Document text
Forms to be Ftlle4 out for Each Interview
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Nay Swenson
ADDRESS 291. Norton Street, N.Y.C.
DATE Sarah 13, 1939
SUBJECT A Day at N.B. College
1. Date and time cP interview
2. Place of interview 509 Beat 70th Street, N.Y.C.
3. Name and address of informant Anna Saitta
509 East 79th Street
New York City
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.
NOTE: (This information was taken from the diary of informant
dated February 28, 1929. Her ann description of on
day's experience as a packer in the awed& Biscuit'
Company (called N.B.C. College byths workers) at
Fifteenth Street and 9th, 10th and 11th Amennes, Nan.)
(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
NAVE OF WORKER May Swenson
ADDRESS 29 Morton Street, N.Y.C.
DATE March 13, 1939
SUBJECT A Day At N.M. College
2
The mountains and planes were covered with snow. Slowly
I was approaching the hills, near 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 faery kings with their glittering
Joey and snowy crown. Mary, Mary, Slovak Mary, sing no that
song of Janosak, of Janosak the robber....
Cling, cling, clang... Damnitl again morning. Stop you
accursed distruber of dreams, you tyrant alarm clock. Seven
o'clock already, phooey what a life. What did I dream? No time
to think of it. It's too late, too late, hasten to work. I
look around, my room is dark, fins it wovld De to sleep only a
half an hour more. Why isn't it now midnight instead of morning?
Of course eight hours spent in a factory are too much. Wash my-
self and look through the window. It rains again. Whenever I
look through the window in the morning it's raining, snowing,
or both at the same time.
I walk down the stairs, I walk through the streets to the
sub station. In each shop window is a clock, and I look at every
41•12,111.
one, and every one shims a different time. By all the Prophets,
what time is it?
At last arrived to the station, took out my nickel and de-
posited it with a melancholy look, in the box. Goodbye my nickel
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 my with wrath, I look at them with disgust. We all
wish the others would 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 people! A stout Jewish woman stands
near me, leans on me, yawns and sighs. 0y, oy, my blood is boiling,
I try to push her awLy 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, con-
tempt and surprise. She wants to say something, but suddenly
closes her lips. The colored man got up from his seat, she sits
down. I am free to breathe, 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 sub-
way, 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 entering the church. I wonder what
they have to say to God.
The factory. God Moloch, God Ramon, God Ignorance are sit-
ting on the factory chimney. BloaR, everywhere blood, they suck
glove*
our blood, there isn't in our body blood anymore.
But the girls are say. 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. Haw 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. Damn
it, we have to work every day on Eleventh Ave. Phooey, how every-
thing stinks there. That's a factory? A toilet not a factory.
No sun, no air, and cold! They want us to catch consumption.
Of course they should worry. There are too many people anyway.
That inspectress, that bastard, I hope she drops dead. A girl
I 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. 13:- God, I'll punch you Shut up, ht -re comes
the Foreman
Two, four, six thirty-six girls. Where to put them.
Machine operators? Now, we are packers. Packers, well well,
follow me
What did I tell you, I knew he will put us near the re-
frigerators. 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 wonderiul 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? lh 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 or a factory.
What's your number? I wasn't talking. What's your number?,
I 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 shithouse Shut up.
Go on table sixteen. I thought she wants to fire me. Dope, you
the season is here, 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 joke! 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 iEnorant,
Utherine, were you last night in the church? What a joke,
for Christ sake. Kathy were you last night in the church? Berthy,
haw was it, tell it again, I must learn it. Katherine were you in
church last night? What the hell are yo d 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? Who was itBerthie? No, I wasn't
in church! 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 gehtl*
*The Rabbi is coming nickname for Foreman.
-5
Girls, Iwant you to stop your noise. You understand! All
the work is broken don' break so many crackers. And I don't
want to hear another word.
He has always to say something. That son of a b----. He
gets paid alright, imby shouldn't he yell at us. That's why he
is kept here. Must you talk so loud that the foreman shall
notice it?
Toreador oh, toreador Mary Caruso, shut up l Toreador
oh Damnit, you make me nervous with your singing. Go to the
opera, clean the windows with your voice. Git it to her, Fat
Mary. That conceited goose goes every Saturday to the opera.
She thinks she is an artist. An artist, the idea. Hahahahaha.
So you have a boyfriend, a boyfriend What is he? Some
guy, handsome, and I told him, Harry you're beautiful. Shirley,
you are a seven month baby. Ahy? Your br!,ins 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 Ere almost all stupid. Look around you'll
see I am right. You are crazy! I am stupid, why am I stupid?
Because you are stupid Verstehst? Some people are born that
way, it's not 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 breathe,
move away from me. You ate onions. What a smell. Why should
I go with you to church? Well, Lam not so religious. I be-
lieve in something. I am a Catholic, I know it, I was born a
-G
Catholic, I can't help it, but I am not a fanatic. Of course I
go once a while in the church. But I an not very religious.
I cook soup for three days, and it doesn'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. Bahahaha.
Somebody put his foot on the machine. Why? It stopped
to run. And that stops the machine? From running of course, thick
head! Who put his foot on the machine? How should I know? Maybe
all the girls. But then the formean will give them hell. Nobody
home! What you 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 all. You can't see the joke.
"Where you working, John? I push, I push, I push.
Where you working, John? In the Delaware Lakawaun.
And what are you doing John? I push, I push, I push.
What are you pushing, John? I push the big truck.
Where are 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 church. Why do you 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 mould go to Paris. Go to
41M7-.
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 baby! 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 need, Mary
Caruso, you'll get the air, you'll make a career yet.
Five o'clock. Again a day. My it's still raining.
Girls, tomorrow no,work. The hell with-kis lousy job. What
did I say? I had a bad dream, dirty water--