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A. Varesano Interviewing Helen Fedorsha 6-15-72 Tape 14-2 Page 4
AV: Did the women of the house ever have any other trouble with boarders?
HF: No, not any, sometimes if a boarder got a little sassy, he'd be told off, and if he knew what was good for him, he'd keep his mouth shut, because he would be afraid to board anywhere else. And he had nowhere else to go, because hey would board until they would find a girl that they would marry. And now, all they're talking about it love, love, love! Well, I'll bet anything that a lot of those men married not for love. They didn't know the girls long enough. But, for convenience, beause they didn't have where to stay, they didn't have anyone to take care of them. And this way, if they got married, and then housekeeping their own little place, they could do as they pleased, and they were taken care of. Because their meals were cooked for them, they were kept clean and everything. When I passed that remark off in my Anna's when Eva was there, and I said they didn't marry for love, I said, they married for convenience. And she said, Are you sure that's all they married for? I said, well that's all I know. So, I dropped the subject then, because I thought, I'm not going to get in deep with her. But I'll always say that most of them married for convenience. A lot of them sent for girls that they knew in Europe. And they would send for them, they'd send them money for a passport, and they'd bring them to this country and they would marry them here. Because my mother was coming from Europe when there was a young girl that was supposed to come, she was to marry a man, and my mother got to New York, and, at Castle (??) where they used to, well, the immmigrant oficials used to see that they're all legitimate and everything, and when he asked my mother where she was going , se didn't know the English language. All she would say, she is going to Eckley. And the man said to her, are you goin' to Eckley, or are you goin' to Heckley? He said, because there are two places, Eckley and Heckley. Well, then she didn't know what it was, she just understood that it's Eckley. And there was a man standing right near her, and then he asked her in our way, he said, little girl, where are you going? Who are yhou going to? So my mother told him that she was going to her sister. And he said, what is your sister's name? And she said Mary Stefan. And he said, Oh, you're going to Eckley. He said, that's where I'm from also. He came to meet the girl that was supposed to come. And she didn't come that day, so then he, when he came into the house... Oh, no, this man, it wasn't his girl that was comin' over, but a man that was boarding in th house, I forget what he family's name was... and, was it Gaspar, I don't remember... and when he broth my mother over, well, my aunt was living there somewhere, but he brought my mothere right into where he was boarding, and then had her taken over to my aun'ts place. And this man that was waiting for his girl to ome from Europe, he was sleeping. And he came downstairs all thrilled, thinking that its his girlfriend that came! When he came down, he found out it wasn't the girlfriend! The girl friend came later. But that's how they used to do it, they'd send for a girl in Europe, and she'd come here, and they'd get married, and then whereever he was boarding, well, they lost a boarder there, but they were sure to get another one!
AV: How did your mother meet your father?
HF: She came to America and she was staying with her sister, and I don't know who my daddy was boarding with, and that's how they met. You know, they would all I guess the whole bunch would get together, because they were all from Europe. Any maybe they weren't from the same town, but they would be from towns that weren't too far away, and I guess the thing that would bring them together was the idea that thew were all from Europe, and they'd have plenty to talk about.
AV: So she wasn't sent for.
HF: No, no. She came to America because she didn't have anybody in Europe. She