs you all right. You always slam your
door." I pointed out that the old man who lives next
to me and who gets up at 5 a.m. to go to work in th e
slaughterhouse asked me to turn the radio off at 9 p.m.
"Don' t pay any attention to that old fool Al]. the
good programs come after 9 Don' t worry he'll
sleep all right if he's tired enough."
w York
STATE
NAVIP•011"1101111tEr
lifilfflEgr°
411111.101*
a Comment
e.
Mrs Bennett has lived in the tenement house
at 862 First Ave, for more than 30 yeianat. Six months
ago, becau se he rheumatism had bec o worse, she moved
from an upper apartment to her present home one
flight above street level, in ordpr to get out of the
hz.use once in awhile and I haven' tfeen out once since.*
I met Mrs -Bennett in the following planner.
Being imprisoned by her rheumatism she often sas at
the front window to enjoy observing the life below.
I live in the same house,on the third floor. Going
upstWars one day she stopped me in the hall and handed
ire a rose saying very grqciously "I want to give
you this in memory of lother s Bay
I met Mrs,Bennett and talked to her again
during a rent strike which was exciting but failed to
jell. I remember a remark she made to me in the hall
She had describe* her cloistered existence in a phrase
or two and then added in a vigorous whisper I feel
like a caged lion Her eyes flashed as she wobbled,
incongruously back to her room.
On another occasion she was having a convetsation
wi th Mrs Slavic, the deaf jamb tor who talks in a Mk
loud voice and a little squat, square, foreign woman.d
who is forever gathering box boards and storing them
in her rooms for firewood. I was bossing the three
women in the hall when Mrs Bennett asked me who won
the German French war of 1870 I was almost as embarrassed
as when she handed me the rose but answered Germakv
which turned out to be the right guess,
et4-•
3C
as14140
*eta"
Aigke.