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A. Veresano Interviewing Helen Fedorsha 6/15/72 Tape 14-2 Page 1

AV: Tell me about the problems they used to have with boarders.
HF: Well, with so many boarders, and everybody, the guy used to come around with the wagon with the beer and the liquor. The boxes of beer were in the back of the wagon. The wagon was made something like , you know, those cars down there, no cover on it, and a seat there that a man used to sit on and drive the horses. Well, under this mat he would have the jugs of liquor, oh, big jugs. I believe we saw some of them down at the flea market Sunday, I was gonna call your attention to it, and then i didn't. But we'll go down to the flea market again, you'll see the jugs down there. We used to have them for wine, and then when we quit makin' it and we moved from there, I don't know what we did with the jugs. They weren't of value to anybody, so they probably were thrown out. They were earthenware, also, and of course, the guy would come in to the house, and if you wanted liquor, he would being whatever kind of liquor you wanted. And I guess there was rye whiskey, and I don't know what else. Rye whiskey I know, but i don't know what else. And he'd come in, and he had a funnel and a measure, and he would pour it into this measure and then pour it with the funnel into the jug. Well, all these men had a jug under their bed. That was the proper place to have it, and of course, they used to go on their little sprees, and then they'd start seein', seein' different kind of visions!
AV: Visions, eh!
HF: and jumpin' out the windows and everything else!
AV: Really?
HF: Oh, yes, my dad says that he and ... they were boarding in one of these little houses, and there was only a half a window in that room. Now people have built you know, they've just put big windows in, but, like Mrs. Timko has a big window in her upstairs, but in those days it was just half of one of these windows. And he said, he and another man, they drank, but not that way. He said, we have a job, he said, after they would get drunk, I forgot the name of the man but he used to mention their names. Well then they'd start seeing different things, and they'd want to jump out the window. So just the moment they would lay down, one of these guys woiuld go on one of these sprees, and they'd have to hurry up and jump up from bed and try to hold him down. So, one day, they ot one of the guys, he was halfway out the window, and they got ahold of him and they put him back in - got hold of the back of hs drawers and they pulled him back in! And he said one guy came downstairs, and he had a wife and children in Europe, and he was chasin' around with some woman here, and I think he had children with her. And he came down and he was standin' at the stove and he was lookin' into that fire, and he starts cryin'. And he said, what are you cryin' about? Well, why shouldn't I cry? Well, Why are you cryin', what are you, why are you cryin' ? Don't you see those little children burnin' in that fire? (That's why he's cryin'.) Well, he says we're straining our eyes, we're looking, we don't see any, all we see is the hot coals, no children. And he was imagining, I guess his conscience was bothering him by what he was doing. So he was cryin' that the children are burning in the fire. But they used to drink heavily. I guess that was the only way they could survive! It must have really been a picnic to have things like that happen. Already when we had the boarders that we had, I don't remember too many of them. I know my brother-in-law boarded with us, and Andrew Gaydos's brother, John, boarded with us. He boarded there until he got married. And then there was a man that then went out to the soft coal regions, out around Pittsburgh, and ended up in Dusquane. He boarded with us, he's the man that I used to teach. He's dead now. And then there was another man that boarded, and from our place he left for Europe, and what-