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Mary Tomasi
65 Barre St.
Montpelier, Vt.
FROM IQVARHY TO CEMETERY
"Moo I'm not Jose Santioe wife. I only keep the house
for him," the woman explained. "Me, I got one husband in
Spain," A ghost of humor played around her heavy lips. "Or,
maybe I just think I got one. I bear nothing from him now
for a year and a half. The big Loyalist he was. All the
time talking big Loyalist talk. I knew even before he went
away that he would get mixed up good in the fighting just as
soon as be got to Spain. I know that is what happened to
him, there is no other reason why be would not write to me."
She was a small woman in her early forties. A sharply
ohisled face: thin, pointed nose; high, narrow cheek bones;
and black eyes that snapped brilatly when she spoke. Her
hair was lost from sight under a piece of red cloth wound
turban -style around her head.
It was a two -apartment house with a mutual street door,
and a hallway that was bare of furniture. The woman pushed
open a door to the Santiost living room. Here there was too
much furniture. Overstuffed chairs and two davenports lined
the walls. A forlorn, skeletonized Christmas tree stood in
a corner. Most of the green needles had fallen to the floor.
"Excuse the way I am dressed, and excuse the way the
room looks today, I got to clean up all that Christmas stuff,
It's a lot of work, but here in America it isn't a Christmas
unless you got a Christmas tree.
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2,
"In Spain we never had Christmas trees. We give presents,
sure, but we don't have them under tress.
When we were kids
we used to leave our shoes, or sometimes the knitted toques,
beside the fireplatoo in the kitchen. Than Christmas morning
always we found them full of good things. Always there was
a present of clothes. We needed clothes. We were a big
family of kids, and new clothes come only at Christmas and
an our birthdays. My mother used to let us look at our presents
early in the morning, so if we had new clothes we could hurry
up and dress in them and showkthem off at the Mass.
"I don't remember one Christmas that my father did not
receive many bottles of wine from his friends, 114 had a
good Job, like a foreman in the quarries, and all those under
him knew he was a good one for wine. I never once saw my
father drink water. He used to say that water was all right
to wash the outside of the body but not the inside. tAgua
fria sarna aria', he used to say. 'Ague roxa sarna escosca.'
It means Water makes frogs in the bollr, wine cures the worms.
"Over there the quarrymen got something more than the
Union to hold them together. Each one that works in the
quarry is like a brother to the other ones. Every Christmas
Eve they make the rounds, they stop for a few minutes at the
house of every man who works in the same quarry. If at one
poor house the man cannot give them wine, theft they eat the
Christmas cake and cookies, and they pull their ow r bottles
of wine from under their coats, and they are all so happy
and good natured that even the poor man who is their host
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cannot feel offended. If a man is hurt in the quarries, a
collection is taken up for him, and each one gives a little
no matter how poor be in, When I was a little girl my father
had two fingers of the left bend crushed by stone. The next
day on my way to school I held my head up high in the air,
I was so proud. The town was small, and the news that my
father was hurt went around quill* like fire. That morning
everybody stop no to ask bore my father feels. So many stop
no that I am late for school. But do you think the teacher
cares if I am late? Oh, no, the first thing she says is,
"Peer Irises, and how is the father this morning?' That,
teacher was a great one for prayers. She told all the girls
(the boys have school in another room) she told them to be
sure and remember my father in their prayers when they went
to bed.
"Poor papa suffered, but the whole family had a good
time from his accident. The butcher sent up a long string
os sausages that papa liked very much but never bought be.
**use they were too expensive for a family of eight. The
baker, he sent up a box of little crisp buns that we kids
were ()rimy about and that didn't cost him anything because
they were made from bits of dough that he would only throw
away. The women who lived near us brought roasted meats and
even soups. Mama said it was almost as if she was sick in
bed herself and not able to get up and cook for her family,
"But we had the bad accidents in those quarries, too.
They ad not have such good wa ye to gat in and out of the
holes like they do here. A cousin of my father was killed
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in the quarries. He was climbing down the rope ladder that
had been hanging from one spot for a long time. So long,
that where it rubbed at a sharp rook sticking out from the
granite wall, it was worn to a thread. Be was the first one
to go down that morning. Be is down about five steps when
crack, crack goes one side of the ladder. His foot slips
from the rope and down ho goes, falling, rolling, bumping
on one sharp rock and another. When he reaches the bottom
he is already dead. His bead is split open, and his false
is so squashed nobody knows him, not even his wife. We had
a big requiem Mas at his funeral. Five priests sang that
Mass. Priests from the other quarry towns nearby."
Irises poked at the pile of Christmas tree droppings
with the tip of her shoe. "Jose Santios has got no small
children. Be put up a tree so that the children of his
brother would come over here. Jose has got only one boy and
he is eighteen years old. Jose likes kids. This Christmas
he buys everything for his brother's kids, just like they
are his awn. Be is not satisfied with that, he even gives
$10.00 to El Cl4h Espanol, and asks them to buy presents for
Spanish kids who are poor. Jose lost his wife when the little
boy is only one year old. Lots of people ask me, like you
did, if I am Jose Smeatiost wife." Irissats black eyes laughed.
"That Jose, he eats his supper, he changes his clothes, then
I don't see him no more until breakfast. Everynight he is
down to the beer gardens, or be goes to the Spanish Club.
El Club Esimmo,X, that's the name it's got. All the time he
drinks and never do I sloe him drunk. His boy isn't like that
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Two glasses of wine and he is spinning in the head. Two more
and he is ?wilily drunk. he boy Zoe, he goes to school at
the :unior College in Montpelier. Sometimes he will ask his
school friends up here, and they have a great time drinking
just a little and feeling it a lot, joss always tells him,
'Look, Joe, it you want to drinks learn first how to drink
so you won't make the fool of yourself. Wine has drowned
more people than the ocean.'"
