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Forms, to be Filled out for Each Interview FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Joseph Vogel
ADDRESS
DATE April 17, 1939
SUBJECT In the Hospital
1. Date and tim„ of ,mterview April 13, 1939 4P.M.
2. Place of interview
3. Name and address
Cafeteria, opposite Kings County hospital
of informant I. Friedman,
968 Second Avenue
Ndw York City
4. Name and address of person,
touch with informant.
if any, who put you in
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
(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
Text of Interview (Unedited)
STATE New York
NAEE OF "iORKER Joseph Vogel
ADDRESS
DATE April 17, 1939
SUBJECT In The Hospital
LITTLE FLIES WITH A BIG BITE
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
People don't feel natural in a hospital. I mean the healthy
ones. A man goes into a hospital, even if he's a tough guy, he
keeps his tail between his legs. But a woman is different. You
never know what a moman'll do. My wife's got 'em all best a mile.
When she goes into a hospital it's like an epidemic got loose.
I once had kidney trouble. She made it ten times worse for
me. The doctor said to drink a lot of water to flush my kidneys,
so twenty times a day my wife brought me orgnge juice, prune juice,
grape juice, lemon juice. "Here, drink, flush out the kidneys."
If you want to drown me," I said, "throw me in the ocean."
My boy Irving got cramps. Any sensible person knows when
you get cramps not to take a physic. You might have appendicitis
and a physic, God forbid, can burst the appendix. But my wife
stuffs everything in the medicine cabinet into the boy. Ex -lax,
aspirin, mineral oil, even coughing syrup. Anything to loosen
him up.
"He's only got a cramp," I told her. "Have pity on him."
It turned out, though i that he had appendicitis.
The doctor said the best thing is to operate right away.
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No use taking any chances with appendicitis, especially a child. All
right, if it doewn't do any good and can do you harm, then take it out.
My wife began dying on the spot. She couldn't wait till we got
to the hospital. She tore her hair out of her head. "Oye, I'm dying,
I'm dying."
All right, call a taxi and we'll take the boy to the hospital.
The doctor carried the boy dawn to a cab, and I I carried
dawn my wife.
When we got to the hospital they took my boy to the operating
room. I had my hands full with my wife. "For God's sake behave your-
self," I said. "It's a hospital."
You never saw anything like it. My wife ran around crying you
could hear her a mile outside. The nurses came over and reasoned with
her. It's not so serious an apendix operation. They operate on hun-
dreds cases and nothing happens. But try argue with my wife. "They're
killing him," she runs around crying. In a hospital, mine you, she
runs around crying, "They're killing him."
"quiet, for God's sake," I told her. "People are sick. Respect
other people."
So instead of being quiet she runs over to every,ody who comes
into the hospital and grabs them around. "My boy is on the operating
table," she tells everybody. "They're cutting him out his appendix.
They're cutting him out his life."
And all of a sudden she drops down on the marble floor. What
happened? She fainted.
From then on it became quiet.
In twenty minutes it was all over and the doctor came downstairs.
"You see how swollen it is?" He showed the appendix. "It's a good
thing we operated right away. An emergency case."
It cost me two hundred dollars.
Day and night my wife stayed in the hospital. You couldn't
drag her away from Irving's mom. he had to watch.
Watch what?
Watch?
She gave them there all apoplexy. "Doctor, maybe it's too
cold with the window open?" "Doctor, maybe it's too hot with the
window closed?" "Doctor, maybe the bed is tipped too much up?"
Then the boy begins feeling better, she begins paying attention
to the other sick ones. She goes from one to the other, giving advice,
complaining against the nurses in one week she knows every case in
the hospital.
She knows what's wrong with everybody and everything. She be-
comes the chief complainer.
Across the street there was sand. Little flies came in through
the windows, sand flies. Like my wife said: "Little flies with a big
bite." She complained to the doctors, even to the superintendant.
They didn't do nothing to stop the flies, so my wife brings a fly
swatter to the hospital to keep the flies off Irving. but that's not
enough. She runs into the next roan and swats the flies over some-
body else's head.
I'm ashamed to show my face inside a hospital from then on.
Today, I wanted to visit my friend in Kings County Hospital, I
sneaked away from my wife. I'm not taking any more chances.