Document text
Swenson
701127
LIVING FOLKLORE
byc
Informant: Anna Saitta
509 East 79th Street, N.Y.C.
3/13/1939
Subject: A DAY AT N. B. C. COLLEGE
(Taken from the diary of informant dated February
28, 1928. Her own description of one day's experience
as a packer in the Uneeda Bisquit Company (called
N.B.C. College by the workers) at Fifteenth St. and
9th, 10th and 11th Avenues, Manhattan.)
The mountains and planes were covered with snow.
slowly I was approaching the hills, hear me stood Mary, Slovak Mary
my friend, we ate a piece of bread and told each other tales.
The mountains were white, all white and the sun shone upon them
bright, the trees looked like Peery kings with their glittering
icey and snowy crown. Mary, Mary, Slovak Mary, sing me that song
of :anosak, of :anosak the robber...
Cling, cling, clang... Damnit: again morning. Stop you
accursed disturber of dreams, you tyrant alarm clock.
Seven o'clock already, phooey what a life. What did I dream?
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No time to think of it. It's too late, too late/hasten to
work. I look aroundjmy room is dark, fine it would be to
t
sleep only a half an hour more. Why isn' t now midnight
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instead of morning? Of course eight hours spent in a
factory are too much. Wash myself and look through the
window. It rains again. Whenever I look through the window
in the morning it's raining, snowinglor both at the same time.
I walk down the stairs,
I walk through the streets to
the sub station. ln each shop window is a clock, and I look
at every one, and every one shows a different time. By all
the Prophets, what time is it?
At last arrived to the station, took out my nickel and
deposited it with a melancholy lookiin the box. Goodbye
my nickel I'll never see you again. Clock, time? Seven -thirty.
Maybe I'll have enough time to eat breakfast. Train is coming.
Second Avenue elevated. Crowded. People lean on me, I lean
on them. They look at me with wrath, I look at them with
disgust. We all wish the others should get off, in order we
could get a seat. I look around in the train. God, how many
people live on this earth. Too many, too many.
Mott Avenue. Some more peoples A stout Jewish woman stands
near me, leans on me, yawns and sighs. 0y, oy, my blood is
boiling, I try to push her away, but she leans on me and I
can't free myself. Finally I holler out: God's sake move
away a little bit, or do you want to choke me? She looks at me,
her eyes filled with hate, contempt and surprise. She wan9
to say something, but suddenly closes her lips. The colored
man got up from his seat, she sits down. I am free to breath(,)
what a relief'.
Daily News, lies and crimes. World, positions, furnished
rooms. Times, money. Daily Worker, so and so many workers
out of employment.
Times Square. Most of the people leave
the subway, I have a seat. What's the use, on Fourteenth
Street I must leave the train too.
Tired and painted faces walk to their shops. People
coming out from the church, people enterirv; the church. I
wonder what they have to say to God.
The factory. God Mploch, God Mamon, God Ignorance are
sitting on the factory chimney. Bloodjeverywhere blood, they
suck our blood, there isn't in our body blood anymore.
But the girls are garalmisipplini1IMMEMP We wear
uniforms, white caps, and we all look alike, This is fat
Mary, that is skinny Mary. Jewish Mary, Spanish Mary, Spanish
Mary and Irish Rose. Hallo Mary,. Hallo Rose, Hallo Katie.
How are you? Fine, how are you? Feel alright. Smiles and
greetings. We would say that we feel fine even if we had to
drop dead after.
Forelady-- March across,you'll work on the Ninth Avenue
building today. It's raining, but we must go across the street.
Jewish Mary walks with Irish Mary, Italian Mary with German Katie
Fat Mary with lean Mary. And myself with Lithuanian Rose.
The working girls conversation. God, it rains again.
\Dann it, we have o work every day on Eleventh Ave. Phooey, how
everything stinks there. That's a factory? A toilet not a
factory. No sun, no air, and coldt They want us to catch
consumption. Of course they should worry.. There are too many
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people anyway. That inspectress, that bastard, I hope she
drops dead. A girl/was working with yesterday, a new girl.
Such a fresh kid, only a week in the factory-- do you hear me
Katie? So I told, so I say to her-- You listen, I don't
care whoever you are, you may mean to your mother all the
world, but to me you are less than the air. By God, I'll
punch you--- shut up, here comes the Foreman
Two, four, six-- thirty-six girls. Where to put them.
Machine operators? No, we are packers. Packers, well well,
follow me
ghat did I tell you, I knew he will put us near the
refrigerators. I had a bad dream last night, I saw dirty water.
You are full of sh Don't be so stupid. Are you your own
grandmother? Who the devil believes today in dreams?
My husband, oh he is a wonderful fellow, he makes fire
in the stove, when I get up to go to work the room is warm.
Believe me what a man. Yes, and then lays down and says,
Dear wife, go to work and I'll watch the house
Who, my Bobby? Oh you nut, my Bobby works hard. You
should see what a hard working man he is. My Bobby
Dry up there, stop your babbling, less talking and more
work. What the hell is this, a picnic car a factory.