Steps sounded an the porch. Heavy, pounding steps, as
if the newcomer was stamping snow from his feet and at the
same time warming them.
"Irises moved a corner of the ourtain, and peered through
the half -frosted glass. "Jose," she announced, "It's JOSO•
I can't get used to his coming home so early in the after-
noon. Every year at Christmas they got laid off for &few
weeks. In the sheds and in the quarries, too."
Jose was a ruggeds ruddyftfaced giant. His present*
filled the roam. Comfortably and pleasantly. Instead of
the usual mackinaw or short work coat, he wore a dark blue
belted coat, and a gray felt bat. His beard must hate been
as coal black as the hair above the white of hie temples,
for even now with his face Mean shaven, a deep bluish tinge
shaded his dheeks.
"Yes, work in the sheds is slow right now," he admitted.
"Too slaw, It has been for almost a month. In the spring
it'll rush up again, just before Memorial Day.
"The last piece I finished before Christmas was a plain,
roughm.eut cross. For the Corsi family," he explained to
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Irises. "The mothers she wanted a polished cross. le of
the boys, he wanted it amoothrsurfaoed but not polished. The
other boys well he didn't care. So after they talked about
it and thought about it for a weeks the boy who didn't care
came up to tell the shed boss that they decided to have it
roughftcut.
"A cross out rough like that is a simple jobs" Jose con...
tinued. "But even an easy job like that has to go through
many hands from the time the stone is quarried to the time
it is ready to set up in the cemetery.
"Take that oross. Say that our shed gets the contraet
for it. All rights we put in an order for a block of granite
at some quarry. We want a block as near the size. of the cross
as we can get. Thor stone is quarried 'dimension °toast that's
the usual stock size and the most popular size. Derricks carry
this block to the top of the quarry and then to the surface
yards. Here it is marked with red chalk lines to the size
the shed has ordered. Drillers bore mills deep holes along
these chalk lines with pneumatic drills. Than a 'Weaker'
comes along with plug wedges which he forces into the holes
and whishbroak the stone to the desired size.
"The stone is then put an to a trains a flat —cars and is
freighted down the Hill. Railroad tracks usually lead right
into a stonesbods so that it's a simple natter for the shed
derrick to hoist the granite from the flat —car and carry it
to the narking room.
"Here red chalk is used again. This tines to outline
the cross. If its to be a roughrcut cross, it is cut with
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a bull sett and hemmer, and perhaps finished up in spots with
pneumatic tools,
"The cross seems almost finished to you now, no?" Jose
asked,
"Well, it isn't. It's got to go through many more bands
yet, Suppose you want an inscription on the cross, You want
it maybe an a small polished surface so it will show up good.
When there's just a small surface to be polished it has to be
done by hand. The polishing I will expalin later P
"Now we will put the inscription an the cross. First,
we have to melt rubber and spread it over the facto of the St
This hardens imnediataly, On this thelsandblasterst outline the
inscription you want, and if it's a job of flowers or fancy work
they use a pattern to outline the design. Then with small, sharp
knives they out into the design, '4:hey cut right through to the
granite. Now the stone is put into a dark roam called the sandp
blast room. Bore the men have to wear goggles to protect their
eyes, hose is applied to the design. Sand is forced through
this hose by air, he pressure of the sand eats into the open
design in the rubbers and outs the inscription or design into
the stone. Once in a while a good carver likes to put a finish
tug touch on the inscription by hand, or with a pneumatic tool.
"Now the stone must be cleaned. An acid is poured over it,
then with a brush and fresh water they wash and month the stone.
They give it a final water rinsing, then the cross is left alone
until it is dry, 41Len it is carefully packed in a crate and
shipped to its destination. If the memorial is going to a local
cemetery, or to one nearby, the shed takes care of bringing it to
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the cemetery and setting it up." Jose smiled. "Matta a lot
of work for just a roughseut cross, no?
"But suppose now that this Mrs. Corsi wanted it all smooth
and polished like she said at first. That a different job,
"After the granite block comes from the quarry, we take it
to the marking roar* :ust as we lid with the rough out cross,
.1nd 'entire it is chalked to the shape of the cross. But this
time the cutting isn't done with bull sett and hammer, eu
want a straight...cuts smooth surfaces so it is sawed with an
electric carborundum saw. It cuts smoothly and leaves no Jagged
edges, After the sawing, the stonecutters use air tools an it
to eVe it s hammered finish. Now the stone is ready for the
polishing room. Barre granite is fine for polishing. The
crystals are small and hards and take a high polish,
"The polishing beds hold from moven to eight average
size granite pieces. The stones are laid side by sides and
cememted together to keep them from mavIng under the polish..
ing machine. The men make sure that the surfaces of all the
stones in the bed are levels one with -nother. Thhn the
poliehinp wheels start their work. The wheels lie flat.
They are great iron wheels, with a carLorundam finish under..
math; the circular movement gives the polish. A spray of
fine powder And water is kept running an the surface of the
stones during the polishing process igo that they wonst be
scratched. Afterwards, the polished stones go through the
same scrubbing and cleaning that the roughwaut stone re-
ceived before being shipped to the buyer."
Jose Santioa grinned. "People complain that granite
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memorials cost too much. They don't realize all the work that
must be done to one before it is ready for the cemetery. Some-
time, maybe you will hear some one complain. If you do„ than
you can do Jose Santios a favor, you can tell him the story about
Mrs. Corsits cross, from quarry to cemetery."