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Audio Recording Working in Maryland on the way to California

[Working in Maryland on the way to California]

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Working in Maryland on the way to California

About this Item

Title

  • Working in Maryland on the way to California

Names

  • Basileo, Angelo (Narrator)
  • McCarl, Robert (Interviewer)

Created / Published

  • 1994-08-11

Headings

  • -  Italian Americans
  • -  Oral history
  • -  Interviews
  • -  Sound recordings
  • -  Retirees
  • -  Ethnography
  • -  United States -- New Jersey -- Haledon

Genre

  • Ethnography
  • Interviews

Notes

  • -  Interview with Angelo Basileo at his home in Haledon, New Jersey.
  • -  Summary of audio segment: "We got to Maryland about the second week out. We were walking along, and we seen this touring car come down the road. And the guy stopped. It was a farmer and two or three kids in the back of the touring car. And he asked us where we were going. So the wife, she looked awful scared, she wasn't (too sure about picking them up) so I says to her, 'You want me to drive for a while?' I said, 'I'll drive you and what you have to do is take us back to the highway in the morning. You can keep us through the night.' And he was . . . all right .. . it was enjoyable. So the farm was in Frederick . . . or Fredericksburg, and we arrived about harvest time, he needed help. And so he asked us if we wanted to help harvest wheat and hay. So we talked about it and oh, what the hell we stayed there for two weeks and helped him out. He had thirteen kids. The oldest one was sixteen, fifteen, fourteen, and down, and the mother was pregnant again. She was cooking from morning till night, cooking for thirteen kids. And she was doing all the cooking on this big kitchen stove and she could cook an enormous amount and good food, too. And we worked and worked. I think they would have kept us there permanent if we wanted to. They had a nice house there, chickens, cows, milk was sold, eggs were sold . . .we put the milk on a platform and every day a truck would come and pick it up. And I got to drink that fresh cow's milk for two weeks -- and boy, did I put on muscles. I was always pretty big and strong, but that -- boy . . . that put on the weight. I could have challenged anybody. Nice milk right out of the cow. You cool it first, nice and frothy. And nothing to worry in them days about germs or chemicals or anything. So after the two weeks were over, he told us we could stay and do chores for our work, because he couldn't pay us. Because he was living hand to mouth himself. So, he brought us out to the highway and we kept going."

Medium

  • Analog Audio Cassette

Call Number/Physical Location

  • AFC 1995/028: WIP-RM-A008

Source Collection

  • Working in Paterson Project Collection (AFC 1995/028)

Repository

  • American Folklife Center

Digital Id

Online Format

  • audio

Rights & Access

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Credit line

Working in Paterson Project collection, 1993-2002 (AFC 1995/028), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Basileo, Angelo, and Robert McCarl. Working in Maryland on the way to California. -08-11, 1994. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/afcwip003203/.

APA citation style:

Basileo, A. & McCarl, R. (1994) Working in Maryland on the way to California. -08-11. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afcwip003203/.

MLA citation style:

Basileo, Angelo, and Robert McCarl. Working in Maryland on the way to California. -08-11, 1994. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/afcwip003203/>.