Document text
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Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Herman Spector
ADDRESS 4121 —Third Ave.
DATE
SUBJECT M A COPPENTER
1. Date and time c`' interview Deoamber 19e 1938
2. Place of interview Beliskals Restaurant
3. Name and address of informant
Anonymous, accosted at table.
4. Name and address of person, if any, wno put you in
touch with informant.
None
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
None
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
(See previous sketch: *Noboddy Boddas You")
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.)
FOLKLORE
FORM C
NEW YORK
Text of Interview (Unedited)
STATE New York
VINE OF WORKER H. Spector
ADDRESS 4121 -Third Ave.
DATE December 19, 1938
SUBJECT I AM A COPPENTER
Nacherlly de costoms is changing, it's a differents now, but to
tell de troot I'm so lived in it dot can't notice it changes. For a writer
it is good on de East Side, he knows how to make from dese tinge stories.
I am a coppenter. Ask me about wood, I can tell you. De most from dese peoples,
poor peoples, it don't intrest dem notting else but cohds (cards). See, dey
fight over a nickelt)over notting. Dey don't even read papers. Evvy Jew kuppost
to know how to read de Jewish paper* no? Not even dot. If dey do read, dey
read de yellow press, -Not we call. Not editorial, an article, but holdops.
you know, sensational. Dey are not class -conscience people. Frinstance,
dictatorships. You have to tell dem de meaning from dictatorship. Hitler,
Stalin: to dem is all de same. So I'm answering dem die way. When a crook*
suppose, you stop a crook from stealing, it's dictating, no? So it's dictating
de working -people. You against die? In differents mays I am trying to explain,
I don't say I an a hundred percent, at least I know something.
In die place I am used to de food; is all right. Notting spetchal:
de meat is good, cooked plain, nacherlly. I had goo times too: believe me,
I an better off now. Fourteen tousand dollars I lost. In a building. Second
maggidge. It boomped up, it boamped dawn. Who loses? Who pays de defitsit?
-2
You can't be smart. You are smart one way, dey take you anodder way. You invest
money, suppose. It takes you twenty years to get it out, if you do get it out.
Sometime you don't get it out. So I an now, suppose, 48. When will I enjoy?
For who? For my children. Suppose I don't got no children? It's a great foolish-
ness.
No, gold is not flushing in de streets here. But dis is a
feet: over here is de stendard of living better dan over dere. Here is a
democracy. Today evvybody got to get down on his knees and thank God he lives
in dis country. Here You can live, you can try to make bettor. It's not a
hundred peroent. Like in my union. De liddership today is on de basis of
reaction. It's a feet. De coppenter is not protected. Why is he not protected?
Because dis is a hire and fire business. Dey have a scale, so if he wouldn't
come down from de scale, so de boss fires him. Why? Dis is evvyting legal. On
de basis of not producing enough, so he fires him. One out of a tousand maybe
gets de scale. Frinstance de man goes to de Local and he says he's not getting
de scale. De Business Manager says: so why do you work under scale? De
Business Manager has a yearly job, wid a salary, wid expense so he can hold
out. So wot can de coppenter do? So I say, it's not a hundred percent. I
wish it changes, believe me.
Funny stories I don't know eeder. About hospitals, one. In Gouveneer
Hospital a coppenter went for a sickness. So de doctor tells him to bring a
bottle for medicine. So he goes home and next day he brings a half -gallon from
Itsick Kaiser whiskey, wid de labels; so he expects for medicine. Do doctor asks:
wot's dis? Evvybody laughed from him. To me dis is medicine, he says. But one
feller, he was afraid from hospitals. He didn't have confidence; he was under de
impression dey wanted to poison him. So de keeper said if you have no confidence,
go home. I was near to dot man, he lived in my house; I tink his mind didn't
work right. If it was money dot he tought dey would steal from, him I could
understand. But he was a poor man. He told me dey hit him on de head dere,
but I don't believe it. Kings County Hospital. It is like over here, Bellavue.
He Was under de impression, being de students need bodies for prektising, so he
figured dey would poison him. I couldn't convince him he shouldn't be afraid.
Nacherlly, de logic to it is very plain. He couldn't speak a word English.
And de keepers dey are Gentile, dey couldn't understand him a word. So when
he talks to his friends, he is afraid dot de keepers tink he is talking about
dem.
Sometimes Jewish people is ignorant. In de hospital where my wife
is dey have Irish nurses. Dey are good, I am telling you, like angels. So if
dey don't talk Jewish, my wife's friends say: she's an Antisemitt. pis isn't
right. My wife is a class -conscience person: she explains, if you don't talk
Jewish, it don't mean you are an Antisemitt. Dis is a mistake from ignorant
people.