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I've touted this
before, but with a mostly whole new crew now, it merits another
plug. During The Depression, a make work WPA project
was the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940. Folks
went around interviewing other folks about their lives. The
result is about 2900 manuscripts, and I've been fascinated by
them. They're short, easy reads. Here's a 'zample.
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There's a girl who lives over on Sacramento who
teaches school over on the west side, over in the Polish neighborhood.
One of the Polish kids, he had an awful bad pair of tonsils. You know
how the schools nowadays have medical examinations and all that kind of
stuff. Well, the doctor orders them tonsils to come out, an' the kid,
he comes to school regular but his tonsils, they never come out. The
teacher gets sore an' she sends a note home with the kid, sayin' he
can't come back to school till he's got his tonsils out. This girl, she
told me the story herself. It's true, so help me.
Next morning there's the kid back in school again, big as life. The
teacher said "I thought I told you you couldn't come back to school
again till your tonsils were taken out."
The kid, he says, well, his tonsils was taken out. But he'd been in
school only the day before, and the teacher's sort o' sore. She says:
"How could you've had your tonsils out? -You were in school yesterday.
What doctor did it? Didn't he tell you to stay at home an' in bed?"
But the kid, he says, nope, it wasn't no doctor who took his tonsils
out, His old lady took 'em out. With a scissors. So this girl, she
looks in the kids mouth. Sure enough, hold had his tonsils out.
That's how tough them Polacks are, tough an' dumb.
II
Tough? That one aint nothin' to the one I heard. This one happened in Morris' Packin'. ... - Abe Aaron's story.
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