What's your number? I wasnit talking. What's your
number?, 1 said. -Bertha was talking, she talks always.
Will you give me your number, or I'll call the Foreman%
My number-- but honest to God I didn't talk-- 7348. I should
worry if you fire me, I am discouraged anyway. This factory,
this dhithouse-- Shut up. Go on table sixteen. I thought
lishe wants to fire me. Dope, you, the season isa ere, they
won't fire you now. So long, goodbye. Stupid. Isn't she
a fool. Mary, you want to hear a joke? I am telling you some
joket It's a dirty joke, but so amusing, you'll crap in your
bloomers. Jewish people have only dirty jokes, what is it?
Once upon a time there was a man, he had a daughter, you know
an ignorant, well
Katherine, were you last night in the church? What a joke,
for Christ sake. Kathy were you last night in the churdh?
Berthy, how was it, tell it again, I must learn it. Katherine
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were you in church last night? That the hell are you yelling
in my ears? Do you think I am deaf? Don't you see I'm busy
talking. What did you say? Were you in church? How was it
Berthie? No, I wasn't in dhurcht You know people are so
foolish. Why should I have gone to church. Lent. Well I am not
so religious
quiet, quiet-- he is coming. Katherine, the foreman
Der Rebbe geht, oy, the Rebbe gehtt
Girls, I want you to stop your noise. You understands
All the work is broken-- don't break so many crackers. And I
don't want to hear afwordo
He has always to say something. That son of a b He
gets paid alright, why shouldn't he yell at us. That's why
he is kept here. Must you talk so loud that the foreman shall
notice it?
Cadowee
Toreador-- oh, toreador-- Mary i111111111111E shut upS
Toreador-- oh-- Damnit, you make me nervous with your singing.
Go to the opera, clean the windows with your voice. Give it
to her, fat Mary. That conceited goose goes every Saturday to V&A.,
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opera. She thinks she is an artist. An artist, the idea.
Handhahah.
So you have a boyfriend, a boyfriend-- That is he?
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Some y, handsome, and I told him, Harry, you're beautiful.
Shirley, you are a seven month baby. Why? Your brains weren't
developed when your poor mother had the bad luck to bear you.
That's why you're so ignorant. You are excused, don't blush.
Majority of us are stupid, we are almost all stupid. Look
around you'll see I Am right. You are crazyt I am stupid, why
am I stupid? Because you are stupid-- Verstehst? SOME people
are born that way, it's hot their fault. To tell a guy he's
beautiful. That's stupid. My Bob, he is the most wonderful
fellow. He knows his stuff? Of course he knows it. You
think so, I know so, I am his wife. But I never told Bob, he
is wonderful, I would be ashamed to tell a guy that.
I was the night before in the church. Let me breathesmove
away from me. You ate onions. That a smell. Why should I
go with you to church? Well, I am not so religious. I believe
in something. I am a Catholic, I know it, I was born a
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Catholic, I can't help it, but I am not a fanatic. Of course
I go once a while in the church. But I am not very religious.
I cook soup for three days, and it 4ksn't get spoiled:
It must be vinegar, only you don't feel it. Some people have
no taste. That is also lucky, they don't know the difference
between candy and sh
I never ate sh
Maybe you did,
but you thought it was candy. Ha haha ha.
Somebody put his foot on the machine. Why? It stopped to
run. And that stops the machine? From running of course, thick
headt Who put his foot On the machine? How should I know?
Maybe all the girls. But then the foreman will give them hell.
Nobody hornet What ypu mean? This machine stops every five
minutes, so I say it stops whenever one touches it with his
feet. But really it has nothing to do with our feet, it
stops because it stops that's all. You can't see the joke.
Where you working, John? I push, I push, I push.
Where you working, Johh? In the Delaware Lakawaun.
And what are you doing John? I push, I push, I push.
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That are you pushing, john? I pusha the big truck.
Where you pushing, John? In the Delaware Lakawaun.
Go hang yourself with your song, I'll buy the rope for
you-- Do you believe in companionate marriage? That's bunk,
such people are crazy. I won't lay down with a man without
to go first in the churdh. Why do you go always in the church
before you lay down with him? I am pure, a man didn't touch
me, I mean I would get married first in a church and so live
with a man, but not a companionate marriage. What's the
difference anyway? I was in the movies, saw Sorrel and Son,
believe me it made me cry. If I was rich I would to to Paris.
Go to Coney Island, and think it is Paris. Poor people are
fools. They work, work and sleep and shit, and drop dead,
that's all. Please meet me tonight by the moonlight
Clara Bow, some red hot babyt During the Lent, I won't eat
meat. I have rheumatism in my feet, but I can't complain,
because the Company would give me the air. That s What you
ad,
need, Mary Caruso, you'll get the air, you'll make a career
yet.
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Five o'clock. Again a day. My it's still raining.
Girls, tomorrow no work. The hell with this lousy job. What
did I say? I had a bad dream, dirty water
,t)