Part 3:
Visits to Poland
Louie: You want some more champagne?
Anthony: No, wait, that's one after another one? That's enough.
(someone else speaks polish)
Louie: (speaks polish)
Anthony: (18 pounds or 20 pounds?) you got a pig... pig, you know.
Louie: Where did you get the pig?
Anthony: City Hall, they give them, you know.
Louie: They give you a whole pig?
Anthony: half
Louie: A half a pig? Was it alive?
Anthony: No, no. It was clean, you know. Ready to - just put em in the kettle and cook.
Louie: How come they wouldn't eat it?
Anthony: I don't know, they didn't like it.
Louie: They liked corn meal better
(both laugh)
(speaking polish)
Anthony: Now I'm alright, and now I'm too old to.
Louie: (laughs)
Anthony: You know? I ain't got money like I have now, you know I'd be rich you know can buy (5 houses?)
Louie: You'd live like a king, huh?
Anthony: yea
Louie: So you made out alright, dur-through the depression, and uh, how your children grew up, gave them all an education
Anthony: Yea, got married and (unintelligible)
Louie: Uh-huh, ah, did you ever, um, go back to Poland, after you left in 1907?
Anthony: After 60 years I did.
Louie: You went back to Poland?
Anthony: Went back 1967, second time 1969, and third time, uh, 1971, that was three times.
Louie: Three times you've been back since you've been here. When you went back the first time in 1967, did you see a lot of your friends that were, that you
Anthony: (unintelligible) about three of them over there
Louie: Uh huh, what happened to them?
Anthony: (Yugo Yahsek?)
Louie: (laughs) and who else?
Anthony: (unintelligible)
Louie: What did - what did you say to (Yugo Yashek?) when you saw him?
Anthony: Hello Yashu!
Louie: (laughs) and did he uh, was he a little older then?
Anthony: huh?
Louie: Was he a little older than when you
Anthony: One year older
Louie: No, but I mean when you left in 1907, was- did he look the same when you saw him in 1967?
Anthony: Oh, no, he's old man, he's about 91 now
Louie: (laughs) how about (tareska?)
Anthony: Same way
Louie: What? What happened to (tareska?)
Anthony: uh, she's uh, she's uh -
Louie: Did she get a little older?
Anthony: She's older, she look like a - my mother
Louie: (laughs) uh, where does (tareska?) live?
Anthony: Right by (Yugo Yashek?), right up there, yea
Louie: Uh -
Anthony: Remember where (Yugo Yashek?) (go up to her and stream up to?) her house
Louie: Alright, yea
Anthony: (We saw her?)
Louie: Did she live behind the outhouse? Did she use the same outhouse that (Yugo Yashek?) used?
Anthony: Oh no they got, (Yugo Yashek) got the (unintelligible) on the same lot.
Louie: Yea, but did they both use the same outhouse?
Anthony: (Yashek) and (Tareska?)
Louie: Yea
Anthony: No
Louie: They each had their own separate
Anthony: Yea
Louie: Private outhouses
Anthony: Yea
Louie: Was the shower stall in there too?
Anthony: huh?
Louie: Was the shower stall in the, uh - outhouse? Was- did they have a shower in there?
Anthony: Nothing, no shower, nothing
Louie: What was in the outhouse?
Anthony: Water, you got to get it from the well.
Louie: Yea
Anthony: (from the yard?) (unintelligible)
Louie: Did they have White Cloud in there?
Anthony: White Cloud?
Louie: Yea - it's softer than toilet paper.
Anthony: Nah
Louie: Did they have the kind of toilet paper?
Anthony: (got trees toilet paper everywhere?)
Louie: How did - what did they use for toilet paper
Anthony: Grass
Louie: Grass (laughs)
Anthony: Leaves
Louie: And who else did you see when you went to Poland in 1967? (Tareska), (Yugo Yashek), and who else?
Anthony: And that's all
Louie: You saw your brother, didn't you?
Anthony: Oh yea, my brother, and got the children, yea.
Louie: Did you see (Ella) and (Alla?)
Anthony: (Ella) (Alla)
Louie: Who was older, (Ella)?
Anthony: (Ella) is older
Louie: (Ella)?
Anthony: Uh huh
Louie: (laughs) (Ella) or (Alla), who was older?
Anthony: You know that the baby is (Ella) (unintelligible)
Louie: (Laughs)
Anthony: (Ella) and (Aruzia?)
