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Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORMA
Circumstances of Interview
STATE I:ew York
NAME OF WORKER Arnold 2,:anoff
ADDRESS 27 Hamilton Terrace
DATE Sept 20, 1038
SUBJECT FOLK I=
1. Date and time of interview Sept. 10, afternoon
2. Place of interview Goldrnis,Convalescent Home
176 St. iliarmion Ave. Fronx
3. Name and address of informant Ethel Simon
As above
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant.
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
L large converted private house on a rather quiet street. Loon
containinr; four beds. Furnished in hospital style. Atmosphere that
of hotel in the Catskills. roisy and bickering. This is a home for
the a.,-ed who are invalided. '.7ooden floor, shabby furniture, paint
peeling, on the walls. Unprofessional nurses and a shirt -sleeved
becr-smellinf- orderly.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
FORM
Persbnal History of Informant
STATE 'ETZ7..7 YORK
NAME OF WORMER Arnold 1,:anoff
gumEss 27 Hamilton Terrace, Yew York
DATE Sept. 20, 1930
SUBJECT FOLK L0BE
1. Ancestry RUSEO-J=ISH, PEACAI:T PEOPLE
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
2. Place and date of birth Dorn 83 years ago in Emargon, a village
in Russia near the Polish border
3. Family
4. Places lived in, with dates
Lived in America some 30 years, 15 years on the East side
the rest in the Bronx around Prospect Ave.
5. Education, with dates
6. Occupations and accomplishments, with dates
7. Special skills and interests
8. Community and religious activities
9. Description of informant Blind white-haired big old woman. Huge
lined face still unwrinkled, wrathful and owlish. Hair unkempt
and shay.
VD. Other Points gained in interview
Informant knew she had not much longer to live. Less than a year.
FORM C
Text of Iitterview (Unedited)
STATE 1:27,7 YORK
NACt OF WOR
"irnold Lanoff
..^..krogo•
AmmEss 27 Hamilton Terrace
DATE Sept 20, 1938
SUBJECT Folk Lore
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
Informant was seated near her bed staring blankly at a
little table in front of her upon which was her lunch. Two other
old women in the same room were lunchinc. One was beinc fed by a
nurse. When 1 told informant who
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was (I have known her for many
years) she brirrhtened suddenly and: while she Froped for her food
refushinc to let me aid her, we spoke in Yidi_'ish.
C Q tVvfk Lt--1(TovT ho E
You see. They rive me to eat, chlcken, all sorts of
thincs. Aa but its not like at hone. It has no taste. Today have
they riven me chicken. Yesterday have they not given me chicken.
Who knows. They have everybody riven chicken yesterday. 1;:e had they
left out. They know I can't see. Let them catch the cholera. They
are nurde_rers. (Then softly without venom) It is raininE in the street.
All day long. I know. Yesterday too it rained. l'ow is it outside now?
Still raininr. See that empty bed over there. She died Friday. One
hundred and, fifty thousand dollars. She died. (lauchInc) A lot rood
it did her. I feel not to talk much. There is enough trouble in the
world. What is the use to cry all the time? What hears from the
outside? Are they killin;7 themselves yet? That is he doinr now? I think
Czechoslovakia will fir7ht with him. It used to be rood when I had myrallo
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in the house. I knew everything that was happening. I remember
about Napoleon. They put him on a little island somewhere. A
soldier came to him and asked him did he want poison. Oh this
was long ago. You would not know about it. But he did not take
the poison. He was not through. That's how it is. He came back
but he went to Russia and the whole army got frozen. They 9.11
died from the cold. I think Hitler if he goes to war now will get
the same thing. How is it in Japan?
Don't tell this to anyone. Listen this is to laugh. When
I lived on Home Street all the women started to go to school, old
ones, young ones, everybody. A new madness. Everybody wanted to
learn to read the English papers. This was two years ago. Yes.
And me. I let them talk it in to me. So one fine day I pick myself
up. I take my feet on my shoulders and I go to school There is a
young teacher there and it is very funny. I squeeze myself into
the little seat and I sit. Inside I am dying laughing. You know.
I am a laughing one. I do this. I do that. I am dying laughing.
Do me something. The young one she writes on the blackboard in
English. It is easy. I know what she is trying to do. She writes
in English, goat. And then silos says in Yiddish, goat. And then
she asks whit is a goat in Yiddish and she wants they should answer
her in English. Listen good. There is woman there, an old little
one, she understands not a word. Hardly does she know what is
going on. What is a goat, the young one asks. A pretty one the
young one. I felt for her. Such dumb women to teach English.
The old one picks herself up. She looks this way. She looks that way.
A goat she says is maa maa like that maa maa. In me it explodes
the laughing. Maa maa makes the old one like a sheep. I can't
hold myself in. I let out the whole laughing and I can not bear
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it anymore. I am ashamed. It is so comical. I pick myself up
and I go home. That's how I went to school. What did I need
school. Everything I want I used to hear on the radioe There was
one, the limping philosopher he called himself. Now has he a
band and singers. Everything is on the radio. He called himself
the limping philosopher. What it means? Aa a limping one. He
limped. You think there willbe war? What does he say, the bolshevik,
Stalin? And what is in Palestine? England England, she could stop it.
They're all the same. Well, I think I'll take myself a little sleep
now. I sleep so much here. (She sighed, her big shaggy head drooped
tiredly. I got up to go. She probably heard me getting up from the
chair) Go healthy. Go healthy, she muttered sleepily.