Document text
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORMA
Circumstances of Interview
STA E WOW York
NAME OF WORKER Terry Roth
ADDRESS 47 Ws 69th Bt. New York
DATE Nov. 28, 1938
SUBJECT *STORIES OF A 1090A10 TOBACCO ROAD°.
1. Date and time o interview NOV. 22, 1938
2. Place of interview
Washington Square Park
3. Name and address of informant
'Ault a VI, MAWWi Mawr*
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.
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
(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.)
STATE
NAME OF
ADDRESS
DAIF
F0 -2N
Personal History of Informant
New York
voTIKER Terry Roth
47 W. 69th St.
Nov. 28# 1938
SUbJECT STORIES OF A LOCAL '.013AOCO ROAD
1. Ancestry
Not given
2. Place and date of birth
4ddle West
3. Family
4. Places lived in, with dates
5. Education, with dates
High sohool and 3 years of college
Occupations and accomplishments, with dates
Writes for pulps
7. Special skills and interests
hunting, wood chopping, nature study
8. Community- and religious activities
square dances
FOLKLORE
NV: YORK
The informant would not give
any information as to his identity
because ul live up there in
Doodletown and these people are
my neighbors and I need my
neighbors and I wouldn't want
to queer myself with theme Just
say you got them from a guy named
Elmer. You better change the
name of the village, like instead
of Doodletown call it Yankeetown
or something, and change the
name of the people. Don't call
them the Junes and the Herbert*,
see what I mean,*
9. Description of informant Inforummt is about 38 years of age, heidht
6 feet, weight, 175 pounds, purple black hair, keen blue eyes,
nice strong face, a wTom Dewey" moustache.
10. Other Points gained in interview
Likes to wear real rough clothing like the characters in his
pulp stories; seems to enjoy whittling things down and has habit
of whittling his clothing; cuts dolman the brims of his hats,
whittles his belts and pipe stems.
FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedited)
STATE New York
NAN,E OF WORKER Terry Roth
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
47 Vi, G9th St, New York
Nov. 20, 1938
"STORLS OF A LOCAL TO3ACCO
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
"Uncle Larry chopped wood for twenty five years, and at
the emd of that time he saved up $5,000. One day a friend came to
him and said. "What you ought to do is put your money in a bank."
"What's a bank?" UneIe Larry asked him, so the friend explained that
a bank had a strong vault where the money would be kept, and there
would be policemen there to watch it. So Uncle Larry jaw the friend
the money mad that was the last time he over saw the friend or the
money. So rnole Larry began chopping wood again and at the end of
another twenty five years he saved up t5,000 again. This ti• he
put the money under a floor board in his shack. And you know what?
When he went for the money later, it wasn't there, The mice ate
it ell up. So now Uncle Larry doen't chop wood. He has a cabbage
and potc.toe patch and ohikkens. But Uhe deer come down and eat his
potatoes. So he &ain't sleep. He sits up all night long# watching
the potatoes. When the kids pass by hie house they say, "Stand up
stralzht, put your hat on so Uncle Larry won't think you are a deer."
Uncle Lorry toolonca to the Badgers' which are a little
higher than the Millers' who have more scandal in their family.
Uncle is the renegailtes
You musn't use the real names of the people or the village,
leause they are my neighbors and I Gotta keep on friendly terms with
them, sureI visit with them sometimes. I even go to their square
dames. This vas a funny one. One night I'm at the danoe there,
the caller is yelling, so I can't understand anything, but the
dancers know what he says. One Guy, he's enormous, about 6' 5"
a tough baby who smokes a huge cigar, this call eame with a change
in the must°, suddenly this guy dances up to me nnd takes me around
the waist and &noes me around. Sure, even up in the mountains they
got 'sm.
Ths is a local Tobacco Road sort of thing. Clarence laller
is livinc with his wife and babies and drives a truck. "Nic" Badger
was sort of the boarder. Aside from this menage the wife and three
babies and who is now preGnant again, and the boarder, there is also
another couple and babies in the sere Louse, eurrouzided by ears and
boats, haystacks, GaraGe full of everythinG so that you can't get
anythinz in it, the porch full of auto parts end babies and wine
presses, all on three quarters of an acre on a triangle on no side
of the road. Jesus what a place. Oswald, the boarder, came home
one night and found "Nip" sleeping with his wife. Now all this I
Got second hand, you know, rumor* Oswald says. "Eic" you are a
bastard", and Nic answers,"Oswald, I don't like this." So Oswald
takes the kids and goes btiok to his mother. "You know the kind of
a girl you married in the first place," she says* "Go back to your
bed and sleep in it." So Oswald goes back to Nic and says, "Let's
forget about it for the time beinG„ but don't let me see you with
my wife any more." So Nic lives on peacefully and is very helpful
and does thin,c:a around. But lately, Oswald isn't going home,
sleeping with the wife. That's the way tinge happen there.