Louie: (Aruzia?)
Anthony: Yea
Louie: Uh, what did you and your brother do in Poland after not seeing each other for 60 years? Did you go out and celebrate?
Anthony: Ah, you go get some wine, and we drink wine, and she killed the goose, but I didn't eat that goose
Louie: Why didn't you eat the goose?
Anthony: I didn't like it, soup - goose... Goose soup
Louie: Was, were there any flies in their house?
Anthony: Flies? Millions
Louie: Where did the flies come from? The outhouse?
Anthony: Yea, from the yard
Louie: Well, that was good because if you went to the outhouse and all the flies were in there, well if (Mikal) was uh, had the kitchen door open, then they flew out the outhouse and went into the kitchen, so that cleared the outhouse for you to sit down and rest. Is that the way it went?
Anthony: (unintelligible - understandably confused)
(break in tape)
Anthony: (unintelligible) go this year but I changed my mind.
Louie: Why don't you want to go back to Poland?
Anthony: They wanted 5 dollar every day now, for reason that you stay there
Louie: You mean -
Anthony: If you stay there one month, you gotta pay 150 dollars
Louie: When did that come up?
Anthony: huh?
Louie: When did that come up?
Anthony: (unintelligible) last February
Louie: Well, nobody's - nobody's going to go to Poland
Note - (not sure I got this right, It's clear he's talking about giving people money in Poland, I don't know if he's talking about exchange rates or what)
Anthony: (no, this guy was?) this year (unintelligible) you wanna keep the - you can keep the (18 thousand's) one thing but (with the 50 dollar), and you know when you go there, you gotta pay em. For three months, that 450, for one month 50 - uh, 30-35 dollar is 150, you got 5040, so you lost (thirteen thousand twenty)
Louie: Oh boy -
Anthony: he said, to hell with them, he ain't going no more.
Louie: Did you like the taxis in Poland when you were there?
Anthony: Taxis?
Louie: Did you like Taxis. Did you like to ride in the Taxis in Poland
Anthony: Oh yea, same like here.
Louie: Same like here... Did you - did they have good food there?
Anthony: Sure, cheap. 45 cents you got good meal.
Louie: Yea? Were there - was the street paved in Domostawa?
Anthony: huh?
Louie: Was the street paved in Domostawa?
Anthony: Asphalt
Louie: Asphalt? Um, Did they have a lot of Geese running around?
Anthony: Uh, say what?
Louie: Geese
Anthony: (every yard they got geese)
Louie: Geese?
Anthony: (Mika) (got 18?)
Louie: 18? Did she have any pies around in her yard? Like Blueberry pies? Where they around
Anthony: Oh (unintelligible)
Louie: Did you ride on (unintelligible)
Anthony: No, (unintelligible) take a cow, you know, she got three (unintelligible) cows (unintelligible) she walk in the street (and the cow it walk by?)
Louie: mm hmm... Was your brother his - and (Mika) still working on the farm?
Anthony: Yea
Louie: How - how old was your brother when you saw him again? In 1967?
Anthony: 67... 10 years ago.. uh, 14 years, uh, he was 1891, he was about 70... 78, oh more, he was about, yea, 10 years ago when we went the last time, 3 years ago when he died, 13 years, he was 91, 78
Louie: 88, yea
Anthony: 78
Louie: 88, he died at 91
Anthony: oh, 91, yea
Louie: Yea, 88 years old when you saw him - no, you saw him younger than that...
(tape breaks)
Louie: uh, when you were in dunkirk, New York, did you, uh, how did you learn english, dad?
Anthony: In work, work on (unintelligible)
Louie: Did you go to night school or something like that to learn for your citizenship papers?
Anthony: Yea, two nights a week, two hours
Louie: Uh huh
Anthony: And we sing there
Louie: You sing? what did - what songs did they teach you?
Anthony: Hi diddle diddle and ah, my country tis of thee
Louie: So you still remember my country tis of thee? How does it go?
Anthony: I don't know (you got it over there?)
(tape breaks)
Louie: What were those songs you said you learned when you went to citizenship school? What were those two songs?
Anthony: My country tis of thee
Louie: And what else?
Anthony: Diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle the cow jump over the moon
Louie: Ok, how do you sing my country tis of thee?
Anthony: (sings) My country tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, the air I sing, land where my father die, land where the freedom ride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring
(claps)
Louie: Thank you
(tape breaks)