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Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORM A.
Circumstances of Interview
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER TERRY ROTH
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
47 W. 69th. 1938
December S, 1938
MORE TAMS OF A LOCAL TOBACCO ROAD
1. Date and time o.7 interview
2. Place of interview
3. Name and address of informant
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
December 1, 1938
Washington Square Park
"Just a guy named Elmer"
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant.
5. Name and address of person, if any, accokipanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
See previous interview of
November 28, 1938:-STOREES
OF A LOCAL TOBACCO ROAD,
for information re -Infonaut.
(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 C
TcAt. of 1.-itel7vilt
STATE
NA!14: OF WO:AER
ADDRESS 47 W. 69th St..
New York
Terry Roth
'no(' r1)
DATE Dec. 5# 1938
SUBJECT r: AU; OF fi LOCAT. tITITIACCO ROPfl
FOLKLOBE
NEW YORK
Oscar Spencer, age 65, and his wife Minnie, age 60 are
living with his mother.in-law Mrs. Rumor, age, 95. Yrs. Rumor is
lucky to die at the age of 95 and puts Oscar up to the necessity
of making a gravestone for her in the meal cemetary. There are
two.; one for the Mays and one for the Spencer. Oscar hasn't any
family plot but the humors, being part of the May clan have, so he
wonders what kind of a tombstone to have, so Oscar, being descended
from French Peasant, wants to know the most economical way of doing
this business. He gets a big stone hauled to his place. Then he
works it up in the shape of a tree, with bark effect, and flowers
around the edge, and in the middle he prints, "Frieda Rumor, born
1833 died 1933", but he thinks it's big enough to make it do for
the whole family so he puts "Minnie Spencer, born 1873--died.-
and then his own name. "Oscar Spencer," born 1068. -died --but he
puts his own name on top so it reads, "Oscar Spencer, underneath,
"Minnie Spencer" and on the bottom his nother.in-law.
On my porch there were a gang of kids and I was curious
because there were several family names in this one house. Apparently
one mother to about four kids; two pairs, say, each of which had
.2..
the name of the mother and father. So I said to the little girl
Shirley. "How is it that your name is Jones, and John's name is
Smith, and your mother's name is Brown. So little Bruce Johnson
(10 years old) who wee visiting me, interrupted. Naomi,
(that's the mother) had Shirley by Howard, didn't she?" (Howard
is the guy she is living with.) Little Shirley is kind of coy
but not too ashamed. "Well, you see mother isn't married to Howard.
It all began when a Brooklyn doctor cot cancer so he moved
to Yankee town. He grew two husky sons and one joins. the Navy and
gets himself all tatooed. Then he goes to India and when he comes
hack he picks up a girl in New York no better than off the streets,
the neighbors say, and she looks it. According to the guy himslef,
he wouldn't have married her et all but her father was a Mason and
so was he. Sc he married the girl. She gets some money and lends
it to him so he builds a house. So she owns part of the house and
she owns part of the cv.r, too. ':;e11, he comes home one day and
discovers the local Don Juan sleepinL; with his wife. This here
Don Juanii He's about 50, needs just a glanue from a woman. So he
decides to beat this guy up but instead Don Juan beats him to a
frazzle. Well, the outcome was that the wife foreclosed the mortgage
on the house and took the csr away from him. She sleeps with her
paramour, lives in his house and drives his car. So he goes back
to his papa where it stands today, except that she has taken in to
board a whole crop of another family, three kids who belong to
somebody else and they are the tourthest ragamuffins you ever want
to see.